Chapter 53 #2
“That’s all it’s ever been to you,” she hissed. “Protecting me for my father, offering to marry me for the sake of the people. I would have gone with you willingly if you had just—” She cut off, and suddenly the space they occupied felt small even though they were outside.
“Let’s go.” Gaeren tugged on Aeliana’s arm.
“Go where?” she whispered. “We have no idea where the starbridges are.”
“Anywhere but here,” he hissed back.
“It’s fine,” Nori said. “We can talk about this later.”
“What if you don’t have a ‘later’?” Gellen’s voice broke. “I saw you.”
“I saw my future too,” she said, “and I know which path is right. It’s my choice.”
She ran around the side of the house, and Gaeren and Aeliana followed. “Which one is it?” Gellen yelled after them.
Nori didn’t answer. She led them through a maze of streets, hugging the shadows along the walls as they got closer to the center of the village. When they were near enough to catch voices on the wind, she pulled them aside.
“My father will expect to see me there. What he hasn’t told you is that he has plans for the starbridges. Remember how they wanted to send ambassadors back with you?”
“You mean back with Aeliana,” Gaeren said, “because I’m supposed to be dead.”
She grimaced. “Yes, that plan. He wants our ambassadors to discover what’s happening to the starlocks, why we’re receiving so few.
He wants to know if somehow your people are stealing them from ours.
He wants to know if there’s a way to restore the magic in our land.
It’s fading, and they’re afraid Lady Merinnia hasn’t picked another Seer because there isn’t one. ”
“That’s—” Aeliana broke off. “But we have fewer progenies in Vendaras, too.”
Nori faltered. “Are you certain?”
“We have the same questions,” Gaeren said. “We have one among our company who couldn’t come. She’s a grounded Star. We could ask her. She might know.”
Nori’s mouth swung open. “You what?”
“Her name is Orra, but she used to be called Sheen. I don’t know about the Sayhleen account of the Great Divide, but ours tells of a Star who convinced the others to divide the lands to protect the people from each other. Orra was that Star, and her punishment was to remain grounded.”
“Our story is similar.” Nori’s voice came out breathy. “But it’s said the sprites herded us here for our protection from the Stars’ plans to destroy all the lands and start over.”
“I don’t think Orra will know much more,” Aeliana said. “She’s been grounded for a thousand years. She doesn’t know why there are fewer progenies any more than the rest of us.”
“But she spoke to a Star on the northern keep,” Gaeren said.
Aeliana hesitated. “That’s true. And she’s not always very forthcoming with what she knows.”
“I’m coming with you.” Nori’s voice held a firmness, like she was convincing herself as much as them.
“I want to meet her, and I want to bring back news for my father. If I offer myself as the one to go, perhaps he’ll give me the starbridges.
We wouldn’t even have to make a scene or fight for them. ”
Gaeren and Aeliana exchanged a glance, and Gaeren recalled the bright light and Nori’s glassy eyes.
“I don’t think he will,” Gaeren admitted.
“We needed your help getting out of your seaweed prison, but if it comes to a fight, most of us have magic. I think it would be better to leave you out of all of it.”
Nori rolled her eyes. “I need everyone to stop trying to make decisions for me and to stop trying to protect me. Have you ever considered if maybe I saw something more than what the Seer showed my mother? If maybe I know more about my future than you all think you know?”
“What did you see?” Aeliana asked.
Nori pressed her lips together. “I saw my Awakening.”
A smile bloomed on Aeliana’s face that made Gaeren’s breath hitch. “You received a starlock in your vision,” Aeliana said.
Nori nodded, then glanced away. “What if there’s a third path for me? One my mother’s too afraid to consider, not because it’s dangerous for me, but because it seems too impossible to be real? One that takes me across the barrier? Let me choose my future.”
Gaeren’s lips lifted. He couldn’t help but appreciate her courage. “All right, lead the way.”
When they reached the town square, Nori found a spot at the edge for them to hide, allowing them a view of the dais.
Sure enough, the elders had gathered and were explaining their plans to the people.
Before Nori even had a chance to step out of the shadows and offer her assistance, Elder Algaen pulled the starbridges from his pocket, lifting them high for the villagers to see.
Aeliana grabbed Gaeren’s arm, squeezing it tight. He rested his hand on hers, unsure if it was to comfort her or himself.
“It’s going to work,” he whispered.
Nori strode into the crowd, and the closer she got to the dais, the more people parted for her. “I volunteer to take the Vendarans back.”
Murmurs spread through the crowd, making it difficult to catch the elders’ initial reaction.
“They’ve confided in me.” Nori’s voice rose. “And they have resources that can give us answers.”
By the time she reached the dais, every eye was on her, and Gaeren felt less concern over how noticeable he and Aeliana might be in the mouth of the alley.
“They will help me get answers, but not if they’re threatened—not if they’re forced to leave loved ones behind.
They’ve already had to bury one of their own on our lands, and it has broken them.
Let me take them home, and they will help me find answers.
” Her chin rose with the declaration. If she had any doubt in her success, she hid it well.
“We’d never send you by yourself,” her father said.
“We won’t send her at all,” her mother argued from her place at the stage’s edge.
“She won’t be going alone,” a familiar voice from the back of the crowd called, “because I’ll be going with her.”
Once again the crowd parted, but this time it was for Gellen. As he made his way to the dais, Nori’s face grew blotchy with scales. She shook her head but didn’t say anything, perhaps taking her own advice to let people choose their future. Or perhaps she saw the way his offer gave them an edge.
Elder Algaen exchanged a look with his wife, and Gaeren could imagine what they were wondering. If Nori and Gellen went together, would that solidify their future as a couple? Was that worth the risk of sending her across the barrier? Even Gaeren wondered if this could be the solution.
No matter what Nori had said, he didn’t think there was a third path. Her mother would have remembered any other path that left Nori alive. But maybe this could create a different version of the second vision. A version that allowed Nori time to earn her Awakening and to be with Gellen.
Nori pursed her lips, watching Gellen’s approach as though calculating his demise.
They were a good match.
When Gellen reached the stage, he gripped Nori’s hands in his. “Please let me go with you. Not because I want to protect you, but because I love you.”
A wave of lovesick gasps tore through the crowd. But the loudest reaction came next to Gaeren’s ear from Aeliana.
“Oh, it’s about time,” she murmured.
Gaeren laughed. “You’re one to talk.”
She glared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I haven’t seen you declaring your love for Lukai.”
She frowned. “You know very well why.” Then she leaned closer to him to get a better vantage point, and he began to wonder…
did he know? He reached under his sleeve to tug at the braid still on his wrist, as if it might remind him his focus was on protecting her and nothing more.
But the heat of her pressed up against him became far too distracting.
“Give it up already,” he muttered at his bond mark, which twitched incessantly.
“What?” Aeliana asked.
“Nothing.” He turned his attention back to the dais, where the elders had finished deliberating.
“All those in favor of letting them go?” Elder Algaen asked.
Four of the five elders raised their hands, including Nori’s father, and Gaeren’s heart beat faster. Had Nori actually done it?
“Very well,” Elder Algaen said. “In an hour’s time, once we’ve raised the gallows again, we will hang those responsible for murdering the sprites, then let the others return to Vendaras.”