Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
I rushed my gaze to my reflection in the water. Okay. No differences.
A bubble breached the surface, ripples spread out in sweeping circles. “Elowen?” I whispered, waiting, breath baited, furious with her all over again but also eager to see her. Except, she never appeared.
Disappointment set in. I straightened, asking Jasher, “What do you see?”
Another grin spread, this one the incarnation of carnality. “Well, well. You aren’t able to discern the alterations. Another interesting development.”
He turned from me and scaled a tree with ease, and chopped down a branch before jumping, landing on his feet, leaving me sputtering.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” he said then. “I’m sure you’ll discover the truth of your appearance… eventually.”
9
LOOKING BACK
What, exactly, had Elowen done to me?
As the executioner honed his branch into a spear, I settled beneath a lush, dewy tree, relinquishing the weight of the pack I still couldn’t open. The journal, at least, slid from the side pocket with ease.
I might not know what I had become, I could read, decipher my father’s writing, and figure out our next move. Maybe Jasher would forgive me. But probably not.
Cluck Cluck settled close to my leg, both a surprise and a delight.
Jasher found a thin, sharp branch and returned to the pond, quickly spearing a good-sized fish. He tossed it to the shore and hunted another, ignoring me.
Frustrating Tinman. Shoving him from my mind, I opened the journal and began to read.
My precious daughter,
I pressed my hand over my aching heart, swearing I heard Ahav’s voice in my head, even though I’d never actually heard his voice.
My search for the Ember of Everlight continues.
Excellent. We were starting exactly where I’d hoped.
A rumor has spread, claiming those in pursuit of the Ember will die in monstra fire. I’m unsure if this is true or a lie meant to dissuade us. If the Ember will do as legend claims and right every wrong, it is the most valuable treasure in the land. Other than you, of course. I will stop at nothing, pay anything, to find it.
Thankfully, I’ve made progress. While scouring the surviving journals written by King Morris, I uncovered crumbs. Small truths tucked between grand tales whispered through the generations, forgotten in the passage of time.
Though many of his pages are missing, and others have surrendered their ink to age, I can tell you Morris did not drive out the monstra with the Ember alone, as history tells. No, he had help from his first wife, a water maiden. Actually, the water maiden. Her name was Andrea.
So Ahav had heard about Andrea through his ancestor’s journals rather than Elowen. Why hadn’t she shared the information with him, aiding the royal family she professed to love?
Morris mentioned her only twice (that I’ve found) but the gentleness in his words betrays his rich, abiding love for her, and the anguish he experienced when she fell. Read what Morris himself had to say:
“My precious Andrea gave her life in battle, right there on our mountain, leaving me with the heartache of her loss. Now I must live without her warmth. Without her laughter. All while being tormented by the memory of her death. How she fell to save me. How the sparkle drained from her beautiful emerald eyes. The monstra crystalized and crumbled, yes, but though I placed her in the shells, she has not revived. And yet, the power of the Ember has not dulled. I feel its pulse.”
I paused before diving into Ahav’s thoughts regarding his ancestor’s words, absorbing. Morris had indeed loved Andrea. But what were these shells, and why had he expected them to revive her from death?
Morris’s words “on our mountain” caught my notice. In our time, hordes of monstra guard every mountain. Do they, too, sense the Ember and hope to keep us from it?
While I’ve searched each mount, despite the enemy’s invasion, the Ember eludes me still. I’m missing something, but I’m also drawing closer, the truth circling me like a hawk above a field, its eyes locked on a mouse.
I paused again, trying to untangle each revelation. According to Elowen, Andrea found the Ember, and she helped Morris defeat the monstra.
According to Morris himself, Andrea died in battle right before the monstra “crystallized and crumbled,” all because of the Ember, which had retained its power when she died.
Meaning, Elowen had probably told the truth. Andrea had found it and died using it.
Morris said she fell, but was she killed by monstra, or did she give her life to, say, fuel the Ember? He wasn’t clear on that point.
Perhaps Andrea had carried the Ember within herself, and that was why he’d believed he could revive her with those mysterious shells.
But where had he placed her body? Inside their mountain? The wording intrigued me as much as it had intrigued Ahav.
I opened my mouth to ask Jasher a question only to press my lips together. He sat before a small fire pit, roasting fish he’d already gutted and cleaned, glaring at me with malice…and longing.