Heya! We're back in Fiyr's perspective. Thanks, everyone, for your interest in this fanfic and another shoutout to my fantastic beta reader, aer-of-ice!
Chapter 13 - Fiyr
I'm questioning all of my life decisions.
Samn stomps on ahead like the ground did him a personal injury, and I follow as best I can. What suddenly brought this on? He was as scornful as the rest when Yllowei Fennen came to Thundria—the cause of his change of heart is beyond me. I had been debating running to the castle ahead of the rest of the court, but my usual indecisiveness had rooted my feet to the ground.
Then the world's blondest jerk had grabbed the front of my tunic and was yanking me into the shadows around the pavilion. I, of course, immediately assumed he intended to slice my throat open and dump me in the bushes, which is why I was so surprised when I realized that he actually had good intentions.
"But…"
"Keep walking, and keep your mouth shut," Samn snaps, and I fall silent.
We make it to the solstice pavilion's stables, and I mount Blitz as quickly as I can. Halfway through the tenth buckle, I hear Samn's scornful hiss.
"I'm going as quickly as I can!" I snap back under my breath.
"Go faster!" he retorts, already on top of Dune.
After several more rude noises from Samn, I'm astride Blitz and we ride into the night.
…
We're only a few minutes into the hurried travel when I begin to hear something.
"Do you…" I start, but Samn's hand rises in the air in the ubiquitous motion of 'shut up'.
In the silence that follows, I'm wondering if I should try to alert him again, when he suddenly speaks.
"Thundria's following. We have to speed up. Not going to twist your forsaken-ankle again, are you?" he mocks, but it's less of a jeer and closer to teasing.
"See if you can keep up," I retort, and spur Blitz into a run.
Samn huffs behind me, though in irritation or amusement I don't know. He instantly overtakes me and our mounts thunder through the forest, the noise almost drowned out by the hoofbeats of the rest of the court riding towards the castle far behind us
It's only a few moments before the familiar clearing is in sight. We dismount silently, me with significantly more difficulty, and I scramble up the ladder as quickly and as quietly as possible.
By the time I make it to the top, Samn's already led Blitz and Dune back to their stables and is running for the castle doors.
"We can't go in that way, Goldanna'll probably only let in the queen," I hiss.
"Point. Alright, back exit to the kitchen it is," Samn sighs, and breaks off into a run.
I'm out of breath and can already feel a bead of sweat dribbling down the side of my face as we break through the door and through the deserted kitchens.
"The healer's wing," I exclaim, and we charge through the small hallway that connects the kitchen to the healer's wing.
Samn and I survey the moonlit white cots, desk, and shelves, and then turn to each other as it dawns on both of us.
"Starlaxi-damned fuckin' shit," Samn hisses, and is already out the door of the healer's wing, headed for the nursery.
I blubber out a curse or two of my own, my knees feeling like they won't support me for much longer.
The healer's wing is empty; Yllowei's gone.
I wheel around, almost blinded by tears. If anything happened to the children, if she touched a hair on their heads—
But as I skid into the dark throne room, lit only by the faint embers of the torches lining the walls, I see a figure seated on the steps of the dais.
"Yllowei?" My voice quavers, and I hate myself for it.
A raspy chuckle comes from the silhouette.
Fear trickles through me, but I shove it off and concentrate. The torches roar to life, and I pluck flame from each, spinning it larger until there's a vast fireball floating in the middle of the room.
"What did you do with the kids!?" I shout, knowing that it's going to be a minute or two more before the court arrives to help me. No one'll save me if she attacks me. Samn's in the nursery, and I don't know how long it'll take him to search it. He heard my shout though, doubtless.
"So he's kept his promise," she mutters, burying her head in her hands.
"What…? What did you say?" I croak, caught off guard. I take a few wary steps towards her. She doesn't move. I step closer.
"Fiyr, don't take another damn step!" Samn shouts from across the throne room. "Yllowei! Freeze! You hurt him and you'll be dead before you know what's happening!"
"Relax, I'm not after your precious carrot," Yllowei grunts, heaving herself to her feet.
I relax slightly. She's hurting no one in her state, but Samn's not backing down. His olive eyes are narrowed to flinty slits.
Without glancing away from Yllowei, I ask, "Are the kids okay?"
"Sleeping soundly," he mutters. "For now."
"The kids?!" Yllowei exclaims, and the faint light from my dying fireball illuminates a silver glint on her weathered cheek. "It's so easy for him to destroy everything… And everyone believed him."
I falter. "Did you hurt anyone?"
"Why would I?" Yllowei's expression lights in fury, and she curls her lip. Samn looks like he's ready to dash over and knock her out, but I'm focused on the elderly woman. "Think I left Shodawa because their vegetables weren't fresh enough?"
I blink. "You might be a spy."
"For a scumbag like King Braukkiniaum? Fat chance," she snaps. "Alright, you want me to prove it? Hey kiddies, do you know what his life-force is?"
I exchange a glance with Samn, but we both know that the life-forces of anyone prominent, or who might have the chance to become prominent, are secrets that most do their best to keep. Rumours circulate, but things are never confirmed. Is Yllowei actually going to…
"Blood." She spits on the floor, her voice a hoarse rasp in the silent throne room. My fireball's barely a flickering candle flame now that my concentration has all but evaporated, and that revelation makes it wink out. She's left as a dimly-lit silhouette before us. "He can manipulate blood."
An involuntary chill slides down my spine like a finger of ice.
I exchange a glance with Samn, and beyond the heavy layer of suspicion and skepticism I see a glimmer of instinctual fear.
"So." She heaves herself up—limping and disheveled she's still a fearsome sight—and grunts, "Once you've seen the strongest knights your beautiful kingdom has to offer reduced to snivelling brats, too weak to lift their arms, once you've seen the former ruler forced like a puppet to bow his proud head, once. You've. Seen. A monster slap a child with a whip of her own blood, then you can talk to me."
We fall silent.
Yllowei Fennen's eyes glint fiercely, but then a moment later, a heavy sigh escapes her body. "But of course, as is the nature of humans, the heartbeat fear is ignited, we toss reason to the wind and form an angry mob of idiots."
The sardonic twist of her gnarled lips doesn't even falter as Tigre Cawle and a legion of Thundrian knights burst through the castle doors, completely ignoring Goldanna Flourer, the supposed guard, as she jerks awake with a guilty look.
Yllowei meets the furious man's gaze coolly, but before either can speak, Frostialla breaks away and sprints towards the nursery. Lady Fennen watches her go with an inscrutable expression.
Feeling awkward standing just off to the side between Tigre and Yllowei, I hurry back to where Ravne's peeking out from behind Sir Strommer. Samn follows.
"Nobody saw you leave—everyone was panicking about Yllowei," Ravne informs me, almost inaudibly, answering before I even ask.
Rynnin Wynnd appears in the doorway of the stairs leading to the knights' wing, in sleep-clothes and looking half-awake at most. "What's going on?"
"King Braukkiniaum asked for hunting rights to our territories," Liang Teyl tells him, spitting the honorific like it's a curse.
"And there's a dangerous outlaw that's going to hurt our children, more importantly!" Willowamina Peilte snaps, thrusting a finger towards Yllowei, who folds her arms.
As though this testimony is all the proof he needs, Sir Cawle moves with surprising speed towards Yllowei and points his sword at her.
Before the situation can escalate, the queen makes her way through the crowded court and clears her throat coldly. Tigre turns his head slightly to bring her into his field of vision.
"I do not recall giving the order to harm her," she says slowly.
The court falls silent, waiting to see how Sir Cawle will react, but once again he's interrupted as Frostialla Fuor return from the nursery, her gown gathered in one hand to ease her run.
"The children are safe!" she announces, out of breath.
My hand curls into a fist and I fight the urge to demand why she thought they wouldn't be, but the queen beats me to it.
"Of course they are," she snaps, and Frostialla looks taken aback by her harsh tone.
"Will we throw out Lady Fennen?" Lady Fuor proposes quietly, rage simmering in her blue eyes.
Darriek Styrp, his gray and black streaked hair shining with oil in the torchlight, steps forwards, a hand on the pommel of Darkstripe. "We can't afford to leave her roaming the forests! I say we slit her throat."
The queen looks a hairbreadth from rolling her eyes, but merely waves a hand and says coolly, "It seems that my memory may be fading, as I do not recall Braukkin naming Lady Fennen as the so called outlaw."
Even not being raised in the court my whole life, casually referring to Shodawa's king so informally is a shrewd move by the queen. She's not afraid of him.
"She will be safe in our castle until further information is brought to light," Queen Bluelianna announces, the steely set of her jaw not brooking further argument.
Yllowei lets out a dry cackle that puts everyone on more of an edge than ever. "I can leave if your court is so set on it."
Darriek looks like he's about to burst with all that he wants to say, but the queen speaks first.
"You are not what needs to be feared, and will therefore have no punishment enacted upon you," she says with an air of finality. "The threat is Braukkiniaum, and we will not waste our time chasing stray rumours when it seems that our court will stand alone against him."
"And as to his request?" Tigre demands. The burly knight's lowered his sword, but he still seems to be seething with contained anger.
"Of course not," she says dismissively. "He will not pierce the flesh of a Thundrian deer whilst there is breath in my body. He is mad as well as cruel if he believes Thundria will cave to such petty demands."
Another calculated dismissal. She knows that the whole court's practically wetting the bed at the thought of the dark king of Shodawa, and fear, as Yllowei said, is one of the most dangerous weapons.
"How will we defend against all of Shodawa?" Samal Eyre, a tiny wizened man croaks from the back of the crowd.
"By fighting with blood and steel and every drop of life-force at our disposal," the queen declares, slamming her sceptre into the ground with a resounding crack. "I intend to travel to the Lunar Temple, accompanied by Sir Liyon Hartef. The Starlaxi will show me the way forward in this dark time."
I spot Graie halfway across the throne room and edge towards him. As the court disperses, most heading to the knights' wing to sleep, though some sticking around to murmur in low tones about the events of the Gathering.
"What's the Lunar Temple?" I mutter, feeling like an imbecile again. It's a vaguely familiar term; I get the feeling we probably went over it during some lesson I assumed was pointless and therefore tuned out of.
"Have you ever paid attention in your life?" he teases, seeming to be in relatively good spirits considering the events of the Gathering. "The Lunar Temple is a sacred underground temple to the Starlaxi. Monarchs go there to receive the Nine Blessings, and squires are usually sent to initiate their communication with the Starlaxi. Sometimes it unlocks a deeper level of life-force, sometimes it's just weird and confusing. It's also where the gemstones and metal for life-force rings grow. There's a central chamber with this giant white diamond with all the gems and metal inside it, growing. They disappear when they're summoned by the Starlaxi Sceptres of the four kingdoms during a knighting ceremony."
I nod, feeling the information almost instantly leave my brain. "Look at you, brainy boy."
He sticks his tongue out, and then his mouth opens wider as a giant yawn stretches across his face. "Blessed Starlaxi, I need to go assault my sheets before I pass out on the floor."
I giggle, half at his antics and half at plain relief that Yllowei isn't a traitor, and help him comically stagger back to the squire's wing. Duss is sitting in one of the common room's chairs, watching the entrance with an irritable expression.
As Graie begins to repeat what he heard of the events of the Gathering to his sour half-brother, I'm alerted by a low, rumbly voice coming from a few feet from the squire's wing. It's in one of the hallways.
Creeping closer, I pinpoint it as in the hallway between the squires' wing and the knights' wing. Two forms are silhouetted in the dim light of the sparse torches.
One tall lanky, and one as tall but twice as wide. Sir Cawle and Ravne. I take another soft step, curious.
"Just make sure it never happens again," Sir Cawle growls, and Ravne nods. I can't make out their expression, but Ravne is almost cowering and his body language makes me sure this isn't a friendly exchange.
Seeming to have finished, Tigre sets off down the hall towards the knights' wing, and Ravne heads towards me. I duck away.
He was probably talking during the Gathering or something, I decide, ignoring the twinge of foreboding. Sir Cawle probably didn't want to embarrass him in front of everyone.
My musings are interrupted as the captain of the guard, one Sir Liyon Hartef enters the squires' wing, the doorway dwarfed by his imposing frame.
"Graie and Fiyr, your squirehood visit to the Lunar Temple will take place tomorrow," Sir Hartef announces. "Ravne and Samn will accompany you as a guard."
Duss's jaw lolls open with surprise and anger, but the blond man has exited the wing before the boy can protest.
"Life's not fair," Graie snickers, elbowing his half-brother and then jumping out of the way as Duss takes a retaliatory swing at his head.
Before they actually start wrestling on the floor, Sir Hartef re-enters with a guilty expression. "Also, almost forgot, go get your travelling herbs from Spottalia Lief."
Leaving Duss to sulk, the four of us take the back hallway into the healer's wing.
"Travelling herbs please!" Graie calls out cheerfully, and the healer springs from her desk.
Her face is twisted into sharp lines of anxiety, but she smiles and takes in her arms four beeswax paper bundles of ostensibly travelling herbs. She passes me mine with a familiar smile and I smile back. I should visit her more often. I think we could be friends.
Samn heads out the door quickly, his boots clicking on the stone. Following the group, I hurry down the hallway.
"Someone's got a crush," Graie singsongs, and I punch him lightly in the back of the head.
"Do not!"
"That's illegal," Samn deadpans.
…
Just as we're preparing to blow out our candles, I hear Graie shuffling around in the nook next to me, the heavy curtain between us only showing a faint outline of his form.
"Hope the herbs won't be too bad," he mumbles.
"How far's the journey?" I ask quietly, staring up at the ceiling.
"It's at the base of the silver peaks," he responds. "We take a tunnel down into the mountains. Every squire's gotta do it before they're knighted."
I fall silent, pulling the blankets tighter around me. In the mountains? Those little things on the horizon? That'll be the farthest I've ever gone… Outside Thundria. Never thought I'd actually go anywhere further than the gods' gardens.
As my eyes flutter shut, I can't help thinking that I'm a long way from home.
Thanks for reading chapter 13! Please follow and favourite this story and leave me a review with what you think!
~Akila
