A Court Bright and Broken (Age of Fae #1)

6. Three Pillars

Chapter 6

Three Pillars

S tellon

Moments after the healer left my chambers, my sister and brother came scrambling in.

Mareth’s face was crumpled in concern, and Pharis was already laughing.

“How the hell did you manage to get your nose broken drawing ?” he asked. “Not to mention four ribs, a collarbone, a concussion, and a ruptured spleen?”

“I’m still trying to come up with an official story,” I told them. “I’m thinking of claiming I was thrown from my horse.”

Pharis leaned against the bedpost. “Well I hope you don’t actually like the poor beast. Father will have it slaughtered and turned into food for the hounds for daring to risk the life of the precious Crown Prince of the Sixlands.”

Thinking of faithful, blameless Malo, I shuddered. “You’re right. Perhaps I’ll say…”

I looked up to the elaborate mural on the ceiling overhead, thinking. “... I’ll say a tree fell on me on my way home.”

Mareth climbed onto the end of my bed, curling her legs beneath her and leaning toward me. Her full cheeks were pink with excitement.

“What really happened? We heard every bone in your body was broken and your clothing was so soiled it was unrecognizable.”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration. It wasn’t every bone. It was enough of them, though,” I admitted.

Pharis strolled over to one of the settees that flanked the fireplace opposite my bed and stretched out on it, sweeping his long hair back with one hand. Though I was certain he’d slept well past the midday hour, he let out a loud yawn.

“It’s obvious you got your royal arse beat,” he said with an amused expression. “Our brother is as delicate as one of your kittens, Mareth… a fragile little pussycat.”

“He is not .”

She shot him a dirty look then turned her disapproval on me.

“ Why were you fighting? Is sparring with Ser Lyder and your other trainers not enough for you? You have to put on a disguise and go searching for strangers to do battle with?”

She huffed and rolled her eyes. “I swear the both of you long for war.”

“I don’t,” Pharis said. “I’ve seen far too many men come back from battle lacking appendages–and I treasure all of mine too much.”

She snorted at his deliberately lewd tone.

“All the ladies in the kingdom treasure your appendage,” she said. “And I doubt there are any left who haven’t seen it.”

“Perhaps I’ll have to start sneaking out to the Rough Market and find some fresh ones,” he said.

“Father will have you slaughtered for dog food if you do,” she said. “It’s all humans at that market.”

“I didn’t go seeking a fight,” I explained. “As Pharis said, I only went to sketch. But there was a girl…”

Caution made me pause as I debated how much to say about her. I trusted my brother and sister completely, but Mareth was right. Any sort of real connection with humans was forbidden to us.

I hadn’t been lying to Raewyn—the palace was full of human servants—but they were strictly off limits to our kind when it came to romantic entanglements. I needed to be careful not to say anything that would suggest my interest in Raewyn was anything more than gratitude for her intervention in the attack.

Which of course was all it was. Anything more would be impossible.

“What girl? A human?” Mareth asked, wide-eyed.

“Yes. I saw a gang of thieves following her, intending to rob her, and I offered to escort her. She refused, but they apparently didn’t appreciate my interference and ambushed me later.”

“How many of them were there?” Mareth asked.

“Please tell me it was at least twenty,” Pharis drawled. “Or I shall lose all respect for you.”

“There were four,” I admitted. “But as I said, they attacked from behind, and one of them had a club, which he applied rather vigorously to my skull.”

Pharis began fake-coughing, inserting the word, “pussycat” into the racket.

“Oh Stells. How terrifying.” Mareth covered her nose and mouth with her hands.

When she lowered them, her expression was twisted in distress.

“How did you manage to make it all the way home with so many broken bones? And the healer said your eyes were nearly swollen shut by the time he got to you. I’m surprised you could see the road.”

“The girl I mentioned… she helped me walk to the gates,” I said. “It was she who frightened the thieves away before they killed me. She threw fish oil onto them and waved a torch at them.”

“ Definitely tell the tree story,” Pharis advised. “Not that one.”

He clutched his hands to his chest and made a comical face. “ Saved by a brown trout.”

“What a brave girl,” Mareth said, clearly impressed. “And so kind. Those are the qualities you should be looking for in your companions. Your taste in women is almost as bad as Pharis’.”

“What does it matter?” I asked. “I won’t be allowed to choose my own bride anyway.”

Pharis piped up, his tone droll. “Nonsense. You’ll have your pick of the fairest ladies of the land at the Assemblage.”

“So will you,” I pointed out.

My brother let out a bitter laugh. “Oh yes. I’m so looking forward to going through the scrap heap of your rejects.”

“There will be plenty of fine ladies to go around,” Mareth consoled him. “Odds are you wouldn’t want the same one anyway. You two are as different as day and night.”

She was right. Unlike me, my younger brother was powerful. He was also far better looking in my opinion, though women threw themselves at me because of our birth order.

“Yes. Stellon is important, and I’m expendable,” Pharis joked.

But the corners of his eyes were pulled tight in the way they often did when he was enduring Father’s frequent insults. I didn’t like hearing him insult himself.

None of us were immune to it, but we couldn’t let ourselves start believing it. My brother and sister and I had begun referring to ourselves in childhood as the Three Pillars because we all lived under the heavy weight of our powerful sire’s thumb.

If it hadn’t been for the two of them, I would likely have gone mad long ago.

“Count yourself lucky,” I said to Pharis. “I’d much rather have your life with all its freedoms and not so much responsibility.”

“Ah the life of a second son—endless fun,” he quipped. “What shall I do today? Skip through a field of poppies? Or have an orgy?”

Mareth made a scolding tut-tut sound. “There is a lady present.”

Pharis craned his neck one way then another in an exaggerated search. “Where? You should have told me sooner. I’d have prepared my favorite appendage.”

Mareth rolled her eyes. “You’re disgusting. And you two make marrying a beautiful noblewoman sound like a chore. Just wait, you’ll probably each meet your perfect match at the First Night Ball and fall madly in love.”

“I seriously doubt that,” I said.

The human girl I’d met this morning was the closest thing I’d ever found to perfection, and she was thoroughly off limits.

“The matchmaker will probably point me toward some shrill harpy who’s the daughter of whichever lord Father is trying to make an alliance with at the moment,” I said.

“But don’t worry, I’ll do my duty and put an heir in her,” I assured Mareth. “What choice do I have?”

“There’s always a choice,” she said. “If you’re willing to take a risk and accept the consequences.”

She gestured to the settee. “You could walk away from the throne and let Pharis have the crown.”

Our brother held both hands up in front of him in a defensive posture and shook his head rapidly.

“No, no, no thanks. Leave me out of this. Stells is right.”

He stretched then settled more deeply into the cushions.

“I prefer my life as the indolent ‘Prince Redundant.’ Grand Star forbid that Father actually start to take notice of me. I’d have to clean up my horrid reputation.”

Mareth laughed at his antics then turned to me. “I just want you both to be happy.”

Pharis snorted.

“I am happy,” I said. “Why wouldn’t I be? I have a brother who makes my bad behavior look like innocent child’s play…”

Pharis dipped his chin and folded forward in a facetious bow.

“You’re most welcome.”

“I have the kindest sister in the land,” I continued. “And someday, oh a few centuries from now, when Father finally tires of unlimited power and decides to step down, I’ll be King of all Avrandar and Supreme Ruler of the Sixlands. Until then, all I have to do is marry a woman I don’t even know and possibly won’t like and do everything the King orders me to.”

She gave me a knowing look. “You’re miserable. You’re missing your own life. You need to start standing up to Father. Stop letting him use you to enrich and empower himself. Believe in the value of your own desires and will and judgement. You’ll make a far better king than he’s ever been.”

A slithery sense of shame worked its way down my spinal column. I was nowhere near as wise and powerful as my father, and I never would be.

“Well there’s nothing I can do about it now. You know his glamour—and you know mine. I wish I had a harmless glamour gift like yours.”

Mareth’s mouth popped open, and she huffed an offended laugh. “You think me harmless?”

At that moment, a large raven flew through the open window and rapped me atop the head with his beak. My sister broke into peals of laughter, rocking back and forth on the bed, holding her sides as the bird flapped around my head, swooping in to peck me again and again.

“Fine, fine. You’ve made your point.” I reached overhead, shooing the bird away. “I guess I should be grateful it wasn’t a dragon.”

As quickly as it came, the raven flew out the window.

“Don’t be silly,” Mareth said. “No one can control dragons—not even me.”

She got a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “A tiger on the other hand…”

I held up my palms in surrender, the safest course of action lest I see a tiger come strolling through the doorway.

“I take it back. Your glamour is the fiercest of them all.”

She nodded in satisfaction, grinning ear to ear. “Thank you.”

“My point is that we all have our burdens to bear,” I said. “No one’s life is perfect. I’m fine , so you can stop worrying about me.”

I’d learned long ago that I couldn’t have what I truly wanted, so I’d stopped even thinking about it. What was the point?

My mind returned to the human girl. For a moment I considered trying to find her, sending emissaries out to all the surrounding villages and conducting a door-to-door search.

But again, to what end?

She was human. She clearly hated the High Fae. And I didn’t believe for a moment there were no men in her village who sought to court her.

Besides, it was forbidden.

Even if she somehow returned my perplexing interest, it couldn’t go anywhere. In two weeks I’d be betrothed to some “appropriate” woman of my own kind.

There was simply no place for someone like Raewyn in my life.

Never mind the fact that for a few moments in her presence, I’d felt complete. There’d been a break in the incessant longing for… something.

I’d never experienced that before with anyone or anything.

Suddenly, I wished I’d never gone to the market today, that I’d never met her.

Or that I could at least forget I had.