Lyrien Nightwalker's Arc

Chapter 5 of 6

They rode hard until the cottage fell behind them. By dusk Lyrien brought Elara through his castle gates. Lord Thomas met them in the yard before the horse had stopped. Thomas was the friend who ran the court while Lyrien chased a girl the whole realm thought a fool's dream. He looked at the barefoot woman in the ragged white dress. He did not bow. He did not smile. "So this is her," Thomas said. "The one who cost us forty pretenders and half the court's patience." "This is Elara," Lyrien said. "She was stolen as a child. From a king and queen in another realm." Thomas kept his eyes on Elara. "Prove it." Elara lifted the gold necklace from her throat. The red stone caught the torchlight. "I wore this the day she took me," she said. "It is mine." Thomas took it. He turned it under the flame. His jaw tightened. "This is old work. Royal work. Not from any house I know." He handed it back. "A necklace proves she was taken. It does not tell us from where. There are a dozen realms with kings and lost daughters. I cannot send envoys to all of them." "Then how do we learn the truth?" Lyrien asked. Thomas did not answer at once. He looked at the far edge of the grounds, where an old temple stood swallowed in vines. "There is one place. The witch keeps a herb that pulls truth out of stone and blood. The leaf that shows what is hidden." They walked to the temple by torch. Inside, cracked walls held faint marks that glowed pale blue. Thomas laid the necklace on a flat stone. He crushed a bright purple-and-red leaf over it. The juice spread across the ruby. The glowing marks brightened. A shape rose in the stone's face. A crest. A crown split by two stars. Elara went still. "I have seen that," she said. "On a door. In a dream I thought I made up." Thomas stared at the crest. For the first time his voice lost its edge. "I know this mark. It is the sign of the Duskcrown line. Their realm fell to raiders twenty years ago. The king and queen survived. They never stopped searching for a stolen daughter." Lyrien turned to Elara. "We know who you are now. We know where to send word." But Thomas raised a hand. "There is more. That realm did not simply fall. The raiders who took her still hold its borders. If we send word that the heir lives, they will come for her before her parents can." Elara touched the necklace. "Then they already know I am gone," she said. "She sold my name with the stone." Lyrien understood. He had found her true realm. And in finding it, he had marked her for the men who wanted her dead.