Page 78 of Cursed Evermore
I expected this conversation, so it’s come as no surprise to me. “Speak, then, brother.”
“What are you going to do, Wolfe? The mage’s blood is the tracker, but how are we going to use it? She’s human.”
“Half.” But he was right, hence the reason I’d taken to the solitude of the study to think.
“I don’t think that matters. The blood spells are designed for full blood magical beings. We have no idea how she’ll react to it. Or even if it will work. It could kill her before we even get the information we need.”
My gut clenched at the thought of Elariya dying, her body lifeless and limp with that red hair like blood sprawling out around her. “I’m not going to kill her. That would be foolish.”
Alaric leaned back, but his expression remained troubled. “Indeed, but if the ring is on another plane of existence, we may need one hell of a blood tracking spell to locate it.”
“I know, Alaric.I know. And I’ve been thinking about all those things. I hope to have some kind of plan by tomorrow when we meet.”
He seemed more at ease on hearing that. “Okay. That sounds like a start. But what about her? We dock in two days. What are you going to do with her? Dreynthor will have his spies ready and waiting, then he’ll have questions.”
“She will stay with me. I’ll have Arielle around as much as possible. We’ll tell Dreynthor that Elariya will be training under Arielle’s care for duties in the royal court.”
“That sounds good, except we haven’t had a mage from the Ravenwood Realm serve our court for at least a hundred years.”
“I don’t believe our uncle will question me if he knows what’s good for him.” I cocked my head. “He wants me to get married to one of the princesses of Thalyrius. I haven’t agreed yet, so he’ll want to stay on my good side.”
Alaric bit the inside of his lip and studied me over the rim of his glass. “What if you have to go through with the marriage? Will you do it?”
“Let’s hope time will give us some grace. When we get back, we have to organize ourselves so that we get everything done without any disturbance from Dreynthor or anybody else.”
He nodded his agreement. “Especially the rebels. We’ll have to figure out a way to contain them.”
“I’ll call in all our reinforcements, so we’ll have more eyes on them.” I thought of the murders and the rebel I'd killed in the dungeon on the night of the Phantom Moon. It was fool’s hope to believe things would settle down. It never had. Nothing would settle down until I took back control of the kingdom.
“Have you thought more about Dreynthor’s involvement in Father’s murder?” He asked the question tentatively with narrowed eyes and a clenched jaw.
“There are still too many loose ends.”
“I agree, but we need to do something about him.” He balled his hand into a fist. “Weallsuspect him.”
“We do, but that’s not enough. For now the focus needs to be on getting the ring back. I’m hoping it may reveal everything to me once I have it. Seeing the past is one of its powers.”
“I hear you and I agree. I just hate watching him parade around the palace like he owns us.”
“Me too.”
My brother was disgruntled but I was certain no one hated watching our uncle act like he was a god more than me.
Alaric stared down at the table for a moment then lifted his gaze back to me. “What if it’s not him, Wolfe? What if our villain is someone else entirely.”
I’d considered that too. “We need to keep an open mind to every possibility.”
Alaric straightened, set his shoulders back, then nodded looking more hopeful. “I pray the Gods show favor on us and guide us to the ring as swiftly as a kraken’s tide.”
“Een heym sámai,” I replied in Old Galaythian, telling him I prayed so, too.
He drank the last of his wine and stood. He looked around the room for a moment, his gaze touching each wall. Then he faced me with sadness in his eyes. “I miss the old days. When we were boys sailing the seas with Father. Life was simpler then. Life was good. But I never knew what I had until it was gone.”
“I know exactly what you mean.” I looked around, too.
Father left me this ship, but it would always be his to me. That was the reason why I didn’t change anything.
He’d lined these walls with books he loved and hung maps he followed again and again. There were pieces of him everywhere I never wanted to forget.
