Page 123 of The Kingdom of Eternal Ice
“And what made you come out of hiding?” Endellion asks.
“It was time,” he says. “My family’s prophecy said so. It said once I am sixteen, I will meet the Warrior Princess with the fiery hair.”
The others are clearly stunned. Another prophecy… probably one intertwined with the one concerning the werewolves. “What else did your prophecy say, Elio?” Endellion wants to know.
“I don’t know all of it as most of it concerns my brother,” he says. “But, something about a creature rising from the other world.”
“The other world?” Quinn blinks.
“What shouldn’t be here will be present,” Elio recites. “And Artio will rise, clouded by darkness and despair.”
“Did you say Artio!?” Eibhlin blurts out.
“Artio…” Endellion frowns. “Like the mythical creature, Artio?”
“She is more than that,” Eibhlin explains. “She is a deity, a lesser deity but still a deity, said to be the goddess of the bears, but she also stands for new life, for fertility. She normally rests in winter and wakes in spring.”
“The creature shouldn’t be awake,” Elio agrees. “But she is. That’s what our prophecy said.”
“The more we find out, the more confusing this gets,” Flinn mutters. “We started with weird attacks on our packs at the borders. Now we have a conspiracy within the bears who are enchanted, a mysterious prophecy surrounding Ende, Flinn and I… and Aza. The woman in white strolls around, terrifying everyone. Dragons who were said to be extinct return, with Aza being connected to one of them in her dreams. And now a mysterious bear deity pops up. Did I forget anything?”
“No, that’s about it,” Caelan says quietly.
Elio turns around, his eyes finally falling on me. He gapes. “It’s you!” he blurts out.
His surprise makes me blink. “You know me?”
“Yes, yes! You are part of my brother’s prophecy. My brother kept telling me about you when I was a child.” He rummages for something in the little bag he carries, before taking out an old notebook. There are notes and pictures in it. He looks through it before he turns it over to show me something. It’s a drawing of… me. Prosperity is written next to my name. The Desert Princess of Prosperity and Wealth.
My ears start ringing. “Who is your brother?” I ask. “The one who told you about me?”
“The Crown Prince,” he explains, suddenly looking sad. “He has been imprisoned for many years now. His name is Favian.”
Favian! The young dragon I’m meeting in my dreams. I knew it! The moment I saw Elio, he reminded me of Favian.
“You are Favian’s little brother?” Endellion asks, before correcting himself. “Prince Favian’s?”
Elio nods. “My nanny, my bodyguard and I hid away for many years. Favian told us to do so. They said I was crucial for saving our species.” He looks proud. “Everyone thought I was dead. I was waiting for the Warrior Princess with fiery hair to appear. My mother once saw her when she was a child, so we knew she was a werewolf princess. My bodyguard has been watching her ever since.”
So it was Favian’s and Elio’s mother who Alana spotted as a child.
“Elio.” Flinn steps closer and looks at him kindly. “Who is responsible for killing so many of you? The woman in white? Cailleach?”
“Yes… no…” Elio looks confused. “She wasn’t always Cailleach.”
“But she is now?” I want to know.
“I think so,” Elio says.
“What does that mean?” Caelan asks.
“She was just a woman first, searching for something, and then she turned into this…” he pauses. “Nightmare.”
“How is that possible?” I ask Aylin. “Cailleach is a deity, after all. How can someone else turn into her?”
“It might be that said woman in white merged with the sadness and pain of other women,” Aylin says. “Like Eibhlin believes.”
Eibhlin nods her agreement. “It’s possible that a witch channeled this energy and turned her into Cailleach or another version of her. But this is just a guess. We don’t know for certain what happened.”
