“If time is slower here, how much slower?” Serxio asked.
“It hasn’t seemed that long. I can’t…” Emma shook her head. “I can’t tell you if it has been months or years. Everything is a blur.”
Serxio focused on him and whispered, “How long will it be for us when we get home?”
Rohan held up a hand to stop him from speaking. Though Emma did not seem like she had any love for the Fae, he didn’t trust her to know where they actually came from, though their ignorance about how time moved here likely showed they were from the other side of the Wall. But he understood Serxio’s fears. While it had been only a few hours for them on this side of the Wall, how long had it been in Rirea?
We have to get out of here!
Rohan glanced around them. In the nearest cart he saw a Fae child who looked to be about 10-years-old in human terms, but was likely far older in Fae. She had on a green dress and pink scarf. She was sandwiched between two older female Fae, likely her mother and sister. Her crimson eyes tracked him. He smiled at her and lifted a chained hand in greeting. Her eyes grew wider, and she hid her face against her mother’s arm, but then she peeked out and slightly smiled back. It was then that her mother saw what was happening and gave him a deadly glare before blocking the girl’s view of him with her shawl. Rohan sighed. He couldn’t blame this Fae, after all he was part of the reason they were leaving their home.
He felt a tingling sensation from his right. It was Lightbringer. He didn’t know how he knew. The sword had always been near his hand. Now it wasn’t and he felt somehow naked without it. Lightbringer had been carefully wrapped in a cloth and strapped to Ryleth’s mount. She was riding just a cart’s length ahead. His fingers ached for the hilt. For a moment, he thought the hilt quivered. But then Ryleth reached back and lightly touched the sword. It stilled, if it had been moving at all.
Her mount was not a horse, but a creature he remembered from books. It was called a sicen, and had a dragon-shaped head with a saurian body. It stood eight feet tall from the bottom of its clawed forelegs to the tip of the tallest horns on either side of its head. Ryleth’s mount was rolling its orange eyes and snuffling nervously. If such a beast like that was nervous about going into the woods at night then perhaps he and Serxio had gotten lucky just fighting Hex.
“Whoa, Jacona! Calm yourself,” Ryleth said as she patted the sicen’s red, scaly hide.
“Do you think it wise to move everyone at night, Ryleth?” Rohan boldly asked.
If they started towards the palace that would be one step away from Finn and one step towards death for him and Serxio. Ryleth’s head lifted and those red, Fae eyes looked in on him. He had spoken in the Fae dialect he had heard her use. Her raised eyebrows showed him that she was surprised. He hoped she was impressed. Though he was not happy that Serxio had revealed him having ancient, royal Fae blood--because they might wonder if he had human royal blood as well, and Rirea was the nearest human kingdom--he realized that it might be a benefit. At least, the possibility of such blood had stopped her from killing him and Serxio outright.
“Ah, you have recovered quickly from the Harrowing Seal spell,” she said, and nodded. “That would support your companion’s claim of your Fae blood. Not that it will help you much with King Thalanil. It will likely cause him to execute you all the sooner.”
“Why would that be?”
Her eyebrows lifted again, but her lips flattened. “You claim to have royal Fae blood, but you don’t even know the history of your family?”
“I clearly don’t know this history,” he answered her evenly.
“Vudine,” she said, using a wholly different name for Lightbringer, “was the sword of House Aetunal, House Ravenspar’s ancient enemy. Though like all the bitterest enemies, they began as the best of friends. House Aeturnal and House Ravenspar used to rule together. But then… there was a breach, and all the Aeturnals disappeared or were killed or… who knows.”
“That doesn’t sound very good,” Rohan agreed with her.
Ryleth actually chuckled. “So you’re a mystery. An Unmarked human with Aeturnal blood. What is your name?”
Rohan considered how to answer her. If he told her his true name she might jump to the conclusion that Finn had not, which was that he was Rirea’s king. But would she expect the Rirean king to be wandering in their woods any more than Finn had expected him to be in the forest in Rirea? He was certain she would know he was lying if he gave another name. Therefore, to have any chance of gaining her trust and convincing her to help Finn he needed to be honest.
“Rohan,” he finally said.
“Well, that took you long enough. You choose not to lie, which is good,” Ryleth said. “And unusual for a human.”
“Then you’ll know that I am not lying when I tell you that we came to the village to find a healer. Not to hurt anyone,” Rohan said.
“But you have hurt people. Look around you.” Ryleth gestured to the line of villagers getting ready to set off into the dark. “The danger is so great that we cannot even wait for daylight to leave.”
“I think I merely sped up the inevitable and saved some human lives,” he countered.
“Really?” Ryleth’s voice was chilly, and her crimson eyes narrowed. “Two human lives is worth a whole village of Fae ones?”
“Your walls and sacrifices wouldn’t have lasted forever,” Rohan said, and there was a flicker in her eyes that told him she knew that too. “And in a village of this size, how many criminals could there possibly have been that required a death sentence?”
“More than you might think.” Her smile was fragile. Brittle.
“How many human criminals?” He pressed and she did not answer. “Because I’m guessing that you never chained any Fae to that pillar, no matter what they’ve done.” Her smile was utterly gone. “So how many humans have you staked out there? How many innocents?”
“You judge what you do not understand,” she answered him stiffly.
“I do understand, Ryleth. You’ve had to make hard choices,” Rohan said, feeling the weight of his own in regards to his starving people. “Perhaps humans are more palatable to sacrifice, but you know what you’re doing is wrong. You knew it was also unsustainable. You would always have had to leave this place. I just stopped you from slaughtering more humans in delaying that decision.”
She was silent for long moments. Her expression was neutral. Too neutral. He wondered again if he had just made a mess of things, if he had misread her.
She brought that up, “If you wanted to make friends with me so that I’ll argue your case with the king, are you sure this is the tact you wish to take?”
“I think you appreciate the truth. I think you struggled doing what you did,” Rohan said. “Which is why I’m asking you--pleading with you--to help one human.”
She tilted her head to the side. “One human?”
“Well, he has Fae blood, too, I think, if that counts,” Rohan stated. “He was accidentally shot with a bolt and is very ill. He’s not far from here. If we could but go get him--”
“Go get him? Not far from here? You are a prisoner! I am not going to help--”