Page 19 of Court of Lies and Deceit
She only continues watching me with those sharp eyes of hers.
I clear my throat and slide my gaze back to the others. “When I asked why they never helped us, she said that the Unseelie Court doesn’t get involved in things outside their own realm. And also that relations between our courts were strained even before all this.” Glancing at Isera again, I lift my shoulders in an apologetic shrug. “So I doubt that they would ever help us. But maybe the dryads can.”
“Dryads?” Alistair says, stunned, at the same time as Lyra asks, “You’ve met a dryad?”
Draven and I exchange a glance.
“Yes, we have,” I reply. “Several of them, in fact.”
Even Isera stares at me in surprise as I summarize our meeting with the dryads in the underground forest during the Atonement Trials. When I’m finished, I can feel them all wanting to ask questions, but I realize thatIhave one too. A question that somehow got lost in all the craziness of the past few months.
Frowning, I turn to meet Draven’s eyes. “They caught me and then let me go because of what I told them. But how didyouescape the dryads without getting caught?”
His eyes gleam in the glowing faelights around the room. “I didn’t.”
“What?”
“They caught me too. But they let me go as well.”
I stare at him, my eyes wide. “Why? They hate dragon shifters.”
“They mainly hate the Icehearts. They just hate the rest of us by association. Once they realized who I was, that I am the Red Hand who has been working against the Icehearts for decades, they let me go.”
My mind spins. Shaking my head, I try to clear it. It doesn’t really work. “Wait. Stop. How in Mabona’s name did the dryads know that you’re the Red Hand? Your own people didn’t even know!”
Galen and Lyra wince, and I immediately regret bringing that up.
“The dryads are… ancient,” Lyra begins carefully, and casts an uncertain glance at Draven. When he gives her a nod, she sits up a little straighter and continues. “They’re connected to this world in a way that the rest of us aren’t. From what I’ve heard, they can… communicate, or something, through a network across the continent. Like a hivemind, almost.”
Next to her on the couch, Alistair frowns so deeply that a long crease appears between his brows. “Yeah, no, I can hear thatwords are coming out of your mouth, but I have no fucking clue what you’re actually saying.”
“The trees in Frostfell told the trees in the Seelie court that Draven was on their side,” Isera snaps impatiently from the wall.
“A bit simplified, but yeah,” Lyra says. Then she glances uncertainly towards Draven again. “Right?”
“Yes,” he confirms. “I’m assuming so at least.”
“Huh,” Alistair comments.
My mind churns. Shifting my weight on the soft carpet, I lean forward and rest my arms on the low table before me. Outside the window, soft night winds whirl between the stone buildings, creating a faint whistling sound.
“If the dryads are that ancient,” I begin, thinking out loud. “Then they might have a lot of answers that no one else does. Well, no one except the Icehearts, anyway. Like why the partnership between the dragon shifters and the fae ended.” I abruptly look up from the table and glance between the three dragon shifters. “Unless you already know?”
“Know what?” Galen asks.
Draven blinks at me in surprise. “What partnership?”
I frown at them all. “The one between the dragon shifters and the Seelie fae, of course. Look, Nysara has already told me the truth. That only a small minority of entitled assholes used dragon steel to control the dragon shifters and that the vast majority of Seelie fae were dragon riders because we had a mutually beneficial partnership with you guys.”
Shocked silence descends on the room.
The sight of everyone’s stunned expressions makes my stomach drop and my mouth dry out. Because it can only mean one thing. They didn’t know either.
“What are you saying?” Lyra blurts out.
Alistair and Isera look stricken.
Then rage starts building in Isera’s eyes again. “We were punished for something our ancestors didn’t even do?”
