Chapter 8
Eldric
“ S he’s still not talking to me,” Eldric said, watching as Kaela immediately turned around and stayed outside when she spotted him through the kitchen window. Daeson shook his head. The old summer home was alive, buzzing with people who were part of their cause and helped with the distribution of resources among the less fortunate in Athera. Many of them were children when they came here, but were now growing taller, their voices deepening. Becoming men and women before his very eyes. Learning to give back in the same way they had been helped.
“You almost died. You’re like another brother to her. She’s just processing.”
Eldric winced. “Shouldn’t she be happy I’m alive, then?”
“You know my sister,” Daeson said with a shrug.
“I know Kaela,” he sighed, resigned .
“She’ll talk when she’s ready; don’t push it.” Daeson clapped him on the shoulder before heading into the basement as if he spoke from experience. Eldric followed, running a hand through his hair.
His chest pulled toward the city where Lorali was running her errands. He had gone far enough; the pounding ache started as he neared the countryside home settled just outside the city. It’d become a constant companion over these past two weeks, the dull tug that became a sharp pain when he crossed the estate’s bridge. Telling him to turn back, that he had gone too far. Just as it had on the day of their binding.
“How’s married life? The wife? Any thoughts of children yet?” his friend’s voice teased as he descended the stairs, and Eldric couldn’t help but scowl.
“It’s not like that between us, Daeson. I told you. We live our lives separately and come together as required by the bond. That’s it.”
“You’ve moved in with her.”
“Because I had to.”
Daeson rounded the last step, lighting a candle on the wall with the stroke of a match and using it to illuminate the room filled with papers atop a crowded table. The flickering flame reflected in the old lucernas embedded into the wall that hadn’t functioned in years .
“Right, right....” he trailed off, rifling through papers as he looked for something specific. “Have you slept with her yet?”
Eldric nearly tripped at that as he came off the stairs, catching himself on a support beam that creaked more than either of them would have liked. He winced, removing his hands slowly, knowing it was ridiculous but worried he could bring the whole house toppling down.
“Have I—gods, no . She’s not just any member of the Order, Daeson, she’s a high cleric .”
It would be unthinkable. While Lorali was kind and welcoming, Eldric didn’t forget where her loyalties lay. Couldn’t forget. Before today, he had only ever seen her in the Order’s robes to the point he’d wondered if she owned any other clothes. It took everything within him to remember that she was not the rest of the Order’s members. Her actions so far had proven her selfless and brave. So different from what he had seen his first time on the Order’s doorstep. But still, she served them just as he served the city.
He initially had his doubts about her desire for friendship, but decided to make their situation amicable at least. He didn’t know if he could spend the rest of the year in such constant pain. It was distracting, fogging his mind more as the distance between them grew. How she continued her work in the temple, so focused that she came back to the cottage late in the evening and left before the sun rose, was beyond him. He didn’t think she slept—coming home with texts or parchments to read as she searched for any information related to gallows bonds. He hadn’t gathered the courage to ask her why she stayed up hours into the night with her nose in a book, fearful of what the answer would be. Darkness had set in beneath her lashes, but her eyes were alight with study.
“I know you’re a romantic at heart. Waiting to woo her before consummating your marriage, I see.” Daeson’s teasing chuckle died on his lips as he patted Eldric’s cheek. He paused, brows knitted together, mind turning as it worked through something that brought confusion to his dark eyes.
“Why was there a high cleric at the gallows? That’s work usually reserved for acolytes.”
“I don’t know,” Eldric said with a shake of his head. There wasn’t enough information for him to speculate. He’d rather not talk about Lorali here; it made his chest tighten, like she would somehow know through the bond where he was. As if he were betraying his vow to her just by being in his friend’s presence.
He braced his hands on the table, looking down and staring at hastily drawn diagrams scratched onto parchment in smeared ink and scrambled letters with Daeson's small handwriting just beneath them spelling out the once encrypted words. Puzzled, he stared at them, trying to place the familiar glass dome until realization dawned. The skylight dome was familiar because he had been beneath it just a few weeks ago. His eyes followed the arrows that showed a hidden panel, hinges blended perfectly in the soldered seams. A maintenance hatch. Scrawled runes that showed how someone could bypass the protective wards placed around the top of the building.
“Where’d you get this?” he breathed in disbelief, ghosting his fingers across the fine parchment and lifting it to find more underneath, the code only half deciphered. He stared down at the plans and papers littering the table, quietly scanning the document that rested on top that his friend had already translated. Whoever Daeson’s source was, they had to be someone of high standing.
“A new informant.” Daeson raised a brow, a smug grin spreading across his features the way it always did when he was scheming. As if lightning were about to strike. “I’m thinking it’s time the Order of Ostara returned what belongs to the Atheras.”
Eldric watched the shadows dance across Daeson’s dark skin in the flickering lowlight, mixing with his inky hair. The same hair that would have borne the stolen silver and moonstone circlet meant for the ruler of Athera. Sometimes he forgot Daeson’s lineage—that the man he stood beside was a lost prince, meant to rule over the Valley of Wind. That if Korinth’s Order of the Star hadn’t toppled the six kingdoms of Euphedos centuries ago, he would have been king. Then there were moments like this, where an undercurrent of power rippled just beneath his skin, setting his hair on edge, and Eldric couldn’t help but remember that the slight point to Daeson’s ears was a warning. Marked him as something more powerful than a mere human could ever hope to be.
Turning away, Eldric dragged his hands across his face, a strangled noise caught in his throat. Taking back the lost crown was something that they’d joked about after Daeson convinced Eldric of his identity. A dream between scorned boys who grew into cunning men and finally realized they weren’t invincible. Their approach had to be clever—just as clever as the ones they were fighting.
“Why now—what changed? I thought we put this idea to rest years ago.”
His friend’s palms rested on the table across from him, eyes bright and smile wild. “You. That’s what changed. With that cleric, you’ve become our person on the inside. They plan to keep you close—and that will be their downfall. Sylvene is smiling brightly upon us; we must take advantage of this fortune.”
Eldric was quiet, stomach sinking as he saw Daeson’s plan coming together in his mind. To take advantage of the situation. Of Lorali’s goodwill and trust she’d placed in him. With her as a stepping stone, he’d elevate himself to greater heights, fueled by his dedication to the greater good. The thought of warm tea by the fire turned sour at the memory of promises sworn years ago beneath a blade.
Oathbreaker .
That word shattered through him, pulsing with the ache of their bond.
Which oath did he keep—one he had sworn long ago to the person who had helped him when he was at his lowest? Or the one he made before the gods, inked into his very soul?
“If I—”
“If?” His friend balked, thrown off-kilter by just two words. “I thought we were a team.”
“I want to help, Daeson, I do—but this bond between me and the cleric is more than just words. I am branded. Tied to her in ways I—I don’t even know how to explain. If I’m caught, it’s not just me condemned to the gallows.”
“All the more reason they’d never suspect you. You are the only one who can do this,” Daeson said, eyes leveling with him. His jaw set firm as he stepped to Eldric and they stood eye to eye. “Are your loyalties with me? Or with her?”
Eldric remained quiet, frustration shaking within his very bones.
“Or do you still harbor loyalty to the guard?”
“Stop it!” Eldric growled, hand hitting the table. His heart raged and his breathing grew ragged. Daeson stoked the embers of hatred that rested within Eldric’s heart with practiced precision the way only one who knew the other’s soul could. The pair stood, assessing each other in flickering silence. His whispering voice cracked as he regained control and spoke again. “I am loyal to Athera—and you are Athera. The rightful heir. I am loyal to you. But I can’t put someone innocent at risk.”
“She is a cleric within the Order—she is far from innocent.”
“You don’t know that,” Eldric whispered as he shook his head. “It’s only been a few weeks, but I think she’s different.”
“Does she use her magic to aid those who are unable to pay the Order’s tithes? Or help feed the hungry from her own pocket?” Daeson asked, anger simmering within as he moved around the table. “That archcleric and their Order took a thriving kingdom and reduced its leaders to puppet figureheads that agree with anything for the right price, leaving the people struggling to survive. Starving to the point we have to take it into our own hands. And they almost killed you for it. I don’t know what I would have done if you had died.” Daeson’s voice broke at that, hand brushing up Eldric’s arm before squeezing his shoulder. There were years of knowing in that touch, of trust and triumphs, of heartbreaks and failures endured together.
“I can’t do this without you. Why else would the goddess have sent that cleric to grant you a second chance at life if not to make a difference? It’s finally time to return this kingdom to its former glory. Make it into something better. Something fair. What we’ve been working towards.”
Daeson’s face softened, lips pressed together as Eldric couldn’t help but bend.
He glanced to the shadowed corners, finding that they reminded him too much of Athanasios’ swirling landscape, knowing that it hadn’t been the wind goddess or even Ostara who had granted him a second chance at life.