Chosen Ones Read Online Free Page B

they real y couldn’t wait much longer to find water. He bent down again.
    “I’l be back soon, Julia. Don’t leave the garden, al right? You promise you’l stay here?” She nodded through a sleepy haze. Satisfied, Peter headed out of the garden and back to the path, certain that it would lead to a stream.
    It was real y only a few minutes later—though it felt like much longer—that Julia final y woke to find her brother gone. She extracted herself from the canopy of branches and paced over to the stagnant pond, wondering what Peter had done with himself.
    She vaguely remembered something about a stream and supposed he had gone off to find water. She debated trying to fol ow him and concluded that she would do just as wel to remain in the garden. There were no predators here—none that she could see, at least.
    It was at that moment that she realized she was being watched.
    It was some instinct she hadn’t known she possessed that warned her of the danger. She stayed very, very stil for a long moment, afraid to do so much as breathe. Perhaps if she didn’t move, whatever it was would move on. Her eyes darted from side to side, searching for an escape route—
    or, failing that, some sort of weapon. There were a few mossy stones that had been pushed out of the wal by the sprawling roots of the trees, but they lay too far away to reach. Perhaps if she ran…
    There was real y only one thing to do. She turned, slowly and deliberately, and looked the enemy straight in the eye.
    It was a man. He stood beside the stone chair, his hands clasped in front of him. He wore a long, hooded robe, and his face was hidden in shadow.
    And yet Julia could feel his eyes on her. She stood poised and ready to flee, every muscle tensed.
    But then he held out a hand to her, and a low, solemn voice said, “Welcome, Julia. We have been waiting a long time for you.”
    There was a long, wary pause as Julia sized up the stranger.
    “Who are you?” she asked cautiously. “What is it that you want of me?”
    The man pul ed down his hood, and for the first time Julia could see his face. He was old—far older than her grandfather, Julia thought. His face was etched with deep lines—one of them a pink scar running the length of his cheek—and his white hair only thinly covered his scalp. But his eyes were bright, and he was smiling.
    “My name is Gaius,” he said. “And I want you to fulfil a prophecy.”
    There was another long moment in which Julia simply stared at the man. He was mad, she thought
    —mad, and possibly dangerous. She thought again of the stones that lay near the wal and wondered if Peter was nearby. Maybe he would come if she screamed…
    “You need not worry,” said Gaius. “I have no intention of hurting you. I would like, if you wil permit me, to tel you a story.”
    She nodded, never taking her eyes off his.
    “Good,” he said. “Now, perhaps I can make you more comfortable?” He gestured to a blanket and cushions spread out on the ground. Julia stared—
    none of it had been there a moment before. Gaius smiled. “I have a little magic,” he said simply.

    “Yes…of course,” said Julia dumbly. She moved to the blanket and sat down against a cushion, wondering if this was how Alice had felt when she got to Wonderland.
    “This is an old story,” began Gaius, “and I am the only man yet living who can tel it true. It is the story of a good land and a good people, and how they were brought to ruin.”
    There was once a country, said Gaius, that lay far beyond the seas. This was a beautiful land, with lush meadows, fragrant woods, and crystal clear rivers dashing down the hil s onto the great fertile plains of the south. This land was Khemia, ruled over by Marcus, the crown prince of the Dynasty of Ilium. It was a place of peace, and al its peoples lived in harmony.
    It was in the sixth year of Marcus’s reign that disaster struck. A dormant volcano erupted, enveloping the land in a blanket of deadly