~Kael~
The wind howled through the desolate streets of Shadowvain, causing the faded inn sign above me to groan, its rusty chains protesting with each sway. The Sallow Mare. The name suited the place. A sagging and neglected tavern where only the most desperate of souls would seek shelter. This village was barely more than a swell of gray stone buildings clinging to the edge of the Gravebriar Hollow Forest. I could hear the distant screech of a Nightbeast in the distance, just now stirring in the wake of Nullrest.
This was the perfect place for someone wanting to disappear to hide.
It wasn't the first place that I had in mind for the Prince of the Shadow Realm to ask me to meet.
My hand tightened around the worn shaft of my staff, my fingers tracing the intricate patterns in the wood. The weight of it was familiar in my hands, a comfort to my nerves. Why had the Prince asked me to meet here? What did he want with me?
The door's rusted hinges creaked as I pushed it open, complaining with every inch that it was pushed. Inside The Sallow Mare stank of stale ale and mildew. It clung to the back of my throat and I tried hard not to gag as I stepped inside and let the door swing shut behind me. The fire in the hearth had burned low, casting restless shadows that danced over the handful of patrons hunched at their tables. Most were too lost in their drinks or muttered conversations to even glance up, but a few's eyes flicked my way, their gazes assessing.
I kept my grip tight on my staff as I scanned the inside of the tavern, looking for the Prince. I spotted him alone at a corner table, his broad shoulders hunched and his figure half shrouded in shadows. His right hand was tightened around a tankard while the other rested limply on the table. Even in the low light, I could make out the black and silver armor of the Shadow Guard.
Ryker Valerius, the Crowned Prince of the Shadow Realm.
I slid into the chair across from him, trying not to flinch or look away when his gaze finally lifted. His eyes were colder than I had remembered from the times I had seen him at a distance during the rare times that I had visited the Palace.
"You're late."
I rested my staff against the table. "You picked a hell of a place to meet during Nullrest. You are lucky I made it here at all."
"You know why."
The door to the tavern creaked open as another patron pushed their way in, sending a gust of wind through the building that snuffed out a nearby wall sconce. The shadows left from the light going out deepened the angles on Ryker's face and made the silver inlay of his armor gleam.
I forced my breathing to remain steady. I could think of few reasons why I would be asked to meet with the Royal Family. None of them were good. "If I knew why then I wouldn't have had to trek through half of the Hollow and fight off a Nightbeast that left a pretty nasty scratch on my arm," I indicated to the bandages that were wrapped tight around my left arm. "To get here."
One of Ryker's brows lifted. "You're still alive."
"And grateful for it."
A muscle in the Prince's jaw ticked. He reached inside of his cloak and pulled out a folded square of parchment. Its edges were frayed from handling. He slid it across the table and watched as I unfolded it.
Wanted: Reyna Valerius. Fugitive. Madwoman. Traitor.
The sketch beneath the words was crude but unmistakable - the white hair with a black streak slashing through it like ink spilled in the snow. The bounty beneath her name made my stomach twist. It was enough coin to buy a manor. Enough to disappear forever.
Ryker's voice was low when he spoke. "You know what she is."
"Your sister."
"Veilwalker." He ground out, his free hand curling into a fist on the table. The other tightened further around the tankard, enough that the metal creaked softly. "And unstable."
I kept my hands still on the parchment. "And?"
His eyes flicked to my staff still leaning against the table. The aquamarine crystal at its crown hummed faintly. "They say you can dampen magic. That you can subdue a Shadowbeing's power. Like Nex Hawthorne once could."
I exhaled. "They say a lot of things."
"I need to know if it is true."
Something shrieked outside, too close to the village and its weak wards for comfort. The patrons nearest the door flinched, one even drawing their knife.
I folded the parchment and tapped it against the table. "You want me to hunt your sister down?"
"I want her contained. Before her power unravels completely and more people get hurt."
The candlelight caught the dark hollows underneath of the Prince's blue eyes and the tousled mess of blonde hair on his head. Up close he looked nothing like the pristine, untouchable Prince from the court portraits. His pulse jumped visably at his throat when the Nightbeast shrieked outside again. This wasn't just exhaustion. This was the look of a man who hadn't slept well in years. Someone who had been waiting for the ground to crack open underneath him.
Funny, I thought, watching as Ryker's fingers twitched towards the hilt of his sword. This close even the Shadow Realm's golden boy looks human.
And terrified.
I nudged the bounty back towards him. "Why me?"
"Because if you can do what they say…" he exhaled. "Then you are the only one who might be able to bring her in alive."
"She killed the Light King and possibly started a war between the two Realms. Why not just kill her? Wouldn't that… make it easier? And quicker?"
Ryker's knuckles whitened around his untouched tankard. When he spoke again, his voice had lowered and sounded frayed around the edges. "She is my sister."
The words sat heavily between us. I knew that weight all too well, had lived through it with my own brother. Thalen had only been eight the first time the village elders had called his visions dangerous. He had woken me up screaming about the Lux Stones watching him and whispering his name, his small hands clawing at his own arms like he could peel the truth out from underneath his skin. By twelve, they had shunned him and had burned the notebooks he had written his dreams inside of in the town square. When he was fourteen, they had burned him instead. I flexed my fingers against my knee, the phantom sting of the old blisters from where I had tried to pull his body from the fire crawling up my palm.
Funny how grief wears the same face no matter whose bloodline it comes from. No matter if we are a Prince or a peasant, it rots us from the inside all the same.
The hand still resting on the bounty twitched, causing the parchment to crinkle between my fingers as I weighed Ryker's words. She is my sister. "Tell me this, then." I said. "If you think she is a threat then why not send your Shadow Guard? Why risk a mercenary's discretion?"
"The Guard answers to my father first. And he believes that she instigated the war by killing the Light King deliberately. He's wrong."
I leaned forward. "You think she is innocent."
"I think," he bit out. "That my sister is drowning and more than anything she needs help, not judgement."
"She is a Shadowbeing Veilwalker." I pointed out.
"And?"
"You know what usually happens to Shadowbeings born as Veilwalkers. Maybe it would be a mercy to end her life rather than to continue to allow her to suffer."
Ryker's knuckles cracked as his grip tightened even further around the tankard, causing the metal to dent and the dark ale to slosh over the rim. It pooled onto the weathered wooden table. "Mercy. Is that what you call it when they burned your brother?"
The laughter inside the tavern faded away into a distant hum. My fingers crinkled the bounty further, crumpling the lettering. Thalen's screams echoed in the back of my skull and the stench of charred flesh filled my nostrils. I could still see his hands trying to scrabble for mine as the flames climbed higher. I swallowed. "No, but your sister isn't some village seer spouting riddles. She's a Shadowbeing with the power to level cities.
Ryker slammed his fist down onto the table. The tankard shuddered and toppled over, spilling its contents onto the parchment. "She is not a weapon," his voice came out in a snarl. "She is broken."
The word hung between us. I flexed my fingers against the grain of the table. Broken. Like Thalen whispering prophecies that the village had refused to hear until it was too late.
"Nex was the only one who could stabilize her. Now he is gone."
I studied the Prince, watching the way his jaw clenched with tension and the way that his fingers trembled. "Have you ever seen her lose control?" I asked.
Ryker's throat worked. "Once."
I drew in a long breath. "I can't promise that I will succeed."
"Try." Ryker dug into his pocket and shoved a pouch across the table, the coins inside clinking. "Triple when you bring her back."
I didn't reach for the pouch. "Does your father know that you are doing this?"
"No."
"And what happens to me when he finds out that I am helping?" I asked. "He wouldn't think twice to kill me or have me thrown in the Southern Spire." My fingers flexed subconsciously against the table. Everyone knew about the Spire. The nightmares that were whispered about its obsidian stone walls and its prisoners who came out hollow… if they came out at all.
Ryker leaned forward. "You think I would let him?"
I choked out a humorless laugh. "You expect me to believe the Crowned Prince would defy his King… his father?" I reached for my staff, clutching it tightly in my hand. The crystal atop pulsed faintly in response to my touch. The stale air of The Sallow Mare clung to the back of my throat as I drew in a deep breath. It took all I could muster not to gag at the taste it left behind. The sooner I could leave this inn the better. I would almost be willing to deal with the Nightbeasts rather than breathe in this putrid stench. I started to push myself up. "If that is all that you have to offer-"
Ryker didn't move, just gripped the table harder causing his gauntlet to creak under the pressure. "Sit down, Draven."
I sank back down into my seat.
The Prince's knuckles whitened as he clutched the table even harder. "You don't understand the position that you are in. No one turns down a contract from the Shadow Throne." His blue eyes flicked to the bandages on my arm. "Especially not a mercenary with no house name and a Nightbeast wound that is still bleeding through his wrappings."
"I didn't turn down anything… yet. I'm just asking what happens when your father finds out that his son has gone behind his back. You may come out unscathed but me? As you said yourself I am a no name mercenary."
Ryker's jaw clenched, causing the scar there to stretch. "I am asking you to help save my sister before she burns like your brother did. It isn't too late to save her."
The words like a blade, piercing between my ribs. Thalen's screams echoed in the back of my mind again. My throat constricted and I swear I could taste the smoke and burning flesh. I exhaled sharply. "Fine, but not for the coin."
"Then for what?"
I leaned forward and dropped my voice to make sure that my words were not overheard. "You are the Crowned Prince. You have access to the Royal Archives… records that the rest of us could never even dream of touching."
Ryker's blue eyes narrowed. "What are you looking for?"
"Anything on Veilwalkers. I don't want the court propaganda. I want real texts… rituals…. cures." My throat tightened. "I want to know if it was always going to end the way that it did for my brother… or if there was another way."
"You think you could rewrite the past?"
"No," I swallowed, my throat burning. "But maybe I could stop pretending that I couldn't save him."
Ryker breathed out a long, measured breath. "The Archives are restricted."
"And yet," I said. "You are not saying no."
A muscle in his jaw worked. He lifted the dented tankard and frowned at the remaining contents before finally draining it. He sat the cup back down with a clang. "I could have you arrested for even suggesting it."
"You could," I shrugged. "But you won't."
"What makes you so confident on that?"
"Because," I said, "those Archives may also be key to saving your sister from the same fate."
The pouch of coins sat untouched between us. I shifted my staff across my lap, my fingers tracing the groove where Thalen had once carved his initials into the wood when he had received it for his tenth birthday.
Ryker's gaze flicked down to my arm again. Blood had seeped through the bandages, darkening the linen. "That wound will kill you before the end of the next Veilcycle if you don't treat it properly."
"You never answered me about the Archives."
"You think a few yellowed pages will absolve you of your brother's death?"
My gut twisted at his words. He wasn't wrong. Nothing could ever absolve me of what had happened to Thalen, but I did know one thing. "It might not erase what happened to my brother but what it may do is save others in the future. If I could stop someone else from meeting the same fate then maybe his death wouldn't have been in vain."
Ryker was silent for a long moment. I studied the Prince's expression, the way that his fingers trembled before curling into fists. "Help her. Then the Archives are yours."
"Deal."
Ryker pushed the coins closer to me. "Take it. Get that wound treated. There should be a healer in Shadowvain."
My hand slowly closed around the pouch. I lifted the weighted bag and slid it into my cloak. "How will I get in contact with you when I have her?"
Ryker leaned back in the chair. "There is a courier in Easthollow. An old human who keeps ravens. Give her your first name only and the phrase 'Veil's Edge.' She will get word to me."
I nodded. Easthollow. It was a small village sitting on the edge of the Sorcerous Dominion. "And the payment?"
"The moment that Reyna is secured you will have your texts. But mark this, Draven… if you hurt her then there won't be a hole deep enough in this Realm to hide you from me."
A shiver ran down my spine. I forced out a nervous laugh. "Noted."
Ryker stood, the table groaning under his weight as he shoved away from it. Shadows seemed to cling to him like a second cloak, twisting around his armor.
"Don't make me regret this." The shadows grew around his body and his form flickered. He stepped back into the corner of the room. Between one blink and the next he was gone.
Shadow Travel.
I had only ever read about it before in texts. Shadowbeings, being creatures from the essence of darkness itself, were able to use the shadows around them to travel distances. I swallowed. What the hell did I just agree to?