Chapter 32
“About two centuries ago,” Amora begins, “Thermia was ruled by a Fae king, just as all the other kingdoms in Ellender are—don’t ask me his name, I don’t remember.”
“I wasn’t going to ask,” I say dryly.
“Good. He didn’t matter, anyway.” She sucks on her teeth, her eyes shifting as if trying to remember what she was saying.
“So there was this nameless king whose soul-bond died before they had any children. It was just after the end of the last Fae war, and the king was afraid that if he had no heirs his kingdom would be conquered by Vernallis. So, even though he was desperately sad about his soul-bond and it physically hurt him to do so, he married again. His second wife was a powerful sorceress, which is exactly why he chose her. That’s a common problem on this continent. ”
“What is?”
She smiles bitterly. “Men who hunt women with power, thinking they can harness it like a horse to their chariot, always end up trampled beneath those same hooves.”
My brow furrows. “I don’t understand.”
“That’s because you’re a man,” she says lightly. “It’s okay, it happens to the best of us. See, since the dawn of time powerful men have sought out strong partners, only to try and change and control them. It usually doesn’t go well.”
I think of the curse Amora cast on Vernallis and nod. “Fair enough. So the king didn’t treat the new queen well?”
“He didn’t get much of a chance to do anything, actually. Shortly after their marriage, the king died, still without an heir. This left the new queen to rule Thermia alone, and against all odds, she turned out to be a good ruler, as far as royals go.”
She used her magic to guide the politics of the kingdom, and amused herself by performing magical miracles for anyone who could give her something valuable in return.
For years she was content, until eventually she grew lonely.
The queen, like her late husband, lacked an heir.
She became fixated on the idea of having a child who could be her companion while ensuring the line of succession. ”
I narrow my eyes at Amora in the darkness, wondering where she comes into the story.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Amora blurts out, sounding far too much like Aurelia.
“I know what you’re thinking, and no, it wasn’t me.
I was born in Solistine in the poorest village you can imagine.
From my very first memory I hated it there.
” Her eyes slide out of focus for a moment and she looks off into the distance, as if remembering.
“I suppose if I had known I’d end up here I might have viewed the village differently. ”
“Anyway, I was miserable. I knew I wanted more from my life, so the moment I was old enough, I left. I walked out of the village and headed straight to Thermia. I knew that the queen would perform miracles for anyone who could pay her, and I didn’t have anything to offer except my own magic, but I had to try anyway. ”
“What do you mean you had your magic to offer?”
She grimaces. “Do you use magic?”
I shake my head. “Never learned.”
“Hmmm. So you realize then that it has to be taught. All Fae—all beings, really—have the ability to use magic, but they have to learn from an early age or it’s not worth anything. If it isn’t taught in early childhood then it’s nearly impossible to learn later.”
I nod. I know all this, I’ve heard it from Aurelia countless times.
“The four kingdoms teach magic slightly differently. In Thermia, the preferred method of craft is to draw power from the earth around you.”
My brow furrows. “I didn’t know that was possible.”
“It is. It’s also possible to take power directly from another being, which is what I planned to offer the Queen of Thermia.
It was a foolish idea. At the time, I thought I could offer her my power in exchange for another sort of power.
I wanted to be wealthy and comfortable, and to live a life fit for royalty. ”
“She didn’t accept the offer?”
“Not as I intended,” Amora says bitterly.
“I petitioned for a favor, and the Queen saw an opportunity to get exactly what she wanted. As a powerful sorceress myself, my child would likely inherit my abilities, especially if that child’s father were a king.
To the Queen, it was almost as if she was able to have her own daughter.
She told me that she would make me royal in exchange for my first born child. ”
“You agreed?” I interrupt, disgusted.
She nods. “It seemed at the time like an abstract promise, and I foolishly believed that, if I was truly married to a king, he would have enough power to stop the Queen from taking my eventual child. We made the bargain, and the Queen sent me back to Solistine to wait. Shortly after, King Thorne of Vernallis happened to travel through my village. He saw me, and immediately demanded that I return home to his castle with him. I accepted of course, and Thorne took me back to Vernallis where we were engaged.”
“But you didn’t know him,” I blurt out, incredulous.
She laughs. “I didn’t care, and anyway for a short while, I was incredibly happy.
Soon, however, I began to realize that Thorne wasn’t as charming as he’d seemed.
He could be cruel and distant. I thought it would change if our bond snapped into place, but it never did—not even after I was pregnant. ”
“Six months after I arrived at court, Thorne lost interest. He abandoned me without a second thought, and threw me out of his kingdom.”
“What about your bargain with the Queen of Thermia?”
“I wondered the same thing,” she muses, drawing her fingers through the ends of her long hair.
“Eventually I had a chance to ask her, and she told me that magic can be complicated. I’d asked that a king rescue me from my miserable impoverished village and take me back to his castle to be his bride.
I hadn’t specified that we would have to actually get married, or that he needed to love me. ”
I grimace. Even after all I know about magic, and the good people like Aurelia can do with it, it’s shit like this that still makes me dislike it.
“So,” Amora says, letting out a long breath.
“I cast the curse on Thorne and his kingdom, but it left me drained, and I realized I was defenseless to protect my child from the bargain I’d made with the Queen of Thermia.
My lady-in-waiting, Beatrix, took me back to her estate to hide, and waited, dreading the day when my child would be born. ”
“When I discovered I was carrying twins I was both horrified and relieved. I knew I could only save one of them, and would have to bring the first born to the Queen, which is exactly what I did. I gave the second baby to Beatrix, and took the first to the court of Thermia, where the Queen decided to raise Silvia as her own daughter.” She sighs sadly.
“I had nowhere to go after that, so I begged the Queen to stay at court with Siliva. I agreed to be her nurse and later, to help teach her magic.”
“What about Aurelia?” I ask angrily.
“She was with Beatrix, where I thought she’d be safe, but she was also in hiding.
I knew Thorne would have killed her if he knew she existed, and if I returned to Vernallis it would have been only too obvious where Aurelia was.
I didn’t forget her, though. When Silvia was a child, I would use magic to create the dancing lights in the sky to celebrate, and I hoped that somewhere Aurelia might see them too. ”
I frown, still indignant on Aurelia’s behalf, but wave a hand for Amora to continue.
“Silvia was raised believing she was the actual daughter of the Queen of Thermia. I helped to teach her magic, and she became just as powerful as the Queen planned. Silvia was always extremely talented at drawing power from the earth, and was inherently able to take power from those around her as well.”
I shift on the floor, a creeping feeling of dread traveling up my spine.
“Soon, I realized that there was something off about Silvia. I think you used the word ‘wrong,’ and that’s exactly how I viewed it as well.
She was charming, but did not seem to truly care for anything except herself.
As a child she was cruel to animals and playmates, using them for their inherent magic and leaving them drained and powerless.
Once, she was given a salamander as a pet.
Salamanders have incredible inherent powers, but Silvia drained all its power and it died. ”
“She was a child. Why didn’t you stop her?”
“I tried! I tried numerous times to intervene, but the Queen was excited by Silvia’s magical talent and encouraged it, not caring that Silvia was hurting others.”
“So she’s like Thorne,” I say flatly.
“I believe so. Thorne was incapable of real love, and in my opinion Silvia is the same. The only thing she wants is total control over her kingdom and admiration from her subjects. She reacts quickly and cruelly to any perceived rejection.”
I raise my eyebrows, glancing around the cell. “I’m assuming you rejected her?”
Amora grimaces. “When Silvia was a young adult she discovered the truth about her true lineage by reading about it in the Queen’s journal. She lashed out in rage and accidentally plunged the kingdom into an eternal winter.”
My mouth opens in surprise. “How the fuck did she do that?”
Amora shrugs miserably. “I don’t really know, magic is complicated. If I had to guess, I think she drew too much power from the land, effectively ‘killing’ it, but it’s hard to say. Regardless, the Queen who Silvia viewed as her mother was killed, frozen solid.”
I sneer. “Did she care?”
“I think she did, in her own way. She certainly experienced remorse over it, if only because now she was truly alone. She came to me and asked for help to reverse what she’d done, but I didn’t know how.
When I couldn’t help her she decided it would be more useful to have my power for herself.
She didn’t actually kill me, and I was left alive and with a little magic, but nothing like the power I was born with…
” she trails off, sighing. “Anyway, she threw me in this tower and I’ve been here ever since. ”
“How long?” I ask.
She frowns. “I’m not sure. Decades, I think. You’re the only person I’ve spoken to in at least five years. It’s been a while since the last person who lived in your cell died.”
A shiver runs down my spine. It’s like Dyaspora all over again, but somehow worse. At least there, we weren’t alone. It was freezing and painful to work in the mines all day, but I would much rather go back there than spend decades alone in the dark.
“Do you have any idea of what’s happened since you’ve been here?” I ask.
“Somewhat. Whenever other prisoners were brought in they told me what was happening outside. I believe that Silvia has continued to try to end the winter she created. I don’t know whether she’s still trying to unfreeze the Queen, or at this point it is simply a compulsion, and she can’t give up until she succeeds. ”
“She outlawed magic,” I say flatly.
Amora purses her lips. “That makes sense. Probably so that anyone who was caught using it would be brought directly to her and she could take their power for herself. Is she still using the shifters as soldiers?”
I nod, unable to unhinge my clenched jaw to answer out loud.
Amora grimaces. “I heard about that years ago from another prisoner. In my opinion, she did that so that she could consistently draw on the power of the entire army at once. Shifters have a lot of magic.”
I shake my head. “No, we don’t.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Do you think that turning into animals and back again is something that just anyone can do?”
“Fine, but shifters don’t have magic like Fae do.”
“They do, actually, but as I said before, if it’s not taught from an early age it’s nearly impossible to learn later.”
I gape at her, my mind racing. I have to force myself to focus back on Silvia, and not let my mind wander toward what might be possible if shifter children weren’t handed swords from the time they could walk and instead were taught magic like the Fae.
As long as we’re bound to Silvia, that will never happen anyway.
“If Silvia has all that magic—yours, the other Fae, the army—then why can’t she end the curse?”
“I just don’t think it can be done,” Amora replies sadly. “Not while she’s still alive, anyway, but she either doesn’t realize that or believes that more power would be enough.”
My heartbeat picks up, a terrible idea dawning on me. “She was happy to see Aurelia. She seemed genuinely excited. I couldn’t understand why.”
Amora grimaces. “I can’t pretend to know exactly what Silvia is thinking, but I would guess that she really was happy. She despises being alone, but due to her own nature, she has found herself entirely isolated. I’d imagine that having a twin, someone exactly like her, would be exciting to her.”
“But Aurelia isn’t anything like her.”
“Does she use magic?”
I nod. “Yes, but to help people. She makes up spells for the crops to grow in Vernallis and healing potions for the soldiers. She saves rodents from wolves, and wolves from wyvern. She’s—” I can’t think of another word, or way to describe what I’m trying to say. “—she’s everything.”
Amora smiles, but also looks sad. “I’m glad Beatrix raised her that way, unfortunately here, kindness will probably get her killed.”
“I know,” I growl. “That’s why I’m here. She doesn’t have to kill anyone, I’ll do it.”
Amora sighs. “Then for all our sakes I hope your friends hurry.”