Page 97 of Golden Queen
They will land on a new world and mix with the soil where the moonflower grows.
We will live as two flowers on a vine, and when the summer winds blow, I will feel your touch again.
The fairy sang so long that her breath melted the ice where she lay atop the barrow. When winter came again, the lovers were frozen together in an endless embrace.
It was said that on a warm day, when the barrows thawed enough to glimpse the ancient heart of the icy tombs, the fairy and her mate could be seen. They waited, arms entwined, for some world-ending fire to come and burn them away so that they could be reborn together as flowers.
I was more than a little drunk, feeling utter heartache. I imagined thatIcould understand how one might just be so heartsick that the idea of waiting an eternity for one single touch might just be worth it.
Now that it had ended between us, there was no harm in admitting I had loved him from the first—from that first moment my blade had gone into his heart, and I had tried to catch him—when grief and regret had washed through me so deeply that I could not think.
I slept in my own bed that night. Though, after drinking half the whiskey bottle, I could not say how I got there.
I dreamed of ice burning away like dry kindling and of milky, opaque water covering the world. I struggled in the dream, seeming to pass days of time trying to evade that terrible, cloudy water. When I eventually gave up the fight and sank under its depths, it was soothing and peaceful.
When I finally woke, it was to mocking sunshine and those stupid fucking bells. And the people in the streets, chanting. "Aelia! Aelia! Queen! Long live the Queen!”
Seventeen
Ionly saw him once in the following few days, but it seemed like I saw everyone else in Windemere far more than I would've liked.
There were council meetings, official investiture ceremonies, more council meetings, and strategy sessions where we went over the plans for the coming war. And that was all within the first full day of my reign.
The eldermen had finally voted to summon the fyrds. Birds flew from Windemere to call up the soldiers of each of the eleven great houses, along with all the lesser estates, to amass the army to defend her golden plains.
The betrothal ceremony happened the second morning after my coronation. I once again woke in my bed, bleary-eyed with a splitting headache after drinking far too much whiskey in an attempt to fall asleep.
The cut on my palm seemed to flare to life with each passing hour. Itching had blossomed into fiery heat, and when I glanced under the bandage, it looked red and angry.
I knew I must have looked dreadful as I waited in the council chambers in my new seat at the head of the table for the Nightfall emissaries to arrive.
Io had to come. He was the only one with the appropriate royal permission to sign as proxy for his grand high Majesty Behr Iomhar Aldur.
The middle name written on the document set before me had nearly broken me in two. That was the moment when I truly realized the ramifications of the fact that they were brothers, and I was being forced to marry the wrong one of them.
I looked over the terms of the sovereign marriage contract again, trying to cease the endless pricking of tears behind my eyelids. Not for the first time, I wondered what could have prompted the king to be so generous in his terms.
Along with millions of gold pieces, even more silver, and countless goods, the contract gifted the Twilight Gap back to Windemere.
The Gap was the narrow strip of land that joined the two halves of Alterra. It had once allowed Windemere to control commerce and travel between nations, keeping a stranglehold on goods going north to Nightfall.
A war had been fought over the land—a small, but bloody one. Nightfall prevailed and they controlled the gap for hundreds of years. It made no sense that they would so willingly hand it back to us.
There was more here than met the eye. Nightfall would know we were in no position to bargain, and yet, they had come right out at the start with an offer we could not refuse.
Lands, estates, and titles in Nightfall, the sovereignty of my own kingdom assured, and the promise of protection from any foe who came against me.
Why? The question was a constant litany in my head. Why did they want me so badly?
There was very little in the contract for them besides me. It included the mutual support of my human armies, but the idea of humans defending the fae was laughable. The guaranteed trade in godsgrass was certainly a boon for them, but Nightfall's emissaries had already worked out a godsgrass deal that was beyond lucrative for them. It made no sense.
When the hour ticked past with no sign of him, I rose from my seat and went to the window.
I was alone in the chamber with only my own thoughts for company. I had insisted on that much, at least—that the eldermen wait outside while the proxy and I discuss the terms. They could come into the chamber to witness the signing, but I needed just one fucking moment with him alone...before I bound myself irrevocably to his brother.
The window overlooked the portion of the city around the gates. The wall rose ugly and harsh against the bright golden hills.
I remembered the way the city looked from the sky—so out of place—like a fat tick set upon the flanks of some beautiful golden beast, sucking the life from it.
