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  1

  RINKA WAS READING one of her father’s books when the news came from the capital.

  “Did you know,” she said to Garen, not taking her eyes from the page, “that the average human woman only lives to be 113 years of age? And the average human man only 101? Royals live longer than that, of course, but still nothing to speak of. Can you imagine? To die when your adult life should be only just beginning?”

  “I do know this, in fact.” Garen glanced up from his work—sketches and diagrams, written in his own hand, of various weaponry still in the development stages. “I can’t help but know. Humans are all you ever talk about these days.”

  “Oh, don’t be grouchy.” Rinka made a face at him over the top of her book. It was a good thing they had been friends for so long. If not for that history, Rinka might have discarded his friendship in recent months. Garen was unnaturally serious now, dedicated to nothing but his studies and inventions, his experimentation with magic, and his bretzhenner training. Rinka often teased him that if he wasn’t careful, he’d one day grow so brittle and inflexible he’d snap in two like a ridgewood plant.

  He would have laughed at her teasing, once. He did not laugh much now.

  “I’m not grouchy, I’m busy. And I wonder what Kaspar would think, to find you’ve taken one of his books out of his study. You know he doesn’t like that.” Garen returned to his work and scowled at it. Then he threw down his pen. “Now look, you’ve made me lose my concentration.”

  Rinka stifled a laugh and sat back on the chaise, considering him as he fussed with his papers. Perhaps this time, she would see something different, something that would change her mind about him.

  Objectively, he was attractive enough: white braids, pulled back into a businesslike knot that showed off his cheekbones. Dark jewels and silver hoops decorating his ears, from the lobes to the pale, pointed tips. Those blue eyes—a light, glacial blue compared to Rinka’s stormy blue-gray. And then, when he caught her staring at him, the cloud of irritation on his face melted into a reluctant smile. He looked, in that moment, almost like the Garen she remembered from not long ago, before the mood of the faery lands began to change. Such a soft expression, contrasted with the harsh bretzhenner collar around his neck and band at his wrist—the marks of a young soldier.

  And yet . . . nothing. No answering tug in her heart, to see that smile and know it was meant only for her.

  In moments like these she found herself wishing she could pluck Garen out of her life and discard him like an unfashionable gown. It was a cruel thought, and filled her with guilt, and yet she found herself thinking it more and more. Maybe not discard him; maybe just set him aside for a while, out of sight. Things would be much simpler. No uncomfortable silences, no staring at her hotly, no expressions of quiet resignation when she rejected his advances yet again. Shouldn’t their years of friendship be enough for him?

  “It’s not like I’m going to damage the book,” Rinka said. “And besides, the only way Father would find out about me taking things out of his study is if you told him.” She flung herself off the chaise and went to the mirror at the other end of the common room, fiddling with her jeweled braids to distract herself. “And you promised me you would never.”

  “I’m not sure promises made in childhood really count.”

  She glanced at his reflection. “But promises between friends?”

  He sighed, a familiar, long-aggrieved sigh. “Every time you get in a tight spot, you throw our friendship back at me like a weapon.”

  “And why shouldn’t I,” Rinka said, turning to inspect her profile, “when I know it will work?”

  Garen laughed, a bitter sound that gave Rinka a twinge of shame. She was too careless with him—too cruel, and too often, and she almost turned to apologize. But then she caught his eyes on her—her white shoulders; her back, mostly bare save for the clinging silk of her gown; and lower. His attention left behind trails of heat.

  His eyes snapped to hers in the mirror, and she stifled a surge of frustration. How many times would they go through this before he accepted her refusals?

  “Anyway,” she said tightly, tucking the book into her bag, “you know deep down inside that dutiful heart of yours, you relish the human trivia you learn from me. Only 101 years, Garen, can you imagine?”

  “Oh, I relish your trivia, yes. Someday I’ll face a human in battle, and when that day comes, I’ll remember your lectures, and maybe one of them will help me defeat him.”

  Rinka frowned. “Don’t talk that way.”

  Garen’s eyes now held a different light within them—the light of a bretzhenner cadet. He never used to come so alive at the thought of violence.

  “You know war may be coming, Rinka.”

  “If you warmongers have your way, yes, maybe it will come,” Rinka spat at him. “We’ll be plunged into endless battles and our villages will be raided, and for what? For nothing but pride.”

  “Warmongers? For nothing?” Garen rose. “You don’t believe that. You’ve heard about the disappearances up north, just as I have. The rumors of experimentation, the rumors of dissection.”

  Rage blazed in Rinka’s heart. Garen and his lovelorn eyes. Garen and his anti-human talk. What did he know? He was no older or wiser than she.

  “You call them rumors, I call them lies. And I, for one, refuse to believe the talk of bored soldiers thirsting for something to do.”

  “Rinka.” Garen turned away, his mouth thin. “This obsession with humans is fogging your mind. When you were a child, it was understandable. You didn’t know any better. But now, to defend them blindly . . .”

  “Obsession? And what about knowledge? When I replace Father on the Council someday, I want to know as much as I can. I want to honor his intelligence with my own. I want to learn about humans rather than fight them. Maybe I prefer books and research to weapons and war. Is that so outrageous?”

  Garen’s eyes flashed as he rounded on her. “And maybe you prefer the company of humans to your own people. Is that it? Are we as disgusting to you as we are to them? You long to be one of them.”

  Somehow, Rinka managed to restrain herself from striking him. “I long for my people to rely less on fear and superstition and more on facts. I long to understand the people who rule my country. I long for my friend to remember that just because I don’t desire war does not make me his enemy.”

  She turned away, glaring out the window into the torchlit underground courtyard. It was happening with increasing frequency these days—these arguments between them, this tension and these accusations. As if evading his courtship weren’t enough trouble.

  Blood-traitor. The unsaid words stretched between her and Garen, between her and everyone. Rinka’s interest in humans had once, in kinder days, been a sort of joke. Kaspar’s daughter? Oh yes, she thinks humans are beautiful. She thinks their cities splendid and their government fascinating. Isn’t it the funniest thing? She’ll grow out of it, of course. Many children go through that phase.

  But really, other faery children didn’t, and Rinka never did grow out of it, and then the relationship between the High Throne and the faery lands had started to change. There had been reports of strange disappearances near the border. The fact that there even was a border now, an unpopulated
stretch of country between the southern and central lands that both faeries and humans avoided, was a sign in itself that something was wrong. There had been terrible rumors, as well—faeries being abducted for dark purposes; disguised human spies infiltrating sacred haunts, harassing faeries during prayer; the increasing mage influence in King Alban’s court. Suspicion in the capital city. Fear of faery magic—because it was dangerous? No more than the magic of the northern mages.

  Perhaps it was because the faeries kept the secrets of their magic so close, and that secrecy frightened the king.

  Or more likely, it frightened the mages, and mages, as the crude saying went, were more often found in the king’s bed than was his queen.

  It was a troubled time in the faery lands—a time full of rumors and hearsay, and a feeling in everyone’s bones. A feeling of uncertainty, of something on the horizon.

  So Rinka now kept her fascination secret. She stole into her father’s library and read and reread his books on humans, though such books, which once would have been unremarkable, were quickly becoming contraband in the faery lands. Not in anything like law, but certainly in attitude. To be seen doing something as innocuous as reading about humans was becoming, if not dangerous, certainly damaging. Because these books told the truth, Rinka knew. Because they didn’t lend credence to the rumors and the rumblings of violence sweeping through the southern forests, and this attitude of violence and fear was becoming the fashion.

  Because these books painted pictures of creatures not very different from Rinka’s own kind.

  No, humans couldn’t possibly be the evil Garen would have her believe. Such beautiful, ephemeral creatures, with messy passions and flimsy bodies and cheeks that flushed pink instead of blue—they entranced Rinka. The fact that they managed to exist, despite their fragility, was miraculous. And anyway, they were the faeries’ sovereigns, chosen by the land itself as the rightful rulers of Cane. Why would Cane have selected barbarians to rule? The land was not unkind; the land was mother to all. So Rinka wouldn’t believe evil of them. To believe a thing, Rinka had to see it for herself.

  She just hadn’t figured out how to do that yet.

  Sneaking into human country was much trickier than sneaking books.

  “Rinka, I’m sorry,” Garen said. He took her hand, and she snatched it away, glaring at him. He did not try again. “I shouldn’t have said that. You know I don’t think you a—” He stopped, uncomfortable.

  “A blood-traitor?” Rinka said coolly. “So you don’t think I’ve betrayed my people simply by seeking knowledge? How kind of you to say so.”

  He opened his mouth to speak, and Rinka feared he would say something unforgivable, something that would force her hand. The idea of actually losing his friendship seemed suddenly unbearable.

  Do not make me hate you, Garen, she thought.

  Then the door to the common room flew open, and Felazita burst in with a breathless string of words on her lips that Rinka couldn’t decipher.

  Soon Felazita would turn twelve and join Rinka, Garen, and other young faeries in the time of Wandering. She would begin to age more slowly until achieving adulthood at around the century mark, and continue to do so throughout the rest of her long life.

  For now, however, she ran barefoot, her long, white hair unbound, as only children were allowed to wear it while in the sacred halls of Geschtohl.

  Garen caught the child by her shoulders. “You’ll have to slow down, little sister. I haven’t yet mastered your particular brand of gibberish.”

  “Maybe if you weren’t old and crusty, your hearing would be better,” Felazita shot back. She pulled away to take Rinka’s hands, her eyes shining like the summer sea. “Rinka, have you heard? Oh, you’ll love this more than anyone. The king has sent a letter to the Council.” Felazita closed her eyes and breathed deeply, as if to steady herself.

  Rinka tugged her hands, impatient. “Well?”

  “King Alban has invited us to court,” Felazita said. “The Council is to select seven faeries they think can best represent the faery lands. Don’t you see? Seven. To echo the Seven already there, the mages, Rinka. We are to have our own Seven now. We’re to be as important as the mages!”

  She tried to spin Rinka around and dance with her, but Rinka was rooted to the floor with joy.

  The young king wanted faeries at his court. Seven faeries.

  Surely there was enough room in a delegation of seven for her. There was no one more suitable for the job, no one who knew more about humans than she did.

  No one who loved them as she did.

  This could be her chance to discover the truth about them, to prove to the bigots on the Council that these rumors were completely unfounded.

  She could do it.

  She could help prevent a war.

  As these thoughts raced through Rinka’s mind, a slow smile spread across her face.

  “I knew you’d be happy,” Felazita gushed. She had always had the greatest sympathy for Rinka’s strange fixation. Tiny and gleeful, she clapped her hands and raced out of the room. “The Council is meeting tonight!” she called back over her shoulder. “You’ll come, won’t you? Everyone’s going to be there!”

  Rinka stared after her, grinning. She would come apart from happiness. Faeries, in the king’s palace! And she would be one of them. She would make sure of it.

  “Well,” Garen said stonily, after a moment, “it seems you’re getting what you’ve always wished for.”

  But nothing could ruin this for Rinka. She shot him a triumphant smile, flung her bag over her shoulder, and swept down the stairs after Felazita, leaving Garen standing like a statue at the door.

  2

  IT WASN'T POSSIBLE. It couldn’t be true.

  For the past half-hour, Rinka had been pacing in her father’s study. The Council had met, her father among them. They had selected their seven representatives to send to Erstadt, the king’s city. One of the seven had been Garen—somber, grave, the most impressive young bretzhenner, talented and innovative. Oh, how they had all fawned over him. Why, of course Garen would go.

  None of the chosen seven had been Rinka.

  It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be true.

  Through the study window Rinka could see down into the empty grand chamber of Geschtohl, where the Council and observing citizens had gathered for hours earlier that evening. Most faery civilization was rootless, clans settling in one area for a time only to roam elsewhere at the season’s change. It was a testament to their origins, long ago, in the tempestuous waters south of the continent. Faeries, the stories said, must always keep moving, must always keep changing, just like the southern seas and their high, hot winds.

  It was one of the characteristics of faeries, Rinka supposed, that unnerved humans, who preferred to settle in one spot and build their cities higher and higher.

  Faeries tore down their villages once they tired of them, and then moved on to the next forest, or mountain, or maze of seaside cliffs. One evening, a village of faeries would be eating and talking and preparing their children for bed; the next morning, all that would remain of that village would be charred circles of stone where their fires had been.

  But faeries never moved their haunts, never razed and rebuilt. Haunts were sacred—places to worship, places to gather and pray to the seas and their winds for strength. And Geschtohl was the most sacred of these, a grand underground haunt of countless carved chambers and passages. It was as vast a construction as the High King’s palace, Wahlkraft, but Rinka had never loved Geschtohl as she had loved Wahlkraft from afar. What good was a grand thing if most of it was hidden beneath the earth for no one to see?

  But Geschtohl remained underground, and never changed. Only its inhabitants changed—the faery Council, comprised of various popular and powerful figures whose influence shifted in accordance with the whims of the faery citizenry. Some Council members, however, never seemed to lose their seats, and one of these was Kaspar, Rinka’s father.

 
; Who finally—finally—made it up to his study just as Rinka was ready to burst with impatience.

  “Father,” she said, rushing to him as he shut the door behind him, “please tell me there’s been some kind of—”

  “Mistake?” Kaspar moved past her smoothly, the two hundred years’ worth of ceremonial pendants in his braids glinting in the firelight. “No, daughter. There has been no mistake. The Council has chosen.”

  “But you know I’m qualified! No one has spent more time researching humans and their customs than I. No one loves them like—”

  “Do not speak to me of loving humans, Rinka.” Kaspar settled behind his desk, and the simple upward slice of his quiet blue gaze was enough to make Rinka feel childish and rash. She sank into the chair opposite him, collecting herself. He was keeping his typically expressive face impassive, and that worried her.

  “Father,” Rinka began again, forcing her voice steady, “forgive me for pressing the matter, but I must. You know I’m more than qualified to have been selected. I’ve spent years in my studies. I’m fluent in their language. In fact, I’ve continued studying even though in recent months it has become—”

  “Suspect?” Kaspar suggested, a flicker of amusement in his gaze.

  The sight encouraged Rinka. “You can’t say I lack dedication. I know human customs, their gods, their songs. You cannot be trying to avoid favoritism. If you were, you would not have selected Garen. And you know I aspire to be chosen for the Council someday, when you no longer wish to serve. This would be the perfect way for me to prove my worth to our people.” She took a long, slow breath. “Why was I not chosen tonight?”

  Kaspar sat unmoving, studying her. It required incredible willpower to meet his gaze, but Rinka managed it. She was not unused to arguing with her father, but never had he been so unreadable. It was not the faery way to hide one’s true feelings like this, and it left Rinka feeling anxious.

  At last he sighed, and turned away to stare into the fire. There, at last—his expression relaxed, and Rinka saw something like regret on his face.