“I think the wind carried us to safety.”
Simon and Annette were placed up against the thick trunks and Argent wandered around in a daze, picking up scattered items and the luggage that had survived the flight. Flynn was sitting against a pine tree, his face as white as the snow around them while he stared at his arm, which had obviously been broken in the fall.
From out of the thrumming quiet, Noah charged forward in a rage, kicking up snow as he marched up to Penny and lifted her to her feet.
“What is wrong with you?” he shouted, yanking her to her feet and shaking her. “How could you do this to me? I trusted you with everything, and you’ve destroyed my reputation as king, you endangered everyone here―Luke and Feirne are dead, and the treaty that might’ve saved our entire nation is destroyed! Do you not understand what you’ve done, Penny?!”
Shocked, Penny let him shout. Hector cleared his throat and moved to step in, but she shook her head at him. Noah had a right to be mad.
Mia ran forward, grasped Noah’s hand, her face pale and concerned. The king stopped his tirade and stared at her.
“Please, Your Majesty, please! Don’t be mad at her. This only happened because they were trying to rescue me from the Empress. If they hadn’t saved me I’d be trapped there forever. I was a changeling, Your Majesty, from your country.” Mia got to her knees before Noah. “I never wanted to hurt anyone. I’m sorry.”
Noah appeared stunned by her earnestness. After a moment he turned and strode over to Damari, and Mia went back to her brother without another word.
“None of this even matters anymore. We’re all going to die out here,” Noah said to Damari. “If the cold doesn’t kill us, then the faeries will catch up with us and finish the job. We’ve been defeated.”
“Shut up, Noah,” seethed Flynn. “We’re going to be fine. We’ve just got to contact the castle somehow and they’ll send someone right away.”
“Oh, have you got a Sophotri Stone in your pocket, Flynn? Great. We’re saved! Thank Heaven for you!” Noah snarled. Damari reached his hand out to touch Noah on the shoulder, but decided against it and let it fall to his side. Argent looked up from what he was doing.
“I can make one,” Argent offered in a shaken voice. Everyone turned toward the man and he drew back, looking uncomfortable. “I mean, if you have some magic handy, that is. I could make an extremely simple one that would be good enough for making a few calls.”
Noah looked as if he were formulating another scathing retort, but Mia swiftly dug into her sleeves and pulled out a tiny drawstring bag. She opened it and held it out, displaying a full pouch of raw magic pebbles.
“Will this do?” Seeing their surprise, she laughed. “I’ve been living in a palace or hunting down raw magic all this time, and you actually wonder how I acquired this?”
Penny awoke to the sound of a mechanical grinding and pumping, followed by the hissing of steam. She felt her body rocking and recognized the feel of blankets wrapped around her. It took her several moments to piece the scenario together, and when she did, Penny lost the willpower to open her eyes. The dirigible headed back to Iverton was not very big, and she has no desire to face its other occupants. Just as she was beginning to drift off again, Penny heard the door swing open and two sets of footsteps come inside. The door shut behind them.
“Isn’t she sleeping? Won’t we disturb her?” came Mia’s voice.
“Not if we’re quiet. Anyway, I don’t think the king or his lackeys will be able to hear us talking in here, though you’ve heard most of it already,” Noct replied.
“And you believe their entire story? It seems sort of fanciful, doesn’t it? Alternate worlds and all that nonsense. Though their magic is different…I can see it just as clearly as you can and—oh, it is so wonderful just to talk to you again, brother. I can’t tell you how lonely it was.”
“Enough sappiness, already, and I told you. They had an Inquisitor’s Eye. It’s got to be true,” Noct said.
“Well, are they trustworthy? Compassionate? Oh, and did you get an autograph from Miss Annette Deveaux yet? I’d have asked her myself, but, well—”
“She’ll be fine, don’t worry. You’ll be able to get one in no time, and yes, they’re an okay bunch, especially Argent. He’s pretty smart. Simon’s an airhead, but Penny and Annette are all right. Though you should stay away from Hector. He thinks he can just boss everyone around all the time just because he’s old.”
“You mean that dashing fellow with the glasses?” Mia giggled and Noct gave a repulsed groan.
“Well, I suppose there’s nothing to be done but to help them. After all, they did rescue me and if it’s what we were chosen to do, then we had better comply.” She paused. “It feels funny to have a destiny and know about it, doesn’t it? It feels like mist fading away.” Noct replied with a nondescript grunt, but it didn’t seem to bother Mia. She hummed a little as she thought.
“Well, that’s what I’m going to do anyway. I feel awful. They went through so much on our account. We’re going to need some time to go home and tell mother, though, she’ll want to be informed and I so long to see he―”
“Mia.”
“What?” she asked placidly.
“Mom…”
“Yes?” Mia’s voice now had a hint of disquiet in it.
“Well, the night after you got taken and dad was...well, you must know what happened to him, you were there. After that she was different,” Noct almost whispered. “She stayed in bed for a couple weeks, just lying there and crying, and I guess she just couldn’t stand losing both you and dad, so she…”
“She wouldn’t have. Never.”
“She poisoned herself, Mia. I didn’t want to tell you until we got back.”
Mia didn’t make a sound for what seemed like an eternity. Penny imagined trying to receive that news herself and her throat grew so tight she had to stop. Mia’s footsteps echoed around the small room.
“Where are you going?”
“I just want to be alone for a while, if you don’t mind.” Mia sounded as if she were holding back a dam of emotion as she left the room. The sound of Noct sniffing pained Penny’s heart, and she pretended to snuggle in tighter to her blankets, pulling them closer to her ears.
Penny awoke to Hector shaking her what felt like seconds later, informing her they were arriving back in Iverton. Penny wondered how long she had been asleep as they made their way to the common room.
“Hector, has she stirred even a little bit?” Penny asked, seeing Annette propped up between a weary Argent and Simon. Hector shook his head.
Noah entered, accompanied by Damari and Flynn. The king kept his face turned away from Penny as the group waited in tense silence for the dirigible to land. The silence was so uncomfortable Penny was rather glad when Zayne, the crude pilot, ushered them out into the drizzling rain with a litany of derogatory comments.
Two carriages stood waiting, and Penny’s first thought was to dive straight into one and hide, but stopped short at the sight of Noah stalking toward the second one. Suddenly she felt rather ashamed. She had inadvertently brought disaster to him, and then hidden away on the return journey like a child.
Not this time. I won’t shy away from confrontation anymore. It’s the right thing to do.
Penny changed her path and marched straight up to Noah, her heart racing.
“Noah, please. Wait a second,” Penny called. He looked back with cold eyes, but she stood her ground. “Noah, I’m so sorry for everything I’ve caused. That whole fiasco―you have to know I never meant for this to happen.”
“Try apologizing to Feirne and Luke. Oh wait, that’s right—you can’t. They died because of what you did,” Noah snarled. “Or maybe you should try to explain this to the people of the whole Nation. They’ll be wanting to know the reason their loved ones have to die once the war starts and we have no allies.”
“Noah, please, I just…” Penny faltered.
“Leave her alone,” Simon said, stepping up from
behind her. “Penny only did what she did to save that poor girl from a life of captivity―that same girl who’s going to play a major role in saving your sorry ass and everyone else’s for that matter.”
“Get away from me.” Noah shoved Simon back, something which caught Hector’s attention and he hurried between Simon and Noah to stop a fight from brewing.
“That’s quite enough. Go on, Simon,” Hector shooed him away and Simon slunk off reluctantly after waving a rude hand gesture in Noah’s direction. In a gentle motion, Hector swept Penny away with his arm wrapped protectively around her shoulder. “Don’t let his words hurt you, he’s only aggravated from stress and―”
“Get your hands off of her, Arlington!” Noah cried. He grasped Hector by his vest, tearing him away from Penny. Hector was stunned as Noah pulled back his fist and struck him square in the mouth.
Flynn, Damari, and Penny were all on top of Noah in a heartbeat, ripping him away from Hector and holding back his arms. Once Noah had been pinioned, Penny helped Hector to his feet. He looked a bit dazed and a small trickle of blood issued from his split lip, but otherwise he seemed fine.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Noah?!” Flynn cried, obviously shaken by the abrupt burst of violence. “People get taken before the court for what you just did!”
Noah shook his shoulders and threw off Flynn and Damari. “Have you forgotten who I am? Get in the carriage, now.”
Damari looked concerned. “Your Majesty, this is most unlike―”
“I said get in the carriage,” Noah reiterated, and Damari gave him a hard stare before complying.
Penny’s shock did not wear off until much later that night. By the time she had settled Mia and Noct into Annette’s house and explained to Gavin and Wendy what had happened and why Annette had not yet woken up, she was ready for bed again.
That night she dreamt she was pinned up in the sky, looking down at a dark forest faintly illuminated by the voluminous dark gown twinkling with stars that she wore. Shadowy hands with long, pointed fingers stretched out of the forest, pulling at her dress and ripping away piece after piece of fabric until they reached her skin. At the sight of the dark blood flowing down her legs, Penny felt herself wake up.
Outside, the spring rains had begun and the world was flooded with water below a miserable gray sky. Penny dressed and went to the kitchen, where she found Hector sipping tea and reading a book. She sat down beside him and rested her head on the table.
“Welcome back to the world,” Hector said shortly, not looking up from his book.
“Do I even want to know what’s on the Sophotri Stones today?”
“There’s been nothing about it, so far. It appears that your boyfriend is keeping it quiet. I suppose that’s one good thing you can say about him,” Hector said briskly, and Penny scowled.
“He’s not my boyfriend. He acted inexcusably to you—I still can’t believe that he actually…I never thought he could get that violent,” she stammered, getting so angry she could hardly form a sentence.
“I’m only teasing. But you probably shouldn’t be so hard on him, even if he did act like a complete brute. I don’t envy what he’ll have to go through,” Hector said with a sigh, flipping the page of his book. Penny wanted to hide her head as a fresh wave of guilt and shame hit her. Hector seemed to sense this and looked up. “Oh, come now. You’re not seriously blaming yourself? It was just unfortunate, and we were all equally at fault. The only ones who really committed misdeeds were the faeries.”
Penny didn’t want to argue about the situation; she only wanted to forget that it ever happened. “How’s Annette?” she asked, needing to change the subject.
“Still asleep. Wendy’s been caring for her and Gavin refuses to leave her side.”
“Will she ever wake up?” Penny asked, her voice small.
“I honestly don’t know.”
THREE DAYS CREPT by, each wetter and murkier than the last. The mood inside the house was hushed, and barely anyone spoke in a voice louder than a murmur. Mia hardly left her room, spending the days lying in bed, scribbling poems and sighing.
Noct had taken to wandering restlessly around the house, looking upset and uncomfortable. Penny observed his behavior, tried to understand why he was so antsy, and finally came to the conclusion that since Mia had been rescued, Noct had lost his direction in life and didn’t know how to expend his energy.
Gavin remained in Annette’s room at all times of the day, sitting beside Annette as she slumbered, sometimes reading or playing soft music on his violin to pass the time. Penny came to stay with him several times to try and alleviate his loneliness, and could tell he appreciated the gesture. Every few moments he’d mutter, almost compulsively, how he should’ve been kinder to Annette, or how he should have said goodbye to her. To Penny, his whispers sounded like bargains.
Simon was almost nowhere to be found. He left in the morning and did not return until very late in the evening. Penny figured out he was sneaking off to see the fortune-teller girl after spotting them on the street one evening.
Argent, too, made himself scarce. Every time she visited him in the guesthouse or encountered him in the manor’s halls, he seemed lost. When she spoke to him, it was like he couldn’t hear. He brushed off her inquiries about how he was feeling and wandered away as if navigating his way through a thick fog.
On the fourth day, Mia emerged from her room and started to socialize with the rest of the people in the house. Penny found her in the Sun Garden with her brother, and felt she should try and get to know the girl.
“Look―this flower has just started to bloom. And the one next to it is going to die soon.” Mia marveled at a pale blue blossom. “Flowers are born and die so quickly. What ephemeral beauty they embody, what fleeting joys and sorrows. Soon it will fade, then wilt, and slowly return to the soil from which it sprouted.”
“Gosh, Mia. Living with the faeries has really changed you. I have never heard a thirteen-year-old say things like that,” Penny said, shaking her head. Noct scoffed as he lounged on the bench swing.
“No, she’s always been that way. Pretentious and spacey.”
“I am rather silly, aren’t I?” his sister commented, her eyes still fixed on the blossom.
Noct rolled his eyes. “Way to defend yourself.” For a minute there was only the patter of rain on the glass roof and windows.
“It is strange to think about the impermanence of life, though,” Mia said, returning to her train of thought as if Noct hadn’t interrupted her at all. “We’ll all fade to nothing, won’t we? Everything we spend our lives building, all the memories we collect, and the goals we work so hard to achieve―they’ll all be forgotten.”
“That’s not true,” Penny said, suddenly quite interested. “There are souls floating around all over the place, so obviously there’s something after this.”
“Well, your soul won’t disappear, but all your memories will. Didn’t you know that?” Mia asked politely. “It’s common knowledge, I thought. Once you return to the Dawn Mirror, your name is taken from you and with it goes all your memories. It’s why you can’t remember the time before you were born and also why some souls linger here after their bodies are gone. They’re not ready to forget. They don’t want to disappear yet.”
At once, Penny felt very sad. “I had no idea.”
“Mmhmm,” Mia said, looking around the garden. “It’s rather sad. Everything that my mother was has been erased.”
“Dammit, Mia, you’re so depressing!” Noct shouted and jumped off the swing. Penny watched him stomp away. Mia sighed again and pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, which Penny recognized as Hector’s.
Later that evening she ran into Hector in the hall and made a point to ask about it. Hector shrugged it off. “The poor thing kept weeping on the veranda of the dirigible when we were coming back. I couldn’t just leave her in such a state, so I saw that she was fine and dried her eyes. She made a mess of it, so I decided to just give it to
her.”
After four days of recovery, Penny decided that she had to corner Argent if she ever wanted to get the truth about Anti-Magic and the symbols she’d found by the Mana tree. She found him sitting in the drawing room alone, staring into the empty fireplace.
“What’s the matter with you?” She flicked at his ear, and he brushed away her hand with annoyance.
“Nothing’s the matter with me, I’m just a cantankerous brute, or whatever it is that Annette calls me,” he replied, a hint of his crooked smile showing for the briefest of moments.
“Well, I have something to ask you.”
“I know, I know. You want me to go to the Guild to ask about Digg.” He frowned. “I’ve been planning on it, I just―I really hate the damn guild. I have to get all dressed up because they’re all about appearance and tell them where I’ve been for the last nine years. It’s a pain. But I’ll go tomorrow, I promise.”
“No, not that. I know you’ve been keeping something from me, and it’s time you had it out.” Penny crossed her arms, watching as Argent’s eyes widened slightly and his cheeks flushed.
“I-I don’t know what you’re ta―”
“Anti-Magic. What is it? I need to know. Nestor talked about it the night in the Goblin Castle, and Irunie mentioned it again. I know it has something to do with all of this, and I know you can tell me.”
“Oh. Anti-Magic. Ha,” he snickered, relaxing. “There’s not really much to know about that. It’s really just speculation.”
“Then why have you been keeping so quiet about it? If Nestor was so frightened and it apparently drove him away from destroying us all, shouldn’t that count for something? I saw what it did to him. It was terrifying.”
“Well, scholarly magicians hardly ever give it any thought because they can’t find proof of its existence―or at least they don’t have a tool to recognize or measure it yet.” Argent shrugged, saw her look, and then sighed.
“Well, first you’ve got to understand that what we know as magic is composed of a certain kind of particle, and like energy or matter it can’t be destroyed or created. Or so people think. Anti-Magic, in theory, is a substance that cannot only destroy magic particles, but can build up in the bodies of people or animals—or within any physical substance that could also contain magic. Then it continues to drain it of its magic. No one can tell what Anti-Magic is exactly or how it’s able to accomplish what it does, or even if it exists at all, but supposedly it will make a creature fall into a state of disarray and weakness. I guess since some people think of magic as the pure force of creation and order, Anti-Magic can be thought of like pure chaos.”
Eden Undone (The Dawn Mirror Chronicles Book 2) Page 16
