Page 51 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“I don’t know what Gentian’s ultimate plan for revenge is,” Uncle Neel confessed. “But I know it involves the royal family—Boderg’s descendants.”
“What’s he trying to do to them?” Ace asked.
Uncle Neel’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “Kill them off.”
“Why don’t they just kill Gentian?” Ace suggested. “If they know what he’s doing?”
“They’ve tried numerous times,” Uncle Neel groused. “But the weasel’s grown too powerful—politically and magically. His fortress is impenetrable, and his guards are ruthless, some demonic. Gentian has defiled his soul with the void, but he’s also manifested strong, dangerous abilities, including the ability to craft blood curses.”
Well, that couldn’t sound more ominous.
“A blood curse is like an incurable, communicative disease. It starts by destroying a patriarch, then progresses down the line until all that share that patriarch’s blood are dead. It only stops when the line is eradicated from existence. Several years ago, Gentian cast this curse on the royal family, starting with the reigning king.”
“How the hell was that allowed?” Ace demanded of our uncle. “Wasn’t the king being guarded? Or is this the kind of thing someone can do from miles away? Psh! If it is, then I’m glad we aren’t there anymore.”
Uncle Neel swiped his hand down his face. “I’m not fluent in curse lore, but I believe it can be done from anywhere. The curse seed will find its host—wherever they are. However, Gentian still invaded the Spring Palace to cast his curse on the king.”
Uncle Neel took a breath, shook his head. “Let me back up. Before he broke into the palace, Gentian first invited the king to his court. He sent him a message stating that he wished to mend fences, that he was willing to swear fealty to his brother’s line, to his rightful king. So, the king—a trusting man—took Gentian’s word for it and journeyed to Gentian’s Shadow Court to forge a peace treaty.”
I pictured the desolate crag from my nightmare.
“During the king’s visit, something happened to dash the prospect of familial bonding to hell. Something was said or done by either Gentian or the king, and the king left without a peace treaty. When the king returned home, Gentian waited until well past nightfall, when the king would be least prepared for an attack. Then he conjured an interstice, a wrinkle in space, and stepped through it into the Spring Palace. Think of it like teleportation.”
“Like onStar Voyager,” Ace clarified for himself.
Uncle Neel laughed. “Anyway, in doing this, Gentian managed to skirt all palace security details. He and his henchmen then cast the blood curse—when the king was too weak to fight the seed.”
“Like an actual seed?” Ace repeated, doubtless wondering the same thing I was—how something so innocuous could annihilate an entire bloodline. “Like the seeds we plant and eat?”
Uncle Neel cleared his throat. “In our world, seeds can be catalysts for great magic. See, some magic is inherent, developed at birth. Some is so simple that you can learn it. Other magic, however, is germinated—like a plant. Magic seeds are what our civilization revolves around—the impetus of fertility and life. Ingesting one is to absorb a new ability—like the power to make rain or create light. It’s usually temporary and usually contains a spark of the harmless gray magics. Regardless, all seeds draw our kind—as you three probably already know because we’ve never had to badger any of you into gardening. Probably theonlychore we’ve never had to badger you into.”
Aunt Aylie clucked in accord.
“But I’m digressing.” Uncle Neel shook his head. “The point is, we fae thrive on fostering seeds, on using their extraordinary abilities to either sprout new life or influence the world around us. We’re drawn to them because—well, they really are astounding in all they can do—seeds.”
I was starting to think Uncle Neel had an addiction too.
“Now,curseseeds have the strongest draw because they’ve been voided, then manipulated. And the king couldn’t fight his compulsion to grab Gentian’s seed. Curse seeds instill a physicalneedto touch them. I’ve heard they cause an internal sensation—something like chicken pox in your blood.”
I’d never had chicken pox, but plenty of my friends in grade school had, and they’d been miserable.
“So, the king touched the seed, and it planted itself in his body—where it would grow like a cancer. It also summoned a harbinger to kill the king.”
“I thought harbingers were just signals of something to come,” I remarked. “Like robins—they signal spring.”
“On Earth, that’s how they’re known,” Uncle Neel agreed. “In our world, they mean something more sinister.”
I gulped. “So Gentian’s harbinger came to—assassinate—the king?”
My uncle’s frown deepened. “Yes. But unluckily for Gentian, the queen was there at the time.”
Vi blotted her runny nose. “There’s a queen?”
Aunt Aylie’s sky-blue eyes clouded. “There was.”
“There’s a second reason Gentian sought revenge on the king,” Uncle Neel added. “Something that made things more—personal. Gentian felt the king had stolen his intended bride—the young daughter of one of Gentian’s closest allies. She had a rare gift that he yearned to control. Soon after she was born, she was affianced to Gentian. The king was promised to someone else too.
“I should explain that true Danann marriage ceremonies are much,muchdifferent from the ones you’ve witnessed. The bride and groom are both blindfolded. The intended bride is placed in a line of other females, and the groom must find her using only his secondary senses. Sometimes, mistakes happen, and the groom winds up marrying the incorrect woman.”
