“How are you feeling?” Finriel asked, and Lorian turned his head to meet her gaze.
“Tired, but I can’t sleep. It appears that I can be worried about something other than you for more than a day,” Lorian said with a smile, but his expression molded into something of surprise at his own words.
Finriel bit the inside of her cheek in order to stop herself from gasping at his forwardness. Her body hummed with energy, and she hastily squashed the small bit of warmth that bloomed inside of her stomach.
“Let’s talk about something other than our quest,” Finriel said. “The storyteller and the pages have been keeping me from sleep too.”
Lorian nodded in understanding, and looked down. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” Finriel answered, feeling shocked at her own words as they tumbled from her mouth. But it was true. She had missed him terribly, even if she had hated him at the same time. It was now Lorian’s turn to look surprised as he rose to his feet. Finriel rolled her eyes and stood up as well, knowing exactly what he was going to do.
Lorian began to pace back and forth with long strides, his arms crossed tightly over his chest. Lines of taut muscles rippled against his shirt sleeves, and Finriel had to drag her gaze away and up as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.
“Stop it,” she ordered, throwing her hand out to grab his shoulder. She hated it when he paced, a habit that he had as a child whenever he was afraid to do something.
Lorian stopped abruptly and turned toward her. In a moment, his arms were wrapped around her, squeezing tightly as he held her against his chest. Finriel wrapped her arms around his waist instinctively and closed her eyes. He felt strong against her, like an anchor holding her down against even the strongest of tides. But then the memories came rushing into her brain like a tidal wave, and the anchor flew from the ground.
“I can’t,” Finriel gasped, pushing him away with a thrust of her hands. He stumbled backwards with a look of confusion and pain that made her heart ache more than she cared to admit.
“You can’t what?” he asked, his voice quiet, as if to trying to keep her calm.
Finriel clenched her fists and stared down at the polished stone under their feet. “It’s like my heart and my mind are in a continuous battle and I can’t seem to figure out what the best decision is,” she started. He took a step closer, but Finriel brought a hand up for him to stop.
“You left me to die. The one person who I thought would be there for me no matter what. I thought you were going to stay and stop Barrin, but you didn’t. And now every time I think about you, I feel like my heart wants to burst with joy, yet I also feel like I want to make you burn in the Nether for what you did.”
Lorian looked down, and Finriel could tell her words had struck a chord. She kept deathly still, waiting for a reply. Moments passed as he kept his gaze down, clenching and unclenching his fists. Finally, he dragged his eyes of ice upward, and a different kind of shiver crept down her spine. It caressed the pain and eased it to mend, but she wouldn’t let it. Not until he simply explained why.
“Finriel.” Lorian took another step closer and placed his cold, calloused hands upon her cheeks. The anguish marring his features almost made her look away, but their gazes were locked together as he spoke. “I hate myself for what I did to you. I was a coward and I was too scared to save you myself. I thought ordering Nora to save you would be enough, and I’d be able to go with her, but when I got captured, that possibility was wiped away.”
Finriel gasped, and Lorian wiped his thumb across her cheek. Only then did she realize that she was crying.
“I want you so bad,” he whispered, “and I don’t care what I have to keep doing in order to gain your trust or even just your forgiveness. I want my best friend back.”
Finriel didn’t realize what she was doing until her arms were around his neck and she was crying silently against his chest. His arms immediately wrapped around her waist and squeezed gently, his strong frame tense against hers. He bent his head to rest in the crook of Finriel’s neck and released a strangled sigh.
“I tried to come back for you every single day. When I was ordered to steal the dragon’s egg from Dragonkeep, I almost didn’t and went to look for you instead. But I knew that if I recovered the egg, the thieves would give me enough gold to afford a horse. That way, I would be able to cover more ground.” His voice was muffled against Finriel’s shoulder as he spoke. “I tried so hard to find you, but as the years passed, I slowly lost hope and fell further into thievery. I hate myself for leaving you.”
Finriel’s heart clenched inside her chest as she listened to Lorian speak. She had wanted to know what it felt like to be in his embrace for a long while now. It felt liberating and yet strangulating to be this close. Finriel pushed against him slightly, just enough to look into his icy blue eyes that caused so many to shudder.
“I didn’t know that you sent Nora to help me,” Finriel answered in barely a whisper. Guilt crushed her heart for assuming that Lorian had abandoned her when he had simply been trying to save her.
“I should have gone myself,” Lorian growled.
Finriel could feel the self-loathing that was beginning to pulsate through his body. She placed a hand on his chest and shook her head.
“No, you could have gotten killed. The boy was mad, I think he would have stayed true to his word about ending your life.”
“That was to be your fate if Nora hadn’t come. And then it would have been my fault.”
“It’s not your fault,” Finriel answered with an attempt at a soft smile. Smiling had never something she was good at doing. Lorian shook his head again and looked down. Finriel didn’t know how to make him feel better, but she understood now. She had been the terrible and foolish one. She’d been so stuck on believing that he’d left her for dead that the thought of anything otherwise had felt implausible
“I’m sorry,” Finriel whispered.
Lorian’s head shot up at this, his eyes wide with surprise. “Why would you be sorry?”
Finriel let herself gaze at the smooth planes of his neck and collarbone for a moment as she pulled her thoughts together. The open drop and meadow below made Finriel almost dizzy, the light winter breeze ruffling her hair and making her squint. Her blood began to pump faster as she realized just how close they were. Their bodies pressed together, his arms around her waist. Her hands on his chest. He seemed to notice her body tense and began to take a step back, his grip on her loosening.
“I’m sorry because I was too stubborn and pig-headed to realize that you did care and hadn’t left me on purpose,” Finriel began. “I’m sorry because I didn’t know that you had been captured trying to come back. I’m sorry that after that day, I hated you so much, until now. I’m sorry because I thought about you every day, thinking about every method I could use to kill you the next time I saw you.”
Lorian watched her blankly. Finriel knew that was his expression of not knowing what to say in response, so she pushed on. “I’m sorry that I was so terrible to you ever since we met again in the castle and given this damned quest. I fought against every fiber in my body not to simply send you into flames then and there just so that I could make you go away. But the truth is, I was terrified. I was terrified because I hadn’t expected to see you, and I was also terrified because I realized that deep down, I didn’t truly hate you.”
“Stop,” Lorian interjected. “Please, stop.”
Finriel closed her mouth, suddenly feeling both empty and yet so full of emotions that she couldn’t breathe.
“I don’t need your forgiveness,” he murmured.
They stared at each other, and Finriel wasn’t sure if she was still crying. His heart thumped wildly against her hand, singing in tandem with her own frantic pulse. Lorian’s gaze drifted to her lips, and Finriel couldn’t help parting them slightly. Her body suddenly felt hot, and his arms tightened slightly as she inched closer.
“Lorian—”
With a
deafening crack, the entire mountain shuddered. The floor beneath them wobbled and loose pebbles fell from the high arched stone above their heads. Lorian and Finriel stumbled back and looked at each other in trepidation, glancing around wildly as if they would be able to spot what was causing the mountain to cry. And as abruptly as the rumbling started, it stopped. Lorian was still panting as he looked at Finriel and then toward the hall behind her.
“We need to find the others and see what in the Nether that was.”
* * *
Finriel’s lungs were burning by the time they reached the courtyard, which was now in chaos. Gnomes rushed around them frantically, calling and babbling to each other in their common tongue. Lorian took hold of Finriel’s hand to stop her from being barreled over by a group of gnomes. She hated the fire that still curled deliciously in her stomach at the thought of their touching skin, and she shoved away the mortification of how close they had been. You wanted to get closer. She silently cursed herself and shook her head. Now was not the time to be caught up her feelings, no matter how overwhelming or confusing they were.
“We need to find Krete,” Finriel yelled over the din.
Lorian nodded and they began to search the crowd for a sign of the gnome, or any of their companions for that matter. It didn’t take long, and Finriel pointed at Krete before waving him over.
“What happened?” Finriel called.
“Someone used the portal without permission,” Krete panted as he approached, his eyes wide with worry.
“Well, that isn’t too bad, then, is it?” Lorian offered with a shrug.
Krete shook his head and looked between the witch and the thief. “It’s just that, though,” he gulped. “Egharis has disappeared.”
All color drained from Lorian’s face and Finriel’s stomach gave an uncomfortable flop. That was not a good sign.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Is he not in the dungeons?”
Krete shook his head again in reply and Lorian cursed.
Just at that moment, a shout from the tier above them made the three companions look up to find Tedric walking briskly toward the stairs that led down to the square. His blonde hair was disheveled and tangled, and his face was set into a hard mask. As Tedric approached them, he roughly ran his fingers through his hair and met all of his friends’ worried glances with one to match.
“Aeden is gone, and I think she took both of our pages.”
Krete looked down and sighed, his face falling. “Oh, no.”
“Do you know something that we don’t?” Tedric asked, his voice a razor sharp edge.
The gnome opened his mouth to respond but then closed it again, his shoulders hunched with discomfort. Lorian took a step forward with a raised brow.
“Krete, what is it?” Finriel urged.
“It’s Aeden,” Krete replied sheepishly. “She must have taken Egharis through the portal.”
Tedric took Krete by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the ground so that he was at eye level. Krete gasped and thrashed his legs as the warrior growled, “You’re lying.”
Krete shook his head urgently, his stormy eyes widening.
Finriel put a hand on Tedric’s arm. “Let him go, Tedric. Aeden’s actions are not his fault.”
“Besides, if you let him live, he could actually tell us where she went,” Lorian added.
Tedric held the gnome for a moment longer before letting out a huff and dropping him. Krete stumbled as he landed on the cobbled ground and sucked in a deep breath.
“Where did she go?” Tedric demanded.
“She’s most likely halfway back to Proveria by now,” Krete stammered. “King Sorren gave her a deadline of returning with the pages by Clamidas.”
Tedric cursed colorfully and grabbed at his already wild hair. “She didn’t tell me that.”
Finriel shrugged. “Well, the quest is over, and we were all going our separate ways.”
“But we were supposed to be the ones to take the storyteller to our king,” Tedric snapped. “That was not her duty.”
“I’m not sure that we can do anything about that now,” Krete sighed, and Tedric shook his head.
“No, I can’t accept that,” Tedric growled. “We were in charge of the storyteller, no matter what our decision about the pages was going to be. We need to go after her and get Egharis before she reaches the fairy king.”
“I agree,” Finriel replied. “Aeden has potentially caused an even larger disagreement between Proveria and Keadora than we can afford.”
The thought of seeing her mother sent another flop through Finriel’s stomach, and her resolve set in. They needed to get Egharis back. She would not allow herself to have spent three moons of her life trekking through the realm just to have failed at her mission, and especially to have failed at finally being able to meet her mother for the first time.
“We need to go after her then,” Tedric replied at once. “If we leave now, we could get a good head start.”
Krete shook his head. “The portal needs time to rejuvenate, it could take days.”
“We do have a dragon at our disposal, if you haven’t forgotten,” Lorian chimed in.
“We would be too visible, and besides, what do you think the sight of a black dragon flying through the sky would bring to anyone who happened to look up as we pass by?” Finriel replied, and Lorian gave her an exasperated look that popped the happy bubble still managing to hang onto her heart.
“It’s the only option that we have that will get us there fast enough,” Lorian said. “If we travel through Naebatis, the mist cover will hide us from any travelers or other residents of the kingdom.”
“He’s right,” Tedric agreed. “It’s the only way. We can skirt around any villages once we enter Proveria and have Suzunne land somewhere far enough away from Anemoi Citadel in order not to cause any attention.”
“But it’s Clamidas,” Krete interjected. “There will barely be any part of the forest that won’t be swarming with fairies.”
“We’re going to have to try,” Tedric growled, and it was clear to Finriel that his patience was wearing thin.
“Okay, but I’m going with you,” Krete replied. “I’ve known Aeden since she was a child. It’s my duty as her friend to make sure that she is okay.”
“You can ask her why she broke our agreement as well,” Lorian muttered, and Finriel felt a flicker of anger as she silently agreed with the thief.
“Let’s get changed and gather our things,” Tedric said. “We can meet in Suzunne’s alcove in ten minutes.”
“What about Nora? She can’t travel on Suzunne,” Finriel said, and bit her lip with worry.
“She will have to stay here,” Krete said. “I will arrange for Mott to care for her until we return. If you don’t come back here in time, I will bring her to Keadora myself once this is over.”
Finriel fought back a sudden burning sensation behind her eyes and forced herself to nod. She had never been separated from Nora for more than a few days since the mogwa had been gifted to her by the elf, but she knew that it needed to be done. She took a deep settling breath and nodded to Krete.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
35
Tedric
“Hello there,” Suzunne greeted cheerfully as Tedric entered the large chamber that had been sectioned off for the dragon.
Finriel, Krete, and Lorian made their way into the clearing behind him, and Suzunne gazed down upon the four companions with calm golden eyes and sighed.
“I see you are all in your power outfits once again, what’s the occasion?”
“We need you to fly us to Proveria,” Krete answered.
Suzunne chuckled and looked upon his master with amusement. When no one else laughed, the dragon quieted.
“You can’t tell me you are serious.”
The four companions nodded in unison.
“We need to get there before sundown preferably,” Tedric said with a stiff edge to his voice.
Su
zunne angled his head down to inspect the warrior closer. “Your aura has changed,” he murmured. “It’s a lovely color. It reminds me of—”
“Can we stop speaking of auras and get a move on?” Tedric interrupted sharply.
“As you wish,” Suzunne huffed. “Get on.”
They climbed onto the dragon one by one, being careful to mind the more sensitive scales as they settled between the large spikes on his back.
“Is everyone ready?”
“Yes, just go,” Tedric demanded from his seat before the frontmost spikes.
They flew over the vast expanses of meadows that spread away from Creonid Mountain, wind rushing through their ears as Suzunne’s giant membranous wings pushed them through the sky. Tedric’s face was set into a grim stare as they flew over the edge of Creonid and he felt a shiver of them getting closer to Naebatis, the coldest and second cursed kingdom in Raymara.
Tedric’s thoughts drifted to Aeden and a shaky sigh tore from his mouth as pain squeezed at his heart. He simply didn’t understand why she had gone without warning. She had probably left in hopes of saving him from her father, both of them really. She could use what little magic she had to hide her feelings, and Tedric would have to forget. But he couldn’t. His body still thrummed with the memory of her smile and the whisper of her touch. Tedric may very well have been putting himself in a trap, but it was worth the risk. Anger then replaced whatever feelings he had. Aeden had betrayed him, she had betrayed all of them. It had never been the deal that she take Tedric’s page and Egharis when the time came for them to go their separate ways. Tedric needed to find his page, and that was what he was going to do. He was the Commander of the Ten before anything else, and it was about time he began to act like it again.
Tedric could see the edge of Naebatis clearly through the shimmering white wall of swirling mist and snow. Tedric had never been to Naebatis, and the stories he had heard as a child never made him too keen on going. Everyone knew the ice kingdom had once been a place of warmth and bounty, but the curse had turned the land into a harsh and eternal winter. Travelers were the holders of the kingdom, and legend had it that they were some of the only beings who thrived in the frigid climate.
Of Liars and Thieves Page 31
