Solstice sisters

Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Summer's POV

'Rise and shine!'
I dared to crack an eyelid open, only to be blinded by the bright December sunlight that was now flooding my room. It had been just over a month since the ball and the attack. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out an incoherent grunt of annoyance.
'Come on Summer get up'
'Why?' I moaned from the warm, comfy depths of my duvet.
'We're going for a ride'
'Again why?'
'I'm going to show you the sights of Eremay'
'Really?'
'Yes now get your lazy ass out of bed'
'Fine'
'Good girl'
With a sigh I rolled out of bed and came face to face, or face to chest rather, with Jace.
'See that wasn't so hard was it?'
'Watch it Ashwood'
'Ooh using last names now are we' he grinned
'Shut up'
'You're not a morning person are you?'
'Please leave so I can get dressed'
'Fine, meet me down at the stables in twenty minutes'
'Breakfast?'
'I'm bringing a picnic'
He swung the door open and the faint chatter of palace life filtered through.
'Wear something sensible' he called as he left the room
'Yes mom!' I yelled after him.

Don't get me wrong, I love going on rides, I just hate the stables. Why does it have to smell so bad, can't someone enchant them to smell of daisies or something along those lines.
'Good morning your highness'
'Morning Princess'
The stable hands welcomed me as politely as they always do. I returned all their greetings and smiles. I looked around for Jace but I couldn't see him.
'Looking for someone?'
I spun around to find Cultrum smirking at me, he leant on a stable door.
'Oh yeah, have you seen Jace anywhere?'
'Why?' He stood up and walked over to me 'you going on a date?' He teased.
'Maybe' I replied 'have you seen him or not?'
'Yeah, he's out front with two horses tacked up and ready to go'
'Thankyou Cultrum' I called over my shoulder as I began to leave the stables.
'Make good choices Princess' he yelled after me.
I replied with a rude gesture that would've disappointed Laurel. I didn't wait for his reply but I could hear his laughter fading as I walked outside.

'Jace why are we going on a ride at this time in the morning?' I asked as I struggled to suppress a yawn.
'Because we have quite a lot of places to visit and things to do' he explained 'and I have to have you back before nightfall' he added.
'Okay then, you going to tell me where we're going first?'
'Yeah....no'
'Jace' I whined.
'No, you'll just have to wait and see' he taunted.
'I hate waiting' I grumbled.
'Shut up and enjoy the ride, I even brought food'
'You really do think of everything' I drawled
'Thankyou' he said brightly 'oh yeah before I forget, take this'
He tossed a brown leather sheath at me.
'Whats this for?' I asked catching the empty sheath.
'This' he said and threw me the sword to go with it. I caught the sword without cutting myself and sheathed it on my left hip.
'Why do I need these?'
'Protection' Jace replied 'and I thought we'd have a little sword practice after lunch'
'Alright then, let's go'
'I knew the sword would put you in a good mood' he laughed and set off at a trot.

We rode for fifteen minutes before we reached our first destination.
'Dismount and we'll tie the horses up here' Jace said quietly.
We'd arrived at a large townhouse. It had two decent sized floors, built from large, dark coloured, rough stones. A few stray vines of Ivy snaked up the front of the house. It had an old, loving feel to it. The stone steps leading up to the oak front doors, were wearing away from all the years of use. The garden surrounding the house were unkept and bursting with plants and weeds. A tumble-down stone wall encircled the house, breaking for a large rusty iron gate. The gravel driveway didn't house any cars, instead there was a fair sized black carriage, whose paint job was peeling.
'It looks so sad' I said as I caught glimpses of the interior of the house, white sheets covered most of the furniture along with layers of dust.
'This is my childhood home' Jace explained.
'Oh' I said dumbly.
'Come on' he dismounted his horse and held onto the reins, I followed suit. He pushed open the rusty gates with a loud creak. Over the years the gates had almost rusted in place, it took a few pushes to get the gap wide enough for us to fit the horses through. We tied the horses reins to the gate once we'd shut it again.
'Who owns it now?' I asked as we walked round the side of the house.
'I do' he replied as he waded through the weeds 'well Zack and I do'
'Why don't you guys live in it?'
'Too painful'
We arrived around the back of the house, a stone patio was just visible through all the weeds. A Woodstock stacked high with wet wood sat at the side of the house. Across the patio was what looked like a stable, but it was obvious there were no horses in there anymore. Poking out of the overgrown grass was a set of two chairs and a table. They were iron and painted white, over the years the White had faded to a grey and was tinted with greens. Jace sat down at one of the chairs and stared up at the house.
'Why is it too painful?' I asked. Jace looked sad for a second.
'When our parents died we couldn't bring ourselves to sell it, but neither of us could bear to live in it either, too many memories' he explained
'Tell me about your parents'
'That's a story' he let out a huff of laughter 'lets see, My mothers name was Leena and my fathers name was Morgen, they met when they were teenagers, eighteen I think, at guard training school. They both fought with a sword so they were trained together. My dad was the best at sword fighting in the group, until my mother came along. She was the only person, other than the trainers, who could match his sword fighting abilities, and that annoyed him. So he would tease and taunt her relentlessly and she would return it. He used to hide her sword so she wouldn't be able to fight him and if she did, then she had to use a sword that she wasn't used to. After years of teasing and prancing each other, they were in their last year of training and for their final assignment before graduation they were sent out in teams of two and they had to navigate their way around parts Eremay-'
'Like Tavina and Draycott' I cut in.
'Yeah places like that. And they had to set up camp for a night. Well, my parents were paired up and spent the whole day bickering, or flirting as I see it. While they were setting up camp they were attacked by a troll. It was only a young one so not very big, but it had managed to stray from Shadowfey. When the troll attacked, instead of fighting back, my dad froze. He'd never fought anything other than an elf or a Valkyrie. Luckily before he could be crushed to death, my mother stepped in and single handedly took down the troll. Now, she could've gone back to the guards that were training them and told them all about how my father froze, but she didn't. And because she kept his secret, my father graduated straight into one of the higher ranking guard teams. And a few years later he became head of the guard. As a Thankyou he took my mother out for a meal and overtime their teasing did turn into flirting and they eventually got married and had Zack, then they had me. They raised us in this house here, that was my room' he pointed to a window on the far right of the house. 'Zack and I joined the guard as soon as we were old enough. That, unfourtunately, wasn't until a few years after the Great War had started. Zack fought for two years and I fought for maybe a year and a half'
'That's still a long time' I said
'I know, it felt like longer at the time. My parents were killed by an Echthroi a few days before the war ended'
'I'm sorry' I said and I meant it, I understood how he felt.
'Damon took us in after that. The day the war ended we accompanied Damon and Zacks friend Haryk to Ravenwood Manor, your parents invited us to stay for diner'
'And then the fire started?'
'Yes' he said solemnly 'instead of getting out of there as fast as they could, your parents went upstairs to get you and Ivy. Zack, Haryk, Damon and I got everyone else out. We waited just outside the front door for your parents, Aramis handed you and Ivy to us through the door, he could've gotten out but a beam fell on Aliya, trapping her. Aramis stayed behind to try and save her but they didn't get out in time. We watched the whole thing unfold infront of our very eyes'
'That's horrible' I murmured.
'Yeah, I've seen a lot of things I'd gladly forget' he gave me a weak smile 'come on, the next place is nearly an hours ride'
He held out a hand for me. Gladly I took it and let him pull me out of my seat.
'You going to tell me where we're going next?'
'No'
'Of course not'