by D. E. Morris
“What do you want?” she cried again, feeling her hands trembling.
“I want the same thing you do, which is why I have decided to let you and the rest of the Elementals live for now.”
“And what is that?”
“The book.” Ashlynn froze, the color draining from her face, making Merrik grin. “Yes, the very thing for which Nealie was killed. I need it just as much as you do.”
“Why do we need it?”
He sneered at her. “To defeat me, of course. I see the wheels turning, but you must understand that it is the only way. That book, once it is all together, contains knowledge beyond your comprehension or mine. In it lies the very secrets of the Great Dragon Himself, and I will not rest until I have it in my hands, whole once more. Neither will you. This book is your saving grace.”
Ashlynn shook her head, her eyes narrowed. “You expect us to keep searching for pages of this book, knowing you're using us as your pawns? We'll just burn what we have and keep fighting you. Good versus evil is an eternal battle, after all.” Feigning boldness, she straightened and went to her night table, yanking open a drawer and pulling out several sheets of rolled up parchment, hoping he would fall for her bluff. With them in her careful grip, she walked with confidence right past Merrik, his eyes and those of his mirror images following her as she approached the fire in the hearth. “What is to stop me from burning them right now?”
“I said I would keep you alive,” Merrik rumbled. “I said nothing of your father or your sister, or your husband...or your son.” They faced one another, neither of them flinching away from the uncompromising glare of the other. “Try me,” he challenged.
Ashlynn curled her fingers around the parchment.
“You may live in peace for now, but do not forget for even a second that I am wherever you are, looking over your shoulder, watching your every move. And...you are not the only one in possession of some of those pages.”
Jaryn still beat at the door, and it sounded like there were others now helping him as well. Still, Ashlynn did not turn away from Merrik. “You don't scare me. Not anymore.”
“Oh no?” The older man shot across the room with unnatural speed, sending Ashlynn reeling back nearly into the fire, the scrolls in her hands falling into the flames. At the last second she turned, and Merrik pressed her up against the wall, his face only inches away from hers. Tauntingly, he ran his fingers down her cheek as he had as Tadhg the night of Luella and Tasarin's wedding on Mirasean. “Did you really think me so dense as to believe you would keep documents as precious as those in a bedside table?” There was no pain this time, but she felt her stomach sour and turned her head. Annoyed by the movement, Merrik took her chin in his hand and forced her attention back on him.
“I will always be here to snatch away every sense of safety you have. If you thought you were jumping at shadows before, just wait until I am finished with you. I will take the book, and then I will take all of your lives. I will pierce the very heart of Siness and watch her bleed into the streets that surround her. You will come crawling to me, begging me to kill you if only to end your suffering. On that day I will laugh and take victory as the Shadow King.”
As she tried to squirm away from him, Ashlynn remembered the dagger in her hand. She flipped it with her fingers as she'd done in the forest outside of Montania, aligning the blade with her forearm. Then, with a savage yell, she raised her arm up as quickly as she could, dragging the dagger up the side of Merrik's neck and across his cheek and mouth. In the next instant he was gone, his mirror images simply watching her. She ran into the center of the room and turned, meeting the gaze of each one, trying to find the real Merrik, if he was even there at all. So many things were making sense now. If he could project his image here, a dozen times over, he could make himself appear anywhere without ever truly being there.
“Looking for me?”
She whipped around and found him standing right behind her. Taking her shoulders in a strong solid grip, he lifted her off the floor and began to laugh. All around her, his images changed to Tadhg, Laidley, Jessiah, and Donnchadh. She was too stunned to move when all of them, looking at her and laughing, began rotting before her very eyes. Their skin faded to a papery gray and cracked, peeling back to gaping holes that revealed putrid muscle and bone. She looked at Merrik to find his image the worst of all, yet still he laughed at her.
The door burst open with a splintering snap that split it in two, with Jaryn and three armed men just on the other side. He was shocked into paralysis for the quickest second, but seeing Ashlynn there among all the terrible images was just the thing he needed to pull him back to his senses. He charged at Merrik with his sword, a curse on his lips. The sharp blade went through him, severing whatever spell he had cast on the room. All of the other images disappeared as the sword phased right through him, though Jaryn struck something solid on the other side of his image. Merrik disappeared as well, leaving Jaryn to look wildly around the room. His attention only turned to Ashlynn when she fell.
She sank to the floor and Jaryn cast his weapon aside with a clatter. “Call a healer!” he cried, gathering her into his arms as blood stained the side of her dress. “Ashlynn, oh love, I'm so sorry. Everything's going to be all right. Someone help me!”
“You...stabbed me.” There was shock on her face as she looked up at Jaryn, quickly followed by righteous indignation. “You stabbed me.”
“Shhhh, save your strength now.”
“No.” She shoved him away and sat up, pressing a hand to the cut in her side. It was deep enough to pain her and draw a good deal of blood, but it certainly wouldn't kill her.
Jaryn watched her, having a hard time keeping up with the situation. “You fell to the floor. I thought...”
“I fell because Merrik let me go.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No more than you did.” She looked to the door, hand still on her wound. “Guards!” The waiting men rushed into the room, ready for their orders. “Lock down the castle. No one leaves and no is is allowed entrance until I have spoken with every single person here.” She winced. “Where is that healer?”
“Coming, Your Majesty.”
Jaryn touched her face, then looked around the room. “I don't understand what I saw when I got in here.”
“I don't know that I understand it any better than you do, and I was here.” He helped her up off the floor to sit on the edge of their bed, then gently nudged her hand aside to get a look at the damage. “I know one thing,” she told him, watching him tear the slice through her dress a bit more to allow the healer better access. “We need to be together, all of the Elementals.”
Jaryn looked at her her sharply. “What did he say?”
“Only that he will leave us alone for now, until we do his dirty work for him. Once he feels he has no need of us, he will try to kill us all.”
The castle healer hurried into the room, several familiar faces coming in behind him to stare in wonder at what must have happened. “Lynnie!” Kenayde exclaimed, coming to sit beside her on the bed and hold her hand as the healer began cleaning her wound. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” she said, despite the pained grimace on her face. She looked past her sister to everyone who stood in the doorway. “Really, please, I'll be fine.”
Lilia understood what had been left unspoken and turned on the crowd, spreading her arms and shooing everyone away. “Let us not make a spectacle of the high queen now, hmm? If everyone would please just give her a moment, I am certain there is nothing to worry about.”
“Your Majesty.” She looked down at the older man. He'd cut back more of her dress so that he could clean her up, but found several wounds that had been hidden. “Perhaps it is best to find a more private room so that I may address all of your injuries.”
Jaryn looked at her exposed flesh, then raised his eyes to her face in angry confusion. “Did Merrik do that to you?”
“No.” Ashlynn shook her head at the heal
er. “Please, just clean that one up, bandage it, cauterize it if need be.” She gave her husband a pleading look, making him pace away, his hand running over his short beard in silent frustration. Kenayde stayed with Ashlynn, holding her hand and letting her fingers be squeezed as the healer heated up a small iron, then pressed it to Ashlynn's wound. Once that was done, the old man put a soothing salve over it and recommended she wear nothing too tight for a few days.
When the three of them were finally alone, Jaryn reeled on her. “What did he do to you?”
“It wasn't Merrik,” Ashlynn admitted. “It happened during the fight on Mirasean.”
“But you were not on Mirasean,” Kenayde argued amiably, getting Ashlynn's robe and guiding her arm into one of the sleeves. “Papa said you were resting.”
“I wasn't resting. I followed the group once they flew after the dragons and their riders.”
Jaryn crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you mean? I didn't see you there at all.”
“You did, actually.” She cringed at the fabric brushing over her injury, finding the pain less when she stood. “You saw me several times, as I saw you...fighting so valiantly and trying to save everyone.” She wrapped her arms around herself, her shoulders sagging. “I was the green dragon helping you, the one who tried to shield Luella from that final blast. That was how I sustained most of my injuries.”
Kenayde tilted her head, her eyes narrowed. “Green? You've always been golden, and your Elemental blood would keep you from most of your injuries, let alone allowing them to stay unhealed for so long.”
“Yes,” Ashlynn agreed softly, sorrow welling up within her. “All of that would be true if I were still an Elemental.”
Neither Jaryn nor Kenayde spoke for a long moment, both of them simply staring at her. Finally, when Ashlynn felt the silence would crush her, Jaryn came forward and touched the side of her face with gentility. No more words needed to pass between them; he had always known how much being an Elemental meant to her and would know the pain of this loss would be nearly as great as the loss of her unborn child. Careful, afraid of hurting her or aggravating any other hidden injuries, he took her in his arms and held her as close as he dared.
“Oh, Lynnie,” Kenayde cried, watching her sister dissolve into sobs at the embrace of her husband. It brought tears to her own eyes and she lurched forward, wrapping her arms around both of them. “Lynnie, I am so sorry.”
“I should have told you sooner,” Ashlynn wept. “I was hurt, and I was embarrassed, and I was afraid that if I put it into words, it would make it true and not only something I suspected.”
“My love,” Jaryn whispered, kissing her temple. “My sweet, sweet love.”
She had known for some time and had mourned and raged on her own. Confiding in Killian had helped her feel as though she didn't carry the burden alone. Confessing to her sister and her husband, two of the people she loved dearest, it felt as though her heart was breaking anew. Pulling away from the suffocating embraces, she took in a shuddering breath and attempted to dry her eyes, though there were still tears to be shed. “The night Jessiah tried to kill me, I think he may have truly succeeded. Even after Cavalon saved me with his own blood, I was never the same.” She looked at her hands and shook her head, choking on a sob. “I couldn't even summon fyre.”
Jaryn pulled her back to him once more, not knowing what else to do.
“But Lochlainn,” Kenayde argued. “His nannies were always with him and they never saw him behave any differently that night.”
“It could have come after, or maybe it was a slow transfer.” Ashlynn tried to breathe, to calm herself. “I thought my Element was trying to save me that night, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe it knew I was going to die and it took my power from me so as to temper the transference to Lochlainn.”
“Can it do that?” her sister asked.
“I don't know.”
They stayed together a while, mourning and questioning. The guards outside of their broken door kept people from coming down the hall at either end. Voices could be heard, quiet concern or, in Cavalon's case, a disgruntled demand, but they respected the privacy that was asked for. Ashlynn knew she should let them in, her father, Cavalon and Luella, but she couldn't bear anyone else being close, not when her weeping was finally subsiding. She knew there would be more to come when she shared this news with the others, but for now there was a hollowness that took up the space where her grief had been residing, and she welcomed the numbness that accompanied it.
“There is much to be done,” she acknowledged at length, her voice deep and ragged from crying. With Jaryn on one side of her with his arms wrapped protectively around her, and Kenayde on the other with her head on her shoulder, Ashlynn held both of their hands, knowing she would need their strength in the coming days and weeks. “Merrik has issued me a warning and it is one I must share with the others. For once, all of the Elementals must gather; it is our fate that rests on our next course of action.”
“Tell me how I may serve you,” insisted Kenayde as though she were one of Ashlynn's ladies. “Whatever you need, Ashlynn, I will do it without question.”
“Thank you, Nadie.” She tugged on one of Kenayde's curls as she used to when they were younger. “You may regret offering so much of yourself.”
“Never.”
“We need a census of who is within the castle.”
“A real one this time?” the younger sister questioned.
“Yes, a real one. We need to know the length of their stay before this morning, who they are here with and what their business at court may be. Somehow, we have to make sure Merrik is not hiding among them.”
“How will we know whether he is or isn't?” Jaryn asked. “Jessiah had us all fooled, as did Donnchadh.”
Ashlynn shook her head. “We won't, but it will help us keep an account of who comes and goes, and show Merrik, if he is watching, that we are not passively awaiting his next appearance.” She took a deep breath and was slow to let it go. “We may have peace for a time,” she said quietly, recalling Brigid's words, “but this is going to get drastically worse before it gets better.”
Kenayde wrinkled her nose. “How can it get any worse?”
Instead of answering, Ashlynn kissed her sister's cheek and rose. “I want to see Lochlainn.” She took Jaryn's hand. “Come with me. I want to be a family, just the three of us...at least for a little while. Then we will gather all of the Elementals and decide upon what we are all to do next.”
“I will have Cavalon try to find Badru.” Kenayde rose, giving Ashlynn a look of confidence. “I will tell him nothing, only that Badru is needed.”
Ashlynn thanked her little sister again and watched her leave the room, careful as she stepped over the debris of the shattered door. When they were alone, Jaryn pressed another kiss to her temple and held her to him. “Let's go see our boy.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
It was almost too much to bear, all the faces around the room that wore expressions of sympathy and despair. Ashlynn had to wait three days before all five of the other Elementals could gather at Altaine, and the time had felt interminable. At first there was a quiet excitement among them at being all together in the same room, wondering if something wonderful or exciting would happen now that they were all reunited. That excitement was quick to disappear, however, when Ashlynn told them of her visit from Merrik and relayed everything he had said and done. Badru and Cavalon, the eldest of all of them, shared a look while Ashlynn was speaking that had not gone unnoticed. Once her report was finished, she looked at the two of them, sitting next to each other around the round table inside of her favorite solar of the castle. Only the six of them were in attendance, the windows closed and the doors shut and under heavy guard so no one could try to get in or listen.
“What is it?” she asked the two men, her eyes traveling between them.
Badru took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, the corners of his lips turning down. “What you have
described sounds very much like the stories we were once told about the Elemental of Malevolence.”
“Malevolence?” Rowan repeated.
Cavalon nodded even though the girl couldn't see him. “Evil.”
“It still exists?” questioned Luella. “I thought you said the other supposed six Elementals had not been alive for generations.”
Badru shrugged, his brows raised. “We were both told they had not been when we were children, and we have not seen any signs to suggest otherwise.”
“Then what makes you think this could be the Elemental of Malevolence?” Misuzu directed her question at Badru, knowing Cavalon was still angry at her. “How could Merrik even become that Elemental unless his father was before him?”
“Malevolence and Benevolence don't work the same way we do,” explained Cavalon, addressing the entire room. “Their powers and their responsibilities are much greater than that of ours and can't just be handed down to the next generation. They have to choose their predecessors. If Merrik truly is the new Elemental, it is because he was chosen and groomed to take on that role. It also opens the door to the possibility that the other four are still out there as well, just as Ashlynn's parents suspected.”
Rowan rested her chin in her hand. “I think I'm missing something.”
Running a hand over her curls, Luella assured, “I will fill you in later. Right now we have to figure out how to defeat Merrik once and for all. How long do you think he has been an Elemental? Could he have influenced Tadhg and his decisions, even turning him into the man he became?”
“Anything is possible,” said Badru, “but it is unlikely. Malevolence has been dormant for many, many years. From everything I have heard about Merrik, he is an impulsive man. Something tells me that once the power was his, he used it as publicly and often as he could.”
Misuzu's brow wrinkled. “How do we defeat him?”
“That is the problem.” Ashlynn had remained silent, letting everyone talk back and forth, but now there was more to reveal. “He said there is no other way than what is revealed in the book.”