Chapter 7 – Neve #2
“And they will be safe.” The prince stared at me; eyebrows pinched together. “Did you not notice the humans walking the halls of Fellstone? The stone streets of my city? Those humans who arrived with you are not the only ones in Dergia.”
I blinked. I had not noticed such a thing and couldn’t imagine it being true. Not after all that I’d seen of Winter’s Realm. Nor in other kingdoms. “Are you being truthful?”
“I’m as fae as you are, Princess Neve. And dwarves despise deceit more than other races of fae.”
“Where did the humans who live here come from?” Anna broke her silence.
“Noble houses who mistreated them,” the queen spoke softly, sadly. “Some traveled all the way from the capital, searching for a way to get to another court, one where they might have a chance.”
Thordur shook his head in commiseration for the weak. “The mountains are harsh enough to those of us accustomed to living here. The humans never would have survived on their own. We found many people and brought them here. Nearly all have stayed and become part of our society.”
“Bleeding stars,” I muttered, barely able to believe it. “Most fae look down on humans.”
“Treat us worse than vermin!” Ronaldo hissed.
“We in Dergia are what remains of the dwarves from the five other kingdoms.” King Tholin sighed.
“Those of our kind who wished to remain under our own rule, in a home made for us. We did not want to be like others of our kind, traveling the mountains nomadically—nor did we want to serve royals we did not love—but there are few of us living beneath this mountain. Too few, and we require new blood to ensure we do not marry too closely.”
My lips parted, understanding what he meant by blood. “Wait. So you wed the humans?”
“They enter our society as any dwarf would. Treated with fairness and given jobs that suit their builds and skills.”
Ronaldo shifted. “You know that many who arrived with us are miners, right?”
“Lucky that,” Thordur said. “Though there’s always work for non-miners here too. Many humans who know nothing of the art of a pickaxe will bake or clean or do other tasks that are essential to a community, to earn their keep.”
I was about to ask another question, but the king held up a hand. “My question has not yet been answered,” the king said. “So I ask again, who are you, Princess Neve? A bastard of House Falk? And if so, do you know your exact relation to that long dead house?”
I cleared my throat. What I’d learned of the dwarves endeared me to them, but would their opinion of me change when I told the truth?
Did it matter? The king would not let his question slide, and I could no longer lie.
“Your wards didn’t fail you,” I admitted. “I am, by marriage, a part of House Aaberg. By blood, I was born into House Falk as Princess Isolde.”
The king’s eyes went wide. By such a reaction, I suspected he really had thought of me as a bastard-born Falk, which I’d recently learned was common enough.
Prince Calder Falk and my own father had sired many bastards in their youth, before my father met and wed my mother.
Though, of course, those same bastards might not know the truth of their fathers.
And if they did, they would be smart not to flaunt that name while King Magnus sat the throne.
“Isolde Falk, daughter to King Harald and Queen Revna?” the queen whispered.
“The same.”
“A daughter of Harald and Revna was a slave?” She set her cup of tea down with trembling hands. Considering Dergia was hidden, I doubted she’d known my parents. Likely, she was considering her own children living as I had done.
“My parents sought to send me to safety, but the Fates intervened. As they did again, two moons back when I escaped the Blood Court.”
A pregnant pause followed in which the royals studied me with such intensity that my skin crawled. Finally, the king shook his head.
“I should have you killed. A trueborn Falk, in my kingdom, the very line we swore to protect and hide from. The same line that tried to make my ancestors bend the knee.”
“Try and you’ll meet your own death,” Vale growled.
“The operative word is should,” King Tholin retorted as forcefully, “I have no desire to harm you, Princess Neve. You have shown character, bringing humans here at great personal risk. You have given me the truth, a secret, if I’m not mistaken.
And you have arrived when the Kingdom of Winter as a whole needs you most. I can read the signs, and bad blood between our families be damned.
I am a dwarf of honor. Of ingenuity too. ”
I exhaled, and a knot in my chest released. Nothing in his holding said the king had been about to be violent, but watching him speak, seeing the sincerity in his eyes told me a lot. I felt, for the first time since being found by the dwarves, that we were really, truly safe.
The king held out his arm. “Might you stay for a day or two as guests to the Crown so that we may discuss matters?”
Could this turn into an alliance?
I stared at his arm. I wasn’t willing to commit to a full-on alliance yet. How could I when I had not yet committed to my own name? All that aside, I wished to have a relationship. To become friends with fae who thought like me. Those who valued humans as much as the varied races of our kind.
So I grasped his arm tightly with my own hand. “Thank you for your hospitality, King Tholin. We would be delighted to stay.”