A Court of Chaos and Confusion - An ACOTAR Rewrite

Chapter 14

After soaking in the bath for nearly an hour, I found myself sitting in a low-backed chair before my room's roaring fireplace, savoring the feel of Alis brushing out my damp hair. Though dinner was to be served soon, Alis had a mug of hot chocolate brought up and refused to do anything until I'd had a few sips.

It was the best thing I'd ever tasted, and I drank from the thick mug as she brushed my hair, nearly purring at the feel of her thin fingers along my scalp. I couldn't remember the last time someone had brushed my hair and I was finally allowing myself to enjoy some of the small comforts being offered to me.

But when the other maids had gone downstairs to help with the evening meal, I lowered my mug into my lap. "If more faeries keep crossing the court borders and attacking, is there going to be a war?" Maybe we should just take a stand – maybe it's time to say enough, I'd overheard Lucien say to Tamlin that first night.

The brush stilled. "Don't ask such questions. You'll call down bad luck."

I twisted in my seat, glaring up into her masked face. "Why are these awful creatures allowed to roam wherever they want? Is it the job of the other High Lords? I had heard of a story about a king in Hybern – "

Alis grabbed my shoulder and pivoted me around. "It's none of your concern."

"Oh, I think it is." I turned around again, gripping the back of the wooden chair. "If this spills into the human world – if there's war, or this blight poisons our lands..." I pushed back against the crushing panic. I wondered if they'd let me warn my family.

"The less you know, the better. Let Lord Tamlin deal with it – he's the only one who can." The Suriel had said as much. Alis's brown eyes were hard, unforgiving. "You think no one would tell me what you asked the kitchen to give you today, or realize what you went to trap? Foolish, stupid girl. Had the Suriel not been in a benevolent mood, you would have deserved the death it gave you."

"I had to do something, anything, all these half-truths and carefully worded answers are maddening. How can I live here, forever, when I can't trust what anyone says?" I stared at her a moment, the silence growing between us. "Do you have a family?" I asked, changing the subject, ignoring the hollowness in my chest, the gnawing ache of missing my sisters, my family.

"I do have a family." I looked her up and down, no ring on any of her fingers, although I wasn't sure if faerie customs were different for that sort of thing.

Alis noticed my stare and said, "My sister and her mate were murdered nigh on fifty years ago, leaving two younglings behind. Everything I do, everything I work for, is for those boys."

"Where are they? Do they live here?" Perhaps that was why there were children's books in the study. Maybe those two, small shining figures in the garden... maybe that had been them.

"No, they don't live here," she said, too sharply. "They are somewhere else – far away."

I considered what she said, then cocked my head. "Do faerie children age differently?" If their parents had been killed almost fifty years ago, they could hardly be boys.

"Ah, some age like you and can breed as often as rabbits, but there are kinds – like me, like the High Fae – who are rarely able to produce younglings. The ones who are born age quite a bit slower. We all had a shock when my sister conceived the second one only five years later – and the eldest won't even reach adulthood until he's seventy-five. But they're so rare – all our young are – and more precious to us than jewels or gold." She clenched her jaw tightly enough that I knew that was all I would likely get from her.

"I understand what you mean – about doing everything for them. That's how I felt about my sisters."

Alis's lips thinned, but she said, "The next time that fool Lucien gives you advice on how to trap the Suriel, you come to me. Dead chickens my sagging ass – all you needed to do was offer it a new robe and it would have groveled at your feet."