Chapter 3

Icarried the girl through the tunnels underneath the castle with a bad feeling in my stomach. My father made me study those horrible torture journals written by my ancestors where they did terrible things to the tribes trying to figure out how to steal their magic. It went on for decades until I refused to carry on the tradition and nothing in my family's journals said anything about them being able to change their eye color with magic. I only learned it was possible after Joron took me under his wing.

Esylle wanted her to be Lisana. I wanted her to be Lisana. I was probably the only person outside of the royal family that knew about her unusual eyes. I couldn't remember if anyone told Belisarus after they were changed to blue. She had everything Lisana had when she was a baby, but there were also things that were very wrong about this girl.

The noble women and the whores in Guttertown loved having red hair because men were idiots and had a fetish for Tempris women. I'd heard enough of them be disgusting around me talking about how beautiful Esylle was and bragging about their prowess in bed. They seemed to think they were so good at sex, she would temporarily lose control of her fire and the only reason they were bragging instead of being absolutely terrified of that was because they thought the Tempris gifts were nearly bred out.

I had no idea what these dungeons below the castle were used for before the humans arrived, but after the wars, it was used for torturing tribe members to find out how to steal their gifts. And it had been my family doing it. I'd been cast out to Guttertown and shunned when I refused to do it and pointed out if humans hadn't figured that out by now, we weren't going to and maybe we weren't supposed to..

I fully expected to live the rest of my life as an outcast when King Joron called me into the throne room. I was surprised to be appointed the king's advisor. I knew the Barons were against it, but Joron ignored them. He introduced me to his young daughter, told me their secret, and asked for my help to protect her.

I had tried so hard to protect her. I'd been in love with her since she was old enough to marry. I couldn't protect her the night Lisana went missing. I could never tell her no and I thought this girl was dangerous. The only reason I hadn't completely imploded my relationship with Esylle and killed this girl on the spot was that she knew Belisarus. I'd watched him tutor Esylle and he wouldn't hurt her. That was the one thing giving me pause that this girl might actually be Lisana. Belisarus wouldn't have sent someone and told them to fake being her daughter because that was insanely cruel.

I didn't like torture and refused to do it. It didn't work, anyway. People would say anything to get the pain to stop. There were other ways. The arrow was buried in her shoulder. It wasn't fatal, but it probably hurt. I started by removing the arrow and treating the wound. The arrow wasn't deep at all. It wasn't going to cause her any permanent damage. I could just stitch it closed.

I gently got the arrow out of her shoulder, but just sat there with my mouth open as her wound knitted itself shut like I never even shot her. Her robes had blood on them, so I removed them to soak them in water. I didn't know if she had a spare set anywhere and walking around in blood-stained clothes was dangerous no matter who you were.

I had about a million questions for this girl, so I strapped her into a chair in the dungeon that was carved with rock from Idric Island to take away her magic and draped a tarp over her to shield her nudity.

Oh, she was furious when she woke up.

"You fucking shot me, you wanker. And you stole my clothes. I don't think they are going to fit you."

I tried not to let her see me smile. Esylle was right. This girl looked exactly like her. She had that impish face. Esylle had been raised to be a princess in all things, so it was weird seeing her mouth curse like a Guttertown brat, but with an Idric accent. Most people on Idric didn't curse either as most of them were fanatics who either didn't want to live with magic or thought Nestran was too decadent, so they went to an island with cold, rainy weather and limited crops.

"What are you?" I demanded.

She just looked at me blandly and shrugged. She wasn't afraid of me. Most people who ended up down here in one of these chairs had the good sense to be scared.

"How is it you have pale skin, but can fly like a Farkhi and you can turn into a swan and a hawk?"

"I can only turn into a hawk. You saw with your eyes I turned into a hawk. When did you see me as a swan?"

I sighed. It was the attitude and the mannerisms. If there had been some unfortunate situation in my past where I had Esylle down here when she was younger, it probably would be going exactly like this.

"Are you calling the princess a liar?"

"I overheard you when I was trying to find a way to approach the princess to give her Belisarus's message. I think she's upset over choosing a husband and she's wanting me to be someone I'm not because I also know Belisarus. I told her when she asked I am not her daughter."

"Then where did you come from? Who are your parents? You sound like you are from Idric Island, so you shouldn't be able to do anything you can do."

"I was raised on Idric Island."

"And the rest of what I just asked you?"

"What does it matter? I've already said I can only turn into the hawk you saw me turn into. You're thinking I can do things that I can't and asking questions I don't have answers to because I can't do those things."

"The princess saw you! I also tried to treat your arrow wound and saw it heal."

"Maybe you shouldn't have shot me then because it was quite rude."

I was fuming and really trying not to strangle her. Who did this child think she was?

"The only reason you're being treated the way you are right now is because Esylle thinks you are a blood relative and you manipulated her into thinking you are her daughter. She doesn't want you hurt. I have other ways of getting you to talk and finding out who you are."

"And what is that, if you aren't going to hurt me? I've already told you I'm not her child."

This girl reminded me more and more of Esylle at that age. I'd never been able to beat her at games of strategy and she was better at verbally sparring with the Barons than I was. If this girl knew Belisarus, he might have educated her the same. I needed to change tactics if I wanted to find out anything. Also, if she really was Lisana, then Esylle was the most stubborn person I knew, and she wasn't going to do anything she didn't want to do.

"How well do you know Belisarus?" he asked.

"He raised me. He sent me here with a message for the princess. I didn't want to come."

"Then why did you?"

"Personal reasons."

"To hurt her and her family?" I demanded, towering over her and cracking my knuckles.

"I don't want to hurt anyone. I just want to give her the message and go back home. I don't like it here. Being down here with you makes me like it even less."

"Why would you like Idric Island so much, being what you are, when there is no magic?"

"Like you even know shit about what that is," she snorted.

She wasn't going to cooperate with me, but I actually believed her about that. She had her chance to hurt Esylle and didn't. She couldn't hurt anyone on Idric and her secret was probably safe. She probably did want to go back there if that was all she ever knew. I did need to find out what she wanted Esylle for because I knew Esylle wanted to keep her and we needed more information.

I stormed off to the palace guard and informed them that I wanted a Farkhi, a Tark, and a Theran brought down to me from the dungeons immediately with no questions asked. I stomped back downstairs, and the girl was sitting calmly in the chair I'd left her in, but she had pulled her knees up like she was trying to get comfortable under the tarp. I was still frustrated with her, but she also reminded me so much of Esylle.

"Do you have a name? Will you at least be honest about that?" I asked.

I probably should have started with that. This conversation might have gone a little smoother. It was a little rude.

"My name is Sorcha."

"If you were only raised on Idric, where are you from? Who are your parents?" I asked.

I was a very tall man and moved closer to tower over her in the chair, but it didn't faze her. She wasn't scared of me. I was getting even more frustrated that she was basically ignoring me when heard a soft knock on the door. I didn't think it would be the guard with the tribe members because they would have knocked harder. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see Esylle with a small, strange man.

Esylle had never come down here before. She peered around the door.

"This strange-looking man was just picked up by the guard demanding to know where a Sorcha was. He showed up around the time she did. She didn't tell me her name, but I thought they might know each other."

I looked at the girl as her eyes widened, and then she looked angry at the small, strangely-shaped man who stormed into the room. "I told you to stay at Idric!" she hissed at him.

"Where are her clothes?" both Esylle and the strange man asked at the same time. In addition to looking strange, he had a strange, raspy voice.

"I'll deal with you later," I said, pushing the strange man toward Sorcha. I pulled Esylle aside.

"I told you I didn't want her hurt! Why is she naked?"

Esylle was angry with me. We both knew damned well when the Barons hired people to torture the tribes after Lisana went missing, there was a lot of rape involved, but I would never do that, and I didn't like the insinuation.

"I took her robes off to soak them. They are white and they had blood on them. If I didn't get them off her and soaking, the blood would never come out. I put a tarp on her so she wouldn't be embarrassed or scared, but she didn't seem to be. Nothing seems to scare her. I don't know how to get the answers you want."

"Then get it out of her another way. Make her think you want to help her. She doesn't want to hurt me or she would have by now. I need to know who she is."

"And I want to know what she is. Go back up to the castle. I'll try to get something out of her."

"I don't want her hurt," Esylle reminded me. "Get her some clothes."

We both turned when we noticed the air start to move around Sorcha. I placed himself in front of Esylle in case she was turning into something to kill the both of us. She shouldn't be able to do magic at all in that chair. The rock from Idric Island was some kind of mineral that blocked it. Humans figured it out shortly after they encountered the tribes and used it to win the war.

We both looked on in surprise when the air settled and she had green robes on like the white ones I had removed from her peeking from underneath the tarp.

Sorcha looked directly at Esylle. "I can take care of myself. If me having no clothes bothers you, I can make more. I'm not here to hurt anyone."

Why didn't it bother her? Did she not have any idea what happened to women down here? She had more magic than I did, but I was much bigger than she was. Everyone reacted to fear differently. If the wrong person triggered her to freeze, they could do what they wanted to her. I wasn't angry she gave herself clothes. Honestly, I would have preferred she wear them.

It was the fact that she shouldn't be able to conjure clothes even if she wasn't sitting in that chair.

"Do you see now how dangerous she is? This is black magic and we've never seen this before."

"You heard her. She doesn't want to hurt anyone. Please just find out about her," she said, leaving.

When I shut the door, I got a better look at the strange man who was standing in front of Sorcha. He was even shorter than she was and his body was large and almost triangular shaped. His arms and legs were both too thin for his body.

"And what are you? Another product of dark magic like she is?"

"She's no product of dark magic. I'm a man and I have been for years. I've never left her side and I couldn't let her leave without me."

Esylle didn't want me hurting Sorcha, and I didn't really want to hurt anyone, but if she refused to talk, I may have to hurt this strange man to get her to talk. I grabbed the man by the scruff of his collar and yanked him away from her. Sorcha was screaming at me to leave him alone.

"I promised not to hurt you. I made no promises about him. If hurting him gets you to stop lying to me, don't think for a minute I won't hesitate."

"You'll let him go this instant and not harm a hair on his head."

"What makes you think—?" I said, stopping as I turned to look at her.

She was standing now and a little frightening. Sorcha had actually broken the restraints on the chair. She'd gone full Tempris. There were flames dancing in her strange violet and green eyes. She had her hand outstretched and there was a flame dancing in it. I shoved the strange man away.

"Now that I've seen the real you, put that out and sit down. I have more questions."

"If you hurt him, there are several ways I can kill you and I don't want to hurt anyone."

"You think I do? It was the only way to get you to reveal yourself to me."

"Why would I reveal anything to you? I don't know you. I wasn't told about you when I left. I have no reason to trust you," she said, sitting down. I watched, confused as her red hair changed to black as she calmed down. I was pretty sure the only reason I saw it red was because she fainted. Esylle was right. She had approached Esylle with black hair.

"How do you do that with your hair? I told you the princess does it with herbs. You could help her since you want to talk to her so badly."

"I just think it and it changes. It took a long time to learn, but now it's easy. I don't know if it's the same way she does it with her eyes."

"Could you stay and teach her if I'm ever able to figure out anything about you? You say you don't trust me, but I'm asking for her. She asked me to find out everything about you and tell her. She wants to know how you called her blood and if you are related somehow. She wants to know what message you have for her."

"I'm not staying here. I'll tell everything directly to her, as I was instructed to do."

"You think after that stunt you pulled with the fireball and everything we know about you so far, that I'm letting you anywhere near her?"

"I don't know how many more ways to tell you I'm not here to hurt anyone. I only came here to give her a message. I told you I didn't want to come. I knew this would happen if one of you found out about me."

"Then why did you come? If you thought someone would hurt you if they found out about you, why did you come?"

"Personal reasons."

"You've already said that! I don't know what it means!"

Honestly, that was just as big of a question as what she was. My first instinct was to kill her. The rest of the humans would, too. I honestly didn't know how the tribes would react, but mixing was seen as an abomination to them. She could have killed me for threatening her strange friend, who was also probably at risk because of how strange he looked, but she just tried to warn me off. Why would she even come here?

"All you need to know is that I risked my life coming here to give her this message because of something that was promised to me. Belisarus could have sent a raven with this message. I don't know why he insisted I come, knowing what might happen to me. I know you have questions, but I don't have answers."

"You don't have them or you refuse to give me?"

Before Sorcha could reply, there was a hard knock on the door and I knew it was the guards. I finally found something that scared her as a Farkhi, a Tark, and a Theran were brought inside in chains. She might not be scared of me, but she was scared of them.

I dragged all three of them in front of her. I demanded they tell me what she was. They couldn't shift this close to that chair, but I knew they could scent her. I sat back and waited, then sat there shocked when they all bowed before her and kissed her hands. She looked just as shocked and bewildered as I was.

"What are you doing?" I asked, pulling them away. "What is she?"

All three of them answered me separately, but they all gave me the same riddle. "I do not know what you have shown, but she is someone all will know."

None of them would answer when I asked what that meant and they kept wanting to touch her. Sorcha looked very uncomfortable. They weren't going to answer my questions, so I had the guard remove them.

"What was that about?" I demanded.

I didn't really know how they would react to a hybrid child. Based on the journals, it was supposed to be impossible. If a woman was pregnant with one, the baby wasn't supposed to make it and it was supposed to be dangerous to the mother. I could see them being happy one of the babies made it because it was probably a miracle, but something told me this went deeper than that.

"I don't know. I've always been told to hide from the tribes because they would hurt me, not kiss my hands, and want to touch me."

"You mean something to them. What is it?"

"I don't know!" she cried, tugging her ear like Esylle always did when she was upset. "You keep asking me things I don't know. I don't know how I ended up at Idric Island. I don't know who my parents are. I don't know how I ended up with Belisarus. I don't know how I can do what I do. Don"t you think I've been asking these questions my entire life? The only reason I came here was because I was promised answers! I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm here to deliver a message, go home, and finally get answers about myself!" she said.

Tears were springing to those unusual eyes and for a moment, her wide, tearful eyes reminded me exactly of Esylle at that age when she was upset. She kept doing all these things that were very much Esylle and the only reason I couldn't let myself believe that Lisana was home was that Lisana shouldn't be able to fly. And everything coming out of her mouth right now was probably the truth because she looked upset the tribes didn't want to hurt her the way she was always told.

"What else can you do?" I asked. "All three tribe members saw something in you. Can you change into anything?"

Sorcha was crying now. And I knew I might have to make her do that, but I felt terrible about it. She looked like she was probably Lisana's age, so she was old enough to marry, but she was still just a kid. I didn't even enjoy hurting adults, much less terrorizing young girls.

"I can change into whatever I want. It doesn't matter the tribe. I've asked for years why and I haven't gotten an answer. I asked if it would change my tenth year and if there would be a ceremony. I wasn't given answers then either. Nothing changed my tenth year. No one has ever told me why I am the way I am, just that it always had to be hidden.

"I grew up in a house with enormous walls where no one could see me and I was never supposed to leave. I don't know why that suddenly changed when this message was supposed to be delivered. I don't know why I was told to touch her and call to her blood. I didn't feel anything when I did, so we are not related in any way."

"Can you call the blood of any Tempris?"

"I've never tried because I've never been around any. I've always been taught it can only be done to a blood relative. I thought he asked me to because we might be distant relatives, but I didn't feel anything, so now I don't even have that answer about who I am. I know she thinks I'm her daughter, but I can't be, or I wouldn't be the way I am."

"What was the message that you have for her?"

"He wants me to bring her back to Idric. He said things are going to happen here, and it's not safe for her. There is another message that he has for her, but he only wants to give it to her in person. He won't tell me what it is. It's just for her."

"What makes you think she would be allowed to leave with you? To Idric no less? Did he tell you to make your eyes like this when you gave her the message?"

"Well, I tried to hide my eyes and make them blue, but you fucking shot me. I can only hide that when I'm awake. If my eyes are confusing either of you, maybe you shouldn't be fucking shooting people."

I didn't know what she was, but it sounded like she didn't either. And it sounded like Belisarus had treated this student much differently than the previous one. I didn't have a lot of details about how she grew up, but I was starting to think he'd caused this girl some harm and may have isolated her. I told her to hide herself so I could sneak her through the palace to talk to Esylle.

There was also one possibility I wasn't trying to think about. If she really was somehow Lisana, then Belisarus either took her or kept her away from her mother for years.