Page 8 of Between Wrath and Mercy

I gaped at him.

“Theo?” His voice was the only thing familiar which registered. He closed his eyes and nodded. “What are you talking about? Who took who?” The panic started to rise. I knew what he was trying to tell me.

“Elora. They took Elora.”

Afterplacingmyhandson Theo’s face for a little while, the swelling had gone down a bit, and I was able to get him comfortable enough to begin talking. His dark blonde hair was slicked back with blood, and I was so glad he was alright. While I healed him, I told him about the men. Their deaths seemed to bring him relief.

He said they had stopped for lunch, almost a full day from Mira when they’d been taken. A dozen men galloped up to them, coming north up the Mirastos Path. They’d thrown Elora onto a horse, and the man who seemed to be in charge climbed up behind her. Faxon had run to Elora while Theo attacked the men.

“I tried to stop them, I—I did everything I could. They hit me, and I… I fell.”

“It’s alright, Theo.” He was crying.

“When I woke up, they…they told me to bring them here. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want them to hurt you, Emma.”

“They didn’t. It’s alright, I’m fine.”

“They said they’d find Mama. I… I’m sorry.”

“Theo, stop apologizing. Did they say anything? Anything about where they were taking them? Do you know how many days it’s been? Did they take Faxon, too?”

I sank back on the ground next to Theo.

“I didn’t see what happened to Faxon, but I think they took him, too. Before I—I heard him yelling at the men, and he had his sword out, but I don’t know what happened next. I don’t know how many days. They said something about a ship. The younger one, he said he’d never been on one, and he was sore to be missing out.”

Did that mean they were taking them to a ship? Where were they going? Who were they? Folterrans? It had to be. How could they have known about Elora? Father was always careful with the information he shared. He rarely visited anyone or had visitors. None of the servants knew where we lived, but it wouldn’t have been exactly difficult to find where we were. All they’d have had to do would be follow him to our meeting spot, then follow me home. But we trusted them.

“Emma, who would take her? Why would they be putting her on a ship?” I shook my head, hoping it was enough to stop his questions. I didn’t have the energy, and he probably wouldn’t believe me anyway.

“Is there anything else you can remember about these men? Did they have an accent? Were they conduits?” I pleaded. Maybe these were Vestian renegades who had no idea what they had in their possession. Theo shook his head. The poor boy. He’d been through a lot, and I was not exactly being delicate with him.

“The…the man in charge said something I didn’t understand. He said ‘the best part is the Bloody Prince has no idea she even exists.’”

I stilled. They knew. They knew what she was. I’d heard that phrase in recent years. The Bloody Prince was what the Folterrans called Crown Prince Rainier.

Isprangintoaction.Bringing Theo inside, I set him up in the armchair and started a fire in the hearth. Sprinting up the stairs and flinging my robe off in the hallway, I gathered clothes and dressed in a hurry. I dragged a brush through my hair, not bothering to take the time to wet and braid it. Catching a glimpse in the mirror, I reminded myself of the images of Rhia, the Goddess of Fertility. She was always depicted with her long black hair floating out around her face, caught on an invisible breeze.

Grabbing the spare clothes where I’d tossed them on my bed, I put them in a pack and ran out of my room, thundering down the stairs. I grabbed my boots by the front door and carried them to the other chair near Theo.

“Stay. Rest. Eat. Please look after the horses. Take care of your mama and your brother.”

“Emma, I want to come with you. Please.”

“Theo, you’ll only slow me down. Please just do what I ask and get better. Thank you for coming back to me. I’m sorry for what happened.” I finished lacing my boots and stood.

“I came back ‘cause I’m a coward. I should’ve let them kill me.”

“Well, then I really would have been mad.” I tried to smile at him. I reached down and ruffled his hair. If he hadn’t had a growth spurt recently, he’d still have the chubby cheeks of adolescence. But he was becoming a man. He had tried to protect Elora, and I was grateful for him.

“You are not a coward. Oh, and please get this to Mairin.” I found a scrap of paper and wrote a hurried note, asking her to help Theo handle everything and explaining what had happened. I grabbed a few more supplies from the kitchen and headed out to the stables.

Panic was threatening to bubble up in my chest. Ever since Theo told me Elora was taken, I’d been in a daze. I gathered my clothes and took care of the last few things around the house in a state of shock, successfully keeping the terror at bay. I climbed my mare, and we took off. It drizzled off and on the entire ride. Any other time, I’d have been freezing, but terror and anger warmed me. As the forest whipped past me, I did my best to fight off intrusive thoughts. If they wanted her dead like they had Lucia, she already would be. They wouldn’t have taken her. She was still alive. She had to be. A part of me felt like I’d know if she weren’t. The world would stop spinning, the trees and grass would turn to ash, and life would have shifted. I wouldn’t allow myself to think of any possibility where my daughter was not alive.

I couldn’t stop thinking about what Theo had told me. They were pleased the Bloody Prince—Rain—didn’t know she existed. Did they plan to use her as a weapon against him? From what I knew, the prince had been busy at the fort on Folterran lands or busy on Varmeer. I’d thought after his initial brutalization of the land and their army, relations with the Folterrans had been tense but peaceful. I did wonder why Rainier took the defense of the island as his personal mission and wouldn’t assign it to one of the Vestian generals. It kept him away from Vesta most of the time, a fact which surely didn’t please Queen Shivani.

Why would they be happy the prince didn’t know she existed? How did the existence of the Beloved affect Rainier? Did they think he would have used her as a weapon against them? That didn’t make any sense. He’d planned to wed Lucia, not use her as a weapon. Unless they viewed the bonding ritual as such, as an act of aggression. Although, the more I thought about it, giving Prince Rainier the same powers as Lucia in addition to his own would make a devastating enemy.

The forest on either side of me began to fall away and cleared into the meadow. It was dark outside, my pocket watch telling me Father would be drinking his nightcap, when I finally let Bree fall to a walk. The horse would need to rest. As Ravemont Estate came into view on the horizon, lit up on the inside, I wondered if I had made a mistake. Elora was likely already in Mira, based on the fact Theo had come almost all the way back to Brambleton after she was taken. If we left right then, not stopping to sleep or rest, using my divinity to heal her as we rode, I could likely make it to Mira by this same time the next night, but what would I do by myself? I had no authority, and I certainly couldn’t take on the abductors by myself. I knew I needed a larger presence and assistance from the Crown. I also knew exactly where a large force of the Crown would be located, and I made the choice which would be more likely to bring Elora back to me. If the prince would even help me. I pushed the thought from my mind. I’d make him help me. He owed me.

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