Page 34 of From the Myths of Kings

Rook spiraled down toward the layered heap of jagged masts, fractured hulls, and shredded sails. He found a relatively dry alcove within the mountain of wrecked ships, weaving between broken beams and webs of frayed ratlines. He found himself standing on what looked to be a crow’s nest?or at least what remained of one anyway. Violent waves crashed against the ridge of shattered ships, pitching a spray of sea foam up the sharp incline. Water speckled Rook’s boots as he paced the small perch. The sun hung low on the horizon and gleamed like a polished gold coin. There was no sign of his sister. He hadn’t specified a time of day in his message. Had she already come and gone?

“I was starting to think you wouldn’t show.”

Rook jolted at the sound of her voice. He spun to find Raven creeping forward from the shadows. How long had she been lurking there?

A sharp surge of emotion speared through his heart as sunlight spilled over her familiar ink-dark hair. Her glossy feathers shifted in the wind, the same shade as the tiding feather in Rook’s pocket. Her steel-blue eyes glinted with unreadable sentiment; her mouth unsmiling as she came to stand before him. Raven’s dark cloak fluttered around her ankles as the wind whispered between them.

Rook’s mouth tasted of ash as he stared at his sister. She was the Queen of Revelore, but he couldn’t help but see Raven as the haunted girl in that carriage, the one who’d pulled him from the arms of his dead mother and carried him back to Coarinth without a single tear falling from her eyes.

“You smell of swamp,” she observed flatly.

Rook glanced down at his algae-stained tunic and leathers, stiff with sweat, mud, and dried swamp water. He didn’t doubt it.

“Raven?” he began. There were so many lies wedged between them he didn’t know where to start. It had only been a matter of weeks since the Tournament, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since he’d last seen Raven before the final trial. He settled on saying, “I’m sorry I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye.” He meant it.

Raven’s frown deepened. He wanted to see pain in her eyes, any kind of emotion to indicate that she’d been worried for him or even hurt by his absence. Instead, her blue eyes were cold and inscrutable as a frozen lake.

“I see you’ve picked your side, brother,” she said. “I must warn you that it is the wrong one.”

“I am on your side,” he countered. “I am fighting for Aurandel’s deliverance just as much as you are. There is more at play here, sister. There is a greater threat coming for us all. This goes beyond political rivalries and royal feuds. This goes beyond the Crown of Revelore. I am not your enemy.”

Raven scoffed, finally tearing her eyes away as though she couldn’t even look at him. “You’ve been brain-washed by that Tellusun princess and her ‘rebellion’, just as High Elder Korina predicted. And that Mer princess, too. Your mind is addled with emotion. I didn’t think you’d be so blinded by beauty that you’d abandon your kingdom just for a couple of nights in her bed.”

“It’s not like that,” Rook protested. His words suddenly grew thick on his tongue and he felt the tips of his ears grow warm. “I have made my own decisions based on truth and experience. If you saw the things I have?”

Stirrings of anxiety crept up his spine. How did his sister make him feel so uncertain of himself? How could she make him lose his nerve with just a handful of words and a sharp tone of voice?

“You have a good heart, little brother. You always have. But it has been your weakness for far too long. It has made you susceptible to temptation and whimsy. You’ve only ‘seen’ what you’ve wanted to see.”

Rook balled his fists. Anger burned through his blood at her condescending tone, searing away the anxiety that jumbled his words.

“My whole life I’ve only seen what you wanted me to see, sister. I know you’ve hidden truths from me for many years. You merely let me play at being a captain of the Aerials. You never confided in me once. You chose to trust the Elders’ counsel over your own flesh and blood. I have ideas, you know. I have thoughts of my own?thoughts I would’ve shared with you if you had just asked. But you never did. You’ve never valued my opinion, even if you let me believe you did at one point. You’ve belittled me at every turn. I know you still see me as an emotional child, easily swayed and susceptible to manipulation, but I am not the same person I was eight years ago.” He was breathing heavily with the confession, as though all the pent-up words had scalded his throat as they came tumbling out.

Raven was quiet for a long time. The crash of waves and the cries of seagulls permeated the heavy silence. Was that a flash of guilt in her ice-blue eyes? It vanished before he could read the emotion fully.

Pursing her lips, she said, “You found out about the missing merchant ships, I presume?”

“Yes. The night before the final trial, I heard you discussing it with Eros and Veila in your tent. Raven, how could you do that? Tellusun has long relied on maritime trade for survival. In sinking those ships, you wasted valuable provisions and potentially sentenced innocent people to starvation. All for some political ploy to frame Elorshin and gain Tellusun’s allegiance? It sickens me. And you lied to my face about it, too. Do you remember that? You told me the Mer were to blame. You wanted to turn me against Saoirse. Why?”

“I did what was necessary,” she replied coldly. “If Tellusun did not want their trade to be disrupted, they should’ve remained satisfied with our occupation and trade settlements. There was talk of uprisings. I needed to take preventative action.”

“By turning our nations against each other? You did what the Elders guided. You obeyed their whims like a puppet on strings. And you lied to me.”

“Do not question my authority,” Raven snarled. “I am the Queen. Anything I have decreed has been carefully considered. I’ve only ever wanted what is best for all the kingdoms of Revelore. I have only ever fought to maintain the peace. That is more than you can say about your decision to join Hasana’s cause.”

It was Rook’s turn to be silent. How could his sister not recognize that the very manipulation she accused him of falling prey to loomed over her at every turn? The Elders whispered in her ear, their words seeping like poison in her mind and clouding her judgment.

“The past cannot change,” he finally said. “I do not want to waste your time speaking of previous mistakes. We can change the trajectory of the future. I must tell you of the coming storm the rebellion is working to fight against. Please find it in yourself to hear me out.”

“Fine,” Raven replied flippantly. “Tell me.”

“Do remember the final trial?”

“Of course I do. Your beloved rebellion blew up the citadel and stole the Crown of Revelore. Our family’s most valuable possession.”

“Did you see the creature who freed the hydra? She is a shapeshifter who appeared as a Mer woman. I know it is difficult to believe, but that creature is named Selussa. She was summoned from the Underworld by the Order of Elders a hundred years ago. She is behind the War of the Age and all the turmoil that has plagued Revelore for the last century. She has returned to resurrect the Titans.”

Raven looked at him as though he was a hydra who’d grown a second head after the first had been lobbed off. “You’ve succumbed to madness,” she breathed. True concern finally gleamed in her eyes as she scanned his earnest expression. It was the same look she’d given him as a child when he’d mispronounced a word and she needed to correct him.

---