by N. M. Howell
Rhea raised her eyebrow. “Really, that’s all it takes for you to kill a princess? Some coin?”
The woman huffed and leaned her head back, looking up into the sky. “To be honest, I didn’t think we’d actually find you. It just seemed a good excuse to get away from my people.”
“And why would you want to do that?” Rhea asked her. She wasn’t sure how much she could trust the woman, but she had a hunch that the woman was being honest.
“Surely you’ve heard what my people have done,” she said, her voice holding an edge of anger. “Screw the Emerald Fae. I want nothing to do with them and their stupid war games.”
“Yeah sure, right,” Roan said, his voice nearly comical. “You’re not happy with the horrors your people have done, so you leave with a bunch of bandits to go murder the princess. That’s logical.”
The woman groaned. “I’m being honest. Who the hell would have believed that this group of idiots would find the princess? I thought we just be going out for a bit of a walkabout, who fucking knew that they would be able to trace you here? They hardly knew their ass from their toes.”
“So you admit you knowingly went along with a party intending to murder our princess,” Taelor snapped.
“They were a bunch of idiots,” the woman said. “They would never have found you guys had they not been tipped off. Seriously.”
Grayson glanced back to Rhea, who raised her eyebrow at him.
“Who tipped you off?” Rhea asked.
The woman shrugged. “I dunno, I’m not in charge. I just follow along for the ride.”
Taelor yawned and placed his boot back on the woman’s neck. “It doesn’t matter what your intentions were. You joined a party intending to kill the princess, and that makes you the enemy. Any last words?”
His voice was so casual and easy, it made Rhea take a step back from him. She sucked in a quick breath. Killing came to easy to him, and she forgot how frightening he could be. His graceful expression was sharp as he glared down at her, ready to strike, his fingers flexing on the hilt of his sword.
The woman closed her eyes and shook her head. Grayson pulled out his dagger, but Rhea stepped in front of him and held her hand out.
“No, wait.”
Taelor turned to her, his eyebrow raised. “And what do you intend to do with her if not let us kill her?”
“Just wait!” Rhea looked down at the woman again, bending forward and placing a hand on her chest. She looked up to Roan and smiled softly. “Loosen up a little bit, will you?”
Roan stared at her a minute but nodded, leaning back on his heels and relieving the weight on the woman’s chest. She breathed in deeply, relishing in the brief moment of freedom.
“You can really read any language?” Rhea asked her.
The woman looked at her, her eyes grateful. She nodded. “Yes, anything.”
Rhea glanced up to Grayson and then to Taelor, her eyebrows raised. “Even symbols?”
The woman sighed and nodded. “Yes, if they’re written like a language, I can read symbols.” Her voice was soft and low, defeated. She knew she couldn’t get away, but Rhea was momentarily grateful for the luck they’d had in finding her.
“Why are you asking her this?” Taelor asked.
Rhea looked up at him, shaking her head as she frowned at him. She pulled out the small piece of paper from her pocket and held it up to him. “Symbols?”
Realization dawned on Taelor’s face and he stepped back.
“Of course,” he said quickly. “I apologize. I didn’t think of it before.”
Rhea shrugged, suppressing a grin. “Y’all are acting a little bit heated, I get it. Emotions running wild and all that. You can’t be in control all the time.”
Rhea couldn’t help but smirk at the irritated reactions of her guardians. She knew that her belittling would piss them off. Time to make them feel small for a change.
“We are in control,” Grayson said.
Rhea nodded and shrugged again. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
She had put them on edge. She could tell she was annoying them and it made her smile.
Great, let them feel like idiots for once.
“Drowned rat, my ass,” she then muttered to herself. Rhea unfolded the paper and held it in front of the woman’s face. “Can you tell me what this says?”
The fae woman inspected it, but looked lost for a moment. Rhea let out a defeated sigh, ready to take the paper back and give up, but the woman’s expression changed. Her eyes glazed over, the symbols within her irises glowing bright. She then looked up to Rhea, her eyebrows raised. “Yes, I can read it.”
Rhea glanced up to her guardians, an expression of pride and “I told you” so in her eyes. She didn’t say it, but they knew she was thinking it.
Sitting back on her heels, Rhea handed the paper to the scribe. “Well, what does it say?”
“Why would I tell you?” the woman snapped back, her expression souring.
Rhea pressed the heels of her hands into her tired eyes, finally looking up at Taelor when her vision re-adjusted. “Well?”
Taelor frowned. “Well, what?”
“Well,” Rhea said, fingering her tangled hair. “She has a point.”
Taelor sighed, frustration written clearly across his face. “Fine. We will let you go if you translate this message for us. But you must be honest, and you have to vow to us on your life that you will not turn back and harm the princess. You must swear you have left the Emerald Fae for good and that you are on our side.”
The woman slowly nodded, her eyes exhausted. “Yes, I vow on my life and whoever else’s life you need me to swear on. Whatever. Just let me go and let me live in peace away from all this shit you gods are causing in our world.”
Taelor gazed at Rhea, his eyebrow raised.
Rhea shrugged. “Sounds legit to me.”
She couldn’t blame the woman for being pissed. The gods really had fucked up the entire world.
“Better let her go.” Rhea placed a soft hand on Roan’s shoulder.
Roan was apprehensive, but nodded and stepped away from her, pushing his large body up to a standing position as he gazed down at the woman with an expression of concern on his face.
All the guardians stood leaning over her, a threatening presence in their surroundings. The woman was clearly in pain as she struggled to her feet. Rhea offered her a hand and helped her up, the woman gracefully accepting it.
Both Rhea and the Emerald Fae stood gazing into each other’s eyes for a long moment, mutual understanding evident in their expressions.
“The note is written from one named Crystalline.”
Rhea’s eyebrows shot up. “Crystalline?” She turned to Taelor. “I know that name. Why do I know that name?”
Taelor rubbed his neck, stretching out his sore muscles as he considered. “She’s your distant cousin. Crystalline was barely seen at the castle, though. She left when you were very young. Perhaps before you were born, actually.”
Rhea considered and glanced back to the fae woman, who stood a whole head shorter than she. “Why would a distant cousin be sending me a cryptic message through a fortune teller?”
The woman shook her head, exhaustion and defeat worn across her face. “You want to know what the hell the note is, or not? I don’t have any more answers, but what I can tell you is what the damn thing says.”
“Fine, tell me what it says.”
The woman plucked the paper back from Rhea’s hand and opened it again, her eyes scanning the strange symbols. “Come to the mountains in the north. We can band together and defeat Aelon as one. Stand by me, and we will win.”
Rhea sucked in a quick gasp. “She wants to fight on my side?” Her wide eyes shot to Taelor who looked angry as he stood there, staring at the woman.
Taelor’s then shook his head, and took the note back from her. “No, she wants us to join her.”
Rhea raised her eyebrow. “Is that not the same thing?”
Taelor
frowned. “No, very much not the same thing.”
“Can I go now?” the woman asked, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
Rhea rolled her eyes. “Yes, go. Sheesh.”
The fae woman grunted in response and began walking away, her legs limping and her body hunched. She had been hurt, but seemed grateful enough to be leaving with her life.
Rhea watched her walk away in silence, but the woman paused atop the hill and turned back to her. “I don’t know what you guys are playing at or what sort of shit you have planned, but this Crystalline obviously went to great lengths to get that note to you. That is not a well-known language. These symbols… Only a scribe such as myself would’ve been able to decipher them. You’re lucky we met.”
Rhea’s brows creased together as she watched the woman turn and disappear over the hill.
She then glanced to Taelor. “Why would she send something so cryptic? I understand wanting to prevent other people from reading it, but if there is no way I would have been able to read it, why bother with such secrecy?”
Taelor rubbed his neck, his expression stormy. “The fortune teller,” he finally said.
Rhea raised her eyebrow, accepting the folded piece of paper that Taelor offered her. She traced her finger along the symbols, considering. She then folded it up and put in back in her pocket for safekeeping.
“These bandits were tipped off to find us here,” he finally added.
“Yes,” Grayson said, finally understanding. “Perhaps they weren’t sent to kill us, at least not fully. Whoever sent them must have known they had a scribe in their midst. This whole thing seemed orchestrated, though perhaps they didn’t quite fully know the plan.”
Rhea nodded slowly. “It makes sense, I suppose.”
“In a very roundabout way,” Keaven said. He appeared puzzled by the entire interaction.
Rhea shuddered. “What if they had succeeded in killing us before we discovered she was a scribe? Or what if we had killed her before discovering her abilities? Something doesn’t quite make sense to me.”
Taelor shrugged. “Such is war.” His voice was pained, and he closed his eyes as he rolled his shoulders back, stiff from his fight.
“We’d better get going,” Grayson said. “We should make it past Harborfell by nightfall, and we can set up camp near the town.”
Rhea’s eyes went wide. “What you mean? We’re still going that way? What about my cousin?”
Grayson frowned, his eyes growing stormy again. “Don’t be dumb, Rhea. Of course we’re not falling for that bait.”
“Why not?” Rhea crossed her arms. “How do you know it’s bait? We could do with all the allies we can get.”
“It’s too dangerous,” Taelor said. “Besides, we don’t know if she’s true in her invitation or whether she’s working on the other side. For all we know, we could be walking into a trap.”
Rhea shrugged. “It’s not a trap.”
Taelor raised his eyebrow. “Oh, and how do you know that?”
Rhea shook her head slowly, remembering back to the things the fortune teller told her. She had given her a warning, but there was no mention of any immediate danger. If she had seemed truthful about the six of them becoming one, and her guardians dying, not that she wanted to think about that, then surely she would’ve warned of her cousin. “I just have a feeling.”
“Oh great,” Taelor said, sarcastically. “Rhea has a feeling. Let’s go test out that feeling and risk our lives.”
Rhea glowered. “Not funny,” she snapped at him. “Stop being so damn sarcastic. It’s off-putting.”
“I’m not trying to impress anyone.”
“Well, maybe you should.”
The two glowered at each other for a long moment before Grayson interrupted, clearing his throat.
“Taelor’s right, it is absolutely too dangerous,” he said. “There is no way we can go. For all we know, she’s working with Trey or any of the other opposing armies, and trying to lure you there so she can take you out. We are going the route as planned, heading to Greystone to put you in a position of authority and take back the Realm that way.”
Rhea huffed. She was so angry she could’ve hit him. What made him the boss?
“Why must you always ignore what I have to say?” she asked him. “It’s as if my decisions mean nothing. I thought I was the one that was going to lead this world to peace, or were you guys just pulling my leg with that one and being assholes?”
She knew she was stepping over a line, but she had had it with them. She was tired of being told that she was the “One” chosen one to restore this world to peace, yet they never seemed to trust her opinions. If they weren’t even going to listen to her suggestions or follow her lead now, she no hope of directing them in the future.
“I think we should go to my cousin,” she said, crossing her arms. Her voice was final.
“No,” Grayson said. He then turned and marched back to the oak tree, where the horses had been tied up. Rhea stared after him. She felt like a child ready to have a temper tantrum. She wanted to scream and hit them, to tell them how wrong they were, but they were five against one, and by the expressions they wore when she caught their gazes, she knew she had no hope in convincing them.
When Grayson had finally prepared the horses and the rest of her guardians were mounted up and waiting for her, Rhea finally let out a slow sigh of resignation. Instead of waiting for one of them to help her, she awkwardly climbed up into her saddle.
“Whatever,” she muttered under her breath when she caught Keaven eyeing her. “One of these days you’ll see that I’m right. You guys want me to be queen, but you’re really starting to piss me off.”
Keaven came up beside her, a soft smile on his face. “You will learn to trust us one of these days,” he said to her, winking. He then bowed his head and added, “your majesty.”
“Oh, shut up.” Rhea sighed, though a small smile formed on her lips at expression. She was exhausted, angry, and terribly afraid. She had no idea what was waiting for them, but she knew going to see her cousin, whether beneficial or not, would at least buy more time before she had to deal with the whole throne thing. Perhaps she could convince them if she fought harder, but Grayson was set in his ways.
She resented him for it, and while she understood why he wanted to be the leader, if she was to be queen—not that she would ever sit on that stupid throne—he would need to learn to trust her choices and follow her.
They traveled in an uncomfortable silence. Rhea brooded, her thoughts dark and her mood darker. But at least as they journeyed toward Harborfell, she could come up with a plan to convince them that she was right. And she knew she was right.
At least, she hoped she was.
19
The party neared Harborfell by nightfall.
Rhea still brooded. They rode most of the way in silence, none of them bothering to chat with her while she sat gloomy on her horse, muttering curse words under her breath. She really didn’t know what to think of her guardians. She respected them, she understood their purpose, she’d even bonded with them, but she was beginning to get extremely irritated at all their rules and disregard for what she felt was the right thing to do.
Grayson tied his horse and went about setting up camp for the night, his amused expression making Rhea’s mood grow even darker. They were near the village and she could see lights in the distance. The sound of the people below could be heard quietly over the fields, but Rhea and her guardians were far enough away to stay hidden, their own voices blanketed by their surroundings.
Rhea stood gazing out over the village, an endless sea of houses and shrubbery down winding dirt paths that looked little more than specks down below. Smoke came from the endless chimneys, billowing around the small thatched roof homes, becoming lost in the sky among the clouds.
She desperately wanted to go down to the village, to see other people and walk around. She had the urge to explore and be among civilization for a while
. She missed the bustle of Detroit, the endless sea of people passing her. Even though she hadn’t had many friends or even talked much to anyone on the streets, it still felt nice being around people. Not that her guardians weren’t people, but it just wasn’t the same.
Roan set up a tent and Taelor handed out another bunch of elven fruit crisps, which Rhea accepted gratefully. She munched on hers, ignoring the rest of her guardians as she gazed out over the village below.
“What’s got you so blue?” Arry asked, joining her in the grass. He leaned against a nearby tree, munching on his own fruit crisp as he watched her gazing out over the sprawling village below.
She shrugged, a frown forming on her face. “I dunno, it’s just been a long couple of days.”
“It has.”
Rhea glanced over, watching him contently chewing on his food. He wore a broad smile on his face, his eyes sparkling as he peered up into the evening sky.
“What’s it like to be you?” she asked him.
He raised his eyebrow at her, confusion apparent on his face. “What you mean?”
Rhea walked over to him and sat down on the soft grassy floor, crossing her legs as she looked up at him. “You’re so happy all the time. You see the positivity in everything, even the bad stuff. I just don’t understand how you can be so happy all the time when there is so much darkness around you.”
Arry shrugged and joined her on the ground, his legs so close he nearly brushed against her. “Who knows. It’s just my nature, I guess. I am a leprechaun, you know.” He winked at her.
Rhea offered a small laugh and shook her head, unbelieving. “But an entire race can’t be happy all the time—that isn’t logical. Surely you must get upset or angry or negative every now and then.”
Arry shrugged again, turning his attention back to the village below. A loud bang sounded from far in the distance, followed by a wave of laughter in the air.
Rhea wondered what was happening down there. She really wanted to go and see.
“I guess I just figure there is enough darkness in the world that I don’t need to contribute to it,” he said, his voice low. “The world is much more beautiful when you look at it with a positive attitude.”