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“That means he missed you, too. He wanted you to ride him.” He’d done the same to me often enough.
It warmed my heart that she had a connection to Drak like I did. It was another sign that she was mine, and I was hers.
“Oh, look, Goll. A castle!”
“That’s where I’m taking you.”
Drakmir knew as well. I’d shown him mind-to-mind where we were going. He knew this place well enough. He glided lower and circled Windolek Castle, my mother’s home and the one I grew up in away from my father at Näkt Mir.
Instantly, the sight of it filled me with both melancholy and joy. And then my reason for bringing her here brought on another emotion altogether—fear.
I held Una tightly around the waist as Drak circled the field then beat his wings to land inside the castle’s courtyard. The bailey was large enough for a small army to gather but it had never housed one. It had, however, been filled with stables for horses, cows, and goats. There had even been a coop forchickens. My nursemaid used to yell at me for chasing them in the yard.
Once I’d climbed down, I reached up to help Una.
“I can get down easily enough in my new clothes,” she told me. Scolded me, rather.
“I know, but I want to help.” I didn’t want her to fall in her condition.
Once down, she walked to the front of Drak. “Good boy,” she cooed as she petted his snout.
He purred, his eyes closing at her attentions.
“You’re spoiling him.”
“He deserves it.” She then turned and looked around. “It’s abandoned?”
“For now.”
“Who’s is it?”
“Yours, actually.”
She turned a startled expression toward me, her mouth dropping open.
“Come.” With my heart in my throat, I held out my hand. “Let me show you something.”
Without a word or a moment’s hesitation, she took my hand, and I led her carefully up the stone steps to the walkway along the battlement that surrounded the entire castle. I guided her to the parapet that overlooked the open field to the northeast and the Solgavia Mountains in the far distance.
“This was my mother’s home after she became pregnant with me. This is where I was born and where I was raised until it was time for me to learn to be a wraith warrior.” I gazed down into the empty bailey that was once so full of life. “I know it appears empty now, but it could be beautiful and full of life again.” I pointed behind us to the field filled with yellow grass at this time of year. “During summer, there’s a purple wildflowerthat blooms here. Windolek means ‘on the wildflowers’ in my language.”
Una watched me, listening intently. She probably sensed my tension in the tenor of my voice.
“This place is special to me because it reminds me of my mother, who I loved very much.”
“And who loved you,” she added.
“She did.” I faced her. “Do you know that when I first laid eyes on you, bruised and terrified, standing on top of that ledge in the dungeon, I instantly thought of my mother. The abuse she endured from my father. He killed her after accusing her of fornicating with an Issosian ambassador. But I know my mother wouldn’t have done that. She knew he was cruel and what he’d do to her. Seems he did it anyway.”
My throat grew thick with emotion, thinking about the day I found out my father had murdered my mother in front of his entire court. Una lifted my hand in both of hers, holding tight.
“Do you know he sent one of his Culled to tell me? Erlik.”
“I remember him,” she said softly.
Yet again, I took a moment’s satisfaction in having burned him to cinders right after I killed my father.
“I was in the middle of the training yard at the Gall Guild. Far from home in the wildlands. I was trying to learn the proper grappling technique to wrestle a weapon away from someone if I was unarmed. This all seemed futile to me since I could use feyfire to disarm anyone, but I was determined to make my Gall master proud.”
