He swore colourfully. “I forgot we didn’t rescue a normal girl.” He rubbed the feeling back into his arm. “How are you so good at that?”
I wiggled my fingers and turned to Ric. “Lesson number two?”
“Don’t underestimate you,” he finished.
“What’s lesson number one?” Daniel asked.
I laughed. We were trapped in some sort of loop of past events. He raised his eyebrows but I didn’t give him an answer and walked back inside.
“Alright, are we even yet?” Ethan followed me.
“I suppose. Given our predicament it’ll be quite difficult to stay mad at you for too long.” I crossed my arms and stuck out my chin stubbornly.
He walked to me and lifted the braid Lavender had knotted from the rest of my hair. The back of his fingers stroked my neck as he ran a hand down it. “Yes, I suppose it would.” Damn it. I stepped away from him, lifting my braid out of his fingers.
Too close. Too familiar.
Thankfully Ric cleared his throat, demanding Ethan’s attention. “We have news,” he started. Daniel joined us in the study. “Has Willow come back yet?”
“The first week of summer starts in a few days,” Daniel said. “She and Lavender won’t be home until they’ve made their rounds of the county’s towns and villages.”
The words tumbled from my mouth. “What? When will they return?”
“In a fortnight, maybe less depending on how well trained the town healers are,” he said. “I made sure that they reached the main road safely.”
“Damn it, I forgot.” Ethan glanced outside at the bounty of tree seeds starting to fall. “What of Alistair?”
“Haven’t heard from him since before you took off,” Ric said.
“Sounds like it’ll just be us this time then.”
Daniel interrupted, “Just us for what?”
“While I was away, I looked in on a few of our camps. One of my scouts came to me a few days ago, informing me that he and his party had located the House of Adrian-”
“That’s impossible,” Daniel cut in, “no one has so much as heard rumours of it for centuries.”
“That’s what I said but then he showed me this.” Ethan opened his satchel and pulled a slip of purple cloth from it. The design of its house shield was simplistic – several vines of flowers wrapped once around two swords that crossed each other at their centres.
Daniel’s breath caught in his throat as he stroked a careful hand over the embroidered pattern. “After all these years,” he said.
“There might be something there, a clue or scripture that could give us something to hold against Stephan and his armies.”
“What could you possibly expect to find after all this time that we haven’t come across elsewhere?” Daniel asked.
“Answers,” Ethan said shortly.
“What’s so important about the House of Adrian?” I asked. Ethan looked at me, almost as though he’d forgotten that I had no clue about their history.
“It’s where our war started.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
“A FEW HUNDRED years ago, before Ric and I were born, Demons were a thriving race which lived in harmony with one another, fighting only when the king required it of them to defend their land,” Ethan said.
“You have a king?” I asked.
“Vremia had a king. King Hathenyl. His son, and heir, Kenethyl was a greedy, foolish man and after his father died he took the throne and destroyed the kingdom his father had spent a lifetime building.” Ethan rubbed his eyes irritably. “He had heirs of his own of course but none in the bloodline could fix the mess that Kenethyl made. Then, once the Berserkers’ numbers started to grow, Newfarroe, the king’s city, and many others fell under its influence.”
“What happened to the heirs?”
Ric listed them off. “King Achdar was beheaded when he refused to comply with the Berserkers’ demands. Queen Tabatha was executed before that – used as bait for a failed bargain. Their children, Prince Braun and Princess Niina, were publicly burned to death to show the townsfolk that they had no mercy when it came to women or children. From what we understand the youngest, Prince Garric, was not amongst the dead, nor has he been seen since. Rumour has it he escaped with his nanny.”
“What made people think that he had help escaping?”
“Considering he had just turned three a few weeks before the attack he could barely walk properly, let alone run,” Ethan finished. “He’s been missing for twenty-two years.”
“And people still believe he’s alive?” I asked sceptically.
“As much as they believe that the Demon princess is still alive,” Ric said, “and that was hundreds of years ago.”
“A Demon princess? Now you’ve lost me.”
“If you’ll stop interrupting me with questions I’ll tell you,” Ethan said impatiently. I bit my tongue. “As I was saying, Demons were a peaceful race. Above them we have – had – five nobles called the Eldryn; each of whom are gifted with the same abilities as Kano and Miah’s children.” I opened my mouth to ask about them but Ethan moved quickly onwards, giving me a look that said I’ll tell you another time. “Believe it or not, Stephan was once one of these five. From the things I’ve heard he was just and kind, watching over the people in his land like they were his own kin. He had no children of his own, but did have a sister-”
“-Lady Catriona of the House of Adrian,” Ric interrupted, “wife of Lord Adrian and mother to the young Lady Terra.”
“Yes,” Ethan said. “One day Stephan lost most of his power. No one knows what had happened or why, but he went rogue and disappeared without a word. From what we understand the small power inside him that remained had mutated into something deadly, fed by his anger and hatred. A year or two later he returned with a small, but strong, group of what we know now as Berserkers. They tore the place apart for their Lord, slaughtering hundreds of people. Innocents.” He ran a hand through his hair and let it fall around his eyes exasperatedly. “When the Eldryn received word of the massacre it was too late. Adrian, Catriona and all those in their house had been slain. But the little Lady’s body had never been found, just like Garric.”
“How old had she been?” I asked, horrified to hear the answer.
“Three, maybe four,” Ric said. “Some think she may have been given a painless death by her mother before they could get to her. Others think she may have been taken by the Berserkers and brought up in their army. No one knows for certain.”
“After the massacre Stephan’s rage subsided, but his lust for power grew as the darkness inside him took over. We’ve been hunting him down and destroying his armies ever since.”
“So the House of Adrian is where it started,” I said, nodding to myself. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“‘We’?” Ethan repeated.
“If you think that the place will give you the answers that you need then let’s get a move on, we’re burning daylight.” I got to my feet and felt for my knife. It was still upstairs. I had to collect my other dress, a cloak for the cold; I could unearth something for sleeping on-