Page 76 of The Forbidden Fae King

“I am so sorry, Aldrin. This is the plague on your lands?” The howling wind almost whisks her words away.

“Come, I would like you to hear what I tell Cyprien,” I say, pulling her by a hand.

We trudge a handful of steps through knee-high snow to Cyprien. Despite the short distance, it is hard work. I place a hand on his shoulder. The muscles are rigid beneath my touch.

He doesn’t turn to me. “These lands have never looked like this before. Winter has never been a wasteland. There has always been life.”

I nod. “At a glance, a person might think winter is attempting a takeover. The ice and snow has crept deeper into our lands and the deepness of the freeze here has intensified. Butthisbefore us is not winter. It is a void. A desolation. This is what happens when the magic is stripped from a place. There is no substance, because our world is made of pure magic. Remove it, allow it to fade away, and there is nothing to remain.”

I look at the barrens before us.

There is a long drop from these cliffs to a field of ice and snow, which stretches as far as the eye can see. The plane is rippled, as though a god ran huge claws through the land. In each valley, there is a pit of blackness, with great flakes of ash rising from it.

These immense rifts are as wide as a river, dividing the field. The darkness within is so complete it is utterly devoid of light or substance. There is no hole to fall within, no bottom to crash upon. Inside those rifts is nothingness. Tears in space and time. The threat that will consume this entire world until there is nothing left of it.

We are sleepwalking toward a disaster.

Cyprien’s eyes are glazed. “The whole border looks like this?” he asks.

“Yes.” I swallow. “And the border with summer is exactly the same, except it is a wasteland of sand and heat and those horrible rifts.”

Lilly stalks to my side. “Why has the council not acknowledged this? We should be debating solutions in the Senate.” Anger pinches her features. It is so rare that any emotion ruffles her usual calm.

“Because neither the members of the council or the high chancellor have traveled here to view the evidence before shunning the idea that this threat could be real. It is much easier to deny this truth than to accept it and fight it.”

Cyprien and Lilly’s faces drain of color.

They have always supported the council, and the high chancellor after she became an elected official. I was removed from my throne and exiled over this issue and my solution to it. They were drawn into the web of convenient half-truths and fabrications, like the rest of my people.

“How did this high chancellor usurp your place, Aldrin?” Horror fills Keira's face.

From the corner of my eye, I notice Cyprien look away and a red flush of shame creep up his neck. This is new.

I let out a long breath. “The high chancellor is a brilliant politician. She has both an air of authority and wisdom, and thoroughly discredits any who oppose her. I have heard of her utterly destroying the businesses of minor merchants who threatened her own trades.She knows how to make the right promises to convince unwary people of even the most ridiculous things. To tap into people’s fears and greed, and she does it shamelessly. Ruthlessly.”

Lily shuffles beside me. “Her smear campaign against Aldrin was relentless.”

The air is heavy between us, filled with regrets. Cyprien still won’t look at me. Keira’s eyes dart between us, her lips parted in shock.

I continue. “She attacked right when I needed my people to trust my judgment. When I presented my evidence and solutions, and I was most vulnerable. The high chancellor scented my weakness and took full advantage of it. By the time I limped into my exile, I had begun to thoroughly doubt myself, my abilities and my predicted disaster.”

I rub my temples. There is so much more to the story than that.

Had the council shown a unified front with me, I could have convinced the people of what we need to do. Of the sacrifices we high fae must make. It astounds me that I could have called them to war, and they would have followed. But asking them to leave the comforts of the city to tend to the wilds, as is our duty, was an outrage.

“The high chancellor is a great politician, but a terrible leader.” Cyprien’s cold words send chills down my spine.

I hold his gaze. “You have seen spriggan turn to rot and ash as their magic dissipates. You witness the rifts across this border. As you traveled through our lands, I’m sure you noticed lakes that no longer hold a maiden and groves of trees with no nymphs. We passed through a Watchtower Tree on our way to the Frozen River Fortress, and two of the nymphs didn’t have enough magic to form a body and disconnect from their tree. Have you seen enough to believe me?”

Cyprien glances at the frozen planes for a long time without responding. When he finally speaks, it is with a hoarse voice. “I have been urging the high chancellor to send an emissary to the Winter Court for a year now. To arrange a meeting between our ruling powers to parley. To question Erik on the increasing frosts and snow and ice in our land. She immediately refused, and recalled our ambassador to the Winter Court.”

He falls into silence and Lilly picks up the tale. “It’s almost asthough our probing made her tighten her grip on the communication between the two courts. It became a treasonable offence for people to contactanyonein winter. We have communities of high fae who were originally of that court, or who belong to both, and cannot speak with their family across the border. It is wrong. She claims to protect against spies, but I wonder if she is only protecting herself.”

Anger runs through my muscles, causing them to ripple and twitch with the need for action.

Cyprien looks as though he has bitten down on something bitter. “I tried to talk to our ambassador Joven as soon as he returned, to gleam what he knew of the brewing war in winter, but he only remained in the capital for a day. He was immediately reassigned to a country estate. I wanted to visit him, but he hasn’t responded to my messages or anyone else’s on the council.

“Aldrin, you should have seen him that one day he was in the capital. It was as if he were a man hunted by the soul ripper itself, looking for threats in every corner and always accompanied by guards. At first, I thought he had seen things in the Winter Court that terrified him, but I came to wonder if the real threat to his life was in our court.”

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