Tears threaten to spill, brimming my eyes. While I don’t know Clennom very well, imagining him going through what Iviloan had to endure is heartbreaking. I think back to one of my last visits to Antalis and my friend Iviloan, whom I miss.
Four and a Half Lunar Years Ago
“Your freckles really look like the stars in the sky, Tala.” Iviloan looks at me from across the table as we sit on her balcony overlooking the Great Sea. The pitgoni birds chirp from up high, soaring downto catch their lunch. Her daughter, Carnaxa, runs across the sand during her fifteenth lunar year, and an annoyed young guard tries to keep a straight face as she runs into the sea. He looks at her with irritation, but soon his expression changes to joy as he splashes water at her.
“That’s what people tell me. I used to hate them when I was younger, but they are growing on me.” I take a sip of tea from the blue glass in front of me and look at her. She looks worried today, her eyes darting back and forth from her daughter laughing on the beach to her own hands. It’s then I notice, she’s paler than she once was, and her frame has grown smaller. “Are you okay? Is Carnaxa?”
She looks at me as if I startled her from her thoughts and smiles, before her glass clinks against the porcelain saucer. “Carnaxa will be fine, but things are changing, Tala. For good this time.” Iviloan takes my hand in her own. There’s something important I need to discuss with you, and I also need you to hold on to something for me, until Carnaxa needs it.”
Fright consumes her blue eyes and I squeeze her hand and reply, “Ivy, you are scaring me. What is wrong?”
She lets go of my hand and looks up at the sun above us. “Something that started many lunar years ago.”
Present
Iviloan told me her history, and at first I didn’t believe it. I took the tome she gave to me and held onto it for her daughter, not knowing when the right time would be. But I believed her the day the rings of light disappeared from around thesun. And when I saw Carnaxa hand in hand with Ereon, I knew the time she spoke was coming to pass. I think she told me everything, hoping it would help curb the pain that overwhelms me daily as my kingdom is torn apart. I pray every night that Carnaxa will survive what she must. I know that she woke up the power that has helped us survive against thekhind. Magic scared us at first, random bursts of power happening all over the kingdom: flames, wind, earthquakes, and more ... but now, the mind has remembered how to control the power like second nature.
“So, it’s officially begun,” is all that I say before I reach up, brushing my fingers across his cheek. “The prophecy is finally coming to pass.”
“Will you finally tell me what you know?” he asks, his fingers still lingering along my jawline. I’ve often thought about telling him, letting him know what is to come. But it isn’t always the best feeling to know what awaits us in the future. It’s a burden, knowing what’s happening and yet nothing can halt it. I shake my head and a grim smile spreads across my face.
“When the time comes, I’ll let you know more. Until then, get the priestesses from the temple. I want to speak to them.” I let my hands fall from his face and turn back to the window. “The rest of the prophecy will come swiftly. I need you to retrieve her from the shelter as well, please. She needs to know. She’ll want to go.”
thirty-seven
Ereon
As the sun brings light to the horizon, Carnaxa sits up abruptly in bed. Clutching her hand to her chest, she sounds as though she is choking.
I reach out to her, concerned. “What’s wrong?”
But she doesn’t answer. She screams and her body shakes as she digs into the skin near her shell. Tears fall from her eyes. I don’t know what to do as I hold her. “Breathe … tell me what’s happening?”
Suddenly she stops screaming, although she is still sobbing against my chest. “I think I was just ripped apart.”
I don’t know what is happening to help her; who can I get to help her? The healers I would recommend are far from us now. I run my hand across the back of her head.
“I think more was taken from me. First my memories and now this … what is happening?” She cries against my chest.
“I don’t know,Rheyro.But I promise, once we get more men … we will find someone to help you.” She holds on to me as I rock her, praying that soon she’ll be okay.
After leaving Carnaxa this morning, I went out to spar with Rhenor, needing to get out of my own head for a while.
“He’s different,” Rhenor says from beside me as we fill up our canteens with water. I wouldn’t precisely label us as friends, but I’ve grown to respect him during our time together. His eyes glance from Thylas to Carnaxa before returning his attention back to the canteen in his hand. “They both are.”
I nod my head in agreement. He’s right. I’ve noticed subtle differences in Thylas since we’ve left the palace. He’s been irritable more often than not, Rhenor needing to pull him back from fights. But truthfully, with everything going on, he’s not my problem. I know that the marks he left across my back that day were more than just doing what he had to — he was taking out his anger onmy flesh, so I don’t really care why he’s been acting strange and I don’t feel bad for my lack of sympathy.
I understand the predicament he’s found himself in with Naxa, and it’s hard on all of us. I still worry that the only reason she even wants me is because of the drop. She trusts those ripples, but it’s not the same. She takes out her feelings on me, and I accept them, but I still wish for once she could at least look at me like she did the night I watched her with Thylas.
“I’m serious, Ereon. I’ve known Thylas since he was a child. Something’s wrong with him. He hasn’t even been skulking around your tent at night. Normally, we’d have to pry him from her side, but now he’s only doing the bare minimum required of him.”
That jars my attention. “Do I need to replace him as her guard? He originally kept his station because of his loyalty to her, but if he can’t bear the responsibility —”
“Stop.” Rhenor turns around to face me head on. “This is more than just the pissing contest you’ve both been having for her. I mean no disrespect, Prince, but listen to me. I’ve been on Ashonera a lot longer than either of you, and something isn’t right.”
“I know.” I sigh, looking past him as Carnaxa walks with Siphonie. They are both bundled up as the snow falls again. “I’ve tried to talk to the Princess and I’ve tried to talk to him. I even tried to figure out what was happening with Anara.”
My eyes dart around looking for her. I’ve not seen her at all this morning. I need to find her. I told Carnaxa I would force a conversation between us all.
