Page 31 of Tower of Tempest
I worried at my bottom lip, staring ahead at the prince and Driscoll,who both had stopped at a booth and accepted tankards of ale. They clinked their glasses together and took deep drinks.
“Did I say something wrong?” Leoni asked.
“No.” I sighed, mind still on Gran, on all my conflicting feelings surrounding her and this mission. Over the last few days, I regularly flipped between wanting to shake Gran and hug her when I finally found her. “I’m mad at my gran,” I admitted, “I’m mad at her for keeping so many secrets from me. And I feel guilty that I’m mad. Because I know she kept those secrets to protect me, to protect both of us. Even if it was misguided and wrong of her, she had my best interest at heart.”
“Do you know the identity of your parents?” Leoni sent me a curious glance.
“No,” I said simply.
“And you were never tempted to find them? To find out who you really are?”
“I know who I am.”
We passed a booth full of fresh flowers, a woman with wings handing them out to small children in exchange for coins.
I sighed. “I’m a voracious reader, I love to paint, to garden. I’m curious and love learning lore and history. I’m strong but not in the physical way. My strength comes from my heart, from what I can endure. I like to give, to make others feel good.” I thought of Gran and all the ways I’d tried to please her over the years. “Probably to a fault. I’m not saying all of this to brag, but I’m just saying that I don’t need to know my parents to know who I am.”
Leoni stared at me with wide eyes. “Wow.”
“I do wonder, of course. Gran told me my father was a murderer, my mother someone who chose to give me up.”
One day, when I’d finally worked up the courage to ask for more details about how I’d come into Gran’s care, that’s what she’d said.
“I didn’t steal you if that’s what you’re wondering. Your mother gave you up. You were holding her back, and she wanted more for her life. Trust me when I say you’re better off without her and that murderer of a man who’s your father.”
“That’s all I know,” I continued. “My parents didn’t sound capableof caring for me, didn’t even want me. So why would I want to meet them?”
Sorrow shone in Leoni’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”
I looked up as sky elementals hung in the sky, holding out their arms and drawing lightning from its depths. “Don’t be. Gran said she didn’t really know much about them, other than those details. That my mother gave me to her, and that was it. She found a refuge for us, a place we could hide. Until I went and used the magic bean and brought the shadow upon us.”
“So you trust her, your gran?” Leoni asked as a few sky elementals soared over us.
“No.” I laughed quietly. “I trust that she loved me, that she wanted the best for me. I trust that she did the best she could. But do I trust that she was always completely honest with me? Do I trust that she gave me all the tools I needed to survive should whoever was after her come after me? No, I don’t.”
Leoni patted my arm. “It’s okay to love her but also to be angry with her. It’s okay to want answers, to expect her to be fully honest with you. That’s not asking too much.”
Then why did it feel like it was? All my life I’d tried to not be too curious, to not ask too many questions, even though I burned with them. To not imposition Gran when she’d sacrificed so much to save me, to raise me. She was on the run from someone, yes, but she’d been on the run for years before I was born, moving from place to place, free. She’d used the tower as an occasional home, but not a permanent one. When I came into the picture, she worried about moving around with me. She could’ve abandoned me, given me to an orphanage. Killed me, even. But she didn’t. I owed her everything for that, even if it meant staying silent and compliant.
I stuck out my hand and summoned little sparks of lightning that sizzled in the air, wondering what it would feel like to have enough power to draw lightning from the sky like the sky elementals who hung above us. Lightning split the sky with dazzling brilliance. I used to stand in my tower, watching this very spectacle from afar.
Gran never let me celebrate, of course. Told me that the spirits weren’t worth celebrating, though she never said why, and I couldn’t gether to divulge how she knew the spirits were so terrible when all the books I read said the opposite.
“Follow your gut,” Leoni said. “It won’t lead you astray.”
“Is that why you came with the prince?” I was more than ready to turn the conversation away from myself.
Leoni’s hand went to the sword sheathed at her side. “Yes. It was definitely a gut reaction.”
This time, I stayed silent, sensing she had more to say. Prince Lochlan and Driscoll were now gathered among a crowd of people watching as sky elementals sheared sheep in what looked like a competition to see who could shear their sheep the fastest. I squinted at a sign that read:Shear the Sheep the fastest, win a sheep for your family!
“My best friend was—is—Princess Gabrielle,” Leoni said. “We spent our entire lives sparring, training together, and I excelled at it. I knew with my whole heart I wanted to be in the royal guard.”
A breeze blew past us, and a few of the sheep being sheared baa’d loudly in protest as their fluffy wool fell into baskets on the ground. Driscoll let out a whoop, cheering as the person in the lead dropped their shears to the ground, then their sheep escaped and ran while he fumbled for the object.
“It seems like it worked out for you,” I offered.
“Not at first. No one would give me a chance.” She gestured to her wide hips and thick thighs. “I get it. I don’t have the typical body type of a warrior. But I’m good at what I do. Gabrielle begged to get me the position as captain of the guard. She was the only one who believed in me. Now, she’s sailing the world with her pirate lord, no longer a princess, no longer in need of a captain of the guard.”
