90. Chapter 90
CHAPTER 90
Von
“ Y ou decided to go then?” Von asked as he took a drink from his mug.
“Aye,” Klyde replied, looking up at the glowing windows of the estate. “Now that I know my brother is still out there, I need to take Tavin back to the one place he can’t reach him.”
It went unsaid, but Von understood in that moment that Klyde knew the truth about who his brother truly was and who he descended from. Tavin had both Morken blood and blood of the Ice Phoenix.
Tarn would never have let him live.
Repeating the wretched history of his family, Tavin would have been on the run to escape a father who wanted to kill him. The boy could still inherit the Ice Phoenix’s power. If he did, the Azure King would surely come after him next.
“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for that boy,” Klyde said. “No sin I would not commit.”
Including spilling the blood of his kinsmen. There was no need for it, however, because Von already decided it would be his blade that would pierce Tarn’s heart.
“When the time comes, I will not hesitate,” he said.
They shared a long look. Klyde nodded.
“Tarn can’t enter Greenwood,” Zev said as he tossed another log into stone firepit in the garden.
“Tavin is safe for the time being if you want to stay a little longer,” Keena added, fluttering above them. “The king gave Rawn leave to be with his family until the end of the season.”
Klyde looked pensive thought.
“You should go,” Von said. “Though it would be a lie to say I won’t miss the lad. He’s quite the pest.”
They chuckled. Over the days Von had grown fond of the boy who always seem to follow him around with his endless questions and curiosity.
“He’s exactly like her,” Von murmured. The moon reflected off the surface of ale in his mug and he looked up at the night sky. His voice wavered and he took another drink to clear it. “To know that a piece of Aisling lives on is a gift. Thank you …” He met Klyde’s gaze. “For doing what I couldn’t.”
“I never did thank you for saving his life.”
“You never need to,” Von said, his wet eyes fixed on the fire.
It didn’t repay all the lives lost because of him. He knew many last words, but I will never know Yavi’s. She haunted him on the ocean wind and in the flare of flame. Dalton and Geon, they haunted him in Tavin’s laughter in the shine of his youth.
“I stole many lives while it gave mine no value,” he told them. “When I try to imagine my future, I see none. Somehow, I think you understand me, or I am merely a rambling drunk fool.”
They didn’t answer but their expressions said they did.
Von exhaled a heavy breath. “At the end of this journey, I don’t know what comes next. I don’t think anything does. But if the lass finds her medallion, and I end Tarn like I plan, then I will have fulfilled my part in this prophecy. What comes after? What else is there?” He smiled sardonically and Keena gave his cheek a little pat of comfort. To Zev, he said, “You asked me why I am here. I came because I plan die, be it with Tarn on that island if it comes to it.” He finished his drink and set it down as he stood. “If I survive, that will be the end of my purpose and likely my life. I have no use for it.”
“Don’t say that,” Keena said sadly when he made for the path. “You may think you don’t have anything left, Von. But we are still here.”
He paused a moment, taking in the Guardians who fought to be there for each other.
And maybe … his friends too.
Von continued walking down the gravel path lit by lanterns. His stomach turned at the sight of them because it reminded him too much of the night on that ship.
Then his mind flashed with a memory of a teapot he had forgotten.
Von rushed inside the estate to find Dyna. She was in the library buried by a pile of books. Her belongings were scattered around her, along with the key and the pearlescent water mirror.
Von approached. “Up for late reading, lass?”
“Oh, good evening, Commander.” She sighed tiredly and shook her head at the tome in front of her. “Nothing here tells me how to wake Cassiel. I have tried mugwort, clematis, bach flower. I am an Herb Master. I studied everything there is to know but this… why can’t I…”
Von sat across from her. “You’re worried he won’t wake.”
Dyna sighed again and rubbed her eyes. “Sorry, you came here to tell me something not to hear me ramble. What is on your mind?”
“Tarn.”
Closing the book, Dyna straightened in her seat.
Von brow furrowed. “When I was planning our escape, I had discovered something among his belongings. A Xián Jīng pot containing ashes. I had forgotten about it until now.”
Dyna’s brow furrowed. “Ashes?”
“I knew Tarn was the bastard son of the Azure King. That made him the heir to the throne, and I assumed that was the reason the king wanted him dead. He seeks immortality to keep himself alive, but it never occurred to me that it meant that he had already inherited J?kull’s power. Now I believe those are the ashes of the Ice Phoenix. He wants to bring Aisling back to life.”
Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“There are many versions of the tale of the Ice Phoenix. In one of them, J?kull was resurrected from the ashes of his pyre because his queen had given up her life for him. The night Yavi died, Tarn mentioned for life to be given it must be taken. A sacrifice. I think he was speaking about you, lass.” Von paused at her shudder. “I was not privy to all his plans, but I know he was planning something more than simply becoming immortal and usurping the Azure throne.”
Dyna took a deep breath and pressed on her forehead. “This is a lot to take to mind. But if he does intend to resurrect your sister … could it be this is the prophecy coming to pass?”
Von had briefly forgotten about that. Probably because they had assumed Tarn’s death, but the words came to him fresh now. Particularly the last line.
Be not swayed by love, lest it be thy undoing.
But it didn’t make sense.
“Perhaps we are missing something,” Von murmured. “Tarn’s only priority is preserving his life. Resurrecting my sister for love would go against the prophecy’s warning.”
“Then what else would he want to sacrifice me for?”
Von shook his head. He didn’t know.
“You loved Yavi so much,” Dyna said softly, “If you had the chance to bring her back, even if it meant you might not live, would you do it?”
Von didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. Because both knew they would die for the one they loved without a second thought.
“Whatever he is planning, Tarn now needs a new sacrifice and much more than ashes to do it. A power source of some sort.” Dyna wandered to the bookshelves and began examining books. “If he truly wanted to resurrect Aysling from the ashes, then he must replicate the pyre. He has J?kull’s ashes. Sunn?va burned with him, and she was a Morken, so he would need Morken blood, which he has. And there were flowers of some sort. But I don’t quite remember what it was.”
“Roses and leaves…”
She turned to him.
Von stood. “I remember the story because my mother used to read it to me when I was a child. Tanzanite Keep was once covered in enchanted roses of J?kull’s making. They burned him with a rose along with a branch from an Azure Tree.”
“Enchanted roses…” Dyna stared off at the wall as if recalling something. “Are they blue?”
“Yes, but they no longer exist in this world. While rare, Azure Trees are still possible to find. Without the rose it’s not possible.”
Dyna glanced down at Mount Ida’s key set on the table, working out something in her mind. “If I know Tarn, he will find a way even if he must wish it into existence.”
Wish into existence…
Von had said something similar to Yavi not too long ago when he feared losing her. If one day it was all devoured in flames, I would give up everything to wish for you back.
“The Lost Well,” he whispered.
“Pardon?”
“That’s where Tarn is going,” Von blurted. “There is a wishing well located in the Hashell Ruins of Harromog Modos. A means to wish what he wants into existence.”
Dyna sank back into her chair, a hundred thoughts flashing behind her eyes. “Then I suppose that is where we must go next and stop him.”
Von came around the table to her lowered to one knee. “What will you have me do? Command me and I will do it.”
She stared at him. “Von, you’re not a slave anymore.”
“Then make me one again.”
“What?”
He lowered his head. “Yavi … Geon … Dalton … they are dead because of me, Dyna. Dalton tried to escape after you did, but Tarn wouldn’t let him go. And I couldn’t let that boy suffer his wrath ... so I…”
Tears welled on Dyna’s lashes.
Von couldn’t make himself say it. “I sometimes dream of what their lives should have been. Geon, somewhere discovering the world and Dalton with him as a free mage. But I took that from them, so take me as a life-servant so I can repay my sins.”
She glowered, wiping her cheek. “I am not your master, Von.”
“You’re the Maiden and I’m one of your Guardians.”
“That does not make you my slave.”
“You told me to keep going,” he said in exasperation, “But my Yavi is gone. I can’t keep waking up day by day without a reason. If serving you is not my purpose then what is?”
Dyna’s eyes softened and she laid a hand on his shaking shoulder. “I think we both know what your purpose is, Von.”
His chest tightened at the sound of his nephew’s voice calling for him in the hall and his vision blurred.
“Tavin carries J?kull’s magic in his blood. It is dormant now, but if it ever surfaces … if Tarn ever learns that his son is alive, he will come after him as the Azure King did. To keep his power, he would never let him live.”
Von’s fists shook on the floor at that appalling thought. The boy may even become the sacrifice for his very own mother. His stomach rolled. “What if … the worst happens to him because of me?”
“It won’t, because this time you will not fail.” Dyna nodded and Von rose to his feet.
Maybe this was why he wasn’t finished with this world yet. What else could he do with his life but protect his sister’s son?
When he turned to go, she reminded him of something he had forgotten.
“You are my Guardian of vengeance, Von. But it was not Tarn who threw that lantern.”
Sai-chuen’s face surfaced in his mind.
Now there were two names on his list.
Von went out into the hall and Tavin spun around. “There you are, Commander. I was looking for you!”
“What for?”
The boy grabbed Von’s arm and pulled him through glass doors that led out into the courtyard.
“Look!” Tavin took out two throwing knives, whirling them in his palms and threw them one after the other at a tree. They hit their mark perfectly. He grinned at him. “I did it.”
Von crossed his arms. “Are those my knives?”
Tavin laughed nervously. “Ah, I borrowed them…”
“Hmm. Show me again. This time hit that other tree.”
An excited grin returned to his face, and he snatched up the knives again. With perfect form, the knives flew and landed.
Von chuckled. “Well done. You must get it from your uncle.”
“I do … I get it from you.”
Von froze, at a loss for words again.
“I wondered why Klyde wanted me to stay away from you, but it was plain to see. You look like my mum. Well, my grandmother, but she raised me. Her name is Edyth, and she also had son...” Tavin’s pale blue eyes met his. “Named Von.”
The boy had known all along.
Tavin gave him a timid smile. “Hello uncle.”
Von swallowed back the knot in his throat. “Hello laddie.”
Tavin laughed a little at that and scuffed his boot in the dirt. “Why did you leave Azurite?”
He looked like a little boy then, a little sad and confused about the way of his life.
Von sat on a stone bench and exhaled a heavy breath. “Well, after the Horde came, there were too many bad memories for me in that place. I had to go and try to … forget.”
To make amends.
Tavin sat beside him. “Can I ask what happened that day? It’s too hard for Klyde and mum to speak about it and everyone who fought the Horde is dead. I am only told stories. I want the truth. What happened to my real mother and father that day?”
Von hesitated. “What does Klyde tell you?”
“That my mother died giving birth to me and my father died defending the town.”
That was the best version Klyde could have given him.
If only it were true.
Von looked up at the sky, letting his mind drift to the screams and stench of death. “Tarn ... fought through the masses, even as he bled from grave wounds. He led his company and cut down every troll that came until he was the last man standing. He was hero.”
“That … sounds true.”
“It is,” Von insisted.
“But you have the same look on your face when Klyde tells me the same story.”
“What look is that?”
Tavin’s pale eyes grew resentful. “That it is only part of the truth.”
“Lad, it’s the only part that matters.” Von mused his hair, making him snort. “I see your mother in you. You have her smile, her freckles, her unruly hair. You have her laughter and kindness. Her spirit shines in you.” As he spoke, Tavin’s eyes grew wet, and Von pulled him into an embrace. “Thank you for existing.”
He had lost much in his life, but he was so grateful for this. Tavin arrived at a time when he needed some proof that not all was lost. The town still stood, his mother lived, and he had family.
But Tavin had a target placed on his head on the day he was born. Von decided right then he would die before ever failing him. And if he lived merely to protect his sister’s sweet boy, then it was the greatest purpose he could have found.