Chapter Fifty
After our farewells with Truman and his crew – a final strange look from the captain shot my way as I entered the carriage, we set off for Daegon Manor, this time split by kingdom. Perhaps the last time we will be separated by half of the Isle.
I cannot shake myself of that niggling thought, of what my mother might do to retaliate should we successfully destroy the Relic and tear down the Divide. Even with the absence of the Relic’s power, I fear her wrath, as any daughter fears her mother’s reprimand – with the utmost exasperation.
We reach Daegon Manor by nightfall, the horses pulling the carriages to a rough halt just before the twisting iron gates.
Diarmid exits our carriage first, offering Lillienne a hand to steady her as she prepares to step down, earning him a slap on the wrist and a telling off for assuming she needs the help of a man, no matter how chivalric he may be.
Eliaz is standing where Diarmid was as soon as I make for my exit, hand extended with an upturned palm, a soft smile there on his plump lips.
‘A great change awaits us, Princess. Are you prepared for us to take the first step towards resolution?’
My chest tightens as I think of what might be, that he is being much too hopeful to think that we will endure this great change together. Not when I know what he is prepared to do in order for it to happen.
‘I should only wish for the change if it is endured and enjoyed by both of us respectfully.’ I accept his hand, giving it a tight squeeze as my feet hit the dirt.
‘We have decided to venture for the dagger tonight,’ Eliaz announces to the group.
‘We?’ I question him, having been under the impression up until this point that he and I would venture into Reyhen for it alone, unaccompanied.
‘Cole would like to join us in our efforts. Three royals working towards the change in Valtayre, plus another set of eyes in our search for our salvation.’
‘Technically, Cole is nothing more than a royal bastard,’ Lillienne interrupts. ‘In every sense of the word.’
I expect a snarky quip from Cole in hearing this, but he leans on the other carriage, engaged in a hushed argument with Calli, who has turned a violent shade of red. Whatever he has just told her, it seems to have angered her greatly.
I turn my attention back to Eliaz. ‘Does he really have to come? He’s not exactly my first choice as an accomplice to theft.’
He brings his hand up to my arm. ‘Trust me. We need all the help we can get, and he’s the only one able to cross the Divide.’
I almost ask what stops Calli from venturing into Reyhen, but he has made very clear before now what the answer to that question is. He does not wish to put her at risk, and as she is his only living family, I cannot blame him.
‘Fine. But I will not be held responsible for my actions should he even begin to get on my nerves.’
Eliaz lets loose a breathy laugh. ‘I don’t doubt that one bit. It took my face much longer than usual to heal after you punched me.’
‘It was your fault for sneaking up on me.’ I give him a gentle shove.
‘Right.’ Cole rubs his hands together. ‘Let’s get this show on the road. I’m looking forward to venturing into enemy territory for some light plundering tonight.’
I roll my eyes away from him, my attention landing on Lillienne, who stands tickling the chin of one of the horses, Diarmid likely talking her ear off about the creatures and their favourite foods. She must feel me watching her, as her eyes find mine.
‘Is this you off already then?’ she asks, giving the horse one last scratch before making her way over to me.
‘It would seem that way, yes. Off on a wonderful adventure to my home kingdom, with the enemy king and the emperor's bastard son. What a beautiful concept.’
She laughs and wraps her arms around me. ‘Promise me you will come back to me in one piece? I don’t trust these men to take care of you, not like I can.’
‘I can set anyone who dares cross me ablaze in a millisecond. Cole included,’ I whisper into her ear before we part again. ‘And keep an eye on Calli, okay? I think she’s a little put out because she’s not coming with us.’
‘I will treat her as I would treat you.’ She squeezes my hand with a smile.
I peer over her shoulder to Diarmid, who remains fussing over the horses. ‘And you’ll keep this one out of trouble for me, Mr Erskine?’
‘I will try my best, your gracefulness.’ His lips quirk. ‘But she is quite the handful.’
I take this as an opportunity to tease my best friend. ‘Oh, is that so…’
‘Oh, away with you.’ Lillienne shoves me away, laughing. ‘And I expect a swift return with a dagger in your hands.’
‘I expect we will, if my mother does not intervene.’
Lillienne screws up her face, most likely preparing to spit out a comedic remark about my mother’s inability to keep out of things, when Eliaz places a hand on my shoulder.
‘It’s time, let's get this over with.’
I place my hand on his, turning to meet his eyes, but for some reason my gaze lands on the empty air behind him.
‘Calli didn’t feel up to seeing us off?’
Eliaz sighs. ‘She’ll be over it by the time we return. I’ve put her in charge of ordering the guards around to begin preparations, so she can feel useful.’
And so, we venture on.
We cross the Divide with little trouble, only this time, the return of my power is like a gentle flowing of water over me instead of the flickering to life from my last return to Reyhen.
It’s almost like the power did not turn off after my last exit, only it became but a trickle through my veins.
There, but not evidently so. It just didn’t surface until we reached Attanae.
‘Why do you keep tugging at your coat like that?’ Eliaz questions Cole, who walks ahead of us with heavy steps. ‘If I had to guess, I’d say you were smuggling something.’
Cole keeps walking, side-eyeing his friend with a stiff brow. ‘It’s nothing.’
I scoff at his audacity to lie. ‘If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be acting so strange about it.’
Cole grunts, turning to look ahead of us once again. ‘I didn’t get a chance to put it up to my room before we left. Don’t concern yourself with it.’
Oh, I will most certainly concern myself with it. In fact, that is my greatest skill – concerning myself with things that most likely have nothing to do with me.
I stop dead in my tracks, crossing my arms. Eliaz does so too, one brow raised at me with the corresponding corner of his lip upwards too, intrigued at what I might be about to do next.
Cole has not noticed we are no longer trailing him, and a smile finds its way to my lips as I narrow my eyes on my unsuspecting prey.
I dig inwards and pull up as much of my power as I can muster and send it hurtling from my hands, just high enough for it to barely miss his dark hair by inches.
Cole almost falls to the ground with the shock of it, neck snapping my way, eyes shooting daggers at me.
‘What the hell are you playing at, Eira? You could have set me alight.’
‘And wouldn’t I have enjoyed the show,’ I laugh.
Cole’s eyes dart from me to Eliaz, mouth slackened and eyebrows raised so high they’re nearly lost in his hairline. ‘You allow this?’
Eliaz chuckles, a glint of pride in his eyes as he steals a glance at me, grinning. ‘I do not endeavour to assume that I have any real influence over what the princess does with her power. She is much too stubborn and strong-minded to pay me any heed should I do so anyway.’
I fight the urge to stick my tongue out at Cole in a childish way of saying ‘Ha ha, I win.’
Instead, I nod at his coat, referring to the thing he keeps tucked within it.
‘You think I’d just let you enter the castle, when you could have any sort of weapon hidden in there to unleash the gods know what on the people there.
I let you come with us, don’t insult me by tugging at whatever frayed thread of trust I have in you. ’
‘You don’t want to know what she’d do to you should that thread snap, Cole. Trust me,’ Eliaz taunts. ‘If I didn’t heal so fast, I’d be covered in the permanent consequences of my actions towards her.’
I won’t pretend that doesn’t make me weak in the knees, his outward admiration towards me, even the darkest parts of myself he does not shy from.
I turn my attention back to Cole, who now wraps his arms tighter around his body, pulling his coat taut – his chest bulky with whatever hides beneath.
‘We are not going anywhere until you show us what exactly has you so secretive with us.’
‘She’s right,’ Eliaz agrees. ‘You’ve been acting like a jittering fool since we left the mainland. I have to know if you’re planning some sort of revolt against us.’
Cole’s lips tighten, and he lets a long shaking exhale out from his nose, eyes searching for way out in the air around him. When nothing seems to come to him, his arms loosen from his body and he tucks a hand into his coat and pulls out the last thing I would’ve expected.
There, in Cole’s clutches, is the red book. The one the emperor gave me in Attanae.
Eliaz takes a step back, eyes wide and mouth agape, and before I can vocalise my confusion, he questions his friend through gritted teeth. ‘Where, on earth, did you find that?’ His voice is controlled, but his tone is urgent and insisting.
Cole turns it over in his hand, running a finger down its spine contemplatively. ‘I came across it in Attanae.’
I scoff. ‘You stole it, more like. Emperor Raffan gave it to me when I spoke to him, I thought I’d left it behind.’
Eliaz’s head snaps to me, eyes lit with desperation. ‘Did you read it?’
I furrow my brows. ‘I didn’t exactly get the chance for that, I went straight from the emperor to the ball to look for you, and you know how that ended.’
Eliaz’s expression melts from concern to quiet understanding, his chest deflating with a slow exhaled breath. ‘Hand it over,’ he says to Cole, hand outstretched with the command. ‘It belonged to my parents after all.’
Cole’s eyes darken. ‘I can keep it safe until we return to Umbra. You don’t believe I am capable of that?’
‘I don’t believe I can trust you with it after how you’ve been acting since you had it on your person.’
For some reason that I cannot quite explain, Cole’s eyes briefly flit to me, a sign a thought of me has entered his mind.
‘It was my father’s when I took it,’ he grunts, and tosses the book to Eliaz, and for half a second, I contemplate using the magic of the Relic to pull it from the air before it reaches his hands.
I have to know what is in that book, especially after how shocked Emperor Raffan had been when he realised I had never read it.
But, to do that would potentially create a crack in the trust between Eliaz and I, and I place a greater value on that than anything that book could provide. Eliaz carefully catches the red book and within seconds, it vanishes from sight, its existence shielded from us by Neyktar.
Whatever the contents of that book, it has Eliaz worried. And that makes me consider whether or not he places the same value on the trust we have built between us, because he seems to know something that I do not.
The rest of our walk to the castle is in silence, Cole a good twenty paces ahead of Eliaz and I, who walk side by side.
I do not look at him, the look on his face when he asked if I read the book still burned into my eyes, unsettling something in my gut.
I had thought we were finally being honest with each other, that we had finally gotten past the point where we felt there were some things we could not share.
I thought we understood each other. I guess I was mistaken.
Please, let me be overthinking this.
When we reach the castle gates, Eliaz’s voice floods my mind, smooth and soft, like a flowing river of honey into my senses. ‘I have taken the precautions to shield us from the guards, but we must still be wary.’
I finally look his way, the lanternlight dancing in his eyes. Creases line the space between his brows. His lips taut but quivering ever-so-slightly.
I give him a faint smile, nodding to let him know I understand. Cole taps his foot impatiently.
‘We will make this quick, I promise. And then we can talk, I see it in your eyes that something is bothering you.’
I give him another nod, unable to offer anything more.
And so, we venture past the gates and begin our search for the dagger.
I don’t pray to the gods for all to go as planned.
I doubt they give a shit either way.