46. Caspyn
Chapter 46
My focus should have been on the queen’s carriage, on the gilded monstrosity and the feeling of ice and death that was hidden within it. I should have been focused on that faded sense of light and death that bled through the wood.
I should have been watching my target, on the flimsy wooden conveyance that concealed the woman I had trained for many lives to end.
Instead, I stared across the field to where that same blood stained carriage from the night before sat, the back window smudged with the figures of two people. Two people, yet I could still feel every type of magic within that tiny rickety thing. Every magic tangled with something dark, something more.
I should be concerned for the future Queen that I had caught mere inches from impact with the ground, the frail dehydrated woman that the priestesses were gingerly taking from my arms, but right then all I could see was that carriage, on the familiar buzz of magic that had lit the world on fire the night before.
I stared at the carriage, at those blood stained doors as a guard yanked them open, everything rocking as a girl was forcefully removed from its depths. Her hair was everywhere, the light catching a bit of red in the dark strands that made it look on fire. She was small, her frame frail even as she faced the guard defiantly, her jaw set, her eyes hard.
Firm. Strong. Even from there the strength in her caught me off guard.
The guard didn’t even seem to notice that power that was waving from her as he pulled her around, his hands firm as he yanked her to him. Her silk dress dragged on the ground as she was forced to turn, revealing the front that was absolutely covered in blood. The bright red color was everywhere, it ran in streaks down the front of her bodice, it cracked in patches on the skirt and in the lining of her cloak. It was matted in her hair and smeared on her jaw and hands.
The people around me hadn’t noticed the girl, they still talked about the poor sickly Aeinya. Even Lyani whispered about the poor woman who was inches from death. I could only stare at the blood covered girl.
“Caspyn,” Lyani’s voice was an echo in my ear, but I didn’t turn, even though I was sure she had been trying to get my attention for a while. “Caspyn. What is it?”
“Who is that?” I said with that growl that I hadn’t heard seep from me in nearly a month, the sound so sharp that even Lyani stepped back as she turned to the girl who was being dragged our way, the girl who was still pushing against the guard with all the defiance she could muster.
It was then that everyone noticed her, the gasps of what we were witnessing rumbling through the crowd like a wave.
“Princess Elara,” Lyani inhaled in shock and horror before she fell to her knees. As they all did.
I couldn’t make myself move. I was frozen in place as the feeling of her magic hit me, the power that I had felt before running into me like a wall.
Every type of magic. Powerful magic. Not the muted rumble of the Requisites, but something more. Something strong. Something I had never felt before, and it was only coming from her.
From this girl who was fated to end the queen, who looked as though she had escaped a war and was now staring with a strength I would have never expected from her.
A strength that we had been told did not exist. This was not a dying, weak, princess I was expecting.
Everything about her was powerful.
She was covered in ribbons of red, her dress torn and dragging in the dirt, her hair a tangled mess. She should have been a whimpering victim, but that look, that feeling of her magic that was screaming from every inch of her was anything but. It was that strength that was sending the feeling of light over me, although not as strong as the night before. It was almost as though something was missing.
The closer she moved, the more her magic buzzed against mine and I knew exactly what had changed. The feeling of that dark Fae that was so intertwined with hers the night before was not with her.
The hooked-nose guard pulled at her as I turned to that blood stained carriage, to the other guards that were holding the door closed. That feeling of darkness was still there, trapped inside, accompanied by a strong pull of Fae that I recognized at once.
A pull so strong there was no denying what it was, and where I had felt it.
Vaelar.
He was there.
He was in that carriage.
I was moving before I could stop myself, the pull dragging me forward. I didn’t even turn as Lyani yelled after me. The sound mixed with the princess hissing something low, another door creaking amid the scattered carriages. It was all a blur of noise in the back of my mind as I rushed forward, my blood and magic boiling as one underneath my skin.
Vaelar may not be the enemy according to Ryndle, but I couldn’t deny that pull, that needed to end him and stop him before he became a monster. He had been the one to kill Lily. If I ended him now there was still a chance I could still save her.
The carriage rocked as whoever was inside of it tried to get out, the guards that surrounded the door laughing at the grunts and groans from the other side of the door.
“Keep trying, half breed. You can’t stop this! You can’t stop what is coming!” One of the men yelled, the others laughing before another one added in a low hiss, “You’re going to love what she has planned for you.”
I didn’t need to see them to know who they were, the sudden need to spill their blood would have been enough.
Snakes. They were all snakes.
The guards all wore the indigo and gold of the Ramal, but it wasn’t their uniforms I was looking at, it was their swords. It was the snakehead pommel that each of them held. It was the faint outline of a single word that was carved into their necks, so faint that I was sure no one would notice unless they knew where to look. Odd, if it took Fae hair to write the words you would think it would be more visible.
This was barely there, more like a dotted line showing me where to slice their heads from their bodies. My hands ached in need of grabbing my blades, my mind running through the steps to take the snakes down and reach my target. It would take less than three swipes of my blade to cover the ground with blood.
I could not fight them last night, but there was nothing stopping me today. Kill the snakes, and take down the head of them all. Vaelar. Dalyah.
This was all going to end today. What a perfect day for a wedding.
A wedding covered in blood.
Gripping my blades, I turned, ready to unsheathe the long weapons from behind my cloak. But then, the strong violent burn of the Fae King’s magic shifted.
I could still feel that buzz of Fae magic, feel the angry throb of whatever darkness was still held in the carriage, but the King… he wasn’t in there.
It wasn’t Vaelar in that carriage. Still Fae. Similar. But not him.
I turned back to the wide opening where all of the royals were entering the temple, that powerful throbbing having darted deep inside the back entrance of the temple as Elara was dragged through the wide white gate, and then again to the wide main doors of the Temple high above the gathered crowds where that buzzing was suddenly screaming.
“Vaelar,” I hissed his name like a threat as I turned, running right to the wide stairs that curled around the billowing stone cloud that was the Temple.
The whole thing looked ridiculous, with its rounded dome walls carved with swirling lines of birds and flowers, the pillars of stone wrapped with intricate lines and glass the color of the sky. The massive building was more like a dress hastily removed by a needy male than like the clouds I had always been told it was supposed to look like.
I would have laughed at the monstrosity if I wasn’t so focused on the buzzing pull of the Fae that was screaming at me, the sensation growing louder as I sprinted up white marble steps that curved around the towering pillar of white stone in a spiral.
I was careful to keep my blades hidden from the line of priestesses that were surely there to welcome wedding guests or worshipers, and not assassins.
I was an inky stain against a white world as I reached the high front doors, the towering panels built of white wood and blue glass. The high arched entrance towered over me and the large curved landing that I stood on, the veranda overlooking the Forest of Ok and all of those skeletal red trees that somehow made the billowing white of the Temple more like a ghost that was overlooking the dead.
Two of the white robed priestesses were already opening the massive doors as I approached. They didn’t look up from underneath those large hoods as they bowed to me for some cursed reason.
The wooden carvings of two women before the forest were only just visible on the interior of the doors before that angry pull took over me again, my skin aching as though it was already covered in his blood. The elaborate entrance hall doors opened slowly, brilliant light flooding in and catching against the carvings of snakes and lilies that covered each of the pillars that stood in a circle. Serpents slithered over the petals of the lilies on each large column, they twisted through the marble tiles of the floor, all of them writhing toward a large dais in the center, the dome of stone and glass above it sending spots of color over everything.
And the Fae who stood there.
He posed there as though this was his throne room, the aire of him as he stood there smiling making all of my magic compete for space.
Vaelar, the Fae King, looked every bit his role. This was not the monster from my childhood, or the warrior from the flop house, this man was dressed in a tunic of delicately embroidered blue, every inch of him scrubbed and laced. His golden hair fell loose down to the middle of his back, sharp pointed ears on display as he stood surrounded by priestesses. Not one of them cared that a Fae was standing in the middle of them.
There were at least twenty, all of them backing away as I entered the Temple, their faces hidden behind large white ruched hoods.
“Ah, I was hoping I would meet you here, Caspyn.” Vaelar smirked, his straight white teeth glinting as bright as the stone walls. It made me want to find a way to remove them from his head, preferably with my fist.
“How do you know my name?” I snarled, I didn’t remember giving him my name before. Everything prickled over my spine as I unsheathed my weapons and stepped closer. I didn’t even care if the priestesses saw, not that they did anything. They simply backed up further, keeping themselves in a wide circle around us.
“Oh, we have met many times since that first encounter.” He was still calm, too calm. “Not that you have walked through those times yet. But you will. How many times have we met for you?”
Why was he smiling? He should not be smiling. Where was that fury from before, that hatred that dripped from him as he vowed to end me. He almost looked happy to see me, perhaps he had forgotten before.
Well, I hadn’t forgotten.
Not the last time.
And certainly not the time before that.
I knew now that not all Fae were bad, Ryndle had taught me that, but this one was. I didn’t care what Ryndle said about him being under Dalyah’s control when I had first encountered him, he had still been the one to kill her.
“Twice,” the ground rumbled below me as I spun my weapons, taking one step forward as he took a step back. “This time I will make sure to be successful in what I wasn’t before.”
“Oh.” His face fell. “That explains it then.” He took another step back, his smile pressing together. The corner of his lips twitched as something brewed within him. “Still, I have a job to do.”
He ran before I could take another step.
Fucking coward! Like hell if I would let him slip by me. At least now I knew his tricks. Now, I was prepared.
I took off running, blades held out before me, only to skid to a stop as the priestesses closed in around me, their jaws moving below those low hoods as they mumbled something that I couldn’t make out. What I did hear was more like gibberish than actual words.
“Let me by!” I roared, the women's chants reducing to screams as I shoved them to the ground. I left them there as I ran, chasing down that power that was pulling me through the Temple as though I was on a rope.
The Temple was not only the main hall, it was a winding maze of white, the stone walls covered with carved panels of women and forests and wars and animals that all became a blur as I ran through them, winding through one hall after another.
It didn’t take me long to realize that even though I had a tether to follow, I had no idea where I was. The bowels of this temple were a maze, and in my fury I had run in blind. He had trapped me. I would be mad, but I was already furious, which is exactly how I had ended up in this place.
I roared as that pull split in different directions, leaving me standing between two different hallways, a mural of three people standing before trees or orbs or who they hell knew what stretched between them. I didn’t care about any of it. All that mattered was that damn Fae.
“Vaelar!” I roared, my fury echoing off the walls and sending everything shaking as the magic of Okivo roared its way to the surface.
“Over here, Caspyn!” His voice came back in an echo that sounded close to a laugh and I turned, racing down yet another white corridor, this one lined with carvings of trees identical to the red Forest of Ok that stretched before the Temple walls, even the tiny buds of golden leaves were cut into the stone.
“Caspyn,” he yelled back again, his voice coming from a completely different direction as his magic jumped. “I hate to do this to you, but I do need you to listen to me.”
I growled as I turned again, running a different direction only to skid to a stop.
“Why would I listen to you?” I snarled, spinning my blades as I imagined the sharp edge cutting through him. My hands ached with the need to spill his blood. To watch it flow over the white of the tile in beautiful little rivers.
“Because I know what’s coming for you, and I know what path you need to travel down, Caspyn Light Bringer.”
I may have branded the name and title on my skin, but I was not interested in hearing it from him.
Never from him.
“Don’t call me that.” My snarl was nowhere near enough to drown out his laugh.
I froze in place as his laugh echoed back to me, the sound of my snarl matched with that of his chuckle as it echoed from who knew where. Every few steps, the pulse of his magic would move, leaving me standing in place before a large mural of what I could only assume was the Goddess, the crown on her head looking like sharp knives, the long dress she wore slinking over what I could only assume were the corpses of Fae.
I knew what he was doing, that he was traveling through time to shift his position, he was walking right by me every time, but I had no time stored, I had no way to face him in the Ether. I was trapped, snarling and yelling as I blindly swung my swords as though I could catch him.
I knew it was useless, which only fueled my rage further.
“Caspyn,” he said as I swung and spun toward the voice in my ear. He had already moved, his next words echoing down a hall to my left. “The crimson stained altar is not the end. Do not be afraid to fail.”
“What?” I was still snarling, still pacing before that grave mural. “What are you on about? Stop with the nonsense and come out and face me!”
“Not today, Light Bringer. Today, I just put you where you need to go.”
The pull of his magic faded as his laugh did, as he vanished from everywhere.
“Vaelar!” I yelled, the mural before me cracking as my magic flared, that flare turning into a rumble as his magic popped back into existence, this time right beside me.
I whirled to him, to that face that now held the scar I had given him, his own smile mirroring the darkness in myself. I lifted my blade, ready to slice through him, but as before, he was faster, his hands gripping my wrists as he held me in place.
“Not today,” he said as his magic swelled, and that familiar feeling of time and nothing sped through me.
One moment we were in the endless white of the Temple, the next we stood in the tall grasses far below the winding staircase that led to the entrance, only steps from the blood streaked carriage as the sun dipped into twilight.
We stood, my hand still raised, his hands still firm against my wrists. Time had passed, the world had shifted, but we stood.
“Today, you have a more important task, you must listen to me, Caspyn.”
“I will never listen to you,” I grunted, pushing against him.
“You will, let today be your first. You wish to end the queen? It starts with this: Follow the Shade.”
I would have asked, if I had cared enough to, if I had trusted the monster who had held me. But even before I could form words he vanished without so much of a breath. One moment I was snarling at him. The next my blades sliced through nothing as he vanished, leaving me standing in the quickly darkening world.
The carriage no longer rocked, although that dark Fae power still blossomed from somewhere in its depths. Snakes still stood outside of it, their backs against the door as they waited for something. There was only the still of twilight, the crickets buzzing in the distance as the sky turned scarlet and gold with the setting sun, the blaze of the last light turning everything red, from the sky, to clouds, to the expanse of trees in the Forest of Ok.
The fucking Fae King had led me on a wild goose chase. He had dragged me through a temple only to drop me back where I began, far away from the wedding that was sure to start any minute. If I was to end things at the wedding as I had planned I was already too late.
Taking a step forward, my mind tumbled through any other opportunity to take the queen off guard, only to freeze as the guards flung the door open and the sounds of grunts and fighting filtered over to where I stood as those snakes pulled someone out of the carriage. It took more than one of them to remove a man dressed head to toe in black from the depths of the carriage, his face covered by a shroud so dark that I could see nothing but black.
Nothing but shadow.
But in that shadow was the buzz of a Fae that I had felt before. A Fae had been traveling with Princess Elara. A Fae whose voice I had heard through the carriage. That low hiss of a promise, of love. It had come from a shadow.
No, a shade.
A shade that held such light, but also a permeating black. There was something about his magic that I had never felt before, something about it that pulled at me. It was calling to me.
The guards dragged him out of the carriage, beating and kicking and punching the man who didn’t raise a hand to fight back. He took every blow, every hit, not even a grunt of pain seeping from him before they dragged him to the temple where the wedding ceremony would start in only moments.
I shouldn’t have listened to Vaelar. I shouldn’t have cared about anything that King had said, about his commands.
I didn’t. He was a monster and a trickster and I would have his head in the end. But his words were burning against my mind, they were screaming in my ears. Each word was as loud as the love I had heard from the shade before, as burning as that magic that was calling to me.
And I followed.
I followed that buzz of the Fae, and the consuming black that made the shrouded man feel as though he was already dead.
It was the same darkness I had felt from the scarred woman in Dalyah’s tent.
The darkness that held more death than I ever did.
The darkness that was, somehow, already a part of me.