Winter's Crown

by Alexandra Little

  “She is awake,” he said quietly, and after a minute Lorandal and Nogoriel came through the archway.

  “How are you feeling?” Lorandal asked as both of them knelt in front of me. He felt my face and prodded my neck while Nogoriel took my hand.

  “Like I drowned,” I murmured, my throat raw. “Where are we?”

  “Near to Tal Anor still,” Lorandal replied. “Nogoriel?”

  She nodded and released my hand. “The old magic has subsided. You will be fine for now, Evalandriel.”

  “You are still a little cold,” Lorandal said, then looked over my head. “Keep her here for a little while yet.”

  “Do not tell the humans,” Dalandaras added. “Let them sleep.”

  Lorandal nodded, and left quietly.

  And then I was with Dalandaras. Alone. Essentially in bed with him. I was doing my best not to fidget; Dalandaras seemed much more comfortable with the state of things than I was.

  I cleared my throat as best I could, which only made it hurt more. “Why you?” I asked. “Why must you…warm me?”

  He removed his hand from my waist, only to smooth my hair down. “Not all elves can control their body temperature to such an extent as I can.”

  Wonderful. I had flirted with him—done a bit more than flirt, really—and had killed his grandfather, and was now cuddling with him, never mind my monumental error in not being ready for another attempt by Adhannor to use my mother against me. But only one of those was weighing heavily on my mind right now. “I am sorry,” I said quietly. “About your grandfather.”

  Dalandaras was silent for a moment. “Adhanel killed him,” he replied. “Not you. And I should have realized as much.”

  “You knew your grandfather was obsessed with her?”

  “I knew he loved someone. But I did not know that her spirit still lingered. That is the truth, Evalandriel – I swear to you.”

  I nodded, and shivered.

  “What do you need?” his arms tightened around me.

  I needed a lot of things, and I couldn’t even put a name to what they were. “My toes are cold.”

  He shifted until his feet were pressed against mine. Cocooned in the blankets, they warmed quickly.

  My mother was dead. And I couldn’t save her.

  My eyes stung. Then a tear slipped out. And another. And another one after that. Then I was crying, and then sobbing. I pressed my face into the blanket and let it all come out. Dalandaras said nothing as he held me. And then I let myself sleep again.

  When I woke, I knew it was morning. I felt it in my bones. I could feel the sun hanging low on the horizon, though I could not see it. I could feel the chilling wind and low-slung clouds, and knew it would be a hard day to sail to Tal Aesiri. And I knew for certain that we were going to have to go to Tal Aesiri. Singael had not lied about that. For Adhannor would want to go there as well. And I would be the perfect bait.

  For working with the raw old magic from Tal Aesiri, having twisted him this much, could destroy him entirely. No, he would want to take the old magic from me. Through me. I would absorb his madness, and he would absorb me.

  I rolled over, and found Dalandaras watching me. “Did you sleep any?” I asked.

  “A little,” he replied. “I have been thinking about how much of what my grandfather said is true. He has told me much over the years; now I do not know what to believe.”

  “We go to Tal Aesiri.”

  “If you are certain.”

  “I am.”

  He nodded, and kissed me. It was a kiss filled with familiarity. There were no blushes now. With some reluctance I released him. I wanted Adhannor done with, and I wanted to do it while I had the energy. Dalandaras and I parted, and he slipped outside when Zarah rushed in.

  “I’m so glad you’re better,” she said.

  I embraced her and let her fuss. My clothes had dried, though my coat had fallen apart, and a new one had been provided by the elves. I very nearly matched their image now; the long white sweep of the coat was very nearly enough to cover the brown of my boots and the gray of my leggings. Zarah combed the tangles out of my hair, and let it hang wild. When I felt ready to face the others, I headed out of the room.

  We weren’t in ruins or a dead city. No, this was an outpost and had been intended as such, not as Singael’s home had been made an outpost from a city. My makeshift bedroom was a side chamber from a central, round room. A recessed hearth was in the center, and the elves had built up a cracking fire. The smoke escaped through a tunnel in the ceiling. Low-backed stone benches were evenly placed around the hearth. Most everyone was huddled around it – only angry Malarin and the silent Dorias was missing.

  “Eva!” my father exclaimed, but Firien was closest. He reached me and cupped my face in his hands. It was strange – now I could feel his old magic reaching out to mine. It was like a tingle on the back of my neck, what I would have called an instinctive warning before. It irritated me, but I let him do it.

  “Adhanel is gone,” Firien confirmed, removing his hands but his eyes searching mine.

  “Not fully,” I replied. “She left me a few gifts.”

  He inclined his head. “They are yours by right, inheritor.”

  “Don’t worry, she was not driven to madness like Adhannor and Singael.”

  “What was she driven to, then?”

  “Grief.”

  “My dear girl,” Aerik said with tears in his voice as he shouldered past Firien and embraced me. “I can’’t bear to lose you as well.”

  I squeezed him back with all I had. “You won’t.”

  Father had risen, but hadn’t approached me. There were tears in his eyes, too.

  Seeing Aerik had pushed me back to the brink of tears, and Father’s was going to push me over entirely. I had had enough of crying; I couldn’t do it again today. “Is there a new plan?” I asked Firien.

  “Dalandaras says that you still wish to go to Tal Aesiri.”

  “It is a strong source of old magic, is it not?”

  “One that has not been drained, yes.”

  “Then Adhannor will no doubt go there?”

  “No doubt,” Eliawen said. “After he obtains you.”

  “There was another thing that Singael forgot to mention, which Adhanel imparted to me. Adhannor does not mean to kill me immediately. That is useless. The raw form of old magic would destroy him, and he knows it. He needs me to absorb the raw magic first. For whatever reason, he chooses not to use the inheritor who is helping him. Maybe he wants to absorb Adhanel’s power. Either way, we have the chance to get there before he does, and prepare for him.”

  The elves Firien and Dalandaras looked at each other.

  “Do you not wish to go to Tal Aesiri? Or do we need more people to battle Adhannor?”

  “Strangely enough,” Firien said. “Neither Tal Aesiri or Adhannor are the concerns here.”

  “Than what is?”

  “You,” Dalandaras said.

  “Adhannor caught me off-guard in the water,” I replied. “It won’t happen again.”

  “How did he tempt you into the water?” Firien asked.

  “I thought I saw him in the water,” I lied.

  “You would not have jumped in after him.”

  “Evalandriel,” Dalandaras said. “He was not in the water. You were swimming as hard as you could towards the bottom. I saw you. And then you fought to get away from me.”

  “Eva,” Aerik said gently. “You’ve been keeping things from us. I know you.”

  “Whatever I have hidden are things that need not be discussed here. They have nothing to do with Adhannor.” A little voice in my head called me a liar.

  “Whatever Adhannor is tempting you with, it is a weakness, and we must know it in order to guard against it.” Dalandaras said.

  My mother was not a weakness. I bit my tongue.

  “Eva,” Aerik grasped my hands and squeezed. “Is it your mother?”

  I was going to cry again. I couldn’t look
at him. But at last, I nodded.

  “What happened?”

  “I saw my mother, all right? I saw my mother. I’ve been seeing my mother.”

  “Since she died?” Aerik asked quietly.

  I shook my head. “When we saw the apparition for the first time. You didn’t mention seeing her, so I just thought I had gone a little mad. And then she showed up again.”

  “What happened with her mother?” Firien asked. For the first time there was the hint of gentleness in his voice.

  “She drowned,” Aerik replied when I couldn’t. “Our ship was driven into a reef by a storm and broke apart. Her mother got tangled in the rigging. Eva tried to free her, but she was pulled under.”

  “You saw her die?” my father asked. “Why didn’t you tell me? Aerik, why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Eva made me swear not to.”

  “It was not yours to know,” I said at last, but my voice was weak. “Her death was mine alone to know.”

  I found myself trembling as I waited for questions, but nothing else was said.

  “Could everybody leave us?” Father asked. “Just for a few minutes.”

  Dalandaras gave the signal, and they all filed out a far door. After a moment, Aerik followed them. Father grasped my hand and led me over toward one of the benches. He sat me down and knelt in front of me. I found it too hard to look into his eyes.

  “Will you tell me?” he asked.

  After a silent minute, I did. “We were on one of our merchant vessels. My mother was having me work on the ship with the men and women. It was part of earning their respect. If I was to inherit her business, I needed to know everything that went into it, down to climbing the rigging and hoisting the sails.

  “We were caught in a storm. It came up, suddenly. The fiercest one I’d ever seen. It wasn’t the waves that were our enemy, but the wind. It drove us towards the White Shoals. When our captain tried to avoid the Shoals, we were caught on the reef. The ship split in two. When the main mast fell, it almost fell on me. Mother pushed me out of the way, but she got caught in the rigging. When the mast went overboard and sank, the ropes dragged her under.”

  “There’s more than that,” Father said quietly.

  A tear fell. Then another. And I couldn’t stop them this time. “I dove in after her. I had a knife. She sank slowly at first, and I tried to cut the ropes. But she was just pulled farther and farther down. Then she shoved me away from her. I tried to grab her hand, but she kept pushing me away. You can’t hold your breath forever. Your body tells you to inhale, even underwater. I watched as she breathed in water, and tried to cough, and breathed in more. She thrashed, then stilled, then died, and the ropes dragged her to the bottom.

  “I could hold my breath much longer than my mother. I tried to die with her, but I just floated back up to the surface. The waves carried me to the beach.”

  Father squeezed my hand.

  “Aerik said it was a miracle I had not been dashed to death on the rocks. I wish I had been. Because after the storm was over, I didn’t have the strength to do it myself.”

  “Eva…”

  “And then Mother washed up.”

  He hugged me, and held me tight, and I turned into his shoulder.

  “The sea creatures hadn’t gotten to her. They hadn’t started consuming her body. She was tangled in a bit of seaweed. Her sword was still strapped to her waist. She was just lying in the sand, facing up towards the sky. Her eyes were closed. She was sleeping. The rigging was still tangled around her. And I saw that I had very nearly severed the rope. One more slash would have done it. The storm must have pulled apart those last threads of the rope, and allowed her to float free.”

  “I am so very sorry,” Father said. “It wasn’t your fault that she died. And I’m so sorry that I was not there for you. I am so sorry, Eva.”

  The sobs came then. I sobbed great, gasping sobs. I sobbed out all the tears that I could not when my mother died, all the tears that I could not when Father went away. “Why did you leave us?”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “How could it be so important that you left us?”

  His arms tightened around me. “I’m so sorry.”

  “There were so many times I wanted you there.”

  “I can’t tell you how much I regret what I did.”

  “Why did you leave?”

  “Old dreams of glory,” he replied. “Of replenishing the coffers of a fallen house and leaving a legacy for you. I should have known that you had no need of a legacy. And now you’ve grown up, and I have missed it all.”

  I cried myself out. Father was crying to, though much quieter than I was. And when it was all over, I didn’t pull away.

  “Say the word,” Father said. “And I will take you to Port Darad. I’ll take you away from all of this. Let the elves deal with the apparition.”

  I smiled. They had been words I would have killed to hear, a week ago. “You cannot abandon your men. Adhannor will kill them in an effort to find me.”

  “I still don’t understand all of this inheritor business, all of this talk of old magic.”

  “Neither do I,” I replied. “But I can feel that power inside of me. And if I am the only way to stop Adhannor, then I must do it. You and mother both taught me that I was born with responsibilities. This is one of them – we just didn’t know it until now.”

  Father smiled, and wiped away my tears.

  “Will you get everyone?”

  He kissed my forehead and went to find the others. When they were all reassembled around the hearth, including the missing Dorias and Malarin, I took a breath: “I will tell you about all of the times I saw my mother. And then we will decide what to do about Adhannor.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  I told them everything that had happened with my mother, including the conversation I had had with her when we camped in the mountains.

  “That is alarming,” Firien said.

  “Which part?” I asked. “That Adhannor is using my mother against me, or that I may have actually spoken to the ghost of my mother?”

  “It is both. It means that you are closer to Adhannor’s state than any of us realized.”

  “Adhannor’s state?” Zarah asked.

  “His state of existence – where he was neither alive nor dead. The most important difference between the two of you is that your fleshy body is still in existence.”

  So I was partially dead. I couldn’t quite comprehend how that was possible when my heart still beat and my flesh could bleed, but as unsettling as that was, I had something else to think about. “There is one other problem.”

  “Is it worse than the problems we are already having?” Aerik asked wearily.

  “We need to go back to Tal Anor.”

  “Why would you want to do that?” Dalandaras demanded.

  “I saw ghosts,” I replied. “There are still humans trapped up there, and Adhannor is being fed by them. I cannot allow that to continue.” I could not quite bring myself to mention my brief glimpse of the colossi – like the five-pronged crown, it seemed something that I could not put into words.

  “They must not be providing much strength,” Father said.

  “A human can provide much sustenance,” Firien said in a tone that made me wonder how he had gained that knowledge. “It will not do to leave him a well of power to draw from.”

  “Then we must go back,” Dalandaras agreed, his eyes on me. Perhaps he was learning to read me a little too well; I did not want to be prodded about my reasons, not when I couldn’t put any sense to them myself.

  The plan was set, such as it was. I was certain I had wounded Adhannor enough that if he attacked again, it would be a limping attack.

  I discovered we were in a small outpost along the river; it had been carved out of a natural cave system, and our boat had just barely fitted into its protection. It was overcast, and a light dusting of snow was falling when we pulled back out of the caves and turned back towards Tal Anor
.

  We had not gone far upriver, and the current was quick enough that we needed little pushing from the wind. Malarin and Kiril’s magic were more than enough to propel us back. Father had his rifle at the ready, and Kiril and Lorias both had their bows at the ready.

  There was no hint of yesterday’s battle. Any lingering traces of the colossi seemed to have been brushed away during the night. The only hint was given by the flurries of snow that died away before they could tread over the land that had borne the affects of the wild magic.

  Firien swung us around towards where the ruins formed a protective barrier between the boat and the shore, should we need to make another quick escape.

  As I glanced around those who had effectively followed my command, I wondered if I should have left the near-dead men to their fates. They were four, to my twelve; how could I risk so many lives when I would need those lives against Adhannor? Would four near-dead men truly make such a difference to Adhannor’s power?

  I forced myself to jump off the boat and onto the shore. My boots shattered the thin layer of ice over the placid shallows, breaking the silence with the sloshing water. This had to be done; the four men had suffered more than enough. And I could not allow Adhannor even the slightest advantage.

  “Keep after her!” Father barked behind me, and I was quickly followed ashore by Dalandaras.

  “Stay here,” I heard Firien order. “Be ready for a quick getaway. Nogoriel, take command.”

  “Where are the altars?” I asked Dalandaras.

  “I am not certain,” he replied. “My knowledge of this place is limited. Firien?”

  The captain came up beside us. “It has been a place of little significance since the old magic has gone,” he replied. “I have never known there to be any sorts of altars here. Not of the kind near the outpost.”

  “And Singael is dead,” I murmured as Father joined us. Adhanel’s image flashed through my mind, and for a moment I contemplated venturing back down into her palace, but in my heart I knew that she had gone and I would find nothing down there but her body and the crown. “He cannot tell us.”

  “Are you certain that you saw ghosts of men?” Dalandaras asked. “It could have been some sort of trick of Adhannor’s.”