A quiet voice drifted toward her. An ancient voice, one whose every word rattled like parchment in the wind. She crept ever closer to the voice. She was drawn to it.Whoever it was needed her.
She found him inside a cramped room. A small, hunched man whose patchy hair had gone grey. Wrinkles covered every inch of his arms. Was he a thousand years old? Or was he human? She could not tell. His back was to her. He knelt on the cold stone ground, bent over a yellowed corpse. There were six deep cuts on the body’s chest.
“What are you doing?” Eislyn asked.
He turned to her then, smiling. Blood stained his teeth and drenched his curving lips. Bits of flesh stuck to his cheek. A severed boar’s head sat discarded in the corner, leaking gore.
“Feasting,” he hissed. “And you are next.”
* * *
She awoke screaming. Sweat clung to her brow, and her entire body shook as if it had been taken over by an groundquake. Images of blood and gore flickered in her mind. She pressed her hands tight against her ears, murmuring to herself to block it all out.
The door flew open wide and footsteps pounded on the ground. Vreis, her guard, peered at her with concern, followed quickly by Thane. His familiar face soothed her, that swirling tattoo providing her with a root to ground her capsized mind.
“Open the curtains,” Thane ordered to his guard. “The darkness is too much for her.”
A moment later, light speared Eislyn’s face as the setting sun shone through her window, but it did little to clear the cobwebs in her mind. It had only been a dream, but it had felt so real. Her fear was making her see and hear things once again.
Thane wrapped his strong arms around her and pulled her to his chest. “Eislyn, you are safe. I’m here. You are safe.”
She sighed and breathed him in, relishing in the scent of his leather armor. Her panic began to fade, but the images in her mind still looped, over and over and over again. Ancient face, blood-stained lips, corpse riddled with wounds. A severed boar’s head, a symbol of impending death.
After a time, he pulled back. “What is the matter? Why are you in bed in the middle of the day? Why have you been screaming?”
Eislyn had needed to lie down as soon as she had heard about her sister. The fear and panic had been too much for her to bear. She’d felt ten years old again. It had taken her back to a time she could scarcely recall. Shadowy visions in her mind of an Eislyn who had barely been able to function.
“I am terrified that something is going to happen to my sister,” she whispered. “First Glencora, now Reyna...”
Thane brought her to his chest again and sighed. “I made a promise to you, Eislyn. I will rescue your sister. We’ve made the preparations. We go after nightfall.”
“I worry about you, too, Thane,” she said quietly.
“Life here at court has been difficult on you,” he said, sadness creeping into his voice.
“At times,” she admitted. “But it has not all been bad.”
“Princess Reyna believes you might be safer and happier back home,” he said. “I’m inclined to agree with her.”
“What?” With a frown, Eislyn pulled back. Her heart twinged at the serious look in his golden eyes. “But what about my research? I need these libraries to stop the Ruin.”
He pushed a strand of her silver hair behind her ear. “We can send a cartload of books back with you. And I can send more once you finish with those. And I can continue to read here as well, aiding your search for answers.”
A new pain curled around her heart. “You are serious about this. You’ve even been thinking it through.”
“I will be taking my throne very soon,” he said. “The wedding will follow soon after. After that, I think it is best if you go.”
She ground her teeth together and glanced away, her eyes burning with unshed tears. The books weren’t the issue. She needed to research, but there were other ways. Her pain came from something else. And that something else was Thane.
It was ridiculous for her to feel this way. Eislyn hadn’t even wanted to marry the prince. He’d come to her, asking for her hand. And she had refused him. She knew he and Reyna did not love each other, but how could she tell him she’d changed her mind now? After everything?
He clearly still wanted to go through with the betrothal. If Thane felt anything for Eislyn, would he not ask her to consider taking her sister’s place? Instead, he wanted her far away from him.
Thane gently tucked a finger beneath her chin and tipped back her head. His eyes speared hers. “You’re upset. I did not think you wanted to come to the Air Court, Eislyn.”
“I didn’t,” she whispered. “But it is not as bad here as I feared.”
He gave her a slight smile. “Does this mean you do not dislike me anymore?”
