39. Chapter 39
CHAPTER 39
Dynalya
S hock stole her breath. Dyna rushed forward, ignoring Zev’s sputtering. Yet who he spoke to quickly retreated into the growing darkness before her eyes could truly confirm who it was. She may not have gotten a good look, but there was no mistaken what she had heard.
Pushing past Zev, she shouted up at the trees, “Sowmya! Come out. I know you’re there!”
After a pause, a tree branch rustled, then a figure dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch only a few feet away from her. As it rose to its full height, wings stretched open then rested. Sowmya stepped into the light. She lowered to one knee on the ground and bowed her head.
Dyna’s pulse drummed to see the Valkyrie before her. Her stomach twisted and her limbs tensed as her pulse raced. She was really here.
Sowmya’s sleek red feathers gleamed in the moonlight.
“I am sure now it was you, wasn’t it?” Dyna said, her eyes widening with a sudden realization. “You followed us on the Bridge. You released me from the forest’s spell in Morphos, then you paid for our stay in Little Step, and it was your voice who shouted for me when I jumped through the Druid’s door. I also know you pulled me from the sea after the ship blew because I found one of your feathers on the beach where I washed up. This whole time I thought I was hallucinating the sound of wings, but it was you . How long have you been following me?”
“I never left your side, my lady.”
She stared at her incredulously. “This whole time? “Why?
Sowmya lifted her head. “Did you truly think my king would leave his greatest treasure unprotected?”
Dyna heaved a breath, and her eyes immediately fill at the sharp ache in her heart. Her mind rebelled with anger, and she scoffed. If he treasured me, then he never would have left.”
With a sigh, the lieutenant rose to her feet. “I will deny this if asked, but I do not agree with his actions.”
Because it was wrong, even his Valkyrie knew that.
“It doesn’t matter now.”
“It does.” Sowmya took a step, but Zev snarled at her in warning, and she halted. “I was not to reveal myself to you. He wanted you to live without any memory of him or the Realms, so you both may go on with your lives.”
“And how well has that worked out for him?” Dyna hissed.
“Far worse than you know.”
The reply stumped her enough to pause. “What do you mean?”
The lieutenant seemed to dither a moment, then said, “Cassiel is lost, my lady, and the Realms have turned against him. You are the only one who can make right what was been made wrong.”
Scoffing, she shook her head. Cassiel was the one who wronged her.
“He is on his way to Nazar.”
Gasping, Dyna looked up at the gathered clouds above the mountains where the floating islands hid. Then it hadn’t been her imagination. She had sensed him near. He was coming.
But it had nothing to do with her.
“Return to him,” Sowmya said softly.
“Why should I?” Dyna retorted. She would not chase after the one who left her mindless and contained. “I am not his mate. He made that quite clear.” She gritted her teeth, ignoring the burn behind her eyes. “The Realms never accepted me either. They tried to have me assassinated, if you recall. Why would I return to give them another chance to succeed?”
“Because you are the High Queen.” The breeze blew loose tendrils of dark hair past Sowmya’s somber gaze. “Whatever happened between you, whatever prejudice my people hold, that does not change. Go to him, my lady. Remind him who you are. He does not know how much he needs you.”
The words embedded into her chest like molten iron as Cassiel’s soft voice echoed in her head.
Leave you? That will never happen.
Without you, there is no sun.
A tremor ran through Dyna, and she shook her head.
You are the other half of me, Dynalya.
It was a dream. Now we have to wake up.
A violent shake went through her.
I don’t want you…
Fresh tears spilled down her face. He didn’t want a weak human.
The physical pain of that day was buried in the deepest crevices of Dyna’s being. The words he said when he rejected the bond had torn her open, then she heard her soul had made when it shattered. The agony and heartbreak. The betrayal of the compulsion taking over. It was all there. Planted the moment he left her on the floor as he walked away.
“Where was he when I needed him?” Dyna wrapped her arms around herself as all the broken pieces of her soul shuddered. “Where was he when I needed him!” she screamed, choking on a sob.
The question tore at her like hooks peeling her skin. She doubled over from the pain, holding her stomach as she wept.
The lieutenant reached for her, but Zev blocked her. Lucenna was suddenly there, and she wrapped Dyna in a tight embrace. They were the only thing holding her up now.
Eyes closing, Dyna felt her throat shut with the words she had to say. “Go, Sowmya, and do not return. I want nothing to do with him anymore.”
Dyna’s days were filled with pretending. She pretended she was fine. She pretended she had told the truth. She pretended her eyes did not burn with unshed tears when she heard the lieutenant fly away.
She pretended not to be afraid when the nightmare came again.
But this time, it was different.
Cassiel was not as she remembered him. The face was the same, but he had golden and eyes the color of a clear sky. She saw fragments of him in another life. With a crown of seraph fire and pearlescent white wings that glowed in the light. Sounds of distant laughter. Of him playfully chasing a young woman with silken brown locks. Her gown swished past the flowering pushes as she ran through a garden until he cornered her in the gondola … below a Hyalus tree.
He tilted her chin as his lips gently pressed into hers. “You are the one I choose. In this life and in the next one.”
Those words resonated through Dyna like a beat of a drum.
He lifted a necklace with a glowing iridescent crystal. The young woman smiled at him, so hopelessly in love. Her golden crown caught the sunlight, as did her bright green eyes. Dyna’s breath caught sharply. The unnamed queen looked past his shoulder right at her.
Horror rocked through her chest at the sight of her own face. Dyna stumbled backward, but her foot found only open darkness and it dragged her into an abyss.
She jerked up awake in her mat with a gasp.
Her heart pounded wildly, a sheen of sweat on her skin. God of Urn … what was that?
She had seen that garden scene before, in the Morphos Court, when she had been trapped in the Wyspwood.
And the male who looked like Cassiel … matched the face from the portrait in Lord Jophiel’s Hall. Was that … King Kāhssiel?
Dyna stared at the mossy ground blankly. The shock subdued her, tangling her thoughts. King Yoel had never clarified if the rumor held any truth. Yet … it gave reason as to why Cassiel had such gifts.
If it’s true … the young woman with her face …
Dyna shook her head. “It was only a dream.”
“Was it?”
She jumped at the voice. Dyna looked around the mossy clearing they slept in, and her gaze landed Leoake standing atop of a ledge of earth beneath a white tree. A soft glow seemed to hover off the atmosphere and Dyna questioned if she was indeed awake. Her Guardians were all soundlessly asleep in their mats around the campfire that had long died before the light of dawn.
“Sometimes, our minds know more than we do, and it chooses how and when to show us such things.” He smiled down at her slyly. “Yours is speaking to you.”
“Then why does it only show me nightmares?” Dyna asked faintly.
“Are they nightmares?” Leoake canted his head, making one of his pointed ears peek out of his green hair.
“I don’t know.”
His smile sharpened. “Oh, but you already know the answer … dream walker .”
Then Dyna found herself shaken awake and she blinked up at Zev. She sat up, staring at her surroundings in confusion. The White Wood no longer glowed, and that dastardly Druid was gone.
“Are you all right?”
“Strange dream…” Dyna rubbed her face. “The Druid, he is not a normal fae is he?”
Zev blinked at her unexpected question. “I have had that impression myself.” He got back to his feet. “We have to go now.”
“Huh? Why? What happened?”
Everyone else was awake now, standing together as they stared at something past her shoulder.
“A member of House Norrlen is here.”
Dyna leaped up to her feet.
Her vision swayed and Zev grabbed her arm before her legs gave out. Stumbling past the others, she met the stern gaze of an elf. He was older than the elves she had met, with age more prevalent in his features and with short ashy blond hair showing streaks of gray. He wore dark green robes and held a white staff.
“I am Eldred, Magi Master of the Sellav province, in service to the Norrlen Household,” he said, his tone distrustful and curt. His eyes reminded her of a ghost fern, and they narrowed as he studied them before his gaze fell on her again. “Was it you called for aid from the stone circle? To do so, you would have used a Norrlen ring.”
Lucenna held it out as proof.
His jaw clenched. “That signet belongs to Rawn Norrlen. How did it come into your hands.”
“He gave it to me.”
“Let it be known, to lie about a member of the King’s court is a grave offense.”
Lucenna crossed her arms. “Why would I lie?”
“Why would you not?” Eldred countered coolly. “Lord Norrlen is a wanted elf with a substantial bounty on his head. He has not been seen in over twenty years. To claim he has given you is signet is either a lie, or you have somehow captured him to secure your fortune.”
Princess Keena huffed. “They are telling you the truth, Master Eldred.”
“Then I will hear evidence of that first.”
A surge of anxiousness and sorrow flooded Dyna’s chest as she looked at her Guardians. How would they prove it? His Household didn’t know them. But she knew Rawn.
“Lord Norrlen is the kindest person I have ever met,” Dyna said faintly. “He taught me how to shoot a bow and how to swing a sword. And he taught me what it means to be strong without them.”
Eldred stilled at whatever he read on her face.
“Rawn has a son who he carves wooden toys for,” Zev said next. “Even if he is much too old for them.”
The Magi Master’s expression changed, his suspicion wavering.
Lucenna then added, “Every single month for the last twenty years, he has written a letter to his wife so she would know he was alive.”
“Rawn is our friend.” Dyna’s voice wavered with the lump growing in her throat. “And so was Fair…”
Eldred heard the meaning in her statement. “Was?”
Klyde sighed. “We have come here to bring unfortunate news to his family … regarding his capture.”
His face paled. “Capture? Who has him?”
Lucenna handing him Rawn’s signet ring. “I think you know.”
Eldred’s hand trembled as he accepted it. “Was he alive when they took him?”
She nodded.
He briefly closed his eyes and Dyna saw the pain there. “This ring …” He looked at it somberly. “It has been passed down from heir to heir of the Norrlen House, and only at the predecessor’s death. If Rawn has given this to you …”
It was because he did not expect to survive. Knowing that alone draped a heavy despondency over them all.
“I don’t intend to let them keep him, Master Eldred,” Dyna said. “We didn’t only come here to deliver bad news. We are here to help.”
Eldred searched her eyes a moment and turned away. “Come. The estate lies at the other end of the foothills of the Anduir Mountains. I want to arrive before sundown.”
“Across the mountains?” Dyna repeated incredulously. “That would take days to hike, if not more.”
“Yet I arrived here in one.” Eldred paused on the path and turned around.
Dyna followed his stare, as did the rest of them, to the bearded man entering the mossy glade. Von had come, after all.
Everyone else immediately tensed, but all Dyna felt was relief. He looked tired and beaten down by life, and yet when he looked at her. They exchanged a nod. She didn’t say it when they last spoke, but she needed him as much as the others, and he had sensed it because of who he was.
At last, she had gathered her Guardians.
“Who is he? Another friend of Rawn’s?” Eldred asked.
Dyna smiled faintly. “He is a friend of mine.”