by Ella Fields
My eyes snapped to hers, and she grinned, as if that were her plan. Gradually, her smile sank, and a tiny crease formed between her bending brows. “I’m sorry I left last night.”
I gazed back at the water, sighing as I straightened. “It’s fine. I’m just glad you attended at all.”
She joined me heading up the slow incline that bordered the city, wrapping around it like a noose toward the mountains where the castle sat, waiting. “Did Ainx escort you home?”
“And Berron.”
I nodded, dodging a puddle of sludge that had once been snow.
“You look as though you did not sleep.” Truin pulled her fur coat tighter around her shoulders against the winter breeze. “I heard some things in the market this morning.”
“Such as?”
She waved her hand. “Oh, just that the king and the lord fought to the death for ownership of your heart.”
We both laughed, and then I informed her of what truly happened.
“He’s frustrated, by the sounds of it,” she said.
“I know.” I just didn’t know what to do to fix it.
We rounded the corner, then cut through an alleyway to a shorter one, the breeze whistling through the buildings either side of it. “Perhaps I need to show up at his manor naked.”
Truin snorted. “You could, or you could just tell him how you—”
She screamed, but it was cut off as she fell.
I hadn’t the chance to remove the blade from my thigh. Before Truin had even hit the ground, something heavy slammed into the side of my head, and then I was falling into black nothing.
If rainbows had a scent, I imagined that this place I’d awoken in, teeming with trees that curled together in faceless shapes against a bright cloudless sky, was it.
Blinking up at it, I struggled to keep my eyes open as hushed and hurried voices began to crawl inside my ears.
My head pounded, and when I glimpsed to my left, I saw why.
Vadella. I’d requested the stone be destroyed after being stuck in the ground what felt like many moons ago with Berron, yet I wasn’t naïve enough to believe those were the only ones that existed, and that we’d find them all.
This one was smaller, the glittering demon no bigger than my head. Reaching for it, I found it wasn’t just pounding because of the stones’ proximity. My hand came away wet, and my eyes struggled to focus on my fingers when I brought them to my face to inspect them.
But I could smell it as well as feel it. Blood. So they—whoever brought me to this rainbow-scented place—hadn’t relied solely on the rock’s effects to render me incapable. I’d been struck over the head. I wanted to sit up, the urge to was so strong, but I feared how much worse my head would feel if I did.
The voices became clearer, closer, and I closed my eyes.
“Bring the witch.”
Truin. The harbor and then the alleyways came back to me in fogged patches.
My eyes flung open of their own accord, anger funneling through me like a building cyclone ready to unfurl. But it couldn’t. Thanks to the rock, it could go nowhere, snuffed out like a cinder hitting damp brick.
“Good,” a female voice said. “She’s awake.”
I was yanked by the shoulders, but I wrenched away. My hands sank into sand so soft, it felt like liquid, as I sat up, groaning behind clenched teeth.
But it wasn’t just any female, I discovered when my vision cleared enough to focus. “Amelda?”
She kicked at my ankle. “Quiet.”
“What is the meaning of this?” I tried to stand, but I was knocked down, my teeth clacking with the impact.
Amelda swiftly tied my wrists behind me. “You’ll soon see.”
Squelching sounded as a young male who I didn’t recognize dragged Truin over the sand.
Glancing behind me, I noticed the harsh brightness of water, the way the sand darkened to a creamy gold to greet it.
And I noticed the trees and coastline across it in the far-off distance. My home, the mountains of which I’d so often climbed and sat upon, were nothing but specks on the haze-dusted horizon. Which could only mean one thing.
I was in the long lost west.
A land that had been cut away from our own many millennia ago.
Beldine.
But of course, this was only a small slice of a forbidden land. A small island that wouldn’t exist if the tide swept in, of which I knew, it wouldn’t. Not even the tide could smother land as ancient as this. And where its mother was, the landscape I’d only heard of in whispers and folklore throughout my younger years, I didn’t know. I couldn’t see it.
Shimmering blue was all that existed on either side of us.
Upon the shore, some ways down, was a boat that had seen far better days. “You brought us here in a boat that small?” I couldn’t help but blurt. “Have you no mind for what lurks beneath the waters of this place?”
Amelda tutted. “You did not arrive here by boat. I vanished you here.”
So she was the vanisher.
Her eyes gleamed at whatever she saw in my own. “That’s right. Those idiots who captured you were supposed to hand you over to me, but despite all the coin I’d paid them, I was duped.”
“The king…” I started, trying and failing to string the pieces together.
“Oh, fear not. For though your dear husband, upon finding out what I could do, hired me to play spy on the useless noble snobs in your court, he was not, and is still not, aware of all the ways I used the position he’d given me to my own advantage.” Amelda cackled, this rich and tinkering sound I’d not heard before. Or perhaps where we were brought its real sound to life. “But you needn’t bother worrying over this or your safety, queen. We have plans for you.”
Truin collapsed to the sand at least ten feet from me, and I quickly looked her over, finding a huge bruise, crusted with blood, upon her temple.
Her lips wriggled even as her eyes glowed with unshed tears—her way of trying to tell me she was all right.
We were so far from all right it wasn’t even remotely funny.
Sighing, I decided to play. It wasn’t as if I had any choice in the matter. My powers, my hands, were tied. Literally. “And pray tell, what are these plans, oh, deceptive one?”
Amelda was unpacking what appeared to be a small cauldron, jars of insects, and sand and dirt and leaves beside it. “You may as well know,” she said with a resigned tone, unscrewing a jar and tipping what looked to be large beetles inside the cauldron.
The male made a sound of warning. She disregarded him and picked up a pail from behind her, trudging to the small, lapping waves to scoop up both sand and water inside it. “A decade ago, a queen was brought here by request of the king.”
Truin’s eyes tracked Amelda’s every move as she poured the contents of the pail into the cauldron.
“You see, the foolish queen had not only betrayed her husband by associating with creatures of Beldine but she had also gone and fallen in love with one.”
My stomach dropped, and I looked over my shoulder to the kingdom behind me, to the barely there glimpse of a home I wondered if I’d ever see again.
“Many believe the Fae to be cruel creatures who were therefore hunted and unwelcome in Rosinthe.” She paused, a lick of a smile curving her lips as she glanced at me. “And while that may be true, it is not the entire truth.”
The male cut in, “Amelda, we are running out of time.”
Tilting my head back, I tried to make out his features, muted by the burning sun and unbearable glow of the vast blue water and sky. “Who are you?”
He shifted, not looking at me as he scoffed. “Of course, you would not know of who I am.”
“He made it so,” Amelda said. “I am muddied, my father was Fae and my mother a royal.”
“And you?” I asked the male.
“Pinn. Fae.” He crouched down, baring his teeth for me to see his longer canines, and when he removed his spectacles, tossing them over his shoulder
to splash into the water, black eyes replaced brown. I knew Fae ears were hiding beneath his long white blond curls. “I’ve lived with a kind nursemaid in the village for a decade, just waiting for this day.”
“More than waiting,” I said. “A lot of planning must have gone into whatever this is.”
“I’ve heard you’re not one for mindless chatter. I’ve even witnessed it myself. Tell me,” Amelda said, her turquoise eyes glittering, “when you are afraid, does that cold tongue come unglued?”
“And why would I have need to be afraid?” I knew it was stupid to goad her, but old habits die hard.
“Because today is the day you meet your end. The same way your mother did.”
She was insane. “I see. And what of Adran? Does he know of this?”
Her non-answer intrigued, but I couldn’t ask much else. The male, Pinn, trudged over, and then I was gagged, and Truin finally spoke up. “What is it you hope to do with the contents of that cauldron?”
“I’m merely preparing it for you, witch. Don’t worry.” Amelda shot her an unconvincing smile. “You’ll be free to leave once you’ve done your part.”
Pinn chuckled. “If you can make it across the Whispering Sea, that is. Might want to give that old boat a try. Darkness knows how long it’s been here for, but it’s bound to be better than swimming.”
Truin’s eyes jumped to mine, filled with fear. She knew then. She’d figured out what nasty things would transpire on this little patch of magical land.
A dagger, rusted around the hilt but sharp as the sun hit its edge, was plucked from the sand.
I dug deep, as deep as I could, filling my head with thoughts of burning threads of revenge, but all that rewarded me with was a headache that threatened to explode my skull.
Truin screamed as she was dragged before the cauldron, which was now gurgling with a faint steam rising into the air.
Amelda lowered to her knees beside me, the hem of her skirts wet and covered in sand. “A heart for a heart will keep them apart, but the heart of that heart will eradicate the dark.”
I felt my heart race within the throb of my skull as all Amelda had said became clear.
They planned to drain me.
My mother wasn’t torn apart by savages. At least, that wasn’t how she’d died.
She been brought here to drain for her uncontrollable heart. As punishment to both her and Kash for committing treason.
“Yes,” Amelda said, watching me. “Your father was wicked in so many ways, but this one takes the cake. Beldine is blocked, no one can enter and no one can leave. All because of his bloodthirsty need for revenge.”
“You will die today, but not without good cause. We just want to go home, and there is no other way,” Pinn said, then to Amelda, “Let us begin.”
I refused to beg for mercy. For years, I’d told myself that when my time came, there would be no pleading, no bargaining, only dismal acceptance of my fate.
I was a queen, and I would die as one should. With grace and dignity.
I leaped to my feet, kicking Amelda in the cheek, then raced for the rock. My foot panged, my head screaming, as I kicked it as hard as I could to the water.
It rolled to its edge, the frothy blue trying to swallow it, but though Truin tried to stop him, Pinn backhanded her, and got there quicker.
I backed up to the water, unsure what I’d do once I reached it, but not really caring.
Unshed tears shone in Truin’s eyes, and her chest began to heave. “You can’t do this. She is our queen. There will be war.”
To that, both creatures just smiled, Amelda wincing as she rubbed her cheek. “No one has ever dared to start a war they could never win.”
She was right. To wage war against Beldine was a death sentence.
The ruler of their continent, I’d heard, was not only cunning but also lazy. Which was the reason we’d been able to co-exist alongside them for so many years.
Until now.
Darkness only knew what they’d decide to do should the block be removed, and they learn who was responsible for it.
“This is dark magic,” Truin said. “The darkest there is. There will be a cost.”
“We’ve already decided, naturally, that the queen’s life is of little importance to us.” Amelda snarled as I reached the water. “You will kneel before the waters of those you have trapped, and you will bleed.”
I shook the gag loose, pushed at it with my tongue, and spat it on the ground. A lemon printed kerchief. “I’d rather not.”
“You think to swim with your hands bound? We’d catch you.”
She was right, but I wasn’t about to admit it. I turned for the water, about to throw myself in, when the male grabbed me around the waist and carried me to the other side of our little island.
I kicked and writhed, but it was no use.
I was set down next to the cauldron, the water taunting my knees as it lapped over the sand. With a yank harsh enough to tear hair from my scalp, the male glowered in my face. “Try to move again, and I’ll bludgeon you. We don’t need you conscious.”
“Such a kindness,” I said, sarcasm heavy.
Amelda’s bare foot collided with my back, knocking the wind from me.
I coughed, bent over the water, as Truin began to cry. “No, no. I won’t. I refuse.”
Staring up through my lashes to the endless sea beyond, I tried to imagine a continent there. An ever-stretching land my father had shut off from the rest of the world through his own greed and hatred.
It wasn’t right. That did not mean I would ever agree to forfeit my life for their freedom if given the option, but I had no option. So I supposed there were worse things to die for.
I wondered if my mother thought the same thing when they’d drained her life from her body. If it had been worth it.
“Truin,” I said, glancing at her over my shoulder.
She was sobbing, tears lacing her cheeks in wet ribbons, as Pinn and Amelda struggled to keep her before the cauldron. Slowly, she calmed, and I nodded.
She shook her head, but whatever she saw in my face had her conceding, her shoulders falling heavily as Amelda told her what she needed to say and do.
“A heart for a heart will keep them apart, but the heart of that heart will eradicate the dark.”
Turning my face back to the water, I closed my eyes, but reopened them when eyes of glowing amber filled the back of my lids.
Truin stuttered over the incantation a few times, but as I was shoved to the sand, the ends of my hair falling into the cool water, and a blade sliced open my wrist and foot, she began to say it right.
I hardly felt the sting thanks to the two limbs being submerged in the sea.
But I did feel regret.
Insurmountable, it began to build behind my open eyes—created the urge to scream at them to stop. To give me a little more time to fix all that was still broken before I left.
In the darkness, I told myself, his smile coming forth, the affection that brimmed his eyes and re-sculpted his face from something bored and sinister to a priceless artifact you longed to stare at day in and day out. The years I’d spent darting away from him as though he’d ruin all my fun before I was ready. The countless months he’d been by my side, providing counsel I’d consistently snarled at while trying to staunch my bleeding heart. The many weeks he refused to leave when I gave him every reason to.
The times he’d saved me, not just from danger but from myself.
He couldn’t save me now, so I’d carry him with me.
Find me in the darkness, I whispered to the gathering wind, hoping he’d hear it somehow.
It was strange, feeling your life leave your body. I hadn’t known what to expect when I’d done the same to those who’d betrayed me and their kingdom, but it wasn’t this.
A peaceful swaying while lying perfectly still.
The sound of the water and Truin’s voice were beginning to fade as I realized with a gradually moving sadness that I’d never
bear a child.
I had no heir, but that part didn’t bother me as much as knowing I’d never get the chance to grow a babe inside my womb and birth him or her into their father’s strong and gentle hands.
The lord would make a wonderful father.
Turning my head slightly, my stuttered exhale stirring grains of sand, I saw a world of red colliding with blue. A brilliant purple, the likes of which I doubted any had seen before, unfurled, rolling with unnatural speed into the depths beyond.
Each breath grew loud, too loud, in my ears, and I fought to keep my eyes open.
With her long brown hair falling over her shoulder, glossy and almost as vibrant as the blue of her eyes, she swept her fingers across my brow. “Wait,” she said. A tear slid down my cheek and her finger collected it. “Just a little longer.”
“I’m…” It hurt to swallow, to even rasp, “I’m scared.”
Her angelic face creased, eyes filling with tears that would never fall. “Brave girl, let me sing you a song.”
Suddenly, she was no longer touching me, but seated atop the water clouded with my blood, with two babes in either arm.
My brothers.
One had inky black hair and bright, forest green eyes that didn’t smile, but rather, seemed to look through you. Rahn. Jonnis was smiling, his dimpled cheeks smooshing his deep blue eyes as he sucked on his fist.
My mother bounced them a little, humming as she did.
I wanted to touch them, tried to, but I could no longer lift my arm. It was as if it did not exist even though I could see it, drifting just below the surface of the purple-colored ocean.
“Little princess, little princess don’t you sigh, these stars will want your every smile. Little princess, little princess don’t you weep, it’s past time you went to sleep. Little princess, little princess it’s all right, Mommy’s love will see you through the night…”
The male, I’d already forgotten what his name was, began to shout, and I heard Truin pause, but not before I saw shadows begin to take shape.
A clang sounded, faint, and so was the scream that followed.
My lips parted, shallow bursts of air moving between them. My mother looked up, then down at me, her eyes still glistening. “He comes.”