Chapter 8
The Serpent
“Saw him with my own eyes. I’m telling you, it’s an earth fae.” Gavyn was taller and stood against the door, ear pressed to the wood.
He’d just turned seven and acted like he was bleeding wiser than the gods. He was only a little over a turn my senior and not that wise.
In truth, I didn’t mind much if Gavyn Bonekeeper got all smug. Since Tait hated me now—so, I guess I hated him too—Gavyn was one of the few young ones Uncle Harald allowed into the palace, and only because he was the Bone Lord’s son.
Little did Harald know Gavyn had a secret. And I kept it for him.
But his stupid belt kept pressing into the back of my head.
With one elbow I shoved him away. “Earth fae can’t get here, and if one did my uncle’d kill ’im.”
“Well, this one got through, and no one did any killin’. Listen.” He pressed his ear to the wood again, adjusting so he wouldn’t squish his first piercing too much. “They’re all talkin’ to ‘im.”
Behind the door were hushed voices.
All I knew was the council of the noble houses convened before dawn. Even the House of Mists. The instant I saw the Lady of Witches was when I abandoned the room. Then, I got angry at Narza for makin’ my chest hurt for what she used to be like because that was a stupid thing to feel.
I didn’t care that Narza hated me now.
I didn’t care that Tait hated me.
I didn’t care about anyone. Just like Harald said I shouldn’t.
But what I hated most was the way it felt like someone kept poking me in the heart whenever I heard my grandmaj speak behind the door. I hated how it made me wonder—just a bit—if she knew I didn’t wanna kill my maj.
Maybe if she knew, she wouldn’t hate me so much.
“Oh, they’re comin’, they’re comin’.” Gavyn scrambled to flee from the door, but tripped over me, toppling us both onto the floorboards.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek when his knee struck the twisted bones of my bad leg. Harald wouldn’t let the boneweavers fix it, said it needed to remind our folk what the earth fae did when the earth bender king let me get tortured.
My uncle always talked about the torture right before reminding our folk the earth bender slaughtered the Ever King and stole the power of our kingdom.
Words that always had sea folk shoutin’ in anger.
When I told him how badly my leg still ached, Harald struck the side of my head until my ear bled, then shouted at me to take the pain.
Harald didn’t hit me anymore, not since Alistair was the one who reminded him I was the Ever King and our laws forbade a lesser—he actually called Harald lesser—who did not wear the blood crown to strike the king.
Alistair said Harald could lose a hand for it. Seemed my uncle cared a bit for his hands.
“Go.” Gavyn tried to shove me to my feet, but it was too late.
The door opened. Harald stood in the frame. My uncle’s face had shifted since the Ever King died not quite two turns earlier. Where he once grinned a lot, now his mouth was hard, his eyes like dark blood, not sunrise.
“Nephew.” His gaze bounced between me and Gavyn. “Come. There is a new ally I wish for you to meet.”
I cast a look at Gavyn. He would not be invited in with me, but the way Seeker tilted his head, he’d bleeding expect me to tell him every word.
Before I entered the council room, I schooled my face into a glare. Harald always said I ought to look like everyone smells or that they make me want to retch. It reminded folk I was the king and they weren’t more powerful than me.
The only time it was hard was when I looked at the Bone Lord.
Gavyn’s daj wasn’t cruel. He didn’t hit Gavyn. And he had the same secret too, one that’d kill him if Harald found out. Gavyn’s daj didn’t kill his mate. He didn’t make Gavyn slit her up. He disobeyed the final order of King Thorvald.
Strange, how it made me like the Bone Lord even more, when everything else I did was all to please my uncle and dead father.
Sometimes, when Gavyn told me about how his daj played sea games or how they visited his hidden maj and read tales, I wanted to hate all of ’em. But more than that, sometimes I wished Gavyn’s daj had been mine.
My snarl faded when I glanced at Lord Sewell. He was a lot taller than Harald. His dark skin wasn’t weathered from all the frowning, and he even winked at me when I fought to hide my limp. Like he knew it hurt to walk and it was all right if it did.
I forced myself to look away. Just in time or I would’ve paused at Tait who had a new welt swelling up his cheek. Then, I would’ve started to feel a little sad and not so angry at my cousin for not playing with me anymore.
The way Harald treated his own son, I wasn’t a sod, I knew my uncle made Tait go away, but I was still mad at him for listenin’. Tait always got to hear these councils, but he had to stay in the corner, head down, hands clasped behind his back. Silent.
Harald guided me to the head of the table where a sickly-looking man sat.
His dark hair was stringy and struck his shoulders.
Wounds healed over his cheek and one across his neck.
A fae with tapered ears not so sharp as mine, and skin that reminded me of a gray fish, like he’d been in the cold too long.
When the strange fae lifted his gaze, I was embarrassed at the way I jolted. His eyes were dead. Or looked like it, at least. There was always something in the eyes—laughter, hatred, rage, sadness. This man had nothing, like his eyes were lifeless and cold.
I wasn’t old, but even I knew this fae was dark. He wasn’t good.
Why, then, was the whole damn council listenin’ to him?
“Meet our young king,” Harald said to the dark fae. “He shares many of your complaints toward the earth realms.”
I didn’t want to be here anymore. I didn’t want the eerie eyes of the dark fae to look at me for another moment.
The fae cocked his head to the side. “The cruelty of our common enemy is written on your flesh, young king.”
His voice was oily and felt like it stayed on my skin even after he stopped speaking.
“Show him, Erik.” Harald dipped his chin. “Show him what the earth fae did to you.”
Heat burned in my face. An old sting gathered behind my eyes. I did not want to take off my top again. Every eye gawking at the scars all over me made me want to dive into the sea and not come out.
Whenever I protested, Harald only made me stay in my chambers to consider how an Ever King might encourage his people to rise. Then when I came out again, Tait had more bruises.
Not that it mattered, but I didn’t need anyone takin’ strikes in my place.
I tried to hide the way my hands trembled when I reached for the laces of my tunic.
“Forgive me, Songtaker,” Fleshripper said, drawing the eyes of the council.
“If this earth fae experienced the same cruelty as our king, I see little point in wasting time by showing it again. He ought to already understand. Unless he has not spoken true, in which case, I need to hear nothing more and look forward to his execution.”
A few mumbled agreements filtered through the room.
“Your man speaks true,” said the new fae, but the way he looked at Fleshripper was sharp, like he’d marked the Bone Lord in some way. “I have plenty of experiences to imagine what was done to such a young boy.”
I let my hands fall away from my top and tried to hide the relief by tightening my glare.
The dark fae studied me for a breath. “Like you, young king, I have had my crown stolen from me by the same folk who stole your power. I am told you have a few more turns before you can challenge them. That’s good. It will give us time to strengthen. Together.”
“Together?”
A cruel sort of grin split over the dark fae’s lips. “I can tell your people all you must know about the earth fae realms, giving your kingdom leverage to defeat them when the time comes.”
“Why would you do that?”
He chuckled. I hated the sound of it.
“Wise boy. You already realize negotiations do not give something for nothing.” The dark fae adjusted the quilt someone had placed over his shoulders to warm him.
Hopefully it’d make his skin look less like a corpse.
He leaned onto his elbows on the table. “When the time comes, when my full power is returned, I will help lead your people against the earth folk. You will defeat the earth bender—a king of a clan called Night Folk.”
The warrior was Night Folk. He told me so.
I shook away fading memories of the man who’d protected me and forced the memory of the Ever King dying at their hands to return.
“What he’s telling you, Erik,” Harald said, “is we’ve been given a strategy on how we face the killer of the Ever King. This is how you will rise to your full power on the throne. You must face Thorvald’s killer again or you will always remain half a king.”
I shifted on my feet. “What’s in it for him, then?”
Again, the dark fae’s raspy chuckle lifted the hair on my arms. “What a cunning king you’ll make, boy.
In return, like your kingdom, mine will be restored.
The usurpers of my throne will be ended and a new alliance between our realms will thrive.
Your legacy will be the grandest your kingdom has ever known. ”
I didn’t trust the dark fae, not really, but could not deny the notion of not being the boy king who got the Ever King killed was a desire I craved.
To be known for something grand like restoring the mantle to the kingdom, maybe then Narza wouldn’t hate me so much, maybe Tait wouldn’t think I was too broken to play with anymore.
“I’ve petitioned the council to give our earth fae ally a voice of leadership here, Erik,” Harald said. “All we need is the House of Kings to agree.”
Me. He needed me.
I didn’t like this fae. I wanted him gone. But what if he got me back to the earth bender king? What if I could make up for what the Ever lost?
Harald’s eyes darkened, as though daring me to refuse. I could, I knew I could, but he’d find a way to force me. Likely, Tait wouldn’t survive it.
As though I wanted my cousin to know this was somehow his fault, I glared at the corner where he stood, head down, then looked at my uncle. “If it be good for the Ever.”
Harald barked a laugh. “And that is our king in the making! Always looking out for what is best for our folk! He will serve the Ever well, wouldn’t you say, my lords?”
A few fists pounded the table, shouts of approval followed.
“I’m going now,” I muttered to Harald.
My uncle waved me away and sat beside the dark fae again, no longer concerned if I was present or not. In haste, I aimed for the door, but somehow, even without looking, I knew that eerie dark fae watched my every bleeding step.