I hung on for dear life during some of the hairpin turns and switchbacks, laughing with adrenaline and a bit of feartoo. Hiero handled his bike exceptionally well, never giving me cause to truly worry, and he whooped it up along with me as if experiencing the thrill for the first time. My thighs brushed against his leather and reminded me of a few nights ago when he’d laid me out on his four-poster bed and told me exactly what he wanted from me in his deep, dominant voice.
But he was my boss now and my friend,notmy Daddy.
At the top of the mountain, we pulled over to look out over the expanse of the lands surrounding us. To the east was Emrallt Valley where the rich forest lands gave way to the emerald green pastures of our territory and the reason for the name. I could just make out the glittering spires and battlements of Queen Gwyenth’s Crystal Castle and wondered if Cedrych had been sparring with his guardsmen lately to help deal with his stress. That and sex were how he managed the pressures of the court. Sometimes he drank too much and picked fights with strangers. Or he’d start an argument with me, which usually ended up with us hurling insults at one another until it devolved into rough sex.
Truthfully, I hadn’t liked the person I was with Cedrych. Even when we weren’t fighting, we didn’t bring out the best in each other. And though the circumstances of our breakup wounded me deeply, it needed to happen. Which meant that Cedrych’s wellbeing was no longer my concern.
Beyond the valley were the Eastern Highlands, an agrarian extension of Queen Gwyneth’s kingdom where we grew food and tended to the many apiaries that nourished our people,and just beyond that were the Lunar Straits which separated fae lands from elvish.
“It is said that the fae and the elvish were once kin,” I told Hiero. I’d learned this bit of lore from my mother who'd tended Goddess Imogen’s temple before falling in love with my father, a musician of some renown. By the time I was walking and talking, my father had sold off most of his instruments and rarely performed, but my mother had retained much of our oral history and shared it with me in her rare moments of lucidity. “The Goddess Imogen is protector of the Arcane Isles, and it is said the two big islands were once connected.” I pointed to the Cysgodion Cliffs in the distance, so named because of their silver shimmer. The way the sunlight reflected off the rock face blinded sailors and cast long, treacherous shadows on the water, which made them dangerous to navigate in the daytime.
“But there was a civil war, so Imogen created the Lunar Straits to split the island in two. The folk on this side of the channel became known as the fae and those on the other, the elvish. The elvish didn’t have access to the sweet nectars of the valley, which caused their young to be born without wings. And the fae didn’t have access to the eternal flame which powers elvish innovation. Imogen did this to make both sides suffer until a compromise could be met.”
“And was a compromise met?” Hiero asked.
“There is still much prejudice and distrust on both sides, one of the reasons Queen Gwyneth keeps both elvish and faein her court and sends her sons on regular emissary trips to elvish territory.”
As a mother-in-law, Queen Gwyneth would have been an absolute nightmare, but as a ruler, she was savvy and strategic. There had been peace in Emrallt Valley for as long as I’d been alive, a recent development.
“I admit I do not know much about your people,” Hiero said humbly.
“Then it’s good you have me to act as your ambassador.”
A mountain breeze lifted one of Hiero’s forelocks and I had a vision of us many moons from now, standing in this very same place and making sacred vows to one another. Such a silly daydream.
“The Goddess blesses us,” I said, turning my face toward the wind.
He glanced around with bemusement. “And how do you know?”
“Just a feeling. But what about your god, Hiero? What do you believe?”
Hiero told me of his own sacred rights–daily prayers and reflection, trying to be a good, charitable Christian. Hiero said that he tried to follow the path of their savior by welcoming every patron into Church, regardless of their ancestry or their past.
“I like that teaching,” I said. It was one of the reasons I’d felt so comfortable being myself around him.He didn’t judge or seek to exclude others because of who they were, the one exception being their own bad behavior.
“Aberthol offered shelter and safety to worshippers of every kind at the monastery, even those who had no god,” Hiero said.
“Was Aberthol both a pagan and a Christian?” I asked.
Hiero tilted his head in a contemplative way. “Yes and no. Aberthol believed in the existence of many gods but prayed only to his one God. Faith is complicated.”
“I agree with you on that.”
The breeze turned chilly and we both gazed east to where a storm was brewing over elvish lands. “We’d better continue on before the weather turns,” Hiero said.
The trip down the mountain felt like when I was first learning to fly. The sharp bends and turns gave me a swooping feeling in my stomach, but I loved the rush of the wind in my face, being forced to hold onto Hiero so tightly. At one point, he started howling, and I heard the answering calls from what I assumed were the various shifter clans. I didn’t know how they’d come to inhabit Dragonback Mountains, but in Emrallt Valley, we were taught to give them a wide berth.
We also passed by grassy plateaus where humans had once raised cattle and sheep but had since abandoned their flocks. The animals now roamed freely, their only natural predators being the wolves and the occasional vampyre, if the rumors were true. We beat the rain to the coast and found shelter fromthe storm in a covered cove where Hiero proceeded to lay out a blanket and picnic with all my favorite foods.
“How did you know I liked these?” I asked, popping a mallow fruit into my mouth and savoring its sweet, sticky flavor.
“I paid The Owner of The Magic Shop a visit this morning,” he said shyly.
“That was very thoughtful of you. Try this.” I gave him a bite of my saffron stick. He chewed it for a moment, then went wide-eyed.
“Spicy,” he said.
“Yes, the kick comes later. What sorts of foods do you eat?”
