Chapter 8

T he Prince snatched his hand back, and the gold-vision lifted.

“What—” I started to say, breathless, but his deep voice boomed into my mind.

“Say one word of what just happened aloud, and I will kill the girl and throw her body to the monsters that dwell in the river. Understand?”

I stared into the bright grey eyes behind the mask.

His voice spoke again in my mind. “Do you understand me?”

I nodded, still shaken. As I moved my head, unease washed over me, darkness at the edges of my sight.

Oh no. Had whatever just happened triggered the visions?

I braced myself, turning away from the Prince, determined to keep anything I saw from showing on my face, but mercifully, the feeling ebbed away.

Silently thanking the fates, I stood up, mind spinning.

I had no magic of my own, only access to the magic within gold, andI only ever saw the floating runes coming from the precious metal.

But the Shadow Court Prince clearly wasn’t made of gold. So what the fuck just happened?

I gripped the side of the boat, staring out into the mist. I desperately wanted to look back at him, but I didn’t dare. Instead, I replayed what had happened in my head. With a bolt of annoyance, I realized that I hadn’t got a long enough look at the rune to work out what it meant. In the surprise of the moment, I hadn’t stopped to actually take it in.

A regretful hiss escaped my lips, and I saw movement on my left. I stepped back, letting go of the boat as the Prince appeared beside me. He moved like a fucking ghost, and I hated it.

“What is your name.”

It wasn’t a question.

“What’s yours?” I forced myself to meet his eyes, reaching for the boats edge again as we bobbed along the water. We weren’t moving fast, but it was enough to make any footing unsteady.

“You may call me the Prince of Snakes.”

I pulled a face. “Then you may call me the Queen of…” I cast about for something suitably disrespectful. “Odin’s balls.”

Something flickered in his eyes. Annoyance, I assumed. He tilted his masked head backward, toward Lhoris and Kara.

“I can enter their minds and retrieve your name myself.”

“Reyna. My name is Reyna Thorvald.”

“A strong name,” he said quietly.

I frowned. I had chosen my last name myself, since I had no parents, and it honored the ancient god, Thor. It was a strong name. But I hadn’t expected him to say so. “Why have you taken us?”

“You would have preferred to be slaughtered in your workshop, surrounded by filthy gold?”

I opened my mouth, about to ask why the fuck I had seen a ‘ filthy gold’ rune coming from him, but his eyes narrowed in warning.

“I doubt what I prefer is of any importance to you. But yes, I’d prefer to have been killed in my own Court than dragged to yours and made to do… whatever it is you plan do to with us.” I fought to keep the fear from my voice, the tales of the shadow-fae’s taste for torture and mind-twisting racing through my head.

Perhaps Lhoris was right. Perhaps it was time for meekness.

“Not us . You.”

“Why?”

He stared at me a while, but when he spoke it wasn’t with an answer. “Have you ever left the Gold Court?”

“No.” I gave him a sarcastic smile. I had no weapons, and no magic. All I had was my mouth, and my courage. I would show him I wasn’t scared.

His eyes narrowed. “Who are your parents?”

“No idea. Who are yours?”

His eyes flashed again, this time I was sure with anger. “You are impertinent. All know of my glorious father.”

“And your crazy fucking mother.”

His staff banged on the bottom of the boat, and I flinched. “She is not my mother. The Queen of the Shadow Court is my stepmother,” he hissed.

I raised an eyebrow. So, the mighty Prince of Snakes had nerves to hit. I pressed on. “Same thing.”

The end of his staff glowed, and shadows pooled around him. “I am finished speaking with you,” he growled.

“What a loss.” The shadows tightened, and for a second, I thought I had pushed him too far. But then he whirled, striding down the boat, stepping over the benches like they were nothing. Kara flinched as he passed her, and Lhoris tightened his arm around her shoulders.

“You know, he’s killed people for less.” The female fae was leaning against the carved snake, looking at me like I was crazy. Or stupid.

“I should be so lucky,” I snarled. “What does he want with me?”

She shrugged. “Not my business.”

“You just do as he tells you?”

“Each and every thing.”

“And you enjoy serving a murderous lunatic?”

She shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “You believe all shadow-fae are murderous lunatics, don’t you?”

“Am I wrong?”

“I guess you’ll find out, soon enough.” She pushed herself off the snake, and made her way down the boat, after her Prince. I watched as the human warrior moved in the opposite direction, toward me. His weight made the boat tip alarmingly, and I gripped the snake for balance.

“Right!” The human clapped his hands together when he reached the middle of the small vessel. “Listen up, little gold-givers . It’s almost a day’s sail to the Gates. The mists will lift in about an hour. In the interest of making this journey as pleasant as possible,” he gave us all an unsettlingly large smile, “I’ll do the introductions. I’m Ellisar. That’s Svangrior.” He pointed at the male fae. “She’s Frima.” The female gave me a sarcastic wave. “Now your turn.” He pointed at Kara.

She gazed up at him. “I’m Kara.” Her voice barely reached me.

“Lhoris,” said my mentor gruffly.

All eyes on the boat turned to me. Including the Prince’s masked ones. “Reyna,” I said reluctantly.

Ellisar nodded. “Good. When the mist clears, stay away from the sides of the boat.” He dropped onto a bench, pulling something from the pouch on his belt.

“Why?” squeaked Kara.

He lookedat her. “Why what?”

“Why stay away from the sides of the boat?”

“There be monsters in the root-river,” he grinned.

I turned back to the water, scanning it for signs of life. I could see nothing, but I didn’t doubt the massive warrior’s words. Nothing in Yggdrasil was safe. Danger and death lurked around every corner.

* * *

After an hour, the mists did indeed start to lift. I’d spent the entire time restlessly shifting between benches, trying to make sense of my situation.

I’d come to no conclusions, other than I would do my very best to die honorably and make my way to Valhalla. I wasn’t a warrior, but folk had been rumored to reach the great afterlife with other noble acts. I would do whatever it took to keep my friends safe and hope the ancient gods smiled down on me.

I heard a loud squawking and looked up. The white mists above us were starting to reveal heavy branches, thick with green leaves. As we moved along the water, I noticed the banks were becoming visible. They were made of wood, winding and organic, and beyond them was glittering darkness.

“It’s beautiful,” breathed Kara, looking from the thickening canopy of foliage above us, to the darkness on either side.

It was. The leaves of the tree above us glowed with green light, tendrils of mist still creeping across our path periodically. As much as I had longed to leave the Gold Court, I had never really allowed myself to imagine what it would be like.

“Wait until you see the trunk of Yggdrasil itself,” Ellisar said, looking up from the small piece of wood he was carving with a knife that was too big for the delicate job. He set it down carefully on the bottom of the boat and dug around in a different pouch on his belt for something. Triumphantly, he pulled out a piece of parchment and handed it to Kara. Her eyes widened, then her gaze sharpened.

Kara was the smartest person I knew. Numbers, words, languages — all of it came easily to her. If she could read it, she could make sense of it. She had spent months trying to teach me the ancient tongue, and I ended up feeling positively stupid next to her.

“Reyna, look,” she said, not taking her eyes from the parchment. I moved to her bench to see what was on the paper.

It was a drawing of the mighty tree that gave us all life and our world was named for. Yggdrasil . Five colossal roots snaked out from its base, rivers running along them, and each ended in one of the five Courts. The Primordial Mists that had birthed the gods themselves were marked above the giant tree-canopy, and within the branches was marked the once revered Vanir — the legendary high-fae who had vanished from existence along with the gods.

“Where did you get this?” I asked.

I’d seen maps of our world before, but they showed the Gold Court as many times the size of the other Courts, and they certainly didn’t mark the Mists or the Vanir. Nor did they depict the gargantuan serpent wrapped around the trunk of Yggdrasil .

Ellisar shrugged. “That map’s pretty common in the Shadow Court.”

“What happens when we get to the end of the river?” Kara asked tentatively, touching the piece of paper where the root from the Gold Court met the trunk of Yggdrasil .

“Each Court has a Gate in the trunk you have to get through to get inside. And they are no normal doors, let me tell you. They can’t be guarded by fae or humans, because they sap the life from anyone who spends too much time around them. They can be warded with magic, but only so long as the fae have some to spare.” Ellisar paused to glance at the Prince. His skull mask and those unsettling grey eyes were facing ahead, and he gave no indication he was listening.

Ellisar continued. “So, the gold-fae pour light into theirs, the fire-fae load theirs up with fire, the earth-fae with soil, and so on and so forth. But they run out all the time.” His voice dropped low. “Trouble with the fae is, they get cocky.” He waggled his eyebrows, then added in a loud whisper, “and greedy.” Kara sucked in a breath and glanced at the three fae in the boat. None looked back at her, and Ellisar laughed.

“Is that how you got through today?” Lhoris said, disapproving anger in his voice.

“Ellisar is done telling you things he should be keeping to himself,” Svangrior said, standing for the first time in hours. “I wish to eat.”

The warrior pulled out a wicker basket from the chest at the front of the boat, and some hard hunks of cheese and bread were handed out.

I considered refusing to eat anything I was given, but on watching Lhoris devour his portion in seconds, I followed suit. It was important to be strong, and I couldn’t fight on an empty stomach.

Ellisar grumbled about how small his portion was, his large hands dwarfing the food he’d been given.

Svangrior gave me a sideways glare. “There are more of us for the food to go round than intended,” he grunted.

They had meant to take me back with them, that much was clear, but it seemed Lhoris and Kara really were unintended participants in this journey.

Why? Why would they want me specifically? An orphan gold-giver , with no notoriety or reputation. My hair made me different, but other than that, I could think of nothing that would made me any more desirable, or valuable, than any other gold-giver .

The visions.

The thought crept into my head, tearing a hole in the insistent questions.

The visions of the Starved Ones made me different.

Could they mean something to the Shadow Court? But how could anyone possibly know about them? Nobody but Lhoris knew I suffered them, and even he didn’t know the full truth.

There was a small splashing sound, and all the noises in the tree canopy above us stopped abruptly.

“Tell me you didn’t just throw food in the river,” hissed Svangrior. I turned to see Ellisar looking sheepish.

“The crust of the bread was stale,” he said.

“Fucking verslingr ,” the fae warrior snapped, pulling a knife from his belt.

“Don’t overreact, we haven’t been attacked on the river in moons,” the big human said with a shrug.

“You think with your sword, not your head.”

“Not always. I think with my stomach sometimes,” he grinned. “And when I’m feeling lucky, with my—"

Svangrior clipped him hard across the ear before he finished his sentence. The big man barely flinched, and his grin widened.

“This is no time for games, you fool,” Frima said.

I looked at her. She and the Prince had been sitting in silence near the back of the boat for most of the journey. Their matching skull masks looked even eerier in the green light. She stood up slowly, gazing keenly out over the water.

“What’s in there?” asked Kara. She was no longer whispering, and she directed her question to Ellisar.

“Snakes.”

I glanced at the snake carved on the front of the small karve . My memory flashed on the shadow snakes that had slithered under the door just hours before, born of the Prince’s staff.

The boat moved ever so slightly to the left.

Ellisar and the Prince got to their feet in a flash, and all three warriors drew weapons.

There was a dull thud against the shallow hull of the boat.

“Fuck,” swore Frima.

“This is your fault, Ellisar,” snapped Svangrior.

“I was getting bored anyway.”

“Bored? Odin’s raven, you are like a fucking child sometimes! You—"

The Prince spoke, and the bickering banter quieted immediately. “If anything happens to my charge, the price will be death. Understand?”

My already racing pulse hitched up another notch. Was he talking about me?

All three warriors clapped their chests. “Trig!” they called in unison. The ancient word for loyalty.

I shuffled along my bench to move as close to the center of the boat as I could, and closer to my friends. I didn’t know what was coming, but the tension in the silence was making my skin crawl and my chest tight.

A thin tendril that could easily have been a long piece of river grass whisked out of the water and over the boat. It hovered a moment, then began to whip back and forth through the air. Probing.

Without a sound, Frima stepped close to it. Silently, she raised her blade, then brought it swooshing down onto the reed.

The response was immediate. And loud.

A screeching noise accompanied the boat rocking as something banged into it. Water splashed up either side of the karve , and the warriors crouched to keep their balance. I gripped the side of my bench, trying to keep all sides of our boat in my sight. Lhoris pulled Kara in front of him so that she was in the bottom of the boat, the benches shielding her. Somehow the Prince stayed standing still in all the thrashing.

The screeching cut off, and movement made me look to my right. Something was rising from the water.