Page 60 of The Night Prince

Aquilan’s song ran along his skin like a gentle caress.It stole up his spine and caused the hair on the back of his neck to rise again, but this time in pleasure and not in alarm. The crawling sensation eased as he listened to Aquilan.The fear receded.He just needed to listen to the song.That was all.

The Dawn was otherwise silent.Even the fire smothered any discordantsnaps,popsandcrackles.The expressions that settled on the patron’s faces told him why.They were entranced.Lips slightly parted.Eyes wide.Still as stone.Yet that same possessive voice in Declan’s head told him that this song was somehow just for him.

He sings for me.His voice… The voice of the king…Aquilan Fairlynn… He sings for me.

He drifted past Snaglak and Finley, both of whom had also gone quiet and turned their full attention to the Sun King.Even Lily had stopped whizzing up and down the bar serving drinks.Her bright eyes and freckled face were focused on Aquilan, too.She blinked as her mouth opened in a silent “O” of appreciation.Even the fairies had stopped flying around the room.Snow and Rain had dared peek their heads out of the back room.Their iridescent wings fluttered only occasionally to keep them aloft.

Declan knew that to hear Aquilan sing was something that none present–absent perhaps Rhalyf or maybe Helgrom–would ever have the honor of hearing normally.Yet Aquilan sang with all of his heart for strangers who listened with rapt attention.

He sings for me, the voice inside of him murmured.

Other Aravae had burst into song in the Dawn before.Elves and singing were like bread and butter. Dwarves weren’t far behind in their love of music.But Aquilan’s voice made even the memory of those other brilliant singers seem tinny and discordant.His voice was like sunlight dappling verdant green grass or clear water running down from snow-capped mountains.

Declan passed by Varhad and Strofin’s table.The gremlin cringed as Declan drew near, but only at the last moment when Declan obscured his view of Aquilan.The goblin had been about to snarl, but once he saw it was Declan, his lips pressed tightly together and he settled down lower in his chair.Varhad’s eyes were shadowed as he listened to Aquilan.The beauty of the elves’ voices always made the dwarves remember the ancient halls of their lost homes in the Under Dark.Unspeakable joy mixed with endless sorrow was the cost of every elven song.

The rest of the room was lost in shadow as it seemed to grow darker while that golden light suffused the air around Aquilan only grew.His long hair gleamed.His sapphire blue eyes could just be glimpsed under dark lashes.There was a small smile on his lips as he sang in Katyr, but Declan understood every single word.

It was a familiar song.A tale that the Aravae loved.It was about Elashor, an elven prince, who had hunted a magical stag. Elashor the brave.Elashor the fleetest of foot.Elashor the keenest of eye.This elven prince was feted and praised from one end of his kingdom to the other, but he cared nothing for the admiration thrown his way. For Elashor’s sole desire was tohunt.The chase was everything to him and there was nothing and no one he could not successfully take down.

Declan found himself appreciating this aspect of the elven prince.For he was a hunter too.He set down drinks as he circled the tables at the very outside of the Dawn, his eyes fixed upon Aquilan.His feet were silent.His movements seemingly unhurried and yet economical.

Aquilan sang of how the gods grew weary of Elashor’s arrogance.Elashor did not praise them for his skills, but thought only of the endless training he had engaged in to earn them.He, alone, was responsible for his abilities.He, alone, should have the glory for his kills. But the gods would have theirdue.

Declan had never believed in gods or monsters before the Leviathan came.His parents had taken him to church a few times, but other than the pretty music and the sweet smell of incense nothing had reached him.The words in the Bibles at each pew had squiggled in his mind and he’d quickly stopped trying to read the onion skin pages or understand the words of the sweaty priest.

But after the Leviathan appeared.After Aquilan rose like the sudden dawn.After that… He’d realized hebelieved, but in things that were far different than what other humans did.Even now human religions still hung on, but they were changing every day and nearly unrecognizable from what they had been before the war.

Aquilan’s voice went dark and deep as he sang of when the gods took notice of the skilled hunter.Elashor, they determined, would find a foe he could never catch.And so one autumn day, as the trees turned from dark green to red and gold and the Summer’s warmth was laced with Fall’s chill, Elashor caught sight of the most magnificent stag he had ever seen.The antlers were obsidian and the coat was snow white.

The melody rose as sunlight illuminated the stag between two trees and Elashor’s eyes widened.The animal had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.And it was magnificent.Like nothing Elashor had ever seen before.And he was transfixed.He must have that creature for himself!

Yes, he is mine,the voice inside of Declan whispered as he circled Aquilan, getting nearer and nearer to his table.

There was a breathless silence in Aquilan’s song as Elashor reached for the long bow slung over his back.The stag watched, dark eyes unblinking, as, with a graceful movement, Elashor brought his long bow around and nocked an arrow with purple fletching.

Run,Declan thought to the stag even though he knew well how the story went.Other Aravae had sung this tale but not so thrillingly.

No, stay.Stay right where you are,the voice inside of him chuckled.You are right where I want you.

Aquilan’s voice went taut as the bowstring.It rose into an almost scream as the arrow was released and streaked through the crystal air towards the beautiful stag.The arrow’s course was true.It would hit for certain.The stag would fall.Elashor knew this and almost felt a touch of melancholy at the thought that the moment was over so fast.

Until… it wasn’t.

At the final second, the stag shifted to the side and the arrow streamed past it.The wind from its passage had the stag’s nearest ear twitching.Elashor let out a cry of shock and dismay.But his heart pumped with the addictive thrill of the chase.He knew even as he reached for another arrow that the stag would run and he would follow.

Run,Declan cried internally.

Stay.Be mine.You know you want to be mine,the voice inside of him said.

The stag turned. Its tail twitching and its powerful haunches flexing as it raced off between the trees.And Elashor was after it.His long, golden hair streamed behind him like a war banner.His lips skinned back from his teeth.He leaped over fallen trunks and ducked under low-hanging branches.He did not allow any obstacle to slow him as he flew after the white stag with the black antlers.

As the ground grew steep and rocky and the stag leaped up the mountainside almost as if it had wings instead of hooves, Aquilan’s voice lifted into impossible heights of clarity. Elashor, though, was not far behind.Many would have tired from such a pell mell race up a nearly sheer trail, but not him.For he had trained long and hard.Every day he had strengthened himself for such a climb.He was fleeter of foot than any other creature alive.Yet the stag kept ahead of him, its white hindquarters flashing between the golden foliage.

But every mountain had a final peak where there was nowhere else to go.And the stag reached that point.The creature balanced there, on that precarious edge, unable to go further unless it truly could fly.The only way down was a sheer drop into nothingness.

Aquilan’s voice became a mere murmur as Elashor stopped running and simply walked towards his cornered prey.There was no need to rush.The hunt was over.The dark eyes of the stag reflected Elashor’s golden form back to him.

It knows the truth: it is mine.He is mine,the voice said.See?Why do you resist this?This truth?

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