Chapter 51 The Songbird
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
THE SONGBIRD
The hall was truly a sight.
A raised dais had been positioned at the far end.
Blossoms and vines of berries draped the edges.
To honor the earth fae queen, Alistair told me.
Silver, ash, and blue banners draped over rafters and across windows of the hall.
At the slightest breeze, they would billow and ripple, creating an illusion like the waves on the sea.
Lyres and pipes burst from the corners. Sea singers were skilled in their tunes, and under threat of death from the Ever King should they try to lure any of us with their songs.
I smoothed the front of my gown, rich red, like blood, and peered out the window.
The Ever Ship was on display in the harbor. From the sail rods, bodies of enemies were draped by limbs, throats, waists. An unspoken threat of what it meant to rise against the Ever King and Queen.
Gruesome, perhaps, but by now I was convinced half my heart had scabbed and hardened toward anyone who would dare level a threat against those I kept in the softer, gentler side.
Hesh had been stripped of his flesh by Sewell’s voice once his skin began to rot. Now his bones dangled from the main mast like totems. Larsson was not placed on the Ever Ship. In truth, I didn’t know what Erik had ordered with the fallen traitor.
Arms slid around my waist. I sighed and leaned into him.
“I miss your thoughts,” Erik whispered, his lips dusting over my throat.
Gods, how I missed our bond. I chose him, I would always choose him, heartbond or not. It was simply a comfort to have him burrowed into my heart, a constant presence.
“I was wondering what became of Larsson.”
Erik flinched, but promptly hid it beneath a sneer. “I saw to it he served a purpose and would not be welcomed in the Otherworld.”
There was a burden in my serpent, one that did not require a heartbond to sense. I turned into him and trapped his face in my palms. “We’ve not had a chance to truly speak about it, not in depth. I . . . I know what he did damned him, but he was your blood.”
“He was nothing.”
“Erik.” I kissed the corner of his mouth. “I see you, sometimes, like you are lost in thought whenever his name is mentioned.” Slowly, I encircled his waist, a grin on my face. “I don’t mind if you stumble, Ever King, so long as you let me be there to catch you.”
The red in Erik’s eyes darkened, but I recognized the moment he gave in.
“I’ve no remorse for ridding the Ever of Larsson Bonekeeper.
” Erik ground his teeth, hesitating. “But I hate that there are moments when my thoughts wander. When I start to hate him a little more because he never gave us a chance to be brothers. I hate that it even bothers me at all. I hate that because of my ignorance, you were harmed.”
I covered his cheek with my palm and pressed a kiss to his lips.
“Scars heal, Erik. These scars I earned from cruel hands will heal. But I would not change our tale, Serpent. What Larsson did only proved there is no line, no sea, no sky I would not cross for you. There is nowhere I belong as much as by your side.”
Erik’s mouth turned up into a sly kind of grin. “So, no regrets, Songbird?”
“Never, Serpent.”
“Pardon, Highnesses.” Alistair approached, nose in the air. “But it is time to dress for the ceremony.”
Erik ghosted a kiss over the center of my palm and stepped back. “See you shortly, love.”
One of my brows arched, and the king laughed as he left.
“He’s planning something, isn’t he, Alistair?”
“I would not know, My Queen.”
“Liar.”
The old steward ruffled, but I’d since learned he blustered and fumbled to conceal his smirks and smiles. “Whether or not the king has a plan in his frightening head is of no matter. What is of a matter to me is insisting my queen dress. Now, let’s be off with you.”
“I don’t bleeding understand why I, once again, am forced into one of these gods-awful things.
” Celine tugged at the satin neckline of the pale green bodice hugging her curves.
It complimented her brown skin and bright eyes and looked rather regal with her silver woven hair draped in long waves over her shoulders.
Mira finished placing a beaded band in Celine’s hair, then stepped back to admire. “I think you are going to stop the entire bleeding room, Tidecaller.”
Celine swallowed, frowning, but like Alistair, I knew enough about Celine to know she did not easily give up her discontent.
“What’s troubling you?”
Celine caught my gaze in the standing mirror as I adjusted my bone necklace. She curled a lock of her hair around her finger. “Everyone knows about Daj. What if folk turn against him?”
“Celine.” I took hold of her hand. “What crime is Sewell truly guilty of committing?”
“Disobeying the Ever King.” She ticked them off her fingers. “Refusing an order from Lord Harald. Falsifying my death, his own. What if they oust Gavyn? Gods, what if they find out about Gavyn’s voice?”
Mira stroked Celine’s arm in reassurance, but spared me a glance, uncertain what to say. How could we understand? The threats against her family were foreign to us and nonsensical.
“Here is what I know,” I told her, placing both hands on her shoulders. “I know that if your father is convicted of crimes, then so is the sitting Ever King. Do not forget, Celine, Erik was complicit in all this. He stands with you, the way you have always stood with him. So do I.”
“Oh, and the lot of us earth fae do,” Mira said, waving a hand like it should’ve been obvious.
“I’d gladly toss a few more knives at anyone who’s stupid enough to attack you all because your daj didn’t kill his bleeding mate.
I mean, really. Do these archaic sods of the Ever realize that without their women, there is no Ever?
Who, I wonder, do they think births the next generation? ”
“It is hard after living in shadows for so long to think I can enter a room and actually speak to them. Actually call them brother and father.” Celine took in her reflection, arching her back, spinning the skirt. “Still, I don’t know why I have to wear this horrid thing.”
A knock announced our escorts.
“Daj.” I took his rough hands. “You look like a warrior. Maj will be seething that she missed all this.”
My father opened his arms, pulling me close. Dressed in black, absent of his axes, and his dark hair braided off his face, he looked like the powerful king of my childhood.
With a soft kiss to my forehead, my father cupped my face in his rough palms. “I am at a loss of what to say, Livie, but I want you to know that you are my light, and I am so proud of you.”
“Earth Bender.” Celine groaned. “You’re going to make her eyes run.”
I blinked, dabbing at the corner of my eyes. “I’m fine. Ready?”
Sander came for Mira, Aleksi for Celine.
Jonas kept a step behind us, hair damp and styled, a dark tunic with runes stitched along the hem, and a bit somber.
Daj suspected he was anxious to return home.
Despite his neach-dai bond to the Ever, Jonas, like the rest of us, missed our homeland, our other people.
Still, it was odd to see Sander as the boisterous twin and Jonas lost in thought.
Already, nightfall was upon us, and the palace was glittering in golden light and savory scents from banquet tables lining the edges of the great hall. Window panes were cracked, letting in the night air, thick with sea spray and honey blooms from the gardens.
My hair was tied in an intricate plait, and my gown swished around my ankles, a skirt of liquid silver. The doors groaned upon our arrival. Alistair smacked a wooden stick along the stone floor, announcing, “The Ever Queen.”
A cinch in my chest stilled my heart. Folk from every noble house spun to the doorway. Sirens with their dark eyes, Ever Crew with their newly trimmed beards and waist sashes, fae from far seas and near. Murmurs slowed, then as gentle as a calm wave, heads bowed, knees bent, and I wanted to flee.
Until sunset eyes caught mine from the dais.
Erik stood in front of our thrones. His black shirt as deep as the night, his hair free and wild around his face, and a subtle, devious grin painted over his lips. The grin I knew, if he could enter my private thoughts, he would be forcing out a flush from the most salacious of words.
He was my king. He was my safety. He was my home.
My father handed Erik my palm. For a moment the two former enemies held the gaze of the other. Then, my daj clasped forearms with the Ever King, a tilt to his head, a gleam to his dark eyes that spoke of acceptance, and the warning of a father to care for his daughter.
“Folk of the Ever,” Alistair called. “Rise for your king and queen.”
Seats in the hall skidded as folk rose. Mira remained close to Celine and took a place near Gavyn and Sewell. Steig stood beside my father and the three earth fae princes.
Tait kept close to the king. Heartwalker would likely always remain surly, but there was a new lightness in his stance.
For turns he’d been aloof and estranged from his cousin.
It was as though our battles, our victory had, at long last, allowed the cousins permission to be the brothers they once were.
I’d even caught Tait laughing outside our chamber doors as he spoke to Erik in the corridor.
Avaline was there, dressed in a gown as gold as the sunrise. Color stained her cheeks, and her eyes took in the palace walls with a bit of awe.
Joron had appeared in court, doubtless rather reluctantly, but he’d been promised to reunite with his daughter and so he did.
To find her less than enthusiastic to return to her rooms in the House of Tides was not our trouble.
Already, Erik demanded should the Lady Avaline wish to remain at court for a time, the palace gates would welcome her.