Chapter Fourteen - Rhea
“And what of the human forces amassing along the western veil?” an elder fae male, his face lined with wrinkles and his hair a blue-tinted silver. I’d never seen a fae look as old as this one, and having learned Dante’s age, he must have been ancient indeed.
“Our warriors there will protect the villages on this side,” Aeon said, scratching at the wooden grain of the table between them with the point of his dagger. Horst shot him a look. Aeon flipped the blade, then sheathed it.
“And the human villages being laid siege to?” That was spoken by the only female in the council, a red-haired, bright-blue-eyed female with arms of corded muscle crossed over her chest.
“They are not our concern,” Aeon spat in her direction.
Not of our concern? I asked in Dante’s mind but, in doing so, revealed my eavesdropping. There was a sound in our shared mind space like a long sigh, and then I was pushed outside the black adamant wall.
I pouted as I laid back in bed. These days have stretched on and on with little indication of anything changing. Dante was always being swept away in war council meetings or off fighting in the seemingly more frequent skirmishes along the border of the veil. My plan to win over his affections had been halted, except for the fleeting moments where he allowed me access to his mind. Even those moments are tenuous as he has as much access to my deepest thoughts and feelings as I do to his.
And after our moments together on the hillside, while the sacrificial pyres burned around us, I wasn’t sure I knew what my purpose was anymore.
If he knew who I was and what I was foretold to do, why did he keep me here? Why would he not have killed me the moment he learned of my mark by the River Kine?
Instead, he’s granted me more and more freedom.
As if summoned, a note suddenly appeared with a flash of fiery light on my chest of drawers. I jumped up, startled. Throwing the covers off of myself and stepping carefully to the note, I picked it up.
Come to the lower gardens. I’ve something for you.
I frowned at the letter and the theatrics of it. He could have easily sent this invitation directly to my mind. But perhaps that would have betrayed the surprise.
I dressed in a hurry, softly cursing myself for the excited pattering of my heart in my chest. How far I’d come from the sly temptress in the tavern who would only love a man for a night and never more. Now, just the thought that Dante might want to see me for a stolen moment had me running through the halls to get to him faster.
Mara’s token around my neck was particularly warm this morning, and the thought only served to drive me faster through the streets of the city. I was a bit surprised as I walked through the cobblestone streets to find I recognized some of the fae faces I passed and even more surprised to find some of them friendly.
Gathering my skirts in my hand and briefly trying to recall the last time I’d worn my fighting leathers, I made the climb up the stone stairs that lead to the lower gardens. Finally, at the crest of the hill that overlooked the maze of shrubbery below, I saw them.
Dante stood on the ridge overlooking the grassy fields below, his hand gently patting the side of a horse, a roan. I stumbled a step as I neared them. I knew that roan.
A whimper broke from my lips as Neera raised and lowered her head towards me with a low knicker. My arms were around her neck in the next second.
Neera was more than a mount to me. She had been mine all throughout my training at the citadel. The only moments in my life when I had truly known freedom had been the fleeting moments I’d had on Neera’s back, the wind pulling at my hair and the world before us.
“Where did you find her?” I asked, though my words were muffled in the hair of Neera’s mane.
“A war party came across her in some fields near the entrance through the veil. It seems she must have followed your scent there, but the magic confused her.”
My heart melted at the thought of her trying to find me and the kindness of Dante for bringing her to me. I looked up to find him smiling. That rare, beautiful curve of his mouth was the most wonderful thing I’d ever seen.
“Thank you,” I said, wishing I could find better words to convey the depths of my appreciation.
“It’s my pleasure to reunite you both.”
“Come for a ride with us?” I asked, bobbing up and down with the excitement the thought of a ride brought.
“Not today,” he said, still softly smiling. “The stable hands will help you to care for her. And I’m sure Kiya would be willing to join you. But I have councils to attend.”
“You and your war councils. Don’t you ever take a break? What’s the point of owning a slave if you never use her?” I flashed him a smile and tried to keep the blush from rising in my cheeks.
Dante stepped closer, letting Neera nuzzle his shoulder as he put a hand on her neck. He turned to me with a grin that Nyx himself would envy. “Oh, I fully plan on using you, but first, you’ll need to learn patience.”
Before I could answer, he turned on a heel and strode away, back towards the city and his manor, leaving me on the hillside with Neera.
“This way!” Kiya shouted over her shoulder as the pitch-black stallion she road jumped a stream with ease.
A bright, easy laugh escaped my lungs as Neera ran on after her. I’d never expected the female who had become my friend to be such a wild rider. She had practically bounced with excitement when I’d asked her to come for this ride with me, and now I could see why. I’d never seen someone so home on the back of a horse.
We rode along the ridge of a hill that ran parallel to the forest to our right. Rocky outcroppings and tall, waving wildflowers dotted the trail we followed, but our horses were sure-footed and unafraid. The sweet, chilled air blew the hair back from my face and stung my cheeks. I wore my leathers for the first time in what felt like ages, and I finally felt like me.
Kiya turned her mount sharply off the trail, and I followed her with a shout to Neera below me. She was feeling just as unfettered as I was in this moment, and she tossed her head back to bellow her joy to the sky.
I patted her neck as Kiya slowed, leading us carefully through the scraggly bushes that grew here. We both stopped as we came to a rushing, icy blue stream. It must have flowed directly from the glaciers that lined the mountains around us, as the water was as pure and clear as any I’d seen.
We dismounted and let the horses drink, giggling and holding onto each other as our legs wobbled beneath us from the strain of the ride.
“You’re wonderful!” I breathed, trying to catch my breath in between words. “I’ve never seen someone ride like you do.”
Kiya knelt down by the stream, a smile crinkling the edges of her amber eyes and forehead. “You are not bad yourself, for a human at least.”
I snorted a laugh and splashed some of the cold water of the stream at her. She yelped a laugh, holding up her hands in surrender.
We caught our breath as the horses drank deeply, taking in the sounds of the rushing water and singing birds around us. The sun was warm on my face as I leaned back and soaked it in. I wished we could stay like this, in this exact moment, forever.
I could feel Dante watching from the corner of my mind and the quiet joy he felt as he took in my own contentment. The feeling passed back and forth between us, building to a warm glow in my chest.
“There’s an old wives’ tale about this place, you know,” Kiya said, lounging on a rock and running her fingertips through the stream.
“Oh?” I propped myself on an elbow in the mossy patch of ground between rocks and watched her. “And what do the old wives have to say about it?”
“They say whoever can plunge their face in the icy water for the entirety of the Lover’s Woe would be gifted with eternal beauty.”
“What’s the Lover’s Woe?”
“A sad song telling the story of two lovers who were cursed to always circle each other but never embrace.”
I sat up, intrigued by the story. “And has anyone ever tried it?”
Kiya batted her long eyelashes at me and pressed the back of her hand to her cheek demurely. “At least one person, obviously.”
I laughed and stood, tying my hair back with a bit of string I kept around my wrist. “Well, I can’t let you be the only eternal beauty, now, can I?”
Kiya smiled and beckoned me to the rock she lay on. I knelt beside her, then laid on my stomach, looking down at the rushing water a few inches below. “Will you sing for me, Kiya?”
“Of course,” she smiled, then began to sing.
By fate we met, by chance we stayed,
Two hearts conjoined in every way.
Her voice was enchanting, and it took her waving her hand for me to turn back to the icy water. Closing my eyes, I plunged my face beneath the current. The cold of it sent what breath I’d held immediately from my lungs, and I struggled to remain submerged.
From the surface, Kiya’s distorted voice continued.
One lonely dark soul shared by two,
Everything I want, I've found in you.
From the icy depths of the river, something changed. There was a difference in the water now as it ran across my freezing face, a pulse that was alive.
But fate at times is quite unfair,
For I am here, and you are there.
I threw open my eyes as the feeling became unbearable to find myself face-to-face with the disfigured maw of a black horse. Its mouth opened to reveal rows and rows of sharp, pointed teeth.
My breath blew out in a scream that was swallowed by the river as I threw myself backwards onto the rock. Kiya fell over as I stumbled into her, but I had no time to worry about her well-being as the creature began to emerge from the water.
I knew it immediately from my studies at the citadel, its black body in the shape of a horse, yet the tail of some kind of aquatic creature. And its mouth, full of teeth and full of hate. It was a kelpie.
Throwing myself to my feet, I grabbed Kiya by the shoulder and pulled her away from the fae beast as it crawled up onto the rock, snarling and gnashing its teeth. From its ruined mouth came a chattering, muttered sound. Fear rose in my heart as I realized it was singing, singing the song that Kiya had sung.
So close to each other and yet apart,
But you alone hold the key to my heart.
“Oh no,” Kiya breathed. Not a second later, the beast lunged for us.
My training kicked in that very instant. I threw Kiya out of harm's way and angled my shoulder into the throat of the rushing beast. It made a strangled noise as its windpipe hit my shoulder painfully.
I grunted and rolled away from it, grabbing a sharp stone as I found my feet. I shouted and held the stone above my head as the monster turned to attack again.
But both of us were stayed as Kiya screamed, “No!”
The kelpie turned towards my friend, gnashing its jaws together and muttering more mangled lines of the Lover’s Woe. I stepped towards them, but Kiya held up a hand to me.
The creature slowed as Kiya hit her knees. It walked cautiously towards her, dragging its tail behind it across the rocky shore.
My hand holding the stone slowly fell to my side as Kiya began to speak.
“There, love, there. Easy, now.”
The kelpie stopped, shuddering and tilting its head at her as if trying to understand her speech. “Remember the face of your mother.” Kiya reached out her hand slowly and stroked the side of the monster’s face. “Remember her eyes. Remember the things she taught you.”
The kelpie’s body thrashed, but its head remained still, cradled by Kiya’s hand.
“That’s it. Remember the color of the sunrise over the Blue Mountains, remember the taste of freshly baked bread.”
The kelpie’s body began to shiver and shake, and foam dripped from the side of its mouth. A single tear fell from Kiya’s eye.
“Remember,” she said one last time, letting her hand fall from the kelpie’s head as it was thrown back towards the sky with a heart-wrenching scream. Steam rose from its eyes and mouth and poured from its nostrils. My hands shook at my sides as the body of the beast began to shrink, steam becoming a thick white cloud around it until it couldn’t be seen at all.
Kiya stepped surely into the cloud and bent over the beast’s body. When she stood, she held a small fae child in her arms.
I sucked in a breath, my hand covering my mouth as tears pooled in my eyes.
“It’s just a little girl,” I said. “But how?”
Kiya wrapped the girl in her riding cloak and placed it on her stallion. She sat, head drooped and red hair covering her face, as if in a trance.
“It was a beast! It wanted to kill us. I don’t understand.”
Kiya turned to me, all the humor and joy of the day gone from her eyes as she looked me over carefully. “All fae have a second skin. When we are at our basest, we are only beasts. It is harder for children to find the path back to themselves.”
Nausea rose in me, and I held onto Neera’s neck to keep from fainting. How could this be true? Fae beasts were just that, beasts. They were mindless animals bent on killing. That was what I had known my whole life, that was how I had treated them.
How many of the beasts that had tasted the bite of my sword had been lost children, scared and trapped in the body of a monster?
“We need to get her home,” Kiya said, and I saw she had mounted her stallion behind the girl. “Come on.”
I took a long, shuddering breath, then nodded. All I could do now was move forward, even when this new knowledge threatened to drag me down into the pits of despair and self-loathing.
“Rhea,” Kiya said sharply, drawing me out of my dark thoughts. “You didn’t know.”
“I—I killed them…”
“You did your best with what knowledge you had. Now that you know better, you must do better.”
The words struck me to my core, and I nodded. With more effort than it should have taken, I mounted Neera and followed Kiya as she rode away from the river.
What happened next came in blurs and sensations, my mind was so far from reality.
We came to a village, and the girl’s parents took her from us, weeping and praising us for our goodness. They offered us braided bracelets that they said would protect us from evil.
They convinced us to stay for dinner, and the father played a strange-sounding instrument while others danced in the warm glow of the fire in the hearth. It was beautiful.
But as the room was alight with music and laughter, as the food warmed my stomach and the sight of the girl in her mother’s arms warmed my soul, there was still an unshakeable coldness in my bones.
Was this really such an evil place as I’d come to believe, or was there a layer below the horror I’d been shown? Like the girl beneath the kelpie, was there more to be learned here? And if so, was it really my place to choose which kingdom burns to the ground and which goes on in its depravity?
Either way, there would be no escaping what I must do. There was no hiding from prophecy. What the oracle spoke came true, without exception. Even if this world were to become my home, I would still be the one to burn it to the ground.
Then, what would become of Dante once his power was spent? The thought made my stomach tighten painfully. The High Priest had told me about the danger and allure of fae males, about how they could make a woman’s body and mind betray her. Perhaps that was all these budding feelings for the dark prince of the fae were.
A tug came at the sleeve of my leathers, and the girl, the kelpie that was, looked up at me. She smiled softly and tugged at me again, pulling me towards the dance floor.
I allowed her to pull me up and did my best to smile as she laughed and I spun her in circles. I could not let my heart be swayed. I must gain control of the weapon.
I could not afford to lose my heart or my head in the process.