Page 21 of Heiress of Fire

“A bird? What kind of bird?” Snow asked.

“Something similar between a crow and a raven,” Valerie answered.

“A crow or a raven?” Caleb asked.

“What do these birds have to do with anything?” Leilani asked.

“I don’t know, but if anything, I think it’s a raven. The body of the bird was bigger than that of a crow,” Davina answered.

Davina glanced at Snow as the white-haired girl eyed the Chief Leaders. Amir and Isaiah turned to Snow and a silent conversation between the three. Amir departed from the table and walked over to the bookshelf near the grand staircase.

“We have received messages in the past few years. Perhaps these messages could be connected to the raven that was painted by Basalt’s shore,” Isaiah explained while Amir walked to the nearest section of books.

Amir neared the table and opened a large maroon tome. As he opened the book, dust puffed into the air. Several papyrus pages spilled over the table.

“These are some of the parchments that have dropped on Castellum’s front porch,” Amir explained, pulling out the pages from inside the treatise. Davina and the others immediately scanned the vellum sheets that had markings sprawled all over them. Davina reached for the nearest to her.

Over a dozen parchment sheets carried the same scribbled runes.

MALLEBORT. DEN UORY TENINIMM, SI

“It makes the same sigil as the one over Basalt,” Davina revealed.

“This is how it looks?” Beacon asked.

“Yes, it’s the exact replica of the figure we saw,” Valerie confirmed.

“This seems to be of a language not of our own,” Leilani said as she reached to touch the page.

Isaiah asked, leaning his hands on the marble bench. “Do you believe so?”

Caleb and Leilani observed the same parchment as they held it near the lamplight.

“I’ve studied the pages for so long, and I don’t think it’s another language. I believe it’s our language, but with a code,” Amir stuttered. Davina continued to analyze the figure of the page before her while she glimpsed the way Leilani rolled her eyes at Amir.

“The raven means something,” Davina affirmed.

“Do you think it’s a name?” Snow asked. Caleb lowered the parchment back onto the table.

Then, for Davina, it clicked.

“Her name is Raven,” Davina said softly.

This Raven individual was ruthless and void of any good. Raven was confronting Bellatorm, challenging its warriors and citizens.

Davina did not enjoy confrontation. The few times she confronted her mother and stepfather didn’t end well for her. Maybe that’s why the fear of retaliation caused her lungs to tighten, making it difficult for her to breathe. But she remained quiet, not allowing the others to notice her trembling fear.

Perhaps the Predators would come and attack her by surprise. What if they decided to hurt her siblings? All because she chose to deny their leader. She wasn’t snarky; she wasn’t one to say such rude things. She was quiet and polite because that’s who she was forced to become. Her mother’s perfect, quiet little doll. Yet, when she was standing in front of the Predators, and she saw the fear in the Soldier’s eyes, she was furious.

She was angry at how they always doubted her when she had given them many reasons for her to be trusted, and that the leader of the Predators believed she could ever be capable of such horrors.

Davina glanced at her friends who seemed to be recalling recent tales and encounters they had with the Predators.

Snow and Valerie, the cousins of the group, turned to one another. Their parents had spoken of the blood, the black goo, and the sadness of the Prey. Leilani and Caleb remained still as Davina saw them remember the moment they stood before the decayed fields of their neighbors and the stench that covered the area.

“What if we reorganize the letters?” Snow suggested.

“I like your thinking,” Amir said. “Here, let me get some quills and ink.”

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