Chapter 17 #2
“Okay,” he conceded, “maybe its not the most relaxing of transportation. But I do want you to be prepared. The Afeya …” He sighed. “Their ways, their culture, it’s nothing like you’re used to.”
I looked out at the water, and beyond, as the landscape passed and shifted. My thoughts moved to my friends and my family. And in the stillness, my heart hurt for Galen, and I was worried sick for Tristan.
But my stomach twisted without having any more information about Jules and Meera, and Dario and Aiden.
Not since Branwyn had heard from Cal and Marisol.
I still didn’t know if they were okay, if they’d been near Rhyan’s attack on Thene.
And a now familiar ache in my arms—from being unable to hold Rhyan—was starting to pain me, but for Jules.
I still hadn’t hugged her. My eyes watered.
“You see the waves?” Rhyan said in my mind. “The waves,” he said again, his voice a whisper. “Just watch the waves, rolling back and forth. Back and forth. Nice and easy. Just keep watching. I’ve got you. You’re all right.”
I leaned back against Auriel’s chest, and tried to breathe, watching the water move, and imagining that soon, soon, I’d have more than a memory. I’d have Rhyan in my arms again. The ache would be gone, and I’d have Rhyan’s chest to lay against, his company to travel beside.
Auriel tightened his arms around me, and I fell into the rhythm of his breathing.
I lost track of the time after a while, my mind almost quiet until the water dragon began soaring faster.
“We pass the borders of Lumeria,” Ramia called out. “We in Afeya waters.”
We were officially entering the territory controlled by El Zandria, the desert land inhabited by King RaKanan, and the Afeyan Sun Court.
For half the year, Queen Ma’Nia also resided there.
The couple spent every winter together in Khemet ruling over the Moon Court together, and every summer in El Zandria.
Being now at the start of the spring season, she was alone, ruling over the Afeya of her home court on her own.
From the way Ramia explained things, it sounded like that was going to work in our favor.
“Too many Afeya,” Auriel whispered, “are never a good thing.”
I swallowed, starting to feel nervous. Ramia turned our water dragon back north, heading for shore.
I could feel a shift immediately. The sun, blazing and bright, began to fade.
The air cooled rapidly by several degrees.
Every sweep of the water dragon’s wings brought us further into darkness.
Instead of the sparkling reflection of the sun’s light in the ocean, it began to reflect the stars.
And though night wouldn’t fall for hours upon hours, the sky quickly darkened, and the moon replaced the sun as our source of light.
“Is it always night here?” I asked.
“Always,” Ramia said. “And always day in El Zandria.”
Our dragon lowered, its tail splashing in the water, until it sank to the surface, its body coasting on a wave. We rose with it, the wave growing taller. Another one came and Auriel tightened his hold around me.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Meeting friends,” Ramia said wryly.
“What do you mean friends?” I asked.
“I think,” Auriel said, “she means more dragons.”
I peered ahead. Rising from the splashing water, came three more water dragons, their blue scales sparkling in the moonlight. Blue fires crackling in their eyes.
Three Afeya rode on their backs, flying just above the ocean, the dragon tails dragging in the water as they circled around us.
All three Afeya were female, with silver colored skin, and silver-white hair that fell down their backs.
Silver armor that reminded me of fins covered their torsos, though they only covered one shoulder.
Translucent white skirts flowed out from their hips, blowing in the breeze their water dragons had created.
“Who dares enter the waters of our queen?” All three asked in unison, their voices melodic as they spoke in High Lumerian.
The dragons lowered, flying right beside us, the circle growing tighter.
Each one had a golden tattoo across their forehead, a waxing crescent moon, a full moon, and a waning crescent.
“I bring important visitors to see my mother,” Ramia said, now speaking in perfect High Lumerian.
I’d never heard her speak with such perfect diction or grammar—and realized at that moment, her broken language in our tongue, and even her accent, wasn’t a result of High Lumerian—but some other language—one I didn’t recognize.
“Princess,” all three said in response, and bowed their heads together before Ramia. When they lifted them, their eyes glowed violet. “We were not expecting you. Welcome home.”
“Please. Request an audience for me with Her Majesty,” Ramia waved a dismissive hand in our direction, “and my guests.”
“Tell us their names,” the three said together.
“I bring Lady Lyriana Batavia, reincarnation of Goddess Asherah.”
“Asherah,” the three repeated, their eyes glowing as they continued to circle our dragon, looking me up and down. “Asherah reborn,” they said, translating for my benefit, though it wasn’t needed. Their eyes met mine and they smirked as if to say, yes it was.
“And,” Ramia continued in Afeyan, “I bring the God Auriel.”
“Auriel died,” said the three. “Auriel entered the Celestial Realms for eternity. His soul has reincarnated—many times. At present, he is known as Lord Rhyan Hart. Auriel may not return here. If Lord Rhyan is dead, then Auriel’s next incarnation must be born.”
I bit back a cry. The idea of Rhyan reincarnating—entering a new body, a new life with a new name and a new face without me, going on before I could follow—no. No. It was too much.
But Auriel stepped in front of me, his aura and posture imposing. He looked every bit the God he was. “Tell your queen that Auriel’s back,” he said. “In the flesh. And that I’m here to see her.”
Ramia hissed in annoyance. “Did I say speak?” she asked, glaring back at Auriel.
“We do not take orders from Gods,” said the three, their voices now agitated.
“No?” he asked, his eyebrows lifted. “Then I request you tell her that I have this.” He held up the scroll vial we’d retrieved from the tomb. Its jewels sparkling in the moonlight. “Auriel’s Valya. The last one.”
“Auriel’s Valya,” they all repeated. “All copies of Auriel’s Valya were destroyed. Every last version per your agreement.”
“Yes. Except for this one—hidden and locked away until all knowledge of it faded. And you all know there was only one way to get a hold of it. Only one way to obtain the last copy.” His biceps flexed, his shoulders tensing. “To open the tomb where it was concealed.”
“It should have been destroyed,” they hissed. “Not buried.”
“I made sure it passed out of knowledge. No one could access it, no one remembered. I kept my word. Will your queen keep hers?”
Ramia’s eyes flashed in anger, her expression clearly saying, “Shut up.”
But the three seemed to go cold with a quiet fury burning through them. “We shall inform her at once,” they said in unison.
“Thank you,” Ramia said. The three, and their water dragons flew off. Ramia shook her head, her red hair shining in the silver light. “Meeting off to great start!” She huffed, as she rolled her eyes and turned away from us.
My heart began to pound. I didn’t like that we were starting on the wrong foot with the Queen, the Afeya who had possession of the red shard, the one thing I needed most in this world.
But a second later small islands began to appear on either side of us. Afeya lounged across them. Some were dancing. Others were drinking, and diving into the waters.
Our water dragon reared back its head, and huffed.
An ashvan ran past us. But this ashvan wasn’t like the ones I was used to at home.
It was completely silver, just like the Afeyan triple guard.
And instead of running only on a step of magic, an entire bridge had formed beneath its hooves, reminding me of a rainbow, but made entirely of shades of blue.
Another blue rainbow appeared right over us. And then another.
Every ashvan was made of silver. As we moved closer to the shore, I realized there were riders on the ashvans’ backs. They were leaping off them and sliding down the bridges into the water.
“Is that how they used to be? A whole bridge beneath them?” I asked Auriel.
He nodded. “Before the Drowning, they were all like this. The bridges would appear all over Lumeria, crisscrossing through the sky. You could even run on them without an ashvan. You had to run before they vanished from beneath you, of course—but you could do it. The small steps that appear now are a sign of the breaking of the Valalumir. The Drowning. And the weakening of magic.”
“How do they still do it here? They’re close to the water, but so is Bamaria. If anything, we’re further east, closer to Lumeria Matavia and surrounded on more than one border by the ocean.”
“There’s no more magic here than anywhere else in the Empire.
Not this far west at least,” Auriel said.
“It weakens in this direction. I remember that. But the Afeya, at least from my understanding, chose to keep things as they were. To pretend the world wasn’t broken, that their magic wasn’t cut off. ”
“But don’t they need permission, or a request to do this?” I asked.
“They do. And they have it,” Auriel said.
“It’s a thousand years of small bargains made over tiny increments of time.
They’ve made the maintenance of their world part of the deal.
It’s not hard for them to keep things going, not with so many Lumerians to bargain with.
And honestly, my guess is that it’s been this way for so long, very little is needed now to maintain the illusion. ”
“Mercurial didn’t ask me for anything like that,” I said. Then I frowned. “He actually—he never told me what he wanted in exchange. What the full price would be.”