Haret Chronicles Vampire: Trial of the

Thunder Moon: A Fantasy Romance

Laurel Chase
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TRIAL OF THE THUNDER
MOON
Haret Chronicles VAMPIRE:
Book FOUR

Laurel Chase
 Copyright © 2023 Laurel Chase
All rights reserved.
LaurelChaseAuthor.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the
products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual
persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Cover design by
Christian Bentulan
Table of Contents
Title Page

Copyright Page

DEDICATION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 DEDICATION
This series is for all the girls who like sex and sugar, but sometimes crave it dark and violent.
And for the women who have seen some shit and come out strong enough to fight for something better.
So, that’s everyone, right?
Carry on.
 CHAPTER ONE
UCA
L Running, night and day.
I’d been running on four legs for long enough that I’d forgotten how I’d ever managed it on
two.
The ice wolf pack had covered so much ground that I wasn’t sure if we’d been gone from the
palace for two nights or maybe three. It was all a blur of following Vento’s commands alongside the
other wolves, deeper and higher into the Sans Cesse Mountains. They were definitely living up to
their name - endless.
My muscles ached, although it was nothing compared to my heart.
But finally, Vento circled us around a dense growth of pines, sheltered from the snow and as
warm as it would get up here. Some of the wolves spread out to hunt for us, and several more shifted
to their two-legged forms to cut branches and build shelter. We needed rest, desperately.
None of the pack seemed to care about each other’s nakedness, although I felt my cheeks heat any
time the others’ eyes skimmed over my bare skin. I turned to Vento instead, intent on finally getting
some information from him.
“I have questions,” I said, and he chuckled, stretching his arms above his head and raking his
hands through his beard.
“I’m sure you do. Just remember that you’re here on my invitation, and it was to save your ass
from doing something you’d regret, and getting killed for it.”
I ground my teeth, hating both reasons. I went where I wanted - when I wanted. I was an alpha in
my own right, leader of my little pack in the city slums of Saori Sang. But he was right. If I’d stayed at
the palace with the other Trial contestants, the activation of Merden’s blood contract would have
forced me to try and kill Kana, over and over again.
And the woman I loved would have only had two options: lock me away or kill me first.
I never should have taken that fucking contract, and I hated owing Vento any part in protecting
Kana from my stupidity. It hurt my pride that I hadn’t had the strength or the foresight to reject
Merden’s offer.
“Tell me how you’re claiming alpha,” I growled instead, unable to broach the subject of thanks. I
wasn’t fucking grateful, and I didn’t think I could pretend.
“Your grandfather refused to back down on isolation. Refused to help the vampires, even when
we had solid evidence that the gobbelins had returned,” Vento said simply. Too simply.
“I barely knew him,” I muttered, thinking of the harsh old wolf who had greeted me in the
mountains during the first Trial. He’d forced me to shift for the first time, opening a world I’d never
known I was part of.
Then he’d fucking shoved me out the door, banishing me from the pack for something I’d had no
part in, and leaving me to die, stuck in my wolf form and delirious from pain.
Vento sighed, his watchful eyes still on the pack as they went about their tasks without instruction
- they trusted him, even if I didn’t yet. “Your grandfather was hard in ways that no longer matter to the
ice wolves. His generation... their purposes and hangups... no longer serve the world as it is today.”
“So you killed him?” I asked dryly, raising my brows at Vento.
He chuckled again, turning hard eyes on me. “I challenged him. Not all challenges end in death,
pup. Your grandfather still lives, licking his wounds in the mountains. But if he had refused my
victory, I would have torn out his throat,” the new alpha warned, his voice dropping to a growl of
warning.
“I have no plans to challenge you,” I snapped back, feeling the second warning flowing beneath
his words, like an underground river rushing in the darkness.
“You have a different pack now, and a claim on a mate,” Vento added like he needed to explain
my statement. He glanced across the horizon where the palace would be, if we weren’t quite too far
away to see it. Any view would have been blocked by the icy mountain peaks and dense fog, anyway.
I nodded, feeling my heart beat a staccato rhythm, torn between protect Kana and kill Kana.
What good was I to her? I was meant to be a weapon to protect her. Instead I was a double-edged
sword.
“I have to break this contract,” I murmured, to nobody in particular. Vento growled a low noise of
agreement, and I respected him all the more when he didn’t throw the contract back in my face. It had
been a rash, stupid decision, born of insecurity and childish hurt. Merden had twisted it from me all
too easily, though, and I knew I’d spend a lifetime making that moment up to Kana, as long as she’d let
me near her.
Vento pointed to a bed of pine branches someone had made behind us. “Get some sleep, pup. We
should reach our first checkpoint tomorrow if we leave at dawn, and there will be food when you
wake,” Vento said, shifting back to his tawny wolf body. I allowed myself to do the same, the black
and gold fur bringing the extra warmth I needed.
Soon, I felt the welcome pull of his alpha magic tugging my eyes into heavy sleep, and I circled
the pine branches, matting them down into a comfortable nest. It was an odd sort of relief to have an
alpha looking out for everyone and a pack taking care of each other.
My parents had been caring when they’d had the time, but serving in the palace didn’t leave many
spare moments for family life. But pack life? I wanted this - wanted to make my own version of this
with Kana and the other men who orbited her like planets. She was our alpha, and we were all drawn
to her, helpless but loving every second of it.
My thoughts drifted into nonsense dreams, and long before I was ready to wake, Vento’s howl was
rousing everyone.
I shook off the chill of the snow, grateful for the heavy wolf pelt that had kept away the worst of it
during the night hours. As promised, there was fresh meat piled next to my nest, and I gulped it down
as the others woke and did the same.
To the lake, Vento commanded through the pack speak, straight into our minds.
I found myself answering his command in tune with the others, howls of excitement echoing
across the mountain range as we broke into a loping run, eager to stretch our muscles and see what the
day would bring.
My body had never felt as natural in its two-legged form as it did in this wolf body, leg muscles
stretching and contracting as my claws gripped the ice and packed snow. My snout caught every whiff
of possible danger or prey to hunt, and my ears filtered through every sound easily, picking out the
distinct gait and breathing of each wolf that ran beside and behind me.
We moved like a single wolf, led by instinct and the subtle guidance of our alpha.
And when we reached the lake, I skidded to a stop at its frozen edge, sitting down on my haunches
and tilting my head.
I knew this place.
Knew of it, anyway.
Ice Clover Lake? I questioned Vento through the pack speak when he caught my eye. He nodded,
his golden eyes narrowing.
What is it, pup?
I overlooked how he kept me in my place with that single word and told him what I suspected.
I’m pretty sure this is where Kana and Kingston found the Book of Ice. It was buried out there in
the middle of the frozen lake, locked in a box covered in strange markings. And Kana almost
drowned retrieving it, I added.
Vento’s golden eyes turned to slits, and his muscles tensed as I felt him send the message to the
other wolves.
Be on high alert, he warned. Gobbelins may be here.
 CHAPTER TWO
ANA
K I hadn’t truly slept in days.
Even when I’d taken a minute here or there to attempt some rest, my mind hadn’t let me,
instead swirling with a constantly lengthening list of crises we needed to take care of immediately.
Not to mention the killer load of worry I was trying not to break beneath.
Luca was gone, and his blood contract on me was active. Cade was still unconscious and barely
clinging to life. I hadn’t seen even a glimpse of Nicolas in the ever-present mist.
Kassian and Rush were my fucking rocks, though. Kas had been absolutely insane with his skill in
convincing commoners to take shelter inside the palace, and Rush was proving to be better at healing
than any doctor I’d ever known. I secretly wondered if he had some extra fae magic he hadn’t told me
about, or if his energy magic had healing properties.
And then Blaise - the girl was sent from the Goddess, for sure.
If it weren’t for the whole winning the Trial to get the Ancient Magic restored thing, I’d have
gladly bowed out and let Blaise wear the crown.
“You’d be an amazing Queen,” I told her as we swept the perimeter one more time. Vento’s ice
wolves had set up steady watch, but none of us knew exactly how many gobbelins were out there. The
palace was locked down as well as we could manage with the few guards we had left, but an ambush
wasn’t far from anyone’s mind.
“I know, princess. It’s why I joined the Trials,” Blaise answered, winking at me. “Maybe once
you win and get that Ancient Magic back on our side, you can retire early and name me as your heir.”
I laughed, wishing it were that simple. And maybe it was - hell, it wasn’t like I had been able to
finish my education or even the training to take my mother’s throne. Merden had made sure of that.
She had knowledge I’d never have, and she’d kidnapped the only woman I might trust to give it to me
- my Grand-mère.
I missed that grumpy old woman something fierce.
“Princess?” a hard, female voice called from the shadows near the garden entrance.
I slowed, and Blaise immediately covered my back.
One of the ice wolves stepped into the light of the torches, her fur gleaming white and golden
down her body in the reflected fire. She had the unnerving ability to keep her head human and her
body shifted into its wolf form. “I’m Valanga. Vento’s second.”
“I met her before they left. She’s good,” Blaise assured me, straightening and lowering her
weapon. Valanga sat back on her haunches, blond hair spilling incongruously over her shoulder.
“Thank you for all the protection,” I said, meaning every word of it. I had no idea why the ice
wolves had broken their fierce vows to never leave the mountains or help the vampires, but I was
grateful. I suspected it had something to do with Vento taking over the pack. And the threat of the
gobbelins, of course.
None of us had seen that shit coming, and I was mad as hell at all the teachers who had ever told
me that gobbelins were completely extinct. Unfortunately, I had a feeling they were just repeating the
same lies they’d been taught as students. Somewhere in Saori Sang’s history, generations ago,
someone had been a little cavalier with the truth and woven boasts into the stories that should have
contained warnings.
“The city is impressively empty,” Valanga said, sweeping a paw elegantly toward the quiet
streets. “It makes our job easier.”
“There are holdouts. Not many of the commoners wanted to trust their lives to the palace at first,”
I admitted.
“A change in guard will always mean some are slow to trust, but they’ll come around,” Valanga
said, her voice holding a faraway lilt that told me she wasn’t only talking about the vampires.
“Why did Vento come?” I blurted, then scrambled to backtrack. “I’m very grateful. Just... the old
alpha...”
“The old alpha was hard. Vento can be hard when needed, but he’s also kind. And he understands
what we younger wolves do - this world is not meant to be lived in isolation. This world is better
with community. The gobbelins are as much a threat to us as to you, so why would we deny the aid
when we hope you would not deny us?”
The question was loaded, and I found myself wanting to apologize for my own ancestors, the
vampires who had taken back the wolves’ ice magic and locked them out of the Vault. But Valanga
saw the words in my eyes and smiled, shaking her head.
“We are not our ancestors. Judge me by my own actions, and I will do the same for you.”
“Thank you,” I said again, feeling a ray of actual hope shining for the first time in a while. Hope
was different from the dogged determination I felt when I thought of the battles to come. I knew I
could push through - I could protect my city. Hell, I’d even died twice now. But with Valanga’s talk of
community and moving forward together, the burden of pushing through felt easier.
“Beyond that, though, we are bound to honor Khione. She has awakened in you, and so the ice
wolves are here. It is the covenant,” Valanga continued, and my eyes widened. Vento had called me
Khione, recognizing something in my icy blue eyes the night he brought the gobbelin to Merden’s
court. What was she to the ice wolves?
“Who is she?” I managed, my mind swirling with questions, and I felt the light touch of Blaise’s
fingers on my shoulder, offering stability.
“One of the ancient sources of power. She transcends the races, like Iaga once did. Not vampire,
not ice wolf. Just... Khione. The wolves in the Sans Cesse Mountains have always served the
Goddess of ice and snow,” Valanga said, as though it were the simplest concept. And if I’d grown up
with bedtime stories of this goddess, perhaps it would have been. But the vampires had long ceased
to truly worship the magical energy of Haret, no matter whose name it bore.
I’d once thought Iaga was the end of the ancients, but she had passed her magic to Queen Carlyle,
my friend. Now Khione had been awakened in me. What other Goddesses and magic lay sleeping in
Haret, forgotten and discarded?
The vampires had been disconnected from the Ancient Magic as long as they’d been disconnected
from the goddesses of Haret. I blinked, trying to grasp the tail of the thought and haul it into the light.
This... this may be the piece I’d been missing. The unraveling of the mystery of our magic being
locked away for so long, and the answer to why it had to be me who claimed the throne from Merden.
It wasn’t just my bloodline that was important, passed from generation to generation.
I was Khione. Her chosen vessel.
I had never wanted to be Queen, and I was even less certain about becoming a Goddess, but if that
was what my people needed, I would. Suddenly, my decade-long vendetta to kill Merden made sense
within the mess of the gobbelins’ return.
I wasn’t here just for a revenge kill.
I was supposed to undo all of our city’s recent horrors, by killing Merden, of course. But I was
also meant to release the Ancient Magic and remind the vampires of what they’d lost when they
stopped holding Haret’s magic higher than their own. Khione was the embodied destruction and death
of winter - of snow and ice.
But once winter is over, spring renews everything. Khione would help me destroy, and the
Ancient Magic would help me rebuild.
It was suddenly so clear, I could have laughed out loud. Of course, I still had no idea how to
actually make that happen.
Before I could turn back to Valanga and break the growing awkward silence, though, another ice
wolf skidded to a stop beside her.
“Gobbelins. West side of the city,” he barked out.
Valanga cursed under her breath, but she was grinning, too. Glancing at Blaise and me, she
nodded curtly and shot away with the messenger, shifting into full wolf form.
“Let’s keep the guards with the palace. You and I can head into the city and see the damage,” I
suggested, and Blaise smirked, already turning toward the palace entrance.
“I’m always in the mood for violence,” she said, stalking in the direction of the weapons room.
We’d been gathering everything left behind and equipping anyone willing, but there were a few
choice stashes left.
“That’s probably why we get along so well,” I answered, beckoning to a nearby guard so I could
have him spread the word. I made certain he understood to find Kas first, so my thief could make sure
the commoners stayed safely inside the palace. We didn’t need them panicking or worse - trying to
play hero.
“You know, you’ll make a great Queen, too,” Blaise said as we headed west into the city.
I pressed my lips together to avoid the smile. I hoped she was right.
By the Goddess, I hoped she was right.
Valanga’s words echoed in my mind as we hurried to find the others - we are not our ancestors. I
was not Merden, and my people would judge me by my own actions.
 CHAPTER THREE
ANA
K By the time Blaise and I found the wolves, they’d ripped through a fair amount of the
attacking gobbelins.
The wolves’ claws and bulky, muscular bodies made it easy for them to leap onto the gobbelins,
knocking them down and tearing through their thick, greenish black skin without the danger of
ingesting the sludgy, toxic blood.
Still, there were plenty of the creatures to go around, and just like in the maze, it seemed as though
they kept respawning. Blaise and I quickly fell into a herding pattern, using our vampire speed and the
heavy weapons we’d grabbed to push the gobbelins toward a central area. And that was where the
wolves pounced, hemming them in from all sides and doing maximum damage.
Iridescent, foul-smelling gobbelin blood ran deep in the grooves between the cobblestones.
“Your fae is here,” Blaise called, and I glanced over to see Rush had joined the fight, twisting up
vines from the landscaped areas and spearing branches through the chests of gobbelins with that feral
fae cry I loved so much. I darted closer to him, returning his ferocious grin. There was no need for
him to hide as Monsieur Saint Laurent now, and his pointed ears and forest green skin were beautiful
to me as his muscles twisted and flexed.
Although, maybe his skin was a little too similar to the gobbelins’ for a quick and dirty fight.
I snarled at a wolf who’d taken a swipe at Rush, mistaking him for one of the nasty creatures.
“Maybe a little glamor wouldn’t hurt,” I called, winking at my fae.
He chuckled and the glamor of Saint Laurent glided down his form, fastidious suit and all.
“Glamor can never hide your traitor skin, Torrence,” a tall gobbelin shouted, lunging for us. I
whirled and leaped, catching the brute in the neck with my sword and chopping his head clean away.
Another came at us, and I barely had time to shove Rush to the side and tackle the gobbelin. My
fae was shaken - frozen in place by the gobbelin’s words - and I worked like a whirlwind to clear a
path. Finally, I wrapped an arm around Rush’s middle and dragged him back to the safer sidelines of
the fight.
When our backs were to the wall and the wolves had cornered the remainder of the gobbelins, I
turned to Rush.
“What is it? What’s Torrence?” I asked, recalling what the gobbelin had said. I knew the fae rode
horse-like animals called torrents... but that wouldn’t explain Rush’s pale face and wide eyes.
“Who,” he managed after a long moment, his voice rasping. “Torrence. He’s... was... my brother.
My twin brother,” Rush said, forcing out the words as though their existence was painful.
A heavy beat of silence settled between us as I absorbed the information, while the screams and
clashes of metal continued in the background, sounding tinny and faraway.
“And how did that gobbelin know him?” I asked finally, not sure I wanted the answer.
“I don’t know, love. He’s been dead for many, many years.” Rush had regained control, and his
features were now a mask of hard refusal. Whatever else was left to this mystery, I wasn’t getting it
out of him today.
“Did you look alike?” I asked instead, and my fae only nodded curtly. Twins were rare in Haret,
except in the shifter races. I wondered if his brother had shared the same energy magic. None of it
made sense, though. Rush wasn’t old enough to have a twin who knew the gobbelins before they were
frozen in ice - that was generations ago.
 Rush pushed off the wall and leaped back into the remainder of the fight, his energy more feral
than ever. This had rattled him to his bones, and he fought like a man with something to prove. Joining
him, I kept silent as we helped Blaise and the wolves kill every last gobbelin who dared show their
face.
“There will be more. This was likely only a scouting party,” Valanga warned everyone as we
dragged the stinking bodies into a pile for burning. We couldn’t have contaminated blood running in
the city streets, on top of everything else.
“There have to be at least a hundred here,” one of the wolves grumbled, kicking at a headless
body.
“There could be thousands more,” Rush snapped, bending to close the lifeless eyes of an unlucky
wolf. His golden and turquoise eyes were molten, and his glamor had begun to slip again.
“You’re tired. Let’s go back to my rooms,” I said under my breath. He looked away in frustration,
but he followed me when I slipped away. Blaise had already begun working side-by-side with
Valanga, cleaning up the mess and directing others to help the wounded. I didn’t have to be involved
in every detail.
My fae needed me, and I needed to understand more about what had happened to Torrence.
“Ask your questions,” Rush said as I locked the door to my rooms behind us. The words were
bitter, though I could feel that his anger wasn’t meant for me. “Tell me what I must do to clear my
name again. That’s all that matters,” he added softly, meeting my eyes with an expression of deep
worry.
He thought the gobbelin’s words would come between us, casting suspicion again that he’d had a
role in their rising. But that didn’t feel right to me. There was a snarl in history here, something to
unravel. But I felt in the thump of my heartbeat that Rush wasn’t the one to blame. He would have told
me before. He wasn’t hiding things, surely.
I crossed the room quickly, taking his hands between mine. “I still trust you, Rush. Just tell me
what you can.”
He sighed deeply and flopped down onto my bed, staring up at the ceiling. I climbed up next to
him, tucking my legs beneath me and waiting for him to gather his thoughts.
“All my life, I was told my mother was dead, killed alongside my twin brother in the deep forests.
When I visited Aralia after the second Trial ended - after you tasted my blood in the arena - I learned
Julianna is alive. That she may be coming for me, though I don’t know what that actually means.”
“She was part gobbelin, wasn’t she?” I asked, remembering our conversation in the labyrinth.
Rush nodded, grimacing. “Tante, my mentor, told me Torrence absorbed more of the gobbelin
blood in Julianna’s womb. She claims I have very little gobbelin blood in my veins, although it was
still enough to poison you and begin the prophecy,” he added bitterly.
“And... how old was Torrence when he died?” I asked.
“Not even fully grown into a man,” Rush said, his voice barely a whisper. I sighed as I realized
what had shaken him so badly. It definitely was a complication, but it also would clear Rush’s name.
“He could be alive too, then. If the gobbelin thought you were him,” I guessed.
Rush slumped back against the bed frame, misery etched over his handsome face. “How could I
have known so little about my own family?”
“We can’t help but believe the lies we’re told, especially by people we trust,” I said gently,
thinking of all the lies I’d swallowed from my own father.
Rush reached his hand to cup my cheek, the pad of his thumb skimming my lips. “I’m sorry, love.
For whatever this will come to mean between the fae and the gobbelins.”
 I narrowed my eyes, hearing what he wasn’t saying out loud. “You think your mother and brother
might have had something to do with their return?”
“You said it yourself - you saw a vision of me, opening the door to the darkness. To the gobbelins.
We thought it was tasting my blood that brought them back, Kana, but what if...”
“What if it was your brother who I saw, opening the door,” I finished, and it wasn’t a question.
It made too much sense to discount. Sure, prophecies and visions could be metaphorical, and
blood had power. But it was never smart to ignore this level of coincidence.
“I can’t see the Tri-Kings working with Julianna, though. She was never welcome in their
circles,” Rush continued, sounding more thoughtful now.
“Well, at any rate, if the fae are working with the gobbelins, then we have a whole new world of
trouble to deal with.” I suddenly felt very tired. How was I supposed to save my city from both the
return of the gobbelins and a massively powerful fae kingdom?
“One thing at a time, love. We will manage by focusing our attention on what we know, and on
what we can do.” Rush leaned forward and dropped a kiss on my lips, pulling me from the swirl of
thoughts that were quickly threatening to drag me under.
Pushing the new intel aside along with the worry, I vowed to take advantage of what I did know,
and what I could do now.
“Look, I made myself a promise. I’m trusting you because I know I can survive anything. If you
cross me, Lachlan of Aralia, I will gut you and hang you to rot from the tower. And it will hurt, but
I’ll get over you.”
“I love you too, Kana,” Rush said, giving me that soft smile of his that was anything but sweet.
Maybe some people wouldn’t find it romantic to say I could survive my love being ripped away
again, but I didn’t care.
I trusted myself, and that was the only way I knew how to be open enough to love again.
“Prove it, then,” I challenged my fae, kicking off my boots and straddling him in a smooth
movement.
He grinned up at me, that feral look I loved so much focused on me now. “Oh, I have so many
ideas.”
 CHAPTER FOUR
ANA
K Before I could tease Rush any further, he’d pushed me smoothly to the side and disappeared
into the bathroom.
I smiled when I heard the water running, and the grin grew wider when he poked his head through
the doorway and raised an eyebrow at me.
“Coming, love?” he asked.
“That’s the plan,” I shot back, giving in easily to the magnetic pull he had over me. As soon as I
was within reach, he began to peel my clothing away, his fingers skimming up and down each new bit
of bare skin while the room filled with steam.
“You forgot to plug the drain,” I said as I glanced down to see if the tub was ready yet.
Rush kissed the words from my lips luxuriously, allowing me the chance to fumble with his
clothing. “I didn’t forget. I have a plan. A game, perhaps.”
He urged me into the empty bath, and I settled against the chilled sides with a frown. Rush
apparently wasn’t going to tell me the plan, though. He only lifted my leg and draped it over the side,
then dove between my legs to taste me. My head fell back with a moan as his tongue ran slowly
through my folds. My fae was goddamn talented with that mouth, and it took me a few moments to
realize that the bath was heating up from more than just desire.
Rush had placed the plug, and the water was beginning to puddle beneath me as it rose in the bath,
only a couple of inches from where Rush was kissing my inner thighs.
“Care to race?” he asked, fixing me in a challenge stare. “I’m not coming up for air until you come
twice,” he threatened, and I gasped again as he fixed his mouth against my core, his chin already
dipping into the water. I could see the determination in his eyes - he was dead serious.
And even though Rush was more than up for the job, the pressure of coming so quickly made me
nervous.
“Relax, love, and focus on your pleasure.”
I forced my eyes closed and gave in to what he wanted, cutting down any stray thoughts about how
fast the bath was filling. By the Goddess, this man knew the benefits of adrenaline.
My heart was pounding as his tongue lashed against my clit, two fingers already pressing inside
my body and curling to beckon my orgasm forward. A bead of sweat or steam rolled between my
breasts, and Rush groaned as he sucked me harder, his eyes flashing gold and blue beneath his dark
lashes as he met my gaze again.
Something in his stare pushed just the right button, and almost before I realized it, I was writhing
against him as my body rippled with orgasm.
“Rush, please,” I begged softly, seeing the water lapping at his chest. I tried to tug him up, needing
more than two fingers to fill my pussy. “Fuck me now.”
He chuckled, the sound low and teasing. “I said two. And although I have lots of fun magic,
breathing underwater is not one of my talents,” he reminded me, lowering his lips back between my
legs.
I could feel the water against my thighs, and I knew there was barely a minute left. Was he really
serious with this? But then he pressed another finger inside me and groaned, his eyes rolling back into
his head as he lapped at my clit.
“You taste so fucking good,” he rasped, his other hand cinching my waist to pull me even closer
against his mouth. I felt my hips begin to buck, grinding against his face as he licked and sucked,
pumping his fingers in and out. My hands rode the curves of my body, settling on my breasts and
pinching desperately at my nipples while I squeezed my eyes closed and willed myself to focus only
on the pleasure.
“Fuck me, Rush, please,” I chanted, the desire riding higher and higher with every drop of water
falling into the bath. And then I was coming, screaming his name and clenching around his fingers just
as the hot water crested my thighs. Rush surged up against me, laughing as his red hair dripped down
in our faces.
His mouth fastened on mine, kissing me hard as I whimpered and squirmed against him, trying to
line up his cock with my pulsing core. I needed him.
“So impatient, love,” he murmured, clearly enjoying the hell out of my reaction. “Keep begging.”
As soon as he asked for it, I felt a stubborn streak rising in my chest. He must have sensed it
because a dark chuckle bubbled from his lips.
“Oh, you’ll beg, little princess,” he warned, reaching back to twist off the water. My fingers
grasped his cock as it bounced in the water, and he hissed as I gripped his shaft, toying with his
piercings. But before I could command him any further, vines began to grow from nowhere, dripping
down from the ceiling and glistening with steam and fae magic.
Their tendrils curled around my wrists, dragging my arms above my head and forcing me to kneel
in the bath, body fully on display for Rush’s greedy eyes.
“Absolutely gorgeous,” he whispered, running his fingertips between my breasts. My body
twisted toward the touch, nipples aching for more. The vines twirled above me, and I found myself
spinning on my knees to keep up, stopping when I was facing the large bathroom mirror.
Steam billowed around it, clouding its surface, but Rush commanded a vine to wipe its thick
leaves across the mirror. He pressed himself behind me, his eyes bright in the mirror as he watched
my reaction. The vines kept me from sagging backward into him as he rubbed his palms against my
nipples, skimming down to part my thighs.
His cock pressed between my legs and he thrust against me gently, rubbing himself between my
folds as I bit back a whimper. I was so much closer to begging than I wanted to be. The vines holding
my arms slackened a little, and Rush pressed me forward, the chill of the metal bath sharp on my
breasts as he grasped my ass, kneading the skin and spreading me a little more.
A single finger slipped inside my ass, and I swallowed down a groan, resting my forehead against
the bath as I tried not to imagine how much better that would feel if it were his cock.
“So stubborn,” Rush chuckled, reaching around my hips to cup my pussy. The promising heat of
his hand against my clit without any friction was my undoing.
“Please, Rush. Please. Fuck me now,” I whispered, losing any dignity as desire flooded across
my mind, drowning all my sanity.
“As you wish,” he said, and I cried out as his cock finally thrust deep inside me, filling me the
way I’d been aching for. His hand slid up my spine, wrapping in my damp hair and pulling my head
back enough to ensure I was watching our reflections in the mirror.
His face was an open poem of promises to me, swearing without words that he was mine, all
mine, and always would be.
Whatever our two families might have done in the past, we were the new hope. We would set
things right, then spend the rest of our lives learning to love better than they’d ever been able to.
“Rush... Lachlan... please,” I murmured, and at his true name, he unraveled, bucking wildly
against me and wrapping his arms around my torso, squeezing us together tighter and tighter.
 “You see me,” he gasped, his breath ragged as he worked harder to pull another orgasm from deep
within my body.
“I see you,” I breathed, giving into the crash and sucking tide of his body’s movement as he
toppled us both over the precipice, our voices crying out together as the steam slowly covered over
our reflections in the mirror.
The vines dissolved from my wrists and retreated from the room, and Rush gathered me in his
arms, wrapping us both in a large towel as he stumbled toward the bed. We burrowed into the
blankets and each other, exhaustion descending rapidly.
Sleep was calling me like a siren as I nuzzled my face into his neck, breathing in the rich, clean,
wild scent of male fae as he stroked my damp hair away from my face. My eyes slid closed, and our
breathing slowly evened out.
“I don’t deserve you,” Rush whispered just as I drifted into the stillness of sleep, the words so
soft I wasn’t sure I’d heard them at all.
 CHAPTER FIVE
ANA
K I woke to a surprisingly quiet palace and a handsome thief bringing me breakfast in bed.
Rush was still sleeping soundly beside me, and I carefully untangled my limbs from his,
gratefully taking the warm clothes Kas offered from my closet. Together, we settled onto the couch in
the living room, speaking in soft voices as I caught him up with the gobbelin attack from the previous
day as well as the new mystery of Rush’s twin brother.
“I trust your trust, but I can’t say I’m happy about that development,” Kas admitted, his eyes
searching mine, heavy with unspoken words.
I sighed, leaning my head onto the back of the couch and staring up at the ceiling. “I know. But we
can’t control our families. I know that better than anyone.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t know to come help with the gobbelin fight,” Kas said after a moment of
silence, and I smiled at him, taking his hand in mine.
“The ice wolves were amazing. I spoke with their leader, Valanga. She’s Vento’s second, and I
think the wolves were the break we needed. How are the people your crew gathered from the city?”
“Scared. But safe, and I think having so many of them here is giving them hope. Me too,” he added
softly, and I wondered if he was thinking of his mother and the rest of the vampires in the countryside.
I had no idea how to protect them, and it was making me a little crazy to feel so helpless.
Kas set his plate to the side and stood, his face dark with anger. “But there have been a few
reunions. Families searching for missing vampires, then finding them among the blood slaves. What
good is finding someone if they’re still captive in their own minds? We have to figure out how to help
them, Kana.”
My heart squeezed as I thought of Cade, still unconscious and nonreactive, just like all the blood
slaves we’d managed to rescue or recover from those Merden had left behind.
“Sounds like a good day to pay a visit to Jillian,” I said, standing as well. I grabbed my boots and
knives, checking on Rush once more before hurrying into the hall with my thief.
Jillian hissed at us through the bars of the cell Grand-mère had been kept in. Someone had at least
cleaned up the bodies Merden had left, but Jillian was understandably unhappy with her new room.
“Let me the fuck out of here, you foul cunt,” she growled at me, her eyes solid black with rage and
blood lust.
“Don’t count on it,” Kas snorted, rolling his eyes at her. “But we don’t mind bringing you a snack,
in exchange for some information.”
He pulled a vial of blood from his pocket and tossed it through the bars at her. She pounced on it,
but there was barely a swallow inside. Just enough to get her fangs out and break her will a little.
“Tell me more about how the blood slaves were created,” I demanded.
“You haven’t figured that out yet? So stupid,” she cackled, chucking the empty vial at the iron
door.
“Suit yourself,” Kas said with a shrug, tipping a second vial of blood back into his mouth and
offering me one. Jillian screamed through clenched teeth, her fangs biting deep into her own lips.
“It doesn’t matter to me. They’re just going to die anyway, no matter what you do,” she hissed.
“Everyone dies, Jilly. Even your brother,” I taunted, licking at the blood in my vial. It was cruel to
mention Janus, but I’d had enough of Merden’s favorite torture team. Jillian would follow him into the
mist soon enough.
 Kas held up another vial of blood. “You told Kana in the labyrinth that the slaves were drained of
blood three times. But what were they given to stay alive?”
“Blood, you idiot,” Jillian said, smiling sweetly. I clenched my hands into fists, narrowly
resisting slamming open the door and punching her teeth out.
“What kind of blood?” I managed. Now that Rush had planted the idea of gobbelin blood being
poisonous in our minds, we were all wondering what effects different types of blood would have on a
drained vampire.
“I have a whole pitcher of blood waiting for you if you just give us the fucking information,” Kas
snapped at our captive.
She huffed, and I could tell her patience was as thin as ours. She was hungry, and not used to
being denied her freedom.
“Fine. What do I care? Merden and Girard did a lot of experimenting, but the method that stuck
the best was stepping down the blood. They re-fed with higher order shifters first, like lions or
jaguars. Then a lower order, like a fox or something. And the third time was non-shifter animal blood.
She turned them into animals,” Jillian added, shrugging.
I narrowed my eyes, knowing this couldn’t be the whole process. That wasn’t quite how blood
worked. But magic... blood magic might be able to work like that.
“Now where’s my fucking blood?” Jillian growled, and Kas nodded before speeding away to
fetch it from the kitchens.
“Do you know where my father’s laboratory is?” I asked, hating everything that question implied
about Girard.
Jillian glared. “No. Merden never shared that. Janus and I searched when we could, but the only
thing we found was a guarded, walled-off section in the east wing, top floor.”
I startled, surprised at how easily she’d given me the information, plus the realization that I knew
the area she was describing. I’d grown up in the palace - specifically, in the east wing. On the top
floor.
I hadn’t even thought about visiting my childhood suite since I’d arrived in Saori Sang, assuming
Merden had long ago redecorated it.
I hadn’t counted on the decorator being my fucking father.
“You’ll never figure it all out, princess. Merden had years to perfect that process. You’ll just fuck
it all up, over and over again,” Jillian cooed. I growled at her, about to snap something back when
Kas returned with a full pitcher and an empty goblet. He poured a few inches of blood into the goblet
and handed it through the bars.
“Fucking tease,” Jillian said, licking her lips at him. She drank greedily, though, handing the cup
back. “More, commoner.”
“Why would bounty hunters be looking for higher order blood like fae or ice wolf, if Merden only
needed shifters?” he asked, pouring blood into the cup but not offering it to her.
Jillian gave a frustrated noise and stomped her foot. “I don’t know fucking everything! She liked
her exotic blood - you know that.”
“You’re lying,” I accused, raising my eyebrows. I wasn’t completely sure how I knew, but I’d
spent enough time with her in the labyrinth to feel the difference in her tone.
Kas raised the goblet to his own lips and took a sip.
“I hope the gobbelins fuck you in the ass, Kassian Kingston,” Jillian yelled, and he snorted a
laugh.
“Good to know what you’ve been dreaming of. Answer the question and I’ll give you the rest. No
more games,” he offered.
She looked for a second like she was going to refuse, but her hunger finally won out. “Ugh. You’re
both dying first when I get out of here. Merden needed different blood for the mixed blood vampires. I
guess since their blood was already part shifter or whatever, her other process didn’t work. But I
never watched any of those conversions. Happy now?”
Kas laughed. “With you? Not possible.”
He handed her the goblet through the bars, then tipped the contents of the pitcher onto the floor of
her cell. She screamed as the dark red liquid splashed down onto the stone, falling to her knees and
scrabbling to scoop up the puddle before it soaked into the cracks of the floor.
“That was just mean,” I said to Kas as we left the dungeons, but I was grinning.
“She always has to make things so Goddess-damned hard. I was just returning the favor. So, now
what?” he asked, and I sighed.
“I think I have an idea where Girard played mad scientist.”
Taking my thief’s hand, I zipped through the palace corridors and stairs until we were standing
before a stone wall that looked newer than the others.
“My old suite used to be here. Behind here,” I explained, already starting to search the wall for a
hidden passage.
Kas joined me, tapping at every joint in the wall. Finally, I wiggled a sconce and found it loose.
Turning the decorative metal in a circle pulled on something inside the wall, and a grinding noise
echoed through the empty hall.
“There,” Kas said, excitement in his voice as he pointed to the opposite corner. A tiny rift had
opened, small enough that if we hadn’t been watching so closely, we might have missed it. Merden
and Girard had certainly gone to a lot of trouble to hide this portion of the palace.
Together, we pushed at the crack in the wall until it widened, a short, narrow door opening under
the pressure. We ducked inside, and I sucked in a breath.
It was the hallway leading to my private rooms, where I’d been born and raised, educated and
sequestered.
Where I’d been a true, fairytale princess. Before the whole nightmare wicked queen bit.
Stepping forward, I tried the door that should lead to my sitting room. It was unlocked and opened
easily.
“Fuck me,” Kas breathed as we stepped inside. The room was shadowy, but there was enough
light from the windows to make out dozens of shelves and tables that hadn’t been there before.
The stench hit us both at the same time, and I sprang forward with a knife in each hand.
“It’s dead,” I breathed, checking the gobbelin on the table in the center of the room.
“Probably the one Vento brought that first night,” Kas suggested, and I grimaced, noting the decay
on the body. He had to be right.
“Fucking Girard. What were you doing in here?” I murmured, moving slowly through the room.
Kas pushed the curtains open wider. There were dozens of containers of blood, labeled and lined up
in neat rows. Lines of surgical tools gleamed in the dim light, and books were stacked in even piles
on several tables.
“It’s not giving mad scientist,” I said reluctantly. I’d hoped to find signs of madness and chaos.
Something to indicate my father wasn’t himself while he was here, that he’d been driven insane by
Merden’s bleeding heart dosing and blood magic.
But everything pointed to the opposite.
Cold. Clinical. Uncaring about who he hurt to get what he wanted. How could he be the genetic
link between my Grand-mère and me? What was so different about him, and would I be susceptible to
it?
Kas seemed to sense the shift in my mood, and he came up behind me, wrapping me in his arms.
“Hey. This is a lot. Do you need a break?”
Drawing in a deep breath, I nodded. Taking his hand, I pulled him toward the back of the room,
where the door to my bedroom should be.
It was darker in here, but I opened a drawer and found candles and matches right where they’d
always been. As the golden light shone around the space, I was relieved to find it untouched by the
horror of the other room.
“So this is the room of a princess?” Kas asked, keeping his voice light as he took in the cavernous
space.
“Someone’s been cleaning it,” I observed, running my fingers over the books on a shelf. There
was no layer of dust, and the room smelled fresh, as though it had been aired out fairly recently.
“I’m sure he still cared about you, in his own... way,” Kas said, but even he didn’t sound
completely convinced.
“What if I’m like him?” I whispered suddenly, sinking down onto the freshly made bed. “His
blood is in me, even if Merden’s isn’t. What am I willing to do, to get what we both want?”
“You’re also not being force fed poison,” Kas reminded me, pointing out how Merden had been
drugging my father with bleeding heart. “You won’t be like anyone but yourself - your actions are all
your choice.”
I flopped back on the plush mattress, willing my mind to accept his words.
I was glad I’d solved the mystery of where Girard’s lab was, but seeing it had all been a little too
much. Especially contrasted with the disconcerting familiarity of my bedroom, and the puzzle of why
Girard had kept it so pristine.
I needed a distraction.
“You know, I never once sneaked a boy into my room,” I said softly, waiting for Kas to pick up on
what I wanted.
He scooted farther onto the bed. “Oh, yeah? I’m the first?”
“Wanna be?” I asked, my fingers drifting across my breasts. I was craving normalcy more than
anything - moments of peace and playfulness that had been stolen from me.
So much had been stolen from me.
“Fuck yes,” Kas breathed, swinging a leg across my hips and bracing himself on his elbows as he
stared down at me, black eyes flashing.
“Kiss away the weird, thief.”
“I’ll do a lot more than that, princess,” he promised, lowering his mouth to mine and pulling every
stray thought in to focus on the stroke of his tongue against mine and the nip of his fangs on my skin.
His body pressed down into mine, grounding me in the moment as I arched up into him.
 CHAPTER SIX
ANA
K I needed the closeness more than the orgasm, and I wrapped myself around Kas as he
moved slowly down my body, peeling off my clothes and kissing as he went.
He shucked off his own shirt while I shimmied out of my pants, and we clung together, hands
roaming eagerly over bare skin. I fumbled with his waistband as he dipped to suck at one of my
nipples.
“So impatient,” he teased, but there was a strain to his voice that told me he felt the same need.
After the horrors we’d just seen, and what I knew was to come, I just wanted to feel the simple
thrill of being a girl who’d sneaked a boy into her room.
I lifted my hips and encouraged him to settle between my thighs, his cock sliding against my folds.
Spreading myself, I reached down to guide him inside me, locking one knee behind his back. We
clung together while we rocked, the friction of his skin against my clit pinning my focus to that single
spot.
Kas wrapped one hand behind my neck and lowered his fangs to my skin, tilting his head just
enough to give me the same access. We shared blood in a rhythm that matched the gentle meeting of
our bodies, and time seemed to disappear. The messed-up world I’d been living in fell away, and all
my sensations were centered around this man’s skin and muscle, his lips, fangs, and the shaft of his
cock buried deep inside my body.
I moaned his name around the blood I was taking from him, and he wrapped his arms tighter
around me. We were barely moving, wrapped so tightly together in the moment. And still, he managed
to tug an orgasm free, my legs shaking around his slim hips as my back arched off the bed. My fangs
slipped free of his skin as I cried out my pleasure, and my pussy clenched hard around him, sending
him right over the edge of the same sweet precipice.
Breathing hard, we lay tangled together on top of the blanket, my skin heated and tingling.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted that to end,” Kas admitted. “You feel like home, Kana.”
“This is home, Kassian,” I whispered. “We’re saving this city, and you’re going to be my king.”
He stiffened a bit above me, and I curled my hand in his hair, tugging him down for another slow
kiss. I knew he was still uncomfortable with the idea of joining the royalty he’d always hated so
much.
“Think of all the changes we can make together,” I murmured against his lips. “We’ll save the city
and remake it into what it should have always been. A haven - not just for one privileged group. For
anyone with vampire blood.”
“Is that what little girl Kana dreamed of?” he teased lightly, licking the bite marks on my neck.
I slid my eyes closed, enjoying the buzz of pleasure still running through me. “Little girl Kana
dreamed of running away. Being anything but a princess. And when I got exactly what I asked for, I
realized just how stupid I was,” I added, unable to keep the bitterness out of my voice.
Not only had I been forced to flee my queendom, I’d ended up as a slave on Earth.
“All of that is over. You’re the lost princess, and together we’re going to find a new dream,” Kas
said, propping himself up on his elbow to gaze down at me. “This is where you’re meant to be. It
feels right.”
I nodded, realizing his words were true for me. I hadn’t dreamed of running away from this fight,
and now that I could see how much was broken in my queendom, I was already beginning to rebuild
the city in my mind. There was one more Trial left, and then I would be Queen.
And I would have all the Ancient Magic to use and give back to the people of Saori Sang.
Sitting, I let my eyes wander over the room, taking in all the forgotten items I used to treasure so
much. Kas watched me stand and circle the room, staying quiet while I said hello and goodbye to
what I used to be.
“This isn’t mine,” I muttered, pausing at my desk, where some scribbled notes rested. The
handwriting was small and cramped, crossed out and rewritten several times. Smudges and drops of
ink marred the words as I held the pages up to see them better.
“Spells,” I breathed, whirling to face Kas. “Someone was trying to write spells - they look like
the ones I’ve seen in the Book of Ice.”
Kas brought a candle closer and we examined the pages together. The spells were incomplete, but
maybe I could find them in the book itself.
“Do you think it could help the slaves?” Kas asked, and I nodded.
“Of course, I don’t know. But yeah, I hope so. This is my father’s handwriting. He was trying to
recall the magic - I just know it.” My gut instinct was pinging like crazy. Girard wasn’t allowed to
inherit the Ancient Magic because he was male, but he was Grand-mère’s son. The knowledge would
still have slept in his blood, the same way it slept in mine.
“Let’s take this back to Rush and figure it all out together. He should see the lab, too,” I said,
reaching for my clothes. We hurried back to the rooms I’d been using as a Trial contestant, but Rush
had already woken and left.
“He’s probably with the injured. You stay here and try to figure out the spells, and I’ll find him,”
Kas offered.
“I have to figure this out. I’ll do anything to figure this out. We need a goddamn advantage.” I was
already willing the book to the surface of my skin as Kas slipped out of the door.
As I flipped through page after blank page of the book, though, my hope began to deflate. Cursing
to myself, I smacked the notes down on the table and rose to begin pacing the room. I always thought
better when I was moving. Why did I even have access to the book if so many of the pages were
blank?
I’d already used each of the spells that were visible, and I didn’t see how any of them would be
helpful for reversing the damage Merden had done to the blood slaves.
“Some Queen I’m turning out to be,” I grumbled to myself. Talking out loud to myself, I ranted
about how stupid I felt for hoping I’d been making progress. “I can’t believe I thought I could do this.
I’m a warrior, not a queen. Certainly not a scholar.”
Pivoting, I noticed the mist had begun to creep underneath the door and gather.
“Nic?” I asked hopefully, and intense relief surged through me as the form of my aima shimmered
into being. It had been so long, or at least it felt that way. “Thank the Goddess, Nic. I’ve missed you
so much.”
He floated toward me, and my arms ached to wrap around him, but his body was still made of
mist. As he crowded into my personal space, though, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a certain
mass and heat to him that I hadn’t felt before.
“I’m here, mon amour. Perhaps not for long, but the mist knows you need my help. It wants you to
succeed, Kana. The ancestors need you to save the city.”
My heart beat faster as I noticed I could actually hear the words as he spoke, his rich, cultured
voice echoing in my ears as well as my mind now. He was so much stronger than when he’d first
found me through the mist, but still so much less than alive.
 “I’m trying, Nic,” I said, also trying not to sound whiny. “I was feeling pretty great about
protecting the commoners and fighting off the gobbelins. Making nice with the wolves - I’m doing all
the same tasks the mist set us during the Trials to prove our worthiness. I’m gathering an army and
protecting my people. Solving riddles and puzzles to unravel hidden history. Why isn’t it enough?”
“You need the magic,” he said simply, and I huffed. “And you can only gain the magic by winning
the Trial. Be ready, mon amour. The mist will call the final Trial soon, and you will be tested to your
limits. You will need a sacrifice.”
My heart lurched.
This was the only piece of the Trial lore that Grand-mère had been allowed to share with me - the
final sacrifice.
“She... is she still alive? Grand-mère?” I managed, my throat squeezing closed around the words.
Merden had been waiting for something - had the time finally come when Valda wasn’t useful to her?
“Valda is not in the mist,” Nicolas said simply, and I breathed a little easier.
“Can you go to her? In the mountains? I need her help, Nic. I need to know what she knows about
the magic. About the book. We were supposed to be able to meet-”
“I will go,” he said, cutting off my desperate words with a soft smile. “The mist is already
gathering its power to send me. I can feel its intentions - the ancestors will intervene as much as they
can. The vampires must live, Kana. Saori Sang must be saved.”
My shoulders sagged with the weight of what was being asked of me.
The ancestors in the mist could only do so much from their resting place. But so could I only do so
much in the face of so many problems and challenges.
“Goddamn her. Goddamn Merden,” I whispered, and Nicolas tilted his head down until his
forehead rested against mine, halfway solid.
“You will be Queen, but you must have the magic to save the city. To save Acadian,” Nic added,
and a gasp slipped from my lips.
“What can I do? What can I do now?” I begged my aima, even as the mist seemed to be pulling
him away. Too soon. Always too fucking soon.
“Protect the city. Love him. Remember,” Nic said, the final word trailing into a whisper as he
dissolved back into the smoky essence of the mist.
“Remember,” I echoed, feeling a mix of sadness and frustration. Remember what?
How could I remember things I’d never learned?
 CHAPTER SEVEN
UCA
L We’d been all over this fucking lake, and no sign of gobbelins.
Well, according to the trackers, there was no sign. But I couldn’t shake the instinct in me that
said we were in the right place. I also imagined I could still smell Kana here, though I knew that was
pretty impossible.
“We’re gonna have to dive eventually,” I told Vento as we watched several ice wolves filling in
the grid of holes we’d dug searching for any sign of an underground entrance. He was meticulous, for
sure. But none of the wolves seemed keen to go in the icy water.
“Are you volunteering, pup?” Vento asked, his voice tired despite the front of endless energy he
was putting on for the others.
“I just don’t see any of us surviving that. Kana’s a vampire. They’re attuned to that level of cold,
and Kingston said she barely made it out alive.”
“Don’t give me a problem without a viable solution,” Vento growled, showing his teeth at me. We
were both half-shifted to make use of our hands to mark a crude map but keep the advantage of the
wolves’ thick coats. It was something I’d never seen lesser shifters manage for long, but the ice
wolves’ power was different, and I’d picked up the skill quickly with Vento’s instruction.
“Well, can you survive it? Now that the wolves have the amulet again?” I asked, wondering
exactly what sort of ice magic Vento could access.
He tilted his head, considering. “Possibly. Depends on how long it took to find whatever you think
is down there. I don’t suppose you’ve shared blood with Kana?”
My teeth bared at her name on his lips, but I nodded. “She gave me blood once when the alpha left
me to die. And she’s tasted me plenty,” I boasted, unable to help myself. Being around another strong
male wolf was bringing out the worst parts of my instinctive posturing and competition, even though I
knew Vento wasn’t against me.
“Do you consider her your mate? Does she think that of you?” Vento pressed, and I glared at him.
“What the fuck business is it of yours?” I did consider Kana my mate, but we certainly hadn’t
done any kind of vampire aima claiming, or whatever the ice wolves did, either.
“Pity,” Vento said, guessing at the answer I wasn’t giving him. “You could be the first werewolf in
generations, if you’d claimed each other as mates.”
My mouth hung open, considering the possibility. The old alpha had said werewolves were
forbidden, because of the damage they’d done to the relationship between the ice wolves and the
vampires, all those years ago. But he wasn’t alpha anymore, and Vento seemed more than open to the
possibilities.
“Would that give me the same magic as the vampires?” I asked, and Vento shrugged.
“As far as I’ve been able to learn, yes. You’d just be stronger physically. And probably less
strong magically, to even it all out.”
“I can’t fucking mate with her now,” I snarled suddenly, the fucking contract I’d taken with
Merden to kill Kana rearing up accusingly in my mind. If I even got near enough to see Kana - to
smell her - I’d go ape-shit crazy trying to kill her. And if I tasted her blood?
Fuck.
“There has to be another way,” I said firmly, slamming the door on the idea.
Vento chuckled. “I wasn’t suggesting you run your furry ass to her right now, pup. I was
wondering if the two of you had exchanged enough blood already to activate at least some of the
werewolf magic.”
“Oh.” I felt like an idiot now that he’d explained himself fully.
“Work on your patience, Luca. You jump to conclusions before you’ve heard even half the story.
Now, go test out the water and report back. Take two of the others and use the climbing ropes we
brought. Use the wolf speak if you need to be hauled up.”
I bit down on another growl. His plan had already been made when he’d started his questions.
There had been no need to make me look stupid, except for to point out where I was lacking.
That’s what alphas do for their pack, pup. Vento’s voice seared into my mind through the wolf
speak bond, and I staggered away from him, down toward the ice-covered lake. I never had been
good at keeping my mind closed to vampire magic, and I’d been even less successful keeping my
thoughts away from Vento’s alpha powers.
“I’m going in,” I called to the two wolves closest to the edge of the lake, and they nodded,
glancing up at Vento on the ridge. They grew still, and I could sense them receiving information from
him through the bond.
Shifting all the way to my wolf form, I closed my eyes and tried to locate the source of my power,
deep in my chest. It was the same place I’d once tried to access the vampire magic, when I’d thought I
was part vampire. And to my surprise, there was actually an icy center to the flame of the wolf.
It was small, but it was there. I sent a quick prayer to any Goddess who might be listening, asking
that the spark of ice magic would be enough to keep me from freezing and drowning in this deep, dark
lake.
After the wolves tied several lengths of rope together and looped them securely around my waist,
I stepped carefully out onto the ice, keeping low so I didn’t get forced under the water too soon. It
creaked beneath my paws, but it held. I belly-crawled toward the center, remembering that’s where
Kana had found the box containing the Book of Ice.
She’d told me about speaking to the water elemental, Gola, and she’d described how Gola must
have traveled through underground aquifers to reach the lake from wherever she’d been before. This
meant there were openings deep in the lake bed, and that meant there could be passage to the
gobbelins.
I reached the center of the lake, snow piled halfway up my four legs. Peering back toward Vento, I
tried to send him a question, asking what I might be looking for and prolonging the reality of needing
to get in the water.
I never heard any reply, because the ice cracked and gave way beneath me, plunging me down,
down into the icy water.
Clamping down on my instinct to open my snout or gasp for air, I locked up my limbs and allowed
myself to sink below the ice. My eyes scanned the swirling depths, looking in vain for anything out of
the ordinary. Very little light reached under the ice, though, and the bottom was too shadowy and far
away to examine.
I needed to get deeper.
My wolf coat was warm, but it was heavy, resisting the feeble attempts at my paws to tread
deeper. I needed hands and feet to kick down into the water. Gritting my teeth against the onslaught of
cold without my fur, I shifted into a human form and dove straight down, lungs already screaming at
me that I was going the wrong direction.
There!
What was that?
 Swirling darkness was drawing my attention to the left, where it was darker than the rest of the
water. But sparkling, too, like the night sky full of stars.
I swiveled and pushed deeper, my eyes bulging with the effort of searching the lake bed.
My air was gone. I was pushing forward on pure adrenaline and the terror of failure. Kicking
harder, I finally felt my fingers scrape the bottom of the lake. Grasping a large rock, I pulled myself
flush with the darkness, wriggling my legs against the sensation of tickling plants against my skin.
Oh, fuck me. That wasn’t a plant.
I turned my head just in time to see the ropes that had been secure around my wolf form slip away
into the dark water. Holy hell. My human form was smaller, and I’d just kicked off my only way out of
this lake.
Panic flooded my mind, and my mouth opened, trying to suck in oxygen that wasn’t there. I
screamed wordlessly as I tried to cough out the water, but it was too late.
I writhed and kicked desperately toward the surface, but something had caught my leg. Something
was pulling me back down, yanking me against the bottom of the lake. I fought to get away, blackness
edging into my field of vision. Then a surge of electricity jolted around my body, locking my muscles
out straight and stiff.
I felt myself being pulled through what could only be a magical barrier, even though I’d never felt
anything like it in my life. That same electrical current skimmed over my skin, popping and sizzling as
I was dropped in a heap on my hands and knees, gasping for breath.
And to my complete surprise, I was getting air. My lungs burned as I hacked up the icy water, but I
was breathing air.
Finally, I managed to raise my head and look around me. I was in some sort of cave, lined with
shimmering black stone that still looked like the night sky. There was a wide pool of water next to me,
and I gaped at the magic crackling across its surface.
Between the strands of silvery magic, I glimpsed the lake bed, and deeper in, the bottom of the ice
I’d fallen through, a patch of sky still showing beyond the jagged hole. It was like I was in an upside-
down room beneath the bottom of the lake.
Gravity was inverted, and impossibly, the lake bed was on the opposite side of the floor of this
cave. My mind spun trying to take it all in.
“Who are you?” a female voice hissed behind me, and I whipped toward it, shifting halfway back
to my wolf form to hide my naked vulnerability.
A woman stood before me, tall and regal. She was beautiful and looked young, but somehow I
sensed she was much older than she appeared. Her hood covered her ears, though she smelled like
fae.
“Luca,” I said, coughing around the word as the rest of the water cleared my lungs. She watched
me silently with cold eyes. As I slowly acclimated to the idea that I hadn’t drowned, my body eased
up enough for me to take in more of my surroundings. Including the wall of gobbelins waiting silently
in the dark - I hadn’t noticed them before, but as my eyes adjusted, I stumbled to two feet, feeling the
fur prickle up around my waist, legs, and all the way up my back.
Fear surged through me, mixed with triumph.
I found them, I called to Vento through the wolf speak, but the words bounced like echoes in my
mind, and there was no reply. Whatever magic made that barrier was blocking mine.
Still, I’d found the gobbelins. This had to be where they were passing into Saori Sang - and they
were working with the fae, by the looks of it. But I wouldn’t be able to warn Vento or Kana unless I
got out of here alive. I straightened, measuring the woman before me.
 Could I fight her? Could I be fast enough to get away, and could I make it through that magical
barrier on my own merit? It was so fucking cold down here - much worse than the water. My muscles
were still cramped up and weak from the lack of oxygen and the strain of swimming hard. And
regardless of the woman’s power, there was no way I could fight so many gobbelins.
The woman suddenly laughed, and the sound reminded me of insects scuttling across dry leaves.
“Well, Luca. You stink of shifter, but also of my son. Lachlan. Bring him home to me, wolf, and I will
consider sparing your vampire princess when I come for her city. She is what you truly want, yes?”
“Lachlan?” I repeated, my teeth chattering around the word. I knew the name, but my mind was
too fucking slow, shutting down as the extreme cold threatened to pull me below conscious thought.
Or was it the glittering magic swirling from her fingers toward me? And how did she know I wanted
Kana more than anything else in life?
“Bring Lachlan to me without delay,” she repeated, and then a blinding burst of her dark magic
shot through the air, propelling me down through the crackling magical barrier and back into the
freezing water where I tumbled head over heels. The force of her magic whipped my head forward
like a blow from a sword, stealing the last of my energy as I realized I had no idea which way was
up. I felt myself slipping down into the black nothingness of unconsciousness.
It was just too cold. Too much. Too far.
I had nothing left.
 CHAPTER EIGHT
ANA
K Rush and Kas had already chosen a blood slave when they sent for me to begin our first
effort at curing the coma-like state they were in.
“I’m really glad you chose an empty room,” I said as soon as the young vampire who had led me
there was gone. The blood slave had been through enough - she didn’t need to see my father’s
gruesome laboratory or the inside of the dungeon room where Merden had done her work, either.
“We... chose a strong one,” Rush said, his lips set in a grim line. I heard the unspoken thought -
neither of them had wanted to risk beginning with Acadian, and neither of them was certain any of this
would work.
“I haven’t found any new spells,” I admitted, already feeling defeated.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I thought we might have to start with a simple reversal of what
Merden did,” Kas said, anger lacing his determined words.
“This vampire has veins full of winter rabbit blood,” Rush elaborated.
“So... you were going to drain her, then re-feed with... something like fox blood?” I asked, my
stomach turning at the idea of repeating Merden’s techniques. Just because our intentions were nobler,
it didn’t make this any less of a cruel experiment.
Kas nodded, sighing. “I questioned Jillian further, but of course, Merden never tried anything to
reverse the damage.”
“And she hasn’t woken at all?” I confirmed, touching my fingers to the girl’s wrist. She was cold,
even for a vampire. I frowned, thinking that veins full of animal blood should make her warmer.
“She’s been reportedly unconscious since before Merden fled,” Rush said.
“Well, I guess we need to start somewhere,” I agreed after a beat of silence. I had no better ideas.
Kas looked haunted as he helped Rush set up the necessary equipment for draining her blood, and
then readied the container of fox shifter blood that they must have taken from Girard’s shelves.
“Careful of the fin de vie,” I warned, although I knew they would be. If we took the final drop of
her blood by accident, she would die no matter what we filled her veins with.
The process took barely an hour, and we sat in silence the entire time, each of us lost in our own
thoughts.
“How long should we wait?” I asked as the last drop of fox blood drained into the girl’s arm.
“Jillian mentioned that Merden first waited several days between the steps, but that many of the
slaves were already so broken that their minds went much quicker,” Kas said, halting between the
words as though he didn’t want to say them out loud.
“Fuck, I hate her,” I murmured, sweeping a bit of the girl’s limp black hair away from her face.
“I suspect the guards were engaging in their own brands of torture with anyone captured,” Rush
added in a low voice. I winced, thinking of the sexual assault Jax had tried to describe. My heart
would always hurt for the cruelty they had faced, just for being childhood friends with me.
“There is no fate in this world horrific enough for that woman,” Kas said, turning away and
walking to the room’s window. It was one of the vacant nobles’ rooms, and I was surprised they’d
found the space.
“How are the others? In the ballroom?” I asked Rush, needing to pass the time without thinking
about how much I wanted to kill Merden. I’d been thinking of little else for a decade.
“Nearly all the injured citizens are recovering, some faster than others. The ice wolves sustained
remarkably few injuries from the gobbelins, and they have preferred to tend their wounds outside the
palace. The vampires seem less threatened with that, as well.” He continued to describe a few odd
cases, his voice soothing me without asking anything back. I leaned into him, thanking him silently,
and he wrapped an arm around my shoulder.
The girl on the bed began to cough, and we snapped to attention.
Her eyes were still closed, but choking coughs racked her thin body, growing worse and worse
each second.
“Can we sedate her?” I cried, scanning the room. But this was Haret, not an emergency room on
Earth. We had very little medical equipment and no mage to make potions for pain.
Rush laid hands on her chest, his energy magic pulsing in golden waves through her skin, but his
eyes met mine. His expression told me the worst.
“Her body is rejecting the blood,” I guessed, and he nodded.
The girl’s coughs grew more violent, and blood began to bubble between her lips. Kas moaned
wordlessly as more blood streamed from behind her closed eyelids, and the veins on her wrists split
wide again, soaking the bandages we’d just placed.
We all watched helplessly as the girl quickly bled out on the bed before us, soaking the blanket in
seconds.
And we were equally helpless as the mist swirled into the room, silent and inevitable. It floated
across her body, dissolving flesh and bone and accepting her spirit into its gray depths.
“She’s with your ancestors now. At peace, without pain,” Rush whispered, and I knew he was
trying to help. The poor girl deserved peace, of course.
But she deserved to live even more.
“Fuck!” Kas shouted, tossing the empty blood container and all our instruments against the walls
in a crash and clatter of rage. He stormed out of the room, and I thought it was better not to follow him
yet.
Then again, he was probably headed to Jillian’s cell, and I didn’t trust him not to kill her after
this.
I vaulted over the mess and sprinted down the hall after him.
“Kassian!” I yelled down the corridor, ignoring the stares of several vampires who had been
wandering the halls. Opening up my speed, I quickly overtook him, grabbing him by the arms and
shoving him against the stone wall.
“Let me go, Kana - I’m going to cut it out of her if I have to,” he cried, fighting against my hold.
For several seconds, we scuffled. He threw rage-blind punches and slashed at me with open fangs.
But I was faster, and I was stronger.
“We will solve this. But not like this, Kas. Not like this. We’re still in the Trials,” I panted,
subduing him in a chokehold. Thank the Goddess we’d turned down a narrow, empty hall where no
curious vampires could watch their future queen and king try to claw each other to pieces.
Kas gave up his fight all at once, slumping down into my arms with a sob.
“Ren,” he heaved. “I owe him this much, Kana.”
“We will help them, I promise. I just... I just have to learn more. We can keep them alive, Kas.
When I get the Ancient Magic, I can heal them. I know it. But we have to wait - we can’t subvert the
rules of the Trial.” I was rambling, and he was barely listening, lost in his own grief and guilt.
I hated the words falling out of my mouth, too. Why would the mist give me a taste of the magic,
but withhold the necessary pieces to truly help people? All I’d learned was more ways to kill. Surely
our Ancient Magic could heal as well as destroy.
 If the vampires’ only true power was destruction, I didn’t want it back in Saori Sang.
Like the spring after winter, only after destruction can the rebirth begin, a sinuous female voice
echoed in my mind. Khione.
Clutching Kas to my chest while he raged through his emotions, I called to the Goddess living in
my veins. She’d been silent too long.
Can you help us? Surely, not everything must be destroyed all the way to death. Haven’t these
slaves already been destroyed enough? Where’s their rebirth? Don’t they deserve that, at least?
I knew my own rage was filtering into my words, and I hoped Khione wasn’t the type to exact
vengeance on the very person who was hosting her. We needed to work together, just like the mist and
I had.
Better, actually.
The mist only gave me the answers it wanted to, regardless of how many questions I asked.
Khione? Please. Help us, I begged her in my mind. Kas’s rage had begun to quiet, and he buried
his face deeper against my neck, seeking quiet comfort now.
Go read the book again. I will try, the Goddess promised after a moment of silence. And for
once, her voice wasn’t filled with daggers of solid ice.
 CHAPTER NINE
ANA
K I tried to coax more from the Book of Ice for hours.
Rush had commandeered Kas to help him care for more of the palace’s newest residents,
keeping him distracted. Valanga and Blaise had reported no further gobbelin activity since the last
fight. The mist hadn’t been active enough to notice its presence, and I’d heard nothing from Nicolas,
or from Luca and Vento.
So I took advantage of the reprieve and holed myself up in my room - the new one - and flipped
the pages of that infernal spell book forward and backward, willing more words to appear with every
scrap of hope I had left and every bit of magic I knew.
“Fucking empty!” I yelled after I’d been at it for hours, slamming the book closed and barely
resisting throwing it across the room. Even Khione was silent in my head.
I was beginning to fear that even if I gained more spells, maybe the ice magic simply wasn’t made
to counter the blood magic Merden wielded. I knew even less about the power she’d discovered. It
had been forbidden and forgotten longer than anyone I knew had been alive, and there were no books
on blood magic in the palace - we’d searched all the likely places. Merden’s and Girard’s rooms had
been cleaned out, and the lab and libraries held nothing suspicious.
The only clues we had were the vast collection of different blood types in the lab, and the state of
the unconscious slaves.
Ice magic could certainly destroy a mind and even force an action if the vampire was strong
enough, but I’d never known it to hold a mind endlessly captive the way the blood slaves seemed to
be, locked away from the world and whatever was happening to them. A mage’s potion could keep
them this way, but I’d never known one to last so long. It had to be the blood magic.
Part of me knew it was a blessing that the slaves might not be aware of how they’d been treated,
but now that they were safe, this was no way to live.
Just as I’d gotten to my feet to begin pacing again, grumbling to myself, my bedroom door opened.
“I can feel your mind spinning from the hallway,” Kas said, raising his eyebrows at me as he
stepped inside, master of his emotions again. Rush was right behind him, and something in me
steadied at the sight of them both.
“Nothing is working,” I grumbled, gesturing to the closed book on the bed.
“Your energy is nearly depleted, love. As your prophet, I must predict that if you don’t replenish,
horrible things might happen.” Rush grinned to show me he was teasing, but there was a glint in his
eyes that told me he was also serious about the suggestion.
“Yeah, take a break, princess. Things are somehow under control and stable right now - take
advantage of it before something else goes wrong,” Kas said.
I snorted a laugh. “Optimism at its best. But maybe you’re both right. The new moon isn’t for three
days - the mist won’t call the final Trial before then. We have eyes on everything we can, right?” I
asked, and they both nodded.
“Valanga is superb, and Blaise has agreed to watch the blood slaves for a while,” Rush added.
“Besides... I may have taken a bit of time to explore the palace earlier and put my special stamp on
your home.”
It was my turn to raise my eyebrows. When had he found time to do that? “This place hasn’t felt
like home in a long time,” I said with a sigh, instead of asking where he’d found the energy to
redecorate.
“It will,” Rush assured me, reaching for my hands. “Now. Will you give in to your prophet’s
advice, love?”
Relenting, I let him pull me into the hall. Kas trailed close behind as Rush wove a path through
back hallways and concealed staircases, proving he really had explored well. Then again, he’d spent
years here as Saint Laurent, able to glamor himself invisible.
My heart beat faster when we arrived at the bottom of a staircase in a far corner of the palace. “I
know where this leads,” I whispered. Nicolas, Cade, Luca, and I had once used this empty tower for
our mischief - and it held a few more recent memories as well. Of all the places in the palace Rush
could have chosen, this tower really was the most mine.
I turned to smile up at him, and he gave a small bow as Kas unlocked the carved wooden door.
Rush pulled me up the ancient stairs, and as we rose, I began to smell impossible spring flowers
and hear the trickling of water that had no business being on top of a tower.
“Oh my Goddess,” I breathed, as my fae opened the door to the tower balcony, revealing a true
fairy bower under the stars.
He’d somehow rearranged the world to look like we were in a small clearing in an enchanted
forest, with lush, glossy blossoms open to the night air and springy moss beneath my feet. Vines
crawled up the tower walls and dripped overhead, twining around the railing to enclose us even
more. A tiny brook sprang from nowhere in the side of the wall, shining and bubbling as it wound
through the moss, cascading over the edge of the balcony into the air.
“All for my Lady of the Night,” Rush said, giving me a lopsided grin.
“This is beautiful,” I said, letting him pull me down onto the moss. He knelt to remove my boots,
motioning for Kas to sit behind me. They were working so well together that it was obvious they’d
made a plan before finding me, and I was here for it.
Rush slid my loose tunic over my head, baring my breasts to the moons above. “Relax, love. Let
your body be still while I clear and balance your energy.”
I eyed the fae as Kas pulled me down onto my back with my head in his lap. I debated whether to
ask if that was a new way of saying orgasm, but a different sort of moan left my lips when Rush began
to massage the soles of my bare feet. Relaxing took zero effort as Kas and Rush slowly finished
undressing me, massaging each muscle as it was revealed to the sweetly-scented night air.
“Pleasure - a kind of love - is always more powerful than fear,” Rush counseled in a soft,
soothing voice as he produced a bottle of warming oil. He poured a generous amount into my thief’s
hands, then more into his own. “But there is more to pleasure than sex. Do you remember your first
assignment from me? To find desire in small doses. Tonight, let pleasure flow through you like the
river, fortifying and quenching, rather than the crashing, sucking waters of orgasm.”
Kas smoothed the oil over my shoulders and down my arms, the silky warmth enveloping me like
a blanket of finest satin. After a speech like that, I was open to anything my men were ready to give
me.
Rush began to do the same motion with his palms on my legs, their hands reaching toward each
other in the middle as though they were brushing all the energy toward my heart. Rush began to speak
softly, guiding me deeper under his special kind of spell.
“Close your eyes and breathe deeply, imagining your breath comes from the ground, through the
soles of your feet. Up your body, through each magical center, and flows out through the top of your
head. The magic of Haret’s land, flowing through your body.”
Kas began to massage the oil into my temples, then my scalp as I breathed in and out, visualizing
what Rush asked.
“Now, reverse the magic. Breathe from the top of your head, bringing in the magic of the triple
moons and letting it flow down through your limbs and out of your feet. You connect the land to the
sky. You are the conduit of power. Root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown.” Rush
touched each of my energy centers as he named them from bottom to top, pressing his palms into my
skin.
I gasped, feeling the energy surging beneath his touch, responding to his fae magic and my own
focusing. He drew the power up from the mossy ground, into the soles of my feet and up through each
swirling part of my body, then out of the crown of my head and back again in reverse.
“I feel it,” I whispered, my body feeling lighter and stronger than I’d felt in a long time. Resilient.
Supported. I was the magic of Haret’s quiet land and night sky. It was lush, dark, and sparkling with
hidden possibility, just like the forest at midnight under full moon energy.
In my mind’s eye, the darkness of my vampire ice magic glittered with crystals of power, and I
began to see how Khione fit so perfectly within my power. She enhanced it, shaped it, and pushed it
higher the way the winter wind tore through the mountain peas.
She’d chosen to incarnate in me, and I’d agreed to host her, but so far, I hadn’t really invited her
to show me what she could do. We’d taken turns, but we hadn’t really worked together yet.
“Release,” Rush said, his hands sliding up and down my body, linking the energy together in a
column of power within me. I felt both hollow and filled with magic at the same time - I was the
conduit.
“Your skin...” Kas murmured, his voice laced with a hint of wonder and an undertone of fear. I
wanted to look, to see what he saw, but my eyes felt pinned shut, all my focus on the energy rocking
back and forth in my body. My skin felt cooler than even a vampire’s skin should, but it wasn’t
uncomfortable.
“The Goddess rises in you. Welcome, Khione,” Rush said softly. “Release her, Kana. Feel her
power unleash. She was bound to you for a reason - let the magic follow your intentions.”
I let go even more of my instinctive tight control, feeling the dizzying, biting cold of Khione’s
power welling up inside me. My intentions were to heal the slaves. To survive, and help my people
flourish.
But that wasn’t what burst from my body when Khione finally stepped forward.
A cry bled from my mouth as my muscles clenched in freezing pain, trying to pull back her
influence. My eyes flew open in time to see the gorgeous flowers Rush had created wither and die
under an icy wind that seemed to blow from somewhere deep within me.
“I’m so sorry, Rush!” I cried, trying to sit up, but he pressed harder against my chest, right over
my heart.
“Trust her,” he begged, and his eyes rolled back enough that I feared he was seeing another
prophecy. I stopped struggling against him, my hands grasping his and my eyes finding Kas above me.
He looked like he was on the edge of panic, barely stopping himself from reacting.
And my skin... he was right. I looked down at my naked body, gaping at the deep black of my skin,
laced all over with icy blue veins that gleamed and shimmered in the night.
I was another creature. I was no longer myself, and that scared me more than any gobbelin ever
had.
Rush wanted my intentions, but it looked like Khione had her own to manifest. I couldn’t control
her, and that terrified me.
Wrenching myself from the clinging fingers of my men, I scrambled to my feet. The frozen moss
broke beneath my feet, crunching into dust as I backed away from Rush. The stream was a slick
dagger spearing through the brittle leaves.
“Something isn’t right. Th-this is too much,” I stammered, shaking my head and regretting the
destruction Khione had spread across my beautiful gift from Rush.
I wanted to believe in the metaphor of winter giving birth to spring, but looking at the death
spread around me, life seemed so far away. How could rebirth come from this ruined garden?
Ignoring Rush and Kas calling after me, I turned and sped down the tower stairs, fleeing blindly
through the halls until I found the one place I’d been too cowardly to spend time in. Locking Khione’s
power tightly back in my chest, I opened the door to my old bedroom, where we’d brought Acadian
once he seemed stable, hiding him from any more harm.
He slept there like one of the silent princesses of Earth’s fairy tales, but no kiss from me had been
able to wake him.
Climbing into the bed with Cade, I wrapped my chilled, shivering body in a thick blanket and
huddled against my aima, whispering promises that I would find a way to free his mind from the
frozen, blank world it lived in. I wouldn’t let Khione shatter what was left of him, in the hopes that
something might one day grow again.
Acadian had survived enough experiments. I wouldn’t let him suffer another.
Another random document with
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minulta kaikki neljä, juuri sinä! Miksi piti sinun juuri sillä hetkellä
ratsastaa rannalla, miksi piti sinun tervehtiä Brentalla soutavia? Sen
teit sinä syöstäksesi minut turmioon. Kuuletko?»

»Kohtalo!» vastasi Ezzelino.

»Kohtaloko», huusi vanha Vicedomini. »Tähdistä lukemista,

loihtimista, salaliittoja ja mestauksia, naisten heittäytymistä torneista
katukiviin ja tuhanten nuolten lävistämien, sotaratsujen selästä
kaatuneiden nuorukaisten surmaa mielettömissä, uhkarohkeissa
taisteluissasi, sitä on hallituksesi ja toimintasi ollut, sinä kirottu
Ezzelino. Veriselle tiellesi johdat meidät kaikki, sinun läheisyydessäsi
muuttuu elämä ja kuolema väkivaltaiseksi ja luonnottomaksi, eikä
kukaan enää heitä henkeään katuvaisena kristittynä
kuolinvuoteellaan.»

»Teet minulle väärin», sanoi Ezzelino. »Minulla ei tosin ole kirkon

kanssa mitään tekemistä, olen sen suhteen välinpitämätön, mutta en
ole milloinkaan estänyt sinua tai vertaisiasi yhteydestä sen kanssa.
Sen kyllä tiedät, muuten et uskaltaisi lähettää kirjeitä pyhälle
paavinistuimelle. Mitä siinä paraikaa hypistelet käsissäsi, piiloitatko
paavin sinettiä? Onko siinä sinun synninpäästösi, vai kirjekö se on?
Anna tänne! Kirje, tosiaankin! Saanko sen lukea? Sinä sallit.
Suosijasi, pyhä isä, kirjoittaa sinulle, että jos sukusi neljänteen ja
viimeiseen poikaasi, munkkiin, saakka sammuisi, vapautetaan tämä
ipse facto munkkilupauksistaan siinä tapauksessa, että hän palaa
maailmaan omasta vapaasta tahdostaan. Viekas kettu, paljonko
kultaa tämä pergamentti on sinulle maksanut?»

»Ilkutko minulle», valitti vanhus itkien. »Saatoinko muuta tehdä

toisen ja kolmannen poikani kuoltua? Ketä varten minä olisin
koonnut ja säästänyt? Madoilleko, vai ehkä sinulle? Tahdotko
ryöstää omaisuuteni? Jollet, niin auta sitten minua, kummi», —
ollessaan vielä pannaan julistamaton, oli Ezzelino nostanut
kasteesta Vicedominin kolmannen pojan, joka sittemmin
taistelukentällä uhrasi henkensä hänen puolestaan — »auta minua
tekemään munkki taas maallikoksi ja saamaan hänet naimisiin,
käske hänen niin tehdä, sinä kaikkivaltias, anna minulle siten
korvaus pojastani, jonka surmasit. Auta minua, jos välität minusta.»

»Se ei ole minun asiani», vastasi tyranni tuntematta pienintäkään

mielenliikutusta. »Hän ratkaiskoon asian itse. ’Vapaaehtoisesti’
sanotaan kirjeessä. Miksi pitäisi hänen jättää alansa, jos hän on
hyvä munkki, kuten uskon. Senkö vuoksi, ettei Vicedominien suku
sammuisi?

»Sinä lasteni murhaaja, kyllä huomaan, mitä tahdot. Toivot

periväsi minut, voidaksesi minun rahoillani käydä järjetöntä sotaasi»,
sähisi vanhus, raivoten vihassaan. Samassa hän huomasi miniänsä,
joka epäröivän munkin edellä kulkien oli tullut näkyviin palvelijoiden
joukosta ja astunut kynnyksen yli. Huolimatta ruumiillisesta
heikkoudestaan riensi vanhus häntä vastaan horjuvin askelin, tarttui
hänen käsiinsä ja tempoi niitä kuin vaatien Dianaa edesvastuuseen
onnettomuudesta, joka oli kohdannut heitä molempia. »Minne olet
jättänyt poikani, Diana», läähätti hän.

»Hän makaa Brentan pohjassa», vastasi nuori nainen surullisena

ja hänen siniset silmänsä tummenivat.

»Missä ovat kolme pojanpoikaani?»

»Brentassa», toisti Diana.

 »Sinustako saan korvausta. Sinut kai saan pitää», nauroi vanhus
kaameasti.

»Jos Kaikkivaltiaan tahto olisi niin ollut», vastasi Diana hitaasti,

»kuljettaisivat joen aallot nyt minua ja omaisesi seisoisivat edessäsi
minun sijastani.»

Diana vaikeni. Sitten valtasi hänet äkkiä kiivas viha. »Jos

läsnäoloni sinua vaivaa, niin kysele Astorrelta. Olin jo kuollut, mutta
hän nosti minut hiuksista haudan syvyydestä takaisin elämään.»

Vanhus huomasi nyt vasta poikansa, munkin, ja hänen

ajatuskykynsä palasi niin nopeasti ja varmasti, että katkera
vaikeroiminen näkyi sitä vaan terästäneen eikä lamauttaneen.

»Todellako. Hänkö pelasti sinut Brentasta. Hm, merkillistä! Herran

tiet ovat sittenkin ihmeelliset.»

Hän tarttui munkin käsivarteen ja olkapäähän, kuin olisi hän

tahtonut saada valtaansa sekä hänen ruumiinsa että sielunsa ja
laahasi hänet mukanaan nojatuolinsa luo, johon hän vaipui puristaen
yhä poikansa käsivartta. Diana seurasi heitä, lankesi polvilleen
istuimen toiselle puolelle käsivarret riipuksissa, mutta kädet ristissä,
ja painoi päänsä tuolin käsinojaan, niin että ainoastaan elottomalta
esineeltä näyttävä vaalea hiussykkyrä jäi näkyviin. Tätä ryhmää
vastapäätä istui Ezzelino nojaten oikealla kädellään kääröllä olevaan
paavin kirjeeseen kuin valtikkaansa ikään.

»Poikani, poikani», marisi vanhus tulvillaan yhtaikaa todellista ja

teennäistä hellyyttä, »ainoa ja viimeinen toivoni, vanhuuteni tuki ja
sauva, ethän toki sinä murtune näihin vapiseviin käsiini.
Ymmärräthän», jatkoi hän jo kuivemmalla ja asiallisemmalla
äänensävyllä, »ett’et voi enää jäädä luostariin, kun asian laita kerta
kaikkiaan on näin. Poikaseni, onhan toki kirkonsääntöjen mukaista,
eikö niin, että luostarin päällikkö sallii munkin erota, jonka isä on
köyhtynyt tai taudin näännyttämä, että poika voisi viljellä
perintötilaansa ja elättää isäänsä. Minulle sinä olet vielä paljon
välttämättömämpi. Kun eivät veljesi eivätkä veljenpoikasi enää ole
elossa, olet sinä tästälähtien kantava sukumme elämänsoihtua. Sinä
olet liekki, jonka minä olen sytyttänyt, ja mitä hyötyä on minulla siitä,
että se luostarikammiossa sammuu ja häviää. Minä voin sinulle
sanoa», — hän oli huomannut lempeissä, ruskeissa silmissä
vilpitöntä myötätuntoa ja munkin kunnioittava käytös näytti lupaavan
nöyrää kuuliaisuutta — »olen sairaampi kuin luuletkaan. Eikö niin,
Isaskar?» Hän kääntyi taakseen laihan olennon puoleen, joka pieni
pullo ja lusikka kädessä oli hiljaa tullut eräästä sivuovesta ja
asettunut vanhuksen tuolin taakse ja nyt nyökäytti myöntävästi
kalpeata päätään. »Aikani on pian lähteä, mutta sanon sinulle,
Astorre, että ell’et täytä toivomustani, kieltäytyy isä-raukkasi
astumasta tuonen purteen ja jää kyyryssä istumaan hämärän
tuville.»

Munkki silitti hellästi vanhuksen kuumeista kättä, mutta sanoi

kuitenkin lujana: »muista munkkilupaustani.»

Ezzelino kääri auki kirjeen.

»Munkkilupaustasi», alkoi vanha Vicedomini mairitella. »Höllä

solmu! Katkaistu kahle! Kun vain liikahdat, niin se putoaa. Pyhä
kirkko, jota sinun tulee kuulla ja kunnioittaa, julistaa ne mitättömiksi
ja olemattomiksi. Tuosta voit lukea.» Hänen kuihtunut sormensa
osoitti paavin sinetillä vahvistettua pergamenttia.
 Munkki lähestyi kunnioittavana hallitsijaa, sai häneltä kirjoituksen
ja luki sen kahden silmäparin tarkkaamana. Hänen päätään pyörrytti
ja hän astui askeleen taaksepäin, kuin olisi hän seisonut tornin
huipulla ja tuntenut kaidepuiden äkkiä siirtyvän.

Ezzelino tuli horjuvan avuksi lyhyesti kysymällä: »Munkki, kenelle

olet lupauksesi tehnyt, itsellesikö vai kirkolle?»

»Molemmille tietysti», huusi vanhus suuttuneena. »Tuo on vain

kirottua viisastelua. Poikaseni, ole varuillasi hänen suhteensa, hän
tahtoo tehdä meidät keppikerjäläisiksi.»

Tuntematta mitään vihaa vannoi Ezzelino tarttuen partaansa: »kun

Vicedomini kuolee, perii hänen poikansa munkki hänet ja perustaa,
siinä tapauksessa että suku sammuu häneen ja hän rakastaa minua
ja synnyinkaupunkiaan, laajan ja suurenmoisen vaivaistalon, josta
kaikki sata kaupunkia» — hän tarkoitti Italian kaupunkeja — »tulevat
meitä kadehtimaan. No, kummi, kun et minua enää voi syyttää
saaliinhimosta, sallinet minun tehdä munkille vielä pari kysymystä.
Suostutko?»

Vanhuksen valtasi nyt sellainen kiukku, että hän sai kouristuksia,

mutta hän ei kuitenkaan päästänyt munkin kättä, johon hän taas oli
tarttunut.

Isaskar kohotti varovasti hänen kalpeille huulilleen

väkevänhajuisella nesteellä täytetyn lusikan. Kituva vanhus jaksoi
tuskin kääntää pois päätään. »Jätä minut rauhaan, sinä olet
voudinkin lääkäri», voihki hän sulkien silmänsä.

Juutalainen katsoi tyranniin kiiltävän mustine, viisaine silmineen,

ikäänkuin pyytäen vanhuksen epäluuloa anteeksi.
 »Tuleeko hän tajuihinsa», kysyi Ezzelino.

»Luultavasti», vastasi juutalainen. »Hän elää vielä ja herää kaiketi

vähäksi aikaa. Pelkään kuitenkin ettei hän enää saa nähdä
auringonlaskua.»

Tyranni käytti hyväkseen tilaisuutta puhuakseen Astorren kanssa,

joka hoiti tainnuksissa olevaa isäänsä.

»Vastaa minulle, munkki», sanoi Ezzelino haroen mielitapaansa

sormillaan tuuheata partaansa, »onko kolme munkkilupaustasi, jotka
vähän yli kymmenen vuotta sitten annoit, — otaksun sinut nyt
kolmenkymmenen ikäiseksi — ollut sinulle suurikin uhraus?»

Astorre loi hallitsijaan puhtaan katseensa ja vastasi empimättä:

»köyhyys ja kuuliaisuus eivät ole olleet mitään uhrauksia. En välitä
omaisuudesta ja minun on helppo totella.» Hän pysähtyi ja punastui.

Tyrannia miellytti tämä miehekäs siveys. »Onko isäsi tyrkytellyt tai

houkutellut sinua rupeamaan munkiksi», kysyi hän johtaen
keskustelun toisaanne.

»Ei ole», sanoi Astorre. »Kuten sukupuustamme näkee, on

meidän suvussamme jo kauan kolmesta tai neljästä pojasta nuorin
aina ruvennut munkiksi, siksikö ehkä, että Vicedomineilla olisi
esirukoilija vaiko perheen omaisuuden ja vallan säilyttämiseksi; olipa
miten hyvänsä, tämä tapa on vanha ja arvossapidetty. Jo nuorena
tiesin kohtaloni, joka ei ollut minulle vastenmielinen. Minua ei ole
pakoitettu munkiksi.»

»Entä kolmas», lisäsi Ezzelino, tarkoittaen kolmatta

munkkilupausta. Astorre ymmärsi hänet ja vastasi punastuen
uudelleen, joskin lievemmin kuin äsken: »se ei ole ollut minulle
helppo, mutta olen senkin voinut täyttää samoin kuin muutkin munkit,
jotka ovat saaneet hyviä neuvoja. Minua opetti pyhä Antonius», lisäsi
hän kunnioittavasti.

*****

»Tämä ansiorikas pyhimys eli muutamia vuosia Paduassa

fransiskaanien parissa kuten, arvoisat ystäväni, tiedätte», selitti
Dante.

»Sitäkö emme tietäisi», sanoi eräs kuulijoista leikillisesti.

»Olemmehan toki osoittaneet kunnioitustamme siellä
luostarinlammikossa uiskentelevalle pyhänjäännökselle, tarkoitan
hänelle, joka muinoin tämän pyhimyksen saarnasta kääntyi, kieltäytyi
liharavinnosta, pysyi lujana päätöksessään ja nyt vielä vanhana,
ankarana vegetarina» — hän nieli lopun pilapuheestaan, Dante kun
rypisti hänelle otsaansa.

*****

»Mitä hän sinulle neuvoi», kysyi Ezzelino.

»Käsittämään munkin tehtävän aivan yksinkertaisesti täsmälliseksi

viraksi, jokseenkin samantapaiseksi kuin on sotapalvelus, jossa
myös vaaditaan kuuliaisia lihaksia ja kieltäymystä, vaikkei kunnon
soturi saa siinä kieltäymystä huomata. Otsani hiessä viljelemään
maata, syömään ja paastoamaan kohtuullisesti, olemaan ripittämättä
nuoria naisia, sekä tyttöjä että aviovaimoja, vaeltamaan Jumalan
kasvojen edessä ja palvelemaan Neitsyt Maariaa yhtä puhtaasti kuin
messukirjassa säädetään.»
 Tyranni hymyili. Sitten ojensi hän siunaten tai varoittaen oikean
kätensä munkkia kohti ja sanoi: »sinua onnellista johtaa tähti.
Nykyinen päiväsi syntyy helposti eilisestä ja vaihtuu huomaamattasi
huomeneksi. Sinun osasi ei ole niinkään vähäinen, harjoitat
laupeuden töitä, joita kunnioitan, vaikka oma tehtäväni onkin toinen.
Jos palaisit maailmaan, jonka lakeja oppisit tuntemaan liian
myöhään, muuttuisi kirkas tähtesi vaivaiseksi virvatuleksi ja
sammuisi sihisten muutaman kerran surkeasti liekehdittyään, taivaan
ilkkuessa sille.

»Paduan hallitsijana puhun sinulle vielä eräästä asiasta. Elämäsi

on ollut kansalleni kohottavaa ja kieltäymystä opettavaa.
Köyhimmällekin olet tuottanut lohdutusta, kun hän on huomannut
ravintosi yhtä niukaksi ja päivätyösi yhtä raskaaksi kuin omansa. Jos
hylkäät kaapusi, ylhäisenä kosit ylhäistä ja nautit täysin siemauksin
sukusi rikkauksista, niin on kuin riistäisit kansalta sen omaisuutta, se
kun on tottunut pitämään sinua vertaisenaan. Se saisi aikaan
tyytymättömyyttä, enkä ihmettelisi, vaikka siten nostaisit vihaa,
tottelemattomuutta ja kapinaakin. Punoutuvathan asiat aina toisiinsa.

»Minä ja Padua emme tule toimeen ilman sinua. Kauneutesi ja

ritarillisuutesi pistää kansan silmään, samoin rohkeutesi, joka on
suurempi tai ainakin jalompi kuin talonpoikaisten veljiesi. Jos kansa
vimmoissaan tahtoo surmata hänet» — hän osoitti Isaskaria —
»siksi että hän koettaa parantaa isääsi, niinkuin oli käydä hänelle
viimeisen ruton aikana, kuka silloin puolustaa häntä, niinkuin sinä
puolustit mieletöntä joukkoa vastaan, kunnes minä ehdin sitä
hillitsemään?»

»Isaskar, koeta sinäkin puolestasi saada munkki vakuutetuksi»,

sanoi Ezzelino ja kääntyi lääkärin puoleen hymyillen julmasti. »Hän
ei saa jättää kaapuaan jo sinunkaan tähtesi.»

»Herra», puhui juutalainen supattaen, »tuo järjetön kohtaus, jonka

rankaisit yhtä oikeudenmukaisesti kuin verisesti, tuskin uudistuu
sinun valtikkasi suojassa, ja mitä minuun tulee, ei hänen
ylhäisyytensä saa minun tähteni jäädä naimattomaksi, sillä minä
uskon suvun jatkuvaisuuden Jumalan korkeimmaksi siunaukseksi.»

Ezzelinoa huvitti juutalaisen harkittu vastaus. »Mihin suuntaan

käyvät sinun omat ajatuksesi, munkki», kysyi hän.

»Ne pysyvät vielä paikoillaan. En toivoisi kuitenkaan isäni enää

heräävän — Jumala antakoon anteeksi syntisen toivomukseni —
ettei minun tarvitsisi olla kova häntä kohtaan. Jospa hän vain jo olisi
saanut pyhän ehtoollisen!» Astorre suuteli kiihkeästi tajuttoman
isänsä kasvoja ja vanhus tuli siitä taas tajuihinsa.

Tointunut vanhus oli huokailevinaan raskaasti, nosti väsyneesti

silmänluomensa ja katseli tuuheiden kulmakarvojensa alta
rukoilevasti munkkia. »Kuinka olet päättänyt, mitä määräät minulle,
rakkaani? Taivaanko vai helvetin?»

»Isä», pyysi Astorre liikutettuna, »päiväsi ovat lopussa ja hetkesi

on lyönyt. Unhota maalliset huolesi ja surusi, ajattele sieluasi. Katso,
pappisi ovat jo koolla täällä — hän tarkoitti kaupungin kirkon pappeja
— ja odottavat saavansa antaa sinulle ehtoollista.»

Niin olikin. Ovi oli hitaasti avautunut viereiseen huoneeseen, josta

loisti heikko, päivällä tuskin huomattava kynttilänvalo. Sieltä kuului
vienoa kuorolaulua ja hiljaista, väräjöivää kellonsoittoa.
 Vanhus tunsi jo vajoavansa Lethen kylmään virtaan ja tarttui
munkkiin kuten pyhä Pietari muinoin Vapahtajaan Genetsaretin
merellä. »Teethän sen minun tähteni», sopersi hän.

»Kun vaan voisin, jospa saisin», huokaili munkki. »Kaikkien pyhien

nimessä, ajattele ijäisyyttä, isä, jätä kaikki maallinen. Hetkesi on
tullut.»

Tämä peitetysti lausuttu kielto sytytti Vicedominin viimeisen

elonkipinän liekkeihin. »Tottelematon, kiittämätön poika», huusi hän
vimmoissaan.

Astorre viittoi papit luoksensa.

»Hitto vieköön», raivosi vanhus, »pysykää minusta kaukana

voiteinenne ja kakkuinanne! Minulla ei ole enää mitään
menettämistä, olen jo tuomittu ja jään siksi taivaan ilojenkin keskellä,
jos vain poikani kevytmielisesti hylkää pyyntöni ja hävittää sukumme
viimeisen idun.»

Kauhistunut munkki, jota moinen julkea kirkon häpäiseminen

syvästi järkytti, näki isänsä olevan auttamattomasti ikuisen
kadotuksen partaalla. Hän oli siitä varmasti vakuutettu — kuten
minäkin hänen sijassaan olisin ollut ja heittäytyi polvilleen kuolevan
isänsä eteen rukoillen kyynelten vieriessä, synkän epätoivon
vallassa: »isä, rukoilen sinua, armahda itseäsi ja minua.»

»Lähteköön vanha kettu omille mailleen», mumisi tyranni, mutta

munkki ei häntä kuullut.

Hän antoi hämmästyneille papeille taas merkin sielumessun

aloittamiseen.
 Silloin kyyristyi vanhus kokoon kuin uppiniskainen lapsi ja pudisteli
harmaahapsista päätään.

»Menköön juonittelija matkoihinsa», sanoi Ezzelino kuuluvammin.

»Isä, isä», nyyhkytti munkki sydän pakahtumaisillaan säälistä.

»Teidän ylhäisyytenne, kristitty veljeni, oletteko valmis

vastaanottamaan Luojanne ja Vapahtajanne», kysyi eräs papeista
epäröiden. Vanhus vaikeni.

»Vastatkaa minulle, pysyttekö lujana uskossa pyhään

Kolminaisuuteen», kysyi pappi jälleen ja tuli kalmankalpeaksi
kuullessaan kuolevan Vicedominin huutavan voimakkaalla äänellä:
»en pysy, enkä usko, kielletty olkoon ja häväisty ja —»

»Vaikene», huusi munkki ja hypähti seisaalleen. »Täytän tahtosi.

Olen valmis mihin tahansa, kunhan et syöksy helvetin tuleen».

Vanhus huokasi, kuin olisi hän suorittanut raskaan työn ja katseli

keventynein mielin, melkeinpä tyytyväisenä ympärilleen. Hän haparoi
Dianan vaaleaa tukkaa, koetti auttaa häntä nousemaan, otti hänen
kätensä, joka ei estellyt, avasi munkin kouristuneen käden ja liitti ne
yhteen.

»Pyhään sakramenttiin kelvolliset», riemuitsi hän ja siunasi parin.

Munkki ei vastustanut ja Diana sulki silmänsä.

»Nyt joutukaa, kunnianarvoisat isät, on luullakseni kiire, ja minä

olen kristillisessä mielentilassa.»

Munkki ja hänen morsiamensa aikoivat vetäytyä pappisjoukon

taakse mutta ehtivät ottaa ainoastaan pari askelta, kun kuoleva
vanhus mumisi: »jääkää, että lohdutusta saaneet silmäni voivat
nähdä teidät yhdistettyinä, kunnes sammuvat.» Astorren ja Dianan
täytyi käsi kädessä jäädä odottamaan itsepintaisen vanhuksen
katseen sammumista.

Hän supatti lyhyen synnintunnustuksen, sai pyhän ehtoollisen ja

erosi elämästä pappien voidellessa hänen jalkopohjiaan ja
huutaessa valtavasti hänen jo kuuroille korvilleen: »erkane, kristitty
sielu». Kuolleilla kasvoilla kuvastui selvästi petoksen onnistumisen
ilo.

Muiden polvistuessa tyranni seurasi istualtaan tyynellä

tarkkaavaisuudella pyhää toimitusta, melkein kuin outoja tapoja
katsellen tai samoin kuin tiedemies tarkastelee kivihautaan kuvattua
muinaisajan kansan uhritoimitusta. Sitten hän nousi paikaltaan, meni
kuolleen luo ja painoi kiinni hänen silmänsä.

Tämän tehtyään tyranni kääntyi Dianan puoleen ja sanoi:

»jalosukuinen neiti, arvelen, että meidän on lähdettävä kotiin. Luulen
vanhempienne jo kaipaavan teitä, vaikka tietävätkin teidän
pelastumisestanne. Sitäpaitsi on yllänne oleva puku liian halpa
sopiakseen teille».

»Olen teille kiitollinen, ruhtinas, ja seuraan teitä,» vastasi Diana

pitäen kättään yhä vielä munkin kädessä. Diana oli tähän saakka
välttänyt tulevan puolisonsa katsetta, mutta nyt hän katsoi munkkia
suoraan silmiin, samalla kuin hänen poskillensa nousi hehkuva
puna, ja sanoi matalalla mutta sointuvalla äänellä: »Herrani ja
valtiaani, emme voineet antaa isämme sielun joutua kadotukseen,
siksi tulin omaksenne. Osoittakaa minulle suurempaa uskollisuutta
kuin luostarille. Veljenne ei rakastanut minua. Suokaa minulle
anteeksi, että puhun näin; sanon yksinkertaisesti totuuden. Olen
teille hyvä ja kuuliainen vaimo, mutta minussa on kaksi ominaisuutta,
joita pyydän kohtelemaan varovasti. Olen kiivas, kun kajotaan
oikeuksiini ja kunniaani ja kiusallisen tarkka siinä, ettei minulle saa
luvata mitään, jota ei täytetä. Lapsenakaan en voinut sellaista
kestää, ainakin kärsin siitä syvästi. En pyydä paljoa, enkä mitään
mahdotonta, mutta mitä minulle kerran luvataan, on täytettävä.
Menetän muuten kaiken luottamukseni, sillä minua loukkaa vääryys
syvemmin kuin naisia tavallisesti. Mutta näin en saa puhua teille,
herrani ja valtiaani, jota tuskin vielä tunnen. Minun tulee vaieta.
Jääkää hyvästi, puolisoni, ja antakaa minun surra veljeänne
yhdeksän päivää». Hän irroitti hitaasti kätensä munkin kädestä ja
katosi tyrannin seurassa.

Papit olivat sillaikaa kantaneet ruumiin palatsin kappeliin, jossa he

asettivat sen paareille ja siunasivat.

Astorre oli jäänyt yksin huoneeseen yllään menetetty

munkkikaapu, jonka alla sykki katuva sydän. Palvelijat, jotka olivat
tarpeeksi kuulleet ja päässeet perille omituisesta tapahtumasta,
lähestyivät häntä arasti ja nöyrästi. Kunnianarvoisen munkin
muuttuminen maallikoksi ja otaksuttu pyhänsolvaus, joka oli
tapahtunut munkkilupausten rikkomisessa, — kirjeen sisällyksestä
he eivät tienneet — oli järkyttänyt ja peloittanut heitä vielä enemmän
kuin isäntien vaihto. Munkki ei voinut surra isäänsä. Kun hän taas oli
päässyt henkiseen tasapainoon, hiipi hänen sydämeensä epäluulo
— mitä sanonkaan — hänet valtasi kauhistava tietoisuus siitä, että
hänen kuoleva isänsä oli väärinkäyttänyt hänen herkkäuskoisuuttaan
ja sääliään. Hän huomasi vanhuksen epätoivon olleen salattua
petosta ja julman herjauksen kuoleman kynnyksellä harkittua
juonittelua. Vastahakoisesti, miltei vihoissaan hän ajatteli naista, joka
oli tullut hänen omakseen. Häntä houkutteli oikullinen,
munkkimainen päähänpisto rakastaa Dianaa ainoastaan
velivainajansa sijaisena, mutta hänen terve järkensä ja rehellinen
mielensä tuomitsivat tämän häpeälliseksi itsepuolustukseksi.

Kun Astorre tiesi omistavansa Dianan, hän ei voinut olla

ihmettelemättä tulevan vaimonsa pontevaa puhetta, ankaraa
totuudenrakkautta ja sitä, miten asiallisesti ja arkailematta hän oli
selvitellyt heidän suhdettaan, paljon karheammin ja todellisemmin
kuin legendan vienot naisolennot. Hän oli kuvitellut naisia
viehkeämmiksi.

Munkki huomasi äkkiä olevansa veljeskunnan puvussa ja ymmärsi

tunteensa ja ajatuksensa hyvin ristiriitaisiksi tuon puvun kanssa. Hän
häpesi kaapuaan, se rupesi häntä vaivaamaan ja hän komensi:
»tuokaa minulle maallinen puku». Toimeliaat palvelijat ympäröivät
hänet, ja hän astui pian heidän piiristään velivainajansa puvussa,
joka soveltui hänelle hyvin, he kun olivat olleet melkein
yhdenkokoisia.

Hänen isänsä narri, Gocciola, heittäytyi samassa hänen

jalkoihinsa osoittaen kunnioitustaan ja anoen eroa toimestaan ja
pyysi samalla lupaa viranvaihtoon, sillä hän oli väsynyt elämään,
hänen hiuksensa olivat harmaantuneet, eikä hänen sopinut lähteä
maailmasta kilisevässä narrinkaavussa. Näin vaikeroiden hän
sieppasi pois heitetyn munkkikaavun, johon palvelijat eivät olleet
uskaltaneet koskea. Mutta hänen kirjavissa aivoissaan tapahtui
yhtäkkiä keikahdus ja hän lisäsi himokkaasti: »ennenkuin sanon
maailmalle ja sen pettymyksille jäähyväiset, tahtoisin kuitenkin
kerran vielä syödä amarelleja. Häät eivät taidakaan olla tästä talosta
kaukana.» Hän nuoli suupieliään harmahtavalla kielellään, polvistui
munkin eteen, pudisteli kulkusiaan ja juoksi tiehensä, laahaten
munkkikaapua perässään.

*****

»Amarelleiksi tai amareiksi kutsutaan padualaisia hääleivoksia»,

selitti Dante, »niissä olevan kitkerän mantelinmaun vuoksi ja samalla
leikillisesti viitaten ensimäisen konjugatsionin verbiin.» Tässä
pysähtyi kertoja hetkeksi ja varjostaen kädellään otsaansa ja
silmiään mietti kertomuksensa jatkoa.

Cangranden eteen astui hänen hovimestarinsa, Burcardo-niminen

elsassilainen, arvokkain askelin, kumartaen syvään ja pyytäen
laajasanaisesti anteeksi, että tuli seuraa häiritsemään tarvitessaan
Cangranden määräystä jossain taloudellisessa asiassa. Italian
ghibelliniläisissä hoveissa eivät saksalaiset siihen aikaan olleet
harvinaisuuksia, päinvastoin heitä etsittiinkin ja pidettiin parempina
kuin kotimaisia miehiä heidän rehellisyytensä ja hovimenojen ja -
tapojen synnynnäisen tajuamisensa vuoksi.

Kun Dante taas nosti päätään, huomasi hän elsassilaisen ja kuuli

hänen puhuvan italiaa, jossa kovat ja pehmeät äänteet lakkaamatta
sekoittuivat, tuottaen hoville huvia mutta loukaten kipeästi runoilijan
herkkää korvaa. Dante katseli kauan kahta nuorukaista, Ascaniota ja
panssaroitua sotilasta. Viimein hänen miettivä katseensa pysähtyi
molempiin naisiin, kertomuksesta elostuneeseen Diana-
ruhtinattareen, jonka marmorinvalkeille poskille oli noussut heikko
puna, ja miellyttävään ja koruttomaan Antiopeen, Cangranden
ystävättäreen. Dante jatkoi:

*****
 Vicedominien palatsin takaa alkoi laaja maa-alue, joka ulottui
kaupungin lujiin, paksuihin muureihin saakka. Tämän ylhäisen suvun
sammuttua on kysymyksessä oleva paikka kokonaan muuttunut.
Tällä maa-alueella oli karjalaitumia, aitauksia, joissa pidettiin hirviä ja
metsäkauriita, kalarikkaita lampia, varjoisaa metsää ja aurinkoisia
viinitarhoja. Eräänä kirkkaana aamuna, seitsemän päivää isänsä
kuoleman jälkeen, istui munkki Astorre seeterin tummassa varjossa,
selkä puunrunkoa vasten ja kengänkärjet paahtavassa
auringonpaisteessa. Munkki-Astorren nimen hän säilytti koko lyhyen
elämänsä ajan padualaisten kesken, vaikkakin oli tullut maallikoksi.
Hän istui tai oikeammin makasi vastapäätä suihkukaivoa, jonka vesi
kumpusi viileänä vuona välinpitämättömän näköisen kivinaamion
suusta. Läheisyydessä oli kivipenkki, mutta munkki oli valinnut
istuimekseen rehevän, pehmeän nurmen.

Hänen siinä miettiessään tai unelmoidessaan hyppäsi kaksi nuorta

miestä, toinen panssaroituna, toinen huolellisesti puettuna, vaikkakin
matkatamineissa, pölyisten hevosten selästä palatsin edustalla
olevalle torille, jonne keskipäivän aurinko jo paistoi. Ratsastajat,
Germano ja Ascanio, olivat voudin suosikkeja ja munkin
lapsuudentovereja, joiden kanssa hän oli opiskellut ja leikkinyt kuin
veli viiteentoista ikävuoteensa eli novisiksi tulemiseensa saakka.
Ezzelino oli lähettänyt nämä molemmat appensa, keisari Fredrikin
luokse.

(Dante pysähtyi, ja kumarsi suuren vainajan muistolle.)

Suoritettuaan tehtävänsä he palasivat Paduaan tuoden mukanaan

tyrannille päivän uutisen, keisarin kansliassa kopioidun jäljennöksen
kristitylle papistolle kirjoitetusta ylimmän sielunpaimenen kirjeestä,
jossa pyhä isä koko maailmalle soimaa nerokasta keisaria mitä
törkeimmästä jumalattomuudesta.

Huolimatta siitä, että heille oli uskottu tärkeitä, ehkäpä

kiireellisiäkin tehtäviä ja heidän huostassaan oli vaarallinen asiakirja,
eivät he voineet sivuuttaa lapsuudentoverinsa kotia, ratsastaessaan
tyrannin palatsille. Lähinnä Paduaa olevassa majatalossa, missä he
nousematta satulasta olivat syöttäneet ja juottaneet hevosiaan, oli
puhelias ravintoloitsija kertonut heille kaupunkia kohdanneesta
suuresta onnettomuudesta ja vielä suuremmasta harmista,
hääaluksen haaksirikosta ja munkkikaavun hylkäämisestä melkein
kaikkia yksityisseikkoja myöten. Astorren ja Dianan kihlauksesta he
eivät olleet kuulleet, sillä siitä ei vielä julkisesti tiedetty.

Te murtumattomat kahleet, jotka yhdistätte lapsuudentovereita!

Astorren ihmeelliset vaiheet eivät antaneet näille kahdelle rauhaa,
ennenkuin he omin silmin saivat nähdä ystävänsä, jonka he nyt taas
olivat saaneet omakseen. Monen vuoden kuluessa he olivat nähneet
munkin ainoastaan sattumalta kadulla, jolloin olivat tervehdykseksi
nyökäyttäneet hänelle päätään, tosin ystävällisesti ja vilpittömän
kunnioittavasti, mutta samalla sentään jonkun verran vieraasti.

Gocciola, joka heidän tullessaan palatsin pihalle istui matalalla

muurilla syöden vehnästä ja heiluttaen jalkojaan, vei heidät
puutarhaan. Kulkiessaan nuorukaisten edellä narri puhui vain omista
asioistaan; ne näyttivät olevan hänelle talon onnetonta kohtaloa
paljon tärkeämmät. Hän kertoi palavasti toivovansa autuaallista
kuolemaa ja nieli samassa loput vehnäsestä, sitä hatarilla
hampaillaan pureskelematta, niin että oli vähällä tukehtua.
Nähdessään hänen hullunkuriset ilmeensä ja kuullessaan hänen
hartaan ikävöimisensä luostariin, purskahti Ascanio niin raikkaaseen
nauruun, että taivas varmaankin olisi siitä kirkastunut, ellei se olisi jo
muutenkin näyttänyt niin iloiselta ja loistavissa väreissään
hekumoivalta.

Ascanio sai vastustamattoman halun tehdä pilaa »Pisarasta»

vapautuakseen hänen rasittavasta seurastaan. »Gocciola-raukka»,
alkoi hän, »luostariin saakka et koskaan pääse, sillä — mitä
suurimpana salaisuutena uskon sen sinulle — tyranni-setäni on
iskenyt sinuun halukkaat silmänsä. Jos tahdot tietää, on hänellä
neljä narria: stoalainen, epikurolainen, platonikko ja skeptikko. Kun
ankara hallitsija on leikkisällä päällä antaa hän heille merkin asettua
salin neljään nurkkaan, jonka kaarevassa katossa taivas kiinto- ja
kiertotähtineen heloittaa. Setäni astuu sitten keskelle huonetta,
taputtaa käsiään ja neljän filosofin täytyy hypiskellen vaihtaa
nurkkaa. Stoalainen päätti toissapäivänä ulisten ja vaikeroiden
päivänsä, siksi että oli yhtäpäätä niellyt monta naulaa makarooneja,
pohjaton kun oli. Setäni on ohimennen ilmoittanut minulle aikovansa
ottaa uuden narrin vainajan paikalle ja pyytävänsä sinua, Gocciola-
parka, munkilta, uudelta isännältäsi perintöverona. Niin on nyt
asianlaita. Ezzelino tavoittelee sinua. Kuka tietää, vaikkapa olisi jo
takanasi.» Tällä Ascanio viittasi siihen, että tyranni saattoi ilmestyä
odottamatta minne tahansa, jonka johdosta padualaiset olivat
alituisessa pelossa ja vavistuksessa. Gocciola kirkaisi, kuin olisi
mahtavan hallitsijan käsi jo laskeutunut hänen olalleen, katseli
ympärilleen ja vaikka näkikin vain oman lyhyen varjonsa, juoksi hän
hampaat kalisten piiloon.

*****

»Pyyhin kertomuksesta Ezzelinon narrit», sanoi Dante

keskeyttäen puheensa ja tehden kädellään liikkeen kuin olisi
kirjoittanut eikä kertonut. »Ascanio valehteli, koska tämä piirre ei sovi
tyranniin. Ei ole yleensä luultavaa, että niin vakava ja pohjaltaan jalo
luonne kuin Ezzelino olisi viitsinyt elättää narreja ja nauttinut heidän
typeristä kujeistaan.» Tämän pistoksen Dante suuntasi selvästi
isännälleen, jonka vaipan liepeellä Gocciola istui ja virnisteli
runoilijalle.

Cangrande ei ollut huomaavinaan viittausta, mutta päätti maksaa

sopivassa tilaisuudessa moninkerroin.

Tyytyväisenä, melkeinpä hilpeänä Dante jatkoi:

*****

Vihdoin he huomasivat maallikoksi muuttuneen munkin, joka,

kuten mainitsin, nojasi pinjan runkoa vasten —

»Seeterin runkoa vasten, Dante», oikaisi tarkkaavaksi käynyt

ruhtinatar.

— nojasi seeterin runkoa vasten ja lämmitteli jalkateriään

auringonpaisteessa. Hän ei huomannut molemmilta puolin lähestyviä
ystäviään, niin kokonaan hän oli vaipunut haaveiluun, olipa se sitten
tyhjää tai hyvinkin sisältörikasta. Vallaton Ascanio kumartui ja taittoi
ruohonkorren, jolla kutkutteli munkin nenää, niin että tämä aivasti
lujasti kolme kertaa. Astorre tarttui ystävällisesti lapsuuden
toveriensa käteen ja veti heidät nurmelle viereensä kummallekin
puolelleen. »No, mitä sanotte siitä», kysyi hän pikemmin arkana kuin
uhmaavana.

»Ensiksi lausun vilpittömän kiitokseni luostarillesi ja sen

esimiehelle», sanoi Ascanio leikillisesti, »että olet säilynyt siellä niin
virkeänä. Olet nuoremman näköinen kuin me kumpikaan. Maallikon
ahdas puku ja sileäksi ajettu leuka nuorentavat sinua luultavasti
myöskin. Sinä olet kaunis mies, sen saat uskoa. Tässä sinä lepäät
jättiläisseeterisi suojassa, ensimäisen ihmisen tavoin, jonka Jumala
oppineitten arvelun mukaan loi kolmenkymmenen ikäiseksi, ja
minä», jatkoi hän viattomannäköisenä, kun huomasi munkin
punastuvan hänen sukkeluudestaan, »olen viimeisenä moittiva
sinua, että olet jättänyt kaapusi, sillä suvun jatkaminen on kaiken
elävän pyrkimys».

»En tehnyt sitä omasta tahdostani enkä vapaaehtoisesti», tunnusti

munkki rehellisesti. »Täytin vastahakoisesti kuolevan isäni viimeisen
pyynnön.»

»Tosiaanko», sanoi Ascanio hymyillen. »Tämän sinä, Astorre, voit

kertoa ainoastaan meille, jotka sinua rakastamme. Muiden mielestä
sinun epäitsenäisyytesi olisi naurettava, kenties halveksittavakin. Ja
koska naurettavasta on puhe, niin pyydän sinua, Astorre,
koettaessasi kehittyä munkista eläväksi ihmiseksi noudattamaan
hyvää makua. Hankalan muutoksen tulee tapahtua asteettain, ja sitä
on kohdeltava suurella varovaisuudella. Ota neuvostani vaarin.
Matkusta esimerkiksi vuodeksi keisarin hoviin, josta alinomaa kulkee
lähettejä Paduaan. Siellä sinä opit moitteettomimman ritarin ja
ennakkoluulottomimman ihmisen seurassa — tarkoitan toisen
Fredrikimme — myös tuntemaan naisia, jotta pääset heitä munkin
tavoin liiaksi jumaloimasta tai halveksimasta. Keisarin henki vallitsee
sekä kaupungissa että hovissa. Täällä Paduassa, missä elämä
setäni aikana on tullut rajuksi, kohtuuttomaksi ja väkivaltaiseksi,
saisit maailmasta väärän kuvan. Todellisemman tarjoo sinulle
Palermo, jossa hallitsee inhimillisin hallitsijoista ja jossa siksi leikki ja
tosi, hyveet ja himot, uskollisuus ja häilyväisyys, vilpitön luottamus ja