Silverbrook

by J C Maynard

  Fillian looked at the Guards to try and see if his father was hallucinating. “W- What?”

  Tronum spoke again. “They thought- they thought they were executing the leader of the Nightsnakes — the trial from yesterday evening. They- they hung him and took off the headbag and somehow it was your brother.”

  Fillian’s world stood still. His mind seemed blank, trying to find someway to wake up from this nightmare; but looking at his father’s tears, he realized the reality of what had happened. His father began to cry into his hands and the doors to the room opened again. Surrounded by his own Guards came Prophet Ombern’s successor, Prophet Mirriotus.

  The dark-skinned man with a long white beard walked up to Fillian and put a hand on his shoulder. A Guard stepped forward and spoke. “Prince Fillian, you are now heir to the throne of Ferramoor. You will take over your brother’s duties immediately. Prophet Mirriotus is here to make the change official.”

  Fillian’s mind was still blank, trying to understand what was happening.

  Prophet Mirriotus stepped forward. “I know you are in shock right now, Prince Fillian; but you must clear your mind right now and listen.”

  Fillian’s eyes still stared off into the air, but somehow his head slowly nodded.

  Prophet Mirriotus opened a scroll. “Will you, Fillian Whenderdehl, son of Tronum and Eradine Whenderdehl, assume the position of heir to the throne of Ferramoor, taking responsibility for the well-being of your people and swear to the Great Mother to act justly and courageously and assume the title of King of Ferramoor should your father die?”

  Fillian looked at his father and allowed the first tear to roll down his face. “I, Fillian Whenderdehl, do swear this.”

  Prophet Mirriotus bowed. “May the Great Mother bless you.”

  Tronum embraced Fillian and looked at him with his pale gray eyes. Tronum’s hands shook from his disease, but he placed a firm hand on Fillian nonetheless. “Ferramoor looks to you. You’ll be leading it soon.” Tronum reached back and lifted a shimmering longsword off the table with a Royal Crest engraved in the hilt, along with a letter E. “This was your brother’s . . .” said Tronum. “I want you to keep it as a reminder.”

  Fillian took the sword in his hands and nodded as a tear fell onto the shimmering silver blade.

  ◆◆◆

  ~Sunrise

  Raelynn sat against a wooden post on the dock as the sun rose — arms and knees tucked to her chest, waiting for any sign of Kyan. A dense cloud of rising steam from the ocean hitting the freezing air filled the shoreline. Mist seeped up between the cracks the planks of wood, clouding the air with a heavy fog that muffled the distant sounds of the city. Raelynn closed her eyes, listening to the icy water a few feet below ebbing and sloshing. The docks creaked with every passing swell, and the waves softly lapped against the rocky shore. Boats with soft chimes lightly tapped against the wooden docks, pulling on their ropes.

  The rhythmic sounds of the water and docks were interrupted by a distant voice calling out. Raelynn opened her eyes and looked east through the swirling fog lit by the obscured risen sun. Walking towards her was a dark figure, who called out again. “Raelynn?”

  Slowly, the figure’s face came into view and tears of relief streamed down her face as Kyan ran up and embraced her. She dwelt for a second in the warmth of Kyan’s arms, putting her head to his shoulder and crying. “What happened? I- I don’t know what’s going on. I-”

  “Shhh . . . It’s okay.” said Kyan, holding the back of her head. Waiting until Raelynn calmed down, he explained what had happened and told her the truth — that Eston made the choice himself to take Kyan’s place, that Eston thought he would be able to save Kyan at the last minute.

  After the story, Raelynn looked over to Kyan as they sat on the dock in the morning fog. “We have to tell Vree you’re okay.” she said. “But there’s no way back into the Palace.” The frigid water below them churned and bubbled, filling the silence.

  Kyan looked up through the misty shoreline air at the silhouette of the Palace atop its cliff. “She’s being looked after by Qerru-Mai and the Palace doctors; she’ll recover. If Fillian is back in the Palace, we can get a letter to him and Vree explaining what happened.”

  After a few more minutes, Raelynn and Kyan made their way back into the city, staying low and discreet. Writing the letter at The Little Raven, they addressed it to the Prince and sent it off with a messenger bird at a mailtower.

  ~Night, February 11th

  Together, Kyan and Raelynn walked through the moonlit streets and up to a rooftop in the second district to watch the Passage to the Heavens — a nationwide homage following a royal funeral. The emptiness in Kyan hurt him physically. There seemed to be a vast space of nothingness in Kyan’s mind that needed the presence of his other body. As he and Raelynn watched the people gather in the dark streets below — each dressed in white and scarlet, holding a candle — he reflected on his memories of being a prince with a sadness in his heart.

  The night was cold, but the sky was clear and starry. Nearly every light in the city had been blown out for the ceremony. At the sound of the bells from the Great Cathedral of the Luxeux, tens of thousands of Aunestaunans lit their candles. The streets of Aunestauna lit up in a glowing yellow light like veins filled with gold, all radiating from the Palace.

  Both Kyan and Raelynn sat on the rooftop in the cold night air, looking at the constellation of candles appearing throughout the city of Aunestauna. Raelynn turned to Kyan. Her blonde hair and pale skin still seemed smooth and healthy even though she hadn’t slept much in the past weeks. She pointed to the candlelit streets. “Why do they do that?”

  “It’s supposed to symbolize a sun.” said Kyan. “So from the heavens, the dead royalty would see the streets of light as rays of sunshine all coming from the Palace. It’s just a way to send them off properly.”

  Raelynn nodded and rested her arms on her knees and they sat and watched the candles for a while until Raelynn looked up at the moon. “Riccolo is still out there. He found you in the Palace; he’ll find you here . . .”

  Kyan nodded, remembering the chaos of escaping the courtroom.

  Raelynn shook her head. “We have to leave, Kyan.”

  Kyan stared out into the night. “I know.” The two sat there in the cold and watched a snowflake fall that seemed to come from nowhere in the clear night sky. Kyan sighed. “Where do we go?”

  Raelynn thought for a while. “Cerebria.”

  Kyan turned to her. “Cerebria?”

  Raelynn nodded. “My work here in Aunestauna is done . . . we could use you in Seirnkov.”

  Kyan remained silent, wanting her to go on.

  “Not all Evertauri are sorcerers.” Raelynn explained. “There are farmers and smiths and all sorts of people who’ve joined our cause . . . you could too.”

  Kyan thought for a while. “How would we get there?”

  “The same way I’ve been coming back and forth — we’d board a boat to Catteboga in The Crandles and then take another from The Crandles to Port Dellock in Cerebria. After that, we just go underground to Seirnkov.” Raelynn put a hand on Kyan. “The war is close to over and you could help us end all of this.”

  Kyan put his hand on hers. “When do we leave?”

  “Tomorrow morning, there’s a ship headed for Catteboga. I’ll write a letter to let my father and Borius know when we’ll be arriving.”

  Kyan nodded. “Then I’m an Evertuari.”

  ~February 16th

  Their ship had sailed through rain for three days, but the wind was pushing them quickly toward the horned tip of the continent and then off to The Crandles. Raelynn sat across from Kyan in the small ship cabin. Both were reading, but were distracted by the storm and the uncertainty awaiting them in Cerebria. They had used all but their last argentums to pay for tickets on their ship, saving a few for the journey to Cerebria.

  Kyan looked out the window at the storm and the endless waves. For some reason, his m
ind had only been switching back and forth between his bodies of Kyan and Calleneck. I must still be floating in that light . . . I’m probably still switching bodies, but I don’t notice when I’m in Tayben’s because I’m in a different state of consciousness. The time he was spending as Tayben in the pool of Tenebris in Silverbrook’s hollow searching for answers suggested was cleary much longer than it had felt like.

  Raelynn set down the history book she was borrowing from a ship cook. “When we get to Port Dellock, we’ll meet up with the Evertauri and attack the port. They’ve wanted to attack it for a while now, but they want to meet us there to ensure we get to Seirnkov safely.”

  “Why do they want to attack Port Dellock?” asked Kyan.

  “It’s the main place Cerebria gets its foreign supplies and it’s where their navy is based.”

  “But you destroyed the Cerebrian navy in Aunestauna.” said Kyan.

  “And you don’t think they’re rebuilding it?” she said. “There’s also a prison on a peninsula right next to Port Dellock where we think a few thousand Ferramish soldiers are being kept. If we free them, we can destroy the Cerebrian port and take the city ourselves — significantly blocking off Cerebria from trading with the rest of the world. Then those Ferramish soldiers could help make a second front coming from the south up to Seirnkov. I assume we’ll dock in the city, meet with the rest of the Evertauri, then make our way to the prison to free the Ferrs.

  Kyan turned to her. “So what would you like me to do?”

  Raelynn thought for a moment. “I know someone named Calleneck you’d work well with — he’s our cartographer and could plan something for you.”

  Kyan smiled and looked out the window at the raging sea.

  Raelynn chuckled. “Now that I think of it, you and Calleneck are pretty similar.”

  Kyan tried to hide his grin. “You don’t say?”

  Raelynn tilted her head. “What’s that face for?”

  Kyan shrugged, thinking for a moment. “It’s just- well I don’t quite know- but I feel like there’s an end coming.”

  “And that doesn’t scare you?” she asked.

  “It does,” said Kyan, “but . . .” He struggled to find the words. “It’s resolution. Even if things go south when we get to Port Dellock and Xandria wins, it’s resolution.”

  Raelynn seemed to be lost in thought, but then spoke to Kyan as the ship rolled over another wave. “It hasn’t sunk in yet that my brother died for all of this last year . . .”

  Kyan looked at her, expecting her to say more.

  “Death became more real to me then.” she said, looking blankly at the wall of their ship cabin.

  “Are you scared of dying?” asked Kyan.

  Raelynn thought for a moment. “Yes.” She turned her gaze to Kyan and looked him deep in the eyes. “I’m terrified.”

  Kyan’s mind flashed back, remembering the feeling of the noose slipping around in Eston’s neck. What happens if I die again? Am I actually losing that part of me? What if I die in this body and all my others? Is that the moment that I truly die? A dark cold hole swallowed up his chest and chilled his veins with the notion of death — the thought of not seeing, hearing, feeling the world around him, the idea of not having thoughts and not speaking to others, the thought of being so unimaginably alone but not aware of it, the thought of never getting to breathe in cool air or run over grass or watch the clouds roll by or the rain fall.

  “Kyan?” Raelynn’s voice returned him to his senses.

  Kyan turned to her. “Sorry- I- . . .” He breathed in deeply. “This world is just a lot more complicated than I ever thought it was.”

  Raelynn nodded. “I miss the days when I saw the world in a kinder light.” Raelynn stared at the wall of their ship cabin. “My brother always used to say that things will never be like they are right now, no matter how much you try to keep it that way.” Raelynn stared at the wall of their ship cabin.

  Kyan sat down next to her, noticing how deep her eyes looked. You just have to remember the important moments, he thought, as he remembered the golden sunset light filling the Great Cathedral the day he spoke with Raelynn for the first time. And as vividly as Kyan could remember sinking in the frigid ocean during the battle of Aunestauna, equally vivid was the memory of the touch of Raelynn’s hand reaching down in the dark water to pull him up.

  Kyan’s mind drifted through the past that was forever gone as their ship sailed east through the rocking ocean waves.

  Port Dellock

  Chapter Forty

  ~Late Afternoon, February 21st

  Dalah saw Lillia at the end of the pier and walked over to her. After receiving a letter from Raelynn, a hundred or so Evertauri had spent days travelling south through the Network to Port Dellock and planned to meet with Raelynn and release the thousands of Ferramish soldiers reportedly kept in the prison there. The Evertauri waited in hiding throughout the city, preparing for their attack until Raelynn and Kyan arrived and night fell. Since Aunika was working as a spy in Xandria’s fortress and unable to be around, Dalah had found a new sisterhood with Lillia over the last few weeks.

  At the end of the pier, Lillia had taken off her shoes and was gently swirling her feet in the calm seawater, looking out at the lush, green peaks rising steep out of the water into the low hanging clouds. Dalah gazed out into the fjord and all the ships sailing in the valleys between the massive mountains that soared up into the clouds, hiding their summits.

  Dalah now viewed Lillia as a second older sister like Aunika. She looked back down at Lillia, able to tell that she was upset. It had been just two months since she lost her Tallius at the Great Gate. Not wanting to address it directly, Dalah simply asked, “Are your feet cold?”

  Lillia half smiled. “Yeah, a bit.” Lillia swirled her bare feet in the ice cold water a bit more and laughed. “Actually yes, it’s freezing.” She lifted her feet out and shook them a bit before putting on her warm socks and boots.

  Dalah chuckled and sat next to her. “How are you, Lillia?”

  Lillia laughed through chattering teeth. “Cold.”

  Dalah smiled back. “I meant- well-”

  “I know.” said Lillia, her smile fading.

  Dalah looked down at Lillia’s stomach, which was starting to swell. Dalah looked down at her own feet, which dangled above the black seawater. They sat in silence for quite some time, listening to the birds gliding in the overcast sky and the occasional splash of fish popping up to the surface. A large ash gray bird landed next to them and waddled around for a second, twisting its head looking for food, then flew off.

  Lillia broke the silence. “I hate it . . .”

  Dalah looked up at her, confused. “Hate what?”

  “All of this, the Evertauri.” Lillia began to turn red, tears forming in her eyes. “If I could just go back in time and restart this, I would’ve never been a part of this- this rebellion.”

  “Lillia, don’t say tha-”

  “It’s true, Dalah.” she said. Lillia looked out into the foggy fjord with watery eyes. “I had no idea what it was going to be like . . . the things I’ve seen, Dalah, and the people I’ve hurt and the people I’ve lost . . . I just . . .”

  Dalah looked down at the rippling water on the doc. “I know how you feel . . . but there’s no backing out now.”

  Lillia threw her hands up. “Am I just supposed to do this for the rest of my life?”

  Dalah shook her head. “Of course not. Soon, we’ll take down Xandria and the aristocracy and then you’ll be free.”

  Lillia turned to Dalah with a helpless expression. “Do you really think President Madrick would let us lead normal lives again?”

  Dalah remained silent, knowing that part of Lillia’s anger was trying to rid the sadness from her heart, the void left after losing Tallius. She knew what Lillia was thinking about, but didn’t want to press it until Lillia spoke.

  “Do you think-” Lillia stopped for a moment, trying to get rid of the lump in her throa
t. “Do you think it should have been me that-”

  “Died?” finished Dalah. “No . . . and I also don’t think it should have been Tallius . . . It should have been no one.” Dalah thought back to the explosion of the Great Gate in the Taurbeir-Krons. She could tell that Lillia was holding back tears.

  Lillia had stopped shivering, but her nose, cheeks, and ears were a deep pink from the cold. She sniffed up the tears she knew were coming. She shook her head and looked out across the water, lost in memory of that night. “I should have been with him. It could have been me instead; it could have been Calleneck-” She stopped, wishing she could take back her words. “Oh, Dalah, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to-”

  Dalah hugged Lillia. “It’s okay, I know what you meant.” Dalah paused for a while. “I know you miss him . . . we all do. Tallius was . . . well-”

  “Perfect.” said Lillia.

  Dalah nodded, looked down again at Lillia’s rounding stomach, and closed her eyes with sadness. I’m so sorry Lillia, she thought. And I know Cal is too. Dalah looked behind her to the shore, where Calleneck was speaking to another Evertauri. Her love for her brother made her heart ache, remembering that it could have as easily been Calleneck who died at the Great Gate instead of Tallius. She watched Calleneck as he pointed into the fjord at an incoming ship with a black and white flag — a ship from the Crandles. Dalah turned to Lillia and pointed at it. “Look there, I think Raelynn’s on that ship.”

  Lillia wiped her tears and looked up at it, happy for a change in subject. “Yes I think you’re right.” The ship seemed to cut through the misty fog that hung in the fjord. “And she’s bringing that Ferr with her. What’s his name?”

  Dalah shrugged. “I forget.”

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