Promising Light (23 page)

Sashe paused, fiddling with her
fork. “Did Lisbeth want you to… try to get pregnant with
him?”

Grace nodded. “They wanted us to be
married,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

“Why him?”

Grace glanced around the room and
swallowed. What a paranoid gesture. She wished she didn’t have to
worry about who was listening, about keeping track of all of her
lies. Everyone knew a different story about her. “We had a short
relationship,” she told the sisters.

Sashe’s brow furrowed.
“When?”

Grace blushed as she answered,
“When he was courting Lady Rebekah.”

Sashe raised her eyebrows. “Really?
I’m impressed.”

“With me or with him?”

“Both,” Sashe said with a smile.
It faded a moment later. “How did they find out?”

“Lisbeth,” Grace said, shuddering
as she thought of the possibility of the old woman in the vineyard
with them. “We didn’t tell anyone about it. The Protectors had
someone spying on us, too, though. They found out, told the prince,
and sent someone to warn me.”

“It had to have been an Avialie or
a Cosa.”

Grace nodded. “They saw us when we
didn’t think anyone else was around.”

Sashe let out a sigh as she shook
her head. “That must have been before the kidnapping.”

“Yes, about two weeks earlier.
When Dar heard about it, he left.”

“Ah, that explains his
departure.”

Grace took a drink of her wine. If
only she and Dar could have stayed in that room in Belisha manor
forever. She shook her head and pushed the memory from her mind.
“Regardless, we’re over now. Even before he made the deal with the
Protectors, that was clear.”

Sashe frowned. “He’s just trying to
protect you.”

“Yes, everyone seems to think I’m
in need of protecting,” Grace said, her voice coming out sharper
than she’d intended.

“You do,” Sierra suddenly said.
“If you get involved with the Avialies, the Protectors will find
out and they’ll end it.”

“But I have a right to that
choice.”

Sierra pursed her lips, looking out
the window. Grace was about to press the point when Sashe said,
“She’s right.”

The two other women looked at her.
“Which one of us?” Sierra asked.

“Her,” Sashe said, pointing to
Grace. “She’s got a right to choose whether she wants to help the
Avialies or not, as unwise as it would be.”

“I didn’t say I was going to,”
Grace said. She tensed, thinking of the other inhabitants of the
castle. “I’m not.”

“And you should be free to choose
either way,” Sashe said.

Grace thought of what Dar said,
how Sashe was nearly killed. She wondered how she’d come to be at
the castle, how she went from an enemy of the Protectors to living
in the castle, where they advised the king.

“Just be careful,” Sashe said.
“Choosing to help the Avialies could end your life. And other
lives.”

Grace looked around the room again.
She had so many questions she wanted to ask them, but so many
people to fear if she was overheard.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Sashe said,
standing up. “Are you two finished?”

Grace nodded, smiling, as she got
to her feet.

A few minutes later, after the
sisters checked on Evan, Sashe led them to a back exit out of the
castle. They passed through corridors Grace had never been in and
soon exited the castle near the gate. “I love walking in the
gardens just outside the gate,” Sashe said. Grace and Sierra
followed her onto a gravel path.

The area outside the gate was more
forest than gardens, and soon the castle was out of sight, blocked
by trees around them. Being surrounded by trees and plants again
reminded Grace of the Avialie camp and of Nyad.

“This forest is safe,” Sashe said
quietly. She sat on an old iron bench along the path. “Well, to be
more specific, this bench is safe.” She motioned for them to sit,
and Grace sat in the middle of the two of them. “It has permanent
Cosa spells around it hiding any conversation spoken
here.”

“You’ve used it before?” Sierra
asked, smirking.

“Many times.” An identical smirk
mirror on Sashe’s face.

Grace hesitated, but she decided to
tell them about Angela.

“What?” Sashe said, grabbing
Grace’s arm. “You mean—you mean she showed you what Lisbeth saw?
You saw her vision?”

Grace nodded. “It was more a
collection of images.” She told them of the things she’d seen in
that cellar, and the sisters listened, their eyes wide. “But Dar
said she lied last time, about Sashe being pregnant?”

Sashe stared ahead of her, the look
on her face distant. “We were furious when we found
out.”

Grace fiddled with her dress. “Do
you think she lied to me?”

“Why wouldn’t she?” Sierra
scoffed.

“She wants to the end the curse,
Sierra, not make her life miserable,” Sashe said evenly.

Sierra threw her hands up. “But
they don’t make any sense! A birthmark, a waterfall, two women
holding hands, and suddenly Amina has a baby? And all those other
images just seem like nonsense.”

With a shrug, Grace said, “It seems
like little to put so much faith in.”

“But it’s what we read in Myra’s
journal,” Sashe said quietly. She looked at Grace. “When we found
out, we read the original account of the prophecy, and that was it.
I’d nearly forgotten… but why did she think it was you?”

“I have that birthmark on my
stomach. It’s almost identical to Sierra’s.”

Sashe stared at her for a moment,
then her gaze traveled to Sierra. “That’s fascinating.”

“It is…” Grace lowered her voice,
twisting her hands in her lap. “I wish there was a way to help
them.”

“Why do you care?” Sierra asked
sharply. “They kidnapped you and put you in danger.”

“I know, but the Protectors…
they’re wrong,” Grace said. It was a relief to say it after trying
to say all of the right words in front of her parents and the
prince, even if she didn’t believe them. “The Avialies were wrong,
too; at least some of them were, when they were spies and started
this all, and they shouldn’t have listened to Lisbeth’s prophecy
and used the two of you, or tried to use me. But they’re not
evil.”

“The Avialies have used their
magic for evil,” Sierra said.

“I know they have. But punishing
everyone for the actions of a few people? That’s not right. And
taking away the ability to have children… that’s wrong.”

“But why do you care? Is it about
being with Dar?” Sierra asked it with a bite, her lip curling in
disgust. Grace didn’t understand why, since he’d been like a
brother to her at one point.

“No, this has nothing to do with
him,” Grace said, raising her voice. It was about Vin and Amina and
all those people who gave her gifts, thinking she could—and
would—help them.

“Do you think… do you think it’s
more than a coincidence that you have identical birthmarks?” Sashe
asked.

“No,” Sierra said, “Lisbeth is
insane and everybody knows it, but the elders are too desperate to
care about the lives she’s ruining.”

“But there were two women in the
vision holding hands,” Sashe said.

“Don’t
do this,” Sierra said, leaning forward to see
Sashe past Grace.

“What if—”

“What if?” Sierra yelled. “They
killed Seth, they nearly killed you, they tortured Evan for two
years! You really think it’ll be worth it, going through that
again?”

“But what if it worked this time?”
Grace asked.

Sierra stood up. Sashe motioned for
her to sit back down, telling her the spell didn’t work unless you
were sitting.

“How many people have to die
before we get the point?” Sierra yelled. “The Protectors cursed the
Avialies, and they’re going to die out! There’s no stopping
it!”

She spun on her heel and left the
forest. Sashe stood as though she was going to go after her, but a
moment later, she sat back down and turned to Grace. “Evan woke up
last night,” she said quietly. “Not for long, just a few minutes…
he thinks there’s something in the ancient texts that can break the
curse.”

“The ancient texts?”

“Magic books from Avialies
centuries ago,” Sashe explained. “They’ve been lost for years.
Except Evan talked like he and Sierra knew there they were. They
had a fight. Sierra doesn’t want to do it, of course, but Evan…
he’s not himself anymore. I think as soon as he can walk on his
own, he’ll go looking for the texts.”

Biting the inside of her lip, Grace
looked down the path Sierra had gone. “He really thinks they could
break the curse? Why?”

Sashe shrugged. “I haven’t talked
to him much about it.”

Was Sierra right, that the first
time was enough to prove Lisbeth was wrong? This wasn’t even their
fight, really, but she felt a part of it. She felt some kind of
responsibility to the Avialies.

Sashe stood up, taking a deep
breath. “We should get back to the castle, she’s probably
lost.”

* * *

Sierra found the castle stifling.
Although it was huge, she couldn’t escape the suffocating feeling.
She felt like no matter where she might go, people were watching
her. A few times over the next three days, she’d go to the bench in
the forest by the castle just to sit.

When Evan began to regain his
strength, walking around tentatively, Sierra took him to the
bench.

“The sunlight is amazing,” Evan
said, tilting his head back.

Sierra took his hand, watching his
rapturous expression.

After a moment, his smile faded and
he said quietly, “We’re going to have to decide soon.”

She let out a sigh. “Decide
what?”

“I want to find the ancient
texts,” Evan said.

“Evan,” she groaned. “Not this
again.”

“I’m going to try to find them,”
Evan said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen… I’ve heard you and
Sashe talking. You stayed away from the Avialies for two years, so
I understand if… you don’t want to go.” He kept his eyes ahead of
him.

“Of course I don’t want to go.
They’ll kill us.”

“I’ll do anything to save my
family.”

Sierra pulled her hand away and
rubbed her forehead. “And what about me? I’m not your
family?”

“I told you you didn’t have to
go,” he said gruffly.

She watched him for a moment. His
cheekbones stuck out of his face, and his elbows were sharp points
in his sleeves. He was still pale, bruises still covered his body,
and just walking seemed painful for him. “You’re not strong
enough,” she said.

“I’ll wait a few days. I’ll regain
my strength.”

“You’ve been in a cell for two
years.”

“I wasn’t in the cell the whole
time, remember?” Evan asked, meeting her eyes.

She half-nodded. “I know.” She felt
like the distance between them was so great, that the two years
seemed like an eternity. She had to fight back tears. She took one
of his hands and let out a shaky breath. There weren’t any words,
really, to describe how much she wanted to change what had happened
to him, so she didn’t say anything.

They fell into silence. Sierra
unbraided her hair and ran her fingers through her locks, trying to
calm herself. He was leaving, that was certain. She didn’t think
she’d be able to stop him. “Why?” she asked. “Why do you have to do
this?”

“It’s the only hope. Listening to
Lisbeth was foolish, but the ancient texts have magic that could
save the shape changers.”

“Why do you think that?” She tried
to ask it softly, not accusingly.

Evan leaned forward, putting his
elbows on his knees. “It’s hard to explain, but I saw things when
the Protectors had me. Dreamed them. And I know you think I’m just
delusional or crazy because of the last two years, but I saw the
ancient texts. I saw you with them, and someone else, but I don’t
know who… a girl with blonde hair.”

Sierra studied him as she chewed on
her lip.

“And I saw the curse being broken.
I know it doesn’t make sense. I know you don’t believe
me.”

“I never said that.”

He looked sharply at her, then
away. She found it was hard for him to make and keep eye contact.
“Do you believe me, then?”

She paused. If he was trying to say
he’d had a vision… prophecy didn’t come to most Avialies until
their fifties. But he seemed so convinced, and Evan wasn’t one to
be taken up with mystical nonsense. “I don’t know.”

He took Sierra’s hands, turning
toward her, and looked at their enjoined hands. The Mahri manacle
was too big on his thin wrist. “The elders aren’t going to help the
Avialies. I have to do what I can for them.”

“Why can’t we just live?” Sierra
whispered. She leaned forward and rested her forehead against his.
She kissed his knuckles. “We can find a house, we can have a happy
life.” Happy wasn’t the right word—content, maybe.