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As though this wasn’t the end.
Chapter 41
Caspyn
Gripping my blades, I took off at a run, plunging myself deeper into the trees, into the dark where fog swirled at the sounds of birds long since forgotten echoed off gnarled trunks. I continued after that pull at a run, panic fueling me forward in a way it never had. The strings of energy throbbed alongside my magic as it yanked me forward. The bright gold line grew stronger and stronger with each step as I moved. Then, as though it had hit a wall, all of that pulling and yanking stopped as I ran into a clearing, my filthy boots splashing into the pond of a marsh I hadn’t been anywhere near moments before.
I had been pulled forward, that line dragging me through more than just space.
Crickets and birds sang their displeasure at the sudden disruption, the wind whistling through branches and wide leaves as though it too was upset at my arrival. I was frozen, staring at the pond. Bright purple lilies floated on the surface, their yellow centers glowing like the marks on the Lightens’ arms, as though they were reflecting the light of the moon. No, as though the light of the moon was trapped within them.
I knew what they were at once. I had seen them enough in the delicate paintings covering the walls of our home before my world had been blown to bits.
Caspyn lilies.
They looked like little dots of gold amongst the inky pool, bringing light to a world that had none.
“Caspyn Light Bringer,” I whispered, stepping back into the water as though those dainty little flowers were pulling me in. Water lapped around my ankles, my boots keeping the water away, even though I swore I could feel it.
Feel its warmth.
Warm water in the midst of the dark forest.
The water didn’t give the slightest ripple as I stepped further into it. The surface remained clear and smooth, reflecting the light of the delicate lilies that drifted atop it. The lilies smelled of light and sun and something soft that I swore I had scented before. The aroma swirled around me, tugging with as much strength of the pull that was still prickling over every inch of me.
“I had a feeling you would see them before your time with us was at a close,” Ryndle said from behind me. I didn’t turn, I stared at those flowers, wanting to move closer, wanting to touch them. I couldn’t prod myself forward. “I knew they would choose for you to see them.”
That time I turned to the man who was perched on a rock beside the pond, one leg up as though he had been watching me the whole time.
“What do you mean they would choose?” I asked, standing up to my knees in the curiously warm pond water.
For once, Ryndle didn’t smile.
“These flowers carry the last light of the Fae who fell in the battle that sent our people in exile, the last battle of the Black War.” His tone was flat, his eyes drifting from me to the flowers that glowed and floated in the water behind me.
“The last light? But they are flowers,” I spoke slowly, even as something in me was screaming that they were so much more.
Looking at them now, at the real thing, the paintings that covered the cabinets of my home as a child were nothing more than a crude sketch. These were light, and I could have sworn Mother and Lily were standing there with me, watching them. That familiar ache rose up and I pushed it down, into the same black pit that all my memories of them belonged in. The ache didn’t leave, however, it twisted itself alongside the darkness that was always in me.
“And you are a man who can walk through time.” I shouldn’t be surprised that he knew, and with how he was looking at me now I had a feeling that he always had, even before the fight.
“You said you would tell me everything, Ryndle. So tell me.” The calm that the flowers had brought ebbed away as I took a step closer, the warm water swirling past my knees and taking all of the blood with it.
“Start with how you know about magic? How you moved those tents? How Lyani knew what had happened before? Tell me all of that.” I demanded one after another, Ryndle did nothing more than blink, the tiny motion pulling all of my rage up in a heat that I was surprised didn’t send the pond to boil. “No more games, Ryndle. I know you know.”
“So many questions.” He picked at a bit of moss on the rock.
“And I expect so many answers.” I made sure to use his same inflection, if only to drive him crazy. Judging by the tiny flinch in his smile I would say that it worked.
“The power of time is known as Vynari,” he plucked another bit of moss from the rock, inspecting it before popping it into his mouth. He wasn’t the first I had heard use that word, although thinking about the other was turning all of that heat into an inferno. I pushed it back down, I needed to be careful.
“It is a power that is only held by a select few. I do not know how you came to hold it,” he continued, sliding from the rock. “There are only a few who know how to wield the Vynari power. All of them know how to manipulate it better than you.”
“That King, Vaelar,” saying his name burned my tongue, “he could step through time. He said the same.”
“Yes, he is the eldest of our kind to have been blessed with the gift. He has used it to save many.”
Ryndle was clearly in awe of the man, understandable seeing as he was his King. I, however, would never be in awe of him. I laughed with a bark that made Ryndle flinch.
