Feyre looked around the house of wind. Marvelling at how her whole court had survived the war. Rhysand sat behind her watching his mate, before roughly pulling her down and onto himself.
"I can't believe you convinced the High Lords to grant me life again."
He said through the mating bond.
"Oh that was easy." Feyre smirked. "All it took was a little seductive persuasion."
Rhysand's heart stopped for a minute before he realised she was joking.
"Cruel Feyre darling" he snarled but she recognised no threat as she kissed him on the cheek.
Across the hall Nesta and Elaine sat eating breakfast, Cassian was pestering Nesta about how she should be training with him and not Amren.
"Come on Nesta, you can't rely on what ever power you were given from the cauldron to fight. Let me teach you how to defend yourself."
"No. I think I much prefer Amren 's company."
"She might be but she won't help you if your ever taken by someone will she?"
Amren gave Cassian a warning glare that made him flinch but he held firm. "Well maybe she would but that is still not the point I am trying to make."
Feyre could see the point he was trying to make and stepped in to help both out. "Nesta, Cassian trained me and is a good teacher. You will learn what you need to defend yourself." She turned to Cassian, "and you will get a chance to train my sister but not until she is ready, I won't force her out of Amren's teaching into yours if there is still more that she can learn."
"Spoken like a true high lady." Rhysand said standing from his chair.
"Its a pity that behind the doors she doesn't act like one." He replied through the mating bond so that on one else could hear.
"I'm going to find Az" Cassian said in a huff before walking outside and flying off. No one actually knew where the shadowsinger had gone off too. Elain didn't have him in the garden and Mor wasn't with him.
It took Cassian over an hour took find Azriel but he found him outside the city looking out towards something that Cassian couldn't see.
"Do I want to ask what your looking for?" Asked Cassian.
"Something is out there. Strange and small as it is but it was not there a moment ago."
"Well you have a look at what it is. I will report back to Rhysand and no doubt find you again."
Cassian's wings boomed as he flew into the air and Azriel winnowed into the forest.
Elide woke to complete darkness. The forest she now observed was different, smelt different. The clearing was now empty and the thirteen witches and wyverns were gone. The fire had disappeared like it had never been lit in the first place.
The cold had struck at Elide when she drew her first breathe. It had now crept into her ankle causing her great discomfort.
"Manon?" She asked into the night. "Asterin? Sorrel? Is there anyone around."
Crickets chirping was her only response.
"Abraxos?" She said with a louder tone. "Manon, where are you?"
The cold invaded her ankle, she needed to move and get out of the cold fast. But which way to go. The stars were none familiar and the northern star was nowhere to be found. "How do I find Terrasan if there is no northern star?"
"Who is Terrasan?" Asked someone stepping out of the shadows.
Cassian landed on the porch of the house of wind.
"Where is Rhys? He said barging in and talking to no one in particular.
"Where are you manners?" Retorted Nesta, unaware of the current situation.
"This is serious Nesta, where is he?"
"He and Feyre just ran upstairs something about a shower, I don't know I stopped listening."
Cassian ran upstairs and didn't bother knocking as he ran through the door and into Rhys' bedroom.
"Rhys quick, AZ is hunting something in the forest and he does not know what it is. He said it just appeared out of nowhere."
Cassian stood there waiting for a reply. Completely ignorant of Feyre standing behind him.
" That's a cool story Cass." She said startling him.
"Quickly," he said scooping her into one arm and running out of the house. Feyre could only hold on as he jumped out the window and flared his wings to fly upwards.
"Cassian, start explaining what the hell is going on?"
"Azriel found something in the woods that sparked his interest. Said it was too important and too strange not to investigate. Now I'm returning to help him look but I needed Rhys to help because of the vastness we need to cover."
"Well where is he and why didn't you atleast wait until I got a jumper. It's freezing through here."
Cassian flew over Azriel hiding in a tree carefully looking for something that no one could see.
He landed in the grass and let Feyre go to explore around her.
Azriel winnowed beside them.
"I feel it close, it's not a threat but it feels strange. My shadows are saying that it is female and she is scared. Very tiny and walks with a limp. I'm unsure if I should approach or not, I think your talking skills might be our best weapon here high lady."
"How far away. ." Feyre was cut off from what schedule was going to say as a scream shuddered the woods. Cassian was instantly in the air and Azriel had already winnowed to the sound. Feyre followed suit and found a young girl being pestered be five men. Wearing Hybern armor of all things. Cassian hit the ground with a great thud getting all their attention. Azriel stepped out of the shadows beside them, truth-teller in hand before stepping forward and stabbing the first soldier in the chest. He crumpled to the ground before Azriel could draw his first blade and decapitate the next soldier. The other three had weapons drawn at Az but seemingly forgot about Cassian charging them. Cass' blade went straight through the chest of a soldier and his fist found the jaw of another sending him to the ground. Azriel's sword severed the arm off of the last soldier while Cassian jumped forward and beheaded the one on the ground. Feyre approached the crippled soldier
"What are you doing here, you lost the war. It is over, we won."
The soldier laughed, "you may have defeated the king, but to every king there is a queen, and this queen will wipe the floor with a null of you."
Feyre turned around and gave Azriel the signal to finish him now. A quick dagger found its way under the soldiers chin and Azriel threw him to the ground.
"Where is she?" Feyre said looking for the young girl. In all the commotion she had run off tried to get away.
"I will get her." Said Azriel as he winnowed away.
Manon was awoken by Asterin quite roughly shaking her.
"Elide is gone, like gone. No marks leaving the camp and none coming in. I don't know where she has gone but it's like she has just vanished."
Manon jolted completely awake.
"Sorrel and the shadows are scouting around looking for her as we speak."
Manon stood and walked to the clearing, the fire had burnt out and died through the night sometime. The wyverns could sense the discomfort and stood there on high alert. Abraxos flicked his tail back and forth, impatiently waiting to go and search.
Dorian walked out of his tent
"Morning Witchling" he said with a sleepy smile.
"Elide is missing, I don't know where she is but we awoke this morning to her not here. No one can find her tracks and I don't know.
"What do you mean she is gone. She was asleep underneath Asterin's mare."
"She was, she had the mare to herself. I slept under the wings of Sorrel's beast with her. Elide had the whole night to herself."
"Well where is she, no one just leaves without leaving a single mark to be followed." With that four other riders and their wyverns took to the air and joined the search.
Elide had been ambushed. She didn't sense the soldiers coming through the woods and they surprised her. Even worse though was the man bat thing that landed from the sky. She couldn't see much through the darkness but his wings were there and he flew. Then another person stepped clean out if the darkness and stabbed one if the soldiers. That was all the distraction that she needed to run away. Through the trees as fast as her ankle would let her, Elide would not stop. She needed to get away. Find Manon again or maybe even Lorcan. If she could just find Lorcan he would be able to protect her. Elide lost her footing and fell but two arms caught her before he hit the ground. The dirt seemed close then all of a sudden there was nothing. No dirt, no sky. Elide only glimpsed black for a brief moment before wooden floor boards came rushing at her. Elide got her hands under her and rolled herself across the floor boards. On her feet she quickly ran for the nearest exit. Her ankle gave her immense pain before collapsing under her weight, sending her crashing into the floor once more. Elide vomited across the wooden boards and looked up at the crowd now gathered a few metres away. All those eyes peering at her, all those questions and thoughts. Elide gave in to the worry and fainted there and then.
Feyre was speechless as she lay down beside Rhysand that night.
"What do you think?" He asked softly.
"Who is she and where did she come from? She is so small. She must be so young. How did she end up here? I don't know Rhys, what do we do with her?"
"Well, we will sort it out in the morning. I think Mor is happy she has a damsel to distress over again."
"Well Mor was quick to round her up and find her a room. She probably won't allow us to question her when she wakes but we need to make sure that she has no ill intentions."
"Agreed" Said Feyre, "tomorrow morning we will see if she means we'll and the decide what to do."
She rolled over to place her head on his chest and a hand on his leg.
"Let tomorrow be as peaceful as it can be." She said through the bond. "No more violence, please."
Rhysand knew what she meant and pulled her closer to his side.
"There will be no violence tomorrow, Feyre darling."
Aelin lost track of time while she bound in that iron coffin. The chains and mask had not allowed her magic to heal the wounds one her back. She was still on a boat and the continuous rocking of waves made her uneasy. No one had been to see her since she left the stone marshes although she heard voices outside sometimes.
Several hours later Fenrys opened the coffin and gazed at her.
"You look like shit your majesty."
He said with a cunning smile. "I have some good news for you."
"And what would that be?" Aelin retorted back with a vicious tone.
"I have left a trail of breadcrumbs for your beloved hawk to follow. So he is on his way. But that process is slow and I want to speed things up slightly."
"What do you mean speed things up?"
"Its like this, you see me and Connall both felt something weird the other day and neither figure out why."
"What does this have to do with me?"
"I just over heard Cairn and Maeve talking, Cairn no longer feels blood sworn to Maeve. She has no control over him. And now is worried that she has no control over us. It's only a matter if time so I came to you Aelin Ashryver Galathynius Whitethorn, I come to you to ask for room in your court for me and my brother. Both of us, will serve you and fight Maeve if you allow us to come with you and Rowan when he turns up."
He loosened the chains of her arms and legs and took the mask off. "I will help you get out if you grant us safety in your court. Connall will swear fealty to you as I do now. I will loosen your chains so you can heal yourself. You need some of your strength to get away. Start healing Aelin. I will be back."
Fenrys shut the door and left leaving Aelin to ponder what he had said. Rowan was on his way. Her heart almost rippled out of her chest. He was on his way. He would not return to Terrasan without her. Heal she needed to heal. Her magic would take a while to regenerate but slowly she could heal