Page 37

I rise, heading to the bathroom. On the way, I look out the window, where I can just spy the edge of the lake on the palace grounds.

Today’s the day I’m supposed to heal Fairon, and my stomach is in knots.

I know I’ve done this before—twice—but it’s still very different to tackle a case where real, genuine healers have failed for an illness no one seems to understand.

That’s before I think about my own personal investment in getting this right.

I can’t let Leon down. I cling to the way the aisthekis responded to my magic after I injured it.

If wounds caused by celestial magic respond well to my power, I hope Fairon’s sickness will too.

I dress and wonder about going to see how Tira’s doing. I stayed with her until she fell asleep last night, and it seemed to help. But before I can leave, there’s a knock at my door. I open it to see Eryx and Hyllus outside.

“Good, you’re dressed,” Eryx says abruptly. “The captain’s at the Sanctuary already; he says they’re ready for you.”

“So soon?” I say, my gut twisting a little tighter.

Hyllus says softly, “I believe the captain’s anxious to proceed.”

I nod. That’s understandable. When I saw Fairon a few days ago, it was clear his time was running out. I can’t delay any further just because of my own insecurities. I promised Leon I would try this, and I will.

“Alright, let’s go,” I say, making to follow them out into the hall.

“Have you eaten?” Eryx asks. I blink at him, surprised.

“Erm, no,” I say. “Not yet.”

“Then we’ll stop off at the dining room on the way, get you something hearty. There’s no sense in you trying this on an empty stomach.”

I hide a smile at his gruff concern as we make our way through the palace. I’ve gotten to know Leon’s soldiers fairly well over the last two months—well enough to know that while he might seem abrupt, it’s in little ways like this that Eryx shows he cares.

We pass various members of the palace as we walk down the corridors, but it’s a particularly large fae dressed in a smart military uniform who catches my attention.

Tall and broad, I’m just thinking he could probably give even Hyllus a run for his money when I see the quiet soldier exchange a nod with the man as we pass.

“Do you know him?” I ask Hyllus.

“Yes, he’s my brother,” he replies mildly.

“Your brother ? Don’t you want to say a proper hello him?”

Hyllus shrugs. “We’re not that close. He’s a lot older than me and was barely around anymore by the time I was born.”

I guess that makes sense, given fae lifespans. Children wouldn’t necessarily come all at once. The conversation reminds me of my surprise about Phaia’s partner. I know very little about most of the soldiers’ personal lives.

“What about a partner, like Phaia?” I ask. “Do you have anyone?” I direct my question solely to Hyllus, as I’m pretty sure I won’t get very far probing into Eryx’s love life.

My assumption is confirmed when Hyllus throws a sympathetic look at Eryx before he answers. “I prefer my own company,” Hyllus says. “Everyone calls me a bit of a loner.”

“A loner? Hyllus, you seem to spend all your time with six other people,” I point out.

He smiles. “I have a big family. Most of them don’t live here in Lavail, but further south. Compared to them, six people doesn’t seem like much at all.”

“How big?” I ask.

“I have fourteen brothers and sisters in total.”

“ Fourteen ?” I gasp. Suddenly, Hyllus’s lack of familiarity with his brother makes sense. “I didn’t think fae could have that many children.”

“We can’t, usually, but every now and again a couple will end up extra fertile. And compared to humans, we have a lot of time to have babies.”

“Fourteen…” I mutter to myself again. Hyllus’s quietness makes sense to me now too. I saw it in Otscold with some of the village’s big families. There’s always so many people talking, one or more of the kids would end up practically mute just to offset the noise.

We reach the dining room.

“Go get something, quick,” Eryx says, and I don’t think I’m imagining that his voice sounds harsher than usual. “I’ll stay here.”

Hyllus follows me inside where I grab a plate of eggs and toast being kept warm on magically heated platters. Hyllus passes a mug of strong, steaming coffee toward me as I wolf down my food. Unusually, he looks like he wants to say something.

“What’s wrong?” I ask in between mouthfuls.

“Your Highness…” he looks pained. “Just in case you were curious about Eryx’s family too, it might be best to avoid asking him about it directly.”

“Really?” I ask. “Is he on bad terms with them, like Damia?”

Hyllus’s face tells me it’s worse.

“Oh no,” I say sadly. “What is it?”

Hyllus hesitates for a moment, then decides to go ahead.

“Eryx was married about a century ago,” he says. “As you said, it’s not easy for fae to have children. His wife became pregnant, but she died in childbirth. It’s why he’s stayed in the army all these years, despite being older than us all.”

My heart aches for Eryx, imagining just how much he must hate bringing it up.

“Thank you for telling me,” I say. “I won’t ask about it again.” I wince internally about how I already made him listen to Hyllus talk about his fourteen siblings. Hardly the most sensitive topic considering his past.

Finishing my breakfast, I try not to act any differently as we collect Eryx and head out into the grounds.

It’s hard because I feel like I have a new understanding of him that makes it so much easier to justify his crabbiness over the last few months.

I can’t imagine—I don’t want to imagine—what it would be like to have to live such a long life apart from the person you loved most in this world.

However, I’m distracted when we get to the lake edge and find there’s someone already waiting there for us.

“Dots! What are you doing here?”

The korigos waves his tails happily, padding over to me.

“Dots?” Eryx grunts.

“It suits him, don’t you think?”

Eryx doesn’t reply, but frowns at the animal.

“If it’s coming in the boat with us, it’s up to you to make sure it doesn’t move about too much,” he grumbles.

“I promise he won’t make any trouble. He’s very smart,” I say.

Sure enough, when we clamber into the rowboat, Dots settles into the bottom of our vessel and stays there until we hit the shore of the island, at which point he hops out and trots over to the Sanctuary entrance.

“You’re not going to let that thing in there are you?” Eryx grunts.

I give him a sharp look. “That thing is an animal from Agathyre, so I don’t think the goddess Viscalis would mind him in her Sanctuary.”

I don’t mention that having Dots by my side calms my nerves, making me more confident about what’s ahead of me. He and I enter the Sanctuary while Eryx and Hyllus stay behind on the island shore.

Leon’s waiting in the entrance chamber, his shoulders immediately relaxing when he sees me. Then his eyes drop to Dots, and he raises an eyebrow. I’m about to defend the animal’s presence again when Healer Yanda enters the chamber.

“Is that a korigos?” she asks, her eyes wide.

“Yes,” I say cautiously, wondering if she’s going to order me to take him back outside. “They’re from Agathyre, right? I guessed from the name.”

“Yes, that’s right,” she says, mildly impressed. “ Esta tofail saligaris ?” she asks. Do you speak our language ?

“ An laya ,” I reply. A little .

Yanda smiles, and I feel Leon’s eyes on me. I don’t think I told him about my knowledge of Agathyrian before.

“They come from the Miravow,” Yanda continues in the common tongue, gesturing to Dots, who is now cleaning his paw nonchalantly. “Like most of the animals from there, they’re highly intelligent. Korigos in particular are supposed to be deeply magical.”

“That will be why my grandfather wanted it,” Leon says grimly. “What is it meant to do?”

“It can offer valuable aid to someone who earns its loyalty, but they’re known to be very proud and selective in who they trust. They say that a korigos can bring great clarity to those people, helping guide them along the right path and alerting them to pitfalls.

Traditionally, someone wanting to connect with one would seek it out in the wild and make offerings to win its favor.

Its presence here today is a good omen.”

I nod, understanding now why I feel so at ease with Dots by my side.

More than that, I realize I’ve benefited from exactly the kind of help Healer Yanda is talking about.

Dots helped me see past Respen’s sensic influence on me the night before the test and guided me so I would know how to heal him. Something occurs to me now, however.

“If Dots is from the Miravow, how did the king get hold of him? I thought the Miravow was impenetrable to outsiders.”

Yanda’s mouth twitches with a glimmer of amusement. “Is Dots short for dotsera ? Clever.”

Leon looks more serious. “No one but dryads can safely enter the Miravow. But sometimes the creatures from the forest wander across our border. Technically, it’s illegal to capture and trade in Agathyrian animals, but…” He glances at Yanda.

“But a king makes his own rules,” Yanda says with weary resignation.

Her disapproval is obvious on her face, even if her words are deliberately diplomatic.

She dislikes what Respen did as much as I do, probably more, given how sacred the Miravow is to dryads, but she won’t openly condemn the fae ruler for it.

I break the tension by scratching behind Dots’s ears until he makes an appreciative chirrup. If you’re supposed to win a korigos’s favor, I’m not surprised Respen’s method of holding it captive until it gave him what he wanted didn’t work. You can’t make a slave of a creature like this.

“Well, he’s free now to go where he wants,” I say. “Seems like he’s interested in sticking around for a bit, though, and I’m happy to have all the help we can get.”

I look meaningfully beyond them both to the end of the chamber.

“Are you ready?” Leon asks.

As I’ll ever be , I think to myself.

“Yes. Let’s go,” I say. There’s no use worrying him. Either this will work or it won’t, and right now I’m not going to think beyond my task.

Fairon is lying in the same chamber as before, his ragged breathing punctuating the hush of the darkened room. Leon and I position ourselves on either side of him as Yanda and her fellow healer stand by the door. Dots pads in after them and settles down on his haunches by my feet.

“Did you tell them what we’re trying to do?” I murmur to Leon, glancing toward the dryads.

“Yes,” he says.

“And?” I can’t help but wonder what they think about all this.

“They don’t know if it will work, but they have no objections. They know he’s running out of time.”

“Okay,” I exhale, reaching my hand out to gently rest it on top of Fairon’s bony fingers. He shifts a little but doesn’t open his eyes.

I close my own eyes and reach inside myself, searching out my celestial magic.

Fairon’s body calls to it, quickly establishing the connection, and I let my power flow toward the dim light of his celestial flame.

My magic rushes eagerly into him, and this time I don’t try to pull back, letting his body absorb what it needs.

But the darkness that surrounds Fairon’s inner flame is thick.

As my magic tries to reach the celestial spark, the black substance rears up like a provoked animal.

Some of my power gets through, and Fairon’s flame flares, but the blackness blocks the rest. It expands, its toxic presence trying to smother Fairon’s brightness completely.

There’s something oddly familiar about the darkness—something about its energy, hungry and boundless, that I recognize. But I can’t worry about what that is now. Channeling my magic is taking every bit of my concentration. I’m pouring huge amounts into Fairon, but it’s barely making a difference.

I need help.

My free hand drops to my side, and as I’d hoped, I feel Dots’s warm fur under my fingers. He showed me the way once; I just need him to point me in the right direction again. I’m getting more and more tired as my power continues to drain into Fairon only to be drowned out by the darkness.

Show me, please.

Clarity pierces my mind, followed by the mental image of Dots staring at me from within his cage in the barracks. We formed a connection like that, looking at each other, right before I healed him. Instinctively, I know that made things easier, allowing the korigos to work with me as I revived it.

I open my eyes, squeezing Fairon’s hand tight.

“Fairon,” I say. “Fairon wake up, look at me.”

The skeletal man lying in front of me moves a little but doesn’t open his eyes. Leon hears the urgency in my voice and leans over his brother, gently shaking his shoulder.

“Fairon, you have to wake up. Come on,” he says. His voice is strained, but there’s still a tenderness to it. “You have to do what I say for a change.”

The crown prince’s eyes drift open and he groans.

“That’s good,” I jump in. “Now look into my eyes, Fairon. I can’t do this without you.”

His light gray eyes land on me, and I hold his gaze, willing him to hear me. “Fight with me, Fairon,” I say, putting as much force as I can into the words. “I know you can do it.”

The eyes slowly blink, and I pray I’m not imagining the flicker of understanding in them.

I turn my attention back to his inner flame and the flow of my magic toward it.

Hope surges inside me as the flame flares brighter than before, the light starting to eclipse the darkness.

The black presence continues to press against it, but the flame is strong enough to fight back, and as I watch, it begins to burn the sickness away.

“That’s it,” I say, encouragingly, squeezing Fairon’s hand tighter.

With my celestial light blasting the darkness from one side and Fairon’s flame burning brighter on the other, the black substance lurking within him dwindles. Even if I couldn’t sense the change, the evidence that we’re turning the tide is right in front of me.

The transformation isn’t as complete as the Miravow’s creatures.

The korigos and aisthekis looked almost as good as new by the time I was done with them.

But although Fairon’s cheeks are still hollow and his skin pale, the rasping of his breath fades, replaced by clear, strong inhalations.

The scent of death that filled the chamber fades, and for the first time in this room I can smell the burning bowls of herbs outside.

At the same time, I can feel my magic waning. I don’t have much left to give. With one, final push, I pour the last of it into him and watch as his inner flame blazes like the sun, burning up the final dregs of the darkness.

Fairon gasps and sits up abruptly, his eyes alive and alert in his thin face.

“Leonidas,” he says, his voice solid and clear.

I vaguely wonder about introducing myself, but I’m suddenly very dizzy, and my vision blurs as the ground seems to fall away from under my feet.