The Carlin turned at the top of the steps, her one eye sweeping over her subjects and her land beneath her. Her four sons stood in a line behind her.
“Unseelie,” she called, her bronze teeth flashing. “The Bitter Months are here. My frost will coat this land, bringing glorious ice and bitter chill. It will chase away the cloying warmth of the seelie rot, halting growth and new life.”
Well that wasn’t at all morbid.
She raised her staff into the air, and the crowd went completely still. As she brought it down with a loud crash, freezing wind rushed down the steps, making all the torches of cold unseelie fire flicker madly.
Icy air felt like needles in my throat, and I shivered hard, pulling my coat tighter around me.
“Light the fire,” the Carlin shouted in her raspy voice. “So we may watch our tribute to the Seelie Queen of Dawn, her cherished King of Boars, go up in flames.”
The deer-faced fae slowly moved the torch to the base of the pyre, and when the branches caught and went up in flames, the unseelie Folk screamed and cheered.
The Carlin smiled, the flames reflecting on her bronze teeth and flashing blue eye. With a sweep of her dress’s long train, she settled back into her throne. As one, her four sons sat either side of her.
The big deer-faced beast was lumbering back this way, and I tensed when he stopped and peered down at me.
“Still mortal, little one,” he said in his impossibly deep voice that seemed to make the ground tremble under my boots.
I didn’t say anything, staring up at him fearfully. He carried on walking, stabbing the huge torch into the ground on his way before lumbering off into the growing dark.
“Now you’llreallysee the beauty of unseelie land,” Caom said, turning towards me with a wide smile. “Let’s go get a drink.”
I was still holding my cup of warm spiced wine, so I shook my head.
“Hello, Caom.” Belial’s calm voice made me turn. He nodded at me. “Ash.”
“Hi, Belial.” Caom shot him a distracted smile. “I was just about to go and get us a drink. I’ll get you one too.”
He was gone, heading towards Idony’s sister’s stall, before either of us could say anything else. I exhaled and turned back to Belial, taking in his black armour. It was similar to Lonan’s, but not quite as ornate. I remembered him wearing it the night the Folk had taken me.
“So you went with the Carlin?” I asked with a quirk of my brow. “In case she needed to poison anyone?”
“Poisons don’t only do harm, Ash,” Belial told me with a knowing look. “They can heal. Sometimes they are theonlythings that can heal an injury. Limbs removed or insidious power infecting someone’s core.”
“Limbs removed? What?” I stared at him. “You can reattach limbs with poison?”
“Yes.” Belial’s electric blue eyes were intense as he stared back at me. “It is agonising pain, but it can be done.”
I swallowed, shooting him a nervous smile. “Well, hopefully I never have any limbs cut off, then.”
His head dipped in a nod before he turned back to the pyre. “Indeed.”