Page 52 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
Drake draws my attention back to him. “Look, I’m going to have to continue to say some very nasty things to you. People will get suspicious if Florian stops acting vile and aggressive. I will scratch my chin as a signal, and when you see it you can remember none of this is real. That Florian is gone and it is really me, taking care of you.”
I nod as a potent relief cascades through me at having such an ally in this. “What happened to Florian?” I ask.
Drake raises his eyebrows. “What do you think? That man committed many atrocities in the Winter Wars. We couldn’t find him afterward and he would have been executed if we did. He was probably hiding out in another court. It is no surprise he returned when Titania rose to power and weaseled his way into her inner circle. She breeds cruelty.”
A few paces behind Drake, Sasha visibly shudders. “I saw the bloody aftermath of his work during the war. He ravaged defenseless villages and cities full of civilians to try to coax out our army, killing children and adults alike, never bothering to bury their bodies. Sometimes he left hundreds of heads on spikes as a message.”
A shiver runs through me at the image she depicts and I am suddenly very glad I was hardly exposed to the real Florian.
“This is where you hold secret meetings? As a resistance against Titania?” I glance around. There are no signs that anyone comes here regularly, not even chairs arranged for today’s session.
Rainier lets out a long breath. “I will be brutally honest: we do precious little to hurt her reign, though that will change now you are here. The disgruntled masses are afraid and fractured, but you could unite them behind you. Our work, though justas important, is to smuggle the minorities she uses as targets out of the city. Titania’s rule is built upon the people fearing and distrusting everyone around them, with her as their only protector against false enemies.”
“You do us a disservice.” Juniper places a hand on Rainier’s arm, and he looks down at it, then at her with intensity. She immediately pulls her hand back and flicks long, dark green-and-navy hair over her shoulder, a light blush staining her cheeks. “It is the difference between life and death for the people we help.”
Rainier shakes his head. “I should be doing more, considering the role I played to help her onto this damned throne.”
As Drake pulls him to the side and speaks intently in his ear, Sasha steps forward, taking my hands. Her coat flutters and I realize it doesn’t have a fur-lined collar at all, but a long-haired puka nuzzled around her neck.
“You know of Titania’s hatred of the Winter Court. Of how she uses us as scapegoats, blaming the corruption that kills these lands on my king’s technology and imaginary acts of war.” She strokes the puka’s fur absentmindedly. “Well, words aren’t enough for the High Chancellor. She sends out her army of Truth Templars in the night. They tear out into the street anyone who migrated from the Winter Court and burn their homes and businesses to the ground. My people are beaten bloody in a brutal display before onlookers. Too many have died. They target those wealthy enough to have assets to be confiscated but not politically powerful enough to protect themselves. They are my people, and I am their ambassador and princess. I am supposed to help them.” Sasha’s voice breaks on those last words and my heart aches for them all.
Juniper rubs her arm soothingly, but her eyes are on me. “In the last year, many of the common citizens have started to flockto the Truth Templars’ warpath, helping them burn, pillage and maim. It is only getting worse. They have been brainwashed and revel in the sense of superiority the violence gives them.”
“Truth Templars!” Jasper spits from where he leans against a column, just outside the group. “I loathe that name. They only care about their own fabricated version of the truth. They twist reality so much that they believe their own lies. They are nothing but gangsters.”
A deep sadness rolls through me. They never should have been left to deal with this alone. “We will stop them. We must,” I promise, but it doesn’t seem enough. “Is there a large Winter community in the City of Vertical Gardens? It doesn’t seem right that they have to abandon the lives they have built here to remain safe.”
Drake scratches his chin. “After the war many refugees fled from Winter to Spring, because even though they had been enemies, the living conditions were much better here.”
“We were thrust into bankruptcy.” Sasha’s eyes are glazed. “There was famine—too much land was ravished by war and too many farmers died fighting, and no one planted seeds for the future. After my uncle was slain, my cousin Erik built our court back up to the functional, thriving state it is today, but the road was long and hard.”
Rainier joins Sasha at her side, picking up the narrative when her words falter. “Aldrin sponsored a program that helped bring many orphans from Winter to Spring, placing them in good families and giving an allowance to raise the child to any who might not be able to afford it. He also helped widowed mothers migrate here with their children. For some reason, the fae of the Spring Court have far more difficulty reproducing than those of Winter.”
I suddenly appreciate the gravity of Silvan’s mother fleeing here after the war, alone with a small babe. How he identifies asa citizen of Spring, who helped them, one of the reasons he is so loyal to Aldrin.
The smallest smile forms on Rainier’s face, and my heart skips a beat because I know what he is going to say. “You have probably noticed I look nothing like either of my parents, becauseIwas one of those orphans, adopted by Spring nobles who couldn’t have children.” He turns to Drake, his true father, and they share such a warm, loving look it makes my heart melt. “I have always wondered if I was a forbidden love child between soldiers of warring sides, considering my hair is the white of Winter and my skin is the deep tan of Spring. I have no recollection of my birth parents, considering I was only days old when I was given away, but I think it is better that way.”
Sasha wipes a tear from her eye. “They were harsh times. Families were torn apart. I don’t like to dwell on the loved ones I lost to that war. It pains me to see history repeating, and Winter families being destroyed here and now.”
Deep shame fills me. “I am so sorry. We had no idea any of this was happening.” I glance desperately to Drake. “Aldrin has no idea.”
“We knew she was mismanaging the court to fill her own pockets, and that she did nothing to counter the corruption, but not that things had deteriorated this much since the last time we were in the capital,” Drake agrees.
“We spent a year in the human realm to fight Finan and win the trade and migration agreement we needed,” I say. “That’s three years here with the way time moves differently across realms.” All eyes fall on me. By the gods, it is hard to resist the urge to apologize profusely for tying up Aldrin and his people in what felt likemyfight.
“A lot has changed since then, and nothing at all,” Jasper grumbles. “After Titania hired the Assassins of Belladonna to kill Aldrin, she shed any reservations that held her back. Thingsshe did in the shadows before, acts we only suspected, became atrocities she committed before all, without a hint of shame. It was like she had already written him off as dead, and believed no one else could challenge her.”
“The High Chancellor terrorizes the low fae as well.” Juniper’s quiet voice slices through the conversation. “She claims they are lazy and the fact they are diminishing under the rot of the corruption is their own fault. That they want high fae to expend their power restoring lands that they aren’t taking care of. Accusations are spread that their children are dying from neglect, and not from fading magic. Every so often she will put randomly selected low fae on trial to solidify this point. They are always executed publicly in the end. Their businesses and homes in the city are also burned down in the night, just not at the rate of those of the Winter migrants.”
“Surely the masses don’t believe this? Anyone can travel the court to know the truth!” I don’t mean to raise my voice. I am so fucking tired of the pain caused by one woman’s hunger for power. I clench my fists so tight my nails dig painfully into my palms, likely drawing blood. I almost shake with the unrestrained anger that churns through me.
Juniper scrunches up her delicate nose. “Some people will believe any propaganda that tells them they are the superior race. Born better than everyone else, by no effort or achievement of their own. That puts the blame of their shortcomings on someone else’s shoulders. That allows them to delude themselves into thinking they deserve more rights than others. Some people love convenient lies. They will do anything to protect them, even when they make little rational sense. Unfortunately, that radicalized minority of high fae have the loudest voices and the most destructive actions, making the rest cower. I believe the majority are on our side,yourside, but they are not organized as the Truth Templars are.”
She glances at Rainier, then back at me.
“My mother holds the seat in the Senate that represents the low fae interests, as she is half tree nymph, but she is weak. Afraid to speak out. All I can do is try to make up for her failings. I am very aware of the fact that both Rainier and I are immune from the persecution of our people because we have grown up a part of the Spring Court nobility.”
“And what of the humans?” I ask, remembering derogatory comments Titania made on the journey to the City of Vertical Gardens. A telling silence greets me. “How have the humans fared in the capital under the High Chancellor’s rule?” My voice wavers as panic flares within me.
