Sky Riders: The Rising Sun
The Prince's Return

A large, fair elf stood in the opened gateway. He dipped hishead in their direction. “Welcome home, my lord,” he said.

Caelum nodded in return. “Thank you,” he answered. “It isgood to be home.” He threw a sidelong smirk at Eliana at the elf’s use of “mylord” and she gave a quiet snort of laughter at the expression

Eliana looked around her, taking in the city. She knew sheshould have been anxious about entering this unknown place, about facing apeople who could very well reject her as quickly as the humans had, but she wastoo distracted by the sight of Iterum. On first glance, the city appeared nodifferent from the rest of the forest. The massive trees towered around herstill, and she still walked along a vague dirt path. Elves were emerging frombetween the trees, coming towards them.

As she looked closer, Eliana realized that the elves werenot coming from between the trees, but from out of the trees themselves. Therewere arched holes at the bases of the trees, liked rounded doorways. Higher upthe trunks, round holes were carved into the trees as windows. Some trees hadarched doorways higher up as well, opening onto balconies of thickly wovenbranches. It appeared as if the trees were hollow, and the elves lived withinthem.

The path beneath her feet turned to one of packed pebbles.Elves were now crowding along the path, cheering and shouting welcomes toEliana’s companion, as if he were a returning war hero. She looked around herin confusion and discomfort, but Caelum didn’t seem to feel that this greetingwas unusual. He smiled and waved at the elves, calling to a few of them ingreeting as they continued down the path.

Eliana looked uncomfortably over her shoulder as the crowdof elves followed them along the path, with more elves joining them everyminute. She held the egg closer to her side and touched the sword at her waist.She was not used to being pressed upon like this. People usually avoided herlike a leper. If they did draw close, it was never for a good reason.

Ahead of them, the path suddenly widened, edged by hedgeswith blossoms of purple and white. Eliana studied the flowers with interest.Each individual bloom had a strange swirl of the two colors, which was clearlynot a natural hue. She lifted her eyes ahead of them again and was caught offguard by the building in front of her.

Walls of sparkling white stone seemed to grow straight upout of the earth. At the end of the path, the stone formed an ornate archwayabove a large wooden door. The door was carved with intricate murals ofanimals, flowers, trees, and elves. The roof was not stone. Instead, thebuilding was covered by the thick canopy of a massive tree.

A short flight of white stone steps led up to the door.Eliana glanced back over her shoulder as she and Caelum climbed the steps. Thecrowd had stopped on the path, just before the flowering hedges, and they nowsmiled and waved from there, still cheering Caelum’s return.

“Why did they stop following us?” she asked.

She looked back at his normally smooth face to replace that itwas creased in a frown of worry, like he was anticipating some extremelyunpleasant event. He seemed tense and anxious, which made her own muscles coilinstinctively. “Oh,” he answered in a curt, quiet voice, “the land beyond thehedges belongs to the king and queen and the royal family. You can only enterthe property if you have an official invitation or are accompanied by a memberof the royal family. Or if you’re arrested and are being brought for trial.”

The dark wooden doors opened in front of them and revealed along room. Tall, white pillars ran along the outer walls, with rectangularwindows in between. The ceiling above was nothing but a thick canopy ofbranches and leaves. The floor was a carpet of green grass, dotted with purpleand white flowers, a wide walkway of solid stone cutting across the middle ofit, which was where Caelum and Eliana now stood.

A male elf with dark hair, obviously a palace guard, gaveCaelum a short bow. “This way, please, my lord,” he said in a deep voice. Theyfollowed him along the stone path towards the trunk of the tree, which occupieda great majority of the room’s center.

At the base of the tree, carved into the trunk, were twolarge thrones. A woman with silver strands in her black hair sat in one of thethrones, a circlet of golden leaves on her head; the other throne remainedempty. A small group of elves stood on either side of the woman, watchingCaelum and Eliana approach.

One of them—a young man with short black hair—steppedforward. The worried lines in Caelum’s forehead disappeared. He smiledbrightly, and the two elves embraced roughly.

The dark-haired elf stepped back, grasping Caelum tightly bythe shoulders, smiling still. “We were beginning to worry, Caelum. You weresupposed to be back last night.”

“My apologies,” Caelum answered, wearing the smirk thatEliana was already beginning to become familiar with. “I ran into somethingthat forced a delay.” Caelum turned and looked at here. “Denio, allow me tointroduce the delay—Eliana. Eliana, this is my younger brother, Denio.”

Eliana held out her hand towards the elf, and he took it,pressing it to his lips briefly. “A pleasure to meet you, Eliana,” he said witha smile. She saw the resemblance between the two brothers in that smile.

Attempting to remember the few manners that Otium had triedto teach her, Eliana smiled back and answered, “The pleasure is mine.”

He released her hand and stepped back a little. It looked asif he were about to speak again, but a sharp, bell-like voice interrupted them.

“Caelum!” the voice snapped, ringing through the room.

Caelum’s smile vanished instantly, and the worriedexpression he’d been wearing since they’d approached the palace returned. EvenDenio looked worried. The woman who sat at the base of the tree rose slowlyfrom her throne. She wore an elegant dress of violet and gold, which swept thestone beneath her feet. Her amethyst eyes observed them coldly beneath thecrown of gold.

Then, her face creased into a smile. “Welcome home, my son.”

A look of relief crossed Caelum’s face, and he steppedforward and embraced the woman. Realization struck Eliana. There was littleroom to doubt the fact that this woman was queen of the elves. And Caelum washer son. It struck Eliana that her supposedly open, honest companion may nothave been as forthright about his rights to the throne as he’d claimed.

Caelum gestured her forward, and Eliana stepped stiffly upbeside him, suddenly distrustful of the young man she’d so blindly followedinto the cit. “Mother,” he said, “this is Eliana. Eliana, this is my mother,Queen Ivi.”

The queen gave her a gentle smile and graciously extended asoft, pale hand. Eliana froze like a startled deer. What was she supposed todo? Otium certainly had never prepared her for meeting with royalty.Cautiously, she took the queen’s hand and made an attempt at a curtsy, whichappeared awkward to everyone in the room, both because of her execution and herbreeches.

The queen’s smile widened a little in amusement and she releasedthe girl’s hand. “You look tired, Eliana,” she said. “Caelum, take your friendto the guest chambers. You will both need to wash and change before the feastcelebrating your return.”

Caelum gave a short bow. “Yes, mother.” He looked at Elianaagain. “This way,” he said. She followed him as the stone path curved aroundthe base of the tree. On the other side, the pathway crossed more green grassand led to another set of large, carved doors. A fair-haired elf gave a low bowand opened the doors for them.

As they stepped out of the palace, the pathway turned to pebblesagain, as it had been in the city. In fact, it looked as if they had steppedback into the city. There were half a dozen large trees before them, with thesame doors, windows, and balconies that she had seen in the other trees in thecity. Here, however, bridges of branches and vines connected the trees to oneanother. A tall wall of white stone encircled the courtyard, connecting it tothe palace.

Eliana stopped and looked at Caelum. “No claim to thethrone, huh?” she asked incredulously. It disturbed her that he had lied to herso boldly, when she had so blindly and faithfully followed him. What else couldhe have been lying about?

“Technically, I told you the truth,” he said with anirritated shrug. “Yes, I am the queen’s eldest son, and some of the elves stillcall me a prince, but I have no more claim to the throne than you do. Iabdicated my rights to that several years ago.”

“Why?” she asked with a doubtful frown.

He sighed and lowered his blue eyes to the ground. “Isuppose I was just never cut out for royal life. All of the rules, the bowing,all of the people looking to me, just because of who I was. I wasn’t prepared to have the weight of the entire elven kingdomon my shoulders. I wanted people to follow me because of my merits; not becauseof the blood in my veins. I wanted to choose my own path—not have it chosen forme. So I gave up the throne and joined Iterum’s army, to earn my right to lead.”

Eliana studied him uncertainly. She was still wary of him;he had still lied to her, if only by omission. But she understood his reasoningin a way. If anyone understood the desire to hide their lineage, to cast asidethe blood in their veins and prove their own worth, it was her. She could thinkof nothing to say, so she simply nodded. Besides, regardless of what shethought of Caelum, she had no other place to go.

Caelum led her to the first two trees in the courtyard andgestured to the one on the right. “This will be your home for as long as youchoose to stay in Iterum.” He gestured to the one on the left. “This is where Ilive.”

“What about the rest of your family?” she asked.

He gestured over his shoulder, back at the palace. “Theylive in Domus,” he answered, “the tree that is the center of the palace.”

“Why do you live in the guest quarters?”

He shrugged. “When I renounced my title and gave up thethrone, I wished to move into the city, to live among the elves like any othercitizen. My mother wanted me to remain in Domus with the family. The guestchambers were our compromise—on the palace grounds, but not within the palaceitself.” He gestured towards the tree. “Now, you should go inside and getwashed up for the feast, as should I. I’ll be just across the bridge if youneed anything.”

With that, he turned to the tree on the left and disappearedinto the rounded doorway. Eliana paused, then turned towards other tree andstepped inside. She stopped, looking around her in surprise and wonder. Thecenter of the tree was almost entirely hollow, as she’d expected, but whereshe’d imagined she would replace primitive furniture, she instead found a cozysitting room with plush chairs, bookshelves carved into the trees’ walls, andbooks and vases of flowers throughout the room.

At the center of the tree, a wooden staircase spiraledupwards. Eliana climbed the steps to the next level where she found a largebedroom, round like the sitting room below. A large, comfortable-looking bedfilled the right-hand side of the room, with a perfectly round window in thewall beside it.

Opposite the window was an open doorway, with the woodenbridge on the other side of it, leading to Caelum’s home. Against the wallopposite where she stood, hidden from view of both the door and window, were asmall washbasin and a large tub. Beside the tub, a deep nook in the wall actedas a wardrobe, which was already filled with clothing for her—fine dresses, aswell as trousers and comfortable tunics.

Eliana sighed as she sat down on the edge of the bed, tryingto take in everything around her, everything that had happened throughout theday. She set the egg in her lap for a moment, looking at the golden shell. Shecouldn’t resist the temptation, and she pushed her thoughts towards the eggagain, touching the mind that was as golden as the shell around it.

“We’re home now,”she thought. “We’re safe.”

She thought she felt the presence stir quietly, and shesmiled. She lifted the egg, realizing suddenly that nobody—not Raena, Denio, oreven the queen—seemed to have noticed that she was carrying it, and pushed itonto a shelf carved into the wall above the bed.

With a groan, she fell back onto the plush pillows,stretching her aching muscles. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her mind and herbody, and she decided that she would close her eyes for just a moment.