Page 159 of A Vow of Wrath and Ruin

Tharan smelled the intoxicated elixir before taking a sip. The taste of brandy danced on his tongue. “Just what I needed.”

He went to speak but Hopper entered with a scholar from the Ruskan Library and Sumac in tow.

Tharan stood, and the scholar bowed. “King Tharan, how may I be of service.” The sylph man with dark hair and skin wore rounded spectacles and a brown robe with twenty bars on the hood—a sign he’d been studying for two hundred years.

“Thank you for coming, Grand Master…”

“Marcus, your grace. Grand Master Marcus, but just Marcus is fine.” He clutched a tome in his hand.

“Very well, Marcus. I’m assuming my associate, Hopper, told you why we’ve invited you here?”

“He has, your grace. If I may…” He motioned to Tharan’s desk and Tharan nodded for him to proceed. The tiny man laid the large, leather-bound book on the desk and cracked it open.

The smell of old parchment and dust tickled Tharan’s nose and he sneezed.

“Excuse me, your Highness, this book is very old.”

Tharan took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his nose.

The scholar continued.

“The Court of Screams is a court in name only. No one has entered from a Wild or Council Court since before the Sylph and Elven War and maybe even before that.”

Tharan rubbed his jaw nervously.

“So, are they sylph? Elf? Something else?” Hopper asked.

Marcus sighed.

“They used to be sylphs. What they are now, I cannot say. They turned away from the Trinity a long time ago. They worship a god called Algea. In the old world before the Trinity, she was the goddess of pain and suffering. The Court of Screams takes that seriously, believing pain and suffering brings you closer to Algea.”

“I’m surprised the Trinity let them live,” Roderick chimed in.

“The Trinity did their best. A deal could have been struck. They could have strayed from the path of righteousness. We will never know.”

Tharan’s stomach hardened. Of course, the Trinity would hide their most valuable possession among the wildest of the courts.

“Hmmm…” Tharan said, his mouth twisted into a straight line.

“Yes, my King?” Marcus asked.

“It’s nothing. How would one go about getting into the Court of Screams? Is there a leader of sorts?”

Marcus’s brows knitted.

“My King, why would you want to go there? Only death could await you there. They are hostile to outsiders.”

Because the love of my life is there, and I will set the entire court ablaze in order to get her back.

“It’s a hypothetical.”

“Ah yes, in that case… Anyone can enter the Court of Screams. Whether you get out is another thing entirely.” He ran a nubbed finger over the page. “It says here the last person to make it out did say they had a king. But that was over five hundred years ago.”

Tharan took a breath.

“Alright. Anything else we should know? What is the terrain?”

“It looks heavily wooded with some mountains, but who can say for sure.”

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