“But then why would she send us here to kill them?” I asked.
“Because she will do anything for our people, and so that’s why we need to go now to see the Wise Ones. We’re running out of time.”
I wanted to run after Stryker, I really did, but I knew Dawn was right. If these Wise Ones had any information that would help our people then we needed to go see them now. I could deal with Stryker later.
* * *
After a quick bite to eat, Dawn and I left the inn on horseback. It would take three days of almost constant traveling to make it to the mountain range in the Northern Kingdom where the Wise Ones lived. I spent the better part of that time actively trying not to think of Stryker, but failing more often than not.
Had he made it back to his kingdom? Did he regret leaving me? Did he miss me like I did him?
I was furious at him for abandoning me, but at the same time I still ached for him. I didn’t know what to do with these conflicting emotions, so I did my best to stuff them to the far recesses of my heart and mind. But like anything suppressed, the thoughts kept finding ways to free themselves.
Traveling with Dawn was easy. She was the same fierce and strong Summer princess that I knew of, but also so different. She smiled more than I remembered from the few times we’d interacted and there was a glow about her that was undeniable.
Whenever we stopped for the evening or to rest the horses, Dawn would fill me in on what had happened to her since she left Faerie. We’d laughed about how she lost focus when she stepped through the portal and ended up in a pigsty. She told me of how she believed Zander was a royal guard when they first met and had ordered him to take her to the Northern lord, and in response he’d put magical shackles on her wrists like the ones my kidnappers had used.
Phantom spikes of pain had run through my own wrists when she’d spoken of the days she spent trying not to think about running him through with one of her blades. She’d winced when I’d admitted I had firsthand experience with those particular torture devices.
I finally learned the details of when Dawn met Stryker in person. She confessed that she’d broken into his castle with the intent to kill him because she realized she couldn’t take Zander’s life. Even knowing that she hadn’t succeeded, something twisted painfully in my chest at the thought that his life had been in danger yet again.
Knowing my relationship with Stryker, Dawn was careful with her words when she spoke of him to me, but I quickly picked up that he hadn’t made a good impression on her, which was easy to imagine. My first interaction with the scarred Ethereum lord hadn’t gone well either. But considering the moment I appeared in Ethereum I’d tried to cut out his heart as well, the blame for that wasn’t fully on his shoulders.
Something else Dawn shared with me was the true story about Ethereum.About how a Faerie Winter King had fallen in love with an unseelie and been banished to this world along with all the unseelie in Faerie.
I was furious to find out not only how many lies we’d been fed over the years, but also how the Ethereum lords had been branded as evil for so long. For centuries innocent men had been brutally murdered by the princesses of Faerie. It was beyond awful and I was determined that the legacy of lies and cruelty ended with us.
We passed from the Midlands and into the Northern Kingdom just before dawn on the third and final day of travel. Although there was no denying the cold beauty of the land, I could admit the climate was a touch more frigid than I was used to in the moderate Fall Court.
Luckily, since Dawn and Zander had set out to find me in the first place, they’d thought ahead and Dawn had given me fur-lined leathers and a cloak to wear. I was thankful for that because I would have been freezing in the cotton dress I’d worn in the Southern Kingdom.
As we traveled I spotted more and more unseelie fae along the way that were afflicted with the same magic sickness as the family on the road had been. Dawn explained that she and Zander feared that the curse would eventually bleed into the other Ethereum kingdoms, just as it was spreading through Faerie. For Stryker’s sake, I hoped that fear was unfounded.
It was well into the day when we finally reached the base of the Northern Mountains where the Wise Ones lived. After three long days of traveling I was dirty, sweaty, and tired. I would have traded my entire court for a warm bath and decent meal.
Freezing wind ripped at my clothes and hair as I craned my neck to look up at the sheer rock face in front of me.
“How do we get up there?” I asked Dawn with a wary glance.
“We climb,” she said as she dismounted her horse.
My stomach dropped. “You can’t be serious.”
I looked back at the mountain, which seemed to jut straight up from the ground. I couldn’t even see the top because of the thick clouds overhead. I’d never climbed more than a small fruit tree when I was a child. And even then my mother had scolded me and forbidden me from ever doing it again.
I conveyed as much to Dawn and she went to her saddle bag and pulled out a length of rope, tying one end around her waist and then securing the other end around me.
“I’m a strong climber,” she said. “If you slip, this will keep you from falling too far.”
I eyed the rope connecting us skeptically.
“Trust me,” she said, the look on her face nothing short of grim determination.
She was always so strong and I admired that about her. I nodded and took a deep breath.
Dawn had told me everything I needed to know about the Wise Ones. What to expect when I entered their cave, how they looked and communicated with their minds, and most importantly that I only got to ask them one single question.
I knew visiting them to find out what I needed to do was the only way to end the curse once and for all, and also the only way to save my people without having to murder an Ethereum lord to do it.
