A River of Golden Bones, page 29
“If you shift?” Navin dabbed ointment on Sadie’s busted lip. “You’ll heal, right?”
“Yes.” She grimaced, swatting his hand away and snatching the vial. “At least faster than you.”
“Why don’t you all shift now?” Ora’s frown deepened, each person looking worse than the last.
“Four Wolves in a moving wagon?” Grae pulled his hair back into a high knot. “That would be a very bad idea.”
Malou had braved the storm to keep us rolling out of town. Others would go investigate the fire, and when they found the bodies, rumors would spread.
“We never saw the Silver Wolves,” I said, making eye contact with each of the group. Each shuddering breath burned down my throat. “They were attacked by Rooks. We played no part in it.”
They all nodded in wary agreement. I scrubbed the wet cloth over my face and neck, pulling myself out of shock and back into my body. The sounds of those fists pounding against that burning door would haunt me forever. I’d led them to their deaths, and it was somehow so much worse than stabbing them in a fair fight . . .
“The secrets of Galen den’ Mora stay with her,” Ora murmured, lifting a trembling mug of tea to their lips.
“I never thought I’d see the day when Wolves risked their tails for humans,” Navin said, bowing his head to Grae and me. “Thank you for saving me.”
“It should have always been that way.” I scrubbed the dirt from my knuckles. “Wolves swore to protect humans. I’m sorry that got lost somewhere along the way.”
Sadie threaded her arm through Navin’s. A strange, dumbfounding feeling settled in my gut. Our expressions oscillated between terror and giddiness. We’d saved them and we’d survived.
“We shouldn’t be sitting in wet clothes on your chairs,” I said, feeling the damp fabric on my seat.
“You almost died!” Ora exclaimed. “I’m just glad you’re safe. You could smell like a wet dog for all I care.” They sucked in a sharp breath, placing a hand on my forearm. “I’m so sorry. Is that offensive?”
I snorted. “We do smell like wet dogs. It’s fine.” I pursed my lips. “I appreciate you taking us in.”
“Who exactly are you?” Mina asked, toeing my boot from under the table to get my attention. “These three are Silver Wolves . . . but who are you?”
I glanced at Grae and he bobbed his chin, a silent conversation passing between us. They’d helped us so many times. We could trust them.
“My name is Calla Marriel,” I said, and the humans gasped, and though it was clear they probably didn’t need the last part, I finished, “I’m a Gold Wolf, twin of the Crimson Princess.”
“Another Marriel child?” Ora gulped. “How?”
“It was my mother’s dying secret,” I said. “A faery granted her dying wish to protect us until Briar’s wedding day.” Grae threaded his fingers through mine. “King Nero said it would be safer to keep me a secret as well, one less target for Sawyn, but now we know he just wanted one less Marriel standing in his way of claiming Olmdere for himself.”
“That’s awful,” Ora said.
“You have no idea,” Hector replied, leaning his head back and staring up at the canvas ceiling.
“So you’re going to challenge Sawyn for your family’s throne?” Navin asked.
“First, we need to rescue my sister’s mate, Maez. We need to find a way of getting Briar out of Damrienn, too. Every day we leave her there is a threat.” I squeezed Grae’s hand. “She’s King Nero’s last bargaining chip, and I know he will use it however he can.”
Ora fiddled with their golden rings. “So, what’s our plan?”
“We will leave you at the first town in Olmdere,” I said. “I don’t want to drag you into this anymore than I already have.”
“You didn’t hear me correctly. What is our plan. Does it look like we’re being dragged?” Ora huffed. “We want to help you.”
“Sawyn destroyed my family.” We all turned to Navin’s rasping voice. His right eye had swollen shut, purpling all the way up to his temple. His ear was so swollen with fluid it had completely lost its shape and I wondered if he could hear out of it. “I want to help.”
“I’m sorry for what happened to your homeland.” I swallowed, looking into his one open bronze eye. “I don’t know that my parents treated your family any better . . . and I’m sorry.”
“I don’t quite remember myself, but that’s irrelevant. What matters is what you plan to do going forward.” Navin pursed his swollen lips. “Olmdere needs a ruler to lead us out of this darkness. I’d rather it be you than her. And if I can help, I will.”
My gut clenched. It wasn’t exactly a roaring endorsement, but it was more than I’d expect.
“I can see the guilt of your ancestor’s actions running through you,” Navin said. “If you dedicate your reign to righting their wrongs, then the people will follow you, too.”
Sadie leaned her head into his shoulder.
“I think I will need some human advisers to keep me in line, should you like the position?”
Sadie’s eyes widened at me as Navin kissed the top of her head, a rare smile appearing on her face.
“I’ll think about it,” he said.
“Hear, hear,” Ora said, raising their mug and pausing. “We’re going to need some stronger drinks.”
We all chuckled. I glanced around the muddied and bruised group. We’d narrowly escaped the jaws of death and even more battles lay ahead.
“Good. I doubt I’ll sleep tonight,” I said. “Tomorrow we’ll be in Olmdere.”
“What are we going to do about that?” Hector tapped his finger on the wanted poster sitting in the center of the table. “These were all over town. I’d imagine the Rooks at the border will have them, too.”
“You could hide in the wagon,” Ora offered.
“And if they search it and find me, you’ll all be imprisoned.” Grae shook his head. “I can’t risk that. I’ll pass through on foot.”
“There is no passing through on foot,” Navin warned. “The Sevelde forest is filled with Rooks and booby traps. And being caught is a fate worse than death. The only way in or out is under.”
My mouth dropped open. “Through the mines?”
“But that is not without its risks, either.” Navin’s eyes grew haunted. “Though maybe for Wolves it won’t be as treacherous.”
“So we’ll split up and meet you on the other side,” I said, cutting Grae off with a look. “I swear to the Gods if you suggest I stay behind, I’ll throttle you.”
Grae’s lips twisted. “I wouldn’t dare.”
“We’ll come, too,” Sadie rasped, leaning forward.
She was met with a chorus of nos.
“You look one bad sleep away from death,” Navin insisted, pulling her in closer. “There’s not a whisper of you two deserting, nor Calla for that matter. Only Grae.”
“Why?”
“Maybe they want us to flip?” Hector picked at his dirt-stained fingers. “Maybe they’re hoping we’ll turn him in?”
“Well then, he’s an idiot,” Sadie growled. She looked at me. “Will you be okay?”
“We’ll be fine,” I assured her. “We’ll meet you in the capital. It’ll be easier for us to travel on four paws anyway.”
“Okay,” she said tentatively.
“You two should shift once you pass through the border,” Grae said. “We’ll need all the strength we can get when we reach Olmdere.”
“I can’t believe it,” Navin said, shaking the hair out of his eyes. “We’re finally going home.”
“Home.” My chest tightened as I nodded at him. “I’ve never known the true feeling of it.” Grae released my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders. “But right now, here with you all, I think I’m beginning to understand.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Ora said, returning with two bottles and an assortment of teacups dangling from their fingers. They made quick work of passing them out and we raised our chipped teacups to one another.
“To the Gold Wolf pack,” Hector said, winking at me.
“No.” I shook my head. “No more packs.” I lifted my teacup higher. “To the Golden Court. To our family.”
They cheered as our cups clinked together and we swigged back our wine. I thought the Silver Wolves would make me feel this sense of belonging, but instead I found it in the back of a wagon with mud-stained human musicians and chipped teacups. And I would fight the Moon Goddess herself to protect that feeling of finally being home.
The first thing I saw of Olmdere was the golden trees, the leaves of every hue from honey to amber to rust. A perpetual autumn blanketed the Sevelde forest despite the humid summer air that made my ringlets coil tighter. Beyond the marigold canopy and peeling white bark, the undulating hillsides of Olmdere waited for me . . . but first we’d have to cross the border.
The air was fresh, the sweet damp scent of earth after a rainstorm. We stopped at the edge of a forest, finding a creek that had turned into a rushing river from the storms. We were all in desperate need of a wash. As I stepped my bare foot into the cool water, I wondered if the ashes from the fires washed downhill in the water swirling around my ankles. The stories of Taigos and the villages above us flowed downstream to where I now stood.
The twisting river provided us each with a spot of privacy to disrobe and bathe. Laughter fluttered downstream as the rest washed away the horrors of the past day.
I sat on the river stones, hugging my legs to my chest and watching the slow eddies of water twine through the forest. The current pushed at my back, spurring me forward toward my kingdom, my destiny. Merem. With the river. That is who I was in my soul.
Twittering birds sang in the trees, their voices nothing like the ones I was used to. The forests of Olmdere even sounded different. The mine below these golden trees was my ancestors’ dying wish. As a child, it seemed glorious and cunning to wish for such a thing. I’d been proud of my kingdom’s wealth, as if it had anything to do with me. But I gave no thought to who mined the gold. Now that I was prepared to venture below ground, it was all I could think of.
I tipped my head back into the water and smoothed my hair off my face. I knew Grae would be watching me through the dense underbrush. He took his position one turn away from me, a guard on watch after all we had been through. We’d split with the rest of the group here, the border only an hour north.
My throat was still raw, my eyes still stung, and angry blisters had broken out on my fingers and cheeks. Once we shifted, they’d be gone, but first we had to go through the mines. I considered shifting for a brief moment then, but I knew it would be too dangerous with humans so close by. My Wolf would want to run, want to hunt, and with my mate so close by, other desires might supersede my good sense. Even in Wolf form, though, running through Sevelde was a dangerous idea, which was why we needed to go under it. I scrubbed a rag down my arms and over the back of my neck. At least there would be no towns tonight. It seemed every town we entered was more treacherous than the last.
“Rolling out in twenty minutes.” Navin’s deep voice easily carried through the forest.
“Aye,” the group echoed back.
With a final scrub, I wrung out my rag and stood. Droplets traced down my skin as I snatched my fresh garments off a low-hanging branch. As I yanked my tunic over my head, I spotted a flicker of light in the water. Narrowing my eyes, I walked along the bank, trying to discern what it was. A fish scale? A coin?
I bunched my trouser legs over my calves and waded back into the stream. Stooping, I reached for the object and pulled up a glimmering rock—a solid piece of gold.
I gasped, turning the nugget over in my hands. It glinted, catching the beams of dappled sunlight. Legend said the ore in the earth was what turned the trees gold. The wealth of my kingdom came from this very place. It was what drove King Nero to uphold Briar’s engagement. Whoever controlled the gold mines of Olmdere controlled Aotreas. But Sawyn had never reopened the mines after my parents’ slaughter. She had left them dormant, boarded them up so that only fleeing humans dared navigate them. Apparently a sorceress of her power didn’t need coins.
I reached for another flickering piece of gold in the murky water, feeling around the river stones and silt. I grasped the smooth, rounded rock and lifted it up. But what appeared in my hands wasn’t a rock at all—it was a jawbone.
A shriek caught in my throat as I stumbled backward, falling onto the mossy shore. The bone dropped back into the water with a splash, and I stared at the spot it had landed as if it might jump back out at me. What had happened to that person? Did that jawbone belong to someone fleeing Olmdere, trying to chance the Sevelde forest over the mines? Had they made it all the way to the other side only to fall at the border?
My mouth dried to sand. We were bathing in a river of golden bones.
The greed for gold warred with the desperate need to survive in this haunted place. A thousand stories could be told by this river alone, and I was a part of its legacy now.
If things went right, though, I could also be part of its future. A future where this could never happen again.
“Calla?” Grae called through the trees.
“I’m fine,” I lied, standing and dusting the moss off my fresh clothes.
I took one more look at the unmarked grave, certain I was headed in the right direction. I never wanted my kingdom to feel that desperation ever again.
I followed Grae up the deer trail toward the entrance to the mines. He put his hand on my arm and I halted, looking up to see Navin kneeling at the entrance, Sadie beside him. The dark tunnel into the earth was covered in timber, boarded shut apart from one narrow gap where the boards had been pried free. Trinkets lay strewn in front of Navin—necklaces, pieces of clothing, and little whittled figurines. My heart sank. It was a makeshift memorial to all those who didn’t make it out the other side.
“Be safe,” Hector said from behind us. “Don’t do anything heroic.”
“We’ll try,” I said, giving him a hug.
The rest of Galen den’ Mora ambled up from the creek, and one by one we said our farewells. I hugged Ora last.
“Here,” they said, pulling something out of their pocket.
“You made me a badge!” I looked down at the rusty red embroidered fox’s face trimmed in golden thread.
Ora smirked. “You’re one of us now, Your Majesty.”
“Just Calla,” I corrected, giving a mocking frown. “Always just Calla with all of you, please. And thank you. For everything.”
“I’ll hang on to it for you until you return,” Ora said, tucking the badge back into their pocket.
I chuckled. “I see what you’re doing.”
“You’d lose it in your Wolf form.” Ora shrugged as their lips quirked. “And if it gives you more reason to return, then so be it.”
My eyes welled and I gave them another swift hug. “Take care of the others.”
“I will.”
I turned toward the mine and Grae stepped up beside me, rolling his shoulders.
“Ready to go home?”
I took a steadying breath and nodded. “Let’s go.”
Thirty-Five
Shadows consumed the tunnel, a thick inky blackness like swimming in the dead of night. Little offshoots disappeared into nothingness. Pits? Caverns? I couldn’t tell.
We navigated by the light of our two stubby candles. Our footsteps resounded across the spherical walls and deep into the belly of the mountain. Dripping stalactites flecked with gold glimmered along the roughly hewn walls. We descended a steep, unending trail for an hour before the ground started to even out.
How many more hours to reach the other side?
I held my candle up to the splintering beam above my head and read the Olmderian carving: The only way out is under. Wax dripped over my fingers, but I couldn’t feel the sting, not as my limbs shuddered. I stepped under the eerie omen, wondering again how many people died in this place.
“This wasn’t exactly the evening I had planned for us, little fox,” Grae grumbled, kicking something to the side. It clattered against the wall and dropped into a cavern. I didn’t want to know.
“Haunted mine shafts not in your plans?” I muttered, sticking close behind him.
“No, but the forests on the other side lead out to the eastern fjords.” He wiped a curtain of cobwebs away. “With any luck, we’ll be running to them by nightfall.”
I spotted a heart carved into the wall. The tunnels were covered in names and prayers etched into the pale stone. “Sa Sortienna” sang into my mind. The song originated in these very caverns. Those sorrowful notes bled from each stone, the whole mine feeling exactly like the ballad.
“Careful,” Grae said, skidding to a halt.
I peered around him to a crack in the tunnel floor. It led to a gaping precipice bisecting the path.
“Hold my hand.” Grae swapped his candle to his far hand and grabbed my sweaty palm.
Pressing his back to the wall, he shuffled out onto the narrow bit of path clinging to the wall. I twisted sideways, looking down to the black abyss. The tips of my boots hung over the ledge as I shuffled on my heels. There was nothing to grab on to. If this tiny strip of earth gave out under my heels, we’d plummet. And, judging by the distant echoes of rubble falling into the pit, it was a long fall.
Grae reached the far side of the chasm and I leapt the rest of the distance to him. His arm yanked me upright as my legs wobbled. There were hollow caverns all around us. At any moment, the ground could give out from under us.
A skittering sound made our heads snap to the right.
“Dear Moon, let it be a squirrel,” I muttered, raising my candle higher. I didn’t spot any movement, only inch-wide holes in the rock. “Or a mole.”
“Let’s keep moving,” Grae said. “The sooner we get out of this bloody place, the better.”
“Agreed.” I lowered my hand as candlelight glinted off the shimmering pieces of ore. “If the souls who dwell in this gilded tomb knew who I was . . .”
