Page 36

Evelina

Evelina tossed and turned, thinking about her conversation with Daimon, about why in goddesses’ name he went from glimpses of the boy she knew to the cold-faced commander again. Once she finally fell asleep, her dreams were plagued with images of her mother dying, over and over again.

She needed to calm her nerves. Mixing tonics and grinding herbs usually helped soothe the worries that ran rampant in her mind.

She pushed open the wood door to the infirmary, the hinges squeaking as the door swung open.

“Up so early?” one of the healers asked as she entered.

“Lots to do,” she muttered. Evelina noted the way the healer was just finishing up from the night before. She recognized her as someone she’d worked with a few times at one of the refugee camps. “Late night, Alaina?”

Alaina smiled, her hair ashen and eyes soft. “The Aegis never cease to amaze me,” she said with a sigh. “Training accident last night. One of the trainees took a firebolt straight to the chest.”

“They always seem to find trouble, don’t they?” Evelina said softly. “Good luck. ”

Alaina gave a polite smile and wished Evelina a good day as she slipped out of the room.

Evelina walked over to the shelves of jars, taking stock to ensure they were ready for the day. The stock was far lower than it should’ve been, likely spread thin with the increasing number of attacks lately. The refugee camps were surely overflowing by now.

She found one jar completely empty. She sniffed inside it, the scent of sandalwood and leather wafting into her nose.

All it took was a single whiff and Evelina could identify what plant it was and what it could be used for.

“Princess Evelina?” Willow’s light voice filled the room.

Evelina turned around, surprised to see her. They hadn’t spoken much since Daimon’s injury, but even from the brief encounters she had with her, she had taken a liking to the Woodland Rider.

“Is your wound bothering you?” Evelina asked. “I can mix up a quick salve for you.”

Willow shook her head quickly. “No, nothing like that. I’m headed out with a beta fleet Rider to patrol around Baile the rest of the day. I was told to see if a healer was available to come pick up the herbs. But I didn’t expect it to be you… I’m sorry I asked.”

Evelina’s eyes flickered to the diminished stock on the shelves. Evelina loved Baile, a quaint town brimming with joyful villagers who mostly grew herbs for the healers in the palace. And she could see Ian, the elderly human gardener who held a soft place in her heart.

“No, I’ll go. It’ll be nice to get some fresh air.” Evelina grabbed a spare supply satchel and slung it over her shoulder.

“I’m sorry to hear about your mother,” Willow said softly from the door.

Evelina paused, her heart twisting. Fresh air was exactly what she needed.

It would be a quick flight to Baile, likely no more than an hour. Evelina admired the trees beneath them and basked in the morning sun as it turned into a warm afternoon light, contemplating how much her life had changed since the war—how much the entire empire had changed.

Before the war, she and her siblings spent so much time outside of the palace. They would go out into the other territories—Drogheda, Syreni, Viridian—and spend whole days out in the glade from sunup to sundown, only going back to the palace to bathe and sleep.

Evelina hardly remembered what that kind of life was like before the rebels started to pop up. The realm used to be a well-greased ecosystem between fae and humans.

She could practically hear Aderyn, her old instructor, who made them recite texts back to her. The texts ranged from learning the creatures of the forests to learning about older rulers’ accounts to studying how the empire ran so smoothly for so long. Evelina’s siblings would memorize things quickly, but she always needed a little more repetition.

Woodland would use their Essence to foster growth in the land, while the humans would tend to the produce by growing, harvesting, and tilling the land the Woodlands recharged. The Nocturna would keep all fae and human dreams safe from creatures that fed off dreams and nightmares, while the Aegis guarded the land from the monsters of the waking realm. The Undine were harder to understand, their world a kingdom of their own beneath the water.

But for years now, it seemed like their days were mostly spent within solid walls and a roof blocking the sun from their view. There were so many others less fortunate than her—the ones with straw roofs and clay walls, vulnerable to the growing darkness. How could she stay chained to her perfectly manicured palace when the empire was suffering?

“We’ll touch down for a short period of time,” Willow shouted, and then, to the wyvern of the beta Rider flying with them, “Khaline, find us a place to land.”

Children played in the town square, fae and human alike. People gave Evelina and Willow a pleasant wave or a quick smile as they passed over. Baile was bustling with shop owners trading and selling goods. Several stalls had been set up as a makeshift market. Those not selling or buying sat on wooden porches, rocked in chairs, or stood and talked.

They landed in an open field on the outskirts of town and walked in. Evelina trailed behind while Willow and the beta Rider discussed fleet matters. As they made it into town, the Riders peeled off to speak with the townspeople, checking to see if any rebels had been sighted recently, a standard survey for each town they patrolled.

Evelina spent the afternoon drinking ale with the townspeople and buying goods from their shops, including enough sandalwood to refill the entire jar back in the infirmary. She bought an apple from a stall by the square center and wandered over to a small bench to have her modest lunch.

There were plenty of people milling about, but her attention was mostly pulled by three small girls tossing a ball nearby. The ball soared over one of their heads, landing at Evelina’s feet.

“Pass it to me!” one begged.

“No, me!” the other jumped in.

She laughed and tossed it to the one that hadn’t asked for it, the other two groaning. As she watched the girls’ vibrant smiles, so full of life, a small weight lifted off her chest.

While the Riders walked back to the field to feed their wyverns, Evelina settled into a tavern, a small space with a few wobbly chairs and uneven tables. The villagers sipped on watered-down ale and laughed with one another, quickly looping Evelina in as they shared about their lives .

Evelina leaned forward, elbows on the table, entranced by the female who had lived for centuries. She wove tales in such a way that Evelina found herself holding her breath.

“The wyverns are beasts of intellect and stealth,” the female said, her eyes crinkling in the corners. “But the dragons?” She laughed and shook her head. “They’re brute force, fire-breathing predators.”

Evelina’s eyes widened. “Dragons…”

Dragons didn’t exist. No one had ever seen one for themselves; it was always someone’s cousin’s friend who had heard someone else telling a story that they might have seen one.

“Saw it with my own two eyes.” The storyteller pointed to the eye that was shut, a deep scar running through it. “Until it decided it wanted to make a meal out of me and nearly gutted me.”

Evelina gasped, while the others at the table laughed, clearly having heard this story time and time again.

But the female waved her off. “That was eons ago. They tend to stay secluded now that they’re nearly extinct.”

“So secluded that no one has ever seen one but you, Emma,” a red-faced, bearded man said with a hearty laugh.

Evelina brimmed with questions to ask the female. She wanted to know everything about dragons and how they differed from wyverns. But the conversation quickly derailed to the next topic, and she settled back into listening.

Soon, Evelina got up to pay for her drink, the silver coins clinking on the metal plate by the bar. She smiled at the barkeeper as she walked to the door. “Thanks for the?—”

A crash sounded.

There was a flurry of motion through the closed shutter, though it was too old and cracked to fully see through. A scream pierced the air.

Evelina darted for the door, her heart in her throat as she braced herself for what lay on the other side .

“Princess Evelina, you can’t!” the storyweaver shouted from behind her.

But it was too late—she was already out the door.

She spun in a circle, frantic as she took in the view around her. Soldiers glimmered in the growing fires as they lit the straw roofs ablaze, storming the village. Smoke filled the air. Though she tried, she couldn’t find Willow in the haze.

The rebels shouldn’t have been able to get this far, not without being detected. They had made it to Nox Grove, but only a few, and without being able to make any stand. How there could be this many, fully equipped for an ambush? Something was different. Darker.

Evelina heard the roar of Khaline from above, but the smoke was still too thick. Even with two Riders, they would need reinforcements. Quick. The stationed Valon soldiers were clearly outnumbered and unprepared for such an onslaught in this small village.

She could see the outlines of figures running through the smoke, flumes of fire roaring to life, while some held weapons that glowed with the shimmer of a curse. There were dozens of them.

A man screamed from her right, snapping her attention to him. She watched as he writhed on the ground, clutching his neck. She ran to him, dropping down at his side, and slung her satchel off, doing a quick check of the supplies with her. It was more than enough for an accident or two, but nothing compared to what she’d need now. Only a couple of bandages, a few pinches of feverfew, and a tin with skin-mending salve. The supplies she had bought were for specific maladies and brews, not immediate trauma.

Screams echoed around her, and her focus was torn between the man before her and the rebels attacking.

“Please.” His words were garbled as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “My wife and daughter are in our house behind the paint shop. ”

She hushed him, his face pale and eyes fluttering.

“I’ll find them,” she gasped. “But I need you to move your hand so I can take a look.”

He nodded and lowered his hand. Blood began to pour from the cut on his neck. She lunged forward, pressing two bandages against it to stop the bleeding.

Another scream, and Evelina turned to see a rebel smiling at her from the front of the tavern, clutching a bloody mass in his hand. Her eyes followed the pool of blood. The barkeep she had just paid had fallen on her side and now faced Evelina, a hole where her heart should be.

Evelina’s hands froze.

The rebel didn’t look human or fae. His face was cracked with lines of black, as if his veins had turned to obsidian and glowed beneath his skin. He looked like a monster, a nightmare that she couldn’t wake from.

She frantically looked back down at the wounded man, feeling his pulse weaken beneath her fingers. She couldn’t just leave him.

When she looked back up, the rebel was running toward her, his eyes bloodthirsty and eager. But before he could get any closer, an axe was driven into his chest. His eyes widened as he fell to his knees.

The storyweaver from earlier swung the axe again, ending the rebel’s life and saving Evelina’s. Other villagers had banded together, carrying scythes, axes, and other farming tools.

She saw the massive belly of a wyvern swoop low to the ground. The smoke had settled like a blanket over the square, making it impossible for the Rider to tell who was friend or foe.

The man in front of her wheezed, his breath coming out in short spurts. She needed to get him out of here. Now. She scooped what remained of the skin-mending salve and lathered it onto his neck. He was still bleeding, but the flow slowed tremendously .

She looked up again, desperately searching for a place to hide him. The smoke started to dissipate enough for her to see.

The villagers weren’t winning their charge. These rebels were lethal. Ruthless.

She had heard the stories of how they fought with strange tactics, but these had shadows , a sickening darkness pulsing from them. Not typical Nox-wielded shadows, but ones black as night and crackling with sparks of light. They had a stench that clung to them, something she could only describe as decay. They came in unrelenting waves at the villagers, ripping them to shreds before Evelina’s eyes.

It was her first time coming face to face with this level of destruction from ground level. Never had she heard of the rebels using shadows like these.

The Aegis patrolling the area sent funnels of fire toward the attackers. There were at least fifteen soldiers she could count through the haze, their movements swift and coordinated. But there were three times the number of rebels, starting a new fire almost as soon as another was put out.

Khaline landed in the middle of the square, her wings clearing more of the smoke and sending the acrid scent of burning flesh away.

Evelina could see the rebels clearly now. They all had the same face as the rebel the storyweaver killed. Weblike black cracks spread across every inch of their exposed skin. She opened her mouth to flag Willow down, but a scream pierced the air from beside her, just to the right of the tavern.

She scrambled to her feet and rounded the corner of the building, where she found three small children huddled against the siding. They were the same little girls who had been playing in the square earlier.

A rebel raised his splintered, black-veined hands, aiming right for the children.

Evelina broke into a sprint toward them, watching in horror as the oldest child—no more than ten years old—stepped in front of the smaller two, a look of sheer determination on her face. Her short, cropped hair was plastered to her head.

Evelina raced for them, fear spurring her faster, but she was still too slow to reach the dark-ridden being in time. The rebel snickered, a sickly crackling of a laugh, as the little girl stood tall, her fists balled tightly, arms out wide in an attempt to shield the other children.

“At least you’ll die brave,” the rebel soldier quipped, his voice garbled and warped.

Evelina screamed.