Chapter 13
JESSAMINE
Flaxon had given us bags of ground wheat, barley grains, and some dried beans. He’d also given Tessa a small bag of herbs she said had great healing properties. She’d had trouble growing them in Vanglosa.
“The beans are great in stews. You’ll like them.” She rode her wolf, Mishka, while Saralyn slept in her pouch on Tessa’s chest. The sprite was curled into a ball upon the babe’s head.
I rode upon Wolf beside her, remembering how Haldek had taught me to cook stew and bake bread when I’d worked at his tavern.
Though I never ate the ones with meat, I’d also learned to make a hearty mushroom and root vegetable soup for myself.
I thought the beans and barley might make it even better.
It was strange that cooking, something I was forbidden to learn back at the palace in Morodon, had become a comforting chore when I worked for Haldek.
I’d even kept a book of recipes, which was still sitting on my desk back in the Borderlands.
I contemplated how I might contribute to the clan as we traveled north toward Ghasta Vale, thinking I might offer my services as a cook.
Anything to keep my mind off the brooding giant beast fae lord tromping along at the head of our party.
Now that the wolves were laden with our goods as well as me, Tessa, and her babe, the men walked in front and behind us.
We passed Lake Moreen, seeming to give it a wide berth for some reason.
I’d heard the trappers speak of it in Haldek’s tavern, how plentiful the fish were in the spring.
Right now, it was a white sheet of ice, dark at the center where the ice thinned.
Reaching out with my magick, I sensed no naiads here, but I’d bet they returned here in the warmth of summer. I imagined it was beautiful then.
Redvyr had been doing his utmost to ignore me since we’d returned from Hellamir last night.
I must have offended or embarrassed him when I’d tried to calm him down, to keep him from storming into Hellamir and killing Lord Gael.
Not that I’d regret him killing the lord who I’d been betrothed to by my father, but I certainly didn’t want Redvyr to be captured in doing so. Or worse, becoming injured or killed.
Though I wanted to ask him if he was angry with me for interfering, we’d had no time alone. And I wouldn’t embarrass him further by interrogating him in front of his men. Besides, there was nothing I could do for having offended him in whatever way that I had.
We finally entered a forest that was thick with snow-laden evergreens. Even this far south of the mountain range, there were large boulders littering the woods. We’d come upon one of these clearings with a few large boulders when Redvyr came to a stop.
“We’ll stop here for the night,” he called back.
He unloaded one of the wolves with Dayn, hauling off saddlebags of grain from their backs. Then they piled them near a wide boulder. It would be the perfect spot to make camp because we could sleep with the rockface at our backs, able to watch for attackers or predators.
I’d learned to look for the most defensible places to sleep since I’d run away from home, especially after my incident with the robber in that inn. I was much wiser than I’d been when I left home as a na?ve royal.
Bezaliel helped his wife and daughter down from the back of Mishka. “You and Jessamine can take Saralyn to wash at the pool.”
“I remember. Làveen Orla,” she whispered in a teasing way, her accent thickening as the words should be said in demon tongue.
Bezaliel grinned. “I can’t join you this time.”
Tessa glanced over at me as I slid off of Wolf, adding louder, “I’m sure Jessamine would enjoy a quick bath much as I would.”
“I would.”
“I have some toweling here we can use.”
“Be quick,” warned Bezaliel. “It won’t be long before the sun sets.”
“Don’t worry,” Tessa laughed. “It will be too cold to enjoy. We’ll make quick work of washing.”
The three of us, with Hallizel fluttering above, wound our way past the others. I couldn’t help but observe Redvyr, hoping he might acknowledge my existence if even with a small glance. But he continued unloading, never looking our way, as if he didn’t even know we were there.
My heart squeezed with disappointment. I’d thought we’d become somewhat friends. But apparently, I’d overstepped my bounds when I persuaded him from heading off into Hellamir and getting himself killed.
That was fine if he didn’t want to talk to me. At least I could do something special for my actual friend Tessa and her little one Saralyn. I tapped into my magick, a small touch, letting it warm my blood without summoning it forward just yet.
“The water will be freezing,” she said as we drew closer to the gurgling sound of the brook.
“No, it won’t.”
She frowned over at me. “What do you mean?”
Grinning, I said, “I’m a willoden. One of the gifts of magick I was born with.”
“A water wielder? How can that help us?”
“Wait and see,” I promised her with a smile.
Once we passed through the brush and stepped up to the narrow stream, I looked around, trying to find the right place.
“Come over here.” I led her to a spot where the stream widened into a small pool before it narrowed again, rushing over river rocks and seeming to disappear into the earth, though I could hear the trickle of water falling down a crevasse.
I untied the lacings of the slits in my dress so that I could hike up my skirt and kneel. I didn’t want to get my dress dirty, and I wasn’t ready to take it off yet in the cold, but I needed to touch the water.
Dipping my hand into the frigid pool, I waved my hand back and forth beneath the surface, the slight current pressing against my palm and webbed fingers. Closing my eyes, I summoned the cooler depths inside me where the willoden magick slept.
“Keskavalla,” I whispered in the naiad tongue. “Septimius orkavalla. Shelliastalyn, preela. Preela ves.”
I wasn’t sure why, but the waters always responded when I spoke the naiad language, the same one I used when communicating with naiads.
My hands began to glow moon-white, tiny luminescent dot markings appearing on the back of my hand. Tessa gasped, but I kept my focus, still waving my hand gently in the stream, speaking to the water itself.
All at once, the water bubbled, the numbness in my fingers fading as the temperature rose, heat billowing up from the pool.
“Gods above.” Tessa laughed and knelt beside me, dipping her hand in the water. “It’s warm. Almost hot, even. How did you do that?”
“I’m a willoden. It doesn’t always work. The waters can refuse to do as we ask.” I shrugged. “But I’ve never had much trouble really.”
I wasn’t bragging. It was true. While my sisters had difficulty when they were coming into their powers as willodens, I never did. The waters always granted my wishes.
“What language were you speaking?” asked Tessa, having set Saralyn on the bank and quickly beginning to undress.
“It’s an old tongue that naiads speak.”
When Tessa was naked, she began to unwrap little Saralyn.
I hesitated, for I knew what I would look like beneath my dress.
I was actually shocked that Tessa wasn’t openly staring at my face and neck where the markings glowed on my face.
I could feel the radiating heat and hum of magick that appeared whenever my syrenskyn powers rose to the surface.
Though it was true, I held the power of a willoden, I couldn’t summon that magick without also calling on my syrenskyn powers. For me, they were tied together.
“Oh, heavens and hells!” called Tessa, laughing as she carried Saralyn into the water. “This is a paradise, Jessamine. You are truly blessed by the gods.”
She swirled in the waist-deep water, dipping Saralyn in. The baby cooed and gurgled happily. Hallizel tittered and fluttered above the water, dipping her talons in as well. I smiled, having never seen my gift give anyone joy before.
“Warmy, warmy!” shouted Hallizel.
“Come on in, Jessa. Don’t be shy!”
My heart tripped at hearing her call me Jessa.
Only my dear brother Draydyn had ever called me by that nickname.
I swallowed hard at the endearment and began to slide the dress off.
I then unlaced my boots and waited for Tessa to remark on the strange glow of my skin and the pattern of dots decorating my arms and legs, swirling around my breasts and belly.
When I looked up at her, she was pressing kisses to Saralyn’s wet cheeks. She then cradled her in one arm and dipped her head back into the warm water, dribbling water with her hands over her hair and tiny nubs of horns. I exhaled a relieved breath as I met them in the deeper part of the pool.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed about your body,” she told me.
I glanced down, seeing the magick of the syrenskyn glowing bright on my voluptuous curves, the body of a sinful seductress as I was constantly told by my mother.
“I’ve been taught to be embarrassed by it,” I found myself admitting.
Tessa glared at me angrily, but I knew that look was for those who’d taught me to be ashamed. “Whoever did that is an imbecile and a rotten asshole.”
I laughed, having not heard those sorts of words come out of Tessa’s mouth before.
“You are utterly gorgeous, Jessa. Even the pretty glowing dots all over you. Is that because you’re a nendovir?”
I wanted to tell her the truth, but I still feared becoming a pariah among the clan. Tessa had been nothing but kind to me, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t warn her mate that I had the ability to kill anyone at will if I wanted to. So I lied.
“Thank you. Yes.” Though my claws had come out, I hid them in the water. My fangs had descended but I ducked my head and hid those as well.
I wouldn’t explain to her what my true purpose was. What this ethereal glow was meant to do— entrap men so that I might kill them.
“The language you spoke was lovely,” said Tessa, seeming to know I wanted to change the subject. “What were you saying?”