Her father’s jaw clenched. “No, she most certainly is not. Glencora is, but she is sick, blinded, and in excruciating pain. What would you have me do? Call off the alliance?”
A sharp pain went through Reyna’s heart. So many of their people had died. If they did not make the alliance now, their ancient court might not survive. There were rumors of an impending invasion from the Wood Court. In addition to them, the Sea Court was always plotting, but no one knew quite what. Without the Air Court’s numbers, Ice would surely fall.
“When will Prince Thane arrive?” Reyna asked.
“A moon ago, I received word they are approaching the Shard,” her father replied. “Glencora has one week to recover from the Ruin.”
2
Lorcan
Halfway down the long and windy road that stretched from the Air Court’s capital city, Tairngire, to the northern ice city of Falias, news arrived on owl wings. Prince Thane’s entourage slowed to a stop, horse hooves bumping against the rough, frozen ground. Lorcan rolled back his shoulders and sighed. Before magic had vanished from Tir Na Nog, he and the prince could have flown to the Ice Court instead of relying on the Rowan Road. It would have taken a day instead of weeks, and his body wouldn’t have felt as though it had been pounded repeatedly by the blunt end of a sword.
A snow-white owl spun through the darkening sky and dropped a slice of parchment from outstretched talons. Prince Thane snatched the note into his gloved hands. The cluster of warriors began to mumble as they waited, the cold creeping in around them now that they were no longer moving forward. Lorcan agreed with their unease. He was not accustomed to these colder climates, and he felt every wisp of icy air in his bones.
Thane scowled and crumpled the note. “My spy inside the Ice Court reports that there is an issue with the betrothal. I may need to marry one of the younger sisters. Eislyn or Reyna, he says.”
“Reyna?” Lorcan could not hide his surprise. There were many things said about Reyna Darragh, butcourtlywas not one of them. As he understood it, she had personally removed herself from the line of succession in order to become a Shieldmaiden. She rode horseback through the forests, her wild hair tangling in thorny, icy branches. She fought in battles with a sword as tall as she.
Surely the High King of the Ice Court—soon merely a king—did not expect Prince Thane to wed a female as rough and unruly as that.
Although…it could prove to be an interesting development. The hidden mark on Lorcan’s right shoulder pulsed. He would have to get the news to the exiles immediately.
Thane tossed the parchment over his shoulder. It drifted onto the icy ground and was soon covered by falling snow. No evidence was left behind that the note had ever existed.
They resumed their trek toward the looming forests in the distance, a whistling wind whipping around their group. There were seven of them in total. Prince Thane always preferred to travel with six of his closest guards. They’d journeyed north for a week across the air fae lands before passing the border into the icy tundra. And they still had another week on the road before they reached Falias.
“This will not do,” Thane said. “I agreed to marry the eldest. She is a great beauty and understands what is expected from her as my betrothed. I fear Reyna will run barefooted through the halls, the bottom of her dress stained with dirt. Eislyn might not be a much better option. I have heard she rarely leaves her chambers.”
Lorcan raised his brow as he took in the prince of the Air Court. With long golden hair and matching eyes, he was the portrait of air fae nobility. His ears were as sharply-cut as his cheekbones, and an elaborate tattoo had been etched into his skin years ago, that of a leafless hawthorn tree, its naked branches stretching wide across his forehead. He lounged on his glistening black steed, his crown of twisting golden thorns askew. On official royal business, Thane wore a sleek set of leather armor dyed gold. However, he usually preferred a much more relaxed approach to daily dress.
“Your own garments are often stained with dirt, Thane. Particularly after a lively revel,” Lorcan said with a smile as his horse cantered ever forward. These past years, he had grown close with the prince, and Thane didn’t seem to mind when Lorcan spoke freely to him. What would cause offense from anyone else, Lorcan could get away with.
It put him in a perfect position to learn all of Thane’s secrets.
“That may very well be true,” Thane countered, “but what is expected of me is quite different to what is expected of a future High Queen.”
Lorcan could not argue with that. Females in the nobility were not afforded the same freedoms as males, which was why most of Tir Na Nog had been shocked when the High King of the Ice Court had allowed his daughter to choose her own path.
Lorcan thought for a moment as they continued toward the forests ahead. Glencora Darragh had been a good match for Thane. The eldest daughter of a respected High King, she had been well-taught in the ways of courtly life. Together, she and Thane would create an imposing alliance against the sea and wood fae, two courts who were desperate for a chance to tear the Air Court apart.
Reyna Darragh, on the other hand, was unpredictable. Lorcan liked unpredictable.
“Reyna might not be the ideal match,” Lorcan began, “but if you fulfill your promise and wed one of the Ice Court’s daughters, you will have a new ally and one fewer enemies vying for your crown. And, if you do not…”
“The fighting will begin anew,” Thane said with a frown. “And we cannot beat the Wood and Sea Courts alone, not with Ice battling us from the north.”
Indeed, they could not. With Ice to the north, Wood to the south, and Sea to the east, the Air Court—and the great capital of Tairngire—was surrounded by enemies. The only relief came from the far southern regions where the Fire Court lay in ruins and the exiled Shadow Court was kept at bay by a stronghold that could never be breached.
Tir Na Nog had been at war for a century. Peace was a fickle thing, scarcely in their grasp. The alliance with the Ice Court held the potential for relief from bloodshed after all these years. If only Thane could marry Glencora Darragh instead of the wild creature who would no doubt bring more chaos into the Air Court. Of course, Lorcan should not care. The weaker the Air Court was, the stronger the exiles could become.
“Perhaps Reyna would be a good match,” Lorcan replied with a hidden grimace. “Just because she has fought in battles does not mean she’s as wild as the tales would suggest.”
“The truth may be twisted but never false. Reyna will be everything we fear.”
The truth may be twisted but never false.It was a particularly popular expression in the Air Court. Fae could not lie. It was some deep, honor-bound magic that had not vanished from the continent even with the Dagda’s curse, at least for those fae who were still part of Tir Na Nog. Ice, Air, Sea, and Wood. Lorcan supposed those few remaining survivors that fed on soot and ash in the Fire Court could not lie either.
But the exiles could. When they had been banished from Tir Na Nog, all the ties that bound them to the lands had vanished, including the inability to lie.
