Chapter 28
“Well, that was rather dramatic.” Algar walks with me through the gates of Bernwood with Zephra curled around his shoulder.
With his weapons now returned, Thane inspects each one thoroughly as we pause to get our bearings.
“What do you think happened to his face?” I ask when I meet up with Rynthea. “What kind of creature could have done that?”
“I’m not sure,” she murmurs, stuffing a canteen into her rucksack. “But it clearly didn’t want visitors.”
“It had to be massive.” Algar shudders as Zephra clicks her teeth and shakes nervously.
Rynthea’s focus travels to where the trail up the mountain begins.
“How long is the walk to Frevella’s?” Rynthea asks as Kelrean saunters through the gates with two guards in eggplant-purple buffers trailing him.
Each guard carries a sword at their waist and a spear in hand. The prince nonchalantly totes a double-sided battle-ax with a thick wooden handle. In the center of the ax is the head of a snarling lion with a smooth mane made of gleaming silver. Kelrean also has a sword attached to his hip.
“Should be no longer than an hour,” he answers. The curved blade of the ax glimmers in the sunlight as he gives it a smooth swing and then rests the handle on his shoulder.
“Show-off,” Algar mumbles.
“Great,” Thane mutters sarcastically under his breath.
“What was that, my friend?” Kelrean flashes a cool smile as he turns his attention to Thane, who is tucking the last of his daggers away in the designated slots of his vest.
When his swords are sheathed on his back, he marches past Kelrean and says, “We need to get moving.”
Kelrean chuckles as Rynthea, Algar, and I follow suit.
“I agree,” says Kelrean. “We should get moving, but you’re headed in the wrong direction, I’m afraid.”
Thane pauses, fists clenching. With a reluctant turn, he grimaces at Kelrean, who is already walking past the left gate.
“Just remember if you kill a prince, you’ll be beheaded,” Rynthea teases as she passes Thane. Algar side-eyes him with a slight frown before walking faster. I think he’s still angry about last night.
I sigh, glad my headache is passing because dealing with men whose egos are as large as the mountain we’re about to climb is going to require a lot of patience and effort.
When we round the wall built around Bernwood, we start up a rocky path. We aren’t even five minutes in, and my thighs are burning. The interiors of my boots are rubbing against my pinky toes, and my heels ache.
Blisters are bound to come, but I stick close to the group and suck on a hard lemon-and-honey candy to distract myself.
Algar slows his pace to match mine, and we look down at Bernwood, which now seems like a blotch in the distance.
“Did you have fun last night?” I ask.
“Oh, too much fun,” Algar answers. “They were gambling in one of the tents. Let’s just say I may owe one of those beastials one hundred gold coins.”
“One hundred? That’s a lot of coin, Algar.” I laugh.
“Yeah. But I don’t plan on returning anytime soon so, in my mind, I’m debt free.”
An ache develops in my lower back. It would’ve been nice to ride up the mountain on horseback, but Kelrean warned us earlier that the mountain becomes very steep, plus to reach the other side, we have to cross a bridge that can’t bear the weight of a horse.
So, to my disappointment, we left Pearl in Bernwood.
I swear I’ll go back for her one day. I’ve already lost one pearl.
I’m not about to lose another. Queen Jenia promised me that she would move Pearl into the royal stables so no one would steal her.
“What were you and Thane arguing about last night?” I ask Algar in a low voice. Thane is several paces ahead, closer to Rynthea, who is shaking her head at something Kelrean is chortling about.
Exhaling, Algar digs into his pocket and pulls out a strip of dried fruit. He offers it to Zephra, who eagerly takes it with both her little paws and nibbles on it.
“I asked him why the attack in Kamtaur happened and if he was involved with the sorcerer who got away. He said he wasn’t involved with him, so I pushed for more answers because I know he’s lying about something regarding those people.
There wouldn’t have been so many of them coming to kill him if he hadn’t done something serious. ”
I nod, remembering Thane’s mention of stealing one of Seferin’s crystals. I also remember him requesting that I keep our conversation about the tome, Seferin, and Maliek between us, but Algar already knows about the tome. I just need him to keep quiet about it now.
“I talked to him about that a little more last night, too,” I tell him in a lower voice. “He doesn’t want anyone else knowing about the tome. Apparently, I wasn’t even supposed to tell you.”
Algar frowns a bit. “Why not?”
“He thinks you’re a blabbermouth.”
Algar rolls his eyes. “Yeah, all right. As if I’m out here shouting everyone’s secrets to the gods.”
“Just promise to keep the tome thing between us, okay?” I plead. “It might be the safest thing to do—for all of us.”
“Fine.” Algar releases a deep sigh, concentrating on Thane’s back.
“I suppose me being a blabbermouth annoyed him last night and that’s why he grabbed my shirt and told me to fuck off in spectacular Thane fashion.
” He shrugs as if he doesn’t care, but I can tell he does—that Thane hurt his feelings.
I lock on Thane, too, who is now looking over his shoulder at me and Algar.
He turns away, but I notice him slowing his stride.
“Just remember what I said last night, yeah?” Algar steps over a rock. “About being careful with him. I wouldn’t lower my guard too much if I were you. Thane has never attached himself to anyone, and I doubt he’ll start now.” With a half-hearted smile, he walks faster to catch up with Rynthea.
Thane meets me at my side. I take a peek at him. It’s always so hard to decipher his expression with that mask covering half his face.
“I’m amazed,” he finally says.
“What are you talking about?”
“To not see any regret in your eyes.” His moisturized, tight curls gleam under the sun. He must’ve taken a bath and worked some kind of hair butter into his tresses.
I clear my throat, fighting the urge to imagine him having a bath…
Naked and wet.
Sculpted.
Delicious.
I dig into my satchel for another honey-lemon candy, seeking distraction.
“There’s no regret because I don’t care,” I tell him. “It happened, and now it’s in the past.”
“Still lying to yourself, I see.”
I put my attention ahead as I pop the candy into my mouth.
“The prince didn’t make it to your room.” It’s a statement—not a question.
“And how would you know that?”
“Because he’s still looking at you like he wants to devour you. He probably would, too, seeing as he’s half beast and all.”
“First of all, he’s a shifter. They’re not the same as beastials. Second, jealousy doesn’t suit you.”
I swear he’s giving his signature smirk behind that mask.
“There’s nothing for me to be jealous of. I know whose dick you want, and it certainly isn’t the prince’s.”
“Gods,” I groan. I really hope Kelrean’s hearing isn’t as keen as Rynthea’s. “You’re so full of yourself.”
“Am I wrong, though?”
I ignore him, almost glad the mountain is becoming steeper because the exertion shuts him up. I breathe evenly through my nose as the sticky taste of honey lingers in my mouth.
The high altitude makes my ears pop. The sun feels closer, beating down on the back of my neck and making my forehead slick with sweat, yet it seems to only be a struggle for me. Everyone else carries on just fine. Thane walks with so much ease, I’m envious.
After at least forty or so grueling minutes, Kelrean announces, “Only a few more minutes, my friends!”
Thank Orvena.
We travel around a bend in the mountain, and not too long after, we reach a dark tunnel. The edges of the tunnel are seamless, like they’ve been chiseled and sanded by hand. Carved into the edges are runes. It’s so pitch-black within the tunnel that I can’t see a thing.
“Here we are.” Kelrean gestures to the cave. “Frevella’s cave.”
“I don’t get good energy from a person living in a cave,” Algar mutters.
Just then, purple flames flicker, illuminating an endless tunnel. They hover close to the walls, floating on their own like orbs.
Rynthea starts forward, but Kelrean sticks out a hand and presses it to her chest to stop her. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Rynthea quirks a brow. “Is she not inside?”
“Most likely, but my father mentioned that no one should enter her cave without permission.” The prince bends down to pick up a jagged rock and tosses it toward the mouth of the tunnel.
Before it can reach the darkness, though, the rock shatters with a burst of purple ripples and rains to the ground in shards.
Rynthea looks shocked as she steps back next to Kelrean. “I appreciate the heads-up. Should we call for her, then?”
“No need. I’m sure she knows we’re here. I’ve heard she’s a bit eerie that way.”
In the brief moment of silence that stretches over us, I spot a figure at the end of the tunnel. Purple light dances on the edges of their frame. Just as quickly as I see it, it vanishes.
My heart races faster. “What was that?” I whisper.
Algar narrows his eyes, looking harder at the tunnel.
Then it happens again. The figure appears, but it’s closer this time. Thane slowly reaches for one of the swords on his back, unsheathing it and bringing it to his side. Rynthea squares her shoulders, tightening her grip around the handle of her scythesword.
The figure, I realize, is a person. And they are moving closer with each reappearance until, finally, they’re right here—right at the mouth of the cave with a cloud of gray smoke billowing around them.
“Why are you on my property?” The voice behind the smoke comes out as a thick croak.
“We’re here to see you, Frevella.” Kelrean steps to the front and holds out the scroll to the mass of fog before him.
Frevella. It’s her.
She’s quiet for a few seconds. “Prince Kelrean Shattore of Bernwood.”
“Yes.” He nods as the scroll floats from his hand to Frevella’s. “It is.”
“With guests,” she notes with a hint of agitation, her spindly fingers clutching the scroll.
“With harmless guests,” he assures her.
“You know to only speak the truth to me. One member of your crew is not as harmless as you claim.”
Kelrean peers over his shoulder, setting his gaze directly on Thane. Out of instinct, everyone else does, too.
“Seriously?” Thane frowns, glaring at everyone. “Why are you all looking at me?”
Everyone looks away, clearing their throats or shrugging.
Yeah. Maybe he should’ve kept the mask off.
“If you’d like, we can secure their weapons.” Kelrean is speaking to her again. The smoke spills from the cave and rolls toward us, swimming around our feet. “They seek your help reaching the Temple of Elphar.”
At that, Frevella laughs, a drawn-out, peculiar sound that makes me cringe.
Slowly, the smoke disappears and reveals a woman with frizzy, stark white hair and sepia skin.
She wears layers of robes in dark colors—black, brown, green—and all swim around her feet.
A black snake is draped over her shoulders, its beady, glowing eyes examining each of us.
But those things aren’t what surprise me most about her.
It’s the fact that she has no eyes. They’re simply two thin slits, as if they’ve been gouged out and the eyelids stitched. The sight of her should terrify me, but instead, I brew with curiosity.
I wonder what happened to her eyes. Why is she in this dark, lonely cave, so closed off from the rest of the world? Who did this to her?
“The Shallows are not for the weak,” Frevella informs us.
“I don’t take them for weak,” Kelrean replies, voice firm. “My father sent me here with his request. A favor to allow them use of your Kelvanite Sphere.”
Frevella scoffs. “Why would I give my sphere to a group of travelers I do not know?”
“They’re willing to pay.”
“Do they know the price?”
I notice Kelrean’s throat bob as he glances at Rynthea. He comes to her side and whispers something in her ear. She frowns at him before focusing on Frevella again.
“Secrets?” Rynthea repeats.
Frevella’s wrinkled mouth twists into a sly smile. My curiosity about her fades as a cold feeling slithers down my spine.
“Fine.” Rynthea bobs her head. “We’ll tell you whatever you want to know if it means we can use your sphere.”
“Oh, not you.” Frevella gives her head a subtle shake, then lifts both arms and points her index fingers directly at me and Thane. “Them.”
My heart plummets as all eyes turn to us. I look at Thane, and his jaw is clearly clenching behind his mask.
“Only them. No weapons.” Frevella turns away and disappears in another cloud of smoke, leaving us no room to object.
I know we have no choice but to follow her. She’s made up her mind. There aren’t any other options.
Kelrean starts for Thane, but Rynthea stops him. “I’ve got it,” she says.
Approaching Thane, Rynthea sticks out a hand with a dim smile. “Algar and I will hold on to your weapons.”
Thane eyes her and Algar, who offers him a hand, too. Clearly annoyed, Thane pries off the leather straps holding his swords, then removes his vest, shoving it all into Rynthea’s hands.
Before he can reach the cave, Algar clears his throat. “Forgetting something?”
Thane halts, and with a low growl, he yanks the dagger out of his boot and another from beneath the sleeve of his shirt, dropping them in Algar’s hand.
“All right. Now you can go,” says Algar.
I feel my chest constrict. What if I go inside and never make it back out? What if she has a collection of eyeballs and wants to gouge ours out just to add to it?
Oh Orvena. This isn’t at all what I expected.
“Good luck,” Algar calls as Thane and I approach the tunnel.
“We need that sphere, Zaira,” Rynthea says when I give them one more look over my shoulder. “Tell her whatever she wants to know. And make sure the sorcerer doesn’t fuck this up for us.”