Princess Willowyn's Arc

Chapter 33 of 70

Willowyn knelt at the bed with her hands on the dying prince. The wound would not close. His fever burned under her palms. She reached deeper for water and found nothing left. Her arms shook. The prince's breath grew fainter. She had crossed an ocean and stopped a war, and now she would fail in one small room. Then light came through the tower window. The moon had risen. Willowyn had never felt it before, but she felt it now. It pulled at something in her chest, the way water pulled at her hands. She did not think. She reached for the moon the way she reached for a river. Light filled the room. Her hands began to glow. Pale silver ran up her wrists and spilled across the bed. The moonstones in her circlet burned white. The prince's fever broke under the light. His wound knit shut. His chest rose, deep and steady, and his eyes opened. Raven stepped back and shielded her eyes. She had trained Willowyn for a year. She had taught her water, only water. She knew every spell the girl could throw. She did not know this. "You never told me," Raven said. Her voice was clipped and sharp. "You command water. Not the moon." "I didn't know," Willowyn said. The glow faded from her hands. The minx pressed against her knee and stared up at the dimming light. The king and queen fell to their knees at the door. Both raised their hands against the brightness. The queen wept. The king reached for his son and found him breathing. The prince sat up slowly. He looked at Willowyn as if she had come from the moon itself. "You are not a healer," he said. "Healers do not shine." Willowyn did not answer. The light was gone, but she still felt the moon dragging at her blood. It had not emptied her the way the river did. It had filled her. That frightened her more. Raven crouched beside her and gripped her arm. "Look at me," she said. Willowyn looked. Raven's red eyes searched her face. "You should be flat on the floor. You held nothing back. You should be dead." She let go. "But you're not tired at all." It was true. Willowyn's arms no longer ached. The exhaustion was gone. She felt awake in a way she never had. The king rose. "I don’t know how to repay you," he said. "An elf who bends water and calls the moon to her aide, you are a fallen angel I swear it."