“Man in shadows, Morgan of Shadows, yeah, I would think that would have crossed someone’s mind a time or two.” And from what Morgan had told me, he’d pushed it as far from his mind as he possibly could. “Would you have done anything differently?”
She hesitated, which was answer enough. “Do you know how old I am?” she asked instead.
“No.”
“I’m old, Sam. Much older than I appear. Not Randall’s age, no, not even Morgan’s, but enough to remember the stories. Why do you think it is that Myrin is mentioned only in passing? Why do you think it is that you can barely find his name mentioned at all?”
“Because Morgan—”
She arched an eyebrow at me.
“Because Randall erased him as much as he could,” I corrected. “Because he couldn’t bear the thought of the man he loved having done the things he did. So he erased him as much as he could from history, having banished him with the help of Myrin’s brother, Morgan. Morgan, who was Randall’s protégé.”
“The burn that must have run through them at the betrayal,” Vadoma said. “The pain they would have felt. For family, for a cornerstone, to turn as he did.”
I said nothing.
“I do not need a cornerstone,” Vadoma said, looking down at her hands. “I am not like you. I cannot create something real out of nothing. I can make you see, but that is the limit. I am not a wizard. I am not a witch. I am an old woman with an ability I never asked for, who has seen things she never asked to see. And yet, there is magic in me. And it has slowed down time. I have seen people come and go. Villages rise and fall. I have seen the weakness of kings. One, in particular.”
“The King of Sorrow.”
“Yes. I see someone’s been talking.”
I shrugged, not caring to answer.
“It was said that Randall pulled him out of his madness by the sheer force of his will alone. Tell me, Sam. Do you know why the King went mad in the first place?”
“No.” Which, I probably should have, given I was going to be the next King’s Wizard, but if there was one thing I hated more than anything else in the world, it was going through a thousand years of Veranian politics. It was the bane of my existence.
“The loss of love,” Vadoma said. She rubbed a bony finger over the bangles on her right wrist. “The King’s wife and daughter were killed. Burned to death in a fire. He lost himself to his grief. Randall pulled him back from the brink. But not with his will. No. He did it because he too understood loss. Pain. Suffering. That is not something that leaves you. Do you know that?”
“No,” I said slowly. Because I didn’t, fortunately enough. My parents were still alive. My friends were safe. The King and Prince I’d sworn to protect were guarded. Randall and Morgan were still around, even if I was pissed off at them. I’d never known loss. Not like she described. I didn’t want to.
Then she did it again, and I wondered if she was trying to catch me off guard. “And the Great White. He said nothing to you? Tell Vadoma.”
“No,” I said without wavering. “He said nothing. For all I know, it was just a dream.”
She laughed, dry and rusty. “Chava. That was not a dream. I made you see.”
“You can see hallucinations,” I said. “That doesn’t mean they’re real.”
“That mouth of yours,” she said with a frown. “I blame the unicorn.”
“He is pretty sassy,” I agreed.
“And you will not banish him?”
I snorted. “Not hardly. And if I tried, he’d probably just laugh at me, call me a bitch, and then sit on me for a little while until I apologized. Just how he is.”
“Impertinent creature,” she said. “I knew a unicorn once. Backstabber. Literally. He stabbed people in the back.”
“Did those people deserve it?”
She waved a hand at me dismissively. “Not the point. Consider getting rid of him. For your grandmother’s sake.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think I’m going to do that.”
“This is the family I was given,” Vadoma said to Ruv. “Now you see why the gods mock me.”
Ruv was amused. “I think Sam has a point here.”
“Do you?” she said, arching an eyebrow.
“Unicorns are fiercely loyal creatures. And this one has bonded with Sam and the half-giant. He would do anything to save them.”
“He would,” I said, smiling at Ruv. At least one of them got it. Ruv, of course, smiled back at me, those dark eyes on me unnervingly. I wondered what he thought when he saw me, what he’d probably been told about me for years. Vadoma had probably built me up in his head somehow, a boy with a destiny of dragons and that Ruv would one day be the anchor for his magic. I thought maybe he was disappointed with what he’d seen in me and— Those were not thoughts I needed to have. That way lay madness and would be exactly what Vadoma wanted. In fact, I thought maybe all of this was exactly what Vadoma wanted. Divide and conquer. It had taken less than a day upon her arrival in Castle Lockes to weave disharmony and chaos into my carefully constructed life. I’d gotten my happily ever after, and now look where I was: in a hot and dusty room so very far away from home with people I didn’t trust, all the while I wasn’t speaking to my mentor nor his mentor, Kevin and Gary were getting divorced (or something, I didn’t even want to know), Ryan was being an asshat who I wanted to kick in the shins, but then also suck his cock. That left Tiggy. Sweet, wonderful, reliable Tiggy. I would seek him out as soon as I left here.
“Ruv,” Vadoma said, sounding pleased about something. “Perhaps you can show my grandson here Mashallaha. Alone. Just the two of you. By yourselves.”
And there went subtlety right out the window. “Maybe we could—”
“It would be my honor,” Ruv said, bowing low.
“There isn’t time—”
“Nonsense,” Vadoma said. “You are our guest. Ruv will show you Mashallaha. Tonight, we have a feast in your honor. Tomorrow, you will go to the dragon. And we’ll see what we see.”
“I really must insist that we—” I tried again.
“I’m an old lady,” Vadoma said. “I’m tired now. I must rest. Leave me.”
And I was ushered out by Ruv before I could even say another word.
OUTSIDE THE stacked carriages, I blinked against the harsh sunlight, my eyes having gotten used to the darkened room. It took me a moment to realize that Ruv had his hand on my arm still, and I pulled out of his grip as gently as I could. He didn’t react.
“There are many wonderful things about Mashallaha,” he said. “The greatest wonders in all of Verania.”
“I’m sure there are,” I said. “And your city is very beautiful. But we’ve been traveling a great distance and—”