by A. W. Exley
Her hand stilled and a red tendril as thin as a strand of silk from a spider appeared from under her palm. “You have seen how my uncle and Archie treat me. My uncle hates your family, and he blames you for the downfall his family suffered. They lost everything—their phoenix, fortune, privilege, and some lost their lives.”
Elijah once thought everything lived in balance, that the pendulum swung back and forth, but should never swing too far to one side or the other. Now he realised that wasn’t balance at all. It kept them trapped in a constant cycle of attack, defeat, and revenge. Surely true balance was embracing both sides? “My grandfather only acted to protect the queen. Your uncle’s family must have known the risks when they plotted against her.”
She tilted her head to stare at him and drew a line up his chest to rest her hand against his cheek. “My uncle says history is written by the victors. Imagine if they had succeeded and a Soarer king now ruled England.”
It wasn’t a world he wanted to consider. He could imagine such a king would hunt Warders to extinction. “We would never have found each other in such a world. Nor would we have the chance to bring peace to our families.”
She smiled before pulling his head to hers in a gentle kiss.
“What is done cannot be undone. They made their choice and cast the die. Yet my uncle is consumed by his hatred, sure that it was a personal vendetta by your grandfather. Now only my aunt has any kindness left in her. I have few regrets in turning my back on them. It is the people of the village that I will miss most, like Rose and Millie.”
At the mention of the maid’s name, Elijah added her to his list of people to rescue. There was a slim chance that his plan would still work, if Kruos could be convinced to do one more job that would free his granddaughter.
He kissed her again and savoured the bite of cherry she infused through his mouth. “Did you know Millie’s mother? Was she a Meidh?”
“Yes. Tristi was a hauntingly beautiful woman, but so sad. Her trait was to carry the sorrow of those around her, and she could ease a person’s grief.”
“What was the reverse of her trait?” All gifts had their own balance. A Meidh had to be careful they didn’t succumb to the dark.
“She could fill a person’s mind with that sorrow and crush them under the weight of it. I saw my uncle make her do it once to a lad who had stolen a silver candlestick. He gouged out his own eyes before throwing himself from the window. Tristi never recovered after that. She ended her own life not long after, scared that Uncle would force her to do it again.” Trixie buried her face in his shirt, as though hiding from the memory.
Meidh could wield extraordinary power. Dawn could create, or extinguish, life. Their traits resulted in a dizzying array of abilities, most with a sharp edge that took their toll on the Meidh.
Elijah flew above events to allow the bigger picture to take shape in his mind. Empty spaces were filled by information, people, and links. Only a few black patches remained, waiting for their secrets to be revealed. “Do you know how Kruos’s wife died?”
“No. It was before I was born. All I know is that she suffered a brief illness after Tristi was born and died rather suddenly,” Trixie said.
He grunted deep in the back of his throat. He wanted to pull at the strand, but it could wait until later. He picked up her hand. “Come on. It’s a lovely night to go flying.”
“Flying?” She stared at him as though he had grown a second head.
“Yes. We’re going to meet Dawn and my uncle, and flying will be quicker than taking the horse.” He led her back through the kitchen.
She hesitated on the doorstep, their positions oddly reversed from earlier in the evening. “What if someone sees you?”
He glanced over his shoulder to the scrappy-looking tabby cat who sat by the barn door and licked its paws. The creature had all but eliminated the nosy seekers that were burrowing into dark corners. There could still be one or two that escaped its sharp green eyes, but it was a chance Elijah was prepared to take.
“Manny is tied up and cannot tell anyone. It’s dark enough that even if a seeker sees me, it will take time for it to report back to your uncle.” He stood in the middle of the yard and shifted form. Rocks and pebbles rose up from the ground and coated his body. He grew as his form was encased in granite, and wings unfurled from his spine. He flapped them a few times, working out kinks from having them folded away for so long. The shift when he’d fought Manny hadn’t been long enough to stretch, and it felt good to have his element free to course through his veins.
Trixie peered at him in the low light and let out a quiet whistle. “You gnomes are ugly brutes.”
He growled and tapped the spot over his heart. “Don’t call me that. I’m a gargoyle, and I might be made of stone, but I still have feelings, you know.”
She stepped closer and rapped her knuckles on his chest. “Are you fireproof?”
He grinned. “Pretty much. Depending on how hot you get.”
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she murmured as she wrapped her arms around his broad neck.
Elijah swept her into his arms and held her close to his solid chest. “Oh, I intend to find out. Once this is all over and you are ready.”
He leapt into the air and she gasped. Once off the ground, he flapped his wings and they soared straight up, towards the clouds. The moon was hiding tonight and cast him in shadow beyond reach of the lights that flickered from cottages and farms below.
He held on to Trixie tight as he flew over the countryside. He’d never flown while carrying someone before (he was fairly certain transporting a dog didn’t count), and he hoped he didn’t drop his mate into a haystack or pigsty.
Even with the chill of the night, she was warm in his arms, as though he clutched the sun, and warmth from his full heart crept through him on the inside.
24
Elijah opened himself to his connection with Dawn to determine how far to go before he met her and his uncle. The hum along the strand signalled that they were still in the air and not somewhere among the hundreds of trees below. Even for an earth Elemental, one stretch of forest could look much like another with little to distinguish it.
At length he felt that Dawn was close enough and he dropped down to the ground in a small clearing that was visible from above. He set Trixie on her feet and looked up, scanning the sky. A large shadow blocked out the stars and moments later, the bigger gargoyle landed on the scattered leaves.
The clouds parted and the moon shone on their meeting. The clearing was washed in silvery light that played over the hard planes and angles of the gargoyles. Both creatures shook themselves loose of their stone forms until they stood as uncle and nephew.
Jasper held out a hand to Elijah and pulled him into a tight hug. His uncle thumped him on the back. “I am relieved that you still have all your limbs,” Jasper said as he let him go.
Elijah was more gentle when he hugged Dawn, still a little embarrassed to show his affection for the woman due to the newness of their relationship.
“Why don’t you introduce us to your friend, Elijah?” his uncle said.
Elijah took Trixie’s hand and pulled her close. By instinct, she huddled next to him and slightly behind, as though she expected the Warders to attack. “Uncle Jasper, Dawn, this is Trixie. She’s my mate.”
Dawn gasped and Jasper was coated in stony silence, his customary frown digging a trench in his forehead.
Dawn approached Trixie and held out a hand. “You are mates? How wonderful that you have found each other at such a young age. You have a long future together to look forward to.”
“Trixie is a salamander,” Elijah blurted out before Dawn touched Trixie. He still wasn’t sure how his uncle would react.
“As was my father,” Dawn said without missing a beat. She hugged Trixie and kissed her cheek.
“Do I know you?” Trixie asked Dawn.
Dawn shook her head and her short locks brushed her cheeks. “I doubt we have ever met. I d
idn’t get out much as a child.”
Trixie moved a fraction away from Elijah to study Dawn’s face. “You look familiar to me, as though I already know you.”
Things seemed to be going well, and hope flared in Elijah’s breast. The two people who meant so much to him accepted Trixie. Didn’t they? He peered at his uncle, who still hadn’t said a word. Relief teetered at the edge of a crevasse inside him. If his uncle disapproved, all his good feelings would tumble to the ground. “Uncle Jasper?”
A slow grin crossed Jasper’s face and he laughed softly in the night. “You didn’t choose an easy road, did you? Since you summoned Dawn, I’m assuming you need our help and that you have news. We passed Hector and Marjory. They were only a few miles from Alysblud. The warder will stay with them.”
Elijah let out a sigh; the older couple were safe. Now they could get down to the serious business of figuring out how to tackle the tasks he wanted to achieve. “Trixie and I believe that Gaia and Ouranus paired us for a reason. We have discussed it, and we want to bring about a change for both our clans. There is a seditious faction in the Soarers who whisper that fire must be free. Trixie and I have a chance to finish what I believe Zadoc started.”
“Zadoc?” Trixie gasped.
“You know him?” three voices said in unison.
Jasper rested an arm around Dawn’s shoulders. “Zadoc was Dawn’s father.”
Trixie stared at Dawn. “Zadoc was my mother’s twin. Her name was Alma. Apparently Grandmother used to refer to them as the A to Z of trouble.” Trixie slammed the palm of her hand into her forehead. “That’s why you seem so familiar, Dawn! You look exactly like Verity. My mother had a photograph of them that she often used to show me.”
“You have a photograph of Zadoc?” Dawn clasped one hand over her mouth and sought Jasper’s large hand with her other.
“It’s among my things, along with the remaining letters he wrote my mother,” Trixie whispered, as though they shared a confidence in a ballroom. The moment seemed to require hushed voices and low tones as they spoke of Dawn’s deceased parents.
Elijah looked from his mate to his future aunt as everything began to make sense. “Do you know what this means?”
“What?” Trixie turned to him.
He gestured to his uncle’s mate. “Dawn is your cousin. You’re not turning your back on your family, you’re discovering one you didn’t know you had.”
“What did he look like? Where did he and Verity meet? Were they together for long?” Dawn turned towards Jasper and he gathered her in his arms, as though to still her spinning mind. She flashed a smile to Trixie. “I’m sorry. There is so much I want to know, and you are the only person who might hold the answers.”
Trixie leaned back against Elijah’s chest. “I don’t mind. Now that my mother is gone, I have no one else to talk to about him. My mother and Zadoc were both born in Dorset and were part of the Dryden Soarers. Verity’s family were Meidh aligned to the Drydens.”
Jasper grunted. “I know of the Drydens. Fairly quiet bunch who keep to themselves.”
Elijah laced his arms around Trixie as she spoke, and she rested her hands on his forearms. “The Hamiltons were part of the neighbouring Hawley clan in Wiltshire. Or they were until—”
“Until Elizabeth Tudor killed their phoenix, executed the ring leaders, and exiled Francis Hamilton for two hundred years. He was cleared of involvement, but suspicion remained about his knowledge of the plot,” Jasper narrated the history of the Hamiltons.
Trixie’s fingers dug into Elijah’s forearms. “He hates your family for what happened and blames you rather than looking to his actions. Then he went into exile and took my aunt with him. When they returned, the High Soarer gave him an old and feeble phoenix that was unwanted after two clans merged. My aunt never had the renewal ceremony with the bird, and they have both declined in health over the last one hundred years.”
Jasper let go of Dawn to pace, taking long strides across the clearing. “We are aware of old resentments between our families. We recently learned that Francis timed his attack on my brother and sister to coincide with an attempt on the life of Queen Victoria. That way he ensured other Warders were preoccupied and unable to investigate the murder of Julian.”
Trixie gasped and turned in Elijah’s arms. “I didn’t know, I swear. How you must hate us.”
He pulled her tighter to him and kissed her forehead. “I could never hate you for the actions of others. But it shows that we are constantly at battle with each other, locked in strikes and retaliations with only brief periods of peace. There must be another way.”
“I agree with you, Elijah. There must be a reason why our creators paired you and Trixie,” Dawn said. “Perhaps that reason is to bring peace to our clans. In days gone by, enemy nations would end wars by marrying their heirs.”
“I will not forget my vow to my father. We will end this.” Elijah studied the profile of the woman in his arms. This was the difficult part: to avenge his father’s death without losing the chance of securing her love. How did you destroy a woman’s family and keep her affection?
“Do you know what fire must be free means?” Dawn walked to Jasper and clasped his hand, anchoring him in place and ceasing his restless back and forth motion.
Trixie was silent for a moment, and Elijah waited, letting her make the final decision about what action they took. “There is a small faction among Soarers who wish to see the phoenix set free. My uncle, Zadoc, was one such person who believed fire shouldn’t be imprisoned. It was something he died for and now Elijah and I will finish it. We will release the Hamilton phoenix.”
Dawn placed a hand over her heart. “Releasing the phoenix will destroy your clan. We don’t expect you to go against your flesh and blood.”
Trixie ran her hands up and down Elijah’s arms. The Cor-vitis had stopped sulking and left a lacy trail of copper sparks under her touch. “They are my flesh and blood, but they are not of my heart and mind. Freeing the phoenix will destroy the clan without any bloodshed or harm to the villagers. As a living creature it should have the free will to stay with a family because it wants to, not because it has no other choice.”
Jasper stared at Trixie, his eyes widening slightly. “She’s a smart one, Elijah. You should hang on to her.”
Elijah kissed the top of her head as his heart swelled with pride. “I intend to, Uncle.”
“How will we gain access to where the phoenix is chained?” Jasper asked.
Trixie glanced up at Elijah. “There are men set to guard its room. We need a distraction that will draw all the men away from the house.”
Elijah had an idea of how to do that. A very big and hot idea. “I found Delens at the mill. Hamilton keeps him chained deep in a basement, guarding the engine and turbines from the Esmeralda. I also found a very large tunnel they are drilling. It descends downwards and southeast, towards Alysblud.”
Dawn swayed against Jasper and he caught her.
“Everything is connected.” She looked up at her mate with wide, worried eyes.
“So much going on under my nose and I never suspected,” Trixie whispered.
“The engines run at night, turning propeller shafts that are now fitted with a drill. Each morning, they add to the shaft as it reaches deeper into the ground.” Elijah could only speculate on what they were doing. Given the direction he assumed it was an attempt to tunnel under their estate.
“Can you feel how far they have dug?” Dawn asked.
Elijah spread his hands in a who knows gesture. “No. The mill has a number of boilers running the engines to keep the mill machinery going. The vibration of one masks the other. The earth is confused when I ask it. All I can say is that they are heading down and southeast.”
“Towards and under. That’s how you breach walls during a siege.” Jasper rubbed his chin.
Dawn tapped her knuckles on Jasper’s arm as she thought. “They’re trying to reach the Ravensblood tree.”
“You
think they plan to come up under the tree?” Elijah asked.
Dawn’s face paled. “I fear their plan is more encompassing than that. All the Ravensblood trees are connected, both to one another and to Gaia by taproots. Those roots lie deep in the earth and travel downwards for miles before spreading out and linking from country to country.”
“What would happen if somebody set fire to the taproot?” Trixie asked.
Dawn’s eyes widened. “If fire spread through the sap, they could destroy every single Ravensblood tree at once.”
If a tree fell, so did the clan. Warders protected their Ravensblood tree the same way Soarers guarded their phoenix. Everyone fell silent as the implications settled over them like the nighttime chill on the branches above.
Jasper stared at Trixie and ground his jaw. “Do the Soarers know that all Ravensblood trees are connected?”
She shook her head. “I’d never heard that until now. Uncle’s hatred is focused on your family. I don’t think he casts a wider net, but I have no way to know for sure. I’m not in his confidence.”
“Would your aunt know?” Elijah spoke by her ear.
Her head turned and her cheek brushed against his lips. “She might.”
“Let’s tackle one problem at a time. First we need to destroy the drill. If we do it in a big enough fashion, that will create the diversion we need to get to the phoenix,” Jasper said.
“Boilers are susceptible to overheating. At least the mill will be empty except for the men in the basement.” Elijah glanced to Trixie, unsure if she would help or not. They were talking about blowing up the mill, which would have a devastating effect on the villagers who relied on their jobs there. He recalled the layout of the mill and the rooms above the boilers. One was the carding room that was still empty from the previous fire.
“This might be an opportunity for the mill to embrace silk weaving, once you have destroyed the carding and spinning rooms that are located over the basement,” Trixie said. She tightened her grip on his arm and met his gaze. “We will do this together and ensure no villagers are harmed.”