Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
I hurled the ring across the room with a muttered curse, stomping toward our cabin’s door.
Five fucking hours, and still no dice. I hadn’t managed to bring out even a flicker of magic for all my time spent on it, never mind getting any ideas about how to actually open the ring. There were no hints, not a single clue how it worked.
I clenched my hand around the hard wood of the loupe, suppressing the urge to toss it as well. The Speaker had been adamant about me focusing on the ring while all the others prepared for the upcoming battle, setting traps and talking strategy, but at this point I felt like I was bashing my head against a wall.
The cool winter air washed over me as I pushed open the door, taking a step outside. I heard distant voices from the other platforms, and even from the forest floor below, but I ignored all of them, moving instead toward the platform’s western edge.
The words of the prophecy had clearly seemed to speak of me, but right now, I felt like the furthest thing from some supposed hero. I fiddled with the loupe in my pocket absentmindedly as I stepped up to the platform’s wooden fence. A mix of fear and awe swirled inside me as I stared off at the edge of our world, just the straight edge of land until it fell away, as if cut with a knife, and then a wash of whirling, writhing black. I’d known the edge had existed, but I’d never thought I’d see it myself. Despite the terror of the unknown, there was a part of me that wondered…what else was out there in the great beyond? What would happen if I stepped into that swirling blackness?
Fetch spun back down onto my shoulder, pushing his cheek up against mine in his strange gesture of falcon affection as if to comfort me.
“You’re a real peach, my friend. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
In hindsight, it was sort of ridiculous that I hadn’t realized sooner that I was at least some sort of a Whisper. Fetch and I had always been able to communicate in a way that no normal falconer and falcon could manage. In some cases, better than any two humans could manage. But magic had been such a small part of our world in The Hollow. A stray Whisper or two lurked around, healing minor wounds or selling potions, but they were a rarity. Nothing like in Little Alabaster, and not even close to here. What would my life have been like if I had grown up in a place such as this? If I’d been encouraged to build my skills?
Relyk’s suppression of magic had succeeded in keeping him in power all these years. Did we even stand a chance without the potion? He’d clearly given up even the ruse of a king being in power, if the crown was any indication. Any weakness he’d suffered by trying to keep Heinrich alive had clearly passed. And we were outnumbered to boot. How would the village’s Whispers fare against well-trained soldiers?
The sound of boots on wood turned me around and I sucked in a breath as Duncan placed himself next to me. He put his hands over the fence as well, staring off into the blackness.
“No one will blame you if you can’t open the ring,” Duncan started.
“It’s not about blame. It’s about responsibility. Everyone has been waiting for me this whole time because of that prophecy. If we lose here…it will be my fault.”
“That’s a lot of pressure.” His hand strayed to mine as he continued. “Even if you can’t do it, we can still win. My coup didn’t have nearly this many fighters, and you should see how powerful some of the Whispers here are, Harm. Relyk has bitten off more than he can chew. There’s a chance…I know there is, with or without the ring.”
“The way The Speaker looks when he talks about it tells a different story, and he’s faced him head-on,” I said.
He squeezed my hand tightly, tugging my chin in his direction with the other. “No matter what happens, I want you to know that I believe in you. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, and when this is all over, I hope you’ll let me prove it to you. Don’t,” he said, cutting off my response with a fingertip to my lips. “You don’t have to respond or make promises you can’t keep. I just needed to tell you in case…”
In case I fucking blew it and we all wound up being worm food.
Heavy footsteps plodded behind us, and I turned to see The Speaker walking our way with Moll in tow. She raised an eyebrow at me, a smile playing at her lips, but it was The Speaker who spoke.
“Come, come. We’ve accomplished much in the way of preparation. Now is the time to talk, laugh, live, love! This is the night to revel in all the beauty our world holds, to remember everything we fight for!”
Duncan and I fell in behind them, and we arrived at the treetop tavern in the center of the village a few minutes later. Villagers danced and gambled and chatted in various groups all around. Even Crispin had found his way to a corner and was belting out a tone-deaf verse with a buxom frost Whisper, who had frozen the dance floor beneath their feet and left them skating together side by side. I hadn’t planned to drink, but the atmosphere was infectious, and, when The Speaker pushed a pint into my chest, I found myself taking a healthy swig. It was sweet and nutty and went down far smoother than the alcohol I knew back in The Hollow.
“The good thing about the acorn honey mead is…no hangovers.”
I let out a huzzah and took another swig.
“Hungry?” Duncan asked, handing over a plate full of roast boar, mushrooms, and squash. A fresh sourdough roll sat on the edge, steaming butter melting into the center of it.
I thanked him, and dug in, determined to live like it was my last night…
Our last night.
“A dance, Prince Duncan?” a pretty older woman with black hair asked as she held out a hand.
“Just Duncan, Bethea, but yes. I’d love to.”
The two took to the non-frozen side of the dance floor, and I smiled as I watched them launch into a joyous reel.
“You better eat before it gets cold,” Moll said, sidling up beside me. Her eyes were a bit bleary, and I chuckled.
“And you better lay off the mead, or you’re going to start getting weepy and telling me how I’m your best friend, and how you feel bad for being a dick back in Little Alabaster…”
She playfully punched my arm and let out a hiccup. “Seriously, though, you so are, and I am…I just…I just couldn’t forget what he’d done to me, and it made me scared, and I couldn’t seem to make a good decision. And then I’d get more scared and then angry, and at myself too, I was trying so hard to get us out, that I never thought I’d be raped, Harm. I just…”
I dropped my plate to the table and caught her gently by the arms, horror washing over me. “Molly. You said he didn’t…”
“I lied,” she whispered. “I lied because you were already trying so hard to get us out, to get me out and I didn’t want you to worry more than you already were. That’s why I had such a hard time alone in the hut. I just couldn’t escape my thoughts…the memory…”
I pulled her into my arms, hugging her as tightly as I could as she sobbed, and my tears trickled off my chin and into her hair. “It’s not your fault, Molly. It’s not your fault. I’m sorry I was hard on you too. I’m so sorry.”
We cried together, and I didn’t care that anyone and everyone could see us. For all they knew, we were just saying tearful potential goodbyes. They had no idea what we’d been through. What Molly had been through.
I don’t know how long we clung to each other, a lot of minutes before Molly pulled back, sniffling and wiping tears from her face, then mine. “Don’t cry, Harm. We’re supposed to celebrate tonight.”
I wiped tears from her cheeks. “Okay, but…”
“No buts.” She gave me a wobbly smile. “Let’s eat, drink and be merry. Okay?”
I nodded. There would be a time when we could talk more, when I could let her tell me whatever she needed to, or nothing at all, it would be up to her. But I would give her that time, whenever she wanted it.
Moll shoved my plate back into my hands as she took a piece for herself. A moan slid out of her. “This is good.”
I popped a morsel of boar into my mouth and closed my eyes while I chewed, relishing the gamey, salty flavor. Not starving was a privilege I would never take for granted. I focused on that.
“Did you try the acorn mash? It’s delicious.” The light in her eyes dulled as she swayed in her seat. “Also, do you wonder how The Hollow might’ve been if we had been allowed magic? Look at this place.” She waved a hand around her. “Even the uses of acorn. They make cups out of them, and food, and drinks…all because of this one guy who’s an arbor Whisper. Relyk fucked us. He fucked us all.”
She let out another hiccup and I held up my cup and clinked it against hers.
“To the demise of Relyk, who fucked us all! May he rot for his crimes for all eternity!”
“Cheers to that!” she crowed, shooting a fist in the air.
Cheers rang all around us as others joined in. “And may the crows pluck out his eyes for his lies!” the frost Whisper who had been skating along with Crispin added.
Another roar rang through the room and more curses followed, getting sillier each time.
My stomach hurt from laughter by the time The Speaker found his way to the center of us all, adjusting his wizard’s hat with every other step. He raised his glass into the air, and his expression grew somber immediately.
“Down with Relyk, indeed. But more important than that, I need you to know…no matter what awaits us, I am so proud to call each and every one of you my friends and brothers and sisters in battle. My grandfather always said that a revolution is never truly lost, as long as there is at least one who still believes, but it is only now that I truly understand. Whether we seize the day or not, tales of our bravery will spread far and wide, and we will become the kindling for another revolution, just as those before us lit the fire for ours.
Tyranny cannot last forever, and I ask all of you to consider our place within this larger picture. Tomorrow’s fight is not only for us, it’s for all those who will come after. For the beggars and miners, for the farmers and widows, for the children who are written off from birth because they were born on the wrong side of a wall.
We must never forget what it is that we fight for. As powerful as he is, even Relyk is just a symbol: a symbol of the oppression and evil that we seek to destroy. We stand alongside the great revolutionaries of old in this fight, and our triumph is inevitable, regardless of tomorrow's outcome. When all is said and done, magic, and authority will be returned to where it rightly belongs: the hands of the people. All the people.”
The crowd erupted in a roar of applause and shouts as he brought the pint to his lips, gulping it down in a single swig. In that moment—wizard hat and spilled beer be damned—he looked downright heroic.
And I could almost believe we had a chance.