The Goblin's Heir

Chapter Fifty One: Silver

When our quest to find Magni first began, I'd imagined meeting him again on a scorched battlefield, on land saturated with blood and death, just like what he'd left in his wake. I'd pictured a fight, loud and chaotic. That is not the meeting I got. 

"How did you find him?" I asked Bran, feeling the sun on my skin, the wind ripping at my clothes and hair. My mind was screaming at me to chase Magni down and inflict every bit of pain he had on his father on his own prone body. He had to pay. He'd killed Knut. It was the least he deserved. However, I couldn't make my limbs move. I was frozen in place in that loose sand and it seemed that so were the rest of my family. They, like me, stared ahead at his figure in the distance. He looked so small compared to the damage he'd done. 

"He's probably known where he was the whole time." Cat hissed.

"It was an accident, actually." Bran began. To his credit, he tried to hide the sting of Cat's words, but he still looked like she'd cut him with a knife. "I heard my father calling for help. When I left you, it was to go to him."

"Save us the lies. You could've told us you needed to help Ib." Cat's tongue lashed at him like a whip. "Don't make it out to be for some noble cause. You were running away. You didn't want to tell us the truth, so you took the first opportunity to run, you disgusting coward." 

"You're right." Bran swallowed. "I was afraid to tell you the truth. How do you tell the people you love most that they're going to die?" At that Cat's mouth clamped shut and her face paled, standing out starkly against the jet black of her hair writhing in the wind.

"What do you mean, going to die?" Frit asked, sounding breathless. 

"Magni will explain everything, I promise, but first, he needs to speak with your mother," He looked down at me, "privately." 

The boys began a chorus of objections. The sound of a door swinging shut silenced them as Ari appeared atop the sand dune. So she'd returned to his side after our run in? She waved at us with a big smile, as if we'd just returned from a long journey. 

"Magni wanted to talk to Matilda first." Bran said. "The rest of you can wait in the house with Ari until they're done."

"Whatever he has to say to our Mother he can say to us all." Odd growled. "He wronged the whole damn family, not just her."

"And he will talk to you all." Bran assured him. 

Frit clicked his tongue in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest. "I know what he's plotting. He thinks he can persuade Mama to forgive him and she'll get us to let him live."

"On the contrary, for him Matilda is the most difficult for him to face. We all know she doesn't forgive easily. If at all." Bran wasn't wrong. Even I would admit that. I didn't think I had that amount of forgiveness in me. 

"Go," I said in a low voice. "I need this."

"Are you sure?" Cerise asked, gently touching my arm. 

I nodded without a word. She frowned at me, but I felt her fingers slip from my skin.

With great reluctance, the others walked down the beach with Hughes and up a little pathway up to the house. Ari treated them with her usual practiced charm and led them inside. Then Bran and I were alone. 

"Are you ready?" Bran asked.

"No," I answered, lifting my crutch to take my first hobbling step toward my lastborn son. "How did you find him by accident? You never got to say."

"When I went to get my father I found him, injured, bleeding, in the palace." He said. I stopped cold. Bran looked back at me with a sort of sad smile, like he knew this knowledge would hurt me. "He was in the brooding chamber. Curled up on your old bed."