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As Meg drifted into sleep before the fire, Kellin took a deep breath and pulled herself out of bed. Meg had been too kind to stay with her all this time, but she needed some answers from Elalia—a woman so distant, yet the only one there when her child was born. She had not seen her since. Kellin knew in her heart that her child lived, and she was going to get him back.
She was still large and uncomfortable, yet hollow. She grabbed a shawl from the end of the bed and pulled it around her night dress. She crept on bare feet past Meg and out the door.
It suddenly seemed so far between her rooms and her sister’s, and she quickened her step. Her breasts, tight with milk she could not feed her child, ached painfully as she ran along the hallways. She tried to hold in the tears and silently prayed to the gods that no one saw her.
She did not pause to knock on Elalia’s door, but she was disappointed to find the rooms empty. She moved to the window and pulled back the heavy curtains. Despite the dark sky, the castle seemed bright and beautiful. The courtyard was filled with torchlight and the glow of candles from windows. Even the windows in the top of the Temple could be seen from here as circles of light.
The gods will help, she thought. She longed to pray with them and she found herself smiling, almost peaceful as she remembered the cool stone beneath her fingers. She pulled the curtain back and turned, determined on her new path, to find Elalia standing by the door, her arms crossed across her chest.
“You should be in bed,” she said.
“I wanted to see you,” Kellin replied, unsure now as to why. “I haven’t seen you since...” She shook her head. “I am going to the Temple,” she said, stepping forward.
“Go to bed,” Elalia said unkindly.
“Why were you there?” Kellin asked quickly. “Why did you come to my rooms that day?”
Elalia shrugged.
“Why did you not send for Meg?” she asked more quietly.
Elalia’s body stiffened and her eyes became dark and angry.
“Why did you take my son?” Kellin asked, the words barely audible.
“How dare you suggest such a thing,” Elalia said, too loudly.
“But you did, didn’t you?”
Elalia continued to harden before her.
“I am going to the Brothers, and I am going to get Rainger back. I want my son,” Kellin said, more determined now, stronger in the knowledge that she was right and he was alive.
“No, you are not.”
“You will return my son,” Kellin said firmly.
“You cannot have him,” Elalia screeched. “I am the Raven Queen, chosen by the gods, and you cannot undo that.”
“I don’t want to undo that. I do not wish to be Queen,” Kellin said. “I just want my son.”
“What will people say?”
“I don’t care,” she said, her own voice loud. “The world knew I was with child and now they will know what you have done.”
“You will never have him. Never.”
Kellin could feel Elalia’s rage, tangible around her. She was pulled between the strangeness of it and the fear of what Elalia might do with such anger, when a strange cracking sound echoed around the room and she squeezed her eyes closed.
When Kellin opened her eyes, the world looked very different.
Elalia drew in a deep breath and looked around her solar. A raven hopped across the table and screamed at her.
Where had Kellin gone? One minute she was there demanding the return of her child and then she was gone.
The raven screamed again.
One more sister making demands on my Raven Crown, she had thought, wishing Kellin gone.
She studied the bird on the table as it screamed again and raced towards her. As it leapt up from the table, she closed her hands around it. With a firm hold, she raced from the room and along the hallway.
The Silent Mother stood in the middle of the room, the single candle flickering on the table, and she smiled.
“Kellin,” she said softly, holding out the bird, which screamed again. Elalia gulped down the fear swelling inside her, the heat bubbling over her. “Did I do this?” she asked.
The Silent Mother nodded. “I had feared the magic gone. Sythia’s power grows within you,” she said.
“It wasn’t what I wanted,” she said.
“But it is what you need. One difficult sister removed...” The raven interrupted with a scream. “And you can do with her as you like.”
“What will I tell Meggie?” Elalia asked, looking down at the bird in her hands.
“You do not need to tell her anything,” the Silent Mother said with a wave of her hand. “Or turn her into a raven as well.”
“Could she tell Meggie what I have done?” she asked, holding the bird out to the Silent Mother.
The Silent Mother shrugged, then bent over to study the raven, which screamed in her face. “Perhaps you should keep it secured for now.” She moved to the shadows of the room and returned with a wicker cage.
Elalia fed the bird into the cage through the small doorway and secured it. She breathed a sigh of relief to have the bird out of her hands.
“Do you talk?” the Silent Mother asked softly, and Kellin screamed again. She looked up at Elalia as the bird looked down at the base of the cage. “Try,” she whispered, unkindly.
Kellin let out a quiet screech and then resumed her position on the narrow perch.
“Come and sit,” the Silent Mother said, indicating the stool by the fire. “Come and tell me how you did this.”
Elalia shrugged and followed her to the stool. “I do not know.”
“Think,” she urged.
“I just wanted her gone.”
“For her to turn into a raven?”
“No, to be gone, to be something else, to be out of my way and my hearing, and to leave me in peace.”
The bird gave a quiet screech across the room.
“You may not get the peace you hoped for,” the Silent Mother said. “I want to understand how you directed it.”
“I do not know,” Elalia said more forcefully, standing up. “I have no understanding of it.”
“We will find a way,” the Silent Mother said.
“Wasn’t I to wait for Sythia?” Elalia asked, but when the Silent Mother didn’t respond, she continued. “I did not want her around and now I am to have her always watching me.”
The Silent Mother waved her hand. “What will it matter? She will not tell your secret.”
Elalia took a deep breath. She stepped forward and peered into the cage.
“Take her,” the Silent Mother said.
Elalia looped her finger through the top of the cage and walked back to her rooms. Kellin, at least, was silent.
Terra was stoking the fire when she returned, and turned in surprise at the sight of the raven in the cage.
“A gift,” Elalia said stiffly. “Quite a strange one.”
Elalia sat the cage on the table and stared between the narrow bars. The girl finished her task and disappeared. Will Kellin be able to escape from this prison? she wondered, then turned to find Terra behind her with a cup of water. She looked at the girl in surprise.
“For your pet, Your Majesty,” she said with a curtsy and opened the door.
Panic consumed her, but Kellin remained as she was. Terra placed the cup down in the base of the cage. She made a little kissing noise as she closed and secured the door.
“He is lovely,” Terra said.
Elalia nodded, watching her closely. “You can take care of him,” she said, and turned back to peer through the bars.