Chapter Five
The carriage traversed the treacherous cliffside road, carrying us down, down, down into the kingdom I only knew of in stories and nightmares. Proximity only confirmed what distance revealed.
It was beautiful.
My eyes were as wide as they could go pressed to the glass, and it still wasn’t wide enough to take it all in.
Snow fell in a light angel’s dusting, sprinkling on the sleepy village like sugar on a pastry.
Perilous dark clouds held back the sun, but that didn’t stop them.
Brilliant, softly glowing orblights shone on the frozen streets, reflecting through the ice and making the entire town seem as though it fell into a star.
Traditional Lyrican homes were tall, tightly packed, and bursting with activity.
The complete opposite of the simple stone and wooden retreats spread out before me.
The space between the hut-style homes afforded wide roads for little, skating faeriken—the children’s giggling bounced up the cliff-face.
Behind every home were see-through dome structures.
“Greenhouses,” I whispered.
Once, back when he fancied himself in love with Mama and wanted to pretend to be a gentleman, Gisela and Jaclan’s father invited us to his home to see his greenhouse. I remembered walking through the sea of colors, breathing in the scent of fresh dirt, and thinking one day I would have this.
I’d learn to grow every kind of fruit, vegetable, berry, and tuber that Lyrican soil would produce. Most of it I’d sell in my produce shop, but a significant portion would always be free and available to the poor and struggling in Lyrica. No one in Gutter Galley would go hungry again.
Impossibly, it seemed that dream had already been achieved in the kingdom of Wind and Wild. No one we passed looked like they’d been hungry a day in their lives.
Laughing men and women strolled, skated, and weaved through the streets, wearing a simple but sturdy style of fur-lined tunics, long woolen gowns, and thick boots. The complete opposite of the dazzling finery and shining, prominent coudarian crystals I passed on the main streets of Lyrica.
We passed by the crown jewel of the town—a square just beginning to wake up as people filled it, visiting the merchants, food carts, and a frozen fountain.
A massive, intimidating statue of Shadowsoul glared down at mothers and fathers while they placed their little children in the fountain to skate upon the frozen water.
Those mothers, fathers, merchants, and couples all stopped their business to watch our carriage go by, gifting me a view of cockscombs where hair would be, beaks for noses, leopard fur, and—
I frowned, narrowing on a young fae manning an apple cart. He had neither beak nor fur nor wings. Every bit of him poking out from under his wool cap was normal fae. In fact—
I know him! I tried to speak the words, but they wouldn’t come out.
All the same, the recognition was undeniable, even though I couldn’t recall his name.
That guy was from the Galley. His family signed him up for the war college and he left years before, but I remembered playing marbles with him on the steps of my home the day before he left.
I remembered because he came over specifically to play with me, saying it was his last chance to do so before he was gone.
Mama teased me after—saying he had a crush on me, and maybe one day when we were older, fate would bring us back together again.
“Looks like it has,” I whispered, feeling small before the uncomplicated beauty before me.
No dirty, long-faced children chasing after the carriage, begging for the smallest scrap to be tossed out the window. No noses high in the air. No sneers or avoided eye contact between passersby. Everything before me was the opposite of Lyrica—apart from one.
A huge, decadent castle loomed over us all—its towers and soaring cornices rising higher than the craggy cliffs. The palace of Lyrica was a shining jewel, but this monument before me was an obsidian saber. A strange comparison, but the only one that fit.
There was something sharp and deadly about the pitch-black sandstone, and bronze slats on every window my eyes could see. Light and color attacked the castle, and was soundly beaten and drowned—never taking up the fight again. And yet... it was magnificent.
“What is this?” I croaked. “How can all of this be here? Is it a trick?”
“It is no trick. That is your home,” Alisdair said, speaking of the castle though he did not look at it or me. “This is your kingdom. Your people.”
I swallowed hard. “How did all of this get here? Nothing I ever heard of Wind and Wild said it was... this.”
“What did you expect, Princess? A dirty cave hovel where we ran around naked, bayed at the moon, and picked the blood and bones of fae from our maws?”
I looked him straight in the eyes. “Yes.”
He chuckled. “What a relief this must be for you. The rest of your life will be nothing like the nightmare you imagined.”
I clenched my teeth, hearing the threat loud and clear. “Why did you do this?” The carriage jarred to a stop. “Why bring me here? Why lie? We had a deal. I was going to lie to the king of Lyrica for you. The greatest threat against you and—”
“Ah, but that’s where you failed in your calculations.
” His smirk was a living thing, reaching across the carriage to chase the chill up my spine.
“That old fool is no threat to me. None of you are,” he hissed.
“You waste your time, your coin, and your lives on this silly little war, because it delays your accepting the inevitable—that your unimpeachable lord and master is me.”
He leaped across the divide, trapping a scream in my throat when he slammed his hands on either side of my head—trapping me in.
“Let them come. Let them water the earth with their blood and the soil with their bones.
When all the fighters and the defiant are gone, I will stand above as all you see before you spreads from sea to sea, consuming the faelands.
“Soon, all will be cursed, everyone will be faeriken, and everything will be mine— Oh, excuse me. I meant ours.” My heart curdled in face of his grin.
“The worst part is, my queen, after all you’ve been raised to believe, and hate, now that you’ve seen what I’ve created, a part of you is thinking that might not be so bad. ”
“I— You— No!” I cried, even as shame filled me.
There was a brief and terrible moment when I thought this might be a better life than Lyrica’s.
“Your horrid, lunatic’s rant aside, why didn’t you simply tell me you didn’t care about the heart or ending the war?
Why lie when you were never going to take me home! ”
He shrugged. “Turnabout is fair play, little bird. You lied to me first.”
“I did not—”
His hand flashed, snagging mine from my lap. My jaw cracked in a silent cry as he took the fingers that were inside me, wrapped his lips around, and sucked them clean.
“No blood,” he whispered. “No teeth.” Shadowsoul flicked my nose like a child, further humiliating me. “This is the deadliest game you’ll ever play, Princess. You’ll either need better lies, or better aim.”
“I—”
He climbed out of the carriage—done with the conversation and me.
“Wait. Come back here!” I tumbled out, chasing him down.
This wasn’t over. I was getting back to my family no matter what I had to do. Better lies or better aim? I chose better aim.
“Argh!” I leapt on his back and climbed him like a spider monkey. Hooking around his neck, I squeezed and wrenched—bellowing my war cry. “You’re going to take me back! Now!”
Alisdair didn’t slow his stride. He was as unbothered as the contingent of guards following us over the drawbridge. What were they for? Because protecting Shadowsoul from threats wasn’t it.
“Surrender, beast!” I got my legs over his shoulders and grabbed his horns.
Holding on tight, I squeezed, straining to tear his wretched head off his shoulders.
“One thing I said wasn’t a lie. I vowed to be your nightmare, your poison, the sword in your side.
” I threw myself back, yanking him with me.
The castle doors opened for us, releasing a blast of heat and light.
“You won’t know peace for a single day in your life! While I breathe, I’ll see to it that you don’t! I’ll never—”
Claws seized me and the world spun. “Take this.”
Shadowsoul dropped me and I fell on a hard body. Many hard bodies. They barely caught me and stopped me taking us all down.
“Feed her. Bathe her,” Alisdair barked. “I want her ready for the ceremony within the hour.”
“Yes, my lord,” said a deep, smoky voice.
I burned watching him leave. The way he spoke about me. As though I was already the animal this place would turn me into.
“Are you all right, my queen?” I was set back on my feet, and finally given a chance to gaze upon the line of women waiting to greet us.
One had thick, dark fur poking her pants and sleeves, and large beaver teeth down to her chin.
Beside her was a horse faeriken. With the long muzzle and ears on her crown, she could be nothing but.
On the other side of the woman setting me on my feet was a tiger faeriken. Striped, fuzzy fur and unsettlingly long canines gleamed between her whiskers.
I tried to stop staring at them, and ended up staring at my catcher’s plume of black feathers and slitted eyes. She beamed at me.
“Welcome, Queen Emiana, it is our pleasure— Nay, our honor, to welcome you.”
They bowed low.
“Um, thanks.” I cut a look at the door.
The guards were drawing it closed. Gazing up, I saw the massive, thick slab of wood waiting to slam home on metal hooks, sealing the door, and me in.
“Will you allow me introductions?” she asked.
I turned away to face her. It occurred to me to make a run for it, but I’d breathe fresh air for all of a second before his guards tackled me. There has to be another way out of the castle.