Chapter 76
As hard as it was to leave Aeliana behind, the memory of the sprite’s warning for Enla kept repeating in Gaeren’s mind on a loop, driving him forward toward the palace. He rubbed a hand over his mare’s withers, silently apologizing for pushing her so hard.
As he approached the stables, he let her slow just enough for him to slide off her back and toss her reins toward a stable boy. He nearly tripped over his own feet when he saw it was Erech, and instead of running toward the palace, he hesitated, glancing between Erech and the harbor.
“Why aren’t you with Larkos at the ship?
Or better yet, with your family?” His words came out panicked as visions of young Breeve’s battered body being pulled from the ruins of the northern tower in Myndren plagued him.
He didn’t even let Erech answer. “Never mind. Just get the mare settled, but then get yourself home. Stay as far away from the palace as possible. Mayvus is coming.”
Erech’s face turned white, and flashes of images of Erech’s siblings were pushed into Gaeren’s mind, as if the boy’s fears shouted so loudly Gaeren’s noetic skills were forced to take them in. Erech froze, nearly losing the mare’s reins as she gave her own nervous whinny.
Gaeren grabbed Erech’s shoulders and shook him out of his shock. “Go on! Now!”
The boy rushed the mare into the stable, and Gaeren had to trust he’d remember the rest of his instructions.
He took off toward the palace even though it was the last place he wanted to be. His parents wouldn’t welcome his presence so soon after his demand that they step down. They couldn’t punish him for being within his rights, but would they listen to him?
He approached the front entrance at a run, making the guards break formation and draw their swords.
“Mayvus is in the harbor,” he announced, ignoring their weapons. “Get word to Danton and your commander. They’ll need to call in all the troops. Where are my parents and Enla?”
To the guards’ credit, they obeyed immediately, three taking off in different directions inside the palace, while two others remained behind.
“The king and queen are in the council room,” one said. “Danton should be there as well. And your sister should be resting in her quarters.”
Gaeren frowned. What the guard really meant was that she’d been confined there by their parents.
They were still determined to find a way to keep her from taking the throne.
He debated where to go first, but once again, the memory of the sprite made the decision for him.
He swept past the guards and up the stairs.
On his way to Enla’s room, he peeked out one of the balcony windows, then swore as the tranquil ocean view was broken up by dozens of ships, just like Felk had said.
They dotted the harbor with a terrifying pattern of perfection, like the strategy games Danton used to give Gaeren for warfare instruction.
Except he had no pieces to lay on the board for a defensive strategy, and Gaeren suspected the people were currently suffering because of it.
Would it be enough to bring them on board to fight with the Elanesses after they heard Gaeren’s promises?
Or would they simply step back and direct Mayvus toward the palace?
His father could command the navy Croft had brought up to attack, but it might already be too late if Mayvus’ soldiers swarmed the harbor. If they’d had just a little more time, they might have gotten the Recreants on board. They might have gotten Enla in a higher position of authority.
Four guards stood outside Enla’s room, and Gaeren brought them up to speed while pounding on her door. Two split off, probably to report to their commanders, while the other two drew weapons, their stances even more alert than before.
When Enla opened the door, her eyes were clouded over, her face stoic. “It’s good to see you, Gaeren,” she said flatly. Did she actually see him?
“Did you know?” His voice shook with a frustration he hadn’t realized he’d been harboring. “Did you see this coming?”
She cocked her head, and her eyes flickered as if trying to focus on him instead of whatever visions she’d been seeing. He placed his hands on her shoulders and shook her the same way he’d done to Erech moments earlier.
“Enla, I need you here,” he ground out. “I need you present now.”
She gasped in a frightened breath, and her eyes cleared, the apathetic gaze replaced by anxiety. “Is Mayvus here?”
He nodded, but something inside him broke. “You knew all this time, didn’t you? You knew she was coming and you didn’t tell me.”
She shook her head. “It was one of a dozen paths. They weren’t always certain. Sometimes the winex overtook them. Sometimes she sailed past the harbor. But you and Aeliana were supposed to be gone. She came too quick.”
He slammed his fist against the wall, and she shrank away from his anger.
“You should have told me,” he said. “We could have been more prepared.”
“All the paths merge,” she whispered. “No matter what we do, it all ends the same.”
Something cold slithered down his spine. She’d never said something with so much certainty. It reminded him of the way Lady Merinnia saw only one or two outcomes, and it left him terrified. If only one path remained, did anything they might do even matter?
“What happens?” he asked.
She shuddered. “So much death.”
“Yours? Mine? Aeliana’s?”
She shook her head, and her gaze clouded over once more.
“Enla.” He shook her again as he shouted, but this time, she remained lost in the visions.
Her lips moved silently—whatever conversation she was having wasn’t with him in present day.
“I don’t have time for this,” he muttered. “Please, Enla, please come back to me.” He slapped her cheeks, then took a glass of water from her bedside table and sloshed it in her face. She flinched but remained stuck, searching their future.
He never should have asked what happened. How long would she be lost, searching to give him an answer he probably didn’t want to hear?
He swept her up in his arms like a baby and carried her out of the room.
The guards exchanged glances, unwilling to question his unusual behavior.
He took off down the hallway, knowing they’d follow.
When he passed the same balcony window, he paused, gesturing for the soldiers to look at the congregating ships.
With the Sun’s sleep, lantern and firelight lit up the town, but it felt like more than usual, like Mayvus might be lighting fire to things not meant to burn.
“That’s what we’re up against. A madwoman with ridiculous amounts of magic and a fleet of soldiers she’s brought from Ahmranas.
Do you understand?” He glared at the soldiers as if they were to blame, then felt remorse as their faces paled.
“This is war. We need every troop, every soldier, every man and woman in this city to fight. I will take Enla to our parents. But we need to launch a counterattack.”
“I’ll go to the healers,” the second soldier said. “Make sure the network of progenies is being included in the commander’s tactics.”
He sprinted away without waiting for approval, breaking protocol by leaving Enla with only one guard. The man’s desperation actually gave Gaeren confidence that the threat was finally being taken seriously.
Gaeren pursed his lips, dreading the next step. “Let’s go to my parents.”
The other guard nodded, and they took off toward the council room.
As Gaeren swept past the council room guards and through the door, chaos broke out.
His mother paled and rushed to Enla’s side, calling for healers and demanding that Gaeren lay her down.
Tobias joined them, leaning over Enla and blocking Gaeren’s view of his sister.
Against his better judgment, he turned away and let his gaze lock on his father, who remained seated in his council room chair on the dais.
Gaeren shouted to be heard over the panicking council members.
“Mayvus is here. We don’t have time for you to step down and let Enla make her choice.
We don’t have time for you to evaluate how this will impact your authority or rule.
If we don’t fight her, we will all die. And your response in this moment will determine if the people you claim to serve will step up and fight alongside you.
If they don’t, you will die. Enla has seen it in almost every path. ”
He was taking liberties with Enla’s visions, not having been able to see them for himself, not knowing what deaths she’d predicted.
Perhaps by telling him their dire circumstances, she’d changed the outcome herself, sending him on this trajectory to stand up to their father.
Perhaps this was the path that could change the outcome.
Because Gaeren had to believe there was at least one.
He refused to accept that death was in all of their immediate futures.
Gaeren was shoved to the side as healers came forward.
Council members spread out in small clusters, gossiping and murmuring over the news Gaeren had just shared.
His father, however, didn’t move. He studied Gaeren, and time stilled.
How could his father, the king, be so unfeeling as to sit there and take in that announcement without any reaction?
“Please, Father,” he begged, “do the right thing.”
They stared at each other long enough that all hope fled Gaeren. How could he get Enla out of here to safety? He would not let this be the end for her. He would not let the sprite’s prediction be true.
“Leave us.” His father’s voice carried over the commotion. “All but Enla, Gaeren, and my wife.”
Tobias hesitated, but Gaeren’s mother shooed him out of the room. “There’s nothing we can do for her anyway.”
Gaeren frowned. It wasn’t like his mother to turn away a healer. She was docile enough to obey anything his father said unless it involved the healers. The only other time she’d refused them had been last winter, when they’d been sick before Gaeren had left to hunt down Aeliana.
When she’d been branded.
Dread pooled inside of him as the room emptied. He bent down to the makeshift bed the healers had put together from tables and cushions and reached for Enla. They needed to leave.
His mother’s hand shot out and gripped his wrist. “No, dear. She needs to stay here and rest.” Confidence in his mother’s words swept over him.
A certainty that she was right and that all would be well if he simply let Enla rest. It hit him with such force that his starlock burned as his automatic defenses went up.
She was using her magic on him.
He pulled his hand away and shook his head to clear it, but the sensation that he agreed was far too strong.
Beneath his outward contentment, he sensed an inward turmoil trying to escape. He felt secure with his parents, like they would care for Enla and protect them both from the incoming danger, but deep down, he knew that wasn’t true.
And if anything, the opposing sensation caused a crack in the peace enveloping him. His starlock burned as he latched on to that dissonance and pulled it forward to the surface. He shook off his mother’s hand.
“Why are you doing this?” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to separate out the emotions, to discern what was real and what was fabricated by her magic. But it left him sluggish.
When he opened his eyes, his father stood before him, the rage on his face far more than a father disciplining his son. Even a somatic progeny who had often let his anger get the best of him during Gaeren’s childhood. This held a loathing that came from someone else.
“You’ve been branded again.” Gaeren’s ragged whisper held the weight of his defeat.
His father’s lip lifted in a sneer. “You always were slow to catch on to the ways of the world.” His father’s hand rose, and Gaeren flinched from years of habit.
Whether it was an act of mercy or efficiency, Gaeren’s mind went black before he felt the force of the blow.