“Show me your arms,” Mio says flatly.
“What?” I ask.
“Your right,” he points to me. “And your left,” and points to Alexander. “Put them out,” Mio commands. Alexander and I both extend our arms to him. Mio reaches into his bag and pulls out a small brown bottle.
“Give me your other hand.” We both put out our hands and he pours a white cream from the bottle into them. “Rub it into your forearm.”
We begin to rub the warm cream into our forearms and are shocked by what’s happening. A dark brown figure is starting to appear, spot by spot. I continue to apply the lotion until the entire image comes into view.
“A key,” I say amazed. I examine the dark brown figure inked in my skin. It’s not a perfect key. It’s a bit abstract, but it’s still obvious to me.
“You were both physically marked with the key when you were born. Your parents took it as a sign that you were the ones King Lux was writing about.” I glance back up to Alexander and see his eyes are wide. Mio means his parents that he grew up with, but I know he’s thinking of his real parents. They must have noticed the birthmark, what did they think of that? “They then took you both deep into the forest where wizardly magic is secretly practiced and had your birthmarks disguised until it was safe again to show them. I still probably shouldn’t have told you this,” Mio says, contemplating if he made the right choice.
“We should know what we’re getting into,” I begin to say and Mio shakes his head agreeing.
“I promised your father I’d let him tell you when we got to Libertas, but since he’s gone I figure that promise doesn’t stand,” Mio takes in a deep breath and I see the weight this secret has had on him.
Alexander begins to speak, “How’d King Renon figure it out though?” His eyes scan my face. If King Renon knows that we are the keys in the prophecy, and he remembers his brother being marked, then King Renon knows Alexander is his brother now. Although, King Renon was only six when he abandoned Alexander in the forest, so I don’t know how much he may remember about his little brother.
“Your guess is as good as mine, Alexander. I suppose he didn’t want to take any chances. I mean, a female prisoner with her fate set to die and yours set to serve the castle is suddenly broken, it follows the prophecy loosely I suppose,” Mio says, trying to make all the pieces fit.
“What is it talking about when it says ‘they are valuable’? Who are they?” Alexander asks.
“People with gifts,” Mio says and suddenly the prophecy begins to make sense to me.
“King Lux was trying to warn King Renon of letting people with gifts get out of Dather, but he took it the wrong way. He started to imprison them to keep them close, but that is what started the fire. Now people with gifts are fleeing from Dather, and this is going to lead to its destruction.” I look up to Mio and see the answer on his face. “A rebellion.”
“I think you’re on to something,” Mio says, staring back at me.
I keep working the prophecy aloud, “People with gifts are fleeing to Libertas to plan a rebellion against King Renon, and Alexander and I are the keys to the rebellion. If King Renon kills us the rebellion will die as well. That’s why we are so important to both sides.”
“It would seem so, wouldn’t it?” Mio questions and I nod.
“We don’t know the first thing about leading a rebellion,” Alexander says shocked. I glance at him and agree. I don’t know how to do anything except run. Alexander has had some training, but not enough to make him a leader of an army of gifted soldiers.
“Oh trust me, I know,” Mio says sarcastically. “Not even with all the training in the world could you lead a rebellion. Your places in this rebellion are unknown. They know they need you, they just don’t know what for.”
Mio goes back to filling out his paperwork, and I continue to rub my fingers over my birthmark repeating the lines from the prophecy in my head, suddenly realizing we’re in a much deeper hole than I could have ever imagined. The rest of the team on our boat has finished filling out their paperwork and one by one they bring us their packet of papers. Alexander and I take them, file the papers into their own yellow folders, and label them with their names.
“You’re up again, Alexander,” Cooper says, coming down from the sailing perch. “Keep us heading straight ahead, directly east.”
Mio takes the folders from Alexander and I, and he files them back into his bag. I move with Alexander and we sit on the wooden level that stays clear for the one sailing or the lookouts at night. The small boat is starting to feel a little overwhelmingly full. Especially with nerves running high on who gets to stay in Libertas. “Want to teach me how to sail?” I ask as we sit on the rough wooden beams where we sat to take watch last night.
“It’s easy now that we’re going,” Alexander starts and he points down to a bronze compass that is fitted into the control panel. “Just watch this needle to make sure we keep heading east.” I note the needle wobbles around the curly printed E on the white background of the compass. It’s much simpler than the one my father used to carry. “If it starts to shift too far from east you adjust your sail.”
“Why would it shift?” I ask and realize it was probably a dumb question.
