Chapter 21

It wasn’t a prison cell. That was the first thought to enter Trystan’s mind when he woke. They’d been in Dreach-Dhoun for three days but hadn’t been taken to the dungeons. Instead, the room he’d been put in surrounded him in luxury.

It was so unexpected, he didn’t know what to think.

As his mind cleared of sleep, he sat up, running a hand down his bare chest. The bruises from their capture at the border stretched down his side, sickly yellow streaks against his pale skin.

Three days and there’d been no word from Calis. He hadn’t been allowed out of his room to see his sister, Alixa, or Avery.

And Davi… what was he supposed to do with the knowledge his best friend, his brother, had been in Dreach-Dhoun the entire time they’d mourned him? But he wasn’t the boy he’d grown up with, was he?

A breath shuddered as it passed his lips.

This room might not look like a prison, but it was a cage all the same.

He pushed silk sheets from his legs and stood as the door opened. A servant bustled in, balancing a tray on her hands. Every day was the same. They brought him ample amounts of food and drink, filled the bronze tub with warm water for his bath, and didn’t say a word.

“You,” Trystan said.

The servant startled but turned her back on him and set the tray on the table.

“Why am I here?” Trystan asked. “Please, tell me something. What does Calis plan to do with us? Where is my sister? Or my other friends? I need information.”

The serving girl’s shoulders stilled, and Trystan stepped closer, feeling as if she wanted to speak. She gave a tiny shake of her head and spun on her heel to leave. Two men entered, carrying buckets of water. They didn’t look at Trystan as they filled the tub and then they too were gone. The lock groaned loudly as it shifted into place.

Trystan sighed and sank into a chair in front of the tray to pick at the food. He’d barely eaten anything they’d left over the last few days. His stomach rumbled in approval as he choked down some bread. There were two pitchers. One of wine and one of water. Opting for the water, he lifted it to pour himself a drink and his eyes caught on a scrap of paper that was stuck to the condensation on the copper bottom.

After pulling it free, he set the pitcher down. A scraping noise sounded at his door, almost as if his lock was moving again, but when he jerked his head up, no one entered.

Focusing on the paper once again, he tried to make out the words. The ink had been smudged by water and he squinted his eyes.

Turn right at the end of the hall and go through the door. I’ll be waiting.

It wasn’t signed. Was this a trap? Could he afford to ignore it? The answer came instantly. He had to risk it. If this person could help them… His eyes flicked to the door. But he was locked in. Wasn’t he?

Slowly, he got to his feet and crossed the room. Setting his hand on the lever, he pushed, and the door opened.

Not stopping to question it, he stepped into the hall. His guard lay slumped against the wall. Trystan moved suddenly, but the guard’s eyes didn’t track him. They were vacant as if he slept with his eyes open.

He glanced down the darkened hallway. Were Rissa and Alixa nearby? He couldn’t go banging on doors. Instead, he did as the note bade him.

The door he found led to a garden, or what used to be a garden. Flashbacks of the palace in Dreach-Sciene hit him as he stepped outside. The gardens of his childhood home had always struggled to live. But this one looked as if it had been drained of any and all life. Twisted trees stood along the high walls, their bark cracking and crumbling. Dead grass crunched under Trystan’s bare feet. Flowers lay withered.

“Sad, isn’t it?” A voice said.

Trystan scanned the area until his eyes landed on Ramsey Kane’s small frame.

“You,” he accused.

“Me.” Ramsey nodded, straightening from where he crouched beside a gnarled bush.

Trystan’s eyes darted around. He couldn’t trust the third Tri-Gard member who’d chosen loyalty to Calis over his own daughter—Trystan’s mother.

He’d had days of solitude to come to terms with his heritage and it still burned deep in his gut when he thought of Ramsey betraying Dreach-Sciene. Betraying magic.

“Calis isn’t here, son. It’s just me.”

“I’m not your son,” Trystan spat.

Ramsey looked to the sky and rubbed a hand across his face. Was he… nervous? The great Tri-Gard member couldn’t look him in the eye.

“You’re right,” he finally said. “You are my grandson.”

Trystan stepped forward. “If you think that means you have any claim over me…”

“Calm down, boy.”

Trystan seethed. Ramsey might be ancient, but he looked no older than Trystan himself. He didn’t get to talk down to him.

“We’re done here.” Trystan prepared to enter the palace once more. “I should have known better than to trust that note. You are nothing more than a sad man who forsook his sacred calling. Magic was yours to protect and instead, you drained it from Dreach-Sciene, forcing Briggs and Lonara to help you.”

Ramsey froze for a moment before a booming laugh burst out of him. He held his stomach and laughed again. When he finally caught his breath, he fixed Trystan with a withering stare. “You have so much to learn, young king. Do you honestly think I could force Briggs and Lonara to do anything?”

When Trystan didn’t respond, Ramsey shook his head. “Please, stay. We have much to talk about. Calis is out inspecting the army today, so he won’t find us.”

Trystan’s mind warred between curiosity of the man who shared his bloodline and hatred for the man who allied himself with Calis. His shoulders dropped, and he walked toward a bench before dropping onto it.

Ramsey’s gaze swept over him. “You could have at least put on shoes… or a shirt.”

Trystan glanced down at himself. He’d been in such a hurry to find some answers, he hadn’t stopped to dress. He was about to have his first ever conversation with his grandfather and he was half-naked with sleep-mussed hair.

But he didn’t care. Not when so many questions swirled through his mind.

“I can practically see your brain working.” Ramsey chuckled. “Ask me what you want to know. I’ll hold nothing back. I know what you think of me, but I’m not the evil man the stories make me out to be.”

Trystan flattened his hair and focused on a patch of dead growth. “What happened here? I thought Dreach-Dhoun was supposed to be full of magic, full of life. But I don’t feel it. Not like I did outside the palace. And everything is so…”

“Dead?” Ramsey finished. “Magic wielders are supposed to be conscious of the earth. Most people aren’t able to draw much power at once so it’s not an issue, but occasionally there are some. When too much power is taken at once, it steals all life from the ground.” He gestured around them. “This was the price of saving Calis’ son.”

Trystan sucked in a breath. “Davi—”

“He was gone. Calis brought him back.”

“That’s not possible.” Trystan shook his head. “Briggs told me magic can’t bring someone back to life.”

At the mention of Briggs, Ramsey’s face darkened for a moment before the look disappeared. Trystan watched him carefully.

“Most magic cannot, that is true. But I’ve never seen anyone with the power of Calis. Combine that with my crystal that’s in his possession and he can accomplish the impossible.”

Fear shot through Trystan. How were they supposed to escape from a man like that, let alone beat him in battle? It made everything they’d gone through so far seem trivial in comparison.

“But Davi didn’t come back the same, did he?”

Ramsey shifted his eyes away. “His memories have been altered.”

“He’s not the same man I knew.”

Ramsey met Trystan’s gaze sharply. “He is. I’ve been watching you all for many years. Calis used his son to see through his eyes. Davi may still be in there. The memories don’t make the man. I have hope for him yet.”

“How? Davion looked at Ri as if she was nothing. If he was still in there, he couldn’t break her like that.”

“He doesn’t remember her.” Ramsey’s voice was so quiet, Trystan almost didn’t hear him.

Trystan shot to his feet. “Not possible. Not for Davi.”

“It’s true.”

“How? How did he suddenly lose all thoughts of the one person who made him whole?”

“It was me.” Ramsey paced from one side of the garden to the other. “I have been made to do a lot of things in my life that I’m not proud of.”

Trystan fell back onto the bench. “You took them? You stole her from him? How could you? All these years, the people of Dreach-Sciene assumed you were a prisoner. Even after you stole the magic. We didn’t want to believe a member of the Tri-Gard could be in league with Calis.”

“I was protecting you and your sister.”

Trystan buried his face in his hands. “That makes no sense. Protecting us from what? You? You sit here at Calis Bearne’s side and call that protecting us?”

“You don’t understand.”

“Make me understand.”

“I can’t.” Ramsey pushed a breath out through his teeth. “Not yet.”

“That’s not good enough.”

“If I tell you what I know, you’ll never save Dreach-Sciene.”

“Sounds like a load of bull to me.”

“It’s not,” a feminine voice said.

Trystan lifted his gaze to Lorelai as she walked toward them. His back stiffened.

“Ramsey,” he said through clenched teeth. “What is going on?”

Ramsey put a hand on his shoulder. Trystan suspected it was to keep him from leaving.

Lorelai hugged her arms across her chest and shifted from foot to foot. When they’d met in Dreach-Sciene, Trystan had been entranced by the eerily beautiful seer. She’d had a confidence and calm his father had loved.

At the thought of his father, pain stabbed through him and he looked away, his lips curling in disgust.

Lorelai coughed uncomfortably. Seemed she too had changed since they’d seen each other last.

“Trystan, I believe you know Lorelai Bearne.”

Trystan grunted and his hard eyes found hers. “Do you still see his face?”

She covered her mouth with her hand.

He continued. “Because I do. I imagine it. His death. He was alone in his room with only the person who betrayed him. He should have been surrounded by those he loved. My father deserved more than a knife in the middle of the night.”

She bit her lip. “I see him every night.” He hadn’t expected her to answer.

Ramsey gripped Trystan tighter. “Lorelai isn’t who you think she is. She’s going to help us.”

Trystan regarded his grandfather. “Since when is there an us?”

“Since you need me, boy. That’s why you came, is it not? It’s why you allowed yourself to be captured by the most powerful man in the world. I’m guessing old Briggs told you I could get us out of here. I’d have escaped a long time ago if I could have been assured of your safety. Calis has had you watched since you came out of the womb. But now you’re here and it’s time to see what freedom tastes like once again.”

“Are you joking?” Trystan pointed to Lorelai. “We can’t trust her.”

“On the contrary, she is the only one we can trust.”

This was what Trystan had been waiting for, so why did he hesitate? Something didn’t seem right. If he had his way, he’d challenge Lorelai to a duel and fight for his father’s honor. The honor she’d taken from him so brutally.

“Why is she helping us?” he asked Ramsey.

Ramsey shook his head. “Your arrogance makes you think your people are the only ones harmed by Calis. Lorelai has experienced her fair share of tragedies. You are not alone in that.”

Lorelai studied her feet.

Did he have a choice?

He sighed. “What do we do?”

“You wait,” Lorelai said. “My uncle may be away, but Davion is still here.” She sighed. “I love my cousin, but he won’t understand. Not about this. I was once where he is now.”

Trystan couldn’t help himself. “What changed?”

“Your father… he didn’t deserve…” She shook her head sadly. “But then my mother…”

Ramsey gave her a sympathetic smile, but Trystan didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. Lorelai had killed his father. Of course, he hadn’t deserved it, but she hadn’t considered that when she was picking up the blade. And her mother? Calis wasn’t said to have any siblings, but if Lorelai was his niece, that must have been false. What happened to her?

Neither Ramsey nor Lorelai seemed primed to give him any answers.

“Come.” Ramsey pulled him to his feet. “We must get you back to your room before anyone notices you’re missing.”

“Wait,” Trystan pulled away from Ramsey’s grasp, not quite sure if he should trust them with what he was about to reveal. Did he even have a choice? He thought back to that room he’d be returning to. The palace was a fortress. He had no hope of finding his sister or getting to the crystal in Calis’ possession. What would the rest of his friends tell him to do?

Find a way out of Dreach-Dhoun at any cost.

“Lonara gave me this.” He pulled the crystal from an inside pocket of his trousers. “It’s a fake, of course. A replica of your crystal. She said we need to exchange the two, and to trust in you. I’m thinking either of you will have better luck getting closer to Calis with that than I will.”

Trystan dropped the crystal into Ramsey’s outstretched hand. Ramsey studied it with interest.

“It’s a perfect imitation. Lonara has done well. We will handle this.”

Trystan rubbed the back of his neck, silently questioning his decision. “I still don’t understand how you think we’ll get away from the palace and out of Dreach-Dhoun. Before we came, Briggs led us to believe it would be easy, but have you seen this place?”

The look from before flashed across Ramsey’s face. “Don’t believe everything the old man tells you.” He led Trystan to the door. “As to your question. Nothing we do will be easy, but we don’t really have a choice, do we?”

Ramsey ushered Trystan through the door. His words still echoed in Trystan’s mind as he spotted the sleeping guard once again. With a shake of his head, he pushed into his room before the guard could wake.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, his eyes widened. Standing near the window looking out over the palace grounds was Davion.