19. Keira

Chapter 19

Keira

I t feels like a cold bucket of water has been poured over my head, as Cyprien disappears and the exchange is broken.

I am left gaping at Aldrin. “You’re a king?”

“I was.” He shrugs at me, but his attention is far away.

“You didn’t negotiate for my sister to be freed from that man’s clutches!” I push at his chest as hard as I can, but he doesn’t move.I hold onto the anger that burns through me like hot oil, because the panic that rises alongside it is enough to undo me.

“Clearly, I am a king with no power.” Aldrin tries to brush me off again, but double takes as the tips of my hair start to sizzle with the hint of flames. “One battle at a time, Keira. I will win him over, and then his prisoner will be my prisoner, and I will release her immediately.” I keep glaring death at him and he sighs, holding up both hands. “Okay, okay, I will talk to him and find out why he cares to hold onto her.”

Impotent frustration flows through me, but I have no choice. This high fae, this king , he has his own battles to face.

I suddenly feel like a fool, challenging royalty from another realm. I almost made him my lover .

So much for staying away from the high fae .

My head spins and I run my hands over my face. I am making every mistake my grandmother warned me against.

The streaks of war paint across Aldrin’s face slowly fade back to the regular tanned tone of his skin and the thin, curling and branching antlers dissipate to shimmer motes. It seems to only come out when he fights or is angry. Just like my hair.

Caitlin approaches me gingerly, where I still half hide behind Aldrin, giving him a wide berth. She grabs me by the shoulders and examines me from head to toe, her face twisting with emotion at the sight of me.

“Were you hurt?” she demands.

“Only from my own magic, but they healed me. Were you hurt?” My voice breaks.

“Same.” She half laughs, then pulls me into a tight embrace, and her body shakes. “I was so scared for you, Keira. Terrified I’d never find you again.”

I realize she is crying. The dampness of her tears is in my hair and across my cheek. “It’s okay. I’m here.” I pat her back and squeeze her.

Caitlin has never been good at expressing her emotions. She builds up such a strong, severe facade, to prevent anything getting close enough to hurt her, but she doesn’t let emotions out either. It allows her to weather a storm, to destroy anyone who would harm her people, but when she breaks, it is all at once and she utterly shatters.

It is always the people who put on the strongest fronts who are the most fragile within.

“Has Cyprien treated you well?” I whisper.

“Yeah.” Caitlin gulps. “I actually like the stony bastard.”

“Yeah, me too, unfortunately,” Aldrin grumbles, still beside us. “But he is a terrible host. I’m not leaving this fortress until I get my answer.”

Caitlin lets go of me, to examine Aldrin. He gives her a formal bow. “Nice to meet you, Caitlin. It was much anticipated.”

She gives him a curt nod. “Thank you for taking care of Keira while I dealt with this fool.” She flicks her head in the direction Cyprien left in .

I give Caitlin a wide smile. She has a sense of humor, if you know where to look for it. Then I round on Aldrin again. “You are a king? When were you going to tell me?”

I still can’t believe I almost seduced a fae king for fun. It would have been insanity. I can’t bind myself to another king.

“Probably whenever you told me a single detail about your life,” Aldrin quips back.

I turn to Caitlin and she tips her head to the side, eyes dancing from me to Aldrin and back.

A team of servants burst into the hall, ushering us out with promises of hot, spiced wine and rooms prepared with comforts. There is even an offer of a hot bath, but I dismiss the indulgence of the idea at this time of night, requesting one for the morning instead. Drake, Silvan and Klara materialize out of the shadows and follow us.

As we are pushed up to the domestic quarters, I raise my eyebrows at Aldrin. “Cyprien marches an army with a team of servants?”

He cracks a smile. “It is common to have smiths and cooks travel with an army. Cyprien takes it to the extreme on this small excursion.”

My room is next to Caitlin’s, with a bed set up with pillows and blankets that are only a little musty. There is a chest for my belongings, a small dresser with a mirror and a table with two chairs. I can sense the wards on everything to keep out the elements and decay. Every inch of the walls are painted with elaborate designs of flowers and vines.

The basic but cozy room is surprising in a fortress, but if it is meant to be constantly guarded in peacetime, the generals would need rooms for their wives or highborn guests.

I linger at the small table that has a counter of moonstone and a crystal decanter on top, with a matching goblet and a wash bowl. Fresh rose petals grace the top of the water. I dip a single finger in, wondering if I should wash, then swiftly pull out at the shock of the icy water.

My sister knocks on the door, then enters.

“Why are we being treated with luxury?” I ask. “Why not put us in the barracks with the other men and women, or with the servants? ”

Caitlin bites her lower lip. “I may have told Cyprien I am the heir to the Appleshield Protectorate.”

“Caitlin!” I protest.

“He didn’t know what to do with me when he dragged me back here, whether or not to lock me up in a cell. I almost escaped while he was still deciding, incapacitating the guards he had put on the door of a small, empty room. When he saw I could fight, and wield magic, he knew I wasn’t some simple peasant. He has treated me as an equal since I swore an oath that it was the truth. It means I got a seat at the table when they spoke about what to do about Aldrin and you.”

My mouth hangs open. Caitlin found herself captured by our enemy and instead of becoming another one of their victims, she negotiated a position of power.

“I cannot leave these grounds. Cyprien has put a spell on me that makes it physically impossible unless he personally escorts me, but I can roam freely. What about you? Are you Aldrin’s prisoner?”

I chew over that thought. “Honestly, I have no idea. He says I’m not, that I can go back to the portal and leave this realm any time, but also not without an escort. These fae are nothing like we were warned about. He won't have me wonder these lands freely. It makes it really hard to achieve what we came here for.”

Caitlin holds up a hand and whispers into my ear. “She can hear everything that is said here.” She pulls away and speaks loudly again. “You came here for an adventure. We both did. Is this not an adventure?”

I nod, too tired to even ask who she is, but then another thought takes me. “I made a bargain with Aldrin.” The color drains from Caitlin’s face, but I press on. “He must set you free, and then I will tell him my story. It was the only leverage I had over him. He seems very, very interested in our realm and our people. But Aldrin never specified how much I must share, and I do not intend on betraying any secrets.”

She nods. “It is a dangerous game you play.”

“I know.”

“Keira…there is someone I want you to meet. Cyprien introduced us , and I have spent most of my time here speaking with her,” Caitlin utters with such vulnerability.

I don’t question her, as she leads me through the winding walkways of the fortress, down to the lowest level that hugs the base of the wall.

The moonstone window frames are like large glowing eyes, breaking up the thickness of the shadows.

Caitlin fashions multiple orbs of fire to light up the night, hovering in the air above us and following our progress. It helps to chase away the chill of the air but does nothing for the bite of the wind. I hug the fur coat tighter around me.

She takes me to a bridge that arcs over the frozen river. It looks like spider webs of spun silver glimmering in the half-light, the railing a delicate design of arches overlapping each other and the path a thickly woven netting.

I take a step onto it, expecting the entire structure to sway, but it is completely rigid. The railing is taller than any person, a protective cage over the bridge with regular slits, so defending soldiers can fire arrows but are protected from enemy missiles.

The bridge reaches an intersection that branches in two, but at its center there is a narrow, descending spiral staircase. A column of the same silver wire encircles and protects it.

Caitlin leads me swiftly down the stairs, turning around the support pillar of the bridge. Twin waterfalls roar on either side, splashing sparse droplets onto us. We step out onto an isolated platform of rough stone, covered in patches of blue lichen and sprays of ferns.

There is a circle of large moss-covered stones in its center, and Caitlin takes a seat on one, indicating for me to do the same, but I stand rooted to the spot.

I burn with curiosity, trying to examine every last detail of the space.

Caitlin sings a soft, winding melody I have never heard before. It takes a few heartbeats for me to realize the words are not in our language. It is in pure, formal fae. The language I wanted to learn. She creates multiple orbs of fire, so it feels like we sit before a roaring hearth, rather than on an exposed platform above a frozen river.

Before I can ask her where she learnt such a song, the waterfall beside us stops flowing. It is the eeriest sight. All that crashing water halts and defies gravity, the loud white noise it created oddly missing. Then the waterfall parts like curtains and a figure steps through onto our platform.

The female is made of iridescent water, glowing with blue light. She assembles herself before our eyes from ribbons of water still connected to the still waterfall. They encircle her silhouette, thickening arms and thighs, reaching out from the top of her head, before cascading down into hair.

Within a few heartbeats, the fae is fully formed, her curvy figure shrouded in layers upon layers of light, gauzy fabric that are almost sheer. Puffs of it stand erect at her shoulders like webbed fins and ribbons trail down her back.

As she steps forward, her body completely detaches from the waterfall, which crashes down into a torrent again. Her skin turns a pale pink, not dissimilar from my own, but her hands, forearms, chest and cheeks all have a flush of blue. Small, shimmering scales are scattered across the areas that a human might have freckles.

Her long hair is white as snow, and it drapes to her waist, pulled back from her face with combs of shells from the creatures that live in her waters.

I can’t stop staring at the beauty and otherworldliness of her.

“You have returned.” The Lake Maiden’s voice is like a song. “And you have brought a friend.”

“My sister.” Caitlin approaches as she would a wild animal she is afraid to frighten away. “The one I told you about.”

“Yes. I can see the kindness in her eyes. The warmth in her soul. She is strong and fragile. Vulnerable but fierce. I have met many kinds who have crossed my waters over many years, but never one like you. Tell me, dear sister, of your quest. Of your desire to save your people.” The Lake Maiden holds out her hand to me and I take it. Her grasp feels like ice dripping through my fingers, but she smiles kindly at me as she leads me to the seats.

I glance at Caitlin and she nods. Tell her the truth.

“What is your name, Lake Maiden?” I ask.

She cocks her head to one side. “Odiane.”

I shuffle on the frozen rock, trying to get comfortable on the seat. “I have traveled from the human realm, Odiane, from a region that brushes up against this one. We are losing our magic, just as the fae of this realm are losing theirs. Our lands may not be dying, but our way of life is, and our world is returning to the mundane. Without magic, we will return to the dark ages from before the Tuatha Dé Danann gods visited our realm and created the fae.”

“We will become vulnerable to disease and famine again. Subject to the whims of untamed weather in hovels that cannot protect us. Already we have lost the ability to reproduce the technology we rely on. Soon, we won't have the power to maintain them. It is my quest to ask for a token of magic to return to my realm, and in exchange, I will offer my service to take your seed-stones to other bodies of water in this realm, so that your children can grow there.”

A jitteriness fills me. I did not expect to meet a Lake Maiden and immediately proposition her, but from one look at Caitlin, it is clear she has been forming a bond with this fae over days.

Odiane turns to my sister. “You are right, this one has a conscience and heart. Many humans have tried to slay me and steal my heart-stones. Many fae have tried to do the same for my power. To take my seeds, so they can have the privilege of a Lake Maiden guarding and nurturing the waters in their lands. But some would see my daughter as their slave, a pet to be used up by them. We could never be tamed.”

Odiane's huge, strange eyes hold my own. They are dark pools of rapidly moving blue, like her waterfalls. “I have been a part of these waters for centuries and seen countless armies clash. Sometimes I join the fighting and sometimes I watch from the sidelines, with my own amphibious court the only one to benefit from the slaughter and the feast it provides them. Rarely have I chosen to surrender a seed-stone freely. ”

Her white hair ripples through air as it would below the surface of the pool and trickles of water run down her body and away from her in small rivulets, back to the waterfall.

I wonder how long she can last on land, before her whole entity crashes down and returns to its home.

“Do you want your seed-stones to be spread to other waters? For your children to grow and reside there?” I ask her. It won’t be much of a bargain, if she doesn’t care for children.

“Oh, yes.” Euphoria crosses her face. “I desire to hear the songs of my daughters from their waters across the lands. To hear their stories of what their homes are like, of the people they meet. As I once sang with my mother and my sisters. Not many of my sisters are left, and I have so few daughters.”

“That sounds very lonely,” I venture. “I also know what it feels like to be surrounded by people,” I indicate the fortress around us and the fae within it, “but to feel utterly alone. Like there is no one who quite understands you or is the same. I lived a privileged life before crossing into this realm, but one devout of meaning or purpose, other than to wait on the man I would marry.”

I take in a shuddered breath, but continue. “Everyone around me had their busy roles. Caitlin preparing to become the next lord protector and dealing with the political maneuvering that comes with it. Our brother training to become a druid. My younger sister has the greatest powers in our generation of our family, and she practically manages the orchards with my father.

“But I was to wait and bide my time, until the prince was ready to marry me. To educate myself on history, on the customs of the other kingdoms, on finance and trade, but every time I saw him, he didn’t care for my opinions. I came here to live. To forge my own path and achieve something that was mine, before I return to my duty and live for everyone else again. I can’t complain. I’m not hungry or poor or oppressed, but to me, my struggle is still very real.”

The Lake Maiden examines me for a long time, drinking in my emotion like a person dying of thirst.

“We can bring your seed-stones to waters of your choosing,” Caitlin ventures. “Where they will be safe and valued, and you won’t be so alone anymore.”

Caitlin’s greatest strength as a leader is finding out what a person needs at the depth of their soul, not only the shallow little things they want, then dangling it in front of them for a bargain that would benefit both parties.

Perhaps she is more fae than we realize.

“Maybe I will allow you to take my seeds to other waters. Maybe I won’t,” Odiane says. “Before I can trust you, I need to know you. But if you earn my trust, if you bring my daughters to other lakes and rivers and springs in this realm, I may let you bring one back to your land. Your sister tells me the magic from my realm bleeds into yours. Into the air, the water, the soil. If my seed is closest to the veil between our lands, in the waters that flow from here to there, perhaps my daughter would be born with a soul, a body and a mind. If I come to trust you both, I might give you two daughters, each in very different forms.”

Odiane looks to Caitlin, whose skin is flushed and stares at her with such open hope. She could give Caitlin the magical pregnancy she desires, without the requirement of a male fae touching her. And she could give me a seed-stone to put into a lake back home.

The Lake Maiden smiles warmly at me, her cold hand squeezing mine again. “Keira, return here every night while you stay at my frozen river and tell me about your world. This prince that you feel obligated to marry. Of your hunts of wild fae who cross into your lands.

“I will not bulk at the stories of glory and death as my king might. He once too took pleasure in such things, before our world began to unravel. Tell me of the oppression of your women, the things so subtle you believe it nonexistent.”

And I do. I speak to the Lake Maiden as the night deepens and the clouds part to reveal an indigo sky filled with pinprick lights of stars, the space around them bleeding vibrant purple light. Their constellations are so very different from my own.

I tell Odiane about Finan, my hopes, my desires, my disappointments, with Caitlin as my silent support. The Lake Maiden’s body drips away, bit by bit, until her rounded curves are wraith thin and her hair is almost all gone.

As the day is born and pink light glows from the horizon, chasing away the blackness of the sky, Odiane sighs, then fades into heavy droplets of mist that hit the ground. I jolt, mid-sentence, and shoot a shocked look at Caitlin.

“She does that.” My sister tips her head to the pool on the ground.

It is only then that I notice the channels cut into the rock, allowing the water to flow back to the river.

“I don’t think it is a true form that she takes. If someone decided to capture all the water of that body, and moved it elsewhere, Odiane’s presence would remain here, with her heart-stones. She would appear here again, in another body of water.”

I nod absentmindedly.

We hardly talk as we make our way up the staircase and through the levels of the fortress to our bedrooms. Fatigue slams into me as soon as I see that inviting bed, my limbs turning leaden, and it is not only because we stayed up the entire night.

The remnants of adrenaline fade away, and the exertion of the last day finally takes its toll. From walking an entire day to this base, creeping into the fortress with fear and anxiety rolling through me like a sickness, only to fall into our enemy’s trap.

I have never felt fear like when those fae soldiers closed around us. Normally, I feel nothing at all.

My eyes keep drooping shut, and it is a struggle to pull off my clothes and slip into a nightdress laid out on the bed before melting into it. I drop off into oblivion immediately.