Page 44 of Children of Fallen Gods

We heard them before we saw them. It sounded like a breeze through the trees:shshshshshsh.

And yet, the sky was clear.

The sound grew louder. The breeze became a gust, my cape yanking at my throat, my mother’s long black hair flaring like crows’ wings. My sister grabbed onto her diadem to keep it from blowing away. My hand found the hilt of my sword.

SHSHSHSHSHSHSH.

All at once, they were everywhere.

Where there was once blue sky, there was now a moving mass of wings flying up from beneath the balcony. They moved so fast and in such perfect unison that for one moment they looked like a single massive creature, backlit in shadow and splashed with red sunrise.

And when they dove, they became smears of feathers and color — the white of doves and blacks of ravens and yellows of delicate finches. Visible only briefly before a graceful cloud of rolling fog enveloped them, and when it dissolved, it revealed Fey bodies preparing to land on the balcony.

Fey bodies, with outstretched, beautiful wings.

“Mathira,” I whispered, and Siobhan promptly shushed me.

I couldn’t help it.Lookat them.

They landed in perfectly synchronous rows, fair fabrics rippling around them. The last two to land were a man and a woman, both with the same shade of champagne blonde hair and particularly ornate clothing. Then, they parted and bowed.

My father, to my surprise, followed their lead. And as strange of a sight that was, we followed him without hesitation. I lifted my head just enough to watch her arrive: Shadya, the Queen of the House of Wayward Winds. Her wings were pure white, stark against her long red curls. A crown of gold peaks sat upon her head.

She surveyed us, her wings outstretched. Then, she drew them in tight, and they were simply… gone, beneath a flash of rolling smoke.

She turned to my father and bowed, turquoise chiffon gathering at sandal-clad feet.

“Teirna Reidnacht. It is an honor to be welcomed to the Pales for the first time in so many years.”

She spoke with a low, purring accent.

“It is an honor to have you and your people here, Es’reen Shadya,” my father replied.

We all stood, the two nations staring each other down and doing an awful job of hiding it. We could not have looked more different. The Sidnee all wore our finest clothing, deep black and lush purple and silver threads, the Blades clad in leather engraved with our individual tales.

All this, while the Wyshraj wore… well, one could barely call them “clothes.” Their attire looked as if it could have been made from a few long, unfinished pieces of fabric artfully pinned around their bodies. All of it rendered in shades of gold or turquoise or white, and all of it leaving an expanse of skin showing that, among the Sidnee, would be truly shocking. The men donned one single swath draped over one shoulder, leaving practically half of their chest exposed, while the women wore theirs twisted to — mostly — cover their breasts and then drape down into capes.

“You think they fight in that?” I whispered to Siobhan. “One wrong move and all your secrets are revealed.”

This time she didn’t shush me, and a smirk twitched at the corner of her mouth.

My gaze fell to the two Wyshraj standing closest to the Queen, with the long golden hair. The female was whispering something in the man’s ear. Probably some equally rude retort, though not very funny, because he didn’t react at all. The light spilling in through the windows cast a gold glow across his skin. Well-built shoulders. Sculpted arms. A face that looked as if it were assembled from marble planes, both in beauty and in utter stillness.

If they were going to walk around like that, at least they had the decency to be good looking while they did it. No one could argue that.

My father stepped aside. “It is my honor to introduce you, Queen Shadya, to my wife, Alva. And my daughter, Orscheid. The Teirness.”

My sister, ever ladylike, blushed as she lowered into an elegant bow.

Shadya bowed her head. “It is a great pleasure to meet you both. Your beauty surpasses even what I have been told.”

I watched in silence. It had been so long ago since I stood in Orscheid’s place, but sometimes, it was impossible not to imagine what it would feel like to be bowed to by the Queen of Wayward Winds.

My father turned to Caduan.

“And may I also introduce you, my Queen, to King Caduan Iero.”

The queen dropped into another bow, even lower than the one that she gave my father.

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