Page 82 of The Ashborn

Kienna shook her head and sat on the couch. Elowen’s home looked exactly as it had weeks ago, covered in old, dusty books and random items scattered about. Elowen busied herself with cleaning paintbrushes, something she often did when Kienna was looking.

“Ash told me you helped my parents build the Silver Span. I don’t know why that brought me here, but I have questions.”

Elowen stopped cleaning. “Questions about the bridge?”

“Questions about myself.”

She set the brushes aside. “What can I tell you about yourself?”

Kienna hesitated.

Elowen wiped her palms on her dress and shifted her gaze to the corner. She realized she had never actually spent a moment alone with Elowen where the old woman wasn’t frantically pacing around. Moira’s presence made her calmer, like a piece of a puzzle that needed to fit to make their company work.

“You knew my parents, Elowen. Why can’t anyone I know answer a straight question about their lives? I shouldn’t have to be piecing it all together on my own.” Kienna wearily slumped into the cushions.

Elowen finally sat and leaned forward. “We’ve been scared, dear. It doesn’t make it right, of course, but you come from something different.” The woman’s attention trailed to the corner of the room. Tiny wrinkles around her eyes bunched as she grimaced. “Your friends take great caution to lead you to the information. They want you there as much as I do, sweet girl, but your parents died for this, and we can’t take any more risks until you’re ready.”

Kienna stood and paced the room. Elowen’s words didn’t help piece things together, but Kienna remembered seeing books in her visions. What were they looking at when her parents were together? She leaned over the leather-bound stories scattered around the room. A larger book with dark brown leather and golden sigils etched onto it caught her eye.

As she reached for it, the K on her thumb burned with an intensity deeper than fire. It seared her arms and lit her hand under the charm. Kienna pulled back and turned to Elowen, eyes wide.

“Well, that’s something,” Elowen said. She stood from her chair and brushed Kienna’s hand, then the book. She rummaged through the large pile of texts. A few tumbled to the ground, cracking open and crinkling the pages. Elowen didn’t seem to mind. She kept pulling at books until she had three in tow. “Start with these. I’ll make you some tea.”

Kienna took the books from Elowen. The covers were blank, giving away no secrets as to what she’d be reading, but their hard canvases were worn well beyond their years, tearing at the seams. She pried one open. The timeworn paper cracked with brittle sweetness. She closed it to open another, coughing from the specks of musty tang.

“What am I looking for?” she asked as Elowen returned.

Elowen lifted Kienna’s chin, almost instinctively, as any mother would to their own child. “I think it’s time you start your journey to knowing what you are.”

“What am I?” Kienna searched Elowen’s face for any hint. Her chin quivered.

“You, my sweet child, are meant to be whatever you choose to be. There is a path for you, though. One you should have been on before Vaerin took that away. Scan these books. Call your Elvish friend. He’ll help you. Tell him I said it was time.” Elowen’s fingers brushed the spines of the books, her voice falling softer, almost secretive. “What you seek is already part of you, dear Kienna. These are only echoes to remind you of where to begin.” She tapped one of the books with a crooked finger, then stood and left her house. Kienna turned and watched the door click. All that remained were the rats scurrying around.

She stared at the books longer than she thought she would. They stacked on top of each other in her lap, like decayed history breathing forgotten worlds. Her fingers brushed the fine leather of the first book, the title now a faded bundle of letters scattered throughout.

Kienna. Connak’s voice pulled her from a daze.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“You called me,” Connak laughed.

“I did?”

“Can I come through?”

Kienna opened her mind and let him in. Connak looked around and then back at her. Black circles stained the skin under his eyes. She wondered if he slept at all. On top of having to manage through her random nightmares, he commanded an entire army that scavenged the land for hints of King Vaerin’s next move.

His eyes stopped wandering when he landed on the books in Kienna’s lap. “Why do you have those?”

“Elowen said it was time.” She held up her hand, the glowing K pulsating a deep, fiery orange that wouldn’t die.

Connak studied her, then knelt on one knee. “There’s no turning back from this, Kienna. You start down this path, and everything else that happens from here on out…you can’t run from it.”

Kienna bit her lip. What could be in those books that would spark something so important? She took a breath and nodded once. Connak squeezed her hand and then opened the first book. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

Her eyes dropped to the pages, shifting between stories of old myths. Tales of heroes and villains from the ancient past rang through history books, telling of valiant men and women who stood together at the test of time. They told of kings and queens rising and falling from the heavens. Kienna’s vision blurred from time to time as the light shifted in the windows.

“Here.” Connak pointed when she turned the page to a new story. “This is where you need to be.”