I started at the top of the greasy cage, trying not to think of the burned fat and flesh and blood that made the surface rough and uneven. The rag was too soft. I pressed into the cage with all the strength in my body, and the metal groaned as it bent, then gave way beneath me.
A gnome appeared at my side, a spiked, bristled brush in his hands. It was almost as large as he was, the spikes as sharp as any weapon the Mist Guard possessed in their armory. He lifted it up for me.
Accepting it from his hands, I smiled down at him and tried not to think of Lozu and his desire to eat me.
I nodded instead of thanking him as I knelt in front of him.
The blood and gore upon the stone stained the chartreuse skirt Nila had dressed me in. The skirt reminded me vaguely of the pea-green dress I’d worn when I’d escaped Mistfell. It seemed so long ago, like I’d been an entirely different person then.
“It is a pleasure, Princess. We watched you,” he said, looking over his shoulder as two other gnomes stepped up behind him. Lozu lingered behind them, his spirit as corporeal as a body despite its translucence as he stared at me beneath the sweep of his hat across his forehead. “You did not object when you were given work beneath your status. You stepped into the fray like you belong.”
I smiled softly as he approached my knee, hauling himself up onto it so that he could come to stand in my palm. “Only a ruler who does not deserve her people would think that she is better than them.” I stood, allowing him to come to stand upon the cage.
He picked up the rag I’d been using, wiping down the surface with water so that I could follow the path he created and scrub at it with the harsh brush. Bits of burnt flesh scraped from the cage, some dropping to the floor, others flying into my face as I closed my mouth and focused on my work. A gag swelled in my throat, making my tongue feel heavy in my mouth as I fought it back. I would not appear weak—would not seem disgusted by the manner of this work—not when so many in this room had undoubtedly been forced to do worse.
“You must have very different rulers in Nothrek than we have here,” he said.
I considered how well he spoke. Lozu’s language had been stilted at times, his use of it less advanced. As if summoned, the shade of my dungeon companion stepped into the cage with Adelphia’s body. He set to work, picking up the pieces of her that were large enough chunks to be carried out and laying them atop her torso.
“What makes you say that?” I asked, scrubbing each and every one of the bars where they met at the top of the cage. I didn’t want to think of how thick the debris would become when I moved lower, of what might shift or change when we hauled Adelphia’s body out.
Of the gore that would cover the cage beneath her.
“You have a very different perception of a ruler than we do,” he admitted, leaning forward to run his tongue up one of the uncleaned bars. His tongue peeked out from behind those sharp, menacing teeth, dragging over the metal slowly as he breathed deep. When he pulled it away, it was filled with tiny chunks of burnt flesh, the red somehow deeper in hue from the tint of blood.
I ignored it, barely disguising my shudder. “The man who ruled me had me beaten if I did not curtsy deep enough. So, no; I think the humans and the Fae have far more in common than the Queen or my Lord would have wanted us to believe,” I said with a scoff, turning to look at Fallon and Imelda as they reached into the cage. They grasped Adelphia by what remained of her legs, pulling her out slowly as pieces of flesh sloughed off. “Cruelty is not solely a Fae trait nor a human trait. It lives in all of us.”
“Even you?” the gnome asked, forcing me to level him with a meaningful stare for a moment before I abandoned my brush and moved to help my friends.
“Especially me,” I said, glancing toward where Malachi had abandoned his post at the entrance to the throne room. He held a short whip in his hand, cracking it against the floor when creatures did not clean fast enough or work hard enough for his liking.
Everything inside me hardened, tensed, at the sight of that whip—the familiar crack of it through the air making my spine go rigid.
I shoved it down, that beast within me trying to rise to the surface. She met the collar around my neck, snarling and acting as if she could claw her way through it from the inside out as she paced. I dropped the brush beside me, moving to the center of my friends, where they struggled to keep down the bile that rose in their throats.
Reaching into the cage, I slid an arm beneath Adelphia’s waist. Something wet and sticky coated my hand as I did, seeping into the fabric of my blouse as I bent over and slipped into the cage. Just far enough to slide my hand around the back of her neck, cradling her head as I pulled her toward the front. Imelda and Fallon grabbed her ankles once again, pulling smoothly to help as I stabilized her upper body and kept the rot from tearing her in two.
When her waist and below were out of the cage, I stepped over her carefully to get out. Using my grip on her, I took her with me as the scent of her death penetrated my lungs. It settled inside of me, making everything inside of me recoil as I got to my feet. Taking her weight with me, bearing it in my arms, I cradled her with her knees draped over my elbow and her head tipped back over the other.
I walked slowly, passing by Fae as I took her to the side of the throne room. There was already a line of bodies piled up there, discarded with as much tenderness as one could give to the rotting corpses that were missing entire chunks. Imelda and Fallon’s eyes felt heavy on my back, the two women knowing that while I hadn’t known Adelphia well, she’d been the beginning of this journey for me.
She’d been the one to welcome me to something other than the way I’d been raised. She’d been the first to show me that something existed outside the firm control of the High Priest, and that it was okay to question everything I’d been taught.
I lowered myself to the floor as I set her down gently, removing my gore-covered arms from beneath her body. My hands raised of their own accord in the same way I’d seen Caldris do for Melian, gently touching her eyelid and closing it so that those unseeing, fogged-over eyes no longer stared at the ceiling.
I hung my head forward, closing my own eyes as I watched her for a moment. Waiting for breath to fill her lungs, for one of the miracles of Faerie to occur.
No movement met my gaze, not even the slightest hitch of breath. I hadn’t expected anything less, knew she was too far gone for even the magic that ran through these lands to touch her.
I stood, spinning slowly as my skirts swept against the surface of the stone. My arms were covered in gore, the blood having soaked my sleeves as I raised my head slowly.
The stare of countless Fae met me. I stumbled to a stop, looking from one side of the throne room to the other as my nerves peaked. I didn’t know the name of most of the creatures staring back at me, and the ones I did…
They’d been the legends of stories that had driven me to my parents’ bed as a girl, the nightmares that made me afraid of the dark until I found comfort in the night.
Eyes of red. Teeth so large, they were closer to tusks. Wrinkled and taut skin.
I heaved a sigh, raising my chin as I took the first step toward Imelda and Fallon. Imelda met my eyes, hers communicating something silently. I held that gaze as I strode forward, keeping my face impassive.
Inside, the swirling in my gut was a mess. The creature within me rose, filling my lungs with her breath. Something in my back cracked, as if she wanted to escape the confines of my body, pushing my spine straighter. Pulling my shoulders back tighter as whispers sounded from the other end of the throne room.