AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter28
The Raven Queen
My smaller heartthudded in my rounded chest. They were there. All of them.
“Saga?” Elise stepped forward. She stripped a short fur cloak off her shoulders and held it up.
It’d do. No time to fret over a little flesh.
I flew into the shrubs. Elise let out a ragged laugh and rushed to the bush, gently tossing the fur over the top of the hedge, then stepped back as my body peeled into my true form. Feathers shifted to fingers. Bones stretched and repositioned. My legs lengthened with my spine until I reached a hand and wrapped my front with the fur.
“Saga.” Elise flung her arms around me. Her body shuddered. Sobs. We were all holding in bleeding sobs.
“You’re all here?” I whispered. “You’re all truly fine?”
Elise’s eyes burned. “Most of us.”
A cinch gathered in my stomach, but I was soon drawn into the kingdoms. Over my shoulder, I looked to the trees. “Rune, where are you?”
The rustle of leaves followed shortly. From a distance away, shadows shifted, and the length of Rune’s glistening wings came into focus under the red moon. He landed in a crouch in the next heartbeat and folded his wings.
“We heard movement,” he said. “And came to investigate. Gods, it’s a relief to know it’s you.”
Herja shoved through her people and took hold of my arm. “Gunnar and Eryka?”
“They’re safe,” I told her. “Eryka has said a few things.”
“As always,” Kase grumbled.
Malin used her elbow to shove his ribs, then looked back to me. “Any idea where we are?”
Oh, I had an idea. And it made little sense. “We took to the skies to get a vantage point,” I said. “I quickly learned I didn’t have need of one. This land . . . this is my home. My first home. The land in which I was born.”
Heady silence stacked over the gentle breeze through the leaves. Valen was the one to speak. “When you say the land in which you were born—”
“The first kingdom. The one we all saw in Ari’s memories.” I hugged my middle, keeping the fur over my breasts and thighs. “This is the kingdom of my brother. I swear to you, from the peaks to the distance to the shore, this is home.”
“The kingdoms broke,” Elise muttered and held a hand to her head. “They broke once, now if this is right . . . it’s as though they’ve gone back.”
Rune came to my side. “We went to scout around to get our bearings and for Ari to draw a map. Come to our camp, just through there.” He gestured to the southern wood. “We found a pond with plenty of fish, and we can plan how to reach the sea. That is where the light shines.”
“Any sign of the storyteller and Falkyns?” Kase asked.
I grinned. “Niklas found us.”
“Hells.” Kase’s chin dropped, and I suspected it had a great deal to do with the fact that he did not want the rest of us to see his expression in the moment.
“But Cal,” I said, voice soft. “I have not seen her. Not yet.”
“It could be her at the shore, if something is there.” Sol Ferus stepped beside his brother. “I agree, we need to make our way there.”
“Follow us,” I said, slipping back toward the shrubs. “He will bluster his words, as you know, but Ari will be extremely relieved to see you all.”
I led them through the trees in raven form. Rune kept to the treetops with me, watching for threats from above.
The forest was still and quiet but for a few curious creatures. My mind still hadn’t gathered the possibility of what happened here, but I knew this land. The falls, they’d be half a day from our position. There, we’d find the hot springs like the ones that had been in the Court of Blood. In the other direction were wild fruit trees with colorful pomes and spiked fruits and berries where we could feed kingdoms for months. Where we could gather and make all manner of sweet wines and ales. In the center knolls were where quarries had once been, where the smiths stocked their iron ore and masons found their granite.
The sea was close. Doubtless it would have the same shoreline with pebbled beaches, herring and silver fish, fat from blue algae that grew on the black stones at the bottom of the coves.
