Rellainia
Rellainia
“Where’s Mom?” I asked. My father’s face froze instantly, unblinking, the way it did when he was trying to determine just the right thing to say. The question hung in the air between us, waiting to be picked up. I saw his mouth open, then close, his face still unmoving. Finally, with shaking hands, he put his papers down on the table between us and crossed his legs. He was the picture of nerves with his eyes darting around the room, refusing to meet mine.
“Well,” he started, his jaw making little jumps, like he was trying to speak, but couldn’t form words. He tried again.
“Well honey, it’s past midnight,” he said, forcing himself to meet my eyes, as if that were all the explanation he’d need. I tilted my head, waiting for more, but nothing came.
“I know,” I said simply, hoping to prod him on, but he just sat there smiling, sweat forming along his hairline. “That’s what I’m talking about. Where does she go at night?”
Told mainly in the first person, Rellainia is a fantasy tale opening in a modern setting where dad, Arthur, is a high school biology teacher and mother, Milaandra, is a judge. Their daughter is Kelsey, a 19-year-old student with a summer job. Mother used to tell Kelsey bedtime stories about the magic land of Rellainia and its beautiful Queen. Kelsey wonders why her mother spends every night away from home, but she has been forbidden to ask any more questions. One day when Kelsey goes into the basement looking for what she needs for her father’s thirty-eighth birthday party, she comes across a china cabinet, opens the door, and finds herself elsewhere. Things go rapidly downhill after that.
Kelsey discovers Rellainia is real and that she has materialized in the bedroom of a castle. Taken prisoner, she is thrown into a dungeon and brutally questioned. After a couple of weeks, her mother, who also moonlights as the reluctant queen to a psychotic King Valec, discovers Kelsey is there in the castle and arranges for her rescue by an old acquaintance from her youth, Lamtheora, aka Liam, who also happens to be the most powerful wizard in the land. Kelsey learns that everyone in the land has some form of magic or power. She has the potential to become an assassin.
Kelsey, who has a bad habit of ignoring instructions and experienced advice, gains her assassin powers while much blood is being shed during her aiding of the wizard, Liam, in the defense of his property against a pursuing army sent by Prince Nethenar, the son of King Valec, and the one who tortured Kelsey in the dungeon. She later discovers that Nethenar is her brother. Nearing the end of the tale, the king is dead, slain while attempting to kill Kelsey and Liam.
At this point, Prince Nethenar plans to assume the throne and make his announcement in the town square. Kelsey is convinced to step forward with her own claim to the throne as the daughter of the Queen. There is a challenge, called a Rainaus, she can issue in the square which will force Nethenar to compete with her over a series of challenges for the throne. Nethenar attempts a sneak attack on Kelsey, Liam intervenes, and during the confluence of magics, on the last page, Liam is turned into a small boy. The last three lines are: “Made up of pieces of Liam and fragments of Nethenar, I didn’t know what-or who-this boy was. And I was afraid to find out.”
Rellainia ends abruptly just as Kelsey makes her move to become the rightful princess and heir to the throne. One must assume a sequel is in the works.
Ronald Hore, who has been involved with writer’s groups for several years, dabbles in writing fantasy and science fiction in Winnipeg, Manitoba.