Storm Princess 3: The Princess Must Reign

by Jaymin Eve

  “Llion, Roar, Welsian, and Arlo have that covered. There are patrols up and down the border at all times and multiple outposts in the places most vulnerable to an attack. The villages close to the border have been evacuated and the army is gathered at strategic points further inside the border, ready to defend any attack. Also, Senturi has gathered Outliers to guard the wastelands on either end of the border.”

  The gargoyles’ resilience and determination constantly amazes me. A little over a week ago, they were devastated by Howl’s treatment of them. Now, they are fully prepared for war. “Thank you, Erit. I’m impressed with everything you’ve done.”

  He gives me a smile. “It’s good to see you safe, Lady Storm.”

  His gaze falls on Indira. She clears her throat and rises to her feet. “Please excuse me, friends.”

  Soon after she leaves with Erit, I’m surprised to see the former Elven Commander, Teilo Splendor, bring food around for the newly returned gargoyles. He’s wearing a cook’s apron and carrying a large plate of boiled potatoes. When he reaches me, he gives me an acknowledging nod but I can’t keep my surprise to myself. “You’re working in the kitchens.”

  He says, “I’m doing what I should have done when I was an Elven Commander—serving my people.”

  Sahara, his daughter, gives him a genuine smile. For a while their relationship was strained by the Elven Command’s treatment of me, but it looks like they have mended bridges.

  Soon after, Sebastian and Eli return from patrol, heading for us first. They bow to me. “Storm Princess.”

  Like Erit and the gargoyles, they appear tired but focused. “We’re pleased to report no incidents at the outposts this evening.”

  “Thank you, both.”

  Jordan is already on her feet. I give her a smile as she joins her husband at his table. Instead of heading toward the food, Eli hovers for a moment at my side. “What is it, Eli?”

  His crystal clear blue eyes remind me of Cassian for a moment, serious and stern. “I understand you encountered my grandfather while you were held against your will.”

  I recall Elwyn Elder raging at Grayson about not taking me to prison. “Only from a distance.”

  “Whoever he was before, his soul is gone now. He is nothing more than a predator.”

  I contemplate Eli. He was always quiet, thoughtful, a lean fighter. He helped me when I was Howl’s prisoner by giving me information about my Storm Command. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  “I will not hold it against you if you kill him. The grandfather I knew no longer exists. He killed himself a long time ago.”

  I swallow against the lump in my throat. I can’t imagine what he’s going through to be fighting against his own people. Against his own family. He spins on his heel and I return to my seat, feeling subdued.

  Neither Baelen nor my brother appears during dinner, and afterward, I want to go out and find them, but Mom orders me to go to bed. “A Queen is no good to her people if she’s asleep on her feet.”

  She orders me to my room, waits while I change, and kisses my forehead, extinguishing my lamp as I snuggle into my old bed. “I promise you, we will wake you if you’re needed. Sleep well, sweetheart.”

  My father waits outside the room and before Mom closes the door behind her, worry passes between them.

  “Macsen is at the eastern outpost with Baelen,” Dad says as their footsteps recede. His voice is low and moving down the hall, but it’s amazing what I can hear when I want to. “They want us to make sure Marbella stays here where she’s safe.”

  Mom’s voice cracks. “Our baby girl has been through so much.” The heartbreak in her words makes my chest ache. I suspected she was putting on a brave face for me, not wanting to show the full extent of her worry about my safety.

  Dad replies, “We can’t risk that she’ll be captured again.”

  I understand their motives but I sigh into my pillow. It looks like I’ve swapped one sort of cage for another. I shouldn’t be angry. I’ve missed my family. I’ve missed my ladies. If I have the chance to spend time with them, then that is a gift. But it’s not my role to be wrapped in cotton wool and put on a pedestal. That’s not who I am. I’ll do what they want tonight—I’ll sleep and stay safe—but tomorrow I’m going straight to Baelen wherever he is. I won’t let others fight my battles for me.

  For the first time in many years, I sleep in a room alone. For so many years, my Storm Command slept right outside my door and often one of them would sleep on the floor of my room. That was mostly in the beginning when the nightmares were bad. Then in the mines, I was surrounded by gargoyles. And for the last week, Grayson was always there.

  It’s only when I’m about to fall asleep that I remember I left Cassian’s bone lash in Grayson’s room.

  21

  I awake to a commotion outside my door. It rattles hard as wind rushes underneath it. I leap out of bed, snatch up my tiara, and race to the door before it breaks in half. I throw it open to find Baelen about to thud his fist against it. His other fist is busy gripping a disheveled elf by the scruff of his neck. It’s the messenger from Grayson’s place.

  I’m fully awake now. “Baelen?”

  Baelen is a tower of stone and rage. The circles under his eyes are even darker tonight. Smudges of dirt cast shadows across his forehead. His arms are bare and his muscles bunch, glistening with sweat. He glares at the messenger. “Speak!”

  The elf squawks as electricity crackles around Baelen’s shoulders and arms. The elf stutters, “I-I-I have a message for you, Marbella Mercy.”

  Baelen growls. “The parchment will only open for you.”

  I take the scroll that the elf holds out to me in his shaking hands. It has my name written on it. Simply: Marbella.

  I’ve seen Grayson’s handwriting on enough documents in his room to recognize it. Taking glances at Baelen, I carefully pry the parchment open.

  Marbella,

  I warned you about acts of mercy. I may not be able to use the heartstones now, but my injuries healed much faster because of what you did. In fact, I’m completely well, which means I am in a position to annihilate your entire gargoyle army immediately.

  However… the other Commanders don’t know this. They think I’m still wounded and they won’t go to war without me.

  So your act of mercy has bought you a week.

  Use it wisely.

  P.S. This is yours. I sense it means something to you.

  The paper disintegrates in my hand as soon as I read the last word. Fine dust falls between my fingertips. He definitely didn’t want anyone else to read it.

  I’m not sure what the last part of the message means until the elf reaches into the satchel at his waist and pulls out Cassian’s bone lash. I take it, dumbstruck. It does mean something to me. Now Grayson has returned it to me and given us a week. Use it wisely.

  Baelen is all business. “What did it say?”

  I take a moment to study him before I respond. He focuses on a spot on the wall right beside my face. I’m suddenly aware that my nightdress is not exactly opaque. Indira wasn’t joking about elven lingerie. I fold my arms and pull the translucent material a little closer around myself. Baelen definitely didn’t want to be standing outside my bedroom door tonight, that much is clear.

  I’m wary of the listening messenger who will no doubt report everything I say back to the other Commanders. Grayson cast a spell on the message so that nobody else could read it—including them. I clear my throat. “Grayson made a lot of threats, but it sounds like he was hurt very badly. We have a week before they can meet us in battle.”

  “I don’t trust him. We’ll triple the patrols and prepare for imminent attack.” Baelen swings away from me, spinning the elf with him like the male is a sack of vegetables. He drags the elf back along the corridor, striding away from me.

  “Baelen! Wait…”

  My arm drops back to my side. Baelen is already gone in a rush of wind that whips my hair into my eyes.

>   There’s no way I can go back to sleep now. A glance out of the window tells me it’s almost sunrise anyway. I race back into my room, search the closet for something decent to wear, and come up with a sturdy pair of slacks, a black singlet top, and a cropped jacket. I braid my hair, falling into old habits by braiding it down one side of my head and tying a ribbon in it. My fingers linger on the dressing table where Mom has laid out ribbons for me just like she did when I was a girl. We had nothing, but she always helped me feel pretty.

  Creeping to the kitchen, I locate an apple and a chunk of cheese to eat on the way.

  A voice from the shadows makes me jump.

  Indira slides into the light. “They don’t want you to go outside.”

  I grip the edge of the table. “Why not?”

  “They’re worried about talon crows. Elves can’t fly but the crows are everywhere, spying on us.”

  “I can burn a crow out of the sky in an instant.” I grit my teeth. “I’m going outside and you’d better not try to stop me, Indira. Or you and I will have a serious problem.”

  Not that I’d think of beating her up in her pregnant condition, but I’d have some serious words to say.

  She throws her hands up, making a gesture at the tiara. “Absolutely not. But I can tell them I tried.”

  I spin away from her, but she says, “I thought you should know: Baelen never comes back to the house. He doesn’t eat or sleep here.”

  “But… he does sleep, doesn’t he?”

  “I honestly don’t know. That male hasn’t stopped since you were taken.”

  I frown, remembering the dark rings under his eyes. “Where would he usually be at this time of day?”

  “Right before sunrise? He’d be at the south-western outpost. I can take you there if you like.”

  I shake my head at her. My power flares a warning if she tries to insist. “I don’t think so.”

  “Okay, okay. Be careful out there.”

  I stride away from her. As I exit the house, I dare the elves guarding the door to stop me. I plot a path south, take off the jacket, and jog the half-mile to the southern outpost that is nearest to the border with Erador. The outpost consists of a sprawling wooden building with a wide verandah and multiple high turrets on its roof where elves stand guard.

  When I reach it, I approach the elf standing guard at the door to the building.

  He salutes me. “Storm Princess?”

  “Where is Baelen Rath?”

  “I’m sorry, Storm Princess, you just missed him. He went to the north-western outpost.”

  I spin. That’s miles in the opposite direction. Surely I would have passed Baelen on the way? Oh, where is Hideaway’s Heartstone to give me flight when I need it? I wonder if I can try that hot-air-cold-air thing I did a while back but that seemed to be more of a floating thing than a flying-somewhere-fast thing.

  Fine. I jog the distance, keeping an eye on the sky and my surroundings. When I finally reach the north-western outpost, I get the same answer, except this time they tell me to go south again, back to the very outpost I came from. I pin the soldier in a glare before he dares to turn away. “Did Commander Rath tell you to say that?”

  The guard shifts uncomfortably. “I’m afraid so, Storm Princess.”

  “Which means he doesn’t want me to go east.” I shake my head. They want to keep me as far away from the eastern side of Rath land as possible—that’s the side most vulnerable to the Elven Commanders. “Well, tell him if he wants to protect me, he’d better come find me at the far eastern outpost.”

  I spin on my heel, but I haven’t made it two steps from the building before my brother stops me. Macsen steps out of the shadows at the side. “He’s not there either.”

  “Well, then, where Macsen? Because I am not going to let him fight without me.”

  My brother’s usually good-humored expression is nowhere to be seen. “I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to do.”

  “Then what? Annoy the hell out of me? Cut me out of his life? What?”

  Macsen is deadly serious. “He said he needs to show you his worth.”

  Shock slams through me. I stumble backward, trying to brace myself. The females who were forced into Howl’s harem could only return to their husbands by starting fresh. Part of that process involved asking their husbands to prove they knew their wives’ hearts. Baelen saw me step into Grayson’s arms and he knows I would never do that willingly. He’s trying to follow the gargoyle way by showing me he knows my heart.

  Macsen continues. “I don’t know what that means, but judging by the look on your face, you do.”

  I think back to the day before, the way Baelen had flown me straight to my family, stepped back to give me time with them and then gave me space to reconnect with my Storm Command. And now he’s trying to show me that he will work all day and night if it means taking care of me and my people.

  But he’s got it all wrong. He is part of my world. I need him in my life. And I have to tell him that.

  “Please, Macsen. I need to know where he is.”

  He scrubs at his forehead, easing the frown that had formed there. He inclines his head toward the Rath mountains. “He said you’d know where to find him.”

  Where to find him? I spin and consider the distant mountain range. Does he mean the place where it all started?

  “Thank you, Macsen.”

  “Stay safe, Marbella.”

  I head for the cliffs behind the Rath home, but I stop in at the house on the way. If Baelen isn’t taking care of himself then I need to take care of him instead. I pick up a basket of food and flasks of water and top it off with a blanket since he’s probably sleeping wherever he lays his head. When Mom catches me and tries to stop me, I kiss her cheek swiftly and look her in the eye. “I love you, Mom. But Baelen needs me. I’m going to him.”

  Tears form in her eyes. “Okay, sweetheart. I understand.”

  A solid hour later, I arrive at the top of the cliff that was our secret place. It was the place where the Storm chose me. The place where the wind stole my blue ribbon and I thought I killed Baelen. So many memories flood back to me. Some of them are breathtaking. Others are heartbreaking. Rath land sweeps across the countryside below me. From here I can see all the way beyond the Rath boundary, far into elven country. It’s the perfect place for Baelen to stand watch.

  I find him leaning against the mouth of the cave, head tilted to its rocky edge, one shoulder wedged against it. The bristles on his chin are a growing shadow across his jaw. His chest rises and falls in a deep rhythm.

  He’s asleep where he stands.

  “Oh, Baelen.” I creep around him, wrap the blanket over his shoulders, and decide it’s time to test my strength. I moved glass shards with a wave of my hand, although admittedly they were a lot lighter than Baelen. I concentrate and draw on my Incorruptible strength and my Prime heart, surprising myself when I leverage him gently away from the side of the cave with my power without waking him up, laying him down inside it instead. He murmurs a little before pulling the blanket tighter and remains asleep.

  He must be exhausted.

  I take his place at the cave’s opening, keeping an eye on the horizon. Half an hour later, a talon crow soars across the sky a mile away. I wait for it to fly a little closer and then I stretch out my arm and let loose a little destruction, turning the beast into dust. An hour later, two more crows meet the same fate.

  Other than that… it’s peaceful. The view stretches in every direction so any attack will be easily visible. I have no concerns that something might happen on the ground without me. On top of that, I trust Grayson’s word. His message was honest. Cynical, that’s for sure, but honest. We have a week.

  I sense Baelen’s breathing change. I turn a little, remaining where I am, even when he jolts upright, disoriented to find himself wrapped in a blanket. “Marbella?”

  He squints at me, rubbing his eyes. His gaze shifts to check the position of the sun. His face falls. “W
hat time is it?”

  “Don’t worry. I kept watch.” I shrug, keeping it light. “I killed a few talon crows but that was easy. You can get more sleep if you want.”

  “If I want?” His laugh is dry and scratchy. “What I want is…” He shakes his head, squeezes his eyes closed. Takes a deep breath. “Macsen told you where I was.”

  I turn a little toward the horizon, remaining relaxed against the rock wall. “I forgot how peaceful it is up here.”

  He rises to his feet, stretching his neck side to side and rolling his shoulders. He bundles up the blanket and drops it at the opening as he draws near to me. He moves at a prowl. I’m not sure what his target is until he swoops to the basket I brought with me and devours all of the wheat biscuits in a few bites, reaching for a water flask to wash them down.

  Exhausted and starving.

  I hide my smile as the remainder of the food—apples, cheese, and bread—disappears within moments. No wonder he was cranky. He holds onto the water flask, carrying it further out across the cliff where he stops to assess the land below us. I remain quiet, unmoving from my station, while he places the flask on the ground, removes his shirt, and takes a knee. Dipping his head, he pours the rest of the water over the back of it, finishing up by scrubbing liquid across his face with his hands.

  He rises to his feet again, his broad back to me, water droplets following the curves of his muscles as he scrapes his hair out of his eyes. His chest expands and contracts as he draws in a deep breath, allowing his arms to drop to his sides. He remains in that position for a long time. I don’t feel as if he’s forgotten me, more that he needs the silence. The air up here is clean and fresh. Quiet. Far away from all the noise. Every inch of my body wants to go to him but I don’t want to break the spell.

  Finally, he angles toward me, his chiseled features a silhouette against the sun as he speaks carefully. “Have you… had the chance to spend time with your Mom?”

  “Yes.”

  “And your Storm Command? I know they are like sisters to you.”