Page 127 of Frozen Hearts and Death Magic

“Brother! You finally grace us with your presence.”

Oh, no. Forest. He was the eldest, but they hadn’t spoken for over a year. Perhaps it had been River’s fault, but still. He’d spent some intimate moments with a female guard, only later to learn that his brother had been in love with her. The fact that River hadn’t known anything did nothing to appease Forest. Or the fact he had been quite young. Love was a tricky thing. Ancients were not possessive by nature, and were prone to temporary flings without attachment. But that wasn’t the case with his family, probably due to the human blood. That could cause some problems. And it was as if Forest envied River, which was ridiculous, since he was the eldest and the heir, and always did everything to please their father, even if he didn’t have to. It was almost as if he resented River’s rebellion and carelessness. To top it all, Forest had the white hair and red eyes of the Ancients, with magnificent horns, and no physical sign of his human ancestry.

River brushed it all aside, actually happy that Forest was speaking to him. “What’s the celebration for?”

His brother snorted and looked at him up and down. “Where have you been? Lost in a swamp?”

“Sort of.”

“Well. You should thank me.” That meant an uncomfortable debt and needed to be for a good reason. “We just had a winning blow against the humans.”

This was great news, considering they hadn’t had any victory in so long. “Really? Congratulations. What happened?”

Forest smirked. “The Umbraar city, and practically the kingdom, is no more.”

He recalled the rumble and the waves, and had a queasy feeling. “What do you mean?”

“Their big city, where they had their castle, their port, it’s gone. The royal family is gone. They won’t threaten us again.” He smiled.

“What do you mean it’s gone?”

He shrugged. “Gone. The cliff collapsed on it, buried the city under layers and layers of broken stones.”

Formosa. Where a granddaughter had received a gift from Keller, where a wedding had taken place, where many innocent people lived. His brother couldn’t be so callous about it, all these people celebrating couldn’t be so callous about it. River’s knees almost buckled.

But it couldn’t be true, it didn’t make sense. It had to have been an accident, something else, his brother couldn’t have done something so monstrous. “Can we step outside for a moment?”

“River, I’d love to give you my time, but as you can see, this is my night.”

“Step outside or I’ll talk to you here.” He raised his voice enough that other people stared at them.

“Two seconds, then.”

When they were on the balcony, River asked, “What magic did you use? Ancients don’t have any magic that can break stone.”

“I figured something out.”

River was disgusted. “And you used to kill innocents?”

“Innocents?” He laughed. “They would kill us all if they could. We were losing, in case you didn’t notice. This city won’t hold us for long. If they keep destroying Mount Prime, we’ll all need to move to Aluria, but that will be impossible if there are humans everywhere. I did something, River, while you did nothing, as usual.”

“Nothing?” He was still holding the staff. “Want to guess what this is?”

Forest frowned. “You wouldn’t have gotten past the dragons. This is some trick, isn’t it?”

“I got past the dragons, and this is their staff. I just got back from Fernick. You didn’t have to kill innocents.”

“Humans kill innocents all the time,” Forest said. “They’ve wiped entire villages.”

“But if we become like them, then what are we fighting for?”

“Survival. I hope you’re not stuck in a childish idea of good or evil.” He stared at River’s head. “Oh, you do have cute little Ancient horns, though, so being childish maybe fits you. You’re what? Eight, ten years behind?”

“That’s not the point. You don’t just destroy an entire city, you don’t.”

“River. Aluria is too small for both Ancients and humans. It’s as simple as that. Only one of us will survive. I want it to be us.” He pointed at the staff. “This is really the dragon staff?”

“It was in the dragon’s lair, well protected.”

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