Elven Legacy

Chapter 61

Day 11

Tessa

Had someone told her, at any point over the past year, that she would one day grow weary of flying atop her magnificent phoenix's back, Tessa wouldn't have believed them.

These past seasons, for the pure exhilaration of it, she'd flown over Fellera's countryside, over the Great Evergreen Forest that stretched from Northern Fellera to Laethi, over the Cira Ocean to the north and the Laeth Sea to the east. She'd even flown all the way to the Cyprians, to get an aerial view of the impressive mountains across the east of Celewes, very much resembling some imposing natural wall between the civilized Oriental Empire and the nomadic tribes populating the Far East.

And yet, as she landed early in the morning, after traveling from one cemetery to another at the far end of the continent to rendezvous with Master Juna, Tessa felt utterly sick of being in the air. Sick of the wind's constant whiplash on her hair and face, irritating her skin. Sore in her legs and arms from maintaining a prolonged seated position atop Karma's back, on the flat space between her wings.

At this point, Tessa was long past exhausted, and holding on to thin shreds of her sanity.

The moon gleamed, still visible in the dawn-washed sky – a slender crescent among stars that were fading one after the other. Dew sparkled on the grass between crumbling tombstones and vine-claimed statues.

Around her, the Imperial Cemetery, which stretched to the north-east of Chyulin, lay calm and empty. Her ears caught only timid birdsong, subtle rustling in nearby shrubs – a small animal, perhaps. A delicate breeze carried with it the promise of sun and heat to come.

Tessa's phoenix had disappeared and returned in the form of a tattoo, drawn across her lower stomach and hip, and she'd used a bed of magical energy to lay Matt's body, still wrapped in her cloak, carefully onto the grass.

She waited, as the sun rose over eastern hills dotted in myriad tombstones. With a sliver of unease, she hoped this was indeed the right place. Juna's instructions had been to meet him at the Royal Crypt.

If Tessa glanced to her left, a crypt's looming form stared at her not two yards away, with the oak door Juna had described, engraved in gold and silver. More importantly, flanking the door, twin stone statues of oversized lions, which had been the emblem of the kings and queens of ages past. They were missing chunks of their manes and snouts, but you still got the idea.

This section of the cemetery, in Master Juna's opinion, made for a suitably discreet location, since the skeletons that slept beneath the earth were all at least three hundred years old. The era of Chyulin kings was a thing of the past – a line of emperors and empresses with loftier ideals had taken their place a long time ago.

Tessa sat in the grass a few paces from the body, crossing her black leather ankle boots, shivering in her slim clothing, clutching at her long sleeves' hems. She rather missed her cloak. Still, it wasn't nearly as cold as it had been up in the heavens. Her stomach growled, loud enough to startle her – and apparently a raven, who fled a nearby ash tree in a frantic flapping of wings.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten something.

Who cares? If I'm about to die regardless.

The thought elicited an uneasy twinge, some place deep inside her. However, her determination held. The deeper truth was, she wanted to do this . . . even if it killed her.

She'd had plenty enough time to ask herself why, up there in the sky. And frankly, she wasn't even sure.

To make amends? To make things right?