Page 36 of The Masked Princess

“She liked you and told me I should bring you back again,” Helene said at her side.

“Does everyone meet their rhys here?” Annalise asked.

“Once pairs are bonded, they can link up anywhere, but it’s widely accepted that any unbondeds are brought to the overlook so the rhys can get a good look at them and decide if they want to meet.”

“Did my mother have a rhys?”

“No. If she had, she probably wouldn’t have left.” Helene sighed, and Annalise followed her back to the stumps where they’d eaten, waiting for her to continue. “The rhys are a secret we do our best to keep. There are always rumors, of course, but we limit our contact with the outside world as much as we can. We certainly don’t use them to fight… although that was one of the first things your father tried to change.”

“He wanted the rhys and their riders to go to war against Rhinnea?” Annalise guessed. She could imagine what a flying calvary made of rhys archers could do on a battlefield.

“He did. He’d heard the stories and the rumors and, from what he told us, had spent a long time searching these mountains for our little valley. We’re able to keep ourselves relatively well-hidden, and any merchants we deal with are paid handsomely and guard the secrets of their trade routes like a guildmaster guards the secrets of their halls.”

“Was my mother not worthy of the rhys if she was never bonded?”

“It’s not quite so simple. Rhys are very picky, and it’s not uncommon for them to mentally pick a rider but wait years, if not decades, before they actually initiate the bond. I think the current record holder is a sixty-year-old woman who was a grandmother before she was a rider.” Helene shrugged as she packed up their meal. “As I said, it is a great honor to be bonded, although anyone who isn’t is not viewed as any less. Brunen chose me in my twenty-sixth summer, which is considered young. Sometimes I wonder…” Helene trailed off as she stared down at the ground, then she shook herself like a dog drying off after a swim. “But it’s no use wondering about the past. We should continue; we have plenty more to see.”

Helene mounted her shaggy pony and led the way around the valley, showing Annalise hidden waterfalls with water so pure it tasted sweet, caves with massive stone columns, and several hot springs clustered together that were quite busy. A small shack was built partially over each spring, so that the men and women could protect their modesty when getting in or out, and Annalise noted that the spring for the women was mostly obscured from sight by a fence made of heavy brush.

“Everyone likes to relax in the hot springs no matter the weather; the huts built over each one stay plenty warm to give people a chance to dry off before changing back into their clothes even on the coldest of winter days. As you can see, the men didn’t care to put up a fence, and the spring just down that path is for the children. Both men and women may accompany their kids, although usually they remain at least partially clothed,” Helene said with a nod.

Annalise smiled at the faint sounds of screams and laughs echoing through the forest. “It certainly sounds like that hot spring is the liveliest.”

“It’s certainly something. Definitely boisterous… not necessarily clean. Normally I would offer the chance for you to take a turn in the women’s spring but considering the nature of your curse, I don’t think it would be wise,” Helene said.

“I agree.” Annalise forced a smile onto her face just in case anyone saw her frown, but she couldn’t keep the wistfulness out of her voice as she glimpsed a calm pool with steam wafting from the water through the brush fence. “That being said… it looks quite relaxing.”

They turned away from the hot springs and headed back into town, and Annalise asked the question that had bugged her ever since she’d met Brunen. “If you’re bonded to a rhys, why not fly everywhere with her?”

“Well, for one, because Brunen isn’t always available. Our times together are more like taking a walk with a dear friend than having a stable hand bring you a horse. Another reason is, as I said earlier, we try to keep knowledge of the rhys to a minimum among outsiders. Of course, some rumors and speculations always slip through the cracks, but we Muranans tend to be a secretive lot, even more so after what happened to Elvira. The last thing any of us want is for our young men and women to be lured away by the promise of love only for unsavory characters to try and get a bonus rhys out of the deal. If King Everet had cherished her… well… perhaps things would be different.”

“You’re only worried about the young men and women?” Annalise asked with a teasing lilt to her voice.

Helene’s eyes glinted with mirth. “At a certain point, full-grown adults must assume responsibility for themselves, and I have yet to see a foreign bachelor try to woo a granny, no matter how impressive her bonded rhys.”

It was only later as Annalise got ready for dinner that she wondered why her aunt had taken her specifically to the spot the rhys liked to haunt and told her of Murana’s most closely guarded secret.

It was almost as if Helene thought she deserved to know.

For the first time, Annalise wondered if she’d found somewhere she belonged.

CHAPTER 29

As it turned out, when the healers told Soren he was allowed ‘short walks but no other exercise,’ they weren’t joking. It was a full week before they allowed him to move into a guest room at the keep, and another one before he was given free rein to walk wherever his legs could take him.

Annalise spent much of those long days in the infirmary near him. When she wasn’t helping the healers with the other injured Doveans, she was sitting at his bedside. She brought small blocks of wood for him to whittle while she read aloud from a book borrowed from Orighet’s library, and always made sure he had a cup full of water or tea or watered-down ale. As the days marched on, Soren grew more conflicted—he knew they were delaying the mission, but being in her presence was so sweet it made his heart ache.

As soon as he was able, he spent his days shadowing Annalise, whether it be in the infirmary as she continued to check on the injured others, walking through the keep, or out in the town. Nothing in Orighet gave him any cause for suspicion, but he’d sworn to protect her, and protect her he would.

Even though it seemed she needed him less and less with each passing day, the time they spent together only grew.

As the days turned into weeks and the snow on the ground grew in height, Soren watched Annalise settle into life in Murana like it was a comfortable robe made of the softest fur.

In her time away from the toxic court of the Serpent King, she’d blossomed. Not that she was ugly before—but now, under the care of her doting aunt and eccentric uncle, there seemed to be a lightness, a brightness around her. Her curse still hung over her head like a cloud, but she was free from her mask as she went about her day. As he watched her across the table at dinner in the Great Hall, laughing at one of her uncle’s ridiculous stories, Soren found himself smiling.

Every day, Annalise asked him how his hip was doing, and every day, he told her it was getting better. According to the healers, Soren needed to wait several weeks after the injury before he could return to anything strenuous. It pushed back their travel plans, but there was nothing to be done; he’d made it known to Annalise in no uncertain terms that he went wherever she did, healers’ advice or no. On his second day in the infirmary, when his fear of being left behind was the strongest, he’d spent most of his time planning the best way to steal a horse and chase after Annalise if she left.

Thankfully, Annalise seemed more than content to wait for him to heal. As he watched her flourish, Soren wondered if perhaps being in Murana, surrounded by a loving family and those who wished her well, was healing for her after the nightmare that was the Dovean court.