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“You’ll never see the Phoenix again,” the Voice whispered. “You’re nothing without her; inhuman, a slave to the shadows. How long will it be before you fall back into darkness?”
“I won’t!”
A chuckle.
“You will. It is your nature.”
“WAKE UP!”
Riva rustled the prince’s shoulder and he jolted with a start, lunging away from her touch. He scrambled over his bedroll and stared at her with wide eyes, his empty hand gripped as though it was used to wielding a weapon. She stared at him for a moment with her hands raised in peace, then reached for her belt, unbuckled one of her daggers, and offered it to him hilt-first.
“Would this make you feel better?”
Trellis froze as his breathing evened out. After a few moments, he slightly relaxed.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” He glanced at his stone, then looked away. “I don’t really need it, anyway.”
Riva snorted.
“Please. You know I don’t trust that stuff. Stonekeeper magic is fickle as hell. A good blade?” She raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to take it. “That can be relied upon.”
Trellis hesitated, then accepted the dagger, fingering the weapon in his hands and testing the edge.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
He huddled against the hull of the airship and drew his blanket around himself. Riva settled on the floor two feet away, wrapping her jacket around herself tightly. She exhaled into her fingers and rubbed them together, then tucked them beneath her chin. She cast Trellis a side eye.
“Something on your mind, Highness?” She grinned before he could correct her, exposing her tease. “And don’t bother saying you’re fine; people who are fine don’t sleep outside during a storm or clutch daggers like their lives depend on it.”
Riva popped another knife off her belt and tapped the pommel against her goggles.
“See?”
Trellis creased his brow further as he frowned. He settled his chin into his folded arms.
“I don’t need anything. You can go back inside.”
Riva rolled her eyes.
“Right.” She nodded. “Thanks for the permission.” She crossed her arms and settled against the hull. “I’ll stay here, if it’s all the same to you.”
Trellis peered at her curiously.
“Why?”
Riva shrugged, kicking one leg up against her body. She sheathed her knife and wrapped an arm around her upright leg.
“I dunno…” she glanced back towards the cabin porthole quickly. “It’s all very human in there.”
An anxious laugh escaped from Trellis’s throat before he could choke it back. He coughed awkwardly into his fist.
“Human? Aren’t there humans in Lucien?”
“Oh, loads,” Riva answered with a nod. “And, to be respectful to my constituents, many of them are a pain in the ass. But I know how to handle those humans, even work with them most of the time.”
“But not these ones? They can’t be that bad.” Trellis looked behind Riva to the ship’s interior. The warm lantern lights glowed through the portholes and a burst of laughter reached his keen ears from the inside. The crew of the Luna Moth and the Hayes family had taken in Trellis and his brother, rescued them from death’s door. Though there had been mistrust at first, he hoped they had grown to accept each other.
Riva shrugged.
“I suppose. Just need acclimation time. Maybe then they won’t look at me like I’ll stab them in the back.” She shook her head. “That Navin’s a good kid, though. I hope he’s doing okay.”
“I’m worried about Emily.”
“Mm.”
Riva had never met the famed stonekeeper, but she couldn’t walk five feet on this airship without someone wondering where Emily was, what she was doing, if she was okay.
“You must miss her.”
A slight nod. Riva shivered as a gale swept by, chilling her to the bone.
“I’m sure she’ll turn up soon,” she said, attempting to soothe the ruffled prince. Then she remembered a question dancing on the tip of her brain. “How did you come to meet her, anyway? I heard she came from a faraway world.”
Trellis groaned and buried his face in his hands. His meeting with Emily Hayes, while the tipping point of his life, was also one of his most humiliating and shameful moments.
“You don’t want to know.”
“Well, now I have to know,” Riva urged, snorting back a laugh.
“I almost killed her.” Riva stopped chuckling as Trellis mumbled through his fingers. “I threatened her family because I needed her. I think…it’s hard to remember.” He massaged his temples, brushing strands of hair out of his face. “She saved me. I know that much. I ambushed her and almost took her down, but she defeated me. And she spared my life.”
“Wow.”
He cringed.
“I know.”
“No,” Riva murmured, eyes wide and lit with a smirk. “I can’t believe you almost beat The Emily Hayes. I heard that was impossible.”
Trellis let a chuckle slip in spite of himself.
“It is. I didn’t stand a chance against her, really. She’d hardly had her stone for a day and she killed my shadow. Like a light in the storm.”
“A light in the storm,” Riva murmured. “That’s what I’ve heard.” She grinned. “I’m starting to like this girl.” Then she frowned, brows creasing in confusion. “She killed your shadow?” She gasped. “You were possessed by one of the shadows?!”
Trellis ducked his head shyly.
“Yes. It was called Sybrian. It was with me for as long as I can remember.”
“I didn’t know they had names,” Riva said. “And they can be destroyed by stonekeepers…I didn’t know that was possible.”
“As far as I know, she’s the only one who can do it.”
A flicker of hope lit inside Riva’s heart. If it was possible to kill shadows without harming their hosts…
“There’s so many people in Lucien that could be helped. Hundreds of my constituents. My mother…”
“She’s possessed by a dark scout?” Trellis asked. When Riva nodded, he looked thoughtful.
“Emily was able to kill Sybrian innately, with sheer force of will. I can’t do that yet, but maybe I could learn, practice while we look for her.”
“You would do that?” Riva asked, staring into his glowing eyes. “Face the shadows again?” Trellis pushed a strand of silver out of his eyes.
“Of course I would.” He looked down and started worrying his hands, needling the dagger with his claws. “They’re my responsibility now. Not just in Lucien, but all the elves.” He let out a loud sigh.
“It’s a heavy weight,” Riva commiserated. She moved closer and rested her hand over his, squeezing it briefly.
“Thank you,” she murmured. Trellis blinked and looked into her eyes, clasping her hand and relaxing his grip on the knife.
“I’ll do what I can for the people in Lucien; for your mother. They’re my people too; I won’t abandon them. I give you my word.”
The blue stone around his neck flared with light and a pulse swept from Trellis’s hand into Riva’s, prickling her skin and bones. Riva jerked back, eyeing the shining stone suspiciously. Trellis closed his other hand over the amulet, covering the light, but the power vibrated in the air between them.
“Sorry,” he apologized. “I can’t always control it. Sometimes it acts on its own.”
Riva examined it curiously from a safe distance. She’d spent a life away from the legendary and dangerous stonekeepers, but now she was faced with stone magic every day. Its uncanny and unpredictable nature made the magic difficult to trust.
“Is it possible to put away the stone?”
“No.” Trellis stroked the stone’s surface with his thumb. “Since it was tied around my neck, it’s been mine.”
“It wasn’t your choice?”
“Not exactly.” Trellis frowned, lowering his gaze. “My memories are still recovering, but I think if I hadn’t had Sybrian, I would have been kicking and screaming to get away from it.”
“Really?” Riva sat up curiously. “There’s a lot of elves—and humans—who would kill for a stone.”
“Yeah, well, pros and cons, I guess.” Trellis rested his chin on his folded arms, staring into the distance. Riva gazed into the clouds lazily drifting by, dappled with orange and pink of the rising sun. Only the ocean lay beneath them.
“I get it,” she told him. “Like I said, fickle as hell.” She shook her head and shielded her eyes with a hand as she looked towards the clouded sun. “It’s getting cold.” She made to stand, paused, then offered a hand to him.
“Breakfast will be ready soon. You coming in?”
He stared at her hand as though he didn’t know what to do with it, nearly paralyzed in the decision.
“I—I’m fine out here.”
“Yes, tough guy, but will you be better off inside?”
A gust of rain-laced wind buffeted the ship, sprinkling the elves with mist. Riva laughed.
“C’mon, your Lordship,” she joked. “I’m getting numb already.”
A touch of smile lifted the corner of Trellis’s mouth. He scooped his blanket over his shoulder and clasped Riva’s hand, pulling himself to his feet.
“As you say, Miss Mayor,” he jested back. She winked at him and laughed, tugging him into the warm cabin, into the light.