Crystal Crowned [ARC] (6 page)

“Do you think they’ll keep their word?” Aldrik whispered uncertainly the moment she was under his cloak once more.

“I do,” Vhalla affirmed with a nod. “The enemy of our enemy is our friend.” She paused, thinking over her next words. “And those friends may have more to give and teach us than we know.”

“If only that relationship hadn’t stared at sword point,” Aldrik mumbled.

Vhalla squeezed him lightly. “An Emperor for peace can focus on healing those wounds.”

“At the cost of the first fourteen years of my firstborn’s life.”

“Wards are not so uncommon,” she tried to soothe. “I left my home at eleven
.”

“Don’t pretend that this sits easily for you.”

She had no response to his bitter statement, so Vhalla simply pressed her cheek to his back and closed her eyes.

The forest continued to thin over the coming days. The snow began to melt and disappear until it was just cold, brown grass being crushed beneath the horses’ hooves. The weather warmed the farther they headed, north and the coastal breezes, unbroken by mountains, kept the ominous gray snow clouds in the south.

The first sight of the East nearly brought tears to Vhalla’s eyes. Hills rolled upon themselves like sails in the breeze. There was an earthy smell that lingered on the nose, rising up from the fertile ground.

They rode away from the road and tree coverage lessened. Should one of Victor’s patrols be in the area, they would stick out above the tall grasses. But there weren’t any further patrols. There weren’t many people at all, and that fact began to deeply worry Vhalla. The road was vacant of carts carrying winter harvests to market. Fields were empty. The first abandoned town they rode through made Vhalla realize the foolishness of her notion that Victor had only permeated the South. The man wanted to rule the world.

She chose to ignore the fear in the back of her mind, thoughts that gnawed on her more each day. She feared that Daniel’s family would not be where he had left them. It was not a far spiral for Vhalla to become worried about her own father. Aldrik sensed her concerns and broached them once while riding, but Vhalla didn’t want to speak of it. It was as though saying the words out loud would only increase their likelihood of being real.

Fate cast a small smile upon her. As they pushed on into the heart of the East, signs of Victor’s tyrannical hold began to lessen. The people had a certain edge to them that Vhalla wasn’t accustomed to seeing. But they still went about their days. They still tended to their fields, and the smell of baking bread hovered every time they passed a farmhouse.

Vhalla no longer hid under Aldrik’s cloak. Her amber-hued skin and nut-colored hair blended in with the shades of the East. She was fairer than most of her people, but that came from spending most of her time in libraries and not out in the fields.

The sights and sounds healed Daniel to the point that he actually took the lead. It helped when people began to recognize him. An old man stopped as he was going about his business. A woman called from a nearby field.

Daniel’s voice sounded stronger with every word he spoke, and Vhalla allowed herself a smile. If a random acquaintance could help him that much, she dared hope for what returning to his family could do.
Taking him home had been the right decision
, she assured herself.

“My home isn’t far now,” he informed the group. “I can go from here.”

“Well, if you insist.” Elecia shrugged.

Vhalla shot her a small glare of frustration. “We will take you there,” Vhalla insisted.

“I-I’ve cause you all enough trouble. Even on foot, it’ll only—”

“No, Daniel,” she interrupted gently. “We will see you to your door.”

All the empty towns and blood-stained homes appeared in her mind. The villagers had told them that they didn’t expect to see any of the guards returning. That the walking horrors had made it this deep into the East and informed the men and women of Victor’s decrees. Vhalla wasn’t going to let Daniel head into the unknown.
What if his family had been killed fighting in the memory of a son they believed dead?

The thought remained with Vhalla for the rest of the afternoon as she watched the houses and fields pass. Egmun’s words returned. She had been the key, something to be used, and he had known it from the second he knew what she was. Vhalla massaged her shoulder. Ten lifetimes would not be enough to fix everything for the world she had so wronged.

Daniel’s home was just outside of Paca, right where he said it would be. It betrayed no signs of turmoil; there was no hint of malice or foul play. Vhalla held her breath as the small home grew larger and larger until they were right upon it, close enough to hear the metallic clang of hearth tools.

He dismounted slowly, and Vhalla did the same, remaining a hesitant step behind him. None of them spoke. The peaceful hum of daily life and the soft clanking of stirrups filled the air. Daniel raised a hand to knock, and the wooden door swung open from within.

A middle-aged woman wearing an apron, flour up to her elbows, stared up at the soldier at her doorstep. The confusion on her face made Vhalla worry that perhaps in Daniel’s current mental state he had brought them to the wrong home. All her concerns were shattered when the woman let out a wail of shock, followed quickly by tears.

“Danny, my boy!” the woman cried, throwing her arms around Daniel’s shoulders.

“Danny boy?” an older man blubbered as he appeared, blinking at the travelers on his doorstep. As soon as his eyes fell on the two embracing family members, he reached out and took them in his arms.

“Ma, Pa,” Daniel let out in a voice that Vhalla had never heard from him before. “I-I deserted my post. I—”

“Shh, my darling child, quiet.” The woman stroked the hair of her son as he clung to her tightly.

“I-I k-killed—”

“Only the people he had to so that he could return home to you,” Vhalla interrupted.

Her interjection into the conversation broke the moment, and all three turned to look at her. Daniel rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, the one that was missing his gauntlet. Vhalla gave him an encouraging smile. The blood would never wash off his hands; she was all too familiar with that. But he could begin to put it behind him. He could let himself be home.

“Who are your friends?” his mother finally asked.

“They are . . .” Clearly uncertain at how to respond, Daniel wavered.

“My name is Vhalla Yarl,” she answered for him once more.

“Don’t use your real name!” Elecia hissed in disagreement.

“Fritznangle Charem, of the noble Charem clan!” Fritz announced cheerfully, pulling back his hood.

“Elecia, of the actual noble house Ci’Dan,” Elecia sighed in resignation.

“Jax,” the Western man spoke simply.

All eyes landed on Aldrik expectantly. With the smallest of sighs, he released his reins and reached up for the sides of his hood. His hair hung limply around his face, an equal mess to the grime that covered them all. But it didn’t matter. His commanding presence was never powered by his adornments, despite what Vhalla may have thought at one point or another. The very skin of the man before her was fire, he burned with something stronger than all his carefully cut clothes and imposing black armor.

“Emperor Aldrik Ci’Dan Solaris.”

“What?” The woman glanced among them at the odd proclamations. “Daniel, these people, surely you must know what’s happened at the capital.”

“I do.” Daniel jerked away from his mother’s touch. “I know very well what’s happened in the capital.” He sighed heavily, letting out the sharpness in his voice. “But I also know that they are who they say they are. And if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be alive.”

“Then, my lord,” the woman addressed Aldrik. “Thank you for returning my son home safely to us.”

“Do not thank me.” Aldrik motioned to Vhalla. “Thank my lady.”

Whatever gratitude the woman was heaping upon her was momentarily overshadowed as Vhalla stared up at Aldrik.
His lady
, those words, so publically spoken. They no longer hid their love for the other—they embraced it for all to see.

“Let us give you dinner, somewhere to stay for the night,” the woman offered.

“We can find arrangements in town,” Aldrik said definitively. “I would not want to put your family at further risk with our presence. But my thanks for your offer of hospitality.”

“Anything for the true Emperor.” The woman smiled, and it looked as though her face hadn’t worn that expression in far too long. “And the people who brought Daniel home to us.”

“Will you put an end to this nonsense about the Supreme King?” Daniel’s father asked.

“We will.” There was no hesitation about Aldrik.

“Vhalla . . .” Daniel turned to her.

She looked up at him and staring back was the tired shell of a man she once knew. Coming home had done him good, and the rough edges were already smoothing out around him. But he had been so horribly broken that Vhalla knew his mental shape would forever be altered.

Were it not for her, he would not be in this state. He would still be that man with whom she had sat on a rooftop at the Crossroads. A man who would have been hers if the stars constellated a different design for her heart.

“I’m sorry.” Vhalla struggled to find any volume to her words. “I’m sorry for what I have done.”

“Vhalla?” He was understandably confused.

“I know you don’t understand.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “And that’s okay, you don’t have to. But I want you to hear me and take my promise that I will fix this. I will put an end to the caverns once and for all.”

“I believe you.” With that simple agreement, he added fuel to her purpose. His belief in her was more than she deserved, and she would treasure it forever.

Vhalla hugged him gently, a creature that she knew would spook if she moved too quickly or held too tightly. “Stay safe, and be happy.”

Jax was waiting behind her when she released Daniel. Vhalla hadn’t even heard him dismount, and the man was still as a statue. The two Golden Guards, likely the last two living members, assessed each other.

“Soldier,” Jax took a long pause to gather both words and emotions. “You’re dismissed from your post.”

It was something Vhalla would’ve never thought to say, but the profound impact it had on Daniel was instantaneous. Tears glistened in his eyes, overflowing at the corners. He reached for Jax, and the two men embraced.

“Baldair would want you to know that.” Jax rested a palm on the top of his head. “You have been honorably dismissed from the guard.”

Jax drew his hood as soon as he broke away from Daniel. They all did as they rode out and away from Daniel’s home. Elecia and Fritz talked lightly between themselves, the distance from the South finally beginning to lighten the mood between them all. But one of them still had a dark cloud hanging over his head. Jax kept his head down, and his hood drawn tightly around his face, all the way into Paca.

The small Eastern town was just as Vhalla remembered it. A worn town hall was the largest building, a small stage for announcements and elections at its front. It was also where the band would play during the Festival of the Sun. She paused, smiling fondly.

“Is this your home town, Vhal?” Fritz stopped as well.

“No.” She shook her head. “But my family would often come here to trade in the market or for important events. Leoul is even smaller than this, not much there.”

“How far is your home from here?”

Vhalla hummed in thought. “Perhaps a day’s ride northwest?”

“Not in the direction we’re headed then,” Fritz sighed on her behalf.

“No, it’s not.” Vhalla couldn’t keep the wistful longing out of her voice.

“We should go,” Aldrik said definitively.

“To Leoul?”

“To your home,” he clarified.

“But it’s a day’s ride out of the way, and we’re in a hurry,” Vhalla protested weakly.

“I think we should go as well.” Elecia was the last person Vhalla expected to voice her support. She elaborated at Vhalla’s inquisitive stare, “Family is incredibly important. I would want to make sure my father was safe.”

“We will stay here for the night, get a good night’s sleep, and ride to your home tomorrow.”

The Emperor had spoken, and a weird mess of contradictions waged war in Vhalla’s chest. She was excited to go home. She missed her father desperately after all that had happened. But she was terrified of what she may find. Her origins were no secret. What if Victor had sent a monster out for her father? And even if her father was safe, what if he wanted nothing to do with her? So much had changed since she was last home.
Would he be proud of the woman she had become?

Luckily, Vhalla knew the route to the inn well enough that she didn’t have to dedicate much of her cluttered mind to it. There wasn’t any risk of the inn being filled, given the circumstances of the world, so they didn’t have to fight for stables. An old man, bald at the top and white on the sides, was asleep on the counter.

“Geral?” Vhalla blinked at how little had changed. Between her speaking and the door closing behind Fritz, the portly man stirred, adjusting his suspenders.

“W-welcome!” He coughed away the sleep that was stuck in his throat. “Not many travelers these days! How can I help you?”

“Geral, is it really you?”

“Well, I don’t know who else I’d be,” he chuckled. “And who is really you, miss?”

Vhalla lowered her hood, and he stared at her face blankly. She knew her hair was a mess and she was caked in dirt. Crossing the gap to let him get a better look, Vhalla rested her hands on the countertop that she had been barely tall enough to see over the last time she’d touched it. Geral squinted at her from the other side.

“I . . .” Disappointment hit her harder than she expected when he was unable to place her. “I was just a girl the last time I was here. It makes sense you don’t remember me. I would always come with my mother and father for the Festival of the Sun and . . .” She daydreamed away for a long moment. “Sorry, we’ll need a room for the night.”

“Two,” Aldrik corrected.

“Three silver.” The man turned to fetch keys that hung on hooks behind the desk as Aldrik placed the money on the counter.