Chapter 37 The nightbloom
"I don't want it."
"He said you would say that. He also said to tell you it's from Hel."
I sat up.
Thalia entered carrying a small chest of polished obsidian. It was unmistakably Hel-made, the carvings on its surface depicted the bone-spires of my city, Nyxara.
I took it with trembling hands.
Inside, nestled in folds of shadow-silk, was a flower.
Not a cut flower, a living plant, its roots encased in a sphere of rich black enchanted soil. Its petals were deep violet, almost black, and they pulsed with a soft, bioluminescent glow. It was a Nightbloom, one of the rarest flowers in Hel, found only in the deepest caverns of the Abyssal Ridge. My mother had grown them in her private garden. I had not seen one since she disappeared.
There was a note.
I'm told these only bloom in complete darkness. I thought you might like something that reminded you of home.
—Cardan
I stared at the note. Read it again. Read it a third time.
"How did he get this?" I whispered.
"The palace steward said he sent a courier to the Shadow Realms three weeks ago," Sera said. "Paid a fortune for it. It was supposed to arrive in time for the wedding, but it did not. The Nightbloom doesn't survive outside Hel without special care. The enchantment on the soil alone must have cost..."
"A fortune," I finished. "He paid a fortune. For a flower."
"A very rare flower."
"A flower from Hel." I touched the glowing petals. They were soft, warm, alive. "He went to all this trouble... for me."
My handmaidens exchanged glances.
"It appears so, Your Majesty," Liriel said carefully.
I didn't know what to feel. Gratitude. Confusion. A strange, fluttering warmth in my chest that had nothing to do with the cramps.
He had listened. He had remembered. I had told him I missed Hel, and he had brought Hel to me.
I placed the Nightbloom on my bedside table. Its soft violet glow filled the darkness like a tiny star.
"Tell the King thank you," I said. "Tell him... tell him I'll return to his chambers tomorrow."
\-—————————————
My handmaidens brought more than tea and compresses that night. They brought me gossip.
"The northern borders are worse than we thought," Liriel said, settling into the chair beside my bed. "Sera's contact in the army, a captain named Aldric, the one who escorted you here, he's been sending reports that keep getting intercepted. Apparently he's also been trying to get an audience with the King."
"Intercepted by whom?"
"That's the question. Elowyn's people, probably. The other Lords maybe. Someone high up doesn't want the King to know how bad it is."
"How bad is it?"
Thalia leaned forward. "There have been a lot of attacks. The villages near the border have been burned. The garrisons are understaffed and undersupplied. Captain Aldric's company lost thirty men last month alone."
"Thirty men? And the King doesn't know?"
"The reports he receives are sanitized. 'Minor skirmishes.' 'Isolated incidents.' Meanwhile, the northern lords are growing restless. They say the crown has abandoned them. Some of them are talking about secession."
Secession. If the northern territories broke away, Aurelia would lose a third of its land and a quarter of its military. The northern region was vital for Aurelia. The kingdom would be crippled.
"Who's organizing the attacks?" I asked. "Is it the faes? The humans? Someone else?"
"No one knows," Sera admitted. "The attackers don't carry banners. They strike at night and vanish before reinforcements arrive. The soldiers are calling them the Ghost Raiders. They think they're Fae rebels. Others think they're something worse."
"Something worse?"
"There are rumors of creatures in the mountains. The northern region houses a lot of creatures you know. Old things. Things that have been sleeping for a long time."
A chill ran down my spine. "Old things from where?"
Sera met my eyes. "From Hel. Or what used to be Hel, before the Sundered Gate. The northern mountains used to be part of our realm, Your Majesty. Before the treaty. Before the borders were drawn."
I had known this, vaguely, from old histories I'd read as a child. The Sundered Gate had not just separated Hel from the surface world. It had carved up territories, split mountains, drawn lines through ancient lands that had once been united.
If something from the old days was waking up...
"Find out more," I told them. "I want to know exactly what's happening in the north. Who's attacking. Who's covering it up. Everything."
They nodded.
"And the loans? Any news of it being resolved?"
"Still unresolved," Liriel said. "Lord Percival is scrambling to repay what he embezzled, apparently he has sold quite a number of his lands but the debt to the human banks remains. The human delegation might be getting impatient. Lord Valois has been very diplomatic about it, but his advisors are pushing for a quick resolution."
"Elowyn's marriage alliance suggestion? Is there any mention of it at court?"
"Princess Elowyn has refused to discuss it further. She's been in a foul mood since then apparently. The servants say she's been meeting the High King and a few of the other High Lords in private. Late at night. No one knows what they're discussing."
I filed that away. Cardan. Elowyn, Castellan, secret meetings. The northern borders. The Ghost Raiders. The old things in the mountains.
The puzzle pieces were there. I just needed to see how they fit together.
\-———————————
I returned to Cardan's chambers the following night.
The Nightbloom had been moved to the King's quarters, I had insisted. If I was going to sleep in his bed, I wanted it close. Its soft violet glow cast strange shadows on the walls as I entered.
Cardan was already there. He was standing by the window, his back to me, his silky bronze hair loose around his shoulders. He was wearing a simple tunic, dark blue, the sleeves rolled to his elbows. He looked less like a king and more like a man who had been carrying a heavy burden all day. He turned to me, his hypnotic eyes immediately latching onto mine.
"You came back," he said without turning.
"The flower was a thoughtful gift."
"I'm glad you liked it."
"I more than liked it. It's a Nightbloom. They're sacred in Hel. My mother used to grow them." I paused. "How did you find it?"
He turned. His silver eyes were tired but something flickered in them, something that might have been hope. "I have a few contacts in Hel. It wasn't easy."
"You must have paid a fortune."
"You're worth a fortune."