Page 6 of The Ashborn

Tislin’s hands remained in his pockets, but he turned further into Kienna. “When your parents fell in love, the queen refused their marriage, but the Eternal Mother did not agree. The Crown Above bound your parents in marriage and magic. In that, magic was gifted to the world, and they succeeded for a time. Avenna was given power. Children were born with it. But Vaerin couldn’t cope with not being gifted with magic. It drove him mad.”

“I know most of this,” Kienna reminded him.

“We are fighting for the sanctity of magic. It is a beautiful gift to those who know how to wield it,” Tislin added.

“Or a curse if you don’t,” Kienna whispered, remembering when King Vaerin gave them magic and called it a gift. Her hand brushed her charm.

Tislin tilted his head in agreement. “Or that. In the end, we are working to rid the world of the tainted magic that Vaerin created from the darkness so the Eternal Mother will deem it fit to give again.”

“No one is born with magic anymore?” Kienna’s eyes grew wide.

Tislin turned from the shadows and looked at her, his face solemn. “Not many. And once it’s gone, the Mother dies.”

Kienna shifted her feet in the grass beneath her boots. “Why do you think that is?”

His eyes fell back into the shadows, shoulders slumping as if he had a secret so great that it had been weighing him down his whole life. Kienna placed her hand on his elbow, and his attention slid back to her.

“I imagine it’s retribution for the magic she cannot take back. There are legends that Vaerin’s magic has grown so dark that it is now infecting the Mother. So, she withholds it to keep it from darkening the world.”

Kienna’s heart sank, but she understood why the king needed to be stopped. She hoped that Tristian and his army could figure it out. She kept Tislin’s elbow cupped in her hand and smiled at him. “I am grateful for you. For the truth that did not feel forced or half.”

Tislin shook his head. “The Elvish are cryptic. We don’t speak half-truths because we want to. We give complicated explanations because we have to.”

Kienna chuckled, her ash-woven hair falling over her face and catching a glimmer in the moonlight. She pushed it behind her ears, brushing her fingers through it. She caught Tislin studying her through the side of his eye again, this time a wicked little smirk crossing his face.

“You may be more Elvish than you’ve been letting on,” he told her, eyes floating to her ears. “How long have those been there?”

Kienna pushed her hair forward, self-conscious of the change. “About a day after they gave me my charm.”

Her fingers caressed the bracelet, the lavender catching the light. She had watched the curvature of her ears slowly move into a point when gazing into a reflection of water as she bathed. They still looked more human than Elvish, rounded and soft, but they now had the faintest upward taper at the tip. Enough to prove an Elvish kinship in her bloodline.

Tislin sighed. “The woodcarver’s name is Calder Ashfell. He’s an old man. He…” He trailed off. “Well, he’s mean.”

“Oh, great.”

“He’s willing to pay you a fair wage to get by in Dove Port, though. I think it’ll be worth your time. Pretend you’re talking to my brother, Tristian.”

Kienna fought against a smirk. Tristian had his benefits as the High Commander of the Elvish army, but he was hard on everyone, and it was suffocating. They both laughed, tears forming in Kienna’s eyes. It was a lightness her heart needed. She gazed out into the night sky, milky stars spilling into the blackness.

“Tislin?” Kienna paused, afraid to ask. “Is this the woodcarver I’ve been looking for?”

“You start early,” he said. “Goodnight, Kienna.”

Chapter 3

—Connak—

Connak sat at the edge of Trinity. It was far too late to be awake and sitting in the forest, but he preferred the trees and owls hooting in the night over a cozy cot under a roof. He’d spent so much time in the Malintale scoping for ways to get Kienna out of River Storm that this had become his way of life.

But that part of this life was over, and Kienna had left for Dove Port, leaving him with a gnawing ache that only pulled him back to her. She’d been there for a day, and he hoped she would have reached out by now. She hadn’t.

Connak needed to find other ways to fill his time, not that there wasn’t plenty of work to do. Still, part of him hollowed, having had the constant of her for so long.

He focused his mind, pulling it away from Kienna and guiding it to his next mission: gathering intel on River Storm and King Vaerin’s next move. There were whispers of shadows on the move and weapons needing to be diffused. Tislin appeared, and Connak welcomed the dissipation of all his cloudy thoughts.

“She’s all set,” Tislin said, sitting across from him.

“Thank you, Captain.”