Chapter 39 – Isolde
ISOLDE
Istared at the spot on the wall where the gateway had closed.
Where was Vale? Our friends?
Hiding at one of the meeting points the Riis sisters had arranged throughout Grindavik?
A guttural sob rang through the office. Lord Riis was lying on the ground, next to Inga’s cold body, exactly where he’d been since her last breath.
Geiravor stood behind him, pity in every line of her body, but she didn’t comfort her father.
His grief prevented him from noticing anyone else in the room.
For the first time since Lord Riis told me of his lover’s actions two decades ago, something other than anger and betrayal warred inside me. It was impossible to despise him as he was, when he looked so pitiful. So broken.
Would I look the same way soon?
I halted that thought before it spiraled me into a dark place.
Vale wasn’t dead. We were mates, and if death severed the bond, I’d feel it inside me.
What afflicted me was not the greatest despair of losing a mate but an odd void.
As if something muffled the invisible string connecting us.
Perhaps distance? This was the farthest apart we’d been since the bond had formed.
Though I’d had my doubts about such a power before, I found myself wishing that we were one of those mated pairs with a telepathic bond.
At least then I’d know what was happening.
“It’s got to be safe to check now.” Thyra sat next to me. “It’s been hours.”
“It’s not safe,” Geiravor said tightly. “If it were, my sisters would make contact. Sváva hasn’t returned to the brothel because it’s under watch. And as far as I know, those soldiers may have harmed Yrsa.”
“She has eyewitnesses that she arrived at the brothel, and as she was glamoured when we started the mission, no one can say that she ever left,” Thyra said. “Yrsa is fine.”
“Trust me. Stay put a while longer.” Geiravor’s tone brooked no argument. “And no shadows.”
We’d shared that news with her, and she’d taken it rather well. Seeing our shadows as something that could be very useful.
“It seems like we have no choice in the matter.” Thyra scowled.
Unlike other portals Luccan had made, my blood did not open this one. Only Riis blood did that. Lord Riis was beyond reach, and Geiravor refused.
“Would you like to force the matter, if you wish, Princesses?” Astril asked. The pair had remained to guard us, but Sayyida and Vidar were back at Ramshold, informing the others of what had occurred. Of the queen’s death.
“No.” I’d permitted compulsion to see the mission through, but to take an ally’s blood was not something I’d allow. “We’ll give it another hour.”
Thyra crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned back in her chair.
The clock in the office ticked on and on and on. I glanced at it every few minutes, my resolve withering. Thyra caught me, arched an eyebrow.
“Second thoughts?”
I shook my head. Thyra snorted, not believing me at all.
Another agonizing half hour had just passed when the gateway shimmered. I sat straight up, watching the space on the wall. All others in the room, save for Lord Riis, were staring at the portal too.
The gateway opened, and Yrsa and Sváva walked through, followed closely by Caelo and Qildor, the former leaning on the latter’s shoulder. I waited. The gateway closed, and a strangled sound left my throat.
“Isolde?” Caelo said. “Vale and Thantrel aren’t here, are they?”
“No.” My breath tightened in my chest. “Why are they not with you?”
Caelo gestured to the bloodied bandage over his leg. “I took an arrow to the thigh. Vale commanded Qildor to get me out. We went through the exit—barely made it.”
Qildor maneuvered Caelo into a chair and sat him down with a soft groan. “Those water creatures are horrible. I’ll be having nightmares about them for moons to come.”
Unbidden, an image of the mermaid-like thing arose in my mind. I cringed. So, there had been more.
“When we finally got out of that channel, I heard the city bells and knew the brothel wasn’t safe,” Qildor continued. “I diverted to the closest meeting point and waited for Sváva. She and Yrsa only just collected us.”
“The entire city is still positively crawling with soldiers,” Sváva said. “It took us ages to get to the brothel, and I had them wait there as I went and looked for the prince and Thantrel. They weren’t at any of the other rendezvous points.”
My stomach sank to my knees.
“And no word of them in the underground of Grindavik?” Geiravor asked.
“Nothing, which means they’re likely hiding because the glamours had to have worn off, and if the king or Lady Ithamai caught them, there would be news.
” Sváva swallowed. “I can go back and check again. However, it will take some time. Like we said, so many soldiers are patrolling the streets, looking for the Falk twins.”
Hiding. My breathing eased a touch. Yes, they had to be in hiding. Maybe in an abandoned building or home. Vale inspired loyalty in many–particularly soldiers. Perhaps someone had seen them and helped?
“I have a better idea. One that ensures no one is caught, and it will be faster.” Thyra nodded at where the gateway had been. “Can animals go through a gateway?”
“Of course. As long as they follow someone with Riis blood,” Sváva replied.
Thyra lifted her face to Freyia’s. “Find Aleksander and bring him and Arla here. We’ll send the hawk around the city, see if they can’t find the pair or hear anything about them.”
The moment the door closed behind the vampire, Thyra took my hand and squeezed. “Aleksander and Arla will find them. His hawk may take some time to search, but she has never failed the rebellion. She won’t fail us either.”
My brother sent his hawk through the portal and then disappeared behind his hawk’s eyes. Not too long after that, Rynni arrived to care for Caelo’s injury.
Though we were taking action, I’d never felt so useless. So done with waiting.
I was still staring at Aleksander, willing him to come back to us with good news, when my finger began to ache.
Absentmindedly, I closed my fist, thinking pressure might help, but with the motion, pain exploded through me.
I doubled over in my chair and gripped my left hand with my right as agony coursed through me.
White spots filled my vision, blanking out large portions of the room.
“Isolde? What’s going on?” Panic rippled in Thyra’s voice as she came closer.
“My hand!” I whisper-screamed. “A sharp pain in my finger!”
“Let me.” Thyra tried to pry my right hand off my left, but the motion made me scream. She let go.
“Rynni!” my sister commanded. “Help her.”
“Give me your hand.” The dragon-fae was there in an instant, and although it felt as though my bone was being cut with a dull knife, I offered her my shaking left hand.
I focused on the healer, and despite my vision going in and out, the confusion on her face was plain.
“Nothing is wrong other than it’s red from where you gripped it tightly. Did you bang it on something?”
“This is not from a bang. Something is wrong. Inside.”
Everyone circled around me. Expressions of worry and puzzlement lined each of their faces.
Rynni exhaled a breath, noting how I trembled, how it made no sense. “Maybe you should go to the Master Healer?”
“Don’t be an idiot, Rynni.” Thyra spoke harshly, an indication of the panic that likely bubbled inside her. “We can all see that nothing is wrong with her hand. Something else is . . . what in the nine kingdoms?”
I gripped the chair with my good hand as another wave of fire, the worst yet, washed through me. I gritted my teeth, riding it out.
“Did you all see that?” Thyra asked, a note of fear in her voice.
No, I hadn’t. In fact, my vision had just gone white. I blinked, trying to see again.
Breathe in. Breath out, I thought, lowering my heart rate one breath at a time. The old trick worked, and second by second, my vision returned. Bits and pieces of Thyra’s face, as pale as the moon, came into focus.
“What?” I asked. “Tell me.”
My sister’s chin wobbled ever so slightly before she composed herself once again. “Your soulmate marks. They flickered.”
I glanced down at my finger, still throbbing, but the pain had lessened. The marks did appear somewhat duller than before.
I gasped as the most horrible reason why that might happen struck me. “Does this mean Vale is dead?”
“No,” a raspy voice spoke. Lord Riis’s voice.
Sometime during my pain, he’d woken from his stupor and sat up.
He stared at me with red, grief-filled eyes, his face haggard as if he’d aged 100 turns in just hours.
“If he died, the mark would disappear, and you would be on the floor from the agony in your heart.”
Much like him. Fates.
“Then what?” I spoke the first words I’d willingly spoken to him since his betrayal came to light.
“You might sense his pain. Like some mates can speak mind to mind, and others can sense emotions, some can feel when another is injured. I can’t be certain that’s what’s happening, but that is my best guess.”
Cold seized me, a sensation a million times worse than whatever I’d experienced. If that was what was happening, why was Vale hurt?
I twisted to find Aleksander but his eyes were still shut.
“Let him work,” Thyra said. “He’ll find something. I promise.”
“Vale could be dying!” I hissed. “And you expect me to sit here?”
“No.” She placed both hands on my shoulders, as if trying to ground me. “If your hand is fine, I expect you to wait here with me. To be my rock, as I will be yours. To know that we’re taking the smartest path to find the males we care for.”
“Care for? I love him with everything that I am.” The words choked up my throat. “If he dies, Thyra—I don’t think I can keep going.”
A world without Vale would lose all color. All meaning. I didn’t want to consider such a horrible place.
“I think I can understand that,” she whispered, and her inflection struck me as so sincere that I fell quiet.
Aleksander opened his eyes and turned to us, calm and ignorant to what had been happening in the room he sat in. “I have news.”
“What is it?” Thyra asked.
“Did you find them?” I added.
“No, but sailors on the dock were talking about how the royal ship left over an hour ago. Bound for the mage court. Vale and Thantrel boarded along with the king and Prince Rhistel. The news was notable because Vale and Thantrel didn’t arrive in Grindavik with them.
Everyone was confused about when the Warrior Bear showed up.
The last they heard he was a traitor and with Isolde. ”
“The Shadow King?” Thyra asked.
“No one saw him,” Aleksander replied.
“That doesn’t mean he’s not there,” Yrsa countered. “He could have easily boarded in disguise.”
My shadows stirred. Whether excited to see the one that had released them or to battle érebo, I couldn’t tell. Nor did I care. Only getting Vale and Thantrel back mattered.
I stood. “So we go find a ship and follow.”
Everyone in the office stared at me as though I’d grown another head.
“What?”
“Sorry, but that’s an insane plan. Particularly after what just happened.
” Yrsa held up her hands. “And I don’t blame you for losing your head, but you can’t waltz into Grindavik and steal a boat large enough to cross the sea to the Mage Kingdom.
And you cannot stroll into that court and expect to get Vale and Thantrel back. ”
“We can take more people,” I retorted. “It worked to get Inga.”
Astril cleared her throat. “That, my princess, was a trap. They let us take her to seize a larger prize. Two, actually.”
“The queen is dead,” Freyia added. “What makes you think they won’t use the same poison and antidote on your mates? Repeatedly hurt them only to bring them back to life when all hope is nearly lost?”
My throat tightened. After Inga died, the vampires had examined her more closely.
Both had received extensive poisoning training in their guild, but Freyia had been the one to catch the telltale notes of a poison on her breath.
The assassin then needed to ingest only a droplet of the queen’s blood to identify exactly what sort of contaminant they had given the queen.
She’d claimed there was a trace of the antidote too, which hinted at repeated poisonings.
The idea of Vale and Thantrel having to endure the same made me clench my fists.
“We can’t charge into this,” Thyra said. “I want to as well, sister, but we can’t. We have to plan better. Be smarter.”
“If we take too long?” I countered.
Another question arose. One I asked whenever something horrible happened, which was often as of late. Was this the price I’d pay for saving Anna’s life? My mate’s life for hers?
Thyra shook her head. “Vale is too valuable to kill. Thantrel too—especially if they learned that we’re mates. They will keep them alive as lures. And of course we’re going to get them, but we have to plan and anticipate any and every trap this time.”
I gripped the closest chair, needing to steady myself.
“When we go for them, we have to be ready because that could be our best shot to end all of this.” Thyra lifted her chin. “Can you wait? Are you with me?”
Though it shattered my heart to think of Vale at the mercy of those who would harm him, my sister was right. This could be our only chance to save our mates and win the throne in one blow. To minimize the death war would bring. We could not barrel forth recklessly yet again.
I took a centering inhale and nodded. “I’m with you.”