Ham was wide awake and his mind was already reaching, teasing at an idea.
They drank a thin broth quietly together in a small room near the kitchens. Brother Hoolyn had insisted, and seen to it, that the monks gave their quartet a wide berth.
‘Did you sleep, Ham?’ Florentyna enquired.
‘Yes, your majesty. I feel much rested,’ he lied.
‘Do we have a plan?’ Tamas asked into the gloom. He looked around at them with frustration in his eyes.
Cassien spoke up. ‘King Tamas, facing Cyricus is something that we now acknowledge is what Gabe, Ham and myself were brought together for. You have done your bit, your majesty: you’ve rid us of Aphra,’ he said, glancing at the queen with apology in his expression, ‘and now it’s up to us to rid Morgravia of Cyricus.’ He paused. ‘Ham and I have things we must discuss.’
Florentyna nodded, understood what he was asking. ‘Come on, Tamas, walk with me. I need some air.’
Tamas frowned. ‘It’s cold, your majesty, you risk —’
She gave him a wry smile. ‘I have a cloak,’ she said and gave him a hard look.
He stood, seeming to understand that the brothers needed privacy. ‘It would be an honour,’ he said, offering an arm.
THIRTY-FIVE
The sovereigns had departed the chamber leaving Cassien and Ham seated opposite one another at the refectory table.
‘You were right,’ Cassien said.
‘That Gabe is your brother?’ Ham replied.
He nodded.
Ham gave a soft sigh. ‘And that we are brothers too. We are the three … the Triad I saw in Wevyr’s crucible. I just can’t work out how.’
‘It will be explained,’ Cassien said, standing to walk around the table.
‘You know?’
He arrived to seat himself next to the boy and looked into those bright pale eyes that he now realised echoed Fynch so closely. Is this what Fynch had looked like as a youngster … he felt sure he did. Spare, small, wide-eyed, reserved, full of intelligence and ideas, but so quiet at times that he could forget Ham was alongside. He was a good listener and had courage in spades.
He was his baby brother.
Without pausing to analyse his intensifying emotions a moment longer he pulled the boy close and hugged him hard.
‘I’m so glad we met, Hamelyn.’ He didn’t know what else to say.
Ham pulled back, grinning. ‘Now we both have family. Who are our parents?’
‘I promise you will find out.’ At Ham’s quizzical look, Cassien put a hand up in defence. ‘I am not being deliberately opaque. Trust me.’
The boy nodded. ‘I should tell you that Master Fynch spoke to me while I was resting. I can’t tell if I was dreaming but we talked.’
Cassien looked surprised. ‘What did you learn?’
‘Only what I already know. That it is up to you, Gabe and myself to work out how to rid the land of Cyricus.’
‘Fynch has manipulated us into the position we find ourselves now.’
‘Tell me again about Gabe.’
‘There is only what I’ve already told. He remained at Pearlis … in the cathedral,’ Cassien began and told Ham everything he had learned, except who Ham’s father was.
‘I’m the key?’ Ham said, looking and sounding both baffled and frightened. ‘Master Fynch said as much but how can that be?’
‘Ham, do you know Romaine?’
His brother shook his head.
‘She’s a wolf.’
Cassien saw the spark flash in Ham’s pale eyes before his brother bit his lip frowning. ‘Yes, I know her. A wolf spoke to me … in the palace. And she appeared to me with Fynch. She’s very beautiful.’
‘She’s my wolf. My dearest friend for the years of loneliness in the forest. She’s special … enchanted, I suspect, although every hair of her is a wild beast.’
‘She protects you, Cassien. She told me to watch over your body. That’s how I knew you were responsible for the deaths in the palace. I watched you slumped … there, but not really there. The wolf didn’t say but I was able to piece together what was happening.’
Cassien gave a sad smile. ‘She’s always protected me. And now she protects you. But more than that, little brother, she talks to you. She has never communicated with me as she has you. I don’t understand her fully. She is of the dragon; one of his watchers, I suppose. But she’s there for us and we must make use of her presence.’
‘How?’ Ham said, getting up to pace.
Cassien decided it was a family trait. He shrugged. ‘Work it out. You will know how if you search your heart.’
‘This is what I understand, Cass, frightening though it sounds. Gabe deliberately stayed behind at the cathedral claiming the dragon king demanded it of him.’ Cassien nodded. ‘You have also been told that Gabe can conjure and lure Cyricus into this emptiness called the Void.’
‘Why, though?’
Ham frowned. ‘I understand,’ he said, chewing his lip. ‘It’s because we have to get Cyricus to leave the mortal body he inhabits. Because once he’s in his spiritual form, then we can trap him in the Void.’
‘Why not just kill this Captain Wentzl and be done?’ Cassien said. Ever since King Tamas had angrily explained what Ham had pieced together, he’d been considering the ease of finishing Cyricus once and for all. ‘I will find it a great deal easier to kill a man than a spirit.’
Ham shook his head. ‘That would be a mistake. It’s why Master Fynch has planned so meticulously. Otherwise he could mobilise an army after Wentzl.’
‘I don’t understand.’
His younger brother paced and something in the way he held his head reminded Cassien of Fynch. He felt a rush of sadness that all of them had missed out on their parents, on each other. He pushed the grief aside.
‘I think I do,’ Ham was saying, waving a finger, staring at a spot on the wall while he spoke. ‘Aphra was a spiritual being but with none of the powers of Cyricus, as I understand it. She was his servant and so her possession of Darcelle was always fraught with the knowledge, I think, that she could die in Darcelle’s body. Perhaps not Cyricus, though. Maybe Master Fynch knows this, or he’s taking the precaution against it.’
‘That he can’t trust Cyricus will die, you mean?’ Cassien said, working it through in his mind.
‘Mmm, yes … Master Fynch may not trust that Cyricus will die if we kill his host. He wants to make certain of it and the only way to do that is in the Void, which Cyricus cannot escape easily.’
‘Right …’ Cassien murmured. ‘So he’s lured from the host so we know he’s free and we trap him in the Void.’
Ham nodded and shrugged. ‘And you destroy him.’
‘Why not leave him in the Void? Why fight at all?’
The youngster blew out his cheeks. ‘That’s what was done before. It didn’t contain him for eternity. I suppose Master Fynch is going to make sure that the demon is destroyed, not just banished.’
Cassien took a deep breath. ‘You do see things clearly.’
Ham gave a crooked smile. ‘So our plan is that Gabe conjures the Void and you destroy Cyricus.’
‘I’d like to know with what though?’
Ham shrugged. ‘Oh, that’s obvious.’
‘Really?’ Cassien looked at his smaller brother with awe. ‘Not to me.’
‘You know how, Cass. Think through what has gone before. In all the strangeness of the days since we met, which of the strange events is the most curious, the most secretive, the most powerful? And don’t say your roaming. I’m talking about something only very few people know.’
Cassien’s brow creased in thought. He didn’t like being made to work like this. ‘Just tell me.’
Ham shook his head. ‘Come on, work it out. You’re going to be alone in the Void. What are you going to use to destroy Cyricus? You know what it is!’
Cassien blinked in consternation and focused, closing his eyes. Everything had been strange since Fynch had accompanie
d Loup into the forest. Nothing had been the same since. He reached, deciding to let go with his thoughts and try for Ham’s sake to open his mind … perhaps what had shocked him the most had been …
And then it happened.
It was freakish and sublime in the same instant. Suddenly, like a doorway yawning to let in a blinding light, he felt his mind opening, as though beyond his control, and within that moment of loss he realised he was not alone.
Cassien, spoke a voice he instinctively knew.
Romaine!
He could feel her pleasure in his mind. I am honoured to serve you, she said, the grace he knew she possessed as a creature so evident in her thoughts.
How …?
My fault, said another familiar voice.
Ham. You did it.
I don’t know how. I felt your mind straining to reach out and it felt easy to latch on to it. The moment I did, I felt connected through Romaine.
Hello, brothers, said Gabe into their sense of wonder.
Gabe! they replied as one.
And now the Triad is connected. It won’t be long now, Romaine warned.
Where is Fynch? Gabe asked.
I am with Fynch, she answered. Gabriel. I hope we will meet.
What about the Void, Gabe? Cassien asked.
Ready when you are, he replied.
Cassien was impressed. Ham, you will have to be my eyes on the land. I suspect once in the Void I see only the spiritual world.
I will be the one watching over you. Cassien, keep in mind that Cyricus is not your only enemy. Time away from your body can hurt you as badly.
I won’t forget, he promised. I think I know how I must destroy him, Ham.
He sensed the smile from the youngster.
It’s the sword, forged with the blood of the dragon.
Yes, Cassien, yes! Ham’s voice was full of congratulation. The sword is made of Fynch’s magic — wild, royal, ancient. It is singing to me now. It senses that its purpose draws close. He is near. I feel him … the sword does too. Romaine?
Evil comes, she said.
Gabe, Ham said, can Cassien hear us when he’s in the Void?
No. But we are all connected through you, Ham.
Ham paused and Cassien wasn’t sure whether this was surprise or simply the boy realising he must shoulder the burden of keeping them safe, keeping them connected, keeping them strong. Cassien waited, knowing to trust him. Gabe, though the eldest, seemed comfortable to defer to his younger sibling too.
All right, then. Ham finally said. Romaine?
Yes, Hamelyn.
Would you please tell Master Fynch that we are ready, although I just need some private time to think something through.
Cassien nodded. I’m going to take a walk up the hill. I can get a better view of who is coming.
See you on the other side, brothers, Gabe said and although neither understood the expression, they grasped the nuance of his words.
Ham watched Cassien leave and let his mind wander down the path it had been itching to explore.
At the top of the monastery, in the same tower where she had stood petrified only days previously, Florentyna smiled at Tamas before looking back to the lush landscape of the valley. It was still cool this far north, and the green of the surrounding hills was vibrant and punctuated by drifts of wildflowers. Below them, monks toiled in the small patchwork of fields, growing herbs, flowers and vegetables, although as she watched it looked as though they were packing up their tools. Chickens pecked and clucked and scratched around the men, while a few goats chewed lazily in the distance. She noticed the monks unharnessing a donkey from a small plough. Word had obviously gone round to stop their work for the day. Even so, it was a peaceful, gentle scene — the typical picture she held in her mind of rural Morgravia … the one that felt safe and comforting. Reality, of course, was very different. ‘It’s hard to believe when you look out here that we’re running for our lives, isn’t it?’
She sensed rather than saw Tamas nod. He had been extremely quiet as they’d strolled around the cloisters and finally up to the tower, where she’d promised a fine view.
‘Apart from the obvious, Tamas, what is troubling you? I give you my word, you helped me when you took what was left of Darcelle’s life. I can grieve now in private, and properly, knowing she is in Shar’s keeping.’
She laid a hand on his arm to reassure him. He covered it with his own.
‘No, it’s not Darcelle. I did what I did for all the right reasons and will not anguish over that arrow shot. I’m sad for Morgravia, who should not have lost one of its brightest so young.’
She nodded, appreciating his gracious sentiment. ‘Then if not Darcelle, what? We are all in this together. Master Fynch believes he has put everything into place, as I explained moments ago.’
Tamas sighed. ‘No, it’s not that either. If we’re all going to die, Florentyna then, as strange as it sounds, I’m comfortable that it will happen here, with you, and among loyal friends of Morgravia.’
She turned, fixed him with a dark, penetrating gaze and tipped her head to one side. ‘Curiously, I agree with you. But if not impending death at the hands of a demon,’ she continued dryly, ‘then what? I’m not enjoying your pensive mood and feel obliged to fill the silences.’
Tamas surprised her by raising her hand from where it rested lightly on his arm and kissing it. She felt a guilty thrill.
‘It’s you, Florentyna,’ he said, meeting her eyes.
She blinked, hardly daring to believe what he’d said.
Tamas cleared his throat. ‘Do you remember when we first met at Grenadyn?’
‘I have never forgotten it,’ she said, finding it difficult to talk easily. He still held her hand, was scrutinising it, as if unable to look her in the eye.
‘You were such a funny little child. I was charmed by your serious approach to life.’
‘I was the heir, on foreign soil, trying to make my father proud.’
‘And you did. He was very proud of you. And I was enchanted by you. You sat on my knee and told me in great detail — and with much gravity — about the new foal that had been born recently to your father’s favourite mare.’
‘Stella,’ she said and gave a low chuckle. ‘She gave us many foals of her own since.’ Then she took a breath. ‘Um, on your knee?’
He looked up at her, and gave a crooked smile, full of mischief.
‘That’s rather … mmm …’
‘Corrupt?’
She giggled. ‘I was going to say improper.’
‘Your father was present. Full of smiles.’
‘That’s all right then,’ she said, archly, remembering it vividly even though she pretended otherwise.
‘He had no idea what you were doing to my heart.’
She looked at him perplexed. ‘You jest.’
Tamas shook his head. ‘I was completely enchanted. The next time I saw you — at Cipres — you didn’t sit on my knee. You were really very distant. I … well, I thought you found me repugnant.’
‘What?’ she said, aghast. ‘If only you knew.’
‘Knew what?’ he said, holding her hand against his chest now.
Florentyna felt her heart begin to stutter and then thump far too loudly. Could he hear it? ‘I was so frightened by my feelings for you. I thought you’d laugh,’ she admitted. ‘I felt intensely uncomfortable around you, petrified my heart was on show for all to view.’
It was the king’s turn to look dumbfounded. ‘Truly? I thought I disgusted you. You wouldn’t even look at me.’
‘A stupid young girl, unsure of how to behave around a man she loves. And let’s not forget I had been promised to another.’
‘Loves,’ he repeated as though the word was foreign to him.
She nodded, holding his gaze. ‘Forgive me, Tamas. It’s wrong of me to share this now. Darcelle was your true love, and although it wounded me to learn of her feelings toward you and yours for her, I was strangely happy.’
&n
bsp; ‘Florentyna, I —’
‘No, wait. Let me say this. I bore no ill will. I loved Darcelle enough that I could feel only happiness for her in her choice of husband and a deep pleasure that she had chosen so well … for her, for her realm … for the empire.’ She smiled sadly, risked touching his cheek. ‘I couldn’t have chosen better myself.’ Then she sighed. ‘I’m only saying this now because I’ll never forgive myself if something happens and I didn’t share with you that I have loved you for years, and now meeting you as an adult and sovereign to sovereign has only deepened my admiration for you. I believe if we survive what is coming, Tamas, then you and I will be close friends despite whomever we both end up marrying, if we marry. What’s more, I would like to formally associate our two realms in honour of Darcelle. I’ve been thinking, we could call a stretch of water between our two lands after her — her name and memory will forever link our shores. What do you think?’
Tamas took both of Florentyna’s hands now and turned her away from the view to face him fully. ‘I will tell you what I think,’ he said, his voice thick and gentle. ‘This is what I think,’ he continued and leaned close to tenderly kiss her.
At first Florentyna was startled, but not enough to frighten Tamas away; if anything, he leaned in closer, his lips searched hers longer, harder, until Florentyna was lost in his kiss, loving the soft scratch of his beard against her skin, feeling the surge of years of pent-up attraction roaring into that kiss and deepening it, letting him know she loved him, always had, always would.
When he pulled away, she was trembling. ‘It was always you, Tamas. I was betrothed to another man — a lovely man — and dutifully I had resigned myself to being his wife. If fate hadn’t stepped in and sent him to an early death, I would be married to him now, bearing his children, being a good, loyal wife but harbouring the secret that the man I loved with all of my heart belonged to my sister.’
‘Oh, Florentyna, my dear one,’ he said, pulling her close, stroking her hair. ‘We were both trapped. I thought I disgusted you. I had no intention of wooing Darcelle. She seduced me. She was so determined that we wed. I won’t deny I found her attractive and amusing. She made me feel young, she gave me hope, she made me realise that Cipres had plenty to offer a powerful realm from across the seas.’ He took her face in his hands. ‘But you need to know this. I never loved her, not as I have loved you. I have loved only one other girl and I was a child and so was she. We were playmates. My mother disapproved of our deepening relationship and saw to it that it was cut short before it turned into something adult and serious. You remind me of her — you reminded me of her when you were little. Brave, strong, a match for any man.’
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