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“It looks like the tree back home…” I muttered, breath fogging beyond my lips, fingers tugging the cloak closer around my shoulders to fend off the chill.
“That is because they are linked, intrinsically connected as though they are doors joined by a string that bounds each to one another. Without one, the other cannot survive.” Faenir confirmed what that persistent spinning compass within my chest had suggested. It was home, at least my way back to Auriol.
“What makes Tithe so special?” I asked, turning my gaze from the view to Faenir who still looked at me with far more interest.
“Tithe is simply one door among many others. Nyssa is a gateway to all of the world beyond.”
“That does not answer my question.”
Faenir sighed, blinking for what seemed like the first time since this entire journey. “Your home is one of the few left standing, unmarred and protected from the deathly curse that has spread across your world.”
“What happens if it falls tothem? The vampires,” I asked, mind wandering to the glass vial hidden within the pouch at my waist.
Faenir looked at the hooded figure of Charon who, as I expected, did not utter a word nor the hush of a breath. Knowing that the haunting figure was not prepared to come to Faenir’s aid, the elven prince looked back at me with a face of forced steel.
“The end. For us all.”
* * *
Acarriage waited for us as we climbed out of the ferryman’s boat. At least Faenir climbed, my disembark was more of a clambering on wobbling knees.
The world had not stopped rocking before the ferryman changed course and pushed the boat away from us. I watched as he disappeared, the folds of his obsidian cloak melting with the dark sky in which he moved towards. Within moments Charon, and the ruby flame that burned proudly from the lantern at the crown of his stick, vanished into nothingness.
I had long confirmed, aided by Faenir’s prior comment, that Charon was not part of the living world. He was dead, a shade covered in clothing to hide the truth.And the unsaid truth did not concern me.
Faenir hesitated as he waited upon the sandy bank for me. His hand twitched at his side, fingers flexing, as he asked me with forced politeness to follow him into the wooden box on wheels which waited upon a distant path.
There was no hesitation from me to enter. I was the first one inside the darkened carriage, Faenir following shortly behind me. The exchange from the boat into the carriage happened so quickly that I hardly noticed the two bodies who sat upon an elevated seat at the head. They held onto the reins of four, brilliantly white horses. Unlike Charon, these people were very much alive.
As the whip of reins sounded and the carriage jolted gently forward, I decided to break the tension for fear it would devour me completely.
“Is there anything you wish to warn me about?” I asked.
Faenir’s attention snapped from fussing over his nails, to me in a heartbeat. “Only that, no matter what impression you receive, we will not be welcome.”His reply shocked me.
“Care to elaborate?”
“Myfamilyhas a strained relationship. Not everyone is as pleased to see me as Myrinn has been.” There was so much unsaid, evident from Faenir’s comment.
“Then I get the impression that I will thoroughly enjoy this evening no matter what it brings.”
Faenir grimaced, returning his attention to his nails. “You will not be the only one…”
Within the carriage, we were no longer exposed to the elements of night. Yet still I clung to the cloak Faenir had given to me with no desire to give it back.
Conversation with Faenir was as deathly as his touch. It was clear he did not wish to speak, not that his blatant refusal should have annoyed me.
It did.
He had seemed entirely focused on me within the boat. Now, I could not discern the distance he was putting between us, his lack of care for my presence made clear by his focus on anything but me.
I reached for the velvet blue curtain that blocked the world beyond the carriage and moved it back an inch so I could see. Everything moved past the window in a blur. It was so sudden my stomach jolted, and I fell back into my seat. It took a long moment of frantic blinking to settle my eyes. It was as though the carriage moved at such a speed that it turned the world beyond into smudges of dark shapes.
Faenir did not elaborate.Of course he didn’t.
There was nothing else to occupy my thoughts but Faenir and his cryptic words. The rest of the journey to our destination went by seemingly quicker than Charon’s boat ride. I had busied myself with thoughts of Tom as I felt he was a safer person to fill my mind than Auriol. His memory was less of a punishment until I recalled the dead bodies of him and his parents.
Had they been discarded yet? Stiffened bodies were usually thrown over the wall by the Watchers in order to prevent the dead from rising again as they did in Darkmourn.
