Page 81 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

Twenty-Nine

Aben, Britaxia, and Eroa joined us the sun rose on a new day.

We crossed over the snow-covered peaks of the unnamed mountains—the absurdly named mountain range that cradled the northern edge of the southern continent.

The mountains were home to a short-statured people called the Doa Luna, the Moon People.

They spoke a language so guttural and strange that the name of the mountains had been impossible for Alterran speakers to say.

This had somehow led to them becoming known as the unnamed mountains, and thus were named after all.

There were hundreds of separate long, snaking mountain ranges, all with sharp, craggy, ice-capped peaks that rose up into the sky like jagged teeth.

Blue ice glaciers flowed between the ranges, carving deep valleys through the landscape—their edges dotted with spruce and pine forests.

I could not take my eyes from the wonder and beauty of the blue and white world unfolding below us.

I kept pointing and exclaiming when I saw a collection of the Doa Luna’s domed huts, or when we passed another peak, and an ethereally pale blue glacier would appear, looking like a hidden lake nestled between tall mountains.

Io directed Veles down low over anything I happened to be exclaiming about, granting us startled glances from one village of Doa Luna, and whoops of delight from another.

The little people decked out head to toe in fur looked like miniature stuffed bears from a children's playroom, and my heart ached to go and meet them. They were my subjects as much as the people of the godsgrass plains were.

We flew all that day, finally stopping in a wide snowy valley so that we could relieve ourselves and give the dragons a break from flying.

Eroa angled out of the sky to make an appearance just as Aben and Britaxia joined us on the ground.

I had not seen the white dragon for hours after she disappeared from the group at some point, sliding away into the blue sky without us even realizing.

Io assured me she was near, though. He could sense the presence of all the dragons in the area, and I wondered how far that ability might span.

Miles or even across the entire continent?

Eroa scrambled over to bump against my leg, rubbing her head against my calf as Aben and Britaxia strode across the clearing, the hard crust of snow crunching under their feet. Their shaggy dark-gray furs were pulled up around their heads and shoulders against the cold.

Io strode out to meet them, wearing only his coat, as I knelt to scratch the little dragon beneath her chin. I watched his breath cloud out in big puffs of vapor in front of his face. It was bitterly cold, but he was something like the dragons, able to manufacture the fire that kept him warm.

Io reached Aben and Britaxia, and they all halted some distance away.

I felt a bit of unease as I imagined what he might be telling them about his change in plans regarding me.

I knew he went to speak with them outside of my hearing, and I didn’t like the idea that he would hide his words from me—or what they would say in response to them.

We were far enough north that Aben and Britaxia would need to fly west soon to reach Orin.

Io and I would continue to follow the mountains through the Twilight Gap until we reached the Iyridian Valley.

Just contemplating the plan sent my mind on an anxiety-driven whirlwind as I imagined what the two of them must be thinking of me.

My fears were confirmed when I saw Britaxia's expression grow fierce just before her eyes shot up to me accusingly. She was angry, and I didn’t blame her.

She served Behr in his court, but even if she hadn’t, she would still be capable of seeing what a debacle this would create for us all—how many pieces of this game would fall from the board entirely by Io’s insistence on taking me to Darkwatch.

It didn't even surprise me to see the look of consternation on Aben's normally smiling face as he, too, looked in my direction.

After a short conversation, the three of them strode back toward me. Aben had his arm around Io's shoulder, and Britaxia trailed a little behind them, her beautiful face stormy. She looked a bit like she might want to rip something apart with her bare hands.

"Did he at least tell you that I’m against his new plan?" I asked when they reached me.

Io smiled. "I did."

"You don't look like you are being bound and dragged away," Britaxia said with a slight sneer.

I had no answer for that as Aben took his arm from Io and slid it around my shoulders. "I suppose either way, we will be family," he said with a lopsided grin.

"Not when Behr's army gets done with them," Britaxia put in, glaring at me.

"Behr's not going to war with Darkwatch," Aben told her, then added to me, "Walk with me, Aelia of Windemere."

He swept me along whether I agreed or not, guiding me across the snowy ground with that big arm around my shoulders. He smelled surprisingly good to have spent so many hours traveling in thick furs.

"Do you love him?" he asked, pointedly, once we were out of earshot of the others.

I hesitated, unsure whether it would be better to deny it or admit it to the Darkwatch dragon mage who served the king in Orin.

"I do." When I could not decide, I settled on the truth.

Aben nodded. "I'll do what I can to help make this alright. But if it comes to the worst, then I will be on the other side of that line—by my oath to the king."

I shook my head. "I will never let it come to that. I'll leave him on foot if I must."

I saw some bit of relief cross his features.

"I don't know what I'm doing Aben. I can't think of walking away from him, even if he was willing to let me."

"He can be very hard to reason with," he told me with a tight smile.

"Did he tell you about the prophecy?" I asked, certain he had not had time during their short conversation.

When he shook his head, I explained, giving him as many of the new words as I could remember.

"That is fucking ominous," he said after I described the burned angels in the snow.

"It was," I agreed. "I don't know what it means—I don't pretend to know what drives the fates or whether they are even holding the reins of all this prophetic bullshit.

I do know that there are forces at work here that I cannot begin to understand.

Something has brought us together, because I believe that prophecy speaks of us both. "

"The black fire?" he asked, his eyes searching in the distance as he considered it.

"You've seen him like that?" I asked.

He sighed. "I have—many times." He pushed his hood back and ran his hands through his short, black hair. It lay in curls against his head and his fingers mussed them, making him look momentarily unkempt.

When he slid his eyes back to me, they were tinged with some sadness.

"We’ve always been like brothers. We shared a room at the Reach until we were fourteen—by choice because we did everything together.

We got into fights, as boys do. But one particular fight, we were really wailing on each other—fighting about something I can't even remember.

He lost control of his temper, for just the barest fraction of a second, and he burned me with that black flame. He very nearly killed me."

I clamped my hand over my mouth, startled by the admission.

"He healed me himself—so quickly I barely even felt a thing. And he certainly never meant to do it. He just got angry and lost control. I think it was far worse for him than it was for me."

Aben's eyes were focused far away again.

"My parents tried to hide it from Io's father, but somehow he found out.

He showed up at the Reach, telling me I was going to serve in Orin.

And then he beat the shit out of Io. Beat him until he was bloody, and then beat him some more.

The way we heal, you can get in a lot more licks than you would a human, and Io heals faster by many times than any other fae.

His father beat him for a full day and night.

Then put him in the black cells beneath the citadel. "

My heart ached for him so badly that I laid my hand on my chest to ease the tension.

Aben's face was a mask of misery, but as he continued, a note of reluctant pride began to show through.

"Io stayed in there for almost a day before he broke the door and all the wards that had been placed on it.

He strolled out of the citadel, still covered in blood, wearing that other face of his, and wrapped in those shadows. "

I imagined him, only fourteen years old, walking through the halls of the great Meroway Citadel with people running in terror to see the death on his face.

"I thought Aris might shit himself when Io came sauntering into the Reach. None of us had ever seen him like that—with that death's face on him, the shadows so thick you almost couldn't see him inside them."

Aben looked at me. "He told me you saw that—that you didn't blink an eye."

That did something dreadfully, pleasantly painful in my heart—learning that he had shared with his cousin that I had not been afraid of him. What that meant to him became even more apparent.

"I still think Aris thought Io would kill him, and I never believed a word of what he said when he came across the room, smiling, claiming he was proud of him. He was a true Lord of Darkwatch to never allow himself to be caged when he had the power to free himself.

Io never believed it either, and I think that was the day he truly began to hate the old man. Even if he hadn't put his mother through the same kind of bullshit for so many years."

"His father beat his mother as well?"

He nodded. "A few times. But it was more the constant emotional manipulation of her. She’s Withian. She hated being on dragon back. He never forgave her for that—for not being of Darkwatch."