Chapter 17 – Neve
NEVE
Afire crackled and sage and rosemary drifted by my nostrils as my eyelids fluttered open. Above me hung bushels of dried herbs and flowers and twigs. One bushel of dried cranberries, the skin wrinkled and slightly brown, stood out the most. I lay upon a thin mattress.
The last thing I remembered was the orc fight in the woods and the shadow being that had helped.
My heart raced as another question presented itself. Did the shadow bring me here?
My head spun as I shot into a sitting position.
“Neve! Stay still!” Vale’s voice grounded me. At least he was here. We were together.
A moment later, he stood at my side, the scent of him reassuring, as his protective hand splayed across my back. “Breathe, love. You’ve been passed out for two days.”
Days?!
I glanced up at my husband, only to recoil. Stars, he looked bad. A black eye and claw marks, both on the right side of his face besides the injuries I’d seen him sustain to his chest and arm. My gaze dropped.
“I’m fine,” he assured me and waved a hand to his face. “These are superficial, and my other injuries have been tended to and bound. They hurt but were nowhere near as bad as yours. Or Caelo’s.”
“What happened to him?” I’d lost track of the knight in the fight. “Where’s Anna?”
“She and Caelo are both sleeping deeply.” Vale stepped aside so I could view the pair. Caelo laid in a real bed, while Anna sat upright in a chair, a thick, red blanket pulled over her. “Caelo lost a lot of blood from a side wound—a serious one. Anna didn’t sustain a single injury.”
“Where are we?” I asked, quieter now that I know we were all alive and two of my friends were sleeping. “You said I was passed out for days?”
Vale cleared his throat. “The fight ended, and you went unconscious. Caelo too. With Anna’s help, I got him on his horse and tied him down. You rode across my lap.”
Now that he mentioned it, my middle ached. It had to have been awkward riding that way, I was sure I’d have bruises.
“We’re in Vitvik. Anna and I found a healer on the outskirts of the city.”
I looked around again. This place looked like a cottage. The front had been converted for work, so perhaps the back was a living space? “Is the healer here?”
“She is. Now that you’re awake, I need to alert her.” My chest tightened. I wanted to ask a hundred more questions, but Vale kissed the top of my head and went to get the healer.
When they emerged from the back, I studied the red-haired female, head tilting to the side. Now that I’d been in Winter’s Realm for two moons, I’d seen many more types of fae, but she was unusual.
“How’s your leg?” the healer asked when she got closer.
“Fine.”
“Let’s see it then.” She pulled back the blanket, allowing me my first good glimpse of where I lay.
The table had a small feather mat atop, probably a place where she made concoctions and potions, as this didn’t seem to be a healing outfit large enough for multiple people to stay in long term.
Someone changed me out of my pants and into a flowing nightgown.
“I’m Rynni Vamyre.” She did not dally in lifting my gown up to expose my wound. “You came in with a deep gash. I disinfected the site, sewed you up, and bandaged it. I’m going to undo the bandage now to check on it.” Really, she was already doing so. “My main concern is infection.”
“Of course.”
As she worked, I studied the healer. Rynni had black scales on the sides of her face. Not the whole side, just behind her ears. If she wore her hair down, no one would see them, but today her long red hair was tied back.
What sort of terrestrial fae looked like that? Some water fae had scales, but aside from the n?kken, I’d not seen any water fae. I shot a glance at Vale, who shook his head. Clearly, he’d noticed the scales too, and did not think it appropriate to talk about.
“Everything looks like it’s on the mend,” Rynni said, confidence in her large, dark brown eyes. “I’d like you to take two more blood regeneration potions, though.”
“More? How many have I had already?”
“You had three upon arrival. You lost a lot of blood.”
Not lost. I’d given it away. Though I did not understand how or why that shadow appeared from my sword, that much was true. Had others seen it? Judging by Vale’s relieved expression, he was only thinking of me, not some frightening shadow that killed the orcs.
Rynni went to a side table, opened a drawer beneath and sighed.
“I only have one potion left, and the knight will need more soon too. I’ll have to ask another healer if she has some on hand.
” She pulled the vial from the drawer. “Take this. I have to go before she retires for the evening. It’s already so late, and we’re not on the best of terms, but she owes me a favor. ”
The healer passed the vials over, and I noticed her hands, while normal with five fingers and all, ended in short claws. Not nails. I sucked in a breath, which made her blow one out in exasperation.
“Since you all seem too polite to ask, I’m half dragon. Do you doubt my abilities knowing that? Wish to see another healer instead?” Her chin lifted in defiance, as though someone had often told her otherwise.
“You’ve already helped us,” Vale said. “None of us would speak poorly of your skill. My wife has just never seen someone like you.”
Had he? Dragons generally stayed in their kingdom, or so I’d been told. But then, Rynni said she was a half dragon. So did that mean one of her parents was fae, and this was where she settled?
“Good.” She shoved the vials at me again. This time I took them. “I’ll be back.”
She left the cottage in a huff.
I turned to Vale. “Is that common? To have dragons live here?”
“Not at all, but she was the first healer I found, and I didn’t care about her heritage.”
“Me either. I was just curious.”
He reached into his pocket. “There’s something I should tell you before she comes back.”
A piece of parchment appeared. He unfolded the page, and I snatched it from his hands, my heart thudding in my throat.
“That’s a drawing of me!”
“This was on the way into the village. I expect there will be more posters the deeper we go into Vitvik.”
My mouth fell open. “Vale, this poster says I’m Isolde Falk.” And an enemy to the Crown. Apparently, the king will give a hefty reward to someone turning me in. “How did he find out? Lord Riis? Or one of his sons?”
Even as I asked, it felt wrong. Luccan, Arie, and Thantrel were friends. And because Lord Riis was Vale’s father and Vale loved me, I did not think the Lord of Tongues would have told the king about me, either.
Vale shook his head. “They’re as loyal of friends as I’ve ever had. The Riis brothers would not betray us.”
Emilia? No, the human slave I’d happened upon in the hidden part of Frostveil had loved my mother. Had been her best friend. Emilia wouldn’t give me up. And the Riis family swore their servants were loyal. The only other person who knew was Clemencia. I refused to believe she’d put me in danger.
My back stiffened. But no, Clemencia hadn’t been the only other person.
Cunning green eyes and a serpentine smile filled my mind at the memory of Roar admitting he’d known, or at least seriously suspected, I was a Falk. But he was dead.
Right?
“Roar,” I whispered, as a kernel of doubt bloomed inside me with the memory of that day in Gersemi Mine. “Vale, you didn’t see his body.”
Vale snorted. “That shaft was very deep. There’s no way he could have survived.”
“There might be.”
Roar was a shifter. What if he’d shifted into some sort of animal that could have broken his fall?
Not his normal snow leopard form, but something smaller, with wings.
It would not surprise me in the slightest if Roar, master of secrets and twisted truths, had shifter forms no one knew about.
I said as much to Vale, and his face paled.
“It’s far more likely than our friends betraying us,” I added.
“Neve. I really don’t think so. I—”
The door to the cottage flew open and a sharp wind gusted inside, and snowflakes dusted the stone ground. Rynni did not come in, though. Rather, she stood at the threshold, three vials of potion in one hand, a poster in the other.
“Care to explain why a wanted royal is in my cottage?”
Vale grabbed Skelda from a table she’d been resting upon, ready to cut the healer down if need be.
Rynni shut the door behind her. “Don’t bother. I’m not going to hurt her. She’s a patient, and my oath to Eirial forbids that I harm a patient.” She dragged three fingers down her breastbone in a gesture common among the faithful and nodded at something behind me.
I twisted to find an eight-spoked wheel, the healer’s wheel.
I’d seen the same symbol on necklaces that the healers wore in the royal infirmary.
The wheel was the very symbol of the Goddess of Healing and Gentle Deaths.
Woven through the spokes of the wheel were dried vines and flowers. An offering.
“I can’t harm anyone who isn’t harming me,” Rynni added. “However, I do require answers.”
Vale kept his sword in hand but allowed Rynni to come closer and pass me a vial. The contents looked identical to the other vials and tasted the same as I drank the potion.
“Now, tell me why a Falk princess is in my cottage. One who should be dead?”
“I—I’m not—” My words faltered; the lie unable to escape my lips.
“You can’t deny it,” Rynni snorted. “Even if you could, I would not believe you. This looks like you, and there’s a written description. Down to that scar on your temple. Seeing as I’ve seen a lot of your skin, I can say with surety, this is you.”
Silence rang through the room, punctuated only by Caelo’s occasional snores and Anna’s shifting. How in the world were they still sleeping?
“I gave them a draft for peaceful sleep. They won’t wake. Now, answer me.” The dragon healer’s eyes narrowed. They were slitted, reptilian.
“You’re right. That is me,” I said. “Though my past was a mystery to me for a long time. I used to be a blood slave.”
Her eyes widened. “Well, that sounds like a story. Tell it.”
Unless Vale wanted to kill this healer, which seemed in very poor form, seeing as she’d saved me and Caelo and healed Vale, I had no choice. So I swallowed and began my tale.
Once done, I took a breath. I wasn’t the only one who looked like they needed one. The healer was gaping and shaking her head at what I’d told her.
“So,” I began again. “Will you turn me in?”
She did not answer me but looked at my mate before meeting my eyes again.
“The king would imprison his own son’s mate?”
Though I’d told her about myself, I’d neglected to mention anything about Vale’s blood connection to Lord Riis. That was his tale to tell when he saw fit.
“The king has a deep hatred for my family,” I replied. “Although he has no clue that Vale and I are mates yet. Even if he did, I believe that yes, he’d imprison me. Or kill me.”
“That’s atrocious.”
“King Magnus is not known for being lenient.”
“That’s not the only thing he’s not known for,” she muttered and, after realizing what she said, her hands flew to her mouth. “No offense, Prince Vale.”
My mate’s lips twitched. He was holding back a laugh. “None taken.”
“Many in Vitvik think your father should do more for Winter’s Realm,” Rynni said, emboldened by Vale’s reaction. “Now that I think about it, if your mate is Isolde Falk, who do you plan to side with should things go sour?”
They were already going sour, I wanted to say, but Vale clasped a hand on my shoulder.
“My mate. She’s my everything.”
Rynni leaned back in her chair, considering what to do.
“We can offer you gold for your silence,” Vale said. “I have some now, but I can get more. And we’ll glamour Neve before we leave here so that no one will connect her to you.”
“Gold is always needed,” Rynni said. “But I want something more valuable than gold bears lining my pockets.”
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“You must have connections with the House of Wisdom in Avaldenn, Prince Vale?”
“I do.”
“I want a spot there. To train in the White Tower. For that, I will be silent—more so, I will join you on your journey.” The healer’s gaze landed on me. “I have no personal relationship with the king, but I believe things could be better. Perhaps you, Isolde, might bring about that change?”
It was bold, what she said. Treasonous. But Rynni did not appear afraid. Maybe she could read me well enough to guess what I intended to do—and she wanted to be on my side.
“I can make that happen,” Vale said. “Though not right away. My wife and I still are not sure when we’ll return to Avaldenn.”
Rynni held up the poster. “Of course, you can’t traipse into the capital! Until then, it would be good to have a healer with you, no? As far as I can tell, I’ve already proven my worth.”
“Why do you want to attend lessons in the White Tower?” I asked. “You seem to own a nice business.”
Small, but it was clean and comfortable in the cottage. Many would have been content here. I would have.
Rynni snorted. “You’re the first person to walk through my door in three weeks.
I’m the second-rate healer in the city, but only because of my father’s blood.
Fae come to me when they have ailments they want to be sure no one would ever learn about.
I have no friends here either. Never have, although I grew up in Vitvik. ”
My heart clenched. She hid her isolation well, but as she spoke, pain filled her eyes.
“An education from the White Tower, though, no one could call me second-rate with that. And who knows? I might stay in Avaldenn where it’s more diverse.”
“There are no half dragons there,” Vale said. “But we are more welcoming in the capital.”
She sighed and waved a hand in the air. “My mother is dead, my father . . . Well, he’s likely still in the Court of Fire, where I would fit in worse than I do here. I have nothing here and want to train with the best. That’s why I wish to go, and I’ll take a chance on you to do so.”
“You shall join us then,” I said, understanding wanting a better life, and seizing it when that possibility came.
For the first time, Rynni smiled, and a new, softer faced person appeared. “We can leave tomorrow night, under the cover of darkness. That will give you plenty of time to rest.”
“Excellent idea.” Vale held up a finger. “And actually, I’ve been wondering if Lord Riis owns an establishment in this village?”
“He does. A brothel,” Rynni looked at me as she answered, obviously wondering why my mate would be asking for such a thing, and right in front of me too. Offense was not on my mind in the slightest. Lord Riis owned many brothels and taverns. Those, as much as being a lord, were his coin makers.
“I need to get a message to him,” Vale said, “and I know Lord Riis’s ravens are trained to go between his establishments. Could you, once I write a note, send it from the brothel tonight?”
Rynni laughed dryly. “I’ll go, but I’m adding this errand to your tab, Prince Vale.”