Chapter 21
Twenty-One
Once we were well enough away from Forest Fae territory, we faced expansive plains of grass, with the mountains where the Wiccans lived only a day’s ride in the distance.
The horses were tired, and Sienna was drained from having to maintain the masking spell as we smuggled Jasper out, so I decided we wouldn’t push on.
Jasper pointed us towards a hidden cave system that was another twenty minutes’ ride from the edge of the grassy plain.
It was a small cave that curved to the right, meaning the passageway did not leave us completely exposed to the outside world.
Sienna went to work on a ward designed to ensure that the inevitable search parties River would send looking for Jasper would not be able to see a cave at all.
Instead, they would feel solid rock beneath their touch.
The light from our fire and the sounds of our voices would not be visible or audible; it would mask everything.
It would further drain Sienna to cast it, but unlike the masking spell, the ward could be rooted in an object that would keep it active all through the night and allow her to recover.
She took out an old bone and stabbed it into the ground at the entrance of the cave.
It was a bone of a long passed Wiccan that tapped into the powers of the fallen now floating in the ether.
We were all tired and hungry. I pulled out some cured meats and fruit and shared them with Jasper and Sienna as I started the fire.
Although I had the eternal flame bestowed by the first dragons coursing through my veins, I could not actually conjure fire.
Sienna could, but she had done enough, and this was something I had become quite proficient at during all my hunting trips with Cain over the years.
Sienna broke the silence first and asked Jasper, ‘Why on earth would you swear an oath with Cain and pledge loyalty to Skylar, choosing her as your queen against your own sister when you had never even met her? Do you know how utterly insane that sounds?’
Jasper laughed at the absurdity of hearing what he had done out loud before he levelled me with a stare.
‘Cain told me about you. I had never, in all my years, heard him speak about anyone the way he spoke about you.
I was the only one he told when he found you in the forest that first time.
Every hunting trip after that, he would tell me, or rather write to me, about you.
He admired you, and very quickly, you won his loyalty and trust. Cain has never been someone to easily delve out his respect to anyone, but he respected you.
I remember sitting there, hearing all those stories about you and thinking about how jealous I was.
How I wanted to know you the way he did, because I had never met anyone like what he described.
Once you chose him to be on your council, despite tradition and every person telling you not to, I knew he was always right about you.
‘It was a move I had never seen another leader take, a decision my sister never would. I had always been disillusioned by my people and their way of life; I couldn’t stand what they did to Cain and the others.
When Cain came to me with a plan to help the outcasts, and that the idea had been yours of all people…
I decided then that I would help him and, in turn, help you.
Although Cain and I trusted each other and were brothers in every sense of the word except for blood, his loyalty and trust with you were paramount, so he would not let me be a part of anything unless I swore the oath,’ he said, holding his hand up and looking at the black ring mark around his little finger.
This oath was different to a blood binding.
‘What were the exact words of the oath you swore, Jasper?’ I asked.
‘I, Jasper Evergreen of the Forest Fae clan, do hereby swear this oath to Cain Ashenbrook. I swear that from this day onwards, Queen Skylar Azdaja of Maureia is whom I will serve. Every action I take will be in service to her and her goals. I will obey all commands and requests that come from her. Should I fail in this, I will forfeit my life to Cain Ashenbrook to carry out the Rite of No Return. My loyalty from this day onwards is to my true Queen and those that serve her, no one else.’ He repeated it as if in a trance, a slight smile on his lips.
‘What is “the Rite of No Return”?’ I asked.
‘The Rite of No Return is worse than death to the Forest Fae. Our gifts are contained within our blood. For me in particular, as I come from old blood, I have more gifts than most. I, like my sister, can control plant life, but I can also control the earth from which it grows. And the rocks it grows between. I can also control certain smaller creatures—nothing larger than a small wolf. The Rite of No Return would require Cain to hang me upside down from a tree and drain my blood until every last drop of the old blood, which contains my gifts, has left me, as he replaces it with that of an animal. I would survive, but I would be a hollowed-out husk, never truly living. Empty. Lost. Alone. It has only ever been done once before, three hundred years ago.’
I had never heard of something so disgusting yet poetic; it made my skin crawl, but a small, sinister part of me was pleased he had chosen this path for me and Cain and the loyalty it displayed.
I couldn’t fathom putting myself at risk for anyone, let alone for someone I had never met.
Maybe he had lost his sanity living in the woods all this time.
‘I’m not who you or Cain seem to think I am. You will be disappointed and come to regret that oath,’ I said bitterly.
‘It is mine alone to regret, should that day ever come,’ he said, grinning and biting through some of the cured meat. ‘Anyway, where are we going from here? When can I see Cain? He’s probably worried about me after I went dark.’
I exchanged a look with Sienna; she was hesitant, but the flame and oath had told me all I needed to know about whether I could trust the truth of his words and his motives.
‘He’s away attending to something in another realm for me. We are going to the Wiccans to try to uncover some information that may be vital in the coming conflict with Morgad,’ I explained.
Jasper’s eyes narrowed slightly before he said, ‘I suppose you are also seeking some kind of information from me. I doubt that your rescuing me is solely out of the goodness of your heart. That’s one thing Cain made clear: you are good and just, but only with just cause.
Only if it serves a greater purpose. And based on your questioning of my sister, I suppose you want to know if I have any additional insights. ’
‘The Ancient Forest, yes. There are whispers of a dark magic infecting the land that Morgad is trying to release. We are going to the Wiccans to confirm what that magic is; what their wards are currently containing. Given that you are a Forest Fae of old blood, I believe you may also be able to shed some light on what might be contained within those wards. I’m sure you will be more forthcoming than your sister. ’
‘I can’t, my Queen. I wish I could,’ he said as the flame thrummed louder, sparking under my skin.
‘You’re avoiding a truth,’ I said.
Jasper looked shocked for a moment before his mischievous grin came back a moment later.
‘That is such a peculiar gift. How fascinating… But I really can’t.
My bloodline knows, but an old magic binds us from revealing the truth.
It was a protection placed to safeguard this world from what lies within.
I can say that the magic within those wards can never be released.
If it were to happen, then life as we know it would cease to exist. It’s an infection of sorts, one with no cure.
Everyone and everything would die, and anyone who thinks they can contain it is a fool.
It was my ancestors who helped bind the magic along with the Wiccans all those generations ago.
I am bound from saying what the magic is or how it can be unleashed, but I can explain how it was bound in the first place and how it could be bound again.
Magic of this nature demands a heavy price and the ultimate sacrifice.
The binder must be ready to relinquish everything.
It is not a mere blood sacrifice or a debt that must be paid with your life; when I say everything, I mean you have to let go of everything.
That is all the bindings on my blood will allow me to say,’ he explained.
After hearing that revelation, I sat there reflecting on all the half-truths I had learned.
I kept circling back on that one word, everything.
How that amounted to more than a life perplexed me.
Eventually, the conversation shifted to stories of Cain and Jasper as children.
Instead of being filled with humorous and embarrassing tales, these stories became sadder and more heartbreaking.
But I finally realised that Jasper was not so crazy for swearing an oath to be loyal to me; instead, he had sworn an oath to his brother, whom he trusted implicitly and to whom he was connected by more than blood or magic or oaths.
He had chosen to follow Cain and be loyal to him a long time ago, and being loyal to those Cain was loyal to was merely a minor step in solidifying that relationship.
The next morning saw us riding for another full day until we reached the base of the mountains, known as Runepeak.
Where the Wiccans lived. Once we arrived, it was nightfall again, and since we were so close, we decided to press on ahead, leaving the horses below.
From here, we would have to scale the rock face.
There was no other pathway that could be followed in an effort to deter outsiders.
We climbed for three hours in the dark, with only the moonlight to guide us.
My fingers began to bleed as the jagged rocks broke skin as I pulled myself up further and further.
Sienna scaled these mountains throughout her childhood, which meant she inevitably had to slow down for us and instruct Jasper on where to place his hands and feet to make it easier for him.
He was sweating; we all were, from the sheer effort this had taken.