Chapter 69
Aeliana paced in her room, which was starting to feel more like a prison cell than guest quarters. She’d opened the door twice, making excuses and asking for water or refreshments. But really it was to test to see if the guards were still there.
Sylmar was likely throwing a fit after them being separated for hours, and the thought finally made her smile in the midst of her concern.
She’d tried sleeping and had even explored the room looking for any clues as to why they might have left her there, but it seemed like a standard guest room in a palace—far fancier than anything she’d ever stayed in.
Still, there were four walls, a window that led to an impossible drop, and a door guarded by two armed men.
She wasn’t free.
The knock that sounded was brisk and formal and made her jump up from where she’d sat perched on the edge of the bed.
“Yes?” she called.
“Her Royal Highness is here to see you.”
Aeliana’s heart picked up its pace. Enla? It wouldn’t be Gaeren’s mother, would it? It had to be Enla. “Yes, please. Send her in.”
She smoothed down her linen shirt, remembering the silky waves that had billowed around Enla on her throne.
But when the door opened, Enla stood there in loose-fitting trousers and a thin sleeveless shirt, far more casual than Aeliana had ever expected her to appear.
The guards balked when Enla tried shutting the door behind her, and though she glared at them, she left it open and turned back to greet Aeliana with a surprisingly warm hug.
“My father imprisoned your family,” Enla murmured.
Aeliana stiffened, the warmth leeching from their embrace, but Enla tightened her grip and kept up her furious whisper.
“They’ve been released because you came, but I wanted to warn you—they were not well cared for.
That will change now. I promise.” She pulled back and gave a light kiss to Aeliana’s cheek.
“We’re practically sisters since Gaeren spent his dedication year with your family.
” Her smile was too wide, not matching the troubled look in her eyes.
Clearly it was meant to show the guards that all was well, so Aeliana did her best to match the other woman’s false joy.
“If only I’d had a sister.” She squeezed Enla’s hands in hers. “So yes, I’ll claim you as mine.” Aeliana led the queen-in-training over to a set of chairs and small table, awkwardly inviting her to sit as though it were Aeliana’s home instead of Enla’s.
A host of women came in delivering plates, napkins, tea, and biscuits, as if Aeliana and Enla had rung a bell for service. The pile of fruit and cheese on the platter was far more than they’d given Aeliana at her request for refreshments, and it was far more than the two of them could ever eat.
Remembering Enla’s words about the prisoners’ treatment, Aeliana made sure to tuck a little of everything in the folds of her napkin while they stumbled through surface niceties, discussing the room, the weather, and how Enla’s day in meetings had gone.
When the guards retreated to the hall, sufficiently bored, Enla let her inane chatter and laughter ring out as she helped Aeliana gather the food in napkins, shoving it all under pillows on the extra chair.
Eventually Enla leaned forward in the pretense of taking another biscuit and whispered, “Sylmar and Velden are angry that they haven’t seen you, but they’re catching up with your mother and Rildan in their room.
My parents have offered to let the other members of your party stay in the palace, and I’ll ensure they’re kept safe.
My father will have people listening in on everything they say, but at least they can begin making plans. ”
“Plans for what?” Aeliana asked warily.
Enla frowned, and her eyes grew distant. “Ever since my brother arrived, the paths have multiplied. With your arrival, they’ve become impossibly branched. If I took the time to look at them all, we’d be past all the possibilities before I even saw them.”
Aeliana reached for Enla’s hand, squeezing it hard until the other woman looked her way. “I don’t want to see every possibility. I want to know what you, as queen-in-training and daughter of the king, think your father is going to do. Will he help us? Send us on our way? Or are we prisoners here?”
Enla started to shake her head, but then her eyes glazed over once more.
She didn’t answer for so long that Aeliana wondered if she’d lost the other woman to the future.
It seemed like something Gaeren wouldn’t want, but what was the best way to pull someone from such a trance?
If she shook her, the guards would have her tied up before she could blink.
“You should speak with the man you call Marnok,” Enla murmured, then raised her voice to call for one of the guards.
When he entered the room, he gave a slight bow, awaiting her instructions.
“Please send for Marnok. Aeliana wishes to see him.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” He bowed once more before exiting the room.
Aeliana frowned. “I’d really rather see my mother. She was often confused when I left her. I want to make sure she’s well.”
“We are all a product of our pasts.” Enla’s smile held a sadness that left Aeliana anxious. “For some of us, that means our minds are forever altered. She is well, even if at times it seems she’s not.”
“Is that what Gaeren would say of you?” Aeliana asked.
Enla winced. “You know my brother well.” They stared at each other for a long moment, a strange understanding passing between them. “Thank you for helping him break his bond.”
Aeliana’s face heated, but Enla ignored her discomfort.
“Now he’s free from obligations, at least the ones imposed on him by our parents and our positions. He’s free to make choices about whom he serves and how.”
“And what about you?” Aeliana asked.
“I will never be free,” Enla said. “But this is also my choice. It’s one very few could understand, but I’ve taken it on willingly.”
Aeliana nodded. She probably understood even less than others who knew Enla well. But after fighting through the question of whether she was Vendaran or Lorvandan, she felt a small sense of camaraderie with Enla’s position.
“Sometimes in life we aren’t given choices,” Aeliana said, “and yet the path we’re forced down is still the one we would have chosen.”
Enla’s eyes cleared, and the first real smile lit up her face. It reminded Aeliana of Gaeren, and her chest seized with a need to see him.
“Very well spoken,” Enla said, a teasing tilt to her lips. “You must be the daughter of a high priestess.”
Before Aeliana could turn the conversation back around to her questions about the plan Enla had spoken of, the guard announced Marnok’s arrival.
Both women turned, and Marnok hesitated in the doorway before giving a stiff bow toward Enla.
She waved off the formality and patted the chair next to her before rising.
“It’s time I go see my brother anyway, now that he’s bathed and eaten. I suspect he won’t wait long to visit you, Aeliana, so your reunion with Marnok will need to be brief.” She glanced meaningfully at Marnok’s hands, which currently tugged uncomfortably at his collar.
Aeliana tensed, realizing Enla had probably already seen how this conversation played out and that was why she wanted Aeliana to have it. It was unsettling to know that Enla was both aware of Aeliana’s need for answers about the tattoos and that Enla already had them.
But the other woman smiled serenely and gave Aeliana one last kiss on the cheek before sauntering out the door, taking all but the original two guards with her.
The door remained open, and Aeliana debated shutting it but figured the guards wouldn’t let her.
Besides, her questions for Marnok had nothing to do with the royal family or politics.
“Are you well?” Aeliana asked, suddenly shy as she remembered Marnok’s discomfort with her when they’d last seen each other.
He shrugged. “Well enough. We’ve been imprisoned for two days, but your arrival changed that. It could be worse.”
“Why were you imprisoned in the first place?” Aeliana asked.
Marnok glanced at the door where the sleeve and sword point of one of the guards was visible. “I believe it’s because your mother is a Wyndren. They weren’t ready to trust her. Even Gaeren was imprisoned with us.”
Aeliana sucked in a breath. “What?”
Marnok pulled grapes off a cluster, his hands shaking and reminding her of how hungry he must be. “It seems he’s on the outs with his parents, and even his sister’s goodwill wasn’t enough to save him. You, on the other hand—something about your arrival made the king reconsider.”
Aeliana shrank back in her chair, not wanting to evaluate what that could be. Besides, that wasn’t the conversation she needed to have with him.
“Marnok,” she began, then hesitated. “I know my mother showed you some of your past.”
His hands stilled over the cheese, but their shaking seemed to increase.
“I expect you’re not ready to share it, and that’s fine, but I wondered if she showed you anything that might explain the tattoos on your hands. If that might be something you could help me understand.”
With a frown, he took a piece of cheese, then popped it into his mouth along with several grapes. As he chewed, Aeliana watched a number of emotions pass through his expression, settling on some sort of determined resignation.
“Apparently it’s not a well-known fact, but some of the highest witches in the various covens use tattoos to mark their status on their hands.
” He splayed his palms in front of him, allowing Aeliana to catch how the intricate pattern appeared somewhat faded compared to the darker lines on the backs of his hands.
“So that’s why you went to the witches?” Her mind raced with the implications.
“I come from one of the highest orders among the witches.” His brow pinched with pain. “They live deeper in the Myndren Mountains, near Mt. Vescano. Other covens travel there to make sacrifices at the mouth of the volcano during the equinoxes and solstices.”
“My mother said you went there,” she said, “but she made it sound like you were looking into the possibility of a witch having cursed her and Mayvus.”
He gave a short nod. “It served a dual purpose.”
“And you found your family?” she pressed.
He gave another short nod. “They don’t exactly try to hide themselves. If you find the volcano, you find the witches. But what does this have to do with my tattoos?”
Aeliana set down her biscuit, her appetite gone. “When we were on Sayhla Island, Lady Merinnia gave me a memory of a woman with tattooed hands cursing my mother. It seems you all had the right idea when you thought it was connected to the witches.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But if they cursed your mother, they didn’t share that information with me. I have no more answers than you.”
Her heart sank, but she didn’t completely lose hope.
“The important thing is there’s a way to break it.
” She leaned forward to lower her voice, hating that, for all she knew, the guards might be using magic to pull all this information from her, whether she whispered or not.
“The curse is documented in the archives of the Dehvlonian Oracles, but I doubt we have time to find the starbridge and go there before we have to face Mayvus again. But what if we went to the witches? Surely they’ve documented their curses.
I might even be able to find the witch I saw in the vision Lady Merinnia showed me. ”
Marnok shuddered, and Aeliana’s confidence faltered.
“You’ll be hard-pressed to find your answers among them. They hold no love for the Wyndren family. If they cursed your mother, they’re not going to give you what you want.”
Aeliana let out a huff. “I didn’t expect I’d be able to waltz in and ask them how to break it, but I have to at least try. Maybe there’s some way we can barter with them, or—”
“No,” he interrupted. “Never make a deal with a witch. It’s far worse than making deals with sprites.” The haunted look on his face left Aeliana silent, but she’d gotten all the information she needed.
As his story had unfolded, she’d thought maybe she could ask Marnok to take her to the witches and help her, but it was clear he wouldn’t be up for the task. This was something she would have to do alone.
“You’re right.” She swallowed down her fears and frustrations, pasting a smile on her face. “If we can’t find the answers among the witches, we’ll need to find another way. In the meantime, I could use your help training. My healing skills aren’t what they used to be.”
He smiled, but before he could respond, a commotion came from the hall with raised familiar voices. As one, Aeliana and Marnok rose, peeking out the doorway to find Gaeren, chest puffed out as he glared down at Enla, who smiled sweetly up at him, arms delicately crossed over her chest.
Gaeren’s hands balled into fists. “I’m not waiting—”
“You don’t need to any longer.” Enla angled her head in Aeliana’s direction, and Gaeren followed her line of sight, leaving Aeliana suddenly self-conscious about her drab appearance next to an almost-queen.
But Gaeren took two strides in her direction before wrapping her in a less-than-gentle hug, his frustration still fueling his strength.
She didn’t even have time to enjoy his nearness or wonder what it meant before he pulled back and snarled at the guards, “Aeliana and I are taking a walk in the gardens, and you two are not invited.”