Chapter 14

CHAPTER14

Lore forced herself to be more present after her outburst. She focused on Beauty and keeping her little human safe. And the farther they were from Tenebrous, the more that knot in her heart eased.

Margaret might have sent people after them. She might have felt the magic and then burned Tenebrous to the ground.

But she also might be very busy trying to round up all the humans she could, and that would leave her distracted. Perhaps they had gotten away with the simple act of hiding their faces, and that might be enough.

Small threads of magic were hard to pick up on, anyway. And it had been a long time since Lore had been home. Margaret had almost two years of running this kingdom on her own. Perhaps that was enough time to set her at ease.

Lore wasn’t so certain that was the case. The Margaret she knew was a woman who didn’t know how to put herself at ease. There was no such thing as relaxation to the woman who had created a rebellion and fought her entire life for this moment.

Still, they traveled through the swamps without a single shadow or raven following them. Lore knew what to look for and who to keep an eye out around, and not a single threat had touched them.

Strange.

Still, she shouldn’t look too deeply into the situation or she might find there was more trouble ahead. Abraxas had told her to keep her head in this moment. To be aware of everything that was happening to them as though it were merely a ripple in the waters ahead. So she did so. And that had eased a lot of her anxiety.

They left the swamps and skirted around the forest where Draven’s family lived. Lore didn’t want to talk with any more elves, and though it added a few more days to their travels, no deepmonger stopped them. That was good enough for her.

The Matriarch of that clan was sure to side with Margaret, and Lore had no interest in such a conversation. Draven’s mother was very persuasive and Lore found herself enjoying their travels a little too much. She didn’t have to hide her face unless travelers seemed like they might recognize her. None of the magical creatures they came across were scared or frightened. They were hungry, yes, but Margaret was ever the warlord and not the farmer.

Still, the land flourished. She noted how tall the trees had grown and how the grass was greener than she remembered. Magic laced throughout and stretched through the veins of every leaf and every blade of grass. The world seemed to breathe easier now that the humans weren’t destroying it.

She shouldn’t be so pleased with what they had found. She should feel terrible that the world had forgotten the mortals and yet... she couldn’t force herself to feel that way at all.

Talking with the Matriarch would only remind her that good things always came from destruction, even if there were others who bled for it. And Lore couldn’t afford someone telling her to look a little closer and to see how much good had happened without the humans here.

The cost was too great. There had to be another way, and she refused to believe this was the only option.

Sighing, she brushed a strand of hair out of her face and paused in their journey. Both her companions stopped on either side of her and stared down at what she had led them to.

No one said a word. The ghosts of memories long past overtook all of them.

The field that stretched out before them looked so innocent now. Bright green grass led to a cliff’s edge that was not too high and then a wide ocean behind it. The field had bounced back. There were no deep furrows, no ruts where Abraxas had landed. Even the scorch marks were gone.

She glanced over at Abraxas and saw his eyes were trained on a single part of the field where flowers grew in a wide circle. There was still a stone there to mark where she had died. Apparently, people still brought gifts, because there were a few crates of items and plucked petals strewn about. They worshiped her here, and Lore wasn’t quite certain how to connect that with herself. She was just a half elf. But they saw her as so much more than that.

Lore’s eyes, no matter how hard she tried to keep them trained on her gravesite, always traveled to the right. Toward the edge of the field where she had gathered her own forces and squeezed the King’s Umbral Soldiers between herself, Abraxas, and the elves.

The place where she had fallen to her knees with Goliath in her arms. The place where she had said goodbye to her oldest friend.

“Did we have to come here?” Beauty whispered. “This place holds so many painful memories for us all.”

“It does,” Lore said with a sigh. “But we have to pass this way to get to Solis Occasum. It’s the safest route, and the fastest.”

Beauty nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “I lost two of my best friends the day we fought here. I thought everything would be fine. I was told the battle wouldn’t kill anyone that I loved and so I fought with all of you. And within a year of this battle, I lost everyone.”

Lore reached out for her hand and squeezed it tight in her own. “Most of us came back,” she replied.

“But not all.”

No. Not all of them. No matter how hard they tried to bring him back, Goliath would always end up right where he was. Fate had wanted him to die in this place, and Lore wasn’t ready to give him up.

Tears pricking her vision, she sniffed hard before saying, “We’ll make camp closer to the beach. I’ll want you to turn into a dragon to get us closer to Solis Occasum, Abraxas. Tomorrow.”

“They’ll see us flying overhead.”

“I don’t want to fly. I want you to swim, and we will stay on your back.” She swiped a quick hand underneath her eyes. “They won’t see us coming.”

He gave her a look like she was insane, and maybe she was. Crimson dragons weren’t meant for the sea, but she had seen him swim in their travels from the dragon isles. And the channel between here and Solis Occasum was not large. It would only take an hour or so of his powerful legs and wings moving through that water for them to reach the shore. That was all. And then they would finally be within Zephyr’s reach.

But first, she had to figure out the plan once they got there.

“Are we going to save him now?” Beauty asked, her voice a little unsteady.

“I want to figure out how we’re going to do that before we risk his life.” Lore tried to make sure she sounded confident, and not like she was falling apart at the seams. “Just to make sure we all are on the same page and nothing happens to surprise us.”

Which meant she would have to walk. She’d have to let go of her physical form and move throughout the world as she had before. Would Margaret be able to catch her? She had no idea.

Abraxas eyed her with a worried expression before he nodded. “If that’s what it takes, then we’ll figure it out. Perhaps we’ll duck into the forest tonight so the deepmongers don’t realize we’re there.”

“They’ll know we’re here.”

“They won’t if I keep them busy.”

He must be worried. Lore watched him to see the signs of stress on his forehead and how his jaw clenched at the thought of risking their lives again. She knew just how much this wore on him and how little she could do to help. If he wanted to hide in the forest, so perhaps Margaret thought they were seeking the deepmongers’ help, then so be it.

Lore nodded. “We can do that. Margaret will think I have fled to the Matriarch.”

“And all we can do is hope that they don’t already have a deal to give you up if either of them catches wind of where you are,” Abraxas growled low under his breath. “This is getting more difficult.”

“We knew it wouldn’t be easy.”

Nothing ever was. It felt strange to think that they were so close to Zephyr, yet felt as though they were farther away than they’d ever been before.

She needed space to think, and she needed Abraxas with her this time.

“Beauty?” she asked, knowing the other woman would need something to keep her hands busy. “Set up camp for us.”

“I can do that. Where are you going?”

Lore wanted to say that she was taking a walk with Abraxas. That the two of them were going to talk strategy and perhaps they would figure out the best way to attack this situation headfirst.

But she knew there was only one thing she wanted to do right now. Her gaze turned back toward the battlefield and to the section of that ground that she would never forget.

“I need to pay my respects,” she whispered. “Before we do anything or take another step forward, I need to tell him how far we’ve gotten. He’d be proud of us, you know. He’d be rushing in with an axe flailing over his head the moment he realized Zephyr had been taken.”

“Ah, no he wouldn’t,” Beauty breathed. “Goliath was too smart for that. He’d have figured out a plan by now, though. He was always so good at making plans.”

Sort of. But Lore had seen a different side of him than Beauty. Goliath had been her best friend, but he had worked at Beauty’s side with Margaret for years before Lore had ever involved herself. And certainly that meant she knew him better than Beauty, but also... perhaps she didn’t.

Sighing, she pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead as though that might press back the headache that had already bloomed. “Either way. He deserves time with me. Just as much as the rest.”

Abraxas pressed his hand against the small of her back and steered her toward the field. “Come on, then. Let’s go say hello.”

Hello? Tears burned in her eyes. Was it hello if she was the reason he was dead? Perhaps it was more of an apology. She had to whisper it into the ground where he’d died because she didn’t know where they had buried him. She didn’t know if there was even a memorial or a headstone.

Throat closing up, she looked up at Abraxas and begged him to take this weight off her shoulders. “Is there a grave?” she asked.

His gaze turned troubled, and he glanced away from her. “I do not know. We could not find his body in the aftermath. Draven remembered where he was, but there were so many bodies and he was so small. It was hard to find anyone in the chaos, and no one found him after we’d cleaned it up. We assume one of Margaret’s people found him and brought him back to the castle. But it’s hard to say.”

Who would have known who he was? Even to the magical creatures that fought at her side, he was just the dwarf who had arrived with her. Lore had never made it clear how much he meant to her or how integral he had been in getting them to the point of battle.

This was her fault. The fact that he had no resting place was all her fault.

Her stomach twisting and her breakfast rolling up into the back of her throat, she made her way onto the battlefield while memories plagued her. She remembered the shouts and screams of horror. The dark splashes that had painted her body as she’d cut through Umbral Soldiers that bled like people but had no soul inside. She’d done everything possible to stop them, had given her own life, and it still didn’t feel like enough.

“You remember it all,” Abraxas said as he strode beside her.

“I do.”

“I was so far away from you at this point that I didn’t see anything happen.” He lifted one shoulder uncomfortably. “I don’t remember when or how he died, only that you did eventually as well. The rest is a blur after that. I didn’t... I didn’t take any of this well.”

“The memories are hazy for me as well,” Lore replied. “So much has happened between then and now and I haven’t gotten a single moment to grieve him or think about him at all. I just... I thought I had gotten over this, but now I’m realizing I don’t think I ever will.”

They reached the spot where he’d died and she felt her heart squeeze in her chest. The uncomfortable feeling didn’t go away, not even when she rubbed at it. She’d thought for a moment that she could relieve the symptoms of grief. She knew better.

Lore knelt on the ground, feeling the wet squelch of earth soaking through her pants. She placed her palm on the ground as though she might feel him deep underneath. “He stood between me and a mace. The Umbral Soldier was huge and strong and I just didn’t see him. Goliath did.”

She squeezed her eyes shut at the memory. It hurt to think about. To remember the life leaving his eyes until his body was just a husk in her arms. It wasn’t him. He wasn’t left at all after he’d gone. She hated that her last memory of him was like that and not them on some wild adventure together.

Abraxas knelt beside her and sank his fingers through the soft dirt. “He kept you safe when I could not. I will never forget the gift he gave me in doing so. But you have to know, Lore, he wanted you to be safe as well. He wanted you to live, even if he wasn’t there to see it.”

“He wanted me to save this kingdom.”

“Oh, he didn’t care about that all too much.” Abraxas smiled at her, the expression soft and kind. “The best way you can repay him is to continue living. Don’t you think?”

“I do. And I will make sure that he didn’t die in vain.” Lifting her hands, she pressed a kiss to both of her palms before placing them back on the ground. “He was the best friend I ever had. I’ll never forget that.”

They both stayed like that, remembering the dwarf who had given so much for them.

Until Lore froze as another voice interrupted their quiet respect.

“You’re a long way from home, elf.”