Javaun Helios's Arc

Chapter 4 of 11

Javaun could not stay in the castle. His confession still burned in his ears. Velrithian held his secret now, and no lord would take Javaun's word against a lord's. He needed proof. He needed the real Princess Ilandra, alive, to speak the truth. He left through a side gate and walked into the forest west of the walls. The trees closed around him, gray and still. "I will never reach the Prince now," he said to no one. He pushed past a pine with needles the color of ash. Its trunk had a dark hollow at the base. He kicked a root and stopped. Maybe the truth was gone. Maybe he had ruined everything. A glow settled on his shoulder. He turned his head slowly. A butterfly rested there, its wings shimmering blue and pink, bright as a lantern. It lifted off and drifted between the trees. Javaun watched it. Then he followed. The fog thickened as he walked. Soon he could barely see his own hands. The glow ahead grew faint. His heart pounded. He wanted to turn back, but he had nothing to return to. He kept his eyes on that small light and pressed forward through the wet, cold mist. A shadow rose in the fog. It grew taller as he neared. Pale stone. A tower of cracked blocks, its top ringed with battlements. High up, a few barred windows glowed faint through the smog. The butterfly circled one window, then vanished into the mist. Javaun stared up. A pink cloth fluttered behind the bars. He knew that color. He cupped his hands. "Ilandra! Princess, is that you?" A face pressed to the bars. Dark skin, long brown braids, tangled now. "Who calls? Please, whoever you are—" Her voice cracked. "He locked me here. The dark elf wears my face at court." Relief and fear hit him at once. She was alive. "Cousin, it is Javaun. I know what he did. I came to find you." He circled the base and found a low door, barred with iron. He threw his shoulder against it. It held. He searched the ground, grabbed a fallen stone, and struck the bolt again and again until the wood split. The door swung open. Javaun climbed the dark stairs two at a time. He found her cell at the top, chained at the wrist to the wall. He wrenched the pin loose and freed her. Ilandra gripped his arms, shaking. "You have to get me to the crown," she said. "They think I sit at my mirror. They will believe me over him." "Yes." Javaun's chest lifted. He finally had his witness. "With you, his lie falls apart." Then a horn sounded far off, toward the castle. Ilandra went pale. "He knows. He always knows." Javaun pulled her toward the stairs. The real Princess was free, but Velrithian had already heard.