Whisper of War and Storms (Heirs of Elydor #1)

Chapter 23

23

MEV

One second, we were following Rowan to the inn’s back entrance. The next, I was shoved behind Kael, my back against the wall. I had no idea what was happening. Rowan moved to stand beside him, so I was essentially blocked by two behemoth men and couldn’t see a thing. Aside from a gust of wind and Lyra shouting for someone to stop, I had no idea what was happening.

But I could sense an energy all around me, like a tempest. I peeked around Kael’s right arm. A woman stood there, glaring at Kael but speaking to Lyra. Her dark hair, streaked with silver, whipped around her as if the wind gust hadn’t gone away already.

But it had.

“What is the Prince of Gyoria doing here?” she asked Lyra.

“Lower your voice, lest we be discovered,” Lyra argued. “He is a friend?—”

“Prince Kael is no friend to Aetheria,” the woman cut in.

“In this, he is. Please,” Lyra begged, her normally calm tone tinged with urgency, “I can explain, but do not wish for them to be discovered.”

“Them?” The woman’s sharp gaze turned to us. I pushed against Kael who did not budge. “She is not an enemy to me,” I said to both men. “And I do not wish to hide.”

This time when I pushed, Kael stepped aside.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “So the rumors are true?”

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Kael muttered.

“They are,” Lyra confirmed. In response, the woman bowed her head, as if in deference, to me.

“I meant no disrespect, Princess Mevlida.”

I definitely would never get used to that. “None is taken,” I responded as the woman lifted her head. “Though Prince Kael is friend and not foe.”

I was starting to sound like the rest of them. Friend and not foe? It was like being plonked into the middle of a Renaissance Faire and, by the end of the day, you find yourself saying things like “Greetings” and “Fare-thee-well.”

This is no Ren Faire, Mev.

“Come inside,” Lyra urged. “Please.”

With that, the woman followed Lyra into the Wind Haven Inn. I was not sure what I expected as we walked through the door, but it probably wasn’t something similar to a medieval tavern in York. Had this place been influenced by the humans, or vice versa?

There were differences, of course. The air was filled with a subtle hum of magic and the tables and chairs were elegantly carved with intricate patterns that swirled and shifted, almost like living symbols of the wind. Soft, ethereal lights floated in the air, illuminating the space with a calming glow, casting long shadows that danced across the room.

Lyra took us to a private room. In the center was a round table, but it was the hearth that held my gaze. The large stone structure at the far end of the room wasn’t particularly remarkable, but the fire itself was. There was no wood, as far as I could tell. Instead, the fire seemed to be fed by the very air itself.

Remarkable.

As we sat, the scent of fresh bread and roasting meat filled the air. There was an underlying tension in the air, and it was Lyra who spoke first after trays of food and pitchers of ale were brought in and dispensed by two young women and one male, all with shades of light blonde or silver hair.

When they closed the doors on their way out, Lyra spoke first, directly to me.

“Salvia’s rare ability to read winds told her of our arrival, though I’ve taken care to ensure no others will know of this visit,” Lyra said. “Rooms are being prepared as we speak, and there is a back entrance to those as well.”

Kael looked skeptical. Rowan, thoughtful.

For her part, this Salvia alternated between glaring at Kael and watching me closely.

“Thank you, Lyra,” I said. Then to Salvia, “Why did it appear as if you arrived in a windstorm? And please forgive my forwardness. I am, as they say, an Uninitiated.”

Salvia glanced between Lyra and me. “You are truly the lost princess?”

“Apparently,” I answered, taking a bite of meat. The others ate heartily as if it were their first meal for days.

“How did you?—”

“Unknown,” I interrupted her, knowing the question already. I had a feeling it was one I would be asked a lot. “I knew nothing about this world until ten minutes before I put my hand on the portal and… boom.”

She blinked, watching me. “I can control many aspects of the air around me,” she replied. “But I’ve never been good at tempering it when I am riled. That is why it swirled around me.”

I was about to say I’d never seen such a thing before, but I didn’t exactly have a lot of exposure to her kind. I knew precisely two other Aetherians, myself and Lyra.

“I’ve begun to train her,” Lyra said. “Her abilities are innate, though.”

“To be expected,” Salvia said. “She is King Galfrid’s daughter.”

I wanted to ask about him. And about a hundred other questions, until I noticed Kael’s expression. He looked cautious and uncomfortable, and especially grumpy. He didn’t want to be here, and who could blame him? Salvia didn’t help, the sharp woman’s gaze when it landed on him one of open contempt.

For good reason. His father banished your mother. Closed the portal. It did not help that Kael kidnapped you.

Lyra was right, of course.

All of the questions I wanted to ask Salvia were forgotten as Kael met my gaze. It was the first time I saw a vulnerability there, and it bothered me. Made me want to protect him, which was ridiculous.

I didn’t care that we sat at a round table and everyone could see everything. I reached out, for his hand, and Kael let me take it. Then turning back to the others, I ate with one hand and caught up with the conversation.

Salvia noticed. I had a feeling the woman didn’t miss a thing. But if our being together upset her, she hid it well.

“How prevalent are the rumors?” Rowan asked Salvia.

“I would expect all of Aetheria to know of her return by now,” she said. “Whispers on the wind.”

What did that mean?

The same way I can speak to you now , Lyra responded.

Remembering our lessons, though having little air to manipulate, I attempted to respond.

How far can these whispers travel?

For some, no farther than us now. But the most skilled Aetherians can send whispers carried on the wind to the farthest reaches of Elydor. Of course, the recipient must be just as skilled to receive it.

My eyes widened.

So that means… all of Aetheria will know I am here.

Lyra nodded, which was when I realized everyone was staring at us. I pulled my hand from Kael’s and took a sip of ale to cover my face. They knew what we were doing.

“Part of your training,” Lyra said aloud, “will be to learn to conceal the kind of discussion we had just now.”

“Wait,” I asked, sitting forward. “Could you hear us, Salvia?”

“I could hear you,” she confirmed. “But not Lyra.”

Now I was properly confused.

“When two Aetherians whisper as you did,” Salvia said. “They aim to create a channel of wind tightly controlled and directed only toward each other. Think of it as a private, invisible tunnel that carries their words to the other person’s ears without dispersing into the surrounding air. The magic binds the sound waves to a narrow path, ensuring that no one else can intercept or overhear the conversation.”

“I haven’t gotten that far with you yet,” Lyra confirmed. “But I don’t expect it will take long. By rights, you should not be able to hear me so clearly, or respond so easily, with so little training.”

Interesting.

As conversation veered back to the portal, I finished my meal and leaned toward Kael to whisper the old-fashioned way. “I am finished.”

“Are you now?” he teased.

“Yes. But if you want to stay?—”

He stood before I could get the rest of my sentence out. “If you would point us to our rooms, Lyra? We wish to retire.”

No one questioned him.

“Apologies for the Irish goodbye. I mean, not exactly, since we’re announcing it.” As I blabbered, it quickly occurred to me not one person in the room understood.

Right. Not Earth. Elydor.

“What I mean to say is, thank you all for everything, but it’s been a day, so…”

They waited.

“A day?” Rowan asked.

I was batting a thousand. “It’s just an expression we use back home. Kinda hard to explain. Anyway…”

I noticed Lyra hand Kael a key, whispering something to him. Waving awkwardly, I pulled my hood up and followed him out of the same door we entered through. Kael quickly turned a corner before I could get a good look at the main room and climbed a set of stairs.

Which was when it occurred to me… Lyra had handed him one key. Assuming Kael and I would be sleeping together in the same room because he was clearly still in control of me, despite the others’ presence, and actually walking up a set of stairs behind him were two different things.

The million and one questions I had about the whispers and my abilities and Elydor suddenly didn’t matter. Kael strode to the top of the stairs and headed down a long hallway without saying a word. When he finally turned toward me, I froze at his look.

“What?” I asked, not able to get a good read on him.

“Have I told you of Adren?”

The change of topic threw me. “No, I don’t believe so.”

“He was hand-picked by my father to train me. Over the years, he’s become my right-hand man, as the humans would say. Adren is a hardened warrior, fiercely loyal but also pragmatic. I could not ask for a better man to stand by my side.”

If there was a reason he was telling me this now, I couldn’t decipher it.

“I would like nothing more than to continue that kiss,” he said, Kael’s eyes darting toward our room.

“It feels like there’s a big fat ‘but’ in there somewhere.” I smiled at my own sort-of joke.

Kael raised his brows in a way that made me want to laugh. But I didn’t. He was being too serious.

“I have responsibilities to people who count on me.”

In other words, people who mattered more than I did. “Got it.” Though it went against my nature not to talk it out more, this was “hard Kael” and there wasn’t a lot more to say. Except, “Let’s get inside.”

Though he paused, for the briefest of seconds, Kael moved toward the door, put in the key, and turned it.

This was gonna be a long night.