Chapter 24
“ W hen did they get here?”
“An hour ago.”
“And you waited until now to get us?” I ask, turning a corner as Jasand and Elias lead Ruskin and me down the next corridor.
“You were busy, and we needed to make sure they didn’t have any nasty little gifts from Evanthe hidden up their sleeves,” Jasand says. He and Elias seem to have replaced Pyromey as the heads of Lisinder’s security. It says a lot about Pyromey that it takes two excellent warriors to do the job she did alone.
“They’re right,” Ruskin says. “We couldn’t forgo our meeting with King Lisinder, and these visitors could very well be hostile.”
“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” I say grimly.
We’ve been in discussions the last few days with Lisinder and the rest of the king’s council, turning over ways to stop Evanthe without sacrificing huge numbers of lives in either court. It’s a problem we’ve not found a solution to yet, but now we have news that three Seelie High Fae have arrived seeking an audience with us. I sense Ruskin is as eager as I am to discover what this is about. Apparently, all the Seelie would tell Elias and Jasand was that they weren’t here to harm either of us.
When we walk into the chamber, my eyes land first on the woman standing nearest the door. There’s something instantly familiar about her. She’s very tall, even for a High Fae, with hairlike catkins…
“General Sunshard,” Ruskin says, unable to hide his surprise. He turns to the man at her side, whose skin is speckled with patches that look like tree bark. “Lord Sunshard.” Ruskin sketches a small bow, and I interrupt my staring to curtsey.
Halima’s parents. I should’ve realized even before Ruskin named them. They’re imposing like Halima, warriors through and through, with the same serious sets of mouths, but I can also see the spark in their eyes—a light that hasn’t gone out despite the wars they’ve fought, the terrible things they’ve seen, the losses they’ve suffered.
“Your Highness,” the couple say almost in unison, offering precise bows in return. Halima’s mother turns to me. “You must be Eleanor Thorn,” she says. “Halima wrote of you.”
“She did?” I ask, and can’t feel embarrassed about the quaver in my voice. Seeing her parents here forces me to relive Halima’s death all over again, and the pain lances through me like it happened just yesterday.
“Yes, she said you were a quick learner. Impressive, for a human.”
I smile at the blunt assessment. That’s exactly how Halima would’ve put it.
“General, Lord Sunshard,” Ruskin looks grim. “I do not know if you are aware…” It only occurs to me now they might not have heard about Halima’s fate. My hand goes to my mouth, but Halima’s mother holds up her own hand.
“We are aware of our daughter’s death, Your Highness. We received the news from friends at court, saying she’d been killed in a skirmish when you fled the palace. We only knew that the court had been suffering under some kind of curse—Halima omitted some details from her letters for security reasons, naturally—and assumed your leaving was related. We traveled from our home in the north to lay our daughter’s body to rest, only to find Queen Evanthe had taken command of the court and, apparently, the iron that plagued it.”
“ She’s the one who brought the iron in the first place,” I blurt out, hating the idea of Halima’s parents believing Evanthe’s lies. “She tried to kill Ruskin, and Halima—” I suck in a sob, “Halima died protecting us and the court.”
“We suspected as much,” says Lord Sunshard. He seems a little softer than his wife, his voice almost gentle as he speaks of his daughter. “They told us that Halima had chosen to help Prince Ruskin steal the throne from his mother, but we knew this could only be a twisted version of what happened. Halima swore to protect the Seelie Court; she would have only moved against its ruler if she knew they threatened its well-being.”
“I’m so sorry,” Ruskin says. “But you are right. She died as she would’ve wanted to, performing her duty, protecting what was precious to her. I can only offer my deepest regrets that I did not protect her . She was the finest swordswoman in the kingdom, and a dear friend.”
Lord Sunshard’s eyes gleam with emotion, and Halima’s mother puts her hand to where the pommel of her sword would usually sit. They’ve had their weapons taken away, no doubt by Jasand and Elias, but I recognize the gesture as one Halima would also always make in times where she needed comfort. I look away, not quite able to bear seeing it again.
“Thank you, Your Highness,” General Sunshard says. “We suspected that we were not among allies at court, and once we heard that you had appeared beside the Unseelie king in battle, we decided we must continue our daughter’s work and come east to find you.”
“What news from the Seelie Court, friends?” Ruskin asks, and I can hear the tense note in his voice. He’s eager to know what Evanthe has been up to, but, like me, also fears the answer.
“Queen Evanthe claims that she visited Interra, the space between realms, when she fought you, and there gained the ability to control the iron that’s been blighting the court. Iron that she attributes to you, Eleanor Thorn, and Prince Ruskin’s blind spot when it comes to your…unnatural ways.”
I can easily imagine how Evanthe would weave her deception—technically, the iron is there in Faerie because of me. Evanthe would never have been able to wreak this devastation if I hadn’t woken her, and if Ruskin hadn’t asked me to use my “unnatural” magic to do it.
“Naturally,” Halima’s mother continues, “we suspected Queen Evanthe was hiding some kind of crime of her own, though we did not know for certain the iron was her doing.”
“And the rest of the court?” I ask. “Do they really believe her story?”
“Queen Evanthe is an uncompromising ruler,” General Sunshard responds, giving her choice of adjective a telling emphasis. “The High Fae of the court seems in turns impressed and intimidated by her power, and are willing to accept her leadership in lieu of her son.”
“That is not surprising,” Ruskin says, but he sounds bitter. “Certainly a contributing factor must be their belief that she is still High Queen.”
Both Halima’s parents start.
“She isn’t, my Lord?”
“No. I have been High King of the Seelie Court since she was attacked two centuries ago. It is one of my biggest regrets that I did not make this known sooner. Halima urged me to, in her wisdom, but I was stubborn, still believing my mother the superior leader. If I had listened, perhaps it would not have been so easy for my mother to seize the court from me.”
Just as the Sunshards offer deeper bows and murmured ‘ Your Majesty s’ a smaller figure rushes into the chamber.
“My High King, I sensed this, but to have it confirmed now…” says the woman, all but throwing herself on the ground before Ruskin.
“Ephor Jorna,” Ruskin says, sounding more unhappy than surprised. I gape down at the soothsayer, who I last saw at the Seelie palace as a cowardly wretch defending all her troublemaking while sitting beside Hadeus, Evanthe’s number two.
“We met her on the road,” General Sunshard says, her voice betraying that she, too, isn’t exactly thrilled with the soothsayer’s presence. “She claimed she’d foreseen that her prince needed her, and so was traveling to Unseelie accordingly. We thought it safer we escort her.”
Of course it was. Jorna wouldn’t have lasted two minutes alone in Unseelie without the two warriors.
“It’s true, Your Majesty,” Jorna says, righting herself from her deep curtsey. “You cannot know the depths of my regret when I realized I had encouraged false ideas about the source of the iron curse.”
“You couldn’t have realized that before you helped hand over the court to a maniac?” I snap.
To her credit, Jorna looks genuinely embarrassed. “The interpretation of the signs is not exact, but I always remained loyal to Your Majesty. I believed that I was charged with bringing the truth to light for the sake of the court.”
“And what made you change your mind?” Ruskin asks coldly.
“I had a vision,” she says, her hand going to a pendant around her neck. “Like my kind traveling companions say, it came to me after you left the court, my Lord. It showed me that the source of the iron was neither the presence of Eleanor Thorn, nor the kingdom’s deep magic, triggered by your leadership.”
I roll my eyes. “What a relief we’ve finally figured that out.”
I see Ruskin’s mouth twitch at my sarcasm, but he maintains his glare for Jorna’s sake.
“And did this vision tell you the true source of the iron attacks?”
Jorna nods erratically, but her eyes fill with fear.
“I saw it.” Her hand has dropped, but she gestures to the necklace again. “I saw what the Seelie Kingdom will become if Queen Evanthe continues to reign. It was terrible. Words can’t possibly do it justice.”
It surprises me, but I believe her. She’s looking right past us, as if reliving it, and the terror in her face is real.
“That necklace,” I say, following a gut instinct. “Is it special?”
She nods. “I use it in my divination. Quartz is very powerful for visualization.”
“Quartz and silver?” I ask, eyeing the metal setting and chain.
“Yes,” she says, this time giving me a questioning look. In fact, everyone is looking at me with confusion, no doubt wondering why I’d care about jewelry when we’ve just been told Evanthe plans to ruin the kingdom.
“May I?” I ask, holding out my hand towards Jorna.
Hesitating for just a moment, she goes to unclasp it.
“When I was training with Halima,” I say, taking the necklace from the seer, “I touched her sword for a moment, and managed to tap into the past through the object. More specifically, your memories, General Sunshard.”
The General looks uncomfortable at the idea. “How is that possible?”
“I only saw a glimpse of your time in battle,” I say, trying to reassure her. “I think with objects that carry some magic from its owner, like your family’s weapons, the item becomes linked to them. The metal ‘remembers’ some of what it witnessed while channeling the owner’s magic. With my magic, I can then access that memory.”
I place the necklace in my palm and close my fingers around it, calling on my magic.
It happens quicker than I expect. One moment I’m standing in the chamber with the other fae, then I’m watching a whirligig of images flicker before my eyes, moving too fast for me to decipher. This cannot all be one vision; Jorna must be more authentic a seer than I thought.
I try to search for Evanthe, directing my magic to find the memory I particularly want to read. The problem is, I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, and there’s so much here—an endless stream of present stretching into the future. For a moment, I think I even see my own face staring back at me, but the image is whipped away, and other details elude me. Perhaps it’s a good thing. Being inside Jorna’s head is overwhelming. The thought makes me more sympathetic towards her. I know a little of what it’s like to have a connection to something so vast. For me, it’s ancient seams of metal buried deep in the earth. For her, it’s time.
At last, I spot a flash of Evanthe’s cruel green eyes and focus in on it. They stare back at me, unblinking, and I see there’s a reflection in the shine of her irises—a glimpse of what she’s looking at. As I squint to try to make it out, the vision expands, and I gasp.
Evanthe is stood on what looks like a pile of ash. The pale flakes are picked up by the harsh wind, but as they blow past my face, I see the fragments have shapes I recognize. They used to be leaves and petals, but the plants are so bleached that when I reach my finger out to touch them, they disintegrate into dust. I turn and look out across the plain Evanthe is surveying. Skeletal structures reach up towards a gray, empty sky—rows and rows of them, white as bone. The trees of the Emerald Forest, I realize with a start.
An animal winds its way between them, so emaciated that at first I don’t realize what it is. It’s when I see the cracked, crumbling horn that I realize it’s a unicorn. I can count its ribs, its skin stretched over jutting bone. It stumbles, and falls, not even whinnying as it goes down, and hits the ground with a quiet thud. Its side stills. Dead.
Evanthe smiles.
I jolt back to reality, dread settling in my stomach, as cold as the world I’ve just seen.
“She destroys it all. There’s nothing left,” I say, horror choking my voice. Nothing could survive in such a place. I hand the necklace back to Jorna like it burns to touch, and she meets my gaze, giving me a solemn nod. She knows what I saw. She’s come all this way to share it.
“That is what the Seelie Kingdom will become under her reign,” Jorna says. “I knew that if this was our fate under her rule, I had to do something to stop it.”
“She wants to punish the kingdom,” I explain, looking to the Sunshards; they should know this too. “She believes that if she purges it of everything the Seelie value—everything that’s beautiful, vibrant, and lush—she’ll rid it of its flaws too. The decadence and greed for power.”
“She blames these, and her gentle way of ruling in the past, for enabling the attack on her,” Ruskin finishes.
The Sunshards exchange a look.
“That explains some of what we saw at the Seelie Court, then,” says General Sunshard.
“What do you mean?”
“The ruler we saw at the palace was not the queen we remembered,” says Halima’s father. “Her approach to leadership—the fairness and diplomacy she was famed for during her first reign—are gone. She is more lenient with the High Fae, at least for now, but the treatment she’s allowing of the rest of Seelie shocked us.”
“You mean the servants?” I say with grim realization.
“Inside and outside the palace. Both the Low Fae and the humans. We are aware their status has never been equal to the High Fae, but there is an extreme level of disdain for them in the Seelie Court lately. Many of the High Fae have even taken to hunting their servants as in the old days, and all the while Queen Evanthe says nothing about it.”
“That’s what happens when you free Cebba’s friends and let them do whatever they want,” I say bitterly. “Her indulgence won’t last forever, though. She plans to destroy them too, in the end.”
“But not yet. She still needs the High Fae,” Ruskin points out. “She’ll happily let them do what they want until she has her High Queen power back. What difference does it make to her what damage they cause, if she’s going to burn it all to the ground anyway?” he says, his expression dark.
Halima’s father clears his throat.
“In truth, Your Majesty, we do not come without an agenda ourselves.”
Ruskin raises an eyebrow, and Jorna’s alarmed gaze darts back and forth between her traveling companions.
“Oh? And what is that?” Ruskin asks.
General Sunshard jumps in. “Your Majesty, we didn’t know whether we could trust you with information of plans to overthrow your mother.”
“You mean there are still some Seelie who want to rebel against her?” I ask, excited. “That’s good news.”
“Rebel is the right word,” says General Sunshard. “The servants of the castle, and their Low Fae peers beyond it, have formed a kind of resistance movement against Queen Evanthe and her followers. They seek to undermine her rule and sabotage those who support her. As you may know, my husband and I have some ties with the Low Fae community. We share blood with them.” General Sunshard lifts her chin here as if expecting some kind of challenge. I suppose she’s so used to having this fact received badly she’s automatically on the defense. But of course, Ruskin just nods.
“Yes, Halima made me aware of your heritage,” he says.
“Because of that we were approached by this movement. We didn’t know what to make of it at first—fae and humans working together?—”
“The humans are involved too?” I interrupt, feeling a surge of pride.
“Yes. The Low Fae have promised them liberty in return for their help. They have proven invaluable assets too, given their ability to lie. Our kind are so used to thinking ourselves superior that we forget there are skills humans have that we lack. I suspect the High Fae of the court too often take their servants’ words at face value.”
“We have given our support to the resistance, and we bear their petition to you. It is our belief that Your Majesty is the leader we need,” says General Sunshard.
“Our daughter swore fealty to you, my Lord, and we now happily do the same, in the name of saving the Seelie Kingdom,” her husband says. In unison, the pair kneel and bow their heads.
Ruskin’s face shows a mix of emotions, but he settles on a gracious smile.
“Thank you. I accept your pledge. May I prove myself worthy of it.”
Jorna makes another curtsey herself, blocking out the Sunshards, and dropping so low she wobbles awkwardly.
“And I would also like to make myself useful however I can,” she says.
“I have one question,” I say. While I do feel more sympathy towards her now than I did before, I’m still not quite over my annoyance when it comes to Jorna and the mess she’s made. “When you had this vision about Evanthe destroying the kingdom, why didn’t you tell the rest of the court about it? We’ve already seen that they listen to you. You could’ve cut Evanthe’s support off at the knees right then.”
Jorna drops her gaze. “I…well you see…Queen Evanthe is very powerful and…”
“And you didn’t want to put yourself in any danger,” I say bluntly. Jorna colors but doesn’t deny it, and I’m satisfied, having made it clear how self-serving she is. She might sincerely want to help…but only if she can do it without risking herself. “That said, you have confirmed our worst fears about Evanthe’s plan,” I say, turning to Ruskin. “And while we’ve been turning over and over the problem of how to stop her, I think General and Lord Sunshard have just brought us our solution.”
The Sunshards stand, their height making them an imposing pair. With them by our side, it’s like Halima is with us again, and it makes me feel bold. Ruskin seems to feel it too, because he nods, understanding the direction of my thoughts.
“We need to get that iron out of my mother’s heart,” he says. “And we might not need an army to do it.”