Chapter 8 #3
The fae measured years differently to humans, and I had no clue what year it was in their calendar.
At least I could read the entries.
I pulled another book from the middle shelf, flipped it open and frowned.
Or maybe not.
The writing didn’t shift to English. Ancient fae.
I put that one back on the shelf and opened another, which was written in the modern fae language.
I checked the one next to it, and it was written in the ancient tongue.
I was going to need lessons if I wanted to read some of these books.
I turned in a slow circle, taking in how many there were, and grimaced as I spied a corridor opposite me.
One that looked as if it led into another room that was as large as this one. How big was this library?
How long would it take me to find out what had happened to Kaeleron’s brother?
Not long. I lied to myself. I could do this.
I would study ancient fae, in case the books dated around the time Kaeleron’s parents had been murdered and his brother abducted were old enough that they were written in that language, and while I was studying it, I would read the books I could understand.
Somewhere in here, there was a clue to what had happened, and I would find it.
I would give Kaeleron the closure he needed, even if I obeyed his wishes and didn’t give him vengeance.
I grabbed several books, carried them to the most comfortable looking armchair, one that had a small side table with a lamp on it, and then went back for more.
I opened a thinner book that had a beautiful design of mountains, lakes and starry sky on the cover in gold.
The pictures inside it were lush and stunning, drawings of nature that had been carefully inked and looked old, yellowing in places and worn in others.
I flipped back to the first page.
A history of the seelie.
It sounded like a good place to begin.
I carried it with me, turning pages as I walked, eyes darting over the different paintings that filled them. One was of a beautiful pale mountain, with a glittering lake that seemed to shimmer on the page. Another was of a crumbling tower and an ethereal female with hair the colour of stars.
My fingers skimmed down the page as I sank into the armchair, tucking my feet beneath my backside.
“One morning, the Great Mother sat upon the Star Rise.” It was about Lucia.
About this land. The goddess both the seelie and the unseelie seemed to adore so much.
“Wandering the lands of her creation the previous day, she had watched an elkyn with its fawn, admiring the bond between them as the mother had nurtured its young, and she ached with a need for a child of her own. So she sat upon the Star Rise, the highest mountain in her lands, and she cut a sliver from her heart, which she then severed in two.”
I turned the page, finding a depiction of two volcanoes, one on each page, both of them different.
“One piece she placed in the fiery Forge in the shadows of her land.”
The shadows.
The unseelie side.
“And from it were born the unseelie, and she painted their fingers with black ash, marking their skin with her ancient tongue, and raised them in her palms as an offering to the moon, which the babe held in its marked fingers, tying them to the earth and sky.”
I thought about how Kaeleron had pulled those stars from the sky for me at the ball, how he had drawn them all to him, so powerful that they couldn’t deny him.
I looked at the second page.
“The other piece, she carried to the west of her lands, and placed into the Hearth of Aurien, and the heart devoured the strength and light of that volcano until it was dormant and worn down into a flat green land by the tears of the babe she wove of its life’s blood and flesh made of the golden rays of the sun. ”
Aurien.
The seat of the seelie high king.
“She carried the squalling babe across the sea that turned tempestuous in its wake and bathed the salt from it with Starlight near Star Rise, blessing the babe with the waters that marked its flesh with the silver of the stars on its crown and the gold of the sun on its fingers in her ancient tongue to protect them.” I flipped the page.
“And she sung to it a song of light and life, of green mountains and eternal springs, breathing the land into their bones and raising them in her hands as an offering to the sun, which the babe held in its marked fingers, tying them to earth and the sky.”
So the seelie and unseelie had been born of the same piece of the Great Mother’s heart.
They weren’t as different as I had imagined then.
They were siblings in a way.
One born in the light and the other in the shadows.
“You know, the library is a quiet place and quite disconnected from the rest of the castle since only royals are allowed to use it.” Meiryn swept into the room, her platinum hair loose around her shoulders except for two long braids that hung in front of her pointed ears.
Her cerulean eyes were serious as I met her gaze.
“Therefore, it’s a dangerous place to be alone. ”
I was tempted to reach for the dagger I had set down on the small table beside me.
I was doubly tempted when she continued.
“Don’t let Lorien see you here. The goddess only knows what he would do, but it would not be pretty.
” Her golden dress reflected the bright sunlight coming from behind me as she walked towards me, her pale eyebrows pinching as she peered at the book on my lap.
She stopped beside me and angled her head to see it. “Are you reading a children’s book?”
“Am I?” I blinked. The beautiful pictures made sense now though. Images designed to entertain the eye of a young child while the parent read the story to them. I shrugged it off. “I didn’t know the story of Lucia and how the seelie and unseelie came to be… so I wanted to read it.”
Meiryn sank into the armchair on the other side of the small table, sighing as she slumped in it, and then frowned at me.
“I suppose a wolven wouldn’t really know about the fae or our legends, so perhaps it is a good place to start.
I admit, I’m quite surprised that you can read it and can speak our tongue. ”
“I can’t,” I blurted, sure she knew that already and not ashamed to admit it.
Her smile said she had known it.
“Sylvan mentioned you had been bespelled to understand the language.” She picked at the fabric arm of her seat and I braced myself, sure that she would mention Kaeleron.
I hadn’t considered they might find it strange that he had bothered to cast that spell on me so I could understand him and speak with others.
I had told Sylvan that Kaeleron had treated me like a servant, and that I had carried out his orders in exchange for reducing my debt and gaining my freedom.
It was plausible that he might have bespelled me so I could understand his orders. If she asked, I would tell her that.
Only she didn’t ask.
She just sat there watching me.
My gaze drifted to the books on the shelves I hadn’t been able to read.
“I saw a few books that looked interesting, but I can’t read those, so I figured I would start with these instead.
I might need to ask Sylvan about a tutor so I can learn that tongue and the fae one.
I’m sure this spell will wear off soon and I don’t want to be stuck here unable to speak with anyone. ”