Page 12 of The Night Prince 2

“Oh, we’re well integrated. But if you start putting us in places of power…” Helgrom had stared into the fire. “It’s not time. Your parents were not lost all that long ago to the Under Dark.”

“I’m aware.” The wound of their loss had throbbed and he’d looked himself into the fire. “But neither you nor the Draesiwen had anything to do with that.”

“Don’t be so sure. There are many Dark Dwarves still loyal to the Kindreth, thinking that only the return of Vex will restore our lost kingdom,” Helgrom said with a puff of smoke. “But regardless if any Draesiwen were involved, many will know this about us. They do not trust me. And that will lead to them not trusting you if you appoint me to the Radiant Council. Maybe not on the surface, but underneath. And those who would work against you will have a lever that they didn’t have before. So my counsel is to not have me as Councilor. At least not openly.”

Aquilan laughed. “Those against me? You make it seem like there are hordes of them–”

“There are. Many more than you know.” Helgrom looked so serious.

Aquilan shook his head. “But the Sun chose me. I did not wish for the crown.”

“You know that the Sun chose you. But others… think it is not real,” Helgrom said. “They think the whole ceremony is a game. Something set up in advance and agreed to by the great Houses.”

“What?” Aquilan balked. “But it is quite real! Believe me, if it was gamed then Vesslan would be king right now. There is not one House that does not owe him a favor.”

Helgrom shifted uneasily. “About that… Your own brother didn’t think it was real. He thought it was gamed and believed he would be named king.”

“Vesslan? No–”

But for a moment, Aquilan remembered the shock on his brother’s face when the Sun’s light had poured down upon him at the Lumen Ceremony.

“Aquilan, your good heart gives you strength, but others would… Well, what seems apparent to you as truth, others see only lies,” Helgrom advised.

“And here you do not want to counsel me!” Aquilan shook his head.

“I said not openly. Name Ornaren Deepbranch. He’s a good fellow. And a friend. He’ll listen to you and speak for me. And he’s an Ironen. No one will have a problem with him,” Helgrom said.

Vesslan’s annoyed snort brought him back to the present as he asked, “Yes, well, who was the second Councilor?”

“Shonda Baston,” Aquilan answered and tensed, knowing what was coming.

Where you see truth, others see lies.

Vesslan sighed. “Oh, the human Councilor. Well, that hardly counts!” Helgrom lifted a shaggy eyebrow, but said nothing as he continued to chew bacon aggressively. Before Aquilan could respond, Vesslan continued, “The large Houses have been asking me about the territories that they are to be rewarded for their participation in the war. With the war all but done, they are anxious to begin sculpting their new homes from this world.”

“Yes, I imagine they are, which is why I am glad I spoke to Shonda last evening,” Aquilan said as he carefully dipped his bread into the golden yellow yolk.

He had been thinking deeply about what she and Michael had said. It had never set right with him the deal he’d made. His parents had colonized many lands without much thought, but this had never set right with him either. They hadn’t come here for gain. To take the best land from the humans would stain their good intentions.

Vesslan’s eyes narrowed. “Why does what your human Councilor have to say have any impact on the awarding of land? Unless it was for her to wish her thanks to be sent onto the Houses for fighting this war and saving them?”

Helgrom’s knife scraped loudly across the plate, making a screeching noise, as he sliced his eggs in two.

“We did not come here for land, Vesslan. We can here to stop evil and address the incursion of creatures from the Under Dark into another plane,” Aquilan retorted, his hands tightening around his knife and fork. “So, of course, I’m going to consult with Shonda before any land is gifted.”

Vesslan actually smiled for the first time that morning. It almost looked genuine. “No, dearest Aquilan, you came here for that. The Houses came here for land. Land which you promised them. Remember?”

Aquilan stared down at his plate. That was true.

He was surprised when Vesslan clapped a hand on his shoulder. “You saved the humans, Aquilan. And, quite frankly, saved this land from the humans’ polluting, wasteful ways. You have no idea the filth that I have had to dispose of. Most of the water was contaminated by human-made chemicals. It was deadly to drink for anyone! The land was poisoned by pesticides so that the food was tainted and caused disease and death. Countless animal species went extinct because of humanity’s insatiable desire to spread their asphalt jungles.” Vesslan shook his head in disgust and dismay. “Truly, things are better for humanity overall now.”

“They are a young species,” Aquilan admitted slowly. “They would have learned in time–”

“Well, they will learn faster now,” Vesslan pointed out. “Their own bodies were polluted with micro plastics. There were chemicals in their blood causing their cells to twist and cut short their already pitifully short lives even shorter. From the water they drank to the food they ate, it was all contaminated by their own hands. In a way, if the Leviathan didn’t kill them, they would have killed themselves before long.”

Aquilan knew that his brother was not altogether wrong. There had been many humans–children especially–whom he had healed in many lands as the war had progressed. Children with cancers that ate through their bones. People in the prime of life whose own bodies were attacking themselves and stealing their mobility and strength. The elderly were unable to breathe as their lungs filled with fluid that their muscles could not pump out so they drowned in their own liquids. It was not the simple turn of the years, but as Vesslan had said, ecological poisons were destroying these bodies at every stage of their lives.

How many places had he and Rhalyf found on this planet where the waters were filled with sludge and the land was barren because it was stripped of nutrients to support life? Too many to count. There were even places where human power plants had irradiated the land. So much foulness. Humanity had lost its way.

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