The Fourth Runi (The Fledgling Account Book 4) Read online

  Rafen’s heart began beating excitedly. “Yes,” he said. “It means Richard’s a fraud. It means he has no right to marry Etana. She was betrothed to hi— no. She was betrothed to the Fourth Runi, who is to be joint ruler of Siana.”

  His head was whirling. Was this really what he wanted? Did he really want to rule a country? All he had desired was to support King Robert. And yet King Robert had never been a strong king. Perhaps if someone groomed Rafen, he would be ready someday. In the meantime, he would be allowed to fulfill the betrothal to Etana – the betrothal that was rightfully his.

  “’eck, is tha’ all yer know ’bout Runi?” Sherwin asked, watching Rafen with intrigue. “They’re more than kings, yer know. They were once four o’ the Eleven spirits tha’ balanced Zion’s good world. In the flesh, they’re warriors. They’re supposed to be divinely equipped to get rid of Nazt. In fact, yer, as the Fourth Runi, are supposed to have a whole bunch of special powers. Adelphia told me yeh’re supposed to be able to travel between the worlds, which yer can; yeh’re supposed to be invincible to flame, which yer are. An’ the other things are that yeh’re supposed to unite Zion’s Eleven, all the dead Runi, and the Secrai that went missin’ hundreds of years ago, and yeh’re supposed to find the secret to destroyin’ Nazt and do it with them.”

  Rafen stared at him, numb. Then he laughed. “I know what you’re doing.”

  “Fine. Yer tell me what I’m doin’ then.”

  “You’re trying to get back at me for hurting you.”

  “Nah, tha’s not what I’m doin’ at all.”

  Sherwin sounded aghast. He meant everything he said. Rafen began to shake. It sounded like Adelphia had sent this message, which meant it was likely true. As Rafen thought it, everything started to make sense. For one thing, he could travel between the worlds. This was something he had often wondered about, even though he hadn’t dared try it again. Demus’ mention of world travel in their lessons had confirmed that it was an ability only the Fourth Runi was meant to have. Additionally, King Robert had spoken of the Runi being meant to destroy Nazt. Nazt had also prioritized Rafen above Richard, by calling for him on numerous occasions. It wanted Rafen above all else, and his being the Fourth Runi was the only tenable explanation. Additionally, Rafen had known for some time that he had a preexistent spirit. Odd memories reared up on occasion, making it undeniable. He had also known that he was irrevocably connected to Fritz, Thomas, and Alakil. The four of them had all been together in King Robert’s bedchamber the night Rafen had saved the king’s life.

  Now that Rafen had all the pieces of the mystery, he wondered why he hadn’t seen it before.

  “Why are you telling me this?” he asked in a deadly voice.

  “I know,” Sherwin said. “I’ve jus’ destroyed yer evening. But I actually came to help yer. Yer know, the Lashki’s probably known for ages. Tha’s why he goes for yer over Richard. Nazt has certainly known for ages. Without Zion’s Eleven, Nazt could take over the Mio Pilamùr. Without yer, Nazt could take over the Mio Pilamùr, because if it gets rid of yer, it gets rid the only one who’s able to somehow reunite the Eleven and destroy Naz—”

  “That’s wrong,” Rafen interrupted sharply. “King Robert always said that the last two Secrai as well as the last Runi had to die before Nazt could escape its bonds.”

  “Tha’s common thought, tha’s what the Fifth Secra Adelphia says,” Sherwin said grimly. “Tha’s what everyone assumes. Even the Lashki has this funny impression he can kill yer and still do what he likes afterward. The truth is, Nazt will destroy everythin’, includin’ ’im. The Lashki’s deluded. Adelphia ’appens to be a seer as well as Secra, and she says that once the Eleven are severed for good – an’ they will be if yer die – then their protection is broken, no matter how many Secrai are hangin’ around.”

  “When did you speak to Adelphia?”

  “Wha’ I do is my concern,” Sherwin shrugged. “Still, this seemed fairly important, so I thought yer should know.”

  “Thanks,” Rafen said limply.

  His heart was racing. He clasped the hem of his shirt with a trembling hand, thinking desperately, like a cornered rabbit. He could get out of this if he got rid of the phoenix feather. If he lost it, burned it, gave it away… But he was already hopelessly attached to it. Besides which, it was his preexistent soul that made him Runi. The feather was merely the sign.

  He felt the night close in around him as he realized he couldn’t change a thing. He couldn’t escape this.

  Trying to ignore the Phoenix’s flaming eyes in his mind, Rafen hurled himself back toward the railings of the balcony, gripping the cool metal. Being the Fledgling and the Sianian Wolf had been one thing. That was local. Being the Fourth Runi was a worldwide responsibility that drew him into a final conflict in which he would be totally incompetent.

  What can I do? he thought wildly. Zion, what can I do?

  “Raf,” Sherwin said, “it actually doesn’ change anythin’, yer know. Yer were created Runi; yer were Runi before yer were born. I ’aven’t changed anything.”

  “You have,” Rafen said. “I didn’t want to know.”

  “Yeah, I bet,” Sherwin said bitterly, his eyes glittering in the dark. “I guess the reason I told yer was because I thought it might save the Sianian throne from the Sartians. They’re only after it because they want to keep a hold on all their provinces, and ’cause they want to stay wealthy. They’d support the Lashki if it meant gain. An’ maybe I also told yer because the Runi and the Secrai are s’posed to work together. Yer got more of a right to Etana than Richard does, Raf, if yer live up to the Runiship.”

  Rafen clung to the railings tighter. Yes… after Fritz and Adelphia had married, people had started to think it advisable that Runi and Secrai wed. That was the reason for Etana’s and Richard’s betrothal.

  No. His betrothal! Rafen felt the blood rush to his face. Maybe he had been willfully ignorant, yet he had also been kept in the dark! Queen Arlene had never told him about phoenix feathers. She had let her own past get in the way of his education. Furthermore, she had probably thought he would never need the information. In recent times, she had treated him like a pile of dung. Jacob was the same. Even King Robert had been surprisingly ineffective at helping Rafen. He had canceled Rafen’s kesmal lessons, likely believing it inappropriate that he continued learning alongside Etana now that Richard was here. King Robert had also let Roger claim Rafen, and in response to all Rafen’s efforts for Siana, he had merely given them a peasant’s house in the middle of nowhere. Rafen could have at least been given an abode nearer New Isles so that he wasn’t half a day’s ride away from good books and good tutors. However, King Robert had let his wife rule him in this area.

  They had all been wrong about him. He was not a mere human, and they ignored him or mistreated him to their detriment. They had unjustly cut him off from Etana and the royal courts. Though he had once been a prince of Siana, they had severed him from their family as well.

  There was one way to make sure that Etana and he were indelibly connected, and it would tie him to the royal family and courts forever too.

  “Yeah,” Sherwin said. “Technically yer should have the throne, I reckon.”

  “One day,” Rafen said quietly. “I’m not ready yet.”

  He stared at the balconies to his left and then at the stone keep rising above him.

  “Is it easy climbing those walls?” he asked Sherwin.

  “Huh?” Sherwin said.

  *

  The servants had left, and Etana stood in the middle of her wing, despairing. She clutched the candle-holder as she thought back over the night. After dancing with her for over an hour, Richard had dragged her away from the brightly lit hall into a corridor in which few servants roamed. He had backed her into a wall, forced her arms down, and kissed her over and over again.

  “We’re going to marry, my love,” he panted between kisses. “Let’s make it soon. Let’s marry after the Festival of Zion. That’s
three months away. The people will prepare the wedding, and it will be the biggest anyone in the Mio Pilamùr has ever had.”

  “What do you think of me, Richard?” Etana asked, turning her face away.

  “It’s My Liege,” Richard hissed in the dusk.

  “Do you want me to call you that even when we’re married?” Etana said in shock.

  “No one is above the Runi ki Hafa.”

  “You know,” she said, “I thought you’d grown out of that.”

  “And I thought you’d grown out of disrespect,” Richard said venomously. He’d been holding her arms, and his grip became dangerously tight.

  “Let me go,” Etana said, struggling to pull free.

  “Shh,” Richard said, putting a hand over her mouth. He removed it and kissed her again. “You have improved over the years,” he said. “You used to be this red-haired snippet, always yelling and shrill. And now you’re rather… ex-quisite, Etana. The Runi has a bride unlike any other.”

  “You didn’t answer my question,” Etana said. Her throat was so constricted she could scarcely breathe.

  “What question?” Richard said, planting wet kisses all along her right arm. “Oh, yes, I remember. What do I think of you? I told you. You’ve improved.”

  “Is that all you think of me?” Etana whispered.

  “What else is there to think?” Richard said. “You’ve been raised in this third-rate barnyard they call Siana. You’re the daughter of the ill-looking Robert Selson, the obtuse, as my father calls him, and you’re a woman. Yet I think you have improved somewhat, my dear.”

  When he moved forward to kiss her again, Etana turned her face away once more, her lips pursed with fury. “How can you say those things?”

  She pulled away from him and started running down the corridor, her dress swishing. Richard lunged after her. Seizing her shoulder, he threw her off balance. Etana screamed and whipped her silver ring from her finger but Richard’s roar of rage paralyzed her briefly. He grabbed her arm and pushed it down.

  “You would attack the Runi ki Hafa?” he said. His face was white with fury, and his breathing was high. He looked maniacal. “Try anything like that – anything – and your family will be shipped off to Urain for the justice of Sarient. You do know your family is only here because my father humors you, don’t you? The armies of Sarient are ten times as big as the armies of Siana.”

  “Then why didn’t you come to help us fight for the country a year ago?” Etana spat.

  “Sarient has bigger concerns than your family, Etana,” Richard had said, jerking her toward him. “You should know that by now. You should be grateful I’m marrying you in three months.”

  *

  Now Etana sank onto her expansive canopy bed, placing the candle-holder on a small table next to it. She covered her face with her hand and sobbed dryly. Thank Zion the evening was over. If only her life were over! Her brothers had told her Rafen was there, but she hadn’t seen him in the crowded hall. Her father had upset a number of servants, ordering them to search for him immediately so that he might converse with him. Rafen was nowhere to be found, and Etana supposed he and his family had gone to the rooms prepared for them in the outer wall. Her father decided against disturbing Rafen, in case he was already in his nightwear.

  She wished she wasn’t fifteen. Richard probably wouldn’t consider making her marry him if she were fourteen. Fourteen sounded so much younger.

  Still, she didn’t have to marry Richard or risk the wrath of Sarient. She could kill herself before the marriage. She had the determination. It just seemed horribly unfair to everyone who had been counting on her – and so ridiculous and out of her character. She had killed her own uncle, after all. When the fact had had time to sink in, she had found she accepted it. She would do such a thing again to protect her family and country. And now, here was another usurper related to her! If only his armies weren’t so huge… If only Zion hadn’t chosen him as the Runi – for she could not fight the Phoenix.

  The glass doors at the other end of the room burst open, and the chill night air blew in. Etana turned on the bed. Rafen was standing in the doorway leading to the balcony, his hair blowing in the wind. He was smiling, but something in his eyes had changed. There was a realization there that would either change the world or ruin everything.

  Chapter Five

  Runi

  and Secra

  “No,” Etana said, rising and tearing a blanket from her bed to wrap around herself hurriedly. She was in her nightgown. “You mustn’t. Whatever are you doing here?”

  “I came to see you.” Rafen moved into the room. His face became very tender when he saw she had been crying. “You’re upset.”

  “Yes. You’re here. What else could I be? Rafen, you must go! If you’re discovered here, Richard will be furious. He’ll probably have you imprisoned or killed.”

  “Etana,” Rafen said, very close now. He reached out and gently took her hand, and she stared at him with moist eyes. He placed her fingers above his heart, and she started. It was warm. She vaguely remembered discovering this the night they had rewon the palace.

  “Richard is very cold right there,” she murmured.

  “Yes,” Rafen said, “cold heart.”

  “It’s not your heart I’m feeling, you goose. It’s—” She didn’t dare say. She was hoping beyond reason.

  Rafen leaned forward. “It’s a phoenix feather,” he whispered, his eyes locked with hers.

  Etana’s heart missed a beat. “Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered back.

  “I didn’t know what it meant. Not fully. I know now.”

  When he made to kiss her, she placed a hand on his forehead and shoved him backward. His face fell, and he looked like a little boy.

  “You mustn’t,” she said. “It isn’t right, Rafen.”

  “Then let’s make it right.”

  “How?” she asked. Then she caught his meaning. She moved away around the bed. “No. I’m betrothed to Richard. I can’t marry another.”

  “How was the document of your betrothal phrased?” Rafen said. “Did it include his name at all?”

  Etana froze, still clutching the blanket around herself. She nearly dropped it from shaking so much. “No,” she said, “no, it didn’t. It only said that I was betrothed to the Runi ki Hafa alone.”

  “It’s wonderfully specific,” Rafen said, his eyes alight as he came around the side of the bed. “It means only one person in the world.”

  He caught her hand in his.

  Etana’s heart was thundering. “There has to be a witness. And there is a form you have to get from the temple. It must be signed by someone of the nobility or royalty who agrees with the marriage.”

  “Yer mean this,” Sherwin said, walking through the open glass doors and passing Etana a scroll of parchment, tied with a red ribbon. Etana undid the ribbon and smoothed out the parchment. It was written in unerring calligraphy. The blanks on which the couple was to sign their names were below the vows, written in Mio Urmeean runes. The stamp of the Sianian state and the signature of her grandmother Adelphia, the Fifth Secra, were at the top.

  Etana raised her eyes to Sherwin’s. Sherwin stood on the opposite side of the bed, his hands in his pockets.

  “I’m yer witness, by the way,” he said. “I think I’ve got to sign somethin’ too. Yer grandmother said she thought yer ought to marry the right person. I don’ think she was thinkin’ exactly tonight, but Raf was pretty eager, yer know, before Richard gets his way.”

  Rafen smiled at Sherwin. He turned to Etana and gently took the parchment from her, reading through the vows. “‘Loyalty through dearth, darkness, and death’,” he said softly. “This I promise you, Etana, and more.”

  *

  At first, Rafen wondered where he was when he woke. The sheets were too clean and soft; the duvet had too much body, too much warmth, and too little weight; the pillow was too downy. It reminded him of waking first after his escape from Tarhia. He turned his
head and smiled. Etana was still asleep.

  He would have to leave soon. It was probably six o’clock in the morning. He couldn’t risk being found by Etana’s maidservants.

  Sleep softened the lines of her face. Her eyelashes swept her pale pink cheek, and her red-gold hair was pressed against her pillow.

  Sherwin had faithfully witnessed their marriage, and they had signed everything. Then they had talked a while together, as softly as possible, so as not to alert the guards outside Etana’s door. Etana had been anxious and trembling with adrenaline. Although Rafen had done his best to calm her, he himself was vibrating. Etana had wanted to know exactly when he had received his phoenix feather. Then she had wanted to hear all about his childhood before he had come to Siana and how exactly he and Sherwin had met in the human world. Afterward, she had told him all about her childhood before they had met. She had at last confessed she had killed Frankston in the battle for the New Isles palace. It was odd such a thing should strengthen their relationship. Yet Rafen knew a great deal about a killer’s guilt. Remembering Sirius, he had grasped her hand, but hadn’t found words to say. She had met his gaze, and he had realized he didn’t need to speak.

  It had never been so easy to ignore the spirits around him. At about two o’clock in the morning, Sherwin had left them, saying he would meet Rafen back at Roger’s house.

  Rafen had almost forgotten everything else Sherwin had told him about the Runiship. He had never wanted this night to end.

  Etana’s eyes opened. She saw him and smiled. “It’s too good to be true,” she said in a sleep-slurred voice, rolling onto her back. “By the way, you smell terribly of sweat. I had a difficult time sleeping.”

  “So did I.”

  Etana laughed and looked at him. “Rafen,” she said, “what do you think of me? Please tell me honestly.”

  “Well, I married you. Last night.”

  “Yes, I remember that,” Etana said testily.

  “Well… you’re wonderful,” he said, grinning in the most ridiculous way.

  “You’re not being honest.”