14. Scotlind
FOURTEEN
SCOTLIND
I’d refused to train with Dovelyn again, and mercifully, Tezya didn’t question me on it.
Instead, all I’d been doing was letting my thoughts fester, and I found myself thinking about Vallie a lot.
I missed her. I was happy she wasn’t here, that she was safe and far away from the mess I’d gotten myself into, but I desperately wanted to talk to her about everything.
She’d be happy here too. Vallie always had a fascination with the mortal territory and would probably hound the lavender-haired girl for every nitty-gritty detail about her life.
I knew deep down she’d agree with what the rebellion was fighting for, even though we never talked about it.
We both tried to enjoy the little time we had together in school, and I never once brought up my past. But now, knowing my counselor had compelled me to keep the truth from her, I was even more pissed off. It was worse knowing I’d probably never get the chance to tell her. My mind replayed my entire childhood up until I left LakeWood. I went through all the times I wanted to tell Vallie I was Luxian, but whenever I opened my mouth to say the words—I couldn’t .
Everything about my life was a lie. A lie that Dovelyn concocted.
I hated her. Half of me wished I had killed her that day, but then another part of me understood it, even if I wasn’t ready to admit it yet.
And when I wasn’t contemplating everything I went through, I found myself staring at Tezya from afar, watching him when I didn’t think he’d notice. But Sie had. I knew he was watching me just like I was watching Tezya. He had asked to speak with me in private numerous times throughout the week, but I’d been avoiding him, finding excuse after excuse to push it off. I didn’t know what to say to him, and I wasn’t ready for what he wanted to say to me.
I’d been alone in my tent for the past hour, thinking everything over, when Peter found me. “Dravenburg called a war meeting.”
We were the last two Advenians to enter the tent.
I was looking at Dravenburg in a different light, knowing he was mortal and the owner of the camp—or co-owner. I didn’t understand Tezya’s relationship with him or how a human family got involved in the first place.
If I hadn’t known Savannah was human, I would have sworn she was an Advenian. It wasn’t just that she had the same slender and tall frame or that her tattoos looked like permanent Luxian markings. It was more in how she presented herself. She was in a camp full of lethal beings, but she wasn’t scared that everyone around her had powers she was susceptible to. We were always taught that our kind was superior to humans, but if she was intimidated, she didn’t show it.
My gaze snagged on Tezya next. He ignored his seat. His fingers mindlessly rubbing at the scab on his palm. He stopped the moment his eyes locked with mine. The commotion around me stilled, and all I could focus on were the blue and silver in his irises, trying to figure out which color was winning at the moment.
Kallon clapped a hand on my back, breaking our gazes. “Have a seat, babes.”
I took the chair she was gesturing to and found two black eyes focused on me. Peter was sitting next to Sie and was rambling his ear off while Sie was looking directly at me.
I was surprised Tezya let him join the meeting, not that Sie didn’t deserve to be here, but it meant Tezya trusted him enough with whatever was about to be said. There were forty or so Advenians in the tent altogether, plus the two mortals standing next to Tezya.
Rainer smiled at me from across the room. I hadn’t seen him since he arrived. His dark skin seemed to glow against his unnaturally white smile. He swept his black curls off his forehead, exposing his sage colored eyes. He reminded me of Peter—not because of their striking green eyes—but because they were both warm and positive. It was refreshing to be around. I gave a small wave back.
Dravenburg cleared his throat, calling everyone to attention, as Tezya stepped forward to speak.
“I want to be proactive,” Tezya started, and I had to make an effort to focus on his words and not at how close he was standing to the human girl. “We still have the benefit of surprise since the King isn’t aware of our numbers. But the news of Sie escaping the prison is starting to spread. He will double his defenses if he hasn’t already. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to make a move. What we have been doing here isn’t enough anymore. We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
“What are you suggesting?” Dravenburg asked.
“We need to uncover the prophecy. ”
“No.” Dovelyn sprang from her seat so fast that her chair fell to the ground. “That is out of the question.” It was my first time seeing her since she confessed everything to me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.
One of the Advenians from the camp asked, “What prophecy? How come I’ve never heard of it?”
Kallon answered next to me, “The prophecy started during the Ability War back on Allium. The servants of the Goddesses spoke about it before the planet was destroyed. They claimed it was the words of Pylemo herself. Once our kind came here, the kings from both sides kept the prophecy a secret. They didn’t want it to come true because it meant they would have to give up their crowns.”
Peter leaned back in his seat, resting his ankle over his knee. “So does anyone care to enlighten us on what the prophecy is exactly?”
Kallon’s yellow eyes flicked over him before she continued, “Legend claims a boy born from both kingdoms—a boy who possesses both golden and black markings—will bring an end to the current courts until there’s no longer a Light and Dark Kingdom.”
“It’s a waste of time,” Dovelyn interrupted. “We have no way of opening the tomb to even know if it would be helpful.”
“It’s worth a try,” Tezya said. “If it can help bring an end to separate kingdoms, maybe it’s the answer we need. Maybe it means this camp. We’ve been living together in harmony for a while, why can’t—”
“You are forcing connections, trying to convince yourself of it, Tezya, when in reality, it could damn us all along with the current rulers.”
“If that’s the case, then I won’t go through with it. But on the off chance it’s what we need to gain advantage, how can we not try? ”
I knew what Dovelyn and Tezya weren’t admitting. The one thing they weren’t telling the group. They both knew if Tezya fulfilled the prophecy, it could very well be damning to him .
“What are you talking about?” Dravenburg asked, shooing away Dovelyn’s concern. “What good is the prophecy without the Advenian born from both kingdoms?”
In answer, Tezya’s body lit up in golden spirals. I saw the slight tremor of hesitation he had before he compelled Savannah, “Fetch me that map.” His voice had the same familiar tones I heard many times before as his compulsion swept over the human. The lavender-haired girl moved without wanting to and brought the map to Tezya, setting it down on the table in front of him.
I stared at his markings as they came to life—his golden markings. I memorized every curve of the Luxian flames on his skin when he was sweating during his punishment. But this was something else. An entirely different side to him that I hadn’t known existed. And he was revealing it to everyone.
“I’m from both kingdoms,” he announced, and my mouth gaped open as I stared at him.
As soon as Savannah took a step back, Tezya let his golden markings fade into him.
The mortal girl only stared at him in shock, not understanding why she’d just listened to him. Honestly the entire tent was openly staring. No one said anything as an eerie silence stretched through the tent.
My heart stopped at the vulnerability in what he was doing. What he was laying out before everyone, at the risk he was putting himself in.
Sie stood, his eyes focused solely on Tezya. “You have compulsion,” he finally said what was on everyone’s mind. Like he needed to hear Tezya confirm it to believe it, even though we literally just saw him use his abilities .
Even I was still having a hard time wrapping my head around it, and I already knew. But knowing it and seeing it were two entirely different things. The first time Tezya used his compulsion in front of me, I was in a daze, but now I couldn’t deny it.
Kallon swore next to me, and across the room, Peter’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.
“Yes.” Tezya nodded. “I’m half Luxian and half Tennebrisian.”
Minutes seemed to tick by, until someone broke the silence again. “I thought…” they started, then audibly swallowed. “I thought a baby wouldn’t survive from both kingdoms, how are you alive?”
“It’s a lie they started back on Allium during the Ability War. I think the kingdoms used it as a method to control us. They wanted separate rules, and there’s no better way of guaranteeing that than by fear. So like I said, I think we need to figure out what the prophecy is.”
“Okay, so how do we uncover it?” Dravenburg asked.
Tezya stepped up to the map. “I was hoping you’d tell me. It’s sealed inside my mother’s tomb. From the visions Dovelyn had of her death, she saw her seal her grave in blood, and she only did that when she was hiding something.” He swallowed, and I watched his Adam’s apple bob as he said, “I think the prophecy is buried with her.”
It was an effort to keep my mouth from dropping. I felt for Dovelyn. I couldn’t imagine being forced to watch her mother’s death through her visions, knowing it was because of what she told her. But I was more shocked Tezya was willing to unbury her for it.
“I know you know where she’s buried, Dravenburg. You have to see the benefit in recovering it.”
“It’s too far away,” Dravenburg said after a minute but still didn’t point to where it was on the map. “And I’m the only one who knows where it is. I can’t leave my children or the camp when this is the most vulnerable Brighta has ever been.”
“You don’t have to,” Savannah said. Dravenburg’s hazel eyes glared at his daughter as she continued. “I may have stolen the files you have on their mother, and, ” she said as she enunciated the word, “I may have snuck out and found the grave’s exact location.”
“Why on earth would you do that?” her father growled.
She shrugged. “I was bored and curious.”
“How far away is it?” Kallon asked, speaking for the first time since Tezya announced he was from both kingdoms. She honestly seemed the most shocked out of everyone in the tent, and that was saying something.
“About a day on foot,” the human replied.
“You’re asking to lose two days of travel to and from, and however long it takes to try to uncover it once there. It’s better we stay here and train,” Dovelyn said, but she was grasping at straws.
“Only one day of travel,” Tezya amended. “Once there, Kallon can work on setting up a portal for us to return to the outskirts of the camp. We wouldn’t need a lot of people. Everyone else can keep training—”
Dravenburg cut him off, finally turning away from glaring at his daughter. “No.”
“It’s worth the risk,” Tezya shot back.
“The risk of my daughter?”
“I can take care of myself, Dad,” Savannah snapped. “I know the way there with my eyes closed. I’ll be fine.”
“Things are different now, Savannah. You can’t just go hiking and wander alone anymore. This isn’t just a drop in visit. They’re fugitives now and both kingdoms are probably hunting them all down as we speak.” Dravenburg’s voice was starting to rise, and I could see the tension radiating from him by his stiff posture .
“I know that better than anyone,” Tezya said softly. “I know what the Lux King is capable of. I am asking to do this because I believe it’ll help. Even the shields of the camp won’t be enough to stop him. We can’t hide forever. He will find us, and when he does, if we do nothing, we won’t be ready.”
When Dravenburg still didn’t say anything, Tezya added, “I want to give our people the best advantage we can. I don’t want to wait until war shows up at our camp. If we do, there will be little we can do to keep it away from the humans. I want to bring it to Lux. I want the advantage. We need to be proactive. If this prophecy can give us even a glimmer of a chance at that, I want to take it. So yes, I believe it’s worth the risk.”
Dravenburg pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know how we do things in Brighta. A vote then. All in favor of seeking out the prophecy with a separate vote for what we find.”
I noted Dravenburg’s words. He didn’t want Tezya to go behind anyone’s back with what was revealed. It was strategic. Find out what the prophecy meant, then weigh the risk as a group together later. Yet, I couldn’t raise my hand. I found myself unable to fathom putting Tezya at risk. I knew it was foolish. That it made me weak and selfish. I was willing to give up something that could change things for the good of our people, only to save one Advenian. I was putting Tezya above everyone in both kingdoms, above humans too. I started to understand some of what Dovelyn was feeling, because even though my mind told me that raising my hand was the right thing to do, my heart couldn’t do it. I didn’t want him to do this.
I looked around the room. Everyone raised their hands except Dravenburg, Dovelyn, and me.
Dravenburg’s voice echoed, “It’s settled then. Tezya, form a small group. Savannah will take you to your mother’s grave at dawn. ”
The girl squealed as she clapped her hands together, and I had to bite down on my jealousy.
She was going to lead him, somewhere in the mortal territory, and the idea of them being alone together hit me like a brick.