by K. A. Tucker
“They’re here?” I glance around us.
“They will not come here. They’re not foolish.”
“Have you told Zander?” The state of her fingernails would suggest not.
“No.”
I shake my head. “You lied to us yesterday.”
“I shared what information I could.” She studies the floor. “Do not think that I am unaware of Zander’s suspicions or his contempt for Mordain. I share that contempt. All I can do is act in the best interests of Islor and hope that he continues to allow me the grace to do so.”
Zander was right to be skeptical of her, but now is not the time for condemnations. “Where is Ianca?”
“Ianca’s knowledge is invaluable, and Gesine is a powerful asset, even collared. They did not break free from Neilina’s grip and sail here just to risk becoming puppets for someone else. They will find you when they are ready, and not before.”
“Why are they even here?” I lower my voice, afraid it’s carrying. “Is Mordain scheming against Islor?”
“No.” She shakes her head firmly. “Not in the way the king would fear. There are events that must come to pass and pieces that must fall into place. They are here so that when that happens, they can guide you forward as best they can.”
“Guide me? I don’t understand. Guide me through what?” Frustration bleeds into my tone.
The smile she gives me is pained. “The prophecy is there, collecting dust within thousands of years of ramblings, scribed and forgotten. The Ybarisan daughter of Aoife and the Islorian son of Malachi joined together will bring peace to both realms.”
“This is all about some prophecy?” Wendeline mentioned it the last time we sat here but didn’t elaborate. It didn’t seem important to her.
“Not some prophecy. The prophecy. You and Zander were meant to find each other.”
“And what does Zander think about it?”
Her brow pinches.
“You haven’t told him.”
“I tried, but he will not listen.”
“Why not?”
“Because he is not ready to accept it yet. He is still struggling with his pride after what Aoife did to him.”
She means the bewitched king situation, I assume.
“Neither of you are ready, but you will be. I can already see it in the way you look at each other.” There is urgency in her vague words.
“Ready for what, though? You’re speaking in riddles.” My anger flares. I had enough of those with Sofie. More than anything, though, I’ve had enough of hiding, of stumbling my way through this mess alone. I’ve had enough of people lying to me. I’ve finally reached my breaking point. “Do you even have any idea what I am or why I’m here?”
Her blue eyes search my face. She exhales slowly, as if making a decision. “You are a key caster, and I assume Malachi has sent you here to try to open the nymphaeum door.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Mika tears down the aisle as fast as his little legs can carry him, oblivious to the etiquette of the holy place. Somewhere else in the sanctum, Lilou wails.
And I feel like Wendeline has casually kicked out the pew from under me.
“A key caster.” I stare at the priestess. An elemental with all four elements. Very rare, very powerful, she had said. “No, I’m not.” She’s mistaken. I’m a basic human. A thief.
She smiles. “You forget that I was a tester in my former life. I can see these things.”
“You’re saying you tested me.”
“Yes. After the daaknar attack.”
I drop my voice until it’s barely audible even between us. “And you found affinities to all four elements in me.”
“Yes. Caster affinities.”
“That’s impossible.”
“It was shocking,” she agrees. “I also tested Princess Romeria when she first arrived here, to see how powerful she was. Covertly, of course. I can confirm she only had an elven affinity to Aoife. And since the fates cannot gift affinities, the only possibility I have come up with is that Malachi somehow bound a key caster to Princess Romeria’s body. But there are none anywhere in Ybaris or Mordain, and certainly not one who has never heard of the fates or elemental magic. I don’t know where Malachi found you, or how he bound you to her body, but you are a key caster. An immortal key caster. You can create with your caster affinities and manipulate with your elven affinity. There has never been another one like you in our realm.” There is awe in her voice.
My head swims. “She said she couldn’t believe I didn’t know what I was,” I say more to myself.
“Do you mean the elemental that Malachi used to do this?” Wendeline asks carefully. “So, you do remember a life before waking up as Princess Romeria.”
I hesitate. It’s the first time I’ve admitted to remembering my life before coming to Islor. “I am Romeria. But I’m not from here.”
She inhales deeply and then nods. “Seers can see across dimensions and into other worlds. They’ve taught us that this is not the only world created by the fates, that there are others with different dynamics and paths of history. Places identical to ours and yet opposite, where humans rule and the immortals and casters skulk in the shadows, hiding their existence.”
“Yes. That’s where I’m from.”
A slow smile stretches across her lips. “I want to hear that story one day when we have time. I imagine it will be like nothing I’ve ever heard before.”
The toil that has clenched my insides for so many weeks unravels a touch. I’ve told someone. Someone finally knows my secret. Except …
“You’ve known all along what I am?” I can’t help the accusation in my tone.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were not ready to know then.”
My eyes widen with a wave of panic. “Did you tell Zander?” Has he known all this time, too, and was simply testing me?
“No.” She punctuates that with a firm head shake. “He was looking for a reason to rid himself of you, one that would lessen his guilt for executing someone who had saved his sister. I feared what he would do if he knew how dangerous you are.”
“He would have killed me.”
“Any one of them would, if they knew. As would the Ybarisans and most in Mordain.”
Just as Sofie warned. Oddly, that brings me comfort. At least she was truthful about that. “What about now? Zander, I mean.” He doesn’t seem on the precipice of driving a dagger through my heart anymore. Far from it.
“There will be a right time to tell him, but it is not yet. He has other things to focus on, and he doesn’t need this as an added worry. You will know when that time comes.”
I take in the looming statues as the dust settles from the bomb Wendeline just dropped. “I can’t feel anything.” Except overwhelmed with relief that I can finally talk to someone about this.
“Not with the tokens you wear. The cuffs subdue all elemental power and the ring … is complicated. It suppresses the caster affinities you brought with you, but it helps channel your elven affinity to water, the one Princess Romeria possessed.”
I study the white stone. “Sofie gave me a ring just like this one and told me to not take it off.”
“She must have an identical one. It is possible. The ring you wear now was Queen Isla’s, but it was designed in the likeness of Aoife’s ring, well known to the seers. The gold is a token gift from the fate’s antler. When I tested you, I had to remove it. There are spells affixed to it that were not there before, that contain your caster affinities. When Sofie bound you to Princess Romeria’s form, they must have carried from the ring she gave you to this one. It is remarkable what she did. I assume she did it to protect you until you learn how to use your power.”
“But even before. All my life, I had no idea. How is that possible?”
“I do not know. In Ybaris, all children are tested and marked with an elemental insignia that cannot be forged. Sometimes a parent fears their
child will show affinities and be taken away, so they find a caster who sympathizes and will mark their child as human when they are not. I did it for a few children,” she admits sheepishly. “Sometimes they remain clueless their entire lives. Other times, they discover that they have abilities by mistake. Setting fire to a barn in a fit of rage, bringing about a rainstorm to calm their broken heart.”
I pick through my memories. I don’t recall anything strange like that ever happening to me. “And what if it’s an elemental who is untrained?” That’s basically what I am. An elemental with all four elements. I could summon the fates, if I had any clue what I was doing.
Nervous flutters stir with just the thought.
“That is very rare, and to have affinities to all four and not know …” She shakes her head. “I am curious to know what you feel once the cuffs are off and you remove your ring, now that you know elemental power exists.”
The walls you’ve built around yourself to survive are far too thick.
Sofie’s vague words strike a chord. That is what she meant. She knew what I was.
Everything I’ve known all my life, everything I’ve believed to be true, has been flipped upside down yet again. My mother spoke of witches masquerading as nurses, stealing babies in the night. In a world where humans rule and these other races hide, is that how casters continue to exist? Are casters left to fend for themselves, or is there a place like Mordain?
“I’ve only ever heard of one such case of a missed elemental,” Wendeline says, cutting into my swirling thoughts. “The story of Eloyan May, who had three affinities. It is a well-known teaching in Mordain.”
“What happened to her?”
Wendeline shrugs. “She went mad, as they all do. The elements remained dormant, but they were still there, within her, simmering. When the casters found her, she was confused by what was happening, because she was uneducated.”
I frown. “What do you mean, they all go mad?”
“All elementals succumb to their abilities once they reach a certain age, usually between their third and fourth decade. An elemental’s powers become ineffective, and their minds muddled. They are unable to decipher yesterday from today and tomorrow, fact from fiction. They speak in riddles that are often unintelligible.”
I recall something Annika had said. “They get sick.”
“Yes. Some call it a sickness. Others call it madness. They become seers, who are as rare as elementals, if not more so, given most do not survive long. Queen Neilina sends her elementals back to Mordain once they’ve gone through the change. She no longer values them. But the devoted scribes believe seers are invaluable, even with their chaotic ruminations. They can see across dimensions and time, but they struggle to interpret what is happening and where and when, which is what causes much of their confusion. They no longer have a grasp of where their mortal feet touch.” A sad smile touches her face. “Ianca went through the change while they were traveling here.”
“Ianca’s the seer.” The older woman who Bexley said is traveling with the elemental.
“Yes. It is why she still wears an elemental’s collar.”
“But it happened that quickly? This madness, I mean.” It couldn’t have been more than five or six weeks since they escaped.
“I’ve heard of elementals going to sleep in the evening coherent and waking up lost. But often, they will complain that they feel something pulling at the seams of their mind, which is a sign the change is nearing.”
My mouth hangs as I process all this new information. “Are you saying I would become a seer?”
“As a mortal, yes. But bound to Princess Romeria’s immortal body, you are safe from what most consider a horrible disease. The toll on the seer’s mind ages them rapidly, and they often lose their mortal sight, though they develop what we call divine sight. They see the fates in their mind’s eye, and they’ve been able to describe them in great detail for the scribes.” Her blue eyes settle on the towering statues. “Their succinct visions are what we have used to model the corporeal forms.”
The gilded doe has been here.
My father’s peculiar words cling to the forefront of my mind, suddenly feeling more important. “Has anyone besides these seers ever seen the fates?”
“The elementals who summon them. Only those considered chosen are granted the gift of looking upon them.”
A sinking realization begins to weigh on my insides. The ramblings … the delusions … “Men can be elementals.” It’s not a question.
“Yes. Ailill was one.” She pauses. “Key casters are sired by male elementals. Your father would have been one.”
My jaw drops.
“Did you know him? Your father?”
“Yes.”
“And he didn’t know what he was either?” Genuine curiosity fills her face.
I shake my head. At least I don’t think he knew. He never said anything. But everything she just told me fits. Elementals age quickly and lose their eyesight. My father’s eyes are weak, and he looks far older than his forty-nine years. I assumed it was the harsh life, but maybe that has nothing to do with it. Maybe the cause is something I could never have imagined.
He is not ill. His mind is simply fractured.
That is what Sofie meant.
“What about a traumatic event? Could that cause this change?” Like witnessing a murder in a parking lot.
“I do not know if there has been such a case. The scribes in Mordain would know.” She seems to consider it. “I suppose a shock big enough could be a catalyst, especially if they’re already nearing their time.”
I steady my breathing.
“Many years ago, Mordain was known for using male elementals to breed caster children. The most famous of all—Caster Yason—fathered three hundred gifted children before his change.”
“That’s a lot of … babies.” I censor the far crasser word I’d prefer to use, for Wendeline’s benefit.
“There is a statue of him in Mordain’s capital, Nyos, standing like a proud bull.” She smiles bitterly. “After King Ailill’s folly, Ybaris no longer permits male elementals to live. They fear they would not bend easily to the will of Ybaris, and they could not risk another Ailill, tempting the fates so recklessly. But also, they are the ones who create key casters, and once Ybaris learned of how Ailill used Farren to tear the fold, they decided that the risk of allowing a key caster to live far outweighed the benefit, should one ever fall into the hands of Islor again.”
“So, you’re saying Ybaris and Mordain have spent two thousand years slaughtering babies to protect themselves against a key caster, and yet here I am.”
“Malachi has found a way around Ybaris’s bid to stifle him from this world, yes. He is attempting to open the door to that nymphaeum again. You must not do it.”
“Well, of course not. Not after what you’ve told me about Farren and tearing open the fold. But why does he think I can do it if she couldn’t?”
She does a perfunctory glance around. “We are not entirely sure, but we think it is because Farren used her power to attempt to pry the door open, instead of taking the altar and allowing the nymphaeum’s power to channel through her.”
Taking the stone. “Right. That.”
“Aoife created you to destroy the immortal Islorians. You were her weapon. And Malachi has taken her weapon and morphed it for his means. I can’t imagine she will be happy if he succeeds.”
“So, I’m a pawn for two scheming gods.” I’m a pawn … again. “Why didn’t you say anything to me before about what I am?”
“I wasn’t yet sure who you are. Keeping it from you was the wise choice until I figured that out.” Mika runs past again, his childish giggles and a determined Dagny trailing. Wendeline smiles at the boy. “But I think I have a good idea now. And you seem to appreciate the danger of what you are. Of the harm you could cause.”
“Yes, which is why I’m worried.”
“Malachi cannot force you to take the stone on Hudem. The fate
s can’t create will out of thin air.”
There is small comfort in that. But my situation is growing clearer by the moment. “I’m never returning to my old life, am I?” Even if I could, would I want to? Based on what Wendeline just told me, I would have another ten to twenty years in that body, at most, before it lost its hold on reality. I would end up wandering the streets like my father, ranting about demons.
But Sofie’s evasiveness when I asked her what would happen to me after I retrieved this stone tells me all I need to know—there is no going back.
Her smile is gentle. “Whoever you were before, you are now bound to this body, and I suspect what was done cannot be undone. But you are powerful in a way that you do not yet understand. Oh, the things you will be able to do once you learn, Romeria … That is why you must allow Gesine to guide you. And Ianca, as much as she is able, though I fear her time of usefulness to you is limited. But you cannot wield caster magic without training.”
“What about you?”
“I will have my own tasks here. And Gesine will be a formidable ally. She studied with the scribes before leaving Mordain. She knows more about seer prophecy than anyone else I know.”
It dawns on me. G. “The letter to Margrethe. It was from Gesine. You knew Margrethe summoned Malachi for me.”
“I’m the one who pulled the arrow from your body and helped her drag you out of sight.” She glances over her shoulder. “You must go now. We have dallied too long. The king will have many questions about our conversation.”
And Wendeline has told so many lies. “What do I say to him?”
“Tell him what you’ve learned about the seer in the city. He is looking for every reason to trust you, even if he does not yet see it. He has been resisting this lure he feels toward you, but he will lose against it. I believe that will happen soon.”
My heart stutters. What does that mean?