Chapter 35 #2
Dejected, Emi took the opposite side of the flames beside Roark.
My husband kept a possessive palm on my thigh but never looked away from Thane across the blaze.
He also didn’t wipe the dried blood off his lip.
“Well.” Thane folded his arms over his chest. “What do you know that we do not?”
Roark looked at the Stav Guard. They must swear it on their fealty bones to never speak of what they’ll hear.
The Stav understood Roark well enough to look surprised.
Thane leaned over his knees and tossed a twig into the fire. “They answer to me only. If I hear they have spoken of our conversations to anyone, I’ll let you eat their soul.”
Roark scowled. I don’t eat souls. Everyone says that.
“It’s more fearsome.” Thane waved a hand, dismissing the thought. “Now that we’ve all agreed to the soul feast, go on. We’re listening.”
There was little else to do but start at the beginning. Most of the conversation belonged to Thane and Roark, but I would interject with my own thoughts, my own experiences.
We explained it all, from the Unfettered seer’s prophecy, to the peace meet where the kingdoms agreed to find the melder babe, to the betrayal of King Damir and King Hundur and the disappearance of House Bien.
The raids and the truth behind them left Yrsa wringing her skirt and Kyrre whimpering, as though he sensed Roark’s pain when he described Nivek’s death to Thane.
The pup’s big head settled on Roark’s leg, merely there and steady.
Thane hung his chin when Roark explained the purpose behind his soul rend at the hands of his mother. But a white rage flashed in his slate eyes when it was time to confess the truth of Stonegate.
Thane dragged his hands down his face. “No. It isn’t possible.
Fadey is…Baldur? Lyra, he’s been everywhere in the palace.
He won’t leave my mother’s side. Even tried to push mine and Yrsa’s wedding forward when King Hundur threatened to return to Myrda, insisting it was too dangerous in Jorvandal. Baldur was livid when we refused.”
“You’re not wed?” Emi’s head snapped up.
Yrsa looked away, but Thane offered Emi a sympathetic smile. “Not yet, Nightlark.”
“Wed?” Gunter sniffed the air and pointed to Emi, then across the flames. “But you—oof.”
He shot Emi a glare when she kicked his shin.
“Thane, I know it seems outlandish, and I am sorry for the pain it causes you,” I said. “But Fadey never left Stonegate. He and the queen have been planning this for seasons.”
The prince hesitated. “The Wanderer. They want the bones of the Wanderer, and you believe…all of us have something to do with it?”
Firstborns are mentioned in the prophecy, Roark explained. We believe my brother might have hid his shard in the Unfettered lands for protection.
“I don’t have a bone of the Wanderer.” Thane chuckled. “If I did, I assure you, I would boast about it often.”
“Nor do I,” said Yrsa. “I’ve never heard of such…
” The princess paused. “Well, that isn’t true.
My mother would tell me a tale when I was a young girl about the Wanderer’s daughter.
She built a glittering land for herself after her father’s destruction, and one day a granddaughter, born many seasons after the daughter’s death, took up her blade and destroyed the darkness the greed of the Wanderer had left behind.
“The granddaughter restored the peace and beauty of the god-queen.” Yrsa flushed when she took note of everyone watching her. “It might be nothing. My mother is not bold in front of my father, but she always told me I could be the girl from the tale. A warrior queen who defeated darkness.”
Your mother would know of the seer’s warning. Roark’s eyes narrowed. For all we know, she was preparing you.
“An eerie thought.” Yrsa chuckled nervously and looked at Thane.
The prince gave her hand a squeeze, then looked to Roark again. “The only coincidence that could be related is that I know Fadey encouraged our union. My mother always said the melder thought it would be wise to keep the firstborns of allied kingdoms together.”
“You never told me that,” Yrsa said.
“Our fathers had the final word, but mine practically drank whatever Fadey said.”
“And my father drank whatever came from yours.”
“It does not solve the problem that two of these supposed firstborns don’t have a damn bone,” Gunter snapped. “Nor do we, really. We don’t know what awaits us over those ledges.”
“But you’re going, right?” Thane studied me, then Roark. “You’re going to find out?”
It is the only move we have to make. Roark spoke slowly. Fadey is growing stronger and has ways of finding Lyra.
“The wound is healing,” I whispered and showed him my palm. “With Yrsa’s help, I think whatever twisted connection they used to track us is breaking.”
“Well done, Myrdan,” Gunter said, beaming at Yrsa.
The princess shrugged and poked at the fire as if to merely keep her hands busy. “It wasn’t all that impressive, and I’m sure there will be a scar. If I had more strength, it would be healed by now.”
“Do not downplay your ability,” Emi said, a quiver to her tone.
Yrsa held Emi’s stare for a heartbeat, then another, before she shook her head and looked away.
Roark pressed a kiss to the center of my palm. We still must be wary.
“So here is what we know,” Thane said. “Fadey is alive. My mother and that bastard murdered my father, they now control Stonegate, and they did it all to find four missing bones of the Wanderer. Should they be melded to Fadey—wait, can a melder meld themselves?”
I popped a shoulder. “I’ve never tried.”
“There was a rumor that fealty bones would not meld properly if taken from a melder,” Emi said.
“He must believe it can be done with Lyra’s soul specifically,” Yrsa said, avoiding her lover’s eyes. “Or he would not be such a snake in the grass.”
“Agreed.” Thane nodded. “Let us assume it can be done, and he seeks the power of all craft to be lord over the realms of Stìgandr. We know, to him, Lyra is the melder who will give him the power to bind all craft again.”
“What we don’t know,” Brynn said next, “is what awaits us in Unfettered lands, who killed Prince Nivek, and where any of the bones are actually hidden.”
“And Kael,” I said, my voice rough. “We don’t know what they’ve done to Kael.”
Roark lifted my knuckles to his lips and kissed me there.
He said nothing—no false hopes, no assurances that Kael was fine.
It was one of the things I loved about the man.
He did not shelter me from hard truths, but the blaze in his eyes gave up that he would fight for Kael Darkwin, and if we discovered my fears were true, Roark would kill anyone who’d hurt my brother.
He’d do it slowly.
“Not a promising start,” Gunter said in a grumble.
We were silent for a drawn pause. At long last, Thane clapped his palms over his thighs and stood. “Perhaps not promising, but we do have the first step.”
Roark arched his brow. You’re in, then?
“Of course I’m in, you sod. And you knew I would be, so don’t act surprised.
I’m much too curious to merely go sit and wait.
Not to mention, if Fadey believes me and Yrsa are part of a fated plan to make him some sort of god, I have a feeling our necks are at risk of getting slit very soon if we return.
I’ll take my chances with rogue Dravens. ”
Gunter barked a laugh. “I can see why our dear prince did not mind you, Jorvan.”
Thane held up one finger. “That is a question I have. How is it none of us knew the king and queen of Dravenmoor had a second son?”
“It makes a bit of sense, don’t you think?” Yrsa offered. “It kept a target off Roark’s back all his life.”
“Made it simpler to slip into Stonegate as a random dying Draven boy, that’s for certain.” Thane’s grin was sly. “Tell me, how was it taking orders from everyone when you knew you were a damn royal?”
Roark glared at Thane and scratched his nose with his center finger, causing a few tentative chuckles to break free in the circle.
We ought to rest, Roark spoke to the group. The Night Ledges will take us two days to reach.
“Yes.” Thane rubbed his chin. “We should leave at first light and keep to the heavy wood. I’m assuming we’ll take the pass on the Draven side of the border?”
Obviously, Roark gestured.
“Well, prepare for a steeper route compared to the Myrdan pass. Everyone find a place to sleep.” Thane glanced at me and Roark.
“I suppose I’ll give up my tent to the only two who are wed.
By the way, you both ought to know, I’m furious about it.
You should’ve waited until we were all boon companions again. ”
He did not wait for a response before aiding in arranging mats, furs, and supplies from the camp for the new Dravens.
I snorted and nudged Roark’s ribs with my elbow. “I told you he’d feel slighted.”
Roark leaned in and pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
His fingers brushed over the front of my throat, slow, seductive. I want to taste you, wife.