Page 60 of Keeper of the Word (The Unsung and the Wolf Duology #2)

Chapter

Fifty-Four

SOMEWHERE IN THE PROVINCE OF RENN, GRENDEN: ELANNA

S tars gave no comfort. Night gave no shield. And remorse bled through Elanna.

Over and over, thoughts coursed through her: Is this all my fault? and How can I still save the realm?

The original company—Tolvar, Gus, Barrett, Joss, Hux, and herself—had fled Asalle a week ago and determined it safest to go into Grenden, head south, and then follow the Cresswell River west along the foothills of the Ena Mountains to reach Ashwin.

Ashwin. Were her sisters safe? Elanna had not yet been able to feel the others through her cord of light or StarSpeak. Nightmares about Maristel crying out haunted her, even in the daylight.

Already, Elanna could feel the turmoil roiling through the realm. The countryside they’d journeyed through, though blank, was swept with a wrongness she knew the others could feel.

Elanna scarcely believed that everyone was intact. She glanced at Hux.

That terrible night—“the sovereign’s fete,” they’d heard it called, disparagingly, in a village they’d passed through—no one had found or stopped the prince before he’d fled Asalle himself. Stars only knew where he was .

She reminded herself that she’d Seen the prince marry. At least the stars had afforded her that.

But why had they not afforded her other visions?

The memory of the blood. She could still smell the coppery tinge. Nothing could rid her of the odor.

Do not think on it. You shall fall apart again.

Before all this had started, Elanna’s life had been simple. Praying. Seeing. Praying. Counseling. Praying. Naught more.

And she’d ne’er questioned the stars.

As she was tempted to do now.

Was Tara questioning the stars? Was she in Castle Sidra’s Delara, praying at this moment for the sovereign’s recovery?

For Goodsell’s recovery? The man had not seemed well upon their hasty departure.

Did Tara curse Elanna for dragging them all to Asalle?

It had changed nothing—mayhap even made matters worse.

“You shall have to give Sir Tolvar ‘the word’ on your own,” Tara had said, clearly not suggesting that she, Elanna, could give the word. She did not know the word .

Only the stars knew the word. Employing her as a vessel, the stars would bestow it upon Tolvar alone.

Elanna glanced upward. On her own. ’Twould be much more difficult and would require completeness. Completeness of confidence. Of hope.

Of faith, she let herself consider.

She sighed and stood from where she knelt in the meadow a score of paces away from the camp in which the others sat. Hux glanced at her but was quick to peer elsewhere.

The pit in her stomach returned.

That first night they’d fled Asalle, Elanna had fallen to pieces. Every thought, every breath, every hair on her arms had crawled with the foul stench of the sovereign’s fete.

’Twas too much.

She’d held herself intact. But no longer.

The others had each, in turn, gingerly placed consoling hands on her shoulders, but her sobbing was uncontrollable .

Finally, Elanna was enveloped in a protective embrace. She caught the scent of evergreen and dissolved in Hux’s arms.

“I should have stopped it! I should have stopped it!” Over and over, she wailed.

“Shhh,” Hux simply whispered.

Hours later, through swollen eyes, she met his gaze.

She had made peace with his deceit.

The past’s path is behind us.

But she could not afford herself any more distractions. Not with everything she needed to do.

It took everything she had to rip herself away from Hux. The moment she did so, a chill fell over her, and she fought off a renewed attack of anxiousness.

She rushed away to keep from falling back into the warmth of his arms.

He followed.

“I cannot,” she simply stated. “We cannot. Pray. Do not.”

His dark eyes had reflected her own pain back at her. She had almost relented. But Hux retreated, widening the gap between them.

New tears had pricked her eyes.

He assumes ’tis because of his past.

She had planted her feet. There was too much to do. The realm was greater than she and Hux.

But nevertheless, she had avoided those dark eyes ever since that night. Those dark eyes that rivaled the lure of the night sky.

The weight of the Edan Stone brought her back to the present moment.

We cannot wait. It must be tonight.

Tolvar sat next to Hux. He had been solemn since his return. Quiet. Guarded.

He’d not made an apology, but ’twas evident that Tolvar was muddling through as many emotions as Elanna. Most everything that had occurred at Asalle had been divulged to Tolvar, including the night with the witch and the Edan Stone and their need to find starstone .

Tolvar had heard all with quiet reservation, not asking any questions of his own about what Elanna meant when she’d said the stars were to give him a word that would vanish Asalle.

And Tolvar had not asked Elanna to return the Edan Stone.

With luck, and the stars’ blessing, Tara would be able to discover the location of starstone for the key they needed. The Edan Stone would do them no good without it. And Asalle would not last past the Falling Leaves Moon.

Elanna didn’t face Tolvar but knew he studied her.

We can put this off no longer.

The stars held the last part of magic, embedded in the Edan Stone, over her like hefty rain clouds about to burst. The scent of it was dense and not of the earth.

“Sir Tolvar,” she quietly said, instinctively knowing he’d heard.

In a moment, he was beside her.

“Walk with me.”

If Elanna could have focused on the familiar sounds of night, she would have. Night was her companion. But she was clamoring to bring back the starlit core of her existence—an unwavering knowledge that she, Elanna the Fourth, was ordained.

“I still do not understand all,” Tolvar finally said, when they were far enough away that the campfire was a mere glimmer.

Elanna knelt. The clover and stalks of wild moonbeam flowers’ scent surrounded her. Beyond, the last dregs of dusk tinted the horizon pink, the foothills of the mountains a blue silhouette. Above that, the sky cast a coat of purple glossing into the indigo of night.

Stars blinked at Elanna.

She brought the Edan Stone out of her pocket and placed it before her and Tolvar, who had knelt opposite her. He grimaced at it.

“The scar was azure. Now, ’tis silver. Why?”

“As I said, the moonstone is imbued with Shroud Magic. After the stars reveal to you the word , none but you shall be able to enshroud Asalle. When the moment comes, I shall tell you. You will break open the stone and utter the word . It will obscure the city of Light from this continent until the stars deem ’tis time for its return. ”

“And what will happen to the Capella Realm in the meantime?”

“The realm’s doom is imminent.” She folded her hands in her lap. “We have already witnessed the stirrings of civil war. I do not know how long it shall last. But last it shall until the sovereignty is restored.”

Tolvar scowled. “Cannot Dashiell simply restore it?”

Elanna gave Tolvar a prolonged, woeful gaze. “’Tis unlikely now.”

“At the beginning of all of this, you spoke of danger and doom. We went to Asalle. What has this all been for?”

“ We went to Asalle? You discarded me there like a sack of last week’s rubbish. Had you stayed, mayhap events would have been different!” Her blood percolated with rage. “Mayhap the sovereign would have lived!”

“ Would have?”

“He is not long for this world, Sir Tolvar. And with Dashiell fleeing from the city, he is not returning.”

“You have Seen this?”

“I Saw many things, and no one would listen to me. And by the time we reached Asalle, I fear we were too late.” She exhaled.

“The only act that might be done now is to save Asalle from darkness. From the Curse that is being unburied. You said so yourself that those in the south of Lenfore wish to bring down the light. What do you think that means for our capital? Asalle cannot fall to corruption. ’Twill spread throughout the realm and spill into the rest of the continent. ”

“You just said that civil war was upon us. How is that not already a corruption? If we can return the prince to Asalle, we might yet save it.”

Elanna turned away and put her hands to her face. “You truly are an unbeliever, or at least you would like everyone to assume so. There is no Capella Realm without the Light of Asalle. And if we cannot conceal it from evil, then evil it shall become.

“Balance must remain in this world. When Asalle is out of the Curse’s reach, it shall no longer be able to feed on it, to consume its Light. We shall safeguard the Light, as well as the hope—the Heart—that is the Capella Realm, from further ruin.”

Tolvar picked at the clover. “You are in danger, too. What will all this mean for you and the other StarSeers?”

“I do not yet know. I need my sisters. When we reach Ashwin—” She closed her eyes and clung to the stars above.

Casta? Kyrie? Can you hear me?

“We need to gather the others. The Five need to be together to See what comes next.” She slowed her breathing, which had been keeping time with her quickened heartbeat.

“But we must finish this spell. We do not know when the stars shall call upon us to use the Edan Stone, and they are impatient to lift this burden off my shoulders. I cannot carry the Edan Stone any longer. ’Tis becoming too heavy. ”

She registered how true that statement was. Even the mere thought of no longer carrying the Edan Stone brought relief.

When she next gazed at Tolvar, she found him studying the moonstone.

Doubt was written plainly on his face.

She remembered Gethwin’s words: “ He has more than doubt in him. Anger, grief, a desire for vengeance still. Those qualities can impede the word .”

You must carry a completeness. You cannot consider yourself. The feelings and failures of what it means to be human. You are a StarSeer. He cannot do this without you.

Elanna comprehended that she had granted space in her mind and heart for so many of the events of the last moons. Thoughts that were her own were to be stashed away. Always. But they had not been. Not as of late.

And so, she tucked away the ordeal of Tam’s Ford. The friendship she’d formed with Joss and Barrett. The welcome reunion with Daved. The personal fondness she had for Dashiell. The soft touch of Hux’s hands. One by one, she enfolded them deep inside herself. And prepared.

To do so stung as she ne’er would have imagined .

“Are you certain ’tis me?” Tolvar broke her concentration.

“I am. I have Seen your fortune, Sir Tolvar. You are the man of the moon and stars. A knight of honor and redemption. You helped carry your Sloane to victory, and you shall carry victory once again. Even if ’tis not what any of us envisioned a victory to be or look like.”

“I did not keep my word. I promised you a knight’s protection, and I let my own consumption of…” Did the Wolf have tears in his eyes? “…vengeance obstruct that word. I am most sorry.”

Elanna did not know how many occasions the man known as the Wolf had uttered an apology. It could not be many. Moons ago, she’d Seen him and wondered if she could save him. At this moment, she thought, aye, she could. Even if there were still a great many tasks ahead of them.

“And,” Tolvar said, “I do not think I have the faith you search for in the man who can carry this. I am not a praying man.”

“Do you wish to save the Capella Realm, Sir Tolvar?”

Tolvar nodded. “Of course. I am a knight of the realm.”

“I know you trust yourself as such. Trust that this is the most crucial duty you shall e’er carry out as a knight.”

“As a knight.” He focused on the Edan Stone with a new expression.

“Bow your head, Sir Tolvar. And let us begin.”