Damn it all.
My own enclosure consisted of a bedroll, a metal bucket, and a large jug of water. I attempted to soothe my aching throat with the water, but most of it dribbled out the side due to that damnable bit. I’d have to escape. There was no way I’d sit hereas a lure to entrap my lord. Based on the measures they’d taken already, they meant to kill Lord Vasil and perhaps me as well. I wasn’t much use to them once the trap had been sprung.
I toured the perimeter of my cell, inspecting the bars for any weaknesses. There were none. I attempted to call out to Levolor but his back was turned and my muffled voice couldn’t compete with the clanging of metal.
Think, Cedrych.
My mother was here in the elvish territories. We may not get along but she would go to great lengths to protect what was hers. A crime against the royal family was an invitation to war. Unless she was somehow behind this?
“Greetings, Your Highness.”
A figure appeared from the shadows, wearing a long cloak in elvish blue and a gold mask in the shape of a bird’s beak that covered the upper half of his face. I recognized his voice, the same sorcerer who’d kidnapped me from Vasil’s bedchamber.
“What do you want?” I demanded, but my language was unintelligible. The man twisted his wrist and the bit loosened. I hastily removed the dastardly contraption and threw it across the cell where it clanged against the metal bars and fell to the floor. The horse lifted her head and whinnied while Levolor temporarily paused his banging to glance over.
“As you were,” the masked man said to him. Levolor turned away from us, and the hammering resumed.
“Who are you?” I asked the man.
“I am a Keeper of the Light,” he said with a smile that told me he was proud of that title.
“Their leader?” I asked.
“Humbly appointed and honored to serve,” he said with a mocking bow.
“You’re honored to be the head of a terrorist group who thinks being blinded by a light through a prism makes your blood impure?” I scoffed.
“The Keepers are an ancient society, traditional in their customs and beliefs, but we all share a common goal.”
“And what is that?” I asked.
“Preserving the elvish bloodline.”
“This is because Lord Vasil is half-vampyre?” I asked, astounded by their ignorance.
“It’s an abomination. Our proud legacy mustn’t be tainted by the blood of the vampyre. Nor that of the fae,” he added pointedly.
“Isn’t this notion of elvish supremacy a little stale?” I asked.
“Look at your own people, Your Highness. The War of the Realms was based on the notion that fae were superior to humans.”
How dare he use that conflict as justification. “Humankind was destroying our food sources. The bees were dying. We were starving and on the brink of extinction. And the other realms would have followed soon after.”
The man shrugged, refusing to acknowledge the difference between our fight for survival and this warrantless aggression. “Yet the prejudices remain. At least the fae are obvious about their bigotry. The one thing your people did right was instituting the Guild Laws,” the man said.
The Guild Laws were originally put in place to ensure our population could repair itself. They determined what trade you could learn, your place in society, and who you could marry. In the fae realm belonging to a Guild was an imperative, as the guildless were often cast away, poorly treated, and sometimes abused.
“Those laws are outdated,” I told him. My mother and I had butted heads many times about the draconian GuildLaws, especially when it came to me dating my ex, whom she considered a guildless, unremarkable bit of fae trash.
“And yet they remain an effective way of organizing society. I look forward to meeting your mother, Prince Cedrych. Despite being a woman, she is very shrewd in her methods. I’m sure I have a lot to learn from her.”
“She is nothing like you,” I insisted, encouraged to know she wasn’t part of this dastardly plot. “She would consider you a coward and a fraud, hiding behind that ridiculous mask of yours. True power doesn’t need to lie to its people and coerce children into doing their dirty work.”
“Are you sure about that?” the man asked loftily.
I wasn’t going to argue the finer points of fae society with him. I wouldn’t lend him any legitimacy in his quest for power. But I did seek to understand his end goal. “Is that why you kidnapped me and brought me here? Because I’m a threat to your supremacist ideology?”
“I brought you here because it is rumored that the lord is besotted with his brash, blue-eyed bedmate.”
