Only a week had passed before we traveled to the Earth Court to propose an alliance. While I had forced myself to be hopeful about our chances of convincing Orion, I quickly gained a sense of deja vu as, only ten minutes into our meeting, our conversation began to sound painfully similar to the one we'd had with Calius.
"I'm sorry, but I won't pull my kingdom and people into a useless war" Orion spoke with a finality to his voice that told us we were nearing the end of our discussion and we had failed to convince him.
"If you wait for Nox to make the first move, you're only hurting your kingdom," I tried to reason with him.
"Look, I like you Wren, but to be honest with you, this rivalry you have with Nox does not concern this court-"
"Doesn't concern this court?" I looked up in shock. "Nox attacked a village on your land, he murdered hundreds and destroyed my entire home!"
"And that is a devastation that I will never allow to happen again!" he raised his voice. "I've already dispatched part of my army to the non-Gifted villages for protection, but if we decided to go to war over every single death that happens, we'd never know peace."
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as Porter's head dropped in defeat and Kess got up from where he had been sitting beside me, exhaustion and irritation clear on his face. Ash and June followed him out of the room as Cicero remained seated on my other side.
I'd done everything to try to convince him. I'd shown him my memories as I did Calius, I'd begged and pleaded with him, tried to make him see reason and realize that the attack on my village would not be the last one on his land. It felt like I was treading water, fighting with every ounce of strength, yet getting nowhere in all of my struggles.
"Is this the type of example you want to set for your daughter?" I asked him, my voice barely above a whisper. "To shove her head in the sand at the first sign of danger? To allow people to walk all over her, murdering her people, without saying a word?"
"Don't you dare bring my daughter into this" he snapped. "It's her future I'm preserving. I will not leave her a kingdom scarred by the ruins of war. Nox will answer for what he's done, and we will make him pay, but it won't be at the cost of any more Earth Court citizens. There will be no more bloodshed on my land, ours or otherwise."
"It's a nice sentiment," I replied bitterly. "Too bad I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago."
Orion didn't dignify my snide remark with a response. Instead, he pushed his chair from the table and stood. "It's already pretty late," he noted. "You and the rest of your entourage are welcome to spend the night in my guest rooms until the morning when it is safer to travel. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you."
"Yeah, I'm sorry too," Porter muttered, leaving the room without pushing his chair back in. Cicero placed a steadying hand on my back as we left, but I could hardly feel it over the pressing defeat weighing over my shoulders.
******
I sat on the guest bed, staring at the ceiling for a few hours. I knew trying to fall asleep would be no good, especially in a castle I wasn't familiar with. At any moment, soldiers could crash through my doors and attack me. I doubted a man as honorable as Orion would do such a thing, but the possibility never left my mind.
At some point in the night (or perhaps it was already early morning) I decided a walk might help clear my head, lifting the sheets from my clammy body. Leaving my room, I took the same path the escorts had led us down before. Kess was in the room beside mine. I placed an ear to the door and heard nothing but silence. Assuming he was asleep, I decided not to disturb him and continued down the hall.
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.
This was a weapon of the Ocean Court.
"Marlowe's attacking us," I spoke, though I knew from the shock on Orion's face as he studied the weapon in my hands that he had already come to the same conclusion. A thought suddenly dawned on me. "Where is Vasanta's bedroom?"
I watched the blood drain from Orion's face. Everyone knew Orion's weak spot was his daughter, and apparently Marlowe had decided to hit Orion where he knew it would hurt most. Without speaking, Orion placed a hand flat on the ground under us and I grabbed onto the grass as the ground trembled around us.
In a matter of moments, the ground around us was propelled upwards to the second story balcony right above us. Orion jumped off of the pedestal of land and onto the balcony. I followed close behind, turning to watch the rocks and dirt crash back to the ground.
Rounding the corner, I caught up to Orion as he kicked down the door only a few rooms down the hall. Before even stepping into the room, a wave of water slammed into Orion, crushing him against the wall behind him. I ducked under the wave and flung my hands outward recklessly.
I was relieved to see the shadows shoot from my fingers towards the figure dressed in black who wore a dark mask over their face, shielding their identity. The shadows slammed into the attacker's side and caused them to fall onto their knee, clutching their side. Luckily none of the shadows hit the girl standing next to the balcony door, tears streaming her face and a gag in her mouth. Her arms were bound behind her back.
"Vasanta!" Orion roared as he barreled into the room. In a flash of movement too quick for me to retaliate, the masked intruder grabbed Vasanta and drew the girl in front of them, moving a dagger to her neck and backing towards the balcony slowly.
I raised my hands again but Orion blocked them, shaking his head fearfully. "Please," he whispered, falling to his knees. I looked away to save him the little ounce of pride he had left. Kings were not people easily brought to their knees, but at the possibility that this stranger might rip his only daughter away from him, I'd never seen Orion so vulnerable.
It took no more than a second for the masked kidnapper to fling themself and Vasanta over the edge of the balcony. Orion roared, surging towards the open doors, oblivious to the two men that had just stepped into the room. I dodged a blade thrown by the masked figure on the left while the one on the right lunged towards Orion and clasped a band of steel around his neck. Immediately, Orion slumped towards the floor, weaker than I had ever seen him.
"No!" I moved towards him but he shook his head weakly. "Vasanta," he managed a whisper. "Don't let them take her."
I was forced to make a decision as another dagger swept a hairsbreadth from my cheek. Shooting a wave of darkness at the two assailants, I climbed onto the banister of the balcony and jumped off of it into the night sky. It wasn't too far of a drop to the grassy ground beneath me as I tucked into a roll I had been taught in my first week of training with Kess. The impact still jolted me but I didn't feel any further injuries.
I closed my eyes, concentrating as I did the morning of the attack on my village, searching my surroundings for an unguarded mind. In a direction towards my left, I felt a powerful wave of fear.
Vasanta. She was either too young or too scared to concentrate on protecting her mind under an attack like this. I immediately took off in the direction I felt the fear, the thoughts growing louder in my head as I drew closer to where she was.
The attacker had fled from the far side of the gates. No alarm had been rung yet to alert the guards currently manning the central part of the border. Why the hell is the alarm not going off? I cursed to myself as I followed the emotion of Vasanta's mind.
Easily climbing over the gates after all of my experience climbing trees in my youth, I dropped to the ground on the other side and caught a blur of solid black moving towards the trees that surrounded the court.
I increased my speed, pumping my legs as fast as they could go, ignoring the branches that crashed into my face as the footsteps grew louder and I could hear Vasanta's muffled protests. The figure suddenly stopped and I realized why as they peered down at the running river a few feet beneath the ledge. Without an ounce of hesitation, the masked stranger threw Vasanta into the water. "No!" I screamed as the girl broke the water's surface and was immediately plunged into its depths.
The figure turned to face me as I brought my fists to my chest, readying myself to choke this person with the power of my darkness and wrath.
Before I could make the first attack, the figure turned away from the castle and sprinted into the cover of trees. I was taken aback at the retreat and stepped forward to pursue the attacker but then remembered that Vasanta had yet to break through the water's surface again. Her safety was more important than capturing the Ocean Court Gifted.
I jumped into the water, forcing my eyes open against the water and reached out with my mind again to find Vasanta. I could barely see anything, but the faint moonlight along with Vasanta's loud and panicked thoughts were enough to track her. She was at the bottom of the river and, to my surprise, she was surrounded by a bubble of air.
Swimming close enough to break through the bubble surrounding her, I felt an odd sensation as I could suddenly take a breath of fresh air, looking upwards at the water that never came more than a foot away from Vasanta. The Ocean Gifted had apparently done something to keep the water from suffocating the princess.
Vasanta was crying and struggling with her bound hands. The steel binds around her wrists were attached to a rope and a heavy block of metal that I assumed was the reason she couldn't rise back to the surface.
"Shh, it's okay" I tried to reassure her, reaching for the dagger I always kept sheathed at my side, even in sleep. "I'm going to get you out of this, I promise."
She didn't stop crying until I was sawing the ropes with my blade. When the rope finally broke, I wrapped an arm around Vasanta and pulled her upwards. I didn't have to do much of the work. With Vasanta no longer weighed down by the anchor, the bubble of air around her immediately started to rise towards the surface. I helped increase our speed, sticking one arm out of the bubble to push against the water, propelling us upwards.
We broke through the surface as the bubble finally bursted, allowing water to sweep against our bodies as I steered us towards the side of the river, holding the princess tightly to my side. Grabbing onto a rock lodged into the mud, I helped push Vasanta over and onto the ground covered in dirt and fallen leaves. I joined her a moment later, breathing heavily as I rested on my back.
Trembling, Vasanta looked over towards me. "Are we safe now?" she asked me, the fear in the eyes of someone as young as her, a girl even younger than Tessa, made my chest tighten as I grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
"Yes, princess. We're safe now," I lied.
******
Vasanta was wrapped in a soft blanket, shaking as her mother rubbed her head, speaking soothing words to her, though I was sure her trembling was from fear rather than the cold of the river.
Orion was pacing back and forth in front of us, speaking to his General, demanding to know how the hell three Ocean Gifted assassins were able to slip into the castle unnoticed. The General had no idea and was rambling through the series of security measures they had in place. He was puzzled himself over how the attack was even possible.
"Darling, no more of this talk. Not with Vasanta still here" the Queen spoke, cradling her daughter with such tender care I caught myself staring at them.
"Well one thing is clear, the Ocean Court intentionally attacked my family" Orion spoke, his words shaking with fury as he turned towards where Kess was standing with the rest of us. "You said you had reason to believe that Marlowe is conspiring with Nox?"
"A few weeks ago, Marlowe sent three people after Wren to kidnap her," he explained, partially lying. While it was soldiers of the Ocean Court, Nox had been controlling them, but I knew the specifics didn't matter. Marlowe believed Kess had killed his men, and it wouldn't be long until he officially declared his alliance with the Shadow Court.
Orion nodded slowly. "They're trying to pick us off one by one," he spoke to himself. "They want to make us weaker so that when they attack, we have no chance against them."
He turned towards me. "I've always believed myself to be a reasonable man who strives for peace," he started. "But the Ocean Court just came after my family. Worse than that, Marlowe approved the kidnapping of my child, a nine-year-old. If it wasn't for your quick thinking..." Orion choked, unable to even entertain the idea of his daughter ripped away from him. "This attack will not go unpunished."
He extended his hand towards Kess. "I accept your offer of an alliance. As soon as possible, we'll start integrating a plan to combine our armies. My kingdom will start making the preparations needed for an upcoming war and, if you are right about a war breaking out across Naturian, the Earth Court will fight on your side. The Earth and Ember Court are now officially allies."
Kess gratefully took Orion's hand, gripping it hard with relief. "I'm glad to hear that, Orion," Kess replied. "Though I do regret the series of events that led to this decision."
"Me too, but I'll make sure nothing like this ever happens again" Orion replied. "I'll look after my family and start speaking to my General about defensive strategies. In the meantime, you convince that old bat Calius to join us so that we actually have a fighting chance."
"I'll do my best," Kess promised him, at last releasing Orion's hand. He sent me a genuine smile that matched my relieved one. "Well, dawn is almost upon us. We better get going. We have good news to share with our court."
"Safe travels," Orion said as a farewell before turning away and moving towards his wife and daughter. As he knelt down to talk to his daughter, the smile etched on his face made him look years younger. This was what he was fighting for. For these rare few moments of peace with his family, knowing that he would do whatever it took to keep them safe and protected. Even if it meant fighting a war he never wanted in the first place.
"Well that went better than I was expecting" Porter whispered beside me. "Lucky you were there with him when the attack happened, huh?"
There was no accusation in his voice, but I could hear the puzzlement that matched my own. Even now, the memory of Vasanta covered in a bubble of air replayed in my head. What would Marlowe have to gain from sending someone to kidnap Orion's daughter, only to let her go at the first sign of resistance?
"Yeah" I muttered in response. "Lucky me."