“I would be more surprised if they weren’t,” he replied. “A dark magic begins sweeping across our lands not long after we lose all of our own? It would be too much of a coincidence otherwise.”
“But…the Dagda would never send the Ruin to destroy us.”
“No, I don’t believe he would,” Vreis said evenly. “God or not.”
Heart thumping, Eislyn turned her attention to the icy sea. Had she been approaching this the wrong way all this time? The Ruin had appeared in the Ice Court only twenty-odd years before. The Fall had happened nearly a century ago. But that was not entirely correct, of course. Eislyn had found what appeared to be mention of the Ruin in some books, and Thane’s research had turned up several mentions of a dark magic in ancient tomes. So, the Ruin had been around far before the Fall.
A strange thought sprang forth in her mind. “You don’t think…the Ruin is what took our magic…?”
It made little sense, but now that the idea had occurred to her, she did not think she would ever be able to get it out of her head. The Ruin was a terrible, horrible thing. It destroyed villages. It murdered innocents, leaving behind nothing but smoke and ash. And Eislyn had always wondered if there was even more to it than that. It felt wrong. Like a malevolent force.
“The Ruin took our magic, twisted it into something wrong, and then decided to use it against us?” Vreis asked with a nod. “That could very well be what happened.”
“I don’t like it,” she said so softly that her voice drifted away on the cool sea wind. Eislyn shivered.
“You’re cold.” Vreis shrugged off his jacket and quickly draped it around her shoulders. She smiled up at him, touched by his kindness. So much so that she couldn’t bear to tell him that she wasn’t cold at all. At times, she had felt a chill in the air fae realm, only when the brittle wind attacked from the east. But that sensation was gone now. The icy wind soothed her now that they were in the waters so far north. She had not realized how much she’d missed it.
“Thank you, Vreis,” she said, blushing as she glanced up into his kind eyes. “In fact, thank you for everything. I don’t believe I’ve told you that enough.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” he said gruffly. “I’m merely doing my duty for Thane. I swore an oath, after all.”
Her heart sunk a little, though she did not know why. It must have been the reminder of Thane. She hoped he was safe, wherever he was. She hoped he was alive.
“You and Lorcan,” she said, clearing her throat, “you always seemed closer to Thane than the other warriors. Did you meet him when you were quite young?”
“I was a low fae, a street urchin in Tairngire. One day Thane found me and took a liking to me for some odd reason. Thane seems fond of broken things, I suppose. Lorcan joined us not long after. He found him withering away in a tiny village when Lorcan saved his life. From then on, those two were as thick as thieves. If I were to trust anyone with finding Thane, it would be Lorcan.”
“And Reyna,” Eislyn added. “She never gives up when she dedicates herself to something.”
“She gave up on her dedication to the Shieldmaidens,” Vreis said, though not unkindly.
“Did she?” A slight smile ghosted her lips. “I’m not so certain. She’ll always be a warrior, even if she made those vows, and whether she sits on a throne or not.”
She thought Vreis might argue against that. Most would. Her father, most particularly. A true sworn Shieldmaiden could not become a High Queen, nor the other way around. It was a rule that had never been broken.
But he surprised her, and not for the first time. “Perhaps that is how it should be. A queen who cannot fight for her people is not much of a queen at all.”
“Well, I won’t make much of a queen, then will I?” she said, trying her best to laugh, but finding it far harder than she liked. “I cannot fight.”
Vreis frowned, tucking a finger beneath her chin. A thrill went down her spine. “Princess, you fight harder for your people than you think.”
She swallowed hard. There was something so calming about his touch, even though her pulse had begun to race. Something in his words, no doubt. The suggestion that she was far stronger than she was. She wished he was right, but of course he wasn’t.
Taking a step back, she ignored the heat in her cheeks. “I could take lessons, I suppose. The least I could do is learn how to protect my own self.”
“That is not what I meant, Eislyn, and you know it.” He smiled. “But that is not a terrible idea at all. I could teach you if you’d like. We have plenty of time on the ship to practice. By the time we reach the shores of your great kingdom, you could be skilled enough to take on your Shieldmaiden of a sister herself.”
She couldn’t help but choke out a laugh. “I believe you were a jester before you became Thane’s guard.”
“I mean it, Eislyn,” he said insistently. “Reyna does not have to be the only Darragh sister who can fight well.”
“I would settle for being able to fight decently.” She grinned up at him. “And I daresay you won’t find a student worse than me. I don’t even know how to hold a dagger properly.”
“You could never be the worst at anything, Eislyn,” he said.
Her heart twitched.
Vreis cleared his throat. “So, what do you say? Meet me here at first light tomorrow, and I’ll make a fighter out of you yet.”
“It’s a deal,” she whispered into the wind. Her cheeks felt flush, and her hair was wild around her shoulders. In that moment, she imagined she did not look much different than Reyna at all. Perhaps she could even learn to be a little more like her.
Of course, Eislyn thought sadly, Reyna would never have fled Tairngire or the Grand Alderman. She wouldn’t have let the enemy get the better of her. Instead, the enemy would be dead.
17
Reyna
Sleep was a wily creature. It crept closer and closer in the darkest part of the night, but then scurried away just as it was in reach. Reyna stretched out on the leaf-strewn ground, staring up at the towering canopy of the trees where Wingallock sat watching over the camp with glowing, bulbous eyes. The limbs swayed in a gentle wind, rustling and whispering amongst themselves. The sound reminded Reyna of the hoarfrost worms back home, the tiny translucent silk-spinners whose voices only she could hear.
Nollaig sat on watch, perched in a tree nearby, fire extinguished. The rest of the party slept soundly while the nightmare of her life kept Reyna’s eyes from shutting.
Lorcan lay on the ground only a few meters away. At first, she had kept her back aimed firmly in his direction. But that had not helped. She could feel him nearby. His body seemed to thrum like the steady sounding of drums. He was there. It was inescapable. And she could do nothing but glower in the night.
After hours like that, Reyna had dropped onto her back, her neck aching from jutting sideways for so long. Now, she could see him clearly out of the corner of her eye. His body looked relaxed, one arm draped across his eyes, the other stretched out on top of his sword. A warrior, through and through. Always ready for a fight, even when asleep.