The Umbrelai
AXAR
Korakar, Morrath
Morrath did not appear on most maps. It lay beyond the Blind Gate, spoken of rarely and never without reason. Each province ruled by its own king or queen. Its gates opened only for feeders.
Axar, King of Korakar, was tired.
Disputes since morning. Territories. Pit allocations.
Now the Slurvini again. Their queen Selana stood before him accusing his farmers of breaching her territory.
Selana had only recently come into power and no one had educated her on Korakar's allies.
The Umbrelai lived below the surface, their princess easily offended, their whisperers everywhere.
They were not something anyone wished to provoke.
"Your farmers must be punished. I want to see their bodies hanging by nightfall. Do not be a bastard, Axar," Selana sneered.
A small, high-pitched voice cut through the hall before he could respond. “The only bastard in this room is you, Selana. The great pretender of the Slurvini.”
The room shifted. Every head turned, searching for the body that matched the voice and finding nothing.
Then the cold came. Shadows thickened and pressed inward until the Korakar sigils overhead began to dim. A seam of orange split the floor to ceiling. The shadows peeled open like something that had been waiting for permission.
A small figure stepped through as though the world had simply been slow to acknowledge her.
The princess of Umbrelai.
Her hair was a storm of indigo and deep red, wild and whipping around her face.
The blindfold across her eyes pulsed with the same colors, breathing with the rhythm of the Umbrelai itself.
She crossed her arms, lifted her chin, and pouted.
Then she extended one small finger and pointed it directly at the Slurvini in the room.
They reacted immediately. Bones twisted beneath skin, second faces forming as several moved toward her. Axar concealed his amusement. They had no idea what they were walking toward.
They never reached her. The floor cracked open and nine Umbrelai sentinels surged upward. Flag landed first, driving into a kneel hard enough to splinter the ground. Three heads swiveled. One found Axar's eyes and held them. They had fought beside each other once. There was no bad blood.
“Who dares move against Her Highness?”
His voice came from somewhere below the floor. The Slurvinis froze mid-shift, held by something they could not name.
Aviaryn did not uncross her arms. She did not lower her finger.
“You have offended me,” she said. “Aviaryn. Ruler of the Umbrelai. Mistress of Nightmares and Goodbyes.”
The hall went quiet except for the low confused hum of the Slurvini.
Axar watched with genuine interest. The princess had always had a gift for theater. This was looking to be one of her better performances.
The Slurvini hum rose again. More began to shift, hair tearing aside, jaws locking into place, a ring of half-changed bodies forming around her. Flag’s nearest head snapped toward the rafters.
Aviaryn reached up and untied her blindfold. She slipped it free in one smooth motion. Her eyes were a deep red, the pupils gold. She let them move across every being in the room, unhurried, taking each one in.
Then she whispered, “Aviora.”
The darkness that followed was not simply the absence of light. It pressed into every corner, swallowing the torches whole. The sigils on the ceiling flickered and died. Axar could feel the fear at the Slurvini table from across the room and found it deeply satisfying.
The chantresses began, their voices layered and eerie, older than the hall itself. Umbrelai creatures moved through the dark. Behind the princess, Deep spread her wings, eyes burning deep purple. Lethal and efficient. Axar had always respected her.
Aviaryn lifted her face toward the shadowed ceiling. “Kingdom of Umbrelai, hear me clearly. I am upset.”
Deep spread her wings wider. “What displeases you, Highness?"
Aviaryn nodded before speaking again. "I was on my way to plant my whisperers when I was disturbed by the Slurvini accosting my ally."
"There was no accosting—”
"It is rude to interrupt, Selana," Aviaryn said, quite pointedly not using Selana's title. She stared at Selana. “You mistake noise for power. It is not. Now be patient, I will punish you in a moment."
Aviaryn sighed, then continued. "Umbrelai, you must find the information I seek. The wards hold. For now. We listen for what wishes not to be found. Check every province. Every kingdom. Every village. When you are done, listen at the edges.”
King Axar raised an eyebrow. Even for the Umbrelai, this was ambitious.
"Anyone who stands in your way may be removed," she said with a soft giggle.
Flag bowed all three heads at once. “Yes, Princess.” Then he broke into a grin that showed every fang, because this was his favorite part and he did not bother pretending otherwise.
She said the words that made even the shadows listen.
“Kiss the sky.”
The floor erupted. Hundreds of Umbrelai creatures shot upward in streaks of shadow and crimson light. Thunder answered outside. Deep roared and followed, and the chantresses sang triumphant over all of it.
Aviaryn turned toward the Slurvini.
"Now," she said quietly. "You dared move against Korakar, Slurvini." She pulled a sweet out of her pocket and put it in her mouth. "That was not nice."
Selana's face went pale.
The princess paused, then sighed again. She twirled a strand of hair in her hand, clearly ready to continue with her lecture.
Flag’s eyes found Axar’s for an instant, and Axar let his face say what he needed it to say. Let’s move this along.
Flag understood immediately. “Princess, the creatures must prepare to find the key you seek.”
Aviaryn sighed. “Fine.” She turned back to the Slurvini, who looked more confused than afraid, which told Axar everything.
She smiled at them sweetly. “You should be nicer to us in the future.”
Then, “Goodbye.”
She lifted two fingers to her mouth and blew a single kiss across the room. The Slurvini dissolved into black smoke without sound or trace, leaving only Selana and the fading echo of what they had been.
Selana gasped.
Aviaryn turned to her with a small frown. “You were not nice to King Axar. And I like him. He gives me cakes.”
Axar kept his face blank.
Flag turned one of his heads toward her. “Princess, I would advise a Goodbye for her as well. She—”
Aviaryn waved him off. “Oh Flag, you are not being fun. Nightmares will make me giggle.”
Selana pressed herself back toward the wall.
Aviaryn raised her hand again and blew a soft breath of gray mist across the room. “Nightmares for you, false queen," she said, sticking out her tongue.
It was immediate. Selana dropped to the floor, screaming into something only she could see, trapped in whatever Aviaryn had given her, cycling through it without end.
Aviaryn looked to Axar for approval. He gave her a small nod. She had chosen nightmares instead of something permanent, which meant Korakar would still have access to Selana when they needed her. For Aviaryn, it was remarkable restraint.
She turned to him properly. "King Axar. I am displeased with our current circumstances. We Umbrelai enjoy containment. Not imprisonment."
"The pits have been plentiful, Highness," he replied.
"Yes. But King Sevrin controls our people. He can use them whenever he chooses." A pause. "The queen and I are looking for something. And when we find it, I think I shall like to eat fresh food. Humans I find enticing rather than those simply provided by the pit."
Wings swept down from above. A woman with human features and great dark wings regarded them both with cold precision. "King Axar. Princess Aviaryn."
Both bowed.
"How fares Umbrelai?" the Sentinel asked.
"It has been several years since we came to power," Aviaryn said. "And Umbrelai continues to treat me with the respect a powerful savior deserves." She smiled brightly.
The Sentinel inclined her head. Flag stepped forward. "Princess, the matters of state."
Aviaryn slipped back into the dark and was gone. Flag bowed deeply and sank back through the stone.
Axar turned to the Sentinel, pouring blood into his goblet. "How fares your master?"
"He is well. Better than his father."
"That may be true. But he is still a Rathmor. And that cannot be forgiven." He paused. "The princess of Umbrelai may be useful."
The Sentinel nodded. "She may."
He laughed. "She thinks she needs to recruit us to her cause."
"I admire her spunk," the Sentinel said.
"The ability to think one is entitled to something that is not theirs is not spunk," Axar said dryly. "It is power."