The Power and the Glory

Book 2 Chapter XVIII: A Difficult Path

Warning: contains an abusive childhood, physical violence against a child, the murder of a child, and a severe case of deliberate values dissonance. On a lighter (well, it's not really lighter if you know the context) note, a scene in this chapter is inspired by a similar scene in the K-drama The King Loves. Probably no one who reads this has ever seen the series, but any guesses which scene it is?

Rebecca, wo du auch immer bist (Rebecca, wherever you are)
Dein Herz ist ruhlos, wie die wilde, freie See (Your heart is restless like the wild, free sea)
Wenn der Abend beginnt, singt der Wind (When the evening begins the wind sings)
Rebecca, komm heim, Rebecca! (Rebecca, come home, Rebecca!)
Aus dem Nebelreich zurück nach Manderley (From the foggy realm return to Manderley)
-- Rebecca das Musical, Rebecca

A child's high-pitched laugh rang out. Abi opened her eyes to find herself lying amidst long grass. She propped herself up on her elbows. Absently she noticed that the weight of her body left no impression on the grass.

It took her eyes a while to decipher the vivid colours around her. Funny; she didn't remember the real world being so bright. She was in the grounds of a large castle. Just ahead of her was a bed full of flowers just beginning to wither. On the other side of the flower-bed was a cobblestone driveway. Two small children, a blond boy and a brunette girl, kicked a ball back and forth across it.

Another young boy sat on the grass a short distance from Abi. His face was a curious mixture of sullenness and wistfulness as he watched the other two play.

Where am I? Abi wondered.

The children were the only people around to ask. And the youngest boy was the only one not absorbed in the game.

"Excuse me," she began, and prepared for him to panic. "Can you tell me where I am?"

The boy ignored her. She repeated herself in a louder voice. He continued to ignore her. How rude! Annoyed, she tried to shake his shoulder. Her hand went right through him as if he wasn't there.

A woman spoke behind them. "Raitálen!"

Abi and the boy looked round. A tall, thin woman in a brilliant green dress frowned down at the boy. There was something faintly familiar about the woman's face. She would have been beautiful if she hadn't looked as if she had a lot of worries. Her fine silk dress and carefully-styled hair suggested she was someone very important. Yet her face had the suggestion of a shadow over it. For some reason she couldn't explain Abi felt sure this woman was unhappy.

She held out her hand. The boy scrambled to his feet and took it.

"I've told you to leave them alone," the woman said with a dark look towards the children.

That look sent a chill of foreboding down Abi's spine. Something was badly wrong here.

"But I want to play with them, Mother," Raitálen protested. "They're my siblings."

The woman's dark look became positively murderous. She forced a smile as she looked down at her son. "They aren't your siblings, dear. They're just bastards. You are your father's only true heir. You mustn't play with such trash or their taint will rub off on you."

She led the boy away. Abi stared after them, shaken. The world's brilliant colours seemed to have suddenly faded.

I don't understand, she thought. What is this? Why am I here?

The faint echo of Ilaran's soul still lingered around this place. She followed it slowly. The world blurred around her. When it became clear again she found herself in a courtyard. A boy of about Shizuki's age had a bird perched on his wrist. Well, "perched" was stretching it. The bird was almost as large as he was. Abi had never seen falconry in person before. It wasn't practised in Seroyawa. But she recognised what he was doing at once from pictures she'd seen in books.