41. Chapter 41
CHAPTER 41
Dynalya
A quietness filled the Norrlen Estate. They were in the grand hall as they waited for Eldred. The Magi Master had gone into the other room with Aerina as they spoke with King Leif through her orb.
Lucenna sat on a chaise with Keena on her shoulder, soaking in the warmth of the fireplace. Behind them stood Klyde and Zev, keeping an eye on Von, where he lingered on the opposite side of the vast room. He paid them no mind. His tired, bloodshot eyes fixed on a random spot on the stone floor, lost in thought.
Dyna sighed. She hated the tension between them. Hated more that she could hear Aerina’s soft cries, knowing all of this was her fault. She looked up from the wingback chair she sat in, to the open courtyard doors where Raiden stood outside on the terrace. He stared blankly at the gardens, motionless.
He had yet to cry or show any other emotion, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Rising to her feet, Dyna walked over to join him. A soft breeze rattled the bushes. The air was sweet with the scent of flowers and herbs. “How are you feeling?”
Raiden blinked down at her, almost surprised she was suddenly there. “I’m …” A thoughtful curl formed between his brows, as if confused by the question. “I’m fine,” he said feebly, then cleared his throat and turned to face her fully. He reminded her so much of Rawn she had to lower her gaze out of guilt. “I’m all right. Please pardon me for my curtness at your arrival. We have had ill guests as of late. Thank you, Lady Dynalya, for coming all this way.”
A knot of emotion tangled in her throat at remembering Rawn’s kind voice when he referred to her with a title. “I’m sorry to bring this to your door,” Dyna said quietly.
“It was necessary...” Raiden glanced at the estate where his keen hearing could undoubtedly pick up the sound of his mother’s weeping. “My father, he had a bonded horse with him.”
She tried to hide the shakiness from her voice, but it was futile. Her vision welled as she looked down at her satchel. “Fair was lost during the confrontation.”
A soft sigh slipped past Raiden’s lips. He held out a folded handkerchief to her.
She accepted it with shaking fingers and wiped away the tear that had escaped. “I’m sorry.”
It was all she seemed to be able to say.
“I would not fault someone to show their care, more so when those tears are for my family.”
That wasn’t what she was apologizing for. She wanted to confess that she brought about Rawn’s capture, but the words lodged in her throat. The only way to make amends was to fix what she had done.
“I suppose this must be your first-time visiting Greenwood. Have you ever seen the flower you named after?” Raiden asked.
Dyna blinked, taken aback by the question. “Only in herbology books. Well, and today when we arrived.”
The last of the evening light caught his eyes as he glanced away to the gardens. He nodded for her to follow him.
Raiden led her through the gravel paths and brought her to a fountain obscured by hedges. And adorning the circumference were flowerbeds of beautiful red blooms. Their sweet fragrance was carried on the wind.
The petals were truly the exact shade of her hair.
“I see why that name was given to you.”
For a moment, an old memory surfaced of her mother brushing out her red hair by the fire as she sang to her of crimson fields.
“There. No more tears,” Raiden said at her small smile.
Had he brought her here to make her feel better? She was the one who should comfort him.
“And your name? Who were you named after?”
Raiden frowned at fountain, crossing his arms. “Tradition, I suppose. In Greenwood, you will find the first-born son tends to take the first letter of his father’s name. It started several centuries ago with the noble families to bestow honor. Now every family does so as a sign of love and respect.” He looked back at the estate. “And my mother certainly loves my father …”
His fingers drifted over a wooden pendant he wore around his neck. It was squared with a convex surface, whittled with an intricate weaving in the wood. He faced the fruit trees that were beginning to blossom.
“There is one missing among your group,” Raiden said, canting his head. “There was mention of a Celestial in his previous letter.”
Dyna’s pulse jumped at the sudden change in subject. “Yes …” She fidgeted with a loose thread in her sleeve. “He is not with us anymore. He had other matters to attend to.”
“Oh.” Raiden’s tone hardened. He held out an arm to shield her as he gripped the hilt of his sword at his hip. “Then who is lurking over there?”
Dyna whipped around. A winged shadow lingered within the trees. The leaves rustled as her red-winged guard stepped out.
She scowled. “Sowmya, I thought I made myself clear the last time we spoke.”
The Valkyrie kneeled on one knee and bowed her head. “Forgive me, my lady. I bring word that the High King will arrive within the hour. I came to plead with you once more.” She looked up at her. “Save him.”
Dyna’s frowned, a sense of worry and wariness coming over her at Sowmya’s beseeching her voice. “What do you mean? What is happening?”
“More than I have told you. A storm is coming to the Realms. They are revolting against him, my lady. Lord Gadriel awaits the High King at Nazar’s citadel with an armed force ready for battle.”
Her stomach sank, and Dyna looked up at the sky. A shroud of gray clouds was rolling in. A battle? Merely to see him dethroned?
“Nazar…” Raiden repeated. “A Celestial territory is hidden there.”
“There is.” Dyna looked back at Sowmya. “I don’t understand. Do the Realms reject him so much they would rather fight than have him take the throne?”
“Who?” Raiden said. “Who does she speak of?”
Dyna closed her eyes. “The first Guardian.”
“The one who is absent? He is the High King of Hilos?”
“Yes.” She pressed on her temples, feeling her head beginning to ache. “I cannot be a part of this, Sowmya. I have nothing to do with the legitimacy to the crown or his claim to the throne.”
“This was never about his legitimacy, my lady.” Sowmya stood and looked up at the skies. He does not come for the sake of his crown but to eliminate a threat. “Why do you think he left?”
The question made Dyna’s heart start to pounding, and she took a step back on instinct because she didn’t want to hear this.
Sowmya looked at her again. “You have seen that instinct when it surfaces, the incontrollable flames that erupt when his only focus is to protect .”
The memory of Hermon came swiftly. It was vivid in Dyna’s mind. A sea of blue Seraph fire and the screams of Celestials fleeing, Cassiel standing at the center of it all. A scatter of cold currents swept down her spine.
I care not who it is. Whoever comes after you will burn, even if that means I turn on them all.
“He is not well, my lady. Without the other half of his soul, Cassiel is lost.”
Dyna held her breath, sensing something dire had happened from the look on Sowmya’s face before she said the words.
“Skath has fallen.”
Dyna gasped. “What?”
The lieutenant lowered her gaze and Dyna felt she would be sick. “He has nearly been overtaken by the flame. With such power unchecked, the Realms fear another genocide and they are banding together. He comes now to Nazar to eliminate those who conspire against his True Bonded. That instinct is seeded in the very root of what made him. What do you think the High King will do when he arrives in Nazar, and they defy him?”
She remembered Cassiel’s reactions when any threat came near her. The visceral beast that rose behind the flame.
The words fell like smoke from her lips. “He will destroy it.”
“How do you know that?” Raiden asked her.
“Because he was once my husband,” Dyna whispered. Once her love. Once her soul. Once her heart. “I know him better than anyone.”
Raiden stared at her mutely.
“Nazar has prepared weapons to fight him,” Sowmya continued. “They will either kill him, or history will repeat itself and he will destroy us all.”
History…
For a moment Dyna couldn’t breathe. She stumbled back and Raiden caught her arm.
“What are you saying?” she demanded. “Are the rumors about him are true?”
Sowmya’s grim gaze was answer enough.
King Kāhssiel reborn.
The wispy image of the couple kissing in the garden passed through her mind. That was real?
Sweat beaded on Dyna’s skin, and the sound of her racing heart thudded in her ears as the world skewed. No, it couldn’t be.
“He has been down this path before,” Sowmya said, snapping her back to clarity. “I beg you. Stop him. You are the only one who can.”
Dyna didn’t bother asking why her . No one else could withstand Cassiel’s flame. She rubbed her face. “You asked me to save him.”
“To do one is to do the other. If not for him, then for the promise you made his father.”
That statement punched her in the gut. It sent the sting of tears to her eyes as she remembered King Yoel’s last wish. Take care of him for me when I’m gone…”
To stoop so low and throw that in her face.
Dyna seethed, “How dare you?”
She had to turn her back to compose herself. Lingering by the entrance of the hedgerow were Guardians. They looked back at her somberly.
None of them disputed this. It was not their place. Yet everyone knew there was no real choice here. Because she couldn’t live with the blood of others on her hands while she had the power to stop it.
But to do what she must, required defying Cassiel in front of his people. Sowmya had to know that.
Within the confines of Dyna’s chest, past all the anger and resentment, deep within the cavern of her soul, lied the unraveled threads of their bond. They stirred with the instinct to protect her mate, even if he was not hers anymore.
Dyna wanted to run, but her heart wouldn’t let her. She gazed into the sunset, allowing the last rays of the sun to blind her watery vision. “Why have you come to me? Are you not loyal to your king?”
“I’m here because I am loyal to my king,” Sowmya said. “He needs you.”
Inhaling a show breath, Dyna finally allowed herself to see him.
Cassiel came out of the shadows as real as she remembered him, as if he had never left. She saw him there in the garden, in his white robes, sitting in a tree as the gentle melody of his flute drifted around her. He glowed like the magic of a dream from another world they had long parted.
Oh, how she wished they had never left it. He smiled at her, his silver eyes and black wings gleaming in the sunset as the day they met.
The wet blur of Dyna’s vision distorted him until the image faded into the shadows.
She blinked furiously, banishing the tears away.
Maybe it had been foolish to think she could forget him. He left without looking back, so why were the broken pieces of her soul fighting so hard to go after him?
Dyna looked up at Raiden standing silently beside her. “I must beg your pardon, Lord Raiden.”
His brow furrowed slightly, and a faint smile rose to his face. Taking her hand, he kissed the back of it with a bow. “Lady Dynalya, your presence is needed elsewhere. Please do not feel you do me an unkindness to see to it. Go, and know you are welcome to return.”
The touch was too gentle for her sharp edges. She carefully retrieved her hand, hesitating before saying, “I may not return alone.”
He dipped his head. “I understand.”
Dyna turned to her friends next.
Sighing, Lucenna crossed her arms. “You’re going, then.”
“Yes...”
“Then we are coming with you,” Zev said, and they all nodded, including Von.
Their support brought warmth to the chill on her skin. Dyna could only offer them a slight smile as she shook her head. “Not this time. This is something I must do alone.” To Lucenna she said, “Before I go, there is a spell I need you to teach me first.”
Dyna tightened the belts of her greaves as she strode to the crop of trees where Sowmya waited. The short swords at her hips clinked softly against her fae leather armor. Her dress had been replaced with formfitting black trousers and boots that reached her knees. She checked that her braids were properly pinned back and would keep the hair out of her face.
The soft flutter of wings led her past the thicket, and she halted at the sight of the white Pegasus. Like Sowmya, it wore gilded armor. The fading sunlight glinted over the plates of gold adorning its head, the edges of its wings, chest, and legs.
Sowmya held the reins. “Do you still remember how to ride?”
“Yes…” Composing herself, Dyna approached the beautiful creature. It nickered quietly, eyeing her. It was the same one she had ridden to Hermon.
“Here.” Sowmya reached into the saddlebag and pulled out two objects. “These are yours.”
In her hands rested the sapphire tiara and her white opal dagger. Both had been lost the day the Vanguard came. And both were no longer hers.
“Keep them.” Dyna mounted the Pegasus. “The only thing I need are Celestial feathers.”
“How many?”
“As many as you can spare.”
Without hesitation or even a wince, the Valkyrie ripped out a handful of red feathers from her left wing and tucked them in the saddlebag.
Dyna took the reins as Sowmya strapped her in. “Are you coming with me?”
“I will meet you there, my lady. I cannot fly as fast as Shira.”
“Shira.” Dyna repeated and her ride nickered in response. She smiled, patting the Pegasus’s neck. “I am putting my trust in you, Shira.” Taking a deep breath, Dyna looked up at the cloudy sky toward Nazar, and she called out the same command she heard Cassiel once say in the Celestial language. “Lashamayim.”
To the sky.
Shira whinnied and took off in a gallop. Her massive white wings flapped, stirring the wind as they went. Dyna kicked her heels into Shira’s flank. They flew for the ridge and leaped into the open air.
Shira soared over the land of Sellav as she made for the Anduir Mountains. She called out another command and the Pegasus’s wings worked harder to climb the sky. Dyna tugged on the reins and leaned back sharply. They shot into the veil of clouds. They gently misted on her skin, and she closed her eyes as she breathed in the fresh air.
Dyna told herself the only reason she was going to see Cassiel again was to stop him because she was the only person who could. She told herself it was the right thing to do. They may no longer be husband and wife, but their marriage remained valid before the Realms. So regardless of who hated her, regardless of him leaving, she was still the High Queen.
This involved her whether she wanted it or not.
Shira abruptly swerved, and they narrowly missed obstacle hidden in the clouds. Dyna peered past the thick veil, and the clouds slowly parted, revealing three massive, floating islands.
It was a world above the world.
The two smaller islands bore cities with lush landscapes and aerial gardens with rivers that cascades over the sides. They were connected by bridgeways to the largest island. On it rose a towering stone fortress with rounded blue domes, the spires flying the gold flags with the sigil of a sun fanned by wings. The foundation of the island itself had been carved to resemble six imposing wings, as if it carried the Realm through the sky. The courtyard continued outward past the wings and there rose a great white Hyalus tree with translucent leaves.
The Realm of Nazar.
For a moment, wonder and awe stole Dyna’s next thoughts. Until she rose up higher among the clouds and noticed the thousands of Celestials in silver and gold armor in the courtyard. They stood perfectly in formation, a sea of white wings, ready for battle.
That structure had to be the Citadel, and Lord Gadriel would be with his army. He had little regard for her in Hermon, but she had to at least try to speak to him first before Cassiel arrived. Yet even she knew to tread carefully.
There was another gathering on the second island where they had evacuated the citizens. Better to land there first. Higher chances she wouldn’t be shot down.
They looked up at Dyna as she circled around. Arrows whizzed through the air, and she ducked before it struck her head. Shira dove out of the way of the next shot.
She judged too soon.
“Stop!” a distant voice shouted. Don’t shoot!”
Circling around again, Dyna searched among them and noticed Prince Asiel waving the back guards. She tugged on the reins and aimed to land. He motioned for them to make way. Shira’s hooves beat on the square as she landed, stirring up the dust. Guards dressed in Hermon blue and Nazar gold drew their weapons.
“Stand down,” Asiel commanded. They hesitantly obeyed. Once he was sure no one would move, he turned and gaped at her in amazement. “Y-you’re alive.”
Although surprised to find him here, Dyna was relieved to find someone she knew.
“I continue to be surprised by that myself,” she said. He held onto the reins for her as she unfastened herself from the saddle and dismounted. “Has Lady Sarrai come with you?”
“She has remained in Hermon.”
Dyna nodded. “Good. Then she’s safe.”
“Who is this?” demanded a male celestial behind them. A noble by the make of his clothing. Every Celestial was staring at her with astonishment and disgust.
Whispers hummed among the crowd.
“Why is there a human here?”
“How does she know of us?”
“Who is she to ride a Pegasus?”
The nobleman gripped his sword’s hilt. “Answer human, or I will behead you where you stand.”
Dyna arched an eyebrow at his reedy arms. She could probably break them before he ever drew his sword.
Asiel frowned at him. “Calm yourself, Nuriel. Show some respect. You owe her your allegiance.”
“What?” Nuriel balked, gaping at him as if he were mad. “What do you mean I owe her my allegiance? To this filthy human who has trespassed into my father’s Realm? If you weren’t Lord of Hermon, I would have you detained for that insult.”
Lord? Well, they had named Asiel both heir and Lord Protector of Hermon before leaving. Naturally, the position was passed to him once Cassiel became king.
“Hold your tongue.” Asiel loomed over him. “Or you may not have one if you continue speaking to her that way.”
Nuriel shrunk back, confirming her assumption he wasn’t a fighter. His shifty gaze flickered to her with new wariness. She almost smiled. Asiel had changed a lot since she last saw him.
The sky ruptured with a boom she felt rock through being.
They all looked up at the bright blue light breaking through the clouds like a comet of flame. The Celestials cried out and most of them scattered. Mothers and fathers grabbed children, fleeing for the clouds in the opposite direction.
It was probably wise of them to run. If what Sowmya said was true, Dyna came prepared for the worst.
“Why do you flee?” Nuriel shouted at them. “Your Lord will protect you!”
“Not against Seraph fire,” Dyna said. “You should go as well.”
Opening the saddlebag, she gathered the crumpled red feathers. They glittered gold as they dissolved in her hands. She closed her eyes as the barrier fell away, and the flood of magic filled her veins with warmth. A current of energy filled her being with such delightful power, her lungs expanded with a full breath she had not taken in months.
Her Essence was different. It had grown in strength as her body had.
And Dyna instinctively knew she was capable of so much more.
Dyna faced the steps of the bridgeway that led to the main island. “Make sure no other interferes,” she said. “I will take care of it from here.”
“When I prayed, for a miracle I did not expect Elyōn would answer, let alone in this way.” Asiel folded an arm across his chest and deeply bowed. “Thank you for coming.”
The noble beside him recoiled in disgust. “Why are you bowing to her? What is she doing here? You have yet to explain who she is!”
“I am Dynalya Astron,” she said, striding toward the Citadel.
“You say that name as if I should know who you are!”
Pausing, she trained her glowing green eyes on him and the citizens of Nazar.
“You will.”