Page 106 of Born of Starlight
Another tower meant to protect, which instead imprisoned the one person Fenris held most dear, his only remaining family. Before he had fallen asleep, he told me stories about his sister, the fiery redheaded girl who loved nothing more than trying to keep up with her older brother. The youngest child—wild at heart and his father’s favorite.
When Elsie was born, Fen was already a century older than her. He had hurried home to help his mother since his father had been away on business with the Brennac King. Fenris had cared for Elsie for three long nights as his mother recovered.
I heard the faint sound of snoring ahead.
The first guard of the Keep was asleep on the steps—convenient. I whispered the sleep charm to deepen his slumber before snapping my fingers to cut off the lamp lights in the staircase.
It made sense now why fire always moved toward me—that part of Fenris had touched my heart just like the star.
“Wherever you are. Wherever you go.”
Panicked guards scampered down the steps to where the lamps had gone out. Their armor screeched, and one of them barked orders at the other.
I whispered the sleep charm again. Only when the two guards clambered to the steps in a snoozing heap of leather and metal did I snap for the lamps to relight.
Only three of them?
How Queen Sybilla had convinced Emmerick to station so few guards was beyond me.
Familiar purple and green vials stuck out from one of the guard’s belts. I plucked them out nimbly and pocketed the once-gifted remedies.
Catching sight of a key ring on the other guard’s belt, I unclasped it before approaching the door of the Keep’s tower.
It was not wise—what the Queen had asked me to do. But she knew as well as I did that it was a risk to leave Elsedora to the fate of a trial in her court. She could only hold her in the Keep so long before the families of those fallen last night would demand her head.
What would it do to Fen if she was found guilty?When he had seen Elsie, his eyes had lit like the thousands of candles of Belray’s summer celebrations.
My hands fumbled with the lock to the Keep’s door. The lamplight in the room was dim and dreary. A neatly made bed with plain pressed linens sat to the right, and a fireplace was lit with dull embers to the left.
“It’s Asterie.”
Elsie’s hands were bound—the chain attached to an iron pipe by the window. She didn’t look up when I crossed the room, but a sarcastic smirk crossed her face.So familiar.
“Come to punish me for trying to kill your precious Queen?”
“No,” I said flatly. “I have come to hear you out.” Elsie’s eyes tracked me with curiosity, but she only answered with a “hmph”of disbelief. “You lied to me. Why?”
“When I learned Fen was alive, I needed to see him myself. I needed to see if he was safe.”
“With me,” I added, and she nodded.
Elsie’s hands wrung together, but she showed no other sign of nervousness. “I didn’t trust that you were bringing him to Luz for any other reason than execution. Not after what Firose did to him—I couldn’t risk him.”
“You knew he was innocent then. How?”
Elsie’s jaw tightened. “I saw what happened that night in Phynx. I was just a girl—seventeen. I ran away to follow Fen, determined that I could help him somehow. He had been called there to create mines around the castle. Traps and safeguards against the Brennac attack…he was there to keep the city’s peoplesafe.
“Fen always saw the world in gray—even when the Phynnic began to condemn people like our parents. He wouldn’t let innocent people suffer for a war amongst their rulers. The way that history paints him is all wrong.”
Elsedora’s hands shook. “I know.”
Her shoulders dropped and she let out a breath. “Then you understand my fury.”
“I do,” I replied. Fenris would never have attacked the people of Phynx. It took me so long to admit that fact, one that should have been so obvious.
Elsedora’s shoulders slackened. “I wanted to be just like him. I snuck into Phynx that night after him. He found me and told me to go. But before I could run, the siege began. I was frightened to be captured by either side. So I followed him up to the roof and hid.”
Elsie’s eyes brimmed with tears.
