Empire of Storms
Page 138
Something was coming.
Something that knew Aelin Galathynius drew strength from sunlight. From Mala.
Elide’s mouth dried. If Vernon found her here … there would be no escaping him now.
The guards on the dunes behind her stirred, noticing the strange wind, the clouds. Sensing that approaching storm was not of natural origin. Would they stand against the ilken long enough for help to come? Or would Vernon bring more of them this time?
But it was not Vernon who appeared on the beach, as if walking out of a passing breeze.
68
It was an agony. An agony, to see Nehemia, young and strong and wise. Speaking to Elena in the marshes, among those same ruins.
And then there was the other agony.
That Elena and Nehemia had known each other. Worked together.
That Elena had laid these plans a thousand years ago.
That Nehemia had gone to Rifthold knowing she’d die.
Knowing she’d need to break Aelin—use her death to break her, so she could walk away from the assassin and ascend her throne.
Aelin and Manon were shown another scene. Of a whispered conversation at midnight, deep beneath the glass castle.
A queen and a princess, meeting in secret. As they had for months.
The queen asking the princess to pay that price she’d offered back in the marshes. To arrange for her own death—to set this all in motion. Nehemia had warned Elena that she—that Aelin—would be broken. Worse, that she would go so far into an abyss of rage and despair that she wouldn’t be able to get out. Not as Celaena.
Nehemia had been right.
Aelin was shaking—shaking in her half-invisible body, shaking so badly she thought her skin would ripple off her bones. Manon stepped closer, perhaps the only comfort the witch knew how to offer: solidarity.
They stared into the swirling mist again, where the scenes—the memories—had unfolded.
Aelin wasn’t sure she could stomach another truth. Another revelation of just how thoroughly Elena had sold her and Dorian to the gods, for the fool’s mistake she’d made, not understanding the Lock’s true purpose, to seal Erawan in his tomb rather than let Brannon finally end it—and send the gods to wherever they called home, dragging Erawan with them.
Send them home … using the keys to open the Wyrdgate. And a new Lock to seal it forever.
Nameless is my price.
Using her power, drained to the last drop, her life to forge that new Lock. To wield the power of the keys only once—just once, to banish them all, and then seal the gate forever.
Memories flickered by.
Elena and Brannon, screaming at each other in a room Aelin had not seen for ten years—the king’s suite in the palace at Orynth. Her suite—or it would have been. A necklace glittered at Elena’s throat: the Eye. The first and now-broken Lock, that Elena, now the Queen of Adarlan, seemed to wear as some sort of reminder of her foolishness, her promise to those furious gods.
Her argument with her father raged and raged—until the princess walked out. And Aelin knew Elena had never returned to that shining palace in the North.
Then the reveal of that witch mirror in some nondescript stone chamber, a black-haired beauty with a crown of stars standing before Elena and Gavin, explaining how the witch mirror worked—how it would contain these memories. Rhiannon Crochan. Manon started at the sight of her, and Aelin glanced between them.
The face … it was the same. Manon’s face, and Rhiannon Crochan’s. The last Crochan Queens—of two separate eras.
Then an image of Brannon alone—head in his hands, weeping before a shrouded body atop a stone altar. A crone’s bent shape lay beneath.
Elena, her immortal grace yielded in order to live out a human life span with Gavin. Brannon still looked no older than thirty.
Brannon, the heat of a thousand forges shining on his red-gold hair, his teeth bared in a snarl as he pounded a metal disk on an anvil, the muscles of his back rippling beneath golden skin as he struck and struck and struck.
As he forged the Amulet of Orynth.
As he placed a sliver of black stone within either side, then sealed it, defiance written in every line of his body.
Then wrote the message in Wyrdmarks on the back.
One message.
For her.
For his true heir, should Elena’s punishment and promise to the gods hold true. The punishment and promise that had cleaved them. That Brannon could not and would not accept. Not while he had strength left.
Nameless is my price. Written right there—in Wyrdmarks. The one who bore Brannon’s mark, the mark of the bastard-born nameless … She would be the cost to end this.
The message on the back of the Amulet of Orynth was the only warning he could offer, the only apology for what his daughter had done, even as it contained a secret inside so deadly no one must know, no one could ever be told.
But there would be clues. For her. To finish what they’d started.
Brannon built Elena’s tomb with his own hands. Carved the messages in there for Aelin, too.
The riddles and the clues. The best he could offer to explain the truth while keeping those keys hidden from the world, from powers who would use them to rule, to destroy.
Then he made Mort, the metal for the door knocker gifted by Rhiannon Crochan, who brushed a hand over the king’s cheek before she left the tomb.
Rhiannon was not present when Brannon hid the sliver of black stone beneath the jewel in Elena’s crown—the second Wyrdkey.
Or when he set Damaris in its stand, near the second sarcophagus. For the mortal king he hated and had barely tolerated, but he had leashed that loathing for his daughter’s sake. Even if Gavin had taken his daughter, the daughter of his soul, away from him.
The final key … he went to Mala’s temple.
It was where he had wanted to end this all along anyway.
The molten fire around the temple was a song in his blood, a beckoning. A welcoming.
Only those with his gifts—her gifts—could get there. Even the priestesses could not reach the island in the heart of the molten river. Only his heir would be able to do that. Or whoever held another key.
So he set the remaining key under a flagstone.
And then he walked into that molten river, into the burning heart of his beloved.
And Brannon, King of Terrasen, Lord of Fire, did not emerge again.
Aelin didn’t know why it surprised her to be able to cry in this body. That this body had tears to spill.
But Aelin shed them for Brannon. Who knew what Elena had promised the gods—and had raged against it, the passing of this burden onto one of his descendants.
Brannon had done what he could for her. To soften the blow of that promise, if he could not change its course wholly. To give Aelin a fighting chance.
Nameless is my price.
“I don’t understand what this means,” Manon said quietly.
Aelin did not have the words to tell her. She had not been able to tell Rowan.
But then Elena appeared, real as they were real, and stared into the fading golden light of Mala’s temple as the memory vanished. “I’m sorry,” she said to Aelin.
Manon stiffened at Elena’s approach, taking a step from Aelin’s side.
“It was the only way,” Elena offered. That was genuine pain in her eyes. Regret.
“Was it a choice, or just to spare Gavin’s precious bloodline, that I was the one who was selected?” The voice that came from Aelin’s throat was raw, vicious. “Why spill Havilliard blood, after all, when you could fall back on old habits and choose another to bear the burden?”
Something that knew Aelin Galathynius drew strength from sunlight. From Mala.
Elide’s mouth dried. If Vernon found her here … there would be no escaping him now.
The guards on the dunes behind her stirred, noticing the strange wind, the clouds. Sensing that approaching storm was not of natural origin. Would they stand against the ilken long enough for help to come? Or would Vernon bring more of them this time?
But it was not Vernon who appeared on the beach, as if walking out of a passing breeze.
68
It was an agony. An agony, to see Nehemia, young and strong and wise. Speaking to Elena in the marshes, among those same ruins.
And then there was the other agony.
That Elena and Nehemia had known each other. Worked together.
That Elena had laid these plans a thousand years ago.
That Nehemia had gone to Rifthold knowing she’d die.
Knowing she’d need to break Aelin—use her death to break her, so she could walk away from the assassin and ascend her throne.
Aelin and Manon were shown another scene. Of a whispered conversation at midnight, deep beneath the glass castle.
A queen and a princess, meeting in secret. As they had for months.
The queen asking the princess to pay that price she’d offered back in the marshes. To arrange for her own death—to set this all in motion. Nehemia had warned Elena that she—that Aelin—would be broken. Worse, that she would go so far into an abyss of rage and despair that she wouldn’t be able to get out. Not as Celaena.
Nehemia had been right.
Aelin was shaking—shaking in her half-invisible body, shaking so badly she thought her skin would ripple off her bones. Manon stepped closer, perhaps the only comfort the witch knew how to offer: solidarity.
They stared into the swirling mist again, where the scenes—the memories—had unfolded.
Aelin wasn’t sure she could stomach another truth. Another revelation of just how thoroughly Elena had sold her and Dorian to the gods, for the fool’s mistake she’d made, not understanding the Lock’s true purpose, to seal Erawan in his tomb rather than let Brannon finally end it—and send the gods to wherever they called home, dragging Erawan with them.
Send them home … using the keys to open the Wyrdgate. And a new Lock to seal it forever.
Nameless is my price.
Using her power, drained to the last drop, her life to forge that new Lock. To wield the power of the keys only once—just once, to banish them all, and then seal the gate forever.
Memories flickered by.
Elena and Brannon, screaming at each other in a room Aelin had not seen for ten years—the king’s suite in the palace at Orynth. Her suite—or it would have been. A necklace glittered at Elena’s throat: the Eye. The first and now-broken Lock, that Elena, now the Queen of Adarlan, seemed to wear as some sort of reminder of her foolishness, her promise to those furious gods.
Her argument with her father raged and raged—until the princess walked out. And Aelin knew Elena had never returned to that shining palace in the North.
Then the reveal of that witch mirror in some nondescript stone chamber, a black-haired beauty with a crown of stars standing before Elena and Gavin, explaining how the witch mirror worked—how it would contain these memories. Rhiannon Crochan. Manon started at the sight of her, and Aelin glanced between them.
The face … it was the same. Manon’s face, and Rhiannon Crochan’s. The last Crochan Queens—of two separate eras.
Then an image of Brannon alone—head in his hands, weeping before a shrouded body atop a stone altar. A crone’s bent shape lay beneath.
Elena, her immortal grace yielded in order to live out a human life span with Gavin. Brannon still looked no older than thirty.
Brannon, the heat of a thousand forges shining on his red-gold hair, his teeth bared in a snarl as he pounded a metal disk on an anvil, the muscles of his back rippling beneath golden skin as he struck and struck and struck.
As he forged the Amulet of Orynth.
As he placed a sliver of black stone within either side, then sealed it, defiance written in every line of his body.
Then wrote the message in Wyrdmarks on the back.
One message.
For her.
For his true heir, should Elena’s punishment and promise to the gods hold true. The punishment and promise that had cleaved them. That Brannon could not and would not accept. Not while he had strength left.
Nameless is my price. Written right there—in Wyrdmarks. The one who bore Brannon’s mark, the mark of the bastard-born nameless … She would be the cost to end this.
The message on the back of the Amulet of Orynth was the only warning he could offer, the only apology for what his daughter had done, even as it contained a secret inside so deadly no one must know, no one could ever be told.
But there would be clues. For her. To finish what they’d started.
Brannon built Elena’s tomb with his own hands. Carved the messages in there for Aelin, too.
The riddles and the clues. The best he could offer to explain the truth while keeping those keys hidden from the world, from powers who would use them to rule, to destroy.
Then he made Mort, the metal for the door knocker gifted by Rhiannon Crochan, who brushed a hand over the king’s cheek before she left the tomb.
Rhiannon was not present when Brannon hid the sliver of black stone beneath the jewel in Elena’s crown—the second Wyrdkey.
Or when he set Damaris in its stand, near the second sarcophagus. For the mortal king he hated and had barely tolerated, but he had leashed that loathing for his daughter’s sake. Even if Gavin had taken his daughter, the daughter of his soul, away from him.
The final key … he went to Mala’s temple.
It was where he had wanted to end this all along anyway.
The molten fire around the temple was a song in his blood, a beckoning. A welcoming.
Only those with his gifts—her gifts—could get there. Even the priestesses could not reach the island in the heart of the molten river. Only his heir would be able to do that. Or whoever held another key.
So he set the remaining key under a flagstone.
And then he walked into that molten river, into the burning heart of his beloved.
And Brannon, King of Terrasen, Lord of Fire, did not emerge again.
Aelin didn’t know why it surprised her to be able to cry in this body. That this body had tears to spill.
But Aelin shed them for Brannon. Who knew what Elena had promised the gods—and had raged against it, the passing of this burden onto one of his descendants.
Brannon had done what he could for her. To soften the blow of that promise, if he could not change its course wholly. To give Aelin a fighting chance.
Nameless is my price.
“I don’t understand what this means,” Manon said quietly.
Aelin did not have the words to tell her. She had not been able to tell Rowan.
But then Elena appeared, real as they were real, and stared into the fading golden light of Mala’s temple as the memory vanished. “I’m sorry,” she said to Aelin.
Manon stiffened at Elena’s approach, taking a step from Aelin’s side.
“It was the only way,” Elena offered. That was genuine pain in her eyes. Regret.
“Was it a choice, or just to spare Gavin’s precious bloodline, that I was the one who was selected?” The voice that came from Aelin’s throat was raw, vicious. “Why spill Havilliard blood, after all, when you could fall back on old habits and choose another to bear the burden?”
