Page 54 of A Storm Rises
“And my father? What happened to him?”
“Soulbound to your mother. When she breathed her last breath, so did he. Leaf’s Enbarr, Silverhoof, led us to him.”
“Silverhoof?” She snapped her eyes toward Lady Sonia. The Enbarr, the one in the forest. The one that separated her and Mateo, then later carried them to the Green Falls. It belonged to her father?
Lady Sonia nodded. “Silverhoof is the Enbarr you have been seeing. She has been watching over you.”
Tears welled in her eyes, blurring her vision. This whole time her father, her real father, had been helping her. Her hands moved to her arms, to the skin where the man she thought was her father had bruised her. Her fake father. The man who threatened and hurt her. She was sure Leaf would have never done that. A flow of tears escaped her eyes for never having known him and her mother.
Inside the vision, movement from the doorway drew her attention. Lady Sonia from the past dashed into the room.
“She is gone, she is gone,” the maidservant Lady Gidna cried.
Lady Sonia wrapped her arms around the maidservant. She held her and the baby close for a few long seconds. She pulled back and placed her hand on the maidservant’s shoulder. “But the child. The child is not gone. We must activate our plan.”
“Yes. Let us do that before we are too late.” The dwarf maid kissed the infant’s tiny head. “Please, protect her.”
Avalynn tore her gaze away from the scene and looked at the Lady Sonia standing beside her. “You all knew this might happen and had a plan?”
“We did.” Lady Sonia paused as if waiting for a reaction. But Avalynn gave none. “We had been keeping watch on the lady of House Stromm. She was with child, and I had foreseen that hers would not be born alive. So, we planned to hide you in plain sight as their offspring. You would be safe there. I had already established myself as Maid Nia in Stromm Palace so that we could facilitate the switch.”
“But…” Avalynn’s mind scrambled at the unfolding events. “How did Mateo come to be in the Sublands if he was not born alive?”
“Keep watching. You will see.”
Lady Sonia of the past reached into her cape’s pocket. She pulled out a shimmery glow. Placing her fingertips on the edges, she stretched it out until it took on the shape of a doorway.
Avalynn gaped in wild wonder—the shimmery portal she had read about in the note. She had heard of them but had never seen one. According to the history tellings, they were all destroyed. From where she stood, she could make out the Chrysalis Chamber of Stromm Palace, where newborns were taken for cleaning. Lady Sonia secured the baby in her arms, kissed Gidna’s cheek, and then stepped through the portal.
Avalynn held her breath. The switch. With her gaze fixed on the opened portal, she watched Lady Sonia and herself as an infant disappear from view. Biting down on her lip, she clasped her hands tightly in front of her. This had already happened, but Avalynn felt perched on the edge of a knife anyway.
A few seconds later, Lady Sonia appeared in her Maid Nia form with a swaddled infant in her arms. She passed the bundle to Maid Gidna thought the shimmery haze, then shot back through the opening. She closed the portal with a swipe of her arm.
Avalynn’s heart raced. She stepped closer to the maidservant holding the infant. Mateo. She bit her lip and waited for a sign of life. Nothing. And then, a cry from the swaddling. Maid Gidna turned to the maiden in the corner. “The babe lives!” The pair scurried out of the room.
With the room emptied, Avalynn scanned the surroundings. Her attention landed on a tall, dark wooden chest with intricate flower and leaf carvings. The wooden box with the same ‘S’ sat on top. Next to it rested the platinum chain and cross.
“Have you seen enough?” Lady Sonia wrenched her hands. “I am not able to hold the vision much longer.”
Avalynn studied the room and took one last mental picture. “I have.”
Lady Sonia waved her arm, and the scene dissolved. The two were back in the room. Lady Sonia on the stool, and Avalynn on the bed.
“Are you all right?” Lady Sonia lowered her hand from Avalynn’s forehead. She rose and stepped back, giving her space.
All right? How does one even answer that question after witnessing such a life altering moment? She picked up the box, the same one from the vision. She draped the necklace with her real mother’s cross over her hand. Deceived and hidden for all these years as a princess of House Stromm, she was actually the daughter of Gabriela of House Strong and Leaf of the Sublands. Like she had thought of Mateo, she was a Sublander, a lowborn. Hated by many.
But she was unsure where the Only One fit in. She faced Lady Sonia. “Who foretold the prophecy? And what does it mean?”
“It came to Princess Gabriela in a dream, from your grandmother, Princess Celyse. For your safety, we have kept it hidden and were mostly successful until whisperings of the Only One began circulating.”
A knock sounded on the door. It jarred Avalynn from the conversation.
“I want to see her, Sonia.” It was a man’s voice.
“You will, Manny. Give us a little more time here.”
Avalynn touched Sonia on the shoulder. “Mateo’s father?” She could not face him after what she had done to his son. She hoped to never face the man Mateo loved so much.
