The Dragon Races- Part 27

A quiet chuckle escaped Therin's mouth, turning to a clamorous laugh. The sound echoed off the walls even after he bit down on his lip to keep from continuing. He towered over Eriene, taller than everyone, even Everlys by an inch or two. But he seemed to surround the entire room, staring into each person's eyes all at once. 

"A way out." His eyes were delirious and unfocused, vision hazy and steps more of focused stumbles. "You've known her for... how long? Five minutes?" He spat out the words. "And suddenly you're going to believe every word and vision she has about this godforsaken place?"

He hissed at Everlys as she opened her mouth, glaring. His eyes drifted from the fellow Sinistrian to Eriene, to Jen and to Alaric. His gaze flecked with black, shadows dancing across and flitting in and out of the icy blue. Tendrils of black curled around his hands, staining his fingertips black as the darkness climbed up his arms.

"What about Raya?" Eriene gently dropped Jen's arm, taking a small step towards him. "Raya wouldn't want you to do this."

"Raya..." Therin's face contorted and jaw clenched. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut. "Raya doesn't love me."

"What about at the dance? She approached you in front of everyone. Doesn't that say something?"

"Her mother told her to. Raya worships Lady Castor like a Spirit and does everything she asks." He quieted. When he spoke again, his voice was crystalline and clear, almost inaudible. But his words reached the ears of everyone. "Even if it's playing with the heart of someone who she'll eventually leave, watching them slowly suffer and die before having their magic sucked from them and used for power." 

No one spoke. Was that right? Was Raya really as horrible as Therin made her out to be?

"That's going to happen to all of us." 

Eriene's mind traveled back to when Raya had shared her memories- of Nepthys, of the dragons, and of Therin. She had said to trust him, but Therin had turned on her. Who should they trust?

*******************

"Whatever this is, it's unnecessary." 

Raya crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "This is your fault, mother." The word was spoken like an insult. She willed her voice not to waver, for her audacious facade not to crumble under Lady Castor's gaze. "You killed him. You're going to kill him. And this is my fault?"

"He was nothing." 

"Therin isn't nothing!" Her voice cracked, eyes glistening with tears at his name. "He's... the opposite of nothing."

Lady Castor glared, striding forward until her daughter stood only a small step away. Raya stumbled back as her mother raised a hand, pointing an accusing finger between her silver eyes. "And this, Raya, is going to get you killed one day. Remember Nevara? Our little Starling? This is what she did- she disobeyed, contemplated of falling in love with someone below her rank. I-"

"Don't. Please don't-"

Lady Castor shook her head dismissively at her daughter's pleas. "I wanted to give her the world." She drew each quiet word out, letting them echo in Raya's skull. 

Tears glistened on Raya's skin, paler than her blotchy flesh and dripping from her reddened eyes. "You killed her. You're the one that chose her for the Races."

Lady Castor shook her head. "She stole her own life from herself."

"Then maybe I'd be better off with her instead of here." 

Raya didn't wait for her mother to respond. She turned away, half-running through the doors of Lady Castor's study and to the set of blindingly white steps leading down to the main level. She wanted to Send to Kate, to silently ask her to come. She could use the reassurance of a friend.

But Kate wasn't good enough. Kate hadn't been with her through her childhood- not like Cress. But Cressida's location was a mystery except to Princess Danelle. And Raya couldn't talk with royalty now, hopefully not ever. She wanted nothing to do with that kind of life. 

A life of servants and crowns and authority, ignoring the malnourished and starving children in the poorer provinces to their own luxury.

She stopped at the steps. One branch led down to the training bay, the other going over towards her room on the opposite side of their family's wing. Raya stumbled multiple times on the way down. She ignored the subtle glances of hooded guards. Of other nobles strutting through the palace on their way to unnecessary meetings of how to proliferate the Sinistrian military.

Enough people had already died.

She broke free of the palace's suffocating walls after another few minutes of mindless, desperate wandering. 

She made her way towards a guard standing at one of the gates.

"Let me out." They glanced to their partner, and Raya's eyes narrowed. She looked deranged; eyes red and gaze intense, hair wispy and out of control from all the times she had yanked on the strands to keep from losing her calm within the company of her mother. "Give. Me. A. Key."

"But my Lady, why-"

"Because... I said so. I'm your superior, right? The daughter of the cousin of the queen?" 

The one on the left looked towards their companion again. When they spoke, it was a soft voice. Male, maybe. "Lady Raya, that isn't-"

"I need to get out of here. Just... for an hour. Please."

She held out her hand expectantly, pleading silently with the two hooded figures. One reached into the inner pocket of their white cloak, handing Raya a small and thin rectangle as large as her palm.

She pressed it against the screening pad, heartbeat hammering in her chest as it slowly scanned the rectangle. She gave a small flinch at the bright light, twisting to fit through the small gasp of the gate before it fully opened. "Thank you."

Raya didn't wait for a reply. She broke into a run as soon as she stepped on to the strikingly green grass, shutting her eyes once she reached the sycamore forest. She let her mind reach out, curl around the trees and obstacles in her path until her mind built it's own mental picture. The path was familiar, a way she had gone hundreds of times before. 

Sometimes on her own. Other times with Kate, Luke, Lex, or Therin. 

Usually Therin. 

He was the only one who knew and appreciated the part of the forest she did, with the untamed vines and creeks free to take their own course and not conform to Sinistra's expectations.

She looked back at the gate. Only a small, glittering shape was visible through the foliage. The greenery shielded her from the palace's sight. 

Just the way Raya liked it.

The sound of a rushing waterfall captured her attention. It thundered in her ears, but echoed softly once in her mind. Like it knew of her struggles and offered the comfort she needed.

The trees parted for her, finally giving a view of the falls.

A thin, winding pathway curled up the side and seemed to disappear into the water. Twirling strands of ivy and vine curled over the rocky face and sent shadows dancing on the stone. She brushed her fingers across them; her eyes didn't leave the mark of where the waterfall swallowed her path.

Raya slowed as she reached it, and a sharp pang of misery pulsed through her chest.

There was a large cave, the entire right side covered by the falls. The stone of the left curved into arches with bending slabs of stone on either side of each, giving window-like views of the forest outside with deep inlets that acted as seats.

Raya circled the room once, then turned to leave. It was too painful.

But at least the cave shielded her form the palace's views, as well. At least the place was unknown by her mother, somewhere where she could think and speak out loud without being judged and adjudicated.

It used to be a place for her and Therin- just them, not the royals and nobles oblivious to the lives of the people under them. 

But Therin was as good as dead. Like Cress, like Nevara, like her freedom.

Despite whatever Kate said, Therin was gone.

And he was never coming back.