Page 95 of Shadow Queen
“You loved my father,” Norah said.
Naavi nodded. “Very much.”
“It’s why you helped me before.”
The woman took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. “It’s why I’ve done everything that I have.”
“How did you come to love him?”
Naavi sat down in the chair nearby, pausing a moment in silence. “It was perhaps a year or two after your mother died. Your father would ride out for days at a time, wandering, thinking, wanting to be alone. That’s when he found himself lost in our wood. So many trespassing souls we’ve taken, death for all who enter. But something was different about him. A… sadness.”
Naavi closed her eyes, seeming to remember. She continued, “I don’t know what made me do it, but I allowed him to see me. He stopped, got off his horse, and came to me, as if he knew my power, as if begging for the mercy of an end to his pain. I asked him about this sadness inside him, but he couldn’t talk about it. It was too great. So, I looked through his mind, and I saw your mother. I saw you. I asked him if he wanted me to take her away, take away the memories. But he didn’t. He said, ‘How will I tell my daughter of her beautiful mother if I can’t remember her?’”
Norah’s eyes welled.
“We sat for a long time,” Naavi continued. “He told me about you, how you had hair like the brightest rays of the sun, and how you smiled.” She paused. “That’s when I fell in love with him. That’s when I fell in love with you.”
Naavi let out an emotional breath. “I sent him away, home, but he was all I could think of—his eyes, his sad smile. When he returned several weeks later, I knew he thought of me too. He came many times over the years, our love growing stronger each visit.” Her face fell. “But when he came in the night, with you, with war on the horizon—I can’t see visions of the future, but I knew it was the last time I would see him.” She reached out and clasped Norah’s hand. “I’m so sorry. But I did what I thought was right.”
“I don’t fault you,” Norah said softly. “And I’m sorry for my words. I understand that without your protection, I would’ve been visible to the seers. Had I been found by the senior Shadow King, as opposed to his son, this would have been a very different story.”
Naavi nodded, and they rose. Norah followed her to the window, and they stood quietly in the soft glow of the setting sun.
“Was I here all this time?” Norah asked.
“Yes,” Naavi told her. “I loved you like my daughter.”
“Is that how I was able to ride the mare? Did she know me?”
Naavi smiled. “All the Wild knows you.”
“And you gave the horse to my father, the one he rode in battle?”
Naavi nodded. “My own stallion, Lethos. But Lethos returned to me, alone, after the battle with the Shadow King.” The woman looked away, unable to hold her emotion.
That’s why Naavi so hated the Shadowlands. Norah waited until her own emotion passed, then she asked, “Did I know my story when I lived here?”
“I told you pieces, enough that you decided you had to return. We rode to the edge of the Wild, where we said goodbye. Kiku was to lead you back to Mercia.”
Kiku? Norah smiled. The fox.
“But you didn’t follow him, not at first.” Naavi pursed her lips. “I should have known that would happen. You’ve never been one for signs. I hope fate has learned to be very direct with you.”
They both let out a small laugh.
But then Naavi grew serious. “I did intervene, to save you from those men. You were so scared. I wanted to come to you, comfort you, but you no longer knew me.” She seemed wounded by the memory. Then she straightened. “You followed Kiku after, though, and I let you go. But then he returned before nightfall, much too soon. He said a man had found you, taken you away. But we couldn’t see this man. We couldn’t see what had happened to you. I… I almost left the Wild to find you.” She took a breath. “But the wind brought us whispers that the Mercian princess had returned. And I knew you were safe.”
“Why did you take the memory of this place from me too? The memory of you?” Norah asked her.
“You made the decision to leave and return to Mercia. We must protect the Wild, and the secrets here. That is why Sana wouldn’t let you keep the memories.”
“You let my father keep his.”
“She shouldn’t have,” Sana’s voice called from behind her. Norah turned with a start. Sana’s eyes locked with Naavi’s. “Knowledge of the Wild cannot be trusted with men, with their greed and their need to destroy things.” Her gaze shifted to Norah. “And we cannot let you keep what you have seen here.”
Norah’s heart dropped. Not that she had uncovered many answers, but she had more than she had before, and the thought of losing them again crushed her.
“Do you understand?” Sana asked.
