They studied me with a slyness I was only learning to master myself.
This was another test.
“The Lieges are their protectors, aren’t they?” I asked, holding back the beginning of a smile when his eyes flashed with excitement.
“Do you believe Lieges who drove carts and commanded the dregs to overrun villages are capable of protecting anyone?”
“Only the powerless can center the balance, and someone needs to protect them. The Lieges have always been bound to the dregs, yet now they also serve a new master, Ivenrail.” Perhaps his father before him. How far back in his family did this torturous plan go?
“I ask you,” he said in a cryptic voice that shot out across theplain and returned to slam into me, nearly knocking me over, “how will wielding the Blade of Alessa restore the balance?”
“Whispers will reveal what shadows keep. To lose all hope or dare to take the leap.”
His unearthly blue eyes widened.
“I took a leap by coming here rather than allow Ivenrail to steal all hope.” I lifted my voice, and it rang across this world like the chiming of a pristine bell. “When nature bends and true love speaks with all its might, only then will justice end this bitter blight. Don’t you see?”
“Tell me,” he intoned.
“My love for Vexxion and his for me will bring about the change we need.”
“If it’s used well.” His gaze narrowed. “What will happen to those who have less power once you break the spell binding them?”
“I can’t promise I’ll be able to protect them.”
“Then you’re not the right one to wield the blade,” he shouted, his voice smacking into me before it was sucked away by the ether.
“I’d be lying if I told you I could do that. All I can promise is that I’ll try. Hope and love can build a better future. I trust that together, Vexxion and I can make a difference, that we can vanquish those who seek to harm others. That we can set a new course foreveryonein faerie. And when I say faerie, I mean the entire continent, not just those living beyond the veil. The fae, the Nullens, the Lieges, and the powerless.”
He grunted.
I met his gaze with steel in my own and rooted my feetfirmly in the sand. We were wasting time when I had so much left to do. “Take me to the Blade of Alessa. With it, I will free the powerless, restore the Lieges to their role as protectors, and end this blight spreading across our world.”
Gaineos smiled. “Very well, tiny storm. You have done well so far.” He stretched forward with his front hooves, lowering his chest until it nearly touched the sand. “Climb on my back, and I will take you where you need to go.”
68
VEXXION
Fury was gone. I couldn’t reach her in my mind, and it wasn’t because she’d erected a wall to keep me out.
She was no longer . . . here.
After flitting to the king’s sitting area, not finding her near the Wraithweave board, I returned to the battlefield, desperately peering around.
My fury had tricked me. So clever.
“Where are you?” I hissed.
I wanted to attack Ivenrail and finally, finally end this. I’d craved watching the life leave his eyes from the time I was five. I owed this to my fury and to my mother. To myself.
But Fury had asked me to trust her, and for once, I would not storm or thrash around, venting my rage.
As always, I would act for the good of others.
“Who wants to go on a dangerous mission?” I cried out.
Shouts echoed as many of the fae bristling with weapons stomped closer, gathering around me in a furious, determined mass.
