Page 107 of The High Mountain Court

From behind the thick blue curtain where the King looked, a hooded figure appeared wearing indigo robes. Her hands glowed a faint blue.

The blue witch came to stand at the King’s side.

“Now, Princess,” the King said, cocking his head to look at Remy. “Tell me where your brother Raffiel is.”

“Raffiel is dead.” Remy tried to keep the shake out of her voice.

“I was not a child on that night fourteen years ago, girl.” Vostemur sneered. “I remember clearly what happened. Your coward elder brother fought his way to a window and jumped out of it.”

Coward. Remy shook with rage.

“Then he was cut down by your guards waiting outside,” she snarled.

“He was not.” The King took another long sip of his wine. “The only members of the Dammacus family I saw die were your parents and that weakling of a son.”

Riv. Remy pushed down hard on the lump that was hardening in her throat.

“Just because you did not see his body in the wreckage does not mean he lives,” Remy hissed.

The King looked to the hooded figure beside him.

“Tell her,” he ordered.

The blue witch raised her glowing blue hands to her hood and pulled it back to reveal her face. Remy contained a shriek at the sight of the witch. She had heard stories of the way the Northern King had tortured the blue witches, but this . . . Burn marks covered her entire head, her skin stretched or loose in an odd patchwork that indicated it was not just one accident that caused the scars, but many over several years. She had no hair or eyebrows, and her eyes were closed. Remy looked closer in horror. They had sewn her eyesshut.

Remy’s nostrils flared, and she stifled a gag. The woman’s mutilation didn’t elicit a single gasp or groan from the crowd. Their silence was a confirmation they had seen these tortured blue witches many times before.

When the witch spoke, her tight leather collar bobbed with her voice.

“I have Seen a vision last night,” she said from thin blue lips, “Princess Remini and her elder brother, Prince Raffiel, grown up and standing in this very hall.”

Gasps erupted from the crowd behind Remy.

“That is ridiculous.” Remy rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you can trust the visions of someone you have tortured.”

“Everything she says comes to pass,” Vostemur said, holding his goblet out to be refilled by a scurrying servant. “Unless the Fates are course corrected, that is. Killing you will be part of it . . . but first you will tell me where your brother is.”

“Why would I tell you anything if you are going to kill me, anyway?” Remy spat.

“I’m glad you asked.” Vostmur’s sinister laugh hit her like another blow to the head. “Because if you don’t, Remini, I will kill the rest of your witches.”

He nodded to the guards standing behind the kneeling red witches, and in unison the guards ripped back their hoods. Two men and three women. Remy’s eyes snagged on the last one: Baba Morganna. The old priestess held Remy’s eyes with a half-smile on her face, as though she were trying to comfort Remy. Baba Morganna had pulled Remy from death that day below the Rotted Peak, and yet here they were only a few days later facing death once more.

“This is all of them?” Remy worried her lip.

“We found thirty of these witches behind that old Yexshiri temple.” Vostemur smiled. “I figured not all thirty were needed to get my message across.”

There had been thirty of them, and he had only spared five. Remy scanned the lineup once more and found her mother’s golden brown eyes flecked with green staring back at her. The young woman kneeling directly across from her, third in the line, was her sister, Ruadora.

Remy didn’t let her face crack as she stared at her little sister, but from the look in Rua’s eyes, she knew. Her sister recognized her. Rua had their mother’s eyes but their father’s warm brown hair, unlike Remy’s black. She was a perfect mixture of their two parents. She looked so much like Riv, whereas Raffiel and Remy had both looked like their mother.

Rua was in her human form. No pointed ears or sharp fae features. Remy ached to see what her sister looked like beneath her glamour. She wanted to rush forward and grab her into a hug so desperately her arms shook with restraint. But if she acknowledged Rua in any way, it would put her sister at the end of the King’s blade.

With no warning or provocation, the first guard, standing behind the red witch man, unsheathed his sword. In one sudden swoop, he cleaved the man’s head from his body. The severed head flew into the crowd.

Screams erupted from the hall. The crowd shrieked in a mixture of delight and horror. Rua flinched and screamed as blood splattered her face.

“Silence!” King Vostemur shouted, and the crowd obeyed. Remy shuddered under his violently excited glare. “Now, Remini, would you like to tell me where your brother is, or shall we continue?”

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