Gasping, Eva shot up. Her head pounded in protest, and the entire left side of her body throbbed. The pain snatched away her breath. Wide eyed, Eva looked around and found herself lying in a bed, her dirty, blood-stained tunic replaced by a large white shirt.
“Good timing.”
Twisting her head around, Eva saw Andor enter the room. He studied her for a moment before taking a couple of timid steps to a chair by Eva’s bedside.
“How do you feel?” he asked, sitting down.
“My head hurts,” Eva said, squinting. “Everything hurts.”
Realization struck her like a lightning bolt. “Sigrid! Tahl! Fury!”
Hearing his name, the gryphon’s head appeared at the foot of Eva’s bed, and he leaped on top of it, chirping and flapping his wings in joy.
Eva smiled and ran her fingers through his soft, dark fur until another thought crossed her.
“Ivan! Lord Commander, Ivan was innocent; he didn’t do anything! Please, you can’t execute him, he —”
The lord commander held up a hand. “Everyone is fine. Ivan suffered no lasting harm and has been sent back to his own people, to cure any lingering ailments in his mind. He has been fully pardoned by the king.”
Eva took a couple of shallow breaths and realized she felt almost as bad as she had after Sigrid’s beating. She blinked hard, trying to focus on Andor’s face.
“Tahl made it out to get help,” he said. “When Uthred and Lord Vyr found you, they thought you were dead.”
“Lord Vyr?” Eva said, confused. “What was he…”
“You should have learned already that he’s more than meets the eye,” Andor said. “He was helping Uthred search the Catacombs when Tahl ran into them — it’s fortunate because I’m told Tahl seemed to be under the impressions that Uthred was the one who was responsible for the attacks. He almost drew steel against the commander until Lord Vyr intervened.”
Eva blushed. “It’s not Tahl’s fault,” she said. “I told him and Sigrid and Wynn that it was Uthred who’d been behind the attacks.”
“No harm came from your mistake,” the lord commander said. “And honestly, I can’t say I blame you given Uthred’s attitude toward you. He’s extreme at times, but his loyalty is as unwavering as this mountain.”
Eva couldn’t help herself. “Yes, but so was Celina’s, at least I thought.”
Andor’s face darkened. “True. She betrayed everything she stood for.”
Not knowing what to say, Eva bunched her sheets in her hands and nodded.
“I’ve heard Tahl and Sigrid’s account, as well as Ivan’s,” the lord commander continued. “But you’re the only one who can finish the story.”
Eva swallowed hard and recounted the dark moments in the chamber as best she could. When she got to the part about her father, she faltered. Tears splashed down her face, and her voice caught in her throat.
“Is it…is it true?” she asked Andor. “Am I a…a bastard?”
The lord commander’s jaw grew tight, and he stared at Eva, saying nothing.
“Answer me!” Eva screamed, punching the bed. Her head reeled, and she almost collapsed backward onto her pillow.
“Yes, Eva,” Andor said. “Your father was a man name Aleron, my youngest brother.”
“How could you not tell me?” Eva asked, voice broken. “How could Soot not tell me? You storming liars! I hate you!”
Caught in a burning rage, Eva struck the lord commander across the face with the palm of her hand hard enough she thought she’d might have broken her wrist. Andor just stared back at her, face as stoic and impassive as the mountain he commanded. The rage died as quickly as it came, leaving Eva with a dull emptiness in her chest and a realization for what she’d just done.
“I deserved that,” Andor said in a thick voice. “What we did was wrong, Eva. It was wrong to deceive you. But we did it —”
“They did it because they were loyal friends who obeyed the orders of a selfish, proud fool.”
King Adelar stood in the doorway. Before Eva could even begin to think of what to say, he crossed the room and knelt by her bedside. “Please, Evelyn,” he said, taking her clenched fist between his hands and bowing his head. “If you have to blame someone, have to hate someone, let it be me.”
A sob tore itself from her chest, and tears poured down Eva’s face. “Why?” she managed to ask. “Why did you do this to me?”
Adelar looked up, and Eva saw tears glistening in his cold, blue eyes. “I cannot be sorry enough,” he said. “I’ve been…trying to tell you, and when I heard what happened in the Catacombs, that it might be too late —”
A terrible thought crossed Eva’s mind. “Who was my mother?” she asked, voice catching in her throat. “What did you do to her?”
“She was my wife, the queen,” Adelar said. “She died giving birth to you. Blinded by the pain of her loss and anger at my brother’s betrayal, I sent you away. Marien’s death almost destroyed me. I — I couldn’t bear to have a reminder of her around, a reminder of what Aleron had done. I banished him from Rhylance and ordered you taken from the palace.”
“You made me an orphan,” Eva said through her tears.
“Soot is a close friend of our family,” Andor said. “He agreed to take you in and raise you. Eva — he hated me for lying to you; he wanted to tell you so many times. He wrote me almost every year around your birthday, but I wouldn’t let him. Don’t blame him for this; he loves you like his own.”
“I still don’t understand,” Eva said. “Why did all this happen? Why would my father betray his family and his king?”
“Love is a powerful thing,” Adelar said. “Before the Great Eastern Expedition left, Aleron and Marien were betrothed. While they were gone — Aleron, Andor, Soot, Celina, and the rest — your grandfather, my father, the king grew sick and died. Over two years passed, and we didn’t hear a word from the company. I waited and waited, thinking they’d all been killed. I’d lost my father and thought I’d lost both my brothers as well. Marien…Marien was a comfort in those dark days. We fell in love, and she became my queen.”
“When we returned from the east and Aleron found out what happened, he wanted to kill Adelar,” Andor said. “I love your father more than anything, but he was…headstrong, rash. He was the best of us, the best of the Windsworn, and he knew it. His pride made him…difficult at times. Over the following weeks, Aleron withdrew from all of us, but somewhere along the line he and Marien began writing each other in secret and then meeting. You were the result.”
“You can understand my anger when Marien and Aleron came to me and confessed what they’d done,” the king said. “By rights, I could have had them both executed, but something stayed my hand… Looking at you know, I know why.”
Eva snorted and wiped the snot from her face. “Huh. How benevolent.”
Adelar shot her a pained look. “And so, I exiled Aleron. Marien and I tried to put it behind us, but weeks later she realized she was pregnant. You know the rest.”
“So, my father never even knew I existed?” Eva asked. For some reason, that hurt worse than anything else.
“Aleron left before, and no one has heard from him since,” Andor said. “Trust me when I say if your father had known about you, an army couldn’t have kept him out of Rhylance.”
“Lord Vyr!” Eva said, recalling her conversation. “He told me…he said my father was alive!”
“He very well could be,” Andor said. “If nothing else, Aleron was a fighter. I don’t believe the Windsworn or anyone from Rhylance have seen him since, however.”
Eva stared out the window, lost in an endless sky of hurt and confusion. Everything made so much sense, and yet nothing made sense. Everything she’d thought she was, everything she’d been, was all a lie. She unclenched her hand and pulled it away from the king and into her lap.
“I know your forgiveness is something neither of us, but especially not I, ever deserve,” the king said. “But I will do whatever I can
to make this right between us, Niece.”
Eva jerked at being called niece, like she’d been stabbed. “I…I’d like to be alone now.”
The king rose to his feet and nodded. Andor stood as well. “Soot should be here soon and will want to see you if you are able.”
“I’d like that,” Eva said in a small voice, not looking at either of the men.
She suddenly felt exhausted and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep and wake up to find the last two days had been a bad dream — or, better yet, to wake up in Soot’s cottage like none of it had ever happened. But then she thought of all she’d learned and accomplished, of the friendships she’d made, and especially of Fury. He nudged her hand with his break from the other side of the bed, and Eva knew at once that she wouldn’t trade her bond with the gryphon for anything.
Eva heard one set of footsteps leave the room, while the other paused.
“Eva,” Andor said. She didn’t turn around. “I’m proud of you. Your father would have been proud of you as well.”
The praise struck her bittersweet, and as the door closed and she and Fury were alone, Eva curled into a ball. Tears of equal parts relief, pride, and pain ran down her face, and Eva cried until sleep overtook her.
The next morning, Tahl, Sigrid, and Wynn came to visit. They filed in the room, shy at first until Eva beckoned for them to come over. “It’s not my funeral; stop acting like I’ve died.”
Needing no encouragement, they joined her bedside, Wynn rushing forward to get there first, followed by Sigrid, hobbling along on crutches, her leg bound in straps and wooden shafts to keep it still. Tahl brought up the year, unusually quiet and unsure. Eva caught his eye, and they quickly looked away from one another.
“You’re the talk of the Gyr!” Wynn said. She reached out to pet Fury, who was lying at the foot of the bed, dozing. The gryphon raised his head enough to make a lazy snap at Wynn’s hand, and she pulled it back, frowning.
“Oh no,” Eva said. “What are they saying now?”
“They’re saying we’re storming heroes, and you’re the biggest hero of the bunch!” Sigrid said. Her face split in a rare grin, and she leaned forward over the straightened leg and gave Eva a slap on the back. “That must’ve been some fight — the lord commander told us about the golem. I’m jealous I missed out on taking a crack at it.”
“We’re fine, I promise,” Eva said, then added with a wink, “that golem was nothing compared to you.”
“Eva, look!” Wynn said. She lifted up the corner of her cloak to show off the winged badge pinned to her uniform. “I passed the fledgling trials!”
“I knew you could do it,” Eva said, smiling at the girl. She started to say something else, and then a sickening thought struck her. “Oh no…I missed the trials!”
Sigrid threw her head back and laughed, and Eva shot her a quizzical look. “Why is that funny?”
“Eva, do you think the lord commander was going to kick you out of the Gyr after what you went through?” Tahl said, the ghost of a smile on his lips. “You made it through far worse than anything the other first recruits had to pass.”
Embarrassed, Eva mumbled something, face heating up. Truth be told, the last thing she’d thought of was the trails, until Wynn brought it up. The previous night had passed mostly sleepless as she tossed and turned, body aching, mind still reeling by the bitter truths she’d learned from Andor and the king. She’d made up her mind that when her friends came to visit she’d tell them about it. No matter how much she wanted it to, she knew the word would get out and her parentage wouldn’t be a secret for long. Yet now that they were here before her, Eva hesitated.
“Eva, is it true?” Wynn said in a hushed voice, eyes wide. Sigrid and Tahl both shot her a stern look, but the younger girl ignored them. Eva knew then it was already too late. Like it or not, she’d have to face this issue in the light rather than burying it away like her impulse suggested. Either way, she’d come to realize in the early hours of the morning that this wasn’t something she could untangle in a night, nor anytime soon.
“Shut up, Wynn,” Sigrid said.
“There’s a rumor going around that Lord Commander Andor is your uncle,” Wynn continued, ignoring the other two. “That you’re the king’s niece.”
Eva forced a dry laugh. “Well, if the lord commander is my uncle, the king would have to be, too, wouldn’t he?”
Wynn’s eyes grew even wider, and for once she seemed at a loss for words. “Holy sky! It’s true!”
Sigrid gave a low whistle. Tahl, for the first time Eva had ever seen him, didn’t seem to know what to say or do, his usually easy confidence gone.
“It is,” Eva said, the words sounding strange coming out of her. “But I’m still me,” she added, not sure if she was trying to convince herself or them. No matter who her parents were and what tragedy her family held, she was still Eva, the blacksmith’s assistant and Windsworn-in-training.
Unbidden, she began retelling the conversation between the lord commander and the king to her friends. The raw emotion of it all flared up, and she laid herself bare in between tears and encouragement from the others. It still hurt, but it didn’t cut her as deep as it had the day before, learning it all for the first time.
“And that’s it,” Eva said at the end. “Now you know the whole story.” She looked from face to face. Wynn still stared in amazement, and Sigrid’s brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of it all.
Eva felt drained, watching them, waiting for their reaction. Nobody knew quite what to say, and when she looked to Tahl for some kind of response, his eyes darted away.
“This doesn’t change anything between us,” Eva said.
Wynn, surprisingly, still seemed at a loss for words, but Sigrid broke into a grin. “I’ll still go the rounds with you in the circle whenever you want, your Highness.”
“That’s not funny, “Eva said, lips twitching in a smile. “I’m just Eva, and don’t you forget it.” She looked at Tahl again, and he cleared his throat. Sigrid caught the glance between them and pulled herself up on her feet, fixing her crutches underneath her.
“C’mon, Wynn,” she said. “Let’s let Eva get some rest.”
Wynn started following the older girl out then paused when she saw Tahl wasn’t coming. “Hey!” she said, motioning to him. “Let’s — ow!”
The younger girl hopped on one foot and glared at Sigrid. “Sorry, still getting used to using these crutches,” Sigrid said, waving one in the air. “Tahl will catch up with us.”
Eva felt a flash of excitement, then trepidation and nervousness as the door closed behind the two girls, leaving her alone in the room with Tahl. She cleared her throat and focused on Fury lying at the end of the bed, not sure what to say. Back in the dark of the Catacombs, it’d seemed to easy and simple. Now, here in the light, that kiss seemed a thousand years away, a fairytale story about two people in another life.
Tahl sat down and leaned over to brush a strand of Eva’s golden hair out of her face. “I’m…glad you’re okay,” he said. “They wouldn’t let me go back down into the caves to look for you, and when they brought you out I thought…”
He trailed off, and Eva saw him swallow hard out of the corner of her eye. Say something, you fool, she thought to herself. But the harder she tried to come up with something, the more her mind went blank. A few moments of uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Tahl’s hand rested on the edge of the bed. Knowing she had to do something, Eva reached over and rested hers on top of it.
“Eva,” he began, “That…moment, down there in the Catacombs. I —”
Eva prepared herself for him to say it’d all been a big mistake then decided she didn’t want to hear it out loud, even if it was probably true.
“You don’t have to say anything, Tahl,” Eva cut in. “I understand.”
Although it was the last thing she wanted to do, she turned and looked at him. Relief flooded the sharp lines of his face, like a knife tearing right throug
h Eva’s chest.
“We can act like it never happened,” she said, trying to get the words out as fast as she could, to get them over with. She pulled her hand back and felt tears welling in her eyes. “I’m not going to hold it over you. Let’s just —”
Tahl’s fingertips lifted her chin to meet his eye. He looked her for a second and brushed a tear away softly with his thumb. “I was going to say I never want to feel like I’ve lost you again. I… I care about you. A lot. But now that you’re — I mean, now that you know…”
Eva laughed in surprise and clamped a hand to her mouth when it came out as an unbelieving snort. Feeling the heat pulse from her face, she glanced down. “I’m just Eva,” she said. “I already told you: none of that changes who I am.”
He pulled her face up again and leaned over. She felt her breath quicken as they drew close.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Tahl said in a low voice.
Eva didn’t think any kiss could have been better than their first. She was wrong.
Chapter Thirty-One
Eva examined herself in the mirror of her quarters. She reached behind her back to secure the chain of her mother’s Wonder. The stone twinkled, giving of a reassuring light that filled Eva with a comforting warmth. Why it had destroyed Celina’s golem was anyone’s guess. Eva tried to leave the explaining and deciphering of that dark night to higher minds than herself, determined to regain some semblance of a normal life in the aftermath.
“How do I look?” she asked Fury, who was sitting on her bed. The gryphon dipped his copper head in approval.
With a long sigh, she buckled on her sword belt, adjusting its over her uniform just so. Another deep breath and exhale calmed her fluttering nerves.
“I don’t know what you’re all worked up about,” Sigrid said. “You’re a storming hero! Now hurry up; we’re going to be late for the ceremony!”
Sigrid wore her fine silver chain mail and the other armor of the Windsworn. Her hair was done up in an elaborate set of braids, a couple of feathers thrown in for good measure so that Sigrid looked like a fierce bird of prey herself. Eva doubted she would ever look so at ease in the trappings of war and shifted to redistribute the unusual weight of her own attire.
Windsworn: Gryphon Riders Book One (Gryphon Riders Trilogy 1) Page 21
