Epilogue Ahnna #2
“Nina as well. She and Keris’s sister Sara have become fast, if somewhat unexpected, friends.
Sara aims to travel back with her to Riomar when she leaves here, and Bronwyn and Taryn will return as well.
They like Amarid, and it is good to have them at Nina’s back.
She’s funding a new music school, which Taryn will chair. And you didn’t answer my question.”
Ahnna lifted a hand to greet the Ithicanians who had come out of their homes to call her name, their faces familiar.
“I think part of me is afraid to admit that I’m happy, because to do so might cause it all to come undone.
” She closed her eyes as the wind caught hold of her hair, and her mind filled with her and James galloping through the Ranges.
“I have everything my heart desires, that I know for certain.”
“That sounds like happiness.” Lara squeezed her hand, and then they stepped through the open doors of the palace.
Ahnna’s nose breathed in the familiar scent, the building cool and filled with the tinkling sound of fountains. Familiar faces scurried in all different directions as the staff prepared for dinner, and Ahnna waited to be struck with the sense of coming home.
Except this wasn’t home anymore.
Home was Verwyrd. Home was Fernleigh House or Whitewood Hall. Home was Harendell.
“Ahnna!” She turned to see Jor approaching. He’d lost his arm below the elbow from the wound he’d taken on Ornak, but years of peace had done him well. He looked fit and healthy, and the arm that wrapped around her was strong. “You’re late.”
“James wouldn’t let me sail the ship. He says that I scare the crew too badly.”
“This I believe.” Jor moved on to speak with Aren and James, and Lara led her down the hallway, raised voices growing louder with each step.
Ahnna opened the door to the dining room to find both Keris and Sarhina on their feet, each waving a book at the other, neither seeming to be listening to a word the other was saying.
Bronwyn and Taryn sat near them, watching with amusement.
Zarrah and Ensel sat at the table conversing with their hands, a small girl with curly dark hair and dark eyes sitting between them with an illustrated book in her lap.
Everyone stopped their conversations as Ahnna entered, then in a heartbeat, they all began again as if there had been no interruptions.
Family, as family was intended to be, and Ahnna took a seat next to Zarrah, Lara taking the one next to Ensel.
James and Aren sat with Bronwyn and Taryn, and it was then Ahnna noticed Nina and Sara seated in the corner, heads together as they whispered.
The young queen of Amarid lifted a hand in greeting as her eyes locked on Ahnna’s, but though she was Katarina’s granddaughter and Carlo’s daughter, she had proven intent on changing Amarid for the better.
“Ronan sends his regrets that he wasn’t able to come,” Ahnna said to Zarrah. “You made quite an impression on him.”
Zarrah smiled, then leaned over to hug Ahnna tightly. “I’ve invited him to Pyrinat, so we’ll see if he makes the journey. I’m glad to see your face, though. James’s as well. Where is Oliver?”
“With the other children. Lucas has been charged with his defense.”
Zarrah grimaced. “That’s…not a comfort. Yrina, go find your brother and make sure he’s not causing trouble. Take Saam with you.”
The little heir to the Valcottan Empire gave a world-weary sigh, snapped her book shut, then rose. “Yes, Mother.”
Once she was gone, Zarrah looked around, then smiled. “A gathering for the history books, if not for the secrecy. Wouldn’t do for certain people to know that half the rulers of the known world, and their heirs, are all in one place.”
Lara took a sip from the glass of wine Ahnna poured for her, then said, “It wouldn’t be wise to attack this gathering. Many have tried, and they all rest six feet under.”
“I still know how to run a shipbreaker.” Ahnna flexed her hands and laughed, though she could feel the weight of too many wars, too many battles, too many losses stretched among the three of them.
It was a weight none of them would ever shake free from, and one they’d all fight to keep the next generation from experiencing.
The servants began loading the tables with food, and moments later, the children all exploded into the room.
Oliver’s clothes were muddy and his coat was torn, but his cheeks were flushed with happiness as he conspired with the other children in the corner.
The noise grew, everyone laughing as they moved from conversation to conversation, the children eventually tucked into their beds, and it was well after midnight when Ahnna found herself face-to-face with her husband.
She wrapped her arms around James’s neck, the hum of chatter all falling away. “I haven’t spoken to you all night.”
“I was defending Aren from Keris. That man is merciless.”
“Didn’t look like defense. Looked more like you and Keris were ganging up on him. Is it because my brother is slightly taller than you?”
“Between you and Oliver, my ego will not survive this trip.”
“It’s good for you.” She pulled him closer, desperately wanting to be alone with him. “Would you like to go for a walk with me?”
“Gladly.”
Ahnna linked her arm through his and led him out of the room, through the palace, and out into the night. All of Eranahl was celebrating, music and laughter pouring from the homes lining the slope of the volcano, but Ahnna passed them all by, taking James up and up.
Until they stood at Eranahl’s summit.
Ahnna set down the lantern she was carrying and turned the flame low so it would not take away from the view. The night was clear as only the calm season could bring, and the sky was an explosion of glittering stars that reflected off the mirror of the sea.
“It’s beautiful,” James said, turning in a circle. “I’ve never seen the sky quite like this.”
“You should see it during a typhoon.”
“I’ll pass on that.” He caught hold of her hand, and then rested his other on her hip. “Dance with me, Princess.”
With only the wind and the waves as music, her husband led her in a waltz across the rough ground of the summit.
She’d danced with him a thousand times over the last five years, in palaces and ballrooms and in their bedroom before he’d take her down to the sheets and make her his own, but to dance beneath Eranahl’s stars felt like a different sort of magic.
“I love you,” she whispered, resting her cheek against his shoulder. “Thank you for giving me this life.”
“I wish I’d given it to you, love.” His breath was warm against her hair. “But you fought for it yourself. You still fight for it, even though the battle is won.”
“Is it won?” As soon as she said the words, Ahnna regretted them. “Don’t listen to me. Too much wine has me saying things I don’t mean.”
“You had one glass. And I heard what you said to Lara.”
Ahnna pulled out of his grip and walked a few paces, staring out over the sea. “It was nothing.”
“I hold you every night, Ahnna, through all the nightmares that plague you. Watch how you never go anywhere without an arsenal of weapons. I see how you are always on guard, asleep and in your dreams. That’s not nothing.”
He wasn’t wrong, but no part of her felt willing to relax. To do so felt like inviting disaster to fall down upon them, because happiness felt like something so easily torn from her hands.
James came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against him. “Before we left Verwyrd, a package arrived from Caly.”
He let go with one arm, then held a small velvet bag out in front of her.
Curious, Ahnna took it and sat on the ground next to the lantern, turning up the flame.
She opened the bag and poured the contents onto her palm.
Then promptly dropped them in the dirt. “Good God. James, these are human finger bones. Knuckles.”
“The best bones are those from your enemies, but she didn’t say who they belonged to.
Though I wouldn’t put it past Caly to have robbed Alexandra’s grave.
” James sat across from her, legs crossed.
“In Cardiff, you can see a person’s future in the patterns the bones form when they fall.
It’s called casting. If you want, I can read your future in the bones you just threw on the ground in front of you. ”
She knew about the things Caly had said about Oliver bringing a golden era of peace, and how she’d foretold Lestara’s fate.
It had all felt like cleverly chosen words, but as Ahnna glanced down at the haphazard mess of white bones, then away, her skin prickled with the sense that powers she could not comprehend existed in this world.
Powers that had created the bridge. Powers that spoke down from the stars.
“I have known you for six years, James. And not once did you mention that you know how to read the future.”
“Caly taught me when I was a boy.” Reaching across the bones, he took her hands. “If it will give you peace, I’ll tell you what your future holds.”
“Have you already looked?” she whispered. “Do you already know?”
James shook his head. “I won’t unless you ask me to.”
Ahnna slowly lowered her gaze to the bones between them, examining how they rested against one another and trying to decipher the patterns they formed.
Would knowing what the future held give her peace?
If James told her she’d live a long life with him, would that make her happy?
If he told her that she’d do right by Harendell, would she relax?
Or would the hints and clues only serve to torment her, the lack of specificity magnifying the tension that plagued her days?
“I don’t want to know.” Letting go of one of his hands, she knocked the bones, destroying their pattern.
“You swore that you’d be at my side until the end came for us, and I swore that I’d find you in whatever comes next.
That is the only certainty I need in my life, even if it means I must live every day as though it may be my last.”
For a heartbeat, she feared that she’d see frustration in his eyes at her unwillingness to let down her guard, but her husband only said, “I thought you might say that.”
James pulled her into his arms before gently lowering Ahnna to the ground—the very earth she had spent her life fighting to protect. “I do not think tonight will be our last night, Ahnna, but let’s make it one to remember.”