Page 29 of On Silver Winds
“When I ascended the throne,” she continued, “I inherited an invaluable gift.”
Kai’s heart stuttered and snatched at his breath.A gift. His eyes darted to the Queen’s pale throat, but – No. There was nothing.
“I inherited a trove of prized journals. Avette’s journals.”
He would have flinched at her name.
Would have, had his entire body not seized when the Queen reached across the table and gently patted his hand where it rested on his knee. He looked down at her pale fingers over his scraped and bloodied ones, and his brain would not make sense of the sight. He stared blankly.
Avette.
The Queen had spoken her name to him with a sad smile. With something like pity.
What in the name of the Mother had Avette written in those journals? Not the truth. He would not be here if this woman knew what he had done. He would not be drinking tea and accepting comfort from a Beira Queen if Avette had written anything close to the truth.
Yet here he sat, hand in hand with her distant ancestor.
“Who was she, to you?”
Kai heard the hoarse edge to his own voice, that angry tightness.
“My ancestor. An aunt several times removed, or a twelfth cousin perhaps. I never was very good with lineage. I can tell you there aremanygenerations between us, at least.”
“How many?”
“Seventeen. Or eighteen maybe, I’d have to check.”
Around them, the room seemed to tilt. That was many, many Beira ancestors. Many more than he’d expected.
“How long has it been?”
For the first time, the Queen hesitated. Kai leaned forward in his seat, some of that roiling anger slipping from him as he did, like a cauldron boiling over, hissing with rage like steam.
“How long?”
She held his gaze, not so much as a blink at his rough tone.
“A little under six hundred years.”
???
Six hundred years.
Six hundred.
The centuries rushed him all at once, draining and crushing him, pressing him down to nothing, to dust.
Yet here he was.
He did not know how much time had passed as he sat there, held in the truth just as he had been held in his ice prison. Perhaps it was another six hundred years.
“I understand this must be difficult for you.”
Kai’s head moved to meet her gaze before his mind caught up, and he found himself staring blankly at the Queen.
“Six hundred years,” he said, numbly.
She nodded.
