Shadow

Idonia Torbet

“We need to host a tournament to find your new Vikers,” Viker Ansson spoke as the council meeting began. “The boy is too small to be a true protector and Rikki is not enough anymore. You will each need at least three for the coronation.”

“I agree,” Sage Raudebjorn hit his hand on the table twice to make sure his opinion is received. “Plus the younger Helvig is occupied with his new pup and its presentation later in the week.”

“We will host the tournament,” Rae grumbles, dark bags under his eyes from a night full of fighting. “I’ve already started working on the announcements.”

“Of course, Avon will be competing,” Khannun Kol speaks for the first time. “Keep your family close and all.”

Rae tenses slightly but doesn’t let his distress show too much. Khanea Rika covers nicely by speaking next, “That will be Avon’s decision, he has enough years to decide for himself.”

“Who better to protect your mate than your brother,” Khannun Kol spit out, glaring at the Khanea with a level of despite that made me want to puke.

“Is Ragnvald your mother’s Viker?”

“One of them, yes.”

This is the first time I’ve taken down the wall in our bond since yesterday morning. Rae takes no action to search my mind or speak any more to me. He just sits there with despair in his eyes and heart.

“I would like to have a few northern Viker.”

“Why?” Viker Helvig lets out a huff of amusement as he laughs. “Northerner aren’t as loyal to the crown.”

“But they kill shadowbeasts,” he argues. “They’re stronger in many different degrees. Also, with Idonia here, the northern Isles will come around to their loyalty.”

“Do you agree with this, Idonia?” Khanea Rika asks me next.

The words come out of me laced with spite. “Anything Raedwulf wishes.”

The whole room sits silent as they look at one another. Each silently asking about my answer and the venom that was spit out with each word. All but Khannun Kol refuse my glaze, but when his eyes meet with mine... he smiles.

“They will be loyal though, Khanelea?”

The title doesn’t go past me, in an unceremonious way, Khannun Kol just acknowledged me as the next Khanea. “Yes.”

“Then we shall make sure that the announcements reach the northern Isles first.”

Not much later, the meeting is dismissed. I rise after the Khannun and his Viker have all left. However, Khanea Rika makes no move to leave. Rae even rises but his eyes stay trained on his mother. When Sage Raudebjorn leaves, she glares at both of us.

“Sit back down,” she orders and we both follow. “Idonia, are you alright?”

“Yes,” I give her a small, sweet smile.

“You lie horribly,” she states and my smile falls. “Rae, what did you do?”

“Nothing!”

“He forbid me from training!” I burst out.

“Enough,” she stops us both with a clenched jaw. “Idonia if you keep breaking down like this, Kol will believe he’s won. You’ve proved to him that northern daughters cannot rule as they are and must change. Do not be docile, be bold.”

“It’s hard to be bold when your mate wants someone else.”

“How many times do I have to tell you, I haven’t spoke to Meabh since you’ve been here!”

“Stop it now,” Khanea Rika demands, slapping her hand on the table and standing. “Idonia, please come with me.”

I stand and follow her out the council room. She takes me across the halls, down stairs, and into the large rooms that host the females of court most days. When she enters, the whole room stops to bow. Her hand grabs mine and leads me through the mass of females, Meabh among them.

I had heard many of them traveled here to meet Rae before he left, hoping to be his mate. No northern daughter was that desperate. Sure, we all wished for a northern Khanea, but none of us would risk our pride to flaunt ourselves in front of the Khanel. I am surrounded by southern daughters who see me as an improper beast.

“Khanelea Idonia?”

Her words bring me confusion, what are her intentions exactly? I’ve only known Khanea Rika for a short time, but she always has a method to her madness. As a Madam, as a southern daughter, and as the Khanea, she knows how to play the game of royalty. A lie here and there, a few words to a maid, but most importantly, make sure the gossip you want heard is heard.

“Yes, your majesticness?”

“You have news to tell me?”

I furrow my eyebrows, not able to decide what lie she wishes me to tell. “The Khannun named me his daughter by mate. I am the true Khanelea and future Khanea.”

“I’m ecstatic for that,” she turns and grabs both my hands. Her eyes brighten. “The one true Khanelea for the Isles. The crown and the future. I am so excited to see what it is you carve into the stones of history.”

It was simple, but enough. As she lead us through the rooms to a back staircase, all the females dip as we pass. Not only for Khanea Rika, but for me as well.

She took me out of the common area and to through another few doors. Down another set of stairs, we end in a narrow hall. The stones are cold and damp. It is dark, but soon enough my eyes glow amber as their darkness lightens to form shapes. As we walk, I feel the floor slope, taking us further into the ground of the castle. While Hertha and Sive have helped me explore many of the halls here, I’ve never been this far down.

“Khanea Rika?”

“How many times must I tell you, I can be Rika to you in private.”

“Apologies, but where are we going?”

“Not the dungeon, if that’s what you’re thinking. No, down here is the castle’s best kept secret. A room of ancient treasures I want to show you.”

“The vault, you mean?” Where she had gotten my head piece. A place no one but the royal family is allowed to go. Not even guards who stand by the great door could enter. No one knows what is kept down there, not even those closest to the Khannun or Khanea.

“No, the vault is very public and very accessible to the titled line. This,” she stops and turns to me, her eyes glowing just as mine are. “This is a place of Khaneas.”

She takes a piece of leather strap from her purse which always hung from her belt. On it are two large iron keys to open the two locks on a door. The door is narrow and tall, much like the hallway leading to it. When the doors open though, the light floors the hall and eliminates the area. It also successfully blinds me as Khanea Rika leads me into the room.

Walls are decorated with elaborate tapestries of families. I see on a frame another large woven cloth hangs, unfinished. The room smelt of must and dust, and old sent that reminded me of the crypts of my own homestead. Chests, some open and some closed, clutter the floor. Old gowns, books, jewelry, and...

“Swords?”

“Bows too, dear. Not every Khanea took tea in the gardens. Our stories are said to be lost because many Khaneas hid them in here. They knew the males would destroy their legacies, so they hid them in here, starting with the first Khanea who build this palace with her Khannun.”

“How did you know of this place?”

“My mother by mate took me here the day before my coronation. I figured you needed it now though.” She moves around the room, pointing at one tapestry that was faded and had a few tears in it. “This was her, Mother Khanea.”

“What was her name?”

“No one knows, it was lost, that is why we call her Mother Khanea,” Khanea Rika says with a smile. She brings me close to her and holds me in her warm arms. “We do know something, she was horrible at weaving, great with a sword, and one of the first humans turned lycan by a shadowbeast.”

“One of the first?”

“The first is an ancestor of the Torbet line. However, if Mother Khanea could see you here, I know she’d be proud. A northern daughter with a crown on her head.”

“And this one?” I move to the half finished tapestry and look over it. The base colors were all done and in the image stood seven figures. Only two were complete, a older Khanea with a crown of gold and a red-haired male beside her. In the background there shone a star just on the outside of the Khanea's head.

“This one is mine.”

“Khannun Kol doesn’t have red hair,” I point out to her.

“That one is Rae.”

“Where is the Khannun?”

“The tapestries are meant to be a family history and...”

The room goes quiet, neither of us speaks but her face goes pale. I don’t believe that she knows that Rae told me about his real father. A secret sworn to die with him. It haunts her, I can read it all over her face. The actions, the secrets, the tapestry, it all is eating away at her being.

“You don’t knew whether to depict Kol or Ragnvald?”

Her head drops and auburn hair rolls past her shoulders. The years are reflecting in light touches of grey. “He told you?”

“In the darkness of the north, he swore me to secrecy.”

"And it is true, Ragnvald is his father, he fathered all my children."

"Rae says he didn't know why, or who your true mate is?"

Khanea Rika grabs my hand and leads me over to a bench. She grasps my hands tightly and holds them in her lap. "You must understand, dear, it was a hard decision to make. It was hard on all three of us. And you should have seen Ragnvald's eyes when Reaghan was born."

"Reaghan?"

"My first, she dies before she could even be presented to our court. The pup was born week and died on her first day. She was Kol's only true born. True mate pups always have a better change at surviving infancy."

"So, it's Ragnvald."

"Yes," a tear falls down her eyes. "We didn't know until I was already with pup."

"And when she died..."

"Kol kept me as his Khanea, said I was good for the Isles. He gave me to Ragnvald under a few conditions. No one could know, we had to be discrete. Kol claimed all our pups as legitimate. He put crowns and titles and names on each of them. He named Rae as his heir and you as well. What I depict in that tapestry though, that is the history. While Kol is Khannun, Ragnvald is their father."

"Why did you mate with Kol?"

"Khannun Allerick was dying and Kol needed a Khanea. When he visited our homestead, he offered my father great riches for me. I hadn't found my mate yet and his was nowhere in sight so we made it work," she looks up for the first time, staring directly into my eyes. "Make it work with Rae, you don't know how lucky you two are."