44. Chapter 41
Chapter 41
I tried to tell the Prince about Valinar after the Midsummer Ball, but it was too late. He never met with me. Maeve wears the Painted Crown now, and everything has happened exactly as expected. Gethin has attacked Casimir, and we’ve lost Draenyth. Brenna, Maeve doesn’t know about Valinar. If you don’t catch her in Blackgrove, I don’t know how we’ll ever catch her. She’s too powerful…
~Vesta, letters to Brenna
Maeve
Everyone is here. All of Aerwyn. All of Blackgrove. And there are more. So many more. A city has been built here in the mists. Birds fly through the air. The sound of crickets chirping and grass crunching under boots makes it feel almost normal, but behind it all, there’s an underlying silence that feels like it could never be filled.
That silence won’t let me forget that we’re inside the Nothing.
Rivertail sees us first, and he gestures to the rest of Aerwyn’s villagers who are sitting on the outskirts of the small city, seeming to wait for us. There are no walls, and the buildings are all made of wood, but it’s too large to be considered a village. There’s an undercurrent of anticipation there, too.
They’ve been patiently waiting for us. Just like that first day that we arrived in Aerwyn, they follow us at a distance while my mother leads us into town. They don’t want to interrupt, but they’ve missed us.
And I’ve missed them, too. Bog’s bouncing beside Rivertail. I catch sight of Duncan in his striped stocking cap. It’s not just my friends from Aerwyn, though. Calum Hayes’s bald head rises above so many of the Lesser Immortals.
Everyone’s here, and they’ve been waiting for us all this time. Everyone that I mourned is alive and well, safe within the Nothing. My mother saved them all, and while I hate that I didn’t know, I’m so glad that they are safe. The world’s become ever more dangerous as Gethin’s reach has grown, but they’ve been safe here.
How many people are here? How many people has my mother saved? I try to reach out with my Earth senses to find out just how large the city is.
It’s like the entire world has tiny bits of steel embedded in it.
I pause, and Cole stops as well, giving me a confused look. “Mother,” I say softly, feeling very discomforted by the fact that my powers aren’t working. It wasn’t long ago that I didn’t know I had an Immortal bloodline, but now that my life revolves around magic, I feel weaponless in a very unfamiliar land. I may be surrounded by friends and family, but I’ve learned never to trust anyone or anything.
She turns, stopping the group, and arches an eyebrow at me. “Yes?”
“Why can’t I use magic?”
She smiles knowingly. “You can. It just takes a little more to accomplish the same thing here. I cannot sustain this place alone. As a cost for the inhabitants’ safety, part of their power is drawn away to maintain it. All magic is harder here, but that cost keeps this place safe. Well, unless a new boundary is created away from the external walls. That stone you dropped into the center of town nearly crushed Lirael.”
Lirael? The banshee from Aerwyn? Oh, that was the scream that stopped me when I was hunting for Da. Lirael was trying to keep from being crushed by rocks falling from the sky.
Then it occurs to me to ask a question that seems obvious, but maybe it isn’t. I don’t feel like we should assume anything right now. We’d assumed that a mist that consumed everyone it touched was dangerous when it wasn’t, and I don’t think we should make that mistake again. “We can leave this place, can’t we?” I ask.
She nods to me. “It takes effort on my part to send you through the boundary between this world and Nyth, but if you’d like to leave, you’re more than welcome to. Maeve, you’re my guest, not my prisoner.”
There are so many new questions that keep popping into my mind. “And what about you? Can you leave?”
This time, she shakes her head. “No. Just like Kings and Queens of each House are the Conduits for Nyth, I am the Conduit for this world. Calyr built this place for me, and he used my power to anchor the magic.” She points to a massive tree that rises hundreds of feet into the air in the center of the city. “He turned it into that tree.”
“And you control the mist in Nyth?” The questions keep coming, and both Cole and Casimir are listening with rapt attention as my mother gives answers to questions that no one outside this place knew.
“Yes. In effect, I am what you call the Nothing. This was my backup plan in case Prince Cole couldn’t convince you to follow him. I trusted the Prince to…” She hesitates.
“ …manipulate me?” I suggest. Cole winces, but I smile. “I’ve come to terms with that, Mother. You did what you had to do as an Immortal. As a Queen. You didn’t even know what you would feel when you saw me for the first time. You were plotting as Queens do, and using your daughter as a tool to save the world didn’t seem like a terrible idea.”
“Your Da should have been there,” she says, a look of sadness in her eyes. “I could have reached him through our bond if we’d been close, just as I did when I found him in Aerwyn, but I didn’t dare come close to Blackgrove until you were older. Prudence and Trevor might have tried to escape. Then you could have gone somewhere I couldn’t follow. Like Stormhaven.”
It’s exactly where we’d gone. My mind tries to work through the reason. “I’m just guessing here, but is it because it would start a war between the humans and Immortals?”
She nods. “They’d assume that the Nothing was controlled by Immortals. When it happened to tiny villages, it could be explained as an oddity, as something that happened in the country. If I entered a major city like Stormhaven, it would introduce a myriad of additional problems. I’d have to deal with thousands of people, one at a time. The nobility would almost certainly escape, and they’d try to start a war in retaliation. The possibility of a war starting right now between humans and Immortals is the last thing anyone needs.”
“You planned ahead,” I say. “I can respect that. I still think that the broken nose was deserved.”
My mother chuckles and turns back to the city. “If that was the cost to have my daughter back, it was certainly worth it. Welcome to Valinar, Little Star,” she says. “It’s a place where you can rest safely without any worries.”
Without waiting for a response, she turns back toward the city and begins walking. I can’t help but watch her. She isn’t all that different from the woman I’d envisioned.
There’s still the aura of a Queen around her. She still commands authority from everyone except Casimir and me. Brenna is everything that has been said about her.
Except that she doesn’t seem to see me as anything other than a tool. No different from when I was born.
It hurts more than I’d like to admit. Cole brushes against me, his hand wrapping around my waist, and he whispers in my ear. “Did you hear that? Nothing can hurt us here. It might be nice to take a few days to rest.”
“Oh, really?”
His lip curls up, and he says, “I have a few ideas of how to rest . Thoroughly.”
I run my hand over his chest, and for a moment, I forget that there are two entire villages watching us, waiting to talk to us. We haven’t had enough time together without a thousand things happening. We haven’t had enough time where we could breathe like we did in Draenyth. I haven’t had enough mornings waking up next to him.
His voice is water over river rocks as he whispers, “You always have all of me, Maeve Arden. I hope you’ll let me remind you of why you came back to me.”
A shiver runs through me, and shadows pour from me without any thought. “Maybe you should be careful what you say,” I respond
His ice-blue eyes flash orange, and flames sputter to life around him. It’s nothing like the inferno he’d called forth during the dance, but it’s still an obvious display of need.
He bends down, pressing his lips to mine. I sink into it. It’s everything I need, and yet the softness is like a caress, soothing a soul that still feels the wounds that have only just begun to heal.
His touch is everything. His kiss is all-consuming.
And then Casimir clears his throat, and I realize that nearly fifty people are staring at us, my Da and Hazel being a part of them. At least half of them know exactly why shadows pour from my fingertips.
“Might want to wait to finish that train of thought until you have a room,” he says. “I doubt you want everyone here to be thinking about your naughty bits when they talk to you for the first time in months.”
Blood runs to my cheeks. Cole’s grin makes me think that he didn’t forget about the fact that everyone was watching us. He just didn’t care.
“Right,” I say and pull back from Cole, but the smile is etched on my face. “We’ll come back to that,” I say, and go back to following my mother. She’s smiling at us both, but she says nothing as she leads us toward the city.
As we get closer, I realize it wasn’t just humans that my mother had been rescuing. Shadows stream from multiple Immortals. How is that possible? The only answer is that there are more people from the House of Shadows here. My mother must have saved them from being hunted down by Gethin.
I can hardly believe it. Then I see a child with bright white hair who’s probably only fourteen years old, and her body is nearly completely engulfed in darkness. Even more than the Shade, she is shadows. She’s… powerful. I can only remember a handful of times where my own darkness covered me so completely.
A realization passes through me. This must be the new Queen of Shadows .
She’s different from the other High Fae I’ve met. Her skin doesn’t have that slightly olive tone. Instead, it’s so pale that it seems to shine in the faint mist that is everywhere here in the Nothing. Her gray eyes shine just as much, taking in everything at once, and they seem older than her youthful body would suggest.
She moves smoothly, gliding from where she was standing under a copse of trees toward us, unfazed by the fact that we’re strangers here. Her body is lithe, and she flows almost as smoothly as her shadows do.
Somehow, even while looking every bit like a fourteen-year-old Queen who’s ready to rule the House of Shadows, her eyes light up like a little girl at a birthday party. Those gray eyes brighten as she gets closer to us, and they never leave mine.
“Queen Maeve,” she says, bowing her head ever so slightly when she gets within a few feet of us. “I’m Echo. Your mother asked me to be your guide through Valinar.” Her words flow just as much as her body does, as though she’s a part of the shadows that exude from her. Her stormy gray eyes flash as she stares at me. While her movement and speech are just like I’d expect from a girl my mother’s raised to become her successor, there’s a touch of excitement in her voice. Something about seeing me has her wanting to jump up and down, and it’s only her training that keeps her acting mature.
“Thank you, Echo,” I say with as much formality in my voice as possible. I don’t understand this girl, nor her place in the hierarchy of the future, and I certainly don’t understand her powers.
She says nothing in response, but she hesitates, and I catch the flash of a smile before she turns and glides towards the city, a specter in a world of mist. Seconds pass by silently as we follow her, and even Cole’s footsteps seem loud compared to the child’s.
Then she speaks solemnly as she recites information about the city. “Valinar was created when Queen Brenna went to Calyr and begged a favor from him. She needed a place to guarantee safety from King Gethin and King Casimir, and Calyr demanded a sacrifice. She sacrificed her body and her power. Brenna is no longer a Queen, nor is she a High Fae. She is Valinar. She is safety.”
Echo’s words seem to flow around us, not really leaving our minds, even as we walk down the main street of Valinar. Still, our friends follow us, staying just behind us as we’re given the tour of the city. Little whispers from some of the louder members of the crowd reach our ears. “I bet she used a net to catch them…” is heard louder than the rest, and I can’t help but smile.
Echo doesn’t stop talking though, her eyes never even noticing the crowd we’re walking past. “Calyr accepted this offer and turned Queen Brenna into the Conduit of Valinar. She has no power of her own, but she can control the power that is siphoned from those who are in and around Valinar. She’s used that power to find and hide hundreds of people, including many of the House of Shadows. Unlike Draenyth, no violence against any races is allowed here. Valinar is not another Draenyth. It is a place of peace and safety for all of its inhabitants.”
She stops then and turns to us, and the storms in her eyes seem to light up in intensity. For the first time, there is nothing but seriousness in them. “I will say that again. There is no violence beyond consensual training allowed in Valinar. There are no slaves. No humans or Lesser Fae are to be treated as anything other than fellow citizens. Valinar is not a part of Nyth, and even you, Queen Maeve, do not rule here. This city is set outside the world you came from. Only I and Brenna call this place home, and death waits for any visitors who break our law.”
I blink. I’ve never been threatened by a child before, and until this very moment, I wouldn’t have believed that I could be intimidated by someone who wasn’t even an adult. I would have been wrong. Echo is not a normal child, and that’s when understanding dawns on me.
“You were born here, weren’t you?” I ask.
She nods excitedly, her training breaking for a moment. “I’m the only person alive who has never experienced any place other than Valinar.”
That explains the strangeness. Her power is both from the House of Shadows and… and from here. She’s breathed this magic in since she was conceived. It’s not the magic of Nyth. It’s the magic of Valinar. Of the Nothing. Of my mother.
My eyes open wide. “You’re the only Immortal that’s been born since the Shattering.” Again, she nods and turns around to continue to lead us through the city.
We walk quietly behind her, our feet tapping against the uneven stones of the road, but no sound escapes. It occurs to me that the mist in the air dulls the sound here almost as much as it does in Nyth when it’s nearby. The whispers fade too quickly. There’s a distinct lack of wind rustling the trees or brushing against the thatched roofs of the homes.
“Why is Valinar so quiet?” I ask. Cole arches an eyebrow in question, but Echo quickly answers.
“Because sound is magic, Queen Maeve. The world beyond Valinar has forgotten much that was known in the time of dragons.”
I say, “When words combine with intent, the most basic magic can be done.” They’re words from Vesta’s book, words that have come to mind unbidden many times now.
Echo turns to me, a gleam in those stormy eyes. “You’ve read A History of Magic and Dragons ?”
“Is that the book those words are from?”
For the first time, she doesn’t hide the wide smile that crosses her face. “Yes, it’s the most important book in the world, and yet, you don’t know its name? How strange!”
I shrug. “I always just knew it as Vesta’s book. It’s the only one she ever had, and I was a child, much younger than you, when she read parts of it to me.”
Echo’s smile widens. “I miss Vesta. She was always so funny. She was the one who read it to me as well. Do you know where she is?”
She was funny ? I stop, and everyone around me seems surprised by my reaction. “Wait,” I say. “She was funny? How? I don’t remember a time that Vesta wasn’t there. More than anyone else, Vesta has been at my side, and while she is many things, she has never been funny.”
Echo turns and cocks her head. “She didn’t tell you jokes?”
I think back on stoic Vesta. She was always there, but unless she was actively teaching me something, it was like she was more a part of the wind than my friend or even tutor. During the times she was teaching me, she was so focused on making sure that I understood her lessons that there was no possibility of laughter. Just learning. Just becoming better.
“No. I can’t remember a single joke. She was my teacher, but she wasn’t really a friend, if that makes sense.”
Echo frowns and shrugs. “That’s too bad. She’s been a wonderful friend for as long as I’ve known her.”
The girl turns back around and begins walking again, ignoring the fact that it was me that stopped the procession through town. She was raised by my mother. By Immortals. My childhood was that of a human, and that difference seems to have influenced everything.
I hadn’t expected to have to fight for my place in a world built around my mother. Not when so many of my friends and family are here. I guess I’ll have to.
In Echo’s—and probably many other Immortals’—eyes, I’m just Brenna’s Wyrdling daughter. I’m not someone who went to war with the Nothing and was never caught. I’m not someone who protected a human kingdom from hundreds of Immortals or turned King Casimir to our side.
The only answer is to stop being the human. I remember what I’ve learned about nobility and Immortals. I stand taller. I let the shadows flow from my feet unbound, and I pay attention to the smaller details. This is not Aerwyn or Blackgrove. This is—maybe not enemy—but unfamiliar territory, and while the people here may be connected to me, I don’t know them. I can’t trust them the way I trust Cole, Darian, and Lee.
Cole notices the changes, and immediately slides the cold, uncaring mask over his face that he wore in Draenyth so often. It’s the same one that he wore every day that we walked from Blackgrove to Aerwyn, and part of me wants to smile because I fell in lust with that mask.
Echo points out places of interest. The only tavern in town. An explanation on coins in Valinar. A library that was put together by the shadow walkers that have come and gone since the beginning of Valinar. Brenna’s home. The school for the human children.
I listen intently, paying attention to more than the words. I take note of what she emphasizes and realize that everything is pointed toward how everyone else uses these things. The human children go to the school. The Immortals use the library. People enjoy the tavern. Nothing about her. Nothing about her connection to anything here.
Echo is as separate from the people in Valinar as my mother is, and that’s both heartbreaking and terrifying. Why would she have any care about the people that are under her care if she isn’t a part of them? It’s as bad as Casimir’s separation from the Lesser Fae and humans.
Finally, she stops at a small building and turns to us. “This will be your home while you are here. It’s near Brenna and my home.” She points at a larger building, not all that different from the one we’re standing in front of. “If you need anything, please let me know, and I will be more than happy to help. Brenna will come by later this evening to talk. There are important matters to discuss, and it has been a long time since she saw her daughter.”
“Thank you,” I say with as much coldness as possible. “We’ll wait for my mother here.”
Then Echo hesitates for a moment, and with more warmth than I could have ever imagined, she wraps her arms around me. I’m taken aback at first, but then I understand. She’s tried to maintain her coldness. She’s tried to present herself like a Queen would. She’s been trained for this, but… but she was trained by my mother after my mother married Da. After she became more human.
“I’ve wanted to meet you for so very long, Maeve,” she whispers. Then she pulls away, and I see the faintest hint of a tear welling up in her eyes.
Echo nods to me, a wide, warm smile taking the place of the coldness as she turns and walks away, leaving us in front of the door. I finally look around at Da, Hazel, and Casimir, who have all been very quiet since my mother walked away. Da and Hazel grin at me, but it’s Casimir who speaks up.
“Of course, it was Brenna Morvyn who created a death cloud and became a nightmare for all the Immortals, all while keeping her precious shadow walkers safe. Of course. Dragon's damned favorite child. I swear it’s just because she’s the only female Conduit.”
He says the words with a bit of frustration in his voice, but there’s a smile across his face. “Are you just upset you didn’t think of it?” I ask, an eyebrow arched.
“Yes! If it was as easy to protect my House as to ask Calyr for it, I’d have done it. I doubt that the world would have taken to a wandering firestorm as well, though. Or maybe it would have worked even better. Mists may be creepy, but a firestorm traveling across the land? Now that would be terrifying. Plus, it wouldn’t be as eerily quiet.”
All of us chuckle a little, but there’s a strangeness to all of this. This isn’t our world. Echo is proof of that. Yet, it’s kept my friends and family safe. Who knows what Gethin would have done if we’d have made Aerwyn or Blackgrove our base of operations? He would have burned them both to the ground. He’d have found us. He knew we were coming from Stormhaven, and he set an army against us that would have burned every town it came across.
My mother saved every person who I care about. I look from Hazel to Da, and before I even open the door, I walk toward them. I wrap my arms around Hazel first.
“I’m so glad you’re alive,” I whisper to her.
“I missed you too,” she whispers back, and her arms tighten around me. “Maeve, do you know if my parents are safe? Brenna said that you flew away with my mother, but what about my father?”
“Safe in Stormhaven,” I say. “They’re happy. King Aric has been told that they are important to me, and that means that he’s taking care to keep them close and protected. They’re safer than anywhere other than Valinar, but your father is really enjoying spending his time in Aric’s court.”
“I bet he is,” she says with a grin. “And I’m glad they’re doing it without me. Being in Valinar with your mother has been eye-opening. She’s an incredible woman, and she’s been so kind. I’m not so sure I’m all that interested in going away to court or marrying a prince anymore. In fact, I think I might start a bakery. Brenna says that in Draenyth even human women can make something of themselves if they’re excellent cooks.”
My thoughts go back to Mari, the Wyrdling baker who almost died because she was a Wyrdling that happened to be too close to me. “She’s right. A good baker can earn a fortune in Draenyth.” I don’t mention the dangers. Let her have her dreams for now. If we all get out of this unscathed, I’ll be there to protect her.
I turn to Da and give him a hug that’s just as heartfelt as the first one. “I thought you’d died, too. I watched you walk into the mist.”
He nods to me, but he doesn’t say anything. He just keeps holding me tight to his chest. I look up at him after a few moments and say, “Is it nice being back with Mother?”
He gives me the widest smile I’ve ever seen. “It’s just as good as it was before. The only thing that was missing was you, Little Star. You have no idea how excited she is that you’re here. That’s all she’s worried about for months. Ever since she found me and even before that.”
There’s a pause, and then he says, “But Maeve…” He pauses again as he gets his thoughts together. “You have to understand that your mother isn’t human. She… she doesn’t love the same way that we do. She’s still learning. Like a child who hasn’t quite learned to run yet, she still stumbles. The words she says sometimes are a little emotionless. There are a lot of things happening in the world, and she is very invested in the way they all play out. Sometimes she forgets that peoples’ lives matter, and they’re not just tools.”
I chuckle. “I understand, Da. She’s an Immortal. I’ve been having to learn how to be more like them. Maybe we can both learn a little from each other.”
“That’s my girl,” he says with obvious relief. I didn’t understand Immortals for a long time until I started watching my friends “die”.
Now I understand how important it is to be cold when everyone close to you could be taken away. I pull away from Da and smile at him. But not him. Not him or Hazel. I mourned them both already, and they will not be put in harm’s way again.
“I’ll catch up with you two later, but I think I need to talk to a few of my other friends now.”
Da grins at me as I turn to look at the crowd waiting patiently behind them. “I think that if you don’t, we might have a bit of a mob on our hands. We don’t need anyone getting pitchforks out just so they can give you a hug.”
“They’ve missed you,” Cole whispers as he wraps my hand in his.
“More like they missed you ,” I mutter, but then I see their eyes on me. Their smiles and grins as they wave to me. Not Cole.
“No, they were thankful for me. They appreciated what I did for them, but they cared about you. They missed you.”
“Well, I’ve certainly missed them, too,” I say, and then Bog begins to tell us all about how he taught Brenna how to catch us.