Page 116 of The Iron Dagger
The fae man and woman wore matching expressions of horror, and Gideon felt heartsore. He knew his father too well. The ruthless efficiency that Gideon had been raised to admire seemed unimaginably cruel now. His father would stop at nothing to solve a problem.
Briefly, Gideon thought of the new weapon he was building, and worry ate at him like boiling acid in his gut. It had never bothered him before, the idea of creating magically enhanced weapons. Now that they knew the true source of the magic in the river, it was all the more monstrous.
“We should warn them,” said Alcmene. “They need to know what is coming.”
“If they learn about what Hara is doing, they will send their own fighters to put a stop to it,” said the fae woman. “They will wait for her to emerge and kill her, and any sorcerer that is with her.”
Gideon slumped back in his chair. “We need to let the fae know that they are in danger without revealing why.”
“It has been many years since we were exiled from the fae court,” said the fae woman. “I’m not sure how we will be received. They might kill us, or imprison us, in which case we would need to rely on the sorcerers to set us free. And I’m not sure if we could ask that of them.”
“It comes down to whether we are willing to risk our freedom to save them,” said the fae man, taking her hand. “We don’t have to do it. We do not owe them safekeeping.”
“But I do,” said the fae woman heavily. “I am also their Rexina. I dissented because I knew that aligning with Corvus meant we would become tools of his oppression. It is a false safety.”
Gideon stared at her. “You would have been a great leader.”
The fae woman smiled sadly. “I spoke up thinking that I was right and that everyone would see it. I made the crucial mistake of thinking that would be enough.”
“Fear is a persuasive politician,” said Gideon. It was something his father was fond of saying.
“We will consider warning the fae,” said the man. “Thankfully, we have time.”
That conversation had happened over a month ago, and they still had not made a decision. Gideon pulled his cloak tighter about his shoulders, but Seraphine did not stir. He reached down and scratched her behind the ears. He remembered something Hara told him about the cat all those months ago in her cottage. Something about how the cat’s life would end when hers did, as her magic sustained its long life.
Seraphine purred at his touch, and he felt relief at each delicate breath and the warmth emanating from the sturdy little body. At least he knew Hara was still alive.
The cat’s eyes opened suddenly, and it sat up.
A small dark shape caught his attention from the corner of his eye, and he was instantly alert. A snakelike creature was moving over the rock, and Gideon tensed, reaching for the hand pistol he had retrieved after emerging from the stone.
When it came closer, he realized that it walked on four legs. An otter made its way toward them, and Gideon kept his grip tight on the pistol. Seith. He’d seen the sorcerer shapeshift before when he had pulled Hara from the river. At the time, Gideon grudgingly accepted the disgraced traitor, even if Hara seemed to revile him. Now, he was wary. He had not seen Seith since Hara told him not to accompany them.
Finally the otter came to stop before the fire, eyeing him.
“Seith,” Gideon said tonelessly.
The otter seemed to waver and ripple, and then the rangy man materialized before him, the flickering firelight making him look even more gaunt.
“Lord Falk,” said Seith. “I trust you are well?”
Gideon glared at him. He would not waste time exchanging niceties with the fallen prince. Seith cleared his throat awkwardly.
“I have some news from the valley. The magic has disappeared from the river. I felt it dissipating all day, and when I swam down to the city, there was chaos. The power is gone. The lights are dark, the autocars and the transportation have all come to a standstill. I went to the palace and it is in an uproar. There is panic.”
“But how?” asked Gideon, standing. His gaze slid past Seith to the pit on the glacier. All was still and quiet. If there had been some catastrophic event that destroyed the stone, it had been subtle.
“I was hoping you could tell me,” said Seith. “Have you seen any sign of them?”
“No,” said Gideon. “There has been nothing for weeks. What could this mean?”
“I do not pretend to know the intricacies of how the stone works. The only ones who do are the fae, and they are notoriously unreliable in their magical knowledge.”
“So you’ve made clear,” said Gideon dryly. It was obvious the Ilmarinen prince still held onto prejudices against the fae from the old court.
“There’s more,” said Seith. “There is talk in the palace that the war down south has reached a permanent ceasefire. The Lenwen king has gone missing, and his sister has fallen in love with the Norwen Steward. They are planning to wed.”
Gideon’s head reeled at this news. King Bryan was missing? Only a few short months ago, Gideon had beentracking Bryan and his men, ready to trade the king’s sister for land, and now he was gone? He had been surrounded by twenty or thirty trusted men-at-arms. It seemed impossible that all of them could have failed him and let him come to harm.
