Chapter 50 THE ESSENCE OF AUTUMN #2
Caelan’s lip curled, and it occurred to me that he was different.
Harder and quicker to anger. I was one of very few who could get away with speaking to Caelan or his mother so flippantly, which he once said was refreshing.
But as he stepped threateningly toward me, I got the sense his patience was drastically shortened after two decades spent in hiding.
His power swelled so potently that Nuala seemed to lose her breath and stepped behind me.
I might have been intimidated by him, but I trusted he knew better than to provoke me. Not that I would wish to hurt him either. He was the future of Ahnnaòin.
“Queen Aoibheal was in negotiations with the other courts to deal with the human threat. She was doing what she could before you forced her and the other monarchs into hiding,” Caelan reminded me.
I put a hand on Nuala’s hip and reinforced my shields around her to dull the effects of Caelan’s power upon her, but I could tell she was still deeply uncomfortable.
“Caelan, you know I am right,” I said more quietly so that his warriors did not overhear me.
“You said as much before your mother dismissed me. She would have wasted fey lives fighting in a war she was not prepared to wage. Humans and witches have only devised stronger weapons since that meeting,” I insisted as calmly as I could.
Caelan snorted a dismissal.
“What are mortals compared to the undying flame?” he demanded with a pointed look at Nuala who could not even stand to be in his presence if he truly willed it.
“Such a war would have cost us more fey blood than we could afford to spill,” I maintained.
Prince Caelan narrowed his catlike eyes at me before they shifted again to Nuala who was trembling against me now under his magnified aura.
“I am astonished that you would dare to speak to me about defending the Tithriall and this court with a witch at your back,” he informed me. The hateful glint in his eyes made it obvious that he would relish an opportunity to flay her alive, and it made my hackles instantly rise.
My shadows began bleeding out of my pores and out of my armour. They hissed as the grass wilted at my feet, the air crackling as they nipped at his magic around us.
Caelan took half a step back, and the warriors behind him shifted readily to defend their prince, but he calmly raised a hand for them to stand down.
Then he watched in rapt astonishment as those cruel and voracious shadows wrapped harmlessly around Nuala’s mortal body as if she drew them to her.
He had only seen my magic in action once before when his mother asked for a demonstration, but he knew well enough what it did to flesh and bone.
I felt his aura finally recede behind his shields until Nuala could breathe easily again, but I did not relax.
“So it is true. The witch is unaffected,” he murmured, his mind obviously whirling with this revelation.
“She is mine,” I growled, knowing I was revealing far too much to a possible enemy, but I could not hold back once my protective instincts were triggered.
Caelan was even more shocked by my announcement than he was by Nuala’s immunity to my ravenous magic. Considering how adamant I had always been before about avoiding commitment, I understood his confusion.
“Careful. Lest she be used against you,” he warned me with what seemed like real concern.
“Anyone foolish enough to try and harm my mate will learn that Nuala’s safety means more to me than whether this court would survive my wrath,” I retorted. I held his eyes steadily to ensure there was no misunderstanding where my priorities had shifted.
Caelan was so discomforted by my statement that he was unable to conceal his unease as his eyes drifted back to the witch with new cognizance.
“Then I could wish her no harm, Rian,” he reassured me with a placating tone. The slight shift in his stance felt genuine enough that I finally relaxed, and my shadows began to recede back into my veins.
“Enough idle chatter. Queen Aoibheal needs to answer for her vicious attack on her own court,” I called out more loudly so that all the other Draugr could hear me.
Caelan’s expression hardened again at the accusation, and his head tilted as if to listen for any murmurs behind. But his warriors were too well trained to react.
“She attacked traitors,” Caelan said in exasperation, and I felt my temper quietly ignite again. “You threatened your queen and then amassed an unsanctioned army in spite of her explicit disapproval,” he added as if I needed further explanation of my supposed crimes.
“And you consider aes sídhe villagers to be traitors?”
Caelan’s brows knit together in confusion, and I could tell he thought I was referring to myself and my riders.
“You are hardly villagers, Rian,” he deadpanned.
“No. But the Aes Navu and the Aes Suri are. Were.”
His frustration with me vanished behind a brief flash of dread before he schooled his features again.
“What are you talking about?” he asked me softly.
“How much do you know about that army?” I asked as my arm swept behind me to indicate the Fuath that were now fleeing south as the sun rose.
“I know that my queen offered them food in exchange for their assistance against your unsanctioned—”
“You think she offered them food?” I barked a laugh at his naivety.
“You think they have not attacked innocents? That vile army has been laying waste to Ahnnaòin from Dulgune to the Standing Stones! My village, my mother, was slaughtered. The forests in the Suridin Valley were burned and the surviving aes sídhe were forced to flee their homes ahead of those monsters. An army that your mother has been using blood magic to control!”
I was immensely thankful that Nuala was behind me to help diffuse my shadows because my rage was getting the better of me, and I was becoming dangerous.
Caelan did a remarkable job of staying composed even as I could see my words rocking through him.
“She would never use such practices,” he objected.
“She came after my people to distract me because it is only a matter of time before I find her!” I snarled at him.
“You know I do not lie, but if you truly do not believe it, then go and see for yourself! Go and see where my home once stood. Go and see where Sage’s village was burned.
Go and speak to the surviving aes sídhe that were brought here so I could defend them.
Go and hear them mourning after hundreds more were killed by that vile magic I know Aoibheal just used on our shield.
Right before she left you here to confront me because she knows that I cannot kill you for what she has done! ”
My voice had risen as I spoke until I was shouting at him and barely containing my magic. Only Nuala’s gentle hand on my back gave me any sense of grounding.
Caelan stared at me, looking like a solid push might send him sprawling into the dirt.
“Rian—”
“No. I don’t want your apologies; I want your action! You are the heir of Ahnnaòin. Aoibheal’s time as queen ended long ago. She has become a poison in the veins of our court, and it is time you took your place as king!”
His catlike pupils narrowed into slits, and he shook his head at me in irritation at my renewed sentiments.
“I am merely a guardian. I am loyal to the queen until she is ready for her reign to be ended,” he maintained.
“Then you endorse the actions she has taken against my people?” I asked, my tone daring him to uphold her. And I had the horrifying realization that if he shattered my hopes for his rule, then I would kill him. I would find another way to protect this court without the monarchy.
Caelan did not answer me aloud, which was an answer in itself. I knew that his hands were tied by royal protocol and tradition, but he had a moral responsibility to act!
“Take me to her,” I urged him.
“You know I cannot! How could I expect to rule this court with honour after forsaking my most sacred oaths to protect my queen?” Caelan demanded shortly.
“But how will you look in the mirror if you do not?”
I had hit a nerve, I could tell by the way his jaw flexed before he looked away from me.
“Just bring me to her, and I will do what you cannot,” I insisted in frustration with him.
Something flickered in his eyes that made me hopeful, but it was a long moment before he spoke again.
“You have grievances. You should have an opportunity to bring your concerns before your queen.”
“She will not see me willingly,” I said dismissively.
“She may under Mionn na Síochána,” he pointed out with his brows rising significantly.
Mionn na Síochána. An Oath of Peace. Aoibheal knew how seriously I took my promises, so it was probably the only way she would ever agree to meet me face-to-face.
Years ago, before I decided to kill her, I had tried to entice her to speak under this truce, but she had declined to join me when I called.
She was more likely to come now while her army was present to protect her.
But to break such an agreement and take the opportunity to finally kill her would mean sacrificing my own integrity.
My people were likely to shun me more than they already did after such a crime.
I would lose the respect of my enemies and possibly even my own army.
Fey had been executed for betraying an armistice during such wartime negotiations, although I knew Caelan would be unable to enact such a punishment upon me.
The prince stepped closer, ignoring Darragh’s rumble of warning as he put his mouth directly against my ear where no one else would be able to hear him.
“You say I should forsake my sacred oaths as if it is an easy thing to decide that my promises will mean nothing from this time forth. But I know you value your honour as deeply as I value mine. So how much does this court truly mean to you, Rian?” he asked me evenly.
I could not help but wonder if this had been his plan all along.
His loud proclamations of loyalty to his queen and his intentions to uphold his oaths to her could merely be his way of hiding treasonous intentions.
He would not even speak outright of harming her, but the possibility hung between us, just as Nuala had foreseen it would.
So how much did Ahnnaòin mean to me? More than it meant to Caelan who was not prepared to even consider breaking his sacred oaths.
But then, he would be the king. Perhaps it was better that I be the one to dishonour myself so he could at least appear to retain his integrity.
It was not as if I were not already considered a villain by many fey in the Autumn Court.
I felt Nuala’s hand brush my back in encouragement, reminding me of how she pleaded with me to trust her in this before we stepped through the portal. She had warned me that I would need to be willing to sacrifice an integral part of myself in order to get Aoibheal in front of me.
She had been right. I needed to trust that she would be right about how the rest of this was about to play out.
“Very well,” I finally relented, just barely managing to keep the dread out of my rising voice. “Under the sacred agreement of Mionn na Síochána, I, Rian DorTìodhlac, demand an audience with Queen Aoibheal.”