Exile of the Clave

Exile of the Clave - Chapter 1

Wind and rain lashed against the cloak that Rayce wore, threatening to tear it free as the clasp dug into his throat during one particularly vicious gust. If only it was that simple, he thought bitterly as the city of Toronto fell away below his mount's hooves.

Memories of Sera washed over him like the rain and he couldn't help but cling to each one like it was the last one he had. Everything about her was alive in his mind. The sound of her laughter, the sunlight in her hair, the curve of her body against his. His hands tightened on the reins and he felt an ache in his chest. If he didn't hold on to the memories, he would lose even those. The Hunt would take everything from him.

He could still taste Sera's last kiss, the salt of her tears as she had implored him to have faith and not give up. The storm whipped his cloak sideways and he pulled it around himself reluctantly. She didn't know. Not like he did. She didn't have Gwyn's memories.

She hadn't seen how it had all begun, where all of this had started or why. She didn't understand that Gwyn had worn the cloak for centuries upon centuries, that he had had someone searching for a way to free him, too. Sera wasn't immortal. She wouldn't have centuries to waste looking for a solution that didn't exist. His days would stretch out into eternity now until he was killed and the cloak found a new master. Echoes of Gwyn's past pressed in on Rayce's mind, but he shrugged them away. He had to remember her.

He raced through the night sky, galloping through the clouds as if he could leave it all behind him, but he couldn't. His life was shackled to the Hunt now. He had tried to tell her not to wait for him, not to spend what precious time she had searching for a way to free him, but the fire that burned inside of her had blazed up and refused. Guilt crushed through him as he remembered the bloom of hope he had felt at her promise to find a way or make one. It was selfish. He had to let her go. He already knew how this ended.

The storm faded around him as he outdistanced it and continued to ride the wind eastward, making for Cadair Idris where the Hunters would be waiting for him to come and Turn his own brother. He closed his eyes. Baelerithon.

Gwyn's memories surged forward again at the parallel between them once more, and this time Rayce let them come.

The earth was a younger place, a more simple land of Men where the Fey could still play at the edges of their world and take their pleasures without consequences even if the greatest among them had begun to vanish and decline. Many had made themselves known to the humans and basked in the glory of being worshipped as deities or feared as demons. Idols were raised and the most wicked among the Faeries delighted in the sacrifices of flesh and wealth, watering the land with the blood of the innocent to renew their strength.

Gwyn ap Nudd was not among those malicious enough to prey on the naivete of the humans. He was First Prince to the Unseelie throne, his father's first-born son, and a warrior of great renown. His days were spent protecting his people from the other supernatural creatures that shared their world... and his nights were spent with his beloved Veralysia. They had taken each other as life-mates and sworn to know no other. She would one day rule the Unseelie Court by his side when his father faded from this world. So many of the Greater Fey had begun to do so that Gwyn feared it would not be long before he ascended the throne.

The First Prince knocked softly at the door to his father's chamber and waited to be invited in. At the king's command, he stepped through the doorway to the single room and his eyes were immediately drawn to where his father laid in a stone basin lined with tiny blue-white flames that flickered weakly. The Unseelie King rose from the fire and it died out behind him.

"My son," he greeted him simply. The king's black hair rippled down to his shoulders, held back by the bronze circlet of the Unseelie crown, and Gwyn swiftly knelt to his sovereign.