Chapter 15
Aeliana reached out to steady her mother’s elbow as they climbed over another large rock. “Are you all right?”
Emeris nodded with a faint smile, but her face grew pale and her breathing remained labored.
Aeliana glanced around at the others who’d volunteered to check Durriken’s cave with them. Only two remained behind them—Iris, because she’d never leave Emeris’ side, and Brogdon, because he’d only come at Sylmar’s insistence in the first place.
It had been a week since Velden had cut out Brogdon’s brand mark.
Aeliana could still picture the way Sylmar’s face had paled as Brogdon spilled the little information he’d retained without his brand: Mayvus had survived.
She’d been growing stronger in the cave where Durriken had left her by reaching out to her brands and finding the stragglers who still supported her.
She’d used them to get a sense of what the Recreants were up to and how she might once again gain the upper hand.
Brogdon hadn’t been sure what had allowed her to survive in the first place.
Sylmar had shifted all their efforts to reinforcing the outer walls and building up their defenses, but now it was time to chase Mayvus down while she was still potentially incapacitated. Or, at the very least, get a clue to her whereabouts and plans.
“I think we’re almost there.” Aeliana left her hand at Emeris’ elbow to guide her, wishing her mother, in her weakened state, had stayed behind.
Felk and his clan of nearly full-grown winex ran ahead, loping back and forth to check and make sure everyone was accounted for.
Holm corrected their course now and then since he was the only one in their party who had been to the cave.
His pace gave Aeliana the impression he was desperate for proof one way or another since he’d been the one to previously see Mayvus’ remains.
Kendalyhn and Lukai followed, easily keeping up while half-heartedly arguing over whether his somatic magic was more powerful than her pneumatic skills.
He’d likely come out of a need to protect Aeliana, and Kendalyhn wouldn’t miss the chance for a fight.
Occasionally he glanced back at Aeliana, his smile fading to a pinched frown, but she didn’t care if he spent his time with Kendalyhn.
She still needed space after the way he’d stolen her blood under the guise of protecting her.
Orra, Velden, and Sylmar fell in the middle of the line, each wanting to see the cave for themselves for their own mysterious reasons.
Emeris tripped, nearly taking Aeliana down with her.
“If Mayvus is there, you’re in no condition to fight her,” Aeliana pointed out.
“She won’t be there.” Emeris huffed out.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I know the way her mind works. If she lost Sylmar as a brand, she wouldn’t stick around to be found.”
Aeliana tensed. “You mean Brogdon?”
Her mother’s eyes clouded over. “She lost Sylmar as a bondmate, didn’t she?”
“Yes, but that was years ago, and you said—”
Her mother’s face grew more vacant.
“Never mind.” Aeliana patted her mother’s arm. “I still think she could be there if she’s too weak to move.”
“She’s as strong as I am.” Emeris smiled wryly. Even though her physical strength had been slow to return, her confidence had increased. Proof that Mayvus was alive equated to proof that her talk of curses wasn’t completely ridiculous.
Sylmar grunted, showing he was listening from several paces ahead.
He’d still shown disdain for Emeris’ curse theory, latching on instead to what he already felt certain of: Mayvus was after immortality.
It was the next level of power she had to reach since she’d mastered the entire Wheel of Magic through her brands.
Although hopefully she’d been set back with the brands they’d cut out and the blood they’d destroyed.
He still felt confident she hadn’t found what she needed.
Not if she’d been studying the winex when they’d arrived.
As the path all but disappeared, they had to rely on Holm’s memory and instructions, along with the winex’s instincts. A howl erupted from ahead, followed by several others in response. Aeliana and her mother exchanged a glance, and several others drew weapons.
Felk came running back to Aeliana, his excitement palpable. “We found it. No one’s there, but they used to be.”
He tugged on her arm, pulling her away from Emeris and around the bend, where the maw of a cave stretched before them.
Bones and animal carcasses littered the opening—more likely evidence that Durriken had been here than Mayvus or her followers.
But as they stepped in farther, it became clear that fires had been situated throughout the cave.
Not the kind made by Durriken’s snout, but ones strategically placed for warmth or food, evidence of more than just Mayvus having been here.
“There was flesh”—Holm reached out to an empty spot on the ground—“just here. And over there…” He pointed in a corner, but faded off, either unwilling to describe the horror he’d seen or too confused by the inconsistency.
Iris patted his arm. “We’ve all been under stress, love. If she still has some brands available to her, that sort of illusion would be simple. Especially since you had no way of sifting it for truth.”
He frowned and pulled away, uncharacteristically rejecting his wife’s comfort. “I know what I saw.”
They spread out, examining the ground for any clues, nudging at the embers with their swords.
“It looks like whoever was here left a week or so ago,” Kendalyhn said.
Aeliana glanced at Brogdon, whose grim face left her wishing they’d let him stay behind. Obviously, cutting out his brand had initiated Mayvus’ departure.
“I thought maybe she’d escaped using the stone starbridge,” her mother murmured, “but clearly she was here. And now she’s strong enough to leave, but not strong enough for a confrontation.
She expected we would come.” Her mother almost sounded pleased, even though this meant there was another dead end.
She kneeled down and placed her hands on the coals, then shook her head.
“I wish I’d been strong enough to come right away.
We can’t learn anything from being here. ”
Still, the others continued searching while the winex dropped to all fours and sniffed their way through the cave.
“How can she even be alive after Durriken…” Lukai shuddered, not bothering to finish his question.
“I don’t know how it works, but I think she used fluid from the winex eggs,” Aeliana said.
A round of whimpers started from the winex, echoing through the chamber and making everyone wince.
“Maybe that helped her heal faster,” Emeris said, “but it was the curse that kept her alive.”
Sylmar grunted. “How exactly are the two of you cursed? I’ve only ever seen witches use their magic with that purpose. You keep saying you’d be dead if she were dead, but that’s not how bonds and brands work. I don’t even think there’s blood magic that can connect people in that way.”
Emeris hesitated. “It’s possible the witches did something.
But I also wonder about our parents. We were split up as children.
Never told about the other. Not until our mother died and Mayvus came to live with our father and me.
Then Mayvus had a lot of questions. Questions about magic and witches. Our father never answered them.”
Hearing this family history left an uneasy feeling sliding through Aeliana’s gut. Her family was even more broken than she’d realized. But was any of this even true? Or was it more of her mother’s confusion?
“We were drawn to each other,” Emeris continued.
“I thought it was some sort of sister bond, whether manufactured by magic or forged by the Sun. We were two parts of a whole. There were times when I felt her pain. When I was slapped, her cheek turned red.” She placed a hand over her cheek as if recalling the memory.
Aeliana expected Sylmar to scoff, but a strange look of understanding came over his face.
“The bond we felt as sisters faded quickly in favor of Mayvus’ obsession with power. I wish I could go back to those years right after she came home. Perhaps I could have kept her from turning to such darkness.”
“There was something strange between you,” Sylmar admitted.
“But nothing that could keep her from dying. At least not back then. Maybe she did something to enhance it with her blood magic. She’s always been obsessed with immortality—was it possible, could she manufacture it—those were the kinds of questions that kept her up at night.
She was never very concerned about growing followers.
She just sort of assumed that would come with the territory once she found a way to give us the longevity of the Stars. ”
“Obtaining immortality and being under a curse aren’t mutually exclusive,” Orra murmured, but no one else seemed to hear her.
Aeliana leaned in. “What?”
Orra tugged on the braid at her wrist but didn’t raise her voice. “One might argue they’re one and the same.”
“Either way,” Sylmar said, “we know she’s alive and growing stronger.”
The air grew thick with the silence of fear until Velden awkwardly broke it.
“Well, the good news is that Durriken hasn’t been here either.”
“He’s been down in Islara for the last few weeks,” Aeliana said, “mourning over those he killed.” She left off the friendship he’d been forming with the little boy, still not sure what to think of this new side of the dragon.
“Mourning?” Kendalyhn’s voice held disbelief.
“He was branded just like me,” Brogdon said. “If I can mourn the things I did under her control, why can’t he?”
Aeliana’s heart swelled with gratefulness that anyone would defend the dragon she was beginning to admire. Perhaps she could come to a point where she admired or at least understood Brogdon as well.
“So now what?” Lukai asked. “We finish fortifying and hunt for Mayvus instead of the stone starbridge?”