A Dance with the Fae Prince by Elise Kova
Chapter 32
“No,”Giles says instantly.
Yet nearly at the same time, Raph says, “I’ll do it.”
“Raph, you cannot.” Giles turns to me, pointing his finger. “And you cannot ask this of him.”
“Getting the powers to Davien is the best chance we have now. And Raph is clearly the most qualified person to see this through,” I say calmly.
“You risked your life to take these powers out of Boltov’s hands. You left the last remaining member of the Aviness bloodline behind to keep this power out of Boltov’s hands.” Giles stands with purpose, grinding out the words. His fingers ball into fists; the anger I sensed earlier continues to rise in him. And now I’ve given it a reasonable excuse to be directed at me.
Still, I remain calm. “Things were different then. When I left Davien behind, I thought there was a city that was safe to bring the power back to. I thought there was a small army ready to take on the High Court and free him. None of that is the case any longer.
“Boltov has the last heir, and once he kills him, the ritual preventing anyone but an Aviness from wearing the glass crown will be broken—it will be free. He will be able to wear the crown then and command its power. He has the people that would stand up against him in shackles.” Or worse. “He sits on the hill and all he needs now for his role to be cemented for hundreds of years to come is this necklace.” I touch the pendant on my throat for emphasis. “How long do you think we can keep it from him?”
Giles eases back some.
He’s no doubt beginning to see my logic. So I double down.
“He’s going to throw every resource he has at hunting this necklace down. And there’s nothing you and I can do to stop him. The one chance we had to keep it from him has gone up in flames.” I take a stabilizing breath. “Except Davien. He’s our last hope. If you’re right and Boltov hasn’t killed him right away, then I can get to him with this necklace, I can finish abdicating. I can give him the power within and he can take on Boltov.”
“You might die trying,” Giles whispers.
I shrug, thinking I look braver than I feel. “I think I’m going to die no matter what.” I try and wear a bold smile. I’m sure it comes off a little wild. I must be for suggesting this. “Either from the withering, or because Allor knows my face. She knows there is a human who helped—who likely has the necklace. I don’t think I’ll be safe even in my world. Even if we manage to keep it from her, she’ll hunt me down.”
“You could go far from the edge of the Fade. Folk of Midscape never go far in the Natural World. We’re not made for it. Being there breaks us down.” Giles takes my hand with both of his. “You can still go. This isn’t your fight.”
“But it is,” I say softly. “I took an oath to protect the people of this land.”
“What?”
I’m back underneath the waters of the lake. All the past kings and queens watch me. I feel their eyes even now. “I swore I would keep this power safe and protect the fae, to Davien, to the Aviness family who came before.”
Clarity dawns on him. “That was merely part of the abdication ritual, wasn’t it?”
“The words still meant something to me.” They’re seared on my memory. I said those words with every past ruler bearing witness. They weren’t just words. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe it shouldn’t have meant anything. I am just a human. But I’m invested in this fight.” I grip the necklace tightly. “I want to see Davien win.”
No… I just want to see him alive. I can’t stand the thought of him being locked away, captive to Boltov’s whims. If nothing else, as tragic as it is to even think, I can’t let him die without telling him that I love him. That even though I swore never to love, he burrowed deep within my heart, underneath all the walls. I won’t let myself die before I do that much.
Giles turns to Raph. “Do you really think you could do it? Sneak us into the High Court?”
Raph has only a moment of hesitation before he’s gathered enough resolve to give a firm nod. “I know I can. I can get anywhere I set my mind to and—and they have my parents.”
“You can stay here,” I suggest to Giles. “Look after the children.”
“There’s no way I’m letting you go alone. Hol is already going to kill me for this plan. He would kill me a second time if I let his son out of my sight to go on this insane mission alone with a human.”
“All right.” I don’t fight. “We take the rest of the night to gather our strength and then at dawn we head for the High Court.”
* * *
Raph leavesRalsha in charge when we depart. There’s a tearful goodbye between them where he swears to get back her mother, too. Davien’s affections have even made me see their young love in a new light. Maybe there is goodness out there to be gained from the act of loving. Benefits of love I’m only just beginning to understand. It’ll take me time, but I’m at least open to seeing it now, which is a start.
After we leave the children’s stronghold, Giles leads the way. In the daylight, the remnants of Dreamsong are somehow even worse. The sun hides nothing. Boltov’s brutality is on shameless display. I wonder if the king intends to leave this earth singed and blackened for the rest of eternity—a reminder to anyone who would ever dare rise up against his family in the future of what happens to usurpers.
It takes two days to reach the outskirts of the High Court. The trek is long, but the hardest part about it is constantly looking over our shoulders, expecting to see a Butcher lunging from a nearby shadow. However, Boltov must be feeling secure in his victory, because no one prowls the forests looking for survivors. I wonder if he has them back by the Lake of Anointing looking for me, arrogant in thinking there would be no way a human could make it this far.
The first Butcher we see is from a distance, walking along the ramparts of the large stone wall that surrounds the High Court. The three of us are perched at the top of a hill, lying down among the tall grasses to make ourselves nearly invisible to the guards below. We survey the terrain, debating our next move.
“The wall is only about two hundred years old,” Giles says. “The last Boltov king built it to try and cement his perceived legitimacy to the Council of Kings. I’m pretty sure the winter after it was finished, his son assassinated him so he could ascend to the throne.”
“Tell me, has a fae king ever died of natural causes? Or do you just kill each other before such a thing can happen?”
“It’s been rare for a king to make it to the end of his natural life since the fall of the Aviness family.” Giles glances to Raph. “I don’t want you to feel pressured, not even now. If you don’t think there’s a way that we can safely get in then—”
“There’s a hole in every wall,” Raph says with a small grin. “We just gotta find it.”
After half a day of walking, we finally do. Sure enough, there’s one segment of wall where the forest has encroached on the stone. Of course, Raph is the one to notice it.
“See that?” He points. “The big bushy section, like there’s a small tree poking through. Well, actually, I think there is a small tree poking through. You know what that means, right?” He rolls his eyes at our oblivious expressions. “It means that the wall isn’t quite so sound right there. So I just gotta go down there tonight, take a peek, and if I’m right then you two will come and join me. And just like that, we’ll be in.” He snaps his fingers.
Into the deadliest area of the fae wilds. I have the rest of the afternoon to contemplate the decision. I spend it munching on some mushrooms we found a day ago during our long trek and watching the patrol patterns of Boltov’s Butchers on the walls.
As night falls, Raph moves during a break in patrol. The boy is nimble and small; in a blink, he disappears through the foliage protruding from the wall. Giles and I share a nervous glance. But then Raph pokes his head back out and waves us down the hill.
The wall is much larger than it seemed from a distance. The wicked-looking spikes that protrude from the top are far sharper than I imagined them to be. Ignoring the creeping sense of dread working to smother me, I press through the foliage, pushing against the jagged, crumbling rock, and emerge on the other side. I hear a soft chime in the back of my mind and an invisible hand wraps itself around my throat, disappearing on the wind before I can choke.
“We need to move quickly to the forest up there,” Giles whispers as he breaks free of the wall with a rustling of leaves. “The faster we can get away from the wall and under cover the better.”
“What was that?” I ask as we retreat from the moonlight for the cover of the trees. I rub my neck for emphasis.
“That was Boltov’s ward. He knows someone has trespassed in his territory now. It’s only a matter of time until they’re looking for us.”
“Do they know it’s us?” I ask, picking up my pace to match Giles’s. “Will they know it’s us on sight? Can they track us?”
“Tracking, I don’t know. On sight? Well, at a glance, Raph and I might be able to blend in with the other fae of the High Court, you less so. But they have rituals they can perform to expose us.”
“Then we have to move quickly.”
“Already working on it,” Raph mumbles.
The city looms ahead, perched at the top of the hill. Another wall surrounds it with more guards at the entrance. We slink through the forest, straying away from the main gate.
“Do you know anything about the city inside?” I ask Giles.
“Not a bit. I’m as oblivious as you are.”
“Don’t look at me.” Raph shrugs. “I’ve never been this far from Dreamsong.”
“We’ll just keep making it up as we go then.”
We’re almost through the forest to the edge of the city wall when there’s a rustling in the trees behind us. I turn. I’ve been hunted by Butchers now too many times not to know the way they move, the way they sound, as they ride on the shadows. My hand is on the pendant and I’m not sure whether I’m about to put up a fight, or submit in the hopes that maybe I can get close to Davien one last time.
The woman is a blur. She’s on me in a second, faster and more deadly than any Butcher I’ve ever seen so far. Yet, rather than killing me, her hand clamps over my mouth. Her other hand is on Giles’s. Raph is in too much of a stunned silence to do anything other than blubber.
“You’re going to get yourselves killed,” Shaye says with a crazed grin.