20. Chapter 20
Chapter twenty
LYRIELLE
Air hit my face and I sucked in a deep breath, my arms sweeping out to keep myself afloat before I realized that it wasn’t just my head above water.
The water was gone, and my clothing was damp but not dripping.
Though the darkness around me was profound, I was now lying on what I assumed was a stone floor, trying desperately to catch my breath and slow my heart.
The portal had worked.
“Where are we?” I heard from beside me. It was Harlan’s voice. We’d both made it through. But through to where?
I weakly crawled away from the sound of his voice but didn’t make it far before he grabbed my ankle and yanked me toward him. I fought him with what little strength I had until something hard and sharp pressed to my throat and I froze.
“Do you feel that?” Harlan asked in a terrifying hiss. “That’s what a knife feels like when it’s pressed to your neck. Do not trifle with me.”
More tears leaked out of my eyes. “I can’t even stand.”
“We’ll see about that.” He pulled away, then groped around until he got hold of my arms and hauled me to my feet. I did what I could to stand on my own, but I still slumped against him.
“Where are we?” Harlan repeated as he shuffled a few steps.
“I don’t know. I can’t—” My foot hit a hard object and there was the clang of something metal as it fell and rolled across the floor.
My heart turned over. I’d heard that sound before. It was the noise my candlestick would make when I accidentally kicked it over because there was no light in this place.
My body started to shake. I knew exactly where we were.
“We’re in the tower,” I said, my voice only a rough whisper of trepidation.
I’d wondered if we might end up at the tower, but my mind had conjured images of landing in my old living space, surrounded by books, or perhaps ending up at the base of the tower where I would have landed if the portal hadn’t taken me the first time.
It had never occurred to me that I would end up in this dark place.
“How do you know?”
“This is where she kept me when I was disobedient or ungrateful. She would say I needed solitude and put me up here.”
“Who?”
“My aunt.”
“Where’s the door?”
“I think forward and then to our right, but it might be locked. She always locked it,” I babbled as he continued to shuffle forward.
“Was it the healing that knocked you out?” he asked, sounding annoyed. No doubt he wanted me mobile so that I could walk myself to the seat of the High Court.
“Yes. It’s always taxing, and the king was much sicker than anyone I’ve ever healed.”
“When will you get your strength back?”
“I need food and water, and even then, I don’t know how long it will take.”
He stopped, and I heard him groping around in the dark, then the metallic scrape of a latch.
I was surprised when it opened. Aunt Ethel must have locked it only when she’d put me in there for solitude.
Harlan anchored me to his side and dragged me down the steps. “You lived here with your aunt?”
“Yes.”
“So there’s food here.”
He made quick work of the stairs, not caring when my arm bumped and scraped against the stone wall of the stairwell. We reached the small landing where the door led to my home, and I had no time to take in the conflicting turmoil of the moment before he flung the door open and pushed me through it.
A startled cry brought my attention to the far side of the room, where Aunt Ethel had her back against the wall, looking stunned and speechless.
A part of me felt like I should have the urge to run to her, to ask her to keep me safe from Harlan, yet that urge was absent. My aunt was not any safer than he was, and my heart tore just a little more at that thought.
Ethel’s gaze fixed on me. “Lyrielle,” she breathed in astonishment, a hand pressed to her heart. “Oh, Lyrielle, you’re back. I’m so relieved.” She slumped against the wall as though overcome with emotion. “I’ve been so worried about you. What happened? Where have you been?”
She took a step toward me, and as much as I wanted to recoil, I didn’t have the energy, and Harlan had an iron grip on me as he slammed the door shut.
“She needs food,” he said without preamble and walked us over to the small table, where he deposited me in a chair.
I clung to the edges of the table so that I would stay upright as an eerie silence filled the space. I looked up to see my aunt’s face contorted in rage and dismay. “Her hair,” she gasped in horror, her frame trembling. “What have you done to her? Who are you?”
“Who I am doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that you don’t want to cross me. She’s weak and needs food. Get it for her, now.”
“But her hair!”
Harlan took one menacing step toward her and she fell back. “Food. Now,” he said with dark authority.
Ethel swallowed, the defiance in her eyes only slightly overpowered by the fear.
“Fine,” she conceded and went to the kitchen, grabbing bowls and cutting her eyes over to me and Harlan in turns.
“Are you going to tell me what happened to your hair?” she asked bitterly as she crossed to the fire, which had a pot hanging over it.
“No,” I replied, leaning my forearms heavily on the tabletop. “I don’t owe you any explanation.”
Her nostrils flared, and the bowl of stew in her hands trembled with rage. “Then you’ll get nothing from me,” she spat.
Perhaps she’d forgotten that she didn’t have control of this situation, or perhaps denying me everything I wanted was too ingrained for her to stop.
Either way, when Harlan stalked toward her, she seemed surprised, and when he snatched the bowl out of her hands, she flinched.
Perhaps I should have felt bad for her. I didn’t.
Harlan slammed the bowl down in front of me, and this time, I was the one to flinch away. “Eat,” he ordered.
I did so, picking up the bowl and drinking the stew’s broth from the edge since I didn’t have a spoon.
He turned back to Ethel. “She needs water, too.”
Ethel sneered in contempt but went to fetch water. “Why is she so weak, anyway?”
“You’d be proud of your little niece. She saved a king’s life.”
Ethel looked confused. “You cut her hair after she saved your king?”
He snorted. “Her hair was cut long before today.”
Ethel’s arms dropped to her sides and her face lifted into stunned surprise. “But…” she stammered.
“What?” he bit out.
“She can’t heal without her hair.”
He turned to me, his brow raised in surprise as he looked me over. “Is that why your hair was so long when we found you?”
I nodded, seeing no reason to lie, and dumped another mouthful of stew onto my tongue. The tiny bit of food I’d eaten was already making me feel better. Not much better, but enough that I felt sure I would recover soon enough.
“Hmm,” Harlan mused before turning to face my aunt.
“Well, it seems your girl doesn’t need her hair to heal after all.
” Harlan pulled out the chair opposite me and threw himself into it, putting his back to Ethel like she was of no consequence.
The way he crossed his arms over his chest made his upper arms bulge, and he still held his knife.
I supposed, to someone like him, Ethel was of no consequence.
Ethel stood frozen, her eyes suddenly less angry and more greedy as she studied me and sized up Harlan. “What are you going to do with her?” she asked as she retrieved two cups from a shelf.
“Take her to the High Court, of course.”
Aunt Ethel stiffened. “You can’t do that.”
“Watch me,” he said while looking at me.
“The people here need her,” Ethel cried. “They’ve been suffering ever since she left.”
“She needs water,” he reiterated.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ethel fill the two cups with water and then add several drops of potion to one of them.
I tried to keep my face passive. If she gave me that cup, I wouldn’t be able to drink it, no matter how thirsty I was.
But if she gave it to Harlan…my heart raced with hope.
If she put him to sleep, I could leave. If I flung myself off the balcony, would that take me back to Islewyn?
Was I brave enough to do such a thing? Or foolish enough?
I might have to wait until my full strength returned and then attempt to climb to the ground again.
But I could do that. If Harlan slept long enough, I could make my escape.
I carefully tracked Aunt Ethel’s movements, keeping my eye on the cup that had the added magic.
She set it in front of Harlan and gave me the other.
I grabbed mine up and took a sip, just to be sure there was no taste of magic, then I quickly drained it.
Harlan eyed the cup Ethel had set before him, then turned his derisive eyes on her. “So you do have some manners,” he said as he snatched it up and swallowed half the cup in one gulp. “Don’t worry. We’ll be on our way soon enough,” he assured her.
Then he coughed.
I took another bite of stew, wondering how long it would take for him to fall asleep.
Then he coughed again and the table shook violently.
I looked up to see Harlan clutching at his throat, looking at me with huge eyes. He reached for me and I lurched to my feet, stumbling away from him. “What’s happening?” I asked, terrified by the purple color crawling up his neck and spreading over his face.
He pushed out of his seat and stumbled toward me, backing me up until I was on the balcony, determined to avoid his grasping hands as he fell to his knees.
The door leading to the stairs crashed open, and my heart soared when I recognized Tavric’s towering form. His eyes swept the room and immediately fixed on me as he ran full tilt past Ethel and jumped over Harlan, who writhed on the floor. He swept me up into his arms just as my legs buckled.
“I have you now,” he whispered. “I have you.”
Tavric was here. I didn’t know how, but he was holding me up, protecting me, and claiming me.
That support was all the permission I needed to fall apart.
In the safety of his arms, the events of the last few hours caught up with me and I dissolved into a sobbing mess, wailing into his chest as he held me together and whispered reassurances in my ear.
I didn’t know what would come next. Part of me knew we were far from out of danger, but the bigger part of me knew that as long as Tavric was with me, we would figure it out.
“Harlan took me,” I sobbed.
“I know, love.”
“He was going to turn me over to the High Court for reward money.”
A breath hissed past his teeth and his grip on me tightened. “Not anymore. He’s dead, Lyri. You’re safe now.”
What? Dead! I hadn’t wanted him to die. Surely Tavric was mistaken. He’d probably just never seen a sleeping potion work before. But even as I thought it, I knew that Harlan’s violent reaction wasn’t how sleeping potions worked.
I looked up into Tavric’s eyes and gave myself one moment to soak in his comfort before I turned my head to look at Harlan’s prone body. His face was an unnatural, mottled purple, and he lay on his stomach, eyes open and lifeless.
My whole frame started to shake as I looked over at my aunt, who stood looking stubbornly fierce and unrepentant. “You killed him?” I asked in a bare whisper.
“Of course I did,” she stated without remorse. “He was going to take you away. Now get away from that man,” she demanded.
My grip on Tav tightened. “No,” I cried as Ethel took a step closer.
“Don’t,” he said, his tone dangerous as he turned us so that his back was almost to her, placing himself as a barrier between Ethel and me. “Don’t touch her.”
From the safety of Tavric’s arms, I peeked out at Ethel, who looked incensed. “Watch yourself, young man. You don’t know—”
“I know everything I need to know,” he said, releasing me so that he could face Ethel and tuck me behind him. “I know Lyri. I know what you put her through.”
She ignored Tav and looked to me, softening her features into an imitation of tenderness. “We’ll be just fine, Lyrielle. You’ve still got your magic. You can still help people, and that’s what matters. They need you, my dear.”
I blinked at her, astonished. “Why would I ever stay with you?” I asked. “You never saw any value in me. You only saw value in my magic, just like everyone else in this village. Why would I ever want to be around people who care nothing for me?”
The tenderness slipped from her face, replaced by stony determination. “You foolish girl,” she said bitterly. “You were revered.”
“My hair was revered.”
“It’s the same thing.”
A bitter guffaw burst from my lungs. “It’s not. And if you cared about me at all, you would know that.”
“You would disrespect the memory of my dear sister—”
“She was my mother!” I shouted, stepping out from behind Tavric. “And he was my father! You don’t own all the grief of my parents’ deaths. And you don’t own me, so you don’t get to decide how I use my gift.”
Her eyes blazed. “You aren’t leaving here.”
“Yes, I am,” I said with an intensity that made Ethel step back.
Tav wrapped an arm around my waist from behind and dropped a kiss on top of my head. “Let’s go,” he murmured.
But before we could take more than a step, Ethel bent and picked up Harlan’s knife, pointing it at us. “You aren’t going anywhere!” she screamed and then charged at us.
I froze in fear, but Tavric pulled me behind him again and backed us away from her.
Ethel swiped at Tavric with the knife. I screamed and he jumped back to avoid it, but there was nowhere to go on the small balcony and the backs of my thighs hit the banister.
Ethel swung the knife again and Tavric leaned away from it, pushing further into me, and I lost my balance.
His weight was too much, and my strength was too little.