Page 15 of Terragnata and the Heir of the Earth

I didn’t hear another word from her, as I spun on my heels, feeling a sudden claustrophobia in the room, hating the way she saidhuman. They weren’t just humans, they are—were, my family. I needed air, needed to breathe?—

I took off towards the canvas door. But out of nowhere, two males appeared in front of me. “Jana, we found—” The loud smack from my head-on collision with his companion cut him off.

I had been moving too quickly to stop, blinded by too many tears. My nose hit square on the man’s chest, which was shrouded in a proud breastplate of some unforgivable metal. A broad hand wrapped around my waist, spread out on my lower back, steadying me as I rocked on my feet. I looked up to surprised eyes of blazing green, peering down at me through thick curling lashes. I blinked, and he must have sensed my dizziness because he held on to me for a moment longer than he needed to. His body tensed as he sucked in a breath of surprise.

“Bellatori,” he said, his eyes falling on my upper lip. All of a sudden, I felt our bodies pressed together. I raised a hand to my face, and the sticky sensation of blood coated my fingertips.

No one said a word as I shoved Ezren to the side and continued my bolt towards the door.

The forest was allI knew, and Jana’s talk about the Earth calling to me was the only thing that made any real sense. I ran through camp back the way Leiya had led me, eventually meeting the carriage road. But I didn’t go to the inn. Without thinking, my body turned towards the trees, the buzzing from before threading around me in a beckoning song.

It told me to come.

I moved as if in a trance, my limbs slow and heavy. Every step into the wood breathed air back into my lungs, bit by bit, until they were full enough I could exhale. A thick scent oflifecoated my nostrils, sending a fizzing sensation to my head. Once, at sixteen, I’d snuck a bottle of sparkling wine and guzzled it down by the creek with Gia. The sensation of being drunk had made the colors of the setting sun deeper, the smells of wet meadow heavier.

I felt drunk again—this time, on the forest itself.

It was a comfort that sent me deeper into myself, yet further away from my body. A salve to the pulsing grief that felt like arrow-shards in my belly, in my chest.

Continuing to meander, I let my fingers brush over moss and bark and stone. The touch tingled in a way that hadn’t before. I had always sensed an energy in the outdoors, but this seemed different, almost like a current of lightning. I felt as if I could reach out and grab it, risking a shock.

After the gods knew how long, I found myself sinking onto a slab of granite bordering a riverbed. Not bothering to wash the now dried blood from my face, I let my feet fall into the snow melt. I sat there, hollow, unfeeling to the freezing water soaking my boots. The song of the forest died down. The buzz wore off.And I wept. I wept for my family, for loss, for death. I wept for the lies and for the truths. I wept for myself. For the simple place in the world that I never wanted, but was robbed of nonetheless.

At some point, my blank gaze settled on the running water, watching the curls and ripples dance over obstructions in the stream. I looked, numb, not really seeing. I thought about the memories Jana had probed. I could see them, some of them at least, but from a distance. The first images I guessed were my sire, Viturius. He looked stern, the picture of a warrior, drained of warmth. His expression lacked the kind and loving smiles I earned generously from my father. Images of drilling with him came back. They appeared in the water, glimpses of hand-to-hand combat, repeated under his instruction until the young girl of twelve could gain some sort of advantage over him.

More swirls of color and motion flashed. A boy with golden-rimmed purple eyes and a devious smile. A gravel pit, a sword in my hands, a girl with white-blonde hair as my opponent. The memories came as quickly as they went, and eventually, I let my eyes close, opening my mind to them, no longer needing to see them projected in a reflection.

The faster they passed, the more my head ached. The memories seemed to race to get to something, to show me some final part, the apogee of the story. I saw Viturius’s muscular arms hoisting me into the back of the horse-drawn cart, covering my body with a heavy cloak, bidding me to sleep. I saw a castle fading into the distance. I saw the sun setting in the west, as I looked out from the cart headed south. I felt my eyes—the tired eyes of a child—droop, the image fading to black. The last thing I saw was waking to a halted cart, looking up at two blue sapphires set in the same gaunt face I’d encountered in Argention days before.

I knew with chilling certainty that Fayzien was my abductor. At least Jana wasn’t lying about that.

CHAPTER SEVEN

REBEL PRIDE

Istayed by that creek a great while, far past dark, until the moon rose high enough to cast silver echoes on the water. The truth in Jana’s story was undeniable after my memories came back. Much of my life remained missing, but I remembered enough. I remembered the Fae—the point of their ears. I remembered the magic of the Witch. I remembered living in a grand house adorned with servants, blazing fireplaces, and countless rooms. I remembered my father, a stern disciplinarian who laughed seldom but, when he did, lit up a room. The glossy memories Fayzien had provided me of an early childhood dissolved, replaced with flashes of the Fae world.

I rose after my long meditation and followed the distant sounds of a bustling camp. My pace was unhurried, and I used the time to collect my thoughts. I had more questions for Jana. Though I knew the truth in her words, and I appreciated no one tailing me after I left, I couldn’t shake the uneasiness that coiled in my gut—as if she withheld something from me. Remembering my father’s words, a lump formed in my throat.

Listen to the little voice.

The words rang out in my head, as if he’d spoken them aloud. I pressed my lids together, warm liquid leaking past the barrier.

I’ll try, papa.

By the time I reached the camp, the noises I’d followed were just above whispers. Fires had burnt down to embers, light snoring sang through several of the tents. I entered the meeting room, a familiar tension of tiredness weighing on my eyes. My gaze snagged on a note left on the long table, with “for Terra” inscribed on the front. It read:

If ye are reading this note, ye’ve decided to return to camp and will need a rest spot. Ye can bunk en me room while I’m out on watch tonight. Ets number nine, four down from the right of the big tent.

-Leiya

I breathed relief, fatigue overcoming my instinct to confront Jana. I found Leiya’s tent, empty as promised—the size of the interior matching the exterior this time. I didn’t bother taking off my boots—I just fell face-first onto the firm cot and pulled a thick woolen blanket over my head.

I woketo broad daylight shining through the cracks in the tent. At first disoriented, I squinted and saw Leiya had left me another chunk of bread with two heaping slabs of butter and a steaming cup of something. I relaxed into the hardness of the cot, unflinching to the torture of remembering. I supposed I’d become numb to it—my new normal. This normal where I woke, and my mother, father, and brothers didn’t. The scent of theblanket calmed me. It was piñon and the forest after a summer rain. It smelled familiar, of home.

I ate the generously laid breakfast, tidied my bloodied face with the washbowl next to the cot, and set out to find Jana.

She perched where I’d seen her last, at the middle of the long table in the main tent. Ezren sat next to her, wisps of dark auburn-hinted hair falling in swirls on his forehead, over strong eyebrows, his face turned down to a map. His elbows rested on the table, forcing the curving, hard lines in his well-muscled arms to bulge. The male that had appeared with Ezren out of thin air the day before sat on Jana’s other side. He looked small-bodied with deep brown skin, cropped hair, and ink markings climbing up his neck. Leiya stood behind them, predictably sharpening one of her long knives, of the curved variety this time.

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