“If I wanted to kill you,” Ezryn says so low I can barely make it out, “you’d be dead.”
Kairyn throws his helm back and laughs. “And there it is! My brother, at heart, a beast.”
At that, Ezryn steps into Kairyn’s path, stopping his incessant pacing. “What did you call me?”
“I am not afraid of beasts. Name me steward. Let me show you the true potential of Spring.”
“A deserving steward would not allow Spring steel to come into the hands of our enemy,” Ezryn growls.
Kairyn stills, then flashes a quick glance behind him at the acolytes. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. But I will continue to eliminate all threats to our resources. Name me steward and see Spring to glory!”
Rosie turns around and catches my gaze, her eyes frightened. “What happened at his coronation, Day?”
I suck in a breath. “Kairyn accused Ezryn of the murder of Isidora, and then invoked the Rite, challenging him for the throne.”
I’d thought in that moment Ezryn might hand it over. There had been such a sadness to him, a despair unlike anything I’d ever seen. “Ezryn seemed to consider just abdicating the throne to his brother, but Kel’s father, High Prince Erivor, told him Kairyn was unfit to wield the Blessing of Spring. So, Ezryn chose to fight.”
“Ezryn defeated him easily,” Marigold continues my story. “As is custom within the royal family, Ezryn had the right to unhelm Kairyn for his insolence.”
“Unhelm…” Rosie whispers.
“The most shameful and dishonorable punishment imaginable for a member of Spring’s royal family.” Eldy’s voice trembles as he speaks. “A fate worse than even death.”
“But Kairyn still wears his helmet,” Rosie says.
“Ezryn couldn’t do it, not even to the man who accused him of killing his own mother,” I say back. “So, he banished him to servitude at the monastery instead.”
Eldy nods. “A most merciful act.”
Rosie turns back to the translucent wall, lip quivering. “But if Kairyn challenges Ez to the Rite and wins—”
Before us, Ezryn turns his back to Kairyn and begins walking up the stairs to the throne. “You will never be my steward.”
Kairyn lets out a howl of rage. One of his acolytes leaps forward—the blue-eyed woman who spoke earlier. “Sire, don’t!”
He shoves her out of the way and screams: “I challenge you to the—”
Before he can finish the words, Ezryn turns and surges at his brother. In a feat of raw strength, he lifts Kairyn up and slams him on to his back. In the same fluid movement, he draws his sword, Windscythe, and holds it to Kairyn’s neck.
“Do not challenge me,” he growls, a voice more wolf than man. “Never challenge me again.”
Utter silence fills the throne room. In our small space, not one of us takes a breath.
Then Ezryn stands and sheathes his blade. Kairyn stays down. With staggering steps, Ezryn walks up the stairs to sit on the throne.
“You will return to the monastery and await my judgment for breaking your banishment. Until my father recovers, I shall remain in Spring.” He turns to the acolytes, then gestures to the fallen Kairyn. “If anyone has an issue with that, you can take it up with your High Cleric.”
Part Two
Enshrined Memories
19
Caspian
So. Much. Wind.
Does there truly need to be so much wind? I know we’re up on a mountain, and yes, it’s one of the highest peaks in all the Vale, and there’s nothing but the sky and stars and the Above, but I’ll never be able to get my hair untangled from the points of my ears.
Maybe I wouldn’t be as bothered if this damned monastery wasn’t so distastefully eerie. The art carved into the walls makes the Queen look dead-eyed and ghastly, and the presence of open-air windows everywhere—to be closer to the Above—means any torch is instantly snuffed out. Only the moon and stars light the chamber.
She would find this whole place garish, I think.
I sit on a narrow stone windowsill, one leg draping over the edge. The view below is at once awe-inspiring and vertigo-inducing. The rush of the river down the mountainside sparkles in the moonlight. Far in the distance, Florendel shimmers with twinkling lights of fires and glowspells.
Rosalina is there. She has no idea the danger they’ve put themselves in…
For better or worse, there’s no time to be alone with my thoughts. The mass of black fabric and shining armor before me gives another roar, slamming a hand against the stone wall. Kairyn’s breathing rages like a slumbering beast.