So Dark the Night
Page 29
“Mmm?”
“You seemed so—” a cough silenced what he would have said. “Well, it is nice to see you content.”
Despite the sun, the tranquility, and the peace, I had to know what he was talking about. I turned to him and shielding my eyes from the sun so I didn’t blind myself. Adjusting to the bright light, I blinked at him a couple of times. His name was… Tam, perhaps. One of the younger guards.
I noticed that he started to methodically rub the fingertips of his right hand against his thumb, in a sequence of some sort. I’d seen men do that in the past, when they mentally prepared to go into battle. I’d have to ask them about that some other day. Was he nervous now that he had my full attention? Or that I was looking at him for so long without speaking?
My gaze traveled slowly up to meet his eyes. Nothing too intimidating, since he was standing and tall, and I was reclined, trying not to mess up my nieces’ handiwork. But, as soon as our gazes met, he quickly averted his gaze toward the ground, and dropped to one knee, extending his hand to touch the corner of the blanket. Well, that was unexpected.
“What are you doing?”
“I have offended you, my queen. Please forgive me.” Both knees now, both hands outstretched to touch the blanket. I had no words for this behavior, and so I turned my head to ask the other men, who, given their age, I thought would have more answers for me. To my dismay, two of the men were already on one knee. Their captain, Lord Ouros thankfully, was still on his feet, but his head was bowed. I definitely did something wrong; my stomach started knotting. I didn’t really want to know what I did, but I knew that I wouldn’t get an answer unless I asked a direct question.
“Lord Ouros, please explain.”
He sank to his knees before me, right where just a few minutes ago, he laid berries for me to eat. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“But, I’m not offended. What do you mean? And stop kneeling, please. And explain. Why am I supposed to be offended?”
“Because I spoke about personal things, and you didn’t like it,” Tam said.
“And, because I failed in my training him to know better,” Ouros said.
All this turning from one side of me to the other while balancing this crown on my head was definitely giving me a headache. But, I made sure to keep my voice even so they wouldn’t think I was aggravated because of anything they did. I closed my eyes again, just to steady myself, and when I opened them again, Ouros met my eyes full on, not in challenge, but a resigned acceptance. I almost didn’t want to ask about what he was supposed to accept.
“Lord Varun, you seem to want something from me. Please just speak plainly.”
“Whatever punishment you would have on Tam, I should be allowed to take it as his leader.”
Whoa. Didn’t expect that.
A few minutes ago, everything was happy and peaceful… I thought I even saw one of them smile, or at least the corners of his mouth wasn’t so tense. I looked at him for another few seconds, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I started laughing. Hard.
Their looks of worry and bewilderment just egged me on more. The flower crown fluttered all around me, lost in the abandonment of my laughing fit. Unfortunately, the laughing turned a little bit to crying, which I made sure I cut off at one sob, or else they’d think I was completely mad. They didn’t move through all that, except to be able to peer up at me. I rubbed at my eyes, and then my forehead, not caring that I may look weaker doing it. My headache returned in full, and added a throbbing to it as well. Awesome.
“Look. Who do you think you’re talking to? Do you think I care about this form and structure? And why am I supposed to be offended that you observed something about me. You know what, I don’t even really want to know why I’m supposed to be offended. I will just let you know, that I’m not. Now, please, get back to happy. And someone help me get this crown back together so that my nieces don’t freak out.”
With a task at hand, the men didn’t have any problems focusing: one gathered more flowers, the other two were helping me braid the crown back upright the way it was (since I never knew what I looked like, I trusted their observational skills to put it back right), and the other was brushing the blanket back, and in general cleaning the surrounding area and acting like a lookout. He signaled that the girls were coming, though I didn’t need that warning. Clearly, the running and shrieking could only be my nieces. I looked up in time to see them running, and holding a mirror between them, their guardian a few paces back. I was amused to see him a little out of breath.
“It took us for-ever to find this mirror, but it had to be this one!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty, and something a queen would use!”
Yes, it would be something a queen would use, because it was my mother’s hand mirror. She hadn’t really used it, merely had it propped on her vanity between a matching brush and comb. It was silver, heavy, with the artful scrollwork down the back and handle of the mirror emblazoned with my family’s symbol and story in simple glyphs. I was proud to hold it.
I spent the next few minutes surveying their handiwork, oohing, and ahhing over specific details that I knew they had no part of since the men around me helped to put my aright again while the girls were looking for this thing in the first place, but I knew my duty as an aunt, even though I was still learning the ‘fearless leader’ one.
“Well, you two did a wonderful job! Now, how about baking ourselves some cookies and brownies! You can take some home to your mom and dad when they pick you up.”
“If there are any left!”
With that, they ran back toward the house, shrieking as they went. I called, “You need to wash your hands!” after them, but I doubted they heard me.
One of the guards, though, nodded and raised his hand as he left after them, and I think that meant he understood. I’m sure he would rather face down a demon horde rather than wrestle two squirming girls to wash up when they would rather be smearing brownie batter all over their face, but I admired his courage.
I waited for Ouros, knowing that he got nervous if I wander off by myself, even for a few paces. He was just shaking off the blanket, and threw it over his shoulder, leaving his hands free for his weapons.
Just as he reached me, and held his right hand out to brace my back (I think long dresses were deemed to be feminine and ladylike because they essentially crippled the “lady” and made her helpless!), everything went black.
One blink, and I was sent to another place, full of screams, stinking of fear and despair. The next, I was in Enver’s arms, and hoped never to see him so scared ever again.
“Enver, are you ok?”
He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes in relief. He opened his eyes again, and the blue eyes that focused on me now were searching. Hunter’s eyes. “I could ask you the same thing.”
That’s when I remembered the brief vision I experienced, and took in the fact that the other three men took defensive positions around us, as if attackers would take us while we were distracted.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine, I just had a random vision. I’m sorry.” I kept stammering out apologies like an unstoppable fool, as he helped me up, his restless eyes now scanning for any would-be attacker.
“My queen.”
I look down, and notice that my mirror was glowing. Really. I flipped it over, and promptly wished I hadn’t. Because I was pretty sure that through that mirror, I was glimpsing hell. And the demons that lived there probably just noticed our presence.
Perfect.
Karina, The Brightling. Queen of Shadows, Sovereign over the Shadow Court, which is also known affectionately as the Brightling Court.
The Shadow Court’s Inner Circle:
Enver, Prince of Darklight, Primus of the Queen of Shadows, Captain of the Shadow Guard.
West, Lord of Storm and Portals.
Taran, Lord of Thunder and Earthquakes.
Havoc, Lord of War and Air.
Ranek, Vagari Prince of Straits.
Courtier
s:
Ouros, Lord of Waters.
Raya, Ranek’s sister. Queen apparent.
Una, ghost of Oracle.
Allies:
Thana, The Queen of Nightmares and Death. Sovereign over the Nightmare Court and of the Fold. Mother to Morana and Karina.
Morana, The Queen of Winter and Blood. Sovereign over the Winter Court. Sister to Karina.
Vatea, Dagan God of Daylight and Waters. Father of Karina.
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HI, I’M ELLE CROSS, and I live in NYC with my husband and our imaginary dog that we will one day adopt. I have a massive makeup collection and I’m grateful that, as a freelance makeup artist, I can justify buying even more.
When I’m not playing with color or my imaginary friends, I can usually be found in the nearest diner or bubble tea shop trying to take the perfect picture of my drink while my husband rolls his eyes.
(Yes, we’re that couple. And, no, I don’t post my food pics on my Instagram feed.)
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THE REALMS OF THE REMNANT GODS
THE BRIGHTLING COURT SERIES
So Dark the Night
So Bright the Dawn (coming soon)
THE GRIT SERIES
Grit (coming soon)