“Welcome to the Air Court, Princess Reyna.” A female appeared and provided her with a kind smile. “How are you enjoying our brisk winds?”
Internally, Reyna sighed. And so it began. She could not be truthful, but she could not offend. The courtier before her appeared nice enough. She was shorter than Reyna with the golden hair that was common in the nobility. Her gown was simple compared to those around her—a plain orange with no added decoration—and she gently rested a hand against a round belly. So, this was Lady Epona then. She hailed from a castle further south but had relocated to Tairngire when the war grew closer to her lands. The battles near her castle had ceased now, but she had not gone back.
“The winds truly are brisk,” Reyna replied with a fake smile pasted onto her face. “Back home, they are much milder.”
“Milder? In those icy lands? Surely not.”
“There are brisk winds along the Rowan Road once you reach the cliffs, but most of the realm rarely suffers more than a light breeze.”
“And you arrived just yesterday, did you not?”
Reyna nodded.
“Surely you must be tired from your journey.”
Reyna smiled and nodded. “A good night’s sleep in a real bed has provided me with plenty of rest...”
She trailed off and smiled as the conversation continued. It was so very dull. Weather and rest. Boring topics.
“I don’t suppose you have heard what has happened?” Lady Epona asked. “Your prince did not arrive to a very welcoming court.”
Reyna perked up a bit. “What do you mean?”
Epona glanced around and dropped her voice to a whisper. “His mother has taken over. It seems she somehow convinced the High King to step down and insist she rule in his stead, bypassing the standard line of succession. Our prince will still be High King one day, of course, but it will not be now.”
Reyna’s mind spun, and her palms went slick with sweat. How had this happened? With the High Queen on the throne…it changed everything. Thane had been set to take over his father’s rule in only a few short years. The High King was visibly ageing, and he was growing tired, sick, and dull. Reyna had only agreed to come here thinking she would get her chance soon. But Thane’s mother was nothing like Sloane. She was strong and powerful, according to the tales. It would be decades yet before her health failed.
To be stuck inside this court that long, surrounded by enemies…
“That is...” Reyna trailed off, unsure of what to say.
“Highly unusual?” Brows arched, Epona nodded. “It is within the bounds of the law, but that does not make it right. The last time a High Queen took over from an abdicated High King was almost three hundred years ago. And we all know how that turned out for the realm.”
Reyna frowned. She did not know. Another thing she would need to brush up on. As a child, Glencora had taken her history studies extremely seriously. She had spent hours upon hours learning the background of not only the Ice Court but of the other five courts as well. Reyna had only ever been interested in the lore of the ice fae, nothing more.
She would need to remedy that, it seemed.
“Forgive me,” Reyna said. “I don’t know that particular story.”
“Centuries ago, the Air Court was ruled by a High Queen named Andraste and a High King named Midir. The power was hers, it came through her bloodline. She chose a low fae to marry, despite her father’s insistence she marry Lord Louarn. And she let him sit on the throne, even though it was hers.” She shot a conspiratorial glance over her shoulder, as if she did not want any of the other courtiers to overhear the conversation. “No one knows quite why, but the High King abdicated his throne in the end. It caused chaos in the realm, and started a civil war between the warriors here in Tairngire and the southerners.”
“The Andraste Strife?” Reyna asked. She knew about the Air Court’s infamous war, of course, but she had not known the spark had been lit by an abdicated king.
“That’s right,” Epona said eagerly. “Obviously, there are theories. An affair is the most popular among them. Wars tend to happen when queens and kings share their beds and their hearts with the wrong person.”
Reyna gave the fae a pleasant smile. She opened her mouth to ask another question, but the lady plunged ever forward, clearly happy to have a fresh ear to listen to her gossip.
“I suppose you don’t know about our vigilante either, do you?” she asked eagerly.
Curiosity lit up Reyna’s heart. A vigilante? This was far more like it. “I do not, but I certainly wish I did.”
Epona grinned, her own golden eyes sparkling with enthusiasm. “Tales say that a strong, brutish fae stalks the streets of the slums, killing murderers and thieves, finding justice for the poor low fae who cannot find justice for themselves. He knows everything about everyone. He is called the Bloody Dagger.”
A vigilante dispensing justice? Reyna liked the sound of that. Whoever he was, Reyna wanted to meet this fae. “Who is he?”
“No one knows. His face has never been seen. Some say that he is the stealthiest fae to have ever lived.”
“How could one find him…hypothetically, of course?” Reyna could not help but ask.
