Masozi’s conversation with him had been most enlightening, though Silver hadn’t let on that she knew the language, Masozi had greeted the others as fallen fey, revealing them as descendants of other exiles of the Fey Isles. Silver also knew that this one’s name was Wing-Captain Riven, although why he was here now was anyone’s guess.
“Who is your guest sweetheart?” Romana hugged her daughter, “I am glad you are safe. Did you find the answers you sought?”
“In a way, mother, this is Wing-Captain Riven. He’s here to teach me to speak the gryphon language.”
Silver smirked, so the fey had sent a spy. “He doesn’t look like much of a wing-captain to me.” Curious, she threw a ball of pyro-demon fire at him, dissolving it inches from his face. He barely blinked. Stoic as they came, this one, although Silver noticed his hand gently fell to rest upon his hook swords. “I suppose Kate beat us to his vows of secrecy?”
“Yes, Aunt Silver, and I’d appreciate you not burning him to death before he teaches me to understand Keir.”
“How did you kidnap a fey and a gryphon from a secret enclave?” Her mother asked.
“I may have name dropped grandma, granddad and you.” Asha smiled secretly and Silver frowned. How was picking up a fey spy something to be proud of?
“Well what’s the use in having good relatives if you can’t use them to make up for your own lack of negotiation skills?” Her toss of the dagger she’d been playing with before they arrived made it clear how she believed negotiation should have been handled. “Honestly Asha, if you had any sense at all you would have murdered their leaders and taken over your first kingdom.”
Romana glared. “My daughter is not a brutal savage.”
“Oh yes, of course not. She’s just half brutal savage.” Silver smirked.
“I see what you mean.” Riven whispered to Asha.
“What’s that boy?” Silver demanded. “By all means, share with the group!”
“Silver!” Romana admonished, shooting Riven an apologetic glance. “Sorry about my half-sister, you will be staying with the Light Coven, and as such I offer you our full hospitality.”
Riven bowed, “An honour, my lady.”
“Why do you need to be taught the language?” Silver demanded. “You have a language you share with your familiar.”
“Keir can speak to Azusa.” Asha sounded like she was admitting a failure as she indicated the other gryphon. “Our language hasn’t developed. Something is wrong with the bond.”
“Are you certain he’s your familiar?” Silver walked up to the bundle of feathers and fur strapped to her niece’s back and poked at it. “You feel him in your mind?”
“I know his every heartbeat.” Asha replied. “I can tell when he’s dreaming, or when he’s sad. I just can’t speak with him.”
There was an uncomfortable silence, during which Silver’s mind whirred. Romana’s glare gave her confirmation that they were both thinking the same thing. That tiny piece of Silver’s soul had changed the bond with Asha’s familiar, and made it weaker or broken it somehow.
“Now that Silver has seen you’re alive, why don’t we depart?” Romana suggested, and without giving anyone any time to say otherwise, she teleported herself, Asha, Keir, Riven and Azusa out of the clearing.
Silver drew out her swords, wishing she could kill something but instead starting a training routine that was so well memorised she dimly wondered why she was doing it at all.
“Why so glum?” Gaillean asked, stepping out of the treeline as Silver swiped her swords coldly and efficiently through the air.
She almost surprised herself when she replied with the truth. “Asha cannot understand her familiar.” She began, “No wytch in history has ever had that problem.”
Gaillean nodded, “That alone is not enough to bother you?”
“You know all of this already.” Silver muttered. “But Asha is also the only wytch in history to have the title of wytch queen of balance, I checked in the records. No new wytch queen powers have ever been reported. It is always the same forty powers, with only thirty of those alive at any one time.”
Gaillean nodded, and the question that had been plaguing her settled into certainty in her gut. “It’s because of me.” She confirmed quietly, never halting in the exercise. “The piece of my soul she was born with, it warped her somehow. She cannot have a true familiar, has a completely different power to any we’ve ever seen. It’s all because of my actions decades ago.”
Her father was silent.
“What other repercussions will she face?” Silver demanded, ceasing her movements and stabbing her swords into the ground. No answer. “Tell me daddy dearest or I won’t be responsible for my actions.”
Gaillean didn’t meet her eyes, but sighed. “Asha’s fate is shrouded in mystery.”
“That is NOT an answer.” Silver retorted harshly.
“It is all I can say!” Gaillean yelled back. “Do you not think it torments me as well? She is my blood too, daughter-mine. You would do well to remember that.”
“Yet you barely talk to her!” Silver dimly wondered how they had both started shouting. “You distance yourself from her like you do all other mortals. Which can only mean one thing; she’s doomed.” Gaillean’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. “I’m right aren’t I?” Silver honestly felt sick to her stomach. “You’ve had me raise her, teach her enough swordplay to make it seem fair, but in the end it will be a slaughter.”
By his expression she would guess that the stinging slap to her face was as unexpected to Gaillean as it was to her. Nevertheless, it knocked her sideways, sending her back unexpectedly to the day Romana had left the slave shop, the day Kate’s block on her mind had begun to weaken.
Back then she had foolishly believed that Romana and herself were important in the grand scheme of things, but as she spat blood into the grass she realised that had never been the case. Romana’s meeting the prince, her own sacrifice at the Battle of Elvardis. All of it had been pre-emptive moves on the Ancient’s chessboard. All of it aimed at bringing about a single, unchangeable outcome; Asha’s death.
She was on Gaillean in an instant. Minutes of scuffling, of tearing, biting and clawing anything with in her reach later and she found herself atop him, her knife at his throat.
“This could kill you.” Silver let the light reflect off of the Ancient-forged blade. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t do it.”
Gaillean didn’t speak, simply shoved the image of Asha’s death into her brain.
Silver dropped the blade, her body convulsing in horror, pain and rage. It was that moment of weakness that allowed Gaillean the time he needed to knock her out, the pommel of her discarded blade making hard impact with her skull.
Of course, she thought dimly, now that she knew the plan, he had to stop her from ruining it.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
NO CHOICE
“I am not falling for that one.”
Silver kept up the charade, hoping beyond hope he would just open the door. One chance was all she needed.
A bolt of magic severed the cloth she had used to hang herself by the neck in an attempt to trick Gaillean into setting her free. She fell and slammed naked into the hard floor. The fabric she’d used to make the noose had been the long tunic that she’d awakened wearing a week ago. The first time she’d been back in the forge on Gaillean’s world. Only this time she was locked up properly, behind bars bewitched to make her magic useless, her armour and weapons gone. Even her masks and the ribbon that had held her hair back had been taken.
“They’ll notice I’m gone.” She yelled, dragging the useless scrap of fabric away from her neck. “You cannot keep me here forever, sooner or later I’ll escape and when I do-”
“You’ll do what?” Gaillean demanded. “If I thought you had a chance of stopping what must be done then I would never have locked you up. Asha must die. That is the only way.”
Silver growled. “You had me raise he
r! Did you know when you brought me back that you would sentence that girl, my child, to death for your cause?” It was the first time she’d ever claimed Asha as her own.
“Are you admitting it then?” Gaillean asked, curious. “Do you admit she’s your child as much as she is Romana’s?”
“Romana conceived her, carried her and gave birth.” Silver retorted. “How can I be her mother?”
“Because she has your soul!”
“And a fat lot of good it’s done her!” Silver yelled back. “You admit it’s the only reason she has these powers, the only reason she’s lined up for death.”
Gaillean, bored now, walked over to the forge and pulled out a sheet of welded metal and began work on more weapons.
“Keenan will notice I’m gone.” She yelled, “You can’t lie to him.”
Gaillean’s response to this, as it always was, was simply to pull out her engagement ring from his pocket, and place it within her sight, followed by a letter addressed to her in Keenan’s hand. A sort of torture she usually reserved for those of her enemies stupid enough to fall in love. Let them believe she held their loved one somewhere, and had taken their possessions. It usually drove them mad. And now it was driving her mad.
“Some father you are!”
“I am doing this for your own good.” Gaillean fell back to his default reply. “What would you even do if you escaped? Can you change the events that will lead to her death? You do not know what will or will not set her on the path to her own destruction, and all you would accomplish would be ruining her current happiness.”
“Yes because it’s so much better to be happy before you’re slaughtered at the whim of your own blood!” She beat at the bars, adding more bruises to her arms. “Does Kate know about this?”
“Yes.”
Silver reached into her mind, searching for her bond to Keenan, to Theria, anyone. They were all blocked. He had done something to her mind while she was unconscious, and now she wouldn’t sleep for fear of further tampering. Still she reached, trying desperately to get word out.
“How long has she got left, at least tell me that?”
Gaillean shook his head, and proceeded to ignore her.
*
Riven wasn’t really sure who the blonde man was, but by the way he had snuck through Asha’s window and into her room he could judge that he wasn’t here for anything good. That put Riven in a bit of a predicament, he wasn’t supposed to be in her room either, especially not while the princess was sleeping, but he’d needed to find out things about this world before the elders did something to remind him of his duties, like sending him Lei’s fingers one by one. Searching the princess’ desk hadn’t been his favourite option, but as a dishonest man on an island full of women who could read his mind instantly, he had decided to keep far away from everyone who wasn’t Asha for the sake of his own health.
So he had two options, hide and hope the stranger wasn’t here to assassinate the princess, or confront the stranger and have to explain why he was in the princess’ chambers in the early hours of the morning.
His vow compelled him towards the second option, so he slipped behind the nameless man and held a blade to his throat.
“You have three seconds to tell me what you’re doing in Princess Asha’s chamber –” He began before he was flipped onto his back in a move he’d never seen coming.
Ice began creeping into his blood and too late he realised who this must be.
“My mistake.” He held his hands up in surrender, sending his own heat magic towards the ice in his limbs. “You must be the Iceblood Prince.”
“And you are?”
“The gryphon translator.” He introduced himself, “Wing-Captain Riven.”
“Well what are you doing in Asha’s rooms, Wing-Captain Riven?”
But they were both interrupted by the shutter being taken off of the lantern by Asha’s bedside. The light illuminated the thousands of scars that covered the Iceblood prince’s skin and he stood frozen for a second. Was the other man a vow breaker? What was such a man doing on a first name basis with the princess?
“He’s spying on me.” Asha replied. “But no worries, I have that under control. Keenan, what’s wrong? Where is Aunt Silver?”
“That’s what I came to talk to you about.” He looked drawn in the light, like worry had sunken into his skin. “I haven’t seen her in almost a month. I’ve tried summoning Kate and Gaillean and they say they don’t have a clue. It’s not like her to disappear like this. Theria and I can’t feel her Asha.” He looked pained at admitting it, though Riven just became more confused. Why would this fey be able to feel the dark wytch queen?
“I’ll ask mother to search the air.” Asha said instantly, jumping out of bed fully armoured – another strange trait she must have picked up from her aunt – and walking swiftly from the door.”
“Summer fey?” Keenan asked in the fey language as they both trailed behind the princess through the caverns.
“My ancestors were exiled, I no longer consider myself to have any affiliation with the island fey.” He replied stiffly “Biologically, unfortunately, I am still classified as such.”
“I never knew that.” Asha gave him a curious look.
“I wasn’t aware you spoke my language, princess. And I also wasn’t aware that my heritage was of importance to you.” Most of the time the only communication between them was him translating for the elder gryphon who was also an infant. That was also awkward, owing to the personal nature of some of the messages he was forced to relay word for word.
“It is an interesting dialect, but I speak most languages of the common realms.” Asha smiled, “As does nearly everyone in my family.”
Riven almost cursed, “A shame then, that gryphon wasn’t in your repertoire.”
A nip on his ankle revealed Keir’s reprimand, and he understood that his words had caused Asha genuine hurt. It was an odd position to inhabit, being the middleman between wytch and familiar made him uniquely aware of the princess’ personal feelings and thoughts. But the princess knew very little about him in return, without his vow, he knew she would never have trusted him, and he was amazed she had knowing that he was spying on her. Did she suspect what the elders had threatened him with to put him in this position?
He almost felt guilty. Despite his earlier certainty that the princess was a spoiled brat, over the past month she had proved him wrong, again and again as she fulfilled her duty to her country, her wytch sisters and her family without fault. Occasionally reckless and more than a little naïve at times, she persevered through the many suspicious looks she received from both sides of the wytch divide. Only last week taking the punishment for a light wytch who had mistakenly crossed the Dark Coven so as not to disturb the peace.
“A shame indeed,” Asha’s face became a mask and his feelings of guilt intensified.
“What did you expect?” Azusa asked him, “She’s been introducing us as ‘The Gryphon Ambassadors’ and then you go and do something like that?” His gryphon fell into step behind them, grabbing little Keir by his neck feathers and placing him atop her back so he wouldn’t have to run to keep up with Asha’s pace.
Three knocks on the door to the princess-consort’s office and they were admitted, the five of them barely managing to seem a crowd in the large room. Romana stood by her desk, holding a book and talking to Wytch Queen Joanna. The moment she caught sight of Asha and Keenan, she stopped what she was doing.
“What’s happened?” Romana asked, raising a hand to halt whatever Joanna was saying.
“Silver is missing.”
Romana’s expression settled into a mix of concern and confusion. “Why is that a problem? She’s not one to tell people of her whereabouts.”
Keenan bowed, and Romana shook her head at him. “Honestly Keenan, you’re still my friend despite everything.”
“I wish not to offend.” He excused his actions. “Romana, Silver’s familiar and I cannot feel her, the last time som
ething like this happened, an Ancient was involved.”
“Why would you be able to…?”Romana trailed off, looking uncertain.
“I have a demon bond to her. It’s a result of the extreme lengths she went to in order to heal me when the Ancients punished me.” So he was a vow breaker… interesting. Keenan took a step closer to Romana, his arms held in front of him, pleading with her. “She’s gone and something is wrong. You have to help me find her; I’ll even beg you if that’s what you want.”
“Keenan…”
“We’re engaged.”
Romana’s eyes flew open. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you need to know how serious this is,” Keenan replied in earnest. “This isn’t just Silver going off on some jolly trip around the planets. She’s gone and Gaillean and Kate won’t tell me anything! I trust you enough with the information.” He looked pointedly at Joanna who straightened slightly as she said:
“I vow to the Ancients your secret won’t leave this room on my lips.”
“Agreed,” Riven found himself echoed by Azusa.
“Witnessed,” Romana whispered. “Asha did you know?”
“I saw the ring,” Asha confirmed “But that’s not the reason we’re here. Mother, please search the air currents for us.”
Romana’s gaze softened. “Of course I will sweet. Wait here. I won’t be long.”
Romana’s outline began to blur, and then her entire form drifted apart, fading as it did so. Impossible as it seemed, she became one with the air. This family was strange; he thought just as a giant black jaguar entered the room, since no one batted an eyelid, and Asha actually went over and embraced the beast, Riven tried his best not to show how confused he actually was.
“Riven, I don’t believe you’ve met my father yet, have you?” Asha said, beckoning him closer to the animal. “Father, this is Riven, he’s the fey who was sent to spy on me and teach me to understand Keir.” The air around him turned frigid at that moment and he understood that Romana was listening.
Asha's Power (Soul Merge Saga Book 4) Page 25