“Today, Asha joins the Ancients.” Gaillean finished just as the last of Asha’s toes replaced themselves.
When her niece stirred, pushing to her feet, much to her mother’s joy, every Ancient bowed in the traditional greeting.
Asha, although clearly slightly embarrassed to be naked, bowed back.
*
Asha still couldn’t get used to the bowing.
It had been a month since her death and ascension, and every time she passed anyone in the palace someone bowed to her. She’d just about killed Masozi the first time her friend had done it, but no matter what she did the only ones who wouldn’t bow were her parents and the other Ancients.
She slipped through the door to Silver’s chambers mostly unnoticed, unsurprised to find Silver sitting at a window, staring down into the courtyard. Watching the guards train.
She liked to believe her aunt was criticising them for their bad technique, but she knew that was a futile hope.
Something in Silver had irrevocably broken when Asha had made her swing her blade at her neck. Now her aunt was like a zombie, she slept and ate when prodded, but did nothing else. Not even Keenan could get to her.
“Morning.” She said chirpily. “I didn’t check my dinner for poison before I ate it last night, I think I am getting sloppy without you watching my every move.”
Silver made no move, didn’t even acknowledge her presence. That hurt, but didn’t surprise Asha. In the entire month, the only time Silver had reacted to anything was when one of the servants tried to remove Keenan’s ring to bathe her in the first week.
The woman had been dead on the floor within an instant.
Theria lay curled up by Silver’s feet. The hound barely spoke these days, and when she did, she would only speak of the pain Silver was in.
It hadn’t taken Romana long to forgive Silver after she discovered that Silver had trapped herself in memories of her past in order to try and condition herself against feeling once again.
Her aunt was reliving every day of five decades of torture, day by day.
The best empaths in the land had tried to bring her out of it, only to leave shrieking at the pain they experienced from being near her. Even Hannah, the Wytch Queen of Sorrows, had taken one look at Silver’s psyche and paled before rushing into the next room to throw up.
Even now Keenan was out spending more of his incredible fortune on any and all cures known to man.
Asha, as the newly installed Patron Ancient of Wytches, was doing everything she could to bring Silver back and restore stability to her subjects, but it wasn’t working. She was glad she’d rejected the other Ancient’s offers of taking over leadership of either Llewellyn’s or Ellamae’s world and requested her authority be limited to the wytches for now. If she wasn’t even suitable enough to bring her aunt back, what good could she do at ruling a planet?
“Stop being so hard on yourself.” Keir spoke gently. Now that she had come into her true destiny, a true familiar bond had formed between them both, and while she was overjoyed at that everything she did was still overshadowed by the fact that her aunt was catatonic because of her choice.
She sat with her aunt, describing her day quietly, watching the sky darken with every word that she spoke. At one point she was aware of Keenan coming in and sitting behind them on the bed, but he never interrupted. He considered the time Silver spent listening to Asha as the most important part of the day, and had previously mentioned he believed that Silver was hearing the information with some part of her mind, because when Asha was there he felt a slight change from her down the demon bond they shared.
As the clouds darkened further and rain began to fall Asha ran out of things to say, so she just sat there. When lightning struck with a boom, she flinched, and Keenan jumped out of his chair.
“I have an idea!” He told her, grabbing her mother from where she sat and flinging open the balcony doors. “Compel her to fly.”
Asha shook her head slowly. “I hate using that on her.” She’d only had to do it once so far, to calm Silver down after the maid had tried to remove Keenan’s ring.
“Do it.” Keenan insisted.
Asha’s own wings unfolded with the idea of flight. She debated saying no, but Keenan’s desperation touched on her own sense of guilt.”
“You will fly with me.” She instructed her aunt, laying thick compulsion onto her aunt.
Keenan smiled and took Silver’s hand, as Asha took off into the air, Silver following close behind, dragging Keenan with her.
A lightning bolt almost hit Asha and she dodged it barely. Keenan’s idea was insane, but as she looked back she was surprised to see a ghost of a smile on her aunt’s lips.
“Keep going.” Keenan yelled, sensing her trepidation about the storm.
Asha did as he said, encouraged by that smile, dodging every time she felt the electrical charge in the air that signalled a lightning bolt.
They flew all the way to Dalmorin and back, landing only when the storm stopped. When they set down on the balcony of Silver’s room in the palace, Asha looked at her aunt hopefully.
The smile was still there, and Silver kept her hold on Keenan’s hand, even though they were on solid ground. It was a start.
Hope bloomed in the bottom of her heart. If Silver could be reached like this, there had to be other experiences that would bring her back. Silently, she slipped from the room, leaving Keenan and Silver alone for the night.
The next morning Asha awoke to a blade by her throat.
Staying very still, she cracked open her eyes, surprised to see Silver there. She never left the rooms assigned for her.
“You’re dead.” Silver said, putting the blade away and turning to leave the room.
“Are you… back?” Asha asked, not daring to hope.
“Are you done asking stupid questions?” Her aunt replied.
Asha grinned, Silver was back.
*
Romana looked around the dinner table with a feeling of odd contentment. Seated around her was the oddest combination of people imaginable, a thief lord, three Ancients, two kings, two gryphons, two dragons and a summer fey. And yet they were all her family now.
A few months had passed since her daughter had ascended to become an Ancient, and Silver was finally, mostly, back to her old self. Sometimes, Romana wasn’t sure that was for the best, but for now, the Dark Coven was keeping her sister occupied. There had been some wobbles to start with, but as long as no one mentioned Asha’s death, Silver appeared to be functioning fairly normally. Well, normally for Silver, anyway.
“I have an announcement.” Endis stood up from his chair, and Silver groaned out loud.
“No need to sound so pompous about it, brother.” She muttered.
Endis snorted. “Years ago I took the position of steward of the throne, until such a time when the true heir agreed to take it back.”
Romana frowned, this was news to her.
“True heir?” Marten asked.
“The throne has always been my sister’s.” Endis announced. “It is only now that I have managed to convince her to take it. I will still serve the throne, but after much persuasion Silver is finally taking that which is hers by right of birth.”
Romana gaped openly.
“To Queen Silver.” Endis raised his glass. “May she rule forevermore.”
Kate was smiling smugly next to a surprised looking Gaillean. Marten was in the process of choking down his toast, while Keenan laughed at all of them.
“I have another toast.” Asha said. “Riven and I have something to share with you all.” She raised a hand, displaying a ring with a large fire opal placed in the centre, framed by blue topaz all set in rose gold.
Marten groaned. “I still can’t believe I gave him my blessing.”
Romana turned to her husband, about to give him a piece of her mind for keeping this a secret, but he distracted her with a quick kiss and a gentle smile. Slightly breathless from the combination of the smil
e and kiss she decided to lecture him another day.
So instead she grinned and toasted her daughter and sister.
Asha's Power (Soul Merge Saga Book 4) Page 32