The Iris of Issoria

By Noemi Gamel

On a reluctant quest to save a strange new world, shocking revelations lead twelve year-old Anika to question all she has known. As Anika’s role changes from bystander to center stage in an epic war, she must ask herself if she is ready to make the ultimate sacrifice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9780990399926

Book preview

first

IT WILL HAVE BLOOD, THEY SAY; BLOOD WILL HAVE BLOOD.

–William Shakespeare

Hot blood poured down her face. Anika wiped the thick, acrid liquid from her eyes. The tang of metal lingered sharply in her nostrils and throat. She opened her eyes slowly just in time to see a column of red fire headed in her direction.

The fire is headed for my face, she thought helplessly. Paralyzed with fear by the approaching blaze, her arms hung limp at her sides. Her legs were glued to the ground.

The power of the fire is in you, a deep, hollow, disembodied voice bellowed. Anika took a deep breath, pursed her lips and released the contents of her lungs toward the fire in a feeble attempt to redirect the flames away from her. A bright, golden light blinded her as the mist of her breath made contact with the fiery missile that hurtled at her.

Anika was startled awake as her body jostled inside the car. They had hit a pothole on the road. Her heart rate slowed as she realized the blood and fire had been part of a dream. It was so real, she thought. She breathed a sigh of relief. An eerie, sleepy calm settled over her until she remembered why she was in the car with her mother. Although she was glad she was not covered in blood and about to be incinerated, the reality of her life weighed on her shoulders as she came fully awake.

Anika looked out the window but the tears in her eyes blurred the breathtaking scenery of the sun setting across the Utah desert. On the horizon, the purple and orange swirls of the sky bled into the rust-red earth.

Can I call Marah to tell her we left? She can tell my other friends, Anika whispered as she stared out the car window. Tears spilled out of her brown eyes as she thought of the friends she was leaving behind. She wiped them from her face and swallowed hard against the lump in her throat.

No, Diana, her mother, responded in a cracked whisper. Her voice was sad and tired.

Anika reached for the daypack at her feet. She removed the photograph that she had kept in her wallet since she was nine years old. It was of her parents on their wedding day; they both looked young and beautiful as they faced each other, smiling with their hands intertwined against her father’s chest. Anika stroked the photo, then reached to open the car window. The reflection from the setting sun caused the glass to shine with an eerie silver glow. Anika lowered the window and let the wind pull the photograph out of her fingers. She closed her eyes to squeeze out the last of her tears. When they dried, she looked at her mother.

Diana stepped hard on the gas pedal, the car moving at full speed. She drove with one hand, as the other was bound in a makeshift splint she held against her chest. The normally laughing, brown eyes and infectious smile were absent. Instead, her face was carved into an expressionless stony gaze.

Anika flinched as she remembered the sound of her mother’s cracking bones…her father’s piercing blue eyes looking at her angrily as he grabbed a handful of Diana’s dark brown hair…and the crash of the ceramic vase that Anika broke over her father’s head.

It is going to be dark soon. When are we stopping? Anika asked as she reached for the map in the glove compartment and pushed thoughts of her father, Derek, out of her mind, unable to bear thinking about him.

Diana did not answer for a few moments, her expression unchanging. The silence between them was as thick and cold as a slab of ice.

Not until we cross the state line, she finally said.

I need to go to the bathroom. And I’m hungry, Anika said as she looked at the map of the United States on her lap.

We are close to Cortez. We can stop there for a short break. I don’t want to stop to rest for the night until we get to Albuquerque.

Are you serious? We’re not going to get there until two in the morning!

I know. I’ll get some coffee in Cortez to stay awake.

Anika looked out the window again until the majestic colors of the sunset sky disappeared. Now the entire world before her was painted with the gray blanket of dusk.

In Cortez, Diana stopped the car at a run-down gas station with rusted pumps. Anika and her mother got out of the car and entered the store, where a man with copper–skin, a weathered face, and gray stubble greeted them with a grunt. His gray hair was pulled back in a thick ponytail. He followed Anika with his piercing eyes as she entered the store. Anika touched her mother’s shoulder as Diana served herself a cup of coffee from the instant cappuccino machine, wanting to make sure the man knew she was not there alone.

Anika picked up two sad-looking bananas from a basket, a bag of potato chips, and two ice cream sandwiches. This was the best meal she could conjure without risking food poisoning. Anika met Diana at the counter to pay for her things.

The clerk glanced at them with narrow eyes and a silent tilt of the head. So what are you two running from? he asked as his dark eyes hovered over Diana’s broken arm and Anika’s disheveled hair.

We would like to pay, please, Diana said as she met his questioning stare.

He pointed to Diana’s makeshift splint. I hope you gave him as good as you got, the man said. His tone was tender and kind despite his rough voice.

Diana did not answer him. She continued to stare him down until he spoke up again.

Cash or credit?

Cash, she replied as she opened her wallet and took out the money.

Where you headed?

Home, Diana said. She grabbed her coffee, turned to Anika, and asked her to haul the rest of their items before walking to the door ahead of her daughter.

As Anika reached for the snacks on the counter, the man grabbed her wrist. Terrified, she looked back to the door as she saw Diana walk through it, unaware of what was happening.

"El poder del fuego esta en ti! Esta en ti!" the man said in a strangled, raspy voice as Anika struggled to set herself free from his grasp. He let go of her, and she ran out of the store with her food. She shivered as she remembered the words she’d heard in her fire dream. They were the same as what the man had just said to her in Spanish.

What’s wrong? Diana asked as Anika entered the car. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.

Nothing. I’m fine, she responded. They ate their sorry meal in silence before driving off down the dark highway.

Diana stopped the car at a motel beyond the outskirts of Albuquerque. The neon Vacancy sign was missing both As. Noisy air conditioning units dotted each of the room windows and graffiti decorated the outer walls. Anika stayed in the car with the doors locked while her mother entered the lobby through a door with cracked panes to pay for a room.

Later that night, the exhausted mother and daughter lay facing each other side by side on the lumpy mattress that smelled faintly of cigarette smoke, bleach, and vomit. Anika wrapped her arms around her mother. Her thoughts were lost in her fear of what the next day would bring. Diana wrapped her good arm around Anika.

Mom, what is going to happen now? Anika had not asked any questions about Diana’s plan since they had run out of the house with Derek close at their heels, but she couldn’t hold back any longer.

I have a small house, a cottage really, in Texas. I’ve had it for a while. Your father does not know about it. We will go live there for now.

Where in Texas?

In a little town called Hidden Hollow in the hill country. My grandma Marti bought it for me twelve years ago, right before you were born. She… Diana paused before continuing. She went back to her home country soon after that. I haven’t seen her since then.

How come Dad didn’t know about the house? I don’t understand.

I guess deep down inside I always knew the dragon would awaken.

What do you mean?

Nothing. Just that I often wondered if he was something other than what he claimed to be.

Will I ever see him again?

I don’t want you to.

He is my dad. I still love him.

He tried to kill us.

I know. I don’t want to see him again either. I was saying it more because I can’t believe my father would try to kill us. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Some day it will.

When you yelled something at him, he stopped chasing us. What did you say? I couldn’t understand your words.

Go to sleep. We have more than ten hours of driving time tomorrow.

Anika knew better than to push her mother when she was tired, upset, and in pain. How is your arm?

It still hurts a bit. We will stop by a pharmacy on the next town we find so I can buy some pain medicine. I forgot to get some in Cortez.

I am going to miss Marah.

I know. I cannot promise you that we will see her again. I don’t want to get your hopes up.

Anika cried softly. With her uninjured arm, Diana caressed Anika’s dark brown hair. She kissed her on her forehead and nose. She smiled weakly at her daughter and said, You look just like me. Your hair, your eyes, your nose…. You are me.

Diana was right. While Anika’s skin was lighter courtesy of her father’s genes, Anika was the spitting image of Diana. Anika embraced her mother gently so as to not hurt her injured arm.

Long after Diana fell asleep, Anika lay awake staring at the ceiling that was dotted with patches of peeling plaster. The noise of the air conditioning unit kept her from falling asleep, so she thought about what had happened that day and what would happen tomorrow. They would move to Texas to the cottage in Hidden Hollow. Diana said the place was beautiful, but Anika could not overcome the sadness she felt when she thought about living in a house without her father. After tossing and turning for hours, she finally closed her eyes to sleep.

Bizarre dreams haunted Anika. She saw flashes of what had happened with her dad, and she could hear him screaming, She is not the one!

She saw herself alone in a dark forest repeating the same words over and over: dragon’s blood, dragon’s blood, dragon’s bloods…

Anika woke up once again as the column of red fire was about to hit her face. Her body was drenched in sweat even though the noisy air conditioner made the room unbearably cold. Anika got up from the bed to dry herself with a towel from the bathroom. As she sat on the edge of the bathtub, a dull ache filled her heart as she recalled the day years ago when her father had comforted her after falling out of a tree. Her father had carried her into the bathroom as she buried her tear-streaked face into his shirt. He sat her on the edge of the bathtub while he washed her wounds with a warm, soapy towel. His blonde hair fell forward as he tended to her. He ran his hands over his head pushing his locks away from his face when he was done. Although her father could not carry a tune to save his life, he sang while holding her as he patiently waited for Anika to stop crying:

"I know you will climb that mountain

Just look into your heart

And you will find the strength you need

I know you can climb that mountain

There is just one place to start

And that is right here beside me"

Her parents had sung that song to her for as long as she could remember. Anika went back to bed and drifted to a fitful sleep. In the morning, she forgot about the dreams, but she was left with a feeling that by leaving, she was betraying her father.

I BEAR A CHARMED LIFE.

–William Shakespeare

Anika looked out the car window, refusing to acknowledge her mother or the house that silently welcomed them. The terror Anika had felt on the night they had fled dissipated and in its wake was a raw sense of remorse. She had broken a vase over her father’s head. She had left her father behind to make a life without him. The longer she avoided looking at the house, the longer she could pretend this unexpected glitch in her life did not exist.

Here it is, Diana said as she turned off the car engine. Her somber mood had lifted as if by magic once they pulled into the secluded property. She opened the car door and touched Anika’s shoulder as if expecting her to say something. Anika continued to look in the opposite direction of the house and her mother.

It’s cute and perfectly sized for the two of us. Come on, Anika, get out of the car. The Texas heat will melt a child in a hot car in minutes.

Maybe I would rather melt than live in that house, Anika said, turning to face her mother.

Diana met her eyes evenly. Lucky for you, you don’t actually have that choice, she said.

Anika lost the staring contest, so she stepped out of the car, slammed the door, and walked to the furthest end of the circular drive, where she sat on the pavement with her back to the house. She could feel her mother’s dark brown eyes boring a hole through her back.

Diana sat down next to her. I know this is very difficult for you. This separation came out of nowhere, Diana said softly as she put her unhurt arm around Anika’s shoulders. Anika flinched away from her, and Diana placed her hand on her own lap instead.

"Twenty-four hours ago, I was living a perfectly charmed life in the Avenues with both