Page 22 of Golden Queen
I didn't even consider the fact that everyone was watching me, or that my skirts slid up to my knees as I climbed on. I simply did not care about propriety, and I had no capacity for embarrassment in such a significant moment.
I made an attempt to hold on with my legs and by keeping my hand fisted in his long mane.
He rose and shot off like lightning across the field.
My heart thundered as my hair whipped back and my body was jostled as he gained momentum. It only took me another moment to get myself in sync with his movements, though, and then I leaned forward over his neck,rolling with his strikingly smooth gait as his hooves pounded through the grass.
He stood so tall that my legs were well above the top of the godsgrass that might have whipped across my skin and cut me at that speed.
I laughed, filled with unexpected joy, as he carried me across the low, rolling hills, going further from the city than I had ever been. I felt like my own heart was soaring somewhere above as we flew across the plains. In all my life, I had never felt so free.
We ran without slowing, but as soon as I had formed the thought in my mind that we had, perhaps, gone a little too far, the horse made a loop, heading back toward the city. I saw the castle, the wall, and the little knot of people watching me with a mix of horror and appreciation.
Adrio stood a little apart from the group, so I nudged the Artaxian stallion toward him. He responded to the light pressure of my knee, going directly where I guided him.
When we reached him, the elderguard nodded to us, smiling happily as the stallion knelt to allow me to slide off.
It felt like my cheeks might crack at any moment from the strain of the grin still plastered on my face. I reached for Adrio's hand. "Thank you, Adrio of Artax,” I said, never meaning anything more in my life. “I will forever strive to be worthy of such a gift."
Adrio smiled, squeezing my hand. His gaze seemed alive with some wisdom that I could not hope to grasp. It was almost disquieting to look into his eyes. "We have already found you worthy, Golden Queen, or else we would not have brought you Etreyiu, the finest stallion to ever be born on the Artaxian plains."
"Etreyiu?" I asked as the horse in question laid his head over my shoulder and whickered softly.
Adrio laughed. "I can see he has already judged you worthy, as well."
I glanced back at the group of Artaxian warriors who were still facing Markus and the Windemerians. Even from a distance, I could see my uncle's face. He was nearly purple with rage.
I turned back to Adrio. "You said you had a message from the Elderwood." I could hardly believe the words I was saying—to be honored by the ancient forest, when I would not have believed they even knew who I was. It was overwhelming.
"Ah, yes," Adrio said, reaching down to take a leather pouch from his belt. He laid it in my hand almost reverently.
As I untied the cord around the opening, he spoke. "These are the words of the trees, exactly as they were given to me.We see you, Golden Queen. When the skies grow dark and the sun is stolen by the shadows that creepacross the world, when the ache of your empty arms grows too heavy to bear, come to us, Aelia of Windemere."
My hands began to shake as I fumbled with the leather tie. The honor I felt just moments before dissolved into pure dread as the words filtered into my mind.
My hands shook as I finally managed to open the pouch, I turned it over and dumped the contents into my palm.
A fine silvery chain poured out to loop around and around itself in my hand. At the end, lay a delicate human heart shaped cage made of braided silver wire. A tiny golden crown had been formed around the top so that the entire pendant was a crowned heart; Danu's symbol—the symbol of the Morrigan—the Queen of the Gods.
Inside the cage, lay a pale, white elderwood seed.
"What does this mean?" I asked Adrio, my voice shaking.
"The old shadows are rising, Aelia of Windemere. The realm needs guardians again. The Elderwood has named you to carry the seed. To protect it as you protect your own life, so that when even the last of the horse lords are ashes in the wind, there will always be hope."
The words echoed inside my head, sounding like some portent of doom and destruction. The king of the horse lords carried the elderwood seed so that no matter what happened to the sentient forest, there would always be a chance to revive what they considered the source of all magic and life in the world.
Namingmeas an elderguard seemed like the most illogical, preposterous thing anyone could ever do.
"Why me?" I asked. "I'm—" The words that wanted to come from my throat burned me with the shame of admission. "I am not yet even a queen. When I marry and take my throne, I will still have very little power. Surely there’s another who would be more worthy to carry the seed." I was little more than the vessel that carried the Lithaway blood. No one ever expected me to have real power, least of all me.
"Power does not come from a throne, a crown, or a group of bickering old men. Power comes from within, and the Elderwood has found you worthy."
"How does the forest even know I exist? I’ve never even set foot outside the godsgrass." It was another admission that shamed me. I knew so little of the world outside of the books I’d read.
"You cannot see them, but the roots of the elderwood grow across the world." He moved his hand in a slow arc to encompass everything around us. "They speak to the roots of the oak tree: will the squirrel in your branches survive the winter? They speak to the purple grasses of Darkwatch: are themasters in the Citadel learning still? And they speak to the godsgrass: is Aelia of Windemere a worthy guardian? If you have the heart to listen, even you can hear as the godsgrass answers, saying,Aelia, Aelia, savior."
"Savior?" I asked, horrified at the notion.
