Crown of Ellova, Vol. 1 (Crown of Ellova Duology)

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Y our mortal body will be destroyed with that much magic. Nueena stares at me with panicked eyes and squeezes my hand. It takes a moment for her words to fully sink in.

The crown is going to kill me.

Dread seeps into every bone in my body, tears making their way down my cheeks because I know Nueena speaks the truth. Even though she’s taken the crushing pressure out of my body, I know it’s still too much for me to handle, too much to control. I’m just a half-mortal jewelsmith.

“We will not allow that to happen,” Nyvenah insists. “There must be a way to remove it.” She keeps speaking but a rushing noise in my ears blocks out sound.

If we can’t find a way to remove it, how long do I have? Weeks? Months? The crown holds thousands of years of siphoned magic within it. How am I even alive now?

A matching tear slides down Nueena’s face and I pull her tightly to me, hating the tears on her face more than mine. My fingers dig into the soft fabric of her gown, clinging to her as desperately as she clings to me. That is how Leon finds us when Lillian brings him into the throne room. The somber mood hangs like a shadow .

Lillian taps the tapestry map, rolling it up so it hides everything from view, but Leon doesn’t even glance at it or at anything else in the room, his eyes frozen on me and Nueena.

“What’s happened?” he demands, watching me wipe away Nueena’s tears, his posture accusatory.

Nyvenah stands at her full height and steps in front of us. “Hello, Healer Leon. I would ask you to calm yourself.”

Leon nods and bows deeply to her. His expression is neutral, but his body betrays him. The tension radiates from him.

“I’m all right. Nothing has happened. Just tired.” I move beside Nyvenah and force a smile to reassure him.

He is not convinced, but stays quiet.

Nyvenah gracefully takes her seat at the head of the table. She gives me a sympathetic look that promises my impending demise by the crown will be discussed later. “Have a seat, mortal. I’ve heard you have had quite the journey to us, so this will not take long. I do, however, have a few questions.”

When he doesn’t immediately move, I walk over to him and together we all sit. Goblets appear for the vessels of water and juice in front of us.

Leon sits nearer than necessary.

Tavien and I make brief eye contact and he brings his crystal goblet to his lips to hide his smile.

“What would you like to know, Your Majesty?” Leon asks, making no move to drink anything in front of him.

She shakes her head and waves her hand. “None of that. Nyvenah is fine. Della has explained your circumstances, but I would like to hear your side of the story, the events from your perspective, and perhaps a part of your own personal history, so I have a clear understanding of your role in all of this.”

“I was the personal healer to King Jedrick up until last night, when he died.”

Nyvenah nods. “And how did you become his healer?”

“I was an apprentice first and was with him for the past two years, keeping him healthy.”

“What made you decide to stay with Izadella? She tells me that you did not wish to part with her and were quite insistent on accompanying her here. Why was that? The king was dead. You were free.”

He pulls out the same coin he showed me in the forest.

Everyone in the room seems uncomfortable with even that small amount of iron, and he puts it away.

“I am loyal to whoever wears the crown. That loyalty ends upon my death, not the death of the wearer. Izadella is now queen of Adreania. Wherever she is, there you will find me.”

She stands and walks gracefully over to the portrait of Realm Keeper Zarella, her great-grandmother, whom she looks astonishingly similar to.

“Are you aware of the true story of this crown? Not the lies I’m sure have been passed down for generations.” When he shakes his head, she goes on. “The fae wanted nothing to do with the mortals. They lived their existence outside the mortal realm, and that was the way it was always meant to be. Thousands of years ago, a young king named Drystan appeared in the Merawood Forest. Apparently he had seen Inara in the woods while he sought a cure for a sickness that had spread through Adreania, and he claimed he loved her. Inara was na?ve, and had never met a mortal. Deception was not something she had ever known. She believed him when he told her he wanted her for his queen. She wanted to be with him, but the fae are incompatible with mortals. We need magic to survive, which is the very same thing that will drive you to madness if you remain here.”

Leon’s jaw tightens but he calmly states, “I’ve been made aware of the consequences, Nyvenah.”

“Inara created an elixir that brought healing to his kingdom. This only caused him to want her magic even more. Inara and Drystan met in secret and he convinced her to marry him. Inara was not royalty here but he wished to make her his queen. When she told Zarella and Alvina, they warned her to stay away from him and that the mortals were not to be trusted. She desperately wished to be with him but there was no place for them. Devastated she might lose Drystan, Inara pleaded with Alvina to make her a crown that possessed the magic she would need to stay alive in the mortal realm.” Nyvenah turns her head to me, pausing in her tale to see if I wish to tell him this part.

I share what I can about my family’s history in all of this. “Alvina was my great-great-grandmother. Against her better judgment, she created a crown that Inara could wear so that magic could flow to and from her. The crown was only ever intended for Inara. Alvina keyed it to her, and after her death the crown, like all keyed items, will choose who can control it.”

Nyvenah continues, “When Zarella found out about the crown, she forbade Inara from seeing Drystan, but Inara refused to be parted from him. Alvina was torn between her two best friends, but chose to help Inara, believing in the love Inara thought she’d found. The crown called magic from Ellova to her so she would never perish without it. It allowed her to live in the mortal realm, only for her to be murdered by Drystan a few years later. Their daughter was never seen again. That foolish king looked long and hard for the princess once he realized the crown was useless to mortals and his half-fae daughter was his only hope to wield its magic. He remarried and started another line, Grayden’s line. The crown was not and will never be a marker of royalty for the traitorous Adreanian heirs and holds no bearing on any sinister succession. No matter what your iron coin declares, it was a gift of fae friendship, keyed only to Inara. So while Izadella has the crown, she is in no way the queen to the mortals unless, of course, she chooses to be, so you may be free of your loyalty to her.” Nyvenah’s voice is sympathetic, but her meaning cuts into me.

While Nyvenah speaks, Leon’s face hardens. The kindness in those green eyes is replaced with a cold determination. “While I understand the origins and intended purpose of the crown, you must understand, to the mortals there, it is the symbol of succession, and has been for thousands of years. Ellova may not recognize Izadella as queen but to every citizen of Adreania, she is, whether or not she wants the title, and I will not be parted from her.”

His hands are balled into fists, thankfully, outside of the view of everyone around him. I long to reach out and grab his hand .

“I understand your concern for Della. If you are as loyal to her as you say, you will not breathe a word to anyone about this realm, but I’m afraid that I cannot allow you to stay. Mortals are forbidden,” Nyvenah says, and her tone is soft with genuine regret.

No.

No, no, no.

Nueena turns her head quickly at my sharp intake of breath. I had told Leon that I wouldn’t intervene, that I would stand by my Realm Keeper’s decision, but it can’t end like this.

I want him here. Need him here.

It felt so right, and the thought of him leaving sends panic burning into me. I know he can’t stay, that we can’t be together, that death will claim him in the blink of an eye, but still, it hurts. I can feel my heartbeat racing faster and faster. I must say something.

“Nyvenah, please let me—” I am willing to beg for whatever time we have left.

Leon turns his attention to me before he opens his medical satchel, cutting my plea off.

“I did suspect,” he says with a slight arrogance to his tone, “that it would come to this. You have no reason to trust me. I do wonder something, though, if you could grace me with a reply. Say you do get the crown off Izadella’s head.” He turns to Nueena. “Which, at the moment, is unclear if that is even in the realm of possibilities. What is your next step? Are you washing your hands of mortal woes?”

Nueena is quiet for a moment but answers him. “Once I am crowned Realm Keeper, I will find a way to return to the mortal realm as Del has done every full moon and let them know that I will assist with their survival. There are food and medical shortages. I will not let the forgotten children of Adreania starve. They have suffered enough under millennia of kings who cannot be bothered to care.”

Leon nods. I think I see a spark of respect in his eyes at her answer. “That is what I assumed. You can bring all the food you wish, but without a cure to the sickness, nourishment will only go so far. There are ways to truly help those who need it most in Adreania. It was once a good place to live. Realm Keeper Zarella also cared for the mortals, at least enough to let the river flow from Ellova to Adreania. Their crops grew and the healing waters of that river allowed the mortals there to thrive before it was all taken away.”

Tavien places a hand over Nueena’s, just patting gently, before she interjects, “Is there a point to all this? I’m hardly in the mood for a history lesson from someone who hasn’t even been here long enough to see a sunset. Drystan had murdered Zarella’s best friend. One of the consequences of that action was loss of that particular fae gift. She was well within her right to retract the Airvell River for revenge.” She may sit next to the current ruler but she commands the room, power all around her.

Leon continues, “It is an observation of a kingdom that I have helped heal for many years, long before I came to be Jedrick’s royal healer, and there’s only one thing most of them want—a cure. A grieving mother cares little for who sits on a throne.”

Nueena and her parents exchange looks, and I’m desperate to ask him what this all means.

He makes eye contact with each person in the room. His eyes linger on me the longest before he speaks again. “I do, however, have something that may assist you, if it is your wish to see healing brought back to Adreania. I wish to give it to you as a sign of good faith, that I am loyal to whoever wears the crown, and the loyalty that I vowed will not be in vain. So I have a gift. It is in a fae language but Zarella’s name is written over and over again.”

He rises from his seat and reaches into his satchel. Lillian is on her feet the moment he stands, her hand on her sword, ready to cut him down in a single blow if he produces anything out of that bag that would threaten the family she vowed to protect.

Leon pulls out a leather-bound book weathered and faded with age. Its yellowed pages stick out at odd angles, and the cover is torn on one side. It’s faint, but some sort of old engravings are stamped on the front.

He holds the fragile pages with respect and with both hands gingerly passes it to Nyvenah, who holds it with reverence as she flips through, placing her hand over her heart when she stops on a page in the middle. “Inara’s diary? Where did you find this?”

“When I was not assisting the king, I was working towards finding a cure. The castle holds many libraries where I spent my nights researching and reading everything in the history section, or at least what had yet to be destroyed. A few months ago, on the last shelf hidden by other ancient tomes, I found a large book with its pages hollowed out, and this was inside it. Your guess is as good as mine as to how it got there and who hid it.”??

Nyvenah’s mate and daughter come to stand behind her to read over her shoulder. My heart pounds with satisfaction as I witness the family that raised me learn a new priceless piece of their history.

Leon returns to me, sliding his chair even closer to me, our knees almost touching. Without a word, I take his hand in mine and squeeze it in gratitude. He does not let me pull away; instead, he interlocks our fingers and with such gentleness rubs his thumb up and down my hand. We sit there together, fingers interlocked, in silence while we give them a few moments.

Nueena looks up suddenly. “Thank you.” Her eyes are glassy, her gratitude genuine. “There is so much of our family’s history here.”

Leon looks incredibly pleased at Nueena’s reaction. “You will find a bookmark towards the end. While I could not read it in its entirety, as a man of medicine I could, in part, read the ingredient list and instructions for the Anafaea Elixir. I believe the flowers shown here are that of the anafaea flower, as well as some plants that only grow here. Inara was the creator of the elixir. I do not believe it was the same illness, or at least they had different symptoms, but the legend around the anafaea flower is that it could cure many ailments. I believe it’s worth seeing if the elixir can be recreated.”

Nueena answers without looking up from the faded flora illustrations. “You are correct, but what does that have to do with you?”

“My proposal is that you allow me to attempt to create the elixir. I will need assistance, of course, but if we’re successful we have a chance to cure the plague. I’ve been the king’s healer for years, and many who have grown up in the shadow of the Iron Castle have known me for much longer as the only healer they can call upon in the middle of the night. I don’t know if it’s possible to make the elixir, or even if it would indeed cure the plague, but those people need it. Especially the children. I have to try. Please allow me the opportunity to help them, and then I will leave, never to speak of this place or whom the forest keeps hidden.” He finishes and waits.

There is no movement or sound in the room, and the weighted stares of the entire royal family are on him.

Tavien is the first to speak, turning to me with a laugh. “I see why you are so taken with him.”

Heat paints my cheeks, and when I again make a feeble attempt to free my hand from Leon’s, his hold tightens, his thumb moving in a gentle dance on my skin.

Once Nyvenah has collected her thoughts, she straightens and draws her hands together. “While I am Ellova’s Realm Keeper for another of the moon’s full turns, this decision is not mine to make. The culmination of this would be the start of Nueena’s legacy. I will leave this decision to her. I trust her to make choices that protect Ellova.”

Nueena, still a little dazed, smiles at us. My heart leaps with excitement.

I know that smile.