Page 42 of Shadow Wings
“I apologize, Ryn,” Kamoi said. “Yes, this is my father,Kaelan.”
“Nice to meet you.” I dipped my head and bobbed a little then did the same to the queen because she was theirleader.
The three Phaetyn observed me, and the silence stretched and became awkward. I shifted my gaze between the three royals, waiting for one of them to speak. Maybe I should’ve asked Dyter for etiquette lessons instead of the history ofGemond.
Kamoi broke the weird staring contest. “The Ash Tree showed Ryn visions, Mother. She was also able to grant Lord Irrik access through our barrier by resting a hand uponhim.”
“Tyrrik,” I corrected with an edge to my tone. “His name isTyrrik.”
Queen Alani’s gaze snapped from Kamoi to me, her eyes now bright and focused. She studied me, her expression hardening. “Indeed?” she asked, returning her attention toKamoi.
“Indeed,” he repeated with anod.
The queen shifted in the bed, asking, “What did the tree show you,child?”
Clearly they didn’t care about Tyrrik’s name. Or mine. I smiled at her, pushing my lips up in a meaningless motion as I replied, “I’m not achild.”
Dyter cleared his throat, but I ignored his unsubtle hint to mind mymanners.
“You are surely not older than two decades—” she said, her fists gripping thebedcovers.
“Eighteen.”
Her violet eyes flashed at my interruption, and she raised her chin. “Eighteen, you say? Then I was right: just a child. Here, we are considered children until seventy. My son has only recently entered adulthood at one hundred and fiftyyears.”
Kamoi was one hundred and fifty? He’d aged reallywell.
“I am only half Phaetyn,” I replied. “So, I repeat. I’m not achild.”
“That is what every child would say,” the queen said with a condescendingsmile.
I opened my mouth and Dyter took my hand, squeezing itgently.
“Good,” the queen said, observing my simmering silence. “Now, what did you see when you touched the AshTree?”
Right.She expected me to divulge my secrets after being that rude? “There is a river two miles west of here,” I replied, cocking a hip out. “That’s what the tree showedme.”
We held each other’s gaze, and I ignored the squeeze from Dyter, another hint for me to pull my headin.
She sunk into her pillows and closed her eyes. “I have upset you,” she said, stating the obvious. “Let me begin then by telling you why I am so weak. Perhaps then you will trust me with what yousaw.”
I didn’t answer, a creeping sensation filling me. I was beginning to realize entering this place might have been a terrible idea. I may have an enemy in a place I’d never expected to haveone.
“Phaetyn used to roam throughout the Draconian realm,” she began. “It is only in the last century we were forced to confine ourselves in the heart of our familial forest where we are strongest. When the Veraldian King and Emperor sought to destroy us, my sister, then the Queen of Phaetyn, erected an unbreakable protection around our home which fed off her ancestralpower.”
“Queen Luna,” I said. “She left thisplace.”
The temperature in the roomdropped.
“She did,” Kaelan, Kamoi’s father, said, stepping closer. “In answer to the emperor’s summons, and she took her ancestral power with her, leaving us vulnerable. The emperor forced her, as he had with other Phaetyn, to use her powers in experiments on Drae women he’d impregnated. Drae cannot reproduce unless it is with their mate, but the emperor wanted more Drae, and none of the women he’d forced himself upon would carry to term. He drained Luna’s power over the years in an attempt to keep the pregnancies viable, without success. He killed many of our kind in this way. Years later, we heard rumors Luna had died—drained of her powercompletely.”
My lips numbed as I guessed the rest. “She healed mymother?”
The queen shrugged. “I would assume so, given yournature.”
Dyter neared, but I shot him a look to let him know I was okay. I’d put some of the pieces together myself since learning the Emperor was my father. My mother had run from him to hide in Verald; it didn’t take a genius to piece together she hadn’t liked him. But, since learning I was Drae and Phaetyn, I’d wondered how such a thing had happened with two Drae for parents. If what the queen said was correct, I was only Phaetyn because of Luna’spower.
The emperor hadn’t wanted a child with both sets of powers, just another Drae. If I’d been there, if he’d known what he was doing, he would’ve gotten way more than he bargained for. I blinked several times, processing. Remembering what the elm tree showed me earlier, I realized some of their story wasn’t quite true. They’d made it sound like Luna chose to leave the forest for selfish reasons, but that’s not what the tree had toldme.