A Sprinkle of Stardust

Chapter 26 - Revelations

Nash sat up in his bed while a dark presence hovered in front of him. His back was to Lyrani, but his shoulders were narrower than they were now, which must mean that she was looking at a younger version of him.

He trembled, shaking his head, but he didn't have the strength to fight as the shadow became one with him.

Lyrani staggered backwards. She narrowed her eyes at the crystal.

Was that vision real?

Lyrani gazed around her. The bunches of tapering sticks of quartz had looked like pretty crystals at first glance, but like everything else at Vlitavia Palace, they revealed their true nature only at closer inspection.

Lyrani wandered to the back of the cave. Every cluster of crystals glittered as she walked past as if to tempt her into touching them. There were so many to choose from. Selecting a red crystal, Lyrani held her finger to its surface.

She found herself in an unfamiliar apartment in Vlitavia Palace. A woman rocked a newborn baby with tiny, waving hands. Sweat plastered her long mahogany hair to her head. Maids scurried around her, but she only had eyes for the child she cradled in a bundle of blankets.

A man swept into the room, his silver cloak flying out behind him. His honey-brown eyes fell on the woman. He smiled and touched a kiss to her forehead.

Lyrani withdrew her finger, then she was back in the cave of crystals.

Who were those people? Lyrani didn't recognise any of them, not even from the portraits she had seen in the palace.

But she had seen the man's eyes before. She had also seen that hair colour, that unusual shade between red and brown. She had seen them when she looked at Nash.

Perhaps these people, whoever they were, had come before Nash, even before Livh and Rayn. They could even be the future, though that seemed less likely.

Lyrani touched a lavender-purple crystal and went to another apartment in the palace, one that reminded her of the dawn. This time, she knew exactly where she was.

Princess Livh stood at her window, gazing out at the sunset falling on the treetops. Her long blonde hair fell in perfect curls down her back. The door swung open, and a man came into the room.

Lyrani inhaled sharply.

She had seen this man before. Those were the same bushy eyebrows that frowned down at her every time she made a mistake.

It was Lord Dundor, looking younger than Lyrani had ever known him to be.

Princess Livh turned to him with tears in her eyes. Her mouth moved, uttering silent words Lyrani would give anything to hear. Dundor took the princess into his arms and kissed her with more passion than Lyrani had ever thought the old man capable of.

But of course, he hadn't been old then. He had been young, as radiant as any other youthful lover. 

Princess Livh's fingers curled around his tunic hem like she wouldn't—or couldn't—let him go.

The room darkened as if a cloud had blotted out the sun. Lyrani followed Princess Livh and Lord Dundor's gazes to the door. The infamous Queen Rayn had arrived.

Lord Dundor stepped forward with an earnest expression on his face and his palms extended in that beseeching way Lyrani was so familiar with. He spoke, but Queen Rayn held up a hand. Her mouth twisted in that way Nash's did when he wasn't himself.

Lyrani shuddered at the observation.

The queen stood, shoulders squared with the knowledge that she was the most powerful person in the room despite being the shortest and oldest. Lyrani shrunk back from her even though she knew that the queen couldn't hurt her in this strange dream realm.