The Three Suns Read online

  She was seeing the world through Kainen’s eyes. He was in the same field the two of them would frequent.

  As Kainen, Veri stepped forward. Each step was tentative. She was approaching someone in the field, someone who had their back to her. It was a human man with sunkissed hair and broad shoulders. Veri moved closer to him, now stifling a giggle that she could not control. When had she developed the ability to see the memories from the perspective of another? Kainen’s power and his abilities to briefly see glimpses into the future were not a part of what was happening to Veri right at this moment.

  In this memory, she reached out and grabbed the man by both of his shoulders. He jumped but turned around to face Veri in Kainen’s form. He was beautiful. His eyes were as blue as the deepest part of the sea. His brows were prominent and his lips full and pink. He smiled and playfully pushed Kainen away from him.

  It was the push that brought her back to that present moment. She was back to being herself… as much of herself she felt that she could be.

  “What is it?” Kainen asked, concerned. “What did you see?”

  “Leave,” Veri whispered. Her cheeks were now soaked with bloody tears.

  “What?” He hadn’t heard her.

  “Leave,” Veri hissed. She wasn’t going to hide her anger. She could feel her fangs growing. If he stood in front of her any longer, she would kill him on the spot. She didn’t care if it would provoke a war that would destroy any or all of the kingdoms in this realm. She wanted Kainen as far away from her as possible.

  This was his lover? This beautiful twee human had stolen the heart of the only other soul Veri could say that she truly loved. She was enraged, but she wasn’t going to look weak in front of any king. She was still a queen after all.

  “Go back to your people, King Kainen,” Veri said. Her voice was calm now. She didn’t wipe the tears from her face; she was drenched in his blood. Kainen looked away and moved towards the door. He already had a hand on the latch before Veri spoke again.

  “But I can’t be so sure that Siluman and Syrena will be there to protect you on your journey back.”

  *****

  Veri refused to leave the chamber, even long after Kainen and his convoy had departed. When he had tried to speak or console her, she moved away from him. She said nothing more after she made mention that she was the one who asked the wolf and the queen of the sea to spare him.

  She wasn’t going to protect Kainen any longer. He was a king. He had ruled his land longer than she had her own. He had been in many battles before and overcome each one. He was a fierce warrior. He had wit and power beyond all imagining. Veri knew that he would more than likely survive his journey.

  She lied to herself that she didn’t care if he lived or died. In that moment, it was easier for her to lie to herself than to reveal the painful truths.

  She did care.

  She cared that she had been hurt by him. She cared that he no longer loved her. She cared that his heart already belonged to someone else. She cared that if he lived, she would have to live an eternity knowing that she had lost a love that was so wonderful and pure. And if he died… then she would have to live centuries with even more pain and regret. She didn’t know if she could live with an ache in her heart such as this. What was she to do now that her initial plan had failed, and she had sent him away to possibly die in the woods or the ocean?

  She had had no plan beyond their encounter. She had hoped that he would have come to his senses and would want to renew their love. Their union could mean unity for the mountain elves and the vampires. There could be some peace restored in this realm. But now Veri wanted nothing to do with the mountain elves or their selfish king. She wanted nothing to do with anyone at all. She would not be returning to her throne this night.

  Did this realization mean war? Veri had finally wiped the tears from her face. There were lines on her face from the movement of her fingers and the stain of the tears she had been crying. She traced her body with the fingertips that still had tiny droplets of almost blackened blood, making patterns along her skin.

  She had removed her robes and was looking at her naked form in the looking glass that rested within the wooden walls. There was a tree so large that it took up an entire wall of her bed chamber. The tree had grown around the looking glass and had helped hold it in place as it stood vertically before the vampire queen. Some of the tree’s branches extended out into the room, creating a canopy for the large round bed that was directly in the center.

  As she saw herself, naked and bare, and now with thin dark lines from her tears, she tried to think with a rational mind. She needed to regain her bearings. She was queen. A queen would not act on pain or impulse. A queen was pragmatic and would always need to keep her people in mind despite any personal pain.

  But a queen could also be unforgiving when she had been wronged. What greater way to show her power than to punish a king from a lesser kingdom—a king with very little influence beyond his realm—and the forest dwellers near to the foot of the mountains from whence he and his people resided?

  “Ahh!” Veri was surprised by her own shout of pain.

  A sharp flash in her mind forced Veri to double over. Her knees buckled, and she almost fell to the floor. She squeezed her eyes shut and steadied herself. It took her several moments to regain any sense of self. She opened her eyes and found the room was spinning wildly.

  A memory from Kainen’s subconscious pierced her brain. She tried to erase the traces of Kainen’s feelings and memories from inside of her. She closed her eyes again to keep from falling, but the visions kept coming. Each one was more painful than the last. It felt like her mind was splitting into tiny fractions.

  None of the visions that flashed behind her eyes had her in them. They were of Kainen’s distant feelings, going further and further away as he himself moved further away from Veri’s castle. They were of him and his new lover. She could sense the hope in his heart that came from knowing that he would be reunited with his human soon.

  Where were these memories coming from? How was she able to see what Kainen had seen and feel what he had felt? She wasn’t even able to consider any answers. She was feeling too much pain from the memories that came forth.

  Veri clutched her head and clenched her teeth together. The sharp pains were becoming more frequent and were lasting longer. These memories were now literally killing her. As a vampire, she rarely felt pain. But since falling for the elf king, pain was all she felt.

  Losing strength, Veri collapsed onto the floor of her bedroom. She writhed until she was lying on her back and looking up at the thick leaves of the tree that had become the wall of her bed chamber. She was now in too much pain to move. Her vision was growing duller and blurrier with each breath she took. The memories in her mind were now becoming more vivid. They were taking over her entire subconscious mind.

  The only way that were possible would be if Kainen was so near to her that his blood was trying to reconnect with his blood that was now inside Veri—or if she had drunk enough blood to drain him entirely.

  Veri cried out in pain, and her eyes rolled back in her head so that she could see nothing at all. She was losing consciousness, maybe even dying.

  The last thing she saw was the bright smile of Kainen’s beautiful human.

  Chapter Four

  The King

  An arrow soared silently through the air and missed its mark. There was no use. The arrows couldn’t penetrate the wraiths. The arrows would only provide fatal blows if the wraiths had taken a physical form; it was the only way for the wraiths to be touched. But during this battle the wraiths had remained as cloudlike phantoms, wreaking havoc even though just a few days prior they had killed the majority of this elf convoy.

  Kainen could hear the shouts of the few elves left alive to fight in this new battle. Some sirens and merfolk had drowned the others on their way to Veri’s kingdom, and now the wraiths had come from their caves to take the souls of the elves and de
vour their flesh. Being able to claim the soul of a human was one thing, but to be able to claim the soul of an elf meant the wraiths could obtain a power that could surpass some of the deepest magic from this realm.

  “Run, Your Majesty!” Yleinen had been caught by a wraith, and the creature was now dragging him towards a whirlpool where two vicious mermaids swam in wait. One mermaid poked her sickening mossy head from above the waves and revealed her fangs and menacing eyes.

  “That one is mine,” she said. She did not need to scream for all around them to hear her. She wanted to ensure that the merfolk, sirens, wraiths, and all the elves could hear her cackles of glee. Even over the screams, the blows, and the crashing of waves.

  Yleinen kicked at the air with all of his might, his arms restrained by the ghostly string that each wraith carried within their cloaks. If the string sank into his flesh, it had the ability to tie into his soul and claim it until death—if the wraith hadn’t decided to do away with him even before that happened.

  “No!” King Kainen called out. He flung himself from his horse and ran towards Yleinen. His sword was in his left hand and his hair swung wildly behind him. Yleinen was not only a very prominent part of Kainen’s army, he was also his friend. Kainen had watched enough of his people die over the last few days. He was not going to allow the sea beasts to take Yleinen as well.

  “You can have him!” A second mermaid, covered in coral, appeared from the depths. She had a bright purple anemone swaying where her stomach was meant to be and a small eel was peeking from inside of it. The eel stuck out its tongue hungrily.

  “I want the king!” the coral mermaid shrieked. She dived back below the waves and was now closer to the shore. Her eyes were dead and hollow. The first mermaid, whose form was covered entirely in seaweed and small organisms from the deep, had followed. The wraith was dragging Yleinen—who was slowly beginning to lose consciousness as the cord around him was sinking deeper and deeper into his flesh—across the sand and toward the waves.

  “You may have his flesh, merbeast…” A terrifying voice pierced into King Kainen’s mind. He had almost forgotten that like elves, wraiths were able to communicate without sound. Their words had a way of echoing throughout the entirety of a being’s body. Kainen nearly stopped to shiver when the wraith spoke.

  “…but his soul is mine.”

  Kainen was getting closer to Yleinen, slicing any creature in his path with his magnificent sword. It was the only weapon that could slice through a wraith even in its ghostly form.

  “Yleinen!”

  Kainen heard a voice coming from his right. It was Dende on horseback. She was darting through the creatures in battle and heading toward the king. It was her duty to protect him. Like the others in the army, she would risk her life to keep Kainen alive.

  Dende clenched her thighs around her mighty gray horse and pulled an arrow from her quill. Kainen had never known such a marksman in his life. Dende could shoot an arrow at a target that no one could see with the naked eye.

  Dende drew back her bow and breathed. She appeared steady and focused on her horse despite the chaos that was happening around her.

  “Your Majesty, be ready,” Kainen could hear her say inside his mind. Dende had a plan.

  Dende released the arrow. It soared through the air and straight for the wraith that had captured Yleinen. There was no way the arrow could hit the wraith; it would travel right through. But the arrow wasn’t aimed at the wraith. When Kainen had moved closer he saw the arrow strike the cord that was connecting the wraith to Yleinen’s soul.

  The tip of the arrow threw a bright green spark when it connected, and for a moment all was still. Then a sickening sound like thunder escaped from the arrow and the green spark turned into a bright wave that flashed across the entire beach. The cord around Yleinen began to crack and break into a thousand pieces.

  Dende had a blessed arrow. Of course! Dende was the daughter of the shaman, Guiden. It hadn’t occurred to Kainen that Dende must have blessed all of her arrows before battle. A blessed arrow could poison a wraith and force it to change into a physical form. If she wanted, Dende could shoot another arrow at the wraith, but it was too late. Kainen was already only a few feet away.

  With a mighty grunt, Kainen lunged forward. He raised his sword and brought it down on the head of the wraith.

  The creature’s shriek tore through the ears of anyone who was able to hear it, and it recoiled. Yleinen had fallen onto the beach, regaining his strength now that his soul was returning to him. Dende raced forward on her horse and leaned over on her side. Her leg was caught in the saddle to prevent her from falling off. She grabbed Yleinen with one hand and helped him onto her horse. She circled around Kainen, shooting arrows at any creature that drew near, her lips moving in a silent prayer to activate the blessings that made their way onto the tips of her arrows.

  The wraith shrieked again and began to grasp at where his face should have been. He was nothing but cloak and shadow now, but he jerked and clawed at where he had been wounded. Kainen struck again, thrusting the sword into the wraith. The creature began to implode into itself, dissolving slowly into ash before being blown away by the winds.

  The mermaids by the shore hissed and dived back into the water. Was this the end? Kainen hoped that it meant the creatures would retreat. Instead, he saw a clan of wraiths making their way towards him and Dende. She was aiming her arrows but hadn’t decided which of the shadowy creatures she would strike first.

  And then everything seemed to stop again. The wraiths were still closing in, but Kainen was rendered motionless when a soothing voice floated through the air to greet him. The most beautiful song could be heard coming from the depths of the ocean. There were no words that he could understand, but Kainen saw the story unfold before him.

  The voice sang of two lovers brought together by fate and passion, only for their love to be torn asunder by the greed of one. That greed would eventually lead to the demise of the lover who had been wronged, and then lead to his own destruction. The song brought a tear to Kainen’s eye. He looked out at the sea as the tear streamed down his face.

  At that moment, he knew the song was for him. He thought of Veri, whom he had left weeping in her castle. He could feel her longing. He was reminded of what their love had once felt like to him, and he began to feel overwhelmed by the guilt of leaving her. He was tormented, and the voice was the king’s only salvation.

  “Your Majesty, don’t listen. The siren is trying to trick you.”

  The voice that was speaking to him now sounded so far away. It was like someone was calling to him, but he could barely hear what they were saying. He turned toward the sea.

  There was the most exquisite creature on a rock near the shore. She had thick curly hair the color of the night sky and small spots on her dark face. Her eyes were closed, but the lids were iridescent and shimmering, and her lips were heart-shaped and inviting. She had a curvaceous figure, and she was nude. He could see small black wings sprouting from her back and fluttering with the breeze that was coming from the waves around her. She was running a comb through her hair while she was singing sweetly.

  She was singing just for him—Kainen could feel it. It wasn’t just her voice or the way that she sang that was inviting to him. It was the way that her song for him made him feel so important… more important than being a king. Of all the creatures in the sea and on the land, she had chosen King Kainen to serenade.

  “Your Majesty,” Dende’s muffled voice called out to him again. He could see an arrow whizzing by him. The arrow traveled over the sea and narrowly missed the siren singing atop of the rock. She didn’t even flinch as it flew through the air and sailed right past a clump of the wet curls near her face. She continued to sing. Kainen was too busy listening to pay much attention to anything else going on around him.

  “Cover your ears. She is trapping you,” Dende screamed with urgency in her voice. Kainen felt so far away from her… so far from the siren on the ro
ck and from Dende as well. His thoughts wandered back to a moment with Queen Veri, the last time he had been with her when he was still in love. He reminisced about the way the sky lit up when he had made her laugh, and how perfectly she felt nuzzled in his arms. With each memory, he took a step closer to the edge of the sea.

  Kainen felt his hand jerk suddenly. For a moment, he was back on the beach in the midst of a battle. His sword had been taken from him. Yleinen had leapt from Dende’s horse and had taken Kainen’s sword. Dende launched another arrow, and this time it connected with the siren’s shoulder. Yleinen ran into the water, kicking with all his might against the waves. They were beginning to rage now, the creatures underneath, grabbing for him and the most magical weapon in all of the kingdoms. But Yleinen was strong, too strong.

  The siren on the rock reared her head at him and opened her eyes. They were the color of gold and just as bright. They would have mesmerized Kainen if she was still singing to him, but she had stopped when the arrow pierced her shoulder. The siren eyed Yleinen and began to sing again.

  This time, the melody that came out was for Yleinen. But it was too late. Yleinen had fought against the current and was now on the rock. With as much strength as he could muster, he severed the head of the siren on the rock. Her body collapsed into the sea, and she turned into the dark churning sea foam that raged around him. Yleinen lifted her head and held it upward before flinging it into the sea.

  Kainen immediately regained his senses now that there was no siren to deter him. Yleinen had plunged back into the water and was now swimming towards the shore. Kainen ran to meet him and helped to drag his friend out of the water.

  Yleinen handed the sword back to Kainen, knowing that there was no way that he would ever wield it again. The sword had too much power. It was a sword meant for the king and the king alone, and Yleinen had grown weak again simply from striking a single blow. He had used the remainder of his strength to swim back to the shore.