Chapter 54
Chapter 54
F or many days, I remain in the black tower.
It seems empty without the women who made it feel like a home, but I can’t bring myself to leave it.
Galeia decorates every room with flowers and random twigs that she finds in the forest, and at one point, she brings home a frog, which she eventually, reluctantly, returns to the stream.
Erik takes her hunting with him, teaching her to use discipline and setting firm rules about what she should and shouldn’t catch and how to kill without causing undue fear or pain.
Her growth has slowed since I made her a wolf, but her mind and body continue to develop at twice the rate of a human child.
Her laughter and bright eyes tell me she’s happy.
While I don’t leave the tower, others come to me.
My brother is the first to visit. He brings Tamra, and my heart lifts to see them.
Gallium tells me everything that happened to him after he and Tamra were separated, how he survived Karasi’s machinations, and how he and Elowynn kept each other alive.
Tamra speaks more carefully, never mentioning Thaden by name, but she slips into the conversation that the leader of her village is doing well and that she is helping him construct new homes now that the darkness is gone and the village can expand.
I’m not sure how much Gallium knows about Thaden’s real history, but it seems he understands enough that he gives Tamra a smile and doesn’t prompt her for more information than she’s willing to give.
Finally, though, Tamra’s eyes widen when she tells me about the moment she felt the keepers’ creation.
A force had traveled through the ground.
Apparently, even the humans felt it.
Gallium confirms her account, describing to me how the air filled with power and all of the thunderbirds were forced to the ground. The influx of energy seemed to sap the fae’s power for long enough that they had no choice but to stop fighting.
My siblings tell me that already, the stories are growing about the keepers’ creation and the women who made it possible, but when Tamra prompts me about the dark magic keeper’s identity, I can only shake my head.
I can’t remember. No matter how hard I try.
Around him, there is only silence.
A terrible silence.
It leaves a hole in my heart that I don’t fully understand and I pray will one day heal.
Before my siblings leave, Gallium pulls me aside. He gives me a hug, a quiet one, but I sense he has something more he needs to say.
“Gallium?”
“I would like your blessing,” he says, his eyes crinkling at the corners.
I’m surprised. “What for?”
He gives me a crooked smile. “Would it alarm you if there were a fae in the family?”
I can’t help my answering smile. “Please, if you want to be with Elowynn, don’t wait, Gallium. Life is too…” My smile fades and I blink away the burn behind my eyes.
Life is too fleeting.
“Yeah,” he murmurs, hugging me again. “Thank you, Asha.”
My heart feels lighter then, even when they leave.
My next visitor is far less relaxed.
Graviter Rex comes to me about Thaden Kane. He doesn’t know the true story of how his son died, and I will never tell him, but understandably, his anger and pain about his son’s death have not abated.
I meet him in the clearing at the base of the tower, grateful that he came to me before flying out to seek justice, but I also need to be clear about my position.
Turning my left hand palm out, I make my medallion clearly visible as I tell him, “Before I banished the darkness, I visited Thaden Kane Ironmeld and took retribution for your son’s death. I have stripped Thaden of his Blacksmith power and made him human. He will remain powerless for the rest of his life. I consider this a far more severe outcome than the death I could have given him.”
Graviter considers me quietly, his golden scales rippling and his eyes narrowed, but the heat from his mouth is subdued.
When he gave me his eternal flame, he revealed that it can never burn me. What he didn’t say, but I now strongly suspect, is that none of his dragon fire can burn me. He could pour flames down on me from his mouth, and I would not be harmed.
“Justice is part of my medallion,” I continue. “So are fury and wisdom. The dragons gave me these gifts.” I peer up at Graviter. “Do you agree that justice has been done and no further retribution will be sought?”
He takes a long moment to consider my question, and I don’t hurry him. He counts his years in millennia. His son was his world. The events that led to Lysander’s death were tragic, and I can’t disrespect the deep pain that Graviter will continue to feel for the rest of his life.
“Thaden Kane Ironmeld is human,” Graviter says, seeming to chew his words as he speaks.
“He is.”
“His power is destroyed.”
I nod. “It is.”
Graviter inhales deeply, his eyes filling with tears before he inclines his head. “Then justice has been done.”
He is too proud to grieve fully in front of me.
When he turns without another word, I let him go.
Every day after that, other dragons visit me. As Mother Solas predicted, they appear to love the perches at the sides of the tower and make frequent use of them. It seems like each day, there is a different dragon resting on one of the platforms, quietly watching over me.
The humans also come to visit, and nothing can prepare me for how hard it is to tell Rachel about her grandmother. Somehow, I get through it, and Rachel hugs me before she leaves.
Things get quieter after that.
The fae and the humans broker peace.
The humans who were responsible for the anarchy in the Cursed City are tried and executed, including Braddock, the man who once guarded me.
I stay away from the trials, but Erik is conflicted. I sense he wants to be there in support of the humans he protected: Petra, in particular.
But for either of us to make an appearance could influence the outcome.
I am acutely aware that with one word, I could sway decisions. Any decisions. Simply because… as I come to realize… they are all afraid of me.
Just as the fierce Valkyrie Queen looked fearfully into my eyes and told me I could force her to join a war against her will, every leader fears what I could do.
The dragons gave me access to my power, but it seems they never expected me to survive the process of banishing the darkness.
Even Graviter, who told me he had seen the future, seemed thrown, as if, at some point, the future he claimed to have seen must have changed, and now it is all unknown to him too.
Soon the dragons’ presence at the tower, their constant surveillance of me, becomes not a reassurance, but a caution.
I come to know what Thaden experienced.
The dragons are prepared for me to turn.
It won’t help to tell them that I never will.
Whatever I experienced in the dark magic keeper’s realm, I remember one thing for certain: When I died, he took every shred of dark magic from my body and soul, freeing me from it forever.
Whoever he was, he gave me a priceless gift of freedom, making my heart mine again.
Erik and Galeia are my balance against the quiet distrust of others. Erik is a constant strength, assuming the role of warrior for me, telling the dragons to fuck off when he senses I need space. Galeia is a source of joy, her dark, wolfish nature making her both mischievous and sweet in turns.
And then, something unexpected happens.
I wake one morning, four weeks after I created the keepers, and the first thing I do is vomit up every bit of last night’s meal.
I barely make it to the sink in time.
My launch out of the bed is so fast that Erik is halfway up behind me, his hair tousled and the blankets tangled in his legs. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
At the same time, Galeia, who sleeps on my side of the bed but frequently ends up at my feet, wriggles her way out of the blankets I accidentally piled onto her when I jumped up.
She, too, considers me with worried eyes.
I groan as I rinse out my mouth and splash my face with water. “I feel terrible.”
Wobbling back to the bed, I nudge Galeia aside, but she climbs up onto my stomach, pressing her ear to it.
“Baby wolf,” she declares.
“What?” I’m so startled that I’m halfway up out of the bed again before Erik’s arms close around me, tugging me back down.
Galeia resettles herself on my chest while he makes a show of pressing his ear to my stomach like she did.
When he lifts his head to my questioning eyes, a smile tugs at the corners of his lips. “Baby wolf.”
My eyes are wide. “Really?”
“He has a strong heartbeat.”
“He?” I narrow my eyes. “Or are you guessing?”
Erik looks at Galeia, who nods in agreement before he confirms. “He.”
I sink back to the pillows, trying to process what this means. I’ve changed our surroundings little by little over the last month, adding the things we need: a big bed, a fireplace, and a bath with endless hot water.
Also a separate bedroom that Galeia doesn’t know about, since she insists on sleeping with us. She has a wolfish need for a pack that we won’t deny her, but there are times… quite a few times… when we need our own space.
I can’t stop my smile.
I guess a baby wolf isn’t so unexpected if I think about it.
But pregnancy also comes with questions for me.
Thaden was the first child born to parents who were not both Blacksmiths. What’s more, he was born a Blacksmith , not a human. I didn’t expect to have children of my own for the same reason. I believed I could only become pregnant by a male Blacksmith.
My happiness fades, and my worries rise.
Erik seems to sense the change in my mood immediately. “Asha?”
“You called him a baby wolf,” I say. “But could he be a Blacksmith?”
Within my question is a deeper fear.
Blacksmith magic can cause so much harm. Of course, my people are not alone in this. Every magic can cause harm. So can non-magical people. It’s all about choices.
But I formed an assumption many years ago that my siblings and I would be the last of our kind. Once we pass, Blacksmiths would no longer exist.
While Galeia nestles against my chest, Erik pulls me closer to his side.
“This child is pure wolf, Asha. I can sense it.” He nudges a kiss to my neck. “And since you’ve been wearing your medallion nearly constantly, I also sense he may be like Galeia.”
“Able to shift?” I ask.
Erik nods. “We’ll find out for sure when he’s born.”
I breathe out my tension. “Well. That’s a good thing.” I can’t stop my smile. “Imagine not being able to keep up with her.”
Erik chuckles. “I don’t have to imagine. She makes me feel old.”
Galeia’s response is a toothy grin, but her delight at the idea of a baby brother is unmistakable.
The next day, Erik heads out to ask Genova to come and see me. She was a midwife for the Blacksmiths, and while she left that profession behind her, she’s the only human I trust to help me through this.
When she arrives, she approaches me in her usual calm, insightful way, unflustered by the tower or the flight here on the back of a wolf-bird.
She asks me how I’m feeling and I’m honest with her.
“Powerful and powerless,” I say.
She inclines her head as she checks me over. “You’ve walked a path I never could have imagined, Asha.”
“So have you,” I murmur.
She becomes still for a moment.
And then, “Is he…?”
She presses her lips together, falling silent.
Even here, she won’t feel safe to ask about Thaden. The fact that she brought a Blacksmith child into the world… well… there are some who would kill her for it.
“My son will be a wolf,” I say, acting as if she’d been talking about him. “Erik and Galeia are certain of it. But I think I should also seek my sister’s opinion about it. She lives in the village known as Myrkur Fjall now, did you know?”
Genova shakes her head. “I didn’t.”
“She’s very happy there,” I continue. “The leader of the village is a good man. He’s intelligent and honorable. He crafts metal limbs for those who have suffered terrible wounds. Tamra helps him. They look after the people who live there.”
Genova raises her eyes to mine with the barest whisper. “Thank you.”
Clearing her throat and wiping at her eyes, she steps back from me. “Everything seems fine. If you have any concerns, send Erik for me. Regardless, I’ll visit each month to check on you, and I’ll visit more often closer to the birth.”
After that, the days pass quickly.
Weeks turn into months, and the stairs become my enemy.
I eventually set up a bedroom on the first floor of the tower, and that’s where my son is born eight months later.
He is perfect and strong, his eyes already gray like his father’s, a matting of wolfish hair across his head, and oh, he has lungs!
His roar as he takes his first breath sounds like a challenge to the world.
Erik holds my hand as tightly as I squeeze his.
Genova has barely wrapped our son in a blanket before Galeia darts into the room, her eyes wide.
She was waiting outside with Gallium and Tamra, who appear in the doorway behind her, looking a little helpless because clearly, there was no keeping Galeia from her brother.
She crawls onto the blanket beside me while Genova hands me my bawling son, laying him carefully down on my chest.
He quiets at the contact, his eyes barely open beyond slits, but he sees me. And I see him.
Erik nudges in on the other side of me, and then I’m wedged between the people I love most in the world.
The family I will protect, no matter what.
I close my eyes and whisper to them, “You are loved.”
And so am I.