ChapterThirteen
Blackthorne was as diverse as all the other kingdoms I’d been to. But where most of the other kingdoms gradually changed over distance, Ravanna’s kingdom was an abrupt departure from the gloom and greenery of Barstus.
Immediately, the scenery changed from drizzling and dreary to sunny and clear blue. And so did the landscape. From green and vibrant to stark and desolate.
The highway was rough and cobbled together with broken stones. And for miles in either direction were the remains of what used to be fields and forests.
Charred earth and broken trees. Gray and black and colorless.
Blackthorne was famous for its White Oaks. As famous as Tenovia for its Black Cedars. But the White Oaks were especially breathtaking to look at. Pure white bark with pale pink flesh. And clear leaves that glistened in the sunlight. I had seen them in the gardens at Elysia and been awed by their otherworldliness.
But here... they were the opposite of beautiful. This was death and destruction on display. Had something happened while Ravanna was away? Was this why she hadn’t been able to tutor me before? Because her kingdom had been under attack?
Katrinka was the first to find a way to voice her concern. “What happened?” she gasped, pressing her forehead against the coach window.
Ravanna glanced out the window. “This is an old scar. Older than you two. Older than even me.”
“War? From before the wall?” Katrinka guessed.
“War, yes. But much after the Marble Wall. This was thanks to the Century War, a couple hundred years ago.”
“When the magic was taken from the crown,” Katrinka said, clearly calling on her better education.
Either Father Garius had purposely omitted the Century War or we had not worked up to it yet. Either was possible.
I felt Ravanna’s cold glare on me. “I’m not so sure the magic was stolen after all. Hidden, perhaps. But how else is Tessana here and still alive, after everything?”
“You think the Crown of Nine has something to do with my Conandra?”
She laughed, but it did not hold any humor. “Sure, the trial. Your escape all those years ago to a little forgotten kingdom where nobody would think to look for you. Your travel back to the Seat of Power. Surviving several attempts on your life. Even now, the land sings of your arrival, Tessana Allisand. The Crown has protected you all this time.” Her gaze flicked to the fox curled up in my lap. “Even your pet purrs with some greater connection.”
I recalled the goblin curse but thought better than to bring it up now. “I’m not trying to do any of this.”
“But that’s the point, isn’t it? Despite your fumbling and flailing and utter ineptitude, you remain unharmed. That’s magic, my dear, if I’ve ever seen any.”
Fumbling? Flailing? Utter ineptitude?Tell me how you really feel, Cold Queen. Was that the purpose of the Crown of Nine? To protect the royal family? My family? “But what of my father? If the crown still held the original magic, wouldn’t it have saved him all those years ago?”
She turned away again, releasing me from the unrestrained intensity in her gaze. “That’s what I can’t figure out. Either the crown noted that you would be a better ruler than your father and acted in a way that would protect its longevity or your father had betrayed it somehow that released it from his service.”
“And then it skipped all of my brothers?” My voice was a harsh whisper, trembling and weak. How could she even suggest that I had been spared because of a mystical power in the crown?
What nonsense.
Ravanna frowned deeply and then sighed. Turning toward the window once more, she changed topics. “The land was cursed. The pagans who manipulated the crown, in whatever way, cursed the land so the rest of the realm would not follow them into Blackthorne. It was their last line of defense against the approaching armies.”
“This land is cursed?” Katrinka gasped. “How?”
“Death, my child. The only curse that matters.”
“I’m sorry, I have more questions. Why would the pagans hide the magic? Why not remove it?”
“Maybe they couldn’t,” she suggested. “Magical objects are tricky things. More so, cursed objects. Or even blessed ones.” Her gaze never strayed from the window. “Take these lands, for instance. Blackthorne has worked tirelessly since the fall of the pagans for the land to be restored. We’ve gone so far as to hire new pagans to extract the curse and breathe life back into the land. But no one has been successful. No animal can skitter across it. No seed can be planted in it. No man can walk it. Everything withers and dies.” She breathed deeply and continued, “But consider this highway. No carriage will break down upon it. Nor man or beast grow too tired to travel it. No creature that alights on it will meet its end. And no bad weather will ever prevent anyone or anything from using the road. It has been blessed, and blessed it shall stay.”
“Your failsafe from the surrounding cursed lands,” Katrnika guessed.
“We could not leave our land for a very long time. The witches cursed the ground in such a way that kept everyone else out. But also kept the people of Blackthorne inside. We call that time The Darkness, for the people of Blackthorne barely survived it. In a time when freedom and travel were myths of the past, people began to group together in small units, some forsaking society altogether. So you will not find towns like you are imagining in the other kingdoms. Or even a thriving society. But you will find resilient people who will do anything to protect their homes and their lifelines no matter the cost.”
Yet this was Ravanna’s favorite realm. So strange.The more I learned about her, the more I wondered how she and my mother were once friends.
