Page 95 of Wrath of the Fae Queen
We march out of their crude fortress, between the great slabs of rock that jut from the ground at an angle and cast their shadows for leagues, and into Red Rose Grove. We take a wide road that cuts through the sparse woods, sounding like a storm cracking with thunder as over five hundred sets of boots strike against the flagstones and crunch on the thin layer of ice coating them.
The racket we create, sending wildlife skittering, is as foreboding as our surroundings. It has been a long time since I have visited these parts, but they have never looked like this before.
The broad trunks of the ancient pines are sparse, yet their canopies are wide enough to filter the light, casting everything in an ominous blue glow. Icicles cling to their branches like rows of teeth. Wildrose bushes grow in all the spaces between the trees, crimson petals glittering with frozen droplets. The further we walk, the thicker the ice becomes. The ferns that normally carpetthe floor have turned brown, burned by the snow dusted across them.
My breath mists before me and a shiver runs down my spine as I pull my cloak around me.
“It’s the fucking same everywhere we visit,” Silvan grumbles just behind me.
Hawthorne uses a small blade to cut a rose free from a vine growing close to the road and holds it up for me to inspect. The entire thing is frozen solid in a thin crust of ice, its colors perfectly preserved. He crumbles it to pieces in his hand. “No wonder it was so easy for Titania to blame the corruption of our lands on the Winter Court, when it always starts out as a change of seasons near their borders.”
“The same is true of our borders with the Summer Court,” I say. “The corruption first drains the life from the lands by freezing or burning everything as the magic is drawn away, then it creates a desert, one of heat and sand or cold and ice. Either way, the lands become completely inhospitable before the voids appear. The only difference is that Titania cannot convince our people that Summer is performing acts of war against us. Not when they are known for being pacifists and we do not have a history of violence with them, unlike Winter.”
Silvan scoffs. “Summer fae are pacifists, until they are not. Then, they are fucking brutal, and I hope to the gods that we never need to fight them.”
“It is different in the Starlight Court.” Valentine breaks his usual brooding silence, and I glance back at him briefly, catching the ripple of pain that runs over his face. “Our corruption materializes as the darkest of night, without even the stars for guidance. The kind of darkness that blinds even Nightmare fae who thrive in the shadows. It runs through the land in a web of cracks that can hardly be seen, blackness against blackness, like a living, hungry thing that can move and capture unsuspectingprey. And, of course, our darkness is bleeding into the Sun Court, making them accuse my people of tainting their land.”He shakes his head as we listen in horror. “There is not much that we can do about it. Not even the raw magic of all the high fae left in our court is enough to counter the leaching of the magic where it is most severe. I believe that the courts who do not do their part are draining the magic from those that do. That my home cannot heal while this High Chancellor of yours still sits on Aldrin’s throne.”
“It will take great change from all the courts,” I add. “My hope is that once I have a working system in mine, I can convince the others to follow.”
We continue the march through Red Rose Grove and I listen closely to the reactions of the foot soldiers behind us. There is so much anger dripping from their words and many curse Winter for their invasion, even those who were the most invested in my speech.
I motion for Commander Calypso to join me at my side. “Have none of your soldiers actually seen Red Rose Grove in its current state?”
She cringes. “Senator Ash did not like the soldiers leaving the fortress.Hewould inspect it with his selected inner circle whenever the urge arose within him, which was every few months, then he would return to berate us.”
I narrow my eyes on her. “Haveyouseen it?”
“Not in years. Not looking this severe.”
“Well, brace yourself. It is about to get a whole lot worse.” I dismiss her.
We pass through an abandoned town of treehouses that cling to trunks multiple stories above our heads. Many of the ladders leading up from the ground and the rope bridges between buildings are snapped and hanging in disrepair. The houseshave missing roof tiles, broken slats and shattered leadlight windows that are frosted over with ice and grime.
High fae should be living here and nurturing these lands, but they are long gone. The tree and flower nymphs who are bonded to this place, however—they are still here, and scatter like wild beasts at our approach.
There is fear in their eyes.Ice clings to their bodies in chunks of crystals. The leaves and vines of their flesh are burned brown by the freeze. The rot is already upon them, wasting away their limbs and making them limp.
It breaks my fucking heart.
“These nymphs need to be evacuated,” Commander Calypso snarls beside me. “Why would Senator Ash leave them here?”
“Because they are killing nymphs that migrate to the city,” I snap, and she flinches. “They are being targeted and blamed for the changing lands. For daring to speak out about them. The same is true in some of the large towns. Where would we bring them that is safe? Assuming they can even extract their heart-stones anymore with the degradation of their groves. Notice that they flee us, but not inside their trees. It means they can no longer join bodies with them.Thisis happening everywhere, and it is not Winter’s doing.”
She tips her head at me. “Are you sure about that?”
“Wait and see.” A wave of fatigue rolls through me. I am so sick of having this same conversation over and over again, and I am just getting started.
Klara grabs me by the arm. “I can heal them. Let me try.”
It is a fool’s errand, but when I see the frozen tears on her cheeks, I nod despite myself, ordering a handful of soldiers to aid her. Maybe she can save a few.
The road takes us out of Red Rose Grove and into Greenwood Locket. The thicker forest hugs an immense lake depressed ina bowl in the ground, visible beneath us through gaps in the branches.
The entire body of water is frozen solid and corrupted.
I have never seen anything like it.
Narrow black cracks spread across the ice like a spider web, but the worst part is the thin streams of inky mist that billow from each one. I shudder as I realize the voids have stretched their tentacles this far inland, clearly reaching up from beneath the ground.
