Page 19 of Kissed By the Sun
I repeated the motion, unsure what station Trevor held. Highness meant royalty as well, didn’t it? He hadn’t acted like that when we’d been traveling together.
“Senara performed well,” Thorn began.
Fortunately for us, Trevor was already standing behind the important figures in the room when he rolled his eyes as though he hadn’t expected Thorn to say anything else.
“There were casualties. Obviously we can never avoid those, but I do believe we saved the majority of the townsfolk that were remaining. We took no casualties among the troops, though there were some injuries. As far as I'm aware, none of the corruption has spread to anybody that was involved in the attack.” He paused and took a breath, which caused the brows on the King and Queen’s to furrow. “That being said, the majority of the townsfolk were corrupted before we arrived, and it was only those that had hidden themselves away completely that I believe survived. The other major thing of note was that there was a magic user there that appeared to be controlling the corrupted fae. He fought Senara, and later myself, but used magic to disappear, so is still at large. I should also add that though heand Senara exchanged blows in a close combat fight, he only fought against me using the corrupted fae as puppets.”
The two kings exchanged a glance with one another. Clearly something had happened before which was similar to our current situation, and they didn't really want to talk about it.
The Queen was the one who ended up breaking the awkward silence. “We have had reports of something like this happening before,” she said, sounding every inch the Queen. Her gaze flicked between Thorn and me as she continued, “Our fighters were ambushed by a horde. After receiving reports of a feral sighting in the western parts of the kingdom only one of them made it away alive. He reported seeing a man and woman, both in silver masks that were controlling the horde. Is that what you also saw?”
Thorn nodded slowly. “As far as we're aware, there was just one man.”
“Did you see anyone else?” She looked directly at me, her purple eyes seeming to glow.
I shook my head. “I only saw the one figure in a silver mask. However, I would not claim to know whether it was a man or a woman. The figure wore swirling robes that obscured any distinguishing features, along with the silver mask. I would say personally that trying to label them as a man or a woman would be premature.”
She nodded thoughtfully.
Without thinking I asked, “May I ask if we know what the silver masks are? What they mean?”
“Why would we know?” the Queen countered.
“They looked ritualistic to me and I wasn't sure if it was related to any possible religions that might have sprung up recently.
“If they worship something other than nature then they are not true fae,” she bit the words out.
My idea offended her. Great.
It was King Xavier who took pity on me and explained further. “We celebrate the flow of the tide and the rising of the moon, the setting of the sun, and the changing of the seasons. We do not worship any one figure, for there is no one in our world that deserves such praise. The only figures that we have ever seen fit to bow our heads to were the moon goddess and the sun god, which is why we have the two courts. Those who are born marked by the sun god are his property and treated as such by existing in my court, like Thorn. Those that are born marked by the moon are the property of the Moon Court and treated as such.”
The Queen jumped in then, clearly not happy having her court described by King Xavier. “We are descendants of the original Moon Goddess and King Xavier is descended from the Sun God who brought life to the world. The Goddess is the everlasting calm, the tranquility and peace within the world. She may not have brought us to life, but she gives us purpose.”
I could have sworn for a split second that King Xavier rolled his eyes, just a little. Before they could educate me any further on the aspects of religion in the /fae lands I jumped in. “Surely it's possible, and I do not mean to offend,” I spread my hands in what I hoped was a placating gesture, “but surely it's possible that some people, some fae, could have started worshiping other things, say ones that are further away from the capital or any of the large cities? Couldn’t they have started to worship something or someone else.” I noticed a couple mouths open as if to protest, but I barrelled on, hoping that my newness to the fae lands would allow me to be a bit more brazen than I would normally. “If in your celebrations of the Moon Goddess and the Sun God you do not use silver masks like the ones that have been described, it stands to reason that it could be related to a religion that is coming from somewhere else.”
Finally it was too much for the Queen who raised her voice in a way that silenced my own. “You speak as though you're unaware of the veils. However, I know that someone has educated you on those.”
I nodded. ”He has, but I came through the Veil of Death. Surely it's possible that other people or things have come through the veils as well?”
She was starting to get annoyed and I knew I was walking the line of disrespect. “The only other thing we're aware of coming through the veil is the horrific experiments the human king performs.” Her words stunned me and I glanced at Thorn.
His face was as blank as ever, which was frustrating. Was he aware of these experiments? And he just hadn't told me? Or was this news to him as well?”
“Allow me to explain. My lady,” King Xavier said, offering the annoyed queen a reprieve from dealing with me apparently. “Repeatedly, we have found disfigured bodies on our side of the Veil of Death. We believe they were mages, since there is a trace of magic in their blood. We don't know how powerful or what was done to them beforehand, but I suspect that the human king is trying to find a way to break through the veil with mages so he can send his troops through and try and take over the fae lands once again.”
“Your Majesties, if I may,” Trevor said quietly, taking advantage of the pause in King Xavier’s explanation.
I couldn't tell which king he was talking to, but they both nodded, and the Queen did as well.
With their approval Trevor stepped forward, coming to face me and Thorn, though he didn't look at Thorn as he spoke. It was enough of an indicator, so I assumed that Thorn knew everything Trevor was about to say already. “While I was in the human kingdom, I didn't have a job like Thorn. I was there on a different mission, one which you almost ruined, in fact.”
I blinked at him, taken aback. How had I almost ruined his mission?
“You can run quite quickly when you want to, can't you?”
He gave me a lopsided grin, and suddenly I realized that this was the fae that I had been tracking through the castle that had evaded me.
Twice.
