I tensed with anticipation at her ominous words.
“It was many years ago and my husband, the king, and I were overseeing the preparations for an annual ball that was to be held in honor of the dismantling of the Clans,” she said.
“The Clans?” I asked, already lost and wondering where my subconscious was going with this story.
“The six Clans of the Isle. There was a time when my people were defined solely by the Clan. It was a caste system, the Warriors on the bottom and the Mages on top. A person was bound to the Clan of their birth and the laws that governed it. Even marriages were confined to the Clans,” she explained. “When we were young, Aiden and I dismantled the Clans and proclaimed that all citizens were equal and to be governed under one law. Every year we then celebrated the anniversary of that proclamation.”
The queen paused and gave me a questioning look.
“I understand,” I told her. My theory about hallucinating was beginning to seem less likely. Unless everything she said was one giant metaphor, there was no way my mind could be making it all up.
“So Aiden and I were overseeing preparations when Nolen, my advisor, came to us and told us of a most disturbing plot against the crown. He had overheard the Council discussing their plans to overthrow us and reestablish the Clans. Aiden and I sent our soldiers in search of the Council, but they found nothing. The next day, an assassin was sent to the palace to kill me. Aiden and I were in the library.”
Sophia seemed to drift off into her thoughts.
“Wait. I dreamed that,” I said.
Refocusing on me, Sophia nodded, knowingly.
“Yes. You dreamt of the past,” she said.
“But Aaron was in it,” I argued.
Sophia said nothing. She smiled and patiently waited for me to put the pieces together on my own.
“Aaron is Aiden?” I asked, disbelief evident in my tone.
“He is,” she confirmed.
“That’s not possible.”
“Patience. I will explain. Aiden rode out with an army. He was convinced that he could find the missing Council members and bring them to justice. For months I had been having dreams, premonitions, of what was to come. I used Aiden’s absence to cast a spell and save my people from the worst imaginable fate. That spell was so elaborate it required two Mages, so Nolen helped me.”
I could hear the emotion in her voice. She truly loved her people. I wondered if I would ever feel that strongly about something.
“The Council had secretly created their own army and it marched on the palace. Without Aiden to lead them, the Palace Guard fell quickly. Nolen and I hid down in one of my secret chambers. Together we cast the spell to open a portal to the Mortal Realm. The portal took all of my people into it and left them in the world you live in.”
“I don’t understand. What would that accomplish?” I asked. “You didn’t destroy the Council or their army.”
“All born in the Mortal Realm live the lifespan of a mortal and die. This meant if my people wished to survive, they would have to live together in peace, giving those loyal to me a chance to come together and stand against the Council.”
“What does any of this have to do with me?” I was growing frustrated. Although I was now certain I wasn’t imagining any of it, I was at a loss as to what any of it meant.
“In order to send all of my people through the portal, I had to cast a very powerful spell. It required so much power that one of the Mages performing it would not survive.”
“It killed you?” I asked in disbelief.
“It was a price I willingly paid to save my people. That was why I waited for Aiden to leave. He would have tried to stop me and I couldn’t allow the future I saw where we remained in the Isle to happen. I also couldn’t condemn my people to an eternity in the Mortal Realm, where they do not belong, so I devised a plan to save them from the fate I had bestowed upon them.”
“So, you sent them to another world, killing yourself in the process, but you want to bring them back?”
“Once the Council has been destroyed, yes. With my death there is no one strong enough to fight them. For seven hundred years, Aiden and others have stood against them, but only I have the power to defeat them.”
“How can you defeat them if you’re dead?” I asked.
“Once I’m found, my people will be on the path to returning home.”
“Once you’re found? What does that mean?”
“I chose two of my closest friends. They had tried for so long, but were unable to have a child. I knew they would love and protect me when the time came. Somehow the knowledge of my plan was given to the Council. They spent several hundred years trying to locate my friends. When they finally did manage to kill them, they were too late. I had already been reborn.”
“Reborn? You’ve got to be kidding me. You expect me to believe that Aaron is really a seven-hundred-year-old king searching for his dead wife who will be reborn to save her people from the fate she created? You’re insane,” I said.
There really was no other explanation. She had to be completely and totally insane. The only problem with my rationalization was it didn’t explain anything that had happened to me.
“I promise you that every word I’ve spoken is the truth. I have been reborn.”
“As who?” I asked.
She stared at me, her gaze penetrating. My heart began pounding as it dawned on me where this was all going. It couldn’t be true. It was too crazy. But as I looked at Sophia’s face, my face, I knew it had to be true.
“I would have thought you would
