Page 5 of Returned to the Vissigroth
"Can you take me to Myccael?" I asked. My voice was hoarse, like it hadn't been used in centuries.
"Susserayn Myccael?" The younger guard asked, looking alarmed and so out of his element, I would have taken pity on him had I been in any state of mind to consider anybody's feelings besides the confusion warring inside me.
"Now," I added, feeling for some reason that when I gave an order or made a request, it was to be followed.
"Of course, Vissy Thalia. Did you bring your own guards?" The older male looked around, still looking as confused as he had been the moment I walked out.
"There is nobody here," the other answered.
"I don't understand. How can Vissy Thalia come here? Alone? With nobody telling us?"
This was getting me nowhere. The urge to find Myccael grew, and I pushed by the guards. My eyes fell on two nictas, saddled and ready, grazing by a line of trees. It was dark. Night then, I concluded emotionless. I looked at the myriad of stars, the twin moons, and felt like I had come home. The air was fresh and the smell of the yicca trees enticing. I craned my neck, staring at the twinkling sky until another wave of nostalgia overcame me.
Resolutely, I marched forward, straight for one of the nictas, who lifted his head. I thought I should be afraid of it, but I wasn't.
"Vissy Thalia, please," the older guard had followed me. "Please, we can't let you go alone, and we can't leave our post," he looked beseechingly at me. "In a few hours, our relief will arrive, then we can take you wherever you want to go."
"I need to see Myccael. Now." I answered, putting my foot into the nicta's stirrup and my hand on the saddle horn. It took two attempts for me to pull myself up the giant beast. I felt as weak as a newborn synnini—kitten.
"Go with her," the younger guard yelled, "I'll stay here."
"Only one guard for a Vissy," the older male shook his head, and approached the other nicta, intent on pulling himself up into the saddle as well.
Just then, a large, dark shadow flew over us, and my head moved instinctively up. Something was up in the sky, so large and dark, I couldn't see the stars.
"Grandyr," the guard yelled, just as his nicta ripped the reins from his hands and took off, spooked by the large dragon flying over us.
Mine didn't react at all. It only responded to my command to get going down the well-trampled path leading off the mountain.
"Vissy Thalia," the frustrated male called after me. I was sure he would run after me, so I kicked the large nicta. It was so heavy that it took it some time to get going, but once it did, it ran at an astonishing speed. Too fast for any human or Leander to follow.
I had no idea how I knew where to go. Maybe it was luck, or the nicta's memory, or maybe something else entirely that brought me to a large city and the palace walls within.
The urge to reach Hoerst grew with every pace I came closer. We made the three-day journey to Ackaran Space Harbor in less than two days, driven by the hum inside my chest that refused to abide.
When we reached the space harbor, my dragoons and I were near collapse. We boarded the ship for the journey home and slept for two days straight.
Mine was a strange sleep, filled with dreams and premonitions that had me waking up bathed in sweat and with a pounding heart. Every time I woke, I expected to find an enemy had somehow snuck into my quarters, but every time, there was nothing other than my wildly beating heart and the premonition that something was about to, or had already, happened.
When I fell asleep for the last time before we arrived on Hoerst, I dreamed ofher. Daphne, my Daphne. One moment, I was in my cabin, restless, eyes closed but not sleeping. The next, I was there. The cavern, as it had always been, untouched by time,clean and sacred. The stone was smooth and polished beneath my feet. Moonlight spilled through the open ceiling like water, casting silver over the figures of Fraysa and Grandyr, whose joined hands cradled the eternal flame.
Andshewas there.
Daphne.
Wearing the same white ceremonial robe she’d worn that night. Her hair spilled in loose waves down her back, her eyes shimmered like forest dew, and she was smiling at me like I was still whole. Like none of the terrible things had happened yet.
I moved toward her, helpless to do anything else. My feet didn’t make a sound.
“I was waiting,” she whispered, as if she knew I would come. As if I wasn't dreaming, as if this wasn't a memory, but reality. I couldn’t reply. My chest was filled with an ache so deep I was sure I could fall right through. My throat burned from holding back tears. She reached out to take my hand and led me to the flame. The air was warm here, filled with something older than memory, older than sorrow. The kind of peace that only exists in dreams and sacred places.
Together, we picked up an unburned candle, lighting it from the flame that burned between the gods.
Still eternal,even in dreams.
Her hand trembled against mine, and her voice—gods, her voice—was like wind in the yicca trees.
“From here to eternity,” she said. “In every life. In every form. I will find you.”
