Chapter 20
Revna
When I stepped through the castle doors, the only thought on my mind was how quickly I could fill the bathtub with hot water—that, and S?ren’s dream. Thoughts of what he’d seen had eaten away at me all day while we rode, discussing the possibilities.
There was something about the red-haired woman he described, the one who had saved him and Sonja when they were children, that felt familiar. When I asked him to describe her appearance, there was a detail that sent chills down my spine.
The woman had a scar through her right eyebrow that descended down over her cheek. I thought back to the memories the Tapestry had shown me—blood running down Aloisa’s face from some kind of impact when she returned to the surface and pulled Callum back from death.
“Do you think,” I had ventured, “there’s any way you may have met Aloisa? The same Aloisa I’ve seen visions of?”
I’d waited for his laugh, his blatant refusal to accept the impossible. It was what I wanted to do, after all. So when he’d tensed behind me, I expected I knew the answer.
I hadn’t thought he would say yes.
“Strange things seem to be following us,” he’d sighed. “We’re the subjects of Tam’s prophecy; you met a mystical, divine being at the bottom of a frozen lake; the spirits of the dead can’t pass on. What’s one more to add to our list?”
There was no time to dwell on his words now, though. Including the news that the dead were trapped in our world. S?ren had promised we would discuss it in more detail later, then gone to change clothes before heading into the city. “Mira is likely waiting for me to give a report,” he’d explained.
Honestly, I was glad to keep busy and distracted from everything that had happened in the wastes.
The news that S?ren could see Frode weighed on me, and I wasn’t sure what to make of it or whether to trust that he was telling the truth about what my brother’s spirit had conveyed.
Frode had never been an angry person, but part of me still expected him to hold a grudge for my part in his death.
I couldn’t brush it away. The thought looped endlessly, forcing me to confront it again and again with no relief, until something bigger arrived to take its place in my mind.
Thankfully, at home, an ambush was waiting for me.
Freja and Volkan moved to walk in step with me before the doors even closed, one of them on each side of me. I blinked, surprised. “Freja. Volkan. How are you?”
The set of Freja’s furrowed brow worried me. “Not well. The Nilurae are growing restless. People are not pleased with the small amounts of rations they’re receiving.”
Was I supposed to be filled with dread the moment I returned to my day-to-day life? Not for the first time, I wished fervently that being queen involved more swordplay and less…politics.
“With the army home now, we can increase daily rations a bit,” I answered, slowing my pace.
The bath I’d been daydreaming of wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, and I swallowed my disappointment.
“And maybe we can send a few hunting parties into the hills, see what game they can bring back. Do we have enough rations for that?”
“I think so, but I’ll need to double-check. That isn’t all, though.”
“What else, then?”
She sighed. Volkan picked up where she left off.
“There have been some…incidents since you left. Our competition between the soldiers kept most occupied while you were gone, but not all. Some of the Nilurae shopkeepers are now refusing to serve Lurae—which is their right, but the Lurae have been lashing back as a result. One shop was burned down by an angry fire wielder.”
I inhaled sharply. “Was anyone hurt?”
“No,” Freja said, “but only due to pure luck. The man responsible was arrested and put in prison.”
I pressed the heel of my palm into my temple as Volkan continued. “Many of the Nilurae were still tentatively on your side, despite your Lurae manifesting, but with the powerless now so outnumbered in the city…”
“They worry they will be overpowered,” I finished. “Their voices too, not just in a physical sense.”
The prince nodded. His hands clasped behind his back. I found myself wondering what he’d said when S?ren told him the truth about accidentally killing his own parents. Volkan had known S?ren only after the fact—not like when the prince found me, immediately after killing Halvar.
I thought of S?ren’s insistence that the priests were hiding in plain sight, waiting to launch their own coup. Was the burning house a move by them? The assassin who’d come after me probably was.
Unless the man responsible confessed, there was no way to know. For a moment, I considered telling Freja and Volkan about the potential of the priests’ return.
But I held back my words. I didn’t want to cause more panic, more problems, right now. Astrid had proven herself trustworthy, though. Maybe she could look into it quietly.
“So?” Freja’s impatient voice pulled me from my thoughts.
A huff of irritation left me. “I pulled the army home because it would give the Nilurae more food. And now they’re complaining about it. I understand their frustration, but it’s not like I can send the army back out to war.”
Freja glared. “Well you can at least do something. Ever since you were crowned, they’ve been waiting for you to make a move guaranteeing their freedom. And instead, you’re—”
I stepped forward, toe-to-toe with her. Anger smoldered like hot coals. “I’m what? Thinking critically about the situation from every angle? Refusing to act rashly and make a move that condemns us all?”
She scoffed. “No. You’re sitting on your ass, letting your magic take the blame for your inaction and pretending it’s enough.”
“Stop it.” Volkan grabbed my shoulder with one hand, Freja’s with the other, and pulled us apart.
But it wasn’t enough to stop the lullaby from beginning its sickening melody in my head.
Or to stop the hurt from spreading through me, radiating from my chest like I’d been stabbed.
“Now is not the time for petty arguments.”
He turned to Freja. “Revna is doing everything she can. Just because it doesn’t look the way you want it to doesn’t detract from her progress mending the rift between your people.”
Before I could settle from anger into surprise, he faced me.
“Freja is upset because these people are her life. It’s something you can only partially understand, no matter how much you want to.
Your life in this castle robbed you of it.
She is passionate and she pushes for you to do more because she loves them.
And because she loves you and sees what incredible things you’ve accomplished in the past.
“Now.” He took a step back, both of us staring at him, wide-eyed. “I have an idea. Care to hear it?”