5. Lysanthir
Lysanthir
“What do you mean this sword isn’t mine?” Darcassan snapped at Gemma. “It is mine! It is!”
His vehemence almost had Gemma stepping back, but she firmed her stance and held strong.
Both her parents had taught her that showing fear in front of certain people only emboldened them and was, therefore, dangerous.
While it was sometimes wise to retreat and live to fight another day, there were other times where one had to stand one’s ground.
This was one of those latter times. So she schooled her face into a neutral expression and lifted an eyebrow to appear completely unconcerned by him.
“That’s not what the sword is saying,” Gemma pointed out dryly. “So maybe you ought to tell it that and not me?” Her left eyebrow lifted higher to accentuate that point.
“What are you talking about? The sword isn’t–doesn’t–speak!” Darcassan stared down at the glorious weapon that he was now holding in both hands as it appeared to be awfully heavy for him.
Gemma blinked. “What are you talking about? Can’t you hear it?
It’s saying…” She tilted her head to the side and, once more, heard the haunting, soft voice say, “Lysanthir.” She blinked as it repeated the beautiful elven name.
She was certain it was an elven name. “Lysanthir.” She nodded. That was definitely what it was saying.
“What? It’s saying nothing of the sort!” Darcassan glared down at the sword whose tip was now resting on the ground clearly having become much too heavy for him to lift fully. “It’s not speaking at all!”
“It is! I don’t know why you can’t hear it and I can!” Gemma’s eyes flashed anger at him.
Normally, she wasn’t so quick to lose her temper, but Rachel and Laura had been so awful to her and things were only going to get worse tomorrow when they started gossiping about her at school! Claiming that she wasn’t pretty enough for the unicorn to come! Claiming she wasn’t a virgin.
She remembered how Laura had leaned over, cupped a hand around Rachel’s ear and said in a whisper she knew that Gemma could hear, “The unicorn isn’t going to come with her here. She’s so ugly. Totally scaring it away.”
Rachel had snickered, but then guiltily looked down.
Laura was very pretty. She had skin as pale as cream and curly blond hair that fell to her shoulders.
She was slender with just a trace of development in her chest. Her fox-like face made her seem like some of the anime characters Gemma had always loved.
Rachel was very pretty, too. She was black like Gemma, though she was much lighter-skinned.
Gemma knew that some people thought her dark chocolate complexion wasn’t as lovely as Rachel’s cafe au lait skin let alone Rachel’s fair complexion.
But she was the same skin tone as her mother and everyone knew that Shonda Baston was beautiful.
But, in that moment, Gemma found herself wanting to tug down the sleeves of her dress.
She consciously stilled the movement, but both Rachel and Laura had seen.
It was like announcing to the world that she knew they were right.
She was ugly.
No! No, I’m not!
“The unicorn isn’t coming,” Laura said, putting her hands on her hips and looking Gemma up and down. “I think we can all guess why.”
“Unicorns don’t care what you look like!” Gemma objected, but even saying that felt like, once more, admitting she was ugly just like Laura had said.
“How do you know?” Laura tipped her chin up almost defiantly. Her blond locks danced in the wind.
“Because…” Gemma shrugged. “It’s not in any of the myths!”
“You’ve never seen one. Rachel and I have.” Laura put a possessive arm around Rachel’s shoulders. “We would know better than you. We know better than some dumb books.”
“There’s millions of reasons why it came out before and not now!” Gemma protested. “I’ve only heard about the virgin thing being important and that’s not even true–”
“You’re not a virgin?” Laura’s eyes widened almost comically and she took a step back as if Gemma was diseased somehow.
“What? Of course, I am!” Gemma answered quickly, shocked by the turn this conversation had taken. It was bad enough to be told she was too ugly for the unicorn to show up, but if Laura and Rachel started a rumor at school that she wasn’t a virgin… Oh that would be bad. So bad…
“She’s right, Laura, isn’t she? I’ve never heard that being ugly keeps the unicorns away, but not being a virgin would do it,” Rachel was nodding almost conspiratorially.
“What? No! I’m a virgin! What are you–stop saying that!” Gemma stamped a foot, feeling hot tears forming behind her eyes. “Rachel, you know I am!”
Rachel wouldn’t quite meet her eyes as she said, “I don’t know, Gemma. It’s not like I’m with you every moment of every day. Why else is the unicorn not coming?”
“I told you! A million reasons! If it even ever came to you guys at all!” Gemma’s vision blurred and her cheeks felt as hot as nuclear reactors. This was going off the rails. This was really bad.
“Now you’re calling us liars?” Laura splayed her right hand against her chest in mock outrage. “You’re definitely not a virgin.”
“I should never have come out here with you guys!” Gemma confessed as hot tears flowed down her cheeks.
She’d known that Laura was a “mean girl” and Rachel a classic “follower” but when she’d overheard them talking about seeing a unicorn, she couldn’t help herself.
She’d gone over and attempted to befriend them both.
Seeing a unicorn was something she desperately wanted to do.
As much as Finley wanted to wield magic, she wanted to see a unicorn.
And maybe pet it’s silky mane. Or even ride it.
So she’d approached Rachel first. She and Rachel had been friendly last year in school, but then Rachel had decided that being popular was more important.
And Gemma was not popular. Quite the opposite actually.
People thought that they had to be careful around her because of who her parents were as if she might rat them out if they broke any of the rules.
But also being a survivor set her apart.
Though she’d never told Declan or Finley, the truth was that people assumed there was something off about the three of them.
How did they survive when everyone else in Lightwell had died?
Yes, these kids and some of their parents were survivors, too, but they’d come from big cities where bunches of people were able to hold out until the Sun King had arrived.
But Lightwell was Ground Zero in terms of the Leviathan invasion and the rumors of how they’d survived…
Well, people were a little bit scared of her.
Or, at least, suspicious. Suspicious was a better word.
“You shouldn’t have come with us?” Laura’s eyes narrowed to slits. “We shouldn’t have let you come with us! C’mon, Rachel, let’s go back to Tyrael. Maybe without her with us, we’ll see the unicorn!”
A flash of guilt speared through Rachel’s eyes and she resisted Laura’s strong tugs on her arm. “We–we shouldn’t leave her alone out here, should we? The monsters–”
“Why not? She survived the invasion. She can survive a sunny day!” Laura had laughed cruelly.
The two girls had then headed back to Tyrael and the safety of the dome. Gemma could have trailed after them, of course. Keeping a safe distance so that both she and they could act like they weren’t together. But she’d stayed behind in the glade.
As they’d disappeared from view, her cheeks were wet with tears.
Her chest was tight with anger and hurt.
Fear and rage that come the next day of school, the rumor that she wasn’t a virgin would likely be spread to every single student.
It was already bad enough to be belittled by the Aravae children.
Now she would lose whatever friendships she had with the human ones.
So while she’d ostensibly waited for the unicorn to show up, in reality, she’d pictured herself telling Declan about what the girls had done and him doing to them what he’d done to those orcs who misbehaved at the Dawn!
Oh, her revenge would be glorious then! They’d learn just how she, Finley and Declan had survived.
Declan was the Night Prince! Son of the dread Night King.
He had a magic sword and more. They better not speak badly of her or he’d cut them down!
Maybe that’s why the unicorn hadn’t come, because I was thinking bad thoughts!
Her hands fisted at her sides. Maybe she was the problem. Too angry. Too ugly. Too weird.
Lysanthir, the voice whispered almost mournfully as if agreeing with her or knowing her fate.
“What does that word even mean? Lysanthir?” Darcassan wasn’t really asking her that.
He was staring down at the glittering blade and murmuring the question. She didn’t think he had heard the blade that last time either, but was just repeating what she’d said earlier.
“It’s the name of the sword’s owner, of course,” she answered with an exasperated sigh. “The moment you touched it, the sword started shouting that name and now it is whispering it mournfully. I don’t think it likes you touching it.”
“How do you know that’s even a name? It’s not an Aravae name? You can’t believe that this sword belongs to a human!” He scoffed.
That had her narrowing her eyes. She could have argued that it could belong to a human, but she knew it didn’t.
Lysanthir wasn’t a human name from any country that she knew of anyways.
Besides, this sword was old. Really old.
Then she thought of Declan. His white hair and red eyes.
Darcassan knew about him according to her mother and father so it wasn’t a secret what he was.
“Aravae aren’t the only kind of elves, are they?” she reminded him with a tight smile.
His eyes widened as understanding suddenly entered his thick brain. “You mean–”