The trees with the yellow blossoms seemed to follow no discernable pattern whatsoever. The pair would turn at the sighting of one, head toward it and then look around, searching for another for several minutes before finally spotting one in nearly the same direction from which they had come.
Before long, Raven knew that Loki was frustrated and was wondering whether they should have followed the naiad’s instructions after all.
“Loki, are you alright?”
Her brother hadn’t spoken to her since they’d left the spring except to point out a yellow-blossomed tree every now and again.
Loki looked down at the ground, apparently concentrating on his footing. He did not answer and Raven’s heart sank. Her display of icy power back at the spring had been Loki’s first to witness. Now he would know as well as she did who the stranger had been that had given her her soul. He would know which of the Lords of Abaddon was her father. Perhaps actually having such knowledge solidly evidenced before you was far different and more difficult to cope with than simply imagining it.
She chewed her lip and fell into silence.
Finally, he spoke. “I think they’ve led us astray,” he said, avoiding the subject of her ancestry altogether.
Raven stopped in her tracks. It was several moments before Loki did the same. He turned and peered at her.
“Loki, we have to discuss this eventually. It may as well be now.”
Loki looked around them. “Discuss what? The damned yellow trees?”
Raven crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her gaze. Her brother watched her for a moment and then sighed. He shrugged and ran a hand through his fine hair.
“Fine. What do you want me to say, Raven? I know who your father is? What do you want me to admit to you – that I know he’s evil? A devil, and one of the most powerful in Abaddon?” He realized that his voice had been rising, and he paused, took a deep breath and turned away from her. He moved to a nearby tree and leaned against it, his gaze once more on the ground. When he spoke again, his tone was still troubled, but controlled.
“Do you know his name, Raven?”
Raven stared at him. She knew her father’s name. She’d known it since she’d frozen the bars in her cell. And she’d been filled with dread, because upon the realization, she had also recalled that he was the very devil that Haledon hated most. He was the devil-god who was the opposite of Haledon in every way.
As she seemed to be the opposite of her brother.
She swallowed and blinked, not wanting to answer him.
There were nine circles of Hell, or Abaddon. Each was guarded and ruled by a devil overlord, an arch fiend of vast age, wealth and power. These fiends were so old, so strong, many in the Terran realm considered them to be gods unto themselves.
The Eighth Circle of Abaddon was known as Caina; an everlasting realm of ice and death. Caina was as cold as Nisse, the Ninth Circle, was hot. And its king was her father.
Her brother waited patiently.
“Yes. I know his name.” She would not speak it, however. It was not good to speak a devil’s name. There was much power in a name. “I’ve known since that night in the guardhouse. I didn’t take the keys from the guard as you’d planned. He never came.” She fell silent for a moment and took a shaky breath. “I had to freeze the bars to get out. That’s how I knew.…”
Loki watched her for a long, tense moment. Finally, he nodded in silence. “Then you know that he is the Lord of Ice, the Ruler of Caina. He presides over the Eighth Circle of Abaddon and is the second most powerful fiend in Hell. He answers only to the Lord of the Ninth Circle.” Here, he paused and took another deep, steadying breath. “And he is Haledon’s greatest enemy.”
Raven watched her brother in silence. Yes, yes, yes, and yes, she thought, now a little irritated. You really had to go on with that description, didn’t you, Loki? Then she looked away and gazed at the yellow-blossomed tree in the distance. Her chest ached, which irritated her even more. She was always so sensitive – so emotional. It was why she’d decided she could never marry. She would look at the couples in her village, their marriages arranged almost entirely by their parents, and she would see their misery; feel it as if it were her own.
It’s this soul, she thought. It’s too old. It was an unbidden thought, but it didn’t surprise her. She was coming to know herself.
As she stared at the tree’s gently swaying blooms, she wondered if her brother blamed her. Did he hate her because she was the chosen child of his favored god’s enemy? Did he honestly think it was her fault? That she had anything to do with the theft at the spring and the visit from the stranger that fateful night?
The last thing in the world she wanted was to lose the love of her brother.
A part of her yearned to apologize.
But a larger part of her refused. Because it wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t chosen her would-be father! He had chosen her. And she was not so certain that she was sorry about that choice, anyhow. After all, it was this “evil” heritage of hers that had saved their lives at least once now. Probably twice. And it was still early.
Where had Loki’s god been when she was laying beneath the weight of a man intent on raping her? It hadn’t been Haledon who broke out the bars of her guard house cell and freed her two nights ago! It hadn’t been Haledon’s powers that had frozen that man’s arm when he’d been intent on killing their newly found friends!
She gritted her teeth in sudden, renewed irritation and pushed a lock of long black hair from her face. Then, just as suddenly, the ache in her chest grew and she wondered what to say.
“I’m sorry, Raven.”
She straightened, surprised, and turned to face Loki. She hadn’t been expecting to hear that.
Loki stared at her, his eyes repentant, his shoulders slumped. “I love you, Raven. I always will. You’re my sister now, as you were before, and nothing will ever change that.” He pushed away from the tree and came to stand before her. “I’m so sorry that I waited until now to tell you that. I don’t ever want you to doubt that I’m here for you.”
Raven sagged against him as he pulled her into an embrace.
“I’m an ass,” he said, and she could feel him shaking his head over her shoulder. “Forgive me?”
She wrapped her own arms around his chest and squeezed, closing her eyes. “You are an ass,” she agreed softly. “And of course I forgive you.”
They stood there a few moments more, and then he pulled away, straightening her gently as he did so. She blinked a few times, looked at the ground, and turned away, pretending to hide her movements as she wiped a few stray tears from her cheeks.
Loki waited for her to face him again before he smiled and suggested they keep moving.
She nodded and pointed at the tree she’d been staring at. “That’s the next one.”
Loki’s gaze narrowed. “I could swear this is getting us nowhere. Haven’t we followed that tree already? Some of these trees even seem to double back.”
Raven thought for a moment. “I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but it also seems like some of them appear where there were none only moments before.”
Loki nodded. “I have. What do you make of it?”
Raven shook her head. “I don’t know. Papa used to tell stories about the Phaen Forest. I remember that he said a lot of strange things can happen in here. But, we have nothing else to go on, Loki. And I doubt that Minea and Manus have any reason to lead us astray.”
Loki considered that a moment and then sighed. “Very well. We’ll continue on. At least for a little longer.”
They made their way to the tree with the cascading yellow blossoms and looked up at it. As they had done many times before, they then turned away from the tree and searched the surrounding forest for the next one. Raven spotted it immediately and pointed it out.
They began to walk toward it.
But Loki stopped in his tracks, his head cocked to one side. He held his hand up and Raven stopped beside him. He placed his fingers to his lips, indicating a need for silence. They listened. In a moment, he said quietly, “Do you hear that?”
Raven could make out the faint sound of distant voices, a man and woman, arguing about something. She nodded. They followed the sound, their steps slow and cautious. As they moved, the voices grew in volume.
“Over my bloody hide!” a man yelled.
“Papa, you’re being unreasonable! Someone has to go to market, and you’re incapable.” A woman retorted, her tone carefully held just in check.
“You’ll not step foot inside that city, I tell you. The Lords and Ladies will steal you away in a heart-”
“Papa! Do not speak their names! They’ll hear you,” the woman quickly replied, her tone at first alarmed, and then swiftly hushed.
Raven and Loki glanced at one another, Loki’s brow raised in interest. They crept softly to the forest’s edge and peeked out from behind the brambles.
A young pretty woman, probably no older than twenty, stood before a bent middle-aged man. She held his face in her hands and was speaking to him in rushed, rapid tones. His expression was one of helpless desperation, the lines beneath his eyes and around his mouth drawn tight. A cane supported him in one hand, while his other hand, wrinkled, calloused and dusty, rested lightly on his daughter’s shoulder.
A small cottage sat behind them, nestled between thorny rose bushes on one side and sunflowers on the other. A dirt path led from its front door to a two-horse stable several yards away, and then continued on to a thatch-roofed barn. Smoke curled from the cottage’s single, small chimney.
At first, Raven thought the smoke was strange. It was summer, wasn’t it? And then she realized that at some point during their trek, the heat had let up. It was not nearly as hot now as it had been when they had left their village. In fact, it seemed quite temperate.
She turned to look at her brother questioningly. “What should we do?” she whispered.
Loki pondered the couple in silence. Then he shrugged. “We may as well show ourselves.”
He and Raven stepped out of the forest and into the clearing.
Their presence immediately drew the old man’s attention. He moved fast for a crippled man, but his lame leg hobbled as he shoved his daughter behind him and held his cane out like a weapon. He eyed the two newcomers with a wariness they had never before encountered.
Raven instantly came forward, gesturing for Loki to remain slightly behind.
She held her hands out at her sides and smiled a warm, gentle smile. “I am sorry we startled you. We are travelers from a village not far from here. We’re headed to Kriver. We heard voices and decided to follow them.” She paused as the old man lowered his cane. She had always had a knack for reasoning with strangers. “Again, I apologize if we scared you.”
The man blinked, studying Raven carefully. Then he glanced back over his shoulder at the pretty blonde girl and asked her something that neither Raven nor Loki could hear. The girl nodded and the old man turned back to face them.
“What village are you from?” he asked as his daughter moved out from behind him.
“We’re from Aster Hollow. It’s just a few days from here.” Raven gestured behind her, toward the forest. “In fact, I didn’t realize you could get anywhere in just a few days through the forest, especially from Aster Hollow. I’ve always been told that it would take months to find other people.” She was saying more than she strictly needed to, but she’d always found that showing your own weaknesses, such as confusion, did wonders at making other people feel more comfortable.
The young woman looked up at her father and something unspoken passed between them. Then they turned back to face Raven and Loki. The woman spoke up. “Actually, Aster Hollow is months from here.” She fell silent for a moment and studied the two of them very carefully, wariness evident on her youthful features. “Where did you say you were headed?”
“Kriver,” Loki and Raven answered at once.
“Well.…” The old man took a few hobbling steps along the path gestured with his cane toward the edge of the cottage behind him. “The truth is, strangers, you’re dead center of Kriver. If you’re not lying, then you’ve come three months’ distance in a few days. That’s Trimontium right over there.”
Raven and Loki exchanged confused glances. Then they moved toward the path and walked slowly around the side of the cottage. They cleared the small building to be greeted by an amazing sight.
In the distance, settled at the base of a range of rocky, snow-capped mountains, sat a vast walled city. Trimontium was the capital city of Kriver, and the largest city in the known world.
The two stared at it, dumbfounded. Somehow, they had traveled hundreds of miles in two days. Neither of them spoke for a long while. Finally, Loki cleared his throat. Without taking his eyes from the city scape, murmured, “The yellow blossoms….”
Raven nodded slowly. “Indeed.”
“I guess I’d say you’re surprised enough that we can believe you’re telling the truth,” came a gentle female voice from behind them. They pulled their gazes from the distant city and turned to face the young blonde woman. “How did you arrive here in such a short time?” she asked, her expression one of genuine curiosity.
Loki shook his head. Raven shrugged and sighed. “We were directed on a path and told that it would take less time. We had no idea how much less time.” Raven was still in shock, but she was in enough control of her faculties to realize that speaking of the naiads and their spring may not be wise.
Loki ran a hand through his fair hair and smiled sheepishly at the pretty, blonde woman. She blushed, soft pink infusing her neck and cheeks.
Raven noticed that Loki’s smile broadened. Well, what do you know, she thought, hiding her own private smile.
The girl’s father approached, his gaze bouncing from Loki to his daughter and back again. He came to stand between them, and his daughter visually shrunk back beneath the weight of his wary vigilance.
Then, quite suddenly, the old man’s expression changed from wary to enterprising. He cocked his head to one side, studied both Loki and Raven carefully for a moment more, and then turned his back to his daughter in order to face them head on. This had the effect of excluding his daughter from the conversation.
“You’ll be heading into the city presently, then?” he asked.
Raven and Loki nodded.
The old man pursed his lips, leaning heavily on his cane. “Right. Then, I’ll ask a favor of you. Please accompany my daughter to the market. I don’t like the idea of sending her into the city alone. Her brother used to make our rounds for us, but he’s….”
“He disappeared,” the girl interrupted from behind him. She stepped around her father, shot him an exasperated look, and then turned a weary expression onto Loki. And Raven. But mostly Loki.
“We haven’t seen my brother in five days. He went out for water from the well and didn’t return. No one has seen him or heard from him. He left no word, no clue as to where he might be headed, and no trace of his passing.” She shrugged helplessly. She was visibly more pale now. “He just vanished.”
The old man nodded sagely. “I trust Tolen to be safe. He is a strong man. He can take care of himself. He’ll be back.” They all fell into silence. A minute later, the man spoke again. “Summer, on the other hand, should not be alone within Trimontium’s walls.” He turned to eye his daughter, and she shot him a warning look. “It isn’t safe,” he insisted, undeterred. He turned back to Loki and Raven. “I’ll pay you to accompany her. Two silver when she returns this afternoon. What say you?”
Raven and Loki looked from the old man to the young woman and then turned to face each other. They were twins. They’d cultivated a lifelong connection between themselves, a bond strong enough that they often did not need to speak aloud in order to communicate with one another. Now was one of those times.
Raven knew what her brother was thinking. It was the same thing she was thinking. Their astonishment at arriving in Trimontium so quickly was lingering, and its shock was currently being overshadowed by the realization that they had developed no plan as to what they were going to do once they arrived in Kriver. The trip was supposed to have been longer. They had simply assumed they would have time to work such matters out as they’d traveled.
Now they were in Trimontium, and time had run out.
However, they did at least have their priorities. They had money, but not very much. They would need more very soon in order to survive within a city. And here was someone willing to part with a fairly good amount of it if Raven and Loki would agree to a relatively simple task.
It was a start.
Raven turned away from her brother and smiled at the old man and his daughter. She turned to Summer. “We would be glad to accompany you.”
Summer returned the smile and nodded. “Thank you. I’ll get my cloak and we can be off.” She spun on her heel and disappeared around the corner of the cottage.
When she was gone, the old man leaned in toward them and spoke in a hushed tone. “Keep her away from the Lords and Ladies.”
Raven’s brow furrowed. “Who?”
“You heard me. The.…” He appeared to become nervous for a moment, his gaze shooting toward the walled city and back again. “Them,” he whispered emphatically. “From the castle. They call it Eidolon. The Phantom Palace. You know – the Fey. The Lords and Ladies.” His whisper was one of those emphatic whispers that may as well have been a shout. He swallowed hard and Raven noticed a drop of sweat trickle from his receding hairline toward his right eyebrow.
He eyed her sternly and then, after glancing once over each of his shoulders, he leaned in even closer, his lips approaching her ear as if to share a secret. Raven could not help but meet him half way. She had always relished secrets.
“The elves.”
He pulled away immediately after that and turned to leave. As he did so, his daughter stepped out from the corner of the cottage, this time draped in a warm traveling cloak. She smiled at Raven, turned an even brighter smile upon Loki, and met her father half way down the path. The two exchanged a few quiet words and she kissed him on the cheek. Then she joined Raven and Loki at the end of the path and they all turned toward the main road leading to the city.
Raven glanced once at her brother, the old man’s warning ringing in her ears. However, Loki’s eyes were on Summer, and he did not see the worried expression on his sister’s face. Raven looked back up at Trimontium’s tall stone walls and spires and squared her shoulders.
“Trimontium,” she muttered, and they began the short trek to the city’s gate.