Chapter 39 #2
“I understand,” I said. “Please, I’m listening.”
He nodded and continued. “It seemed only one person had much of a problem with how things were in Icehold under DuVarick, and that was his uncle. Power can be a difficult thing to give up, Wren, and his uncle took it hard. Omber the Wise, he was called. He never liked me. From the beginning, he discouraged his nephew’s association with the son of a farmer, but DuVarick wouldn’t hear it.
We were triquetram, and his power was stronger with our bond. ”
“So Omber had gone from regent of all the Winter Lands to, what, DuVarick’s adviser?” I asked.
“Yes. DuVarick’s mother had died under circumstances that never felt quite right to me.
They said she died of an illness, but I never believed it.
DuVarick took it hard, and over time his resistance to Omber’s influence grew thin.
Since DuVarick’s rise to power, I had been given the chance to carve out the great entrance to the city.
My every ambition was coming true. I was making my art, and my skills grew exponentially.
I had a team of artists and builders at my disposal, and our sole job was to make Icehold as great as we could.
Build new homes for the fae coming to live here.
Display our skill and power with sculptures and murals wherever we could.
It was everything I could have asked for.
” He paused for a moment. “Tell me, does he still surround himself with those shadows?” Nassir asked.
“You could see them?” I asked.
He nodded. “So very many people around him whispered influence into his ear. Evil, desperate, greedy things. The Wyldes are a land of magic, young one. What you whisper hard enough, long enough, can find a footing in our world. Unseelie things, forming from hate or greed. And so they still haunt him, do they?”
Nassir sounded so deeply sad. He sat still a while, letting so much time pass I wondered if he should be left to his private moment of reflection.
This story had to be difficult to tell. He finally took a drink, then sighed and ran his fingers through his matted hair.
“Omber’s influence was strongest of all, and he eventually convinced DuVarick that I was a weakness.
I still don’t know how he did it. To convince someone that their triquetram would drag them down?
Ludicrous. But with the pressures of rulership and the loss of his mother, I suppose DuVarick would grasp at anything to secure his position. ”
“And he had you thrown in here? Just like that?” I asked sadly.
“No, not right away. I suppose I should have kept a better eye on how he was doing. It’s partly my fault that I didn’t see it coming.
We had both been kept so busy with our work that the time we spent together grew less and less.
It began with canceling outings we had planned.
Trips to view the far corners of the Winter Lands and secure the boundaries.
I would find out later that he’d gone without me, and we would fight about it.
Then it grew to state dinners. I was no longer at his side when emissaries from the other courts visited.
It was like he was ashamed of me. I heard the whispers in the streets.
It was odd that DuVarick would shun his only triquetram.
I must have done something wrong. It couldn’t have been DuVarick, everyone loved him. It must have been me.”
I reached out and squeezed Nassir’s hand. He gave me a smile and continued.
“Of course, it led to a fight. He accused me of being weak. He didn’t know how such a powerful fae could be paired with someone like me.
The Wyldes always put like fae together, not someone like him with someone like me.
I couldn’t take it. I left. I went back to the farm and spent some time with my father to cool off. ”
Nassir laughed, and it echoed around us.
“For once, we didn’t fight. Father just let me watch the stupid goats and said nothing of my years away in Icehold. Eventually, I cooled off, and I went back to make amends. I just couldn’t be apart from him any longer. My triquetram, a piece of my heart that lived and breathed outside of my body.”
“And that’s when it happened?” I asked.
“He could feel me coming, of course, and he had people waiting at the gate. At first, he would bring me out of here and talk with me on occasion. Let me see what was going on in Icehold without me. Then the visits became less and less frequent. Then there were none.”
“That must have been terribly lonely. I’m so sorry, Nassir.” I wiped my damp eyes and sniffed. “You think it was Omber?”
“Oh, I know it was Omber,” Nassir said. “But DuVarick was too sick and too deep in his poisonous words to notice. I couldn’t say anything to him, he wouldn’t listen.
In the end, he declared I was of better use to him nearby but out of sight.
He could still reap the benefits of my powers, and none would be able to use me against him.
So here I remained. Usually alone, occasionally with another prisoner, although I never bothered to speak with them since they came and went so quickly.
That is, until someone came along that interested me in another way altogether. ”
“Who was it?” I breathed, leaning forward.
“It was our third. My sweetest Lark. My triquetram.”
“Your triquetram is whole?” I asked, then an image of two hands on a marble throne crossed my mind. “The king wears two black rings.”
Nassir snorted. “Of course he renounces me. I suppose I’m as good as dead to him anyway.
But sadly, the other ring is true. I felt it, the day her light went out.
Sweet Lark. A purple star in my endless night.
I didn’t eat for days after that. DuVarick didn’t either, I suspect.
He even came down to this doorway himself twice after it happened, but he never did come in. ”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I can’t imagine how that must have been for you.”
Nassir sighed and reached out for one of my hands. I held his hand with my empty one. He clutched it tight and brought it to his lips in a kiss that brushed my knuckles.
“I’m sorry too, Wren. Because I think Lark was your mother.”