Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Senara
I had only seen the royalty of the moon court once before. At the time, they had been glittering like jewels, like bright stars in the deepest night, burning with promise, but now they were drab. They looked more like wet autumn leaves that had been walked over until the bright colors faded and they were torn around the edges, than a King and Queen of the fae.
This time there was another man sitting next to them. His color palette distinguished him as being from the sun court. A variety of golden hues emanated from him as though he was made up of light itself.
Thorn immediately dropped to his knees as soon as he saw the man. “Your Majesty,” he said, bowing his head.
“Stand, Thorn. We’re not being observed.” The man I assumed was the King of the Sun Court had a voice like a strawberry dipped in honey. It was smooth and sweet and had no right to sound so decadent.
I bobbed a curtsy, hoping that it would be considered to encompass everybody there and show the respect that was necessary at whatever level. I had no idea if it was the right thing to do, though; it wasn’t like anyone had ever educated me on how I was supposed to act toward a king and queen. All I could do was just go off how I’d seen people act in the fae lands so far.
“Your Majesty, may I introduce you to Senara?” Thorn's voice was somber and overly polite. He was no longer the rough and ready warrior that he had been a few hours ago. Let alone the lover that I had known however long ago. Before I could try and think about how long it had been since Thorn and I had been intimate the King of the Sun Court rose and stepped toward me forcing all my attention on him.
The man in gold robes inclined his head. “Senara, this is King Xavier. He rules over the Sun Court.”
I wanted to snark that with a title like The Sun King I could have guessed that he ruled over the Sun Court, but I kept my words to myself. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty.” I thought, though my voice sounded a little stilted as I bobbed another curtsy, or at least attempted one.
“Interesting,” King Xavier murmured. “The mark is large and prominent. It’s a shame it is of the moon, though. Imagine how strong a child of the two of you would have been had she been a Sun Kissed fae?” Xavier’s words seemed meant only for Thorn and I, but I couldn’t help wishing he hadn’t said them. It seemed I’d been holding on to some vague hope that the King of the Sun Court wouldn’t be as set against Thorn and me being together as the King and Queen of the Moon Court were. That hope was crushed now, and there was no going back. No one wanted us together, which made something in my chest twist with sorrow.
After circling me slowly, King Xavier walked back to his seat. “We heard about the corrupted fae, the filth destroying the nearby village and we wanted to check with you as the leading general to see how the fight had turned out.”
“Not to mention how Senara performed since you took her with you,” the Queen added from where she had remained seated. She seemed somewhat dismissive of King Xavier, as though he was just a bauble, a decoration to sit beside her and the king. It made me wonder if he really held any power outside of his own court or if the two of them would just overrule him whenever they wished.
The doors on one side of the room creaked open and another man entered before Thorn could start talking, one that was all too familiar. Trevor's face was as impassive as stone as he looked over at Thorn and me.
“Your Highness.” Thorn bowed slightly in greeting. For more of his upper body and a slight bow.
I repeated the motion, unsure what station Trevor held. Highness meant royalty as well, didn’t it? He hadn’t acted like that when we’d been traveling together.
“Senara performed well,” Thorn began.
Fortunately for us, Trevor was already standing behind the important figures in the room when he rolled his eyes as though he hadn’t expected Thorn to say anything else.
“There were casualties. Obviously we can never avoid those, but I do believe we saved the majority of the townsfolk that were remaining. We took no casualties among the troops, though there were some injuries. As far as I'm aware, none of the corruption has spread to anybody that was involved in the attack.” He paused and took a breath, which caused the brows on the King and Queen’s to furrow. “That being said, the majority of the townsfolk were corrupted before we arrived, and it was only those that had hidden themselves away completely that I believe survived. The other major thing of note was that there was a magic user there that appeared to be controlling the corrupted fae. He fought Senara, and later myself, but used magic to disappear, so is still at large. I should also add that though he and Senara exchanged blows in a close combat fight, he only fought against me using the corrupted fae as puppets.”
The two kings exchanged a glance with one another. Clearly something had happened before which was similar to our current situation, and they didn't really want to talk about it.
The Queen was the one who ended up breaking the awkward silence. “We have had reports of something like this happening before,” she said, sounding every inch the Queen. Her gaze flicked between Thorn and me as she continued, “Our fighters were ambushed by a horde. After receiving reports of a feral sighting in the western parts of the kingdom only one of them made it away alive. He reported seeing a man and woman, both in silver masks that were controlling the horde. Is that what you also saw?”
Thorn nodded slowly. “As far as we're aware, there was just one man.”
“Did you see anyone else?” She looked directly at me, her purple eyes seeming to glow.
I shook my head. “I only saw the one figure in a silver mask. However, I would not claim to know whether it was a man or a woman. The figure wore swirling robes that obscured any distinguishing features, along with the silver mask. I would say personally that trying to label them as a man or a woman would be premature.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
Without thinking I asked, “May I ask if we know what the silver masks are? What they mean?”
“Why would we know?” the Queen countered.
“They looked ritualistic to me and I wasn't sure if it was related to any possible religions that might have sprung up recently.
“If they worship something other than nature then they are not true fae,” she bit the words out.
My idea offended her. Great.
It was King Xavier who took pity on me and explained further. “We celebrate the flow of the tide and the rising of the moon, the setting of the sun, and the changing of the seasons. We do not worship any one figure, for there is no one in our world that deserves such praise. The only figures that we have ever seen fit to bow our heads to were the moon goddess and the sun god, which is why we have the two courts. Those who are born marked by the sun god are his property and treated as such by existing in my court, like Thorn. Those that are born marked by the moon are the property of the Moon Court and treated as such.”
The Queen jumped in then, clearly not happy having her court described by King Xavier. “We are descendants of the original Moon Goddess and King Xavier is descended from the Sun God who brought life to the world. The Goddess is the everlasting calm, the tranquility and peace within the world. She may not have brought us to life, but she gives us purpose.”
I could have sworn for a split second that King Xavier rolled his eyes, just a little. Before they could educate me any further on the aspects of religion in the /fae lands I jumped in. “Surely it's possible, and I do not mean to offend,” I spread my hands in what I hoped was a placating gesture, “but surely it's possible that some people, some fae, could have started worshiping other things, say ones that are further away from the capital or any of the large cities? Couldn’t they have started to worship something or someone else.” I noticed a couple mouths open as if to protest, but I barrelled on, hoping that my newness to the fae lands would allow me to be a bit more brazen than I would normally. “If in your celebrations of the Moon Goddess and the Sun God you do not use silver masks like the ones that have been described, it stands to reason that it could be related to a religion that is coming from somewhere else.”
Finally it was too much for the Queen who raised her voice in a way that silenced my own. “You speak as though you're unaware of the veils. However, I know that someone has educated you on those.”
I nodded. ”He has, but I came through the Veil of Death. Surely it's possible that other people or things have come through the veils as well?”
She was starting to get annoyed and I knew I was walking the line of disrespect. “The only other thing we're aware of coming through the veil is the horrific experiments the human king performs.” Her words stunned me and I glanced at Thorn.
His face was as blank as ever, which was frustrating. Was he aware of these experiments? And he just hadn't told me? Or was this news to him as well?”
“Allow me to explain. My lady,” King Xavier said, offering the annoyed queen a reprieve from dealing with me apparently. “Repeatedly, we have found disfigured bodies on our side of the Veil of Death. We believe they were mages, since there is a trace of magic in their blood. We don't know how powerful or what was done to them beforehand, but I suspect that the human king is trying to find a way to break through the veil with mages so he can send his troops through and try and take over the fae lands once again.”
“Your Majesties, if I may,” Trevor said quietly, taking advantage of the pause in King Xavier’s explanation.
I couldn't tell which king he was talking to, but they both nodded, and the Queen did as well.
With their approval Trevor stepped forward, coming to face me and Thorn, though he didn't look at Thorn as he spoke. It was enough of an indicator, so I assumed that Thorn knew everything Trevor was about to say already. “While I was in the human kingdom, I didn't have a job like Thorn. I was there on a different mission, one which you almost ruined, in fact.”
I blinked at him, taken aback. How had I almost ruined his mission?
“You can run quite quickly when you want to, can't you?”
He gave me a lopsided grin, and suddenly I realized that this was the fae that I had been tracking through the castle that had evaded me.
Twice.
He was the one that had made me look crazy to the other Kingsguard members. Anger bubbled up in me, but I couldn't express it, not in front of any of the royalty here. It wasn’t like I would have listened if I’d actually caught Trevor and he’d tried to explain everything to me. I hadn’t even believed I was fae until recently.
“My job, my mission, was to find out what the King was doing. While you did make it difficult, you didn't make it impossible. There were multiple occasions, especially when you weren't on watch, where I was able to sneak into the palace along with different council members' offices. They don't have much documentation on what they're doing, obviously, because they don't want anybody to know about it. From what I could gather, they are separating people who are reported for magic into two groups, one that's for those deemed powerful and one for those that are considered weak.
“The ones that are weak remain in the kingdom and are either experimented on or executed. Powerful magic users are also experimented on using the results of the experiments performed on the lower powered magic users as a guide. When those experiments are completed to a certain degree, or to whatever degree the prisoner can stand they are then forced through the Veil.”
My hand involuntarily went to my mouth as the horror of what he was describing washed over me.
“The lower power ones have their magic, uh, extracted.” He pulled the word out, slowly extending it, as though he needed to figure out how to phrase what he was going to say next. “Somehow they store it, which I was unable to find any documentation on. It is then forced upon the more powerful magic users, in the hopes of making them strong enough to withstand the Veil.”
“Why didn't he do any of that to me and Wyn?” I demanded, though the horror I felt on behalf of the other magic users was evident in my voice.
“Because you two were found publicly. Yes, he could have executed you, probably even faked the execution if he was creative enough. With the way you'd both been found, though, it meant that he couldn't tuck you away. He couldn't hide you from the public, which was why you were in the dungeon for so long before he put on the spectacle of your sentencing. He wanted everybody to see how strong he was against magic users, even if behind the scenes, he's using them to try and increase his own power.”
“And they don't survive making it through the veil?” I asked, trying to make sure I completely understood what Trevor was saying.
“I would hardly call what comes through the veil surviving,” King Xavior muttered.
At the same time Trevor said, “No, they don't survive for the most part, at least not for long. The ones that do survive were never really experimented on; some weren’t even caught, just gave themselves over to the Veil out of desperation. There are some that were experimented on that do technically survive in some way, shape or form. They always appear mutilated, though, like the magic in the veil reacts badly to the magic that's been tampered with inside the person. Whether they're part fae or just strong natural mages, that’s still something we’re trying to figure out.” Trevor paused and glanced over his shoulder at the royals and I could have sworn I saw King Xavier slightly nod his head before Trevor took a breath and continued, “Some of them just come through as bits and pieces. Some of them come through as a jumbled mess. I'm sure some of them don't come through at all and are just absorbed by the Veil. Either way, the human king is trying to do something.”
“He's trying to break through to the fae kingdom,” King Xavier said confidently.
Trevor nodded. “He has old maps of what our kingdom used to be in his office. He has plans for war, duplicate maps where he has stationed symbols of troops. Battle plans for what he would attack first...All of that is ready to go as soon as he figures out a way to get the humans through the Veil without losing them completely.”
The Moon King cleared his throat and Trevor paused. “Occasionally one or two that come through and have been experimented on survive.”
My eyes went wide and I glanced at Thorn to see that he had done the same.
“We offer them shelter and take care of them as best we can, but usually the experiments that were done on them don't…They aren't exactly conducive to a long life. However, they have all been more than happy here and have willingly shared what was done to them while they were held prisoner by the human king.”
It terrified me of what that could mean for Wyn.
“Between the blight and the west and the humans in the east we’re penned in,” Thorn said under his breath.
Everybody heard him, though. He knew that, which was the point, I supposed. He raised his voice to a more normal volume as he asked, “What if we asked the elves for help? We go through the Veil of Life, connect with others once again. I’m sure if we explain the situation they would be willing to help.” There was a softness to his voice that I wasn't used to hearing. “Gods, what if we tear the Veil of Death down? What if we tow them both down? We advance on the human territory, force them across the narrow sea and claim the land that's left there while we figure out what to do with the blight. The Veil is just keeping us sheltered. It's not actually solving any of our problems. In fact, it might even be creating some of them, at least these days.”
“Absolutely absurd,” the Moon Queen said, outrage dripping from her words. “The Veil is what protects us. Without it, we're sitting ducks, especially as depleted as we are right now from the blight.”
“Or it could open us up to new allies,” Thorn countered.
The Moon King jumped in while his Queen sputtered with indignation. “We need the Veils. We can't go without them. The humans would overwhelm us. Besides, we aren't about to perform genocide just to claim some more land.”
“I wasn't suggesting genocide,” Thorn said, sounding offended. “The humans can escape over the sea and go to the larger continent to the east. We can just take over the territory of the peninsula that is left behind.
“If the human king is already experimenting on magic users, do you really think he'd just lay down and let you walk all over him?” I demanded. “And what about the innocents caught in the crossfire? Fae and humans alike.”
Thorn scowled at me, as though he’d expected me to have his back no matter what. I’d been on enough battlefields though, I wouldn’t make one, not if I had a say in the matter. “I never said it was an easy choice, but it is one that's available to us. Is it not worth considering? Just like seeking an alliance with the elves is worth considering?”
Taking the opportunity to redirect the conversation away from the slaughter of humans I asked the royals, “Why won't you let him try and talk to the elves? He's one of the most powerful Sun Kissed fae, is he not? Surely that would mean something to them if a powerful fae was coming to ask for help?”
Before either of the Kings or the Queen could respond Trevor jumped in. “He would look weak. We would look weak as a whole. Vulnerable. If we present ourselves that way to the elves, then we're just as likely to be attacked by them as we are by the human king. That's why we have the veils all around us. To protect us on all sides. I don’t know what you know about the elves, but they are not a peaceful people. Weakness is snuffed out in their lands. If they see us as weak, for any reason, then they will see it as an attack.”
“Some of their tribes are like that, yes, but others, especially the ruling tribe, are much more reasonable. They may even have information on the blight that we don’t. After all, we don’t know where it came from or who else has been impacted by it. We haven’t even been able to find the source in our own lands, have we? Surely doing more of the same and expecting a different result is pure madness?”
It was the most impassioned I’d ever heard Thorn. It made me want to support him in this, but I would never forgive him if he convinced them to tear down the Veil to the human lands. After all, a king who was willing to experiment on his own subjects would think nothing of using them as meat shields.
I listened as they went around and around again about next steps and I grew more and more weary of the politics behind things, politics that were getting more and more fae killed as they succumbed to the corruption spreading over the land.
When we were released from the meeting, I turned and fled as soon as I could without offending the Kings and Queen. I couldn’t be around Thorn at the moment, not after everything that had happened and then what he’d proposed with the Veil. It was too much. So, I ran as far and as fast as my legs would carry me.