Fallen Flame Read online

  I blinked away thoughts of the past and stared at the flower again. There were only two places they were located on the island, and I was willing to bet my life that no one would dare drink wine and hold trials in the queen’s private conservatory from where this one had been stolen. “Whether or not Prince’s Night is true, at least we have an idea of where to look.”

  TWO

  There were two routes to Sacred Lake. The first was faster—a more direct passage up one of the island’s highest peaks, part of the climb guarded by a steep crevasse field. The second was more passable—a rocky path that looped around the south then went north to follow the eastern cliffs, treacherous enough to have claimed many lives of those who had braved them. Either way was dangerous in its own right. Once considered the most spiritual place on Garlin, people trekked there to show respect and honor to their loved ones, often swimming in the hidden lake’s water. But years ago, when quakes had shaken the island, the paths had become more unsteady, the crevasses even deeper, halting the frequent visits. Most people stayed away, content to respect the lake for its connection to death and, if they held the beliefs from a past now only whispered about, not wanting to tempt any goddess into relieving them of life.

  I’d been to the lake’s cavernous entrance once. After learning of its spiritual connection on his sixteenth birthday, Caulden had thought the lake might communicate guidance from his father, King Wystin, who had died shortly after his birth. The Captain of the Guard found us and stopped our entry, then Queen Havilah forbade the prince from returning, thus me as well. She also ensured her order by noting the one thing that would steal all temptation: my affliction. Even though most people no longer traveled there, she said my condition would surely taint the holy place. That killed all thoughts of returning, even after Saireen’s death a year later. I hadn’t bothered to request the travel time to stand outside the entrance, where the mourning flowers grew in abundance, spilling like blood channeling from its wide maw. Even if I’d been tempted to break the rules for which I was bound, there was no hope in me helping guide Saireen to whichever goddess she had privately prayed.

  Haidee’s boots crunched along behind me in the darkness. “Going down into town to drink their fill at the taverns and hold trials along the docks at port would have been an easier choice.”

  I scowled at the harrowing path ahead, wishing it were daytime when shadows were less deceiving. “There’s always a chance they could have.”

  “Why not search those first?” Her voice was a little more than a huff, the tone dripping with age entitlement. In times like these, when there was no one else of authority around, I knew taking my orders was even more of a challenge for her. She was probably better suited for the prince’s lead Guard position. She was a stronger fighter in many ways, having trained for years before I could even lift a proper long sword. But I was the most feared, so I was given the post at an early age. It added to her animosity toward me, straining our working relationship further and placing more pressure on me and my eternal need for acceptance.

  The gaps in jagged stone teeth widened, forcing us a little farther apart to balance on the narrow climbing ledges. “Because Caulden is no fool,” I rasped, then ran across several spaced ledges as the path broke away under my foot. “If he’d been taken without consent, the room would have been wrecked and the flower possibly shredded with a fight.” I couldn’t consider any other alternatives. He had to be safe. He had to be.

  “We already covered that.” Her murmur all but disappeared into the depths of the fractured ground like the loose stones kicked under our feet.

  I rolled my eyes then looked toward the hazy starlight along horizon, noting our direction. “Yes. And since we know he went willingly the flower is our main clue.”

  “That was also pretty plain to see.”

  “Perhaps if you knew so much, you wouldn’t have asked such a foolish question,” I ground out. I’d tolerate a lot, but she was testing the limits. My nerves were already on edge, senses sharpened in the event something was actually astray. When she chose smartly not to respond, I leapt swiftly to a ledge on the next taller rock pillar, my sword hilt smacking the rock face before I climbed to the next ledge. “Whether Leint brought the flower or someone else, it was picked bravely from the queen’s conservatory, probably as an introductory test to see if Caulden knew where to go and if he’d back out.”

  “Hmm,” Haidee hummed, mulling my theory.

  “If he wanted most of this night undisturbed—and to stir my anger by having me thoroughly traipse the island—he would have taken the flower with him. Yet he left it. He wanted me to know he was safe, indirectly. I’m guessing his princely manhood would have been at risk of a good taunting had he stopped to write a letter to his Guard,” I said, hustling over a few closely grouped tiers.

  Haidee jumped to the place I’d been before then laughed through a labored breath, hugging the ledge.

  “He also dropped it in the wash basin, an added clue to the lake.” I jumped the last gap and looked onward over the even ground to the very end of the island, the eastern cliffs. The starlight coated the remaining path to the entrance in a soft, tolerable glow, highlighting the taller boulders and shadowing the sparse underbrush.

  Haidee took her last jump and hunched over for a pause beside me. “We should have taken the cliffside trail.”

  I walked on, checking for any movement after each crunch of stone and dirt beneath my boots. “It’s bad enough that the first half of this trail could have been on horseback had the captain’s quarters not been adjacent to the stables, but you’d be willing to risk an additional hour of the prince’s safety for your own?”

  “No,” she said flatly, snapping back into her detail. After a few silent moments, she asked, “What’s your plan?”

  With the ground now leaning into a gentle downward slope, the amount of land on the horizon disappeared, the ripping sea beyond growing larger as my dilemma grew closer. I would do what I could to save the prince if he were in danger, risk my life as I was called upon to do. But would people ignore my desecration if that was what it took to protect him? Mourning flowers greeted us along the trail shadows. Where most other vegetation ceased to grow in the dense, rocky terrain, their numbers spread like red and orange ground fire, with the fog hovering like smoke above them.

  “Observe the entrance,” I said, my tone low, barely heard over the sea crashing far below the cliffs and the Vitae River—a mere stream of peak runoff here at its beginning—trickling alongside us. “If there are any hints of a problem or we’re unable to see or hear him, you’ll go in.” Surrendering that responsibility pained me. Haidee was more than skillful. She could settle island brawls and any discontent easily. I trusted her to aid in the prince’s safety, but I wasn’t eager to let her handle it alone.

  The stream veered away from us, disappearing somewhere underground as it did, making the remainder of our trip silent with closed lips and every toe placed with care. The entrance curved in a low arc, like a drawn bow lying on end, and the mouth dipped into the soil, backtracking inward, away from the island’s edge. I leaned on a boulder and peeked around, seeing only a faint firelight flickering somewhere beyond the blackness. The distance was worrisome. If something went awry, would I have time to get to them, to him?

  After a few quiet moments, Haidee’s hand clapped on the leather at my shoulder. “With honor and courage, to protect Garlin,” she recited, then added, “I’ll report back quickly.”

  I nodded and watched her climb down the sloping walls of the cavern, her silhouette an eclipse to the light deep within. Her extra caution was not lost to me—only a couple tumbles of loose rocks indicated she was even inside. I sat on the boulder, swinging my legs around toward the entrance, and removed my gloves before tugging the stem of the closest flower, snapping it away from the grounded net of its sisters. Out of all the kinds of flowers on the island, it was the only one I’d never touched. During the journey, my skin had fully regenera
ted, stiff and coarse and ugly. The fresh petals folded over my bare hand, the contrast of textures stark, like silk on stone. I waited for the flower to wilt as all others had ever done, my skin burning the life within. But surprisingly there was no change. I studied it for a moment then removed my hood and mask to take in a full breath of salted air, pondering the heartiness of mourning flowers. My thoughts shifted back to Caulden and the time to come. Several hours of night stood before the dawn. If this outing was truly about a jovial Prince’s Night, Haidee and I would have to continue our distant watch until its end. That also meant the prince wouldn’t be alone in the challenge of wakefulness the following day. I imagined the chaos of the royals’ arrival to be horrid enough without having to watch with laden eyes. The high queen and princess’ introduction, the assessment of the prince. No matter what type of woman the princess was, she would fall for him. All did. I had hopes she wasn’t as wretched as the stories spoken of her mother. Stories that traveled the water, passing over the lips of sailors on trade ships. Had she really murdered her king as so many had claimed?

  A yell echoed out from the cavern. There was no playfulness mixed inside its tone, no hint of delighted pitches in its depths. Worry hit me, launching my body into movement on instinct. Time had stopped and then sped up again within a few harsh breaths. Whether loose or fixed, the rocks held steady enough to support my swift boots. Caution had disappeared, though, and had taken my silence with it. Every ear inside would know I was charging. There would be no surprise. Had I been stupid in not going from the start? Had I surrendered the prince’s fate because of rules, over my fear of tainting a once sacred place?

  Light spread as the cavern’s entrance widened, the fire’s flame calling to me in a hum louder than most others. I slowed as it all opened up. My focus skipped over the pit with flames twice the size of most men, climbing halfway up the arched wall of sparkling wet rocks spotted with red petals, and instantly locked onto Caulden’s body kneeling on a circular island in the center of a lake that stretched farther than the light dared to go. His bowed head pointed toward the vastness, draping his unbound, almost shoulder-length black hair forward over his face. His wrists were wrapped with twine behind his hunched back, and his ankles were crossed and tied too. Lanterns flickered all around him, illuminating the small island like an altar, possibly as it had been used years before. One narrow path led out from the water’s edge toward the island, not fully connected. And off the opposite wall, water spat from fissures of varied sizes, pouring down the rocks—the Vitae River feeding the lake.

  A tapping of rocks in quick succession snapped my eyes to the side of the cave where Haidee’s slim form blended into the jagged shadows.

  “Vala.” Leint’s voice drew my attention away from Haidee’s hidden position. He stepped out from around the massive fire, another new set of Guard leathers already taut from his ever-growing muscles. Having been on the prince’s detail for a few months, he’d seen me without the hood and mask and had already been through the range of typical reactions to my appearance. So the surprise that flashed inside his bright blue eyes tonight was simply in response to my presence. He remained assured in his powerful stance, not the least bit concerned about having broken his duty as a Guard or worried about the possible lashings that could slice the milky skin of his youthful back because of it.

  “Leint,” I replied calmly, watching him stop between me and the pathway to the island.

  Two of Caulden’s closest friends, Lords Josith and Rhen, were slower to join our exchange, staggering from around the fire, eyes large enough to show they shared his surprise. Their clumsy feet, however, didn’t share his assured stance. Both were sopping wet and clutched a bottle in their hands. Even more bottles glinted from strewn positions around the fire.

  Prince’s Night then.

  “Oh look, Torch has come to join the party. I thought Caulden said his pet wasn’t invited?” Josith asked in a slur then slugged Rhen in the arm. Rhen let out a wail that held the same tone as the one I’d heard in the cavern’s echo. Unaffected by his friend’s response, Josith tipped his head back so he could dump more mead down his gullet. Rhen opened his wailing mouth again, as if to speak this time, only to bend and retch at his own boots.

  I glared at them, hiding my internal cringe at the nickname. Years had passed since I’d heard it outright, but I knew it was still uttered by those who clung to the dominance highlighted by their status and their mindless past. Since I’d grown up alongside Caulden, I’d grown alongside them and a few others as well. Their families considered lords or ladies for their stately positions, either heads of maintaining Garlin’s farms, vineyards, or port trade businesses. I hadn’t exactly been permitted to interact with them in our youth. They had all visited the chateau for classes occasionally. Caulden even went to their places a few times a month, to be, as his mother had said, acquainted with his peers. I had no formal schooling, only Guard. But with access to some basic books from the chateau and an adopted mother who wasn’t as willing to let me drown in ignorance, I could argue my intellect matched the lords’.

  Despite all else, I’d had enough interactions with them through the years to know they didn’t share Caulden’s kindness. None of them had.

  Leint’s head tilted in question, waiting. He was a foreigner, who had traveled to Garlin two years prior from western Islain, but he didn’t even flinch at hearing the nickname, which told me he had heard it enough, possibly even among other Guards.

  I gritted my teeth, furious at the entire situation. The fact that Haidee hadn’t bothered to join my side might have infuriated me as well, but I was glad she was thinking correctly. It was wiser for her to remain hidden in any circumstance, friendly or not.

  “Untie the prince,” I said, walking closer to him and the island’s pathway. “We’ll discuss why you left your post after we get him back to his rooms.”

  “I can’t untie him. And clearly I didn’t leave him, so I didn’t actually leave my post.” His footsteps countered mine while Rhen’s and Josith’s moved them back toward the fire, an empty bottle clinking to the ground along the way.

  “There is no gray area. You know very well what you did and didn’t do.” I stared out toward Caulden, his body still despite the carrying noises within the cavern. Was he even conscious?

  “He’s here of his own volition. He wanted to partake in Prince’s Night just as the kings before him.” His large body stood its ground, refusing to back off.

  “The only thing you have going for you is that you were wise enough not to fully partake yourself,” I said, noting his coherence. An inch of the rocky shore separated the toe of my boots from the lake’s edge. While the beauty of the water’s clarity could be seen for the first few feet thanks to the fire’s light, the rest welcomed the darkness as easily as the night sky. I understood why people praised the place and wouldn’t want anything to risk its beauty or spiritual power. I’d never seen anything like it, even in some of the paintings in the chateau and illustrated books of the mainland.

  When Leint didn’t bother to respond again, I looked back at him with a hardened stare. “You will untie him.”

  “He was to untie himself after regaining consciousness for the last test. Surely, he can finish.” His stern expression remained facing the water, not facing me, a superior, as Guard regulations required.

  I swallowed the growl climbing my throat and calmly said, “He’s not conscious. There is no need for him to finish.” The fire hummed louder in my ears, flames licking closer beside me.

  “There is a need for him to finish. If you respect his wishes at all, you’ll leave,” he added, finally turning to look at me. His rusty-colored hair shifted with the movement, the short strands flickering as if it held its own firelight. Then his focused icy eyes peered into mine. “I don’t want to fight to give him this, but I will. Besides, I’m pretty sure you aren’t allowed to be here. You wouldn’t want anyone finding out you were, definitely not that you could have swum in th
e Sacred Lake. As of right now, no one else will have to know. Because this night is not about us. It’s about him.”

  He was challenging me, about my respect for Caulden, my respect for the Guard. About my integrity and my honor. “Everyone will know because I won’t keep the truth to myself.” No matter the repercussions. A new detail. A barred cell. Or would it be more? My utter obedience through my years on the Guard hadn’t yielded the punishments I’d seen others endure, so the consequences I’d face were a mystery.

  “Who needs to know? His mother? That’s precisely the point of this night. For him to prove to himself, show that he’s his own man, that he’s capable of leaving, capable of ruling one day.” Leint turned back toward the lake and shook his head. “He’s been sheltered here, by her, protected here, by you. He needed this, this crack in the egg that has been his life thus far.”

  His argument hit exactly as he’d intended, knowing how my life was for the prince—for his progression as well as his safety. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else, like another way to test me, my control.