Chapter 6 - Shards of Memory
I never thought I would see Astrid Bloodstone smile. My heart swelled as I watched her play with Daigen in the middle of her bedroom.
Evereon did not feel the same.
He drew his sword. “Get away from her.”
Daigen gently tugged himself out of Astrid’s grip and glared at Evereon. “Oh, a lost little Mydina boy? Far away from the House of wolves, I see.” He raised a hand. “Now would you be more or less ferocious as a wolf? Let’s find out.”
I stepped between Evereon and Daigen’s potential enchantment. “Stop—”
Evereon stepped around me and kept his grip on his sword. “I will not let you terrorize Miss Bloodstone—”
Evereon pulled his sword only an inch out of its sheath before his wrist stilled. Before I could blink, Daigen used his invisible hold on Evereon’s wrist to yank him forward. When Evereon’s face was mere inches from his, Daigen opened his mouth and breathed out a dark frost. The moment the magical mist curled into Evereon’s nose, his yellow eyes rolled back and he collapsed.
My breath caught in my throat as Evereon crashed to the floor. Astrid did not even blink.
Erik’s and Endre’s wings fluttered on either side of my head and made my heart jump. Erik perched on the top edge of a nearby wardrobe. Endre landed on Evereon’s back and hissed up at Daigen.
“Calm down, wolf boy will wake up soon enough.” Daigen’s horns retreated back into his head. “I’m not a monster.”
He looked down at unconscious Evereon and scoffed. “Terrorize Astrid, what a joke.” He gently held Astrid’s frail hand. “What did you say to me the first time we met?”
Astrid’s grey eyes sparked like thunderclouds and a smile crawled up her face. “Eat shit.”
Did…did I hear her correctly? Of the five words Astrid knew, I was fairly certain none of them were “eat shit.”
I stepped closer and examined Astrid’s flushed face. I looked up at Daigen and shot him another silent question.
Daigen kept hold of Astrid’s hand. “I gave her a memory back—from my mind to hers. Along with the one I took from the healing spring.” He gently stroked Astrid’s temple with his knuckle. “She’s got a few memories in there…bits and pieces that she’s collected over the years visiting the spring.”
My fingertips touched the cool surface of my crystal. If magic from the spring captured memories, that meant Astrid’s mind had to be…
I caught my breath—her mind was in the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun. How had she gotten trapped there?
He lifted Astrid’s hand toward me. “Care to take a look? I’m sure she’ll let you in…she’s horribly lonely.”
I shot Daigen a look, but I understood. We did not come to the fortress because Astrid was distressed, we came because she had a memory I was supposed to see.
At least I was beginning to untangle Daigen’s twisted logic.
Astrid’s big eyes flicked up to me. She looked much older than thirty-nine but still seemed even younger than me.
She likely had no idea who I was, even though we had met before. I held out my hand. “Nice to see you again, Astrid.”
Astrid let go of Daigen but did not reach for my hand. Instead, she reached for my crimson cape, gently feeling the wool between her fingertips. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Did she even know that the scent that lingered on my cape was from her son?
“My name is Serafina,” I said softly. “I married your son…once. I…I am trying to save him.”
Astrid looked toward her bed, where portraits of childlike Riyan were nailed to the wall.
My eyes swept across the portraits of the yellow-haired child that Astrid had painted with her hands. She had screamed in terror when she last saw Riyan, but she would not have painted him as a child if she did not know him, at least a little.
She might even have known him better than I did. Maybe she would show me who he really was, at least a small clue, anything to give my heart some damn direction.
I held down a hopeful smile as my white flame awoke and my crystal warmed my throat. The light between Astrid’s eyes that only I could see started shining and the magical tether between our minds materialized.
She released my cape and lifted her hand. Right before her fingertips touched my palm, a dozen butterfly wings fluttered in my mind.
Astrid let me in.
In a breath, I closed my eyes and the invisible butterfly wings led me into the darkness, submerging me like they pulled me underwater.
The feeling of water all around me made my heart jump. My eyes popped open to an endless black void. My arms and legs flailed, trying to swim through the water but failing.
A tiny light, like a broken shard of a stained glass window, twinkled in the darkness. Maybe I could use it to float on.
I frantically pulled myself toward it. The moment my fingertips touched the cool surface, my body tumbled through a fog.
The smell of fresh dew filled the air and morning mist crept through me. I did not have a body, which meant I was in a memory.
A quick survey of the surroundings placed me in the courtyard of Bloodstone Fortress. Servants in crimson livery milled about, but they looked like plain peasants, not trained soldiers.
Bloodstone did not have an army yet.
A girl that looked no older than sixteen swung a sword at a tree near the tall stone wall. Her golden braids danced along her back as she practiced her steady, yet fluid movements with her sword.
“Good morning, Miss Bloodstone,” said a deep male voice.
Astrid startled and tripped over one of the tree’s roots, landing on her backside hard.
“Fuck!” she cried.
Her eyes popped open and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Standing over her was a tall young man with white hair flowing down his back. His deep blue eyes were wide and unblinking.
“I mean…f-fortunate to see you this morning, Lord Hyton.” Astrid pushed herself up onto her elbows. “I-I did not mean to startle, you are just so…large.”
Her cheeks flushed red and she buried her face in her arms.
The young man did not chastise her for her impropriety, but instead he laughed. He laughed so loudly even the servants around the fortress stopped with their chores to listen.
Astrid’s grey eyes peeked over her arms. A tiny smile raised her cheeks as the young man extended a hand to help her up.
The memory ended as if I had reached the end of a jagged cliff. I held out my hands and pushed, bringing myself up to the surface of the memory like I was floating on driftwood.
Although he was a teenager in the memory, there was no mistaking the white hair and Hyton Blue eyes. What was General Ragnar Hyton doing at Bloodstone Fortress all those years ago?
Mother had mentioned Ashmore students used to have summers at home just like the Heaston boys did, that was the only way Ragnar and Astrid could have met.
But why would a Hyton go to Bloodstone? Most of Lycaster avoided the Northern provinces.
I rested on my knees atop the glassy surface as I searched my own memories. Nikkolas and Hilda had brought up General Hyton’s mother, Duchess Ilsa, over dinner on my first night in Bloodstone. Even mentioning the traitorous, murdering, alleged sorceress was illegal in Lycaster, but Nikkolas and Hilda talked about her as if she were an old friend.
And if Ilsa was a friend of the Baron and Baroness of Bloodstone, maybe her son had accompanied her on a visit to the fortress.
“ I have what you seek, young thief. ”
I turned my head. That was Ganora’s voice…but what was it doing in Astrid’s mind?
Ganora’s voice came from another floating shard of memory. The jagged glass glowed white with sparkles of rainbow light refracting off the edge. I stretched my fingertips toward the memory and used my magic to pull it closer.
The moment my fingertips touched the cold surface, I plunged into frigid air.
Snow was all around me. Astrid wielded her sword as four giants stomped toward her. The giants smashed their grey fists near her, sending snow flying high in the air. Astrid screamed and swung her blade.
Like the claps from a raging thunderstorm, the giants hit the ground again and again, but Astrid barely avoided them. She held a hand over her abdomen and rushed forward.
If I had a body, my heart would have ached the moment Astrid protected her belly. She was pregnant…and facing the giants alone.
She ran toward a large, swirling pit full of glowing water. Gold, violet, green, blue, and white light all sparkled in the depths and on the surface.
It was a giant well…no, not a well…the Man of the Mountain’s grave, surrounded by frost-covered runes more than fifteen feet high.
Astrid panted as she raced toward the well. Tears and snot streamed down her ruddy face, but she kept her pace.
Then the giants went still. The temperature plummeted.
Astrid stopped mere feet from the edge of the well. Her watery eyes traveled up until she met the grey face of the Queen of the Giants. Ganora knelt by the edge of the well on the opposite side.
She raised her hands and invisible icy talons ripped Astrid’s sword from her fist, then an empty water skein from her shoulders.
Astrid’s eyes went wide the moment the skein disappeared into the snow. If the skein was empty, why did she panic?
Ganora’s glowing eyes were hard. “I have what you seek, young thief.” Ice laced her words. “Come take it.”
Astrid’s face hardened and then I understood. She was there to steal the Man of the Mountain’s tears from his grave.
Astrid accepted Ganora’s challenge and ran straight for the well.
She threw herself onto her hands and knees and desperately gulped down a mouthful of bitter tears. The moment she took a breath, her mind tumbled out of her body into the water.
The wisp of Astrid’s mind swirled around the perimeter of the well and I swirled with her, taking in everything I could.
Ganora stalked toward Astrid’s body and blew sparkling ice crystals into her nose and mouth. Astrid’s belly began to grow.
Then everything went black—Astrid’s mind plummeted into the depths of the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun.
I pushed myself out of the shard of memory. The weight of everything I had just witnessed sat in the center of my chest like a boulder.
Ganora had used the tears that Astrid had swallowed to enchant her baby. She made Riyan too large. It was her power in his veins that made him impossibly strong, lightning fast, and forced him to painfully grow every time he was afraid.
A screaming memory pulled itself toward me. Through the shining surface was a red face with black horns. I held my arms tightly over my stomach as I looked through the memory like a window, watching through Astrid’s eyes.
Over the screaming, Daigen tried his best to soothe Astrid. “You’ll be all right, I promise. Just trust me.”
Daigen held up a gleaming Reginbani. The screaming got louder. I tightened my hold over my abdomen. Even though I was too afraid to touch the memory, I could feel the slice of the knife across my lower belly.
It was like being lit on fire.
The memory started to float away and the pain subsided. Right before the memory disappeared into the darkness, I spotted a giant, but underdeveloped baby in Daigen’s claws.
Riyan.
My chest went tight. My limbs shook. It was too much.
Before I could escape, ribbons of voice surrounded me.
“ How can I be with child, Ragnar? I am not married! ”
“ Do not worry, summer break is coming soon. As soon as Selection Night is over, I will sneak out of the palace and we will go up the mountain together. As long as we get those tears from the well, I can order Fraleigh to marry us. ”
A tiny fragment of memory floated by—Astrid hurriedly tying a crimson ribbon to a branch of a tree outside of Bloodstone Fortress. A leather skein was slung across her back and her sword was attached to her hip.
She was ascending the mountain—she needed the tears to marry Ragnar.
But why was she going alone?
Ragnar’s voice whispered around me. “ I will come back for you, I promise. ”
Astrid walked further through the woods outside the fortress and tied her second ribbon right above the mountain trail. The twin crimson signals clearly marked her path for someone to find, but Astrid looked over her shoulder and waited.
“ I will come back for you, I promise. ”
Astrid’s lip trembled, but she gripped the hilt of her sword and started her climb.
I slammed my eyes shut. I could not take it anymore. I had to get out.
“ I promise. ”
I forced out a breath and let go of my magic. My white flame blinked out and I floated out of the tar pit of Astrid’s mind.
I took in another breath and opened my eyes. My feet were on the floor. My hand was in Astrid’s.
But my knees were weak…and I could not stand…
A hand with long fingers caught my back before I could fall backward.
“I thought you would have lasted longer than that,” Daigen said as he set me down on a cushioned footstool. “You have the emotional capacity of a teacup if watching a few memories exhausted your power like this.”
I glared at him, even though my vision was swimming. “Emotions made me weak, so I stopped having them.”
Daigen scoffed. “You never stopped having them, you just suppressed them.” He ran a hand through his white hair and sighed. “What did you see?”
My eyes found Astrid. “Ganora punished her…cursed her baby as punishment for stealing the tears.”
“Good, you saw that memory.” Daigen’s heel clipped against the floor. “Now you know why your big boy was so big. Giants made from magic and mud were unstable. They could only travel a certain distance from the mountain before they crumbled. So, Ganora made a new giant out of flesh and bone.”
I furrowed my brows. Suddenly Ganora’s curse on an unborn baby seemed less like cruelty and more deliberate. Not only had Ganora made him big, but she also made him the strongest and fastest man alive. He was just like one of her giants, no, better.
Had she cursed Riyan hoping she could raise him to be her perfect weapon? Once Daigen had rescued Astrid from the well, did Ganora plan for Riyan to come back? Did she send her giants to destroy the North, hoping to lure him to her?
Was Ganora lying in wait all this time to take full control of Riyan and use him to free her sister?
Maybe the curse was never a punishment for Astrid, but for the Hytons. No better revenge against the royal House who made a “bad deal” with her sister than to turn one of their sons into a weapon against them.
I scrubbed my face with my hand. Just as I was thinking up a way to ask Daigen all my burning questions without actually asking him, the sight of Astrid’s sparkling eyes stole my attention.
I turned my head to follow her eyes to the wall above me.
Of all the finger-painted portraits tacked onto the wall, the newest one was right above me. Astrid had painted it days ago—a man with blue eyes and long blonde hair.
Hilda had thought the man in the portrait was Riyan and so did I, but the hair was too long to be Riyan’s…
It was Ragnar. Astrid had painted the father of her child the way she remembered him.
I swallowed and turned from the painting to look at Daigen. “He never came back.”
Daigen laid his hand on Astrid’s shoulder. “She doesn’t know that. Her last memory of him is that promise.”
The questions I wished I could ask hung in the air like a dense fog. Why had Ragnar never returned? Why had he been with Astrid in the first place?
The Hytons kept their vast number of secrets close enough to bury themselves in mystery. How could they be the most prominent family in the Dukedom and yet no one had figured out that their General had a secret son? Or that they held the Great Sorceress captive?
How could I force Duke Hyton to release Fraleigh if I did not even know what I was up against?
Evereon groaned as his body shifted on the floor, interrupting my thoughts.
Daigen looked down. “Oh look, the cranky puppy is awake.”
Evereon’s eyes were glazed as he pushed himself into a sitting position. I crossed the room to help him up. Endre soared past me, likely having the same idea.
Evereon’s yellow eyes widened and he swatted at my brother. “Get away from me!”
Endre turned in the air and landed on a stool. He lowered his head and let out an indignant croak.
Evereon begrudgingly took my hand as I helped pull him onto his feet.
Daigen smirked at Evereon and gestured to Endre. “Is that how you treat a fellow Baron’s son?”
Evereon’s face blanched and his body went stiff. My mouth fell open. How could Daigen just—?
Daigen’s violet eyes flicked over to me. “I took a secret from him, so I figured I’d give him one. It was only fair.”
His hand dipped beneath his cloak and he retrieved a thick ivory envelope. My heart stopped as soon as I saw the bull stamped in the shining blue wax seal.
Daigen deftly flipped the letter over and turned his attention to Evereon. “Thought you could just hide this in your doublet and I wouldn’t sense the stink of Hyton Palace on you?”
I did not even wait for Evereon to offer an explanation, my vision and mind focused only on my name on the front of the envelope. I knew that handwriting as intimately as if it had been marked onto my very skin—tall letters that crowded together, romantic curves and loops, and all inked into the parchment so strongly it might as well have been branded.
My heart raced and I suddenly could not breathe. Whatever was in that envelope came from Derrick.
Just like when he visited Ravenwood Manor seven years ago, the House of Hyton’s only heir became the key to my cage of circumstance.
I only hoped he was the key to Fraleigh’s cage too.