The Last Golden Rose

  Chapter 21: A Call to Greatness

  Sunlight broke over the desert that was now most of Parli. It came from the east, where the forest had been, and continued until it was over the palace walls. The rays passed over the strange people in the Rough, who still slept from their long night. It covered the mountains and continued to the desert where the merchants once roamed, and now were still. Their cold faces did not warm under the sun’s heat, their bodies untouched for days, waiting for their life source to be returned.

  Most in the Rough had no idea what was happening to the rest of the island. Communications rarely came to them for anything, and now was no different. Some did not even know that the rest of the island was slowly turning to desert. Had they of known they probably would have wanted to help. But the king and queen believed the old stories that everyone down there was a thief or beggar. They believed it because that is what was taught to them.

  The original lords and ladies created the rumors of the Rough’s people when they thought their power over them was in jeopardy. After Ijnus met his end to them, they thought to return the power from Ijnus’s sword to the ground in the Rough, but could not. They soon realized that dark magic cannot be used by anyone except who turned the magic dark in the first place. Since the lords and ladies could not use the magic from the sword to re-energize the Rough, they said that they did not want to. They claimed that it was because they did not trust those in the Rough Region. Together they feared that if anyone believed that they were not absolutely powerful, then another coup would occur. The magic is still locked away inside Ijnus’s sword, which is hidden somewhere in the palace. Where it is only the original lords and ladies knew.

  When the sword was first placed in the palace strange things happened. It had never been fully magical as the other lands were, having been created out of a small patch of land in the center of the island that was void of magic. For some reason the magic that the lords and ladies had put into their respective regions did not reach into that piece of land. When the sword did make its home under the palace trees came to life. The trees were mean, and often fought with each other. But over time the trees became less and less mean and started to like each other. There was never an explanation given to the trees’ change of heart, but some past royals think it had something to do with the magic from the sword.

  Mith and Ludus met up to go down to breakfast together. Halfway down the hall they saw the king and Zing rushing towards them.

  “It’s time,” he took a break to catch his breath, “time for the real thing.