Chapter 60 #2
We pause our conversation as fire lights up the night not far ahead of us. Raef. Taking out unknown foes before we even knew they were a threat. The fire sputters out and I can barely see him again as he simply continues walking.
“Yeah…” I say. “We definitely should have been traveling this way all along.”
“Agreed. These proud bastards have been holding out on us.”
We laugh, even though it’s not really all that funny. I’m still a little on edge traveling through the night. I trust Daegan and Raef completely, but my whole life I’ve been taught to fear the darkness, so there’s still a feeling of unease in my stomach.
We’ve lost enough of our crew already.
“So, any developments in your main quest to take down your father?”
“No. I’m waiting for the right moment.”
“Okay.” She’s never liked talking details about her father, but I must admit I am a little curious. “Did you cross paths with him at all when you were in the castle?”
“Yes,” she replies without hesitation.
“And he didn’t… recognize you? Your mother must have been… like you, right? And your father was an elf?”
“Extremely tall?” She laughs. “Actually, no. Her Skeldaryn traits were not prominent. She looked… like a normal-sized human.”
“Really? I didn’t know such a thing existed. Everyone thinks the humans have been extinct for hundreds of years… so what did he think your mother was?”
“When he first found her… he was intrigued by her. She was elf-shaped but didn’t have the ears. She told him she was a witch. And that was the wrong move, because after that, he kept her. He wanted a witch for himself, I guess.” She’s quiet for a moment. “I barely even knew her…”
“I’m sorry.” I look back and meet her gaze so she knows I mean it. “I didn’t know my mother either.”
“Well, we have more in common than you know.”
I pause, studying her. “What does that mean?”
When she doesn’t answer, my heart begins to race, and my blood feels colder. “Who is your father, Rhydra?”
She straightens her strong, prominent shoulders and holds my gaze. “King Nerion Celenor.”
Her expression doesn’t waver, and I know she’s telling the truth. Or at least, what she believes to be the truth.
“How is that possible?” I whisper.
“Your father is what, a little over one hundred? He met my mother almost forty years ago. Then she escaped once she found out she was with child.”
“He didn’t try to find her?”
“Oh, he did. It’s how she died when I was just a girl.
” She looks off in the distance. “I don’t know if he knew about me, but like I said, my mother was only part Skeldaryn, mixed with human, I would guess.
I was right under his nose and he had no idea.
He never would have believed his first heir was a large, part Skeldaryn woman.
My mother knew what she was, but she never told him. ”
“Wow.” I shake my head in disbelief. “Wait. So, you’re part elf… Do you have any powers we don’t know about? Water wielding?”
She shakes her head in dismay. “Not a drop, unfortunately. It seems the Skeldaryn heritage decided to skip my mother but present itself prominently in me.”
“Maybe you were meant to wield the power of air…”
She shrugs.
“So my father… our father… hunted your mother down and killed her?”
“Yes. Well, he sent soldiers. Couldn’t even be bothered to do it himself. I was gone at the market that day…”
“I’m so sorry.”
“Now you know.”
“Why are you telling me now?”
“I don’t know.”
“And that’s why you want to clear the veil before you kill him… to see him defeated, scared, vulnerable?”
“Exactly. It’s not enough to simply kill him.”
I study her more closely, and I feel like a fool. It’s true, nothing about her seems elf-like. She doesn’t even have the ears, but… “You have his eyes.” The realization hits me like a powerful wave that has the potential to drown me if I let it.
I shake my head in disbelief. The revelation only feeds the flame of my hatred for him even more.
“So…” I hesitate. “We’re sisters…”
Her chest jumps as she smirks and lets out a puff of air through her nose.
“I guess so.”
“I always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling.”
“Should I start picking on you now? Or save that for later?”
“I mean… you already speak your mind plainly anyway. You’re not afraid to be honest.”
“True. Which is why I should remind you… it’s your father—our father—I plan to murder.”
I don’t flinch at her statement. Perhaps, once upon a time, I would have.
Not anymore. His disrespect, arrogance, and complete lack of compassion for all life have sullied my opinion of him forever.
There’s no going back. “As long as you let me have Meela’s father, should he be so unfortunate as to stumble onto my path. ”
Her lips twist into a pitying smile. “You’re not a killer.”
“I might make an exception for him,” I say softly into the night air, turning back around.
“Good.”
I don’t say anything, but I imagine my father’s face. The complete shock to his ego as we break the thousand-year-old curse that’s helped him and all the royalty before him keep everyone else suffering under their thumbs.
We ride in silence for a long time without seeing any more beasts, which I find strange. Perhaps they’re running scared at the sight of two dragons. It would be wise of whatever is out there to keep its distance. Unless there’s something even more terrifying than a dragon.
Eventually, I feel safe, secure, even comfortable as I Iie on my side in the little divot of his back. The slow, rolling motion of his steps lulls me into a deep slumber.