Nym's Arc

Chapter 18 of 41

Drasila sat up on the stone table. She was awake, but her hands shook. Nym reached to steady her, and her mother's grip was thin. Three hundred years behind that door had left Drasila weak. She needed rest. But the tower did not feel safe anymore. Magnus rose from his knees and crossed the room. He wrapped his arms around Drasila and held her. "You kept your promise," he said, his voice breaking. "You said you would come back." Drasila patted his shoulder. Then she pulled away and reached up to her hair. She smoothed the loose black strands and the white streak, twisted them, and pinned them into a tight bun. It was the way she had worn her hair long ago, when she was strong. She looked ready for a fight. "Mother, I have questions," Nym said. She sat forward. "Why did you leave me on the river? Who is my father? Why do I have the white light?" The words spilled out fast. She had carried them across the whole journey. Drasila opened her mouth. But Magnus stepped between them. "Not here. Not now." His silver hair swung as he shook his head. "You freed Zarool when you opened that door. He is healing. We do not know how long that takes. When he wakes, he will look for her." He pointed at Drasila. "And he will look for you." "Then tell me now, quickly," Nym said. "No." Magnus put a hand on her arm. "Answers take time. Time is the one thing we do not have. These walls held for three hundred years, but I felt the seal weaken when the twins came through. This tower is known. He will find it." He looked at Drasila. "You know I am right." Drasila stood. Her legs held, barely. She gripped the edge of the table. "He is right, Nym." Her pale blue eyes found her daughter's. "I will tell you everything. Every name, every reason. But not inside these stones. We leave first. We hide. Then you will have your answers." Nym wanted to argue. She had waited her whole life to hear this. But she saw the fear in Magnus's face, and she saw how her mother's hands trembled while her chin stayed high. Staying meant death for both of them. "Where do we go?" Nym asked. Magnus was already moving. He gathered his rune books and swept the small magic stones off the shelf into a cloth. "The stones show me a castle weeks ride from here just west but that’s too long of a journey I will send you through the stones." Nym slid her arm under Drasila's. Her mother leaned on her, warm and real at last. “Why this castle” Nym asks. Magnus answers “Something there can help you I do not know anything more”.