by D. E. Morris
“What have you found?”
The question came from the place she knew Tadhg paced, wanting to get to her as though he could harm her as he had before. Ashlynn looked at him with fire in her eyes, but said nothing. Instead she set the map aside and pulled out another parchment roll. This one was of Cieria and it was much like the Ibayish map. Kingdoms crossed out and dated, some circled and dated again to mark the day an uprising had surely tried to fight back but were conquered once more. There was a map of Braemar where a thick black line had been drawn, separating the Volar capital from the cities and lesser kingdoms that were mainly human, many of them free from the cursed cross and date, though some not so fortunate. Another map was of Alybean. It appeared even the dwarves and the Nagin tribes had suffered great losses.
“Keep looking.”
Ashlynn had no intention of stopping and hardly needed Tadhg's encouragement. She pulled out a map of Caedia, Tadhg's own kingdom, where he destroyed and crossed off the rebels who had surely tried to fight against him and lost. Oceana was there, written in by hand but left alone. Wessely had always said it was too small to draw the ire of the Red King and he was right. It hadn't even been a target.
There was only one roll of parchment left, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to see it. Siness was the last country Tadhg had targeted and she had yet to see a map of it. Anger already bubbled inside of her, knowing firsthand of the tragic losses in her country. They were hard-fought battles that killed thousands of men, women, and children who could not defend themselves. Like the other nations, she was sure to find dozens of keeps and castles circled, with her own home of Altaine in the center of it all.
“Aren't you curious?”
“Shut up.” If she could, she would have set fyre to Tadhg's shadow. He wanted her to feel pain because it was a vulnerability, a crack in her armor where he could slip in and needle away at her defenses. She knew as much and understood what it would mean if she gave him what he wanted, but there was no turning back now. She couldn't stop herself from reaching in for the last map and unrolling it.
Siness was painted in careful detail, with her many mountain ranges marked out in green, lakes and rivers in fading blue pigment. It would have been a lovely thing to frame and hang, were it not for the red crosses and numbers strewn across the entirety. Lesser kingdoms and rich expanses of land were crossed out systematically, their dates reaching farthest back near the shoreline that faced Caedia across the ocean. Each holding that was conquered went up in date and fanned out across Siness like an oil slick, eventually surrounding Altaine and leaving her for last. Notes were scribbled in thick ink about many of Tadhg's conquests, but there was one in particular that formed a lump in her throat.
“Where are the children?”
Tadhg read the question for her, his shadow moving to the wall beside her, just out of reach of the sunlight streaming in. He seemed bigger somehow, darker than before with a sinister blackness pooling behind him like a glorious cape that moved in some invisible wind. “How could I have known that the elf who would one day claim my throne for himself was the one to help you escape?” Tadhg gave a humorless laugh. “And where did you find sanctuary? In one of my own lesser kingdoms, one I had forgotten about, one where the younger brother of my most powerful enemy reigned. Had I known...oh, had I known.”
“Why?” Ashlynn's voice dripped with venom. She clutched the map so tightly that her knuckles were white. “Why did you hate my father so?”
Tadhg's shadow crouched to be at the same level as Ashlynn. “Do you truly not know, boy?”
“Do not call me that.” He had done the same in Mirasean, taunting her by calling her a boy because she had posed as one during the months it took to plan his murder and then carry it out. “You destroyed kingdoms in every nation, but there is a special vengeance with which you took Siness. Tell me why!”
“I hardly need a reason,” Tadhg sneered. “Such a pity that you never knew the truth of your parents, boy.”
“Do not call me that!” She hurled the map at the wall but it fluttered ineffectively and hit the floor mere inches from Ashlynn. Tadhg threw his head back and laughed, igniting such a fire within her that she flung herself at the wall as though she could inflict damage to a shadow. He only laughed more at her as she clawed at his silhouette. Within moments she turned for the towering book shelves and began tearing the dusty tomes from their spots, casting them about the room with no care to the damage she could cause or the noise she was making. She tore down tapestries from the wall and ripped scrolls resting in a clay pot, throwing the now-empty pot at the wall.
Do not sin in your anger. Do not give the deceiver a foothold.
The voice rippled through her subconscious like a cool stream to her fever; it was soft, sweet, and familiar. Ashlynn stood in the middle of the library, trying to catch her breath. She sank to the floor with her hands in her lap, palms upturned and head bowed. Angry tears welled behind her closed eyes, but she fought hard to keep them from falling. All she could do was breathe for a moment and concentrate on the racing beat of her heart. She wanted to respond to the voice, to pray, to do something, but nothing came to her.
“Is that all you've got?” Tadhg teased, but Ashlynn ignored him. Her burst of anger left her feeling drained and heavy. She had no energy to retort and stayed where she was, silent, until her pulse slowed.
“If you wanted to see the library, all you had to do was ask me.”
It was no surprise that Tasarin had found her, only that it took him so long. She couldn't bear to turn around and face him, hearing the disappointment and sadness in his voice. She knew he must have felt betrayed. Their friendship was strong enough that she should have been open with him about wanting to see the library from the beginning.
“You have so much to give your attention to right now, I did not want to add another thing.” It was a terrible excuse and her voice was quiet. Tasarin knew her far better than to take her words at face value, especially given the state of the room. “You also have a new child, so...”
“So?” He came around behind her, careful not to step on anything, and stood before her. When she looked up at him, his expression was one of sympathy. “Are we not friends, Ashlynn? Perhaps it was too sentimental of me to assume you thought me part of your extended family.”
“Of course not.” His words made her ashamed and she shook her head. “You have been closer than a brother to me.”
“Then why do you lie to me?” He extended a hand to help her up. “Why come here in secret?”
Ashlynn looked at his hand for a long moment before taking it and getting to her feet. She smoothed the skirt of her gown and brushed loose hair from her face, having a hard time meeting his gaze. “I apologize for what you have walked in to see. I will clean it myself.” She took a step forward to begin with the clay shards on the floor, but Tasarin stopped her by grabbing her forearm. Startled, she finally looked at him.
“Answer me.”
Had anyone else handled her that way they would have received a bitter answer and a proper chastising in return. Tasarin's demand was soft and his grip gentle, making Ashlynn stop. She glanced at the wall to see Tadhg's shadow gone, and decided to tell the truth rather than risk hurting Tasarin again by lying. “I am tired of waiting the enemy out. Jaryn is content to sit in the castle and let the battle come to our door, but I am not.”
“That is not fair.” Tasarin let her go, his sympathy turning to defensiveness for Jaryn. “Do you truly think he would rather be pacing the halls of Altaine than forcefully seeking out the very Deceiver himself? Ashlynn, you have no idea what it does to him to be so inactive. He wants nothing more than to protect you and Lochlainn. If the cost of making sure you were safe and had no more worries was his life, he would gladly give it. You do him a disservice both as your husband and a father to assume him so passive a man as that.”
His words scalded and only added to Ashlynn's embarrassment. Each time she had seen Jaryn and Tasarin togeth
er, their conversations had always seemed light and never too serious. When had there been time for him to be so open as to confess these things to Tasarin?
The elf looked around at the chaos and sighed. “I have not seen a mess this great since you were a child. What is it you were looking for? What were you hoping to find?”
“I don't know.” The admission was quiet. For some reason the feeling that she had disappointed Tasarin was worse than when she disappointed Wessely. “It was an act of desperation, Tasarin. Forgive me.”
“Of course I do.” He picked up the map of Siness to examine it, frowning as soon as he realized what he was holding. “There are many things in here that would upset you. I wish you had come to me instead of having one of your ladies try to steal the key to a room that is never locked.”
Ashlynn gasped. “You knew?”
“I was the one who gave her the key.” Tasarin rolled up the map and stuck it back inside the hidden compartment. “For future reference, she is not one I would choose for any covert missions. Her voice tends to carry and she has not yet mastered the art of subtlety.”
“I am so embarrassed.”
“You should be.”
Ashlynn shook her head. “I am honestly at a loss, Tasarin. I have no idea what to do. Ever since my recovery I have been crawling out of my skin. I want to get to the source of this evil before it is able to do any more damage. Nealie was killed because of it, I was very nearly killed because of it, an entire village in Ibays was destroyed. I can no longer...” She stopped herself before completing her thought. Sharing the fact that she may no longer be able to shift or control her Element, that she could not even summon fyre, was so enticing, but there was embarrassment in that as well. It wasn't something she could control, she knew, but her pride stayed her tongue on the matter. She didn't want to burden anyone else with it, at least not yet. Instead, she finished, “...I can no longer sit and wait for another attack to be made against me and my family. I want to take action and thought I might find something useful here. I had hoped to find some secret plan of Merrik's or Tadhg's.”
“Fully documented so you knew the proper steps to take?” The question made her feel foolish, though Tasarin didn't appear to notice. “If I had found anything, I would have told you.”
“I know you would have. You are a better friend to me than I am to you, apparently.”
A frown turned down the corners of Tasarin's mouth. “That is not what I meant.”
She noticed something in his hand half hidden by his robes. “What is that?”
For a moment he almost looked as though he'd been caught in the act of doing something secretive, but when he put the books he held on the desk, he faced her plainly. “They are some of your father's – Nir's – journals. Jaryn asked me to look them through.”
“Why?”
He breathed a slow sigh. “Perhaps that is a question better answered when we are all together.” Extending a hand toward the door, he looked at her imploringly. “Next time, come to me.”
Ashlynn held his gaze and gave a small nod. “I promise.”
Chapter Five
“It has been some time since I have been summoned to a meeting that felt so grave.” Luella watched Tasarin close the doors behind Jaryn, examining the faces of both of the men as they sat at the trestle table with Ashlynn. A glance at the other woman gave little away; Ashlynn watched them with the same curiosity as Luella. “Has something happened?”
Tasarin laid the journals he had been holding on the table, looking at Jaryn to answer Luella's question, “Nothing's happened, at least, nothing recently.” He reached for one of the journals and flipped through it absently. “Last year, Ashlynn's father gave us all of Nir's old journals. I was having a bit of a crisis of faith in myself and he thought they would help. Ever since they came into my possession, I have been pouring through them and have learned a great deal. Most of it would interest you to some degree, I'm sure, but nothing so much as what I recently discovered.” Finding the pages he'd shown Wessely only a few days ago, he shared them first with Ashlynn. “Now, before I tell you my theory, I will freely confess that most of my assumptions are just that. I've no real solid proof of much because Nir was smart even in documenting his life. If anyone came across these journals - if someone read them that shouldn't have - there is little in there to incriminate either he or Siobhán of anything.”
Ashlynn's brow wrinkled as she read. “What is this?”
“Your birth parents were searching for the missing Elementals.”
“As in Badru, Cavalon, and the others?” questioned Luella.
Jaryn shook his head. “No, as in the other six Cavalon told you about: one for each season and two for the wills of men. Siobhán strongly believed that they still existed somewhere, and her conviction was enough to make Nir believe as well.”
“That is correct,” Tasarin confirmed. “Though their search was not long lived.”
Sliding the book across the table to Luella, Ashlynn turned her confused gaze on her husband. “What made her believe they still existed? Cavalon told us that he's never seen nor heard anything from or about them since he was a child, and he has been an Elemental far longer than my mother ever was.”
“There was no solid proof,” Tasarin injected. “Siobhán was a woman who acted more on instinct than fact, much as you do, Ashlynn. Not long after she came to Siness, she found out that a young girl had taken possession of the Elemental powers of Water.”
“Nealie,” Ashlynn nodded. “Badru said they became close.”
“Indeed they did, for a time. It was Nealie who sparked the idea in your mother. She was young, just a year or two older than Rowan is now, but she was exceedingly intelligent, and explained the way certain sea creatures tend to hibernate or become dormant in the colder weather and when food is scarce. Siobhán never truly accepted that the six missing Elementals were gone and wondered if they had done as the sea creatures did – if they had become dormant.”
Luella set the journal on the table and nodded. “Cavalon did mention that their dormancy was a theory, at least in those who believe they existed in the first place.”
“What would cause them to do that, though?” questioned Ashlynn. “It isn't as though they were no longer needed or wanted.”
Luella looked at her. “It was because belief in them began to fade, remember? I can recall the words Cavalon used so easily because they have haunted me since; 'If someone tells you that you do not exist for long enough, you start to believe it yourself.' He also seemed to firmly believe that they were no longer active.”
“I got that feeling from him as well.” Ashlynn looked down in thought.
“Tell them the rest,” Tasarin prompted, his cool gaze on Jaryn.
“It sounds as though Nir and Siobhán were forming a secret army with Nealie. Again, there is very little detail, but what I can glean from reading between the lines, it was not reserved only for Siness. This was an operation that was spread among the seven – then only six because of Tadhg – Celtique Nations.”
“What kind of army?” asked Luella. “One to fight against Tadhg?”
“That, I don't know.” Jaryn took the journal back, turning the pages until he found the entry he wanted. “I only understand that they were gathering and training others. It could be that it was a tide to turn against Tadhg, it could be that they were to look for the missing Elementals. All I know is that it was a very well kept secret.”
Silence settled on the room as the shared information was absorbed. It was clear that Jaryn and Tasarin had already discussed this by the way they shared a look of quiet understanding. Turning to the elf, Ashlynn's brows were drawn together. “You never knew anything of this?”
“I never suspected this, no. Since Jaryn told me of this two days ago, I have gone over every memory I could recall of my time with your parents. There were times Nir bid me do things that made no sense at the time, but I complied because he was my king. There were times I had to do t
hings your grandfather requested of me that I did not fully understand his motives, but it is not the place of a subordinate to question his king. Singularly, the events that occurred with your father add up to nothing that would lend credence to this theory.”
“And together?”
Tasarin gave a slow shake of his head. “I see no connection.”
Ashlynn fell silent again, but soon her questioning gaze fell upon her husband. “What do you think?”
He sat back and sighed heavily. “I think, for everything I have read about your mother and from everything Tasarin has told me, her instincts were not to be questioned. If she felt the other six were still alive somewhere, I've no reason to doubt it, especially not after all of the strange things we've seen and dealt with these past two years.”
“Then we look for them,” she said definitively.
“It will not be as simple as that,” assured Tasarin. “We have very little to...” His words faltered as something seemed to catch his attention. His head tilted slightly to the side and his gaze was far away.
“Tasarin?” Luella reached across the table to touch his hand. His brow wrinkled, but there was no change in him otherwise. “My love, what is it?”
“I am not certain.” Blinking, he rose. “Please excuse me.” Without another word, he left the room with the other three helpless to wonder where he was going.
“He hears things,” commented Luella quietly, watching the guards close the doors once more. “I wonder if I'll ever get used to that. He can see things I don't, hear things...react so quickly...”
“One of the benefits of being an elf,” Jaryn said idly. “Anyway, I agree with Tasarin. If the six Elementals have been silent for this long, dormant, hiding, or whatever, they will not be easily found. I think we should begin with speaking to Cavalon and Badru since they are the eldest. Let's hear all they know about the other six and go from there.”
“What about the secret army?” asked Luella.