Page 119 of Oaths & Vengeance
“That’s great to hear it’s safe for now,” Priyya said, leaning forward to look at the tome. “But how do we get there so we can retrieve the fountain?”
Idwal flipped back some pages. “Ah, here we go. This describes the difficulty involved with reaching Earth due to its distant location. It includes a rune sequence, but unfortunately, when that other dimension collided with the planet, it would have nudged it a little out of place. This sequence will no longer be accurate.”
If a ring is already powered and active when it is moved, it will flash the new sequence once it settles into the new location. Of course, we weren’t there to see that. I had no idea how to discern which runes to use if they were unknown.
Darrow moved closer to the tome so he could skim it for himself. “What does that mean for us?”
“Very complicated math to decipher the new rune order, and I’ll need to research further on whether this planet has more than one ring. Obviously, we want to go to the one nearest to the fountain. I’ll have the seer help pinpoint the one we need.”
Priyya spoke up, “Do we have anyone who is able to do it?”
“Actually, it will require two people to accomplish. One who understands the movement of the celestial bodies, which would be me, and another who handles the calculations. No one in Alavaar can perform the latter, but there is someone in Hisgar,” he said, grimacing.
“It’s mostly ice giants who live there,” Loden pointed out. “But I recall hearing of one who was born with intelligence that far surpasses anyone else in our realm.”
“Yes,” Idwal agreed. “That is the one I am thinking. We were as surprised as any when a youthful ice giant became so intelligent that the leaders summoned the most learned men and women to teach her. By the time she was twenty years old, she’d surpassed them all. However, we had some difficulty providing writing and reading materials due to her size. Most of our books were no larger than her thumb by the time she was an adolescent.”
“We will have to seek her out,” Darrow concluded.
The druid shook his head. “Not now. She is due to have a baby in the next week, and we all know how surly ice giants can be while pregnant or soon after birth. If we want her cooperation, we’ll have to wait a couple of months.”
Priyya’s expression turned stricken at his words. “But we’re running out of time.”
“We have little choice if your sister is going to have any success opening the gate,” he said, gesturing at me. “The good news is that the seer and I can begin pinpointing Earth and the ring’s current location with a special instrument I recently finished constructing for that purpose. It will take some time due to many factors, but I should have the details you’ll need before it’s time to visit the ice giant.”
“Okay,” I agreed. What choice did we have?
“Now, let us see if any of these other books have information that might prove useful,” the druid said, gesturing at us to each take one. “Knowledge is power. We certainly don’t want anything to go wrong with such a vital quest.”
None of us argued the point as we settled into chairs for some in-depth reading.
Chapter 48
Aella
Priyya and I walked along the depressingly dead road toward the portal ring. The morning light did nothing to improve the severe damage done by the blight. It was hard to see it this way and know it would continue to worsen, but at least we had a plan to resolve the problem. That gave us all a measure of hope.
Things had changed between my sister and me over the last two days since she learned about my marriage to Darrow and our quest to retrieve the Naforya Fountain. She still had her doubts, but my husband had been surprisingly charming and convincing. Enough that she even let him stay that first night while the rest of the group returned to Veronna. It had been nice getting a little more time with him, and we’d even gone to see the dragons together. I learned that he had an affinity for animals, and even the large ones responded well to him.
“Last night was a much quieter night,” she said, giving me an amused look.
I bumped my shoulder into hers. “We weren’t that bad.”
“Maybe by your standards, but I was close to fleeing the house to find someone for myself during the middle of the night,” she grumbled.
I frowned at her. “You aren’t with that one woman anymore? What was her name…Farja, Fennia, Fanta…oh, I can’t remember.”
“Aella, none of those names are even close.” She rolled her eyes and looked away. “It doesn’t matter because she wasn’t right for me. I guess you’re lucky since your search is over now that you’re married. You looked comfortable with him, which is still hard to comprehend.”
Darrow had left after dinner yesterday, and right after that, Priyya had interrogated me with a thousand questions. We’d talked until late, but she still didn’t know every detail. So much had happened in recent months that I’d kept from her. I did tell her about Darrow’s curse and why I had to set limits with him until we could lift it.
“We are doing better now, but we didn’t start that way. It took a while for us to get over the past and build some trust,” I said, a smile pulling at my lips.
I felt truly content for the first time since getting married and maybe even hopeful for the future. The sex certainly exceeded my expectations. As long as we kept love out of the picture for now and maintained mutual respect, I could be comfortable with Darrow.
The ring appeared ahead, but Priyya stopped and turned to face me. “Be careful, Aella. When it comes to the fountain, I believe he does have good intentions. Everyone in all the realms on Paxia wants it back as soon as possible, so there’s no doubt about him there. I worry about what comes after that. I hear things about Darrow even all the way here. There is a dark side to fae politics, and his name comes up often enough to be concerned.”
I frowned. “Like what?”
