by K. A. Linde
“That I do.”
Elea dipped her chin and then pressed a nearly invisible latch against a wall. The door hissed inward, and they disappeared inside.
“The hidden tunnels only go so many places. We’ll have to be careful not to run into anyone else in here.”
“Where are we going?”
“To see a contact of mine. She runs the Network out of Byern. I met her through Rhea and Fenix.” Elea glanced at her. “How are they?”
Cyrene’s mood darkened at the thought of Fenix. “In love.”
Elea just grinned. “About time. Fenix seems like he cares about nothing, but it’s just his spy aloofness. When you get to know him, you will come to like him for Rhea.”
“I like him for Rhea,” Cyrene said. The limited time she had seen them together, she had known at once that they were meant for each other. “I don’t like him on my own war council.” Or what had once been hers…
“I’d want him on mine. He’s the best spy in the world.”
“I think you’re giving him a run for his money.”
Elea giggled and then shushed them both.
They remained silent as they navigated darkened tunnels with the ease of someone who did this frequently.
What exactly was Elea’s life like here at court? Cyrene wanted to ask why people were afraid of her like the guard had been, but she was afraid of the answer to her question. Perhaps it made her cowardly. But she was enjoying this time with her sister and didn’t want to break their camaraderie.
“Here,” Elea whispered. She checked an eye-level peephole and then pressed forward into the room.
Standing there was none other than Lady Cauthorn, the very woman who had created both Cyrene’s Presenting ballgown as well as her Consort coronation dress. She was the most talented dressmaker in the entire city, possibly the entire country. And also, someone who already knew exactly who Cyrene was. She had somehow known all along. She had tried to help Cyrene before she was invested as Consort.
“You again,” Cyrene said with a smile.
“Hello, girl,” Lady Cauthorn said. “Oh look, you’ve filled out. Your measurements would be all wrong now.”
Cyrene laughed. “It’s good to see you.”
“I’d say the same, but you should not be here. Byern is the wrong place to be right now. War makes for a bad time to be a dressmaker. I’ve been conscripted to sew uniforms. A dreadful waste of my time and precious fingers.” Lady Cauthorn held up her callous fingers. “Are you ready to depart?”
Cyrene nodded but then turned back to Elea and grasped her hands. “Come with us.”
“I…I can’t,” Elea said. “You need me here on the inside.”
“You don’t have to go through with this,” Lady Cauthorn added.
Cyrene looked at them in confusion. “Go through with what?”
Elea chewed her bottom lip and said nothing.
Lady Cauthorn huffed. “You didn’t tell her?”
“Tell me what?”
“She’s betrothed to the king.”
“Elea!” Cyrene gasped. “You’re to marry Kael?”
“Technically, I was betrothed to an emperor.”
“You can’t go through with it!”
“Shh,” Elea said. “It’s not that serious, Cyrene.”
“Not that serious? You will be married to a murderer, Elea. The man who killed his own brother and sister and will kill anyone who gets close to him. His future wife is not off-limits.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“Don’t be stupid, girl,” Lady Cauthorn said. “He most certainly will.”
“Not to mention, he is now working with the actual goddess of destruction and going to war. He’s not fit to be king, let alone your husband,” Cyrene gushed.
“He can change,” Elea said. “I know how that sounds. I know it sounds like I’m a stupid, naive little girl, but I’m telling you that I’m not. He is different with me. I can reach him. I am the only one he will listen to. And your only source of information. If I leave with you, then you’ll lose that.”
“Elea, please,” Cyrene said. “I don’t need any of that if it comes at the expense of my sister.”
Elea didn’t get a chance to respond when a banging started on the door.
“Open up in the name of His Majesty, King Kael!” a guard shouted.
“Go!” Elea hissed.
Lady Cauthorn grabbed Cyrene’s arm and dragged her across the room.
“Elea, please,” Cyrene pleaded.
“Come on, girl. She’s made up her mind.”
Cyrene met Elea’s gaze one more time in despair before she was stuffed through an opening in the back of the dressing room. A door clicked softly closed in front of them just as the doors burst open on the other side. Cyrene and Lady Cauthorn stood perfectly still. Any movement could give their position away at this point. They both listened through the wall.
“Affiliate Elea!” a guard said in surprise.
“Yes, Captain. What can I do for you?” she asked in a voice so unbelievably superior that it actually grated on Cyrene’s shot nerves.
“We heard voices in here. The curfew is in effect.”
“Obviously, I am exempt from the curfew. The king has already made that perfectly clear.”
“Yes, he has. But still, we will have to search the room. If you could stand aside?”
Elea huffed in disgust. “Fine. But, if you touch my wedding dress or even so much as look at it wrong, then I am going to tell the king. I don’t have time to have another commissioned, especially with all hands on deck for the additional uniforms.”
The guard grumbled something at her, and then Cyrene could hear a patrol stumbling around inside the dressing area. She held her breath as footsteps approached the back wall.
“I said, not my dress!” Elea shrieked as he got ever closer.
The footsteps stopped. “Sorry, Affiliate,” the man said.
Then the man retreated. A couple of minutes later, the patrol was insisting on escorting Elea back to her quarters after the suspicious activity. She made a big fuss but eventually went with them. The door snapped closed behind her.
“That’s our cue,” Lady Cauthorn said.
“I can’t believe she’s going to do this. It’s so idiotic.”
“Well, she’s in love with him.”
Cyrene frowned and followed the dressmaker. “How can she love him?”
Lady Cauthorn raised an eyebrow. “You, of all people, ask me that?”
“I don’t love Kael Dremylon,” she said sharply.
The dressmaker just smiled. “You are connected beyond comprehension. What you feel for him is more complicated than a simple yes or no.”
That was true at least. Even if she did not want to admit it.
They continued off the castle grounds with ease, thanks to Lady Cauthorn’s prominence at court. No one even looked at Cyrene as she passed in her dark cloak. But, when she thought that she would be directed into the city, Lady Cauthorn headed up into the mountains. Cyrene didn’t bother asking where they were going. The way up was backbreaking work. Her legs burned, and her lungs felt as if they couldn’t get enough air. She was surprised that Lady Cauthorn seemed adept at the trek. As if this was not the first time she had made it.
They traveled like that for about an hour until the bond between she and Kael seemed to blur and she could no longer pinpoint exactly where he was. Which meant that he wouldn’t be able to do that for her either. Just a general direction.
Without food or water for twenty-four hours, Cyrene was about to eat her own arm after this hike. “Do you have…supplies?”
Lady Cauthorn nodded. “Just over this next rise.”
True to her word, they came upon a cave in the mountain pass. Inside, Cyrene dug into the food and took a long drink of the water provided. She thought she was going to collapse from exhaustion and fatigue. But she knew that she still needed to reach out to Sarielle to let her know.
Befo
re she could do so, Lady Cauthorn asked, “Do you remember when you first commissioned a dress from me?”
Cyrene glanced up at her and nodded. “Of course. It was magnificent.”
“I didn’t take payment.”
“Right. You wanted…a favor.”
Lady Cauthorn nodded. “Yes. I would like to call that favor in.”
Cyrene’s jaw dropped. “Right now?”
“Indeed.”
“But…”
“Are you going to go back on your promise?” Lady Cauthorn asked.
And Cyrene sighed. No, of course she wasn’t. “Okay. What…what is the favor?”
“I need you to take me to my granddaughter.”
Cyrene narrowed her eyes. “You have a granddaughter?”
“Yes. Her name is Isabylle. She will be fourteen now, and I have not seen her since she was a babe.”
“That’s horrible,” Cyrene whispered.
“Quite a tragedy really.”
“Where has she been all this time?”
Lady Cauthorn smiled sadly. “The Fallen Desert.”
Cyrene blinked at Lady Cauthorn. “No one lives in the Fallen Desert. How could she be there?”
“That is what they have made you believe all this time. But I know the way. I can show you how to find the ones who escaped. Just like my Isabylle did. So, will you take me?”
It seemed impossible. The Fallen was one of the most dangerous places in all of Emporia. You could die of the heat and lack of water as quickly as the cold and altitude in the Haeven Mountains. She had never heard of anyone surviving crossing it. But she also was bound to her promise to Lady Cauthorn. Even if it meant delaying her own journey, she would do it.
“Yes, I will take you to her.”
14
The Fallen
Cyrene tugged on the bond with Sarielle to let her know that she had gotten out and to give her the position to reach her. Within the hour, Sarielle landed in the mountains. And, to Cyrene’s shock, another dragon landed next to her—Halcyon.
Her heart soared. It couldn’t be. Halcyon had to be with Dean back at the army.
But then Dean slid off of Halcyon’s back and strode confidently toward her. Something shifted in her chest. An ache that she had ignored until he stood before her.
I found this surprise for you, dragon bound, Sarielle said affectionately.
“Dean,” she muttered.
“Cyrene,” he said with a smirk, “I said I would always find you.”
“I don’t even want to know how,” she said as she flung her arms around him. He startled at the embrace and then wrapped his own arms around her waist, holding her tight. “I’m glad that you’re here.”
“I am sorry for what happened back at camp. I’ll have you know, I told everyone off for their idiocy and declared myself for you and you alone.”
She released him and looked back in shock. “But…you’re a captain in the Eleysian army.”
“I am a captain in your army. If that coincides with Eleysia, then that is where my place is. And nowhere else.” He gave her a meaningful look.
“Thank you. That means so much.” She turned to Sarielle. “And thank you for bringing him.”
Of course. You were taking too long, and I thought two dragons and a bolt of lightning might be better than my storming in alone.
“Oh, do you need help now?”
Sarielle puffed smoke at her. Hardly. I am fearsome alone.
Halcyon whipped his tail at her. Admit, Sarielle of the wild, you were nervous.
I would have torn the world asunder to get to her. That is different than worrying. Did all go as planned? You retrieved what you were after?
“Yes,” Cyrene said, revealing the diamond to Sarielle. “Yes, all as planned.”
Dean looked at her quizzically. “Why were you in Byern to begin with?”
“I had to retrieve this.” She touched the diamond at her throat. “The Domina diamond.”
“The…Domina diamond,” he breathed. “You are the Domina?”
She swallowed and nodded her head.
Dean reverently stared up at her and then dropped to one knee. “I told the others that you were the true queen, but I was wrong. You are the one true Domina.”
“Creator,” Lady Cauthorn breathed next to him.
My soul sister, you truly are chosen, Sarielle said.
“We shall return to the camp right away and set this all to rights,” Dean said. “They cannot argue with destiny.”
“I very much think that they can,” she told him. “But, as much as I wish to return to the army, I am indebted to Lady Cauthorn, and I must fulfill my promise to her. We have to take her into the Fallen Desert to reunite her with her granddaughter.”
He arched an eyebrow. “No offense meant, but now?”
Lady Cauthorn nodded. “Yes, now, boy. Also, it’s good to see you not acting like an imbecile any longer.”
He laughed. “Thank you. I think.”
“I’m not sure how we’re even going to pull this off,” Cyrene admitted. “I thought that no one could survive in the desert. No one who has attempted to cross it has returned.”
“My studies overlap with Cyrene’s,” Dean said. “The last thing I want is to walk into the desert at a time like this when so much is on the line. The people need to see Cyrene as the Domina. Only she can set this right.”
“I would not risk the mission. It is my greatest wish to see magic returned to Emporia in truth,” Lady Cauthorn said earnestly. “People can live in the desert as long as they know the water signs and have a proper water seeker.”
Cyrene raised an eyebrow. “And you know the water signs or…are a water seeker?”
“I know how to find one.”
“How did you come by this information?” Dean asked.
Lady Cauthorn turned away with a sigh. “Because they are my people.”
Cyrene blinked. “I thought that you were from Byern.”
“So does everyone else. Come inside. Let’s sit, and I will tell you the story. But we must be quick. If we are to find water seekers, we must do it before daylight or risk sun exposure.”
Cyrene patted Sarielle before following Lady Cauthorn into the cave where the supplies had been left. She had been prepared to flee at any time. Had supplies ready to get away. Had somehow seen all of this coming.
“When I was seventeen years old, I was sent to Byern at the Eos holiday,” Lady Cauthorn began. “My name was Ritanya, but I shortened it to Rita for the celebration. I came forward with fake credentials and a background full of tragedy. I was placed into Third Class and given a Receiver who was an artisan fashion designer within the city. Though my background was a lie, I could sew and embroider and weave with the best of them. In fact, I found out quickly that I could do it better than most. Even supplanting my Receiver and getting work within the castle.”
“But why did you come to Byern?” Cyrene asked.
“I volunteered,” Rita said. “Back in my home of Aleut, the desert is named Tygh, not the Fallen. Tygh means ever sun, and we are the Tyghan people. At a young age, we learn the water signs, and as we grow into maturity, many go on to become water seekers. They use magic to locate water and resources within the desert. By seventeen, I knew that I was not going to become a water seeker. My skills in sewing were nothing compared to the life of a water seeker, and I wanted more.”
Cyrene knew that feeling well. She had wanted more, too.
“I was not the first that they sent into Byern. Every generation, a Tyghan enters the city and is placed within the Byern ranks to wait and watch. We were instructed to help all those with magic. Secret them out of Byern into Tygh if necessary and to discern if the rise of the seeker was beginning.”
“And…is it?” Cyrene asked.
“What do you think? You just told me that you were the Domina, in truth,” Rita asked with a smile. “I have learned much since I left my home thirty-one years ago. Water seekers are just Doma trained
into a specialized function for the environment. I could recognize it in you instantly.”
“Which is how you knew to request a favor and not payment.”
Dean crossed his arms. “Cunning.”
“What you mean is deceitful. It was,” Rita agreed.
“If you saw it in me, why did you not spirit me out of Byern and into Tygh? You have done it with others I presume?” Cyrene asked.
“Yes, I have. But…you were different,” Rita explained. “There is a history of my people that said, when the Dremylons took power in Byern, a group fled into Tygh and were assimilated into the people. They all became water seekers and awaited the day that seekers would come again in Byern.”
“Are you saying that…Doma fled the fall of magic and survived in the desert?” Cyrene asked.
Rita nodded. “Yes. And they have been waiting for you. Everyone has been waiting for you to bring it back.”
Cyrene rocked back in surprise. She touched the diamond at her throat and then slowly rose to her feet. “Well, I am here now. I have been named Domina, falling in succession after Domina Serafina. And I am here to reclaim magic for my people.”
Tears glistened in Rita’s eyes. “I knew you would do it.”
“Then we should go into the desert. I would very much like to meet these water seekers.”
Rita stood as well. “I have enough supplies for two.” She uncertainly looked to Dean. “We won’t make it long in the desert without more water.”
“We will take Sarielle and Halcyon. We’ll cover more ground that way and need less water. They can always return us to a water source if we don’t find any of these water seekers,” Cyrene said at once.
“The…the dragons?” Rita asked.
Dean grinned. “You’re not afraid of the dragons, are you?”
“I think everyone should have a healthy fear of dragons.”
“That seems smart,” Cyrene conceded. “Come meet our dragons bound. Dean will bring the supplies out. And then we will depart.”
Sarielle quickly took to Lady Cauthorn. They were both as spunky and arrogant as could be. They suited one another. Up until the point where Cyrene was instructing Lady Cauthorn on how to climb onto Sarielle’s back. After a solid fifteen minutes of struggling, she finally managed to fall onto her back. Cyrene laughed as she vaulted up Sarielle’s side.