My mind goes blank and I wonder if Arax is right. Have I gone mad, hearing voices that belong to no one? But before Ifind reason, there is a soft popping sound, followed by a plume of black smoke that explodes before me, and when the charcoal slivers fade, a Fae female stands regal in its place.
She is tall and willowy, with long slender limbs draped in iridescent black silk. Her pale shoulders are bare, her skin stretched tight against her collarbone, with a steel choker worked into a lace pattern wrapped tightly around her neck, a shimmering black opal at its center.
Even though Fae age slower than humans, I make out the lines around her eyes and mouth, hinting she must be centuries old like Arax, but she disguises this beneath layers of powder. Her eyes are eerily pearlescent, framed by long lashes and encircled with dark, heavy makeup. Her hair does not resemble that of her raven-haired kin. Waves of silver, streaked with stark white, and crowned with a black tiara, its sharp edges mirroring this forsaken rock we stand upon.
If her appearance is not startling enough, her arrival has me stunned. I have never seen void walking first hand, a Fae ability unique to the Mordorin, allowing them to travel short distances in the blink of an eye. My mind has a million questions, each one longer than the last, but I stifle my curiosity when Arax stamps his foot at me, before dropping to one knee.
“King Kaelus. Queen Lanneth,” Arax says with reverence. “I present Amara Tyne. Jewel of the Tenders.” He glances up at me from beneath his brow and scowls when he sees I am still standing. “Bow,” he hisses under his breath.
Even though my body is at last willed into movement, it takes longer than it should for me to take a knee before the Mordorin. After all, it is a sign of loyalty and respect, and for these Fae, I possess neither.
There is a second soft pop, and King Kaelus instantly appears from the smoke at the queen’s side, his gray eyes narrowing onme curiously. Queen Lanneth extends her hand to him, and he gently curls his fingers around hers.
“She does not bow,” Lanneth laments. “Do they have no etiquette where you come from, girl?” Her eyes skim my serpentine vine. “And look, she brings… a weed.”
“Now, now, Lanneth,” the king interjects, his gaze lingering on my vine with a flicker of interest. “She's merely unfamiliar with our customs, as we are with hers. Besides, she is Fae nobility now—no need for such rigid formalities.”
Lanneth glares at me through slitted eyes. “She is not nobility yet, my love.”
Though her voice is smooth, there is a slither to it that puts me at unease, and her disconcerting eyes do not give me a moment’s peace. I glance away from her briefly, if only to take a breath from her stare, when I glimpse something in the corner of my eye. A shimmer. A ripple in the air. And it seems to surround the queen.
I strain my eyes curiously. “What is that?”
The king and queen exchange bemused looks before returning their attention to me.
“Are you sickly, child?” Lanneth asks, her chin tilted upward.
“Now, my love,” Kaelus sighs, laying a kiss on her knuckles. “She is clearly weary from travel.”
He is not wrong.I suppose exhaustion could have something to do with the voices I’m hearing or the strange way the light plays off the queen’s skin, and when the shimmer vanishes, I doubt if it ever existed.
“The travelwaslong and difficult,” I say to justify my odd behavior, my throat dry and voice raspy.
Lanneth forces a smile over her thin lips. “That is not good. Our prince needs a strong and healthy bride and your Keeper assured us of your quality when the bargain was struck. I would hate to think we were deceived.”
A scowl spreads across my face, and my eyes narrow on the queen. “There is no deception. I promise. A wife in exchange for Blades to protect The Grove. So here I am. Have you met your obligations?”
Tension takes hold of the moment. Kaelus glances at Arax, who rises to his feet.
“Twenty Blades were left to watch over The Grove after we escorted the Jewel to the ship,” Arax states.
Kaelus raises an eyebrow at me. “Excellent. So we have both made good on our promises.”
“Only twenty?” I ask, my eyebrows knitting together. “We will need more than that to defend The Grove.”
“And you shall have them,” Lanneth interrupts. “As soon as you and the prince are wed.”
I hold her stare, even though it stings as much as the blisters on my feet. I do not want them to think even for a moment that I am some naive girl from the forest, easily manipulated. I am very aware of the terms of the bargain, and I will see them met. But for now, it seems as if all is well.
“Very well,” I say, nodding my head subtly.
“And the sooner you are wed, the better,” Lanneth adds. She runs her eyes over me with distaste. “But we must clean you up immediately. The prince cannot see you like this. Is that… blood?”
“None of it is mine,” I reply bluntly, and the queen regards me with a dubious glance.
I do not mention that the prince has already seen me like this.
The same time as I saw him cut off a man’s head.
