Chapter 5 - Disgraced
Cold tears streamed from my eyes as I plummeted toward the trees. The ground grew closer and closer.
I was going to die.
Suddenly a hand snatched my cape and sparkling magic swallowed me. I gasped as my feet found purchase on grass and my head spun.
Daigen’s horrible laugh cut through my ears.
I whipped around and my fists ached with how hard I clenched them. “You let me fall to my death!”
“No, I didn’t.” He folded his arms. “That was an exercise in trust, remember?”
My arms shook as I wiped away the frightened tears from my cheeks. “I was dead…I was falling…”
Daigen grabbed my chin and forced my eyes up to meet his. His touch was cold enough that I stopped shaking. “You’ll step through the air when you want something bad enough that you’ll split the fabric of the living world for it. Until then, you can trust that I will never let you fall.”
He let go, but I kept my mouth closed as I tried to get my stomach to settle.
Morning mist crawled around my feet. I looked around and found tall square towers and a wall that stretched around us.
Daigen had dropped us in the center of the fortress courtyard. I looked up at the closed wooden doors at the top of the keep’s steps as Erik and Endre settled on my shoulders. Endre hissed while Daigen snapped that he technically never put me in danger.
My heartbeat slowed as I forced myself to take measured breaths. If Daigen had sensed that Astrid needed help, I needed to be as calm as possible.
The golden Bloodstone and Ravenwood pins weighed on my sternum as my chest rose and fell. The North was mine. Magic was mine. But what did I have to show for it?
A toothless title and a worthless heart.
“By Ganora’s mercy!”
“They appeared in mid-air, I saw it!”
“She’s a–a-”
“Sorceress! Sorceress!”
Daigen’s dark violet eyes swept across the courtyard. “I shouldn’t keep poor Astrid waiting any longer.” He shot me a wink. “Let’s see if you can use your magic without burning anything down.”
He stepped backward into the air and disappeared.
Endre lowered his head and extended his wing as I turned my head. Dozens of Bloodstone soldiers in their red uniforms ran toward me with swords drawn and arrows notched in their bowstrings.
My stomach dropped. So much for commanding my own army.
In sheer desperation, I held up my hands. The soldiers halted, some of them tripping backward over their own feet.
I might not know how to enchant them, but I could use their fear against them. “I-I am indeed a sorceress! And your new Baron! Do not come any closer!”
One of the soldiers gripped the hilt of his sword, but stayed still. “Oh yeah? Where’s Riyan Bloodstone? Did you kill him and steal his pins?”
The company of soldiers rumbled with suspicion. Before I could protest, a voice I recognized piped up. “She couldn’t have killed him, she’s his wife!”
I turned toward the voice and a short soldier stepped forward. His face was much smoother than it had first seemed under torchlight, but he was the soldier who had played the flute as Riyan and I danced days ago.
A lankier soldier—the one who had played the lute—stepped beside the shorter. “But she brought omens of Death into the fortress!”
The soldiers murmured. Erik and Endre stilled on my shoulders.
The shorter soldier turned to the taller. “Then we let Captain Mydina handle it.”
The rabble quieted. I swept my eyes over the soldiers and bit my tongue as my mind raced. Captain Mydina? How could the captain of the Bloodstone army be from the noble House of Mydina?
The shorter soldier jogged to me, but stilled as soon as he looked at Erik on my shoulder. His round eyes darted from Erik to Endre. “Uh, please come with me sorcer…uh, Baron.”
He held out his arm but then quickly drew it back. He shifted on his feet and kept his eyes down. “B-Brandt Olson, at your service.”
Maybe I did not need to frighten poor Brandt. I gave him a disarming smile as I followed him toward the keep. The eyes of every Bloodstone soldier drilled into my back the instant I ascended the first step.
Landing in the middle of the courtyard was a mistake I could not repeat. Any form of sorcery in Lycaster was a capital offense, though none of the soldiers would report me to the Hytons. The Bloodstone army merely existing was treason, a capital offense in of itself.
Still, I needed to tread carefully or else the superstitious soldiers might take an axe to my neck themselves.
Brandt tripped up a step and clumsily recovered. Easing his nerves might calm the rest of the army down too, so I put on a smile. “I remember you. Your flute-playing was wonderful.”
A small smile flicked up his lips as he ascended the steps. “Well…I just followed Calder’s lead—Calder Anson, I mean. We were bunkmates at the military academy. He was the one playing the lute and he has much better rhythm than I do.”
I kept a polite expression and nodded. Anxiety made his mouth run like a river.
“And what about your captain?” I said as I reached the top step. “He could certainly play the violin well.”
Brandt tugged on the iron handle of the heavy wooden door so we could slip through. “Oh, Captain is good at the violin. Best I’ve ever heard.”
The violin was a logical choice for a noble son, but how did a noble son end up in the Bloodstone army? He should have graduated from Heaston Academy for Young Gentlemen unless he was kicked out and sent to the military academy.
The memory of Riyan’s smooth voice entered my mind. “ Serafina, nice boys don’t get sent to the military academy. ”
If the captain was not a nice boy, maybe polite conversation was not the way to win him over.
Surviving after stepping off the edge of a cliff certainly made the idea of enchanting the mysterious noble son less frightening.
Brandt led me into the foyer and the warm smell of the keep entered my nose, reminding me of Hilda’s loving embrace the first time I entered the fortress. I swallowed my sadness and grounded myself in my task. If I ensured Captain Mydina’s loyalty, by whatever means, I was one step closer to freeing Hilda’s grandson from the Queen of the Giants.
We entered the dining hall. A group of maids stood in front of the long dining table, the captain of the Bloodstone army facing them on the other side.
“I don’t care what you do, just get her to calm down!” the captain huffed. “We just finished burying her parents and I am not digging another grave—”
Brandt cleared his throat. “Captain, we have an issue.”
The line of maids parted as they turned toward us, revealing Captain Mydina’s face. Before, I had been too distracted by the long scar that cut between his yellow eyes to figure out who he was, but I had finally put a face to the name I had suspected.
I had heard rumors about him—he was just a few years ahead of Erik in school when he had been thrown out of the House of Mydina and disinherited. What a delightful surprise to find him.
I could use his sordid past to my advantage.
My white flame flickered to life. Daigen had said to follow my heart’s desire to get what I wanted, and my heart’s desire was to keep my head.
Captain Mydina’s eyes fell to the golden House pins on my chest, then they raised to Erik and Endre on my shoulders.
“Leave us,” Captain Mydina clipped. “All of you.”
The maids quickly shuffled away to the nearest staircase in the corner of the room, but Brandt lingered behind. “But Captain, she is a…a…”
“Sorceress,” I finished with a cool voice and a smile. “And your new Baron. We have much to discuss.”
Captain Mydina’s eyes narrowed before they cut to Brandt. “Shut the gate. Make sure no one goes in or out until I get a handle on this.”
Brandt saluted and left us alone in the dining hall.
My whisper skated over my lips as I turned my head slightly to Erik. “Remember him?”
A low croak of assent escaped Erik’s throat. Captain Mydina spread his hands on top of the table and glared with suspicion at Erik.
“Can I trust him?” I whispered.
To my surprise, Erik gently preened a strand of hair in front of my ear.
I pressed my lips into a firm line. Erik likely meant “yes,” but he was more rigid about morality than any man I had ever known. What did Erik sense in the captain that made him overlook his past?
Captain Mydina’s gaze moved from Erik to Endre. “You must have caused quite a disturbance bringing those into my fortress.”
My white flame flared around my heart. His fortress?
“My…companions from the mountain bring no harm.” I took calm breaths so my indignation did not smolder into an inferno. “And did I hear you refer to this place as your fortress?”
The corner of Captain Mydina’s mouth flicked up. “Nikkolas had me running most of the fortress’s operations for him. He wanted someone to take charge in case his heir was…unable.” He shrugged slightly. “And look where we are now.”
The flame in my chest flared brighter. “Good thing someone has come to take charge. Riyan bestowed the power of the North to me, and you will do well to acquiesce to his wishes.”
Captain Mydina chuckled. “You don’t know the first thing about running a province, Serafina.”
A smile crawled up my lips. “I know more than you think, Evereon. ”
Evereon Mydina’s eyes widened and he held his breath. “How did you—?”
“Oh, you are quite infamous.” I kept my voice low and calm as I moved around the long table toward him. “But I will admit, it took me a while to recognize you.”
I let my fingertips trace the edge of the oak dining table as I rounded the far edge. “Coppery hair like your father’s…” I flicked my eyes up to meet his gaze. “Yellow eyes and light brown complexion, just like your Sudrian-born mother, Baroness Mydina.”
Evereon’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but—”
“I have heard many things, whispers mainly, all of them conflicting with one another.” I rounded the second corner and stalked closer. “Your father kept most of the details quiet, but disinheriting a Baron’s heir was quite a scandal.”
I stopped in front of him, tilting my head up to look him in the eyes. To Evereon’s credit, he did not cower.
“You can threaten me with whatever tricks you learned on the mountain,” he said, “but I do not fear my past, I fear the future. What happened to him?”
I set my jaw. “You act quite concerned for someone who claimed this was his fortress. The disappearance of the last Bloodstone heir would be quite advantageous for you—a chance to have a Baronage again.”
His face hardened. “I can’t have a Baronage because I can’t have heirs.” His voice broke slightly, but his eyes stayed rigid. “I can’t. ”
As soon as I felt the heat radiate against the front of my throat, my hand flew up to cover my Nordingaard crystal. I squeezed my fingers tightly to contain its light, even as warmth filled my palm.
At that same moment, a tiny pinhole of white light opened up between Evereon’s eyes, right on top of the jagged white scar.
A moment later, I heard notes from a lone violin…but that was not possible. No one was playing music in the room. After a few more melancholy notes, I realized the music was in my mind, calling me closer to Evereon.
Power sparked in my fingertips. A few tears in the air sparkled and braided themselves into a rope that only I could see, connecting the white light on Evereon’s forehead to my own.
Wait…it was not just white light…it was a door. A door into Evereon’s mind.
Daigen had said that he had communicated with my inner self using a magical connection. Is that what I was doing?
As an answer, the violin music that only I could hear got louder and sadder. The music wrapped around my wrist and tugged me forward, like a child asking for help.
I swallowed and ignored the invisible magic pull. I had been so eager to use Evereon’s past as leverage for my own security, but now I did not want to know. It felt…too deep and too sad.
I could scarcely handle my own emotions, I did not want to take on someone else’s too.
My white flame retreated and the invisible magic connection weakened. Baron Mydina rejected his son because he could not have heirs, that I could accept. Evereon did not show any signs of disloyalty, so I would not need to enchant him after all.
I should have just trusted Erik’s instinct.
Evereon’s face stayed hard, unaware of the magical pull between us. “You and Riyan were the North’s last hope, the last two people who could maintain our lineage and keep the Hytons from taking over. I need to know what you did to him on that mountain.”
“I did nothing, I—” I swallowed and the numbness in my chest grew, suffocating my white flame. My magic hold over Evereon disintegrated. “The Queen of the Giants took him.”
His eyebrows knitted and his nostrils flared. “What? What happened?”
My white flame awoke again, pushing my words out of my throat before I could stop myself. “He gave his life for mine.”
Evereon’s eyes were round as dinner plates. “He’s dead?”
“No! No, he is still alive!”
He let out a relieved breath. “Still married, then? That at least gives us some stability—”
“No.” My hand flew up over my throat. I did not mean to tell him my blood bond was gone. The answer just…came out on its own! How did that happen?
Evereon’s face froze. “What do you mean, ‘no?’”
Before I could try to come up with a lie, panicked footsteps echoed in the stairwell. I turned to see two white-faced maids running out of the stairwell and into the dining hall.
“Captain!” one of them panted, pointing backward toward the stairs. “A-a man is in Miss Bloodstone’s room!”
“He’s…he’s purple!” cried the other.
Evereon wrapped his hand around the hilt of his sword as he marched toward the stairwell. He growled at the maids to get out of his way and then hauled himself up the steps.
I picked up my skirt and followed. I could not have him angering Daigen and getting turned into a goat or some other creature. Luckily, Evereon was slow enough that I could keep up.
Even though I was concerned about how the captain of the Bloodstone army would react when he found Daigen, a bigger question burned in my mind—why had I unwillingly given away harmful information? I had no control over my own tongue!
We reached the top of the steps and Evereon barrelled down the hallway toward Astrid’s bedroom. He stopped at the door decorated with a rainbow of flowers with his brows knitted. I stopped in my tracks too.
What froze our feet was not a scream, nor the sound of a struggle, but a giggle, soft as butterfly wings.
She was not supposed to giggle, and yet…
With a croak of encouragement from Endre in my left ear, I pushed open the door to Astrid’s room.
Hilda once said her daughter had lost her mind the day Riyan was born. Nikkolas had said she was broken and only knew five words, one of which being “monster.”
But as I looked at Astrid Bloodstone, sitting in her wheeled chair in the center of her bedroom and tugging on Daigen’s horns, the word “monster” was far from her lips.
Instead, her lips wore a smile.