Into the Land of Valentia

Chapter the Ninth

IX

Several minutes of dead silence crawled past, leaving Vivica's mind open to an overload of thoughts. Unable to handle all the questions—and, unsurprisingly, the overwhelming lack of answers—Vivica decided to simply shut her mind off.

It was easier said than done. Thinking about not thinking just led to thoughts anyway, and she quickly found it was a losing battle. Finally, she simply focused all her senses on the forest around her, letting the sights and sounds take her over.

A chickadee flitted past, chirping gleefully as it found a leafless branch. It settled down and fluttered its wings before leaping back into flight. The bird oozed freedom, loose from any threads tying it down and keeping it trapped. The tree's branch swayed from the loss of weight.

It was a hot day, but the wind moved the heat along in the same way a frantic mother ushered her child through busy streets. Vivica realized that, sometime during the stay with the elves, her hair had been freed from its braid. The dark waves were now spread out on her shoulders, framing her face and falling in her eyes.

Her eyes. Suddenly, she was no longer able to keep the thoughts at bay. It was Cayden's compliment about her eyes that had brought her back to reality. Ever since James' death, she hadn't been able to look in a mirror and see those eyes without remembering him. Her lashes were darker than his, and her eyes slightly less round. Otherwise, they were an exact replica of his golden irises.

Like her older brother, Vivica's eyes turned a lighter shade when she was in a good mood. Unlike her older brother, that meant her eyes were usually a dark bronze colour. She was always too serious, according to him. Too focused on what was next to enjoy what was then. Maybe if she had heeded his advice, she wouldn't have felt so pressured to become a dragon slayer like he was. Maybe she wouldn't have followed him along on that last, fatal trip.

She saw many reasons that made her to blame for the entire thing. It had haunted her terribly after his death. To be there, in that clearing, and watch as those light gold eyes became blank and unseeing. It had devastated her.

She hadn't even been thinking properly when she shot her final arrow into the dragon's heart, killing it. Or when she cleaned up the scene so that it would look like James had slain the dragon himself in his last moments. Or when she mounted his horse, Garrett, and rode home to tell the first villager she saw that her brother was injured. Not even when they came back, many hours later, apologizing that his body was in such a state that they had decided to bury it right on the spot.

She couldn't even deal with Naleena. In the days after, the villagers would stop by and offer food, help and comfort. Vivica had only been fifteen. No one in Caverly expected the sisters to be able to survive. Exactly a week later, though, Garrett had spoken his first words to Vivica and everything changed. 

"What just happened?"

Vivica blinked, startled. She hadn't expected to recall his voice that clearly. In any case, that wasn't what Garrett had said. He had said—

"Did your horse just talk?" Cayden demanded, reigning in Sun. He stared in shock at the dappled stallion. His dark blue eyes were wide, and Vivica noticed how much they looked like the berries she and her sister picked every fall to make into jam.

"Obviously not," she said at the same time Garrett said, "Vivica?"

"He spoke just now. Honestly, there is no way I'm hallucinating all of this. At least . . . no, I'm pretty sure this is really happening. Care to explain?"

His tone wasn't at all condescending, but Vivica found herself searching for words that would hurt him nonetheless. "Care to explain what that was back there, seeing as you're supposed to be marrying the princess?"