Page 53 of Fate of Echoes and Embers
My mouth dry and apparently unable to form a response, I instead found myself nodding.
“I will find you.”
* * *
Mev brought me back to my chamber, easily the most beautiful one I’d ever seen. Its pale, stone walls were etched with delicate silver filigree. A four-poster bed, draped in silk the color of twilight, sat in the middle of the room, its plush, celestial, embroidered pillows stacked as if they were rarely touched.
My favorite feature, though, was a large, arched window with a latticed balcony that overlooked the sea. The full moon’s glow lit the room with a soft luminescence as I entered.
“I had a night rail brought,” Mev said, entering with me. “Please keep it, and the gown too.”
“I cannot?—”
“Issa,” she said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Please take them. You’re sacrificing so much to be here.”
I sat beside her, watching as the gossamer drapes billowed inside from the sea breeze. Some said the beauty and magic of Aetheria was unmatched anywhere else in Elydor, and at that moment, I tended to agree.
“What we’re doing,” I said, having realized as much this eve, “is bigger than me. Than Hawthorne, even. There are so many like you, and your father, who have been separated from their loved ones for far too long. If there is a chance the Gate can be reopened, I am happy to be a part of making that happen.”
“My father will protect your lands, Issa. Together, we’ll make sure Draven’s ambitions remain nothing more than a pipe dream.”
Mev said the strangest things. “Pipe dream?”
She laughed. “An expression. Honestly, I have no idea where it comes from. Basically, he can go fuck himself.”
That I understood.
“I’ve never told anyone this before,” I blurted before thinking it through, but trusting Mev completely. “I love my people. Many of them are like family to me but.” I swallowed, feeling as if I were a traitor to my parents’ memory. “It was never my dream to remain there. As an only child, it was, of course, my duty to inherit. And I knew that, but… I begged my father for any opportunity to travel outside Estmere. And then they got sick.”
I stopped, remembering. Wishing I could forget.
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Her question snapped me back to the present.
“Not my quote. Mary Oliver, but still a good question.”
My one wild and precious life?
“I… I do not know. There is only what I should do and what I wish to do.”
“Okay then, what do you wish to do?”
That was easier. “See all of Elydor, and beyond.”
“Could someone else inherit Hawthorne Manor?”
“Draven?” I asked, appalled.
“No, someone worthy. And competent.”
“Sir Warren Calder,” I said, without having to think on it. “He was my father’s commander and has served Hawthorne well. He is respected by all but it is customary for a family member to inherit. And I’m not certain he would want the position. But also, what would I do? Where would I go? Hawthorne is my home. Has always been my home.”
“Boston was mine,” Mev said softly. “I never imagined being anything but a museum curator, or living anywhere else. But here I am. In Elydor. An Aetherian princess. Go figure.”
She smiled; a look of understanding, and sympathy, passed between us.
“You are always welcome here.”
