I turned back to Ethan but he’d become distant, his eyes constantly moving from one place to another. “What's wrong?” I asked.
He turned away from me and ran a hand across the back of his neck. “There’re a lot of unpleasant memories when I come here.” Ethan touched the leather strap that hid his brand. “And it reminds me who I am.”
I didn’t ask what he meant. Regardless of what happened while we were there something told me he’d explain in his own time. Instead, we walked across the vale in silence until we came to a stream. In its waters, dozens of fish barely the size of my little finger swam up and down the run off, before congregating in a gently rippling pond. They shone faintly in the twilight with flashes of blue, yellow and silver reflecting off their scales like stars.
“When you say Miah’s Garden-”
“It’s more of a saying than an actual title. As the stories go this was her sacred place, her refuge from her loneliness once Kano had been cursed to circle the sky. I’ve heard everything from ‘worship-ground’ to ‘temple’ but I thought ‘garden’ fit it best.” He looked at me. “Surely you must have felt that something about this place is different?”
Actually, I hadn’t thought about it. “Why did Miah choose it?”
“What other place is right for the Moon Daenia?” He pointed at the two figures in the sky. “Only here can she see her husband before another day of loneliness.”
“That’s…sad,” I said.
So Miah, Mother Time, was the Moon Daenia the townsfolk worshipped in Wetherdon. I’d seen people setting up for prayer on the night of the new moon when it disappeared from the sky completely. I asked Mother once about why they bothered praying. ‘They pray for the Daenia’s safe return’, she said. Of course, the moon would always appear in the sky the next night regardless.”
Something twanged in my chest at the memory. Mother – my mother – I wasn’t actually her daughter at all.
“It would be if it was true,” he said. “Most of those stories are just Gnathian tales bred from millennia of admiration and imagination. Those who exist in Vremia know of us but we’re essentially legends to them. However if the Eldryn revealed themselves to those across the sea we’d probably be seen and worshipped as Daeus too.”
“Just Daeus?” I asked.
“It’s been a male-only bloodline for as long as time itself.”
“That’s strange,” I pondered. “How are the heirs conceived?”
“Eldryn aren’t conceived, we’re chosen.” I noted his change of tone. “We’re usually bastard sons or orphans of un-Matched mothers who died in childbirth.”
“We?”
Ethan caught himself and we plunged back into an imposing silence, continuing to the rocks on the other side. Birds nested in the old trees around us and filled the air with their goodnight chorus as the last of the sun slipped beyond the horizon. I smirked at the sight of it and prodded Ethan beside me.
“I thought you said you’d be back at Willow’s by sunset?”
“It was an exaggerated estimation,” he shrugged.
We stopped in front of a waterfall at the other side of the valley and Ethan suddenly became skittish. I could almost hear him willing himself to continue. If someone as brave as him had troubles facing his own fears, it would take all of his strength to take that first step. My nerves calmed and carefully I laced my hand into his. Of course, I’d held his hand before but never like this. It was intimate, almost unbearably so. When he looked at me I locked our gaze and laid both our hands on top of my heart.
“Just focus on my heartbeat,” I said to him. Then slowly I stepped backwards, and began to pull him with me.
He paused for a moment longer and I let him as he closed his eyes and clutched my hand tighter. My heart was hammering, if anything I could have made things ten times worse but eventually he took a step forward and then another. When he’d taken a few more, I swung around, still keeping his hand in mine and let him lead me wherever he wanted to go. To my surprise he stepped into the water next to the waterfall and waited for me to follow. I pulled my skirts up to the knee but Ethan shook his head.
“I wouldn’t really bother,” he said.
When he disappeared into the waterfall I saw why, and it was his turn to coax me forward. I gasped as the icy water pounded against my body and slipped down my back. The shock of the refreshing cold sang through me, making the touch of Ethan’s skin clearer against mine. From the way his eyes smouldered in the dark I guessed he felt the same way as he slipped a free hand around my waist and tightened his grip around me. Every nerve was singing, every inch of me was aware of how close we stood in the tight cave opening and I could feel the warmth of his body. He looked at me hungrily, his eyes roaming across my face and form and I felt naked.
I tore myself away despite how desperately I wanted to lean forward and he didn’t protest. He didn’t see me that way.
“Lead the way,” I whispered, jolting him back into action.
He shook his head clear and blinked until the grey in his eyes had returned to normal. Without another word he released me, turned and walked on, pushing himself through each tight hole and gap. The cave should have been dark. It should have been impossible to see anything as we traversed further and further inside, yet sections of the walls were dotted with small, glowing bugs. Their lights rippled as they reacted to the sounds our boots made against the hard stone, and when we reached the system’s centre I could only stare.
The walls were lined with small, uncut crystals that sparkled in the light of the circular pool below. Situated in the middle of the water was a stone with carvings I swore I’d seen many times before. Translucent blue-white in appearance, it was twice my height easily. Carved into the stone were five spirits that took the shape of men. Each man was engulfed in their own element: fire; water; air; earth; spirit. Lavender’s lessons sprung into my mind as I looked at them, the children of the first Daeus: Manai; Oori; Vestyr; Fraer; Brasse. Surrounding them were three growing circular patterns that led to the sun and the moon – Father and Mother Time; Kano and Miah – and beside them was a bird I’d seen before.
“What is this?” I wandered forward and stared at the sparkling gems.
“A place I’d been trying to avoid like the plague until a month ago,” he said, looking around him. “The Eldryn – our blood runs through these stones and connects us all. When we need to pass along information one of us finds a stone and the rest of us can connect, like the threads of a spider web.” He loosed a breath he’d been holding. “I’ve spent a long time ignoring conversations and severing our connections.”
“Why the change of heart?” I stared at him.
He shrugged. “Things started to change. I told them what we’d learnt. I told them about you as well-”