“He was?” I said, trying my best not to smile.
Vivienne nodded. “What else are you not telling me, Aurora?” she said, her voice becoming sterner.
I always thought that she would make a good professor; she always made me feel like a child. She was right most of the time, but I didn’t want to think about that now. I looked away, but only for a second. How did she know? Was I that obvious?
“It’s nothing,” I said finally. “The prince is a friend, and he’s going to be married soon, anyway.”
I sounded so lame, even to myself. And Vivienne didn’t believe me for a moment. She raised her eyebrows at me in a perfect impression of Professor Dekela.
“Everyone is talking about how the prince was looking at you the night of the harvest ball,” said Vivienne, grinning now. “Apparently the prince never dances with anyone. Leticia was so angry, she looked like she was going to self-combust.”
I shrugged, but I was grinning inside.
“The prince only had eyes for you. Apparently Leticia is going crazy and taking it out on everyone around her.”
“But he’s going to marry her anyway,” I blurted out. “He kissed me, and then he told me he was still going to marry her.”
“You kissed the prince?” said Vivienne, wide-eyed.
I nodded and finally broke; I told her everything, even about who he really was.
“Prince Rafael is the Black Wolf,” she said, in a stunned whisper.
“Shhh,” I said, sounding like Kalen. “You can’t tell anyone. Don’t even say his name in the same sentence, you understand?”
“Okay, okay, I won’t. I promise,” said Vivienne quickly. “You can trust me, Rory. I mean Aurora.”
I smiled. It would take Vivienne some time to get used to using my real name.
“So,” Vivienne said, making herself more comfortable on my bed. “Tell me everything.”
We talked late into the night, and it was good to have someone to talk to again. Kalen was my friend too, but he was a boy and didn’t understand what I was feeling. Vivienne, on the other hand, was full of sound advice and support. I felt I could trust her. Otherwise I would never have taken the chance of telling her about Rafe’s secret identity. I hoped—no, I knew—she would keep my secret.
“So, now the two of you aren’t talking?” asked Vivienne.
“We are,” I said quickly, “but it’s no use. Leticia has her claws in him, and his vow to his mother makes it all the more hopeless.”
“Sorry to say,” said Vivienne, a little tartly, “his mother is dead. Can’t he just break off the engagement?”
“No!” I said, shaking my head. “He won’t do it.”
“Then just tell him it was Leticia who was the one responsible for letting the Shadow Guard into the palace.”
“I can’t,” I said, shaking my head again. “It’s her word against mine, and Damien will side with her. Rafe will never believe me. He will think it’s some sort of tactic to get him to break his engagement to Leticia.”
“I think, after all you have told me,” said Vivienne, after thinking for a moment, “Rafe will definitely believe you over Leticia. Ever since they brought you back, the prince hasn’t left your bedside,” said Vivienne, a huge smile on her face.
“Why?” I asked. I wanted her to spell it out.
“It doesn’t take a fool to see that he was distraught about what had happened to you,” said Vivienne. “I heard one of Leticia’s ladies talking, and apparently the prince hasn’t slept since you went missing three days ago.”
“I’ve been asleep for three days?” I said, aghast. I thought I’d just had a few hours of fitful rest.
Vivienne nodded. “Yes, and he was waiting to see you when you woke up, but I suspect there were too many people about. I arrived this morning, and he was pacing outside your room. Then, when he saw me, he walked off.”
I sat there in my bed and thought about what she said. Rafe may have been concerned, but I didn’t believe that he hadn’t slept for three nights because of me. And this time I didn’t agree with Vivienne about telling Rafe about Leticia’s role in the whole Morgana thing. Even if he believed me, I didn’t believe that he would go back on his vow to his mother for anything. It was pointless thinking about it, and it was starting to give me a headache.
I yawned, and Vivienne jumped up from the bed.
“Oh dear, I must let you rest or Professor Plumpleberry will have my head,” she said looking around.
I smiled at the vision of Penelope coming after Vivienne with a broom, or maybe a huge stack of books to study.
“Now I have to go see Mother and help her. She is having one of her boring garden parties again,” said Vivienne, rolling her eyes and opening the door. “Don’t get into any trouble while I am gone.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that to me?” I said, making a mock grumpy face. “I can take care of myself, you know.”
“I can see that,” said Vivienne, good-naturedly raising one eyebrow as she left the room.
Finally Uncle Gabriel came to see me.
“I am glad to see you are feeling better, little one,” he said kindly, sitting down on a chair next to my bed.
“Thank you, Uncle Gabriel,” I said. “I have to tell you it was Damien who let the Shadow Guard into the palace. You must tell the king.”
“I know,” said Uncle Gabriel, sighing and leaning back in his chair. “The Blackwaters have fled the kingdom, by ship apparently, so we have no idea where they are.”
“They’re gone?” I said. “All of them?”
Uncle Gabriel nodded. “The Royal fleet is on the lookout, but I doubt that they will be found,” he said. “They have now openly shown their allegiance to Morgana and Lucian.”
I couldn’t help a smile spreading across my bruised face. I was glad Damien and all the Blackwaters had finally shown their true colors, but the guilt over what I had done was overwhelming me, and I had to talk about it.
“I am so sorry about what I did, Uncle Gabriel,” I blurted out, “but I couldn’t just let Snow die. I couldn’t! I had to do something. I didn’t know Lilith would come back like that.”
Uncle Gabriel listened to me quietly. “I think you’d better tell me everything, young lady,” he said finally. “Start from the beginning, and do not leave anything out.”
I recounted everything that had happened to me that horrific night. Meeting Morgana, the fear and terror I felt, the anger about what she did to my parents, the voice in my head, Snow, everything except Leticia’s role in the whole thing.
I had finally decided that, since she was going to be Rafe’s wife, and Rafe would never go back on his vow to his mother, even if he hated the person he was married to, I didn’t want him to spend his life hating his wife because of what she did to me. Technically, it wasn’t her who let the Shadow Guard into the palace; it was Damien who had the magic, and it was Damien who openly hated me. So I resolved to say nothing. In any case, Leticia without Damien and his magic was harmless. Still mean, but harmless.
Uncle Gabriel sat patiently listening to me. His face looked troubled, but he said nothing. Finally he spoke. “I understand why you did what you did, Aurora, but I hope you now realize that all actions always have consequences. And the greater your power, the greater is your duty to do the right thing.”
“The voice told me there would be a price to pay,” I said quietly, hanging my head in shame, “but I didn’t listen.”
“Yes,” said Uncle Gabriel. “Now about this voice. Has it ever spoken to you before that night?”
I shook my head. “No, only when I was nearly killed by Morgana.”
“Well, I am glad the voice helped you,” said Uncle Gabriel. “Nevertheless, you must be very careful. We don’t know who it is.”
“He has only helped me so far,” I said defiantly. I don’t know why I trusted the voice, but, strangely enough, I did.
“Yes, but if the voice speaks to you again, I want to know immediately,”
said Uncle Gabriel sternly. “We don’t know who or what we are dealing with, and we must always be on our guard. Now, with Lilith back, our chances of defeating Morgana have become even less.”
“Why?” I asked, wide-eyed. What had I done now?
“Because Lilith is half demon, she is immortal,” said Uncle Gabriel. “That is why she was able to return. She is still weak in her wraith form. She needs a host, but she will not find it difficult to find some poor soul who will not be able to resist her powers.”
I sat up straighter in my bed. “But that means that she could be anyone!”
Uncle Gabriel nodded. “Yes, although she will keep changing bodies until she finds the one that suits her purposes. And, if I am correct in my guess, the body she will choose to inhabit finally will be Morgana’s.”
I gasped. “Will Morgana let her do that?”
“We cannot possibly know for sure, but Morgana is hungry for power, and Lilith is her mother,” said Uncle Gabriel. “Lilith’s immortal demon magic will make Morgana’s powers increase a hundredfold, and Morgana will be more powerful than ever. Once Lilith’s wraith merges with Morgana’s soul, she will be virtually unstoppable, even by you.”
I hung my head. What had I done? Instead of helping, I had just made matters worse. I had to do something. This was my mess, and I was the one who should clean it up.
“There must be a way to stop Lilith and Morgana,” I said, trying to think of something, but my mind came up blank.
“There might be,” said Uncle Gabriel, thinking for a moment before going on, “but the answers we need are not to be found here. We must journey at the earliest to Elfi, and meet with Isadora. You must learn the true extent of your magic. The old magic of the fae is the only thing that can help us now.”
“Then we will leave right away,” I said, trying to be brave, but all I wanted to do was sleep for a week.
Uncle Gabriel smiled. “You have gone through a prolonged and horrific ordeal, Aurora. You will rest for a few days, until your wounds have healed completely. The journey to Elfi is long and arduous, and I would have you at your full strength.”
Uncle Gabriel got up to leave.
“Rest now. You have been very brave, and I am astonished at what you have achieved in such a short time. Your parents would have been very proud to see the young fae-mage you have become,” said Uncle Gabriel, leaving the room and shutting the door.
I smiled, tears pooling in my eyes and threatening to spill, as I sat on my bed and contemplated the rest of my life. I was no longer the scared little girl who was dragged through the tapestry in Redstone Manor. I had changed and grown up, finally accepting who I was and what my place was in this world. I was the true Queen of Illiador, descended from Avalonia’s greatest dynasty, and I was at long last ready to fight for my kingdom and take back my throne.
29
The Dagger of Dragath
The next day, Penelope let me out of bed for a short walk, but now four palace guards followed me everywhere I went, and they had been instructed never to leave their posts for any reason. I made my way to the palace library, looking for Uncle Gabriel, since one of the footmen had seen him head there that morning.
I found him sitting on a chair, a pile of big, leather-bound books with yellowing pages, in various states of being read, lying all over the huge rectangular oak table in the center of the room.
I looked around.
The library was a wonderful two-storied room with a wooden gallery running along one side that could be reached by a large spiral staircase. It was bright and spacious, with shelves upon shelves of beautiful, leather-bound books adorning the walls. A set of doors led out onto a large balcony that overlooked one of the palace’s inner courtyards.
“Is there something you needed, Aurora?” said Uncle Gabriel, looking up at me for a second as I entered the library before going back to studying his books.
“I was thinking, Uncle Gabriel,” I said, sitting down in the chair beside him.
Uncle Gabriel closed the book he was reading, raised one eyebrow, and looked at me patiently. “Yes, well, that is never a good thing with you,” he said, but his eyes looked like he was holding back a smile.
“It’s just,” I began, my hands fiddling with my amulet, “I’ve been thinking about my mother a lot after Morgana confirmed what really happened that night.”
“Oh,” said Uncle Gabriel, “and what is it you would like to know?”
“Penelope once told me that there are magical weapons that can kill an immortal. And that’s probably how Morgana killed my mother.”
“There are such weapons, yes,” said Uncle Gabriel, “but no one has ever seen one in centuries. What is your point?”
“Can’t we use one of those to kill Lilith?” I said.
“Possibly,” said Uncle Gabriel, thinking, “but the only weapon we know of is probably with Morgana, and we don’t even know what it is or what it looks like.”
“I do,” I said. “I know what it looks like.”
“And how, may I ask, did you manage that?” he asked, raising his eyebrows again.
“I haven’t told you everything,” I began.
“I surmised so,” said Uncle Gabriel sternly.
I was hesitant at first, but I finally told him about my dream. Having Morgana confirm that she stabbed my mother through the heart finally made me realize that the horrible nightmares I used to experience were a real memory, and I wanted to make sure my uncle knew the whole truth if we were to defeat Morgana and Lilith.
Uncle Gabriel heard me out patiently, but when I came to the part about the dagger, his eyes lit up.
“Are you sure?” he interrupted, quite unexpectedly. “In this dream, are you sure you saw Morgana stab Elayna with a dagger?”
I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “I think so. She was about to stab her, but in my dream I am always pulled away at the last second, and then there is a blinding flash of light.”
Uncle Gabriel nodded sagely, his hands stroking his clipped white beard. “You were being pulled into the portal. The flash was the portal closing after you went through. Such power is rarely seen. Only the fae can create such a gateway, but usually it takes over a dozen powerful fae to do what your mother did for you that day.”
Again tears welled up in my eyes, and I brushed them away, determined not to get waylaid by my emotions. My mother was gone. There was nothing I could do about it. I had to concentrate on the task at hand, which was finding a way to defeat Lilith.
“About the dagger,” said Uncle Gabriel, his eyes lighting up again, just like when I mentioned the weapon before. “Describe it.”
“Well,” I said trying to visualize it. “It was sort of curved . . .”
“Curved, or sort of curved?” asked Uncle Gabriel sternly. “There is a difference.”
I checked my memories again. “Yes curved, definitely curved,” I said finally.
“Good, good. Go on,” said Uncle Gabriel, sitting on the edge of his chair.
“And it was made entirely of gold, with a big red ruby on its hilt,” I finished.
Uncle Gabriel stood up and abruptly walked over to the door.
“Guards,” he bellowed.
I was startled. Why had he called the guards? The guards posted outside the door responded immediately.
“Summon my daughter and Mrs. Plumpleberry.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” said one guard as he marched off to do the Duke’s bidding. To the other guard, Uncle Gabriel said more quietly, “Ask the prince to meet me here. Let him know that it is an urgent matter.”
“Yes, Your Grace,” said the second guard and scurried off in the opposite direction.
“Why have you called them all here?” I asked, now thoroughly confused. What had I done now?
Uncle Gabriel was not listening. He was rummaging around on the shelves and trying to find a book; which one, I had no idea. He refused to speak to me.
Serena and Penelope arrived a few moments later.
“Father,” said Aunt Serena, “is everything all right?”
“It will be,” said Uncle Gabriel, still rummaging the shelves for a book.
“Is there some reason in particular you have asked us here, Your Grace?” said Penelope, coming over to me. “Is Aurora in any discomfort?”
She checked me for the tenth time that day.
“Yes. No, I mean. Yes, I have a reason, and no, she is not in any discomfort,” said Uncle Gabriel finally, pulling out a large, dusty, leather-bound book. “Found it!”
He opened the book. The pages looked worn and yellow, and Uncle Gabriel turned to a page that had a horrifying picture on it. A terrible, demon-like creature with curved horns, hooved feet, and reddish black skin held aloft a dagger, ready to stab it into the heart of a kneeling fae warrior. They were painted amidst a battlefield. And all over the page, bodies lay strewn in contorted poses and grizzly heaps at the demon’s feet.
I looked away at first, but there was no mistaking the dagger the hideous evil creature held in his clawed hand. It was definitely the same dagger, the one Morgana used to kill my mother in my dream.
“This is it,” I said, incredulously. “How did you know? This is the same dagger.”
“I thought so,” said Uncle Gabriel, closing the book and sitting down in the chair. Aunt Serena and Penelope sat down too. They looked perturbed; Aunt Serena would not even look at the picture in the book.
The doors opened, and Rafe walked in. “What’s this about? Is Aurora okay?” he asked my granduncle.
“I’m here in the room,” I said, getting irritated. “You could ask me yourself.”
Rafe didn’t seem perturbed and looked straight into my eyes. “Well, if you didn’t run around the kingdom trying to get yourself killed all the time, then I wouldn’t have to keep asking how you are, would I?” he snapped.
I huffed at his answer and could not think of a suitable retort. Even if Vivienne was right, and he was concerned about me, why didn’t he come to see me? I was still angry with him. One minute he was saying how he couldn’t stay away from me, and then he wouldn’t see me for days. His moods were too confusing, and it was playing havoc with my emotions.
The Last of the Firedrakes Page 33