~
Late last night, a servant brought a note from my father. It was four words long… ‘Your mother has passed.’
I am still in my room. I guess I am waiting. I don’t know what will happen.
I heard a noise in the front room and slid the book under a pillow, dropped my head, and pretended to sleep. I’d been so absorbed in the book I had no idea how long I’d been reading. There was a light rap on my door.
I tried to sound sleepy. “Yes?”
“Frey, I’m on my way to the ridge. We will be leaving in the morning.” Ruby’s words confused me. I must have read through the night.
“Okay.”
“Steed is here. You can stay with him or go with me.”
“I’ll stay.” I listened to her footsteps recede. When I was sure she was gone I slipped the book into my pack and hid it inside the material of the white gown. We would be leaving tomorrow, traveling to the peak. I laughed to myself—no matter how many times I said it, I had no clue what it meant. But now there was an urgency. No matter if it held safety, no matter if it held my family secrets, it held my escape from the bonds. It held my only chance.
I hadn’t slept, and I knew I would have to sneak a nap in at some point, but I had priorities. It might be my last opportunity for a real bath. And lovely soaps.
I sat with Steed for a while after I’d bathed. He was reclined on the bench, his feet propped on a low table. He didn’t seem as excited as Ruby had been about our coming trip, so I asked him about it.
“I’m just riding the wind, Frey.”
“Oh, so you don’t know where we’re going either?”
He laughed. “No, I know where we are going. It’s only that I don’t know where we’ll end up.”
I didn’t know what was going to happen either. I thought of the tracker and realized what a good distraction the book had been. “Steed?”
“Frey?”
I smiled but it fell away quickly. “How will we get to council? I mean, how do we find them?”
He wasn’t smiling anymore either. “Well, there’s a good chance they’ll be looking for us.”
Of course, and they would all come together. It was clear we were too strong for one or two, they would need to attack as a group. Or pick us off one by one. I wondered how large their force was.
“Frey?”
“Steed?” It wasn’t as funny this time.
“How did you do it?”
I raised my brow, unsure what he was asking.
“The snake,” he clarified.
“Oh. I… I don’t know.”
“Was it transfer magic? Did you simply push it there?”
I didn’t know how I’d controlled it, but it wasn’t from the outside. Should I tell him? “How else?” I asked innocently.
He nodded. “Some of the others, well, they seem to think you encouraged the snake to go under its own power. Silly, I know.” He was watching my response.
I tried sidetracking him. “Ruby says no one can control animals.”
“You’ve been talking to Ruby about it?”
Oops. “Well, Ruby just talks.”
“Mm-hm.”
“So, some of the others… who, exactly?”
He smirked. I’d given too much away. “You couldn’t tell by the way they looked at you in the clearing?”
I had noticed. Anvil, Grey. It brought back a memory. “Who was the old guy with the stick?”
“Staff.”
“Staff.” I waited.
“Shouldn’t you be preparing for the trip?”
“Shouldn’t you?” I countered.
“I am babysitting.”
I stuck my tongue out at him.
Tired, I settled back into my seat. “Steed, tell me about breeding horses.”
He sighed. “How much detail do you want?” I giggled.
He smiled as he started into the subject, explaining what he’d been taught about breeding techniques and dominant traits when he was young. His father had imparted to him all he had learned in his lifetime and all their ancestors had passed down before. They bred the animals methodically, striving to combine certain traits, bring them together in a single horse. With each generation, they strengthened the line, even bringing in new breeds from other lands to add to the list of desired attributes. Smoother gait, better endurance, stronger health, longer life.
I faded off somewhere during the part about bloodlines.
I woke late in the evening when Ruby switched places with Steed. She had brought some meat back with her and we supped together before I headed off to bed. Ruby didn’t question why I would be sleeping again so soon. She was busy being excited about her upcoming trip.
I didn’t share her enthusiasm, so I retired to my room and read more of the journal. There were many sad passages after the passing of the writer’s mother, though their bond didn’t seem traditional. It seemed more… formal. And there were many complaints about the additional workload, both with the castle duties—which were described in more detail—and her training. I couldn’t be sure how much time had passed without the entries being dated, but her mood had definitely shifted.
Father has been merciless in my practice and testing with Rune. Unrelenting sessions are wearing on me. I can barely concentrate. I don’t have the energy for the simplest tasks, let alone the new and wild trials he’s created. He thinks he has to test every possible idea he has or else he won’t know what I might be capable of.
He’s gone much more often lately, but Rune doesn’t let up in his absence. I wish there was a way to handle him, some way he’d give me a break when Father was away. I can think of nothing short of begging, and that would only result in punishment.
Sometimes, when Father’s away, I remember my mother. I try to see her room, but it is sealed. I am sorry that I destroyed the only thing I had of her, this insignificant journal—tore her pages out and tossed them away to make it my own, like a silly child.
I remember most of it, though I can’t recall the tone of her writings, whether she was happy in the beginning. My father’s indiscretion was no secret. The entire kingdom knew of his notorious action, stealing a light elf for his bride, though the stories vary. Some insist he was overtaken by love and she came willingly. Others that he raided her village and took her in the night. A servant once told me he heard of her extraordinary powers and beauty and sought her out, bargaining with her parents. I scoffed at that. What kind of person would trade their child? But now that I am older, I see. I see what power and greed can become. My doubts about the more outlandish stories, those about the obsession with power and ideas of breeding a stronger line, are gone.
But maybe they were in love. Maybe she was impressed by his station, maybe she had her own ambitions. Or maybe she lived a nightmare and only hung on so long for her children.
I was able to piece together some things about her life. She didn’t go into much detail about the magic, which I would have found useful, just that she practiced often and was apparently unusually talented. But she did tell more about her duties in the castle. Her father must have ruled a vast kingdom. And she was his second.
I heard someone in the front room and knew I had read through the night again. I hurriedly slipped the book into my pack and pretended to sleep. Ruby was waking me minutes later to head out to the ridge.