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“I’ve gone soft. Is that what you’re saying? You wish me to be a more brutal sovereign? Like my father, perhaps?”
“Not like him, no. Like the man you used to be. I want you to remember who you are. No more, no less.”
I scowled. “I wasn’t aware I had forgotten.”
“You’ve gone through more than most mortal men do in a lifetime, Kairos. You’ve lost a wife. A child. You’ve slain a brother. You’ve lived in exile.” She paused. “Now you’ve returned.”
“Returned. Lost another wife. Killed a stepmother.”
“Don’t take credit for my work,” Hawl complained. The Bearkin was nibbling at some of the untouched food. I watched as they grunted in satisfaction.
I shook my head. “I need to be more swift in my judgment. Harsher. More brutal. More violent. More... Siabra-like. Is that what you’re saying, Odessa?” The criticism stung. I couldn’t deny it.
Odessa took her time replying. When she did, her words shocked me.
“We stand on the brink of something. The world is about to change. I can feel it. Can you?” She looked back and forth between Hawl and me. The Bearkin was silent, listening carefully. “When you returned to us, you brought back a lost object of untold power.”
“The grail,” I said softly.
“And now, it’s gone. Taken by your sister. Given back to a people who are, arguably, our greatest enemies.”
I opened my mouth, but she held up her hand. “And don’t say that it may be all they wanted. You know better. They have Rychel. They have the grail. We’ve had our peace for one hundred and fifty years. That peace is about to end. I can feel it. Tell me I’m not the only one.” She looked at Hawl, almost pleadingly.
The Bearkin nodded slowly. “War comes.”
“War comes,” Odessa repeated. She looked at me. “But it may not come to Myntra first.”
I stared. “Eskira? Pendrath is already at war with its neighbors.”
“An ordinarily peaceful kingdom engaged in a reckless battle with its neighbors,” Odessa said slowly, as if teaching a small child. “A continent in chaos for the first time in a century.”
“But the war is between mortal lands. The fae had nothing to do with that...” I trailed off as I saw her face. “You think they did.”
“Remember your history, prince,” Odessa said softly, her eyes sharp and penetrating. “The land of Valtain may have been abandoned. A slight of hand, nothing more. The Valtain fae will rise. Of that I have no doubt.”
“They cursed us. They left their land. We have no idea where they are now.” I heard the words for what they were. Weak protests.
“They’ve made a new stronghold. I have no doubt they’re as powerful or more than they were when they fought your father.”
“One hundred and fifty years ago.” I shook my head. “You and I grew up on these tales.”
“We lived in the aftermath. We should know better than anyone how real the threat still is. But the Siabra, for the most part, have chosen to forget. We are steeped in our bitterness, sullen in our tragedy. Resting on the laurels of our blighted conquest, assuming it is enough. We do not age, but we do not create. The curse of childlessness has left us weak and rotting in indolence and indecision. We believe the worst that can happen is to go on as we are.”
“But it’s not the worst, is it?”
She shook her head. “Recall your history. The fae were once one. And when the fae were united...” She paused significantly.
“Mortals were below us,” I acknowledged. “In all ways.”
“All creatures,” Hawl growled. “All creatures served the fae. Whether they wished to or not.”
Utter subservience. That was the relic of our brutal past. One I vaguely remembered learning about as a child. Even now, I knew that some of the most long-lived of the Siabra secretly recalled those ancient days with fondness. The days when all creatures had served us, worshiped us, lived solely for our pleasure.
A time of stark divisions. When to be fae was everything, and to be mortal nothing.
A time when slavery was so commonplace, the concept did not even exist. One was simply fae, or born to serve and die.
I remembered what I had promised Morgan. To help her end the war in Pendrath. All of Myntra’s resources would be at her disposal, I had sworn. We would set things right in Eskira.
