The Silver Siren (39 page)

I opened my eyes and I was weighted
down, like something heavy was on top of me. My cheek rubbed
against something scratchy, and I lifted my head from the offending
object. It was Kael’s extra set of knives, but something else had
me pinned.

I didn’t care, though. I was
fascinated by the very handsome man lying underneath me at the
moment.

Kael’s eyes were closed, but then they
started to flutter.

And then they opened. He gaze met
mine, and before either of us could say anything, Kael pulled me
down to meet his lips in passionate kiss that never seemed to
end.

“
Thalia.” A soft voice
called my name, followed by the sound of clearing throats. I looked
up and saw Joss staring down at me as I lay there wrapped in Kael’s
arms. “I’m so sorry.” He turned away from me, and I looked up at my
father in confusion.

Bearen stood above Kael’s head
watching us as well, his face pale. He kept grasping his chest. “I
feel like I’ve just seen the impossible.” He dropped to his knees
and reached forward to touch my cheek.

I tried to move, but I was
stuck.

Kael noticed my discomfort and tried
to help me, but we were both pinned to the ground.

I shifted my weight and saw that
Faraway’s head was actually lying across my back. “Faraway!” I
called out playfully to him. “Move.”

“
Thalia…don’t.” Alba
appeared suddenly and came to stand where I could see her. “You
mustn’t be upset. It was time. I told you there would come a time
when your Guardian would leave you. I said you would wake up and he
would be gone.”

“
What do you mean?” I
demanded.

“
The Guardian has but one
purpose. To give up his life so that another may live. Faraway
chose you from the beginning. He was drawn to your strength of
courage and your selflessness. Even the wolf saw it. And since you
took two lives with you when you departed, he offered up his own,
so you could bring two back.”

My heart stopped beating and I began
to cry out in pain. “No! You lie. He’s just sleeping. He can’t be
gone!” I pushed away from Kael, turned under the weight of Faraway
and wrapped an arm over his still warm neck.

It couldn’t be. It wasn’t
fair.

But no matter how I tried to call out
to him through mindspeech, he wasn’t there.

Faraway?

Wolf?
Even Wolf refused to answer me.

Please Faraway, answer
me.

Nothing. I heard nothing but
silence.

Kael wrapped his arms around me as I
mourned the loss of a piece of my soul.

Epilogue

Five years later
.

“
I don’t want to hear
about another delegation from the south. We have no need to trade
with the country of Azure.” I threw my hands up in
frustration.

Lorna tapped the table with her
fingers, pointing to an item on the list that I might have
missed.

“
Horses. They raise and
breed the best purebred horses,” Lorna said, taking advantage of my
soft spot for horses.

“
Then send Master Joss and
Darren out to Azure. Let them meet the delegates first. I am wary
of bringing strangers into our land while we are still new and
susceptible to other influences.”

Adept Lorna smiled. “That is a great
compromise. I think you are learning your duties quite
splendidly.”

“
Not because I have a
choice.” I rolled my eyes at her back when she wasn’t looking. She
cleared her throat and excused herself, heading out the double
doors of the great hall.

A tall form stepped out of the shadows
and came to wrap his arms around my waist. “You knew Azure was
known for their horses. I noticed the moment you saw them on the
list. You were going to agree to the delegation days ago,” Kael
nuzzled my neck. Even now, he still wore no color other than black,
but it had never bothered me. Even on our bonding day, when we
exchanged vows in Sinnendor’s halls five years ago, he wore
black.

That was exactly why I’d commissioned
Berry, the royal seamstress, to make Kael’s attire wedding attire
both royal and manageable in case of a war.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Am I that
easy to read?”

“
Only because you’re my
soul mate. I know everything about you.” He walked with me over to
the large tapestry that now hung from the walls.

With the help of the Denai,
Sinnendor’s castle had been rebuilt. There were more windows, more
oil paintings, and more candles lit throughout the whole castle. It
looked alive—properly lived in—again.

With the death of the King of
Sinnendor, the title had fallen to Sevril, who’d barely survived
his encounter with Kael. Kael had told me once that every time saw
Prince Sevril, he was reminded of the terrible sacrifice Tomac had
made—because of him.

Tomac’s one true act of brotherly
love.

Still, when the war was over, Sevril
abdicated the throne even though he had become completely
human.

Bearen Valdyrstal was a natural
leader, and the people of Sinnendor gravitated to my father. But
Bearen also refused.

Which meant I was next in
line.

Sevril had since spent all of his days
locked in his rooms, reading and studying. I noticed once that he
keeps a single jar beside his desk. No one else but the two of us
would recognize it for what it is. It’s filled with blue liquid
that shimmers slightly. It is the last of his gifts, the only one
that wasn’t donated to me.

Even though it made me uncomfortable
to see it, I couldn’t bear to make him part with it. Not after the
sacrifice that he and Xiven made to help me. I’d never once seen
him lose his temper, even though Darren and Joss often tried to
goad him. Sevril had truly become my voice of reason in all things,
a great advisor and a trusted friend.

I reached out and touched the
tapestry, smiling at the feel of Kael’s hand on my back.

Once, I’d been worried about leading a
clan, but now I was leading a country—or countries. We’d
permanently opened up the borders between Sinnendor and Calandry.
Many Sirens and Denai had found new homes, settling in both lands.
In fact since the queen’s death, Kael and I had been traveling back
and forth between the two nations, governing them. Although
Calandry was doing fine with the clans governing them, they still
wanted a queen. That was the Adept Council’s doing. My white hair
and silver eyes were proof of hope in the union of the two
races.

I’d more or less become the mascot for
the future and was stuck with it.

At least until the next heir to the
throne was old enough to start demanding her own pony.

The door burst open and a little girl
with raven black hair, silver eyes, and an impish smile ran in. She
headed right for Kael and wrapped herself around his
leg.

“
Ooh, help me, Daddy! Save
me!” she cried out in mock terror.

A small red-haired boy entered the
room, growling at her. “Roar! I’m a lion,” he said as he held up
his chubby little hands and pretended to extend claws. “And I’m
going to eat you!”

The little girl squealed in mock
fright, but was interrupted by the boy’s mother who came running in
after him.

“
Fenrier, what did I tell
you about scaring the princess?”

“
Sorry, Momma,” the child
said, but not before sticking his tongue out at Princess
Lisanne.

“
Sorry for the
interruption, Thalia. I was watching them, but then they took off.
I’m a little slow these days.” Syrani chuckled and gently patted
her rounding belly. Fenri is hoping for a calm little girl to add
to our brood. But secretly, I want another boy.” Motherhood made
Syrani glow.

Gone was the spiteful, spoiled girl.
She’d been replaced by a completely different woman. Everyone was
watching Fenri and Syrani’s children carefully, because they were
in fact—as Xiven had predicted—the combination of both Siren and
Denai heritage. Already Fenrier was more powerful than some of the
older Denai. It would be interesting to see what the future held
for the next few generations.

Kael swung Lisanne into the air before
depositing her on his shoulders.

She clung onto the top of his head and
yelled, “Giddyup.” Her feet kicked him gently in the chest. “I want
to wave to Grandpa!”

Kael laughed and led me, keeping my
hand in his as we walked down the hall toward a side entrance. Two
shadows fell into step behind us, quiet but observant. I waved
jovially to Alek and Gwen, our personal bodyguards. Kael complained
that I didn’t need a bodyguard since I had him, but after the war
we were hounded with offers from SwordBrothers to personally guard
our family. We took two of their best, Alek and Gwen. But we
refused to be bonded to them. Their lives are their own.

We stepped out the side entrance and
headed across the courtyard to the training field. Bearen yelled
loudly to a young soldier as he corrected his stance and the swing
of his sword. At least, on the battle field with the soldiers in
training, he could fight with a smile. Life in the castle was
another story entirely. Bearen and Portia turned out to be mortal
enemies. He spent most of his days ranting about how terrible the
woman is and how she was secretly trying to kill him with all her
etiquette lessons. So he avoids the castle as often as possible,
preferring the company of warriors to women. Or so he
says.

Even though he adores and spoils his
granddaughter.

With Bearen’s leadership qualities it
wasn’t long before he was installed as the new leader of the
Elite.

“
Do you regret not
training them?” I asked Kael as we watched my father
fighting.

“
No. It feels right.
Sirens being trained by their own. Besides, I have my hands full
protecting you two.”

I smiled.

Bearen caught sight of us and raised
his hand to wave at his granddaughter who happily whooped and
yelled back. We stayed that way, watching my father for a few
moments before we headed back inside.

I couldn’t help but think of Hemi
whenever I saw my father. Hemi and Fanny had married. They now
spend their free time tracking down the any remaining iron
butterfly machines and dismantling them. They’ve found three others
over the years and more copies of the journals, which were all
summarily destroyed.

As we stepped out of the sunlight into
the cool air of the great hall, a young page approached
us.

“
Milady, we’ve just
received word that Joss Jesai and Darren Hamdin will be arriving in
a few days’ time.”

“
Thank you. Will you run
and tell the others to prepare their rooms for them?” The boy bowed
his head and ran off, his skinny legs flying behind him.

Joss had never been quite the same
after the war. He was a little slow to smile, though when he did,
his dimple still remained. His eyes still twinkled, though not as
often as I would like. At first I thought it was because he
couldn’t handle the thought that I had chosen Kael, but that didn’t
seem to bother him. It was the loss of his sister Tenya during the
war. He won’t speak of what happened, but apparently it was enough
to shake him to the core.

Many times since then, he has come up
to me and apologized for not understanding fully what happened to
me when I was taken by the Raven. He found it hard to look me in
the eye and not be reminded of what happened to him and his
sister.

I had hoped he would marry and settle
down, but it seems that he has taken after Darren and enjoys the
rover lifestyle. He feels most himself when he is on the road,
traveling to new and distant lands. When he comes home he is
reminded of Tenya’s absence. And when he comes to visit me, he is
constantly reminded of the Raven. Which is the other reason he
apologizes so much.

Kael and I had come full circle and
were back in the great hall filled with tapestries. Kael put
Lisanne down and she ran across the room to play with a small
kitten that had made its home in a basket by the corner. Gwen moved
to silently stand in the shadows near our daughter.

Kael recognized my thoughtful gaze and
pulled me into another embrace. “Lost in the past or future?” he
asked.

“
Mmm, past,” I answered.
“I feel like all of the answers to the future are in the past. If
only we look hard enough.”

“
Well, that’s what Kambel
is good for. Let him do the studying.” Kael grabbed my chin and
placed a kiss on the tip of my nose. “You need to remind yourself
to look to the future for your answers.” He looked to the tapestry
beside us, and I was reminded of all that we had accomplished in
the last five years. It had taken many council meetings and that
many years of networking and planning. I was promoting a more
council-led form of leadership for Sinnendor, similar to
Calandry.

New maps had to be commissioned,
borders redrawn, clan lands extended. The royal crest was no longer
a lone wolf, but now included white horse. And everyone had agreed
that since the two countries were now officially one, under new
leadership, it was my right as the queen to choose the new
name.