AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“All useful skills,” I said and turned toward Asker. “Find them a home near the Winged Keep. Supply them with provisions. I want a guard to remain close to them while we find a way to avoid animosity or violence against the humans currently living on Vhaeryan soil.”
ChapterThirty-Eight
Galantia
Present Day, Valtaris, Winged Keep
In the hushed stillness of Queen Elnora’s chamber, a sense of trespass weighed on me, yet my fingers tingled with curiosity and excitement as they rummaged through remnants of the past.
And what a lovely past it had been.
Rose-scented air filled the room, the aroma lingering, even after years of disuse. Tapestries of gold-threaded shadowcloth adorned the walls, their intricate weavings a celebration of Raven history, ever-so elusive to me. The towering bookshelves seemed to whisper as I ran my fingers along the leather- and vellum-bound spines, one wrist carrying a blue ribbon, the other a chestnut bracelet, searching for something,anything,that could help me wield shadows.
“She loved to read.” A trait she must have passed on to Malyr as he, too, enjoyed surrounding himself with books. “But I’m thinking she loved nothing quite as much as her children.”
A love that reflected itself in various artifacts that filled the room. Children’s drawings preserved like sacred texts, simple wood carvings embodying a son’s adoration for his mother, bundles of tiny black feathers wrapped in embroidered cloth… The love this place must once have harbored created an atmosphere of nurturing warmth that I’d never known.
“I couldn’t find information about voids or thieves in any of them.” Tjema carefully looked through folded linens, her movements slow and respectful, her black strands braided down the burnt side of her face the way I’d once showed her. “Her gift revealed late. Maybe she never learned much about being a void?”
“The way Prince Malyr spoke of her made her sound powerful.” My gaze shifted to the dressing table beside the tall window that overlooked Valtaris’ central market, my pulse quickening. How likely was it to find what I was looking for among jewelry and powders? Would it be wrong to peek into those drawers? “Have you looked under the bed?”
Tjema yawned since she’d only arrived at Valtaris a few days ago by carriage, but that hadn’t kept her from tending to me the way she’d done it at Tidestone and Deepmarsh. “There was nothing.”
Hesitation tingled through my muscles, pulling my gaze back to the dressing table adorned with delicate trinkets. After a lingering moment, I took hesitant steps toward it. The cushioned stool felt soft under me, like a welcoming embrace, urging me to unlock the secrets that lay hidden within the wooden drawers.
I pulled at them.
Locked.
Locked.
Locked.
I kept tugging on the golden knobs, my hope dimming with each unyielding click. Until the seventh one opened with a reluctant creak. Inside, a square wooden box lay hidden beneath a layer of lavender sachets, their scent faint but lingering. My hands trembled as I lifted the box, setting it before me on the table.
A deep breath. Then I opened it.
Stacks of letters looked back at me, each sealed with black wax, their address of onyx ink elegantly dancing across parchment yellowed by age… in Old Vhaer.
“Tjema, can you read Old Vhaer?”
“No.”
“Maybe they are farewell letters?” I went through them, squinting at writings I couldn’t decipher, my arms tugging heavily on my shoulders. “It would be easier to understand what I’m holding here, if only I could—”
My hands stilled on the next parchment, my heart clanking against my throat at the words it held in the common tongue:To Malyr’s fated mate.
The seal broke with the cracking of brittle wax, revealing Queen Elnora’s ornate handwriting.
Dear daughter,
If you read this, then I am gone from this world, never having had the chance to meet you. But if I had, I would have asked you to take good care of my son. Do not shy away from his darkness… embrace it.
Understand that shadows cling to crevices and secret corners, thriving in the unseen, the hidden, the unacknowledged. If you fully embrace my son’s darkness, welcoming every aspect of him without reservation, then those shadows will find their domain reduced, having less surface to cling to.
I entrust him to you and hope that you can be the light in his life, as I pray you will find your missing piece in him.
With all the love that words can carry from one heart to another, even across the veil of time and death,
