Her eyes snapped open. A surge of power went up to the skies from the veranda the two she-elves stood. It crashed onto the old spells, rendering them plain Stardust, glittering and ethereal Stardust. She wasn’t arrogant, not that much at least, but her spells had ever been the strongest among her people, her magic was the most powerful between the priests in the Temple of Nature.
The spells took their place in the sky around them, creating a transparent dome around the city. It glistened against the soft sunlight and turned everything brighter. If something could ever be that bright.
It slowly faded though, into a fine sheen of magic, covering everything and turning the people oblivious of what went on to the outside world.
When Cassia turned to look at Aine, her eyes were already watery and her mouth was slightly agape. She knew she had felt her wards shattering and Cassia’s taking place, strong and unmoving, a force of Nature in their own right.
The runes had gone off to the skies and the floor remained unmarred as if no runes magic had ever been performed on it.
“Teach me.”
Cassia snapped her gaze the blond female and shook her head. She couldn’t be a teacher, not a spell teacher. She had no patience and not the capability to take Aine’s mind into hers and shape them together into a bond. This was not something Cassia could do, not in a time where evil lurked at every shadowy alcove with a blade, clutched firmly in its hand.
“I can’t become your Spell Teacher.” Cassia sighed sadly and tapped her fingers on the onyx.
Aine rolled her eyes. “I didn’t ask you to become my spell teacher. The first time was bad enough with me ending up with a mate.”
Cassia’s throat bobbed. Aine was far too young to have accepted a mate.
“You accepted your mate?” Cassia asked without thinking of propriety.
The blonde snorted. “The bastard is old enough to be twice my father, but he is handsome as Nautiz and I love him too much to ever think of not accepting him in the beginning.”
Her words were dipped in syrup, sweet and warm and loving. It was a wonder to see the pureness of love between mates. The warmth and desire they held for each other dripping from every word, every glance.
Heaviness grew on Cassia’s chest. She could never have those things. She could never feel the touch of her mate; she could never feel the warmth of his flesh against hers. She was far too cursed by the gods, by Nature. A longing like no other overwhelmed her, and she could feel her eyes turning watery and her nose becoming heavy.
She turned her face away from the she-elf beside her, concealing her sadness and loathing. She swallowed hard and felt Aine’s hand upon her cotton clad shoulder. When she turned to look at her, she smiled.
Aine bit her bottom lip with anxiety and asked, “What about your mate, have you found him?”
Cassia knew Aine’s questioning was genuine, but she glared at her, forcing the Spell Mistress to withdraw her hand. “Dead.” Cassia uttered. Her eyes turned darker, something dark and unbinding lurked in there. “Maybe he was one of those that I killed in War.” Her eyes seemed to soften, but she continued. “It would have hurt others to know their mates might have fallen from their blades, but not me.” She gritted her teeth, she concentrated her glance on the onyx floor, her voice had fallen into lower scales. “Not me.”
“You should still teach me.” Cassia shook her head. “I’ve never...” Aine trailed, her voice failing her. “Never felt such power before; never felt the strength of human runes in that way.”
Cassia sighed heavily, her head turned dizzy.
She took in a deep breath. “I’ll think about it.” She grinned, pain began from the bottom of her spine up to the nape of her neck, and she grimaced from the soreness. “Not now though. I’ll be in my room.”
She rose to clumsy feet, her joints groaning. It was enough for her, enough for one day. She shook her head as she pulled in the palace. Her legs almost giving away at every step she took. Her world buzzed and everything seemed to change around her, twisting and changing the angle. She wanted to scream and fall down, but she couldn’t. Something nudged her forward.
She shook her head, blinking a few times. Her vision turned blurry. Her spine hurt so much as if fire was beginning at the pits and surged up, up, up to her brain. So much pain she had never felt before.
By the time she had reached the stairs in the living room, she turned her head and glanced backwards at the balcony. Once she knew that Aine was gone, her knees gave away and she fell on the ground. Bones crashing against the hard floor as she groaned.
Her forehead sweating. It dripped over her face, turning her skin red and hot. Nausea took over her and in a moment she only wanted to empty her stomach from whatever little breakfast she had taken.
The pain. There was so much pain and it stretched everywhere.
Her breath was coming in short gasps. She clung with her hands on the stairs and pulled her body upwards. Her legs were unmoving as if petrified. She didn’t know what went over her that moment. She pulled herself up the twenty stairs and crawled over the floor. The onyx was cold against her heated skin, soothing the pain somehow.
She could barely see what went on before her. Her ears buzzed. She could feel life sinking out of her. She could feel it, deep in the marrow of her bones and she couldn’t do anything to spare herself those moments of disgrace.
Her breath was giving out on her, abandoning her. Every breath she took, it felt as heavy as if it were her last one. She could feel the sudden rush of blood to her ears, her brain fought the pain. She pulled her useless body with her arms, just barely outside her room.
She breathed in.
Darkness filled her eyes.
Her joints hurt.
Her heart hurt.
Her mind pounded.
Everything was dark, she couldn’t see anything.
She choked on her own breath.
Her lungs pulsed.
In a moment she was back in her cell. She was back to being miserable and useless. She was back to being a piece of living flesh, muscles and nothing else. She had no mind of her own. No consciousness that telling her to be careful and survive.
Her hands gave out somewhere in the middle of the corridor –it must have been the middle.
She lay there, floating in the blissful idea that she was dying...
+ + +
Light hurt her eyes as they flared open. She groaned loudly and shot up, sitting straight on the bed. She pulled her wits about her and raised her hands on her forehead, the dizziness was still there.
“You’ve woken up, I see.”
Her eyes shot towards the voice to her left. Aine stood by the door with a worried look over her eyes as she pressed the door closed. She approached Cassia and placed, bluntly, a hand over her forehead checking her temperature. The Lady groaned as Aine pressed her back onto the mattress and sat down on the bed beside her.
“How do you feel?” She asked as she fixed the coverlets over her chest.
Cassia ignored her question. “Where are my councillors?”
Ardan and Nadaon.
She rolled her eyes. “Argoth flashed them back to Navacore.”
She felt dizzy again, but she stifled down the feeling of nausea. “How did I end up here?” She asked. “Last time I was in the corridor waiting for a swift death.”
Aine chuckled and answered with her thick accent, “Mersila found you writhing on the floor. That girl admires you a lot for her own good.”
Cassia groaned again. She felt awful, and for someone like her, with her strength, there were times she could fight for days continually without stopping to ease her muscles, but now she could barely hold herself up.
“She was scared that one time I met her. Scared enough to run away.” She closed her eyes and rolled her head against the pillow.
“She is Beathan’s step-sister. A daughter of fire. She can’t be scared, I’ve known her since I was an elfling and she was fearless. She kind of admires you.”
Cassia snorted. If Mersila admired her, she wouldn’t have let her on her father’s clutches to be beaten, raped, and violated in every way that sick Lord could think possible. She wanted to tell Aine that, but her tongue seemed coated in poison and it had turned numb. She bit down on her cheek and gritted her teeth slowly.
“I don’t need the admiration of such a coward.”
Aine chuckled. “The Lady is not a coward, just a bit strange.”
“I think I have enough strange things in my life. I only need normalcy for the time being.”
“Yes, try to persuade yourself into believing it. You are the Heir of the King and instead of following your Liege blindly, you chose to betray his sick beliefs and fight for something better, something so greater than you, than us.” She shook her head smiling. “I believe you are nothing but astonishing and brave. Mersila is pure and unbroken, unlike her brothers.”
Cassia dismissed every word Aine said. She still didn’t know what went on through the thick, luxurious walls of that palace. She wanted to lash out to the young she-elf beside her and scream at her with every ounce of her self-respect.
She had belittled herself enough and it hurt already.
“You think that I will break her and spoil her.” Cassia’s voice sharp, a remark, not a question.
“No,” Aine growled, grimacing. “No, I didn’t mean it this way. She is prone to bend to those she admires. She has been hurt many times by those unyielding males she falls for.”
“I am here for war councils, not babysitting an elf.”
She knew her words hurt a bit more than needed. Her skin crawled at the thought of hurting someone she barely knew.
“Don’t be like that. She saved your life.”
Cassia exhaled soundly. “I hope she is nothing like her father.”
Aine laughed. “The old Lord had his sons bound to their rooms, had his daughter confined to a castle away from here. He was a despicable thing. Lord Griswold sliced his throat open and saved Feremony from someone as filthy as him.”
Cassia gulped. Griswold.
She hadn’t thought about him all day, and she had no need to think of him as a heroic figure saving a whole land of its vicious Lord. She hated him enough and she could barely do anything to hate him more. Despising him came so naturally to her. It was akin to nature.
He was no hero, he was the evil character in the most despicable story she had ever read in her life.
“Don’t you have something better to do?” Cassia asked and shook her head; she had to stay alone to reflect on her thoughts.
“Mersila and I just saved your sorry arse and you are being mean. I will take it to be the aftermaths of the poison.”
The heir greeted her teeth, clenching her jaw. “What poison?”
“Food poisoning. Your breakfast had Greenrock powered over the fruits. You would like to restraint from fruits for a bit.”
“Thank you.”
“One of the maids did it for sure.”
She sighed. “I’ll find her.”
Aine rolled her eyes. “Don’t. Ethan visited a few hours ago, he is taking care of it.”
“Then I would very much like to get up and about.”
“Don’t think of it,” Aine said as she opened the door. “Rest. After all, it’s been about six hours you are out.”
“Thank you.”
Aine groaned happily as she turned her head and glanced at Cassia. “Try to befriend Mersila. She will need someone other than myself and her brothers to socialise with.”
She merely nodded. Aine left the room, shutting the door behind her.
Cassia yawned lazily. Her eyelashes were closing and her brain was shutting down. She could barely move.
Mersila could wait until tomorrow.
30
She had barely managed to breakfast. Aine had instructed to keep away from fruits to give time to her organism adjust to the antidote of the Greenrock.
The tea of Cerish leaves was bitter on Cassia’s tongue and the piece of toast with the berries marmalade otherworldly pleasant, were not what she intended to have for her everyday breakfast.
Cassia had checked the breakfast for poisoning. Her enemies surpassed her name’s power apparently.
She wasn’t a being that liked to sit on her arse for more than necessary and she could barely bring herself to relax. She had nothing to do, but huff in annoyance and play with her runes all day till noon. After staying in bed for a fine amount of half an hour after breakfast, she was so irate at the fact that she had nothing to kill her time.
She pulled the coverlets away from her and stood, taking a moment for her legs to adjust. She reached for the bathroom and washed even though using her limbs felt foreign. Cassia debated whether she should follow Aine’s words or grab her daggers and exercise a bit.
It wasn’t hard to persuade herself into doing exercises. She fell on the ground and bent to her elbows as she breathed in and moved her torso and legs up, keeping them as straight and firm as she could. It had been a few days since she last trained, but she kept that thought out of her mind and concentrated on her breaths.
“Oh, Mother!”
Cassia squealed, falling on her side. Hard. Her head twisted to the side and glanced at Mersila who had probably entered her room a few moments ago. Her eyes wide and her mouth agape.
Cassia groaned as she pulled herself up to her feet and shook her head. “What are you doing here?”
Mersila shook her head.
How many Eathons existed anyway? Aine had told her that Ethan had a brother, maybe more than one and she never knew that Trisila, Mersila’s sister, had more than one sibling when She sliced her throat and gave her to the King for his own twisted appetite.
Cassia had tortured Mersila’s sister and the she-elf was there, admiring the Heir as if she was something of a brave and virtuous heroine.
“I am sorry for ye-yesterday. The maid has been taken care of and I made your breakfast personally.”
Cassia clenched her jaw, surveying the she-elf before her. “Thank you.”
Aine opened her mouth to speak but clasped it close again. It took a moment before she summoned the strength to talk. “I always wanted to be like you.”
No, you didn’t.
Not if she knew what Cassia had done, how many lives she had taken, how many children the warrior had left fatherless, how much pain she had caused, tears and despair.
“Trust me,” Cassia shook her head. “You don’t want to be like me. I am the fires of the Underworld and I burn whatever I touch.”
Lethal. Deadly. Terrifying.
“I wish I were.” Mersila smiled. “I would have been spared from many things.”
Cassia nodded. Even though Mersila’s elven nature preserved her beauty, her eyes spoke of years beyond her. Cassia walked closer to her, standing a few steps away from her. She could see Mersila’s features better from that distance. Her eyes were green, but a grey rim circled the centre. Her hair was pitch black and braided down her back, in a messy braid, just as messy as Cassia usually did her own.
“What do I have more than you?” Cassia asked, resting her hands on her hips stubbornly.
Mersila looked at her with a small smile rising on her face. “Bravery, strength, an iron will. You are looked upon as if you are a legend passing from generation to generation.” She frowned then, a thought dawning in her head as she tilted it and bit her lips. “I am sorry.”
Cassia was stunned. The thought that she asked for forgiveness for something her pure, innocent soul could never commit. Cassia’s captivity at Feremony was not something the she-elf could have spared her from. As Aine had informed her, Mersila was kept locked away in her room.
Cassia moved forward, grasping her hands in both of her calloused ones, she raised her head and glanced at her, her eyes watery. Cassia didn’t know why she bothered her oversensitive brain with a weeping she-elf, the daughter of her enemy.
She something snapped inside her, it fel
t as if her brain was being squeezed between iron clutches, she put more shields around her mind and the pain subsided immediately. Cassia knew that someone was trying to get to her. Someone outside the wall of wards she had built the previous day. She immediately knew who it was. Felt it in the air.
The King.
31
Cassia erupted into a spring, pushing Mersila off her way. If the King knew where she was then everyone’s life was at stake no matter how polished and perfect the wards around the city were. She ran down the corridors, passing an annoyed Griswold. She paid him little attention as she continued her swift journey down the stairs, and into the council room.
The King knew about the wards, about her doing more than spying on the Adanei. He knew.
Her blood chilled in her veins and beads of sweat seemed to erupt along the length of her arms and down her hands. She grasped onto the wooden panels of the door and flared them open. She rushed into the council chamber, her breath coming in short gasps.
She had let her guard down believing even for a moment that she was safe, safe from the King, safe from the clutches of death, safe from the toils of her life. It was good, and it lasted only for a few hours. That was the closest she had ever come to tasting freedom. The closest.
Beathan came to her side, taking her by the shoulders. She let her eyes move to the room behind him. His generals. His commanders all looking suspiciously at her. She shook her head, eyes wide open. He motioned to them to leave the room. They all obeyed their Lord’s command and left, the door pressed shut with a thud behind them.
Cassia shook her head again as her eyes rose to meet his green glance. He was worried, the irises of his clear eyes sparkled with uneasiness. She managed to pull away from him, his hands leaving her shoulders. She did like Ethan’s tendency to close proximity, but at this moment at this very moment when she knew there was a possibility the King could use her against him, she couldn’t stay close to him.
Her mind screamed to her a thousand words of keeping away from him. A thousand ways to go away and hide somewhere in the vast lands of Tassiera were the King could never find her.
A War of Silver and Gold Page 27