Tempest’s ears flattened, and I felt the aggressive cry rise through her core as I drew my longsword. Sand shadowed the moons’ light as the massive snakes surged up in the sky and angled their snouts toward us.
Ezrich hurled his axe across the closing space. The thick edge of it embedded itself in the neck of the nearest serpent.
Its wide eyes flared, and strange, diamond-shaped pupils constricted to a tight line before it coiled its long body into itself. I forced my mind to concentrate as memories surged forward, threatening to pull my focus to a distant Solstice Festival from years prior.
The second snake’s slimy tongue flicked against the air and sent drops of saliva raining on us. Sulfur overwhelmed my nostrils as I took another breath and held my longsword at the ready.
The snake’s eyes focused on Tempest, and something white-hot surged through my veins. My eyes narrowed, and I forced my hand to grip the hilt of my blade as the sand serpent surged toward us.
Tempest lurched to the side, and my blade drew a sharp line along the front of the snake. Its raging cry quaked through my bones. Movement to the right caught my eye, and Ezrich waved his free hand before launching Anchor in a gallop away from the creatures.
I twisted in my seat as I flipped my blade to the other hand, and Tempest stormed after Anchor. I leaned forward, my rein hand gripping her thick, dark mane. My seat hovered over her saddle, and my thighs were hard on her sides as the mare sped into the night.
Ezrich dared a glance back, his eyes widening. Tempest’s ears flattened as Anchor veered ahead of us, seemingly on his own accord, and Ezrich yanked at the reins.
The tall sorrel ignored his rider’s command and jerked his head in the direction of the forest as his neck pumped through the swiftness of his gait.The trees.
Ezrich seemed to catch on as soon as I did, and he loosened his reins, leaning to the right as Anchor leaped off the dirt road and into the bordering forest.
The thin gelding darted between trees, carving a narrow path through the gnarled roots and downed branches, barely losing speed as Tempest kept pace. My leathers ripped as they snagged on thick bark, cutting the corner of a tree too close, and the shadow of crashing branches flickered against the light from behind as the snakes attempted their pursuit.
Dead leaves and dry branches ripped at my face, and a fresh budding of blood cooled in a long line down my cheek as we fled. My heart bucked beneath my chest as I ducked under barely visible branches and we chased after Ezrich and Anchor for what felt like hours.
The dim light of our moons crept through the bare trees as their forms slowed ahead. I relaxed into the saddle as Tempest slowed to a walk. Her deep inhales pushed her torso against my legs, and I snapped my head back, not seeing any sign of the pursuing snakes.
Where in Tynan’s Hell had they come from?
Serpents like that didn’t exist in the Kingdom of Sultira.
I turned back, my chest jerking forward as Tempest’s forward momentum stopped, and she planted her hooves. Ezrich’s lips were moving, and his short sword was drawn. I followed his gaze to the shadows between two trees where a small, old man stood.
He stepped out from the trees into the small clearing, glancing quickly at me before turning back to Ezrich. I squinted, cursing the darkness and silence I lived in, unable to see the old man’s lips move from beneath his cloak.
“Shelter. Safety.”
My chest tightened in apprehension as Ezrich signed the words before pointing back to the old man, who stilled and turned his face to mine.
Weathered lips turned upward, and he raised a bony hand in greeting before motioning us to follow him into the shadows.
CHAPTER TWELVE
LYVIA
We’ll need something to placate them. Give me an alternative to the men on my ship, or the deal’s off.
– Correspondence from Lord Haro of Marisarma, Captain of theSiren, to undisclosed recipient in Lotrennia.
Lyvia – Nivis
The Albyrn Mountains hunched behind the Crystal Castle, the snow-covered rocks glowing a soft pink and violet as the sun’s sleepy eye peeked over the horizon. I tugged my fur-lined gloves over my hands as my eyes swept over the vast mountain range. My thoughts drifted from the parents I’d never known…to Eira and Ursa and the clan they’d lost to Dark King Daimos. They’d kept the Transcindiel Bone hidden from him for hundreds of years in those mountains. I was born here.
I’d discovered who I was, but Xenelpha’s words often rang in my head… That we all change. And though I knew I’d been born a Nivisian elf, that my blood ran through these very mountains,I couldn’t help but feel lost. I was an elf again, and my mind reeled from the transformational whiplash—elf, human, elf… How much transformation could one’s body and mind endure?
I hadn’t looked at myself in the mirror. I didn’t need to. Ifeltthe difference. My body was harder, faster… My senses were sharper. I had finally come to love myself for who I was, and then I changed again. And while I accepted the change, my identity lacked an anchor.
Where did I belong?
It wasn’t here. This didn’t feel like coming home. The Crystal Castle glowed from the corner of my eye as the slim peel of the sun began its trek.
