“I have not given you permission to use my name, Banzar. Nor shall you ever have that permission,” Aaibhe said with her head held high. “Nor shall I dignify this Council’s insults by answering them. I am your Queen, made so by a power higher than this Council, and I am this Council’s leader. This meeting is over,” said Aaibhe. Her eyes narrowed as she turned to her loyal princes. “Breslyn, Danté…in my chambers.” She called Nuad with their mind link, and picking up the skirt of her glittering silver gown she swept it behind her with a style even Banzar had to admire as she left the Council at her back and shifted to her own suite of rooms in the palace.
Breslyn took a moment before he followed his Queen. His fist hammered the long oak table and he advised the fearful faces before him, “You will live to regret this day’s work.” So saying, he shifted to his Queen’s chambers.
Prince Danté took a moment to level a glare at all the members and then at Banzar in particular. He pointed a finger at the dissenting members, “Fie, all of you complete and utter fools. You don’t have a clue, do you? You stand on the precipice of ruin. The Dark Princes are here, do you understand? If it were left to me, I would feed Banzar to their hordes for it is what you deserve. You are no better than Gais. At least he was insane, but you are not. Your cunning ways will be your demise.” He sneered at Banzar, “Damn, I think I should have allowed Breslyn to bury you, you asinine fool.”
~*~
Aaibhe looked up from her pyramided hands as Danté stepped out of his shift into the royal chamber.
He took a stand beside Breslyn whose arms were crossed over his massive chest, his silver eyes were lit with fury.
They waited as the Queen took a turn about her room and then stood before them and asked, “Will we ever be plagued by men who look to further themselves at the cost of their brethren?” She sighed heavily, “We haven’t time the to waste worrying about such nonsense.” Aaibhe’s chin was up, and her eyes were alive with determination. “Our path is very clear. We need to stop the Dark Ones before they do any further damage in the human world.” She put a hand out to her Royal Princes, “I trust my Royals, each and every single one, but there are none more capable than you two, and you must know my doubts and fears.” She looked away and then back at them, “My greatest fear is that their Dark Magic will increase as their army feeds. I am nearly certain of it, and we must do something to slow that process down. Until we can surround them and contain them, we are vulnerable.”
“Never say so,” Breslyn’s face was fixed with his resolution. “This time, we will bleed them, Dark King or not, his sons are going down!”
The Queen regarded him steadily, “We were fortunate that the Dark King forgave the killing of his youngest son, and that he was not his favorite son. The Dark King must not be thwarted in this. With the blink of an eye he can destroy our worlds…” she looked away. “Thank goodness there is Crystal keeping him bound to emotion.”
“What are you saying?” Danté asked calmly but with a touch of irritation. “We are being attacked…and we can’t end this?”
“We can end this by returning them to the Dark Realm where they belong and this time, keeping them there.”
“I don’t like it,” Breslyn answered throwing his arm into the air. “It begs repetition.”
Aaibhe sighed, “Shall we focus first on containing the hordes of abominations they have released in the Human Realm? One step at a time. Sometimes the answers come slowly, but those answers, will light the way.”
Nuad, her Chief Royal Tracker arrived then, she turned to greet him with a nod. There wasn’t time for the amenities and she got right to the point, “Nuad, do you have their exact location?”
“Indeed, my Queen, we do.” He turned to Breslyn and Danté and included them in his sweeping gaze. “Their fortress is heavily protected by wards, but they know nothing if they think that can keep out Seelie Fae.”
“Yes, but when we surround them, it must be more than an act of bluster without merit. We must have the means to contain, capture and imprison,” the Queen said quietly.
“Yes, another matter,” Nuad agreed. “And there is more,” he added grimly.
“What more?”
“It pains me to report that the Dark Princes have already sent their Unseelie castes into the nearby villages and allowed the abominations to feed.”
Breslyn slammed his fist into the wall and cursed in ancient Danu. Danté took a step towards Nuad and said softly, “Women and children…?”
“Not one left, only the bones remain.”
The Qu
een closed her eyes.
This hurt her in the depth of her being, the Daoine Fae that she was, for a Daoine is one with the Earth.
It had been her sacred duty to keep the prison walls of the Dark Realm intact. Those walls had been compromised when the Seelie Fae had come to Ireland’s lovely shores. She instilled the Druids with magic. Her Druids had been loyal to her and to their duty for thousands of years. They recited the magical chants that had helped to maintain the prison wall in place and the Unseelie bound within to their Dark Realm.
How had it all fallen apart? The Dark King would not accept the total destruction of his monsters. They were his creations, and even as evolved as he had become, she knew what his retaliation would be…
She had for that reason allowed Pestale to live when the Dark King appeared and asked her for his return. He had promised to keep him contained and thought by making his First Prince drink from the Cauldron that all would be well. He had not foreseen what Hordly had managed to do. He had not bothered to watch over the Princes and keep up his part of their deal.
She should have allowed Trevor to destroy Pestale when they had the chance. She should have taken that opportunity and faced the Dark King with it, perhaps he would have…but no, the consequences would have been dire.
And now the price of that decision would have to be paid. Perhaps, Banzar was correct and her time for ruling was over?
If only she had the original magic threads to keep those prison walls intact. If only Queen Bridget had left her the secret of the binding of the walls.