All's Fair in Revenge

Chapter 49: A Faun

With no one around and in nothing more than a satin robe, morning mist met me on the balcony where the bottom of a worn candlestick stuck to the tile floor. Around it, lavender leaves and tufts of rabbit hair I'd yanked from a cloak in the armoire circled it. A thin necklace encrusted with rose quartz crystals snaked around the wax; an offering to Idyr should she wish to retrieve it.

I waited for the sun to pass over the cliffside to light the wick. A curious white tail flew in from above and watched from the balcony's rail. His head cocking this way and that at the glittering of the flame reflected in the stones. With him watching, I said a prayer to the goddess of the new season half-wondering if she wasn't perched before me. "Protect my loved ones," I said to the bird. "See them to safety. And if there's any grace left over, save some for me." The hawk flew off.

"I thought you hated Ariesians," asked a voice, proud, distinct, and heavily accented. I peeked through a squinted eyelid to find Brix walking in from the sitting room, the facade of a dutiful, meek Dorsi servant shed from every ounce of her composition. She'd set a breakfast platter on the table inside the door, the smell of berries riding the breeze. "Yet here you are welcoming Idyr for Ideostara."

"Every year," I said, refocusing on the candle while adding, "It's not your goddess we have a problem with. It's you."

She leaned against the balcony, folding her arms over her chest. "You Kelvians hold quite the grudge, don't you?"

"Sending thousands of healers to their death has that effect."

"Thousands?" Brix snorted. "Centuries-long ostracism seems punishment enough, don't you think?"

"Not nearly," I said, considering whether losing one's country would ever be commensurate to aiding in the close eradication of another. It didn't matter. My people would never forget what hers had done and I had more pressing matters to attend. I finished my prayer and rolled onto my knees. "Why are you here?"

"You don't waste any time, do you?"

"As a general rule, I prefer candor. I haven't much time and you're wasting a lot of it."

Eyebrows arched toward the fringe of hair dusting them. "Says the princess of Kelvia except there is no princess of Kelvia, is there?" Brix flipped her hair behind her shoulder with a newfound confidence. It made her bland features more alluring. Attractive even.

I gauged the sun. "Get to the point, Brix. What do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something? That I'm not here to deliver breakfast?"

"Let's examine the evidence: you came to kill someone in the castle, presumably the king, but he's dead now and you're still here. Why?"

She shrugged. "Maybe I don't like when liars pretend they're honest."

"Well, you'd know something about that, wouldn't you?"

Her eyes grazed the heavens. "Oh, get off it already."

"Not when my family's blood stains the hands of your people."

"You think your hands so clean?" The countries of the Great Charter had destroyed what was left of Ariese at the end of the war. The country never recovered. Rightfully so given their actions, but also a shame. The Ariesians had one of the most advanced societies on the continent before the war.

In Kelvia's tomes, priestesses described buildings that twisted like vines and the smoothest stone roads travelers ever strode. Flowering gardens dripped from stone boxes like curtains. And in the cold seasons, the devotees of Skadi formed snow sculptures with their hands while the devotees of Eysa illuminated each with flame heart.