Heir of Golden Storms

I feel the need to follow Thalia, but she needs time to breathe. She has gone through a lot these past weeks. She has lost her mother. She has gained a husband who she did not want. She acquired a court. She received the responsibility of her sisters. On top of that, her friend gets tortured by the High King and her husband ends up having something evil inside of him.

The meeting takes an hour. In the end, two decisions were made. I will remain my horns and wings hidden from the court’s citizens until they learn to trust me as their king. After that, I will make an announcement one day where I will reveal myself and convince the citizens that I am still the king they love.

The other decision is about the Court of Miracles. Now that the High King and I ended our alliance, we do not know how he is going to act. The first thing we thought is that the High King might attack us. His army is bigger than ours. The question was when the attack is going to take place. Instead of waiting around, we decide to raise the number of knights at the borders. If the knights find something, they will notify us right away and we will act.

“Do we have an agreement?” I ask. Everyone nods. “Meeting adjourned.”

I stand up, but when I turn, I feel the Cursebreaker hit the chair. This sword was a gift from father. Now, he does not want me as a son. This sword will remind me of the false hope my father gave me.

“Elvia, do you have a moment?” I ask. She is recollecting her notes from the table. I wait for everyone else to leave the room.

“Of course,” Elvia asks.

“I need a favor,” I say, taking the sword from my waist. I put it on the table. “You are the best smith in the court. Can you destroy this sword and use the materials to create me a new one?”

“Of course, my king,” Elvia says. “Anything for you.”

“Thanks,” I say. She takes the Cursebreaker and her notes and leaves.

I leave the room in search for Thalia. Knowing her, she must be where North is. I soar my way towards the room where I left North. I can feel the eyes of the knights, judging me about my horns and wings when they saw me before. Sir Fafner assured me that the knights will not say anything about me, but I am not sure. Sometimes it takes only one person to spread a rumor.

“How is she?” I ask.

Thalia is at North’s room. She has pulled a chair beside her. She has her head low, looking at her own hands. North lays on the bed, sheets covering her. Her hair is away from her face, spread on the pillows.

“Steady,” Thalia says, not bothering to look at me. “The healer tried her best. She does not know what is wrong with North. She said to give her until tomorrow. If she does not wake up by then, then we have to look for a better healer from another court.”

“She will wake up,” I say.

“How can you be so sure to be able to say it?” Thalia asks. “What if she does not wake up?”

“She will,” I say. “If she does not wake up by morning, I will take her with me. I will visit every court. I will talk to every king and queen until I get the best healers at their courts.” I put a hand on Thalia’s shoulder. “I will not stop until she is healed.”

Thalia does not move. She does not even say anything. She keeps staring at her hands. I move my hand slowly away from her shoulder.

“Thalia?” I whisper. She does not answer. “Are… Are you afraid of me?”

“What? No,” Thalia says as she turns to see me. “What makes you say that?”

“You have not looked at me ever since I broke the enchantment,” I say. She stands up.

“No, I am not afraid of you, Rowan,” Thalia says. She stands in front of me. “Take it off. I want to see you.”

With a move of my hand, I dissolve the enchantment. I feel once again the horns and wings appear. Thalia moves her right hand slowly towards my forehead. She touches my left horn. She traces it with her fingers from the point of origin to the pointy end almost a foot above my head. She then moves to my side.

When she traces a finger the curve of my left wing, I cannot help but feel insecure. No one has ever touched them, not even me. I feel as if I am letting someone enter my safety zone. I feel exposed, but somehow knowing that it is Thalia, calms me.

“You are still you,” Thalia says as she stops again in front of me. “Horns or no horns, wings or no wings, you are still the same Rowan that I like.”

I cannot help but hug her. I close my eyes, but I can feel my wings covering her as if they are also hugging her. I open my eyes and see her head laying below my chin.

“You just admitted that you like me,” I say as I smile. She looks up and then pushes me away.

“Shut up,” she says as she moves towards the chair. “That does not mean that you are not the same arrogant Rowan.”

“You like my arrogance,” I tell her.

“I never said I did,” she says, but she never said that she did not. I can see a smile curve up and that is enough for me.

***

I stand in front of the mirror. The purpose was to see how well I got dressed up, but I end up not noticing my clothes. I notice my new self that I have never seen before. I have two black horns in my forehead that goes up without giving a turn. Black wings are behind me. They appear to belong to a demon, exactly what Sir Fafner said yesterday. They extend well over the length of my arms and the width is a little above my shoulder to the beginning of my hips.

My eyes are bigger. They have more irises and less sclera. The irises are not dark brown anymore. They are black. I close my eyes and think of myself before I had horns and wings. I feel the enchantment work and when I open my eyes, I am back to my old self. I step out of the room.

Last night, I slept at a guest room. I told Thalia that I did not know if I could hold the enchantment while I sleep, and it ended up being true. I did not want Breeze to see me with horns and wings in the middle of the night.

I also slept uncomfortably. The horns scratched the walls more time that I can count. My wings somehow felt like they were not a part of me. They felt as if they wanted to sleep spread and away from me. I ended up sleeping with my head at the foot of the bed for the horns to not scratch the walls, and with my chest on the mattress so that the wings did not feel crushed.

As I walk towards North’s room, I find Elvia at one of the hallways. She is holding a covered sword. She walks towards me and hands it.

“I have been looking for you, my king,” she says. “I spent all afternoon and night destroying your last sword and creating a new one.”

I unfold the sword. The Cursebreaker is no more. Now, a glass sword has taken its place. I pass a finger through the blade and it cuts my finger by just a light touch. The grip and handle are no longer gold and the plummet purple. Instead, they are all dark purple, the color of the Court of Storms.

“I was able to create from the previous sword a glass stronger than diamonds,” Elvia says. “I heard the name of the previous sword and I heard about the curse that you gave to your brother.” My eyes open. How does she know that and why has she kept it from the council? “That is why I named it the Cursemaker.”

I nod. “Thank you,” I say. “I do not deserve your services.” She bows and leaves.

When I enter North’s room, I see Thalia already there. She is seated on the chair next to her bed and she is holding North’s hand. That is a bad sign.

“Did the healer come?” I ask.

“Yes,” Thalia says. “North did not wake up. The healer does not know what to do now.”

I move towards North and Thalia. I put my right hand on Thalia’s left shoulder. Then, a different smell comes to me. I start sniffing. For a second, I think that it comes from Thalia, but it doesn’t. I move closer to North, smelling her. Somehow, the odor seems familiar.

“What are you doing?” Thalia asks.

“Do you have a knife?” I ask her.

She nods and pulls a dagger from her boot. She hands it to me. I grab one of North’s arm and look for a vein near her wrist. I pass the knife, cutting slightly until the first drop of blood appears. Thalia stands up behind me. She must think that I lost it.

I move one finger towards her cut, grabbing a drop of her blood. I put it near my nose and sniff. It smells of burned metal and iron.

“Saints, how did I not see this?” I ask to myself.

“What? What is wrong?” Thalia asks.

“It is poison,” I say. “She has red frog’s venom in her blood. It is burning her inside.” I drop the knife, taking my hands to my head. “How did I not see this? He poisoned her. The High King poisoned her!”

“But now that we know what is wrong with her, we can cure her, right?” Thalia asks, taking my hands away from my hair.

“No,” I say. “The venom has been in her system for a day. It has spread already around her body.” I feel the urge to throw something, to smash something. “Wait,” I stop fidgeting. “I know who can heal her.”

“Who?” Thalia asks as I am taking North in my arms.

“Beings who could be even stronger than faeries,” I say as I move towards the door. Thalia opens it. “The kings and queens of sprites.” As I move through the halls, I ask the knights, “Has anyone seen Sephira?”

“Yes,” one of the knight answers. “She arrived a minute ago. She must be on the west wing by now.”

I continue walking, Thalia on my heels. I did not notice it before. I was weak when I came out of the dungeons of the Court of Miracles, but ever since I broke the enchantment, I feel a new kind of strength. We find Sephira on the hallway between the west wing and the south wing.

“Sephira, how can I call a sprite?” I ask her. She looks surprised when she sees me holding North, but she does not ask.

“Which kind of sprite?” she asks.

“A forest sprite,” I say, thinking of Glade. He can help me convince the kings and queens.

“You plant a seed,” she says. “You spray it with your blood and mention the sprite’s name. Then if he answers, the seed will grow into a tree magically and the sprite will step out from it. Be warned that now that tree will serve as a portal between you and that sprite.”

“Then, I need a seed,” I tell her. She nods. I look at Thalia, who is beside me. “Where can we plant a tree?”

“We are on mountains, everything is rock,” she says. “There is only one place where there is some dirt. It is on the south wing.”

“I will meet you there when I find a tree’s seed,” Sephira says. She leaves through a door.

Thalia leads me through rooms, until we get to a small living room. I lay North on the couch and go outside where Thalia is. We are at a terrace. Chairs and tables are there, but there is not a ceiling. The floor is made of dirt, but I can even feel that below it everything is stone.

“I hope this works,” I tell Thalia.

Sephira returns with a brown seed on her hands. She hands it to me, and I lower myself. With my bare hands, I dig a small hole. I put the seed in and cover it with the dirt. I pull the Cursemaker a little from its cover on my waist. I pass one finger through the blade. I press my finger and watch as a drop of blood falls into the place where the seed was planted.

“Glade, I need your help,” I whisper.

I stand up and move back next to Thalia. For a second, I think that it does not work, but then the ground starts shaking. A tree starts growing from the seed. I feel the roots breaking the stone below us. The tree keeps growing and growing until its leaves and branches cover the whole terrace. The trunk opens in the middle, revealing the hollow tree. From inside of it, a green barefoot person steps out, Glade.

“I never expected you of all people to call me,” he says.

“I need your help,” I say.

“A favor,” Glade says. His forest eyes sinking on mines. “What are you going to give me in exchange?”

“Anything,” I say, and I mean it. “My friends need to be healed and I believe that your kings and queens are the only ones who can help her.”

“Who is your friend?” Glade asks. He wants to know what he is getting into.

“North,” I say. I return to the living room, take North on my hands, and go back outside.

Glade opens his eyes. That is the first expression that I have seen in his face. “She is the only faerie who has treated me as equal,” he says. I remember when I was striking a deal with Glade in the Slumbering Forest. I was stubborn, and North said that I needed to give something to Glade in order to make the deal fair. “I will help you for free, but not for you, for her.”

He walks back to the tree and signs me to follow him. I walk towards the tree, stopping to look back at Thalia. “I am not doing this without you,” I say. She lets her breath go and follows me. Making her wait to see what is going to happen with North will be inhumane. The four of us squeeze inside the tree and the tree starts closing.

The tree opens again, and I recognize where we are by the whispers in the air. We have arrived at the Slumbering Forest, but not in the village. I step out of the tree with North on my arms. I close my eyes, feeling every place where the enchantment was built on my body and break it. My horns return with my wings.

“I always knew that there was something strange with you,” Glade says. “Follow me.”

I start walking. I want to grab Thalia’s hand and assure her that everything is going to be all right, but with North, I cannot do it. Instead, I smile to her as I slow my pace for her to catch up. I want this to be over for Thalia to get a break. She catches me staring.

“What?” she asks, the corner of her mouth curving.

“Just thinking,” I say, and I continue watching Glade’s back.

We arrive to the village. In the day, the village has even more people. There are more children playing around with sticks as wooden swords and jumping on squares when they throw a rock. The rest of the villages are doing their chores, cleaning houses or gathering food.

The last time I was here, when I escaped the cellar of the Court of Miracles, the villagers kept their distance from me for precaution. This time it is different. The villagers now keep their distances with horror on their faces. They are afraid of me. Noticing their eyes, their shrieks, their steps that they take back, I know that I will never get accustomed to people fearing me.

The kings and queens are on their thrones in the islet in the middle of the river. They are all wearing the same clothes that they wore last time; it must be what they are expected to wear. The Forest King is the first on the left, sitting on his throne made of three branches. Next to him sits the Earth Queen on her stone throne. After her, the River King sits on his red coral throne, and at the end, the Wind Queen sits on her throne of white clouds.

“You look worse than the last time we saw you,” the Earth Queen says as she sees us step out of the bridge and into the islet. “Have you come here to pay your debt?”

“I came here to ask for your help,” I say, showing them North. The Forest King moves his hand lazily. Roots start coming from the floor at my left, right next to Glade. It forms a pedestal big enough for North. I lay North on the pedestal and return to stand between Glade and Thalia. “I need your magic to heal my friend.”

“Why should we help you?” the Earth Queen says. “You have not paid our previous favor.”

Last time that I was here, I asked for a safe cross to the Court of Summer. In exchange, they asked for me to bring them the Cursebreaker, but the Cursebreaker does not exist anymore. I take the Cursemaker out and throw it on the floor in front of them. The glass of the sword shines with a ray of sun that hits it.

“That is not the Cursebreaker,” the River King shouts, leaning on his chair. He was going to pick it up until he noticed that it is not what he wanted.

“No,” I say. “The Cursebreaker was destroyed and it was used to build this new sword called the Cursemaker.”

“You told us that you were going to bring us the Cursebreaker,” the Forest King says.

“You broke your promised, you insolent kid!” the Earth Queen spits.

“I did not break my promise,” I say. “You told me to bring the sword, and I did. I am sorry if it is not what you expected.”

“Are you trying to trick us?” the Earth Queen asks.

“Let him explain himself,” the Wind Queen tells the Earth Queen. She seems to be the most reasonable of the sprites.

“Very well,” the Earth Queen says, laying back on her throne. “You may speak, prince.”

“King,” I correct her. The River King is the only surprised. I want to let them know that my rank is the same as them. “I do not intend to be on your bad sides. All I ask is for your help to heal North. In exchange, I will give you what you all want: your freedom.” The villagers murmur with each other. The Forest King straightens himself, looking more interested with the conversation.

“How? You do not possess the Cursebreaker,” the Forest King says. “Without it, you cannot break the curse of the Slumbering Forest.”

“The last wielder of the Cursebreaker can break the curse,” I say. “The Cursebreaker has seized to exist. That makes me the last wielder.”

“He is right,” the River King says to the Earth Queen. “He can break the curse.”

“Glade told us that you tried to break it before,” the Earth Queen says. “What makes you think that you can break it now?”

“While the sword was alive, it could fall to another owner,” I say. “In other words, there was not any form to know who the last wielder was. Now, it is definite that I am.”

“Fine,” the Earth Queen says. “We will heal your friend if you can free us from the curse.” I nod. “However, when you break the curse, we will not be safe from the outside. How can we be sure that you, or any other court, will attack us?”

“I will not say anything to any other court, and I have no plans to attack the Slumbering Forest,” I say.

“That is what you say,” the Forest King says. “But what about her?” He points at Thalia.

“I will not tell anyone,” Thalia says.

“I know that faeries cannot lie, but I still do not believe you,” the Forest King says. “You tricked us once. What is stopping you now?”

“My dying friend,” I tell him.

“It is still not enough,” the Earth Queen says. “As part of the deal, I am going to send Glade to live at your court. He will notify us if you say anything to anyone. Is that all right?”

I look at Thalia. I cannot make the decision of bringing a spy into our home without consulting the Storm Queen. She nods at me and I turn to face the Earth Queen. “Deal,” I say. “Now, take me to your eldest tree.”

“It is right behind us,” the Forest King says.

It surprises me to see him stand up from his throne. The rest of the king and queens stand up with him. Glade, Thalia, and I move away from the middle for them to walk past us. I follow them, leaving Thalia to watch North.

The kings and queens walk through the village. Every citizen bow at them as they pass by. They lead me to the back of the village where a dark path is covered with more trees than usual. A few minutes in and an opening appear with a burst of light. A huge tree stands in front of me, the biggest tree that I have ever seen.

“Do your thing,” the Earth Queen says. She is taller than me. In fact, every king and queen sprite are taller than me. Even Glade is taller than me.

I nod. I walk towards the tree, jumping through the roots in front of me. When I get to the trunk is when I lay both my palms on it. A loud whisper stops sounding; it must have come from this tree. I close my eyes and lower my head. I think about the day I cursed Zephyrus, the way that my voice change, the sudden burst of power, and how good it felt.

I open my eyes and see. A purple light is coming from my hands. It transfers to the tree and it starts spreading like veins on a tree. Then I feel it, an explosion of energy occurs, and I am flown back. As I stand up, I notice that the trees around me start moving. Their branches move and their trunks flex. The treefolk are awake again.

“You did it,” the River King says. “You have freed us!”

“Now is time for you to pay your end of the bargain,” I say.

We walk back to the village. People are celebrating. They are shouting and jumping for their freedom. As the kings and queens pass, they say their gratitude as if they were the ones to free them. Back on the islet, every king and queen stand surrounding North.

“We are one with nature,” the Earth Queen says as she looks up. They are holding hands with each other. “We ask you to bring back from the brink of death this faerie.”

“I invoke the forest,” the Forest King says.

“I invoke the river,” the River King says.

“I invoke the wind,” the Wind Queen says.

“And I invoke the earth,” the Earth Queen says. “With our power of nature, we give this faerie another chance.”

With that, North wakes up with a gasp.