Dell laughed at Dren’s expression.
My clan. My problem. One that would get taken care of immediately.
If only the same could be said of the one problem I could not resolve through pure strength… of the Aetherian woman who had claimed my heart.
35
LYRA
“I’ve enjoyed our time here,” Nerys said as she and Mev and I finished our daily training. We’d taken to doing so together near the rocky outcropping of the northernmost shores near the palace. While the queen showed us how she’d managed some of the maneuvers she’d utilized against Queen Lirael in their battle for the throne, Mev and I marveled her with advanced air magic that the princess had become more than proficient with. Mastery over the breeze using naught but breath was no easy skill for someone who not long ago had little notion her abilities even existed.
Mev, as she had these past days, looked defeated. We both knew what the queen was prepared to say.
“Marek and Issa will be back in the next two days,” Mev added.
The iridescent wings of a flock of glintwing finches whizzing past held our attention for a moment. I remembered another time, long ago, Terran had been in Aethralis when a similar flock flew past our congregation of delegates. He’d glared at them so fiercely, for reasons unknown, I nearly laughed. Perhaps he had seen me smile, because I’d been the next victim of his menacing stare. One that could turn easily, I knew now, into a grin.
“And when they do—” Nerys began.
“You will be returning,” Mev finished.
They’d left for an unknown destination for an unknown reason—not atypical for the pair—but would be back soon… to escort Rowan and Nerys home.
“As I can do it easily, back here, the moment I am needed.”
Of course she had to return, as Terran had, to rule her clan.
Why did even the briefest thoughts of him feel more painful than any cut in battle ever had? Once, a Gyorian tossed a boulder at my head—a border skirmish I’d been tasked with quelling—that an easily summoned gust of wind rerouted. When it hit behind me, however, it shattered into a million stones, one of which left a scar on my shoulder blade where it had projected at me too quickly to maneuver away from. I often said a blade slice was preferable to that stone, but I would take it any day over this kind of pain.
“She’s done it again.”
I’d been staring at the ground.
Nerys and Mev knew, though both wouldn’t dare speak of it when I’d refused to do so before. With all that was happening around us… the clean-up and aftermath of the breach, the failed Gate attempt… me falling in love with a Gyorian was of little consequence.
“Two days. This simply means,” I said, deflecting, “we must redouble our efforts.”
Mev’s shoulders sank. “We’ve talked to every sage. Scoured the Luminara. The last time I dug this deeply, researching a topic so thoroughly…”
Mev stopped. And looked down at her ring.
She did this often, but something about the way she stared at it was different.
“When I was looking for something I didn’t even know existed.” She lifted her chin. “Elydor.”
Nerys and I exchanged a glance, neither understanding the princess’s meaning.
“We’re looking for an answer without knowing the question.”
Nerys cleared her throat as a large wave crashed against the shore. Just as its droplets were about to wet us, she flipped her hand, gathered them into one and sent it back into the sea.
“Isn’t the question,” I asked the obvious, “how do we reopen the Gate?”
“Yes, but… when I was a curator, I learned that artifacts rarely spoke their truths alone. A ring in a case was just a trinket… until set beside the crown it belonged to, or the tomb it was pulled from. Meaning lives in context. What if we’ve been treating the relics as singular, when their answer is only revealed together?”
“The artifacts were all needed to open it in the first place,” Nerys mused.
“And to close it,” I added.
