Chapter 10
The Serpent
Harald barked at the young servant girl to leave or he’d have the bones of her fingers draped around his neck. A fairly decent threat. What a show of power it would be to wear the bones of one who defied you. Perhaps soon enough I’d wear my uncle’s bones.
Celine shrieked and her swift steps echoed when she fled from Harald’s wrath.
The girl knew well how to hide her features in the palace.
Always keeping her head down, her hair colored with dyes from sea witches.
He would not know she was the tiny siren girl whose voice he’d carved out nearly eight turns ago.
With the distraction Celine created in the corridor, Gavyn and I took the opportunity to slip into a wide armoire against the far wall.
But my bleeding uncle moved on from his gory threats too swiftly and forced us to crouch in a horrid position behind the armoire doors. Already my leg ached from the awkward stance, but should I move, we’d be found out.
“It’s time.” Harald returned to the main study, facing one of the tall chairs near the inglenook. “We have what we need now that the Rusa Isles offered their fealty.” My uncle propped one elbow on the mantle, grinning. “Your way of bartering has a great deal of merit it seems.”
“That you ever doubted is an insult.” The return voice was low, dark and slimy. “Proclamations of honor are nothing but an illusion. Encourage folk to embrace their darkest urges, give them something to satisfy that need, and they will fold simple enough.”
Harald laughed and poured a horn of sour rum.
My insides turned. The bloodlust my uncle yearned for me to embrace was there, a hot, scorching ember. I angled my head in a way I could peer at Gavyn. One brow arched, I asked the silent question. What was he using to barter for fealty from the noblemen of the Ever?
Gavyn shrugged.
Damn the gods. When Harald turned more secretive, Gavyn became my own sort of spy.
His voice was illegal and useful. With his ability to drift between walls through water, he’d overheard a great deal.
We suspected Harald and the dark fae were offering folk something for their convictions to the looming battles, we simply didn’t know what.
I doubted it was anything lovely.
When I first met the dark fae he’d been weak and horrid. Over the turns, he’d grown stronger. Powerful. As he promised, his ability was frightening. The man had a power where he could mimic the likeness of others, a deceiver. He could possess other fae.
I was certain he’d used his ability to overtake a mind to persuade my folk—not his—to do his damn bidding. And Harald allowed it.
In truth, I was convinced my uncle’s desperation to avenge King Thorvald was so fierce, he’d likely promised half the Ever Kingdom to the dark fae. War was coming, no mistake, but I yearned to make my own plans to see to it the dark fae did not leave them alive.
He was a haunt. I’d tried to poison him more than once, but it was as though he always knew. A flute of wine avoided, an added lock to his fine chambers, a subtle threat against the folk I did not truly care about but disliked the least—like Gavyn or the servant girl in my wing.
As though he knew exactly who they were.
I wanted him dead. The earth fae owed me a great deal for slaughtering my father and stealing the mantle. The least they could do was murder this bastard in the war.
“Lord Hesh is prepared to send folk through the Chasm,” Harald went on. “Even the House of Mists has offered up sea singers to take their western shores.”
“That is where it will be fought,” said the dark fae. “Soon enough every clan of earth fae will gather there.”
“How do you know?”
“I have lived a great many turns, Songtaker. I know the paths of fate that are soon to converge; I have awaited this moment, when the past becomes the present, for centuries. This is where you must trust me.”
“What more must we do?”
The dark fae crossed one leg over his knee and accepted a horn from my uncle. “Your little king must declare the battle. I shall go first, announce my presence to our enemies, cause a bit of chaos for each of their kingdoms, then we go to those western shores. We win back our thrones.”
Their thrones? It was my damn throne.
“I’ll arrange the proclamation for next sunset.”
“See it done.”
Steps shuffled from the room. They were gone. I gestured at Gavyn not to move until we could be certain we…
“Hello, little king.” One pale, deadened eye peered through the crack in the armoire’s doors.
The dark fae.
I did not respond, merely flashed my teeth.
The bastard laughed, low and cruel.
“Hear anything of note?” He opened the armoire door.
To my shame, the movement spilled me and Gavyn onto the woven rug at the feet of the sod. His hair no longer hung in strings around his face, but was sleek and tied off his brow. His form was strong, firm, deadly.
But those eyes still reminded me of a corpse.
I hurried to my feet. An Ever King bowed to no one. “Only that you and my uncle think you can declare this war over my word.”
“Hmm.” His smile was slight, but cruel. “Don’t be petulant, boy. You want this battle as fiercely as me. How else will anyone in this kingdom look at you with more than disgust?”
At my sides, my fingers curled into fists.
“Don’t deny it.” The dark fae took a step around me, prowling, circling. A predator. “Your people hate you for what you did to your father. Forcing him to chase after his weak heir, all to lose his life in the end. They wish it had been you.”
“Cease speaking.”
He kept his pace. Another step. “Is it difficult to hear? Difficult to admit that they fantasize about your death, and wish the great King Thorvald still reigned? Even your own blood in the House of Mists cannot stand to look at you.”
My teeth clenched. Breaths sharpened. I hated that he spoke the words out loud.
“You can have their love, little king. This battle will restore your power, your own merit will be seen at long last.” Another step. “I’ve never lied to you about what you stand to gain by aiding me against the earth realms.”
I spun to keep him in my sight. When I returned to the Ever Seas, bloody and broken, even as a little, I vowed I’d never be prey again. On instinct, I lifted my sliced open thumb to my tooth.
The dark fae laughed. “No need for that. We fight the same fight.”
“No. I no longer think we do.” True, I wanted to challenge the earth bender. But I had little interest in seeing this sod on any sort of throne.
The dark fae halted in front of me. “If that is what you truly feel, then let me speak plainly, little king. You don’t have to like me, but you will serve your purpose. I have waited too long to let a weak, rotten little bastard like you stop me.”
“Rotten? I am what you and my uncle have made me. Don’t deny your influence has infected the Ever. Soon, we will be rid of you and I can hardly stand the wait.”
The dark fae’s jaw twitched. “Well, until then, listen well or you may not like what will come if you do not.”
“I am a king. A title you do not have, you sod.” My lip curled. “You do not command me.”
“No, perhaps I don’t. But I have power over others. Power to make even a little king bend his knee to my desires. Care to hear them?” His grin was sharp, like a razor-tooth fish. “Perhaps I’ll start by taking this seeker’s young sister you think no one knows is alive.”
Damn the gods. He did know of Celine. Gavyn sucked in a sharp breath.
“Then, I’ll let your uncle know exactly what the boy can do with his voice. I’m sure his head will suit the outer walls fine enough. Ah, but where would we put his father’s? Didn’t think I puzzled out how the traitorous Bone Lord escaped his cell, did you?”
My blood was ice. Gavyn freed Sewell. I thought it was safe. No one but me and his own daj knew what Gavyn could do with his voice. How the hells did this sod find out?
“I feel I’m getting through to you.” The dark fae stepped nearer, his breath hot on my face. “But in case I don’t have you convinced—if their lives are not enough, consider the cousin you pretend to despise.”
“He is Harald’s. My uncle is an ass, but—”
“You think he cares what I do to his boy?” The man laughed. “Don’t be foolish, little king. I’ve already proven to his father how useful your cousin can be for my purposes. I vow to you, the pain he’s endured already will grow tenfold if you break the accord we made long ago.”
I didn’t care about Tait. I didn’t. But never had I wanted to kill this man so fiercely all for speaking about my cousin.
The dark fae drifted toward the door. “I do hope we understand each other. Take care with your steps, little king.”
Then he was gone. I let my shoulders slump, a sinking in my belly as the horrid truth struck me—as long as that sod lived, I had little power in the Ever.
Ships swarmed the docks. From the balcony of my chamber, I glared down at crews from all reaches of the Ever Seas as they gathered in the Royal City, not at my command. From Harald’s.
My uncle claimed too much control.
From inside my chamber, a door banged against the wall. “Bloodsinger!”
I spun around, leaning my back against the stone railing. “You sound angry, Seeker.”
Gavyn stormed through the sitting chamber and onto the balcony, a flush of red to his brown skin, hair wild around his brow. “What is this?”
He waved a yellowed missive, a broken wax seal with the serpent skull emblem of the Ever Ship in the crimson wax.
“I believe that is a missive from the House of Kings to the House of Bones. Seems rather official. Ought to comply, I’d say.”
“You’re ordering me to stay back from this damn war?” Gavyn stepped to my side when I turned my back on him. “I’m older than you, Ever King, and have every right to defend my house.”
Temper spent, I shoved a palm against Gavyn’s chest. “Older, yes, but higher rank? Not even close. I am the king, not you, not Harald. Me. And you will stay back.”
Gavyn blinked in a sort of stun. “Erik, you need to let me go with you. It’s not just for the House of Bones, it’s for you. I…I am the only one you can trust right now. After what we heard, gods, Erik they’ve got it out for you. Why don’t you see that?”
“I’m not a fool, Seeker. Think I don’t know my neck’s at risk?” Gods, why was he being damn…honorable? I leaned onto my elbows and speared my fingers into my hair. “It is because you are the one I can trust that I need you to remain here.”
Gavyn nudged my shoulder, urging me to look at him. “What are you getting at?”
I let out a grunt of frustration. “Never knew you were so thick. What do you think? If it doesn't go so well, you think I want anyone else lookin’ after the Ever more than you, more than your daj?”
He sobered. “Don’t talk like you won’t come back.”
“Said so yourself.”
“No. I said I want to go, so I can bleeding watch your back. So you do return.”
I closed my eyes against an ache building behind my skull.
“We are leaders of the Ever, Gavyn. We don’t do what is best for ourselves, but what is best for the kingdom.
You are the best I can give to the kingdom.
” When my throat tightened, I popped a shoulder as though shrugging away the words.
“Think of it this way, if we all meet the gods, your daj and sister will be free. You’ll rule. ”
“That’s not funny, Erik.” He shook his head and stared out at the ships, the approaching sails on the horizon.
“From the moment you swore to keep my maj a secret, you had my loyalty, Bloodsinger. It sank into my bones, my blood, when you risked it all to save my daj and Cel. I don’t want another king.
I want to fight next to the one I already have. ”
A turmoil of confusing thoughts swirled in my head. Part of me wanted to toss Gavyn over the rail for speaking such sentiments, the other part wanted to say the same.
Before I could even find biting words to retort, silence between us shattered when a door below the balcony crashed open. Both Gavyn and I peered over the rail.
Tait.
My cousin rushed to the edge of the private cove, dropping to his knees at the water’s edge, gasping.
Dark strands of his hair were wild and damp on his brow.
His tunic was unlaced and torn on one shoulder.
It wasn’t his appearance that heated my blood, it was the way he kept scooping water in trembling hands.
Over and over, Tait scrubbed the salty tides on his flesh.
Three hells, he was crumbling.
All at once, my cousin curled over his knees. He coughed like he might retch. On the inhale, I could hear the break in his voice. Gods...was he crying? Never did I imagine I’d ever hear Tait Heartwalker sob.
My fingernails dug into the stone of the rail. Threats from the dark fae reeled in my head. Harald had taken out his cruelty on Tait—my subject, my blood—too damn far. My anger wasn’t for Tait’s wellbeing. Certainly not.
This was a matter of pride. My uncle believed his authority extended much more than was true. It was out of need to defend my own position as king that I had to stop Harald, not for Tait.
“Gavyn.” I never looked away from where my cousin knelt in the sand.
“Bloodsinger?”
“Three of us with power are leaving for this war—the dark fae, Harald, and me. If you want me to be the only one to return, find out what my uncle and his earth fae pet are doing to garner favor from the more obscure houses of the Ever. It will need to be done swiftly. We’re going to war on the morrow, after all. ”
Gavyn flashed his teeth. “With pleasure, My King.”