“Alazander killed Anise for her part in defying him. He hadn’t forgiven her for losing the relics and this was just one more mark against her. Now, that pompous little shit Dresden sits on her throne. I cut ties with the Light Fae as soon as he took the throne. Anise was ten times the ruler he is.” I had to agree with him on that point; anyone was probably better than him.
“Over the years, Alazander hounded your mother and I through his emissaries. Even though your mother and I had several children together he persisted—actually it became worse as all of our children were males and this seemed to be of particular interest to him. He stepped up his demands and his attacks on our borders and your mother became despondent. I would not allow her to make the sacrifice to save my people. She would have, simply because she would have sacrificed herself to save one single life. I couldn’t allow her to leave our children motherless, or to allow her to be mistreated at his hands.”
I nodded and digested his words. Well, that explained my own loyalty, which could be considered a fault to some.
“Then news came that the Horde was sending the daughters back to their parents in pieces, or broken of mind and body. The Horde King was sending messages to them, reminding them how he was in control of this world and the other rulers were just his puppets. When your older brother joined my army, and rode at my side, I couldn’t have been more proud, but we were separated in the chaos of a skirmish, and he was lost to us.”
I shook my head. That didn’t sound promising.
“He was captured and thrown into the Horde’s prison. Tortured daily, but kept alive so that Alazander could continue punishing him and us. We had a few other boys by this time, but Liam was our first. Eventually, the Horde started sending us pieces of our son as he had done with the others of the realm. For over fifty years, he was sent back to us piece, by bloody piece. I was out on a battlefield when you were born. I should have been beside my wife, but you came too soon, and on your own time schedule.”
I narrowed my eyes, but kept listening. Now, he was getting into the good stuff.
“I came home to be handed this beautiful little bundle that had the blue of my wife’s eyes, and hair the color of the sands of the Fae desert. This new little being that had my blood and bond, and looked at me with so much trust. I was holding you inside the Great Hall when the missive came; one that would change our world forever.” His eyes took on a distant look as his face showed lines of strain. As if the memory hurt him. “The Horde King wanted to strike a deal. He wanted my first born daughter as his concubine, in exchange for our son. Of course, we said no right away. The next day we received a pair of hands delivered to us by a messenger of the Horde. One who explained that if we made the deal, the Horde King would promise no harm to our daughter, and the torture of our beloved son would end the moment we signed.”
“Me, for Liam,” I said, wondering what I would have done had it been my child being cut to pieces.
“Yes,” he said, shaking his tawny head. “You have to understand, Liam had been broken. From the blood bond between Fae father to child, I knew him to be alive and suffering. You, for Liam, and an end to the war; that was the agreement the Horde wanted. I had an entire caste to protect, and a son who had endured far too many years of torture. This wasn’t an easy decision, and, yet, it had to be made.”
“But the Fae play on words, and, for some reason, you worried that inside this was an out clause. One that would allow him to harm me.”
He smiled with pride lighting up his beautiful eyes. “You are very smart, child. Not many would guess that.”
“I made myself understand as much as I could about the Fae after my par…um, my guardians were killed. I tried to find out anything I could that would help me get revenge,” I replied, watching his face, but no guilt marked his bronze skin; only acceptance.
“Well, eventually we agreed to his demands. He had given us five years before we had to hand you over; a show of how magnanimous he could be I suppose. Once we signed the agreement, he gave us Liam, and, as promised, the Horde did cease hostilities to the point that many thought the war had ended already. It was a time of peace and celebration for our people, bought at our family’s expense, the people rejoiced and sons stopped dying for what seemed to be a fruitless war.”
“We took you to the Harvest Festival that year, and you were the most beautiful child there. You were around four months of age at that time. You had beautiful curls that framed your chubby little cheeks. The Dark King sought an engagement to his son, and it would have been the perfect union, except for the fact that you already belonged to the Horde. I couldn’t bear explaining that to Kier, so I had to reject his suit outright.”