Page 17 of A Flame of the Phoenix (An Heir Comes to Rise #6)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Faythe

I t was nightfall when Faythe met Nik, and they left camp inconspicuously. Pressed to the wall of a shadowed alley in town, with their lower faces covered and their hoods drawn, Faythe assessed the quiet street.

“I really thought you were promising action tonight,” Nik complained.

“This is action.”

Nik made a disgruntled sound. “Spying is tedious.”

The Ember Sword weighed heavy on her hip, too big for her to wield comfortably, but it would suffice if she really needed a weapon. She’d brought it along for another reason, and she occasionally glanced at the ruby pommel as if she might miss its flare. She’d had to sneak into Kyleer’s tent for it.

“We have to steal something,” Faythe muttered absentmindedly. She was focused on tracking any suspicious persons.

“Sounds easy enough.”

“We have to find it first.”

Nik dragged her away from leaning around the bend of the alley. His flat look met her ire. “I have other things I could be doing tonight rather than goose-chasing.”

“Please enlighten me.”

His lips pursed, then he was distracted by Asari brushing against his side.

“She’s really protective of you,” Faythe mused, patting the large wolf lightly.

“I don’t know why.”

Faythe was about to comment again when a flicker of light caught her breath.

The Eye of the Phoenix glowed in the Ember Sword. Just for a brief second, but Faythe shot back to peer onto Main Street.

“Isn’t that supposed to indicate— oof! ”

Faythe twisted to clamp a hand over his mouth and press them both tightly to the wall. The figure with the amulet passed by the gap into the alley, and Faythe held her breath, not letting Nik go until they were out of range.

When her hand dropped from his scarf-covered mouth and she pushed off his chest, Nik stared at her in irritated bewilderment.

“Well, you’ve sure gotten swifter, and I don’t think I like it,” he grumbled.

She smirked. “The student becomes the master.”

“I wouldn’t give you that kind of praise.”

Faythe spied some discarded crates and didn’t inform Nik of her plans, knowing he would follow even with a series of curses under his breath. They scaled to the roofs, and she kept low, crawling and shuffling to keep out of sight as she tracked the tall silhouette through the streets.

She filled Nik in on what had happened in the market today and how this thief had her family’s amulet. It wasn’t without renewed anger that it had been taken from Reylan, and this unfortunate finder of the heirloom was going to feel her wrath for it even if they weren’t responsible. Determination was running hot through her blood at the thought perhaps he might have seen or overheard something that could lead to where Marvellas had taken Reylan.

When they reached the last building, they watched the figure head toward a Valgard camp set up already. They hadn’t attacked or caused any unrest besides the town being wary of the new forces.

“What do you plan to do?” Nik asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” she answered honestly.

It was curious that a soldier in Marvellas’s forces would be bold enough to steal the amulet even if she’d disregarded it. Unless he was someone high up, and it had been a token of some kind.

Her burning curiosity and anger made it a struggle to remain still. They watched him slip into one of the more dominating tents, and from their own setups, Faythe assumed it was where leading parties met.

“We need to get closer,” she said.

“Are you sure? I quite like the view?—”

Faythe was already scaling down with her utmost stealth and silence. With so many enemy guards in black lingering around the camp, littered with small fires in the night, she was testing her luck.

“Did you choose me to come with you because you thought I wouldn’t yell at you for your stupidity?” Nik hissed into her thoughts. “Because you are sorely mistaken ? —”

“You said you wanted action.”

She was darting across a dark strip with her pulse in her throat when the nearest guards turned their backs.

Faythe was really tempting fate when she snuck right up to the tent, peeking through a gap. She was right. Just less than a dozen fae and dark fae warriors were positioned around a table with a map similar to what they’d set up in their own camp.

She found her hooded bandit instantly as he strode around the group and stopped at the head of the table. He pulled down his hood and face covering then, revealing short, ashy-brown hair and a wide-set jaw. His eyes were blue, and Faythe’s attention caught on them with a skip in her chest.

Those eyes.

She was distracted from them only by a new sense that crawled over her. Dark power emanated from something—or someone—within the tent.

“You have one role here, general,” someone else in the tent said resentfully toward Faythe’s target.

“I am in charge of this legion. Don’t forget that, or it’ll be the last mistake you make,” he said, so cold and unfeeling.

“You know nothing of our forces when you only just got assigned here,” another argued.

Then another added, “You said there would be a legion of Rhyenelle’s army here for us to slaughter.”

“They must have managed to spy that information from us. We have to be more vigilant,” her target answered cooly.

They weren’t fond of this general. Faythe’s intrigue heightened. He had Reylan’s amulet—and his knowledge. Faythe’s skin was burning like nothing she’d ever felt before, so all-consuming with a need to confront this general right now since he had to have her closest lead to Reylan.

She could test his mind, but it was a risk. There was a high likelihood Marvellas would have warned everyone to guard their minds against Faythe.

“Our travel to this town isn’t wasted,” her target said. “Faythe Ashfyre is here.”

Faythe froze as murmurs broke across the other soldiers.

“How do you plan to find her?”

“She’ll show herself—all we have to do is start painting the streets red.”

Her fury boiled at the suggestion to slaughter innocents to draw her out. She was going to kill this general before he got the chance to lead such a barbaric order.

Her target general leaned across the table, and Faythe’s purpose for being here was flaunted right before her. There was no mistaking the amulet when he slipped his cuff up to expose the ruby eye. It began to glow, and Faythe sucked in a sharp gasp, snapping her sight to her hip as the sister stone in the Ember Sword flared in recognition.

Faythe swore inwardly, and a cold sweat broke over her skin. The general’s eyes flicked up right to where she was, but Faythe was already darting away.

Where in the Nether was Nik?

She made it to the edge of the woods on the other side of the camp and pressed her back to a tree trunk, catching her breath and tuning her hearing in case she’d been followed. When she detected nothing, Faythe risked curving her head around the tree to survey the camp. She spotted the general from the spark of red she saw even from here, and she clamped a hand around the pommel of her sword to smother the direct beacon to her.

He ducked into a smaller tent at the edge of the camp, which had to be his own, to retire for the night. Was she really so desperate and foolish as to risk infiltrating his personal tent? If he was retiring for the night, he would surely remove the amulet. She just had to wait an hour, sure he would fall asleep. Faythe began to hash a plan in her mind. If Nik could keep him asleep with his mind ability, it would make the task easy.

Faythe squinted through the dark of the hills to try to find Nik and share her plan, but he didn’t reveal himself. She ground her teeth in irritation.

Faythe couldn’t last an hour. With Nik still not catching up to her, she was beginning to bloom a seed of dread. She wanted to retrieve the amulet so badly. It was right. There.

Yet with Nik and the wolf still out of her sights, her concern for him grew too much.

She hurried over the hill and kept hidden to scan for him. When a hand clamped over her mouth, Faythe almost summoned deadly magick before she was spun around to face the King of High Farrow. He let her go, and she whacked his arm with a scowl.

“Where have you been?” she hissed under her breath, aware they could still be overheard.

Nik took a hold of her arm and pulled her into a crouched jog to gain more distance. Even Asari seemed cautious and kept her body as low as possible.

“I was gaining intel in other minds,” he said proudly. “You never know what the subordinates are thinking compared to their superiors. It’s quite fascinating.”

Faythe was hardly in the mood for humor or gossip.

“Gain anything of value?” Faythe asked.

Nik stopped walking down an alley, and they faced each other.

“Marvellas is in Lakelaria.”

Her mouth fell open. She’d spent weeks trying to find that information in the minds of as many dark fae as she could capture, yet Nik had found it in a single night. She’d been racking the thoughts of rogue dark fae. It seemed her whereabouts wasn’t such a secret among her armies, however.

Faythe had a destination. For the first time since she’d lost her kingdom and her mate, Faythe had a purpose to throw her all into.

“Do you think that’s where she’s taken Reylan?” Nik asked.

Faythe’s thoughts were already reeling over that possibility.

“Her ruin is in Lakelaria,” Faythe remembered, adding sense to why the Spirit would have traveled West.

“Shit. Does Reylan have the potential to wield it?”

“Yes.” Faythe believed that without a doubt.

“We have to tell the others.”

By the time they reached camp, they were met with the disgruntled stare-downs of everyone who should be asleep in the dead of night.

“Oh look, it’s just two of the most important people on the continent, back from galivanting around the enemy without adequate strategy or persons,” Lycus scolded first.

Faythe winced. It was easy to forget who she was, who Nik was, and how their friends would view their recklessness.

Kyleer pointed a finger at her. “You—I understand your lack of self-preservation, being new to your role.”

Her expression lifted that he was kind of giving her a pass on this.

His reprimand shifted to Nik. “But you have no excuse. What were you thinking?”

Nik fought amusement on his mouth. Faythe knew he enjoyed being caught for his rebellion.

“I was thinking that two mind abilities are perfectly capable of remaining out of touch. A quick erasure of their thoughts, and we’d be on our way.”

He was enjoying the extension of his ability. Something Faythe had once been horrified to discover she harbored, Nik embraced the advantages of easily.

“You of all people know not every mind is the same. With Faythe on the loose, there’s bound to be more of the enemy training their minds against her ability, and they won’t be so easily evaded,” Kyleer argued.

“No one knows about Nik,” Faythe chimed in. “If they focused their efforts on blocking me, he could slip into their minds while they’re unaware. We make a great team, in fact.”

Nik nudged her side playfully, but the others weren’t so easily swayed.

Nerida and Tarly sat on logs around a small fire in front of their tents. Lycus mirrored Kyleer’s cross-armed stance of disapproval until they all started to break, moving to take up their seats. Livia and Samara had left for High Farrow.

Nik and Faythe joined them around the fire.

“What were you hoping to achieve anyway?” Kyleer asked reluctantly.

Faythe hadn’t been able get the Dresair’s words out of her head after this afternoon.

“Follow the eye.”

She divulged what she’d overheard from the general’s tent, and Nik explained what he’d found out through the minds of other soldiers.

Kyleer lost himself to thought for some time, and Faythe didn’t disturb him. He stared intently into the fire.

“They’ll be planning an attack then to lure Faythe out,” Lycus said.

“It seems so,” Kyleer agreed.

Nik added, “It’s masterful, really. They can lure Faythe out with Valgard soldiers, then they’ll have the Rhyenelle forces Malin still has to stop it. No one will know they’re actually working together. More savior appearance for him.”

Faythe could hardly stand how things had aligned in her cousin’s favor while the people were oblivious to his allegiance with the enemy.

She poked a stick into the fire, waiting for a rabbit to cook. The wolves kept supplying the game as if they knew when they were hungry. Faythe kept silent while they spoke more on what to do about the impending attack.

“We should go to Lakelaria,” Nerida said suddenly. All attention was drawn to her. “Me and Tarly, I mean. I know the lands, and Faythe can Nightwalk to me if I find anything that can prepare you ahead of time. We can remain hidden. And more than that, Lakelaria has the best healers in the world—we might find more answers about a bite from the dark fae.”

“That would be excellent help. Any intel before we walk into enemy territory is invaluable,” Kyleer agreed.

“What if it’s not safe?” Faythe said apprehensively. She was awash with memories of Reuben, a friend she’d sent there long ago in an attempt to save him, but he’d fallen right into the hands of Marvellas and become her mind-twisted puppet. Faythe leaned her elbows on her thighs, holding her head in her hands.

“Look around—nowhere is safe but High Farrow right now. We all have to take risks,” Lycus said.

Faythe conceded. “Marlowe figured out Marvellas’s temple is in the Sky Caves. I imagine she’s retrieved it with Reylan now, with the aim of breaking it.”

“If she succeeds, I might have found another way to stop her from causing harm,” Nerida said.

Faythe watched her pull a thick tome from another satchel. The title embossed on the front read The Book of Enoch.

“There are three ways, in fact, to combat God-strength power. Aetherbonds—manacles that can silence it. The Spellthief—a dagger that can steal it. And the Black Phoenix—an entity that can destroy it.”

Faythe’s fascination heightened. “A Black Phoenix?”

Nerida said, “The last known to exist…ended the Dark Age by killing the dark fae king.”

The weight of that knowledge slammed into everyone.

“Mordecai has magick? He’s never shown it. In our confrontation in Olmstone, why wouldn’t he have used it if he’s that powerful?” Nik inquired.

“He was that powerful. I might assume in his resurrection he’s lost his magick,” Nerida said.

“What were his abilities?” Kyleer asked.

“I don’t know. This book isn’t about lineage—it’s knowledge on the Gods and our world.”

While the image of a Black Phoenix filtered through her mind with triumphant danger and wild curiosity, Faythe had to set aside that option since it wasn’t on offer.

“The Aetherbonds and the Spellthief—do we have any idea where they could be?” Faythe asked.

Nerida shifted a glance to Tarly before she answered. “I can’t be certain, but a while ago, we came across humans seeking to access Hilia’s Cave. It’s located in the deepest part of Stenna’s Fall. It would be a perfect place for a Spirit to hide something so lethal to her. There’s very few Waterwielders who could reach that deep without burning out.”

Kyleer asked, “Could you?”

Faythe didn’t miss the tension that squared Tarly’s shoulders. “Honestly, I don’t know. I could try, but if I can’t…no one would be able to swim from that deep before running out of air.”

Silence fell between them all. Nik was the one to break it.

“Air,” he said, pondering over his own thoughts for a moment longer. “You and Tauria together could reach it with her Windbreaker ability.”

The solution came as a beacon of hope and a slash of despair. There were always missing pieces to their plans.

“Our strategy may be a web that takes patience right now, but it’s hope, and it’s brilliant. Thank you, Nerida,” Kyleer said.

“So what do we do now?” Faythe asked.

“We stay the course. If the worst happens and the ruin is broken when we retrieve Reylan, we still have hope of stopping her power even if we can’t kill her anymore. While we focus on Reylan, Nik and Lycus should go to Fenstead, wait for Tauria to return from Valgard, and get her back. Then you’ll meet up with Nerida and go to Stenna’s Fall before we all meet again in High Farrow.”

There were many moving parts and people to this plan that had Faythe antsy in concern for everyone.

“If we leave in the morning, we can get to Lakelaria as soon as possible to scout for healers, gather what we can about Marvellas there, and head back to meet Nik at Stenna’s Fall,” Nerida said brightly.

“We don’t need to go for me,” Tarly protested.

“You won’t last many more weeks if we don’t.”

“Then I won’t even last the journey,” he snapped.

Faythe winced, understanding his sharpness, but Nerida’s falling expression was sad to witness. The healer’s care for him was deep.

“You don’t get to be a self-pitying hero now. You’re going,” Nik said, his tone firm and irritated.

“As if you’d care if I took my last breath right in front of you.”

Nik’s jaw flexed, and Faythe knew him. He did care about Tarly. She didn’t know why they’d grown up with this distaste toward each other, but it didn’t mean Nik wouldn’t mourn the Prince of Olmstone.

Nik ignored him to ask Faythe, “Do you think you could command Atherius to take them? Would save weeks of travel, and the stubborn bastard isn’t getting his wish to die this way.”

“Yes, I think I can do that.”

Kyleer said, “If Marvellas sees the Firebird, she’ll think it’s you. Best fly around the coast and land somewhere inconspicuous, if possible, but be vigilant nonetheless.”

Nerida nodded, a new giddiness twinkling in her eyes.

So, come morning, everyone had a destination. Faythe couldn’t think of the road ahead. She couldn’t think of anything but a familiar set of blue eyes that wouldn’t leave the forefront of her thoughts.