I stopped again. I had been
born in a
castle
. I
sat above the journal for a long moment. I decided the only way I
could keep reading was if I did it as before I knew it was my
mother, as if I were an uninvolved reader.
My Freya has grown to a stubborn and willful
child. She’s prone to fits of screaming or crying. The emotion
frightens the elders. It comes from her father, yes, but I can’t
see how it will harm her. The humans seemed to live their lives
fine, controlling it well enough.
I received a visit from my mother’s sister
today. News of the child had reached her and she felt she needed to
call on me, now that my mother was not here to guide me. I was in
my room when she arrived. I heard the two quick raps and then one
loud knock from her visits during my childhood and instantly knew
it was her.
“
Aunt Junnie!” I gushed as
she came in. She wore a simple hooded cloak, seemingly unafraid as
she passed the guards at my door. She walked as though she ruled
the castle, not as if she were a light elf in the center of a dark
lord’s rule.
She confessed to me a secret her family held,
a power I had not known of my mother. They had kept it from my
father, though he had stolen her after hearing a rumor of it. She
passed to me many details of her sister, of the family… my family.
She risked so much by coming here, to help me, to help my child. I
would owe her.
I had to stop reading as
betrayal ripped through me again. Though fear of burning the pages
was not the only reason - tears were clouding my vision.
Junnie
.
Ruby laid her hands on mine,
which were trembling now.
Yes, I would take
the dust again
.
Tears streamed silently as I drifted to
sleep, the ache in my chest only dulled by distraction. I felt weak
when I woke but I was silent about the pain as we continued the
journey. Yearning to avoid my thoughts altogether, I spent much of
the day in the mind of my horse.
And the day passed.
It was evening again when we stopped. I
barely noticed the group’s mood, though quiet, they seemed anxious
and kept the perimeter close. Ruby brought me the book again and I
took one long, deep breath before I started back.
Freya is growing and strong. She has amassed
a following of sorts, though I suspect it is somehow connected to
her frailties. There is something endearing about it, but some of
it worries me. She doesn’t seem to be able to hear as well as she
should through her rounded ears and her voice is oddly alto. She is
a beauty, though, her unusual features earning her extra attention.
The elders express their anxiety, again, that the humans will
consume us but my father is already discussing arranged marriages,
even mentioning Rune’s son, of all people. Anything he can to gain
from her.
It was hard to read, this
diary.
My mother’s dairy.
Her writings went on. Eventually, they became
somewhat erratic.
My father has taken Freya from me. He has
assigned her with tasks, Rune watching over her, testing her. It
was just as Junnie had feared, just what he'd done to my mother. I
will find a way to stop him.
The elders are keeping Freya now. Guards have
been assigned to me. Like a prison.
I killed three guards to get to her. We only
had a moment before I was torn away from her, yet I feel I got the
message through.
She came to see me last night. I don’t know
how she got past the guards. But I begged her to keep our secret,
for her protection…
And then several pages were torn from the
diary before it continued.
It was an accident. A
product of her temper, her human emotions. They were testing her, a
servant told me. Anvil was holding her back, Rune with magic. She
snapped and they saw her power. Some denied the possibility but not
my father. He has attained his prize, that which he has always
coveted. I
will
stop him.
The plan is forming, but I am unsure whether
it will work. I know I cannot defeat him, and his guard, alone. But
I must protect my Freya. I must protect us all. It is the want of
power that will consume us. The want.
The script was shaky, some words hard to
read. Ominous.
I had no choice but to escape, I would need a
distraction to have any chance. I went to the village to find my
young Noble. I didn’t expect what was there. On my way in, I found
the spot where we had met so many days. I almost didn’t recognize
it, bare of growth, the dirt patted down from years of wear. And
then I saw him, the man in tattered clothes, hunched with his face
in his hands. He heard me approach and raised his head, the awe all
that was recognizable.
“
You’re back.” His voice was
trembling, feeble. It was my Noble, young no more. He had been
waiting here for my return. An outcast of the village; no one
believed his tales of magic, the mysterious woman he claimed to
meet here. He confessed to spending years trying to find me. He’d
thought I was angry with him and that’s why I’d not returned. He
was afraid to leave this spot, if I were to change my mind… forgive
him for whatever he’d done.
I pushed the guilt aside when I recalled why
I'd had to come here. For my Freya, to save her. What my father did
to me, to my mother, I would not let him do to her. I knew what I
must do, the only way. I approached the grieving man and reached
out to him. As I held his hands, I closed my eyes. I could not
watch as I snapped his neck, the way I had with the small boar as
my first show of magic to him so long ago. I placated myself by
remembering he would soon be gone, his life so short. I held him
until he began to stiffen, and then carried his lifeless body into
the village. Proof they would be attacked and killed, proof they
must fight the elves. It was not hard to incite a riot. They were
fearful creatures. I convinced them to raid the castle, gave them
direction.
And then I returned. I knew I would have time
to prepare, they would be slow to gather and make the journey. I
was thinking of Noble and I resolved to wear the dress meant for
our wedding, its dramatic shape and deep meaning. I remembered when
he'd given it to me, explaining the white stood for innocence. I
had stifled a giggle then, I could find no humor now. Yes, it would
be fitting.
I knew what was coming then. But what I had
read so far was so much more horrifying than I’d expected. I didn’t
want to continue. How could I have been so stupid, to forget it was
my mother that destroyed the northern clans… that took the families
from everyone I knew. As they stood, protecting me, the betrayal
I’d felt before was gone. In its place was a new hurt, a painful
sorrow.
They heard my sobs, I was vaguely aware of
their eyes on me before they uncomfortably turned away again.
Chevelle approached me warily. I was curled in a ball on my
blankets, the book lying plainly in front of me. He tossed it aside
but I no longer cared. He sat behind me and pulled me into his
arms, holding me as I wept.
I woke with new resolve. I stood, prepared to
make things right, but something was... off. The group surrounded
me, tense. I glanced around but couldn't see why.
And then, from nowhere, I
was thrown into the air. I landed hard on my back.... but I was not
lying. I slid down, barely standing on my feet. Someone was in
front of me...
Ruby
, so I threw my hands back to steady myself. It felt like a
wall of stones behind me. I didn't look back, though, because just
as I'd regained my footing, I heard the howling.
Before the next breath, a
new sound, a
closer
sound filled my ears.
Shoosh,
shoosh
. It took longer than it should have
to realize they were arrows. My mind couldn't seem to process the
scene fast enough, before I could distinguish the threats, they
were changing. The hands I'd splayed against the wall of stones for
support were now in bonds. I forced myself to look away from Ruby's
back, her arms stretched out defensively, to see what was holding
me.
My breath came then, fierce and gasping.
Panic. Long vines were wrapping tightly around my wrists, reaching
out for my legs. I burned my right wrist free, fighting to reach my
sword before they grew back. Large thorns burst from the vines on
my legs and pierced my skin like knives. I barely had the capacity
to hope they weren't poison. I sliced at them furiously but I
wasn't fast enough. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of
lightning and it confused me for a moment, no storm was near.
I was trapped. I looked back to Ruby, but she
could not help me now. Beyond her, a line of long flowing robes was
marching through the mist... coming for us.
The sight gave me strength,
or courage, or blinding stupidity. I didn't know but I went with
it. I knew I was trapped against the wall, unable to move. Not that
I would have been much help with nothing but fire, but there was
one thing I
could
do.
The sun broke through the clouds and I saw
precisely what I needed. A distinct shadow crossed the ground in
front of us, a hawk flying overhead. I felt the corner of my mouth
pull up in a smile as I closed my eyes to join him.
The scene from above was just as
incomprehensible. I focused on one thing at a time. Directly below
me, I saw Grey. He was caught, wrapped in vines as my own body was.
But there were flames circling his feet. I followed his gaze to
find his opponent, and then dove.
I hadn't put much planning
in this, but I was still running on adrenaline. I decided the
fastest course of action was pecking his eyes out. It worked. He
threw his hands up, covering his face, screaming. But he did not
attack me. As I rose back to find my next target, I saw the wolves.
They were also
not
being attacked, fighting with no opposition. And then, I
remembered what Chevelle had said.
They
would not kill the animals.
As I laughed, the hawk
screeched. I saw Chevelle and Steed briefly glance up at the sound.
They were fighting, almost back to back, the bodies of councilmen
strewn around them. I surveyed the land, searching for a stronger
animal to jump to, something more harmful. I ran through my
options,
where was a quill pig when you
needed it
, but I wasn't able to find
anything near, evidently the fight had cleared the mountain. Okay,
so it was just the hawk.
And the
horses
. I quickly passed through their
minds, causing an impromptu stampede, and then returned to the
sky.
When I entered the bird
again, something was wrong. It wasn't only the bird, someone was
there...
someone else
. The shock of it threw me back to my own mind. My eyes shot
open and I scanned the scene again.
I'd forgotten what I was
looking for when I recognized a face, hooded in a cloak, fighting
against her own.
Junnie
. She stared back at me for one brief moment before she turned
to fight some invisible foe. The stun took the last of the borrowed
courage from me. I felt myself drawing in, afraid, as my body
remained encaged in vine. I became aware of an unbroken chant, a
voice I didn't recognize, and I turned, stunned again, as I saw
Asher. He wasn't in the battle, he stood back, seemingly a
bystander as the words flowed from his barely moving lips. And then
he ran.
Confusion again as I watched
Junnie follow after him.
Chase
him
.
Ruby's whip cracked in front
of me and I knew the advance had gotten too far. And I was tied to
a wall.
Why hadn't they
killed
me already?
I waited for the flames. What came instead was far more
painful.
I expected to collapse as my body
disconnected from my mind, but the vines held me in place. I saw a
few final flickers of the battle before my eyes looked toward the
sky, rolling back into my head. I had no way of forming a coherent
thought or I might have been afraid.
Chapter Seventeen
A Fitting End
I was surprised, in my dreams, that I wasn’t
already dead. They came on slowly, fuzzy. When they became clearer,
they were shattered, put back together wrong. For a long time,
there was no sound, only those disjointed images.
And then, when the sound
came, there was something else wrong. It was like… like I
wasn’t
alone
.
Someone else was there, dreaming with me, and I could see their
dreams. They mixed with mine, creating chaos.
There were faces I didn’t recognize… and
those I did.
I dreamt of Steed, winking mischievously at
me… mine.
A large, dark, frightening man in leather and
armor… not mine.
My room in the old tree, mother’s pendant
casting rainbows on the bed… mine.
A long, damp stone corridor lit with torches…
not mine.
There was Junnie, her blond hair shining in
the sun as she greeted me at her door on the west side of the
village. And Junnie, mysterious under a hooded cloak, fighting with
magic and weaponry, killing members of the council guard.