The Crown Prophecy

Chapter 21

W e only rode a few hours before stopping to get some sleep. The journey was tense and we didn’t make it far with only the torchlight to guide our path, but we all needed to get away from the campsite and its troubling memories.

Having left Helmund’s bedroll behind, I lay on the cold, hard ground, my mind racing with questions I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how late it was when I finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning I awoke to the sounds of Colette and Vanessa’s hushed voices a few paces away.

“What are we even going to do when we get there?” Colette was asking.

“Whatever we need to.” The grim set of Vanessa’s jaw was silhouetted in the golden sunrise, and I recognized the same steely resolve I felt in her words.

“Nessa,” Colette whispered, reaching out to put a hand on her counterpart’s, “I know you’re angry. I’m angry too. But if we go in with only our emotions guiding us, we’re going to get slaughtered. All three of us.” She glanced over to me. “We need a plan.”

Vanessa let out a sigh, long and weary. “I know,” she said. “I’m just so out of my depth with this. My mother would know exactly what to do, but me?” She shook her head. “I’m not even sure we’re going in the right direction.”

I sat up and cleared my throat, making my presence known. “We are,” I assured her. “I was conscious for a long time before Helmund realized. This is definitely the route we were taking.” Vanessa gave me a bittersweet half-smile.

“Plus,” I continued, pulling my captor’s rucksack into view, “I have this.”

“And that would be . . .?” Vanessa prompted.

Even touching the satchel made my skin crawl, but I pushed through the uncomfortable emotion and opened the flap. “Helmund’s bag. I’m hoping whatever is in here might give us a better idea of our next step. I already found this.”

I scooted closer to the couple and held the shimmering bottle aloft. Having it in my possession made the gnawing emptiness a bit more bearable, but I still felt that cavern where my power should be.

“A vial of my power, I think.”

“Your power?” Colette’s eyes widened, horrified.

“He drained it somehow. Whenever I try to access it, I hit a wall. Even when I couldn’t cast before, I could feel it. Now . . . nothing.”

“That sounds awful.” Colette shuddered.

I nodded, lips pressed tightly together. I didn’t want to tell them the depth of the discomfort, the horrible emptiness I couldn’t get away from. Not when I still had to break the news about Maddox to Vanessa. Her expression gave nothing away, and I decided I should be straightforward with her.

“I think they did the same to your mother,” I winced.

Vanessa’s face paled as she realized the implications of Maddox’s powers in the hands of King Orobas. The things he could do . . . A shiver danced across my neck just thinking about it.

“And they can use it somehow?” Colette asked, a hand over her mouth.

I nodded grimly.

Colette took the vial from my hands, holding it up to the light.

“There must be a way for you to reconnect to it,” she said, squinting at the liquid inside.

“If there is, I need to figure it out quickly, because I’m going to need this for whatever comes next,” I said. As I watched its contents swirl, the movement of the liquid an ethereal dance of light and color, another thought occurred to me.

“I wonder if they found anything like this on Freya,” Colette mused. “If we discover how it works, maybe we could restore Emory and Liang’s powers too.”

If she didn’t already get the vials out of the castle before the third trial, it might be possible . . .

But that was getting too far down a road I could barely see the first few steps of. Before we could be of help to other victims of King Orobas’s schemes, we had to rescue Evander.

We spent the remainder of the morning going through the satchel, searching for anything that might help us on our path, but didn’t find much.

Either Helmund had made the trip through the Dyminian pass so many times that he didn’t need a map, or it was still on his body. Thankfully, we did at least find a compass to help guide us east.

The rest of the bag proved to be rather unhelpful. There was a notebook with an unfamiliar embossed symbol stamped into the leather that initially seemed promising, but it was written in a code we couldn’t decipher. The geometric shapes of the emblem resembled a twisted, unyielding knot, and the edges of the design were worn, as if it had been traced many times. We kept it with us for further study on the road, but I wasn’t optimistic about its practical use. The time it would take us to decode the symbols might not be worth it when every second counted.

The last item we uncovered was another vial with dregs of a shimmering golden liquid inside.

“It looks like he drank it,” Colette hedged nervously.

I had to agree with her, but the thought of imbibing my own power without knowing with absolute certainty it was the correct way to restore it felt foolish.

“We should keep trying to translate the notes,” Vanessa said. “If we miscalculate, Quinn could end up without any powers at all,” she warned, “or worse.”

Colette opted to ride with Vanessa, leading Helmund’s horse behind them so she could study the journal more comprehensively as we traveled.

The ride was tense and quiet, Vanessa and I left to ruminate on what might be happening to our loved ones and whether we would get to them in time. Colette interjected every hour or so with a theory on the notes, but without being able to look at them, we couldn’t be of much help.

When it was no longer light enough to travel, Colette and I made camp while Vanessa went in search of water for the horses.

As I worked to build the fire, I felt my friend’s presence behind me. She shifted from foot to foot and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right words.

Finally she settled on, “They’re smart, you know. And strong. Even without their powers, Nessa told me Maddox has been training Evander in hand-to-hand combat since he could walk. If anyone can get out of trouble, it’s them.”

Swiping at the moisture in my eyes, I tried and failed to find the conviction to agree with her. I didn’t doubt their strength or wit, but without their Gifts . . .

Vanessa came trotting back into camp, the other two horses in tow, and held out a flask of water to Colette.

“I’ll take the first watch. You should both get some rest,” she said, not quite meeting our eyes.

“You need it more than I do, Nessa,” Colette argued. “Give yourself a break from worrying for a few hours.”

“Really, I’m fine.” Vanessa’s voice sounded as empty as I felt.

Colette acquiesced with a kiss on her partner’s cheek and whispered instructions to wake her if Vanessa changed her mind.

The cold crept into my bones through Vanessa’s leather gear as I lay on her bedroll. I didn’t have a proper coat, but at least the outfit was warmer than my ruined wedding dress would’ve been. The image of it trampled in the mud flashed in my mind as I willed myself to sleep.

An hour passed as I tossed and turned before finally giving up, rising and shuffling around in our things to find the notes. Once I located them, I sat in front of the fire and squinted to make out the symbols. They didn’t make any more sense to me than they had hours before, but I had to start somewhere. I needed to feel like I was doing something.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Vanessa asked quietly from behind me.

I shook my head.

“I know the feeling,” she sighed, sitting down beside me.

The fire flickered in the darkness, warming my hands but leaving my spirit cold and wanting.

“I’m terrified,” I said into the flames.

“Only a fool wouldn’t be,” Vanessa replied, emotionless. “We’re outnumbered, overpowered, and we have very little to go on. But they have the people we love. I’d charge into the fire over and over again for my mother, even knowing I was going to get burned.”

I nodded, my throat painful as I swallowed.

“That’s what loving someone is,” she said. “And I know Evander. He’ll be fighting like hells to get back to you too. We just have to hope all that love is enough.” I could hear the emotion threatening to break free in her words, and her eyes were red again as I turned to look at her, the last of the walls I had built between us crumbling in the wake of our shared trauma.

“Thank you,” I said, “for coming here. For saving me. I know we haven’t been on the best terms since . . . you know.”

She shrugged it off. “Well, I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I didn’t rescue you from your kidnapper just because you were angry with me.”

A few moments passed in silence before she spoke again.

“You’re right to be upset with me. I understand. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have violated you like that. I should’ve trusted you.”

“You should’ve,” I agreed with a sad smile. “I never would’ve done anything that would hurt you or Colette.”

Vanessa sighed, rubbing her hand along her brow. “I know that,” she said. “But I was so terrified of losing her that I wasn’t thinking straight. It was beginning to feel like being caught was an inevitability after sneaking around for so long. I half expected someone to jump out from behind a column and start shouting for the guards every time we walked down the halls.”

“Was it your mother you were afraid of?” I asked. “Would she have been upset that you weren’t interested in Evander?”

“No, she wouldn’t care about that. She already knows I prefer women. It’s pretty easy to spot, even if you spend more of your time in the training ring than you do at home.

“But I knew Colette wouldn’t be allowed to stay if they knew she wasn’t a real competitor, and I wouldn’t be permitted to leave the palace to visit her. My relationship woes seem so small in comparison now, but . . .” she trailed off. “She’s the first person who’s ever really made me feel like I’m enough, you know?”

“I do,” I said, reaching out for her hand. To my surprise, she didn’t shy away from the contact, instead giving my fingers a firm squeeze. “And I understand. If there was anything I could’ve done to protect Evander during those first few days of his reign, I don’t think I would’ve hesitated, no matter who it hurt.”

“That’s not the same.” Vanessa shook her head. “What I did was purely selfish. Even if she was sent home, it’s not as if she would’ve been hurt or drained. I just–I was so afraid.”

I squeezed her hand back. “I forgive you, Nessa.”

She leaned the side of her head against mine and we sat shoulder to shoulder in the glowing light of the fire, drawing strength from the fact that although we were both terrified, we weren’t alone.

“Just don’t do it again,” I joked, breaking the tender moment. Vanessa laughed, wiping her eyes.

“I won’t, I promise.”

“So, Buttercup, huh?” I teased, arching an eyebrow as I looked at the sleeping animal. “I thought you’d name your horse something a little bit more menacing.”

“Oh, shut up.” Vanessa batted me with her hand. “I was nine.”

Both laughing, we sunk into a companionable silence; I didn’t realize how much I had missed her.

After a while, I returned my attention to the notebook, tracing over the symbol on the leather cover.

“This isn’t any language I’ve ever seen.” Years of being a merchant’s daughter meant I could recognize almost all the languages spoken on the continent on sight, but I still couldn’t read the pages. Mentally scanning through all the different scripts I had seen on my father’s ledger over the years, I still came up empty.

“There are too many repetitive symbols to be a full language,” Vanessa agreed. “It’s probably just some sort of code.”

“The empty bottle we found in the bag makes me think the vials are supposed to be ingested . . .”

“But you don’t want to be wrong about that,” Vanessa warned.

“I don’t,” I agreed. “But if I can get more information from the journal, I might be able to find out for certain.” My eyes were already feeling strained from staring at the writing in the low light of the fire, but I knew there was no hope for sleep tonight.

“Go to bed,” I said. “I need to look at this for a while.”

“Are you sure?” Vanessa asked. “You don’t exactly look well-rested yourself.”

I chuckled halfheartedly. After what I had been through, I was certain I didn’t, but I knew my mind wouldn’t give me any respite until I had made some progress.

“Go,” I waved her off. “I’ll wake Colette to take over in a few hours.”

“If you’re sure.” Vanessa stood up, rolling her neck.

She started to walk away but turned back and looked at me with an open look of vulnerability that I had only ever seen her offer Colette.

“Quinn?”

“Yes?”

“I’m glad to have you back,” she said tentatively. “I missed my friend.”

“Likewise,” I smiled, and her returning grin was the timid sun on a winter morning, ready to begin its work of thawing the frost.

She made her way back to the sleeping form of her partner and moments later I heard her breathing even out as they slept, limbs intertwined peacefully.

Time felt strange as I pored over the journal. There were moments of clarity where I felt I was close to an answer, but seconds later I couldn’t remember what I had been thinking about. It was disorienting, like the liminal space between waking and sleeping, where whatever fantasy you had concocted suddenly slips your grasp.

By the time I finally woke Colette and took her place on her bedroll, I was so exhausted that not even nightmares could find me.