Page 32 of Steeling Light
Adelynne turned toward the older woman, a deadly serious look on her face. “Selithar isn’t Draenyth. We have no Kings or Queens. We aren’t strong enough on our own to defend ourselves, yet we act like miniature versions of the Great Houses. Selithar needs to become unified.”
She paused for a moment, not exactly sure how to explain the next part. “And while we can’t protect ourselves like the Great Houses, all the Houses in Selithar could do more for our people. This is the City of Moonlight. It’s the most beautiful place in Nyth, and the people living here should be happier than anywhere else. For thousands of years, we’ve catered to the High Fae, but there’s no reason we can’t make sure the ones who bake the bread are happier than they’d be anywhere else in the world.”
Alyth frowned as she heard the words for what they were. A criticism. “There are always people that are excluded. There are always people who have harder lives. That’s just how things work. You can’t change the fact that there are the haves and the have-nots. Maybe their souls deserve to do penance for something in a previous life? I don’t know why some people are born into privilege and others are born into a life of struggle.”
Adelynne stood up taller. “I will accept the Crystal Crown. I will bear the burden of its weight, but it’s not for me that I do it. I don’t want it, but I have been a have-not. I lived in Draenyth at the mercy of everyone around me. I didn’tdeserveto be terrified. My children certainly shouldn’t have to depend on the Prince of Flame for their safety. My son didn’t deserve to be threatened with eternal slavery because of a practical joke.”
“No one is enslaving anyone in Selithar, Adelynne.”
Adelynne shook her head and turned back to look at the city. “I will accept the Crown. That’s all that matters to you. I will be the best Countess I can be. I will give myself over to the service of my House.”
And she would. She would also throw herself into the service of Selithar as a whole. Her life and rule would brighten the lives of the people whose struggles she barely understood. She would change the way the city was ruled.
The world would become a better place because she accepted the burden of the Crystal Crown. The lives of an entire city would be happier because of her sacrifice. And for almost nine hundred years, Selithar became a sanctuary for the common Immortal. A place where an ironwight blacksmith didn’t go to sleep afraid that they’d be driven from their forge and be forced to live a half-life between this world and the void. Where a faun doesn’t have to be afraid of being enslaved simply because he was hungry and looked in the wrong person’s direction.
There may always be haves and have-nots, but in Selithar at least, that difference doesn’t matter quite so much.
And it’s only because Adelynne Emlyn accepted a crown she didn’t want.
Chapter 16
The Lesser Houses are far stranger than the Great Houses, and it is only now, as the world burns, that I’ve realized just how undervalued they truly are. And now they have become the enemy.
~Cole Cyrus, The Future of Magic and Dragons
Ainslee
I wake up in my bed at the inn, tangled up in the sheets. My feet are trapped, and I’m panicking. That dream had been so vivid. I was bound in webs so tight I couldn’t move an inch. An enormous spider walked toward me, as large as a cottage, and he spoke to me. Softly, in that chittering voice of the silkies, he told me something that didn’t make any sense.
Steel devours, Daughter of the Bright. It devours life and magic and cheer, but it is forever changed because of it. There will come a time when the Steel is tested, and it must shine as brightly as you. Change the Steel, young one, because no one else can.
Then he was gone, and I was trapped, struggling against the silk. Now I understand what that was about, at least. I slip my arms from the rough sheets and push them from my legs. The sense of relief when I don’t feel so confined is surprising. I’ve never had a dream like that before.
Then I feel something on my cheek, and I go to brush it away. My finger comes away wet. Why would my cheek be wet? Then I feel it on the other side, too, and I realize what it was. Tears.
Why was I crying? From a dream?
I stand up, needing to get away from the bed. I don’t know what happened while I was sleeping, but that dream shook me to the very core. Even the events of last night are secondary thoughts as I stare at the place I was lying.
I see it then. A single strand of spider silk hangs from the ceiling above where I was sleeping.What in the world?I know instantly that this has to do with the silkies or weavers. Somehow, they got into my dreams. They…
I let out a snarl and kick the bed. It flies across the room and hits the wall with an explosion of feathers and wood chips. Anger flows through me like a fire in a forge, each breath turning it ever hotter.
Then the door shatters, taking the doorframe with it as something barrels through it. No, not something. Someone. Rhion, to be exact. I whirl on him, my hands reaching for the daggers normally sheathed at my waist, and I realize that I’m still in my nightgown.
“What in Sidon’s name just happened?” he shouts, a black steel sword in his hands already.
He heard the explosion and thought I was being attacked. I don’t talk. I just point at the thin piece of silk dangling from the ceiling. He walks over cautiously as though he’s expecting an enemy to appear at any moment. When he finally sees the strand of silk, he frowns.
“You’re afraid of spiders?” he asks, his brow arching.
I shake my head and grit my teeth. “No, this was no normal spider. It was a silky, and it got into my dreams.”
He blinks. “What is a…silky?”
“They’re the Guardians of the House of Webs. Like the dwarves.”
“Oh, the silk spinners? Why do you call them silkies? Never mind. That doesn’t matter. Why do you think one was in your dreams?”
