Chapter 47
"Are you sure you have it, Lyv?" Bridget, her mother, called from the opposite side of the shell of what used to be the ballroom. "You've been at it all day and you just got all your magic. You don't even really have to hold them up now since I can take over..."
"Promise, I'm fine!" Lyv called back, nodding, as she held the six giant beams of stone horizontal in the air up without much effort. In truth, she was testing her limits...and she had yet to reach them.
They were hovering a couple dozen feet in the air and waiting for Bridget and Thia to stand the columns they would be resting on into upward positions. Bridget had half of hers up, but Thia had to coax the dragons back so they wouldn't feel the need to help...or their version of helping, that is. That was all they needed, three dragons blocking their view.
Thia ran past her and called back, "Give me just a moment to get the last one in place!"
"Take your time!"
"I'm not taking my time, Lyv. You can't hold it forever."
Before that wall holding back her power fell, there was no way she could have been doing what she was doing then, not when she'd been using her magic all day. It seemed limitless and unending and barely even left her winded.
She, her mother, and Thia had been at work all morning, going through the city and cleaning up what they could with magic. Though the battle hadn't lasted long, there was still a lot of fire damage to the buildings. But with one sweep of her hand, Lyv was able to repair almost everything and making what couldn't manifest into place. She didn't create it out of thin air, but rather got it from where she knew it would be in the city, leaving money in its place to pay for it. They worked through the city from sunrise until noon, then Lyv headed to the makeshift infirmary outside the city gates where Alberich, her father, was waiting.
For the afternoon, Lyv worked with him and the other healers, going from cot to cot and taking care of those who had been injured. Thia had been a big help, though she couldn't do much of the healing herself. She had been there mostly for support since Lyv refused to talk to anyone else besides her or her parents.
And even though she wished he hadn't been, Gideon was always there watching over her. She hadn't talked to him after the day before either, realizing he had known about Jai being Amory all along and never telling her the truth. He'd followed a dozen feet behind Lyv and Thia as they made their way back to the palace later that afternoon, but never said a word.
It would have been hard to anyway with all those who lived in the city slowly making their way back home from the shelter at Silverstone Lake. And whenever they saw Lyv now, they weren't seeing the Escarrali princess who had come in with Crown Prince Jai. They saw the Asturian heir...the one they had known existed and was stolen away, but kept from the whole of Dalcaine.
Her parents promised to tell her the story when she wanted, but never mentioned telling her why they never went after her once they realized she was in Escarral with Guinevere acting as her mother.
Lyv still did a double take whenever she'd catch her reflection in the broken pane of a window or in the waters that ran through the city. She definitely did when she woke up that morning in the room she'd stayed in at the palace. Having barely slept, she expected to see dark circles under her tired eyes...and stepped back when she saw herself in the mirror above the wash basin.
Mother above, this was going to take some getting used to. And she thought her Audry glamour was strange to be in. This...this was Lyv. The dark burgundy hair and bright emerald eyes like her mother and the sharpened features, delicately pointed ears, and silver streak in her hair like her father.
Once they got back through the palace gates, they found Bridget starting the cleanup of the ballroom. Though there was only superficial damage to the main part of the palace, it didn't take Lyv long to repair it. The ballroom was another story, though, having to rebuild it from almost nothing. But now, the stone columns were in place and the last of the glass and steel wall panels were going up, followed by the new heavy wooden doors.
Lyv, Bridget, and Thia took a few steps back to look at their work. Now, it was like nothing had ever happened.
"Perfect," Bridget said proudly as she reached over to take Lyv's hand. "Absolutely perfect. You've done a marvelous job today, sweetheart, considering everything."
"I'm glad I could help," she said, giving her a slight smile. "Is Laurel...?"
"I checked up on her before I started on the ballroom," she said, nodding. "She was still with him, getting him ready to go back to Ayveri. She...hasn't said much. Jai's been with her, too. They're still trying to process. He sent a message to Ayveri this morning, but I haven't seen anything come back yet. I could be wrong, though."
Jai.
Lyv swallowed hard at the sound of his name, at the truth that rang with it.
Gods, she should have known. With everything that happened from the moment she met Gideon up to the day of the siege of Escarral, she should have known he had really been Amory. Coming to Dalcaine was the same, especially after she'd met him...or saved him, rather.
She should have seen all the clues.
Before he'd woken up, he'd been fighting himself in his dream. Not Amory, himself. He had his own battle going on inside his head over what happened. But it wasn't because of what happened to Amory. It was about how he could have been keeping that secret from Lyv, from his mate.
Lyv should have known, especially with the dreams she kept having of them...with Amory turning into Jai. Maybe it was her subconscious telling her. Or something else.
That silver chord that wanted to connect them so badly before had no wall stopping it now, only Lyv herself.
She needed to talk to him, but they both needed some time.
Her thumb ran over the spot where her ring had been before taking it off and the locket Destan had given her felt empty. Lyv felt empty, too, drained both emotionally and mentally.
"After everything today, you need rest," Bridget told her, running her hand over the silver streak in her hair.
"Not yet," Lyv told her. "I...have some people I need to talk to first and we can't leave Asturia before that happens."
Her mother nodded and leaned forward to kiss her forehead. "Just make sure me and Alberich are two of those people, all right?"
"Of course," she smiled.
"And I'll go wrangle the dragons," Thia said as Bridget headed inside the palace. "Erly and Chesnan are getting a little too cozy and I don't think I'll be able to handle another dragon egg. Roshan's was enough before he bonded with you. I wouldn't trust anyone else with it should that happen."
"So, everyone knows now, right?"
Thia snorted. "That Chesnan was the male dragon Erly kept hanging around back in Eld? Trust me, they do now, especially since Roshan looks so much like him."
They'd made the discovery that morning before breakfast. Of course, Thia never got a good look at the dragon Erly had mated with to produce Roshan's egg, but she knew when they found the not so little dragon family all curled up with one another in Chesnan's quarters. It had been the first happy thought to go through Lyv's head since everything that happened the day before. Her mother's dragon was the father to her own.
"Our unconventional family is getting more complicated by the day," Thia sighed when she realized what was going on.
Now, Lyv looked over at the half-sorceress...and found her looking back at Gideon.
"I sure do hope Gideon is one of those people you need to talk to," she told her. "Because on top of losing Destan, he said he felt like he lost you, too. And with you not talking to him all day..."
"I know," Lyv said. "And I will. Right now, actually."
Turning around, she walked slowly up to where her oath-sworn guardsman was sitting against the stone wall of the palace. He'd watched her approach, but as soon as she sat down beside him, he dropped his head.
"I should have told you the truth, Lyv," he said quietly. "I'm sorry I didn't."
She moved closer and reached over to grab his hand. "It wasn't your story to tell, though."
"But it was one I kept selfishly because I thought Jai didn't deserve to have you. No one should ever do that to a mate, but he was going to come back and tell you. I stopped him. I should have told you when I found you in your rooms the day after it happened. Maybe you would have been pissed, but at least you would have known Jai – Amory – really didn't die. That he was a convicted guardsman he had brought over as security. And then when you walked away yesterday..."
"I needed time, Gideon, and it seems like you needed it, too. But I'm sorry I walked out."
"It's all right, but just don't do it again. And as for Jai...I still want to hate him."
"So do I."
"And even though I've tried my damnedest ever since he came back...I've kind of failed at it."
At that, Lyv laughed for the first time in what felt like forever, though it had only been days. "Trust me, I have failed miserably at it, too."
"Still no truth about what happened on Blackloch between you to, huh?" he smiled at her. "Is it anything like after that wedding we went to?"
"Nope...and not telling."
Gideon's smile turned into a full-blown grin as he squeezed her hand and leaned over to kiss her hair. "I'm going to have to get used to...all this, you know. First finding out Alberich and Bridget are your real parents, then your glamour dropping..."
"And you think it's not strange for me, too? My ears are pointed now. Not a glamour, that's just the way they are."
"I do have to admit, you were beautiful before, but now..."
"Don't even start, Gideon."
Reaching over, he touched the tip of one of her ears, then curled her dark burgundy hair around his finger. "I wish Destan had been able to see you like this. You know how much he would have teased you?"
She snorted out a laugh. "I don't even want to think about it."
And she didn't, but couldn't stop thinking about him.
"He wanted you happy, Lyv, you know that, right?" Gideon told her. "He knew you and Jai had something going on between you and he wanted you happy with him. He knew you wanted the same for him, so he wasn't holding a grudge. He loved you in his own way and I know you loved him in yours."
"What happened...it shouldn't have."
"But it did," he told her, wrapping his arm around her, and pulled her into his side. "And it'll get better with time. We'll all be better with time."
Lyv laid her head against his shoulder, knowing he was right. Again, she traced her thumb over where Jai's ring had been.
They sat in silence for a while, but listened to the sounds of the city life go on as if the day before had never happened. There were still some buildings to tweak and people to heal, but they were thanking the gods for what they still had and praying they would look over the one life that had been taken from them.
But for now...
Lyv turned her head to look at Gideon, wondering how he was going to react to her request.
"What is it?" he asked before she even could.
So, she said it as plainly as she could.
"I need to go see Guinevere."
***
"It's only going to be for a few minutes," Lyv told Gideon as he followed her down the steps into the palace dungeons.
"And what, exactly, are you needing from her?"
"I'm not exactly sure yet. But we have to start somewhere, don't we? I still want her dead, but Jai has been right all along. We need her alive to get what information she does have. And now, after Destan, I want it even more. We need to know who this mistress is of hers. We need to know where Mik and Allel are and what they are trying to do."
"And that can't wait for a little while?"
"No, not when we're leaving in the morning to go back to Ayveri." She stopped just before the last few steps and turned back to him. "Please, just let me do this, Gideon. As I said, I will only be a few minutes."
Though he didn't like it, he still nodded.
Being in the dungeon, it reminded her of their own back in Escarral – cold stone floors, thick iron bars, small openings near the ceiling to let in sunlight. The cells were mostly empty, but there were two that were occupied.
The first held a woman, who was curled up on a cot in the darkened corner. The iron bars weren't the only thing holding her in the cell, but also a type of magic Lyv hadn't felt before, but one that came from a sorceress. With her back to them, she could see the black cloak that had turned gray with age wrapped around her and her dark hair was so dirty Lyv couldn't be sure of the actual color. She didn't move as they passed, still sound asleep.
The second held Guinevere, still dressed in her navy ensemble, still in cuffs that were locked in front of her then. She was sitting on her own cot, staring off into space, before her eyes met Lyv's when she knelt down on the other side of the bars.
A slow smile spread across the captive queen's face. "Hello, my darling girl."
"Hello, Guinevere."
"Don't you mean hello, mother?"
Lyv gestured to herself. "As you can see, you are not my mother. And before that, you never were."
"Oh, all right," she sighed. "But tell me, how is the crown prince and the princess?"
"Do not ever talk about them," Lyv said through her teeth. "Tell me. Was coming to Dalcaine just to try and burn Asturia to the ground? Or was there another reason? I know Mik mentioned you taking me back with you to keep me confined, but it looks like you are not going to be able to do that now. You have lost your ties with Kalla, the Pirate Queen of Blackloch, and it seems you've lost Mik's as well, so you don't have much to hold on to for collateral or trade."
Guinevere moved forward, her chains dragging against the stone flooring, and stopped right in front of Lyv. The only thing separating them was a couple of inches and a few iron bars.
A slow smile spread across her face. "For now...well, I am right where I want to be, my darling daughter."
"What are you talking about?"
Guinevere chuckled. "I'm back at the beginning of where all of this started. This is where I decided to take you, especially when I knew that there would be no way Bridget and Alberich would be able to follow. I had a bit of magic on my side to keep them away."
"You kept us apart for twenty years. It's a good thing I am going to live much longer than that and will get to experience what it's like to have a loving mother and father."
"What would Bence say if he heard you say that?"
"Bence will forever be my father. He already knows that. He is the one who raised when me when you decided to torture me in every way. How he could stand being married to you for so long..."
She tried to reach for her, but Lyv stopped her arms with just a thought. "Have fun rotting in your prison before the trial...then I hope I am the one to conduct your execution after we get information out of you."
"You can try," Guinevere laughed, moving back to her cot.
Lyv stood, her back straight as a board, and walked with Gideon to the steps leading out of the dungeon.
But the woman in the first cell was now awake, sitting up, and watching Lyv from under the hood of her cloak.
Lyv paused when she saw her and was met with a slight smile. It only lasted a moment, though, before Lyv continued on with Gideon and both incarcerated women watched as they disappeared through the doorway.
***Well, guys, we're nearing the end! Lyv and Gideon are back on track, we've learned who Roshan's daddy dragon is, and Guinevere...well, she's still got something up her sleeve.
And the end may have given a slight hint as to the rest of the series... *winks*
Only 3 more chapters left, guys!
So you know what to do! Comment and vote!
Happy reading!
- Ansley