Chapter 11
VALANCE
It didn’t take long for a human to arrive on the bridge. A woman of dark brown skin dressed in white furs, boots clicking on the stone as she approached.
She seemed rather shocked to be out here.
“And who might you be?” I asked as she stopped beside the troll.
“I speak for Lord Cullen, Your Majesty.” She bowed her head respectfully.
“But do you have a name?” I countered.
“Shea. Human servant to his most gracious lord.”
“Very good, Shea. Now speak for your lord.”
She cleared her throat, straightened her spine. “My master requests your presence immediately, without delay and without the need for a bone toll.”
Lord Cullen knew I’d take his precious roses from him permanently if he refused me.
The troll grunted, stepping aside.
“I’m pleased to see his lordship is amiable.”
Shea licked her lips. “Please follow me, Your Majesty.”
“Thank you.”
Take down this mountain. Show this giant there is only one here to be feared, to make such requests.
Only one true power…
Tempting, yet not an action I wanted to take. Yet. Winning the giants over naturally would win more hearts than hate. I wanted hearts.
Hearts in my palms, blood running down my arms as they beat their last…
You should…
Take them all…
Make them scream.
I silenced my inner fury, that seductive voice, and crossed the bridge, following Shea with Orla and Eoghan behind me, Brigid floating beside me. The heat of Winter Fire was a pleasant relief from the cold.
“I’m so glad to be here,” the old woman said. “This is it, a key moment in the way forward for you, Your Majesty. You will see.”
“Indeed,” I said, glancing back at the troll. He watched us leave, silent with confusion on his face.
Poor thing. The rules he held so close were now upside down. He would have to get used to more of it from this moment on. At least as far as I was concerned. These old rules and laws were nothing but dusty and irrelevant.
We followed a rocky path cutting through the mountains, a slow trek behind Shea.
She kept her head facing forward, never looking back, never saying anything to me.
So, I took in the steep slopes either side of me, terrifyingly high, unnerving in their closeness.
The path was narrow, only wide enough for two to walk side by side.
Orla flanked me, Eoghan behind me. Of course, there was room for Brigid to float close to my left shoulder.
Silence, only the wind and the occasional tumbling of small rocks down the slopes.
It was warm here due to Winter Fire, not much snow on either side of this valley.
I felt through the ground with my magic, finding an offshoot spring running beneath us from the main river, bubbling upward into the mountains, flowing in the direction we were headed.
Eventually, the valley opened into a vast expanse of land ringed with mountains. I barely saw the furthest ones in the distance, so many miles away. But those towering above me were the highest I’d ever witnessed in all my years.
“By Danu…” I breathed.
And they weren’t the only mountains here.
“The giants, Your Majesty,” Brigid spoke softly, nervousness in her tone.
At a guess, I would suggest these men and women stood at around twenty feet in height, maybe even taller than that.
Honestly, I had no idea. They were huge, came in various skin colors, all of them hairy, every single specimen carved from intimidating muscle with enormous hands and strong jawlines.
No clothing, their bodies completely exposed to the elements.
The hair must provide some insulation, though there were so many bubbling Winter Fire springs around, releasing steam and warmth, I considered stripping off myself.
This must be the warmest place in Winter, feeling much like a day in Summer.
I removed my cloak, the heat too much for my thick clothing. “Incredible.”
My eyes discovered more of this place. Lush patches of green, flower beds, and areas for growing crops, animals grazing in other parts, ringed in by fences.
Trees with fruit, humans bathing in the springs, more trolls, mud huts with straw roofs for the smaller folk, huge cave entrances fit for a giant to stomp through.
A gathering of life, a functioning society cut off from the rest of Winter.
That society paused, all eyes on us strangers standing at the top of a sloping path.
I smiled.
A giant approached, the ground shaking as he walked. Copper-skinned with magnificent silver hair and a thick beard to match, his enormous cock and balls swinging, he came to a stop before the path, looming over me. His amber eyes were menacing slits, an angry pink scar under his right eye.
“Lord Cullen, I presume,” I opened pleasantly.
He opened his mouth, a hot wind rushing out of it. By Danu, his teeth were extraordinary and incredibly white.
“The new king of Winter,” he said.
His voice boomed, assaulting my ears. I winced, gritting my teeth in response.
“A pleasure to meet you,” I responded, craning my neck.
“The king who took my roses.”
“In order to get your attention,” I replied. “And I returned those roses to you in the first place.”
A rumble, a growl. “I suppose you did. You have my thanks and my plea to give them back.”
“When I’m ready, I will.”
“Why are you here, Your Majesty? To flaunt your power? To make threats?”
“I’m here to speak with you.” My neck began to ache from looking up.
“Why?”
“I want you to join me in my war against my enemies.”
“That’s your business, King. Not mine.”
What a miserable creature. “Oh, but it is the business of Faerie’s that Lord Florent and Lasair are stopped. They cannot be king and queen, and they cannot be allowed to rule this realm.”
“But you can?”
“Yes. I can.”
He turned his massive head to look at a nearby, fair-skinned female giant.
“You’re sore you lost your turn to inherit the Faerie Throne.
” He faced me again. “The politics beyond Winter do not interest me, Your Majesty. We have lived a long time away from such poison, survived the curse that broke most of this continent.”
“But Winter is part of Faerie,” I said. “And so are you, My Lord. They will attack here. They will want complete dominance over every land, over every sea. Times are changing. You must understand that.”
A sigh, a blast of wind from his mouth, whipping up my hair.
“We don’t want war,” he said.
“But war is coming.”
His bushy eyebrows knitted together. “And you took away the roses to illustrate your point? Follow you, or you will take more?”
My neck couldn’t take anymore. I rolled it, along with my shoulders, then summoned the rocks beneath me. They cracked and trembled, bending to my will. Came out of the earth as a platform, rising until I stood eye-level with the giant lord.
“Much better,” I said.
He backed away a few steps, the female giant coming closer.
“What did you do?” she asked, her green eyes taking in every inch of the new rocky structure I’d built.
“My neck hurt,” I answered, rubbing the back of it.
“You summoned the earth to do that?” she added.
“I did. What’s your name?”
“Lady Fia. Wife of Lord Cullen.”
“King Valance Rosestar.” I bowed to her.
I then bowed to her husband. “I have not come here to threaten you but to ask you to join me. Because war is coming, whether you want to admit it or not. You will have to fight for this lovely haven, for your place in the world. Spring has acquired terrible power of iron fire.”
“A terrible thought,” Lady Fia said.
“A terrible truth,” I answered. “The toxicity of iron will kill everything.”
Lord Cullen growled. “And what about your new power?”
What a tenacious giant. “It can do many terrible things and many good things. I only wish to use it to end the impending madness and give Winter life.”
Do you?
Burn it all. Scorched Faerie and dead seas. Nothing left. Leave no life. Deny it, be the antagonist of every heartbeat.
“But you wanted to show off,” Lord Cullen retorted.
“By giving and taking, which to me is a sign of a heavy lust for power.” He shook his head.
“We’ve enjoyed years without a Tuatha monarch such as those beside you.
They always presented problems, wanted to rule us with iron fists, to build settlements here.
Desecrate this land. So much blood has been spilled, so much war has stained the south.
” Another growl down at the former fae king and queen.
“This is the beginning of history repeating itself. We will lose in the end, though. Because of your greater magic. You will want to take and take and take, unable to stomach our self-governance when your power finally rots you to the core.”
If you live to see any of those things…
“I understand you are king,” he continued, “what you have done by pouring life back into Winter. But that doesn’t entice me to bend the knee. It doesn’t change anything. It simply makes you more dangerous.”
Then I will force your fucking knees to the ground before I take your head! “Is there anything I can do to convince you that the bloody history will remain in the past?”
“No.”
“A very certain answer.”
“The hurt runs too deep.”
“I’m sorry.”
He looked to Lady Fia. They linked their giant hands.
How sweet.
“If war is coming here, we will fight,” Lord Cullen said. “But only if it threatens us.”
“It will, in time.”
“Can’t you destroy it with a snap of your finger?” Lady Fia wondered.
I shook my head. “I can do significant damage with my magic, but I need help. Winter must unite. Do you not want revenge for being a forgotten realm, even if you survived the curse?”
I already knew how Lord Cullen would answer.
“We have no loyalty to anywhere beyond these mountains,” he said.
“I see.”
And so, I searched for something to use.
This far-reaching expanse held many whispers, many bones, much blood seeped into the soil.
The long-dead, giants and humans, animals and trolls, even one or two darklings.
Slaughtered in battle by Tuatha, armies of the former kings and queens.
A terrible betrayal against one’s own kind.
I understood the hurt, the resistance. I would feel the same.
I did feel the same after my own family abandoned me, from my grandmother to my cousins, all turning to the other side, not a single one of them jumping to my defense.
Even my late father wanted me dead before I… before I killed him.
I licked my lips, seeing beyond, prying deeper. Should life pour deeper into this warm earth, the long-dead would return. I could call upon the fallen to be a gift for these giants. That would help my cause.
Wait…
What was that? What were those bones even bigger than a giant’s? I closed my eyes, my blood humming as it reached the skeleton.
Tail.
Wings.
Talons.
Jaws so mighty they could bite Lord Cullen’s head off with one snap.
Dragon…
Ancient beast, lost to a time when Faerie was young, the four continents still joined as one. A land of fire and smoke, of savage beasts, of wild fae and violent storms and earthquakes. A simpler time of basic savagery. No politics, no complex power plays. Only blood and death and sex.
Above the world, dragons dominated the skies. Nested in these mountains, died here, battled here.
Now was the time for their return.