Page 16 of Shaedes of Power (Soul Magic #1)
CHAPTER 16
W hen I awoke, I noticed the fire had somehow built up again. All the candles were lit, and the heavy fur blankets had been wrapped around both Glory and myself, making the warm little nest of blankets almost impossible to leave. In the dressing area, two dark gowns lay splayed out over the lounge chair where Edmyn had slept, Edmyn being nowhere in sight. I rolled over to Glory.
“Wake up,” I gently urged her. “Glory, you need to wake up.”
She moaned a little in vexation, then her brain caught up with her body, and she shot up with a jolt.
“Oh my stars! What happened? What time is it? Are you okay? Are we okay?” She grabbed a hold of me, looking me over. “Where is Edmyn?”
“I have answers to almost all your questions,” I said and started filling her in with everything that had transpired after she was hit with the sleep spell, minus the tiny detail about Edmyn’s prior shaede. He had kept that secret for so many years that it seemed wrong to repeat it.
“I hate it here,” she said finally, getting up and stretching her sore muscles. “It’s so dark that it’s impossible to know what time it is. Everyone looks at everyone like they’re food, and without access to my magic, I feel hollow. It’s the most terrible, aching feeling.”
“I know. I feel it too,” I answered. “But don’t mention food again. More than anything, I am starving.” I also got up, feeling well rested and knowing we must have been sleeping for hours. I could feel it in my bones. It was the next day, and for all we knew, a war had already been waged against our realm, one in which we were completely incapacitated to participate. I wondered if Ciaran had already learned of Edmyn’s deceit if perhaps a civil war might also be brewing within these castle walls. But the growling in my empty stomach overrode all other thoughts, so I walked over to the dresses.
“Black on black, or black on black?” I offered sarcastically to Glory.
“Hmm, that’s a tough one. You choose,” she responded with a wry smile. I tossed her dress on the bed, and we both quickly dressed, thankful for sleeves and something thick enough to hide our nipples.
Mine was off the shoulders, rimmed with complex black lace, and had a heavy satin skirt. Glory’s was also black satin but had a little bit of fur around the collar and cuffs. Our hair had managed to survive the night, so we just left it as it was, and timidly opened the bedroom door.
One of the servants from last night stood in the shadows, waiting. It was the grumpy one that pushed me into the bath. She looked at us appraisingly and then said, “Follow me.”
We walked a fair distance through hallways I didn’t think we’d traversed the night before, but it was hard to tell in a place that knew no light. We were shown into a large dining room where candles floated overhead and another massive fireplace was aflame. At the end of the long dining table sat Amira, who immediately stopped eating when she saw us. There were two more place settings set, one on either side of her, and two empty chairs. She gestured for us to sit.
“I’m sorry I started without you,” she said with a nervousness in her voice I’d never heard before. “There are strawberries. You know, in that damn Gaylenswood meadow, the air is sort of saturated with that smell. It wafts over here and drives me half mad with longing sometimes. So anytime we have strawberries, I get excited—I guess. ”
Her little outburst made me so confused, and I just stayed rooted in the doorway, as if the room’s floor was covered in vipers that only I could see. Do not go in there, do not even try, they warned. But the servant pushed me forward, right into the snake pit, and Glory and I very reluctantly took our seats. Then I smelled the fresh fruit and muffins and saw a pitcher of what looked like water on the table, and my mouth began to salivate to the point of drooling.
“Please,” Amira eyed me anxiously. “Please eat.” She heaped a large number of various items on my plate and then onto Glory’s, who looked at me skeptically, yet I could almost hear the hole in her stomach groan under the table.
“Last night’s fare was saturated with shadow beast blood. It is how the dark fae stomach eating actual food. It’s actually Edmyn’s creation. Somehow, he has developed, with the help of his magic, crops that actually grow in this cursed soil, but they take fresh sacrifice and are irrigated with blood. These faeries just drink the blood too, but some of them say the food incites nostalgia. Others say it is positively delicious.” Amira’s explanation was almost enough to make my appetite turn, but not quite. “Here, watch me. It’s perfectly safe.” She took a strawberry in one hand and a slice of bread in the other and bit into them both. “It’s edible, I promise. Our human servants run around the Gaylenswood at night and steal grain and fruits and vegetables from the Forest Court. Just not enough for them to really notice. They have an abundance anyway,” she explained with a slight bitterness to her voice.
I nodded at Glory, and we both dug in, trying to eat slowly, but it felt too good to be filling the pit. I drank almost my entire goblet of water and then looked at my sister, who was staring at me with what could only be sadness in her prismatic eyes.
“I’m really sorry, Opal,” she blurted. “I told Ciaran about your letter. We both knew you would never side with us, but maybe by taking you here, by keeping you here, I thought we could get the Shaede Court to actually take us seriously and negotiate. I never, ever thought… I mean, I didn’t mean for Edmyn…” She was having a hard time using difficult words because of the truth they held .
“You mean you only meant to kidnap me, not to get me raped?” I said in an effort to wound her. It worked. She buried her face in her hands, but there were no tears. Amira was too hardened for that. She, who would sell her own sister to the devil. Who would have her parents murdered. Who took love and transformed it into a weapon.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. After a moment of hesitation, she asked, “Did it work? Is Edmyn free?”
“How should I know?” I spat. “He was gone when we awoke this morning.”
She did not look convinced. “Opal, you would know . The spell is incredibly powerful. When Ciaran’s curse broke, the whole castle could feel it.”
“I guess we will know when we know,” I said trying to keep it vague. There was a time when I would have loved to discuss love affairs and mating with my sister. As a young girl, I fantasized about my sister returning someday and about all the secrets we would share. How much I would have loved growing up at court with someone else like me around. Perhaps we could have even saved each other. But right now, all I could do was eye the butter knife on the table and imagine stabbing her in the eye.
“I hope we find that it worked,” Amira said. “Otherwise, Ciaran will be that much more hell-bent on burning everything to the ground. He is starting his attacks today.”
“No, unfortunately, he isn’t,” came a low voice from the doorway. Edmyn stalked into the room wearing the same black leather pants from the previous night and a white shirt with what looked like mud all over it.
“Edmyn,” said Amira, clearly startled. “Where have you been? Ciaran left early this morning, leaving no word where he was off to. And my stars, you are filthy.”
“Yes. I too was up before swamplight. We received word that our entire stock of bleeding beasts had somehow escaped their pens and were chaotically roaming the realm.” Amira looked horrified, but I could have sworn I saw the edge of Edmyn’s mouth turn up.
“But that’s impossible,” said Amira. “Those pens are well cared for. It took an eternity to build up that livestock, and without it, the crops won’t get irrigated and the dark fae will be thrown into starvation. Ciaran has got to be livid.”
“That’s an understatement,” Edmyn said, grabbing an apple from the fruit platter with a dirty hand. He smelled like a sewer, and I was momentarily afraid my entire breakfast was about to revisit the table. “I don’t know what could have happened. The beasts may call him master, but they have gone completely wild. I wrestled the ones nearest to the pens, as magic does not always work well on them. Ciaran said he would be portaling the rest back as soon as he finds them.”
“But that could be days! He doesn’t have time to be running around chasing beasts. And what about your daywalking? Did you go test it?”
“Nah,” Edmyn said, turning to smile at me with fresh mischief in his eyes. “I promised Ciaran I would wait for him. And anyway, Opal has definitely been worth the wait.”
Glory dropped her fork with a clatter. Edmyn tossed the apple to me and took his pungent odor, hopefully somewhere to bathe, while Amira put her head back in her hands, and I just smiled.
Amira wasn’t much for talking after that. She told us that we were free to roam the castle and listed possible points of interest: the underground pool, the small courtyard at the castle’s center, the library, and the great hall—a raucous place where members of the court tended to congregate when they were feeling the need to be social. Guards were stationed at every exit, so there really was no reason to look for an escape. She reminded us not to eat anything unless we were certain it wasn’t from the Shadowlands and to stay away from the other dark fae if possible. “They can be a species hard to navigate alone,” she had said before dropping her cloth napkin on the table and hurrying out of the room.
Glory and I continued to eat in silence until we were certain we were very much alone.
“I’m glad what was meant to happen last night, did not,” she said finally, in between bites.
“Me too,” I said, refilling my cup. “But it is hard to feel too much relief. Without our magic, this place is swarming with faeries that would love to snap our necks. And I have zero faith in whatever Edmyn is up to. Whatever it is, it seems like he’s just prolonging the inevitable.”
Glory stood up abruptly, grabbing a handful of strawberries. “I am going to do the thing I always do when all seems hopeless—and head to the library. Would you like to join me? Maybe these dark fae have writings about things we don’t.”
“As much as I would love to scour the shelves for ancient secrets, I think I will check out the courtyard. I need to see the sky, even if it is cursed. Let’s meet back here in a few hours.” Glory nodded and walked out of the room, munching her berries.
I slowly finished my food and resisted the urge to hoard some for later. I left the gloomy dining hall for the even darker network of hallways, stopping to ask a passing servant if I was headed the right way toward the courtyard. I had made it maybe only ten more feet before a door opened to my right, the sound making me almost jump out of my skin.
There, outlined by candlelight and hot steam from the bath, was a wet, shirtless Edmyn, fresh out of the water and wearing only a loose-fitting pair of olive green pants. He raised a pale, muscled arm and leaned on the door frame, his dark ringlets dripping water all over his body and onto the floor.
“Where are you going without your purple shadow, Little Prism?” he asked coyly.
“Glory is spending some time in the library, and I was in search of the courtyard. I needed some fresh air.” The way he was watching me was unnerving. “Are you not cold, Dark Prince?” I asked. Watching the waves of steam wafting out of the room and dancing around his bare limbs was making me shiver.
“You forget that I am very old, with an abundance of magic to keep me warm if I so wish it. But I am also not quite alive, not in the way that makes one feel cold.” He bent over to pick up a nearby towel and started rubbing the rest of his curls dry. “Also, my name is Edmyn, if you don’t mind. ”
“Then why do you call me a prism if you know I have an actual name?” I challenged.
He rubbed the towel over his chest and abdomen smiling, “A prism is a way of looking at or thinking about something that causes one to see or understand it in a different way. Is that not what you do?”
“What?” I asked, utterly confused.
“Your very existence defies most common standards of the way faeries think about shaedes. It should cause us to question, or maybe even redefine, some of our most foundational ideas about magic. I find you rather intriguing, really. Well, all that and prisms are, by nature, quite beautiful.”
I found myself speechless. It was definitely a profound compliment—one I’d never believe myself worthy of. And one I’d never think would ever come out of Edmyn’s mouth. There was probably something appropriate I could have said in response, but instead, Edmyn continued to survey me with a roguish look, one that delighted in my discomfort.
“So what is a Farris, anyway?” he asked, watching me twitch.
“What?” I sputtered, horrified that Farris’s name could find its way into Edmyn’s vocabulary. “What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know; I’m asking you. You talk a little in your sleep. I don’t mind, but seeing how this has got you so flustered, now my curiosity is piqued.” He tossed the towel and folded his arms, staring me into submission.
“It’s complicated,” I said.
He relaxed against the doorway. “Well, is he your faerie lover?”
My blushing cheeks betrayed me. Feeling forced to explain, but finding words difficult to form underneath Edmyn’s piercing gaze, I hesitated just long enough for a short, bulky faerie to appear in the hallway, distracting us both.
It was Henrick, wearing the same sullen look he had put on once Edmyn stole Glory out from under his nose.
“Good day, my prince,” he mumbled. I thought he was just going to walk past us, but I guess the dark faerie’s penchant for stirring up trouble got the best of him. He stopped beside me and came in close to sniff my neck. “Absolutely delicious,” he purred. I tried to back up, away from his grotesque attentions, but he started to grab my arm.
In a move that was so fast I didn’t even see it happen, Edmyn grabbed me by the neck and pinned me to him with my back against the front of his body, his sharp nails like five tiny knives against my throat. I was practically on my toes, paralyzed, afraid to move lest he draw blood. My eyes, so surprised and afraid, locked onto Henrick, who looked equally shocked.
“She belongs to me,” Edmyn growled, his fanged teeth clenched. “And if you, Lord Henrick, ever so much as gaze upon her shadow again, I will feed your entrails to the beasts every morning from now until the end of time.”
My heart was beating so fast that I was certain Edmyn could feel it against his chest. Henrick bowed very low, repeating apologies and assurances in a frantic voice as he cowered into the darkness of the hallway and eventually disappeared out of sight.
Edmyn released my neck, causing me to stagger forward and almost fall to the ground. I felt his magic catch me and fill me with the same warmth he had donated the night before in the throne room.
“Henrick is a pest, but he is also a coward. He will not bother you or your friend again.” He went back into the bathing room to slide on some boots and don a light weight beige shirt.
“Thank you,” I said. Even though it felt weird to thank someone who I thought had been on the verge of strangling me only moments prior. I rubbed the spot on my throat where I could have sworn his nails broke skin, but there was nothing there.
“I promise you, my bark is stronger than my bite—unless, of course, you are into that.” he said, watching me while pulling on his boot and suppressing a smile. “Come on.” He came back out into the hallway. “If you wanted fresh air, I think we can do better than that puny courtyard.”
Edmyn deftly navigated his way throughout the dimly lit halls. He led us to an isolated corner of the castle I would never have found on my own, where a single guard stood tall against a small gray door .
“Prince Ciaran said the Shaedes were not to leave the castle, my prince,” said the guard.
“Well, Prince Edmyn says this Shaede may, under supervision, of course. Stand aside.” The guard did not argue, and with a twist of the knob, Edmyn and I were suddenly standing on a dirt path overlooking vast rolling hills on the east side of the castle. From our perch, you could see the expansive swamplands to the north. Down below, the path led to rows and rows of plants growing from grass that was so dry it could have been straw. The rest of the view was cut off by the castle itself, protruding into the land. But what was most remarkable was the light.
We were definitely outside, but it wasn’t as dark as I had imagined it. The eternal clouds covered the sky in a sheath of cottony gray. But it was more like dusklight than darkness. In comparison with the deep shadows of the castle’s interior, I found the outside almost pleasing.
“I like it out here,” Edmyn said, starting to make his way along the path. “Perhaps it is my inner Shaede stirring somewhere inside this corpse, but I have come to prefer the companions of the plants and the soil to the brainwashed courtiers that would do almost anything to hear Ciaran sing their praises.”
“Do you miss the Shaede Court?” I asked as we continued our zig zagging downward. The air, although a twinge acidic, felt like heaven in my lungs.
“I think I miss the sun more than court, in general,” he answered. “The Night Court is pretty much the same as any other. Faeries vying for favor, stepping over or on top of those they would deem lesser, leaders who may think they are doing the right thing and causing havoc for us all. Ciaran does believe himself a hero, and I think a part of him is even guilty for having broken his curse. He’ll stop at nothing to make it possible for others to share in the light.”
We reached the bottom of the hill, and it was clear now that these crops were thriving despite their color and general look. Starving for sun? Yes. Larger than your average tomatoes and carrot bushels? Also, yes.
“You grew all this?” I asked, bending down to feel the leaves of what looked like a giant head of wilting cabbage. But when I touched the leaves, they were not brittle at all, but a soft, tender frond. The neat rows of edibles stretched out for what looked like a mile or two in each direction.
Edmyn crouched down next to me, knees right in the soil. He leaned down and put my palm gently on the ground, and then pressed his much larger one on top of it. His nails did not look so claw-like and menacing in the gray light. His magic, which I was starting to recognize like the feeling of a warm blanket on a cold night, pushed through my hand and into the ground.
Perhaps it was like Amira had said, I had a heightened sensitivity to other Shaedes, so I could feel his power more acutely than other fae could. Or maybe it was like Edmyn’s pet name for me—I could just see his magic in a different way. But when it passed through my hand into the soil, I felt yellow. If one could even feel a color. It felt warm and bright, like sunlight. There was a trembling in the earth under my palm, and then another flash of heat, followed by a tickle. I jumped a little at the touch, and when I pulled my hand back, he followed suit. There, where we had just been pressing, a tiny seedling had broken through the soil. Only it couldn’t have been a seedling, as there was no seed. It was pure magic.
I turned to him, and he was so close. His face held an emotion I hadn’t yet seen on him—he was happy.
“Thank you for showing me. This is… amazing,” I said. Dark fae were considered by most to be an aberration of nature. But Edmyn had managed to create something from nothing—life from the darkness—and that didn’t seem like dark magic to me.
“It’s not much, especially once irrigated with shadow beast blood. Everything takes on a macabre quality after that. But it is a small comfort that makes many of the faeries here still feel connected to their humanity.”
“Speaking of the shadow beasts,” I started, wondering if now was a good time to ask questions, seeing as he seemed in the mood to share. “How do you know for certain that Ciaran is going to be occupied for days with them? ”
Edmyn tilted his head and looked at me as if he were weighing the pros and cons of letting me in on his plan. “Ciaran knows he cannot come back without our main food source secured; otherwise, the court would be in chaos. The beasts mainly answer to him, so it is he who must do it. It takes too much magic to create new beasts, so he breeds them, and that takes time. He has to herd up the ones we have and portal them back to their pens. Only I spelled the pens to continually let them loose again and again and again. No matter what magic he tries to use on the pens, I don’t think he’s getting through this spell. I’ve been working on it for years.” He laughed a little to himself. “I kind of wish I was there to see his face the first time he thinks he’s got them all back, just to see they’ve escaped again.”
I couldn’t help but also smile at the thought. “That was very clever, but how long will the spell last? And what happens when it ends?”
“I’d give it a solid four days, maybe five. Amira is going to be quite irritated. Those two are hardly ever apart. Might be good for her, actually; good for us all to see what life could be like out from underneath Ciaran’s constant shadow.” He was not laughing anymore. “As far as what happens when he returns, I have something else I’d like to show you.”
He stood up, not even bothering to shake the soil off his pants, and offered me a hand. I took it, always surprised by the warmth that flowed through him despite him not having a heartbeat. We traipsed through some of the crops till we came to a small clearing in between where the vegetables ended and a large orchard of fruit trees began. He scanned the area, making sure we were alone, and said, “I’m showing you this so that you might come to trust me, or at the very least, feel reassured. But you mustn’t tell anyone. You cannot even say anything to Glory about it. You must promise.”
Faerie promises are usually something we all take very seriously. Sometimes faeries even promise in magic to keep each other’s secrets. I had no access to magic right now, so I couldn’t be bound. I owed this man nothing, but deep down, I knew I wanted to be someone worth trusting, and Edmyn’s secret seemed important enough for me to pledge my honor .
“I promise,” I said solemnly.
He checked the grounds one more time, then waved both hands over the clearing. Immediately the glamour fell, and the empty clearing became a tightly knit strawberry patch, ten or so perfect rows of berries so maroon, they almost looked brown. Each shiny berry was connected by a network of leafy vines that held sharp, spikey thorns.
“Those don’t look like any strawberries I’ve ever seen,” I said, moving to take a closer look. However, Edmyn moved to grab my waist and pulled me back.
“Do not go near them, and do not touch them, Little Prism.” His words in my ear gave me chills. “I have an idea of what they will do to my brother, but I fear what they might do to you.” I didn’t even have to ask what he meant. These berries were meant to poison. He waved another hand, putting the heavy glamour back in place.
“How do you know they will work?” I asked, my adrenaline spiking at the thought of something that might actually incapacitate an unkillable enemy.
“I’ve been testing them, mostly on random shadow beasts.” I didn’t ask what he meant by “mostly” because I didn’t want to know. “Fortunately or not, my magic to create nourishing plants in this barren wasteland also lends itself to creating plants of incredible toxicity. It’s taken a lot of tweaking and even more secrecy, but one tiny bite of those berries will kill even the largest of our beasts dead in seconds. I’m not na?ve enough to think that they will be enough to kill Ciaran, but I am confident they will weaken or disable him. And that is all I really need. If he cannot lash out with his magical arsenal, then I can imprison him. Those enchanted swamp vines work on our magic as well as yours. We can bind him in the dungeons in perpetuity, and find a way to peacefully move forward with these very, very long lives we lead.”
I stood there, searching his face for emotion, but he had gone stoic again. That empty look that he wore almost exclusively while in public had only ever been a mask. Did Ciaran even know his brother, really? Not the younger sibling who followed him around, nodding and laughing at his jokes, but the yellow Shaede that dreamt of sunlight— not to wreak havoc and assert authority, but just to feel its warmth and grow beautiful things with its blessing? There was a gentler spirit there under the fangs and the violence and the bloodlust. And I felt lucky enough to get to see it.
But could Edmyn really betray his brother? Could I trust him to do what was necessary when facing his own flesh and blood? Ciaran walked around thinking he was Edmyn’s savior when really he was his oppressor, enslaving Edmyn to an eternity of having to pay for Ciaran’s sins. There was definitely enough bad blood there to push Edmyn to the edge, but would he take that last step, and would these strawberries even be potent enough to work?
I pitied Edmyn. In a way, I knew what he could be feeling. I too had a sibling that was a gross disappointment. After what happened with my parents and then her recent betrayal in the Gaylenswood meadow, she continued to disappoint. But could I have swapped out those strawberries at breakfast today with these cursed ones? I couldn’t be sure. I really didn’t know if I’d have it in me to end her the ways I have been dreaming of during quiet moments of silent rage and confusion. Henrick? Knife to the throat. Ciaran? No problem, knife to the throat. But Amira? Family is tricky like that.
All these thoughts brought out an empathy that outweighed and overwhelmed my fears and sense of logic. I walked over to Edmyn and put a hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at me, surprised and unsure. For a moment, his solid arms embraced me, and I wasn’t sure which of us needed it more. He smelled like the earth and sweet citrus, and despite the warring thoughts raging in my mind, I allowed myself to absorb all the warmth he was offering.