Witherstone- Wings of My Legion

by Elizabeth Holland

  Here we were. Cole and I had to go along to finalize the revoking by quelling the stone to its original place of existence. I wasn’t sure about the journey, but the man had a plan. And even though he was a mess—his hair falling over his eyes, his shirt wrinkled—I trusted him. This was what he was born to do. A fate that none of us ever saw coming as kids, and certainly not something just anyone could accomplish. While I thought about Cole and us as kids and his whole heritage and fate, my eyes traveled over to Lydia and caught her picking at her nails. She wasn’t listening to Erik describe the journey or the portal—well, neither was I, really. With her long straight golden strands covering the majority of her face, my friend hid from us all. I stepped over to her and nudged her, but she wouldn’t look up.

  “Are you okay?” I whispered to her.

  “I’m fine, Irene,” she said without looking up at me. Before I walked away, I caught Lucas’ gaze and the soft brow of a man who was uncertain how to fix something that never should have broken. I gave him a smile, which he returned politely, then resumed my place next to my Lord.

  Elliot. Yes, that man of honor. He wasn’t about to let me go into another realm without standing at my side, protecting me at every turn. And even though it meant we were leaving our baby behind, the stone had to be destroyed. My aunt and my dad would be caring for her while Erik kept communications with Cole. That way, we all knew how each other was doing.

  It did bother me, though, that, depending on the amount of time it took in Isle Lore, I’d most likely return a month later. My baby wouldn’t grow a lot, but she wouldn’t be as small and wrinkly and soft. I couldn’t think of that right now, though. I had to focus and finish the job. Then, everyone could go on to live their lives and all this terror would be over.

  “Markus will know our plan, I’m certain,” Dune advised. “He’ll be there waiting for us. With your brother,” he said to me.

  “Are there cabins on Isle Lore?” I wondered.

  “There’s a village, a meadow,” Dune remembered with a smile. He put his hands to his lips and let the memory fill him. “Wildflowers, berries, beautiful birds,” he told.

  “I might have seen it,” I said, gaining his attention. “Um, your sister, she came to me. She showed me a beautiful world, with a creek and little golden ducks,” I wasn’t sure how else to describe them. Dune, though, seemed to know exactly what I meant.

  “It was our home,” he said to me.

  “Bryn was looking for a map to the village,” I told everyone. “If she’s helping—well, if Markus has her—then he might have the map.”

  “We cannot let him get to the springs,” Lorcan spoke up. He had arrived, with the help of two of his strongest, tallest knights, carrying the mysterious casket of his beloved Samira. With his voice permeating the air, the thought of that woman came swiftly to my mind. I gawked over the casket, eager to finally see the person inside, but there was no way Lorcan would allow it. This much I knew. He loved her for so long, with such strength and passion, it was a wonder she was even sitting there within reach of all these wild creatures. The casket itself was beautiful. Adorned in carvings of vines and things that looked like butterflies but with long antennae and slender wings. Made from bright wood with dark grains that ran the length of the item, the casket was heavy and solid. The side where the casket would open had a locking mechanism that, from a distance, looked like it had a complex code system in place. Not just numbers but symbols too. No one was opening that thing without Lorcan’s approval.

  “What springs?” Elliot asked.

  “They’re rumored to replenish a creature’s true nature,” Lorcan spoke.

  “And they used to,” Dune corrected. “But once the stone came into existence, the springs began to dry up. Now,” he shook his head, “there’s nothing left.”

  “Will he even try?” I wondered.

  “It won’t matter until the quelling is finished,” Dune informed. “The river that fed the springs is unrecognizable. It’s nothing more than dust.”

  “As I said, it will be difficult to tell day from night,” Erik resumed his lecture. “Be present, quick, and always on guard.”

  Dune nodded, adding, “Once the stone is quelled, once my home is restored, then you won’t have anything to fear. Until then,” he paused to look over every one of us, “do not assume you’re safe.”

  Talking amongst themselves, our crew of adventurers, our legion of friends mingled quietly as my aunt and Erik made the final preparations. The portal, for one, was invoked by using the three constructs of existence: the sun, the moon, and the earth. This wasn’t hard to translate, especially since Dune and Lorcan had both already invoked portals to the sacred Isle. The sun represented life and light. It was golden, bright, luminous, revealing. It wasn’t like we could reach out and take a piece of the sun for use in the portal. But we could take the glow from the stamen of the Holschlear flower found on the mountain tops of Skye Sorn. The little drop of golden light was aglow because it spent its entire life facing a star. The moon, however, represented darkness and decay. It was silvery, elusive, mysterious, shadowy. Again, short of breaking into NASA, we didn’t have a moon rock lying around. We did, however, have the Bristegen pebbles from the creek outside the moor in Frostmoor. Basking in the light of the moon, these stones spent years capturing the lulling darkness of the celestial being. Finally, the earth was the constant, the unchanging force that bound both the sun and the moon to one another. Because of the earth, we had eclipses, we had tides, we had electricity. And even though we knew the earth well, and could reach out and feel it in our fingers, there was still so much left to be seen by the mortals. Deep in the deserts, far from civilization, an insect Erik called the Uthlain scorpio, was capable of zapping predators with a sharp volt of natural electricity.

  With our things—bags, tools, herbs… a casket—we readied ourselves to step through the barrier between worlds. Erik was up next to the plasma device, blessing each person as they passed through. First, Cole stepped through. The plasma bent with the shape of his body, rippling like water in a pool. It didn’t look difficult to pass through; just a step and Cole was gone. Next came Lucas and Lydia, then Scarlet. Tristan took Iliana by the hand and went on through, followed by Lorcan, his men, and Samira. Dune glanced back at me and smiled before a clean step through the portal. Now, just me and Elliot, Charlotte and Caleb.

  “Irene, wait,” my aunt called to me as she cradled my daughter. “What should we call her?”

  I was a loss for words. I looked to my dad, then to Elliot. With my Lord silent, I shrugged. “I haven’t had time to think about it.”

  “Well, if you don’t name her, I just might start calling her something you won’t like,” my aunt joked. I took a deep breath, then went over to my baby and felt her soft hair on my fingertips. I couldn’t stay in this moment for long. I’d start crying and rethinking the journey. I’d want to stay. But her life, her whole world, would be a mess if the stone didn’t get destroyed. It wasn’t about my current feelings, it was about our safety, everyone’s safety.

  “I was thinking…” I hesitated, biting my lip as I glanced up at Elliot.

  “It won’t last long, Irene,” Erik urged from the portal. “They need you.”

  I nodded. “How about Amaya?”

  “Amaya,” Elliot repeated. It sounded melodic rolling off his tongue. “Amaya Celine,” he added. It almost had me in tears. My aunt was about to cry, that’s for sure. Just the gesture of remembering my mother, giving her the honor, it was perfect.

  “Yes,” I smiled. I gave my baby a kiss on the forehead, and Elliot copied.

  “Yarwood?” my dad wondered, stepping up to look over her.

  “Um, I was hoping the council would strike Pryderi from the records,” Elliot spoke. “I should take the name of my father—my true father.”

  “I believe that’d be best,” my dad agreed with a smile.

  “Alright,” my aunt wiped her tears and ushered us toward the portal.
“Go before it’s too late.”

  Taking my hand, Elliot walked with me to the portal as my sister and Caleb came behind. I turned and looked over my dad, Erik, and my aunt, and I let my gaze hover over Amaya as Elliot pulled me into Isle Lore.

  The last time I saw the place was with Dune. I was confident it was a mirage, like the vision of the cliff that Tristan had shared with me so long ago. The Isle Lore of that mirage, the one of my dreams, was magical. The sky was purely violet then, and even though it still harbored shades of the royal hue, this sky was vicious and strange. Clouds along the horizon stretched for the length of the expanse. Clouds in orange and red, clouds like a brushstroke on canvas. As my gaze pulled from the sky, I realized there were flakes of ash floating around us. They were black, hovering in the air like they had no weight. Some were falling, some were rising, some were faster than others.

  “What’s happening?” Charlotte asked us as she came through the portal with Caleb’s hand in hers. “This doesn’t feel right.”

  “The world is imbalanced,” Dune explained. “The souls of the trapped are seeking peace, but the stone is holding on to all they are.”

  “We can’t waste time then,” I said, still taking in the sight of the land.

  “The village is ahead,” Dune pointed toward a meadow. The grass was bent over, nearly flattened by the winds that slid over the land below our knees.

  “It’s such a strange world,” Elliot observed. He still had my hand tight against his palm. I liked that he was intrigued, searching the landscape, finding beauty and laughter in the insects on the grass. I was hoping that, since he now saw the good in a realm other than Frostmoor, he’d be willing to one day venture into Skye Sorn with me. He’d love the Traghd Lathaer; I just knew.

  “I think it’s best if we split up and get everything done as quickly as possible,” I suggested. They all agreed with a nod. “You guys,” I said to Tristan and Lorcan, “find Samira’s other half. And you,” I faced Cole, “find where the stone belongs.” Iliana went with Tristan, and Scarlet, Lydia, and Lucas followed Cole. “We have to find Nerissa,” I said to Dune. “And don’t forget my words at the house,” I warned him. With a single nod, he agreed.

  “How do you plan to locate her?” Elliot asked.

  “I know where she is,” Dune informed us as his pace kept adding steps between him and I. “I just can’t see her.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She tends to the broken souls. This task, however, has left her hidden from the living.”

  “Can you speak to her?” I wondered.

  Dune shook his head.

  “Then how will we actually help her?” Elliot had no trouble keeping up with Dune’s stride. “How will you bring her back to Frostmoor? Or wherever?”

  “I believe your Lady can help.”

  “But what about the revoking?” I asked. I believed that the ritual made me incapable of finding Nerissa. That was Dune’s whole thing, that I would be linked to her somehow. “I’m not tied to the stone anymore.”

  “But you are,” Dune turned to face me with a brief, satisfactory smile.

  “Huh?”

  “Until the stone is quelled to sleep, you are still connected. You’ll see.”

  I sighed, biting my lip in disgust.

  “I can’t believe I never knew any of this,” I mumbled to myself.

  “There’s probably still a lot you don’t know,” Elliot slowed his steps to walk alongside me. “I can’t believe your father didn’t mention Nerissa at all.”

  “I can. I mean, I just met my dad. There’s a lot about him that I never got to ask my mom. And lately, well, it’s not like I’ve had time to talk to him.”

  “You will.”

  “I want to really get to know him, you know. And he doesn’t know me either. He doesn’t know that I broke two of my toes in middle school. Or that I wanted a blue bike for my birthday, and when I got it, I wrecked so bad,” Elliot laughed with me. “I could’ve used his advice. When I first had a crush. When he broke my heart.” I can’t explain what it was about Elliot that made me want to open up so easily. But there I was, incapable of shutting up. “I was so confused with everything. My friends weren’t the same anymore, my family was hiding magic right before my eyes. I mean, my sister knew about me before I did. And her nerve, joining team Dylan when he thought I was sleeping with Cole.”

  Shut up! Shut up!

  “When you what?” Elliot’s eyes got so big.

  “I mean,” I stammered to correct my words. “I slept next to him, not with him,” I shook my head. “I stayed at his house before we met. Before I really knew much. We just fell asleep on the couch together. No big deal.” Very big deal.

  Elliot turned and eyed the faerie, even though Cole was just a small object in the distance, and took a couple steps with his fists clenched tight. I grabbed him and he faced me, still very angry.

  “It was before I even knew about you,” I said. “Besides, I told you upfront how much he mattered to me. You didn’t expect us to never have kissed, did you?”

  “You kissed him?” his brow raised.

  I let a few seconds pass, time that I spent trying to hush my inner voice. “Oh my god,” I rolled my eyes. “Go pick a fight with him if it makes you feel better. Just get it over with and move on.” I huffed, then kept walking.

  Sighing, Elliot caught up with me again. “I’m sorry. I forget that you had a life—a mortal life—before I came.”

  I nodded along as we walked, the wind a little stronger as it caught my hair.

  “I’m not surprised someone fell in love with you,” he said, and I glanced over and spotted a slight look of jealousy in his downward gaze. I never really put myself in his shoes. I hadn’t thought about what he must’ve felt when first seeing me or learning of the life I had. I didn’t have to deal with jealous crushes and mean exes. My Lord had prepared for me, he had waited—his whole life—to make me his partner. There weren’t any other girls, there weren’t any other kisses—

  “Wait,” I stopped him, my hand firm on his chest. He had this soft, innocent look in his eyes as he seemed to wonder what I wanted. “Have you never kissed another girl?” I said, pretty much sarcastically. His look said it all, and those delicate blue eyes, Geesh. “Have you ever wanted to?”

  “Well, I…” he stuttered, and I found it funny. “Don’t laugh,” he scolded, standing tall. I couldn’t help but imagine what it’d be like. Almost like if I could watch him kissing me. To see his lips caressing hers, his hands holding her close against his body—whoever her would be. I let my mind take me away for a second, my gaze sliding away from him and into a daydream. “Irene, come on,” he shrugged, taking a step forward.

  “How do you know you’ll be happy with me?” I asked. Elliot turned and came close, and that dimpled grin was starting to brighten his eyes.

  “Why do you think I won’t?” he brushed my hair back and kissed my lips. I thought again of what it would look like, from the outside, and I giggled.

  “Get a room,” my sister leaned over my shoulder and poked my side.

  I jumped, grunting, “Charlotte!”

  She went up ahead with Caleb, who was talking to Dune about the Isle. I could hear the enchanter make comments about how beautiful it once was. Things that made me certain he was as old as the Isle itself.

  “Where exactly are we going?” I asked, turning around to see that the landscape was identical no matter which direction I looked.

  “To see my sister,” Dune paced on steadily.

  “Manon’s here?” Charlotte asked, her eyes to the horizon, not noticing as Dune shook his head. “I thought she was staying back to protect the house and the baby.”

  “He doesn’t mean Manon,” I cleared. I hurried up at his side and tried to keep up. “Sanne? She’s really here?” With a smiling nod, Dune confirmed that my dreams were much more real than I first imagined. And Elliot’s words, back in Talon Grove, the land of the dead, came rushing back to my
ears. “Isn’t she…”

  “She’s been spending time with mother I believe,” he told. “I’m happy she finally allowed herself to rest.”

  “Okay, I don’t understand,” I finally said.

  Dune stopped and sighed. “You don’t need to understand everything.”

  “Have you met her?” Charlotte pursed, crossing her arms as the wind blew over us again.

  With an alright, I’ll tell you face, Dune said, “Our mother is just past the hill, in the center of the old village. Sanne has been resting there. We all come here from time to time, to regain our strength and ease our minds.”

  I accepted his words with a slow nod. I had more questions, of course, but for now, I was more eager to get to the village and meet their mother. She’d certainly be someone I’d never forget. So, we went on over the hill that blocked the village from view. Coming up over the top was reminiscent of the time I first laid eyes on Frostmoor. The entirety of the village, the hidden buildings and the complex pathways, the wildlife, flowers, fruits—it was all tucked away in a safe, quiet valley.

  “It’s nothing like my dreams,” I said, standing still to take it all in. The others had kept walking, but Dune faced me with a soft brow and sincere eyes.

  “This is my home,” he whispered. “This is what the Elysian stone has done. Your dreams, my Lady, they were from my creative sister, I believe,” he smiled.

  The dreams involving Sanne were undoubtedly beautiful and comforting. Dune was correct to think she had created those dreams and the village therein. That made sense. My dreams—my nightmares—of Lorcan, the voices, Dune… those were violent, frightening, and were driven from the reality that Isle Lore now embodied. Those dreams must have come from the madness of the stone.

  “Sanne has a passion for painting,” he told as we resumed our steps. “Manon, though, has always loved music.”

  “What about you?” I asked him.

  “Literature,” he grinned.

  “Do you have a favorite story?” I wondered. Thankfully, Dune was keeping pace with me now, and we could hold a steady conversation with ease.