After Kai was seated, those without Dair blood were allowed to sit. Bedelia, pale and sickly looking from her wound, was assisted by one of the Aos Sí.
Moving to stand behind his seated queen, Eywen cleared his throat. “Allow me to present Oighear the White, Queen of the Faie.”
Oighear smiled graciously with lips almost as white as her skin, save the barest hint of pink to distinguish them from the white teeth she subtly revealed. “I will jump straight to the heart of the matter,” she explained. “Since our return, I have besought my people to search out the Dair so that we might negotiate. You are the first I have found.” She gestured to both Kai and Finn.
Kai wanted to argue that he wasn’t one of the Dair, but decided against it. The Aos Sí seemed to respect the Dair, while showing mild distaste for the humans, and he preferred to remain arrow-free.
“Negotiate?” Finn asked, eyeing Oighear intently.
Oighear inclined her head. Her pure white hair slithered forward like water over her shoulders. “I would like my shroud returned to me. I am the rightful ruler of the Faie, not the Dair.”
Kai watched as Finn’s mouth formed an oh of understanding. “I fear I know little of the Dair’s politics,” she replied smoothly, surprising him with her tact. “As you can see, I do not travel with my clan.” She gestured at her companions seated on either side of her.
Oighear frowned. “Then I must ask you to point me in the direction of your clan.”
“I do not know them,” Finn answered simply.
Oighear’s pleasant mask fell away as if it had never existed. Underneath her calm exterior, waited a wrathful queen. “You will facilitate negotiations, or you will die,” she growled. “To what clan do you belong?”
Finn seemed to think about it, then answered honestly. “The Cavari.”
Oighear’s eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed. “The Cavari?” she intoned. “The very clan who stole the shroud from my sleeping form?”
“Sleeping?” Finn asked. “The legend says the Faie Queen died, and the shroud was stolen from her corpse.”
A chill wind swept through the room. At first Kai thought perhaps the door behind them had opened, then he realized the cold was coming from the other direction. It was coming from Oighear.
“You know very well that we fell into a long slumber when magic fled from the land,” Oighear growled. “The Dair survived it longer than most and took my shroud, but just because we were resting, does not mean we were unaware.”
Finn seemed to be deep in thought, not outwardly showing any of the worry Kai was acutely experiencing in that moment. “I remember something of this . . . ” she muttered, her words gently trailing off.
Oighear eyed her suspiciously. “What is your name?”
Finn didn’t seem to hear her.
“Her name is not important,” Iseult answered.
“Do not speak to the Queen, human,” Eywen warned.
Finn gasped, then refocused on the situation at hand. “I remember you,” she marveled. “Oighear the Snow Queen. Had you not been laid to rest, you would have brought eternal winter to the land.”
Oighear slammed a bare, white palm against the table. “I would have brought greatness to my people,” she snapped. “Unlike the Dair, who sullied themselves with the silly affairs of humans. The Dair are not fit to lead the Faie.”
Finn’s chair screeched across the wooden floor as she stood abruptly. “You were not a kind queen,” she accused. “I would sooner burn the shroud than give it to you!”
Kai looked back and forth between the two women, completely lost as to where the conversation was going. Finn had obviously remembered something of her previous life, and now she was going to get them all killed because of it. The Aos Sí in the room flexed their hands near their weapons, ready to defend their ruler. Kai stood and moved near Finn, ready to protect her, though Iseult had already reached her opposite side. Even Bedelia had staggered to her feet, though she seemed to be having trouble keeping them.
“Lock them away,” the Queen ordered, and the Aos Sí surrounding her stepped forward. “Perhaps we’ll find use for them later.”
Finn raised her arms, as if to summon her magic, then her face crumbled into confused lines.
Oighear smiled wickedly. “This dwelling is warded against outside magic, my dear. I have no intention of falling prey to the Dair a second time.”
The doors behind them opened, and armored Aos Sí spilled into the room, surrounding them.
“Do we fight?” Sativola whispered, standing with his back toward the queen, facing the door.
Kai felt a blast of ice against his back, and turned to see snowflakes streaming in through the doorway. He began to shiver, overwhelmed with cold. He tried to reach for his blade, but seemed unable to move his limbs. The Aos Sí circled them, somehow impervious to the cold. They aimed swords and spears inward, ready to skewer any with the power to run.
Oighear moved around the table and stood next to her Aos Sí warriors. Laughter sparkled in her lilac eyes as they fell on Sativola’s massive, shivering form.
“My dear,” she purred, “no one fights a queen.”
“What a disaster,” Maarav muttered, leaning against the wooden wall of the inn. He and Ealasaid had made it to Badenmar, hoping to perhaps plead their case to Iseult, or at the very least, to start following their party in secret, but what they’d found instead was An Fiach.
Fortunately, they’d seen signs of the large group well before they reached the small burgh, and so, had been cautious in their approach. They’d made it just in time to see the last few men depart, leaving sorrow in their wake.
Not sorrow at their passing, but sorrow at what they took. Badenmar had been robbed of its few horses, and most of its supplies. With the odd weather stunting the crops, they’d have a poor harvest as it was, and now they had few stores to last them through hard times.
While Maarav didn’t make a habit out of caring about small burghs, Ealasaid was another matter.
“Sheep licking, soft bellied fiends,” she hissed, kicking the dirt in front of her.
They’d just finished speaking with the innkeep to find there were no supplies left to purchase. Many of the villagers would be moving on toward Garenoch within the day in hopes of salvation, but Maarav knew their chances were grim.
Ealasaid obviously knew it too, but was not nearly as accepting of the fact.
“We have to do something,” she grumbled, gazing across the square at the morose villagers adding up what they had left, and debating their chances of surviving through winter.
“Like what?” he asked, hoping she would soon realize how silly it was to worry. The villagers fates were all but sealed.
A grim look of determination took over her delicate face. “Like track down An Fiach and reclaim the horses and supplies.”
Maarav burst out laughing, and that grim look was suddenly directed at him. Unfortunately for her, he was not one to quaver at the wrong end of any threatening look, especially not one from a lovely young lady.
“Forgive me,” he continued to laugh. “While your lightning is highly impressive, I do not believe you are a match for fifty soldiers.”
She lifted her freckled nose in the air. “So we’re to just turn a blind eye to injustice?”
He smirked, but his expression slowly fell as he realized the source of her venom. “You know,” he began soberly, “the men who raided this village are likely not the ones who destroyed yours.”
She scowled at him. “You’re right, since the villagers here were left alive. It still doesn’t mean that these men should not pay for their crimes.”
Maarav patted her shoulder. “Justice is best left to the gods, lass. Let us focus on staying alive, for now.”
Her ire-filled expression faltered. “Do you truly believe Slàine will come after us?”
He chuckled and leaned his back against the inn’s exterior wall. “Oh I have little doubt. We will need to stay one step ahead for quite some time, an
d getting back into Finn’s good graces couldn’t hurt. I’d be a fool to believe that Slàine won’t try for her again, but Finn has at least proven she can best an entire flock of assassins.”
Ealasaid sighed. “You’re an assassin too, aren’t you,” she muttered without the inclination of a question. Before he could answer, she turned and walked toward the stable where they’d left their horse tied outside of the pens.
He pushed away from the wall to catch up with her. “I was,” he answered honestly. “And perhaps some day I will be again, if my coin purse grows light.”
She stopped walking and narrowed her eyes at him. “How could you do something like that? Kill an innocent person?”
He laughed and continued walking, reaching their horse to untie its reins. “No one is innocent, lass. Not even you.”
Ealasaid was silent for a long time after that, even as they mounted their horse and left the burgh. While Maarav had only spoken the truth, he sincerely hoped he hadn’t gone too far. He’d do well to not alienate the last living person willing to stand by his side . . . though he didn’t quite understand why she still did so at all.
Chapter Eleven
Leaning her back against the cold stone wall, Finn reached out and stroked her fingers across the iron bars of her prison. Her magic, had she the ability to control it, would do her no good here. She remembered Oighear now, though she wished she could forget.
In the memory, she felt small, merely a child new to the world of man. She could recall a meeting.
Many gathered around a long wooden table, darkened with age. It glistened in the candlelight, casting an eerie glow on the faces of those seated. At the table’s head sat Oighear in a glittering white gown, with two of the Aos Sí standing at her back. On her spider silk tresses rested a delicate crown, bedecked with jewels as clear as rain.
Oighear, terrifying and beautiful, huddled in the corner, while several members of Finn’s tribe looked over a treaty being passed around the table. All of the Cavari wore hoods to cover their features, as did some others around the table that were strangers to Finn.
The treaty reached Oighear. Instead of touching it herself, one of the Aos Sí pressed the parchment firmly against the table in front of her. She dipped a quill in ink to sign the treaty, but hesitated. “We will remain within the new borders, as promised,” she began, “but I want assurances that our magic will remain unhindered. Though the earthen powers may be dwindling, there is still enough to share.”
There were murmurs around the table, then a figure opposite Oighear nodded.
Oighear took a deep breath. “For the safety of my people in this war, I will do as you ask, but let me be clear. We will not remain trapped forever.” She leveled her glare at each of the figures seated around the table in turn, then with a heavy sigh, signed the parchment.
The cloaked figures stood. One branched away from the group and approached Finn. She caught a glimpse of her mother’s face in the shadowy depths of the hood, smiling at her. “Come Finnur,” she whispered, taking Finn’s small hand. “It’s time to go.”
Finn sighed, returning to the present, and the dreary confines of her cell. She felt an odd pang of heartache at the memory of her mother’s touch. She ran her fingers up and down the cold bar again. She supposed she couldn’t blame Oighear for imprisoning her. The Dair had betrayed her people. The treaty had been meant to bind the Faie to the land beyond the Blood Forest, but Oighear did not understand the full terms. The seasons were changing, and magic was leaving the land. She’d unintentionally cut her people off from too much, and they had faded away. Once she’d been weakened, her shroud had been stolen. The funeral shroud not of Oighear, but of her mother, the true Faie Queen.
Finn curled up in the corner of her cell, experiencing just what Oighear had felt when she was cut off from her power. Every inch of the compound seemed to be warded against her magic. She hadn’t known just how much she felt her connection to the earth at all times, until it wasn’t there.
Hushed voices nearing her cell drew her attention. She sat up, but remained in the shadows near the wall. A lantern came into view first, then Eywen’s face. Had he come to torment her? To punish her for what her people had done to the Aos Sí?
Finn nearly jumped out of her skin as Iseult’s face appeared behind Eywen. Several other forms lurked behind them in the dimly lit room.
Eywen lifted a heavy keyring, then unlocked the barred door of her cell. She looked up at him, confused, and he held a finger to his lips, then gestured for her to stand.
She did as she was bade, then hurried to Iseult’s side. Now that she was close enough, she could see Kai, Anna, Sativola, and Bedelia. She opened her mouth to ask Iseult what was happening, but like Eywen, he held a finger to his lips.
Eywen turned and led them back out of the room, shielding his lantern with his free arm. They moved single file down a narrow corridor. If it weren’t for her death-grip on the back of Iseult’s arm, she likely would have stumbled in the near-darkness several times.
They reached the end of the corridor and Finn tensed in alarm, then relaxed. Eywen’s lantern allowed just enough light to illuminate several armored guards waiting for them, but they had all slumped to the floor. At first Finn thought they were dead, then one twitched, scaring her out of her wits. They were merely in a deep, unnatural slumber.
Finn continued down the corridor with Iseult in front of her, and Kai behind. Kai’s hand remained on her shoulder, using her as his guide, much like she used Iseult. She caught dull flashes of silver armor as they passed a multitude of sleeping guards, until finally they reached an iron-barred exit. Ewyen produced an ornate key and employed it near-silently on the lock, then they emerged into the freezing night air. The moonlight was a relief, allowing Finn a broader field of vision than she’d had in the corridor. It seemed a fresh layer of snow had fallen while they were imprisoned, blanketing the night in eerie stillness.
They walked through the snow in silence. Only the sound of their boots crunching on the ice, and the occasional hoots of owls assured Finn she could still hear. She noted the lack of guards as they walked, and knew it must have been planned, along with the sleeping guards in the corridor. Did Eywen have allies, or had he managed to drug them all? She supposed it didn’t matter, as long as they were awarded their freedom.
Eywen reached the stables first. He nodded in greeting to two conscious Aos Sí. Finn tensed again, but they did not attack, nor did they cart them back to their cells. Instead, they handed them the reins of fresh horses, with supplies strapped to their backs.
“Why are you letting us go?” Finn finally whispered, stepping close to Eywen. “I do not understand.”
His breath fogged the air near her face as he met her questioning gaze, then pressed the reins of a white horse into her hands. “Oighear believes she can force the Dair into submission, but her pride blinds her. Many of us know better than to incur the wrath of the Cavari. I hope that when the time comes, you will show mercy to the Aos Sí, though I will not be alive to see it.”
Behind him, one of the Aos Sí handed Iseult a sword, then turned to help Anna onto her nervous horse’s back.
Finn began to ask why Eywen would not be alive, then realized her foolishness. Oighear would surely kill him when she realized he’d drugged her guards and released her prisoners.
“You should come with us,” she whispered without thinking.
Eywen and the other two Aos Sí shook their heads. “We have accepted our fates,” Eywen explained. “All that I ask is that our deaths not be in vain. Please, show mercy for our people.”
Finn nodded, fighting back tears. She clutched the horse’s reins tightly in her shaking hands. “I swear to you, I will do all that I can.”
A sudden breeze lifted Finn’s hair from her face, stinging her cheeks with ice.
Eywen gave her hands a squeeze around the reins, then moved to help her mount. She looked hesitantly up at the graceful white horse, its mane reminding her of
Oighear’s hair. It wasn’t the horse she and Iseult had ridden previously, but she supposed any horse was better than none.
“You must go,” Eywen urged.
Without warning, he put his hands on Finn’s waist and nearly threw her into the saddle. She managed to swing her leg up at the last moment, then gripped the pommel for dear life as Eywen thwapped the horse on its rump. It shot through the snow like an arrow, carrying Finn away from the stables.
Moments later, her friends caught up, their horses galloping on either side of her. The icy wind picked up, and she abruptly realized their hurry. Oighear had awakened.
A rage-filled shriek cut through the night, and suddenly she was blinded by snow, pelleting her face to the point where she could hardly breathe. She ducked low against her saddle, pressing her face near the base of her horse’s neck. She had no idea if she was going in the right direction. She simply had to trust that her horse’s lithe legs would carry her away from danger.
Something sliced into her arm, nearly toppling her from her mount as she cried out in agony. Hot blood welled to pour down her limb.
Tears covered her face, still pressed near her horse’s mane. She couldn’t lift her gaze enough to see her surroundings, but she heard no hoofbeats around her. She was alone, in a world gone entirely white.
Iseult rolled through the snow, righting himself just in time to deflect the blade of his attacker with his borrowed sword. He was fortunate that only one of the Aos Sí had managed to cut him off. The ancient warriors were highly skilled, and just as fast as he, if not faster.
He dodged another swipe of his attacker’s blade, darting his eyes about for his new horse. If he’d had his own horse, it would have stuck by no matter the commotion, but this new creature clearly wasn’t properly trained.
He lifted his sword against another attack, the force of which sent a painful jolt up his arm. Their blades slid across each other with a metallic shwing, then both opponents stepped back and squared off. Iseult steeled himself for another attack, but it somehow came from behind. Sharp pain radiated up from his lower back, bringing him to his knees. He slumped to his side in the snow and looked up at his attacker, another of the Aos Sí. The warrior had been utterly silent in his approach, catching him off guard like no man ever had.
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