Born of Embers

by Harper Wylde

  The Valkyrie’s Princes

  Quinn Arthurs

  Chapter One

  I should have known that my death would be embarrassing and painful. The only luck I have ever had was bad, so I guess it only made sense that my death would follow in the same vein as my life. The laughter of the others echoed sickly in my head and I could feel the blood matting my short brown hair to my sore scalp. My breath wheezed out of my lungs as a sickening lurch meant they had hauled me into the air once again. The wind stung my bare skin as it whipped against tender scrapes and open wounds. They hadn’t left me any dignity this time in their quest for entertainment; I was stripped completely bare so my tormentors could see each wound they inflicted as it appeared.

  Cecilia’s sickeningly high voice rang out over the sounds of the giggles and chortles of the other young Valkyries. “How do you expect to be a Valkyrie if you don’t even have wings? What kind of failure are you? You’ll never be anything of use. All you’re good for is wiping up messes.”

  At the cheering of the other Valkyries she dropped me. I closed my eyes against the rush of air as I plummeted to the ground, but I couldn’t stop the small scream as I felt my ribs snap.

  The laughter and jeers around me grew louder as the girls circled me.

  “Look at it bleed!”

  “Maybe if we hit it hard enough we’ll knock the wings out of it!”

  “She’s not worthy of wings. She’ll never be anything.”

  I tried to breathe through the fluid I could feel gathering in my lungs. The world had taken on a hazy quality through my half-opened lids. All of the young Valkyries hung a few feet above my head, the sunlight reflected off of their widely spread wings as they continued to plan the next step in their assault. Their feathers ranged from dark brown to light gray, a film of shadows to obscure the little remaining of my vision as I tried to blink the dirt and tears from my lashes.

  Cecilia lashed out with the leather boots that clad her small feet, aiming for my head as her charcoal gray wings dipped low to the ground. I tried to curl into a smaller ball on the ground but there was just so much pain. My hands and legs were growing numb as a pressure built in my chest and my head whirled. I prayed that they would at least dress me when they were done, so the Elders wouldn’t see my broken, wingless body before they sent me to my final resting place.

  I felt hands wrap tight around my arms and begin to haul me high into the air. I couldn’t convince my eyes to close as I rose higher and higher into the air. The hard dirt of the ground was splattered with my blood, just a series of specks as I hung above the earth. Laughing, Cecilia tossed me to her friends. Each catch hurt enough to leave tears streaming down my face, but I knew it was just the beginning of the end. If only I could convince my traitorous eyes to close so I wouldn’t have to see the ground as it came towards me for the final time.

  Hands gripped my shoulders with crushing strength and nails dug rivets into my skin. I felt my collar bone crack and was helpless to contain the whimper as Darby grabbed a chunk of my hair to pull my head back onto Cecilia’s shoulder. “You’ve been a failure for the past seventeen years. Now we’ll finally be rid of your waste of space. You useless bitch.”

  Darby slapped me hard across the face and, smiling, gave me a small wave of her hand as Cecilia hauled me up slightly higher. “Goodbye, Emberly,” she called with a mockingly sweet voice.

  I watched as the earth began to rush closer to my face, the tree branches slapping against my flailing limbs. Well, at least this would be the end of the torment. There would be no more need to watch my back, to look behind me when I walked, to pray my food hadn’t been tainted yet again. Dying naked and broken was humiliating, but honestly, was it any worse than living wingless in a world of Valkyries? Finally able to close my eyes, I stiffened my limbs as I waited for the last collision.

  I hit hard, but not as hard as I was expecting. My broken ribs screamed, and I could taste blood coating my mouth as I coughed instinctively. My head was throbbing but there had been no searing crack. I could feel more bruises forming across the backs of my thighs and shoulders. Huh. That was weird. And unfortunate. I whimpered as I realized I must have not been as high as I had previously thought due to the fogginess in my brain. That meant they’d be dropping me again.

  I felt my body sweep upward and even out again and I couldn’t stop the tears. Couldn’t they just finish?

  “Shhhh.” The voice was surprisingly gentle, and I struggled to open my eyes and see which one of Cecilia and Darby’s friends held me. Their fingers weren’t digging and pinching, and their body was warm against mine, seeming to shield some of my nakedness. Halos of light flickered in my wavering vision as I tried to clear the shapes and colors before my eyes into something solid.

  Something was very wrong. The light seemed to be reflecting back almost blue. That couldn’t mean good things for my brain if I was seeing the browns and greys of the Valkyries as a bright, sapphire blue. I realized how quiet the air around me had become as I felt a finger brush down my cheek, tracing the path of my tears.

  “Please,” I murmured thickly. The words were hard to form around the blood pooling in my mouth and throat. “No more… Please... Just let me die... I’m sorry... Please…” I was barely coherent, my words strung together and wheezed out in no more than a whisper. The pain of the statement was agonizing, but I couldn’t keep this up. I’d beg if that’s what she wanted.

  “Shhh.” The voice said again. I could hear the anger in the tone despite the whispered volume of the word. “Shhhh. It’ll be okay.”

  I felt the body holding me touch the ground and stabilize as the wings folded around me in a protective wall. Well, this wouldn’t be good. At least if they dropped me I’d die relatively quickly. If they were going to kill me on the ground this was going to be a long, drawn out process. Angry voices penetrated the fog in my brain, echoing weirdly around the blood in my ears.

  “She’s worthless! An abomination! I can’t believe you’d even touch her!” Cecilia’s voice pierced the protective wall of sapphire feathers that was my current home. I wish I could be grateful to whomever was trying to act as my protector, but she would only make herself into another target for Cecilia. Without her favorite subject, Cecilia would be looking for someone else to torture. This girl had no idea what she was in for.

  “Enough! I don’t care what she is!” The thick, purring voice startled me. Oh no. It couldn’t be. A male? It wasn’t bad enough that the females were punishing me, they had brought a male to see me in this condition? I hoped he was low ranking – a brown wing maybe, or even a white wing. Someone who would follow Cecilia’s command to not spread the tale of my demise amongst our people. Couldn’t I even die with a little dignity?

  A second voice joined the first male, this one also deep and rich, smoothing over my skin to cover me like a blanket. “You are all confined to your quarters until we sort this out. Go, now. “

  The warmth against my back seemed to vibrate in a growl. Huh, weird girl. I tried to push away from her so that she could follow the male’s command. My luck had held as usual – for the males to be able to give a Head Trainee like Cecilia a command, they had to be high ranking. The last thing this girl needed was to get in trouble with the males as well as Cecilia and Darby. The grip on me tightened slightly as I tried to wiggle free. Something rough scraped the skin behind my ear causing me to startle in alarm.

  “It’s alright, young one. My brothers are removing the Valkyries. You’re safe.” A face swam startlingly close to mine as rough stubble brushed my cheek. Oh no. Oh no, no. Seriously, why couldn’t I just have died? As my vision cleared I realized I hadn’t been mistaken in my first impression. The hair, eyes, and feathers of the man holding my battered, naked body in his arms were a pure, ethereal sapphire.

  I struggled harder to free myself and bow at the same time, torture for my abused body. “My Prince. I’m so sorry. Please, you did not need to break up such a trivial matter. I apologize for
inconveniencing you.”

  My eyes darted away from his face, though the image of him still remained in my mind. Crap. If it wasn’t bad enough someone had interfered, it had to be the Princes. I noted that he mentioned brothers, which meant that at least two of the other princes were on hand to witness my humiliation. My stomach clenched as I tried again to pull away from the hard, bronze arms that held me. This had to be Prince Suneel – he was the only Ardenian with sapphire wings. His voice stroked like velvet over my skin as he cooed to me again.

  “Be easy, young one. I will protect you.”

  I tried desperately not to snort. Not only would it hurt, but it would be insufferably rude. As soon as he realized what he had rescued he would be even more horrified than Cecilia and her friends. I hoped that the other princes wouldn’t clue him in too quickly. I was used to the other Valkyries disgust, not royal disgust. Suneel opened his wings and the light stabbed into my aching eyes, still tinged slightly red from the blood dripping off my forehead.

  “I’m going to try to set you down. Do you think you can stand?” He whispered into my ear as his grip tightened over my back.

  “Yes, Your Highness. Please, don’t trouble yourself over me.” The words came out thicker than I would have liked as I tried to swallow around the blood filling my mouth. I rested my feet on the ground swallowing back the moan that wanted to work its way out of my throat as my body protested standing on its own power. He left his arm around my waist and ran hard, assessing eyes over my body.

  “Flynn, your cloak please.” A deep red garment was tossed over my shoulders, the fabric abrading the tender wounds despite its soft texture and fine quality. I pulled the fabric tightly around my body despite the pain it caused. I knew I didn’t deserve it, but I would take any scrap of dignity I could catch hold of. I had seen the princes from afar during sacred ceremonies, but I had never been close to any of them. Arden had five young princes: Suneel, Flynn, Hunter, Blaine, and Jett. I frequently heard the other Valkyries discussing them, in the hopes that one day they would snare one for their own. The princes had all been born a year apart from each other, and like all members of the royal family each of the males were blessed with gorgeous, iridescent, jewel colored wings that matched their hair and eyes. Suneel, the oldest, was sapphire. Flynn had wings the color of rubies; a deep and pulsing shade of red. Hunter’s green wings were echoed by the mossy, emerald green of his hair and eyes. Blaine a rich, burnt citrine orange the shade of the sun as it sets. Jett was nearly swallowed in darkness, the deep tan of his skin evening into a pair of inky, onyx black wings that wer so deep they were nearly purple. Keeping my head facing down I tried to sneak glances at them from the corner of my eyes. Breathing as deeply as my broken ribs would allow I managed a bow. While not as deep as it should be, I kept my eyes down submissively as I said, “My Princes, it is an honor. How may I serve you?”

  Suneel raked a hand through his hair, mussing the strands so that they lit up in different shades of blue. “For starters you can tell us your rank, and why the Valkyries looked like they were trying to kill you. Did they pull your feathers? Is that why you wouldn’t fly?”

  I winced, anticipating the backhand that would soon come my way. I braced my feet as well as I could and bowed again as I murmured, “Your Highness, I fear I have no rank.”

  Flynn’s mouth dropped open in shock as he stared at me. “That’s impossible. Everyone has a rank.”

  I turned slightly to bare my back to their gazes, my head hung in shame as I lowered Flynn’s cloak from my shoulders. “I know it is unheard of, Your Highness, but it is true.”

  Blaine looked at me strangely, his eyes cool and calculating. “How many summers do you have?”

  I could understand his curiosity. Most of our kind’s young gained their wings around 8 or 9 summers. Some boys were late in gaining their wings, as late as 12 summers. It was almost unheard of in girls, however. I had obviously never experienced it myself, but the child would fall ill and, after a week of excruciating pain, their wings would emerge. After that, children were ranked. Males wings were always white or a pastel color with bright edges, the only exception were children of royal blood whose wings were always of jewel tones. The brighter and more colorful your wings, the higher your rank. Females wings were all in shades of grey and brown, the darker the color the more powerful the female. Most of our females were warriors and trained from the time their wings emerged.

  All sorts of fables ran through our midst about how a person could determine what color their wings would be before they emerged. Some stated that if a female made it through the change without shedding a tear she was guaranteed dark wings as she would make a strong warrior. Others claimed that it had to do with how good or bad of a child you were, although as kids we assumed this was just a story created by parents hoping for calmer younglings. There seemed to be no known tie to wing color other than the royal variations.

  I kept my gaze on the ground as I turned back to face the young princes. “I’ve seen twenty-four summers,” I stated hesitantly, knowing reprisal would be swift and painful. Each of them gasped and took a small step backwards.

  Blaine narrowed his eyes. “That’s impossible. None of our kind has ever made it past twelve summers without gaining their wings. Why haven’t we heard of this?”

  So they weren’t going to start hurting me yet. Odd, but maybe they wanted me coherent enough to speak first. “Your Highness, our town elders were greatly horrified by my failure to grow my wings. There was much debate by the time I reached 13 summers as to what should become of me. They placed me as maid to the training Valkyries. I am also a training subject for them.”

  Hunter growled from amidst his brothers. The green of his eyes was so deep it was shocking, the color of sunlight through dew on the grass. “They use you as a training subject?!” He seemed exasperated.

  “Of course, Your Highness.” Maybe I had passed out after all. This was the oddest conversation I had ever had. “I’m not good for much else, of course, but I do still possess our kind’s healing abilities.”

  He shook his head. “But you can’t defend yourself!”

  I nodded in agreement. “Well, that’s kind of the point. They need to learn how the blows they give feel when they deal them out. It’s how they will become the best soldiers to protect Your Highnesses.”

  Jett smiled at me, the softness of it shocking against the strength that emanated from his eyes and face. “So you have spent the last years of your life in service? What are the terms of your contract? What of your parents?”

  “Please, Your Highness, is there something I may fetch for you?” I asked instead. This was just too strange.

  “We do not need anything,” Blaine snapped, “except answers to my brother’s questions.”

  I bowed hastily. “Of course, Your Highness. I just don’t understand how I could be worth your interests. I assumed you were looking for someone when you interrupted today’s training session.”

  I squared my shoulders, hardening my features against the coming truths. “When it appeared as though my wings would never appear, my parents sold me to the town elders. They left the city in shame. I am not sure where they have relocated to. My contract is for the course of my life. I am bound to the Valkyries training grounds until such time as I die.”

  Hunter hissed through his teeth, the feathers nearest me rustling in agitation. “They just sold you? And a contract through death?”

  He exchanged looks with his brothers his eyes furious. I tried to run through my words to see what I had said wrong. Crap, had I not used enough superlatives? Cecilia was always accusing me of that.

  Despite the excruciating pain I was in as my body continued to mend, I knelt before their feet. “Your Royal Highnesses, I apologize for any inconvenience or upset I have caused you. I can call the training mistress to address you. She may call the town elders if you have need.”

  Suneel picked me up gently. I know I let my mouth gape open as my eyes met his
. That had been completely unexpected. “We will go to the training hall, youngling. But you need to rest to heal.”

  “Your Highness honors me beyond words,” I murmured scrambling for the correct etiquette to follow in this situation. “I am quite able to walk, though. Most of my injuries are already healing.”

  Flynn reached out to push a mat of blood soaked hair behind my ear. “We can’t keep calling you youngling, especially since you actually aren’t underage! What are you called, girl?”

  “I’m Emberly, Your Highness. I will answer to any name you prefer, however.”

  He smiled, the light making the red in his hair and eyes flicker. “I’m Flynn. I’m sure you’ve seen us before, but we’ve had manners drilled into us since we were younglings ourselves. The one holding you is Suneel, though he prefers to just be called Neel. The grumpy one is Blaine. Hunter’s the agitated one with the green wings. And the softy over there is Jett. Please, enough with the Your Highness crap. Just use our names.”

  I don’t think my mouth could have dropped open any further. “Use your given names? But that would be a massive breach of rank!”

  He snickered, “Sure, if you did it without our permission. Consider it an order, Emberly. You’ll use our given names.”

  The others all nodded, except for Blaine who just continued to study me. With a glance at his brothers, Suneel – Neel, I corrected in my head – began to stride across the empty training grounds towards the soldier’s barracks. Even from this distance I could see that Cecilia was at the window of her quarters. This would not end well. I winced imagining the beating that would ensue. With most of my wounds now healing my body no longer wished for death.