Kirin's lips were a light shade of blue. Her eyes couldn't help falling on them every couple of seconds while he talked. She wasn't sure if the moonlight was playing tricks on her, but his shiver was getting more prominent, so probably not.
They were on the back to the inn, taking a different path than she had. This was wide open with trees to their right.
"Why did you come through the water?" she asked him as his hands wrapped around his shoulder.
"Have you ever seen a shadow walker portal?" he asked.
She nodded.
"So, you know that they can be tracked for a day at least. Water makes it a little harder for anyone like me to follow. Some of it gets through, you see, and ends up traveling behind me. So if someone were to jump in behind me, they'd be in the stream and that'd be like falling down a waterfall. The darkness also covers the residue so you can't really see it."
"Can you move people with you?" she knew the answer. What she really wanted to know was whether he could move her aunt and uncle if he were to find them. She knew shadow walkers could move people. Aurelie also witnessed the King's shadow walker transport him the night her parents were taken. His was a little fancier; with the Dranoir symbol being a physical badge rather than the white embroidery and her also had a white stripe around the collar. Objects could be carried too or he'd be quite naked and he was dressed in the royal guard's uniform, black with a silver dragon emblem on the right shoulder.
He didn't look at her when he answered, and she knew what the answer would be before he started to speak. Throughout the evening, he had been quite talented in guessing what she felt or what she thought. This time was no different.
"It depends on whom. Moving a shadow walker would be like lifting an elephant, a witch feels like lifting a boulder and a dragon-like lifting a mountain. It takes a lot of power, transporting a dragon could very easily kill a shadow walker," he said and started walking back to the inn, leaving Aurelie no time to gather her thoughts. "I'd have to steal a witch and a dragon."
"I saw a shadow walker the night . . ." she swallowed, feeling a jab in her chest, "the night the King came for us. I guess he must have been strong."
"That was my dear ol' dad."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he's been Emile's pet for years now. Really proud of it. They've been friends since they were very small children. Back then my Grandfather, Peter, had been the King Ura's advisor, so they were like brothers. I guess that's why he allows him to get away with everything without saying a word about it." He smiled darkly, looking ahead toward the inn.
Aurelie could see the lights in the distance, and hear a quiet murmur. It sounded like the inn she visited right on the outskirts of Berillian.
"A loyal father sounds better than a spineless one, so that's the story I choose to go with."
Having her eyes on him seemed to make it more difficult for him to speak, so she decided to force herself into doing something that felt even more difficult and look away.
"Sometimes, I think that he is just as power hungry as the King. The first time he pushed himself to transport Emile, he was unconscious for a week once. Emile brought him back home to my mother before they killed her too."
Aurelie looked up then, seeing the utter dread on his face. His features turned stone cold and for a moment she thought that he might remain that way for the rest of their journey but he turned to her and lightly shrugged, softening his features.
"We thought it was the end for him, and that he had allowed his power to kill him, but as all power does, his grew, steadily and uncontrollably. He didn't need to push himself like that. Having an extra pair of shadow walkers travel with them was just as good, but he had rather risked his own life than sharing Emile with anyone else." He bared his teeth in something between a smile and a growl.
"What is my father like?"
Her aunt and uncle never wanted to share that with her. They spoke of her mother. Well, Elizabeth did. They were friends. She called Aurelie's mother her only ally at the castle. When it came to Emile, however, they just changed the subject or speak about the horrors he inflicted over the years. Despite this, despite being conditioned to hate him from birth, Aurelie knew that no person was just one thing. He could not only be evil just as she could not only be good. It was something she realized on her journey here. No man was just one thing, no matter how desperately someone wanted to believe it.
"He's a strange one," Kirin said, his eyes growing distant with memory again. They were close to the inn now, approaching the drunken man who had been passed out on the grass for several hours now. "Sometimes I forget that I hate everything about him because he's just so damn likable."
"He is?"
"Unfortunately," he said. "He's not had any more children, so he and my dad ended up sort of . . ." he paused his nose wrinkling, "sharing me. He put me on my first horse. Tiny little thing," he smiled fondly at the memory, "but tall as I was at the time. It was very hard to hate them, living in their shadows and admiring them for so long, but then I heard all these . . ." He sighed, brushing a hand through his dark hair. "How he got the throne, how your mother gave you away and chose to rather never see her only child than to have him raise you, how many people they killed and why. It's very hard to hate a man you love. So, I don't hate them, either of them. I just don't want to wake up and realize that I turned into one of them - or both - by being passive about their crimes."
The moonlight made his hair look black as a night without stars and created silver highlights now that his hair had dried and begun to wave in the wind.
They reached the inn and stopped just below the creaky wooden steps. The chaos inside seemed to have calmed with most of the inhabitants being out of the seating area. Some groups remained scattered among the old rose patterned couches, talking to each other below soft candle lights.
"I've only been told that he's a horrible man all my life. I think you're the first that told me that he's something else."
"Oh no." He put his hand out defensively. "No, he's terrible. Your father drains power from all creatures that possess it. He'd kill these people here without blinking. All of them, whether I was here, watching him do it or not. This war affects a lot more people than you realize and it needs to end. There will be bloodshed, but it will stop many more lives being lost. If he gains enough power he will go beyond the division and start a war in the Icelands. If he gets the power of the Queen" He paused, shaking his head.
"He wants to take over the Icelands?" she asked. It made all the sense in the world, but she had never considered it. "Is the curse still too strong for him to break through?"
"Yes, he still cannot enter it without freezing, but he is getting stronger and the ice is getting weaker around him. My father said that just last week, the ice began to slowly melt at his feet, on the edge of the Icelands. If he reaches Alorah, and manager to drain her power, we will be nothing but dust beneath his feet," he replied, rubbing his hands against his arm, a light chatter sounding from his teeth.
"No, you," she said, almost hearing a tinge of bitterness in her own voice. Whoever he was as a man, he was her father after all, and he managed to replace her with another man's son. Not only did he replace her, but he disregarded her enough to want to kill her for her magic.
"Perhaps, not yet, but once he finds out what I've been doing . . ."
She heard the knocking of footsteps on the deck and turned toward the sound. Sasha stood on the steps, her arms folded tightly around her waist, her auburn locks pulled back tight into a bun.
"Are you alright, love?" she asked, her gaze on Aurelie.
"I am."
"Sasha," Kirin greeted, hopping up the steps to give her a hug. She pulled back, holding her arms on his shoulders and smiled at him.
"So good to have you home."
The way she said that made Aurelie think that she was not too happy about his living situation. Kirin tapped her shoulder and took a step back.
"It's okayâ" he started but was interrupted by a loud grunting voice behind them.
"Hooray! The dragon is here!"
She turned around and saw the drunken man sitting up, his mug back in his hand. He took a sip and raised it toward her.
"That old man escaped the king's prison, by bursting out of the cell he was held in and destroying half a castle. He took out ten of the King's men and got away from the other twenty that chased him. He knows of magic the rest of us witches could never dream of. Don't judge them too harshly tonight." She winked.
"Then how come you're all getting squatted like flies?" Aurelie asked with a sudden flash of anger.
"Rodrick." Sasha turned to a man that was passing them by. "Would you bring us something to drink?"
He nodded and walked off.
"Come let's sit down."
They followed her into the inn, taking a turn to a tight booth in the far corner, where nobody could hear them. Sasha sat first, and Aurelie took the opposite bench, with Kirin scooting in beside her.
Sasha placed her hand atop the other and tapped her fingers. "It wasn't always like this. The old King had been kind. He only interested himself in searching for power, but not using it. He was too preoccupied with finding power and did not notice that war was coming from within his own kingdom, his own blood. Now the world burns with many flames. He ended up damning us all by letting Emile take his power," Sasha explained. "As for the deaths of the witches, no one is powerful enough to take on your father. He has the power of three dragons in him now. No witch can compete with that. But now we have you. That is why today is a happy day. Because we can even the odds if you join us."
"My powerâ" Aurelie tried to say, but Sasha interrupted her.
"Seems weak right now? It appears weak because you have barely ever used it. But let me assure you that you are not weak. I see that you are angry and afraid Aurelie. We can use this anger and you can learn to channel your power through it."
A chill traveled through Aurelie's spine. Uncle Kaiden had warned her about the anger. Never mind that, she witnessed what it did to her first-hand. "I made a promise to my uncle. I can't use anger to fuel my power."
Sasha crossed her legs. "Ah, Kaiden, of course." She smiled, and interlaced her fingers, placing them on her lap. "I'm not going to make you break any promises. But, I will tell you that your uncle never embraced his magic. He felt ashamed of how your kind received the power. Of course, we need you at your strongest, but ultimately it is you who will decide which actions you are willing to take."
Daerious came up behind them with a piece of pie in hand. He climbed over the back of the couch and squeezed in between her and Kirin. Aurelie scooted over. Her skirt caught under Daerious thigh and stopped her from moving too far.
"Evening." He ruffled a hand through Kirin's hand.
"You let her out on her own?" Kirin asked, forgetting all pleasantries.
"Of course not!" He frowned. "I stalked her through the bushes until you crawled out of the water and charged her." Daerious turned to Aurelie and beamed.
Kirin relaxed. Next moment, he swooped down and took a giant bite out of Daerious's pie.
Daerious pulled his hand back. "You greedy pig!" he shouted, and the two of them burst out laughing.