Caylus had sent me a letter from Eselin, saying he intended to stay there and become a scholar. He’d already gotten a job at a local bakery, where he’d started selling his inventions, including a teapot that retained heat better. He’d sent one along with his letter, painted meticulously with a delicate crow design.
Estrel appeared in the doorway as Kiva and I entered the foyer, a grin on her lips. “I have something to show you guys.”
I glanced at Kiva, who shrugged. Caliza joined us as we followed Estrel out into the garden and around the castle to where the royal rookery was nearly fully repaired. The foundation of the structure had gone undamaged in Ronoch; all we’d had to do was clear away the wreckage and rebuild the inside.
Estrel led us toward it, then paused with one hand on the door. She flashed a last smile before she pushed it open.
I froze in the doorway as Caliza gasped.
Scattered across a bed of hay, their shells bright in the noonday light, sat the remaining crow eggs. I gaped, covering my mouth with both hands, and simply stared. And then slowly, I began to laugh. A deep, shuddering, half-sobbing laugh of delight.
Beside me, Kiva grinned uncontrollably, her shoulders shaking with growing laughter.
Then I saw Ericen standing at the edge of the nest, a gleam in his blue eyes.
I launched myself at him. He caught me, spinning me about and setting me back on my feet. Then his lips were on mine, and I lost myself to the feel of his fingers in my hair and his body against mine.
Someone cleared their throat.
I pulled free with a sheepish smile. Ignoring Kiva’s smirk, I dropped to my knees beside a pale gold sun crow egg, running my fingers along the silken shell. A quiet humming greeted me, the prickle of magic flowing through me.
Caliza knelt beside me, something uncertain in her face. Tentatively, she brushed her fingers along an earth crow shell. “I can feel something,” she said. “It feels…alive.”
A slow smile split across my face. “You can feel its magic.”
Her eyes widened, and she pressed her hand flat against the egg. For a moment, she simply sat like that. Not as the queen of a struggling kingdom, with a bloody past behind her and an uncertain future before her. Nor as the daughter who’d never been enough for a woman who asked too much.
She was just a girl, enraptured by a dream.
Then she let out a slow, heavy breath, and the weight of years went with it. Her free hand went to mine, squeezing it gently. I squeezed it back, then stood, leaving her to her newfound power.
As I rose, Kiva let out a whoop and darted across the room, catching me in her arms. Her grin was infectious. I laughed and smiled up at Estrel, whose face was wet with tears. She laid a hand on my shoulder.
“We can bring them back,” I told her. The words broke something open inside me. But it was a good sort of breaking. It was like the hatching of an egg, giving way to something beautiful.
Something new.
* * *
A gentle breeze tousled my braid. It slipped against my skin and tugged at my clothes as if begging me to come and play with it. The sunlight glinted off my feathered bracelet, a familiar, comfortable weight once more.
Res stood beside me on the landing platform, his wing slightly lifted to give me better access to the saddle I was securing. He tugged incessantly at the cord, demanding we fly.
As I did the last tie and stepped back, Ericen stepped onto the landing platform, looking about as comfortable with his decision as a man balancing on a cliff edge.
He’d told us how he’d put in motion the steps necessary to establish a ruling council in Illucia. Never again would a single person wield the power Razel had once held. But the transition would take time, and he wouldn’t be able to visit me until it was complete.
Good thing I had a magical road that could transport me between kingdoms. Once we rebuilt it, of course.
Since Caliza and I were the only ones who could operate them, we’d adhered to each kingdom’s wishes regarding their use. Trendell, Jindae, and the Ambriels had all agreed to leave them functioning, as it made transporting supplies and support their way a lot easier, but they were in the process of creating guidelines for their operation.
Ericen smiled, pulling me from my thoughts. He stopped a short way away. “This feels higher than last time,” he remarked.
I raised an eyebrow. “These platforms do have a nasty habit of shifting places.”
He snorted sharply, focusing on me rather than the sheer drop on either side of him. “Kiva said you’d be here.”
I blinked. Kiva had willingly told him where I was?
I stepped toward him, my smile growing as I asked in a low voice, “Well, now that you’ve found me, what do you want with me?”
His face flushed, and I warmed at the sight. “The same thing I’ve always wanted,” he said softly, and suddenly, I felt three times my size. Ericen had a way of making me feel that way, as if I were so much larger than myself.
It’d taken me a while to realize that the same fire that lived in him lived in me. Now, all I wanted was to let it burn.
“I see.” I closed the last of the distance between us. The scarlet in his cheeks deepened. “And exactly how far will you go to get what you want?” I leaned closer and felt more than heard his intake of breath.
His fingers brushed my face. “Anywhere.”
My lips brushed his, and then I leaned back, grinning. “Over here?” I asked, stepping toward the edge.
He lurched, as if my presence had been holding him upright, but moved after me.
I stepped back again. “What about here?”
He followed. I stepped again, and he tensed, eyeing the edge nervously. “This isn’t funny, Thia.”
“Now who can’t flirt?” I asked.
“Threatening to jump off a hundred-foot-high platform isn’t flirting.”
I took another step. The strain in Ericen’s face grew tauter.
“Thia.”
I stepped back again.
“You said you’d follow me anywhere,” I said with a grin.
“Don’t you dare.”
I stepped off the edge.
“Thia!” His scream followed me as I plummeted through the air. The bond between Res and me came alive, and the next moment, he was above me, his wings tucked tight in a perfect dive.
I spread out my arms, slowing my fall, and he shot past me in a blur of feathers. Then he was beneath me, and I rolled, seizing the edge of the saddle. With a heave, I pulled myself in, sliding my feet into the stirrups.
Res’s wings snapped open. He cut sharply upward, pumping his wings harder and harder until he caught a rising wind.
We spiraled upward, past the landing platform, past Ericen grinning up at us, and up through the clouds.
Up and up and up.
Together, we rose.
Epilogue
I was a storm.
It was a feeling I’d chased my entire life. From as far back as I could remember, I longed for the brush of the wind in my hair and the rush of the sky splitting open before me.
Not long ago, I’d thought it would never be possible again.
Today, a new future waited.
Res tilted into a broad bank, swinging back around toward the rising sun. I leaned close and we dove, spiraling through the morning clouds with wild abandon. When we pulled up, Res’s wings flared wide, and we fell in alongside Ericen and his shadow crow, Zara.
Ericen might ride a horse like he’d been born to it, but even with five months in the sky, he still clung to Zara’s back as if she might flip upside down at any moment.
We soared low over sprawling streets thick with vines and trees laden with fruit. The Rynthene Canal traced a glimmering line through a city slowly waking, early preparations for the evening’s festivities already underway. Those f
ew awake waved up to us as we passed.
The whole scene felt like an afterimage, left behind in the wake of a lightning bolt’s flash. Slowly, it melded with a new reality.
We passed Jenara and her crow, Sen, setting out to water the expansive fields that had been reseeded. She flew alongside Esos, the earth crow rider who’d trained Res on our way to Trendell. Near the center of the city, smoke rose from the central forge, lit once more by a fire crow’s power. Laz had been hard at work in it for weeks crafting new black gold weapons. Apparently, they’d been the blacksmith who made Sinvarra and my bow.
At my prompting, the riders who’d aided me had returned to Aris to fill the vacant Corvé positions. We’d hatched one crow of each type, which was the most the restored levels of the royal rookery could handle. The rest had had to wait until the remaining rookeries could be repaired—a process that had been completed only days ago.
Just in time for Negnoch.
Already, the reopened Kalestel riding school had been flooded with applications from old riding families and new alike. Rhodaire had come together, ready to rebuild what had been lost. Soon, they would have their chance.
Res and I led Ericen and Zara back to the castle, where we alighted on one of the landing platforms. Auma, Kiva, and Elko were waiting for us. As we dismounted, we shook hands with Auma before Elko pulled each of us into a massive bear hug. My arms curled awkwardly around the moonblades at her back. They’d once belonged to her mother, and she’d recovered them from Razel after the battle.
When she released me, I realized delicate gold and green lines covered the scars on her face and neck, marking her as the new queen of Jindae, a position she’d filled when her sister abdicated. Auma loved her kingdom, enough so that she recognized the people knew and loved Elko, not the distant princess who’d spent her life in foreign places. She was content knowing what she’d done for them.
“Your tama!” I exclaimed.
She grinned, brushing them with her fingers. “I hear you’re due for a new design yourself.”
“You mean late for a new design,” Kiva remarked, arms folded. “We’ve been up here for twenty minutes! It’s cold!”
“It’s going to be way colder in Korovi, you know,” I replied with a roll of my eyes. A few weeks ago, Kiva’s mother had stopped answering her letters. When the third one didn’t receive a response, she’d decided to seek her mother in Korovi herself. She left tomorrow.
Auma leaned into Kiva. “Kiva’s temper will keep her warm,” she said.
Kiva wrapped an arm around her. “I thought that’s what I had you for.”
A faint blush rose in Auma’s cheeks, and Elko let out a bark of laughter.
“I thought you were late?” Ericen asked, his tone close to disapproving. Punctuality was yet another thing he and Kiva agreed on. They’d started keeping track, making a game of it. Whichever one agreed with the other had to buy them a drink.
“I’m going, I’m going!” I waved to Res, who nipped at Zara’s wing teasingly, then leapt into the sky before the other crow could retaliate. She took off after him, the two quickly turning to shadows in the sky.
The others followed me inside where the upper levels of the castle were slowly being restored. They walked me to a room at the far end of the hall where a quiet murmur of voices trickled out.
Elko clapped me on the shoulder. “Good luck, crow queen. It’ll only hurt a lot.”
I glowered at her, earning a snicker from Kiva.
Ericen stepped between us, filling my vision with only him. “You’ll be fine.”
“Come with me?” I asked him.
His eyes brightened, and I slipped my hand into his, tugging him toward the open door. I slammed it in Kiva’s laughing face.
Inside, Estrel waited with Lady Kerova. A long table with a thin sheet sat before the house leader, a chair and small table beside it, laden with needles and ink. I shivered, and Ericen squeezed my hand.
“You know it’s against tradition for anyone but the abdicating Corvé and the inker to be present for this,” Estrel grumbled. She sat on a small couch, a cup of tea in a saucer resting in her lap. It was a special blend Caylus had sent me from Trendell.
“Then we shouldn’t be too surprised that Thia is dispensing with it,” Lady Kerova said in her serene tone.
Estrel rolled her eyes. “Whatever. You, turn around.” She gestured for Ericen to face the wall. Only she would speak to the king of Illucia like that.
I chose not to tell her it wouldn’t be the first time Ericen had seen me undressed.
Ericen obeyed with a smirk. I removed my flying leathers and the shirt I wore underneath before lying facedown on the bed. As Lady Kerova sat down beside the small table, a second chair slid up beside me. I heard the shifting of the needles, the slosh of ink, and then Ericen’s hand slid back into my own.
I closed my eyes and held on.
* * *
Several hours later, the Corvé tattoo was done.
I felt the wings stretching down my back, every inch of skin sensitive and raw. Before I dressed, Gavilan’s sun crow healed the worst of it, progressing the tattoo to several days old and enabling me to slide my shirt back on with ease once he and his crow had left. No sooner had I than I was hiking it back up, trying to see the gold and black lines that now covered my back in the full-length mirror on the wall.
Something clicked into place inside me at the sight of it. I let my shirt drop, feeling tears threaten.
I’d made it.
Through fire and blood and war, I’d made it.
I’d become the next royal Corvé.
When I faced the room again, Estrel stepped up before me, enveloping me in a tea-scented hug. It was so different from the leather and crow scent of her I was used to. Different, but still her.
“Congratulations, Little Peep,” she whispered. “Now, you have some crows to hatch.”
* * *
I stood side by side with my sister in the royal rookery, surrounded by crow eggs.
Their shells shimmered in the rays of moonlight trickling in through the open windows. T-shaped perches ringed the edges, one occupied by Res, the other by Zara. A level below, the newest crop of riders waited to claim their eggs, their excited whispers echoing to our room above.
Ericen, Kiva, Auma, Elko, Estrel, Kuren, and Samra stood around us in a ring. The Trendellan queen and king had been invited too and gracefully declined, sending their congratulations.
Once, this had been one of the most closely kept secrets in all of Rhodaire.
Now, we shared it freely with our friends.
Magic was a tool, but it was also a burden and sometimes a weapon. Just like the crows. With the hatching of these new crows, one day, Rhodaire would have its strength again. Its power. And it was my responsibility to use it better than my mother did, to share it instead of hoard it.
Caliza stepped up beside me, a small knife in her hand. I held its twin, and together, we each cut a thin line on the back of our forearms.
Together, we blooded the shells of each egg.
Together, we stepped back and watched as the eggs began to glow, and the humming grew like a rising wind.
Outside, the piercing call of a crow cut through the night. Res cawed back, then Zara, their calls echoing in the rookery. Res’s eyes began to glow, and thunder boomed.
Before us, the first egg cracked open.
The World of the Storm Crow
Wings of Aris
The Thereal Wing
Saint: Edair Thereal
Crow: wind crow
Egg: creamy white
Head of House: Lady Dovelin Thereal
Industry: entertainment, such as theater, music, and artwork. Wind crows protected crops from storms, helped facilitate flight paths throughout Aris for other crows, provided favorable winds for sailors,
and helped with city maintenance, such as sweeping up feathers.
The Kerova Wing
Saint: Harla Kerova
Crow: shadow crow
Shell Color: matte black
Head of House: Lady Kumia Kerova
Industry: highly involved in the military, with a focus on espionage. Shadow crows helped conceal spies from both sight and sound, and also made up a large percentage of the military crows.
The Turren Wing
Saint: Royceir Turren
Crow: battle crow
Shell Color: dark metallic gray
Head of House: Lady Ryna Turren (previous head, Lord Zeir Turren, banished for treason)
Industry: weapons production, most famously black gold weapons, made from the feathers of battle crows. Aside from producing feathers for black gold, battle crows also made up the bulk of the military crows, helping with patrols, and also with transportation of heavy materials with their increased strength.
The Rynthene Wing
Saint: Selka Rynthene
Crow: water crow
Shell Color: deep ocean blue
Head of House: Lord Relel Rynthene
Industry: highly involved in the navy, as well as trade and transport of goods, with a focus on production of ship and fishing supplies. Crows helped purify water, water crops, and manipulate the ocean for easy sailing and fishing.
The Brynth Wing
Saint: Shaldra Brynth
Crow: earth crow
Shell Color: forest green
Head of House: Lord Culveir Brynth
Industry: architecture and city infrastructure, as well as the heart of Rhodairen knowledge pursuit. Known for crafting stone and woodworks. Crows helped with construction of new buildings and manipulation of farmland and tended to city landscaping.
The Garien Wing
Saint: Azrel Garien
Crow: storm crow
Shell Color: shiny black with specks of color
Head of House: Lady Idrel Garien
Industry: produced the majority of crow provisions, from riding leathers to saddles. Storm crows helped with weather control, particularly for agriculture, and also marked time for important events through thunder.
The Crow Rider Page 27