Chapter 53 – Isolde
ISOLDE
My heart lodged itself in my throat as Vale disappeared beneath the towering waves.
“It’s not him,” Caelo yelled from where he flew close by. Sigri and Qildor were with me too, but the rest of the fliers had spread out some, to attack and avoid harm. “Vale would never harm Vidar.”
I stared down at the water, now black under the stormy sky. Our forces were now aware of Rhistel’s true magic, but Vidar likely did not know. He’d been on the sea when we’d spread the news.
“Circle, Arava! We have to find him. Both of them!”
Arava lowered and flew as slowly as she dared, all the while keeping alert for threats. Knowing she’d fly away at any threat to us allowed me to focus on the water.
Debris from the blast blanketed the water, making it impossible to see beneath.
Seconds passed, and my belly tightened. What if they didn’t surface?
What if something had hit them over the head or impaled their bellies?
Vale was not the best swimmer, and while Vidar, being from the House of the Sea Serpent, had grown up on the water, the sea took easily.
Was I seeing the vision the Crown had given me? Altered by my presence, my attempt to change fate, and yet still so similar?
“We need to dive!” Caelo called out. “Before they sink too deep!”
I dug my heels into Arava’s side, fearing the water. I could swim, but the sea thrashed, and I wasn’t sure I’d survive such power. “Get closer.”
She followed my command. Spindrift sprayed our faces, and Caelo removed his weapon, preparing to jump.
“Qildor! Caelo!” a voice shouted, not far away.
A waving hand caught my attention, and I exhaled. Vidar treaded water not too far away.
“To him!” Arava veered in Vidar’s direction and hovered just beside my friend.
We were positioned between two destroyed ships, both deserted or filled with corpses if the lack of attacks was any indication.
One of the ships lolled our way, making my skin tighten.
The ships moved with the water. What if Vale was under one?
“Are you injured?” I asked, trying to push aside my deluge of fears. If anyone was going to be able to swim and find Vale, it was the lord in the water.
“No.” A wave bobbed him closer to me. “But Vale—”
“I saw what he did,” I cut him off. Time was of the essence. “I’m so sorry, Vidar, but Rhistel is a whisperer and he’s controlling Vale.”
Judging by the look of shock on Vidar’s face, I’d been right to assume that the news had not reached them out here.
“And Vale was tossed into the water right after you dove. Did you see him in the water?” Can you get him? My unspoken question hovered in the air. Vale had tried to kill Vidar, and I couldn’t make myself say the words, but Vidar heard my unspoken plea, and he didn’t falter.
“Bleeding skies.” Vidar’s attention snapped to the dark water. “Do you have your faelights on you? If so, give me one.”
From the pocket of my leather pants, I fished out one of the faelights I carried and tossed it to him. Vidar caught it one handed, and without saying another word, he dove.
Caelo jumped into the sea after his friend. The rest of us continued to search from above, but it was too difficult to see far. The darkness was too all-encompassing, and the surface of the water was too littered with items and bodies.
My shadow magic bubbled within, promising aid. Sense told me not to, but sense had no place here. Nothing was more important than saving my mate.
I steeled myself to call that dark power just as Vidar’s head popped above the surface. Caelo followed in quick order and Vidar helped him drag something up from the depths. Not something. Someone. My mate.
“He’s not breathing. Get him on a ship!” Vidar shouted against the vicious wind and waves as Vale’s head lolled to the side, his mouth open and eyes closed. “Someone take him!”
Qildor maneuvered his gryphon at their side, and the knight pulled Vale up and laid him across his lap. Once he was situated, the other two used their wings and rose out of the water.
“That’s one of our ships.” Vidar pointed to a vessel not too far away, but not so close enough that it was perfectly visible thanks to the rain and smoke dominating the air. “Take him there.”
We flew to the ship, me in the lead, prepared to defend.
Two smaller attacks came at us from a ship we soared over.
I formed a wall of ice, stopping the attack, and creating a spray of shards when a mage struck it.
One chunk of ice landed on an enemy’s head, but the offending mage ran off to avoid injury, leaving our way clear.
From what I could tell, the larger assaults were still focusing on the aerial force, not the incoming fleet, which would be here in minutes.
The plan had worked, though I felt no joy from that fact.
Wouldn’t feel anything but fear until Vale awoke.
Arava landed on the deck of a Virtoris ship, and I jumped off her back. The scent of spilled blood and emptied bowels, less noticeable over the open water, hung heavy here. Sailors bearing the crest of the sea serpent on their breasts approached, fear on their faces, and not a drop of recognition.
“That’s Princess Isolde.” A flash of lightning illuminated Saga, her pink hair half burnt off as she ran up to me.
I half wondered where her flying partner, Lord Riis, was, but when Sayyida appeared behind her, I understood.
Saga had likely leapt from her gryphon to be with Sayyida. “Don’t touch her!”
The sailors lowered their weapons, their faces relaxing further when the gryphon bearing Caelo, Halladora, and Vidar landed. They didn’t recognize me, but Vidar was their lord and the next leader of the house they’d sworn allegiance to. They knew him well and on sight.
The others, with Vidar in the lead, rushed a limp-bodied Vale into an interior room, and shut the door behind them.
“Was that Vale?” Saga asked, her voice high. Terrified.
“Yes, he was drowning,” I replied, fighting the urge to follow and just not answer. Saga deserved to know. “We’re trying to save him.”
“We’ll stand watch at the door.” The protectiveness in Sayyida’s voice hinted that she hadn’t seen Vale kill her mother. My throat tightened at all he’d done, and knowing I’d have to tell my friend that news. Later.
“Someone watch and protect Arava. The gryphons too.” I rushed into the cabin.
Vale laid on a bed in a captain’s room judging by the nice furnishings and full bar on the far wall. Some of the liquor bottles had toppled and broken during the battle, and the smell of spirits filled the air, a shock to my nose after so much seawater and blood.
Qildor, Caelo, and Vidar were on one side of the bed, while Sigri and Halladora loomed on the other. Halladora was administering chest compressions, and I arrived just in time to see what looked like an entire ocean full of water spew from Vale’s lips. He coughed violently.
“Thank the stars.” I rushed to be near him. “Vale! I’m right here. Just breathe!”
As I reached the end of the bed, his eyes snapped open and locked in on Sigri, who stood closest to him. In an instant, the confusion lining his face hardened, and his hands, those large hands that had held me, caressed me, protected me and countless others shot up and wrapped around Sigri’s neck.
“Stop!” But my voice was swallowed up by a snap. Sigri’s body went limp, and before he’d released her, Vale’s stare shifted to me.
His eyes weren’t right. Not warm and deep and loving, but hard and soulless.
Vale pushed to get up. “You’ve seen your last day, Falk spawn. You—”
Caelo struck my mate on the side of the head with a pommel. Vale collapsed back onto the bed with a groan. I pressed my palms into the soft feather mattress, desperate for any kind of support.
“Sigri, she’s . . .” I couldn’t get another word out. Couldn’t breathe.
“Dead,” Halladora croaked in confirmation. She’d knelt to the level of her fallen sister in arms and held the dwarf’s body to her own.
The truth pounded through me. The near-death experience hadn’t brought my mate back to himself. Vale was not safe. Not to me. Not to anyone.
Originally part of the rebellion, Sigri been one of the first fae to swear to my sister and me, and even if her allegiance began with Thyra, I still valued her as a fae. I’d hoped that maybe one day, a friend too. That would no longer happen, and her death came at Vale’s hands.
“He wanted to do the same to me and to you, Isolde,” Vidar whispered, horror dripping in his tone.
My father had been called the Cruel King for the many atrocities he’d committed during the end of his reign. He had acted much like Vale was now. I allowed my gaze to drift over my husband, searching for the male I loved. When I got to his hand, I gasped.
One of his fingers was gone. The one bearing our soulmate mark. I gripped my left hand with my right. The removal of Vale’s finger had to have been the pain I felt that day.
Pain crashed through me at all that he’d endured in just a few days’ time.
How would we reverse Rhistel’s hold on my mate’s mind? And when we did, how would Vale cope both with what had been done to him and what he’d done? He was a warrior, but he longed for peace. To be only a shield and not a sword.
An earth-shattering sound came from outside. Fae on our ship screamed and shouted, and wood cracked and snapped.
“What was that?” I asked, though I was afraid to know the answer. Afraid of so much.
Qildor crossed to the window, pulled back the curtain. His mouth fell open. “You’re going to want to see this.”