An Ivory Raven
ASH
My eyes find hers and my chest damn near explodes. “Daphne! Thank the Goddess!”
She races toward me, nearly fumbling her steps as she takes the stairs two at a time and I shove past Klyesque, catching her to my body just before she gains the last step.
“I missed you,” she hisses into my neck and Goddess help me, my heart warms as it trembles. “But why are you here? And where is Diana? Did you not find her in the north? Or did-”
“Daphne,” I whisper, tightening my arms about her before I say, “there is much I have learned. Much I have to tell you. Where can the five of us speak more privately?”
“Oh my God,” Daphne cries out, crumpling in my arms. “Do not tell me! Do not tell me another sister is dead! Please! I’ll-”
“Not dead!” I say, quickly, shaking her gently as I hold her away from me, then frowning as lean down to kiss the tears from her eyes. “Alive and… escaped.”
She gasps, “She escaped the Winter Queen? But.. how? Diana is not the one to-”
“It is said that she had help, but I won’t know any more than that until we hear from Azrael,” I admit.
“Azrael?” she hisses. “As in Prince Azrael?”
With a roll of my eyes I reply, “Unfortunately. Yes. The Prince of the Cinder Court. Azrael. He has gone after her. I’ve made a deal with him. Another thing we must talk about.”
A loud voice sharpens, coming from one of the open archways as an ancient looking man turns the corner. “Get your hands off her majesty, you-you-you-scum!”
“Who the fuck-”
“Summoner!” Daphne snaps angrily, and for the second time I see how queenly she can be. “Look around you.”
He freezes in his steps, then completes a full circle before responding with, “What am I looking for, your majesty?”
“The moons,” Daphne replies with a sneer. “Do you see them? Are they out?”
The old man’s face falls, his eyes cresting the ground. “No, your majesty. I do not. I beg your pardon. I shall return to the throne room and to… my duties.”
The man turns around and I see it when it happens, the sudden fondness for the old bird that finds my peasant’s eyes and I realize right then… she is going to be the most adored of any before her. I just know it.
“Summoner,” she calls out again.
“Yes, your grace?” he answers respectfully and with a slight bow.
“I’d like very much if you’d help Andress and Dahlia over see the banquet in adding a few more… honored guests to the high table.”
I’ve never seen a servant happier to receive a job than this Summoner suddenly is. “N-now? Or when the moon-”
“Now, Summoner. My guests are no doubt hungry,” she replies and the blush that finds the old man’s cheeks can probably be seen throughout the realms.
“As you wish, your majesty,” is his reply before the next thing we hear is him shouting orders at the fae that mill about the courtyard.
“Not even going to ask,” I say softly, my gaze once again pinned to my peasant’s beautiful face.
“Please rise,” Daphne says, her eyes finding the two fae that I had not even noticed lay on the ground at her feet. “Please…”
“Nah,” I tell her, “leave the big one down there. He’s used to being on all fours."
Bragda growls at me, before rolling his eyes and standing at his full shifted height. “My name is Bregda, your majesty. I served your mother true for many, many turns. I helped escort her to the Mortal Realm in keeping with hiding where she’d gone from the False King. I am the captain of your guard and I agree with your… prince-”
“Betrothed,” I snarl.
He grins. “-prince… when I say, we must talk privately. There is danger afoot. We must be apart from prying ears.”
We follow Daphne and Klyesque up two flights of stairs to a private sitting room boasting a wraparound balcony that joins her bedchamber and her study on either side. Both interior doors are closed tight, however, and for this I am grateful. I’ll not take kindly to any other male, be it friend or foe, going anywhere near her place of private rest when I’m not in it.
No. I will be the only man venturing in that particular section of her palace.
Her palace… how drastically things can change in just under a month.
I spent twenty-five years plotting her sacrifice only to fall for her, head over feet, and then find out she is one the once promised.
Clayeira sacrificed everything for her to be here today and I will never forget that.
One day, when I meet her again in death, I mean to thank her for it.
Once we are all positioned about the space, Daphne seated to my left and Klyesque lounging on a chaise, Bregda standing at the open shutter doors, and Laksha happily patrolling the open balcony while he snacks from a bountiful platter of goods, I finally fish out the scroll I pocketed on the trench.
Standing up and facing Daphne, I hand her the scroll. “We received a message carried by ivory raven, while on our road to you.”
“Ivory raven?” she questions, unrolling the scroll almost too slowly.
Klyesque suddenly sits up, meeting her eyes to say, “A dead messenger bird used to smuggle things out of The Valley of Great Rest.”
“No?!” she breathes, looking to me. “You don’t mean-”
“Isabel,” I nod, “Yes.”
My heart clenches as tears fill her eyes. “But h-how did she know to find you? How did she know-”
“Read the scroll, love. It explains everything.” But as she begins to, I stop her. “Wait!”
She begrudgingly grants me her attention one more, her fingers twitching over the parchment like she is dying to shut me up but is much too much of a lady to do so. That fact makes me grin as I untie the sheathe from my belt and her eyes glow at the sight of what I present her.
“Is that…” Klyesque trails off and I nod.
“It is. A harbinger blade. Made from the steel of the valley. A gift from… the dead.”