“These people do need help,” said Naem. “And I can explain that later. But there’s another reason why we’re here that I think you’ll want to see.”
He took a few steps backward and turned, walking to the nearest wagon. It must have been heavy, since its wheels sank deep into the grassy earth, though a large sheet kept Jak from seeing what it contained.
Momentarily forgetting herself, she took a curious step forward, as did Skellig, though the latter was on her guard.
In one smooth motion, Naem flung the cover off of the wagon, revealing its contents beneath.
Jak put a hand to her mouth to stifle her gasp. The inside of the wagon was covered in pitch so it could hold a mobile pool of water. And in the water lay two Water Fae.
“You got them out!” she said, looking at Naem with new eyes.
“As many as we could,” said Naem. “There are still more, and the Royal Priest has been tightening security. But we’ve brought a dozen of them.”
A dozen. That was almost as many as they had here near Riverbrook. Naem was right, this did change things.
“Naem and several others risked their lives to get us out of the palace,” said one of the two Fae. “We would be dead or worse without him.”
Jak faced Skellig, trying to communicate with the major with her eyes. Skellig seemed to get the idea.
“Vander,” she said. “See to it that the Water Fae are brought to the river and allowed to join the others. Only the Water Fae mind you. The rest I want to question further.” She turned to one of the former Watchers who had followed her. “Go into the camp and bring Gabriel here.”
The man saluted and ran to do as instructed.
“Why do you need Gabriel?” Jak asked.
“Because I trust his judgement of character. And because he knows Skyecliff and its people better than anyone else on the council.” She turned back to Naem and the others. “I suggest we sit. You’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Soon after you left, things only got worse in Skyecliff.” Naem explained a short while later. Gabriel had arrived and several chairs and stumps had been brought to sit on, though most of the newcomers sat on the ground or on the few wagons that were actually used for provisions and not for carrying Water Fae. The others had been taken to the river immediately.
“General Wilva was removed as the general of the Watchers following her transformation into a Water Fae.”
That caused a stir among the listeners. Jak let out a soft, ‘oh’ and Skellig’s eyes widened in shock. But she didn’t interrupt Naem, so he continued. “The Watchers were placed under the direct order of the queen, and we were assigned...unpleasant duties, like punishing civilians for rebellion, even when there was no evidence to convict them.”
Jak barely stopped herself from saying, ‘well what did you think would happen?’ but allowed him to continue. Statements like that would be childish, and she had to be above such things. Besides, Skellig wasn’t saying anything. She just listened intently.
“A few of the other Watchers and myself helped where we could, sparing punishment and getting a select few out of the city when their lives were in danger.”
“Why were they in danger?” Skellig asked. “Was there talk of treason, plots against the queen?”
“No, not actually,” said Naem, leaning forward as if he were getting to the good part. “The queen was rounding people up and taking them into the palace. Some were released shortly thereafter, but many were never heard from again. Some—” he waved a hand in the direction of the river, “—I rescued and brought with me.”
“The queen turned them into Water Fae?” said Jak, speaking for the first time. Naem met her eyes again, and she resisted the urge to look away.
“We don’t know for sure, but we think they were experimenting, determining if there are any inherent indicators that a person will turn into a Fae. Some of those that came out again reported that the Royal Priest took a sample of their blood and did some kind of alchemical work with it. When there appeared to be no issues, they were told that they were among the untainted. I think we can assume that those who didn’t come back were not among the untainted.”
This was troubling news. Could the queen or her priest have discovered a way to tell if a human would turn into a Fae? If so, what would that mean for all the innocent people that hadn’t even turned yet?
Skellig must have been thinking along the same lines, for she waved a hand at the people behind Naem and said, “Can we assume that these are some of those unfortunates?”
A chorus of nods escaped the crowd. “Most of them, yes,” said Naem. “Though some who came with me are my fellow Watchers who decided to defect. We have others still in Skyecliff, risking their lives to smuggle as many people out as possible. Even with the queen leaving the city, she left the Royal Priest in charge, and he’s worse than she is.”
Jak scowled. Naem was right on that count. The queen, at least, seemed to follow a moral code, even if that code was a bit skewed. The Royal Priest was something else entirely. Now if only Naem had realized that before, perhaps he wouldn’t have betrayed her to the man.
Naem continued, “He recently announced that everyone is required to present themselves for counting and indexing. I believe the queen was planning on doing the same throughout some of the other large cities once she’s done here. The claim is that they merely wish to know more of their subjects and how to best serve them. But they’re also asking for a small sample of blood. Their excuse is that they need it to prevent the spread of disease.”
Skellig’s eyes darkened. “They’re weeding out everyone who could become a Fae.”
Naem nodded. “Exactly. And once they have that information, we’re not sure what they’ll do. I would expect to see a lot of people simply disappearing in the night.”
Skellig rose to her feet, with a slight growl. Jak could understand the woman’s frustration. Here they were just trying to mind their own business and convince the queen to do so, when potentially thousands would be convicted of crimes they did not commit, just because of who they were, or who they could become.
“We’re going to have to do something about this,” Jak said softly. She didn’t like it. It was exactly what the queen had predicted. They were going to have to stop this from happening, and the only way to do it was to depose the queen. Why did the queen have to be right about this? Why couldn’t she just leave them all alone, and peacefully allow the Fae or anyone who wanted to join them to do so?
But as soon as her doubts surfaced, she squashed them flat. No, the queen had brought this on herself. Someone with this level of hatred and fear did not deserve to be on the throne.
She felt a small measure of hesitation at that thought. In the blink of an eye she had gone from wanting to be left alone, to thoughts about deposing a monarch. Had the queen been right to fear her and the Fae so? But of course, the queen could have maintained everything she had lost and feared to lose if she had only treated the Fae with fairness and mercy. Her own actions had condemned her, not Jak, and not the Fae.
Naem was looking from Jak to Skellig, measuring their reactions. “We thought you might want to help.”
“We can’t be everywhere,” said Skellig, who had begun pacing, still visibly frustrated. “We’ve already lost so many of the Fae to the queen. We’re not invincible.”
“You seem to have dealt with the queen’s army fairly well,” Naem offered.
“That wasn’t us,” Skellig waved a hand in dismissal. “Those were apparently some new species of Fae.” She said it like she still didn’t believe it.
Naem raised an eyebrow, and there were excited looks from those around them. “So there have been more.”
“Even more than you realize,” said Jak. “I found two other types of Fae in Mt. Harafast.”
“We heard about that,” Naem said, excitement building. “After the queen learned that you were there, she marched with her army on Riverbrook. Perhaps she thought she’d have a b
etter chance at defeating them without their leader. I...I’m glad you made it out okay,” he said that last part with a soft warmth to his voice. Jak looked away, turning instead to Skellig.
“What Naem says changes everything,” she said. “We can’t exactly lie around and do nothing while the queen weeds out potential Fae from the entire population.”
“If the queen chooses to take drastic action on those who have committed no crime, it won’t be long before the people rise up against her. Or perhaps they will join us.” Skellig massaged her temples.
“But how many will die before it comes to that? And all the queen would have to do is blame it on demons or the Fae. Both she and the Royal Priest are very good at that sort of propaganda.”
“Jak, even with your abilities, this is a task beyond what we can do. And where would we stop? Even if we dethroned the queen, who would maintain order? And what about other nations to the east or south of the mountains? Do we weed out injustice there too? And with whom? We don’t have the army, and we can’t be everywhere at once.”
“Perhaps not yet,” said Jak, also coming to her feet. “But you remember Seph’s book? It promises that a place of peace will be established. More Fae will come, we’ll find the remaining Pillars of Eternity, and then we’ll have the power to save all those people. Perhaps not everyone, and not for forever. But we can do something now, here.”
“Hang on,” Naem cut in. “‘the remaining Pillars of Eternity?’ Are you saying you’ve found such a Relic?”
Jak cursed her slip up. They still didn’t know if they could trust Naem entirely. She certainly didn’t. Even if he was trustworthy, he couldn’t speak for everyone in the group. Though she supposed that secret was sprung now that the queen had seen her power in action.
“Yes, we have,” she said after a moment’s hesitation.
A ripple passed through the newcomers. Smiles and looks of wonder covered their faces. Even Naem was looking at Jak in a new light. She wasn’t sure she liked it.
“But we still don’t know much about its capabilities and we can’t rely on it fully until we do.” Skellig finally stopped pacing and sat back on the stump. “So, I suggest we discuss our immediate concerns before we tackle the big picture, starting with what to do with all of you.”
11
“Hey Jak!” Naem called out from behind her as she walked back to the main camp. She closed her eyes. Why did he have to talk to her now? Didn’t he realize there were bigger things to think about.
Trying to soften her frown, she turned to face the man who gave her up to the Royal Priest. Skellig had given him and the rest of his group free reign to the camp, and arranged for them to share living quarters with some of the others, provided they work to make their own tents and contribute to the gathering of provisions.
Skellig didn’t trust them completely, though, and rightly so. One of the Shadow Fae followed Naem from a short distance away, and others of the Fae or Watchers were assigned to shadow the rest. Naem assured all of them that there would be no trouble, but he didn’t blame them for being cautious. He was going along with everything just fine, which went a long way towards the others trusting him, though Jak still did not like the idea of trusting him. Things had been so much easier when she’d just assumed he had simply stayed with the Watchers doing the queen’s bidding. It had been easier to hate him then. Now…
“What do you want, Naem?” She didn’t bother to hide the cold in her voice.
Naem drew up short. “I...I just. Look I know we didn’t end on a happy note.”
Jak sniffed. That was understatement.
“And I’m not asking to go back to our past relationship in any way. I realize that I messed up and I have to deal with that. We’ve both moved on to other things. I just hope we might be able to work together in the future.”
Jak looked up at the sky, trying to process everything and not get mad at Naem for bringing this up now. “I don’t know if this is the best time to talk about our relationship, Naem.”
“And I get that. I’m not asking for it. But can we at least remove this...shadow between us? I want to be friends. Not more than friends,” he said putting his arms out defensively. “And maybe not even friends. But I want to help. Can you accept that?”
“Naem, I don’t think I can ever forget what you did. Even when I know why you did it, I can’t bring myself to forgive you. Not yet. I nearly died, and so did Gabriel, Amelia, Seph, who knows how many others.”
Naem hung his head. “I know.” He did not even bother to give an excuse this time. That was something.
“Perhaps,” said Jak, choosing her words carefully. “You should be more concerned with proving yourself trustworthy before you go around asking all of us to be friends with you again.And understand it will take a long time before any of us will fully trust you again. I’m not sure if I ever will, not completely.”
“I understand,” said Naem, nodding. “I can’t ask for more than that chance to prove myself. I won’t let you down.”
“See that you don’t, because there won’t be another chance.” Jak turned to walk away.
“And Jak,” he said once her back was turned. She paused but did not face him. “I still care for you. I won’t do anything to hurt you again.”
Jak said nothing. What could she say? She couldn’t lie and say she still cared for him too, but she couldn’t tell him the truth either. In all honesty, she really wished he would leave. If he wanted to fight the queen in his own way, that was fine. But why did he have to come here?
So she chose to say nothing, only walking away to find her tent, or better yet, Seph’s tent. He always knew how to make her feel better, and he probably wanted an update on the news Naem had brought with him.
She switched direction and began weaving through the many tents. She passed former Watcher soldiers and some of Seph’s followers, though they were easily outnumbered by the Fae intermingled among them. They had a good thing happening here. Fae and humans lived among each other in peace, at least they had peace among themselves. If only they could deal with the queen’s army, to get those who were truly fearful of the Fae to understand that they were not a threat.
But they were a threat. The realization sank like a dull knife, cutting deeper into her heart. The queen had been right to fear them. Now that they knew what the queen was doing, they would have to retaliate. People would die, human and Fae alike, before they came to a peaceful conclusion. And who was to say it would end peacefully? Yes, they could have peace for a time, but how long would it last? Once Jak and the rest of them were dead and gone, how long before fears again took hold and fighting broke out?
Seph’s tent appeared as she rounded a corner. It was just as modest as the rest of them, which matched Seph’s personality perfectly. He wasn’t one who sought after praise. He was a man the common person could follow. He was a leader in the best sense of the word, and he lead by example. Half of the humans in the camp were here because of him, not because of Jak.
They needed more people like Seph. People who truly had no personal motives other than to help others. Her father had been like that. While reclusive, he had never hesitated to help when someone needed him. From a neighboring villager to one of his own sheep, he would always go out of his way to help.
Jak stopped walking to Seph’s tent. Suddenly she felt like she needed something else, and not his comfort. She had too much going on in her head, and she needed to sort it all out, away from all the noise. Seph would likely give her a sermon anyway. That wouldn’t help.
Slowly, she turned and began walking away from Seph’s tent, hoping against hope that he didn’t suddenly emerge and call to her. She let out a small sigh of relief when she rounded the nearest corner.
Doing her best to block out all the noise surrounding her from passing Fae and soldiers, she thought through her options. What she really needed right now was some quiet, and there wasn’t much of that to be had here. She thought about going to the river to have anoth
er talk with Amelia. But even that didn’t feel right. Amelia would just try to make her feel better, and that wasn’t exactly what Jak needed either. If they were considering such drastic action as overthrowing the queen, it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing to feel better about it. These were serious matters. Her father had always taught her not to treat such things lightly.
She turned to look west, towards the river and the plains beyond. Perhaps she needed to confront a darker part of her heart first. Was that what was holding her back now? Was that what troubled her?
What would her father do? That was the question that nagged at her now. Would he fight, or would he hide? In a sense, he had already done the latter when he had first encountered the changed Shadow Fae and took Jak away from her mother. That had been the passive route, but had it been the right one?
She knew what she needed to do. It was time to revisit her old town of Riverbrook. She wasn’t sure what answers she would find there, perhaps none, but she had been putting it off for too long, choosing to hide from her past by remaining in their little camp.
She marched towards the south west corner of the camp. It was on her way out, but that was also where she would find her mother’s camp. If anyone could understand why she needed to leave, it would be her mother. And someone had to know where she was, in case they needed her.
It didn’t take very long for her to find her mother, who was coordinating shifts to watch the newcomers. As Jak approached, Karlona whispered something to the Fae surrounding her, and they quickly dispersed.
“Hello mother,” Jak said as she arrived. She wrapped her arms around the Shadow Fae in a hug. They hadn’t known each other for much more than a year, but already they had grown close. Though perhaps not in the same way that Jak and her father had been close. Even though she and her father had some quarrels, she had never met someone else that she trusted more. Not yet.
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