Chapter One
Jhaer dodged through the local fey crowding the market
street of the village built up around the Seelie castle, thankful that his
plain, loose-fitting clothing disguised him. Brightly colored streamers from
the celebration draped from tree limbs and windows to flutter festively about
the revelry. The ale flowed and the music played. Seelie fey of every race
danced and sang ancient victory songs, obliviously ignorant that in conquering the
Unseelie, they ensured the downfall of all fey.
Stealth carried Jhaer as far as the courtyard wall and
then he unsheathed his fury and magic. With a rage that rent a boulder from the
ground, Jhaer’s magic burst forth. His power over the element of earth belonged
to him alone, so the boulder that splintered the teak courtyard gate with the
explosion of cannon fire announced with certainty the Unseelie Elite who
wielded it.
Anticipating a final assault while the captive Unseelie
monarchs imprisoned within succumbed to the pressure to surrender their
authority, the Seelie forces lined the top of the inner castle wall beyond the
courtyard. Archers drew back at the sight of him, even as the Seelie Champion
on the parapet called out to Jhaer. The corona of sun magic flared around Lugh,
as if determined to prove his nickname as the Shining One. The golden boy of
the Seelie Court in his sculpted armor vaulted down into the courtyard with a
dramatic flair. If the demonstration of grace and courage aimed to impress, it
missed the mark with Jhaer.
“Lugh! Have you been staring at your own magic so long
you've blinded yourself?” Jhaer rushed into the courtyard. As the archers
launched their first volley, Jhaer summoned a shield of stone from the very
ground before him. The rock wall preceded him, the last couple feet at the top
tilted back over his head, in case any clever archers aimed with a high
trajectory. After the arrows in the initial strike splintered on his shield,
Jhaer jerked up his hands, his magic heaving skyward the ground in front of the
castle wall to block off the archers. His personal rock shield fragmented into
dust that defused to the ground he’d drawn it from. He snarled at Lugh, the
sole obstacle between Jhaer and the castle proper. “This must stop! Before it’s
too late!”
“One Court, Sidhe!” Lugh proclaimed. “We can be brothers,
you know. This feud can end. It should end!” Yet the Seelie ignited a barrier
of fire, disproving his claim of brotherly love.
Jhaer shielded his face against the fire between them, an
all too familiar tactic from the Sidhe with the magical aspect of the sun.
“Light and dark cannot merge. One will always consume the other. You know this!
Yet the arrogant Seelie’s hunger for power would rather destroy everything than
have balance!” With that, Jhaer sank into the ground, closing it up over him.
Moving swiftly through the earth in a self-contained
cavern like an air bubble rising through a viscous liquid that parted the
ground before him and resealed it behind him, Jhaer detoured beneath the
flames. He felt the vibration from the footsteps of the Seelie above, rushing
to pursue him.
An unexpected tremor charged though the earth and slammed
into him, lancing a dread dead into his heart. The Unseelie warrior gripped his
chest, breath stolen from him by a horrendous shift in the magic surrounding
him. Stunned to the point of panic, Jhaer surfaced once more, the Seelie not
but a few quick strides from him. Before a cry of dismay could escape his lips,
a shockwave of magic knocked him off balance. A crack climbed up the outer wall
like a growing vine, reaching ever higher.
“Trying to bring down the entire castle?” The Seelie
snarled. “Danu is in there!”
Jhaer stumbled backward before catching himself, his eyes
wide as he stared at the fractures creeping up the courtyard walls. “Would I
knock myself off balance? Open your eyes, Lugh! Something is wrong!”
Thunder rumbled like a landslide and then the sky
flickered. Or rather the magic that gave the ceiling of the Mounds the
appearance of a sky. Both Sidhe warriors relinquished their aggression to
witness the cascade of destruction rupturing the fabric of their world. Cracks
like a spider’s web shattered the illusion until the great bowl of rock
overhead became visible for the first time in as long as any Sidhe could
remember.
Jhaer kept his balance better the next time the ground
shifted, although the horror that stabbed through him threatened to drive him
to his knees. The thunderous sounds of earth ripping from earth filled the
cavern that housed the magical realm of the Mounds. As the ground above them
shifted ominously, Jhaer’s hands snapped upward, fingers curled as if gripping
something heavy. Trembling from the strain, his mastery over the earth alone
supported the bowl of rock overhead.
“Lugh!” Jhaer growled through clenched teeth, “Help Danu!
NOW! I can't… hold it up… much longer!” All his concentration, his strength,
focused solely on preventing the Mounds, home to hundreds of thousands of fey,
from catastrophic collapse, for as long as he could.
Differences postponed in the face of imminent demise, the
Seelie raced toward the castle as Jhaer bore the weight of the world. With
muscles trembling from the effort, Jhaer waited for the dread to dissipate,
anticipating the Creatrix to reach out and fortify the Mounds. But what he felt
was life, the connection to Danu, fading away. The All-Mother, she who bound
the Mounds together for centuries, was disappearing. She was dying.
All hope shattered, leaving only fatalistic determination.
Through raw force of will, Jhaer held aloft the vast cavern ceiling, allowing
as many fey as possible the chance to escape, the stronger ones via
teleportation, the lesser fey certainly crowding the portals that might whisk
them to the surface. Alone, Jhaer balanced each rock, each clump of dirt. For
miles. Sweat ran in rivulets down the strained muscles of his body. Holding.
Binding. Unyielding. And yet fissures snaked through the cavern under the
oppression of tons upon tons of earth overhead. Fissures Jhaer could not mend.
Fissures that sheared as chunks broke free and rained from the sky. Chunks that
slipped through his shattering strength. Jhaer dropped to his knees, giving all
his power to the failing magic. The edges of the cavern crumbled, creating a
cascade as each lost rock freed those above it. Rockslides like waterfalls
poured down in a roaring that could not completely annihilate the screams of
terror. Down the ceiling fell in ever greater pieces until the entire cavern
plummeted down like a mountain to entomb everything beneath, burying alive
everyone who had not already escaped. Including Jhaer.
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