Chapter 33 | Ravinica

Chapter 33

Ravinica

TURNED OUT ELAYINA was a big deal in Alfheim.

I should have guessed, since she was a big deal in Midgard, and that wasn’t even her home. The dark elves wanted her for some reason, and Gothi Sigmund had placed Arne to spy on me so he could find out what secrets she held once I talked to her.

I understood she could put her palm on your head and uncover repressed, lost memories. It was a nifty magic trick, yet not something I thought would provoke the spite of the most powerful people in the realm.

There’s something more to her. Something more no one has told me yet. Everyone she comes into contact with—save the Dokkalfar trying to kill or kidnap her—bows and speaks to her like she’s an age-old deity.

I had heard she was a thousand years old. I mean, she looked old , but not that old. If she’s spoken about in history books, I’ve never heard mention of her. And I’ve done enough research to know. So what am I missing?

I intended to find out, now that we were in Alfheim with her.

Luckily, she wasn’t playing the same tricks, speaking the same riddles as she had while in her tree-cave in the Niflbog. Lady Elayina knew her power here. She was old and decrepit, shuffled in a measured gait, and was clearly past her prime.

That didn’t matter to people like Corym or Jhaeros, who venerated her. They slowed their movements to match hers, letting the old half-elf lead us out of the elfstones and deeper into Kiir’luri. Where she walked, the trees creaked aside, creating walkways where there’d been none.

As a giant group, we trekked all morning, stopping only so we could have a meal. By then, the sweltering heat was bearing down on us from the greenish sun. It was a thick heat, stealing the oxygen from my lungs and making it harder to breathe. The stuffiness of the pollinated forest didn’t help.

Once we reached the cliff that swirled down to the huge Twins of Norrin’s Pass statues below, Jhaeros led us to a winding path off the mountainside and down to the valley.

It was a magical, picturesque place filled with sky-blue rivers and wildflowers. Animals that looked like elk or deer—yet slightly off-color with orange fur and purplish hues—skipped by.

I felt like we had either stumbled upon Oz or Wonderland. Nothing about this place seemed real, even though the men and women around me certainly were.

My group stayed close to me, with the wood elves surrounding us. Arne hadn’t left my side since waking up with my fingers threaded into his. Magnus helped Kelvar walk at times, the Whisperer recovering and finding himself with a new limp. Grim and Sven kept their eyes on the elves around us, untrusting. Corym was at the front of the pack with me.

“Do we trust them?” I asked him out the corner of my mouth as we paraded through the rough cobbles of a forested pathway that cut directly through the center of the valley.

“We have to, lass.”

“Why? Couldn’t we have left Alfheim after returning Elayina? Shouldn’t we have left?”

Corym gave me a tiny headshake. “I hate to say it, but we can’t squander this opportunity.”

“What opportunity?”

“Arriving with a legendary figure. Rather than being prodded with spears and treated like prisoners by Jhaeros and his ilk, we will be received as heroes. Lady Elayina has been missing for generations. Everyone knows who she is.”

“I kind of picked up on that.” Biting my lip, noticing how some of the wood elves were scooting closer to listen to us—hopefully not able to understand us—I continued. “. . . And who is she, really, Corym?”

“That is her story to tell, lunis’ai. ” Before I could roll my eyes or argue, he added, “This time, she has agreed to tell it, in full, once we arrive.”

“Arrive where?”

He nudged his chin toward the Twins, which we were about to pass under. “Alokana is just beyond the mountains yonder. It is the capital of Heira, my nation-home.”

My eyes widened. “Shit. We’re so close?”

“Alfheim is not as large as Midgard. There are hundreds of nations, borders, and tribes, packed together on three continents. Heira is the smallest of them, yet with the strongest military, so it holds the most sway over the Ljosalfar.”

“Sounds important.”

A scheme started to roll around in my head, returning to the forefront now that we were actually here . Some of the first humans to do it, headed to the capital city of its strongest nation.

Kelvar was going to survive. Elayina was going to live. Arne was going to heal emotionally over his loss, in time.

The temperature had settled, giving me the mental real estate to start thinking about my endgame goals again. Unification. Could this be the start of it?

I knew not to expect too much from the elves we were coming to meet. Corym would do most if not all the talking. I would be his pretty, silver-haired arm candy, undoubtedly, without much purpose here.

At least that was my initial thought.

Then I remembered what Elayina had called me. What her unnerving riddles said. Now that I had more room to move and breathe, with the trees not suffocating us so nearby, and my mates not going through crises, I recalled some of what Elayina had told me last time we spoke.

She thought I could be the “Lightbearer.” A mythical figure, part of a prophecy. The “enemy of our enemies,” the Ljosalfar thought.

It was my meeting with Elayina that got me started on this “unifying” line of thinking. Because she had told me the legends said the Lightbearer would not just lift the Ljosalfar out of the shadows with their Dokkalfar conflict, but also rekindle the Ljosalfar relationship with the humans.

“The blood belonging to both and neither.”

The blood of elves and the blood of humans coursed through my veins. I was both elf and human . . . and neither elf nor human entirely.

All the things I had scoffed and shaken my head incredulously at when Elayina said them the first time, I started considering more seriously. Elayina called me the Lightbearer after she saw what I did to Kelvar. My healing blood. It’s a power I don’t understand . . . yet maybe she does?

I had to wrangle some answers out of her. This was not the time nor place, being surrounded by so many, but I needed to know what she knew. No bullshit, riddles, or filter.

“Any idea why the Dokkalfar were trying to get to Elayina?” I asked Corym.

Lifting my gaze, we passed under the formidable statues of the Twins. They were gigantic, with the top of my head only coming up to the hems of their robes. They stretched into the sky like a pair of skyscrapers, their heads resting in the heavens with their outstretched arms facing each other.

Corym said, “I suppose it’s as Frida acknowledged: for assistance getting the Runesphere.”

“Would it have worked, had the dark elves gotten their hands on Elayina? What could they have done with her?”

“You see how she’s treated here. They could have tried to use her to negotiate for the Runesphere. In another world, lunis’ai , Frida’s ploy was not as stupid as it sounded. She planned to use the hate between our two elven races to her benefit. The thing she did not consider was how dangerous the Dokkalfar are to all races. Not just Ljosalfar. The dark elves have no love for Midgardians, either.”

With a frown, my shoulders sank. Corym was speaking low enough Arne couldn’t hear him near the back of the line. I hoped.

“The minute their plan went awry, they took out their frustration on their liaison,” I muttered, shaking my head. “What do you think Frida could have been offering them in return for their help getting the Runesphere?”

“Access, if I had to guess. Access to Lady Elayina. Possibly a staging ground among her people.”

I scoffed. “The Lepers would never accept them.”

“Would they have a choice? Dokkalfar are strong.”

“The Lepers Who Leapt are resilient,” I bit back.

He inclind his chin, a regretful look on his face.

“Frida likely assumed she could easily wander into the cave, since she had in the past because Elayina had allowed it,” Corym said. “But anyone Elayina allows, she can deny. Only elves—of all bloods—can step foot into her cave unbidden.”

My brow furrowed.

“The Dokkalfar who put Elayina there in the first place are long dead. It’s probable the scouting party that attacked Magnus and the Huscarls didn’t know her location. Hence, Frida comes into play.”

I circled my wrist in a rewinding motion. “Hold on. Did you say only elves can step into her cave?”

“Unless called for, yes. Ever wondered why Arne did not go into the cave with you the first time you visited her? It was because he could not.”

“Then how did I talk to her.”

Corym looked over and gave me a small smile. “Elves of all blood , love.”

Half-elves count. I felt like I was being enlightened on the spot. I was certainly learning more about Elayina and how she worked in Midgard. It didn’t pertain to the nitty-gritty of my own part in all this, however.

“You said it was the dark elves who locked her in the cave in the first place?” I asked.

“Aye. With their twisted magic. Centuries ago. When the wards to this world weakened, and we visited Elayina, I told her it was time to break her out. She could finally leave Midgard. Remember what she said?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek, closing my eyes as I tried to recall our fateful meeting that repositioned the trajectory of my whole life.

My eyes opened, the memory retrieved from the compartment of my brain where I kept it. “She said she was staying because her work wasn’t finished here. ‘Cruel, dark magic has kept me here, binding me to this land.’ That’s the dark elves, eh? And . . .” I tilted my head, tapping my chin. Gasping, I looked up to Corym. “Retaliation. She stayed for retaliation.”

Corym nodded. “Against whom? I assuming the Dokkalfar. She must have known they would come. But couldn’t it be someone else she wanted to retaliate against, lunis’ai ? Vikingrune Academy, perhaps?”

My heart beat faster, with the academy leaving his lips. “Fuck. And here I thought she was a paragon of peace.”

My mate let out a soft chuckle, drawing a few narrowed eyes from our wood elf escorts. “When you’ve been around since the Taldan Wars, and have lived centuries in a locked-away cavern away from your home world, I don’t think you know the first thing about peace.”

I twirled my hair between my fingers nervously. “I guess that makes sense. If I am to ‘rekindle’ the relationship between humans and elves, and take on this Lightbearer title she thinks belongs to me, maybe I won’t go to her to make it happen.”

Corym snorted, chuckling again. “Aye, probably best. There are other diplomats and leaders who can help. I know the court of Maltor Vaalnath well. If the prophecy is true, and you’re the answer in it . . . we won’t want for allies, love.”

Gods, the anticipation and anxiety of this whole thing was killing me. Weighing me down, realizing I had the burden of both worlds on my shoulders now.

Luckily, I had all my mates with me to make something happen. To keep me upright if I floundered.

“ Anvari also said something else when we parted,” Corym said. “Do you remember?”

“Yes.” I twisted my wrists. “It was some asinine thing that made no sense. About ‘transcending the serpent’s shadow’ and finding our own truth within the tragedy of ancients, blah, blah, blah.”

Corym smiled at my frustration. “I’ve been thinking more about it.”

I pointed up ahead. “I mean, couldn’t we ask her? She’s right up there. I’m curious what the serpent’s shadow is.”

He put a hand on my arm. “I believe the serpent’s shadow will reveal itself in time, lunis’ai . Maybe from Elayina herself. I’m more interested in the latter part of those words.”

“The ‘tragedy of ancients’ thing?”

He nodded diligently. “I’m wondering if the ancients she speaks of has to do with people from her time—Lord Talasin, King Dannon. Because what happened back then was an unmitigated tragedy.”

“True.” I loved playing detective, and talking to Corym about all this stuff, but I also thought we should just ask Elayina what she meant.

Then again, maybe now isn’t the right time, as Corym is saying. Jhaeros and his elves are here. There’s a chance she’ll lose whatever respect she has for me if she finds out I’m so clueless about all this shit.

I would bite my tongue for now.

When Corym didn’t continue talking, still staring over at me, my eyes bulged. I pointed at myself. “You think the ancients and those old fuckers has to do with me ?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Why else would she mention it?”

“Because she’s a quacky old crone?”

He laughed a third time, finally getting one of the wood elves to reprimand him in their guttural language.

Smile disappearing, he said, “I suppose we’ll learn soon enough which of our analyses is correct—if Elayina is a madwoman like the humans think, or a wise prophet like the elves think.”

I snorted. “Or both.”

The smile returned. “Yes. That’s certainly a possibility, lunis’ai .”