“Temir,” the king shouted.
My heart stopped, and I jumped out of my seat. “Yes, Your Grace?” I should have stuttered. The old Temir might have. I managed to keep my eyes down though.
“Tell me where Oravan is.” His magical voice filled the council room like a thick syrup.
“I don’t know, King Autus,” I lied.
“Sit down.”
I promptly did as he said. He worked around the table until he had tried to enchant the truth from everyone. When that failed him, he called in a servant.
“Go to the forge, find the blacksmith and drag him here by his head,” he ordered.
The servant dipped in subservience and disappeared. Autus rarely used his enchantment. He was of the mindset all northern fae followed him explicitly and honestly. For that, I was grateful. Had he been less arrogant, the truth of the rebellion would have come forward a long time ago. Right now, we were in complete recruiting mode. That meant word was getting out, and inevitably, we would try recruiting a fae who would turn us over for favor to the king. We needed to tread carefully.
“We are all going to a special place today. Gaea, you will take us to Reith. I’ve got something to show you.”
I’d heard talk of Reith recently. In fact, I was certain it was that tiny northern village from which a few rebels had just returned. The king couldn’t have known that though. The rebellion remained undiscovered. I wondered what he could have possibly wanted all of us to see in that small village, but as Gaea spirited us in groups of two to the top of the hill overlooking the village, we were joined by two identical harpies I’d never met before. Both with dark hair and taloned hands, they stood in unison on the ledge, their ribbed wings tucked behind them.
“Allow me to introduce Arcon and Agrad. They work for me now. None of you speak to them. Ever.”
Fortunately, I had no interest in the creatures anyway. Even if twins were incredibly rare, and it was hard to look away from them.
The minuscule village was only a gathering of twenty or so cottages built within a hidden valley below towering hills. We watched as a huge brigade of Wind Court soldiers poured out from behind a hill. They were death’s army today, creating a perfect circle surrounding the unsuspecting villagers. They rode in that circle until the snow beneath the hooves of the fae horses became mud, and suddenly, from the top of our hill, I realized the king had painted a target.
Gaea stepped to me and took my hand as she grasped what was about to happen. I looked at the varying faces of each council member. Ragal, with his head down and eyes closed, whispered a soft prayer. Eadas and Evin, the king’s new favorite pawns, didn’t blink as they smiled beside their sovereign, knowing he would expect nothing less of them. But perhaps they did enjoy it. It seemed that way. Gaea already had tears streaming down her face. Bolgan stood watching, though I wondered if he even comprehended what was about to happen, because he looked around in confusion as the horse’s thunderous tromps echoed off the sides of the snow-covered hills. The twins watched in eerie similarity.
The king lifted his hand into the air, and the horses came to an abrupt halt. As he dropped his hand, a soldier below called out.
“Exit your homes and present yourselves to your king who awaits you.”
The heavy breathing of the troll beside me filled the still air as we waited. I begged the gods to show mercy. Gaea’s gasp caught in her throat as the first of the villagers emerged from the safety of their homes. It started with only a handful of faeries, but by the end, nearly a hundred stood below us. If memory served me right, Reith was a village made up of lesser fae that the king had demanded hunt in the mountains, providing the castle with a portion of its meat supply.
“Turn!” the soldier yelled, pointing to the king and his advisors atop the hill.
My stomach rolled and lurched. I didn’t want to be seen standing here. A monster among many. Still I refused to look away. Those were fae. Lesser or higher, it didn’t matter. They were living, breathing people. Their lives mattered, and I would not blink as that right was stolen from them.
As one, the soldiers streamed into the middle of the circle with their weapons raised. I dropped Gaea’s hand as I went numb. The stark white snow on the ground became stained with the blood of my brothers as guttural screams filled the cloudless sky. They were slain like pigs to the slaughter. I heard the king’s maniacal laughter as a few tried to run and were cut down. Some fought back. Soldiers were pulled from their horses, but it only gave them a closer proximity to the bloodshed.
“Do you see?” The king laughed. “Do you see what happens when you defy me?”
“What have these people done to you, Autus?” Ragal dared to ask.
“They lived,” he answered in anger. “I am the power. I am the God of DeathandLife. It is by my will alone that you all remain standing here when I could so easily end your lives. You will remember this day. Look down and remember those faces. If any of you make a move against me, you will be next.”
The king grabbed Gaea’s arm so hard I thought she would cry out. She didn’t. Instead, she disappeared with him back to the castle. Upon her return, she took the others, leaving me for last. I stood on the hill and prayed over the fallen bodies as I watched the line of soldiers ride into the cover of the distant hills, as if the God of Death had called them home. I fell to my knees and wept, folding my hands into my body. Perhaps I was nothing more than a weak male without conviction. My shoulders weighed a thousand pounds as the world shifted atop them. Why had I joined a rebellion when things like this still happened? How had no one known the soldiers had crossed the kingdom until now?
Gaea placed her hand on my shoulder and I stood. “Ready to go back?”
I shook my head, staring into the crimson sea of death below me.
“Temir, this wasn’t your fault. You know that, right?”
But it was my fault. The king was angry because Oravan had left him. I had set that into motion. I had fueled this eruption of fire. “Go back to the castle. Leave me.”
“I can’t just leave you out here.”
“I’m going down there. I won’t leave them like that.”
