The Art of Blood and Power (Book 2 in The Gifted Trilogy)

19- The Earth Court

    I paused when I passed by a glass door that faced the grandest garden I had ever seen. It put the Nature Court's flowers to shame and even made the ones at the Ember Court look small in comparison. I opened the door and stepped onto the plush grass that was soft beneath my calloused feet.

    I gazed at the flowers and plants that seemed to stretch on for acres in front of me. Unlike other gardens I had seen before, this one didn't just display colorful flowers too. There were also plants that had intricate winding branches and shrubs that grew fruit that gleamed from the moonlight in colors I had never seen in nature before, let alone tasted. It seemed more a wild sample of all the possible living plants the world had to offer than a closely-tended-to garden, which somehow made it all the more impressive.

    "This is a late hour to admire my incredible gardens." A voice called from behind me. I turned and watched Orion casually approach me. He was wearing a silk green robe with his hands shoved into its pockets and the smallest amount of stubble was visible on his chin.

    I shrugged casually. "I'm not much for sleeping anymore" I replied. Even I could hear the exhaustion in my voice. I had quickly learned the difference between not sleeping due to a lack of exhaustion and not sleeping because the nightmares were somehow worse than reality.

    A look of pity crossed Orion's face and I tried not to feel annoyed by it. "I truly am sorry, Wren," he spoke, his voice holding a sense of genuine regretfulness, something rare to find amongst people as powerful as him. "But I must put my family before politics. Joining you and Kesserian would endanger my-"

    "I understand, Orion. Truly, I do" I reassured him, no resentment in my voice. Only exhaustion.

    Always exhaustion.

    "You have to protect the ones you love, I get it" I sighed. "If I could avoid fighting, if I knew there was any other way to protect the people I love, I'm not sure I'd agree to join the war either."

    Orion shook his head sadly. "You're so young. All of you are. It's not fair to have so much responsibility fall on your shoulders. I know how rare it is for a king to reach my age, and Kesserian was so young to have lost his entire family, and you with your sister in hiding-"

    "I found her," I interrupted him. "She's safe with us now. I also took the trip here because I wanted to thank you, for helping the girls and my sister. It wasn't an easy thing I was asking of you."

    He brushed off my gratitude with a shrug. "It was the least I could do."

    "No," I refuted. "You could have done nothing. But you didn't. That means something."

    I noticed a flash of movement at the corner of my eye and instinctively looked towards the subtle break of the natural darkness with the pitch-black darkness of one's clothing.

    Then I saw it. On the roof of the castle I watched a figure pull an arm behind themself, correcting the aim of the bow in their hand.

    It was aimed towards Orion.

    "Get down!" I screamed, pushing Orion's back towards the grass, ducking my head as we fell to the ground. The arrow whistled an inch from my ear and stuck into the grass beside me. I glanced up to see that the figure was already moving, likely trying to escape before we alerted the guards.

    I wrenched the arrow out of the ground and studied the design of it. During my time at the Ember Court, I had started to study the preferred weapons of every court. While every court used bows and arrows, they had different styles that distinguished their arrows from others. The one in my hand had subtle fins surrounding the pointed tip, a technique used to keep an arrow headed in a straight direction once it's shot into a body of water.