The White Rose

20. Fame and Glory

Nura finds herself by the Dunlow river once again, her face tilted to the sun, each breath refreshing with its iciness.

It's been a quiet couple of days as they wait. Wait for anyone to come to aid in this impossible mission. Wait for a miracle that Nura doesn't believe in. She's been told little else of what she'll be facing. She knows hardly anything about Rólin or the people who are now her allies, but still she refuses to run away. Maybe her foolishness will get her killed, but at least she can go into the next life knowing she at least tried.

Footsteps crunching through the thin layer of snow interrupt her silence. Nura glances over her shoulder as Talon approaches, a crease between his light brows that makes Nura instantly wary.

"Nura, there's something I need to tell you," he says as he stands by the river's edge, his arms crossed over his chest.

She resists sighing. "Isn't there always?"

"Elice has arrived."

Nura tilts her head to look up at him. "That's good news."

He presses his lips together.

"Isn't it?"

Talon blows out a breath that fogs the air and crouches to dip his fingers into the icy water. "I should warn you that Elice..." He pauses, watching the water swirl around his fingers.

"Just say it, Talon."

He meets her eye, a muscle in his jaw fluttering. "Twenty-seven years ago, while Elice was in service to Rólin during the war, she found her etnevu. Not long after, she formed the bond with him that severed her connection with Rólin."

Nura nods, somewhat familiar with the story from what he's already told her. "And Rólin took her etnevu from her to remake that tie between them, like he did your sister."

"What I didn't tell you is that before she tried to kill Rólin, Elice went into hiding in the cave." He looks down at his hand again, lifting it from the water to watch the droplets fall. "Because she was pregnant. With you."

Nura blinks, not fully registering his words or their meaning. She stares at his profile, hoping she heard him wrong. The words hang in the air like thick smoke, and they're just as suffocating at she finally hears them.

Her mother. Her mother is an Elven woman who abandoned her in the war, who left her in the care of a priestess that hardly had a kind bone in her body. After her father died, Nura considered herself an orphan.

Nura doesn't have a mother, not one that matters in her life.

"Why am I only just learning this?" she manages through the rope tightening around her throat, making it difficult to breathe.

"You were never supposed to meet. That was the plan. You would be safer if Rólin didn't know you existed."

"So, that's why she abandoned me." Nura stares out at the flowing river, feeling no inclination to go to that cave and meet the woman. "Working for Rólin put mine and my father's lives in danger."

"Working for Rólin isn't a choice," Talon argues.

Nura's jaw clenches so tightly she fears her teeth may crack. "Maybe not anymore." She glances up at Talon as his features twist and his eyes become distant. Nura's anger drains away as quickly as it had surfaced and her words leave a bad taste in her mouth. "I'm sorry, Talon. I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you're right." He lowers his head, curls of white hair draping onto his forehead. "For some of us the allure of fame and glory was too great to resist."