Dawn’s chest tightened. “Did he know my mother?”
The frown returned to his forehead. “Yes and no. He was aware of her when your family moved to Whetstone, hence the raven who watched. But he said she remained neutral and never contacted any other Elementals.”
She exhaled her disappointment. “I am no closer to knowing the truth.”
Jasper dropped a kiss on her forehead. “We just have to look deeper. It is entirely possible your mother lived her entire life neutral. Can you remember where you lived before?”
Her time before Whetstone was unremarkable. As a sickly child, she spent most of it confined to her bedroom with only very occasional forays to the outside world. “County Durham, by the coast and a few miles north of Sunderland. I didn’t like it. I found the ocean too loud and noisy, and I don’t like sand. The backyard was horrid, the salt air too unforgiving to grow much.”
He hugged her close. “Odd, County Durham is under my watch, but I have no recollection of your mother. I will ask Samuel who lives out there. We will find the answers you seek, I promise, no matter how deep they are buried.”
20
Jasper and Dawn parted company at the herbaceous border. Anxiety ran through her veins and she needed to sit and think before she checked on progress in the maze. Instead, she braved the suffocating forest walk to seek the refuge of the lake. Before entering the shadowy depths, she took a deep breath and fisted one hand in Mouse’s fur.
Plunging into the forest was a waking nightmare that enveloped her and pulled at both flesh and mind. How had Lettie endured it for forty years if this was but a fraction of what she felt? Dawn screwed up her eyes and tried to blot out the screams of dying trees, her fingers working deeper into the dog’s fur as she stumbled along. She didn’t need the steady wolfhound to halt when they made it through – relief washed over her as soon as she stepped into the clearing.
Elijah sat near the grass end of the jetty and turned to wave at her.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here. I will go if you want privacy.” Dawn let the calm of the lake wash over her and remove the last barbed tendrils from her mind.
He shook his head. “I don’t mind company if you don’t. I usually come here to think.”
She sat on the ground next to the young man. “This has become my favourite place. As a child I hated the ocean, I found it too noisy and confusing. But this lake is quiet and serene, as though the flat surface reflects my thoughts back at me so I can consider them.”
“Aunt Lettie is the same, hates the ocean but loves the lake. In summer, you can’t keep her out of the water. But then—” His voice faltered.
“But then she is an undine, so not terribly surprising?” Dawn finished for him.
He glanced at her and then turned back to the reflective water. “I assume Uncle Jasper has been giving you the family history?” He dug his fingers into the soil to find pebbles to toss into the water. Each tiny projectile created ripples that destroyed the mirror surface and generated a thousand new reflections.
“Yes, although I’m still not sure if I believe it or if you are all part of a delusion.” As she watched Elijah throw stones she wondered what would it be like to immerse yourself in the lake. Would it wash away all your concerns and leave only the barest truth? It would be a brief moment of clarity for Dawn, and then she would probably drown.
“I envy Lettie, for I can’t swim.” As a child she had struggled to take short walks in their backyard. Swimming lessons in the ocean would have been impossible.
“We could teach you. If you wanted, that is.” He frowned and a fledgling line tried to wrinkle his brow.
Dawn reached out and smoothed the line away. “If you keep frowning, you will end up like your Uncle Jasper, with furrows in your brow deep enough to plant potatoes.”
The frown was replaced by the flash of a smile. “I don’t mind being like him and Father. We’re all Warders and part of something bigger than us. Aunt Lettie’s not like us, though. I wonder if she gets lonely, being the only undine here. From what uncle has said, she is similar to Grandmother. That’s why she built the lake, to have a quiet place for reflection.”
“Was your grandmother an undine too?” Dawn needed a reference book to keep track of the different types of Elementals and what they did. She had burning questions about which type of parental combination produced what type of offspring but didn’t feel comfortable discussing procreation with Elijah, even if he was older than her.
“No. She was a Meidh like you, but Uncle Jasper said she had a strong water affinity. Her name was Serena, and serenity was her trait. Uncle Jasper says she was very good at resolving arguments.” Another pebble was cast into the water and sank with a quiet plop.
“Serene also refers to calm water.” The attraction to still water might be a family trait, passed from mother to daughter. Dawn stared at her hand and the faint shadow left by the Cor-vitis. Was that why the plant chose her for Jasper, because she had the same affinity for this spot?
What of Ava, what sort of Elemental was she? There must have been some affinity for the land for her to become the heart. That was another question to ask Jasper. Dawn considered the young man’s sharp lines and tried to guess if he inherited any trait from his mother. She only saw his paternal line in him, not that she knew what his mother looked like. She must ask Marjory if there were any old family photographs or portraits.
“I just realised that because you age much slower, you have probably been trapped in the classroom for decades,” she said. He would be more learned than any scholar at Oxford by the time he was declared an adult.
The young man laughed. “My curriculum is rather advanced. Uncle Jasper has high expectations that I master a myriad of topics and languages. Although he has promised that this year is my last.”
“Then what will you do? Will you be sent into the world to find employment, or is there some sort of Warder apprenticeship?” she asked.
His fist curled around a stone in his palm. “I will avenge my father.”
Dawn sucked in a breath. “Hasn’t your Uncle Jasper been trying to seek justice for many years?”
“Uncle Jasper is constrained by his need to guard our sanctuary, and he must serve Ava.” He threw the stone hard and it landed with a thunk way out in the middle of the water.
“What do you mean serve Ava?”
“The Lord Warder answers to the heart. If she refuses to let him leave Alysblud, then he cannot. He once described it as being an invisible barrier he cannot push through, as though he stood in front of an unbreakable window.” His fingers kept sorting through the earth, looking for another missile to hurl.
Dawn had assumed the earl commanded the estate, but in truth, he was its servant. Although Jasper mentioned that he kept Ava confined to the estate, perhaps they were chained together, both unable to leave? Everything kept circling back to the other woman. Surely a woman would want justice against those who killed her lover and father of her child? Unless she never loved him or had some complicity in his death.
Jasper had said the bond between Lord Warder and heart could only be broken by death. To replace Ava she would first have to die, yet she was Elijah’s mother. They were far enough from the maze that Dawn felt safe in uttering the woman’s name. “Your uncle Jasper wants me to replace Ava as the heart of Ravenswing, but has anyone sought your opinion?”