Page 36 of The Night Prince 3
Including himself.
Yet he could not look at the Sun King as he said, “None of you is going with me. I require no assistance.”
“Declan, we all saw your fighting. You are more than impressive,” Elasha cried, “but you cannot go to Illithor alone!”
She had realized he wasn’t human the moment she’d met him. The others had likely thought she’d made a silly mistake, but it was actually quite astute. But in this, she was wrong. Where he was going was dangerous to be sure. It was home after all. But he could face these things without anyone else. He would not bring anyone into this deeper darkness.
Yet how am I to get there? A key… He said he left me a key… The back of Declan’s neck tingled and then he knew. Sorrow’s End is the key.
“You do not understand. You think that I am going to enemy territory where only danger awaits me. But I am not,” Declan said softly. He reached for the sword as if it were physically slung across his back and felt its hilt and the heaviness of the blade appear in his hand. “I am going home.”
“W-wait! That’s–that’s a Niri blade!” Darcassan gasped.
“Niri? How would you know anything about those?” Rhalyf scoffed, still lying to protect Declan.
And himself.
“Who wouldn’t recognize one of the most powerful blades in existence forged by Vex himself?” Darcassan growled back.
Forged by King Vex?
I left a gift for you…
Is it Vex waiting for me? The Night King? Xelroth Vex, the most feared of all beings? Strongest Mage who ever lived? Godlike in his own right?
These were all descriptions that Finley had given the Night King. Declan realized that Finley was likely in Heaven if he was with King Xelroth Vex. And no wonder the elf had laughed about the amount of questions Finley was asking him. Vex was his hero in some ways. Others might find that a strange choice, but Finley had always been drawn to outsiders, people who he felt were simply misunderstood.
Is Xelroth Vex my father?
That sounded insane to him. The way Vulre had acted like he was dirt under his shoes hardly made sense if he was the son of the Kindreth king. But Vulre had also been clear he thought that Declan brought danger to the whole of the Venomthorn and Lady Ashryn. But why? Why would the son of the king be labeled jadir and made the lowest of the low? None of it made sense!
But the answers will be in Illithor.
“Why would he have a blade forged by the Night King?” Elasha asked, clearly perplexed.
“Declan boss,” Snaglak muttered. “Big boss. Always.”
“So you knew about him, too, Snaglak?” Helgrom asked.
Knew about him… too? Helgrom knew I was a Night Elf? But he never said a thing! And he never ratted me out to anyone, Declan thought with awe and affection of the dwarf. He hired me and vouched for me. He’s always been so kind.
“Night Elf smell,” Snaglak answered. “Smell funny.”
Rhalyf made a strange sound in the back of his throat but said nothing. Hadn’t they been teasing one another earlier about how Rhalyf had smelled to Snaglak? So Snaglak knew that Rhalyf was a Night Elf, too. But the orc had kept silent about that as well.
A good friend. Like Helgrom. Snaglak is a loyal friend to me.
“N-Night Elf?” Elasha gasped. “He doesn’t look like a–a Night Elf!”
Declan almost touched his face then. He didn’t. No white hair and red eyes. But magic could hide most anything. Yet he wasn’t spelling himself. Someone else must have long ago when he was brought to his adopted parents’ doorstep.
So they lied to me too. That whole story about adopting me from Ukraine. My parents dying in a car accident. All of it. A lie.
He held onto Sorrow’s End more tightly. The blade seemed to quiver with his emotions. He couldn’t feel all of this betrayal right now. He had to be cold as ice and with clear-eyed determination to get to Finley. At least, their fear of him likely would make them retreat from him. Maybe not Snaglak, Glom or Helgrom, but Aquilan, Elasha and Darcassan. He wasn’t sure what Rhalyf would do. The elf still believed he could hide who and what he was. Well, Declan wouldn’t rat him out. He’d done him a favor with the Adiva. He wouldn’t blame the other Night Elf for staying silent.
“Of course, he doesn’t! He’d have been strung up the moment he entered the Empire,” Darcassan muttered and Declan’s shoulder blades twitched. It was as he had thought. “But he can’t just be any Kindreth with a sword like that! I mean unless he stole it.”
“You are the only potential thief in this company, Darcassan,” Rhalyf snarled. “And no one could steal a Niri blade.”
