The Rider's Legacy

Chapter 5 | The Lady

Chp 5 | The Lady

The Lady of the Lake waited for me in a large opulent office. It had to be one reserved for nonaquatic, with plush, bone-dry furniture abound. She was standing with her back to the door as we entered, her hands tucked behind her. In the Council chambers, I had paid her little attention. My goal had been getting Malachi Basset outed and shamed. In my mind, raw from fresh whipping and burdened with rage, she had been inconsequential to me.

Her skin was grey blue. As she turned to face us, her eyes were dark and large like a seal's. Her face was stern, yet young. The swinging lights above glimmered off a tiara of shells and sea-glass that were held together by thin threads of silver veins. A dress with gems latticed across her neck and upper chest, was coloured a deep, ocean blue. The fabric rippled with her as she walked, like someone had woven water together.

I dipped my chin. "Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Nimaine."

She regarded me for a long moment, those dark eyes unwavering. "It is an honour, Rider Lynch."

I wished for Dem at that moment, my mind blank like a new canvas. Shadow whispered over my wrists, a comforting coldness. It crept under my bandaged hands as if exploring the new wound. Amon's new scar. It felt as if she was waiting for me to break the silence and if I did, somehow, I would lose. What I was losing, I wasn't sure yet.

The Lady broke first. "We have been attempting to track your fellow Riders."

My face was a mask, my wariness too strong to break. "Have you been successful, Lady Nimaine?"

There were more mosaics on the walls. Mer people sitting on rocks, their tails swept around them much like a dragon who was preparing to sleep. The spray against their skin, soaking their hair looked so real that if I reached out to touch it, I might have felt sea-spray under my fingertips.

"Despite a dragons' size and the people under their protection, they were difficult to track." Lady Nimaine paused, reaching for a piece of sea-glass left on the table. She stared at the glass with those dark, ocean-depth eyes. "But all must find water. Even dragons."

She set down the glass and as she approached, I saw the twin of Cryaeni's Coinchenn blade at her waist. A sharp contrast to her dress. Knowing the importance of a Coinchenn bone, it was certainly a display of power. Lady Nimaine continued, "Even the feared Vidalin Rider, with all her power, must find water."

Anger, a thread of it, pulsed inside of me. I stifled it, keeping the Lady's gaze. "I grew up by the ocean. From the first moment I held a paintbrush, I painted it. The stormy waves that crashed in during the winter. The soft lulling water that beckoned us in during the summer, cold and salty against our skin. Before Valaxia, I could never have imagined there would be those who were strong enough to withstand the water. I imagine it is a beautiful, dangerous life."

Something eased in the Lady. She slipped into her seat at the desk, motioning for me to sit aswell. She steepled her fingers. "Your people are heading east. They are following the river that feeds out of Derralann."

"How far?" Nethore pressed.

"Have they gone far from Ithrall?" I asked.

"They are moving quickly, despite the size of their party. As if something compels them to escape Ithrall." Her lips curled, but there was no warmth in it. "Or whatever is left of it."

"The threat of Acheron will do that."

"You dealt a vicious blow against Acheron in Ithrall. You killed many of his soldiers."