Chapter 8 #2
I hadn’t forgotten about those strange, blurred words and blanks. As if something had been cut away from it.
“Obscured word?” Kaia gave me a quizzical look, just like everyone else I’d asked.
I gave up asking questions. Everything I had learned spun around and around in my head. And it all came back to Violet. She had been planning something, I was certain of it. Had she set her plan in motion?
While Finn and I always started our afternoon sessions by training my channels, inevitably when I needed a break, I’d end up asking him one of the myriad of questions I had about my new home.
Finn had an easiness to him, a way that made me feel comfortable.
Like I could ask him anything. That was rare here outside the training yard.
With everyone else, I was on my guard, trying to be a princess. With him, I could just be… me.
“Here’s another thing I don’t understand.”
“Only one?”
I chucked a book at him, but he easily caught it mentally, and it settled softly back onto the table. “Zachariah was the king, yes?”
Finn nodded, clearly wondering where I was going with this.
“But now he’s the regent. Shouldn’t he still be the king?”
Understanding sharpened Finn’s features. “Part of it is birth, yes, but the crown also decides. Birth simply plays a part in making the people worthy of the crown, but it doesn’t automatically cause it to go to you. Zachariah and Rose ruled for many, many years.”
“How long is many?”
He pursed his lips. “I think it was close to a hundred.”
I blinked. Hadn’t been expecting that.
How old was Nana? The unanswered questions kept stacking up.
He continued with his story. “To the best of my understanding, one day, shortly after your parents’ wedding, it abandoned him and Rose and chose Thom and Mireya.
Rose left Zachariah shortly after that. She had wanted to for years, but felt she had a duty to the kingdom.
The crown abandoning them released her from that duty.
Then he and Andrei finally went public.” He grinned, entertained by sharing gossip, even if it was decades-old gossip.
“The scandal of the two of them was apparently of epic proportions. For one mate to leave another is almost unheard of. But then for one of the pair to announce a love match scant weeks later… it’s never happened before. ”
“I thought Andrei and Zachariah were together before?”
“It was a badly kept secret, but was still a secret. My understanding is that Andrei left when they were married, out of respect for Rose.”
That was fitting with the little I knew of Andrei’s character. “But why would Zachariah marry Nana when he was in love with someone else?”
“Probably because of the mating bond.”
I stared at him. What the hell was he talking about? “I keep hearing the word mate, and now mating bond. Explain.” Surely it didn’t mean what I thought it meant which was… literal mating.
“Mates are two parts of one soul, destined by the gods or the universe—take your pick—to be together.”
“Wait, so there’s no choice involved? You’re just forced to be with whoever the universe decides? Why would anyone want that? Especially if you’re already in love with someone else?”
He shrugged. “There’s a powerful magic in a mating bond. I’m guessing Zachariah wanted to harness that. And he wanted the crown. The crown has a tradition of only passing once the next in line has found their mate. Something about needing the support of your other half.”
“Does everyone have a mate?”
Finn pursed his lips. “That’s a good question. We don’t entirely know. Certainly people fall in love and marry without ever having confirmation of a mating bond. If they had waited, would they have found their mate? Possibly.”
I didn’t have much experience with men—other than Tanner and he didn’t count—but I wondered if I had a mate. I liked to think I would have known if I had met him. Not that I necessarily wanted to. Being forced to be with someone because the universe said so sounded pretty shitty.
Finn continued, “And of course finding your mate is no guarantee of finding love. Just look at your grandparents. But it worked out, for Zachariah at least. He got the crown.”
I still had questions about mates, but right now, my mind was focused on the crown. Probably because everyone expected it to be mine someday. “But where did the crown go?”
Finn shrugged again. “No one knows. When Thom and Mira died, it went missing. Probably won’t come back until you’re ready for it.”
“If birth doesn’t automatically make the crown go to you, why does everyone think it’ll come to me?”
“That’s a good question. And I think it comes back to the prophecy.
What kind of prophecy would it be if the Orlaith didn’t get the crown?
” He chuckled as I made a face at him. “Now, if you don’t have any other questions about mysterious crowns appearing and disappearing at will, I was planning to continue our discussion on the geography of the kingdom that you’ll most likely rule over. ”
Shuffling papers around, he pulled out a large map and unfolded it. My chair squeaked and shifted. I grabbed onto the armrests as it skidded across the floor to Finn’s side of the table.
“A little warning?” I croaked out.
He flashed me a grin. “It was faster this way.”
“And allowed you to show off.” I made myself release the death grip on the armrests as I looked down at the seven provinces of Serentyn denoted in ink.
“This is where we are, Valdris, in the province of Valoreth.” He pointed to a spot in the center of the map.
“We call Valdris a mountain, but really, it’s little more than a rocky outcropping, especially when you compare it to the actual mountains.
” His finger traced northeast. “These are the Mistrael Mountains that curve around us here. To the west of us is Valerion, and directly south is Aurantia.”
He continued tracing the provinces. “Beyond Valerion to the northwest is Norethgale. That’s the northern coastal region. And the southernmost province on the coast is Solmere, where Griff and I are from.”
His finger moved east. “On this side, the Mistrael Mountains give way to the forests of Sylvaneth. And then…” He paused, pointing to an area that instead of having detailed features of trees, bodies of water, and mountains, simply was empty.
“The Barren Wastes are beyond the Mistrael Mountains and Sylvaneth.”
“Barren Wastes? What happened there?”
He ran a hand through his light brown hair, a habit I’d noticed he shared with his brother. “No one truly knows. It’s been there as long as anyone can remember. Our best guess is that Rose took you across it—how, I have no idea—and your village is somewhere on the other side.”
It hadn’t been clear to me before just how far away home was. A wave of homesickness washed over me, a longing for Nana and her calm presence. I had so many questions for her. Questions I was never going to have answered.
He peered out one of the windows. “It’s a clear day. If we go up to the highest tower on the ramparts, you can see quite a bit of Serentyn.”
I stood with alacrity, ready to be moving again.
Finn slung an arm around my shoulders and led me from the room, continuing to tell me the history of the kingdom as we walked through the halls, our footsteps echoing on the stone floor.
He explained how Valdris was in the center of Serentyn, and from here, the Veil extended out to our boundaries.
The castle had been built to defend the Veil, and over time, the city had built up around it, spiraling down the mountainside.
The governors from each of the provinces made up the council, plus others deemed important enough to be part of Zachariah’s closest advisors.
I was sure my first meeting with this illustrious group would be forthcoming, although beyond chance encounters—usually at dinner—my grandfather had so far left me alone, with only comments about dedicating myself to training whenever he did see me.
“And this room”—Finn gestured to a door we passed—“is where I was trapped once by someone who demanded I use my considerable mental powers to convince their rooster to not crow with the dawn.”
I snorted. “You’re making that up.”