by Everly Frost
“You don’t want me to undo it all by choosing Baelen.”
“Give it time. He will prove his loyalty to the gargoyles the same way you have, and then they will embrace him too.” She tips her head with a cautious smile. “Then we can talk about bending the rules.”
“I understand.” Wait a week, Baelen had said. Can I get the gargoyles to accept him in a week?
When we reach the food hall, my empty stomach is ready to stage a full-blown rampage, but I rein myself in. The tables are full of male and female gargoyles eating and talking, some are quietly telling their stories, others are crying, many are rebuilding friendships. I stalk straight for the cooking area off to the left, heading for the gargoyles hard at work frying eggs and sausages. They stop what they’re doing as soon as they see me.
“Good morning,” I say to the male who presents himself to me. He is very thin like so many of them. It makes my hunger seem like a mere twinge.
“He’s the head cook,” the Priestess whispers at my ear.
I acknowledge him and each of the workers. “Have you already eaten this morning?”
“Uh…” The head cook gives me wide eyes. “We usually eat whatever is left over.”
I compress my lips in a disapproving line. “From now on you will eat before everyone else. You can’t work on empty stomachs. What’s more, you will put down your… uh… utensils right now please, and eat something. But go slowly; this food is rich.”
“We will eat once we have served you, Supreme Incorruptible.”
I open my mouth to object but the Priestess interrupts. “Thank you, Head Cook.”
He bows low. “It is our honor to serve the Merciful Supreme Incorruptible Marbella.”
He hands me a plate piled high with eggs, fresh bread, sausages, and a bowl of fruit tucked at the side. The Priestess guides me to the only empty table at the head of the hall. I pass the miners on the way, catching their eye. Welsian stands up as I pass, along with Iago, Arlo, and Erit. Two females smile up at me and I guess they are Iago and Arlo’s wives. Roar and Rhain aren’t here, but I expect they are doing what they need to reunite their families. Likewise, I can’t see Badenoch anywhere, but he once told me that his wife had passed away and he would need to find his children.
I consider joining the males at their table, but the Priestess clearly indicated the empty table is for me and I don’t want to stretch my truce with her.
I clear my throat. “I apologize for taking your husbands away this morning,” I say to the females. “But I hope they will join me at my table.”
Iago’s wife responds with a gracious smile. She is older than the other female and inclines her head with poise and kindness. “It is our honor, Supreme Incorruptible. We understand there is much work to be done. Please let us know if we can help.”
The males immediately pick up their plates to follow me to the empty table where Welsian takes a seat opposite me. “We didn’t expect to be alive today, Lady Storm.”
“You did well after the fight yesterday by ordering the guards to help families find their fallen ones.”
He stares down at his plate. “Only General Cassian remains there today. He has no family left.”
I knew Cassian had no family, but I’m surprised the Hideaway Clan hasn’t claimed him. “Won’t his clan come for him?”
Welsian shifts. “They came early this morning but they weren’t sure if they were allowed to move him. You… uh… indicated you might not want him to be taken away when you… uh…”
Wept over the body of a fallen warrior. The Priestess’s words return to me. “You’re right, Welsian. They’re right. I want him to be buried here, not in Mount Hideaway. Can you please help me with that?”
“I’ll make the arrangements. It will be an honor for his clan.”
I swallow my first mouthful and my eyes water. I tell myself it’s because I’m so happy to be eating something. I tell myself it’s not tears. I blink them away. “What about the orphanages?”
“I can help you with that,” Arlo says, his serious eyes meeting mine as he tucks his wings in tight to his sides. Sitting across from him now, I can’t believe we were once forced to fight each other in the mines. “The orphanages are so scattered, it’s hard for parents to find their children. I’ve sent word to the Priestesses who were hiding in each orphanage, asking them to bring all of the children to Crimson Court so that families can come here to find them. The first group of children should arrive this afternoon.”
“And what of the Priestesses themselves?”
Iago speaks up this time. “With your permission, Lady Storm, I would like to build a new home for them, which will also contain an orphanage for those children whose parents are lost. There is a good site for it further along the ridge to the east of Crimson Court. It is beside a large rock garden with a small waterfall where the children can play and the Priestesses can commune with each other.”
Iago is a master at building things. I know he will create something extraordinary for the Priestesses and children.
Erit is the only one who hasn’t spoken up so far. He asks, “How may I help you, Lady Storm?”
“You will have a challenging task, Grievous Erit. I need you to help me build bridges with the Grievous Clan.”
He folds his arms across his chest. “Well, you have a few options. You’re their leader now. You can order them to present themselves.”
“Or?”
“You could go to them.”
“Which would you advise?” I’m testing him. He knows it, but he doesn’t know it’s because I want him to lead them.
“Lady Storm, I gave up my clan because of their brutal ways. I would like nothing more than for you to order every last one of them to come here and grovel at your feet. But you will show greater strength if you meet them on Mount Grievous. It will show that you are not afraid to step into their stronghold.”
“That sounds wise,” I reply.
Sudden silence descends over the room but it’s not because of what I said. My head shoots up, seeking the source of the change in temperature in the room.
Baelen stands in the opposite doorway. He looks as if he was about to take a step inside when the silence stopped him. The nearest gargoyles hurry out of his way, chairs scrape backward, some even pick up their plates and relocate away from where he stands.
My heart sinks. The gargoyles didn’t react this way to me. Not at all. The Priestess was right. When the gargoyles look at Baelen, they see an elf.
Worse, they see a deadly elf: one who took down a whole legion of guards with a single swipe. One who can burst into lethal anger within moments. One they need to avoid at all costs.
9. Marbella Mercy
I begin to stand, my chair scraping in the silence, but the Priestess hisses from her station behind me. “Do not move.”
I shoot her an annoyed glance but Baelen has recovered. Shoulders back, at full Rath height, he strides straight toward me, not once taking his eyes off me even while every single gargoyle stares at him. He takes a knee. “Supreme Incorruptible.”
Now I stand. “Rise, Wrathful One. You will bow to no-one.”
This draws a gasp. The corner of Baelen’s mouth twitches. He hides it well, ducking his head lower. “With respect, I wish only to serve your people.”
I contemplate the top of his head. It’s a lifetime ago that he took a knee and bound his heart to mine at the Heartstone Ceremony. He is everything to me and I need the gargoyles to see it, but I have to go slow.
“Then allow me to introduce you to my people.” I wait for Baelen to tip his head back before I open my palm toward Welsian. “This is Denrock Welsian. He is the new head of my guard.”
Welsian is surprised by his new title, but he hides it, giving Baelen a nod.
I indicate Arlo next. “This is Virtuous Arlo. He is my new head of security. This is Sunflight Iago, my head builder.” I smile at Erit. “And this is Grievous Erit, who will travel with me to meet the Grievous Clan to
secure peace between clans.”
Baelen draws to his feet, towering over all of them, acknowledging their quiet greetings.
I choose my words carefully. “Meet Baelen of the House of Rath, who is my friend.” My best friend, my greatest love, the one who picked me up when I fell, taught me how to defend myself, gave me space to choose, always asks my permission, makes my knees go weak with a single look. I sigh. The one I’d rather be with somewhere else right now.
I say, “Please join us, Baelen.”
One of the nearby cooks stands to hurry back to the kitchen to get a meal for Baelen, but he stops them. “Eat, please. I can get my own.”
Chairs scrape again as Baelen passes by. The room remains silent. He’s halfway through filling his plate when the far door swings open and Adalie’s little voice cuts through the tension, her bare feet pattering across the stone floor as she runs straight to him. “Bae-Bae!”
He drops what he’s doing and swings her up onto his hip. She hugs him, her little arms barely reaching around the front of his big chest.
He tickles her feet. “Where are your socks? Your toes are like icicles.”
She screws up her nose. “Don’t like socks.”
He raises his eyebrows, glances around her as if he expected somebody to be there. “Well, then, where is your grandfather?”
“He didn’t want to scare anyone.” She speaks in a loud whisper. “He’s eating in his room.”
Baelen waggles his eyebrows at her. “I think I should have stayed in my room too.”
She giggles. “You’re not scary, Bae-Bae.”
Baelen shovels food onto his plate one-handed, ignoring everyone else now. He hands Adalie a piece of apple. She crunches on it as he returns with her to our table. If the other gargoyles were uncomfortable around him before, they definitely don’t know how to react now. They know what Adalie is and he’s clearly not afraid of her. At the same time, she’s completely adorable, making more than a few gargoyles grin as he carries her past.
I suddenly know what I need Baelen to do today and I really hope he’ll go with me on it. I lean forward as he takes a seat with Adalie propped on his knee, allowing her to pick at his meal. “Good morning, Adalie.”
“Greetings, Storm Lady.”
“A lot of children will be coming to Crimson Court today, Adalie. My friend Arlo is going to find their parents and he’ll need all the help he can get. How would you and Baelen like to help with that?”
Her eyes light up. “Children like me?”
“Well, not exactly like you but—”
“Friends?”
Oh, she meant children, as in not grown-ups. Senturi said there weren’t many Outliers. I wonder how many other children Adalie has ever met. But surely she has a brother?
“Yes, children who could be friends.”
She tilts her eyes up to Baelen, dropping her head back against his chest, imploring him. “Can we please, Bae-Bae?”
His gaze hasn’t left mine. “I wonder what Lady Storm will be doing while we are busy?”
“I will travel to Mount Grievous.”
“Alone?”
“With Erit.”
Tension fills the lines of his face. “And who else?”
“Just us.”
He’s worried. Traveling to Mount Grievous will be dangerous. He would rather come with me but I’m telling him to stay behind. I smile gently. “And these.” I tilt my palm up at the stones that float above my head like an extension of my body.
He looks up as if he forgot they were there. I’m actually stupidly pleased that he doesn’t see them. He sees only me.
He acquiesces. “We would be honored to help the children.”
I relax. So does the rest of the room.
When I finish my meal and push back my chair, I find the entire room follows my lead and stands as well. Then every gargoyle takes a knee, male and female alike. Welsian, Arlo, and Iago join them. So does little Adalie, sliding off Baelen’s knee.
Heads bowed, their voices chorus together, a deep resonating pledge. “Supreme Incorruptible, we honor you.”
I acknowledge their gesture. “I am honored.”
At that, they stand to go about their day, leaving me with a smile on my face and a warm glow in my heart. I wait for everyone to clear the room, but I ask Erit to meet me outside.
“I’ll prepare packs for our journey,” he says before he strides away.
“Back to your grandfather, Adalie,” Baelen says to the little girl.
As the cooks make themselves scarce, Adalie skips after Erit. He holds the door open for her, his giant warrior arms like tree branches way above her head. The door slides closed behind them.
“Baelen, you have to tell me how you know them: Adalie and her grandfather.”
He takes a deep breath, doesn’t keep me waiting. “I think you know that I disappeared for three years after military training.”
“Nobody knows where you went.”
He nods. He studies a point on the wall past my shoulder. He folds his arms, speaking slowly now like he doesn’t like the memories. “When I finished military training, I went to my father and I told him that I was going to find you. He told me that I couldn’t. I told him that he couldn’t stop me.”
He clears his throat. “I made it as far as the courtyard outside the Storm Vault.”
My eyes widen. “You came for me.”
“I saw you.” He swallows. “You were surrounded by your Storm Command. Your advisor, Elise, was with you. I saw her first and she was clearly upset about something. Then I saw that your storm suit was all cut up. Your hands and knees were bleeding. You were dripping, shivering, shaking. But you grit your teeth and kept your head up. Glaring the world down. Daring anyone to come near you.”
He stops. Stops for so long that I don’t think he’s going to continue.
“Baelen?”
“I felt it, Marbella. I felt the storm rising off you. I realized then that I couldn’t take you away from that. I needed to be part of it. Which meant I had to wait for the Heartstone Ceremony. My father was right.
“But there was no way I could breathe the same air as you and stay sane for three years. So I walked away. Walked all the way back to Rath land. I followed the mountains south for months. I lived wild, kept away from everyone.” His mouth twitches into a half smile. “Grew a pretty savage beard.”
I crinkle my forehead, trying to picture Baelen with a beard. Hmm, no.
He says, “I reached the wastelands and kept going. Until one day I heard a scream. It was little Adalie. A talon crow, the biggest I’d ever seen, had just killed her brother and it was about to rip her apart. I had so much rage… There wasn’t anything left of that bird by the time I finished with it.”
No wonder Adalie was afraid of the crows if one killed her brother. I’ve never seen a talon crow in real life. Just like I’d never seen a shadow panther before one attacked me. “So that’s how you met them.”
“I lived with Senturi for over two years. Went out each day and hunted those birds down until there were hardly any of them left. Killed a bunch of shadow panthers too. For some reason, Senturi never once asked me why I was there. It took me forever to figure out that he had Sight.”
He shakes his head with a soft laugh, but the sound fades. “Then one day, he comes to me and says I have to go. He tells me he’s had a message from the northern Outliers that my father has died. He tells me I can’t trust anyone except you.”
“I’m sorry, Baelen.”
“I cut off my beard, came back for the funeral, stayed away from the Elven Command. And that’s when I started planning. I searched the mountains for the best places to hide in case I needed a backup plan. I concealed emergency packs throughout them, but it was when I discovered gargoyle nests where they shouldn’t be that I started to ask questions. Carefully of course.”
“Then you offered me your heartstone.”
He says, “You know the rest.”
“I
can’t imagine you with a beard.” I push my chair back, cross to him, and slide my hand across his cheek. For so long, a simple touch like this was forbidden to me.
I bend to press my lips to his. Before our mouths meet, he catches my waist and pulls me to him. Responding to his touch, I slide one leg over his, straddling him. I press against him and plant a kiss on his lips, tasting the warmth of his mouth. My body heats up as his thumbs brush across each of my hips, his fingers spreading out around my waist to shift me closer.
It takes all my willpower to break contact. “I want you to know that I tried to see you at your father’s funeral. I wanted to tell you how sad I was for your loss.”
Baelen had lost his mother when he was ten years old. I was there for him at that time. After that, his father was his only remaining family and it broke my heart knowing Baelen went through his father’s death alone, that I wasn’t there for him. “They wouldn’t let me near you.”
He brushes my hair behind my ear, running his fingers across my cheek. “I wouldn’t let you near me.” He swallows. “It was hard enough to stay away from you for seven years. Even in the beginning after the fall, when I couldn’t walk, I… uh… would try to get up and leave the house. It was like there was a thread between us and it kept getting shorter, pulling me toward you. I knew that one conversation with you at the funeral, one look in your eyes, and I’d abandon all reason. I’d tear down whatever I had to—destroy whatever I had to—to get to you.”
A shiver races down my spine. We had been connected. We just didn’t know it was the storm. “I missed you, Baelen.”
Such simple words. So much heartache to go with them.
I press my lips to his, drowning in the contact and trying to form coherent thoughts. “I don’t want to be apart from you today.”
He whispers against my lips. “I understand your intentions. Your people don’t know me. They don’t trust me like they trust you.”
That’s the second time he’s called them my people. “Our people, Baelen. You lived with gargoyles longer than I have.”