Chapter 1

My legs hurt and there were shooting pains up from my feet. I'd been walking for days. Honestly, I never thought I'd end up on Nestran. I was always told the mainland was dangerous for me. No one lived on Idric Island for the weather or the abundance of crops that could grow in the constant cold and wet. People lived there because they hated magic and they weren't fond of the humans on Nestran either.

No, everyone lived on Idric Island because it was made out of some weird stone that was supposed to block magic. Unless you were me. I was some weird freak who commanded all four elements and could shift even on Idric. I didn't even have to follow the same rules as the tribes.

There were four. The Farkhi had domain over air and they could shift into winged creatures. The Theran were Earth and had their choice of land animals to shift into. The Tarks element was water and they could change into animals that breathed underwater. The last were the Tempris, who controlled fire, but couldn't shift into any animal.

I don't know how Belisarus found me, but he was the only person I'd ever known. He raised me as a baby away from everyone on Idric. I didn't even know my neighbors there. He was my tutor and taught me how to use and control my magic. He told me how I was different, but not why I was different.

The Farkhi, the Tarks, and the Theran all had a ceremony on their tenth name day. This was the day they stopped being able to choose any animal from their element. An animal and a job were assigned to them that day and after their tenth name day, they could only assume one form.

I did not know my name day. When I thought it might be my tenth year, I asked about the ceremony and was told there would be none. I expected one because he taught me about it. I had no idea why he even bothered teaching me about the ceremony if he wasn't going to try to hold one for me. Belisarus was human, but he seemed to know a lot about the tribes.

Every day that year, I went into the gardens, which had high walls and was the only place I was allowed to change and play, and I would change into different things. I never lost the ability to change into anything I wanted, nor did I lose the ability to change into something from all four tribes. It seemed so limiting to only have one tribe or one form, but I desperately wanted that. Maybe then I would be safe and could meet other people.

I basically had no idea how I could do any of the shit I could do. I didn't know how Belisarus found me or how I ended up on Idric Island. I did know that for as long as I'd been aware of his words; he told me to stay in our yard and never go to Nestran because it didn't matter how much they hated each other, they would hate me more.

I was taught that long ago, there were wars. The Farkhi, the Tarks, the Theran, and the Tempris lived together on Nestran. There was one ruler from each tribe and they lived in peace. When the humans came, they had weapons made from the rocks on Idric Island. There were arguments over territory and what to do with the tribes. There was a war for thirty years with the tribes fighting against both each other and the humans. The humans seemed to keep coming and the arrowheads carved from Idric rock would take away their magic temporarily. Despite their gifts, the tribes were unable to fight against the humans' weapons.

The humans knew that the tribes would not accept one of them on the throne and still accept their laws. The humans kept a Tempris on the throne to rule, but passed a decree that they must marry a human. The humans hoped mixing human blood with Tempris blood would make them less powerful and essentially exterminate the rest of the Tempris.

I knew the history. Tempris had red hair and violet eyes. My hair was very red and my eyes were kind of violet. Belisarus had long taught me how to hide both with magic. I had to hide both all the time, even though no one ever saw me behind the tall wall I lived behind because it was that dangerous for me.

So, I didn't know why he needed me to go to Nestran to deliver a message to some Tempris princess when he could have just sent a raven. Especially since he spent my entire life terrorizing me that even leaving our yard was dangerous.

I knew nothing about the Princess Esylle except she was a Tempris princess and her mother was human. The rumors were that now, the royal family could hardly control fire, and no longer had the fiery red hair that Tempris always had from so many years of marrying humans.

He refused to tell me why he needed me to go or even what the message was. He wanted me to convince some princess to come back with me to an island with terrible weather where she'd have no magic, so he could give her this message himself.

The whole thing was fucking stupid, and I told him that. Then, he yelled at me for swearing and promised he'd finally answer all my questions if I did this for him. So, I was doing it and I agreed to do it his way, so I didn't die. Which meant taking a boat and a lot of walking instead of swimming and flying or running. He drew me a map that was supposed to take me to the palace, but not through any of the tribal villages.

It smelled different on the mainland than it did back home. On Idric Island, it smelled of salt and moss. There were trees and plants here I'd never seen before and my senses were overloaded by unfamiliar sights and smells. Belisarus paid someone to go to the market for us back home, but he taught me from a young age how to search for food and which plants were edible and which ones were poisonous. I'd just never really done it before.

I asked him why he taught me about plants that didn't grow on Idric, since I was never allowed to leave the house, and he didn't answer me then either.

On the first day off the coast, I initially had trouble locating food because some of the things that grew on the mainland couldn't grow in the island"s climate. I knew what they looked like from drawings Belisarus had shown me, but the Theran in me made looking for food by smell a lot easier. The first two days, I spent longer than I should trying to find food, but once I knew what it smelled like, it got easier.

On the fourth day, the smell of so many trees, bushes, and plants no longer became strange to me and I was more used to it now. It was easier to find food because I wasn't trying to tune out the smells of my surroundings.

It took a total of seven days for me to get close enough that I started to see other people, but I stayed hidden from them. Belisarus said humans would kill me on site, but none of these people smelled dangerous. They honestly seemed a little hungry and more worried about feeding themselves and their kids than who I might be. If the weather got bad, the market boy couldn't bring us food. Belisarus would have to stretch the food out and we'd go hungry. Nestran was a much bigger place with a better climate. I didn't know why anyone would be hungry here.

I finally saw the palace. It was this giant place, and I couldn't imagine anyone living there. Belisarus taught me the concept of money but had never given me any. He still hadn't. He told me to eat from the land and change my clothes with magic rather than buy anything. The palace and the clothing I could see on the people around it had to cost a lot of money. I only knew the concept of things being expensive if I asked Belisarus for a certain food and it cost more because the season was ending. I was betting those clothes and the riches around the palace could have fed some of the hungry people I saw in the forest, but there was also a lot I didn't know.

I was also given the odd order to touch the Princess Esylle and see if I could call to the fire in her blood. Which was weird because I'd only been taught that in theory. I couldn't practice because it could only be done to a blood relative. I highly doubted I had blood ties to the royal family. The humans had been pretty strict about them marrying humans and only allowing them one child.

Belisarus told me they couldn't kill them without starting another war, so they'd been trying to breed them out of existence. Their fire was probably seriously diluted by now, and mine very much wasn't. I had a theory my ancestors survived the original purge and had been in hiding, but Belisarus refused to confirm it.

I did the only thing I could think of. I walked to the castle as close as I could get without attracting attention. I hid behind a tree and felt my entire body vibrate and shrink as I turned into a gnat. I tried to pick the smallest flying insect I could think of to get into the castle because I didn't want to get smashed by anyone. I barely even got to process this was my first time flying freely using my Farkhi gifts because I was terrified some arsehole was going to swat me.

I eventually found a room, and a man dressed like a king was pacing. The rumors must be true that the Tempris blood was being phased out. His hair was dark and his eyes were blue. He had no reason to hide that, like I did. I finally saw the princess sitting at a table with her face in her hands. There was also a very tall human sitting with them. I didn't know who he was, being that I hadn't been told anything about him when I left.

Everything I'd been taught about humans was that they were warmongers who would kill me, but this one didn't smell bad either. He smelled like old books and the mahogany resin Belisarus sometimes burned. I liked the way he smelled. It was comforting. That didn't mean I was going to show myself to him because I wasn't warned he was safe before I left.

"You can't keep putting it off," King Joron told the princess. "You need to remarry. We need an heir."

"We have an heir!" she cried.

"The Princess Lisana has been missing nineteen years. If she was able to be found, we would have done it by now. We don't even know if she's still alive. We've questioned and even tortured all the tribes and no one knows who took her. She's gone. You need to admit it to yourself and move on. Rivannus left to look for her and he's been gone eighteen years. You've heard nothing from him. I hate to keep telling this to you, but he's gone, too. You need to move on and get remarried while you're still young enough to have another heir."

"I know she's out there. I can feel it. We just need to look harder."

"Where do you suggest we look that we haven't already? We've torn this kingdom apart looking for her. We don't know what she looks like anymore. She didn't grow up in the palace and you know she wouldn't know she needs to color her hair to fool the humans. Don't you think someone would have noticed her with red hair by now? No one knows we hide our abilities."

I wasn't supposed to be hearing this. I also didn't know why they were hiding their hair and eyes, too. Joron was king and Esylle was his heir. They commanded the human army now. Who were they afraid of? They weren't freaks like me. They were just regular Tempris.

"How do you know someone didn't find out it's red after the herbs washed out and kept darkening it so we wouldn't find her?"

I didn't know what they were talking about with herbs. I thought my hair dark, and it stayed that way. Could they not do the same?

"What purpose would they have keeping her alive and hidden? What could they possibly want with her?"

"You know what we can do," Esylle said. "How do you know they are not keeping her and training her for something? You know how these humans are."

"The humans don't know about us. We've been slowly hiding ourselves for so long, they have no reason to suspect we are still at full power. They would have had no reason to take her, thinking they could use her because of what we can do."

"I know she's still out there. If something had happened to her, I would have felt it."

Joron pinched his nose.

"You know what they are like. It's less likely they took her to train her for anything and more likely they killed her. If you don't have an heir, the Tempris line dies, and they can finally put a human on the throne without starting a war with the tribes. I'm not saying this to hurt you. You need to accept it. There will be three men coming tomorrow for you to meet. You need to pick one because you're going to marry at least one of them."

"I don't want to marry one of them! What if he hasn't come back because he's still looking for her? What if he comes back tomorrow, and he has her?"

Joron sighed.

"I know how hard this has been on you, but you need to accept neither of them are coming back. You have a duty to the kingdom, and that is to marry and continue our line. You need to have an heir and teach them our ways. You know what's at stake if you don't."

"I don't want to remarry!"

I was watching and listening and saw Esylle's eyes change to violet when she got angry. Maybe they did use the same tricks I used to hide. Finally, the tall man spoke.

"You're losing control, Esylle. Your eyes. You need to fix them before you go back outside. Your father is right. You need to move on for the good of the kingdom. Why don't you compose yourself and let's go walk in the garden?"

I watched as Esylle closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. When she opened her eyes, they were blue again. She didn't look at her father as she left with the tall man. I flew out the door and followed them as they went into the gardens. I stayed close enough to hear them, but not close enough that they would have noticed me. Esylle took the tall man's elbow and leaned into him once they were outside in the garden.

"Leodos, I thought you would be on my side. You've been with me since she went missing. I know you did things you didn't want to help me. Why are you on his side now?"

"Because I don't want war. I'm surprised there hasn't been one already since your family started darkening their hair and hiding their eyes because you think it's what the humans want. The tribes won't answer to anyone except Tempris, and I'm surprised they still are now that you hide your abilities. If your family's line ends with you, you know the humans will be fighting for the throne and it's going to start another war with the tribes. Tension has always been high with them."

"I wish the other humans were like you," Esylle said, resting her head on his arm.

"I'm different because I chose to be. Do you think I'm proud of what my family used to do to the tribes? I'm glad that ended when my father died and I hope they don't ask me to train anyone else to do it. I was such a disappointment to him when I refused to continue his work and burned all the research."

"That's when we knew we could trust you with our secret, when you refused. My father saw how your father and the other humans treated you when you said no. He knew then that you were kind and not like them."

"You know what is expected of you and you know what is going to happen to the peace here if you refuse," Leodos said.

"I know what's expected of me, but I know she's out there somewhere. Even if he's not, she is. I can feel it. Why should I have to pretend like I love someone and produce another heir when there already is one?"

"You know what happened after she went missing. The Barons ordered awful things to make people talk. I got in on it to try to make things less heinous. No one knew who took her or where she was taken to. Even if she is still out there, you might never get her back."

"What if they took her because they are planning something?"

"What could they be planning? No one knows what your family can still do except me, since you chose to trust me with that secret."

"What if someone found out?"

"How could anyone possibly find out? You keep the babies away from the public until they can control themselves. You've even managed to keep it hidden from the humans that marry into to family. If you can even keep it hidden from a spouse, how would anyone else manage to find out your secret?"

"What if someone that has married into our family found out and didn't say anything? What if they told someone, and they planned this?"

Leodos just looked down at her sadly. "You're making up wild tales and excuses because you don't want her to be gone. Tomorrow, you will pick a husband and have a new heir. Maybe the new baby will help you move on."

Esylle didn't comment further. She kept walking with her head resting on Leodos's arm and continued to look upset. I hadn't been told anything about the Princess Lisana being kidnapped nor anything else I had overheard today. I really knew nothing about the politics on Nestran because I lived so far away on an island that only certain people wanted to live on. None of the tribe members lived there because there was no magic. I didn't know why Belisarus had settled there after I was born, because he seemed to know all kinds of magic, because he tried to teach me how to do it.

I felt out of place here on the mainland. Everything was too big and Esylle and Leodos passed several well-dressed people who frankly smelled very bad..

Leodos finally spoke again as they got further into the garden. "Your suitors are not coming until late in the afternoon tomorrow. What do you say we sneak out into the forest where I used to take you before you married Rivannus?"

"I'd like that."

"I'll sneak you out after breakfast."

I didn't know where they were going. I just knew that I'd have to follow them in the morning and see if I could get to Esylle when she was away from Leodos.