Page 8 of The Night Prince 6

Almost as if speaking more to herself than to him even though she addressed him as she said, “Lord Darcassan, that sword does not belong to you.”

Now he was really going to have to do something.

Smile

Haera wasn’t smiling as she walked aimlessly within Hope. That was actually usual for her back in Nhamashel. She’d only smirk there if show any emotion at all on her striking features. But ever since she’d left–made the decision to leave–she’d been smiling. Really smiling.

“He’s alive?!” She’d gasped when her mother had told her the news. “Rhalyf is alive?”

Her heart, which had been beating slower, almost as if it was stopping in sympathy with her allegedly dead brother’s, suddenly sped up again and she felt almost dizzy. Her mother lifted an eyebrow, surprised at her show of emotion. Haera had hidden her love for Rhalyf so well, but now she was falling apart. She had to get herself together, but the shock of it was too great.

“Did you honestly think your brother would join the coup against Vex?” Her mother shook her head in derision.

But her derision was ill-founded. She was right that Rhalyf wasn’t one for politics or leadership really. He avoided such drama generally with a witty remark and an airy laugh before he disappeared, never to be seen around those who complained about Kindreth society or what needed changing. But, though he tried to hide it, many people knew that he could build just like their uncle. And more still knew he was one of the cleverest and most powerful mages alive. Greater likely than their mother, maybe even second to Vex. So if someone was going to take out Vex seeking out her brother’s support wouldn’t have been unheard of.

“No, but…” Haera tried to catch her breath, but her heart was beating so swiftly that it felt like her lungs couldn’t inflate fully. “But innocent people get swept up all the time–”

“Innocent? Well, of the coup, your brother might be innocent–undoubtedly, is innocent–but overall?” She shook her head. “Still, innocent or not, your brother would never go against Vex.”

She sounded bitter about that as if she hoped he would.

“That doesn’t mean people wouldn’t have sought him out. Made him an unwilling accomplice,” Haera pushed.

“That person would never have lived long enough to form a coup. Vex has watched Rhalyf every moment of his life,” her mother murmured.

So many might have felt a stab of jealousy at such a statement. But not her. Never her. Being under the Night King’s gaze was not a place any sane person would choose to be.

“Where is he then? He’s been gone from all his usual haunts since the coup was put down,” Haera pointed out. He’d also been gone from his unusual and secret ones, too.

Her mother was seated behind her desk. Piles of spellbooks were stacked on every side of her and some ancient tattered scrolls were held open by dazzling minerals. Her hands–elegant, but stained with ink and other less savory things–roved restlessly over their surface. She was pretending to study them while speaking of Rhalyf. Her brother’s desk was much the same. Both he and her mother were noted scholars. Their similarities were likely what made her mother hate Rhalyf so. He was a threat, because he was powerful and would never be truly brought to heel.

Oh, and Vex liked him.

“Vex has sent him to Earth, of all places,” her mother murmured.

“Earth?! But… don’t mortals live there–”

“Fewer of them than before. Evidently, rifts have opened up from the Under Dark to there. Wards finally failing,” her mother chuckled as if wards that had held up for hundreds of thousands of years were somehow weak and insubstantial things that her brother had somehow failed at casting. “The Leviathan invaded.”

Haera’s lips flattened. The Leviathan were an aggressive species that cocooned their prey and drained them dry over time. While many thought that they had little more intelligence than the dredges and croptis, others believed that they were wickedly smart and just as sadistic.

She grimaced. “The mortals have no magic so…”

“The Aravae saved them. Their new king. Aquilan or something like that. All those A names. Really, can’t they be more imaginative? Well, I suppose they hope he’ll be like Ailduin,” her mother said with an airy wave of one of those stained hands through the air while she studied the scrolls. “The Aravae have claimed Earth as part of their Empire now. The mortals–what’s left of them–are to be absorbed and the planet divided among their great Houses.”

“Aquilan,” she murmured the new Sun King’s name. “So Rhalyf is on Earth spying on the Aravae for Vex?”

That made some sense. Some. The Kindreth and Aravae had once been great allies long before she was born during the time of Illithor. But there had been a breach after the death of the Sun King Ailduin, she believed, and they’d had no contact with them since then. They weren’t a threat. The Aravae needed sunlight for their magic. The Under Dark would hold no interest for them. So why did her uncle have Rhalyf there? And it must have been a very secret and clandestine mission since Rhalyf had told no one of his going or even given a hint that he was leaving. He’d literally abandoned almost everything and disappeared completely.

Her mother lifted her handsome head to spear her with a red-eyed gaze. “I can tell from how you phrased that question that you believe Rhalyf is hiding in some bushes and watching the Aravae from afar.”

Haera opened her mouth, but shut it. She supposed that’s what she had thought. Though her brother was not one known for roughing it. He liked his creature comforts. But if Vex had asked him to do this then he would do it.

“Is he not?” Haera asked as she drifted towards her mother’s desk from the door of her mother’s study.

She’d been frozen in the threshold since her mother had announced Rhalyf lived. Now she was unstuck. And must act as if she were merely curious. Not that her mother would believe that, but the game must be played.

“No, he is the new Sun King’s best friend of all things. Playing as an Aravae,” her mother said then muttering, “and clearly enjoying himself at it.”