CHAPTER TEN
Find her family. It won’t take long to draw the witch out if she sees the smoke.
—Correspondence from King Saros to General Calvus. 19thof Summer, 070.3E.
We strode down the main road of Ayla, where hundreds of elves had gathered in the frenzy of celebration. While all of them dressed in bright colors, with ribbons and flowers in their hair, Isla stood out in her bright pink top and bottoms that glittered with white jewels and silver thread, a stark contrast to the stunning bronze of her skin. Her black hair was curly and loose, framing her face.
Sea glass and gems were hung in woven vines draped from the crossing bridges above the city. The streets were lined with vendors, and bouncy music rose in the air, floating in from various alcoves along the side streets.
We ducked into a large wagon where a petite elf scanned my long, olive arms and torso. Isla tossed her a coin, and she began her work.
Golden swirls of various designs covered my bare skin by the time we left, each curve reflecting the sun’s bright mid-morning light. The twisting silver ferns on Isla’s dark skin shimmered as she hooked her arm in mine, and we joined the celebration, falling in line with others making the pilgrimage to the Eye of the Wood.
Isla scooted into a tavern, and Tiberius sauntered up behind me as I waited outside. The crowd split for him, a hush running through it. I gave his velvety coat a pat on the shoulder, hot from the sun.
I reveled in the glee and activity of the festival. The brightness of dawn and ensuing festivities could almost make me forget about the ashen. About the dark king and the tribute and the civil war happening in my own home. Even Tiberius looked on curiously. Performers of all kinds lined the roads from musicians to theater troupes, to elves that swung on vines and branches, flipping across the road, wearing little more than undergarments.
I blinked as Vulcan stalked up to us.
“Surprised to see me?” he grumbled, giving a nod of respect to Ti. He was dressed in his usual leathers, not bothering to don the billowing pants of the other male elves and going shirtless altogether. He scanned the activity around us, eyes snagging on the musicians a street ahead.
My mind drifted to those first few nights on theEvectalast year when he’d filled the deck with his soul-wrenching voice, nearly bringing me to tears with words I didn’t understand in his tenor vibrato.
“Can I expect you to bless us with that voice of yours today?” I murmured.
“You utter a word about that to anyone on this continent, I’ll make your morning training a living nightmare,” he warned.
Tiberius tensed, and I sent my reassurance along our connection.
“You sang on theEvectaafter you rescued me from Mount Telum,” I countered, still not looking at him.
“I didn’trescueyou.”
I resisted the upward tug of my lips. “Still. You sang for me.”
He bristled. “I didn’t singforyou. I sangin frontof you. And if we’re being honest, I didn’t think you’d survive this long to be able to tell anyone.”
“That sounds dangerously close to a compliment,” I said, unable to keep the smile hidden.
I glanced at him and could have sworn his lips twitched upward before he schooled his features. “Wasn’t meant to be.”
Isla skipped up to us, handing me a cold glass of some fruity drink along with a handful of decadent, buttery sweets. “Vulcan! What a surprise. You may join us, only if you promise not to be a killjoy. I assume that’s why Nerissa isn’t here?”
Vulcan raised his blonde eyebrows at her.
“Kidding! Gods above, I’m kidding. Where is she, anyway?” she asked, looking around.
“She’s decided to stay with Marian,” Vulcan muttered.
It was enough to suck the joy right out of me. Guilt churned my stomach. She still hadn’t left theEvecta. I’d tried to talk to her so many times since Odessa. Since I’d killed Oslo. I was nauseous from the thought of it, and the shadow over my soul answered back,You deserve to be.
As if sensing it, Isla put her arm around me and murmured, “Whatever you are thinking,stop. Today is a day to celebrate.” She gave my shoulder a squeeze.
Liquid burned along the ridge of my eyes. I certainly didn’t deserve her.
We continued our trek with hundreds of elves, all heading into the forest where the road was wide and worn after years ofelves traversing the sacred path to the Eye of the Wood. The trek would take most of the morning, and we would arrive at the large lake before noon, when the sun was highest, to illuminate the entire Eye.
An hour and a couple of drinks into our trek, a wide river opened through the thick branches of the forest. Isla glanced up at the sun and then pulled me aside, Vulcan following closely behind.
