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“Thanks to a healer.”
“The same who foiled this plan of Queen Neilina’s.”
“Wendeline. Yes. She and Margrethe were working with Gesine, Ianca, and a small faction of Mordain.” I hope she’s still alive.
“Against Ybaris?”
“Not so much against Ybaris as for prophecy.”
“What does all this have to do with you and your memory loss?” Telor interrupts impatiently.
“Watch your tone. You are speaking to a queen, one who saved your life,” Jarek warns, his hand shifting to his dagger.
I wave him off. “It’s okay. It’s a fair question, and I’ll get to it.” I smile. “The queen also enlisted the saplings to gather as much information as they could on Islor. By the time Princess Romeria crossed the rift, they knew everything there was to know about the royal family’s allies and enemies, Islor’s weakest spots, the best ways to attack. Radomir can vouch for that.”
Telor glares at the sapling. “Why would your kind agree to help Ybaris?”
“Because Queen Neilina promised that Mordain would help lift this curse that plagues us, keeping us in the dark,” Radomir says matter-of-factly. “And we believed her.”
“Princess Romeria came to Cirilea with plans to kill the entire royal family on Hudem, poison as many Islorians as she could, and bring the Ybarisan armies across the rift to take Islor’s lands. But Ybaris’s plans backfired on Hudem, thanks to the casters, and Princess Romeria was shot by a merth bolt. She died that night.”
“And yet she stands before us now.” Kienen’s eyes flitter over me before dropping, almost as if in apology.
“That’s because Gesine and the others believed Princess Romeria needed to live for prophecy to be fulfilled. So, Margrethe summoned Malachi and resurrected Princess Romeria. Hence, the daaknar.” If nothing else, that demon serves as proof. “Only, instead of her, they got me.”
“And who are you?” Telor asks, his brow furrowed.
“I’m also Romeria. That was the name my mom gave me.” She once told me it came to her in a dream. Maybe it did, but now I have to wonder if Malachi was somehow whispering in her ear. Or, more likely, Sofie. “But I’ve never plotted to kill anyone, and I don’t hate the Islorians.” In fact, I love one with everything I am. “Consider us two separate people. The old princess is dead, and I have no idea what she was planning, but I will do everything in my power to stop it.”
Silence falls like a heavy stage curtain over the room.
“The old princess could not heal fatal sword wounds and launch commanders through the air,” Kienen says quietly. “Her eyes did not glow silver.”
Gesine said Kienen was respectful to the elementals—unlike the others—so he must value them. That, or have a healthy fear of them. Either way, he isn’t ignorant to what they are and aren’t capable of.
“Yeah, I come with a few extra skills.” That I’m still learning how to use, but they don’t need to know that yet.
“Why would Malachi do this?” Radomir asks.
“The fates do not explain themselves,” Zander cuts in, silently pleading with me. I can practically hear his warning in my mind. It’s too dangerous.
For weeks, Wendeline hid the truth from me about what I was, and when she revealed it, it was with a stark warning that I would be executed if anyone found out. Then I hid it from Zander, afraid he would kill me as she feared he might, until I couldn’t anymore.
He didn’t kill me, but he warned me that others would without question or remorse.
Since then, Jarek has figured it out on his own, and he hasn’t killed me.
Abarrane would have killed me, had she been given the chance in that tent in Eldred Wood, but she seems to have accepted me too.
For months, it’s been one lie and secret after another, to hide what I am.
To protect me.
But there is great value in what I am. Zander saw it, even when he was holding me at arm’s length.
I have to hope these elven will see it as well.
I offer Zander a reassuring smile, one that I hope says It’s time to stop hiding. “To answer your question, Radomir, Malachi brought me here because he needed a key caster in order to open the nymphaeum door.”
Kienen curses.
Telor’s face—already sallow—pales even more. “Are you saying that you are a key caster?”
I take a deep breath. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Behind me, I sense Jarek shifting, ready to defend me against attack.
But Telor only leans against the map table as if for support as he digests this news.
“This is why all these Nulling creatures have come out of hiding,” Kienen muses. “They’re drawn to you.”
“To all casters, but me especially.”
“And you knew this about her?” Telor stares at Zander, his tone filled with accusation. You knew what she was and yet you didn’t kill her when you had the chance?
