by N. M. Howell
Taelor tossed her one of the knives and she yelped and jumped aside. She wouldn’t try to catch a flying knife, she knew her abilities. That thing looked sharp, and as it fell it stabbed its tip into the soil and stood straight up, balancing in the ground. She gazed down at it, her eyes wide. She then turned to Taelor.
“What the hell?” she gasped at him. “That would have cut me!”
Taelor’s eyebrow raised. “Not if you had caught it, it wouldn’t have.”
Rhea bent down to pick up the small knife. It was light in her hand, well-balanced. Intricate patterns were carved into the handle and it fit perfectly in her palm. The metal looked strange, glowing nearly white in the sun.
“What is this?” she asked him, her eyes fixated on the dagger. She turned it in her hand, inspecting the strange light that reflected off the sharply cut surfaces.
“Elven Basque metal,” Taelor said, his voice light. He gazed down at his own knife with an expression of reverence on his face.
Rhea inhaled a quiet gasp because the name sounded familiar.
“Some of the finest metal found in the Otherworld,” he continued softly. “Very rare. Sharper than steel, yet nearly as light as a feather.”
Rhea balanced the knife on her finger and tossed it from hand to hand, getting to know the balance and weight of the small weapon. “It’s beautiful,” she said.
Taelor nodded as he took a wide stance, squaring his shoulders to her.
“What’s the handle made from? I’ve never felt anything like it.” She couldn’t pull her eyes away from intricate carvings that felt smooth under her grip.
Taelor relaxed his stance for a moment, lifting his own dagger to his eyes. “Braedenbiir horn.”
Rhea gasped and nearly dropped the weapon. “How? They’ve been extinct for thousands of years.”
A quick flash of a smile formed on Taelor’s face before he settled back into his familiar serious expression. “Very rare, indeed,” he said, running his finger along the intricate carvings on his own dagger. “A single horn was found a century ago, but many thought it was just a rumor. Only three weapons in existence are known to be carved from Braedenbiir horn.”
Rhea’s eyes flashed up to him, her expression wild. “Three? And these are two of them?” She couldn’t believe it, she had never seen anything so precious or rare in her life.
“It is said the third was carved for the handle of a weapon forged from Falden-glass steel. It is said to wield the destiny stone.”
Taelor’s eyes sparkled in the sunlight, his eyes mischievous.
Rare glanced up at him again, groaning. “Everyone knows the stones are a myth.” She struggled not to roll her eyes at him.
Taelor shrugged. “Maybe so, but they’ve been a significant large part of this war these last few years.”
Rhea’s eyebrow raised. “How so?”
Her grip tightened on the dagger, the curved handle growing familiar in her grip. She didn’t want to ever let it go.
“It is said that whoever wields all seven stones will have ultimate power. Helpful in a war of the gods, I suppose.”
Rhea laughed. “Yeah, so they said in the children’s tales when I was young. One can dream.”
Taelor made a sound that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. Rhea glanced up at him, diverting her eyes before he caught her smirking at him.
“Either way,” Rhea said. “This is incredible. How did you get them? These things must be worth a fortune.”
Taelor paused, silence filling the space between them. “An old family heirloom.”
Rhea took a step back. “Family heirloom? Whose family?” She’d never heard Taelor speak of his family before, and from what she understood of him, he was more of a lone ranger. She didn’t even know he had a family.
“Yours.”
Rhea froze. Her mouth hung open, her throat dry. “What you mean, mine? Did these belong to Aeris before he died?”
Taelor shook his head slowly, his eyes falling to his feet. “No, Rhea. These belonged to your mother.”
Her grip loosened on the dagger, as she lifted it to her eyes. She ran her finger along the sharp edge, careful not to cut herself.
“These were my mother’s,” she whispered to herself. She then looked up to Taelor. “How did they come into your possession?”
Taelor looked as if he didn’t want to speak. He opened his mouth and closed it again, considering. When he finally spoke, Rhea could hardly believe his words. “She gave them to me right before she died.”
“She what?” Rhea nearly dropped the dagger. She didn’t remember much from her mother’s death, having not been there herself. She had come in not long after, though, finding her mother’s frail body sprawled on the ground, covered in blood. She had heard that her mother had died protecting Aeris, and nothing in the world angered her more.
She loved her mother more than anything, but she hated her for sacrificing herself for his life. He was such an evil man, and her mother stayed true as a guardian to the very last second of her life, protecting him. Rhea thought it selfish and unfair. Selfish because her mother sacrificed herself for Aeris while leaving her only daughter alone in the world to fend for herself. By sacrificing herself, she had left Rhea alone and abandoned.
Rhea was better beginning to understand the bond her mother felt to her god, because Rhea’s own emotions were playing tricks on her when it came to her own guardians, even over the past few days, but the fact that her mother had given her life to protect Aeris made her body seize. It was the only thing she couldn’t stand about her mother, and it was in her very last day that Rhea’s anger toward her had reared.
“Why did she give them to you before she died?” Rhea finally asked, her voice catching in her throat. “These would’ve protected her. They could have saved her.”
Her eyes stung as tears brimmed her eyelids, but she refused to allow them to fall. She took in a steadying breath, squaring her shoulders.
“Yes, they likely could have.”
That was all he said, and silence filled the air once more. There was a heavy tension in the air and Rhea noticed her other four guardians standing next to the river, watching them in silence. She didn’t know how to respond.
“Why did she give them to you?”
“Rhea,” he began.
It took everything in her not to throw the dagger back at him. She was furious and frustrated. She needed answers. “Why did she give them to you before she died?” Rhea repeated, her voice angry and her words short.
“Rhea, you don’t understand,” he said.
“Then make me.” Her voice was harsh and her body rigid. She had never felt such anger seeping through her body before. She was angry at her mother, angry at her father, but she was now angrier than she’d ever been at Taelor. She needed answers, she needed to know the truth.
“Why didn’t she protect herself?” Rhea insisted. “Tell me, Taelor. I need to know the truth. Why the hell did she give these to you before she died?”
Taelor rubbed his eyes. He stepped toward her, but she held up her hand, stopping him. He froze in place, letting the dagger in his hand fall gently to his side.
“Rhea,” he began slowly. His voice was crisp in the surrounding air, her ears sensitive and her eyes fixated on him.
“She gave them to me so I could give them to you,” he said softly.
“That makes no sense,” she said. “Why not just give them to me herself after she’d use them to defend herself from Aeris’s attackers? Why would she give them to you before she died, only to give to me, if she knew they would’ve helped her?”
Taelor took another step forward. “She didn’t want to protect herself, Rhea.”
Rhea blinked. The tears finally spilled down her cheeks. “What are you talking about?”
“She was Aeris’s last living guardian,” he said.
Rhea wanted to hit him, to tell him he was lying. Her mother would never have been so stupid. She glared at him, her muscles tense.
“She gave them to me, because she knew that if she sacrificed herself, then Aeris would finally be weak enough to be killed.”
His last words hung in the air, filling her mind with more questions than she could bear to ask. She stood there, staring at him.
“She didn’t sacrifice herself to protect him?” she finally asked.
Taelor looked sad, his eyes full of so much sorrow it made Rhea’s heart ache even more.
“No, she did not.” Taelor said. He had known her mother well, Rhea knew they had been friends. She’d often hear them laughing together from the other room, when she was trying to avoid her guardians as a child. She had felt jealous at times at how close the two had been, refusing to acknowledge Taelor as her own companion at the time.
“Why? I don’t…I don’t understand.”
Taelor stepped forward again, placing a soft hand on Rhea’s shoulder. “Your mother was the most devoted person I’ve ever met. She was the kindest and most beautiful creature on this planet. She was devoted to Aeris, but the one thing that she was more devoted to than him, was you.”
Rhea took a step back, pulling her shoulder from his grasp. “What does that have to do with anything?”
Taelor hung his head. “She sacrificed herself, knowing that she was his last remaining guardian. His last remaining living force of protection. For if she survived, there was no way that Aeris would ever be able to be destroyed, as his soul still existed within her.”
Rhea let out a slow breath, his words weighing heavily on her. “My mother sacrificed herself so he could be killed?”
Taelor nodded. “Yes.”
A gasp escaped Rhea’s lips as she fell to her knees. Her entire body trembled. She didn’t want to process the information. All this time, she thought her mother sacrificed herself to protect Aeris. It had made her angry. It had made her hate her mother despite the fact that she loved her more than anything on this planet.
Hearing that her mother had sacrificed herself so that her god could be destroyed made Rhea’s mind race and her heart ache. That must’ve weighed so heavily on her, the strength it must’ve taken for her mother to do such a thing. Rhea couldn’t even imagine. Her mother had loved Aeris, though Rhea never understood why. But she’d sacrificed herself in order for her own god to be taken out, so that the world could be free of his evil.
Rhea’s heart filled with a newfound respect for her mother. She looked down to the dagger in her hands, her heart swelling with both pride and sadness. She held the weapon close to her heart, closing her eyes.
“I didn’t know,” she finally said.
Taelor stepped forward, placing his hand under her chin, lifting her gently so she stood once more.
“Now do you understand why you are the only one who can sit on the throne?”
She shook her head, tears blurring her vision. “No, I…”
“Your mother sacrificed herself so Aeris could be taken out. She knew it was the only way you could survive. And by you surviving, that was the only way this world can be restored to peace. Rhea, there’s more to your destiny than you seem to fully grasp. Everything was done for you, and you alone. Your mother was the sole reason that Aeris was finally defeated.
“She was stronger than her enemies, stronger than anyone I’ve ever known, but she allowed herself to be killed so he could be killed in turn. And she did it, not only for our world, but for the one thing she loved most above all else.”
Rhea blinked at him, wiping the tears from her burning eyes. “Me.”
Taelor nodded. They stood there staring at each other, a newfound appreciation for Taelor forming in Rhea’s heart.
“Now,” Taelor said, stepping back and moving his feet to a wide stance, his knees bent. “You ready for your training?”
Rhea laughed and let out a soft sigh, shaking her head and wiping the rest of her tears from her eyes. Her eyes burned, but she was filled with new determination. She nodded. “Yes, let’s do this.”
“All right, the first thing you need to know is how to position your body for a maximum effect,” he began. He motioned with his own body, demonstrating how she should stand. “You may not be physically strong, but with the right stance, you can put more power into an attack than you would think. You can be stronger than your enemies will expect.”
Rhea tried to mimic his stance, but let her body relax. “Taelor…”
He softened his stance and looked at her with hooded eyes. “Yes?”
She chewed her lower lip, staring at the elf. He had seen such horrors, done such terrible things for the cause. But he had loved her mother almost as much as she had, and up until now she never understood the true pain he’d felt at her passing. “Thank you for telling me.”
Taelor nodded. “Of course.” His brows pulled together in a serious expression, but she caught a small smile forming on his lips. A deafening silence hung in the air as they both gazed at one another. The breeze blew softly between them and after a long moment Taelor squared his shoulders to her once more and bent his knees into an attack position.
“Now, hold the dagger like this and try to hit me.”
Rhea gripped the dagger tight in her hand, feeling its strange energy tingle up her muscles as she wielded it.
Bending her knees, she lunged forward to attack.
17
The training session didn’t last too long before Rhea’s body gave out. It would be a while yet before her muscles were strong enough to last more than a few minutes, but at least she’d picked up a few techniques. Taelor taught her that she didn’t have to be strong to be powerful, and that power relied heavily on the way she carried herself rather than the actual strength behind her throws.
The sun beat down quite hot now that it was midday and the sun hung directly above them in the sky. She leaned against the large oak tree to rest, her body collapsing onto the ground and her breath coming in heavy gasps as she collected herself after the exertion of their training session.
Rhea closed her eyes and before she knew it, she fell asleep. Her guardians allowed her to sleep for a while, but when she awoke not long later, they were gone. A moment of panic flooded her veins as she looked around, unable to see where they had gone. Her eyes settled on their horses, though, so she figured they couldn’t have gone too far. Had she been at risk of danger, they would have woken her, right?
Rhea pushed herself up from the ground, brushing the dry leaves that clung to her body as she stood. She stretched and shook herself awake, looking around desperately for her companions.
Arry’s laughter floated to her in the wind and drew her attention down toward the river. She recognized their shadows down below and saw they were all in the water. Smiling, she made her way down to the river’s edge, but paused when she got too close.
“Oh my God, you guys,” she said, shielding her eyes.
They were all bathing naked, their clothing strewn haphazardly across the river bank. They definitely didn’t seem shy, and they were walking around fully exposed under the heat of the sun.
She turned and diverted her gaze, and felt a deep blush forming on her face.
“You can come join us if you want,” Arry’s voice came from in the water. He splashed Keaven, who stood next to him and laughed.
Keaven was the only one who wasn’t fully naked, sporting a long cloak over his pale skin. She wasn’t even sure how the whole vampire sunlight thing worked in the Otherworld, unsure if that was just a human construct in stories or whether it was true. Perhaps there was some truth to it, as he never seemed to be fully exposed under direct sunlight.
“No, I’m good,” she said, feeling extremely awkward. She looked the other way, unsure what to do.
“Aw come on,” Keaven said. “The water’s warm.”
Rhea let out a quick laugh. “No, seriously. I’m good. You guys go on, I’ll hop in later.”
She moved to walk away, but was stopped when a large wave came from behind her, soaking her sweater. She turned and
glared, immediately shutting her eyes tightly, her blush rising even more furious. “You guys, come on.”
She barely knew her guardians. Sure, she’d grown up with them in the castle, but she had spent most of her life trying to hide from them. She had never really gotten to know them on a very personal level up until the last day and a half. She sure as hell didn’t know them well enough to be comfortable seeing them naked, and she absolutely, without question, didn’t know them well enough to let them see her naked.
As if reading her mind, Grayson called out, his voice amused. “You know we’ve seen you naked before.”
Rhea gasped, her eyes fluttering open to meet his gaze. “What?” she asked him, practically screaming. A thousand scenarios raced through her head at how that could be possible. She wanted to run, to scream, to throw their clothes back at them and cover them up. She was beyond embarrassed.
Grayson laughed and shook his head. “Relax, kid,” he said, his voice cool. She could tell he was clearly amused at how on edge she was at their nudity. “When you were a baby, I mean.”
Rhea let out a controlled breath and turned away from him, her cheeks burning as she fidgeted with her fingers awkwardly. “Oh.” That was all she could manage. “Well, you guys have fun in there. I’ll come back, er…later…”
She walked away and was splashed once more. A grin spread across her face, but she bent her head to conceal her amusement with her hair. These men were still so unfamiliar to her. She wanted to connect, but her mind warred with her heart. They were still the men she had run away from, still the men who were leading her to her supposed death. Kneeling down and playing with her dagger, she did anything to avoid looking back at her naked guardians in the river, though a part of her did still want to peek.
“Stop it,” she murmurer to herself as she caught her eyes wandering to the river, her lips pressed together to repress a smirk. It wasn’t as if they were modest or anything. They were all bathing naked together, exposing everything to the midday sun as if they didn’t have a care in the world.