Chapter 10 #2
Eira raised her hands to cup his face in them and looked into his teal eyes. The world was heavy around them, but here with him she felt light. No matter what happened, her heart was at ease knowing he was there with her and they’d face it together.
“Eira! Cadeyrn!” Myra’s voice echoed from outside the room. The urgency in her voice made them bolt upright in their seat and rush out the door to meet her.
Myra’s face was flushed, and she clung to the ancient book she’d been studying ever since she arrived.
If Eira hadn’t known better, she would have guessed that Myra had seen Malle’s ghost. The truth of it was that Myra saw more ghosts than anyone else and they barely fazed her at this point. It was another part of life.
“What happened?” Cadeyrn asked, the hard tone in his voice matching the pounding of Eira’s heart, when they met in the hallway. He wasn’t wearing his fighting leathers but surely still had a blade tucked somewhere and stood at attention ready to defend; the ever-prepared soldier.
“We’re not under attack,” Myra explained quickly before Cade went off on a rampage.
“Aytigin allowed me to go into one of his hoard chambers to see if there was anything useful for the book, and I saw a blue orb on a tiered platform light up. I went to see and… Well, you better come look. It’s Amelia. ”
“Why didn’t you lead with that?” Cadeyrn asked and they followed Myra down the hall to the hoard chamber.
Eira didn’t go into these rooms often as Aytigin was possessive of his hoard, and to her understanding most dragons were.
There were too many valuables that would be tempting for sticky fingers.
But as time had gone on, especially with the arrival of Malle’s spirit, he was becoming more open in the hopes they’d find a solution for the curse and her soul would find peace at last.
To the naked eye it was a mess of a room with items piled on top of one another like shimmering towers of treasure.
Each thing held more value than the last but all seemed tossed aside as though mere rags in the rubbish pile.
Knowing Aytigin though, he was meticulous and possessive and wanted to preserve each thing he encountered.
Especially if it had anything to do with Luana or other deities.
Which, Eira was sure, at least half of it did.
There was a rhyme and reason to the haphazard organization of Aytigin’s treasures, and he protected them with his life.
The orb floated over its platform in the center of the room with a blue glow radiating from it that illuminated the room making it seem like they were under water.
The trio surrounded it and Eira placed her hand on the glass.
Through the light and mist an image of a village along a river appeared with a ship docked at its edge.
Down the gangway strode Amelia and that horrid sorcerer and her mother behind.
In her arms she held a bundle of blankets.
Eira’s breath caught in her throat. That must be the baby.
A crowd had gathered around the ship, mostly villagers from what it looked like.
But they had items that could be used as weapons, sticks and shovels and knives, on hand which Eira was glad for.
No one was attacking anyone, but with Amelia present, the situation could change in a moment, and the villagers’ faces were wary.
“Where are they?” Myra asked. “If we can locate the village maybe we can send aid.”
Eira tapped the tips of her fingers together as she thought. “I’m trying to think of every village along a river I can think of but it’s difficult to make out which one this is. Even if I knew, I’m not sure if we can send help in time.”
In the scene before them Amelia made a show of lowering the blanket to show the baby’s face and held him out to the others so all could see.
“Behold, I bring you the king’s son and the true heir to the Cresin throne.
Your princesses have betrayed you. Denied the deities’ will and abandoned their kingdom.
Rose is gone in Eral Forest and turned her back on you.
Then Eira…” she shook her head gravely. “Eira walked away from being Luana’s Chosen.
She was to be your hope and bring the kingdoms together.
But she has decided to follow her own selfish desires and left you.
But here is your new heir. When they cast me out while I tried to protect your kingdom I delivered the king’s son.
Now, I bring him back to his kingdom. His people. ”
Eira felt dizzy. The people surely didn’t believe her, did they? No one knew who the father of this child was. She knew it would be a challenge to have the people trust her again, but surely they didn’t fall for Amelia’s lies, did they? Not after all the destruction she’d done.
But people gathered around. They leaned forward and around those in front of them to take a look at the baby. No protests. No cries of outrage. No fear. Amelia made her way through the crowd peacefully and basked in their awe.
Eira took a step back and held her head. This wasn’t what she’d expected. The people believed Amelia and were accepting it.
Cadeyrn followed her and placed a hand on her back. “They’ll see soon enough her lies. You’ll show them your dedication.”
Eira nodded but couldn’t convince herself he was right. Maybe she had been hiding.
“Eira! Finley and Ai are there! But who is that man with them?” Myra called out.
It brought Eira back to the present moment, and she hurried back to the scene. Sure enough, there standing on the ship’s deck ready to come down to land stood Finley, Ai, and Rafe. Eira’s jaw clenched so tight she thought she would break a tooth.
“That’s Rafe,” she answered. “He’s the one who killed Grandmother.”
Myra’s face grew pale. “I knew they were cousins, but I didn’t think Finley would join her. It must be some kind of mistake. She hates Amelia,” Myra said, her voice quiet and wavering.
Eira’s head made a sharp turn toward her. “She’s Amelia’s cousin? Why hasn’t anyone said this before? And she has the Shadow Slayers! Did Rose know about this?”
Myra blinked a few times then straightened her shoulders. “You know Finley? And what are the Shadow Slayers?”
It appeared they all had much more catching up to do than Eira realized. “They’re ancient weapons which were held here until Rose and Rafe took them, and then Finley and Ai stole them from her before abandoning us in Eral.”
“I’m not sure if ‘abandon’ is the correct word,” Cadeyrn added.
“The point is that she has in her possession the most powerful weapons in the realm and is with a deadly shapeshifter and is assisting Amelia,” Eira explained. “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted those pirates.”
“You don’t know the whole story,” Myra interjected, standing even straighter now.
Gone was the timid servant girl who served Amelia.
She’d easily stepped into her confidence and role as a future queen.
“Finley and Ai hate Amelia, and I know from experience that there’s always more than appears with them. There must be more we don’t know.”
Eira couldn’t stop shaking her head. “We can’t be too careful though. We need to get those weapons away from Finley and back here as soon as possible. Rose has suspicions they could be the key to Amelia’s demise, and we cannot have them in the hands of her allies.”
“But what if they aren’t?—”
Eira raised her hand to cut off Myra. She hated to do it. She liked Myra and wanted them to work together. But the stakes were too high. “We’re going to find out what this village is and send people out to find The Mystic. We need those weapons back.”