Chapter 7 Alar
ALAR
"In the quiet spaces between heartbeats, truth softly whispers."
—From 'Meditations on Intimacy'
By Scholar Lyann Westmore
Kailin's room was even smaller than our quarters at the Citadel, but every surface told a story. Sketches were tacked to the walls, and shelves were overflowing with books. In front of them were figurines that someone had lovingly carved from wood.
Her father, perhaps?
The quilt on her bed was hand-stitched, probably by her grandmother, and the wooden desk looked handmade, probably another of her father's creations. Everything was well-lived, inviting, and functional, but with attention to aesthetics, which was important to Kailin's artistic sensibilities.
This room had been a sanctuary for a sixteen-year-old girl who'd needed to heal from the trauma of the attack on her village, from having been forced to kill to defend her people.
After having been forged in steel and fire, this place had provided the safety Kailin had needed to become who she was today—a woman who bore the title of the Hero of Elucia but was too modest to believe she deserved it.
When the door opened, and she walked in, dressed in a set of pink pajamas that seemed too big on her slight frame, I forced a smile. The color suited her, making her look younger than her twenty-one years, but the dark circles under her eyes worried me.
I patted the spot on the bed beside me.
"I need to put these away first." She opened the wardrobe door and pulled out a hanger. "I bet your closet in the palace is bigger than my room."
There was a defensive undertone in her voice, and I wondered whether it had anything to do with the meager contents of her wardrobe.
"It is, and my bed is bigger and much more comfortable than yours, but I would still rather sleep here with you than alone in the palace, and not just because I get to hold you in my arms. I like your room much more than mine because it tells the story of your life. This is where you became who you are."
"In part." She closed the wardrobe doors and sat down on the bed next to me.
"When we first left the village and moved here, I hardly ever left this room.
" She pulled her knees to her chest. "I spent time at that window, sketching the mountains and trying not to think about anything.
" She leaned her head against my shoulder.
"The bed is going to be a tight fit for two people. "
That was Kailin's way of signaling that she was done talking about the past, and I was fine with that.
For now.
"We'll manage." I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I'll just hold you tight all night."
"That sounds perfect." She sighed. "With Commander Ravel's suspicions on top of the suicide bomber and the attack on Podana swirling in my head, I would probably have a hard time falling asleep otherwise.
" She fell silent for a moment. "I haven't shared with you what Saphir had told me during our meeting yet, which eclipses all of that. "
I shook my head. "Exploding assassins, dragons with their own agendas, and compromised riders who might be traitors are not easy to outdo."
"Perhaps." Kailin reached for my hand and clasped it.
"But I still think that what I'm about to tell you is more monumental in comparison.
" She took a deep breath. "I'm not sure that I'm allowed to tell you any of this, but I'm tired of all the secrets, and I almost died today without telling you. I don't want to wait any longer."
My gut twisted at her words. "Did you see how many men Ravel employed in your security detail?"
She nodded.
"Do you really think that anyone would have been able to get close enough to kill you?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "Sometimes things happen despite our best efforts to prevent them."
She was right, of course, but I had to say something to ease her mind. "Elu or fate or whatever providence that's shaping destinies hasn't bestowed all these gifts on you only to allow your life to end before you've had a chance to use them."
That got a small smile out of her. "You've kind of provided the perfect opening for my monumental revelation.
Saphir told me about a prophecy that was supposedly written by Elu himself and speaks of seven people with unique abilities who will save our world.
I'm supposed to be one of them, so perhaps you are right about someone above watching over me. "
I believed in prophecies as much as I believed in magic, meaning not at all, not unless proof smacked me over the head, but I was curious.
"I can't wait to hear it," I said. "Am I part of it?"
"You are." She squeezed my hand. "Each of the seven brings something unique to the group. One who tracks, one who connects, one who senses, one who detects, one with an impenetrable mind, one who moves faster than thought, and a mysterious seventh whose ability wasn't foretold."
That was so vague that I could pick seven people at random and assign them those roles. Well, perhaps not the one who moved faster than thought. That one was slightly less subjective, and I had a feeling I knew who he was.
"Saphir believes that our quintet represents five of the seven," Kailin said. "That we were brought together by fate, not chance. That's why we were all found gifted despite the impossible odds of that happening."
"Let me guess," I said. "Ravel is the sixth? Or is it your brother?"
"Saphir thinks it's Ravel. He's the one who tracks, although I haven't seen or heard anything about him being an exceptional tracker." She studied my face. "You look skeptical."
"I'm a rational guy, and I don't believe in prophecies, but I have to admit that there have been too many strange coincidences that are difficult to brush off, so I'm inclined to suspend disbelief.
" I'd said it to placate Kailin, but the more I thought of it, the more sense it made.
"I understand now why Saphir wasn't upset about my deception and allowed me to continue after realizing who I was.
If I'm meant to be one of these seven, then my being here serves a greater purpose than what I envisioned as my mission in service to Eluria.
Does the prophecy specify how we are supposed to save the world? "
She shook her head. "It probably has something to do with the portals."
"Portals? Like the divine portals in the Elucian Creation Myth?"
The story claimed that Aurorys had no human beings until the Two-Faced God Elu had opened a divine portal and called forth people from another world, giving a chosen group of them the ability to communicate with dragons.
Her eyes widened. "I didn't make the connection with that myth, but you are right.
According to Saphir, dragons knew how to open portals to other worlds, and they used them frequently to hunt.
They always came back to Aurorys, though, to mate and lay eggs.
This was their home world. During the Second Extinction war, when it seemed like everything was lost and the Sitorians won, the shamans fled through the portals, each with as many eggs as they could carry.
The dragons who stayed behind to fight closed the portals so the Sitorians couldn't follow the shamans and destroy the eggs, but when they were all killed, there was none left to reopen the portals.
Saphir was the only one whose portal remained open, but it was so well-hidden that the Shedun never found it.
When he felt it was safe to return, he brought back the eggs he had rescued.
The dragons who hatched from those eggs don't know how to open portals because there was no one left to teach them, so all the other shamans and the eggs they saved are still on those other worlds.
Saphir probably thinks that the prophesied seven will find a way to open the portals and track the shamans and eggs to bring them back home to Aurorys. "
So, that was what he'd meant when he'd told me that the eggs were hidden where no one could get to them. I'd thought the shamans had hidden them at the bottom of the ocean or in some other inaccessible location. My imagination wasn't wild enough to think of portals.
Kailin tilted her head. "You don't seem as shocked as I thought you would be."
I leaned in to kiss her temple. "Saphir implied that the eggs were hidden somewhere inaccessible to him. Now I understand what he meant."
Kailin reached behind us for one of the quilted pillows and brought it to her chest. "Just when I think I understand what's happening, another layer gets revealed.
Merging my consciousness with animals to produce prophetic dreams, talking mind-to-mind with dragons, cryptic prophecies, and portals to other worlds. What's next?"
"With you?" I chuckled. "Who knows? It all seems to be related to you somehow. I'm surprised that there was no specific prophecy about you."
"Maybe there was." She shrugged. "Perhaps Saphir hasn't found it yet. He told me that the temple ruins contain many secrets that he is eager to explore."
"I'm surprised that he told you so much in one go. Your prophetic dream must have convinced him that you were the herald of the seven." I slid my arms under her and lifted her into my lap. "Is there more?"
She hesitated but then nodded. "I have one more trick up my sleeve that Saphir doesn't know about. That's how I was able to tell you all of this even though he used compulsion to make me keep a lot of it a secret." She paused. "He used it on you as well, right?"
I nodded, which was the most I could do.
"I can break through it quite easily, probably because of my shamanic abilities. It affects me for a moment and then slides off like a net that can't find purchase." She bit her lip. "Is that dishonest? Letting him think he has power over me that he doesn't actually have?"
"It's strategic, an advantage that you should keep hidden as long as possible." I shook my head in wonder. "You are truly extraordinary in every imaginable way. How did I get so lucky?"
She lifted her hand to my cheek and cupped it. "I keep asking myself the same question. How did I get a prince to fall in love with me?"
"We are lucky." I took her hand and kissed her fingertip. "Is there anything more I should know?"
"Well, other than the fact that Elu wasn't a real deity? Not really."
I frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Saphir claims that Elu was immortal and powerful but not divine in any way. He was flesh and blood like you and me. It would seem that the word god is not a synonym for a divine entity."
I had always thought about our original Two-Faced God and his two halves that had later split as a construct of human imagination. To me, the creator of the universe was an abstract, a thought, a source of power, but never a person.
"Where did Elu come from?" I asked. "If he's not divine, he has to have a mother and a father and a place of origin."
"Saphir didn't say." She sighed. "How am I supposed to one day become a spiritual leader for our people when I don't even have the benefit of believing in our god? I'm not the kind of person people follow, but if I believed, maybe I could have whipped myself into a religious frenzy."
"You are the Hero of Elucia, and people have actual proof of your Shamanic powers. You don't need to rely on showmanship to lead because you are the real deal, and they know it."
She tilted her head up and kissed me, soft and sweet. "I love you," she whispered. "You are my rock."
"I love you too, and this is the best compliment that you could have given me."
"What? That you are my rock or that I love you?"
"Both." I pulled back the quilt and got us under it. "Being your rock is my job, and you just said that I was good at it." I tightened my arms around her. "I'm also good at several other manly jobs." I slid my hand down to cup her bottom. "Do you want me to demonstrate some of those skills?"
She chuckled breathily. "I do, but the walls of this house are thin, and my room is sandwiched between Gran's and Dylon's."
"That's disappointing. Are you saying that we need to wait until we go back to the academy?"
She gave me a pouty nod.
"Oh well." I pulled her against my body. "You need the rest."