Blood of Wonderland (Queen of Hearts Saga #2)(19)
“Fine, then.” He turned slightly back to look at her, his long gray hair blowing in the breeze. “Cling to the wall, Princess, or this coming wind will rip yeh right off.”
Dinah pressed herself against the stony slate and continued to watch him silently. The Spade stared off into the distance, his eyes focused on something she couldn’t see.
“I grew up in the Twisted Wood, farther north from where we’ve been. That’s why I have a bit of an accent, yeh see? A small village called Dianquill. Yeh’ve probably never heard of it.” Dinah shook her head, her eyes trained on the hundred foot drop before her.
“I was just fifteen years old when I met Amabel. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, this tiny red-haired girl, obviously hungry and dressed in filthy rags. I gave her some Julla fruit that I had in my bag, and she scampered off into the trees. ’Twas weeks later when she found me out hunting. In return for food, she taught me how to track. Though I might seem skilled to yeh now, I am nothing compared to Amabel. She could track a deer for a hundred miles and at the same time follow the path of a man who had walked that land twenty days prior.”
Sir Gorrann paused to take a long drink from his waterskin. “We married when I was nineteen, and I tell yeh, I have never loved another woman. Every morning when my eyes open, I can see her face—her long red hair, her bright eyes, wild as the sea. Hunting became almost too easy with Amabel’s tracking skills. We had a bounty, and life was sweet and easy. After our third year of marriage, we welcomed a daughter, Ioney. She looked like her mother. I bet Amabel that I could never love anything more than her, but I lost that wager the moment I first laid eyes on our little Ioney. Our family was complete, and I wanted for nothing. I was a happy young man. Then they came. It was a damp spring day, not unlike this one . . .”
His voice sputtered out. The Spade had stopped moving, and Dinah held her position on the rock. Tears were gathering in his eyes, and she saw his weathered hands clenching with emotion. Though she was utterly fascinated, winding tendrils of guilt began to snake through her for asking him to recount these details. “You don’t have to . . .”
“Quiet, girl!” he snapped. “Yeh asked, and yeh’ll hear it. It’s been a spell since I’ve spoken of them.” His mouth distorted with pain as he continued his story.
“As I was saying, it was spring, and the warm rains had come and gone. I was out hunting a white bear, the same kind you told me almost took yer limbs, when I saw smoke rising from the village. I ran back, but it was too late. The entire village was smoldering; no building was left untouched. Several of my friends had been slaughtered defending their homes. Most of the women and children had been left alive, but the majority of the men had been cut to pieces. My father was hanging from a burning log that had once been my childhood home. All the villagers’ food and livestock had been taken, their homes gone forever. An entire village, wiped out in less than an hour by a few cruel Cards.”
Dinah’s eyes narrowed. “Cards? From Wonderland Palace? Not the Yurkei?”
“I thought it was the Yurkei at first as well, but no. A friend who was dying in my arms told me that while some of the riders had been painted to look like Yurkei, they were undoubtedly Cards. The arrow buried in his stomach was topped with a red glass heart, so there was little doubt. Indeed, it had been Heart Cards, on their way to fight with Yurkei. Their provisions had run low, so they had taken what they wanted from my village. I gave my friend a quick end and climbed upon my horse and galloped for my home, faster than I had ever ridden in my life.”
Dinah longed to stop his story, to put her hands over his mouth to save her the horror of what was coming.
A tear made its way down his face. “I was too late for my darling girls. The Cards had come across Amabel while she was tending our herb garden. She lay motionless on the ground, her red hair wet with the blood that flowed from her chest, my brave love. Her hand clutched a bow and arrow, and I can only imagine that she intended to use it to defend our child. For this she had been shot clean through the heart. I longed to hold her there forever, her body still warm, but I had to find my daughter.”
Dinah closed her eyes and pressed against the cool rock face, desperate to hear no more.
“Ioney was inside the house, although there wasn’t a house anymore, just a charred pile of smoking wood and fallen timber. There was only bones left of my little girl, my Ioney.”
Her eyes blurring with tears, Dinah looked away from Sir Gorrann, out into the open air before them, a vast view of honey-colored valleys and gray rock. Up until now, she had mistakenly believed that she was the only one who had suffered, the only one who had reason to grieve. Her childishness convicted her and she felt her face flush with shame.
The Spade continued. “Feeling sad that yeh asked, are yeh? ’Twas a dark night with dark thoughts when I lay beside my love. The next day, I buried Amabel and Ioney under their favorite berry bush in the woods, an unmarked grave. I planted Amabel’s treasured orchids in a circle around their grave, sang them their favorite song and departed with my horse as evening fell. I took nothing with me aside from some food, a blanket, and every weapon I could find.”
A vengeful smile played over his face, and Dinah feared she might be sick. “I rode my horse so hard he died after two days. I left him in the woods, barely stopping to put him out of his misery. From there, I tracked the Cards to the edge of the Yurkei Mountains, where they were attempting to find their way into Hu-Yuhar, the hidden Yurkei city, and failing miserably. It was a small group of only six men.”