Chapter 29 The Songbird #2
Maids had come to the room to braid my hair, but I’d pleaded for them to tend to Mira or Celine (who would likely curse me for it) all to spend a moment more, alone and peaceful, with the Ever King.
Loose waves hung down my back, and even Erik had rid his shoulders and waist of the thick leather belts and numerous blades he kept close.
We were not here to be magnanimous. Those beyond the doors would hardly care if we arrived in night clothes.
The doors opened to boisterous chatter, but the moment we crossed the threshold, all talk stilled.
Seated at the far end of the long sea oak table were my father and Stieg.
Daj wore ominous clothing, much like Erik.
His dark hair was braided off his face, his chin smoother than before.
He’d shed a dozen turns since stepping off the Ever Ship.
Stieg had wiped dried blood from his face, split his beard in two braids with silver beads adorning the ends, and a thick plait ridged down the center of his skull. All Rave, always.
Jonas and Sander wore tunics that favored the Ever, unlaced over their chests, with dark trousers. Were they spares of Erik’s? Perhaps they borrowed from Tait. In truth, there was a chance the twins robbed some poor steward on their way to whatever chamber in which they’d been placed.
Mira sat beside Celine. The moment she cast her eyes to me, she stood, ruffling the skirt of her gown, blue as the lagoons near the shore, notably pleased with the thinner fabrics and higher slits in sea fae dresses.
Aleksi had one leg draped over the arm of his chair, slouched as he dragged a whetstone against the curved blade of a knife. On the other side of my cousin sat Sewell, Gavyn, and Tait, awaiting their king.
Erik did not lead us to the smaller chairs. Instead, he guided me to the wooden throne that had been arranged at the head of the table.
“This is your place, Songbird,” he whispered.
I blinked, chest tight, then slowly sat in the new throne. My fingers traced the foxes, the vines. I bunched a bit of the gold satin draped over the back, testing it, memorizing the feel of it between my fingers.
Erik ignored his throne and stood beside me, a hand on my back, as though he couldn’t withdraw his touch just yet.
Down the table, I met midnight eyes. Daj drummed his fingers over the edge of the table, teeth grinding like he was mulling words around in his mouth.
Finally, he stilled his hand. “They call you queen, Livie.”
“Yes, Daj.”
His gaze bounced from me to Erik, then back again. “Did you take vows?”
“Well . . . no.”
“Then, I don’t understand.”
“The king’s word made it so,” Tait explained. “He gave her the title of queen in front of the court.”
“And that’s that?”
“To sit in the throne of the Ever King makes one an equal of the king,” Erik said. “She was placed on the throne. I bowed the knee. The title has never been known in the Ever. We do not have a custom for it.”
“Made one up as you went, Bloodsinger.” Jonas lifted a tin filled with the king’s mead, grinning. “I respect that sort of brazen initiative.”
“It was quite a spectacle,” Alek said, tapping a knife back and forth on the tabletop.
“Most accepted my word,” Erik went on, “but clearly there are folk who resist every word I speak.”
My father frowned, but it seemed the disquiet rose more from being tossed into a new culture than disappointment.
After a pause, he slapped his palm on the table.
“Well, if this is my daughter’s kingdom, then we are here to fight for it.
I take it you have no plans to let this bastard simply disappear into the sea, Bloodsinger. ”
Erik’s fist tightened by his leg. “Not until he’s nothing more than bone.”
“Then, we need to know how to lure him back out and finish this.” My father turned to me. “We need to know everything about this isle, Liv. No matter how troubling you think it will be for us to hear, tell us.”
Us. I knew Valen Ferus well enough to know he did not mean the room. He spoke of himself and the man at my side. Affection, warm and heady, swelled in my chest. In a small way, it was my father’s way of accepting House Ferus had grown by one more.
And he was right. There was no time to speak gently to spare emotions.
Larsson and Fione had too much potential for power on Natthaven, and it needed to be quashed.
I began from the moment I awoke in that chamber.
Talk of Skadi drew out a great deal of intrigue (particularly from Sander), and Erik sent for Alistair to bring any writings on elven folk he could find within the palace walls.
By the time I finished my description of Larsson’s confessions about his lineage, the darkening being a mark of their bloodthirsty spells, then onto his attack, my father was pacing, and Erik’s eyes had grown dark with hate.
“I must stop you,” Gavyn said, holding up a hand. “You left out my favorite detail—she bit off his damn ear.”
Celine’s expression shifted from one of fear and pity to jubilation. “Of course, she did. She’s of the Ever!”
“Sharp bites, deep strikes, little fox,” Sewell said with a wink.
I regaled the escape; Gavyn added his own input on the guards, the weapons, and the layout of the palace at Natthaven.
“Fury kept me safe.” I slipped my fingers through Erik’s.
“Until I saw you. Larsson and Fione took the heartbond to shatter whatever keeps him from the blood crown—spells I don’t understand—but something called to me.
Something brought me to the shore. It was like my fury, or that isle, knew you were mine. ”
The burn of red flashed in Erik’s eyes. “I told you, they took nothing, Songbird. I will simply need to say all the sultry things I’ve told you privately, not so privately now.”
“I would rather you didn’t,” Aleksi grumbled.
“My palace, Bloodsummoner.”
Strange, but my father’s face did not contort in rage or grimace in disdain to have a man speak such things about me. He even chuckled when Stieg leaned over and murmured under his breath.
“What, Daj?”
“Nothing, little love.”
Stieg’s eyes brightened. “I was reminding the king of the many times he and your mother cleared us from the room during such talks as these, all to be alone. I said I’m waiting for you to do the same and toss us out.”
My face boiled in a shock of embarrassment that matched the flush of my father’s face. It was only made worse when Erik said, “Gladly.”
I elbowed the king in the ribs. “Now that I’ve learned more about my mother and father than I would like to know, where do we go from here?”
The room sobered.
Erik reached beneath his throne, removing a sheath wrapped around a blade that looked like white gold. “I don’t know if you recall, but the woman, right before the shore broke away, she dropped this. Seemed to appear out of nothing.”
The escape from Natthaven had been a blurred moment in time, I’d not noticed Skadi gave up a weapon, but my chest tightened with affection for a woman I hardly had a chance to know. Lost to whatever spell had taken her, she still offered aid, still fought.
Sleek, strange runes were etched along the edges with a hilt made of pale crystal.
“She called it white iron,” Erik said.
My heart stuttered. “White iron? An elven blade. Erik, she told me there are dark spells that protect Fione. She said as long as the sea witch lives, Larsson lives.”
“That is truly dark,” Tavish said, voice low. “To manipulate death draws out the cruelest bits of the soul.”
I inspected the blade. “Fione cannot be killed by a normal blade, according to Skadi. She’s too corrupted. Elven made, she told me, white iron has the power to burn the heart through any spell.”
“She dropped this with intention. Is that what you think?”
“Why else?”
Erik paused for a drawn breath. “Then she left it for you. Keep it, love. I’ll see to it you get the chance to use it.
” He looked to the table. “Larsson has claim on the blood crown by blood, and now, it would seem by touch. Should he take it, should he sit atop the throne, the same reasoning I used to make Livia queen could be used to make him king.”
“It is never enough when a king only desires power,” my father said. “We’ve fought our fair share of arrogant sods as this, Ever King. Make his greed his undoing.”
Erik held my father’s scrutiny for a long pause. “Larsson has this isle that is unknown to us, he has his witch, and the help of this fire elven.”
“Arion,” I said. “An elven prince who is doing this to claim his own throne in their culture. Still, he is a threat, and he wants Skadi. She has power he needs, and I feel as though I’m missing a great deal. There are secrets aplenty on that isle.”
“Like Bonekeeper’s damn voice. How’d we not know he had a sea voice?” Celine massaged her head over her brows.
“He’s been well shielded thanks to Fione.”
“Stealing magic.” Gavyn scrubbed his eyes, blinking rapidly a few times. “That is a risk. Think he could drink your blood and live, Erik?”
“We could always dose him and find out,” Sander said, and in truth, I thought it was less about a jest and more sincere. Like he wanted to see the outcome for the sake of curiosity.
“Thorvald couldn’t stomach my blood,” Erik said.
“You know, it’s interesting,” Celine said. “But the earth bender was swimming in your blood when he pulled you back and nothing happened.”
My father slumped in his chair, arms folded over his chest. “It’s not some great feat or anything. I knew not to put it in my damn mouth. I’ve seen what his blood can do, remember? A whole war was fought across from the young Ever King.”
“You risked it, though,” I whispered. “You were the one who stopped his song before it harmed him, Daj.”
My father swallowed. “He was fading. You were healed. No sense having him bleed out.”
Erik took a deep interest in the grain of the table, and others had gone quiet.
It was more than my father made it to be.
Feign indifference all he liked, but Valen Ferus had stopped the Ever King from losing too much blood because the earth bender cared about Erik and his ability to keep breathing.
For me or for the king himself, it didn’t matter. My father was no threat to Erik Bloodsinger. Not anymore.
Erik finally took his place in his throne, ropes of tension taut in his neck. “Bruised as he is, Larsson will be on high guard to protect what he has left. Still, I know him. He won’t want to be seen as defeated by the loss of Hesh and Livia.”
“Then we better ready the gates,” Tait said, voice low. He looked to Gavyn. “Every house. Larsson will come against Erik. He won’t give us much time to paint him as the lesser choice between two kings.”
Erik hesitated. “This does not need to impact the earth realms. Hesh has been stopped. Narza remains to protect your borders—”
“Wait, what?” I looked at him.
“I’ll explain later, love.” Erik turned to Stieg, then my father. “You came to aid in Livia’s rescue and have done so.”
Jonas groaned with vigor, interrupting the king. “Gods, don’t tell me this will be a speech about how we don’t need to risk our necks any longer and can return home to our comfortable little lives.”
Erik glared at the prince. Jonas glared back, shading his eyes to the inky pitch of the darkness he hid beneath his levity.
“What, Bloodsinger? You heard the Night Folk king. This is now the kingdom of one of our royals—Liv is family. You get us whether you bleeding want us or not. I’ll expect my own private chambers in your palace, mind you, once I become a decorated hero of the Ever.”
I squeezed Erik’s forearm. “Serpent.”
“Songbird?”
“You don’t need to hate alone,” I whispered. “Not anymore. We will hate him with you, at your side.”
Erik kissed the back of my hand. “Then, we ought to begin planning how to kill my brother.”
“First,” my father said. A pale shell was pinched between his fingers. “There is someone who has been waiting to speak to Livia for a great while now.”
“What is this?” I asked once my daj came to my side and dropped the shell in my palm.
“Hold it to your ear.”
One brow arched, I lifted the shell to my ear and drew in a sharp breath.
“Hello? Daj? I don’t hear you. Hey, sea witch, s’not working.”
“Rorik.” I covered my mouth with one palm. My wild, vibrant brother’s voice rolled through the shell, distant, quiet, a little muffled like Rorik spoke through one of his downy pillows, but there all the same.
“Livie?” Rorik sniffled, then released a torrent of frenzied words.
“I’m sorry I didn’t rescue you, but you should know I did save Bloodsinger.
I snuck into that room like a damn—I mean, like a Rave—and let him go.
Jo and Alek said he was the only way to get you back, so I guess, I kinda rescued you.
Livie, what’s it like in the Ever? Is it under the water all the time and are there big old fish with sharp teeth? What are merfolk like—”
“Ror.” I laughed, interrupting his trembling rambles. Tears stung my eyes. “You are the bravest Rave I know.”
My brother paused, his voice softer, like he might be speaking to someone in the distance. “Hey, Livie, the sea witch—” He softened his voice to a raspy whisper. “I keep forgettin’ her name. She is askin’ me where you are in the Ever.”
“We’re at the palace in the royal city.”
Rorik paused. “She says go to a lady named Oline’s cove.
I don’t know what that means, but she says all of you should go and have Bloodsinger drop some blood in the water.
I bet she’s gonna do a spell. Livie, she does wild spells.
Turned Alva’s face blue for a whole clock toll when she stole my bleeding boots! ”
I lowered the shell. “Ror says we should go to Oline’s cove. Where is that?”
Erik stiffened. “My mother’s refuge.” He lowered his voice. “Our cove, Songbird.”
My heart sped against my ribs. Our cove—the secluded spot where I’d told the Ever King he was mine. The night we’d split open our hearts to each other. The night Larsson’s assassins tried to rip us apart.
“Ror,” I said, voice soft. “Tell her we’ll be there soon.”