Page 190 of Silverbow
Oryn beckoned her in and Alloralla stepped into Enya’s view. The elven woman didn’t ask permission as she laid a hand on Enya’s forehead, but she wasn’t sure she could find the words to object if she wanted to. The song… She shuddered even as warmth spread through her. Alloralla’s healing seemed to chill as it coursed through her blood.
“It will fade, my lady,” the elven woman assured her, or him. “It’s only the feeling, the memory. Have you been using the dream tonic I gave you?”
Oryn’s head whipped toward her, but Enya gave the barest shake of her head. Since Peytar Ralenet had landed in Tuminzar, she’d been revisiting Hylee’s visions every night, trying to puzzle them out and decide what to do with her laters.
“She said she could hear the souls, Alloralla.”
Thel elven woman frowned. “What did you hear, Enya?”
“W-wailing,” she stuttered. “They were wailing to be let out.”
“Strange,” the elf frowned. “Use the tonic tonight and for the next nights.” She crossed to a bar table and poured a hefty glass of stonebrew. She wrapped Enya’s fingers around it.
Enya sipped, letting the fire warm her from the inside out. Alloralla excused herself and Oryn dropped into the chair beside her. She cast a look around at the tapestries and portraits that hung on the walls. She blinked at faces she knew, and others she didn’t. There was a portrait of the two princes as boys and another of a beautiful couple that could only be the last King and Queen of Eastwood. Hergaze lingered on them, and then it swept up long rows of bookshelves, adorned with items from far flung places.
She wanted to ask about some of those objects, but she could only manage the words for one question. “Why are they drawn to me?”
“I don’t know,” Oryn admitted, scrubbing his hand down his face. “Hylee said they could hear the resonance too.”
“Is that unusual for a Silverbow?”
“It’s hard to say what is or isn’t usual for a Silverbow. You’re only the second one.”
Enya furrowed her brow. “What about Gandaec Honorhide or Marrusli Piar?”
“Sana is the only other confirmed Silverbow.”
“What makes them unconfirmed?”
“They missed when it mattered most.”
Something about that was almost as unsettling as the demondread.
Oryn only let her return to her rooms after ensuring there were no dark creatures lurking in the shadows of her wardrobe or beneath her bed. He loomed over her as he watched her take three drops of Alloralla’s sleeping tonic, and she half expected to find him still looming when she opened her eyes the next morning. Instead, she found him in her sitting room, nosing through her books.
He closedStories of Sana Silverbowand slid the volume onto the table as Enya padded across the room, wrapping a dressing robe around her shoulders. “Did you sleep well?” He asked.
“Did you sleep at all?” She countered.
From the look of it, he’d spent the night cataloging what she’d borrowed from the library. They were neatly staked by subject. It left spires of tomes and treatises on every surface of the sitting room. Oryn didn’t answer as she settled into the chair across from him. She hummed as he poured her a cup of tea and stirred in the perfect spoonful of honey.
“What is it you’re looking for?” He asked.
“I’m not sure,” Enya answered, tucking a curl behind her ear. “Just…something to help.”
Oryn’s icy gaze bored into her. “In this war of yours?”
She met his stare over the rim of her teacup.
“What exactly is the plan, Enya?”
“I have a vow to fulfill,” she sighed. “Has there been any word from Covwood?”
“Nothing yet. Did you see something of the witches?”
She chewed her lip, recalling the vision of that battlefield. “Maybe. Do you know a witch with violet eyes and white hair?”
Oryn furrowed his brow. “You’ve met the only witch I know.”
