While a footman retrieved their cold-weather gear, Rhy seized the opportunity to snag a carafe of Jak’s mjed and a couple of glasses. You were so romantic you made my head spin, Salena had said, reminding him of how it had been back then, when making her smile was everything. “In case you’re not quite enough to keep me warm,” he teased when she raised a questioning brow.
The footman led them up the grand stairs to the next level, then through various corridors lit with more white candles in silver candelabras and decorated with more crystal-studded moonflower garlands. The decorations highlighted various paths to the battlements for the guests, but the footman soon diverged, taking them up a more practically lit back staircase.
“This is where Her Majesty has designated for the showing, Your Highnesses,” the young man said with a bow, opening a door to an icy blast of wind and a group of guards huddled around a brazier. “It’s the most-sheltered spot.”
“I’d hate to experience the less-sheltered spots,” Rhy complained, pulling his black fur cloak tighter around himself.
“You don’t have to stay,” Salena replied with a droll look. “I’m sure you can think up more regrets to offer the fires.”
“You have no idea,” he muttered. “But I’m not missing this.”
“Welcome to the Castle Ordnung battlements, Princess Salena Nakoa KauPo.” Prince Harlan, the high queen’s husband, strode up to them in full dress regalia and saluted.
With a squeal, Salena launched herself at the big Dasnarian, giving him a hug.
“Nephew Rhyian, it’s a pleasure, as always.”
Rhy clasped forearms with his uncle, who he’d always liked. Harlan was one of the few who never nagged him about making something of himself. Also a former imperial prince who’d renounced his hated title, Harlan never forgot that Rhy hated being called “prince” himself. “I wondered where you were, Uncle Harlan.”
“I’ve been up here most of the evening,” Harlan replied. “Essla can handle the crowd inside, and I feel better keeping an eye on the battlements with so many personages gathered here tonight.”
“Surely you don’t expect trouble?” Rhy asked.
“It never pays to be complacent, Rhy. We’ve had peace, yes, but there’s always trouble brewing in the world. That’s the nature of trouble, and of the world we live in. There will be time enough after midnight, with everyone safely tucked back inside, to dance with my lovely wife.” He winked at them. “What do you need from us, Lena?”
“I simply need to see the sky.”
“Of course, though it’s bitter cold out there with this storm.”
“Not for long,” she promised.
He grinned. “I’m looking forward to seeing this. I’ll accompany you, for your safety. Unless you need to be alone?”
“Not at all,” Lena assured him, to his obvious relief.
Harlan led the way, and Rhy followed them out of the guard hut into the truly bitter blizzard.
“This will work,” Salena said, pausing in a semi-sheltered corner where a square tower cut the wind somewhat. Down below, the township of Ordnung blazed with light, distant music wafting in occasional bursts with the blustery wind. The sky roiled overhead, the overcast thicker than ever.
Harlan paced a short distance away and turned his back on them, gaze focused outward. Salena raised her hands, palms upward, her magic gathering palpably around them as she sent it toward the sky. She’d never looked more beautiful to Rhy than in that moment. With her hands raised to the black and storming sky, the bitter wind whipping her hair like a banner of gleaming bronze, she tipped her head back, magic lighting her from within.
“Can I ask you questions?” Rhy asked quietly, leaning against the wall where he could watch her. “Or do you need to concentrate?”
She slid him a look. “If I did, you’d have already broken that concentration.”
“Sorry.” He should know better. Moranu knew it took all of his concentration to shapeshift into anything but his raven First Form.
Salena made a choking sound. “Did the determinedly unapologetic Rhyian actually apologize again—or am I dreaming?”
“Ha-ha,” he huffed. “I’ve apologized to people before.”
“You have changed,” she replied in a voice heavy with sarcasm.
He was glad it seemed that way, but he wondered if he really had. She embraces the darkness in you, the parts you would keep in shadow and hide from the light of day. Had his mother directed those words at him? It had been a relief to finally talk about what happened with Salena, but he knew the confession hadn’t absolved him. Probably nothing could.
“You can talk to me,” Salena said after a few moments. “This isn’t all that difficult.”
“Dispersing a storm is easy, really?” He pounced on the offered topic with enthusiasm, not only because it drew him out of his dark thoughts, but because he was fascinated. She fascinated him—as always and more than ever.
“Really,” she said, casting him a smile. She loved doing this, he realized, sheer joy in her proficiency lighting her up as nothing that evening so far had done. “Part of it is that I’m not actually dispersing the storm. I’m simply sending the greatest intensity to other parts of the storm, and it’s a large one covering a wide area, so there’s lots of room to absorb a small amount over just this area. As I move the moisture and cloud cover away, I’m warming the air, which is again pretty straightforward because I only need to invert the extreme cold.” She glanced at him again. “This is really boring, right?”
“Not even a little,” he replied sincerely, utterly enchanted by her. The wind had already dropped, and he felt certain the air around them had warmed. The sky might be brighter, too.
She smiled at that, the way she used to smile at him, full of love he hadn’t deserved. It warmed his lonely heart—and chilled him to the bone. They’d finally had it out between them, but he didn’t expect that she would love him again. She couldn’t. If she did… Sudden terror filled him that he’d only break that love into pieces again.
“Also,” she continued, oblivious to his angst, “I’m only creating a change of a couple of hours. It’s not like my work in Aerron, where I’m having to fight entrenched weather patterns to reverse the encroachment of the desert and bring life to the region again. There I’m having to work with all kinds of atmospheric energy to gradually move in moisture and create conditions where rain can form. There’s a lot of intricate manipulations involved that have to be handled with precision and delicacy, or it all goes out of whack—and the cascading backlash can be vicious. Compared to that, this is child’s play. Have your eyes glazed over yet?”
Only blinded by her. “You’re amazing,” he said, his voice full of unabashed wonder.
She looked up at the sky, maybe blushing, though it was difficult to tell. “You should maybe come visit me in Aerron sometime,” she offered hesitantly. “The changes are what’s amazing. They’re really something to see.”
“I would like that,” he said, an odd pain in his chest. Was that hope or fear? Either way, a world in which he simply visited Salena in Aerron like she was just another friend seemed impossible.
“I’ve learned a lot from that work,” she said reflectively. “Studying with Andi taught me so much, but there’s nothing like actually doing the thing, day in and day out, to make you learn it, to force you to grow in your abilities.”
He knew she was musing on her own changes, and didn’t intend a double edge to her words, but he felt the slice of them anyway. Salena had spent the last seven years becoming an adept sorceress who found making summer from winter for a few hours “child’s play,” and he’d spent them doing… what? Sulking, avoiding Moranu’s attention, and trying to forget what a colossal ass he was. No wonder everyone called him lazy and feckless.
“Is that why your father isn’t doing this?” he asked. “You’re better than he is now.”
She glanced at him, eyes wide. It was definitely brighter out. “Nooo… I am not better than Muku by a long shot. But I am different. He brings storms—over incredible distances and with such astonishing power to them, I think I’ll never match his prowess—and he can sustain them. When he stalled the Dasnarian navy during the Deyrr War, he summoned that storm from Annfwn and held it there, at full power, for five days, with an eye of calm for our ships.”
“I’ve heard the story,” Rhy commented drily. Countless times. Their parents loved to tell the tales of their heroism in the glory days. Talk about something that could be burnt in the fire and consigned to the past. He was almost too warm now in his heavy cloak, and shrugged it open to hang down his back.
“I don’t know how he did it.” Salena shook her head, moonlight rippling over the long fall of her hair, no longer blowing in any wind. Above them, the pennants lay limp against their tethers, and silvering clouds scudded across a black sky, fleeing in all directions as if banished. She lowered her arms, studying the sky. “It will take a bit more to clear,” she said, more to herself than to anyone, Rhy thought, “but that will do it. Harlan?”
“Yes, Princess?” Harlan rejoined them, saying Salena’s title like an affectionate nickname. Like Rhy, he’d shrugged back his heavy cloak. Smiling broadly, he gestured at the limp pennants. “It’s like a miracle.”
Salena smiled with genuine pleasure. “You can tell Her Majesty that we are on schedule. I’ll keep the clouds over the moon until midnight and the relighting.”
He beamed and bowed. “I’ll go inform Essla, and we’ll allow the guests to begin to ascend. Will you two be all right on your own until I return? I can send out a guard, but I’m working with a skeleton crew tonight, and I rather keep them in other, key positions.”
Rhy rolled his eyes, but only Salena saw it, giving him a narrow glare. “Yes, we’ll be fine. Thank you.” She hugged him again and he departed, leaving them alone.