Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
A Winter Apart
A Glimmer of Hope
Winter had settled hard over Caerith.
Snow covered the castle grounds and continued to fall beyond the windows of Dravic’s solar. The fire burned high in the hearth, but he barely noticed its warmth.
“She has been gone nearly two months,” Dravic said.
Kaelan sat across from him. “You searched for her. We all did.”
“Not nearly long enough.”
Until snow had made the roads nearly impassable and reports from Caerith could no longer be ignored. Scotara had needed its king, and Dravic had been forced to make the choice he had hated most.
He had returned home without Adira.
Fiora had stayed behind, insisting she would continue the search, which had given him some hope. But he had yet to hear from her.
“Tharne warned me I was wasting my time,” Dravic said. “He claims I will never find her unless she wishes to be found.”
“He is probably right.”
Dravic’s eyes narrowed.
Kaelan laughed. “You may be my king, but that does not make you pleasant company when someone tells you something you do not wish to hear.”
“I did not ask for your opinion.”
“Nay, but you are getting it anyway.”
Dravic leaned back in his chair. He had learned quickly that having family came with liberties he had never permitted others. Strangely, he did not dislike it.
“She should have remained with me,” Dravic said, the thought of why she didn’t continuing to haunt him.
“Perhaps.”
“Perhaps you say?”
Kaelan shrugged. “Bria believes Adira needed to leave.”
“Bria is wrong.”
“Tell her that.”
Dravic scowled.
Kaelan grinned. “I thought not.”
Dravic stood and walked to the window.
Somewhere beyond the falling snow was the woman he loved. He had awakened that morning at Morvane Castle and reached for her. The bed had been empty. He had known immediately. She was gone.
He had searched the castle, then the woods, Tharne and his men having joined in the hunt.
Nothing was found. Not a single footprint despite the snow-covered ground. Not even the hint of a trail.
It was as though Adira had simply disappeared and perhaps she had.
He had argued with Feena/Faith, whatever her name was, and Tharne, demanding they use their magic to find her, especially Tharne. He was from the most powerful clan in Driochmor. How was it he could not simply find Adira with his magic?
Tharne argued that it was not that easy until Dravic had battered him with questions that he finally admitted that Adira, his daughter, was more powerful than he was.
Magic.
Dravic had spent most of his life distrusting it. Now the woman he intended to make his queen possessed more of it than anyone believed possible.
“I think Tharne knows more than he tells me.”
“That would not surprise me.”
“Nor me,” Dravic said, “which makes appointing him to my council questionable.”
Kaelan stared at him. “You appointed Tharne to your council?”
“He will represent Driochmor.”
“Tharne agreed?”
“Aye. He was more than eager when I offered it.”
“I would have liked to have witnessed that conversation.”
“You would have been disappointed. We had more important matters to settle than our dislike of one another.”
Kaelan leaned back in his chair. “Then the borders?”
“Gone. Driochmor is part of Scotara. Its people will no longer be treated as something to fear simply because magic runs in their blood. Tharne has agreed that Driochmor will stand with Scotara, and I have given my word that Scotara will stand with them.”
“That will not please everyone.”
“I am king. I do not require everyone to be pleased.”
Kaelan smiled. “You and Tharne may have more in common than either of you wishes to admit.”
“Do not insult me.”
Kaelan laughed again.
Dravic shook his head, though the corner of his mouth threatened to betray him.
Family. It remained strange to him. He had spent years with no one who dared tease him, question him, or speak to him as Kaelan did. Tavish came closest, though even he knew when to retreat.
Adira was his family and he and she would grow a family together. The thought tore at his heart. Where was she? What was she doing? Was she safe? Unharmed?
“She will return,” Kaelan said, seeing the struggle on Dravic’s face.
Dravic turned to him. “You sound certain.”
“I am.”
“Why?”
“It’s simple. She loves you.”
Dravic’s brow drew tight. “That did not stop her from leaving.”
“Nay,” Kaelan said. “But perhaps loving you was not the reason she left.”
Dravic was quiet for a moment. He had considered so many reasons why she left, but that was not one of them. He was confident she loved him and any other reason simply was not acceptable. Adira should not have left, and when he found her, he would lose no time in telling her just that.
He cast a glance at the fire. Nay, he would take her in his arms and never let her go.
The endless ache of her absence continued to prod at him, and he attempted to ease it with talk of something else.
“Tell me about Northland.”
Kaelan looked surprised by the question.
“My mother rarely spoke of it.”
“Perhaps because speaking of home made her miss it more.”
Dravic could understand that.
“Northland is different from Scotara,” Kaelan said.
“Magic touches the land there as well, but not as it does in Driochmor. Ours is an earthly magic. We understand the land, the seas, the forests, the rivers, the animals, the changing seasons. We learn what they give us and what they warn us of. Our survival depends upon respecting them.”
Something stirred in Dravic’s memory: his mother taking his hand and leading him into the woods.
Showing him which way moss grew upon a tree.
Teaching him to watch the birds and how their sudden silence could be a warning.
Telling him that the wind carried more than cold if one learned how to understand it.
He had forgotten so much.
“Nay,” Dravic said, recalling. “My mother did teach me some of it.”
Kaelan smiled. “I thought she might have.”
“She took me into the forest often when I was young. She showed me things. Explained things.” Dravic frowned, frustrated by how indistinct some of the memories had become. “Much of it has faded.”
“You were a child.”
Not so fond memories intruded on Dravic. “I remembered other lessons. Constant. Demanding ones.”
“Because you were forced to.” Kaelan shrugged. “You were being taught to be king. I imagine there was little time left for learning what a river or a tree wished to tell you.”
Dravic almost smiled.
“My mother told me that your da was beginning to understand before they died.”
Dravic’s attention sharpened. “Your mother, my aunt, spoke of my father?”
“Often. She had been pleased that though their marriage had been an arranged one, they had fallen in love. She said Edric became curious about the Northland ways. He asked questions. He wanted to understand what Ravina understood rather than simply dismissing it as magic.”
The little that he recalled about his da, he knew that sounded like him.
“He wanted to learn,” Kaelan continued. “My mother believed that given time, he would have.”
Dravic looked toward the fire again. Memories of his parents had always been painfully brief, preserved from the eyes of a child who had not understood how quickly they could be taken from him.
“My da and mum would have made a good king and queen.”
“Aye,” Kaelan said. “I believe they would have.”
Dravic remained silent.
“And you have more of both of them in you than you realize.”
Dravic glanced at him. “You have known me only a short time.”
“I know my family.” Kaelan smiled. “Besides, what Ravina taught you is not gone.”
Dravic disagreed. “It certainly feels gone.”
“It is part of you. You simply need to remember.”
“And how do you suggest I do that?”
“Adira will teach you,” Kaelan said as if it were a given.
Dravic’s expression changed at the sound of her name.
Kaelan seemed not to notice. “She instinctively knows the forest. She understands things you have forgotten. And with Morvane magic in her blood…” He shrugged. “Perhaps she understands things neither of us ever will.”
“She has much to explain when I find her,” Dravic said with the command of a king.
Kaelan laughed. “I don’t think that will be the first thing on your mind when you find her.”
He was right but Dravic would not admit it.
Kaelan scratched his chin. “I just thought of a way you might be able to find her.”
Dravic sprang forward in his chair. “Tell me.”