34. Tree of Ash #2
Skuld wiped away the images from the water.
“Queen Stjarna intended to send you, Darien, Aeron, and Anara to hide with the Jotnar. But Shiko attacked Perle sooner than Stjarna expected. In the end, Stjarna lost control; she reached too far trying to hide both you and Darien. She expended all of her galdr , hiding you for fifty years when she was only meant to hide you for days.”
Larissa bit her tongue, her scream of disbelief and shock held captive behind pressed lips.
Beside her, Darien paled. His hands turned to fists at his sides.
Was he thinking the same thing? They’d lost so much time.
And in that time, Shiko had only grown in power.
If it had been days, could Larissa have stopped all the pain of the last fifty years?
She swallowed, the pressure of her emotional turmoil forcing tears to her eyes. It wasn’t like her mother to make such a careless mistake in her galdr . All her life, she’d taught Larissa the importance of balance and restraint. Perhaps fear for her daughter had overridden her caution.
The waters rippled under Vereandi’s touch and showed the youngest goddess disguising herself as Stjarna. She appeared to Aagen and then to Dal and Vern, bringing along Darien and Larissa respectively.
“Why Aagen?” Darien asked, just as Halla asked, “Why my parents?”
“There are certain ties in the tapestry of life,” Urer murmured in her gravely voice as she picked at a knot in her yarn.
“Call them bonds if you will—individual life strings that become knotted together. These bonds, especially when imbued with galdr , are at times strong enough to override natural law. It was Stjarna’s bond to Lovisa that allowed her to save her daughter and Lovisa’s bond to Darien that allowed Stjarna to save him through Lovisa. They are tied together.”
Heat rose to Larissa’s cheeks. Darien sent her a glance from the side of his eyes.
“As strong as their tie was, we had to separate them or their presence would awaken each other’s galdrs and memories before Anara could find them,” Skuld continued.
“Aagen’s bond to the Safírian royalty was forgotten as his family’s galdr diminished generations before Aagen’s birth, but it never vanished.
His awareness of the gift of persuasion would save Darien’s life should the wrong person come poking. ”
Darien glanced behind them at the sleeping figure in the grass. “You mean Calder.”
“Aeron,” Skuld corrected. “He is still your brother.”
Shocked by her words, Darien did not reply. Sensing Halla’s impatience, Larissa asked again, “Why Dal and Vern?”
“Vern never spoke of it, and her mother spoke of it even less often, but she was not Safírian by birth. Her great-grandmother once lived as an aristocrat within the Perle kingdom during the reign of Queen Stjarna. Before that, her ancestors traced their heritage to Bragi.”
“The god of storytelling? You’re joking,” Anara asked at the same time that Halla lifted herself on her tiptoes.
“What?” Halla cried. “But then, where is my galdr ?”
“Your ancestors’ galdr was weak to begin with and fading long before your mother was a thought in your grandmother’s mind. They held onto their titles when they should have passed on to another, but Stjarna believed less in the strength of galdr and more in the strength of people.”
Halla deflated. “So there’s no chance of me having galdr ?”
Skuld analyzed Halla, her shrewd eyes seemingly penetrating Halla’s soul. “Your fate lies elsewhere.”
“So that was the only reason? Vern’s Perlian bloodline?” Larissa pushed, desperate for the answers. “How would that protect me?”
Vereandi laughed. “It wouldn’t, but there was hardly any left of the Perlian Ancestral Bloodline anyhow.
No, when necessary, we shielded you, such as when Aeron visited your farm as Calder.
We shrouded your true appearance so that he wouldn’t recognize you.
When you were in trouble, I pressed on Darien’s heart to seek you.
It wasn’t for protection that we chose Dal and Vern; it was because of Halla.
” At Halla’s shocked face, Vereandi smiled.
“Don’t you remember? You prayed for a sister all your life. Someone you could look up to.”
“You made this decision on the prayer of a child?” Darien asked.
“We made this decision based on the ties within the tapestry of life.” Vereandi fiddled with the thread that spilled over Urer’s lap. “Some bindings can cross the border of life and death. Halla’s thread was knotted to Larissa’s long before they met.”
Halla shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Nor should you,” Urer scolded, snatching the strand from Vereandi’s small fingers. “Some thoughts are meant for gods, not mortals.”
The water swirled again, and the images sank down like black ink spilled over paper. Larissa peered into the water, gripping the edge of the well. “You have all this power. Why didn’t you stop Shiko? Why do you need us at all?”
“They can’t intervene.”
Larissa turned to the quiet voice, shocked to find it belonged to Kai. He’d been so quiet that Larissa had nearly forgotten his existence at all. He rubbed his hands against his pants as though they were sweaty. “Isn’t that what all the stories say?”
“The boy is correct,” Skuld replied. She shook her clasped hands seemingly absent-mindedly, and rocks rattled between her fingers. “We are the Norn. We record the past. We gift the present. We determine the future, but fate is already set.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Anara argued. “If you’re the goddesses of fate, don’t you control fate?”
Urer huffed. “We are instruments of fate; it is not the same.”
Vereandi remained silent.
Masai’s deep voice resounded even though his words were soft. “Why call me? Why not show them how to get here without me?”
“Every mortal here has a purpose.” Skuld rattled the stones again.
“The prophecy we gave to Rúna, Lovisa’s grandmother, was incomplete, though she never knew it.
To reveal the whole truth, all must earn a piece of what was once known and what was never revealed.
There are six pieces of prophecy, but they can only be revealed to one mortal at a time and only if you pass the test. Will you accept our test? ”
Glancing at the faces set with determination around her, Larissa knew what her only answer could be. “Yes. What do we do?”
“Face yourselves.” Urer stirred the waters again as Vereandi leapt upon its ledge. She hummed softly to herself as Skuld extended her hands. “Find the truth, decide your fate, and learn the secrets of past and future.”
Skuld lifted her hands, and water shot forth from the well, drenching them in its icy waters and flooding the entire clearing.
Like a current, it consumed them. Larissa flailed in the water.
Beside her, Darien reached for her, but his hand was torn away.
Then the wave was carrying them back into the well and swallowing them within its stone mouth.