Chapter Ten

Whisper's hooves clomped on the bridge as they went up the gentle incline, and Sébastien looked out over the side. Whoever had built it had thought ahead and up, not knowing how much the water would rise there. The ends came out far on the land, and the incline was something a cart or wagon could easily go up or down without issue.

It leveled out, and the view of the water almost made Sébastien feel at peace for a moment as he held onto Remus.

The thoughts of not trusting him had quieted, although they reared up at times during contact.

Again and again, Remus proved those thoughts wrong. Sébastien was positive that any other man who got an erection from full frontal contact wouldn't say yes to them not doing anything. He'd probably complain, or at least have some sort of attitude. Or he'd push and try to get them to do something.

Worse, he'd take what he wanted, and attempting to trust anyone else made Sébastien's gut roll. Maybe Remus was right, and there had been other men who would have let him lead the pace of things, except they'd never approached him. Sébastien's attitude in the past years would have been a clear indicator of rejection.

He wouldn't have trusted them to start with. Remus was the only one who'd worked his way past the barriers simply by being himself despite their stumbles and the hate at the start.

He squeezed Remus who patted his hands.

The solid stone siding of the bridge to keep people from falling off the edge needed the attention of a mason. Rowland must have helped since people came back and forth a bit, but he imagined it wasn't like before.

Around the middle, Remus stopped Whisper and told Sébastien to get down. The land ahead and behind was fuzzy and not too clear. To the sides, the ocean stretched forever, and a few gulls screeched overhead.

Remus pulled him close, wrapped his arms around him, and said nothing as they looked out. He only wanted to enjoy the view with Sébastien. No words, nothing else. Just a moment of peace even though nothing was truly gone.

Suddenly, Sébastien wanted very much for them to take a ride on Whisper later so they could simply be.

It was only once they got back on the unicorn and continued that Sébastien spoke. "Where are you going to take me when we go for a ride later?"

"It doesn't matter where we go. We won't need to worry about an endpoint."

***

The bridge joined the land again. Before they reached the incline, he noticed dark marks on the stone. The fairies had tried blocking off the bridge and defending it, and the stains could have been anything. Years of rain should have washed it away, but it still made him think of old blood.

The abandoned, partially destroyed city of Tolena ahead was as quiet as a grave except for the occasional bird. Stone buildings looked ready to collapse, wood buildings had given up long ago, and weeds and grass were hard at work reclaiming the paved streets. Vines snaked up stone walls and tried to hide the sides of old shops. The cobblestones in some spots were entirely gone, and since travelers and a few survivors had come and gone, he imagined they'd plucked a few to build shelters or to use as a hearthstone.

Stone chips, wood chunks, leaves, branches, and unidentifiable bits of rubbish littered the streets as they rode through. Criminals didn't usually hide out in South Sea. Sébastien still kept an eye out. It was better to be safe instead of sorry.

Fire had scorched some homes and businesses. Faded signs had fallen, glass was entirely smashed from windows, and shutters were long gone. A faded piece of cloth fluttered on the ground, and not far, in the shade of an awning, Sébastien spotted a doll.

She'd lost most of her color, and her face was a memory. Strands of dull yarn hair twitched in the breeze as she lay forgotten and alone. Sébastien's stomach tightened. A little girl had once loved that dolly.

She'd likely died during that war. If she'd been one of the lucky few to escape, she'd lost a lot more than a toy.

"I've never been here," said Remus. "I never wanted to go either. It's like entering a tomb, minus the bodies. I don't know why a person would want to go sightseeing."

"I imagine when you get past the destruction, nature is pretty much the same."

Sébastien was sure they'd just ridden by a fairy leg bone. It was hard to tell and probably better to not know. With such destruction, it wasn't like anyone had bothered to truly clean up. Where would one even start?

"There are probably bodies in the homes. Not a lot, but one here and there. Well…skeletons. After this long, they'd be decomposed."

"Afterward, Rowland people did go in and try to find anyone they could to bury," replied Remus.

"Did they find them all and scour every single home in the Kingdom?"

"Er, no. I'm sure they didn't."

They passed through a town square. A broken sword lay not far from a bent shield. Collectors took interesting trinkets in good shape for the most part, and Sébastien imagined a lot of the best stuff was already gone.

"Corentin has stuff from here besides the cuffs," said Sébastien. "I never knew why he was so obsessed with them. He's got a pentacle on the wall that he used to always show me. It's useless. It's like he wanted to rub the ownership of it in my face even though I didn't give a damn about the stupid thing. I can see something like the cuffs because they're gold and appear so fancy. Not some stupid wooden thing that most carpenters could make after learning basic woodworking."

Remus shrugged lightly against him. "A guy had a wooden cup carved like a wolf from here. It was cracked so you couldn't drink from it, and he acted like the Goddess had owned it. People can be strange about what they collect. Some do it to protect history which I can see. Others…I don't know. It's an odd form of greed. I think part of it is because the item is truly unique in their minds. Anyone with skill could carve a wooden cup to look like a wolf, but it'll never be a South Sea cup."

He was right about that. It still seemed stupid to Sébastien.

In a square, a statue of a wolf stood taller than Whisper's head. With his head down, he looked like he was stalking someone. Or acknowledging defeat. His tail had fallen off. They passed a shoddy building where someone had carved deep letters into the stone wall. Judging by the differences in handwriting and depth, various fairies had used stone tools to leave words in the hopes of guilting someone later. In Sébastien's mind, it had happened before the citizens tried to evacuate Tolena.

You did nothing

We'll drown

Do something

If Lilith is real, may she curse you all

Sébastien remembered reading that drowning was often used in South Sea as a way of saying a situation was so bad, it would lead to absolute disaster or death. He understood that feeling. While Lilith wasn't real, someone must have been hoping to strike fear at anybody stupid enough to believe South Sea inhabitants were mothered by Lilith instead of Elira. It had been a ridiculous accusation leveled at them before shit went down.

To one side, small, neat words had been carved, and Remus slowed Whisper so they could read the poem.

She'd already lost everything

Her way of life and family

She'll pass for human, so I rifted her away

She'll make a new life in Camaday

I hope she marries a human

Better than a filthy Morian

"I guess a rifter took a woman to Earth," said Remus.

"And she was lucky enough to appear human."

A lot of closer Kingdoms on the mainland had sat on their arse like wiping out an entire type of fairy was unthinkable. It had never happened before so they figured it wouldn't, and the haters were bluffing. Most of the time, when someone invades a Kingdom, they kill as many soldiers as they can in areas and take ground bit by bit. The other side tries to push them out. If they can, they'll invade the opposition depending on the circumstances. A side wins when they can no longer fight, and if the invaders win, they have new people to rule.

The killing hadn't stopped once it was clear that South Sea had lost and had no hope of defeating the invaders. The intent had been to wipe out every citizen from the newest baby to the oldest adult.

Moria and South Forest had planned to take the land, split it, and allow their citizens to move in if they wanted once it was "cleansed." The fertile lands and resources would have allowed them to do well. Remus's great-grandfather, who had been King at the time, had stopped them and threatened another war if they tried moving in. It was the only reason they'd pulled back.

It was a pity the atrocities had already been committed. Leaving a place as a memorial didn't bring back the dead.

The main road led out of the crumbled city and into a weedy field where stones sat at intervals. Graves. Sébastien saw closer ones were unmarked. With so many dead, it had been hard to tell who was who without survivors to claim a body. The Morians had been particularly cruel, and it was said plenty of corpses had been so mutilated, there had been little to bury. They'd also burned many bodies, which meant no grave existed for them.

Unfortunately, the graveyard to the side should have been a lot bigger. A fairy should always rest in Ymir's dirt after death or in a tomb of stone, which was counted as close enough.

"I can't see the appeal of coming to a place like this to scavenge," said Remus. "Money isn't good enough to ride by this with someone's possessions tucked in your bag."

Soon, they had nothing but flat land with the occasional abandoned farm to look at. If one didn't look at the collapsed fences and houses that had crumbled, the countryside almost appeared normal. Sébastien started to drift off with his cheek against Remus's back. He should volunteer to guide Whisper so Remus could relax for a change.

Except Sébastien didn't like the idea of someone against his back even though it was Remus.

"Patience is a thing you could try. But don't listen to me. I was the first to get kicked out, so what do I know?"

"Patience makes the end so much better."

Sébastien jerked awake, and Remus shifted. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. I dozed off."

He could still vaguely remember a man with long white hair, and he blinked as it slipped away further. He'd read that dreams were nonsense cobbled together by the brain from things seen and possibly even read.

He had long white hair, so maybe he'd been seeing himself in a way except he was sure something had been different. He couldn't remember as he tried to hold the image in his mind. The words made no sense either.

For whatever reason, he felt beyond unsettled. Then again, it wasn't the first time. At least it hadn't been one of those dreams that involved Uncle.

***

Sébastien came upon a werewolf that evening when they made camp in a field. He'd gone into a patch of trees to collect fallen sticks for a fire. Meeting a werewolf in South Sea usually wasn't a problem according to Remus.

"Hi," Sébastien said as it stared, and he tried not to show how he'd nearly jumped out of his skin. Turning around and simply seeing him there ten feet away, like he'd been spying on him, was rather unsettling. He hadn't expected to meet one on their first night either.

The werewolf continued gawking as he sat rather like a dog. Remus would probably tell him not to think or refer to them as dogs because they weren't despite certain behaviors.

Sébastien was about to back away and tell Remus. Maybe this was his area, and he didn't want to share it.

"I feel it," the werewolf breathed before he let his tongue loll out of his mouth.

"What?" Sébastien squinted. The air was cooling a little, although it was still quite warm.

"Don't you feel it too?"

"No." Feel what? "My friend's back that way." Sébastien adjusted his pile of sticks.

The werewolf stood as he kept staring. Most didn't wear clothes, and this one wore absolutely nothing, so Sébastien got an unfortunate eye full of everything. Dear Elira, it was so hairy. How could he stand that? Sébastien would be driven mad with so much hair smothering his balls.

"I always heard it would be amazing if you met your fated mate. I didn't know it'd be like this." The werewolf clasped his furry hands. "I didn't think my mate would be so pretty too!"

Sébastien almost dropped the pile of sticks, and cold terror froze him in place for a moment.

"We have to mate and consummate our bond!" The werewolf bounced a little on his toes. "We have to do it right now, and I'll take you home to meet my family. My Mum's going to love you!"

Sébastien threw down the firewood and ran the way he came. Through the trees, Remus was spreading out their blanket in the clearing while Whisper rolled in the grass, free of his saddle.

"Where are you going?" yelled the werewolf. "I have to knot you so we can consummate our bond!"

"Remus!" screamed Sébastien.

Dear Elira, there was no way he could have a bond with a werewolf. He'd rather cut off his own head than let a werewolf knot his ass in the woods.

Remus heard him and was already drawing his sword as Sébastien entered the field. Behind him, twigs and leaves crunched as the werewolf chased him. He'd heard mating bonds could drive them nearly mad with lust.

Remus ran to meet him, and Sébastien drew his weapon as he gasped. "I'm not bonding with any werewolves. I'm not doing it. I'll kill him first. He's not sticking his knot my ass."

"Wait-what-"

"I'll chop off his damn knot!"

The werewolf skidded to stop several feet behind them and bent over as he busted out laughing.

"What the fuck is going on?" asked Remus.

"He said he felt the bond and wants to knot me!" Sébastien snarled. Whisper charged over and stomped closer with his horn lowered.

"Whisper, wait." Remus's eyes flicked to the werewolf who could barely breathe as he roared with laughter and fell over. "Uh-do you feel anything? Do you feel the urge to fuck him?"

"No! What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

"The fairy has to feel it too if they meet a werewolf who'd be a good mate. It's not only one side."

Sébastien almost dropped his sword as he realized what happened and why the werewolf had fallen over as he clutched his midsection. He had read that somewhere and completely forgotten. If a fairy and a werewolf felt the tug, they'd get the urge to fuck and consummate their new union. Both would be fueled by lust, and they'd be mated for life in most cases.

"This is a joke?" asked Sébastien.

"Yeah. He's a fucking asshole." Remus sheathed his sword.

"That was a good one," wheezed the werewolf. "You should have seen the look on your face!"

Remus started marching over.

The werewolf sat up, still barely able to control himself. "I can't wait to tell my friends."

Remus drew nearer.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It was a joke-"

He howled when Remus decked him in the face. "That's not funny!"

"Owwww! What the fuck?" The werewolf rolled away and got to his feet while holding his snout. "That hurt!"

"Good! I should bust in every one of your teeth! You don't go up to people and say that kind of shit. Didn't anyone teach you manners?"

The werewolf tucked his tail between his legs. "The last fairy I did that to rolled his eyes and had a laugh with me."

"You don't know anything about him. In fact, you know what?" Remus went over and took a good handful of his shoulder fur and made him yelp. Sébastien gripped his sword a little tighter because the werewolf was a lot taller than him, and his claws were long and sharp.

"Let go! You're hurting me!"

"Good. Apologize right now before I run you through. That'll hurt."

Still partly furious at the idiot, Sébastien almost wanted to kiss Remus. Nobody had ever punched a werewolf for him before.

"I'm sorry! Really, I mean it. It was just a joke, and I'm sorry."

"If I ever see you again, I'll kick your ass into next week." Remus released him and gave him a shove. "Wait-do you want me to?"

"No," said Sébastien. "I just want him gone."

"You heard him," snarled Remus.

Despite having a good foot on him, the werewolf hunched his shoulders before he ran back toward the trees with his tail tucked between his legs.

"Asshole." Remus brushed a couple of pieces of fur from his hands. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah." Sébastien couldn't get the tension out of his shoulders, but that was nothing new. "I turned around, and he was staring at me. He asked if I could feel it-I didn't get what he meant at first until he mentioned fucking like we were going to do it right there, and then he wanted to take me home to meet his Mum."

Remus frowned. "That's a shitty prank to be playing on people. I think some fairies don't know or forget that they have to feel it too."

"I panicked. I didn't even think about it since I thought he was about to lunge on me."

"Damn prick. He'll probably be giggling with his buddies later. Do you want me to go get the firewood? I doubt he'll come back to poke fun at you. Still, you can sit."

"No, I can do it. I'm not made of glass."

"I know you're not. I thought you might want the option."

Remus gave him a quick kiss. It was strangely comforting and also rather unusual. Little things like that weren't something Sébastien was used to. A random kiss. Imagine that. Remus even wanted to give him the option to take a break.

He took a deep breath as he stalked back into the trees to find the wood he'd dropped. He stopped several feet from the pile as he spotted the werewolf hunched by a tree and sniffling while rubbing his snout. He heard a twig crack, peeked over his shoulder, saw Sébastien, and hightailed it off again like a terrified puppy.

If he ever thought to pull that trick again, hopefully, he'd remember Remus busting him in the face and seriously rethink his choices.

"I said your name," he said when he brought his collection back. "I doubt there are many yellow-eyed Remus's traveling with a silver-eyed, white-haired man."

Remus pulled the dried meat from their pack. "If it gets around that we're here, it's not the end of the realm. If he goes blabbing, it might be a good thing actually, although punching a werewolf on my first day in their territory isn't…nice. At least the others will know not to fuck with you. It's also pretty clear I'm not a slave. If you explain yourself so they don't think you're a werewolf-hater, it'll be alright. If he spreads around that we're here, they'll also know what we're planning to ask. I'm sure they've heard by now what happened to me. Why else would we be here?"

"All right. I'm probably worrying about nothing. I just don't particularly want them to know we're here. They might start forming opinions and decisions that we can't talk them into changing once we finally get to say our piece."

"Those opinions might be in our favor anyway."

***

Thankfully, no more werewolves came to play tricks on them during the next few days. They skirted around a few towns that were destroyed. Once, they saw someone smoking and leaning against a building, and they couldn't tell if it was a scavenger or what.

It was on their fifth day when they found a small group of werewolves fishing by a river. One was soaked like he'd fallen in. The group eyed them with suspicion.

"I don't have anything worth robbing," called one. "Clear off or I'll throw you in the river too."

Remus paused Whisper once he was close enough. "You threw someone in the river?"

"Last week I did. He tried to take my fish and pulled a knife. He thought because he was big that he could steal my dinner. Asshole."

"You should have seen him when he went in." One of the werewolves waved his arms and let out a little panicked yell which caused the others to burst out laughing.

"We're not here to rob you," said Remus. "The outlaw life isn't for us, and I don't want to be thrown in a river. We're headed to La Fine. I heard a good deal of you live that way. Is that still true?"

The thief-thrower pulled his line from the water and stood. "What do you want with us?"

"I have something to discuss with your main leader."

The werewolf tapped a claw against one of his fangs as one of his buddies took a fish from their bucket, bit the entire head right off, and started chewing. Sébastien tried to not cringe. "You look familiar."

Remus sighed. "I'm Crown Prince Remus."

All five sets of eyes widened, and the eater dropped the beheaded fish. Their expressions grew nasty as all eyes slid to Sébastien who hadn't bothered with his cap in days.

"That bastard still has you!"

"No!" Remus quickly slipped down from Whisper.

"Everyone's saying Quintus sold you to the Soleilian Prince. Your twin's arse is warming the throne and making the rules now in Rowland."

"Yes, but I'm not Sébastien's slave. He didn't know my twin was plotting any of that, and he released me. I'm not a slave, and we're trying to figure out how to deal with Quintus and…other things."

A couple still looked at Sébastien with suspicion. "Quintus chased one of his Barons up here. Er, Baron Bianchi."

"I've met him a couple of times. Where is he?"

"Way south. He's not coming back for a while. He said he didn't keep his mouth shut about what happened and how he didn't believe you killed Regent Lupo. He's safe from Quintus here."

"Of course, Quintus hasn't got the guts to actually root around South Sea. I think he knows we'd make sure Bianchi stays hidden. Quintus isn't exactly our favorite person."

Biter swallowed what he had in his mouth and pointed at Sébastien. "He hates Rowland and werewolves, so he can leave now. You can stay, Remus."

"No, he's not leaving."

"Even the babies know he's an arse."

"Would you listen to me for a second?" asked Remus. "He doesn't hate werewolves. He's trying to help me get my throne back. That's why I wanted to speak to as many of you as possible, but particularly your leader."

"Do you need an army?"

"Yes. There's more to it than that, but that's the gist. Sébastien doesn't hate you guys, and if he did, do you think I'd bring him here?"

"We haven't heard good things about him."

"Maybe you didn't hear the whole story," said Remus. "Have you ever spoken to him before?"

"Er, no."

"We also don't like his Father."

"Or his damn Uncle."

"The whole family never liked werewolves, and after the incident with the Queen and Crown Prince? Pfft. We're no better than turds to them now. Are you going to tell us they love werewolves and all the bullshit before was a misunderstanding?"

Remus made a frustrated noise. "That's why you need to hear things from his point of view instead of what others have said. Sébastien had nothing to do with the war or anything before. He's here partly because the Regent wants to start another and come after South Sea too. I'm helping him because I've learned what kind of person he truly is too, and we're helping."

They seemed to accept that enough to where they wouldn't be demanding Sébastien leave. He couldn't quite get comfortable since they kept glancing at him like they expected him to say or do something nasty.

They agreed to lead the fairies and said the majority were no longer at La Fine.

"A big storm blew through there," said the first who'd introduced himself as Giacomo. All of his buddies had taken their fishing poles and the bucket of what they'd caught.

"I'm guessing the damage was bad?"

"Yeah." Giacomo sighed. "Besides, the hunting wasn't quite as much, so we figured we'd let things balance itself out again. A good deal of us now stay at Ruins. We set up a little shrine to Elira near the tomb of Prince Angelo. We had a man who tried to come a couple of months ago and get into the tomb. He was one of those scavengers, and we don't trust them."

"Did he want to simply look at it?"

"I don't know. We think he might have wanted to break off chunks of the wall. There's all kinds of inscriptions and doodles from centuries ago."

Remus glanced over his shoulder at Sébastien. "People want wall chunks now?"

"I guess so. I heard someone did that in one of the main tombs for royalty. People will collect anything. I bet some would take an old turd to collect."

"One of my buddies got this idiot to buy a pebble that he said came from South Sea," piped up one. "Except the pebble was just a random one he picked up in Norraco an hour earlier."

"He's smart because he's ten lans richer now."

"He's stupid because he spent it all on whiskey."

"Collectors will desecrate tombs now?" demanded Remus.

"One might say it's not desecration if you're not touching the body or the stone box that he's in. Anyway, we don't let anyone go into Prince Angelo's tomb and take chunks of the wall. Just because there's less stuff to snatch in the cities doesn't mean you can steal whatever."

It was still a desecration in Sébastien's eyes. Walking into a tomb to look was one thing. Taking anything was appalling. Opening the actual stone coffin itself was another and worthy of death. Only a Temple Mage could open a grave. Thankfully, South Sea, like most of the realm, had never been one to bury their dead with riches.

When Remus was King, perhaps he could work out some laws to keep the damn collectors and scavengers under control.