Messenger in the Mist (25 page)

Her mother furrowed her eyebrows, a bit annoyed. “Who could that be at this time of night?”

Star had a moment of hope that the Interkingdom Carriers needed her back, but that was soon overshadowed by the fact she didn’t want to return to Ravencliff. Besides, she’d heard in town that the Interkingdom Carriers had stripped Zetta of her title and people made their own deliveries. There were more and more riders vying for jobs. Star was now one in a hundred. The chance someone needed a delivery sent was as slim as the chance that an Elyndra would ever fly again in the sky.

Her father entered her bedroom with a quizzical look on his sun-browned face. “There’s a man at the door to see you.” He rubbed his temple. Star knew he’d been reading too long as always. However, the gesture was not just tired eyes. A hint of worry showed in the wrinkle between his white brows.

Her mother put a hand to her heart. “Oh, maybe it’s the man who gave you the necklace? Maybe he’s changed his mind?”

Star shook her head, resisting the urge to scold her mother. “No, Mother. He’s decided to marry someone else.”

“Then who else could it be?”

Her father’s eyes held suspicion. “He looked rather shady, tattoos on his arm and black clothes like a delinquent.”

Star stood from the chair in disbelief, the quilt falling to the floor at her feet. Weeks had passed since her journey and it couldn’t possibly be true. “Did he say his name?”

Her father shrugged. “Said you’d know him when you saw him. I don’t know, Star, he seems a bit devious to me. Do you want me to send him away?”

Star didn’t answer her father’s question. She leaped forward, her feet tangled in the quilt and kicked the fabric off impatiently, sprinting down the hallway to the door. Her head told her it couldn’t be true, but her heart wished it so a thousand times over.

She opened the door and gaped as Fallon Leer stood on the porch, leaning casually on the railing like he lived there himself.

“Seems you’ve been telling people I’m dead.” A smug grin crossed his face as he straightened to meet her. He favored his right leg, as if his left were made of stone. A cane rested at his side.

Star could not speak. She closed the distance between them and fell into his arms, holding him close, as if he were a dream that would fly away on the wind, but he felt so real, his broad arms and back solid underneath her embrace. Her tears fell onto his chest as she buried her face into his warmth. For a second, he stood motionless, as if he didn’t know what to do, and then his arms came around her, comforting her sobs. He soothed her by rubbing a hand up and down her back.

When she regained a slim amount of composure, Star studied his face. He had a slight scar on his cheek and a burn mark on his neck. Besides that, he was all in one piece. She brought her hand up to his scar and traced it gently with her fingertips. “It can’t be.”

“The funny thing is, one of those Elyndra picked me up into the sky just as the flames started to close in around me. I let it carry me out of that vile hole in the earth to the rim. Once I was free, I stabbed it in the stomach and the beast dropped me several feet to the ground.”

“But I looked for you for days, calling out your name.”

As always, Leer’s response was simple and to the point. “Unconscious.”

“My goodness, for how long?”

“Don’t know, but when I woke up, I was thirsty as all hell and sore.”

Star feared his answer to her next question, but she had to ask. “And Wildfire?”

Leer looked off into the distance, his eyes flitting back and forth. “Gone.”

“Oh, Leer, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right. He completed his task and died valiantly. I always knew he was destined for a greater purpose. I was just borrowing him until his time came.”

“How did you make it back without Wildfire?”

Leer smiled sadly. “I had to trudge all the way back with a broken leg. It took days. By the time I got to Ravencliff, you were already gone.”

Star felt guilt redden her face. “I’m sorry I left you. I thought you were dead.”

“I should have been. Lucky, that’s what I was. I figured you were on your way. I followed your trail of campfires all the way back to Ravencliff.”

“I told Valen you were to go down as a hero.”

“And he gave me more credit than I deserve. When I got back, they were already planning a statue in my honor.” He laughed lightly. “Don’t know if I’ll still get it now I’m alive.”

“You should. You should get more.”

Leer smiled. “I don’t much care about all that. I achieved what I wanted to. That is, I paid my debt back to Valen and saved his kingdom. He can no longer look down upon me.” He sighed. “I can never change what I did, never bring back his mother, but in my own way, I’ve done enough to set it right.”

Star knew it wouldn’t be worth it to argue with him. Even though it had never been entirely his fault and Valen had forgiven him long ago, she knew it was something he had to do to clear his own conscience. She allowed him that entitlement without judgment or complaint.

Leer looked down into the folds of her blouse. “So, you still wear that ridiculous ruby necklace?”

Star pulled back, insulted, and loosened her grip. “Of course not! I used it to destroy the machine. Anyway, didn’t you hear that Valen is marrying Princess Vespa?”

“I did. But I had to see what you thought of it.”

She didn’t want him to think she still cared for Valen like that. She unbuttoned the top snaps of her blouse. “Look for yourself what lies next to my heart.”

Leer paused as if she was about to trick him. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head, as if it was beyond the bounds of propriety.

“Go on.”

His rough, calloused hand gently pulled back the cotton fabric, fingers tickling her skin. He found the chain around her neck and pulled the accessory until it came into full sight. He blinked as though his eyes lied. She still wore his identification tags. Leer looked at her in a different way, as if he saw her for who she truly was for the first time. “But these are mine. I left them in the cave.”

“When you were gone, I realized how much I’d grown to care for you. Fallon, I love you.”

Leer put his hand up to hold her face, admiring her like she was too good to be true. Star raised her hand and placed her fingertips on his lips. She brushed his mouth with her fingers before bracing her hands on either side of his head. Reaching up, she touched her lips to his.

He kissed her back, softly at first, then with more passion as they settled into their embrace. Star responded to each movement, melting into his arms. Her hands roamed through his hair, brushing his neck and smoothing over his shoulders.

She heard movement inside the house and remembered where she stood, on her parents’ porch. She pulled back, feeling a bit embarrassed.

Leer, on the other hand, was not shy at all. “On my way to Evenspark, I claimed several acres of land in the highlands, above the swamp where the earth is good for grazing. I want to start a horse ranch, build a house in the country.” He pointed to the tattoos on his arm. “It’s been my dream all my life to train a herd of wild horses, to ride across the countryside.”

Star ran a finger up his arm, curving around the head of an Appaloosa. “And?”

“I’m asking you to come with me. You wouldn’t be far from here, just a few hours’ ride. But it would be outside of the grid.”

Star couldn’t believe it. What he proposed sounded like a paradise.

“I need someone who’s good with horses and—”

She spoke, almost breathless. “The answer is yes.”

Star never saw Leer smile the way he did right then. It was as if she’d righted all the wrongs in his life with one word.

“Come in and meet my parents. My mom will make you dinner.” Star winked playfully, tugging his arm toward the front door. “She’s an excellent cook.”

Leer rolled his eyes, allowing himself to be pulled. “I’m sure they’ll adore me.”

Star turned back around, her lips curved upward in a tease. “You rode to the end of the mist, set fire to the cocoons and stabbed an Elyndra as it took you away. And now you’re afraid of my parents.”

Leer looked ashamed, like a boy caught playing with his father’s tools. “Not afraid. I just don’t think they’ll like me, that’s all. I’m not the typical knight in shining armor you’d be proud to bring home.”

“No, you’re not.” His reluctance made him even more irresistible to Star. She smoothed a hand over his chest. “You’re much better.”

Double Weddings

Rose petals rained down in the throne room, falling between the banners of both kingdoms. For once in a century of uneasy politics, the insignias were intertwined, embroidered together by the deftest weavers in all the land. Spectators from both factions filled the great hall, every inch taken by a distant cousin, a wandering merchant or a soldier in the royal guard. Doves fluttered overhead, set free by jesters as they twirled and spiraled, delighting the crowd.

A noblewoman turned to her friend. “I heard they’d been secretly engaged since birth.”

Her friend raised her slender eyebrows. “Is that so? I heard he cut it off to safeguard her life because he knew of the Elyndras’ impending attack.”

“How valiant of him.”

The second woman polished her pearl necklace. “Valiance is Valen’s greatest attribute. Some people even say that it’s his middle name.”

“Hmm. And what do we know of Vespa?”

“She is beautiful beyond measure, possessing fine-boned traits given to her by her father, nobleman of Ravencliff, and sturdy as a man in spirit, an attribute all rulers in the house of Evenspark possess.”

“I see. That makes for quite the pairing indeed.”

“I only hope Valen stands his ground.”

Valen waited before the throne, golden crown glinting as the sun shone on him through painted-glass windows. He wore a ceremonial baldric with the scarlet and ebony colors of Ravencliff and a velvet cape that fell to the very bottom of the raised platform. A graveness painted his face.

He looked back to his best man, Allyn, the new commander-in-chief of Ravencliff’s army. Although young, he’d served bravely in the war and Valen made sure he would follow in his family’s tradition. Both of them had lost a father in the battle, but Valen would see to it that it had all been for a higher purpose. They would not have died in vain.

Allyn nodded formally, expressing his support of the alliance between kingdoms. It seemed the entire board of advisors, the army, the citizens and the other nobles of the castle agreed with his decisions as the new ruler. If anything, Valen won their respect—more than what his father had achieved. As many differences as they had, Valen still wished his father were there on such a momentous day. Looking up above, he knew his father’s spirit shined down on the ceremony and that he soared with pride.

A band of minstrels strummed a regal march, trumpets resounding to the upper rafters where the long-forgotten webs of spiders wafted on the breeze. The doors opened and Bellanina came out first, dropping roses at the onlookers’ feet. She paced solemnly, head up to the altar, as if she were already practicing for her own coronation.

Vespa entered next, wearing a satin gown of snow white with rubies stitched into the hem. Handmaidens had twined her auburn hair in one hundred braids, every delicate strand strategically placed in interlocking circles forming an intricate bun.

She gazed at Valen and the throne that lay beyond him and her eyes glittered, refracting the sun like multifaceted emeralds. She marched forward to claim the title of queen, handmaidens holding her dress so it spread behind her like wings. Each step brought her closer to her title. When she met Valen, she bowed once, ever so slightly, to acknowledge him, before her hungry eyes gleamed at the crown shining on an ivory pedestal by the priest.

The music came to a lull, trumpets giving way to the silence of the impending ceremony. The priest lit the two smaller tapered candles beside the unity candle in the middle of the hall.

Valen bent down and whispered in Vespa’s ear, “I’m glad you accepted my offer.”

Vespa looked back with a challenge. “I could not refuse.”

* * * *

On the same day, a kingdom away, Leer stood on a hillside, overlooking the green land of his new horse ranch. A small group of bystanders surrounded him, including Star’s parents, some Interkingdom Carriers, and a few aunts and uncles.

An elderly man plucked delicate chords on a lute, accompanied by the sweet whistle of a recorder. Sparrows flew overheard in the dome of a blue sky, void of clouds. The crowd looked to the bottom of the incline, beyond the wild lavender and daises to a single woman, hair white as snow and eyes gray as a storm cloud. She wore a simple dress of blue that matched the cloudless sky, her translucent hair trailing behind her on the light wind.

Star blushed as she paced up the path of the hill, holding a bouquet of foxglove and evening primrose. This scene was not what she’d envisioned several months ago before she had met Leer. In fact, it was quite the opposite, but in all ways it was better. Here she was, out in the open plains, with no fear and no worries from above. The man standing on the top of the hill shared her love for horses. He was everything she trained to be, an excellent rider with a bold sense of honor and a kind heart. In many ways, they were two halves of the same fruit, growing up in the outskirts to rise above their setbacks and make a difference in the world. Besides the obvious things in common, there was so much love it threatened to overwhelm both of them every day. Her heart swelled as her emotions ran unbidden. Star would remember this day for the rest of her life.

Behind her, Windracer snorted, bringing her thoughts back to the present. The crowd laughed and the solemn mood lightened.

“Shush, Windracer,” she whispered under her breath. “You’ll still be my age-old friend.”

She rounded the bend in the path and her gaze met Leer’s. He smiled his own crooked, half-twitching of the lips that could only mean he’d won in the end. She grinned warmly when she reached his side. Maybe he did win, but she won as well.