John cocked his head. “We have found numerous texts previously thought to be gone in the safe of the king’s. As if I wasn’t already itching to get my hands on those texts, I will be sure to take a look through there and see if anything is to be found about either Iron Will or multiple bonds.”
“So does that bring us back to the sword?” Krew asked.
We were both exhausted. Between recouping our magic and all the seven hundred thousand things that needed to be done since removing his father from power, we’d barely had a moment to ourselves that wasn’t spent sleeping to help our magic recoup faster.
“Is there a way to free the magic from the sword?” Keir asked them. “A reversal of however he managed to get her magic into it in the first place?”
The head sage shook his head. “Not that I know of. And the king killed everyone who helped him in that endeavor, so we unfortunately cannot ask them. Again, maybe there is something within those books that have been locked away for decades, but we do not know at this time.” He paused. “And there is the very real possibility that we will never know what exactly your father did to get your mother to siphon that magic over, how it was done. How it was successful.” Another pause. “It might even be best for the realm for us to never know. I still firmly suspect when the queen willed her magic into that sword, she also willed that it would never be used to harm either of her sons.”
Which helped explain why the queen’s magic had seemed to explode from the sword and shatter my gauntlets. But again, there were parts to this story that we would never have all the answers to. Forces at play greater than any of us.
As for keeping the information we had learned from others, I didn’t know about withholding information at all anymore. Theon had remained in power as long as he had by changing information and selecting what knowledge he shared. I wasn’t about to wish to siphon another’s magic, but maybe if we knew how it was done, we could learn how to undo it. Or make sure others never did.
Keir leaned back in his seat. “So we just lock the sword up, then? There have been whispers about the sword and half of Wylan already believes the theory that it was the queen’s magic who helped free Jorah from the gauntlets.”
“Someone will eventually try to steal it,” Krew added. “It is a miracle a greedy Savaryn loyal to my father hasn’t already.”
Just like it had occurred any time the sword was brought up the past few days, my eyes darted to the window and the forest.
I had the odd feeling the sword should go to the forest. Not to be destroyed necessarily, but to keep it...safe. And I was absolutely certain that made me deranged. I thought highly of the forest, of course, but with the queen’s sword? How did that even make sense?
“Locking it up while we research what to do with it seems the only solution,” River explained. “That doesn’t mean it will be locked up forever, but it is likely the best temporary option.”
A shiver raced down my back as I looked out the window.
“Love?” Krew asked. “What is it?”
“It’s nothing,” I muttered to him.
“I disagree,” he said as his eyes met mine. “What’s on your mind?”
I took a deep breath. “I know this makes me sound absolutely mad, but I keep having this thought that it should go in the forest.”
“Well, that’s one way to hide it,” Keir offered.
“But it’s less of me thinking that the forest is a safe place, and more of...”
Krew squeezed my hand underneath the table. “Go on.”
I pinched my nose, not believing I was truly saying this out loud. “More of me thinking that the forest wants it?”
The sages exchanged a look.
“Again, I know how that sounds.”
John shook his head. “No. The rules of that forest have always been...odd. There is a deep magic there. A magic that doesn’t abide by the rules of our realm. But rather the rules of...”
“Of what?” I asked, holding my breath as I waited for his answer.
John’s eyes were directly looking into mine as he said. “Justice.”
I felt another shiver.
River rubbed a hand across his beard, like I was learning he did when deep in thought. “The forest went black around the same time we believe, with your recent input, the king poisoned the other countries. It worked in his favor to say the disease affected Wylan too, so the other countries believed our innocence. It helped the king in that endeavor, but it always irked him to no end that it was dead.”
My mouth fell open. “So the forest was punishing him?”
“Or letting him know it knew what he’d done,” River finished. “The greedier Theon got, the darker the forest became.”
