The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) (11 page)

“I’m going back,” he said quietly,
without turning from the window.

An alarm went off inside my brain.
I didn’t know what he meant, but I didn’t like the sound of it. “What do you
mean?”

“To Seraph’s Tear,” he said,
turning to face me. “That’s what I was going to tell you the other night. I
never meant to settle here. I’m leaving, Em.”

It felt as though something cold
and slippery had edged its way through my insides and wrapped around my lungs.
My legs quaked as I stood up and shoved the chair out from beneath me. “What?
But…why?”

Lev crossed slowly over to me. He
took both my hands in his. “There is something I have to do there. That place—”
he looked around the room “—
this
place was my people’s past. I believe
it can be my future.”

No matter what limits I had put on
our relationship, I always thought Lev would stay close. Seraph’s Tear was on
another continent. The sudden thought of having an ocean between us stung more
than I ever could have imagined. “You can’t!” I said. “It’s cursed!”

“There has to be some way to lift
the curse,” Lev said. “I’ll search the world until I find it.”

The wave of panic was cresting now,
threatening to drag me under and crush me against all the feelings I’d never
acknowledged. My eyes started to sting. “What, you think you can redeem your
whole race by fixing Seraph’s Tear or something? Don’t be stupid!”

Lev looked calm but his voice was
noticeably thicker when he replied. “I’m not going to go through all the
reasons. It’s just something I have to do and it means leaving Ivywild,
probably forever.”

I had reached the breaking point. A
couple of tears broke the surface and ran down to my chin. Unable to talk, I
simply stared at the floor.

Lev lifted my chin and wiped away the
tears. He could be surprisingly gentle without much effort. “Just because I’m
leaving Ivywild doesn’t mean I’ll never see you again.”

A single, shining thought cleared
my head. “I could go with you!”

The sadness that dimmed Lev’s eyes
was a clear answer. “No. You can’t. The curse would make you sick.”

“What if you lift the curse?” I
asked.

“Time will tell,” Lev said. “I
would never make you leave Ivywild. It’s your home. They need you here. Chloe
needs you more than you know. When she becomes queen she’ll need somebody
trustworthy at her side. There are few people left here who can be trusted.”

His cryptic warning took me by
surprise. “What do you mean? What about W.R.A.I.T.H? Aren’t they doing anything
to help?”

“W.R.A.I.T.H. seeks to serve its
own means at the expense of others. It is nothing against them; that’s just the
way Fay have always done things.”

“But you’ve been working with them,
haven’t you?” I asked.

“A means to an end,” Lev said.
“That end is near. I’ll go my own way.”

The realization that he was leaving
overcame me again. I couldn’t wrap my mind around an existence where he wasn’t
there to be my confidant, my partner in crime, or any of the other things we’d
become to each other. “I don’t want you to go.”

“But what would you do if I
stayed?” Lev asked.

I didn’t have an answer. The ache I
felt at the thought of him leaving had turned all my future plans upside down.

“You would become a priestess,” he
said, leaning down until his chin rested against my forehead. “You would excel
in magic and become advisor to the queen. You would help keep Ivywild safe. You
would teach the next generation how to be as strong and smart as you. Meanwhile,
I would sulk around here and be of no use to anybody.”

“But—” I tried to argue.

“—But,” he continued, “If I go, you
can still do all those things and I can make a difference in our world. I was
all but dead when you found me at Moonlight Pass. I’ve been given a second
chance. I can’t waste it.”

There was nothing I could say. He had
been like my shadow ever since I’d met him. If he was gone it would be just as
strange as having my real shadow taken away. I would always know that something
was missing.

“So this is goodbye,” I said when I
trusted my voice again.

“Almost,” Lev said. “I have a few
more preparations to make.”

“How will you get there?” I asked.

“I’ve got a ride,” he said. “A
ship. I found somebody who would give me passage.”

“From the royal harbor?” I asked.
Ivywild’s own port was used exclusively for royal ships.

“No, from a private port further
down the shore,” he said.

That explained the sand I’d found
in his clothes. He must have been searching for an outbound vessel. That made
it all too real. I took a few deep breaths to hold back a second round of tears.
“Do you think there are any other Slaugh out there?” I asked.

“I think so,” he said, looking
away.

“But there won’t be any more in
Ivywild once you’re gone,” I said. “I was kind of starting to like your crude Slaugh
ways.”

Lev touched the tip of his nose to
mine. “I’m not gone yet. I’ll be as crude as you want until I leave.”

With a halfhearted laugh, I rested
my head against his chest. “Just be you,” I said. “That’s all I ever want you
to be.”

His wings drew up to encircle us
both and he embraced me. It was closer than we’d ever been, but I sensed deep
down inside that he was holding something back. It was easy enough to ignore
that little voice when I could feel his heart beating against my cheek.

Then he kissed me. Unlike the times
before, it wasn’t a quick moment stolen from the whirlwind of the day, but rather
a collision that lasted forever and send ripples far and wide. Every cell of me
lit up and I felt something inside like one of my beasts, struggling to break
free. For just a moment it seemed as though Lev and I were the only two people
in the world.

I could never have guessed how our
world was about to change forever.

It started with the bells. I had
heard the chimes before in the time of the Cian Varsha, but now they carried a
long, low note that pierced the dark of the early morning hours over Ivywild
like a howl of sorrow.

I awoke in the black chill to the
sound. It didn’t register at first. With a yawn, I rolled over in the hammock nestled
up against Lev’s shoulder.

“He’s gone,” Lev said.

I sat up. Lev was wide awake,
staring at the ceiling. The bell kept clanging and, coming fully alert, I knew
why it rang.

The king was dead.

My first thought was of Chloe. I
stumbled out of the hammock and felt around for my boots. I heard Lev rustling
around beside me. A candle sputtered to life, creating a halo of yellow light.
Lev remained in the shadows while I pulled on my boots.

“Belt,” he said, leaning into the
flickering circle.

I stood up and took my belt from
him, but didn’t bother putting it on right away. Weapons hardly seemed
necessary at the moment. “Chloe and Violet…” I murmured.

Lev nodded. “Go to them.”

I was on my way out the door, but
paused. Lev stood in the candlelight, not moving. “What about you?” I asked.

“I’ll come find you later. Give my
condolences to the family. King Theobald wasn’t an easy man to like, but I
respected him.”

A shudder ripped through me. “I
hate talking about people in past tense.”

He must have sensed a breakdown
coming on because he was beside me in an instant with his hands on my
shoulders. “Be strong, Em. Be strong for Chloe. She needs you.”

I pushed down a sob. “Yes. Okay. I
can do that.”

“I know you can.” He kissed me on
the forehead.

When I left his room I heard
stirrings in the castle above. People were coming awake to mourn the king. Meanwhile
the bells still clanged the doleful announcement.

I smoothed my hair and straightened
my clothes while I walked. I had just buckled my belt when I noticed the red
dagger was missing from its scabbard. I couldn’t remember removing it the night
before. It must have fallen out in Lev’s room.

It was so dark that I was sure I’d
just missed it. I could look for it again later. Chloe needed me.

White-clad figures with heads hung
low drifted through the castle like ghosts. I pushed through the grieving
servants and nobles. A red glow came from the king’s chambers where shades had
been placed over the lanterns. Inside I glimpsed Queen Othella, white as a
sheet in her wheelchair. Violet stood beside her, sobbing into a handkerchief.
Lord Finbarr and Chloe were at the king’s bedside. Lord Finbarr’s usually
cheerful lips were so far from a smile that they seemed to belong to somebody
else.

Chloe was quieter than I expected.
She stood over the lifeless figure in the bed. There was no mistaking the
evidence of tears on her cheeks, but her eyes shone with something besides grief.

I made my way to her. If anybody
noticed me they didn’t care. I tried hard to keep from staring at the figure in
the bed. King Theobald’s waxen face looked like a mask. He was gone. Whatever
spark that had thrived in him had vanished, leaving behind a shell that could
never do justice to the memory of the man.

Chloe’s hand slipped into mine. “He
remembered me,” she whispered. “Just before he went, he looked me right in the
eyes and called me
daughter
.”

Now I understood the new strength
shining in Chloe’s eyes. She had finally gotten the goodbye she wished for.

A haggard looking Commander Larue
appeared in the doorway. With a pang of guilt I realized I’d missed my meeting
with him the previous night. He didn’t notice me. He was clearly distracted by
something else.

Lord Finbarr made a quiet exit and
slipped out to meet the commander. I watched curiously as Commander Larue knelt
down to whisper something in the shorter man’s ear. Lord Finbarr’s expression
grew dark. He hurried over to Chloe and Othella.

“We have a problem.”

 “
Now
?” Chloe said
incredulously. “Can’t it wait?”

“I’m afraid it must be dealt with
sooner rather than later. We’ve just had a message from one of our supply
ships. The captain sent word ahead that they’ve spotted the Duke of Briar’s
fleet eastbound on a course for Ivywild.”

Othella gasped. “That can’t be.”

“He is disobeying my orders!” Chloe
said loudly enough that a few of the mourners out in the hall looked up. “I
told him that if he stepped a foot out of Larlaith, we’d consider it a
provocation.”

“He no longer recognizes your
authority,” Lord Finbarr said. “Our position is vulnerable until you are
formally crowned.”

“This is preposterous!” Othella
said. She looked sadly at her dead husband. “The grounds of Mag Mell have yet
to close over him. What will our people think?”

“The duke is forcing our hand,”
Lord Finbarr said. “If we rush to make Chloe our sovereign, she will appear
heartless. If we wait until after his burial, we will leave an opening for the
duke to step in and claim the throne.”

I spoke up for the first time. “How
can he do that? He’s not royalty.”

“It depends on how far you go back
into the bloodlines,” Lord Finbarr said. “He’s kin to King Theobald’s maternal
family. It’s why he still holds a title. He has made it known far and wide that
he doesn’t want the rule of Faylinn to fall to a bunch of ‘womenfolk’—his
words, not mine.”

Chloe, Violet and Othella frowned
in unison. The thread of defiance that they shared was clear to anyone standing
nearby.

“I am not going to be pushed to do
anything,” Chloe said. “We will have the funeral and then the formal coronation.
Afterwards you and the other emissaries will depart for the outlands like we
planned. I can handle things here at home.”

“What of the duke?” Violet asked.

“Let him come,” Chloe said, lifting
her chin. “I won’t be bullied.”

I was proud of Chloe for showing
such confidence, but I couldn’t help but feel nervous at the same time. She
didn’t know how the commoners really felt about her. There was no telling how
their opinions would sway with the king gone.

It was a long, dark day. The hours
melted into each other and yet they seemed endless. Everything was carried out
as if in slow motion. The funeral had to be planned. The body had to be moved.
The royal family stayed behind closed doors while all the delicate details were
worked out. Meanwhile I tried to be helpful while staying out of the way. It
was hard. I felt useless. I knew I should mourn the king, and I did shed a few
tears but they were not for him. I kept thinking about Lev leaving. I caught
myself looking for a glimpse of black among the white-clad mourners or
listening for the flutter of wings, but he was nowhere to be seen.

All the purple castle banners were
switched out with white ones. The normal sounds of life at Ivywild were
muffled. No children ran through the streets. No vendors were in the market.
All the Dryads and the Pixies talked in low voices as they tended their
business throughout the castle.

“I had hoped I’d be much older when
this happened,” Garland said over the meager lunch we shared Chloe’s empty
dining parlor. “Father is wearing a brave face, but he is crushed. I’m sure he
thinks this is his fault.”

Lord Finbarr had not been out of
the king’s chambers all day.

“It’s not his fault,” I said. “He
must understand that. The king knew what he was doing when he saved your dad’s
life.”

“Did he?” Garland said. He propped
his chin on one hand and stared distantly through his foggy glasses. “A king’s
life to save a noble? Any historian will tell you that’s rubbish.”

“Anyone who’s ever had a true
friend will tell you it makes perfect sense,” I said. “Your dad was the only
one who stayed behind with the king when the poison rains came. That takes
amazing loyalty. Isn’t that worth saving? Besides, your mother already gave up
her life for Ivywild. King Theobald wouldn’t have been able to live with
himself if we lost Lord Finbarr, too.”