Chapter 21 #2
“We’re to meet at the docks in three hours,” I answered, sticking my finger in his cinnamon oats and licking it off.
He frowned and batted my hand away with his spoon.
“But if you want to stay and rest…”
He paused before taking a bite and raised his ebony brows at me. Gods, he looked so much like Papa.
“I’m not leaving you, Lyvia. I don’t care who you are. Lyviánala. Bonscaíh, or whatever the fuck Astraeus calls you.”
My brows furrowed.
“I don’t care what anyone says,” he continued through a mouthful of oats.
“Nothing has really changed. You may not be my sister by blood, but you’re my sister by bond.
The air oath may have died with Enya, but I’d swear the same to you today.
And I know I’ve said it a million times already, but I’m sorry about Mount Telum. I didn’t understand… I didn’t know—”
“It’s okay, Aer,” I cut in, reaching for his hand and squeezing. “I don’t blame you. It was…a lot to take in, especially in the middle of a war.”
Aeriden’s sapphire eyes held mine, and my heart squeezed.
“Love you, Sis,” he finally said, and returned to shoveling food into his mouth.
“Love you, too,” I echoed after a moment of listening to his chewing.
Aeriden stood and ruffled my hair as he picked up his plate. The door to the kitchens swung open, and Mother Eghan stepped into the bright dining room carrying a plateful of pastries. Aeriden thanked her and patted her shoulder as he passed, taking his dishes to the kitchen.
“You’ve been so hospitable, Mother Eghan,” I began as I took the large platter of food from her. “I cannot thank you enough.”
The old healer simply smiled and nodded.
Deep lines etched across her weathered face, and her shoulders hunched over her stocky form.
But there was a strength to her. A strength honed by years of hardship that invited a type of resilience I’d only just begun to understand.
And I could easily understand how the Celestyn Bone belonged to this woman. What would her Bellator bond feel like?
“And what you’ve done with this place.” I scanned the rolling countryside beyond the window, listening for the laughter of the orphans occupying most of the massive estate. “Kellan is lucky to have you as a mother.”
Mother Eghan’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but she nodded, her hands sliding to the top of one of the wooden chairs before pulling it back and taking a seat.
“You’re kind to say so. You’ve decent manners,” she added with a sigh. “Your mother taught you well.”
Pain squeezed in my chest, and the notes of the Nyxteria song flitted from the back of my mind, sounding more like a funeral anthem.
“I don’t have a mother,” I replied, swallowing against the dryness in my throat.
“Ah.” She nodded, her eyes tilting in regret. “Whoever loved you, then.”
“Thank you,” I breathed after a moment, shutting the door to those painful memories before they could push through.
“I do it to make up for the children I failed.” Her expression was pained.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I didn’t mean to call on painful memories.”
Mother Eghan sighed and shook her head.
“Kellan was my youngest by several years,” she explained. “He had two half-siblings. I had a son and a daughter by another.”
I took a sip of the creamy drink and waited, wondering why the healer wished to share something so personal.
“I let them down.” She sighed, rubbing the space between her eyes. “But these islands have run red with the blood of our people for so long. I couldn’t protect my eldest. When my husband died, Lord Haro offered to take him on as a ward. We had no money. We were starved. And then the ashen came.
“When you have no army, when you have no means to defend yourself, you do what you need to find protection, to protect those you love, even if it’s with the Marisarma.
Years later, I’d fallen in love again, with one of those lords, of all people.
I wasn’t married, though Kellan’s father insisted he take his name.
He had planned on getting us out of here. All of us. But the ashen wouldn’t stop.
“He was killed, and I lost my sight during one of those attacks, just a few years after Kellan was born. And my son, my eldest, had grown bitter. He’d grown hard after growing up on a Marisarma ship and enduring years of ashen attacks.
Thinking he could ally with one of the other Lords of Marisarma, he stole from Lord Haro.
The scum took my daughter in return. She was so young…
” Mother Eghan paused, allowing a shaky breath to enter her lungs.
I reached a hand to hers and squeezed, letting her know I was still here, still listening. A growing sense of unease twisted in my gut as I listened, the story feeling strangely familiar.
“I failed my children.” A lonely tear slid over her freckles.
“I will never be able to make it up to them, so I care for all the others. Any child will find a safe home here. Kellan has made that possible. He’s slaughtered so many to ensure only the trustworthy Votruvians are allowed on this island and in his command.
” Her bright blue eyes sparkled as the morning sun at last broke over the crest of the hill, its golden rays highlighting the bits of red remaining in her hair, and my heart stilled as realization hit me.
“What was your daughter’s name?” I asked, shifting in my seat.
The old healer heaved a sad sigh and hiccupped. She placed a hand to her heart, pinching her eyes shut as she said the name.
“Morwyn.”