The thought is enough to send me over the edge. My cry echoes off the walls as I spill into my palm, collapsing to the ground as the pleasure of it courses through me. My lashes flutter closed, and I allow myself one moment to revel in this bliss.
Well, did you feel that, lovers?
37
Ezryn
My brother’s footsteps thud in the cool stairway as we descend into the bowels of Keep Hammergarden. The sporadic torches along the walls are the only light in this place.
I want to show you something. He’d found me in the throne room this afternoon and said those words to me. For a second, I almost heard them in his small, boyish voice, the one he had when we were but children running about the mountains on our own until returning to the keep covered in dirt. Back then, he’d wanted to show me colorful frogs or crickets. How many times had I dismissed him? Now, I follow behind.
“During my servitude at the monastery, there was much time for contemplation. I dreamt of Florendel, of how we could restore peace and stability to our realm,” Kairyn says, his voice echoing off the cloistered walls.
My brother, the visionary. He has not changed in that regard. “What did these dreams entail?”
We’re taking the underground path only accessible from the keep by the hatch in the secret room behind the throne. Only the royal family and our most trusted staff know about it.
Kairyn stops before the metal doors that lead into the caves within the mountains. “Follow me.”
He yanks open the door and gestures me into the massive cave beyond. It’s lit by a large opening in the mountainside, where dusky light streams in. My breath catches as I stumble, looking up. “Kai, you made this?”
“Designed it. With help from a team. Engineers, artists, forgers. Do you want to see inside?”
A laugh erupts from my throat. “Of course I do.”
Stationed inside the cave is a vessel unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
It is a ship cast in dark wood, the sharp, pointed features giving it an ominous elegance. Atop its prow stands a mythical drake figurehead, its jagged teeth jutting forth in an eternal battle cry.
The smoky black sails unfurl from the towering masts, resembling the outstretched wings of a gargantuan bat, as if the vessel itself were a creature of the night.
Kairyn nearly runs forward, and I follow him, eyes fixed on the creation before me. “An airship. Kai, how did you manage it?”
“That’s just it. I fixed the monastery, and then it was time to turn my attention to Spring. We used to be inventors, great forgers and steelworkers. What creations have come from Spring in the last century? Nothing. But this … This will change everything. Travel to other realms, moving resources, transporting armies—”
“Well, hopefully we won’t need any of those soon.” I clap my brother on his back. “It’s magnificent.”
Maybe I’m imagining it, but Kairyn seems to grow an inch taller, pride shimmering off him like heat from the sun. “I’ll take you aboard.”
“Perfect—” My gaze shifts to the opening in the cave, to the orange sun dripping down over the horizon. “Actually, can we do it tomorrow? I have somewhere I need to be.”
Kairyn follows my gaze to the fading light. “Of course. Tomorrow then.”
He escorts me back up the stairs, and we part ways with a handshake.
I never knew Kairyn had the ability to design such an invention, let alone see it through to fruition. My mind reels with all the possibilities. Perhaps we could load it with supplies and take it to Autumn to assist any villages that were damaged during the frost, or even use it to visit Kel in the— “Where have you been?” A voice cuts through my thoughts as I turn the corner toward my chambers.
Dayton leans on the wall outside my door, arms crossed and a scowl on his face.
I walk past him, opening the door and going inside. He follows me. “I was attending to matters with my brother.”
“That’s who I came to talk to you about.” Anger laces Dayton’s voice. He runs to get ahead of me, blue eyes shining. “You absolved his banishment? Are you mad?”
“It is my right to decide when Kairyn has atoned for his crime. I would have him here at the keep with me.”
“It sounds more like you let him decide when he was done. You know as well as I do that Kairyn’s stability hangs by a thread on a good day.”
I shove Dayton out of my way and walk to the window, staring out at my keep. “He’s not the same person he was.”
Dayton doesn’t understand. His oldest brother, Damocles, cherished and mentored him. The two of them were inseparable. But I never gave Kairyn so much as a kind word. The Summer Prince rushes after me, grabbing my shoulder. “What about the missing Spring steel?”