33. Thirty

Thirty

Welcome Home

T hunder rolled all around, and Lily's eyes slowly peeled open. Rain slapped against leaves and thumped against wood overhead, yet she wasn't getting wet. She took a big breath, which was cut short when a bolt of pain exploded up her side and she whimpered.

The last thing she remembered was being in the dark canyon. The peaceful chaos of the storm was a stark contrast to that. When she turned her head to see who was breathing so deeply, she was caught by surprise to see Asher with one arm wrapped around her, keeping her snuggled to him. She could barely see the wound on his head, which seemed to have stopped bleeding. But it was his hair that caught her by surprise. Once brown, it was now black and white, and damp from the rain.

They were together, and they were alive.

She took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

Asher opened his eyes immediately and looked at her, sucking in a breath as he did so. He gave her a smile mixed with relief and fear. "Hey. You're awake." His voice was rough with sleep.

She nodded. "But everything hurts." Her entire side felt like it was on fire and it ached to even breathe.

"You were attacked by a demon. Your wounds are deep and bleeding badly. Trayden helped to bandage you up the best he could with what we've got, but we really need to get you to our healer." He looked down at himself, brows pinching with confusion. "I was a tiger when I went to sleep," he muttered to himself.

Lily heard a rumbling sound—not from the storm, but the sound of heavy feet running toward them. She gasped when she spotted a black bear running toward them. "Asher!" she cried out.

"Easy." He pulled her to prevent her from trying to sit up. "That's Trayden. He's my best friend. I must have passed out!" he called.

The bear transformed into a young man taller than Asher with broad shoulders, a darker skin tone, and black hair long enough he had it pulled up in a ponytail. "Don't scare me like that again, okay?" He knelt in the mud outside of the shelter.

"No promises."

"Why is your hair different, but not his?" Lily asked.

Asher ran his fingers through his damp hair. "In Vasha, our hair looks like our animal. Trayden is a black bear, which is why his is just black. Because I'm a white tiger, mine is black and white. Trayden, do you have any food left?" He pushed himself up with his hand and reached for Trayden's pack, removing his body heat from her.

"I'll get the food," Trayden said and snatched the bag.

She shivered a little and pain roared down her side, enough to make her gasp.

"Are you all right?" Asher was quick to ask.

She released some of the pressure on her bottom lip. "Not really."

Asher licked his lips, brows pinched in concern as he watched Lily. "We need to go, then."

Lily grabbed his hand. "Give me a moment. I want that delicious-smelling biscuit you have there."

Asher gave her a crooked smile, one that told her he knew she was in pain but he wouldn't mention it.

"It's a meat pie, actually." Trayden handed the pastry to her.

She accepted and sniffed it before taking a little bite.

"I don't want you to be . . . uh . . . shocked, though."

"About what?" she asked as she took a bigger bite. Even though it wasn't warm, it was fresh and still soft. And after not eating for an entire day and longer, she was positively starving.

"Your hair. It's, uh, no longer brown either." Asher rubbed the back of his neck.

She froze with the next bite between her teeth. She lowered the food. "Pardon me?"

"Your hair is sort of . . . red."

She raised her eyebrow. "Ha ha. Very funny."

Asher lifted one of her braids in front of her eyes.

Her hair was a beautiful, vibrant red. "What?" She grabbed all of the hair she could and pulled it forward. "Red hair. I have red hair!" She sat upright so quickly, she'd forgotten about her side and screamed out before falling back in pain.

"Lily, careful!" Asher tried to warn her. He caught her before she hit the ground and grimaced with her as he held her.

Trayden grabbed his pack and the blanket that had fallen off. "We need to get moving."

Lily whimpered, holding the one blanket against her side. She looked up at Asher through tears. She wanted to tell him she was okay, but she wasn't. First her ears, now her hair?

"I'm sorry," Asher said. He stroked her cheek with rough fingers.

She drew a breath. "If my hair changed colors here . . . and my ears are pointed like yours . . . does that mean . . ."

"You're one of us?" he finished for her, his lips spreading into a big smile.

Lily nodded, a mix of dread and excitement twisting her stomach.

Trayden glanced between them. "You don't think . . ."

Asher appeared to be trying not to grin. "Lily had brown hair on the other side of the mountain."

Trayden raised an eyebrow. "You mean she a Karasha?"

Asher shook his head. "She could be. Maybe the lighting is different here, Lily. It could be, uh, something from the trees? Or the flowers?"

Trayden looked at Asher. "What if she's—"

"Shh," Asher said. "I mean...she couldn't be, right? But she's the right age. How didn't I see it earlier?"

"I could be what?" Lily asked.

"Not what. Who," Trayden corrected. Trayden twitched his brows at Asher.

"Asher?" Lily asked.

Asher cleared his throat. "I'll tell you later. Trayden is going to help get you out."

Trayden leaned into the shelter. "Since Asher busted his head and could likely pass out at any moment, mind if I carry you?"

Asher rolled his eyes. "You don't need to put it that way." He must have sensed Lily's apprehension, because he lowered his voice. "You can trust him. He's my best friend and I trust him with my life. Not to mention, he's carried you this far so he's going to carry you to the boat. My leg...it's not doing very well."

Lily knew it took a lot for Asher to admit he was in pain. She bit her bottom lip and nodded to Asher.

Trayden reached in and took her under her arms. "If I pull, it's going to hurt your side. Can you scoot with your legs?"

Asher tried his best to help, but it was awkward and Lily couldn't get out without some pain.

Trayden reached one arm beneath her legs and lifted her, releasing the pain she'd been in. "Easy. There we go."

"I-I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Trayden grinned.

Asher crawled out from the shelter and joined them in the rain.

Lily truly wished Asher were the one carrying her. The only way to relax the muscles in her side was to lay her head on Trayden's chest, and she wanted it to be Asher. Although it was muscled and he actually smelled good, it somehow felt wrong to be relaxed against the chest of a different guy.

"Need help getting up?" Trayden offered, looking down at Asher, who still hadn't tried to stand.

Asher stubbornly shook his head and pushed himself to his feet.

Trayden stepped closer and let Asher, who finally relented and held on to Trayden's leg and then hip, to get into a standing position. "That's what I thought."

"Shut up," Asher muttered.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked.

"Of course." He winced a smile, clearly in pain.

They didn't even bother closing the hut before leaving. Trayden led the way.

Lily's lips pinched together and she tried to keep her breathing even, but being carried made her body bump and jolt, and her side expressed its discomfort each time.

"Are you doing okay?" Trayden asked her.

"As good as I can be."

"It will be easier once we get to the boat. I hope I'm not hurting you too badly."

She shook her head and looked past the rain to take in the forest surrounding them. It was lush with plants she'd never seen before. The bushes had long, wide leaves, and some of the trees had what looked like roots dangling from them.

"The river's just ahead," Trayden said.

"Whose boat are we borrowing?" Asher asked.

"I think it's Dan's."

Lily had so many questions she wanted to ask. But she knew the two were worried more about getting home and getting her help, and her questions had nothing to do with either.

"I'll get in the boat first," Asher said.

Lily wiped some rain from her face and watched Asher climb gingerly into a small fishing boat tied to a tree. He held his arms out to her.

Trayden shook his head. "You're not steady enough. Just make sure I don't fall in."

Asher frowned but didn't protest as Trayden stepped into the boat and then climbed all the way in. Asher held on to Trayden's arms to keep him steady.

Once Trayden was in, he lowered Lily into the bottom of the boat. "There you go. That should be better."

Asher sat right beside her.

"Can you tell me now? About the person you think I am?" Lily asked.

Trayden picked up the paddles and sat down to row.

He shook his head. "It's a big story that will be better told when we get to the palace. Are you more comfortable? The rain is getting on you." He adjusted how he was sitting and held up the second blanket to shield her face.

"Can you at least tell me what animal I am?" she asked.

Asher shrugged. "I won't find out until you do, and that's only if you really are one of us. Right now, it's only speculation."

Lily raised her brow. She could see her own hair. There was no trick of the light to make it that red. An auburn hue? Perhaps. Full-on red like a fire? No way. Unless...unless there was magic in Vasha that changed everyone's hair. She couldn't possibly be the missing girl from their kingdom.

But the thought that this could be her home...her heart swelled with hope, even though she tried not to feel it. Maybe that was why Wester didn't want to tell her the truth of where she grew up. Maybe it was because she was actually Karasha.

"What are you thinking about?" Asher asked softly.

Lily hadn't realized she'd spaced out. She blinked. "I know so little about my past. I was hoping...maybe Vasha might be my home?"

He smiled. "It can be your home regardless of your past."

"What do you do here? I mean, I know you're the prince, but do you do anything else?" Her brows pinched. "I'm not making sense."

"You are," Asher assured. "I help with scouting and check in on the people in the land."

"And Trayden?" She couldn't see him beyond the blanket.

"I'm a carpenter," he said loudly. "We decorate our homes with carvings, and I get to help do that. You'll get to see them when we get into town."

Lily closed her eyes briefly. They felt heavy. Everything felt heavy.

"We're almost there." Asher touched her hand, prompting her eyes to open. "Stay awake a little longer. The river goes right to the palace. Right into the heart of Vasha."

She swallowed hard.

As the boat turned and the foliage crowding the shores faded away, Lily got to see what she'd dreamed about most of her life. And she'd never seen anything so beautiful.

Unlike the confining stone walls of the castle, the town was open, with no walls protecting it. The river on which they journeyed led directly to the market, as did the road that ran alongside. The market was in a circle, with the road curving around the southern side and the river splitting off to curve around the northern side. Across the river, the ground sloped upward in a hillside and back until it abruptly stopped at a cliff. On this hillside stood an arrangement of houses and two irrigation ditches, which broke off from the flowing river and were pushed upstream by some unseen force.

South of the market stood the beautiful palace. It was a massive structure built of dark wood. Although they shared the same foundation and balcony, there were three separate buildings each two stories tall and decorated with carvings everywhere she looked. The pillars were thick with carvings of animals stacked on top of each other.

Lily could feel magic in the land. It was tangible, like the electricity in the air from the storm.

The first row of five houses followed the same arch around the marketplace as the river did. Four bridges leading to the marketplace had been built between each house. From those bridges led a stone path, hugged by velvety moss with purple and yellow wildflowers springing up alongside the path, between the homes and across the first irrigation ditch to the second row of houses. This row had seven houses and a final irrigation ditch, and the final row held six houses with larger plots of land for small pastures.

From what Lily knew of gardening, when the spring runoff flowed from the mountains, this arrangement would go through each of these layers of crops and gardens, carefully diverted from the homes to the ditches, and from the ditches back into the river.

Each home was just as interesting in architecture as the layout of their town. The homes stood on stone pillars, a few feet in diameter, raising their foundations off the earth.

"Why are they up like that?" she asked.

"For when the river floods," Trayden explained. "Sometimes the spring comes so quickly, the mountain snow melts too rapidly for the rivers to divert away from our city. The river we have here cannot handle the large amount of water, and we sometimes get flooded. Having our homes above the ground protects them from washing away."

"It doesn't happen very often," Asher added.

Although the foundations and pillars were made of stone, the rest of the homes were built out of wood, and the front of each home was elaborately decorated with carvings. The roofs of the homes reached out over porches, and along the eves were carvings of animals and people. Some homes had flower decorations reaching up their railings, at the front of each step, and on shutters and posts. Other homes had carvings of acorns, vines, trees, or leaves. The one closest to the river was decorated with water-like ripples. On the row behind that house, also closest the river, were carvings of fish.

Each door was different as well, holding the image of two large animals in the middle. Some homes had smaller animals, some had blank space, and some were completely covered.

"Your homes are incredible. Do the carvings mean anything?" Lily asked.

Asher nodded and pointed to a house on the third row. "That's Trayden's house. Can you see the door from here?"

She nodded. "There are two bears. And . . . three smaller bears."

"Each door is decorated with the images of the family that currently lives there," Trayden explained. My father is a grizzly bear. My mother is a brown bear. I also have twin brothers, who are quite the handful." Trayden chuckled.

"So your door will have a tiger?" she asked Asher.

He nodded. "You'll see my entire family carved on the doors."

Lily smiled. "What do the other little carvings mean?"

"The eaves of the houses have carvings of the history of the family. For example, my home." Asher pointed to the easternmost section of the palace. "Our eaves are carved with elaborate images of Holden, our great ancestor. The story goes that he saved our people by bringing them here, to Vasha. Some stories say he was fleeing a greedy king, some say there was a war and he was told to save the women and children and discovered Vasha. The reason has been lost. One thing is consistent though: we were almost destroyed, and would have been if he hadn't taken charge. Brecilla, his dearest friend, was a conduit. She sacrificed her life to gift the people who remained the ability to hide themselves in the forms of animals so we could flee to safety without anyone finding us. Their sacrifices protected the people. The royal family have been his descendants ever since, and we've always remained friends with Brecilla's descendants."

"Who are her descendants?" Lily asked. "I would like to meet another conduit."

He sighed. "We haven't had one in the last several years. The last one was Rose. You know the tree your king and prince are looking for? She's the one trapped in the tree."

Lily nodded. "I know that story."

Asher pointed to a cliff overlooking the town. "She was an eagle. Her husband, Khalil, was a golden eagle. He's also gifted with the power of foresight and has protected us time and again. But since his wife died and his daughter was taken, he's barely returned. He searches the world over for her."

Lily had never heard that part of the tragic story and looked up at him. "That's sad."

He nodded. And then he raised his eyebrows.

Lily's brows furrowed. "What?"

"Their daughter was taken fifteen years ago," he repeated.

"I said that was sad," she replied. And then her eyes widened as realization dawned on her. "You think she could be me?"

Asher shrugged. "Like I said, it's possible."

"We're here," Trayden announced. The boat slowed and Trayden climbed off onto a dock, pulling a rope from somewhere inside of the boat with him. He tied it to a post and held his hand out to Asher.

The rain had let up enough that when Asher removed his blanket shield, only a light patter of rain sprinkled down on Lily's face.

Asher crouched, and Lily noticed the way he resisted the urge to put weight on his leg as he tried to pick her up.

"Asher, your leg," she tried.

"Can someone come help us?" Trayden called over his shoulder.

"I can do it," Asher insisted.

But two men appeared almost instantly, and one of them got into the boat alongside Asher without being asked. He was the spitting image of Trayden—or rather, Trayden was of him because it was evident to Lily that this must have been Trayden's father.

"I've got her," the man said to Asher. "Trayden, help him get out of the boat and into bed."

Asher hesitated as if he might protest, but he accepted Trayden's still-outstretched hand and let Trayden drag him from the boat.

"My name is Savarian," the man said as he slid one arm beneath Lily's legs and the other around her shoulders.

"Lily," she said softly. She bit her lip to muffle a cry of pain as Savarian hoisted her from the bottom of the boat.

The man turned his confused and concerned expression to Asher and Trayden.

"Demon's Pass" was all Asher said.

Savarian lifted Lily up and handed her off to Trayden while the second man who had appeared steadied the boat.

Asher took a deep breath as he looked around, and Lily noticed his smile.

These were his people, his mountains, his memories. Lily felt a pang of jealousy. She'd never had a sense of belonging. But this was going to be her home, whether or not she was the lost child from their stories. Maybe the feeling of emptiness and not belonging was because she truly didn't belong in Rencheston with the humans.

Savarian looped one arm under Asher's to help him walk and turned him toward the palace.

A child gasped and then shouted, "Asher!" at the top of her lungs.

The bustle of the market halted immediately.

Everyone turned to see if the child was right, and when they found she was, they rushed over to see him. He gave them a weary smile, trying to mask his exhaustion and pain.

Savarian held out one hand to fend them off. "I know you are excited to see him, but he's just gotten home. The woman Trayden is carrying needs help too. He'll visit with all of you when he feels up to it. The good news is that he's alive."

"Thank you," Asher whispered gratefully. He looked over at Lily as Trayden carried her up the steps of the palace. "Take her to the guest room."

"Already on my way." Trayden nodded.

"I wish to go with her," Asher said, pulling Savarian in their direction. "And send for the healers."