Elaris Ashwyn's Arc

Chapter 10 of 12

Elaris reached camp after dark. Ren sat awake by a new fire. She showed him the dried bloom the oracle had pressed into her hand, blood-red and older than any flower she knew. "They said my house didn't just fall," she told him. "Someone wanted the last princess forgotten. The answers wait east, past water." She turned the bloom in her fingers. "But it means nothing to me. I don't know what it is or where it points." Ren studied it. "Someone who remembers House Ashwyn would know." He said it plainly, and she understood. She knew only one man like that. At first light they went to the riverside market. Stalls crowded the water's edge, loud with merchants and gulls. Elaris kept her hood low. She found the old fishmonger at his usual place, gutting a silver fish with a worn knife. Garrick Finley had known her family. When he first saw her weeks ago, he'd spoken her true name and then swore to keep it. That silence was why she trusted him now. He looked up. His eyes moved from Elaris to Ren, then back. "Princess," he said, low, wiping his hands. "You shouldn't linger here." Elaris held out the bloom. "Do you know this flower?" Garrick went still. The knife slipped from his grip and clattered on the wet planks. He picked up the bloom carefully, as if it might burn him. "Where did you get this?" "An oracle. She said it points to why my house fell." He glanced around, then leaned close. "A Fireheart Bloom. They grow one place only. The mountain gardens of the old crown, far east across the great water. Your grandmother wore these at court." His voice dropped further. "Child, House Ashwyn didn't fall to war. Your own kin sold you out. The regent who claimed the throne wanted every heir dead. They burned the records. They burned the name. You weren't hidden by accident. Someone paid to make you disappear." Elaris gripped the stall's edge. "Who?" "That I won't say here." Garrick pressed the bloom back into her palm and closed her fingers over it. "But the gardens where these grow still stand. Reach them and you'll find the truth carved in stone. Cross the great water east. Ask no one else the way. Trust no face you don't already know." A merchant two stalls down turned toward them. Garrick straightened fast and raised his voice. "No, we've no eel today. Try the next row." He gave Elaris the smallest nod. She pulled Ren away through the crowd. Outside the market she stopped and opened her hand. The bloom was hers now, and it had a name and a place. "East, across the great water," she said. "He gave me a road." She looked at Ren, the one person who already knew who she was. "I'm not going alone this time. I want you with me. All the way." Ren nodded. "All the way."