by N. M. Howell
“Why would you fight alongside me?” Rhea asked her.
It was a legitimate question. Rhea had run away, escaped their world to live among humans. She’d abandoned her people, abandoned her family.
“I will fight alongside you, Princess, because you are the rightful heir to the throne. The world has seen such destruction, and only you can wear the crown and have people trust your rule. We need someone worthy on that blasted chair for the people to support. We have to show the world that the world does not need to live in destruction and hatred and darkness under the rule of the gods.”
Rhea shook her head, her mind racing and her heart growing dark. “But there are so many others who want the throne. So many others who would kill for it. I’ve seen but a small amount of the sheer destruction cast over our world on my travels here. I can’t even imagine the scope of it beyond the lands that we have walked the last few days. How can one person stand against an entire world of warring gods and their armies who would not hesitate for a moment to kill everybody for a chance at the throne?”
Crystalline leaned back in her chair, nodding her approval at Rhea’s observations and questions. “I’m happy to hear that you at least understand what’s going on in this horrible world,” Crystalline said. “But not all hope is lost. So long as you live, so long as you can lay claim to your father’s throne, people will stand up and support you. Many of these armies are fought with people who would come to your side should they see you stand up and support them in turn.
“Most armies have been bought, but I assure you that no one fighting for any of these gods truly stands by their side. Should they see you claim the crown, I believe with every ounce of my being that many of these armies will fall apart as their warriors change sides to stand behind you.”
Rhea continued to shake her head, unable to fully grasp her cousin’s words. “But I abandoned everybody. I left. I’m weak and an outsider. I don’t belong here.”
Crystalline sighed and leaned forward, her large arms spread on the table as she pushed her chair back and leaned in close to Rhea. “They will follow you because you are the rightful heir to the throne. And above all, Rhea, you are good. You are worthy.”
Rhea pulled away, leaning back again in her chair. She crossed her arms and looked down at the floor, a deep sadness filling her heart. “I worry that if I sit on the throne, I will become nothing better than what my father was…and what my uncle is…and what all these other gods are.”
“You are not them.”
“There’s so much hatred and evil surrounding the throne, I worry that if I sit on it, the evil will find me, too.”
Her heart ached so deeply, her chest felt as if it were about to implode on itself. This was the first time she had truly admitted that to herself. Not only did she fear failure, she feared becoming what she hated most.
Her cousin sat back and stared at her, her eyes growing soft.
“Rhea, the throne is not evil. The position is not evil. The people who are fighting for it are, but that does not mean that you will rule the same way they would. Or the same way your father did. I watched you growing up, though from afar. You have goodness in your heart, and I’m telling you that is all that is needed to win this war.”
Rhea met her cousin’s eyes, unable to speak.
“Rhea,” Crystalline said, placing her strong hands over top of Rhea’s small ones. “All we need from you, is you. I can supply the warriors and together we can build an army so strong that nobody will threaten your rule.”
Real laughed, shaking her head at the absurdity of it all. “A strong army is not going to stop people from fighting for the throne. I’ve seen the horrors that the gods are willing to inflict in order to rule. I cannot put people’s lives at risk just for protecting me as I sit on a throne that I do not want.”
“Rhea.” Crystalline’s voice was firmer now. It held an edge of anger, of authority, and above all, frustration. She slammed her hand down on the table, making Rhea jump. “You do not understand the severity of this.”
Rhea stared up at her. “I’m not the person for this job. I’m not strong enough.”
“This has nothing to do with you, Princess,” she practically spat the words. “I’m not asking you to do this for you. I am not asking you to do this for me, either, or for your guardians or anyone else. We are doing this for the realm. You need to claim the throne for the benefit of the Otherworld. This world will not survive much longer in its current state. The darkness will take over, and I worry we will never recover.”
“Even if I agree,” Rhea spat back at her, “we are not strong enough to win. You only have six hundred people here, that is not enough to stand up against all the gods vying for the throne. It’s not even enough to stand up to my uncle alone.”
“These are strong people, determined to help the cause,” Crystalline said, her voice falling soft once more. “We have nearly everything we need here to win every battle, although we’re missing one thing.”
“And what is that?” Rhea asked. She held her own arms crossed, staring angrily at her cousin. Crystalline was asking her for too much. People kept asking her for so much, and she wasn’t able to give it. She wasn’t the person they thought she was. She had no idea how simply being there, simply being herself, could ever be enough for them to win this war.
She had a fear of failure, and a fear of the darkness surrounding the throne. But above all else she had a fear of letting everybody down. And that weighed more heavily on her than anything else.
“These people have everything they need. We have the strength, we have the numbers, we have the purpose,” Crystalline began. “The one thing we were missing is somebody to fight for.”
“And you think that person is me?” Rhea’s voice came out barely a whisper, though still harsh.
Crystalline nodded, taking her cousin’s hands in her own once more and squeezing them tightly.
“Now we have someone to fight for, Rhea. We have someone to stand behind in this war, and that in itself will be enough to fuel this army to success. Once you lay claim to the throne and we kick your uncle out of the castle and send his sorry ass back to where he came from, people will reunite. The world will come together to stand behind you, to stand up against evil and allow the realm to be restored to peace.”
Rhea’s eyes burned as tears gathered beneath her lids, falling slowly down her cheeks. “It’s a beautiful thought, seeing this world restored to peace. But I’m afraid I’m not the person you think I am.”
“I think everybody in this world knows that you are the person that we think you are… The person we know you to be,” Crystalline said. “The only person who does not believe it is you.”
The two sat there staring at each other for a long moment and then Rhea finally nodded. “I’ll do what I can, Crystalline, but I can’t promise that I’ll be able to lead anyone to peace.”
“All we ask is that you try. Than you will stand before us and give us something to fight for.”
Rhea rubbed the tears from her eyes and nodded again. “Okay, but before any of that, we need to save my guardians.”
“I promise we will save your guardians,” Crystalline said. “We can ride out before first light, and I promise you we will succeed. We will rescue them from Aelon’s clutches. That should prove to you how strong we are.”
Crystalline pushed herself up off the chair, leaning against the wet mud walls as she gazed down at Rea, her eyes sparkling near the torches that lined the walls.
Rea pushed herself up out of her seat as well, moving around the table to stand next to her cousin who towered over her. “I have one more question for you,” Rhea told her.
“Anything, Princess,” she said.
“What are you getting from all of this?”
Crystalline’s eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”
Rhea shrugged. “Sure, we’re all fighting for the cause. We all want to see the world restored to peace, but you could’ve attacked my un
cle years before. You could’ve joined your armies, you could’ve lied and said I had returned or found someone else in my stead. You waited for me to come, now you swear to fight by my side, but why? What do you ask for in return?”
Crystalline offered a small smile, her scar tugging on the side of her face forcing it into a severe grin that frightened even Rhea she looked up at her powerful cousin who was so different from herself.
“I want you to make me the head of your army when you become ruler of the Otherworld.”
Rea blinked and took a step back, her shoulder brushing against the damp walls, pressing mud against the gray fabric of her dress.
“You want to rule my army?”
Rhea inspected her cousin up and down. Crystalline certainly looked like she would fit the part—tall and muscular, fiercer than anyone Rhea had met before.
Crystalline nodded. “I do all this for the realm, of course. I do all this to restore the world to peace, but if you ask what I truly want in return for supporting you and saving your guardians, I would like you to make me the general of the royal army.”
Once more, the two gazed into one another’s eyes, the severity of their situation weighing heavily on both of them. Finally, Rea nodded and extended her hand.
“You save my guardians, and yes, I will make you the general of my army should I ever sit on that godforsaken chair.”
The two women clasped hands, holding onto one another firmly for a long moment as their gazes locked in mutual understanding.
They had long road ahead, and the two couldn’t have been more different, but banding together finally gave Rhea a glimmer of hope that perhaps they could win this war after all.
“Together, we will win this war, Princess.” Crystalline’s eyes were severe, and her grip tightened on Rea’s hand.
Rhea smiled. “But first, we save my guardians.”
“First, we save your guardians.”
24
Crystalline had gathered a small group from the rebellion, put together with the strongest and most powerful people she’d found. There were twelve of them standing at the edge of the village under the veil of darkness when Rhea finally joined them at pre-dawn.
She had rested in a small building near the stables and had been woken by one of Crystalline’s people after a few hours of a fitful sleep. Someone had left her a change of clothes that she gratefully changed into. Loose-fitting pants with a proper shirt and boots were a welcome change to the rags she came in. She had torn a small strip of the gray fabric to tie her hair back in a high ponytail away from her face.
The sun had not yet risen and the air was cold, but Rhea’s cousin and her people all stood in their armor, ready to go.
“If we leave now, we can arrive as the sun first rises,” Crystalline said. She gazed out over the horizon, where the starry sky above illuminated the village.
Flickering torches on the buildings around them cast long shadows across the rocky ground, and Rhea could feel the strong energy that buzzed from the group.
“If we take the horses, we can get there by sunrise, and catch Aelon unaware,” a man agreed.
Rhea nodded, gazing out at the strong warriors who stood before her. “I thank you all for your help in saving my guardians,” she called out to them. She shivered and tugged her large shirt tightly around herself.
They nodded their approval, smiling at her with their eyes sparkling and full of hope. One man even stepped forward and offered her his jacket, which she declined.
“You will need all the warmth you can get on this chilly morning,” Rhea said with a smile.
“We are so glad that you have returned, Princess,” one of the other men spoke, stepping forward. He was nearly as tall as Crystalline, and twice as wide. His hulking muscles bulged from beneath his armor. “Anything you need of us, we are here. My name is Shelton.”
Rhea smiled up at him. “Very nice to meet you, Shelton. I am Rhea.”
He laughed suddenly, a deep and boisterous sound. “Of course, we know who you are, my Princess.”
He stepped back into line as Crystalline placed a helmet on her head. “We best be going, we have a long ride ahead of us before morning comes. Stick close together, and follow me. I will lead us the most direct route, but we will go through the Blackened Forest, and it is crucial that we do not get separated.”
A small woman who couldn’t have been more than sixteen brought out Traemarr, and Rhea mounted him gratefully, happy to be reunited. It didn’t take the others long to mount up, and soon they were off, Rhea riding Traemarr next to Crystalline on her own horse.
They rode together in silence for hours, her heart aching deeply as they approached the Greystone region. She fought so desperately in her mind to try and reach out to her guardians with her magic, to see if she could feel the tendrils of their beings within her heart, but she felt numb. She couldn’t feel their magic or their energy in her mind, and it killed her. She tried to convince herself that it was likely because they were sleeping, not dead. They couldn’t be dead.
“Definitely sleeping,” she whispered to Traemarr, who huffed his response.
As they neared Greystone, they slowed, dismounting under the cover of the heavy forest canopy above. Rhea stepped beside a tree trunk, looking out over the castle in the distance. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but a gold sliver was beginning to cast above the hills surrounding the castle to the east, creating a faint, warm glow over them. It was early, and the castle habitants would still be sleeping. She hoped she and her allies could save her guardians without any casualties, so she wished for all the castle’s inhabitants to remain asleep.
Well, apart from her uncle, if they were lucky. She’d be happy to take him out if it were to come to pass.
“We have to go about this intelligently,” Crystalline instructed as her twelve warriors and Rhea gathered around her. “If we stick to a plan, we can save the princess’s guardians and get out before causing too much of a stir with Aelon.”
“Sounds like a solid strategy to me,” Rhea murmured, careful to keep her tone low in case the sound of their voices carried through the wind to the castle. “But how exactly do you propose we do that?”
She glanced back to the castle warily, unsure as to how thirteen warriors and one stupid girl were going to take on an entire castle of magic wielders and save her guardians. Who knew how many guards her uncle had inside? Rhea hadn’t been given the opportunity to scope the place out yesterday.
“Rhea, did you inherit fae abilities from your mother? Are you able to harness her speed and healing?” Crystalline asked her, eyeing her up and down. She wore a small smirk on her face, and pressed her lips together to contain a laugh as her eyes lingered on Rhea’s ponytail.
Rhea raised her eyebrow. “Yes, I can. And what’s so funny?”
Crystalline shrugged. “Nothing, nothing. It’s just you chose an interesting outfit to come find me in last night, is all.”
Rhea gave a little laugh. “You should see the garbage they have people wearing inside.”
Crystalline nodded and let out a soft laugh. “Oh, trust me, I know. He’s been trying to spread his sickly fashion around the realm. I’m not one for fancy clothes, though.”
Rhea eyed her up and down and nodded. “I see that. Neither am I.”
Crystalline smirked. “I can see that, too.”
“Okay, so what’s the plan?” Rhea asked, pulling the conversation back to the task at hand.
Crystalline had equipped her with a small sword that hung from her belt, and a light silver chest plate that felt as if it would hardly withstand a blow from a butter knife, let alone an actual weapon. But still, it was better than nothing. Resources were scarce at the camp, and she was grateful for what they gave her.
“Ten of the fighters and myself will go make a distraction at the front gate of the castle,” she began, raising her hand toward the south side of the castle where the large entrance gates were. “We’ll be quiet at first, making it appear as if w
e were trying to break in. Once we know you and the other two fighters have made it into the castle through the back, we will begin making some noise and cause a distraction. The goal is to draw the guards to the front, and you use that opportunity to sneak into the back to try and find your guardians and get them out quietly.”
Rhea nodded slowly, visualizing the plan in her head. “I’m sure not all of the guards will come to the front with your distraction, though. Some would surely remain behind and catch us coming in, wouldn’t they?”
Crystalline considered but shrugged slowly. “It’s a risk we will need to take. That’s why I’m sending two of my men with you.”
Rhea then shook her head, frowning. “No, it’ll be too obvious if there’s three of us. I’m light on my feet, I can go undetected and sneak in. As you said, I can use my fae abilities. They won’t even know I’m there.”
A soft scowl appeared on Crystalline’s face and a murmur went through her warriors at their displeasure of what Rhea had proposed. “I don’t like that. If you get caught, you’ll need help in defending yourself.”
Rhea put her hand on her hips and set her face as seriously as she could. “If I have anyone with me, we will surely draw attention to ourselves and risk our chance of breaking in to find my guardians, who I suspect will be in the dungeons if anywhere. If I can quietly sneak in myself and stay hidden the entire time, I’ll have a much better chance of setting them free. It’s best to stay hidden and avoid conflict than draw more attention to us through a fight with any guards.”
Crystalline stared at her for a long moment before nodding her approval. “Okay, but as soon as you go in to find your guardians to free them, you run. You run as far and as fast as you can, and you get away from the fighting at the castle no matter what’s happening at the front with us. Promise?”
