13
Jay
Grey popped into existence at the same time I appeared alongside his son at yet another location along the magical border wall between Valencia and Alancia. Despite still being summer, there was a cool crispness in the air of the woods because we were so far north.
“How many is this?” Grey asked. The King wore a simple, forest green tunic and dark pants. He rolled up the sleeves of his tunic to his elbows despite the coolness around us.
“Five,” I responded. “Today.”
It was the fifth location we had viewed that day that had signs of deterioration. The border wall itself was invisible and the only way to know it was there was to look directly at it. In a healthy condition, the magical border wall functioned as a mirror. Upon approaching the wall, all that could be seen would be a reflection. However, as I peered at the wall I did not see the reflection of the woods behind me. Instead, through a hole big enough to fit about one man, I saw a section of the forest where the woods continued. I spotted a creek in the distance.
It was difficult to believe that it had been twenty-three years since I had seen what was on the other side of that wall; twenty-three years since my southern brethren and I had been separated from our northern counterparts.
“Just like the others, it’s not a complete hole through the wall. Not yet. No one has gotten through it,” Grey said, almost as if reassuring himself. “But if I don’t fix it, it could get worse and it is conceivable that someone could get through it.”
The King’s son, Nik, stood nearby, his hands in his pockets. He craned his neck, peering at the small opening, and something that looked like the crest of a wave peeked over the high collar of his dark emerald-green button-down. His dark brows furrowed and then turned his back on the wall, pacing in the opposite direction.
“Do you—” I began to ask my friend if he felt up to addressing the hole.
Like everyone’s powers, the King’s powers had diminished over the years, and he had already tapped into his magic to heal the four other weaknesses we had found that day.
“I have enough magic for this. You’re nearly as bad as a mother hen, Jay,” the King retorted.
I backed away, hands up, conceding the area to my friend, choosing not to comment on the sweat I saw beading on his brow despite the bite of coolness to the air.
Nik approached us, his hands no longer in his pockets, his brow no longer furrowed. There was an intensity that brewed in the younger lord’s deep green eyes. Broad shouldered, he was bigger and more muscular than either me or his father, partially due to his mixed fae heritage but more so a result of the hours I knew he spent each day training and throwing around weights the size of large boulders.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Nik said, like he was continuing a debate we had all just pressed paused on.
Nik had kept his thoughts to himself the first four times we’d gone through this process that day, his father expending his magic, getting paler with each effort. But it was clear that he wouldn’t remain silent any longer.
“Nik,” I cautioned the Prince, trying to head off an argument between the King and his son.
The two were so often at loggerheads these days.
“Our magic wasn’t strong enough to win the last war back then, and with our magic in the state that it is, could you imagine the risk if the north still has its magic in full force?” I asked.
“But our magic is dying because of this fucking wall!” Nik exclaimed. “It’s killing us.”
Darkness began at the Prince’s feet until it overtook the part of the forest we stood in like a dense cloud had suddenly appeared in front of the sun. It was cool before, but in the shadow of the Prince’s darkness, there was a frostiness to the cold, northern air.
I didn’t disagree with the young Prince. The issues with our magic began at the same time that the wall went up. I suspected that the magical barrier somehow disturbed what I believed to be a magical ecosystem connecting the magic of all fae. But, then again, the war itself and the loss of so many fae lives could have also had an impact on our magic.
“We don’t know for certain that it’s the wall, Nik. And how many of us died during the last war? How many of us will Rex kill if we don’t have this wall?” I asked calmly, rehashing our same old arguments.
“The wall is not the answer to our problem, friend,” Nik began. “It is the problem.”
Maybe the wall was not the answer to this problem but it was the only answer to a different problem—King Vandros. The civil war had been a cataclysmic clash of magic, one that King Vandros would not have allowed to end until he had the heads of anyone powerful enough to challenge him, which would have included my head, the King’s, and his son’s, at a minimum. Without the wall, we would once again be exposed to King Vandros’s pursuit.
“The prophecy—” Nik began.
“Nik,” the King interjected before we could once again have this argument. “Son, the prophecy has left us empty handed. And now’s not the time to have this discussion again. Some of us need to get back to the High Court,” the King said, taking a jab at the Prince’s continued refusal to have anything to do with the High Court more than once a year since his mother’s passing.
Grey waited until the darkness emanating from his son receded. Then the King placed his hand on the invisible barrier and closed his eyes in concentration. He’d explained the process to us before. How he could picture the weave. It was like someone or something had sliced through several layers of the wall. He said he could find the severed ends of each weave and mend them back together. Grey stepped away, discreetly wiping away the bead of sweat that rolled down his too-pale face.
“Done,” he said with finality.
I inspected the wall. I could no longer see the creek. I saw only my own reflection and that of Nik behind me, pacing.
“Is that’s all of them?” I asked.
“That we know of. For now…” the King replied.
“Will you be able to sense it if another weakness pops up?” I asked.
“No,” the King said solemnly. “Maybe at one time I could have, but not now.”
I nodded. “Then we will need the wall patrolled at all times going forward.” It was time to pull our forces together. It was time for us to prepare for what will happen if there is a hole in the wall and we cannot seal it in time.
The three of us popped out of existence without another word, landing somewhere between the border wall and the High Court. Nik would have to travel us around another time or two before he could drop off his father and me at the High Court. Although he did not seem as affected as Grey or me, his powers, too, had faded. Not even the Prince of Darkness, who had once moved mountains, could travel distances as long as he once could.