Chapter 31
If the belonging is somewhere in this kingdom, I better start searching.
Walking through the trees towards Guardian’s Glade, I thought of my conversation with Silas. It’s not that I regretted asking him about his life, I only wished it hadn’t resurfaced so much hurt. Nash had only returned, and I caused Silas more pain.
And I’d spoiled such a nice morning with him. I hadn’t had many of those since arriving, and I’d gone and ruined this one.
I slipped through the double doors of Guardian’s Glade. Edging around the throne, I ran my hand over its twisted branches.
Will I have a throne like this one? Will I sit and preside over court like Silas does?
I lingered for a moment before slipping into Silas’s room and shutting the door behind me. My books still towered on the desk, but I heaved the Compendium into my arms.
My eyes caught on something red resting on the table. Doing a double-take, I spotted a pair of apples along with some fresh water, bread, and pecans.
“I could get used to room service.” I sighed.
Resting the Compendium on my hip, I slipped an apple into the pocket of my robe and stuffed a piece of bread in my mouth. I headed out the side door towards the river I had sat at only last night, where I gazed at the stars and interacted with strange creatures.
I should have been learning language and culture and etiquette, but I really wanted to know about the expansive world that continued to grow around me. These creatures I encountered, the amount of magic that had to exist, the mere thought of multiple shapeshifter packs. It tingled at the tips of my fingers. My entire body pulsated with the energy from daydreaming.
I plopped down on the same boulder from last night, the Compendium in hand. The river ran faster than I had thought the night before. The sight of those waters quickened my heart; I slid back an inch or two on the boulder. With the book secure in my lap, I chewed my first bite of the spruce bread.
When I pulled open the book, the pleasant crackle of page against page met my ears. Accompanied with the babbling river past me, it felt otherworldly.
How is this my life?
Will this ever feel real, or will I always anticipate waking up from a dream?
I combed through pages of stories in slanted writing with a mix of runes and the Ancient Tongue. Images depicting death for natural reasons, death by in-fighting, death by attack, or death by hunting littered the pages. Illustrations of plants lined some entries, an awful lot like my own journal.
My hands stilled over an image.
A wolf.
Eyes that recognized me from the page.
Impossible.
A breeze rippled through my hair, and I closed my eyes as I turned my head up towards the sky.
How can he recognize you on a page? How can he know you at all? It was a dream. He’s a hero of history. Nothing more.
My eyes opened, finding that image again.
Lycaon, glowing in the afternoon sun, standing tall amongst the trees in Guardian’s Glade. It felt strange to think of that place as ancient. But as far as I knew, Arcadia could have existed as long as the world had.
I shook my head. My brain couldn’t process the weight of that thought. I turned the page to find the illustration of Nyx I’d found earlier. Somehow, seeing his face after Lycaon’s… it made the dark wolf less scary.
Another breeze gusted around me, pushing the pages faster than I would have thought possible. Immediately, the wind died, and my chest tightened.
About two-thirds through the Compendium, a drawing had been made of a wolf print filled with something red. I prayed it wasn’t blood, because the words written under it turned my stomach.
A Vision regarding the newborn pups of King Iain and Queen Ellie. Silas, Caroline, and Nash. May they find peace among trees.
Shaking my head, I glanced over the words in the entry.
Thank Lycaon they’re written in English.
“Under the light of a full moon on the last day of the seventh month during the second year under the rule of King Iain, Queen Ellie delivered three new rulers to Arcadia.” I stopped reading to think.
July 31st.
“The firstborn. He will be called Silas for the forest that keeps Arcadia safe. A blessing spoken over him that he would never fear the depth or be fazed by the darkness of the forest. Next, the princess. She will be called Caroline for her strong and free-willed spirit. A blessing spoken over her that she would never back away from the truth, always taking it in stride despite the hurt. And last, the immortal. He will be called Nash after the ash tree. A blessing spoken over him that he would protect until death, a solid foundation leaving an immortal legacy behind.
“Elder Macon, the one who pens these words, performed the royal birth ritual, peering into the potential that the three pups had in store. A dark cloud passed over the moon, blotting out its light when the ritual began. The fire sparked with life, images swirling in its smoke and flames. There weren’t only three, but four in the flames. A dark shape split the fire in two, revealing a human on Arcadia’s sacred ground.”
I swallowed, realizing that my mouth had gone dry. “What is this?”
The wind rushed past me again, blocking my vision with my hair. Struggling to push it aside, I turned and froze. Amidst the gale, Elder Macon made his way toward me, staff in hand, unbothered by the wind.
“My queen.” He bowed his head and stopped a pace away from me. “May I escort you back into the forest? It is about to rain, and I would hate for centuries of history to be ruined by the unforgiving elements.”
The wind stopped.
I squinted at the sky, the dark clouds bringing images up in my head of what that night must have been like with the vision.
“Elder.” I closed the book. “Tell me about July 31st.”
His face remained impassive, but a slight smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “Let’s walk, je kunin.”
I obliged, pulling myself to my feet and adjusting my robe, the Compendium held against my waist. The stones crunched under Elder Macon’s feet as he led me back into the forest.
“What you are doing,” he turned so I could see his right eye, “is admirable but will be fruitless.”
My brow furrowed, and I inhaled, ready to defend myself. But he kept going.
“For years, I have waited for your arrival, debated your identity with Iain again and again.” He turned on me, robes swishing in the ferns. “Would you be the one to destroy Arcadia? Were you a lone virlukos seeking to take over a pack? Or were you in league with some darker enemy? Or were you a human threatening to bring the weight of the modern world on our shoulders, revealing our secrets to the masses?”
“I would never–”
“Ah, but how would we know?” He smiled, but it resembled a cleared field amongst a thriving forest—worn. “I advised Silas to keep you contained until we knew more.”
“So you’re the reason they all hated me?” My anger boiled underneath the surface.
He shook his head, picking up his pace. “They do not hate you. And I don’t think Silas knows about the vision. The past year, he has been so distracted by picking up the shattered pieces of our kingdom that he hasn’t had the chance to go through the Compendium cover to cover. He’s been on guard physically and emotionally, protecting his people, not resting until his body gives in to sleep. Back then, he wouldn’t eat for days. He wouldn’t sleep. He would pace. Silas nearly became one of the Spirits in the trees, a ghost, a shell. But I fear for him now.”
“What’s coming that we don’t already know? What more is there besides Nyx?” I quickened my pace in return.
“You cannot stop it, Eden. I’ve already seen it. And the Princess shines bright.” Elder Macon froze in a dense patch of trees, glancing from side to side.
We stopped in what resembled any other part of the forest. And by this point, I was far more lost than I expected to be. Elder Macon craned his neck, tilting his head to the side like he listened for something.
And with a sudden gust of wind again, the trees bent and bowed, forming a path where there hadn’t been one. The old man stepped through the opening of the tunnel of trees.
“Follow.”
I did as commanded, mystified by the round path through the trees.
“How did you–”
“A gift.” The Elder gave me a smile over his shoulder. “From Lycaon himself.”
“Lycaon?” I stumbled over my feet.
“A gift all virlukos are granted if they only ask for it.” He held a branch aside as we stepped into a furnished space like a library. Instead of the walls being made out of the thorny plants, they were trunk and wood, still alive. Books lined the shelves that grew from the walls, and books continued to fill up other spaces like the two tables and cot.
“What is this place?”
“Eden, welcome to the house of the Elder.” He leaned his staff against a bookshelf. “Please make yourself comfortable. I’ll be needing to borrow your book while we speak.”
I gazed down at the Compendium, aware that I’d been trapped in a room of bookshelves with a man who had been talking crazy and made the trees move.
“It will never leave your sight, and you can take it with you when we’re done.” He held his hands out. “It’s my duty.”
I lifted the heavy book with effort after carrying it for so long, and I worried that Elder Macon would struggle. But he accepted it with the ease of someone who had held that thing a hundred times.
And he likely had.
I sat on the edge of the cot. Settling down at one of the tables, he opened the book near the page with the bloody paw print illustration and Silas’s birthday prophecy. Elder Macon began writing, the scratch of the tip against the page filled the small space. The rest of the world seemed muted.
“Why am I here?” I whispered.
“Why are any of us here?” He shook his head while he wrote in the book. “To live, to love, to learn.”
“But why me? I’m just–”
“That’s right.” He cut off my words with his own. “You are just. Just human. Just right. Just Eden. And who are you to say that just Eden isn’t what Arcadia needs?”
I sighed. “None of it makes any sense!” I dropped my face into my hands.
“Rauha ussen, Eden.” I heard him shift, and my eyes found him pondering, left hand tapping at the edge of the Compendium. “It doesn’t need to make sense. It simply needs to exist.”
“You said he doesn’t know.” I pushed myself off the cot.
“No. He doesn’t know about the vision. And even I can’t predict what will happen. I have to trust the powers that be.”
“Powers being?”
He raised his eyebrows. “You, Silas, Nash, Caroline, Nyx… and others.”
“Me? But–”
Elder Macon raised a hand to quiet me. “Eden, I don’t know the details. I only know that there will be a moment of decision and we’ll have an opening to take down Nyx once and for all.”
“If this vision involves Nyx, will you tell Silas then?”
Elder Macon paused, eyes flicking around the room. With a sigh, he turned to me. “I will wait until he has to know. This isn’t the kind of weight he needs to bear.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “But he’s the king. Silas is strong. He can handle it.”
“Perhaps.”
“Tell me about July 31st.” I stepped around the table, flipping the page back to the bloody paw print. “Tell me everything about your vision.”
Elder Macon passed a hand over his eyes. “I am not proud.”
“Please,” I whispered.
“It’s a common practice to take a glance into the royal family’s future through the potential in its pups. So common that such jarring imagery threw me. Visions like this were more historical, not modern. I thought that it could never be true, but twice I did this ritual.”
“Twice?” I turned to the page, studying the lines of the paw print. It resembled the track I’d sketched of Silas’s the day this all began.
“Once at birth on July 31st. And once after our queen passed across to the Other Realm. May her spirit find peace among trees.”
“Why did you decide to look again?” I bent before the old man and placed my hand on his. “Please. You might be the only one who knows anything.”
“Lycaon, I hope so.” He shuddered. “I saw how hard grief hit them, Nash especially. He hid it in jokes and acting out. And, of course, he disappeared for days, weeks, and months on end. Silas hardened his resolve, lost hope for humans being any good, and blamed them for his mother’s death. Caroline guarded her heart after that, afraid to lose any more of her family and afraid to open up to any men who wished to pursue her.
“So I sought their potential again, hoping such a shift wouldn’t tarnish their futures, only this time it burned vividly. More details had been added within the decade or so of life that had been lived.”
He dragged his fingers across the drawing of the print. “Silas’s print. But whose blood has filled it? Is it filling in the gaps of his soul, putting him at ease? Or will this empty his soul even more? Did it predict how Silas would have to fill in his father’s prints after Iain passed?” He shifted in his chair before continuing. “I saw the meeting.”
“Meeting?” I furrowed my eyebrows.
“I saw you, so young, almost lose your life. That thunderous rumble in the distance warned of what would come when you matured, a storm awaiting you. I saw Iain dive into the river to rescue you. I saw the pups leave their mother to go find their father. I could hear her thoughts like she spoke to me from the Other Realm.”
His eyes drifted closed. “She is wrapped in energy and power. She is wise, though she does not know it. She will laugh, at ease with her fate. And she will treat our people with kindness.”
His eyes opened, meeting my gaze.
“You’re trying to tell me this is destiny?” I willed my breaths to slow and started pacing. “Or fate? Or… I don’t know, something stupid?”
“Eden.” Elder Macon closed the book, watching me. “It’s not fate. Ellie chose you. She saw great potential in you even at such a young age, even while she watched from the trees rather than speak to you in person. She saw something in you. Who are you to doubt her? Who am I to doubt her?”
Shaking my head, I said nothing.
No way. No way can this be happening. A vision? My life planned out without me even knowing?
My eyebrows furrowed, and the question formed before I could think. “Did you send him? That day in the park, did you send him to meet me?”
Elder Macon smiled and stood. “That? No, that wasn’t me. Only Serendipity doing her job.”