Chapter 1
Ever since I was a child my mother told me the story of the swan’s song. I had never seen a real one in person, yet it was still hard to imagine a creature so beautiful cried for death. Although I suppose if a little girl’s life could determine the fate of an entire kingdom a bird signaling death was near was nothing. When you’re really think about it death is every where all the time, so what does a fowl’s cries really change anyway. At least that is what I thought before I knew the true meaning of the story.
I was not yet 16 when my journey to true understanding began. I thought I was grown, but looking back I was just a child. A child not prepared to know the truth of the world. If I could go back would I change my mind and not follow Rhysand and Ragna into the woods?
“Faster, Xylia.”
“Come on Ragna, she isn’t a Gyda we can’t expect her to keep up.”
“If I could move through the trees like you, then I would really be Gyda is that it. I can’t help being part Eir you know.”
“Come on you know that’s not-”
Ragna signals for silence. The faint sound of a royal traveling party can be heard coming closer. Rhysand picked out a good spot. Low branches with plenty of cover but still a clear view of the road. The party passes through the village, but being Gyda we wouldn’t get such a good view.
Lisha has always been my favorite kingdom; with their flawless white. Their horses, carriages, and just about everything else, was a beautiful contrast to the dark browns and greens of home. Gyda never liked colors that could be easily seen; it got in the way is what we were always told. Only children were marked with blue to honor or roots and decrease the risk of them being struck by mistake.
I had shed my blue down, so to speak, years ago. Likely influencing my belief that I was an adult since I was no longer a child. I wholeheartedly believed that I knew what the world was like. Looking back, I only had the tiniest glimmer of understanding.
“Ah!”
Hoping for a better look and lost in my mind I had gone too far down the branch and fell with a thud to the ground beside on of the royal carriages. A young man opened the door of the carriage and stepped out to check me. The guards warned him to stay back but he just waved them away. He held out his hand to me and helped me to my feet.
“Are you hurt miss?”
We were lost in each other’s eyes. No matter how hard I tried no words came from my mouth. All I could do was fall deeper and deeper. Until a lady, about Ragna’s age, popped her head out the open carriage door. She smiled at me and gave a soft laugh. Funny to think that this lady, could be so sweet and soft eyed; while my dear friend, whom I thought of as my sister, was bitter and cold eyed.
“Aldrich, I think you scared her. Come you can ride with me if you are going to Sylvain. I have food, dinks, and sweets. You can have as many as you would like and when we get there you can have a bath and a new dress. Aldrich wouldn’t mind paying for it would you Aldrich. You’re a Gyda aren’t you. I’m Dorian myself. What’s your name? Mine’s Líadáin.”
“Now you’re the one scaring her.”
“Xylia,” their eyes were on me before my name fully left my mouth, “you asked my name it’s Xylia.”
“Well Xylia what do you say will you ride with me?”
Ragna dropped from her spot in the trees with much more power and grace than I did. The looks on those poor guards faces when she landed behind me. Rhysand followed with a far less impressive landing.
“Xylia will be coming back with us we don’t need you leucosis,” Ragna’s words are harsh, but she means them.
“She’s a swan. Xylia, come on we need to go.”
If only I knew then what Rhysand was trying to tell me. I was too brash and young to understand that the whole story was full of metaphors. I just looked at the surface and said death was everywhere. Even years later I would not fully understand that children’s story. I brushed it off with my blue. If only I knew how much that old warning could have changed my life perhaps I would have looked a little deeper and thought more abstractly.
How different my life would be from that moment; the first time the three of us met. We were strangers, one day we would be family, and in the end we would be strangers once more. Líadáin would grow to be like a sister to me. She and I would share things that would bring us together and break us apart. Aldrich would be my love. One day he would even give me the world. In the end though we would all be pitted against each other and depart more of strangers than when we first met.
I truly believe that I fell in love that day. Knowing what I know now would I feel the same? Would I once again fall for those deep, gray-blue eyes of my mensch? If he knew what would come to be, would he have still held out a hand? If Líadáin knew what would unfold, would she have stopped him? Would I?
