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The portal jump to Dahnsburg was like most of the others, but the city was a world apart from Y’Elestrial. For one thing, Dahnsburg was a port city—the western port, to be exact. The smell of brine and seaweed hung heavy in the air.
I sucked in a deep breath, closing my eyes as a crisp breeze swept past. That was one thing I’d loved about moving Earthside to Seattle. We were near the ocean. There was nothing quite as mesmerizing as standing on the pier, watching as the waves of the inlet ebbed and flowed, feeling the call of the Ocean Mother as she filtered into the channels and rivulets that formed Puget Sound.
And here, instead of the Pacific, we stood on the edge of the Wyvern Ocean, a vast body of water that led to the mythic lands of Finnish and Norse repute—the wide woodlands of Tapiola, and beyond that, the fjords of Valhalla and Asgard. And in the far, far north—the lands of Pohjola, which were rumored to contain natural portals leading into the realm of the Northlands.
As we stepped out of the portal, we found ourselves on a butte overlooking the water. The portal itself was set between two standing stones guarded by three Dahns Unicorns. At least, I assumed they were of Dahns descent. Their manes streamed along their backs, and I was surprised to see one of them wasn’t silken as snow, but instead dappled gray on white. All three had silver horns, which meant they were female. Males bore golden horns.
One of the unicorns stepped forward and tossed her head, snorting.
“My name is Sheran-Dahns. You are the Moon Witch, Camille. Correct?” She spoke in Melosealfôr, a beautiful and rare dialect of Crypto that all Moon Witches learned, and that the Dahns Unicorns had perfected over the years.
I inclined my head and gave a quick curtsy. “I am. This is my father, Sephreh ob Tanu, Advisor to Her Royal Highness Queen Tanaquar of Y’Elestrial. And this is my mate and husband Morio, and my friend Iris.”
The unicorn blinked and her long lashes fluttered in the wind. She had the most lovely eyes—brilliant green against the dappled coat, and they were like twin pools of a verdant pond. With a soft whinny, she dipped her head in my father’s direction and spoke in the common tongue. “Your Excellence, we welcome you and your party to Dahnsburg. King Upala-Dahns awaits you in the palace. Please to follow me.”
Morio looked at me, slightly confused. He spoke a few words of the common tongue—I’d taught him enough to squeak by, but he wasn’t fluent in it yet. I whispered a quick translation to him.
We swung in behind the unicorn as she lightly picked her way down a sloping path. The gentle decline ran four or five hundred yards from the city proper, parallel to the shore below before swinging inland. There were few trees on the butte, or near the shore. The city was situated in the Silofel Plains, a long, narrow stretch of land that was dotted with tall grasses and egg-sized pebbles and sandy soil. The Plains buttressed up against the Windwillow Valley. Dahnsburg itself was positioned on the Bay of Tides.
The morning was overcast and by the looks of the water, a storm was coming in from the ocean. Gray thunderheads swept in from across the sea, driving a force of wind before them that churned the breakers, sending a frothy surge of waves crashing to shore. Electricity crackled through the clouds, saturating the air.
I sucked in a deep breath of the supercharged air as a ripple of sparks surged through my body. At times like these, I missed this world, where everything was so vibrant and alive. Oh, the clouds and the land were alive over Earthside, to be sure, but here they were right in your face, and there was no denying the sentience of the elements.
Morio reached for my hand and I squeezed his fingers. He flashed me a giddy grin.
“You can feel it, too,” I said, delighted.
He nodded. “The first time I was here, it wasn’t so present. Perhaps because we were in Aladril. But here . . . on the edge of the ocean . . . I feel if I just closed my eyes I could see the Elementals dancing around one another. Everything is so vivid.”
“Vivid is good,” I said.
Father glanced at us. He’d caught what we were saying and now he winked at me and smiled. In that brief moment, I could tell that he was glad I was home. He must be lonely. Right then I decided that—war or no war—my sisters and I had to find him a wife. He needed someone, and though I cherished my mother’s memory, Father needed to move on. To open his heart and his life again.
At that moment, we reached the gates of the city. Dahnsburg was well-fortified. To the north, it faced the Wyvern Ocean. The other three sides were surrounded by large stone walls, with turrets evenly spaced around the top of the walk wall. Each of the three walls had its own gatehouse with a portcullis ready to drop in case of invasion.
“Do you get many threats here? You aren’t very close to Darkynwyrd or Guilyoton.”
Sheran-Dahns glanced back at me.
“No,” she said, her voice lightly trilling over the words. “But there are plenty of Cryptos who roam the Windwillow Valley with nothing but darkness in their hearts. And there are trolls in the Nebulvuori Mountains who travel this way. Thistlewyd Deep lies to the east, and while not as dangerous as Darkynwyrd, the blessed woodland harbors those both good and ill. The ill-tempered often come to see what trouble they can stir up in the city. And then there are the Meré who attempt raids from the ocean.”>As he kissed me on the forehead and sent me off to bed, I thought about what it meant to be back here. And then, as I crawled under the covers next to Morio, I realized that no matter how much I loved this house, it was no longer my home. My anchor rested within three men, and my two sisters and Iris. And no matter where we were, as long as we were together, I would be home.
CHAPTER 11
The next morning as we waited for clearance to use the portals inside the palace, we wandered around the Great Hall and I saw just how much of the palace was under renovation. Lethesanar had apparently decided if she couldn’t hold the throne and the city, she’d destroy it before her sister took control. She’d done a damned good job of tearing up the joint, as well as ripping a swath of destruction through the streets. From what I gathered, she’d also managed to kill over a thousand citizens who had switched sides on her.
Houses stood in ruins, buildings gutted from magic, fire, and ramrods. Entire stretches of the city were destroyed and there were a lot of people living on the streets and long lines of the hungry lined up at the temples begging for food.
A stone formed in my heart when I saw that the park stretching around the southern border of Lake Y’Leveshan had been thoroughly trashed. Trees were uprooted and burned, the fountains were in rubble, and the rose gardens and arbors that had been so beautiful every midsummer were shredded. Some of my happiest memories from childhood had taken place in that park, and I cried as we passed. Father patted my shoulder, but said nothing.
Sephreh was going with us. He had some sort of meeting to attend in Dahnsburg. Now, as we waited for word that the portal was ready, he wandered through the hall with Morio by his side. They were chatting about Morio’s connection with Grandmother Coyote.
I glanced around, looking for Iris. She was pacing the left side of the hall, her eyes focused on the ground. I caught up with her.
“Something wrong? You seem awfully quiet this morning.”
She glanced up at me, a haunted look on her face. “I’ve been debating on when—or even whether—to tell you this. You’ve seen more of my past than the others, through the inadvertent glimpse you caught of my shadow the other day.”
Was she ready to talk? I leaned against the wall. “What was that thing? When you ordered it to retreat, you said it wasn’t time yet. Time yet for what?”
