Page 61 of Winds of Darkness
Noelle was there, handing her a towel before helping her squeeze the water from her hair. Long before she was mentally ready, she was making her way down to one of the meeting rooms near the main foyer. The room fell silent when she entered, everyone but Talwyn getting to their feet and bowing or nodding. It was ridiculous, really. These formalities were pointless after centuries together.
“Princess,” Ermir greeted, everyone returning to their seats after she’d taken her place at the other end of the table, opposite Talwyn. “Queen Talwyn and Prince Azrael were just telling us of your visit earlier today.”
“I was unaware my movements were being monitored and reported,” Ashtine replied.
“That is not what we’re doing,” Talwyn said.
“My misunderstanding. To what do I owe the visit?”
Everyone in the room shifted in their seats, but it was the Earth Prince who said, “You cannot be serious.”
“I am usually quite serious.”
“You came to the White Halls, told us a war was coming, and then you left. Surely you recognize we would have questions after all that,” he said in disbelief.
“One would assume you would have questions,” she agreed.
“And what do you have to say about it all?” Azrael demanded.
Ashtine tilted her head, folding her hands in her lap. “I have nothing to say.”
“You have … How can you—”
“Stop, Az,” Talwyn interrupted. “I’ll handle it.” Turning her attention back to Ashtine, she said, “We have questions, but do you have any answers, Ashtine?”
“I do not know your questions,” Ashtine answered. “But if you are asking of the rivers running red, the lands dividing, and the survival of the realm hanging in the balance, I have beensearching for those answers for months. I have the same questions you do.”
“If you have been searching for answers for months, then why do you just now bring them to our attention?” Azrael cut in.
Ashtine’s gaze slid to him. “As you said, the winds’ whispers are vague and often nonsense. They could mean nothing, but they could mean everything.”
“We are talking about a potential war,” the Earth Prince snarled.
“I am aware.”
“You cannot keep a war threat a secret for months, Princess.”
“Not informing you does not mean it was kept a secret, Prince Luan,” she replied, the air in the room stirring.
“If I may,” Ermir cut in before Azrael could speak again. “As you know from working with the late Princess Ophelia for decades before her death, the winds are not an Oracle. It has long fallen to the Wind Court to investigate and try to interpret the songs of the winds. That is why our library is so vast.”
“The fact remains that a potential war should be brought to our attention,” Azrael argued.
“Prince, do you know how often the winds speak of war? Of death? Of bloodshed and any number of catastrophes?” Ermir replied, his tone getting sterner.
Ashtine had only heard him speak this way a handful of times. It was his power stirring the air in the room now. Not hers.
“They speak of peace and prosperity just as often,” Ermir went on. “They carry news from other continents, other realms. They carry history. Not just ours, but of the stars. When we say the winds know everything and nothing, we mean just that. We do not dismiss things lightly, but to assume we have kept a threat of war a secret is insulting to our princess and our Court as a whole.”
Talwyn’s gaze was moving between Ermir and Azrael, clearly trying to decide if she should intervene. She was the youngest Fae at this table. Ashtine was older by mere months, but half of the Fae in attendance had fought in the Great War. Andallof them, save for the females, had been alive during it.
“I meant no disrespect, Ermir,” Azrael said. “I remember well how Ophelia was often plagued by the winds.”
That had Ashtine leaning forward in interest.
“But I also remember a war fought and lives lost,” the Earth Prince went on. “I would be failing my own Court if I simply sat back and did not pursue a potential threat.”
“That is understandable,” Sion chimed in. “We would do the same, and we have. The princess came to us with these whisperings months ago, and we have been looking into them ever since. We know it plagues her. We can see it consuming her. We are not blind, but we have found nothing to substantiate it. Bringing it to your attention without proof brings just as many obstacles.”
