Chapter 26 - Gift of Sorrow
Wind. Ice. Panic.
I floated beside Fraleigh in her memory as she ran through the snowy peak of Nordingaard mountain. She looked about seventeen and her skin was pale instead of luminescent.
How strange to see her so…young.
Fraleigh’s amber eyes flitted amongst the rocks, looking for perfect handholds in the slope. She took a leap and began to climb. Her dark hair whipped behind her as the wind nearly pushed her down, but she kept going.
“Fraleigh, slow down!” another girl cried.
A younger girl—maybe fourteen years old—followed behind. She puffed out a frosty breath through her round cheeks as she struggled up the rocks. Her blonde hair loosened from their braids as she struggled to catch up.
No…that could not be…
“Hurry, Ganora!” Fraleigh cried.
All at once, I floated next to the two girls in an open snowy plain. An opening in the rocks loomed ahead with a dense fog rolling out between them. Fraleigh sprinted toward the passage without a moment of hesitation.
Ganora huffed as she ran behind. “How do you know he will help?”
“Trust me!” Fraleigh’s voice echoed through the fog.
The fog opened up to a large well in the snow, swirling with glowing water. Tall runes circled the well, bearing carved images of suffering, lost love, and even Death.
The grave of the Man of the Mountain, the same place from Astrid’s memory.
Fraleigh stood at the edge of the well and looked into the water. “The bad men killed Papa. They killed him so we could get away. I…I know what that means.”
Who was she talking to?
The water glowed so brightly Fraleigh had to shield her eyes. The air around us suddenly turned heavy.
She took a small knife out of a scabbard attached to her belt. “I was scared before, but I’m ready. It’s the only way to stop the bad men from killing us all.”
She winced and dragged the blade across her left palm. Tears blossomed in the corners of her eyes. “My tears fall, my blood flows…”
“Fraleigh!” Ganora cried behind her.
Fraleigh closed her eyes. “…now we become Death’s greatest foes.”
She stepped into the well and sank beneath the surface.
Ganora ran to the edge of the well as soon as Fraleigh’s dark hair disappeared into the swirling water.
“No, Fraleigh!” Cold tears ran down her shaking cheeks. “I can’t lose you too!”
I could not believe the helpless girl in the memory was the future Queen of the Giants. How had she become the legendary monster the North feared?
The water glowed a blinding white and Ganora scrambled away from the edge. Ancient wails of a grieving man spiraled around the runes. Ganora clapped her hands over her ears and screamed.
Every bit of air was filled with a voice that was impossible to block—a voice sharp as ice and gentle as a low flame.
A voice I knew all too well.
“ Through love, I defeated Death,” the Man of the Mountain whispered, “through your passionate love, you hold my gift of sorrow on your lips. Walk the earth as my heart, destroy all that would hurt your beloved, and live through eternity as I wished my bride could have. ”
Fraleigh rose from the water like she floated out of it and took a strong step into the snow. She looked unharmed, but…sharper. Stronger. Angrier.
She ran toward cowering Ganora and placed her hands on her shoulders. “I’m all right. I’m going to protect the village.”
“What?” Ganora cried. She grabbed Fraleigh’s wrists. “They’ll kill you!”
Fraleigh’s face hardened. “No, they won’t. I cannot die.”
Ganora tightened her grip. “They can do worse. I won’t let you go.”
With a pained grunt, Fraleigh shoved her sister into the snow and raised her hands.
“Stay here,” she said, her voice heavy. “Stay here until it’s safe.”
The snow brightened and formed warm green and gold ribbons that wrapped around Ganora’s wrists.
The ribbons shortly disappeared, but Ganora grabbed her left wrist with wide eyes. “What did you do?”
Fraleigh’s lip trembled, but then she straightened her back. “I did this for you.”
Ganora opened her mouth to protest, but Fraleigh ran for the passage. My consciousness followed Fraleigh, but I caught a glimpse of Ganora desperately chasing her older sister through the passage.
But Fraleigh ran faster. Four seconds passed before Ganora’s scream shredded the frigid air.
The future Queen of the Giants had reached the end of her enchanted tether.
A flash of white engulfed my vision and then the memory warped.
Snow turned into flame.
Huts made from pinewood and animal hides were ablaze. Each snowflake fell to the earth bathed in golden fire. Children cried. Women screamed.
But Fraleigh stood in the snow, her eyes lit up with righteous fury as her magic wrapped around the neck of an invading soldier. Fraleigh closed her fist and the soldier fell in breathless death, his blue plumed helmet clattering against the ground..
Three more soldiers ran after her with their swords drawn, but with a wave of her arm, Fraleigh bathed them in a tower of flame. They died screaming as their steel chainmail cooked them.
A young but tall man barrelled through the lines of men in the village. His dark curls peeked out from beneath his helmet as his blazing blue eyes looked around.
I could not believe it, it was Alastar the Conqueror himself!
Fraleigh’s memory was his conquest of Nordingaard, his final battle before he claimed Lycaster as his. I had to memorize every recorded detail of the battle in school, but I was watching the real history play out.
Alastar raced forward and yanked his father’s shield off a nearby wall where it had been displayed as a trophy—the famous Taurus shield.
His father, Cassius, was a Latiman general who fell at the first siege of Nordingaard. His partner and fellow general, Marcus Janus, had sent Cassius on a doomed mission up the mountain so he could rule the soon-to-be conquered Lycaster by himself.
Alastar the Conqueror’s taking of the mountain was not just the final push to form the Dukedom, it was his vengeance for the betrayal of his father.
Alastar let out a scream of triumph as he fastened the shield bearing three rearing bulls to his arm and held his spear aloft.
The soldiers of Alastar’s army flooded into the village faster and fiercer.
Even though I knew they were going to win, I still choked on terror as I watched the snow turn scarlet.
Volleys of arrows soared through the air, piercing Fraleigh’s skin one by one. She yanked an arrow out of her chest, but there were too many for her magic to stop.
She tried to run, but an arrow pinned her to the wooden wall of a house behind her. Then another. Then another.
She was trapped—pinned to the wall like a butterfly. Sparkling blood poured out of each wound as Fraleigh panted with her eyes closed. Her wounds tried to heal themselves around the arrows, but she could not free herself.
My consciousness stayed beside Fraleigh as her head lolled down. She must have exhausted her power.
The victorious Latiman soldiers rounded up the village elders and threw them to their knees before Alastar the Conqueror. Some of them had missing eyes or their lips were stained red with blood.
Alastar barked at the cowering men, but they could not understand him. I had to study the Latiman language in school, but I had never heard it spoken in conversation. It sounded much less formal and more…harsh.
The men before him babbled in panic, but Alastar was growing visibly frustrated with their barbarian tongue. Alastar pointed at Fraleigh. The man in the center of the line spoke up.
“The mountain!” He pointed toward the mountain pass. “She gets her power from the mountain! Go up the mountain!”
Alastar’s blue eyes gleamed with understanding. He helped the man onto his feet, who looked relieved.
Then Alastar drove his spear into the man’s chest. The man crumpled to the ground as blood pooled into the snow.
Death did not faze Alastar. He walked over to Fraleigh and gently plucked the arrows out of her tired body. On the final arrow, Fraleigh folded forward into Alastar’s arms. Alastar picked her up and her half-lidded eyes met his.
Alastar sneered and his eyes cut to the bleeding body in the snow. “ Proditor. ”
Even without the context, I knew what that word meant.
Traitor.
A flurry of snow blanketed my vision and soon Fraleigh and I stood at Nordingaard’s peak again. Alastar held her in front of the swirling well. Even if she had any energy to run, his grip on her arms was too tight for her to escape.
Alastar barked at his soldiers and pointed at the well. Half a dozen ran to the edge with leather skeins, gathering up as many tears as they could.
Ganora appeared from behind a rune with Fraleigh’s discarded knife in her hand. Her eyes were lined with tears and ablaze with rage.
“Free my sister,” Ganora commanded.
“ Lamia? ” Alastar said with a wicked smile.
I remembered that word—sorceress.
He motioned for his soldiers to seize Ganora.
“Ganora! No!” Fraleigh cried as she struggled against Alastar’s iron hold.
Ganora’s eyes found Fraleigh’s and the weight of the air crashed around us. “And this is for you.”
She sliced her left palm and ran into the well. She fell through the surface of the water without even a splash.
Ancient screams of anguish swirled around the frightened soldiers.
“ Through the fear of lost love, I hold the magic of Nordingaard, ” the Man of the mountain said. “ Through your fear, you hold its power. Turn your fear into rage, live eternally as the magic always will, and destroy all who try to corrupt my gifts. ”
The ground shook as Ganora emerged from the well. Her hair had bleached into a scream of white, her eyes were icy and bright, and her skin had become as grey and unfeeling as stone. She was no longer a teenage girl, but a huge, snarling monster.
Ganora’s fear had turned her into a giant.
The soldiers all loosed arrows, but they merely bounced off Ganora’s skin. Ganora swiped through the air, her magic freezing the blood of the soldiers and snapping their necks in a blink. Their bodies crumbled to the snow as Ganora’s eyes turned to Alastar.
My consciousness snapped backward as Alastar threw Fraleigh over his shoulder and ran back through the pass.
Ganora’s pained screams echoed through the fog. “Fraleigh! Fraleigh! ”
Fraleigh’s eyes watered as the realization that she had trapped her baby sister spread across her face.
Even though I was merely witnessing her memory, I could still feel heartbreak hardening within Fraleigh’s bones like permafrost.
The Great Sorceress’s sacrifice was all in vain.
And so the Queen of the Giants began her reign.
A flash of white whisked me away into a new memory. Iron bars spread across my vision as I floated beside Fraleigh within her small cage. Her manacles rattled as she trembled. Soldiers in blue marched around her, laughing and slurping down skeins of mead as they enjoyed the spoils of their conquest.
Waves crashed against the cliffs to the west. The sea of tents turned into stone buildings further inland with banners of blue hanging from the rooftops. Chains of the barbarian slaves dragged across the grass of the Hyton camp. All the people Fraleigh once knew as neighbors kept their eyes down as Alastar the Conqueror spoke with an old man with a long white beard. Fraleigh might not have understood his words, but she still recoiled when Alastar pointed at her.
The old man responded in Latiman, tripping over his consonants and mixing up words. After his tongue failed him, the old man pulled a boy forward, one with white hair and deep eyes. The older man gestured to the boy and I could make out the words “good” and “mind.”
The boy spoke up, speaking in near-perfect Latiman that even brought a smile to Alastar’s face. Alastar gestured to Fraleigh and the boy cautiously walked over.
The boy stopped when he was three feet in front of Fraleigh’s cage. “Please…don’t hurt me.”
Although I understood him because Fraleigh did, his vowels were rounder and his consonants sharp as spears—he was speaking Old Tongue.
Fraleigh held her breath and did not move.
The boy’s hands curled into trembling fists. “Don’t kill me, I’m trying to help you.”
Fraleigh’s eyes darted to Alastar, who glared at her from the other side of the cage. “How do you speak his tongue?”
I knew the answer to that—Alastar’s father and Marcus Janus had conquered the other provinces before they ever set foot on Nordingaard. We must have been in the town that would later become Hyton.
The boy’s mouth formed a fine line. “I had to learn the language quickly. If the Latimans think you’re useful, you get to stay unchained.”
Fraleigh swallowed. “What does he want with me?”
The boy let out a breath. “He wanted me to tell you that unless you want to spend the rest of your days in a hole underground, you will make him gold. Lots of it.”
“Gold?” Fraleigh’s eyes watered. “I cannot make gold! My magic doesn’t work that way!”
The boy swallowed. “Sorceress, don’t cry.”
“If he finds out I can’t make gold, he’s going to…he’s going to…”
The boy stepped toward the cage and Fraleigh scampered back into the bars like he had struck her. His eyes widened as Fraleigh started to sob.
What…what had Alastar the Conqueror done to her?
The boy cut a glance over his shoulder and then scooped some pebbles off the ground.
“ Aurum, lamia! ” He shook the pebbles in his palm. “ Aurum! ”
I wish I had a body so I could knock the idiot boy away from the cage. How was screaming about gold going to help?
Fraleigh shook as she cried, but then the boy dropped to his knees in the grass and held his hand through the bars of Fraleigh’s cage.
His voice fell to a soft whisper. “I’m an alchemist’s apprentice—my power is the art of illusion.” He shook the pebbles again. “We’re going to make him believe you turn stone to gold.”
Wait…
I focused closer on the boy’s dark eyes, finding flecks of violet within. The boy was not a mere meddlesome annoyance, he was the meddlesome annoyance.
Daigen.
Darkness swallowed me as if I had been forced underground. A trapdoor opened above me and light from a full moon flooded into a small stone chamber.
Fraleigh stood beside me and looked up at the light. Stacks of gold coins glittered on a small table—the only piece of furniture in the dungeon.
Alastar the Conqueror had not even given her a bed.
Daigen dropped from the ladder into the dungeon and Fraleigh quickly clawed a hole in the dirt floor with her hands. As my gaze followed Fraleigh’s hands, I could not help but notice a stake in the ground that held an iron chain around her ankles.
Daigen tipped the sack in his hands and pebbles poured into the hole Fraleigh had just dug. As soon as the sack was empty, Daigen pulled a few gold coins out of his vest and shoes and handed them to Fraleigh.
Fraleigh conjured a tiny golden flame with green edges on her fingertip. She burned the Sudrian double eagle off the sides of the first coin as Daigen buried the pebbles.
Fraleigh had just burned the Austlandian cross off the last coin when she frowned. “There’s blood on this one.”
Daigen stomped on the covered hole to flatten the earth. “Don’t worry about it.”
Fraleigh’s head snapped up as a dark shadow cast over the opening of the trap door. Alastar the Conqueror leaped into the dungeon instead of climbing down the ladder.
His deep blue eyes glittered as he scanned the stacks of coins. He turned to Daigen and a few smooth Latiman words rolled off his tongue like rainwater on stone.
Daigen glanced at Fraleigh and spoke in Old Tongue. “He compliments you on your work and has a gift for you.”
Alastar flashed Fraleigh a nearly charming smile as he reached for the satchel against his hip. He unbuckled the satchel as he talked, low but fast.
Daigen’s eyes widened. “Fraleigh, say no.”
Alastar flashed him a deadly look. “You think I have not learned your barbarian tongue, boy?”
Fraleigh froze. Daigen’s eyes were wide, but he did not answer.
Alastar turned his eyes to Fraleigh. “Darling Fraleigh, your power is so great that men from nearby nations will try to steal you. I will offer you my protection, on one condition.”
He pulled a golden collar out of his satchel and set it on the table. “Use your magic to bind yourself to the House of Hyton for eternity, swear to never use your power against us, and I will unlock your chains.”
This was the bad deal with the Hytons. Why would she have taken it?
Fraleigh stared at the golden collar, speechless.
Daigen stepped forward. “Fraleigh, don’t—!”
With a quick swing of his arm, Alastar grabbed Daigen and pressed his forearm into his neck. Daigen struggled but could not get free.
Alastar’s eyes gleamed. “I will make the decision easier—agree or he dies tonight. ”
Daigen’s eyes bulged and his face turned scarlet, but he shook his head over and over.
“Darling Fraleigh, have I been so horrible to you?” Alastar’s voice was impossibly kind as he strangled Daigen. “Other kings and conquerors would be much worse if they took you. I am just trying to keep you safe.”
I was not foolish enough to believe anyone named “the Conqueror” was kind, but I had never imagined the revered legend of the Dukedom could be such a…such a monster.
Fraleigh’s hands covered her mouth as her eyes watered. Even though I knew that collar was going onto her neck, I still held onto hope that she would resist.
Daigen’s face turned purple and his head lolled forward.
Fraleigh threw down her hands. “Stop! I’ll do it!”
The air in the dungeon shifted, growing heavy like Fraleigh was burying herself alive. Alastar dropped Daigen and walked to the table.
When the golden teeth of the collar shut around Fraleigh’s neck, the bargain was made—Fraleigh’s life for Daigen’s.
A life for a life given in love. How could I have ever thought I could just manipulate Duke Hyton into releasing Fraleigh when nothing was more powerful than that kind of agreement?
Alastar lifted Fraleigh’s chin and examined the collar. “You belong to the House of Hyton and its sons forever.” He dropped her chin. “But the boy still dies.”
“What?” Fraleigh cried. “But you said—!”
“I agreed that the boy would live tonight.” Alastar swept the stacks of gold coins into the open mouth of his satchel. He held up the sack of gold. “Robbing the port will still cost him his head.”
His Hyton Blue eyes flicked down to Daigen, who gasped as he pushed himself up from the dirt floor. “See you at sunrise.”
The trap door slammed shut behind Alastar and the click of a lock echoed through the small dungeon. Only thin strips of moonlight crept through the gaps in the wooden door. Even in near darkness, Fraleigh pulled at the end of her chains to lift Daigen up.
He coughed. “You should have let him kill me.”
Fraleigh’s golden eyes scanned Daigen’s face. “Do you have a knife?”
Daigen shakily reached for the scabbard at his hip and pulled out a knife with a curved blade— Reginbani.
Fraleigh took the knife from him, running the tip of the blade against her left palm. “You helped me, so I’ll help you. I earned my power through a sacrifice, and maybe…maybe I can give you my power too. You can be deathless too.”
He shook his head. “Are you talking about the old legend from the mountain? It’s not going to work.”
Her brow went hard. “Yes it will. The moon is full and everything that needed to happen did.”
Daigen’s brow furrowed. “No, that would mean—”
They looked at each other in a moment of silent understanding. He shook his head. “No, Fraleigh, you can’t. I’m a criminal. I don’t deserve your lo—”
“Do you love me too?”
Daigen took in a shuddering breath, but then looked into Fraleigh’s eyes. “Yes.”
“Then stay with me,” Fraleigh pleaded. “Forever.”
Daigen blinked out a single tear and offered her his right palm.
With the slice of a blade and a few whispered words, the dungeon filled with golden light.
It was not the same enchantment I had known. It was bright as a dandelion, warm as a night by the fire, and pure as fresh driven snow.
And with the might of a bond made from true love and sacrifice, two hearts became one.
Brilliant golden light flooded my vision and morphed into Fraleigh’s gold irises as I gently left her memory. My hand trembled in her grip as I returned to the misty morning and the calls of the sea birds.
My eyes dropped to her golden collar. The words “ Ipse Dixit ” were still clearly etched, even after four hundred and fifty-one years.
“I know the choice I made,” Fraleigh said as she released my hand. “Even after centuries of chains and cages, even when my power diminished little by little…it was worth it.”
She swallowed and traced the scar on her palm. “ He was worth it.”
All this time, I had thought Daigen had a rivalry with Fraleigh. His disdain was not for her, but for the noble marriage enchantment.
The bond that originated from sacrifice had cheapened into chattel, became its own golden chain, and made every noble marriage a question of what was even real.
Daigen was angry enough to rip the corrupted blood bond out of my veins because it was a mockery of what Fraleigh had given, of what was supposed to just be theirs.
My heart ached, but I finally understood Daigen. He tore out my bond to make me a blank slate, uncorrupted by another Hyton lie. He wanted Riyan and I to have a chance at true, pure love because…that’s what he and Fraleigh had.
And all he wanted was to get back the person he lost.
“But I will get you out of this,” I said as I looked into Fraleigh’s sad golden eyes. “A life for a life is an unbreakable bargain but…your sister has Riyan. She is going to doom him to an eternity in the place West of the Moon and East of the Sun if I do not free you by the full moon.”
Fraleigh’s long dark hair gently danced in the breeze. “Riyan knew the sacrifice he made, and he made it gladly. Why not just leave him be?”
My hands tightened into fists at my sides. “Because he does not deserve oblivion! I still…I still may not know how I feel, but who cares about my feelings when his life is on the line?” Tears pricked the backs of my eyes. “I will not turn my back on him, not after I have seen exactly what that kind of sacrifice does.”
My eyes dropped from her face to that horrible golden collar around her neck.
Fraleigh responded with a calm smile. “Riyan’s sacrifice was a gift…but it is still incomplete. A life for a life given in love—the Man of the Mountain will fight death for you.”
I held my breath, listening to the soft pounding of my heart in my ears to ground me to the earth. Did she mean…immortality?
Fraleigh swallowed. “The Man of the Mountain wanted someone to walk the earth in the place of his lost bride, carrying her gifts so that she may live on…but he knows what I am doing is not living. He has searched for someone to replace me.” She let out a breath. “When I saw you at that chastity examination, the Man of the Mountain spoke in my mind.”
A chill ran up my arms.
I see you, Serafina Ravenwood.
I was seen, wanted, chosen…but it all seemed too perfect of a coincidence. I only had the gift of sorcery in the first place because Riyan took me to the healing spring after I had been poisoned. I was only poisoned because Rosaline told us to seek out Daigen…
I set my jaw. If Fraleigh could not refuse direct questions, then I was going to get some answers. “Did you tell Rosaline to instruct me to find Daigen?”
She swallowed and faced north. “The Man of the Mountain gave me an order…and one does not refuse orders from him.”
I did not like that answer. “Did you poison me?”
“No.” She turned to face me and her golden eyes were shining. “I never wanted you to get hurt, Serafina. Ever.”
Her plea of assurance made the truth of a promised eternity sink into my skin. The Man of the Mountain wanted me to be the next Great Sorceress—ageless, deathless, and powerful beyond my comprehension.
I looked around at the headstones around us, my eyes falling on the open graves. An immortal life would mean I would have to watch everyone I knew die. Would I drop a handkerchief on Annalisa’s coffin? Would I lay flowers at Brietta’s headstone?
And Derrick…
I refused to picture myself sobbing at his graveside as my mother had.
“But though the path is laid out for you,” Fraleigh said, “you don’t have to take it.”
I turned away from the headstones and looked back at Fraleigh, whose golden eyes were the softest I had ever seen.
“You can tell the Man of the Mountain no,” she said. “You can keep your magic until you meet Death’s black wings. I can hold on longer.”
I furrowed my brows. “Does that mean…if I choose eternity, you lose your power?”
Fraleigh gave me a wan smile. “What little there is left, and I become mortal once more.”
I swallowed. Eternity on earth was merely an option, though that option did not give me what I needed. “You cannot tempt me with eternity and expect me to forget about the man who allowed me to have it.” I stepped forward in the grass with my arms folded. “What about your freedom? The bargain might be unbreakable, but every agreement has a back door.”
Fraleigh let out a long breath, as if she wished I had never asked the question. She tapped the front of her collar with her sharp fingernail. “Only the Duke can speak these words and release the collar. Then my servitude is over.”
I eyed the words “ Ipse Dixit, ” as if each letter spelled our salvation.
My white flame warmed my heart. Getting into Anders’s head to force him to say the curse-breaking phrase would have been impossible, but he was no longer the Duke.
Derrick was. My Derrick.
That was why my magic drew me to him two nights ago. That was why my heart’s desire pushed me to look for him and heal him.
“Derrick is the answer.” A smile broke through my lips. “I have already connected with his mind once. I just have to get into his head, make him say the words to free you, and it is all over. You can be with Daigen again, I can save Riyan…”
The crease between her eyebrows, pinched with a mixture of worry and pity, made me stop.
Fraleigh’s smile stayed calm, even as I felt the slight pull of the magic in the air around her.
“Again,” she said with glassy eyes, “I am restricted on what I can say.”
She stepped backward and dissolved into the air.
My chest rose and fell as she left me in the silence. Not even the seabirds sang. Even the waves at the shoreline were still.
Fraleigh might have been infuriatingly vague as usual, but for once she had given me enough information to get what I want.
Two little words spelled out Riyan’s freedom, and I would force Derrick to say them.
Once Derrick got the crown at the next sunrise, his mind was mine.