Raskyuil glanced over at her, the fingers of one hand prodding his wounds. He regarded her quietly as he assured himself that he wasn’t gushing blood. Eventually, his hand dropped away, and he cleared his throat.
“I suppose we ought to be leaving,” he grumbled.
Diana nodded and attempted a smile. She doubted it was convincing since it felt strained to her, but at least she made the effort.
Raskyuil chuckled and patted her arm. “That’s my ati, brave queen. Listen to the vegoia. Things will work out. I think it is about time we got you home. Do you recall anything of where you came into the forest?”
Diana thought back and described everything she remembered of what the forest looked like where she had emerged, right down to the faun she met. Raskyuil seemed familiar with the male because he nodded.
“The portal is not far,” he said. “We will go on foot and allow Keena to reunite with her mate, if he still lives, and see to what remains of her clan. It won’t take us more than a day of travel. That particular faun has his territory closer to the palace than most,” he stated as he slowly walked forward. “This place may sleep for a time, but it is not going to be the same for me. Not after all of that.”
Glancing sideways, Diana peered up at him. “What will you do?”
Grumbling, Raskyuil kicked away the broken remains of his ax and shrugged. “I’m thinking it is a time for a change. Seek what destiny the Fates have in store for me in your world.” He gave her a crooked smile as he strode away, his heavy steps echoing in the cavern. “If nothing else, it should be an adventure.”
“Yes, I suppose it would be,” she agreed as they ascended the staircase.
The troll stopped at the top of the staircase and cast her a worried glance. “Prepare yourself. This isn’t going to pretty.”
Diana gave him an arched look, but then the door opened to a world of absolute devastation. Raskyuil’s face shut down, no doubt hardening himself to the sight he had expected to see. Diana, however, felt like she had been punched in the gut as he hustled her through the hidden courtyard. She didn’t know with any certainty what he didn’t want her to see but had a strong suspicion when she heard Keena’s mournful cries rise before they were joined by far too few voices of the clan. Of what she did see, there was almost nothing familiar of the grandeur that was Arx, and the beautiful groves where the hamadryads had dwelled were nothing more than a blackened ruin. Even the gardens, when they finally came upon them, were withered and ground into the mud, a swarm of pixies forlornly attempting to prop up the crushed plants.
She didn’t cry, however, until she saw the bodies of the dead. Diana sobbed in silence as they picked their way by the remains. Everywhere she looked, she saw dozens of the dead, their souls torn from them, bodies discarded where they fell in agony. Raskyuil said nothing as they walked. They were like wraiths among fields of death. The shadows gradually became longer until they finally left them and the palace behind as they entered the forest.
They fell into a rhythm over the hours, Raskyuil leading the way and Diana following silently behind. A chill crawled over her skin when they passed a dirty jeep tipped on its side. She glanced at it in passing, drawing the troll’s curious gaze. Tightening her lips, she said nothing, and so they plodded on. It seemed like ages ago that Silvas had cornered her there. The reminder hurt even though the horror of the wreckage had faded over the weeks she had been in the Eternal Forest.
She didn’t even notice when they passed through the barrier, but she thought she heard the sad coo of a dove when they suddenly broke through the trees into a familiar clearing. A makeshift altar jutted up, with its offering vessels. Her eyebrows winged up at the sight and she drew in a sharp breath of surprise. Breaking into a run, Diana raced through the woods, Raskyuil’s startled shout following her. She didn’t stop running until she broke through the trees.
Slowing to a halt, she looked down the hillside at a sight she had been uncertain if she would ever see again. Her grandmother’s darkened cabin sat quietly beside the lake, a blush of growth surrounding it as late spring flowers bloomed throughout the garden. Tears filled her eyes and she spent a long moment just staring down it as Raskyuil pushed his way through the brush to her side.
Looking over her shoulder at him, Diana watched the large male wrinkle his nose in an uncertain distaste. His nostrils flared, scenting the air as he squinted and took in the landscape.
“So, this is the human world. It looks less… impressive than I thought it would be. Where are your human wonders?”
Diana laughed and shook her head. “I’m afraid you’re looking at the wrong area for any kind of wonders. This is all farmland and small towns. Even before the ravaging, it was pretty quiet. I doubt that even in the remnants of the city you will find much that is truly impressive, though once there was.”
He grunted and followed her down the hill, his eyes scanning the distance as they made their way toward her home. Within minutes they passed through the garden gates and Diana dug her spare key from a flowerpot beside the door. Raskyuil trailed her the entire way, peering curiously over her shoulder as she unlocked it and pushed it open. His steps sounded impossibly loud on the wooden floorboards as he followed her into the cabin.
Craning his neck, the troll looked with interest at her simple furnishings and decor, things that her grandmother had collected throughout her lifetime.
“This is your home?” he asked.
She nodded as she shut the door firmly behind her. “This was my grandparents’ home, but it has been mine for a while now. I guess I still kind of see it as belonging to them even after all this time.”
He grunted again without comment as he continued his exploration. Diana busied herself building up a fire. She considered flicking on the electricity to give him a surprise, but she hated to waste the power from the generator unnecessarily. The fire, however, seemed to relax him, and at her invitation he lowered himself into a chair to rest.
“Do you think you’ll stay long?” Diana asked an hour later as they sat down to a simple dinner. The meat and bread had spoiled in her absence, but she’d found a few staples to put something filling together until she had the opportunity to hunt.
He shook his head as he took a bite of food. He grimaced at the fare but offered no complaint. “A day or two perhaps,” he grumbled. “It is best if I don’t stay too long. I suspect that if anyone notices my presence it won’t go well for you. I need to figure my own way from here.”
Diana’s lips pressed into a flat line, but she couldn’t disagree. No one in town would understand a troll among them, not after the horrors of the ravagers. They would immediately lump him together with them.
So it happened that, on the third day, Diana stood at her doorway in the wee hours of morning as Raskyuil, armed with what provisions she could find for him in town, threw the pack over his shoulder with a grim smile.
Sighing, she drew him down and gripped him close in a tight hug until his arms folded around her and returned the embrace. Pulling back, she blinked her eyes rapidly and smiled up at him.
“You’ll be okay, won’t you?”
His smile widened into a cocky grin. “Never doubt it, little ati.”
“I am not your ati,” she said, rolling her eyes. After everything that happened between her and Silvas, she felt uncomfortable with the title.
His smile fell. Leaning forward, his forehead nearly met hers as he peered into her eyes. “You will always be my ati. Even if I did initially offer to feed you to the strix. No matter where I am in this world, you have my loyalty.”
“Thank you, Raskyuil,” she whispered.
He gave her a slow nod, a friendly smile pulling at his lips as he straightened once more. She stood there in the doorway and watched as he walked away, passing through the garden gate. He stopped just at the other side and lifted his hand in farewell. She returned the gesture, her eyes stinging as he swung around and ambled away at a ground-eating pace. She didn’t move from h
er spot until he disappeared.
Her heart heavy, feeling lonelier than ever, Diana sighed and turned to go back in. A brush of a cool breeze made her pause, and her eyes searched the horizon. Was Silvas out there somewhere, or was he still hunting within the Eternal Forest?
Shaking her head, she let out her breath and stepped back inside. It was time to try to get on with her life. Her long, long, lonely life. Grimacing, she drew the door shut behind her, wishing she could just close the door to that entire time and forget.
Chapter 38
Months later
Selvans growled as he crouched down close to the damp ground, his nostrils flaring to catch any scent of taint. Nothing. His claws dug into the earth with frustration. For months, he had been tracking Cacus in the human world, following the telltale scent of foulness. He had been getting closer, but now it was as if the creature had disappeared altogether.
Sitting back on his heels, he squinted at the light sprinkle of trees growing amid the grassy stretches. Just a few feet away a beautiful stone fountain stood silently with a single drop of water falling from it. The entire town had long been abandoned, the stench of death still clinging to it from when the wulkwos broke through from the underworld and tore through every human city and settlement. Already many places were being taken over by beings of the other world. So far most kept to themselves, away from the humans, but he knew that wouldn’t last long. It was the nature of things.
This town was one that had yet to be resettled by any beings, nor did any take temporary shelter in its abandoned homes. Despair and forgotten memories echoed from every corner as the town lay silent, nature slowly overtaking the land once more. He could disguise himself to appear human enough when scouting around occupied towns or in any places where traces of humans still lingered, but he preferred to stay away from them as much as possible.
The flow of despair and forgotten memories was not an unfamiliar state for him, and he found lingering there to fit his current state of existence while he tried to work out what to do. The last of the autumn flowers were blooming in old overgrown flowerbeds, and the last flush of wildflowers tangled amid the yellowing grass. It was a late-season splash of color before they died like all things in this world. Soon they too would be gone. It made him long for the Eternal Forest and its consistent flush of beauty—consistent until it started to die, that was.
Experiencing seasons was unsettling for him. All around him, the trees were changing colors, preparing to sleep through the winter. The quiet of the hamadryads prickled through him uncomfortably, and he yearned to return to his kingdom. But he couldn’t… Not yet. Cacus was too much of a danger, and lurked in the forests to feed, easily crossing the borders between worlds.
Dorinda was no help either. Upon discovering that Cacus had slipped into the human world, he had attempted to confer with his sister and gain the insight and wisdom of the oracle of the vegoia. She had been angry with him ever since he concealed the entrance to her cave, but never had she refused her assistance, even if he had to suffer with teasing. Now it was different. She refused to emerge from her spring and ignored every entreaty from him. Only once had she deigned to speak, a voice echoing from the spray of her water. “Seek your light.” Nothing more, no matter how he entreated her, until finally he left and returned to the human world to pick up the fading trail of his prey.
Angered stirred in his breast anew. Unreasonable female.
The flutter of wings cut through the silence as a dove landed on the fountain. It cooed as it strutted, its head bobbing as it made its way along the edge of the fountain, pecking at the space in between the stones where seed had been blown and become caught. Another dove joined it, and then another, their wings beating the air. Selvans watched them, his skin prickling at their unexpected presence.
Sometimes a bird was just a bird… but sometimes…
The dry fountain gurgled, and his ears pricked toward it. He stiffened and then slowly stood, drawing himself up to his full height as water trickled and then splashed into the empty basin. The sweet scent of roses, myrrh, and ambrosia filled the air, and he saw a flash of gold moving behind the fountain seconds before a beautiful woman stepped around it. A playful smile danced on her lips, her amber eyes glowing with affection from her sun-bronzed face as dark ringlets of hair fell over her forehead and tumbled down her shoulders from the elaborate headdress she wore, studded with gems and flowers.
“Mother,” he greeted her quietly.
Her smile widened, and she brushed her hands along the drape of her dress as she approached, a tinkle of gold from her numerous divine ornaments ringing in the air. “My Selvans, my dearest son.”
He sighed wearily as her arms warmly enfolded around him. Her hand smoothed through his hair, and for a moment it was as if he were young again and he was at her knee as she showed him the beauty that dwelt within the heart of nature. Unconsciously, he leaned into her fragrant embrace, drawing her maternal warmth into him. He had felt so cold for so very long.
There was another memory of warmth, but every time he attempted to grasp it, it eluded him. He had nothing but a continuous freezing ache in the gaping wound within his soul. Torn deep, it had no origin that he could remember, but all he knew every day was suffering.
“I do believe that Eru would disagree,” he snorted mirthlessly against her velvet sleeve. Drawing out of her embrace, he offered her a small smile. “All the world knows that winged spawn of the god of war is high in your favor.”
Her warm laughter filled the air. “Perhaps he is the best known, but as you know, all of my children are favorite,” she said with a wink. Brushing a stray lock of hair behind her shoulder, she looked over him critically. “And that brings me to why I am here.”
He didn’t bother holding back his groan. “I don’t want to know,” he muttered.
“Pssh, don’t be that way. You always were the most stubborn of my brood. I’m not here to annoy you. I am here to help,” she said cheerfully as if such news should please him.
He winced and attempted to deflect her sudden interest in him.
“Don’t you have other children you can ‘help?’” he asked.
At his demand, Turan frowned and set her fists on her ample hips, an ornate, folded fan clasped tight in her hand. Her golden cheeks reddened, and she looked for all the world as if she had received the worse of offenses by his question.
“Hush,” she snapped in exasperation. “You are my current project, and you should be glad. You have royally screwed up everything! I practically handed the other half of your being to you, but you—you are too suspicious! You couldn’t just gracefully just accept it! Not only that, but you rejected your uxorem! When did you cease to trust your heart, Selvans? This not among the lessons I reared you with.” Her tirade died down, and the last was said so sadly that his heart ached.
“Since trusting my heart nearly destroyed me and the Eternal Forest,” he muttered. “I can’t blindly trust any female to be as she shows herself to be. Certainly not a stranger who bears my vinculum marcam that I have no memory of. And yet now I am to find out that you had a hand in all of this, and I cannot thank you for it! You set a female in my nest hoping to seduce me into mating, and you clearly succeeded. For what purpose? To amuse yourself with some challenge for me that will rouse me into action in the direction of your choosing? What do you want of me?”
Turan squinted at him in disapproval. “You do not truly believe that Diana was at fault for what happened to Arx and the Eternal Forest, do you?”
He sighed and shook his head. He had too much time to think of it lately with Cacus frustrating his efforts to find him. Although there was a great deal of evidence against her, he recalled how she had looked when he burst in. She had been tired and pale as if she were just barely hanging on. As if she couldn’t stand without being blown over by the smallest effort. She hadn’t been glutted with power, feeding on the deaths of those around her. She hadn’t tried to attack him; her strength had onl
y come to her in a moment of self-defense. Regret rode him hard for how quickly he had attacked her.
He was glad that she was returned home safely by the one male he could trust to do it. A male who had defended her.
His mother continued to peer at him, her lips thinning into a tight line. “As I thought. As for the rest of your spewed nonsense, I have always wanted nothing less than the best for you. I had no choice but to hasten things along. The cycle is turning, and you’ve been alone too long, far longer than you should have been. I blame myself for not getting involved sooner, but I am remedying this oversight. Order is required for life to continue. You of all beings should know this and yet you are blind to it! Everything requires balance, my son. Even you. I want you to be whole.”
“And who says that this female is truly the soul that is destined to be bonded to mine. You took my freedom away from me. You meddled where it was not wanted, and now my forest rests on the edge of oblivion because of that female. I don’t have time for any ideas you may have conjured in your mind about her out of some desperate maternal hope. I will find my true uxorem when it is time and the Fates have willed it, not because you have orchestrated it,” he returned tightly.
The thin fan folded in Turan’s hand snapped on his head with such strength that it made his ears ring. His mother was not as frail and helpless as myth made her out to be. She didn’t even hesitate to strike him solidly right between his antlers as she gave him an irate scowl. “Don’t be cheeky. You know as well as I that you already have an uxorem. Just because I hurried things along, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. You felt the rise of instinct, you initiated the bond. I couldn’t force anything other than set the right circumstances before you.”
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