Page 30 of Fate of Echoes and Embers (Heirs of Elydor #3)

MAREK

“Another, please?” I ordered a mug of mead, my instincts telling me I would need one. “Three, actually,” I added, seeing Issa’s expression.

Unless I was mistaken, Adren had directed that comment toward her.

“Pardon me?” she asked, the epitome of politeness.

I was more direct.

“What in the tides are you talking about, Adren?”

He pressed his finger to his lips, nodding to the serving girl who was already on her way back to us. “Thank you,” he said as the mead was delivered. Issa didn’t seem pleased, and I couldn’t say I blamed her. The heavily spiced drink took some getting accustomed to.

“Have you heard of Lady Evelyne Hawthorne?” Adren asked Issa.

“No, I haven’t.”

“She was a noblewoman of Hawthorne Manor, trained in diplomacy and healing and known for her intelligence and unwavering sense of duty.”

“I know my family lineage.” Issa seemed puzzled. “How is her name not familiar to me?”

Adren took a swing of his mead and settled in to share his tale. “She was also known for her curiosity with Gyorians. This was well before the Gate had closed, but even then, as you know, there were tensions between our two clans.”

“Which began when King Galfrid opened it in the first place,” I said.

“Aye,” he agreed. “With permission from the other clans. Permission, we now know, that included the use of their most revered artifacts.”

“A recent revelation.” I glanced around to be certain we could not be overheard, but all looked to be Gyorian. There were few places private enough to escape Aetherian whispers.

“Mmm.” Adren’s grunt sounded familiar. It was a sound Kael often made.

“Against her family’s wishes,” he continued, “Evelyne fell in love with a Gyorian warrior, a warden of the borderlands. Their relationship was seen as a betrayal of humanity, and when she became pregnant, she was given a choice: abandon the child or be exiled. She chose exile.”

A shiver ran up my spine, the story beginning to make sense. I watched Issa for a hint of understanding but she was concentrating on Adren’s next words.

“Evelyne was taken in by her lover’s people, though many never truly accepted her. She became a healer, learning to use earth-based remedies and magic. She raised her son among these warriors, ensuring he was strong, disciplined, and prepared for a world that would never fully accept him.”

“How could I not know this?” Issa whispered.

“The Hawthorne family erased her from their records, calling her disappearance a tragic accident rather than acknowledging that she had chosen a Gyorian over a human. In time, tales of those history wishes to erase are lost.”

“Who was she?” I asked bluntly.

“Lady Evelyne’s son was my father.”

Issa’s jaw fell. “She, Lady Evelyne, was your grandmother? How did… but… Kael never told me.”

“Kael doesn’t know.”

“Why?” I asked, knowing how close the two were.

“My mother, Serapha, was a half-human and half-Gyorian healer. As you know, such unions were taboo, even more so then. Revealing it would have put Serapha in danger from both clans. While researching Balthor’s movements in connection to the Wind Crystal, I came across an old record from a Hawthorne steward in the archives detailing my grandmother’s life.

My mother was not demi-immortal and died before sharing her past. Or perhaps she never would have told me. ”

When Elydorians partnered and bore children, they could be demi-immortal, enjoying a longer lifespan than a full human, or not. That’s when it occurred to me.

“You are not thaloran?”

When I first noticed Adren’s gray hair and slight wrinkles, I assumed he had seen more than five hundred years. But he could not be thaloran based on his tale.

“Nay, I am not. My aging is due to a partial human ancestry, but few dare ask for specifics.”

“Is your father still alive?” Issa asked the question I’d been about to.

Adren’s sad smile was the answer as he glanced between us, as if wondering about something himself. “No,” he said. “My mother returned to her ancestors’ realm to find a human solution to her illness, and my father chose to go with her.”

It was not a common occurrence, but one with precedent. When an immortal left Elydor, they eventually would become mortal. Adren’s father had chosen to die with his mother. Which is when I understood the unasked question in Adren’s eyes.

Were Issa and I together?

It was the age-old problem for any Elydorian and human couple. Chances were, Mev would prove to be demi-immortal, so it was not a problem Kael would face for many years if they chose to remain in Elydor. Nerys and Rowan, on the other hand, were not so lucky with Rowan being fully human.

Like Issa.

How Nerys so easily resolved herself to the thought of the inevitability of losing Rowan, I couldn’t grasp.

“Adren,” Issa said, the mead seemingly going down easier now, “we are related.”

He reached to his belt, opened the pouch at his side, and slid a gold pendant toward Issa. “It seems we are,” he said. “This was my mother’s. She gave it to me just before she passed through the Gate with my father. Turn it over. The crest is faded but…”

Issa gasped. “Hawthorne.”

“I assume so. It is no Gyorian house I know. My mother was a healer, not a noblewoman. Or so I thought. So I never imagined it would be a noble house of Estmere.”

Adren and Issa looked at one another as if seeing the other for the first time. She handed back the pendant.

“I’m sorry her name was erased from our records. If Hawthorne survives, we will rectify that, if you wish it.”

Adren’s nostrils flared. “I am not ashamed of my human blood, Lady Isolde.”

“Issa,” she said. “We are family.”

“If you had not searched for the Crystal…” I stopped, our food having arrived.

Adren reached for a rib, but his hand froze midway. “If Hawthorne survives?”

Issa sighed. “Lord Draven. Lyra’s whispers. Dark magic… We have much to tell you.”

Adren turned the pendant over, looking at it one last time before returning it to the pouch on his belt. “I’m listening.”

* * *

“How long will you wait?”

We stood in front of Virdelan’s Rest, Issa having gone inside.

Giving her privacy for the hot bath she’d arranged, Adren and I continued the discussion we began many meads ago.

Dusk had fallen, lights dotting the mountain behind us where caverns and dwellings had been carved into it by skilled Gyorian stone-wielders.

In front of us, the sea in all its wild and untamed glory.

A storm was coming, one that I’d have enjoyed navigating.

How long would I wait? It was a question I’d been asking myself.

“There is no guarantee Mev and Kael will learn anything. I’ve been hunting for information on the Depths, and phenomena like it, for many years to no avail.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

Gyorians. Their bluntness was universal.

“A few days, perhaps.”

“Days? Marek, that seems ill-advised.”

“Issa needs to get back. She worries for Hawthorne Manor, and I have few words of comfort for her. I’ve sent a man to inquire as to Draven’s standing since we last made port, but I fear the worst.”

“He will have more than Galfrid’s men to worry about if he aims too high.”

Having heard his story, now knowing Adren’s ties to Hawthorne, I wasn’t surprised to hear him say as much. “When I leave…” I swallowed, knowing my second question was inevitable but wishing it didn’t have to be asked. “You will stay here to watch over her?”

“Of course.”

“And if I don’t return?—”

“I will see her back safely.”

I nodded, assuming as much but wanting to be certain.

“There are others that are nearly as skilled as I am. Nerys will know who to send next, who to trust with the information.”

“Nearly?”

“I said what I said.”

And then pulling my mother’s pearl from my belt, I handed it to him. “You are not the only one who carries a token of your mother’s. Give this to Issa.”

He took the pearl. “I’ve never seen a pink pearl before.”

“They’re extremely rare.”

He lifted it, and it took everything inside me not to snatch it back. She had died for that pearl, and now someone I hardly knew held it in his hands.

Trusting did not come easily, or naturally, to me. But I had little choice.

“Why not give it to her yourself?”

“She won’t accept it,” I said simply.

He opened his mouth to argue, but stopped. An understanding passed between us as Adren put it in his leather pouch. Accepting the pearl was an acknowledgment I may not make it back from the Depths.

“When will you take Issa to verify the Crystal’s presence?”

“Depending on this storm,” I said, “tomorrow or the following day. I see no reason to wait. When we return, if there’s not been word from Kael and Mev…”

“You should wait for them.”

I thought of all the leads I’d followed, all of those I’d spoken with about tainted waters like the Depths… Would the Luminara hold its secrets when the Hidden Depths, the records of all great Thalassarian divers and sailors throughout Elydor’s history, provided little in the way of answers?

Likely not.

“Are you staying here?” I asked.

“No. Given what I’ve learned today, I have some business to attend to, but I will be back in a few days. If you have need of me before then?—”

“That will do,” I told him. “It’ll take a full day to get close enough for Issa to sense the Crystal’s magic and a full day to return.” As we spoke, the winds signaled the storm was coming more quickly than I expected. “And it seems as if tomorrow will not be ideal for sailing.”

Adren laid a fist on his chest.

I mimicked the gesture, marveling, as Adren walked away, at today’s turn of events.

Hoping enough time had passed for Issa to finish her bath, but also hoping it had not, I made my way inside the inn, putting all thoughts of my conversation with Adren behind me.

Our days together were coming to an end, but tonight? It was time for me to make good on my promise to Isolde.