21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Death calls from the stone at my feet, and Casimir begs for an audience. My enemy wears the Painted Crown, and until it is my turn to carry it, I shall not respond. When the thief comes, you do not open the door and welcome him in. You barricade the door and draw your blade.

~King Roderic, personal journals

It's been almost two weeks since we arrived at Aerwyn, and Cole seems nearly cheerful at this point. It's odd to see him grin and talk to the Fae in the village—Fae that had made me so uneasy when I'd first arrived.

Bog is currently cleaning a rabbit he caught in a snare, something he's boasted about for the past hour. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was taking extra time just so that people would walk by and he could brag to them. Okay, maybe that's the obvious truth.

Rivertail is making his first fish stew, and the smell is incredible. The faun is smiling from ear to ear as he chops vegetables. The entire village seems to be smiling, actually. When we'd arrived, they'd been nearly starving, and now they're not.

This place had originally terrified me. Now, instead of seeing fangs and teeth and claws, I see Duncan the gnome and Sera the banshee and Dalin the Boggart. People instead of monsters.

That's why when Cole tells me it's time to leave, I'm a little sad. I'd almost begun to feel at home here. Even more than in Blackgrove, I felt at home. I wasn't an outcast. I wasn't hidden away in the forest. No, people care about me. They say good morning to me and offer me a taste of what they're cooking. They ask for my advice. I'd been a part of Aerwyn.

I hadn't been lonely. There was always someone to talk to. All good things must end, I suppose, and so instead of complaining, I nod my head. Darian and Lee are a little more exuberant.

"Finally!" Lee says when Cole announces we're leaving to his friends. "I haven't had a new book in three months."

The wind that blows down from the hills almost constantly whips Lee's tightly braided hair as she jumps off the log. Every inch of her insanely tall body seems to glow with excitement.

Darian says, "And I have to report on the drakeling to the Guild. They're going to want to know all about her. I don't know how to explain what Maeve told us, but a little creative storytelling could circumvent their questions."

Somehow, he sounds just as excited as his twin, even though he's not moving at all. Just a wide grin as he runs his hand through his hair, like the hard part is over. Like he's finally getting the reward after months of work.

"We're walking," is Cole's response, and the previously high spirits fall instantly.

Lee stomps toward him, the perfect image of a child on the verge of a temper tantrum. "No. You're joking, aren't you? Please, someone tell me he's joking. It's going to take so much longer."

Darian jumps up from his seat on the log, obviously just as unhappy with that idea. "We're supposed to be in Draenyth in six weeks. We should hurry so that we have time to prepare when we get there. It just makes sense to fly."

Cole shakes his head, never moving or even considering their complaints. "I need to be at full strength when we get there. You can fly if you want, but the Wyrdling and I are walking."

"Wait," I say. "They can take me to Draenyth. I can go straight to Calyr and be done with the whole thing before you're halfway to the city."

Cole smiles at me, perfect confidence in that expression. "You're willing to trust Lee and Darian to protect you instead of me?" He glances at his two friends and says, "You're willing to take responsibility for her?"

That makes all three of us hesitate, and Cole says, "Two Immortals from the House of Light aren't the same kind of escort as the Prince of Flames. Even you should know that at this point."

I grit my teeth. Why does Cole always have to make it seem like he's so damned important? Like no one else knows anything or can do anything without him? I want to tell him I'm the Princess of Shadows and my thoughts are valued too. But I'm not supposed to know that. I don't think he'd even believe me.

"We'll walk," Darian says, nodding his head to Lee. "You're right, Cole. It's better that we all go together. And three weeks of travel will give me time to put my story together."

"Yes," Lee agrees, her excitement level dying out almost completely. "Together is better."

Cole nods. The traveling silence must already be starting. Fantastic…

"Great!" Lee says. "Then let's get moving. We have a lot of ground to cover, and we're stuck walking the whole way."

"We could always convince a herd of moose…" Darian mumbles as he looks past Cole, but Lee physically slaps the back of his head.

"No way am I ever riding a moose again. You remember the last time, don't you? I only have one pair of pants, and I won't get stuck halfway to Draenyth with an antler hole in them. Not again."

Even Cole laughs a little at that, and it pulls me out of my annoyance. I'm starting to understand why Lee and Darian can make Cole laugh when I never could. They're… Light. I don't know what weighs so heavily on Cole, but you can see it in his eyes. He's exhausted. I shouldn't be so annoyed at his silence.

"We leave in an hour," he says. "Pack up your things, but we're traveling light. We need to make good time."

Darian and Lee move around the house with an excitement that Cole's never had, pulling things out of drawers and cabinets and stuffing them into bags.

Cole just throws a change of clothes into his bag and ties on a bedroll, but my eyes follow him. There's a depth to Cole that I didn't see when I first met him. It was impossible to see without having Darian and Lee around to make him smile. To… bring life to him.

I wonder how many years they've been the only people keeping him from being lost to the burden on his shoulders. And I wonder how much longer they'll be able to keep him afloat because Cole's getting worse. The fire in his eyes is getting dimmer by the day.

The open road feels strange after all the days in Aerwyn. I had wondered what it would be like to travel with Darian and Lee. Would they be talkers? Would they want to maintain a permanent silence like Cole?

Turns out, I think I enjoy traveling with Cole more than Darian and Lee.

"There's no way that a man could squeeze milk from a rock. Only a High Fae from the House of Life could do that."

Darian rolls his eyes. "That's the point, Lee. Aren't you paying attention to the story? The crowd thought the man was a mage or a Fae. They thought he was powerful beyond any of their imagining. But he was just a man who was very clever."

Lee glares at Darian, and I just wish they'd be quiet for a little while. It's been hours of constant talking. More like constant bickering, actually. "But you didn't say that. Tell the entire story instead of stopping at every little interesting part. Really, Darian, you'd think that after all these years of collecting stories, you'd have learned to tell them."

"He was squeezing cheese!" Darian shouts. "There! That's the story. He convinced the whole town that he was powerful by tricking them into thinking he was squeezing milk from a rock when he was really squeezing a block of cheese. There's more to the story, but I don't want to tell it anymore!"

Darian ends his tirade with a huff, and as he crosses his arms, Cole sighs. It's a sound I've grown to know very well. That's Cole's grunt of contentment. Usually when I stopped talking. I'm glad to find that he uses it on other people, and I'm not the only person who annoys him.

Everyone is quiet for a few minutes before Lee starts in. "We should get horses, Cole. Maybe we can't fly, but we can ride."

"And where would we get those horses, Lee?" he asks. "There are no villages between Aerwyn and Draenyth because we're not really on a road."

And I can't help it. I really can't. "Why don't you and Darian become horses? That's a thing, right?" Cole's eyes are open wide as he stops walking and turns toward me. I don't let his look stop me, though. "You don't have to turn into horses, but I'm sure you could become more like them. Then Cole and I can ride on you two. It doesn't make sense for us all to have to walk when Cole and I could just ride."

Cole blinks a few times and then starts laughing. Not a little chuckle. Full-bellied laughter that makes him sit down so he doesn't fall over. Even Lee and Darian look confused. Lee whispers, "I think you broke him, Maeve."

Flames flicker in the air around him, something that I've come to accept as almost normal.

"Definitely," Darian agrees. The flames get larger and more intense. We have to back away from Cole as they singe the rock I was sitting on.

"I was just trying to make a joke," I whisper back. Cole just keeps laughing, and I'm getting a little concerned. The flames become constant in a sphere around him. Heatwaves roll off them to where Lee and Darian are looking worried. I've never seen him create flames like this. It's almost… uncontrolled.

"Are you okay?" Lee asks. "It was funny, but not that funny."

Cole just keeps laughing.

I glance at the ball of flame surrounding our supposed leader and go sit down on a rock. "Well, we can just take a little break. It must be hard to purposefully keep any kind of happiness locked down like that. Eventually, the chain snaps, and you just have to let the emotions happen, right?"

Lee and Darian look at me with eyes wide open. Then they look at Cole, whose flames are finally beginning to fade. "That's it, isn't it," Darian says quietly, and the laughter evaporates, as well as the flames. "You're losing hold on your emotions. How often has this happened?"

Cole shakes his head as he takes big, deep breaths to gain some control over himself. "Only once. Just… just the once."

"I guess that's twice now," Lee says from beside Darian. "Twice. Since meeting Maeve?"

Cole looks up at Lee from his spot on the ground, and his eyes tell her exactly what she wants to know. It was when he was in the tree with me he lost control. When he'd nearly fallen off a branch that I could have walked on with ease. He's lost control twice because of me. Not just since he met me.

"Twice," he agrees, not mentioning the second part. Darian and Lee turn to each other, and it's almost like they're talking without words. Twin speak. Typical.

Cole and I both just watch them staring at each other, and then Darian reaches out to Cole. "Come on. Let's get back to walking. We've got a lot of miles to go."

This time, when we walk, all of us are silent. I have no idea what happened, but it wasn't good.