18. Rodan

18

Rodan

T here was very little he could do with Maeve in the inner chamber of the High Queen of all the Fae, but Rodan's emotions were not listening to reason. His steps quickened, as did those of the two nobles who had spent time dressing him in finery and weaving braids into his hair so it now held an intricate knot work studded with gold clasps and pins.

One of them, Tristan, attempted to stop him once more. "The Queen is not to be disturbed?—"

Rodan rounded on the younger Fae, who gasped and pulled back. "We were told an hour or two, no more. It has been that already. I am going to my bondmate."

The other, Isaac, took off in a run, passing Rodan and skidding around a corner and out of sight.

He did not wait further, but followed. "My lord," Tristan panted behind him. "Please. This goes against all of our protocols. And we were tasked to?—"

"I can only assume one of you can stifle a Fae's ability to transport," Rodan growled, interrupting the man's rambling. While he had been unwilling to let Maeve know about this limitation, as soon as Titania said Earth was a nexus, he knew he had to make his way to them. The High Queen was up to something. "Be grateful I don't wring your neck."

Tristan made a high, frightened noise, and the steps behind him slowed but did not stop.

When the silver doors that marked the start of Titania's suite of rooms came into view, so did the trio of Fae women who had taken over Maeve's care earlier. They were in a huddle, whispering to one another while the other Fae nobles nearby attempted to eavesdrop in an unassuming manner. Most were failing.

Rodan passed them all and pushed on the silver doors. They were locked. He knocked but started to work at unmaking the mechanism keeping them that way.

Before he got far, the door swung open, and he was face-to-face with his mother, Kabira.

Rage like a furnace burned at his core, and his magic was stirring, a rolling boil within him thanks to all that had happened in the last few hours. "Get out of my way." He growled.

"Is that any way to greet?—"

Rodan pressed on the door, forcing it open far enough he could step through. His mother gasped but backed up, closing the door behind them and plunging them into dimness.

He could sense Maeve further into the chambers, and began to make his way when Kabira grasped his arm. "Wait!" she hissed. "You can't."

He let every ounce of anger he was feeling fill his eyes, and his mother dropped her grip. He spun and sprinted down the hall to where there was a closed carved wooden door, locked. Unmaking the lock was a difficult thing with the wards in place, but he was partway through when his mother caught up.

"You don't understand," Kabira begged behind him. "Titania needs this moment. It's private. It has to be."

"Maeve is in danger, isn't she?" he demanded, whirling, still working at the unmaking in the back of his mind.

His mother was weeping openly. "She'll kill you if you go in there."

"If she kills me, she dooms her daughter as well."

"No," Kabira whispered. "She does not. She knows how to remove the bond, my son. Fully. She's been working at it for centuries." Tugging on his arm, her expression pleading, she begged again, "Please. Come away from the door. She knows you're here, but that can be all. Let that be all and leave them be."

He felt as though he had been doused in ice water. The bond, removed? His work on the lock stopped in an instant of shock. "That's impossible."

My love, Maeve's voice filtered through his mind. I'm okay. We're just talking.

She had not heard, then. I'm just outside. I can be there in an instant if you need me.

Her next mental touch was soothing.

This time, when Kabira pulled on his arm Rodan let her lead him to a nearby room. This space was a small office with desk and guest chairs as well as a wall of bookshelves filled with Titania's private collection, or part of it. There were no windows, but light illuminated the space in a soft warm glow, reflecting off the rich wooden furnishing.

"I could not get away to tell you sooner, and I should not tell you at all," his mother said when they were alone, the door closed behind them. Her speech was racing, her words clipped. "Doing so puts you in her sights again."

"You speak true? She knows how to remove a bond?"

"Yes," Kabira whispered. "Don't say it again."

"Why?" Rodan asked. "How?"

Kabira motioned at the chairs and sank into one of them, looking more exhausted than he had ever seen her. "Originally? Because I asked her to. As to how, well," she sighed. "That came with many experiments, and many years of trial and error. Oh," she glared at him. "Don't give me that look. You know as well as I do not every bond is a successful or happy one."

"No, but?—"

"It was more a curse, not a blessing, to begin with. A way to link us to each other, to make sure if one fell so did another." She scoffed. "You have no idea of our true beginnings as it is, and Titania will likely pluck this memory from your mind as well."

Rodan leaned against the closed door and crossed his arms. "Titania has stripped me of memory?"

"Several times, and often because of me. I cannot help but want to speak with you," she said the words as though they were poison. "I cannot help wanting to be protective, and knowledge is a protective power like no other." Her eyes were red-rimmed from the strain of holding in her tears, but as he watched they began to fall. "You are my only child."

He tried not to be moved, but then he was standing before Kabira, kneeling, placing a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright," he assured her, feeling awkward and still as though he needed to burst through the other door and find Maeve.

There was nothing from her end of the bond but a sense of general well-being. All she would allow. He was no longer privy to the full conversation, and it worried him. He knew better than most not all injuries were dealt to the body, and Titania was a master of the mind.

"It's alright," Rodan repeated. "Whatever happened was her doing. Not yours."

His mother reached up, clutching at his wrist, her eyes wide. "I did give the hair to Icarus," she confessed, lips pale. "I did not know what he meant to do?—"

"How long have you been in contact with him?"

"Ever since his banishment. We are bonded, my son, and I do not have Titania's abilities to keep him at bay. Distance helps, but…" she clicked her tongue. "There is so little time to explain. They will be done soon, and this will come to an end. One way or another."

She thought Titania would take his memory again, Rodan was sure of it. "I am offered greater protections as Maeve's bondmate," he said.

Kabira laughed. "I do not know your mate, but I do know her mother. She would never hesitate."

"Maeve is no Titania." Of that he was certain. He pulled back from the hold on his wrist, standing. It was difficult to look into his mother's eyes, the mirror opposite of Icarus, and not feel anger and rage. He wanted to run hands through his hair, but braids and ornaments prevented it. Scowling, he paced before his mother. "Even if this is to be pulled from me, tell me true. Things are beginning to fall into place, but I am missing pieces of this story."

"You are," Kabira agreed. She glanced away, hands worrying the rings on opposite fingers, nerves in every gesture. "There is much. And more beside I cannot tell, no matter how I feel about protecting you. I am sworn and bound by greater than just my word."

"You bound me," Rodan said, coming to stand before her.

"Yes." She swallowed, still not looking at him. As though she knew just how difficult a thing it was, when he had been tortured for years by that same-similar gaze. "At Titania's behest, when your father was banished from the Court, I bound your growing powers. I ensured your making, your ability to see futures, and binding were to be contained. Only, you bonded a demigod. Such things are beyond even my ability to withstand."

He leaned against the desk, crossing arms in front of his chest. "Why would you do such a thing? And to hide your own power? Are you High Fae?"

"No," Kabira smiled. "But close enough as makes little difference. I was one of the original Fae. The weakest among them, yes, but bonding with your father brought forth enough shared power so I am… quite formidable." The smile sharpened. "I am proud to see my abilities growing within you, my son, now you are without those early bindings. I'm sorry. I would have released you when you won your world, but Titania forbade me."

"Why?"

"The threat your father posed was formidable. To have one with not just his type of magic, but mine? To have you as an unknown quantity? For we could never fully secure your loyalty. She knows your mind enough to know you are not wholly hers, and she refused anything less than if those powers were to be unsealed."

Rodan's hackles went up. "There are other High Fae who are powerful enough?—"

"They would never pose such a high risk as a maker. You know this. You've seen what your father is capable of, and know what you yourself can accomplish." Her eyes flashed as she looked at him at last. "Tell me, would you allow one such as you to run about on the Realms? Especially someone with no ties of loyalty to your crown? Would you allow them to be free with Maeve to protect?"

Rodan bared his teeth. "I would offer a compromise. I would ensure everyone was aware."

"How noble." His mother scoffed. "This is why you lost your seat. You think everyone plays by your same ethics and rules. They do not."

There was a part of him that wanted to lash out at Kabira's words, but he closed his eyes briefly instead, breathing deep. "What does Titania want with Maeve?" he asked, locking gaze with his mother.

She twisted her rings over and over again. "A daughter and heir."

There was something else. Rodan could practically taste it on the air, but his mother was silent. "And?" he ground out.

"I am not at liberty to?—"

"Damn your vows," he snarled, but just as he said it, he sensed a change in nearby pressure.

Kabira, too, seemed to sense something. She turned her head toward the door to the hall beyond and rose from her position, just as it swung open and a sending of Titania appeared in the doorway, beckoning them toward it. "Your presence is required, Rodan."

Kabira started forward and the vision lifted a pointer finger. The words it spoke were laced with power.

"Not you. Just him."

His mother let out a whimper, and Rodan turned back to her, saying, "You had your chance."

"Be careful, my son," Kabira whispered, her lips trembling and a knuckle bloody from where the edge of a sharp filigreed ring had bit into her flesh. She still continued to twist it around and around. "Please. Do not die."

He cast her a slight smile, and followed Titania's sending without another word, the door to the library closing behind him.

When he entered the twilight bower, the sending evaporated and Maeve rose from her cushioned seat, moving toward him. The sight of her was enough to bring air fully back into his lungs, and he felt his mind clear for the first time in hours. She was a vision, strips of bare flesh tantalizing between gauzy, glittering fairy silk and finely wrought gold and silver jewelry.

He wished to grab her and pull her back to the Realms, to barricade the pathways against Titania and hide away as best they could but, gaze sliding to the monarch sitting against her own cushioned seat, he knew that was an impossibility.

She wanted something. And what she wanted, she tended to get. One way or the other.

Maeve's hand slipped into his and fingers squeezed, bringing his attention to her. I think this is the only way we can speak freely, she said in his mind. Aloud, she spoke, "Thank you for coming."

"My love," he raised her hand and brushed a kiss across her knuckles, then bowed his head toward Titania. "My Queen."

"Rodan, how good of you to join us," she purred, not bothering to stand. "How is your little world?"

"The Realms fare well, now Maeve is to take the throne," he supplied, letting Maeve lead him to a cushion closer to the High Queen than he had been in living memory. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. "We had a temporary issue with a rogue sorcerer, but that has been resolved."

There was a subtle pressure change, and she leveled a look on him. "No one can overhear us now. So tell me, why did you yield to my daughter?"

Even with his shields in place, Rodan was sure that there was much his High Queen was already aware about him, his intentions, his life until this moment. She was like a god herself, so powerful he treaded quite carefully. "I came to a realization I should have long before, that Maeve is meant to rule. The Realms themselves respond to her. The people love her. She understands the heart of the place, and acts to protect it. I would be a poor ruler, if I did not give my home its best chance at success."

He sensed Maeve's shock, but he did not look at her.

Titania smiled. "A wise response. Is it true?"

He kept his face impassive. She could not read him through the vows. That was new. "I would not lie to you, my Queen." He placed his fist over his heart and gave a slight bow of his head.

Maeve spoke. "Rodan has only ever said he owes you his allegiance. I know of no reason he would act against your interest."

"And I have no reason to make you an enemy," he pointed out, taking Maeve's hand when she offered it to him. She sat close, but he wanted her closer. He wanted them away. "Not only because you are my Queen, but because you are mother to my bondmate. I only wish us to align." Preferably from a great distance.

"Very well," Titania said. "Perhaps, then, you can speak some sense into my daughter. I have offered her the crown. The Court itself is hers, if she desires, but she says she cannot take it. That she belongs to the Realms." She scoffed on the last.

Rodan blinked, breaking his gaze from Titania to look to Maeve. "Is this true?"

The bond opened, and in flowed memory. A sense of all the conversation he had not been allowed to hear, until this moment.

"I will stay to teach you, to advise, for the first century," Titania had said. "Less, if you desire, but I will be here to help begin your rule. The transition will be peaceful. The Court has long desired a change."

And then Maeve's refusal, resolute. "I am not for this world. I would help, where I could. I would ally myself with your world, but I will not lead it."

He wanted to smile at the last, and squeezed the fingers still twined in his. "Will you attempt to force it, Queen Titania? I have seen what Maeve has said, and I agree. The Court may welcome her, but the Realms have been her home for decades."

"That place is dangerous—" Titania started, then snapped her mouth shut. "More so then I realized."

Chills raced down his spine, and he and Maeve shared a look. "Because of the Nyx?"

The High Queen of the Fae looked pale, the orbs of light floated through the room twirling in tighter, faster patterns. It was as though they were responding to the emotion in the room.

"We have conquered them, and their Queen," Maeve said. "We fought them and won."

"You destroyed an appendage. The real Nyx threat is still very much alive, and it knows what you've done."

Maeve let out a frustrated sound. "Then tell me. Stop offering me queenships and start explaining what's been going on. You owe us that much."

Titania's eyes flashed at the words owe us , but another glance at her daughter and her expression softened. "Perhaps you're right, but for now I will leave us with this; there is danger everywhere, but the Court may offer greater protections than any other place could hope to. Please keep this in mind."

Rodan tensed as Queen Titania rose from her seat, looming over them until they did the same.

Hands clasped before her, the High Queen of the Fae regarded Maeve for a heartbeat more before saying, "I think you take after me the most. Your father would argue."

"One thing I have to know," Maeve said, fingers tightening around Rodan's, holding his hand tight. "Why didn't you come for me? When I was of age, when I reached thirty, why didn't you release the enchantment on me?"

For the first time in his long life, Rodan saw Titania's eyes glisten with tears. They fell in long tracks down her face. "Forgive me, daughter," she said. "I did go to you, only I believed you happy." She smiled sadly. "It's what I thought I saw. Another illusion."

Maeve nodded. "You put the barrier on the Realms, didn't you? That thing that kept me away when I tried by myself, the force we keep coming against when I go back?"

Titania nodded. "I meant to protect you. I thought—I still do—you were safer anywhere but there, though some of what you have said soothes me. I will remove the barrier. But know you should never return to Earth. You are no longer the secret you once were."

Maeve frowned, and opened her mouth to presumably ask more questions, when Rodan squeezed her hand. My love, she is dismissing us.

It was impudent, what Maeve was doing, and there was a glint to Titania's eye he was familiar with, but his love did not know her mother. How quick the mood would shift.

"We thank you for your hospitality, Queen Titania, and look forward to the night you have prepared for the Court."

"For the two of you, in honor of your bonding." Titania corrected. Her smile was slow and cutting. "Perhaps my daughter did not make an error, after all."