Chapter 14
A s the journey to the Ashen Library took a month and we hadn’t stopped on the way, Maddox informs us we need to restock the ship and make a few repairs. The island of the Ashen Library is a day’s journey by sea to the coastline of the nearest town, a place called Zylo.
Nolan informs me when we dock that a few of the supplies we need are a few villages away, at which point I ask him if we can go together.
The waters of the Shifting Sea have been harsh.
I can’t imagine reading the book I stole from the library with the way the sea is tossing us about, so I feel as though a trip to land would do me good.
He agrees, and the next day we rent a horse from a stable in Zylo and travel two villages away to a place called Rodeth, Michael tucked between Nolan and me on the horse, Charlie and Maddox trailing behind us on their own sets of horses.
It’s not the kind of village I’d been imagining. All the houses are made of white sandstone. The people walk about not in the trousers and apron-covered skirts common among peasants, but in togas draped from their shoulders. The sun shines down on us pleasantly, so I suppose the attire makes sense.
But still.
“They just seem so…exposed,” I say to Nolan, who smirks at me.
After we purchase supplies, we find an inn. Once three rooms have been purchased, we all pile into my and Nolan’s room.
For a moment, we all just stare at the stolen book I’ve laid atop the bed. There’s an eeriness about it I can’t quite put my finger on. Something about it that feels living.
“Well. Someone’s got to read it,” says Maddox.
I nod, climb onto the bed and sit cross-legged, then pull it into my lap and open the cover.
“Darling here ripped out the index, so prepare yourself for a long night,” says Nolan.
“Nice thinking, Winds,” says Maddox. “You couldn’t have ripped out the title page?”
“She did that too,” says Charlie.
“Time for a bedtime story,” says Michael, settling in next to me as Nolan situates himself at the headboard of the rickety bed, Charlie and Maddox resting on the floor.
So I read.
“While the story of the Fates, the Three Sisters, is interwoven into all cultures of the world, and while there is great mystery clouding their history and nature, there is no mystery quite so intriguing and elusive as that of the Youngest Sister.
“It takes little research for a scholar to understand that the Youngest Sister, though integral to the lore of the Fates, only makes an appearance in the earliest legends. While the ancients had no doubt of the Youngest Sister’s existence, considering her just as influential in mortal affairs as the older two, recent academic studies have called her very existence into question. ”
“So Cap’s only hope might not even exist?” says Maddox.
Charlie grabs a pillow from the bed and throws it at him.
I continue, grateful for Charlie’s intervention, though it does nothing to quell the fact that my thoughts align with Maddox’s.
“This history of the Youngest Sister will cover not only the legends in which she appears, but debates over her very existence, ranging from whether she at some point was erased from existence, whether she simply never existed to begin with, or whether she is still meddling in the lives of mortals to this very day, somehow going unrecognized by those she assists.”
I bite my lip, peering up at everyone else in the room. In every face, I glimpse the same worry bubbling up in my chest, then flip the pages until I find a heading detailing the earliest mentions of the Youngest Sister.
Most of the information repeats what we already know.
The Youngest Sister was thought to be the favored daughter of the Creator.
She was gentler with mortals than her Sisters, caring not to meddle in their lives until her Sisters had already ruined them.
According to the book, she had a strict belief that interfering in the affairs of others only caused trouble, and would only intervene in cases in which her Sisters had already caused enough trouble and the Youngest Sister felt extreme pity for the mortals involved.
“That part, at least, is promising,” says Charlie.
“Assuming she exists. Or still exists,” says Maddox.
“Here’s to assuming,” says Nolan.
“Oh,” I say, hardly paying attention to them.
“It says here that there’s one legend of the Youngest Sister removing a girl’s Mating Mark.
The story goes that the Eldest Sister mated the girl to the man her sister loved, and the girl despaired over crushing her sister’s heart.
So she went to the Youngest Sister and begged for the Marks to be taken away.
The Youngest Sister, wishing for as strong of a love between her Sisters as this girl exhibited for her own, somberly complied.
” I skim that particular legend for the end.
“And the rest of the story says all three lived happily into old age.”
“So the Sister can take away a Mark without leaving behind a magical illness,” says Nolan. “It’s not a guarantee that she can rid an illness that’s already there, but it’s something.”
“She has to exist,” I say. “Doesn’t she? I mean, we know the other two exist. We’ve met them. Why would the legends say there were three if there were only two?”
We all sit in silence for a moment. “Unless she died,” says Nolan.
I huff. “Is that even possible? Can a Fate be killed?”
Maddox shrugs. “I don’t know. But if it were true, and someone managed to kill a Fate, you’d definitely think that legend would have made it into history books.”
Charlie’s expression toward Maddox softens.
I flip the pages, scanning the headings for anything of the sort, but there’s nothing in the book about the Youngest Sister being killed, except as a theory regarding why she disappeared from history.
“When did she stop showing up in legends?” asks Charlie.
“This says in the time before the kingdoms were divided along the coast.”
“So five hundred years ago,” says Nolan.
“Maybe she got tired of having to deal with her Sisters,” says Charlie.
I flip through the pages, encountering tale after tale that end poorly. “Maybe she got tired of not being able to save everyone,” I whisper.
“There has to be something in there about where she was rumored to live, hasn’t there?” asks Charlie.
It takes me a while, but I finally find a section on the dwelling places of the Sister.
“The legends are unclear regarding where the Youngest Sister resided, though most are consistent in that she preferred to live in seclusion, or, if not seclusion, then at least quaint homes. Perhaps most associated with the concept of the Youngest Sister is Mount Serba, in which some legends claim she lived not in a home on the mountain, but within the mountain itself. Before the kingdoms were divided, it was common for mortals to travel from all over the world to leave gifts and petitions at the base of the mountain. Even now, the village at the base of the mountain performs a yearly ritual in which the inhabitants leave gifts for the Youngest Sister. Though sightings have been reported, none of them have any more credence than a community seeing what they wish to see.”
“Mount Serba,” says Maddox. “Conveniently located on the other side of the sea.”
I glance at Nolan. I’m not sure what I’m expecting to see on his face. Probably pity—a man willing to cross the world to appease his delusional young wife. But when I glance into his eyes, I think I glimpse a glimmer of hope in them as well.
“It’s a long shot, Darling,” he says, and I get the sense that he’s tempering his own hope, not mine. “You would think that if she were there, there would be more conclusive evidence coming out of that village.”
“Maybe,” I say. “But it’s something. And that’s more than we’ve had yet. Besides, just because the Youngest Sister doesn’t come out to meet the villagers at the base of the mountain doesn’t mean she doesn’t still dwell inside it.”
“Yeah, can one really blame her for shutting herself up, given her family situation?” says Charlie.
Nolan sighs. “It will take at least five weeks for us to cross the sea. And that’s in good weather.”
I nod, my stomach twisting. There’s no telling how far Nolan’s illness will have progressed by then, but I’m not sure we have an alternative.
“You won, Darling,” is all he says. “It’s up to you.”