Of Light and Echoes

4

DAWN COURT

NOOR WINCED AS she heard a crash from downstairs. The sun was just peaking into her room, the sunrise of the fourth day that she had heard what her father had proposed to Eris of Autumn Court. Hearing her father curse, shaking the whole house, she knew his proposal did not go the way he had anticipated.

Noor tiptoed down the hall and to the war room, a room that had been used so often in recent years that it was scary for Noor to even go near. But her father's screams of anguish and anger called to her, and she put aside her fear to hear the verdict of the deal with Eris.

She peaked around the doorway and saw her father surrounded by Peregryn soldiers, their heads lowered. They must have just returned from Autumn Court with Eris's decision.

"Where is he now?" her father's voice is low now, so low that it shakes the ground like an earthquake from the deepest deaths of the earth.

"Outside in the courtyard, waiting to be spoken to by you, Thesan," Julius, Thesan's right hand since Callister's disappearance, stepped forward and replied to the storm within a man.

Curiosity and excitement, in spite of herself, overtook Noor, and she rushed to the nearest window overlooking the courtyard. For the first time in years, she was practically flying with how fast she was moving, and the wind ruffling her feathers was a similar, smaller feeling of something that brought her great happiness before.

She put her arms out against the window's sides to brace herself, moving so fast that she almost went tumbling to the ground below. Leaning out the window as far as she could without being seen, Noor scanned the stone courtyard below to see who Julius had been talking about.

A boy, she realized. Or rather a male. He was her age, jet black hair atop his head glistened in the sunlight as he looked down at his feet. He was fully surrounded by other Peregryn soldiers. Two of them, Feignan and Pan who she had trained with when she was very young, shoved the prisoner between them back and forth like he was a ball, taunting him.

"Has this guy's skin ever seen the light of day, seriously," Pan sneered as he tossed the body back at his friend. Feignan laughed, "I don't think he's every moved a muscle a day in his life, sitting pretty next to Eris seeing as his sister's Eris's play thing."

"Enough," she heard the prisoner hiss at them, knocking one of them on the head with his bound hands. Feignan growled as he rubbed the spot where he'd been hit, and he shoved the Autumn Court male to the ground before him and Pan proceeded to try to take shots at him.

"Stop!" Noor yelled into the outside world, probably one of the first times in years she had communicated with anyone from the outside. It was as if she could feel his pain with each hit, and it ignited something she thought had been long dead within her. Her voice came out stronger than she anticipated, and the Peregryn males immediately backed away from the prisoner. Coughing and stumbling to his feet, the prisoner turned to face the window where she stood.

Though she still frowned down at those below her, his face erupted into a full, beautiful smile. His eyes were amber like the newly lit fire within her. He was so, so familiar to her, but she could not put a name to his face.

Even without this name, however, she felt drawn to him. Her wings itched to move more than ever as she stared down at him, urged her to fly down the steps to the courtyard and right up to him.

She looked down at her feet to see that she was, in fact, floating. Her wings slowly, but surely as if not a day had gone by, kept her afloat. Surely, her steps would not be heard if there were no steps at all.

With a newfound confidence and a determination she had thought was long dormant, she readied herself to fly. Then, she turned her body from the window and soared down the halls of her father's castle, her past home and present prison, down the steps down onto the ground floor, down into true sunlight and into the courtyard.

The Peregryn youths that stood around the prisoner stood back, dumbfounded. This was the first time they had seen the princess in years. Without a word, Noor stepped closer to the male in chains before her, and they all let her. The beating of her wings and her heart were enough to call them off, to show them that even in her absence, somehow, her power had grown.

She was close to him now, and even without a name, she was able to recognize that the years had not been kind to him. His skin lacked a certain luster, and he had dark circles beneath his eyes. She knew those eyes. They used to be much brighter, but they had dulled significantly. Though he was muscular, he looked...weak. As if years and years of something had taken its toll. He had scruff on his face, as if he hadn't bothered to shave through whatever he had been going through.

"Noor. Noor of Dawn Court," her name flowed from his mouth like a song, and her entire body froze. It seemed rehearsed, as if he had played with her name in his mouth for centuries, waiting to say it exactly right when the time came.

"Hello," she replied, and couldn't help but smile down at him. It took much effort not to reach out and stroke his face.

I've been waiting for you. An echo came from within, a distant memory of a boy in the forest who set her free.

"Noor, you needn't fraternize with him," Pan interrupted their moment, pulling on one of the chains that held him back, "We're just leaving."

"NOOR!" A booming voice interrupted them yet again, and Noor turned to see Thesan stepping onto the courtyard, trailed by his entourage of Peregryn soldiers.