51. Elara
Chapter 51
Iwas getting used to waking up in pain. Although, it took me far too long to figure out why I was in pain this time.
I woke with a start, my hand screaming in agony, my entire body on fire. I nearly screamed as I jerked awake, the carriage that had been my prison rocking and shoving me into the padded side-wall that was coated with dried blood.
“Boy,” I moaned, turning to the other side of the carriage where my Boy usually sat, only to face a shadow of a different sort.
The man from before sat there in stained black leathers, the slight curls of his hair sagging over eyes the color of ice in the far sea. He didn’t shift as the carriage rocked again, the ride rough as we were carried away, back to the Runturin.
“You are not the Boy,” I mumbled, wincing as I pushed myself up to face him, the pain from my palm screaming up my arm.
“No, I am not. Although your Boy is fine.” His jaw stiffened, stopping himself from saying more. It set me on edge, even as my heart tried to burst its way out of my chest in worry and panic.
The Boy.
He had been kept from me, locked in my carriage as I had been dragged to the temple. Clearly, someone had wanted the man sent to kill me to look like the Boy, for me to think that it was the Boy who attacked me.
But it wasn’t him.
Where was he?
“Who are you?” I looked up from my hand, from the blood stained cloth that was wrapped around it, the matching one on his hand, to the sharp features that were looking at me with a dangerous edge.
I must have inhaled as everything came back, his lips twerking into a smirk.
“Caspyn.” I said and he nodded, his hands drifting to a sword belt that was conspicuously empty. “How do you know The Boy is alive?”
My voice shook at the question, the pressure on my ribcage still boiling.
By the Goddess, please let him be safe.
This man, Caspyn, had said he knew where the Boy was when I was attacked. He may have saved me, he may have fought against my mother; but I had seen how he moved with those blades. He sat, his face pulled into a scowl so deep I wasn’t sure he knew how to make another expression. Nothing about him told me that he was trustworthy, except for the fact that he had saved me from the army of shrouded imposters.
That alone should be enough.
It was. I had chosen to trust him.
He had asked me to trust him, and I did.
Sitting there now, knowing nothing about him, I still did. There was something about him, something bright and warm and familiar that pulled me into him, that tethered me there. It was a line ran between us, a thread of light that I swore if I reached out I could grab it. Except there was nothing there.
“He was the one who sent me to help you. I know where he is.” He said simply, still leaning back, his bandaged hand on his lap reminding me of what had happened. “He is where your mother has hidden all of the Catalysts.”
“You know where they are?” I jerked forward, the carriage rocking over the dirt road as I shifted. “The Catalysts! Where are they?”
I was careful to hiss the question. I had been locked in this tiny prison for too long to think that we were not being watched. That someone wouldn’t overhear.
“In pack wagons, waiting for your mother to slaughter them.” He however, spoke far too loud.
“Shhh,” I hissed, jumping to his side of the carriage and sending everything rocking again. I would have grabbed his face if I didn’t think he would hurt me if I did.
Instead, I leaned in, hissing low enough that I would hope he would get the message.
“They are always listening. And that… my mother… she isn’t going to slaughter them.” I shook my head. My mother was vile, nasty, but then…
I sagged in the chair beside Caspyn, my gaze falling to the long scar down my arm that was once again coated with blood, the bandage at the end of the line that was absolutely soaked red.
Yes.
Yes, there was a way that she would do exactly that.
“She will.” Caspyn was still firm, and far too loud. “She is capable of that and more, but I believe you already know that.” His eyes followed mine to that line there, to the blood that was splattered everywhere.
“The assassins in the forest. You do realize who sent them,” he continued after a moment.
It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t give him an answer. I knew where they came from, but the more I accepted it, the more the reality of it smacked me in the face, the more that part of me slipped away.
That part that had fought so long for her acceptance, for her love.
Even when I stood up to her, even when I vowed to fight her it was always there. But as she chained me to the altar, and now as I sat there facing the harsh realities of what she had done, what she had always done, it slipped away completely.
My Uncle’s warning suddenly made sense. Don’t go into the forest, because he knew what was waiting for me there.
What was planned.
What she planned.
“How many other times has she hurt you?” Caspyn asked into the silence, the growl of his voice sending a shiver up my spine.
“Enough. Enough to be done.” I voice firm, but not in answer to how many times she had hurt me. No, that one word was a battle cry toward what was coming. I knew what he was going to ask before he said it. I didn’t know how I knew, but as I turned to him, my jaw set, my breathing even, I already knew what my answer was.
“Tell me, Elara,” he leaned closer as the carriage rocked again, the sound of horses outside loud for a moment. “What were you doing in the forest?”
“I was escaping. The Boy and I were going to run,” I answered, careful to keep my voice little above a whisper. He may be fine being overheard, but I wasn’t.
“That explains why they locked him up.” He mused, thankfully, this time he responded with little more than a hiss above a whisper.
The light color of eyes was almost hypnotizing, that knowing look boring right into me. I had sworn I had seen his eyes change before, that I had seen two different shades of azure, but now they were just a blue so pale they seemed to be glowing.
“And why they lock me up,” I said, and his focus drifted to the heavy fabric that covered the side windows, the thick folds splotched red.
“Do they often do this?” He tugged at the window covering nearest him. That one was somehow even more covered in red. You would think I had been murdered in there.
At least she had tried to.
“Lock me up?” I nodded, prompting her to continue. “I am her prisoner. The Boy and I, and more…” I stopped, not knowing how much I should say. About the snakes, about Da, about everything.
“Your mother has caused pain like yours in every corner of the kingdom,” Caspyn said, his voice as low as mine now and my head shot up.
I had assumed I was the only one who saw, the only one who was affected by her wickedness. It wasn’t in vain, I simply wasn’t anywhere in the world to know. But he was, and he had seen things. I could tell that by the look in his eyes, by his darkness that bled everywhere. Even in that pitch I could still sense light in him, truth. I felt that warmth of the sun he was hiding inside of him blister against my soul and pull me closer.
“Elara, I have devoted my life to saving all of those who were brought to harm by her. I have devoted my life to killing Queen Dalyah.”
I didn’t even know what to say to that. I looked at the deep indigo line on my arm, at the bruises from the fight in the forest, at the bloody bandage on my hand. Everything hit me in the face with the force of a rampaging water wheel.
“I was going to kill her before she could enact that plan, but saving you… Let’s say that things did not go as planned. I would still like to complete that task. But I am going to need your help to do so.”
My jaw tightened and I forced myself to take slow breaths as I looked at him, this killer who had come to destroy my mother.
To destroy the woman who was slowly destroying everything around her.
I should be outraged at his proclamation, I should be furious. I should revolt and tell the guard. But I sat there, that same feeling that I had before wrapping around me, that he was right, that I trusted him.
“You will need to train me to fight.” I already knew that the training I had was woefully inadequate… and my magic. He had used his so easily, I still couldn’t so much as summon a spark on command with any type of reliability.
“I can train you however you need, but that is not why I need your help.”
“Then why?” It was hard not to ignore the stab of disappointment. He better not be gearing up to ask me to make him sandwiches.
“Because now that you have been bound to me as Requisite and Catalyst you currently have control over my magic, as well as any magic you had before.” He seemed almost upset, angry even, but I could only look at him in stunned silence. He couldn’t be saying what I thought he was.
We had both held magic, we had both used our magic of our own accord. I had seen his.
“You can’t use your magic?” He shook his head.
Catalyst. Requisite.
I couldn’t help but feel as though I had made a terrible mistake claiming him as such in an attempt to save his life.
I hadn’t felt any different, any more powerful. I had seen him use his magic so easily, yet I didn’t feel that strength in me.
In fact, I was not sure I felt anything.
“But… how…” I lifted my hand, staring at the stained bandage as though it would give me the answers.
“I am not sure. But I believe I know who I can ask to find out, and knowing his royal smugness he will make an appearance when he is least helpful.”
I turned to him, expecting some kind of explanation, but he stared back, hands held out, his hand also wrapped and stained with red.
“Will you help me Elara?”
“Help you kill my mother?” Saying it made it more real somehow, but it didn’t make it any more frightening.
“She has killed many, and she will kill many more if we don’t stop her.” He was firm, clearly waiting. He didn’t need to convince me. He was right, and I hated that I knew he was right. “Now, our fates are tied together. They may always have been; but I will need your help to save The Catalysts. To save the F–”
He stopped, pressing his lips together as though he was about to say something forbidden. I guess, in a way, he was.
“The Fae?” I finished for him, and he nodded, his lips still tight as he leaned in, his low voice rumbling over everything as the carriage hit a hole, everything rocking and sending me into him.
“To save us all,” he whispered in my ear before pulling back, his hands still held between us in truce.
“That sounds very ominous.” I swallowed any fear that was trying to boil its way to the surface.
“In this case, it might as well be.”
“What do I need to do?”
“First. Trust me.” He pushed his hands closer to me as he spoke, the offering clear. I only looked at him for a moment before I leaned closer, placing my hands in his.
I had planned to make some comment about working together, about joining forces with him, but the second our hands made contact with each other that glittering light from the forest, from the altar returned in a rush. It consumed everything until we were sitting in nothing but white, the blaze burning into everything. The carriage fell away in the intensity of the burn, leaving streaks of yellow and white everywhere in my vision, leaving us sitting in a different world.
Buildings taller than I had seen sprouted around us, a blazing sun shining overhead, but then, with one blink it was gone, leaving me to think I had imagined it all.
Except, with one look at Caspyn, I knew he had seen it too.
“What was that?”