Chapter 15
Fifteen
The Autumn Throne
Fae of every color lined the room on the floor level.
Whispers spread like wildfire from lips to ears.
Many of the fae were dressed much like Schula and I, which eased my tension, but others were in wild outfits like something from a strange dream.
Tapestries dotted the walls, and chandeliers sparkled overhead like stars.
But nothing I saw in the room commanded more attention than the fae sitting on the golden throne.
Blond, tan skin, tall and muscled. He looked to be perhaps forty or so by human years.
How old a fae had to be to look like that, when Thain still looked barely twenty-five, sent my head spinning.
His presence shifted the air around him, a golden light of power so strong that I had to leash my terror.
His aura was palpable. I had thought Thain was the most powerful fae I would ever encounter.
Thain was still a child compared to him.
The king wore red and orange brocade with golden maple leaves embroidered all over.
His crown was a golden laurel, and a ruby in the shape of a maple leaf shone on his ring finger. An obsidian band sat on each thumb.
Thain, Eberon, and Schula stepped forward and stopped in front of the lower dais. Thain gave me a look that had me join them, and together we bowed. I took the opportunity to wipe my palms on my tunic.
“Thank you for meeting with us, Sire.” Eberon spoke low, but loud enough for the nearby fae to hear.
“If your story rings true, it will be me who owes thanks. Rise.” The fae’s blue eyes flickered to me, then back to Eberon. “Come, come sit. I want to hear everything.”
Thain gently touched my arm and led me to the lower dais, where four chairs had been prepared.
Gold and opulent and topped with a crown of jeweled scrollwork, the chairs held plush brown cushions that made them softer than they first appeared.
We each took a seat, and I was more than aware of the crowded room, all eyes on the dais.
Eberon sat nearest to the king, and I sat between Thain and Schula, all of us to the left of the throne.
“What is wrong with her?” King Baeleon asked.
My throat tightened, and I clenched my jaw. He knows? How?
“I think the issue here is the crowded room.” Eberon inclined his head toward me as he addressed Baeleon. “She grew up among very few people; the crowd is a bit much.”
All the air left my body. He doesn’t know. How would he know? Breathe, before you give yourself away.
“The crowd? That, I can do something about.” The king clapped once, and an orchestra that I hadn’t noticed in the back corner began to play a light tune.
It was merry and fluttered high and low like leaves on the wind.
The roomful of fae dropped their eyes from me and began dancing.
Servers with gold trays burst from the side doors and brought delicacies and drinks around the room, starting with the king, of course.
“There! Now, I have many questions for you.” Baeleon smiled, dimples warming his face.
He seemed likable, for a fae who could probably do incredible things beyond my imagining on a whim.
But there was still a hard edge in his eyes that kept me at the front of my seat, ready to flee.
A primal instinct, I was sure. You probably didn’t keep a fae throne this long by being soft.
“What would you like to know, Sire?” I tried to copy Eberon’s words and movements, and he gave me an encouraging smile.
“Eberon, the fiend, wouldn’t tell me much.” The king leaned back and crossed his outstretched ankles. “I’m told they found you in the mountains south of the Wyldes, but that’s about it.”
“Yes, I lived between a few small villages and homesteads. I was raised by a woodcutter named Bryn. We lived in a cabin he built himself, and cut and dried lumber for coin.” A pang shot my heart. It was dulling with time, but it was still there.
“And you’ve never seen a fae, or anything else of the Wyldes before now?” the king asked.
“No, Sire. Thain was the first. The people of the mountains still have stories of the fae, but I never expected to see one in my lifetime.” I folded my hands in my lap and blushed as Baeleon laughed heartily.
The room around us, still dancing, laughed along with their king. My eyes flicked to Schula, who had an expression that read, Just go along with it, and Thain, who looked more grimly resolved to be in this room than anything else.
“Well, now you’ve seen a great deal more than one of us.” Baeleon’s laughter boomed. “So, you grew up as a human. Did you know you were something from the Wyldes before Thainalan found you?”
“Yes, Sire.” My back itched, and I hoped he couldn’t sense what was on me. “I have always known, everyone around me knew.”
“And you have no knowledge of your parentage?” He took a glass of wine from a servant, who then offered the tray to the rest of us.
“None.” A hand was placed over mine, and I looked over to see Schula giving me an encouraging smile. “As far as I know, I am half human. I have no glamour, and my appearance is completely human.”
“And your ears?” He tilted his head. I could feel Thain stiffen beside me. I’d put my hair in two thick braids that covered my tips easily, but for the king of my friends and saviors, I would reveal my shame.
“My ears may have been the only hint to my lineage, Sire, but they reveal no secrets now.” With fingers numb not from the cool autumn day but from the swirling anxiety of the moment, I began to unravel my braids.
Schula leaned over, helping me gather my hair to the back of my head and block the view from the room as much as she could, but it was too late for that.
Several gasps behind me told me that the dancing courtiers hadn’t completely given up eavesdropping, and I knew just how sharp their sight was to see what I kept under those braids.
When I was done, I tucked the hair behind my ears long enough for the king to take a look.
“Who?” The king leaned forward and slammed a fist on his throne, shattering the wineglass in his other hand as servants scurried to clean up. “Who would do such a thing?”
The scene must have been familiar to the courtiers, because the only one in the whole room who flinched was me. With a deep breath, Schula and I began to re-braid.
“I’m afraid I don’t know. I was found in the woods this way,” I managed, shaking from the power behind the king’s fury but keeping my voice level.
“Are you certain it wasn’t the humans who found you?” he growled.
My fingers curled into fists in my lap, steadying my heart against the slander to my father.
“I would stake my life on it. The one to find me was the one to raise me until the day he died to protect me.” Baeleon didn’t look convinced.
Eyes around the room, advisers at the edge of the dais, and even attendants carrying food and drink all seemed to be waiting for an indication of who to side with.
Their king, surely, but Bryn had not harmed me. Not once, not ever.
“My king, the human who found and raised her died saving her life from raiders,” Thain said quietly. “I witnessed it myself.”
Baeleon eased into his throne again, nodding slowly with approval though still wearing the sour emotion on his face.
“My condolences,” Baeleon said, taking a new glass of wine from a footman. Some in the room behind me cooed their sympathy.
“Thank you.” My breath shook slightly, but my heart calmed enough to smile for the king. A show, this was all a show to entertain and to please. The feeling of being on display was not new to me, but their reactions were wildly different than what I was used to.
“I understand you are hosted by Thainalan. If you wish, I could give you finer rooms in the palace. You would be well cared for while you settle into the Wyldes,” the king offered.
I hesitated, and he seemed to pick up on it.
“Of course, you may stay where you wish.” He inclined his head toward Thain. “The offer, however, will remain open if you ever grow tired of his dreary moods.”
“Thank you, Sire,” I said. I wondered how Thain felt about being called dreary, but I could see how the king, who surrounded himself with courtiers and music, would think that. But unlike the king, a quiet house with Thain and Wairen was most definitely my preference.
“What a strange situation,” Baeleon murmured. “My court finds a youngling who survived the disease, but in turn we must find the youngling a place.”
Shifting on my seat, I looked to Eberon and Schula for any indication of what I was supposed to do here. Was this uncomfortable pause supposed to be filled? By me? Or was Baeleon thinking out loud?
An aged fae, something very tree-like but with the mannerisms I’d grown used to with Eberon, cleared his throat at the bottom of the dais. I’d nearly missed seeing him entirely, but he was on the king’s other side. “Perhaps a council to discuss the matter, Sire?”
Baeleon waved him off. “Bah, my council takes much of my time as it is. And, as much as I detest saying it, this matter is for more than my own attention.” The king’s eyes slid around the room, pausing on a few people scattered about.
Not that I could tell which ones, the room was so constantly moving and there were so many people.
“Tell me.” He turned back to me, and I jumped in my seat. “Have the courts of these lands been explained to you?”
“Yes, some. We traveled through the Summer Lands, and I know there are two more I have not seen.”