Chapter 9 – Neve
NEVE
The first thing I noticed upon arriving to sup with the entire royal family of House Fellhelm was how at ease they were with one another.
Six siblings, three of them triplets, and no one appeared to despise the other. Or compete. Or egg the others on—not meanly anyhow. The family smiled and teased and laughed. To me, they looked ideal, like something to envy, and stars, did I.
And the Fellhelms’ aren’t done growing a family. I glanced at the queen’s round belly.
Queen Deseana caught me, and her stubby-fingered hand rubbed at the bump. “I believe it might be twins.”
Twins in addition to her brood of six. I’d grown up with humans, with their predictable cycles that came every moon.
But fae differed greatly from humans. Most fae had trouble building large families, largely due to highly irregular female cycles and turns in which both the males and females were simply more fertile than others.
Thordur aside, who I’d learned was nearing his sixtieth nameday, most of the Fellhelm children were all in their twenties.
“May the stars bless your growing family,” I said as a human woman dressed in Fellhelm slate gray and gold swept in to fill the wine goblets carved from a beautiful stone and crafted to look more like inverted mountains.
Tapered candles lined the tables, providing supplemental light to the torches on the walls.
No faelights here, just simple, classic ambiance.
Vale sat across from me at the fourteen-person table. King Tholin reigned at the head, Queen Deseana to his right, next to Vale. Heir Prince Thordur sat to my right and the second in the royal line, Princess Bavirra, perched to my left.
The other four Fellhelm children took spots around Caelo and Anna and were involved in a lively discussion with the pair.
Elsewhere, a faint din of kitchen noises could be heard, making my stomach rumble.
We’d started the day rising early and walking through the mountains with a group of humans to protect and were ending it at a table full of royals.
I was exhausted and so looking forward to a proper meal.
I picked up my goblet, examined the hammer etched into the stone. I ran my finger over it, lingering on the rune in the center. The same hammer had been on the doors leading into Dergia. The Doors of Eitriod, Vale had called them. “Is this your house symbol?”
“Indeed,” Prince Thordur said. “It’s said that the hammer used by the dead god Eitriod looked the very same.”
“I see.” I reached into the far recesses of my mind, flailing for something to contribute, but, as ever, when I thought of the dead gods, no specifics came.
During my turns as a slave, I’d been taught nothing about the gods.
We’d been told to worship the stars, and that was enough.
Now though, I was no slave. I needed to better learn the customs of my people.
“I know little of that god, but seeing as he uses a hammer, I’m guessing he’s for the smiths?”
Princess Bavirra, who I’d met only briefly when she’d been helping the humans by getting them food and seeing that they were comfortable, leaned over.
Her long night-dark hair fell over her shoulder and her skin, as inky as Sir Caelo’s, gleamed in the many lights of the candles.
She had certainly inherited the queen’s beauty.
“Eitriod is the patron god of smiths. He deals with metal, earth, and fire. And of course, he is a dwarf, which is why our kind loves him so.”
“I could have told her as much,” Thordur murmured, though there was no real ire in his tone.
“But as always, I am quicker!” The princess gave a mischievous grin. “Plus, you monopolized much of their time today. Don’t frown at me for wishing to get a word in edgewise.”
“Edgewise?” The heir scoffed. “Eitriod knows that once you start, no one else will ever speak to Prince Vale or Princess Neve again.”
I felt Vale’s stare and glanced across the table. A look of amusement was on his face. I wondered if he was thinking of Saga, and how he and his sister often ribbed one another. I certainly was.
“Do you have a book on Eitriod?” I asked the siblings. “I’d love to learn more about your favorite god.”
“I do!” the princess said. “I’ll send it to your rooms!”
“Thank you so much.” I inclined my head, as the king called the table’s attention with a raise of his heavy goblet made of a fiery red stone.
“Beloved wife, family, and esteemed guests, thank you for gathering together for this meal.” The king looked at me. “I hear you saw much of my city today, and a small part of the kingdom beyond, so I’ll open the meal by toasting to Dergia.”
We echoed his toast and had barely set our goblets down when the servants swept in with the first course.
Other than the bread, cheese, and hot, nourishing broth given to the humans when we’d arrived, I had not known what to expect when it came to food in a city under a mountain, but the soup set before me smelled like onion and potato.
My mouth salivated as I peered down at the food, noting the bowl appeared to be made of an orangish-red crystal.
The dwarven presentation for most things was hard and cold, made of stone and metal and precious gems, but all of it was beautiful too.
“Please, eat,” the queen said when my friends and I hesitated to pick up our spoons. “Don’t let it grow stone cold.”
We did as Queen Deseana commanded, and I was not at all disappointed by the soup. Rather, I felt that I’d died and gone to the afterworld. It was so good.
“My compliments to your cooks,” I said when I’d finished the bowl.
“Our head cook was once a slave to House Triam. She escaped, and we’ve been treasuring the benefits ever since,” the king said.
“I believe she likes it here too,” the queen added. “She’s about to have her second youngling with her husband—an apprentice smithy.”
“Speaking of smiths,” the king set down his spoon, “what did you think of our Circle of Steel?”
“I found it all impressive,” I said.
“Quite,” Vale agreed. “The innovation to soundproof and ventilation so deep within the mountain is ingenious. Add in the actual smith work and no one can deny dwarves are the best of the craft.”
King Tholin beamed, as did the heir, who lifted an offering palm to Vale. “We will need to get you a zuprian steel dagger before you depart, Prince Vale.”
“Have you none?” the princess asked.
“My sword is zuprian steel. As is my friend, Caelo’s.
” Vale gestured down the table to where Caelo and Anna were engrossed in a different conversation with the triplets and the thirdborn Fellhelm, Prince Balindur.
From the looks of it, Anna had told a joke that had sent the triplets into hysterics.
“But no dagger. In truth, I’d like one for each of us, but I’m afraid those purchases may have to wait. ”
“Why wait when you are here now?” the princess asked.
“When we’d first set out for Guldtown and then the mines where we found the humans, we’d not prepared for such a long trip.” Vale shrugged. “I carried gold, but I’m nearly out. There’s not enough for one zuprian dagger, not even at half price, let alone four.”
The prince laughed. “I told you, you don’t want those half-off daggers that Smith Otrig sells.”
“Especially when we have plenty we can give you,” the queen added.
“We can’t accept such generosity,” I said. “You’ve already given so much—a home for those we arrived with, food and safety for a night or two. Most of all, a budding friendship.”
“Of course you can accept our gift.” Queen Deseana motioned for her water to be refilled. “We have many such daggers, and love supporting our smiths. It would be our honor for you to leave with daggers from our kingdom.”
“Helping is what allies do, is it not?” The king pushed his soup bowl to the side, where a servant swiftly whisked it away.
I swallowed, unsure how to proceed, and looked at my husband. He stared back at me and gave the slightest of nods.
He would not answer for me. That both boosted my confidence and sank my stomach.
With every passing day, it became more apparent I had but one path: To claim my name and everything that went with it. Fighting Magnus. Potentially starting a full-blown war in Winter’s Realm.
In some ways, such as what I was doing now, treating with the King of Dwarves at his table, I’d already begun trying to take down King Magnus. In others, I held back.
I did not flaunt the name Isolde Falk. Nor did I hunger for absolute power.
Did I wish for revenge against King Magnus for killing my family? More than anything. I considered the matter often.
Before, I wanted him to simply die, but the more I considered it, the more I’d rather see the king stripped of what he held dear.
Imprisoned in a cell like he’d done to Prince Calder.
Maybe magically bound if I could do so. However, to me, dethroning King Magnus was not the only hurdle I’d have to leap.
There were invisible strings holding me back, and only today, as we walked around Dergia, had I worked out a couple of those strings.
One being the bloodshed that would surely ensue. Once I came out as my true self, blood would spill. Magnus would hunt me, along with the vampires who already did so. He might hurt anyone I was with.
The second thread related to the rebels. The rebellion had claimed that they followed the true heir. Who was that? A Falk bastard? Someone pretending to be so? I didn’t know, but their potential presence made me both curious and hesitant.
And yet, I was here, with a king trying to ally with me. Of course, he did so because he wished for something too. That was how alliances went. They were a give and a take.
“You’re right, King Tholin,” I answered finally, careful with my words. “We’d be happy to leave here with four fine zuprian daggers from Dergia.”
“Everyone who sees them will ask about their maker,” Vale added.
“The mystery you withhold will infuriate them,” the king chuckled.
“That it will.” I set my spoon down, and my bowl was swept away.
“Prince Vale, you’ll have to give specifications for the blades,” Prince Thordur said, and the pair leapt into a conversation about sizes and hilts and whatnot.
Vale began speaking of weapons, but I was more entranced by how his face lit up. Every gleam in his eye and grin as he, the king, the queen, and the heir of Dergia spoke of daggers and steel. My heart stuttered when his dark gaze turned upon me and he winked.
My cheeks grew warm, and my chest tightened. I looked down as my plate bearing some type of roasted bird and root vegetable landed on the table.
“You two are quite a handsome couple,” Princess Bavirra leaned closer, and the candlelight made the gold dust on her cheekbones glitter beautifully. I made a note to ask for a tin of the dust before we left. “I’m envious.”
“Thank you,” I said, pleased to have someone to focus on other than my husband, who apparently turned me into a maiden at the least expected times. “Are you courting at all?”
“Father wishes it, but Mother says to take my time, and I’m not ready to seriously court. I’m only twenty-nine turns, after all. I’d like adventure before I worry about love.”
The human blood slaves I’d grown up with would have thought otherwise, but their lives were short and fraught with fear. When you had centuries to live, why rush into any relationship, let alone marriage?
That was unless you were about to lose your head for killing a vampire prince—like me.
Down the table, the triplets set to laughing again. This time, Anna did too. I looked past the princess and found Caelo beaming. He looked too proud of himself, and I was dying to hear the joke, but the princess spoke again.
“What was it like, traveling here? Especially with so many humans in your care? Did you run into trouble?”
It struck me that the princess didn’t just want adventure under the mountain, or in the small territory surrounding their mountain kingdom. She wanted out. Wanted to see the wider Winter’s Realm.
I leapt into the story of the n?kken, glazing over why Vale and I had walked away from the camp, though by the gleam in her eyes, she understood all too well.
When I finished, she looked saddened. “I’m so sorry for your losses.”
“I am too. I failed them.”
“You didn’t,” she said, “so many of them are here, in a kingdom unlike any other fae kingdom. They’re safe now.”
I smiled softly before taking a bite of the roasted bird and chewing. The events of the day and so much socializing was wearing on me.
The princess ate too, before leaning close once again. “Also, not to be too nosey, but I got the feeling in your story that you and your prince have had little alone time?”
“How astute of you.”
She grinned, and I felt as though I was back in Avaldenn with Saga before she pulled me into a clandestine game of nuchi with other ladies of the realm.
A sharp pang cut through me, unexpectedly, though it shouldn’t have been.
I missed the princess and Sayyida—Marit and the Balik sisters too.
They were the first people in Avaldenn to show me friendship.
In the case of Saga and Sayyida, they’d even accepted my past. Or what I’d known of it then.
Now I knew so much more, though I expected their reactions to finding out I was a lost princess would be similar to when they discovered I’d been a blood slave.
“Well, I have a place you two might want to go.” The raven-haired princess curled a finger as her voice dropped into a whisper. “It will offer you privacy and a beautiful view, but you can’t tell anyone else about it. Promise?”
I shot a glance across the table at Vale, still engrossed in talks with the king and Prince Thordur. A grin spread across my face as I turned back to the princess. “Promise.”