Servant of Earth (The Shards of Magic, #1)

by Sarah Hawley

The winter solstice wasn’t just the shortest day of the year; it was the day the Fae took yet another thing from humans. A faith that yielded no rewards, prayers that met uncaring ears, a legendary history that had decayed into this disappointing reality…We gave the faeries our hopes, and for what? Silence and far-off lights that led nowhere. And now the Fae—or at least our naïve belief in them—would steal the lives of four young women.

Only the luckiest and most worthy humans are chosen to join the Fae,

Dreams were nothing but air, though, and real change took more than just hope.

Hunger is the most efficient way to lower one’s standards,

That was the way of some men. Their tongues wagged in an imitation of love while their fists dealt pain. I stroked the dagger’s outline at my thigh, thinking about what it might be like to live in a world where women didn’t have to depend on people they feared for safety.

“The Fae houses are each ruled by a prince or princess. Oriana is the princess of Earth House, and her eldest child and heir is Lady Lara. Lara will be undergoing the immortality trials soon, and it’s customary for every candidate to have a special servant who attends to their needs during this time. The king selected you.”

“They become eligible at age eighteen, but the trials are held whenever there are enough candidates to compete—usually every decade or so. The trials test key Fae virtues. If a young faerie succeeds, they are granted immortality and the full use of their magical powers.”

I knew from losing my mother that grief had countless small traps like this—not just the big ache of missing someone, but the small cuts of memories or wishes. People vanished all at once, but the things you wanted to tell them or do with them or show them didn’t.

“Really? Your leaders didn’t tell you about Mistei?” “They did, but a lot can be forgotten in a thousand years.” “For humans, I suppose that’s true.”

The Elder had been right about this characteristic of the Noble Fae: one look and a human could be entranced.

“How did all the other humans get here if no one ever makes it across the bog?” “The king sends scouts out periodically to abduct them.” Aidan gave me a sympathetic look. “Sometimes for their beauty, sometimes for their strength, sometimes on a whim.” A whim that tore out tongues and forced people into servitude. I’d never imagined that sort of evil.

“I heard you were rude to Garrick at the luncheon,” he said. “He’s Prince Roland’s nephew, you know.” Oh, wonderful. I’d insulted Light House royalty. “He was taunting Lara.” He nodded. “I know. He’s like that to everyone. I’m happy you did it.” “You are?” The response wasn’t what I’d expected from the young Earth lord. “I’m sure my mother wouldn’t agree, but I like that you stood up for Lara.”

Oh, and I was told you appear whenever someone thinks about you, so I should try never to think about you.”

“I’m afraid the gossips give me powers I don’t possess,” he said dryly. “You are free to think about me whenever—and however—you wish.”

My last thought before I drifted off was simple. I have to get out of here.

“Are you fucking the Fire prince?” he asked. I flinched at the crude word. “N-no, my lord.” “Hmm.” His gaze traced over me. “You will be soon, I’ll wager. He’s never set his sights on anything he cannot have.” A secret smile touched his lips. “For the most part.”

“I don’t know why you bother dressing up, anyway. Do you actually want to impress the king? Everyone knows—”

Was Kallen right about Drustan’s intentions towards me, despite our vast difference in station? Because if the Fire prince wanted more from me than just an alliance… Well, I wanted more, too.

“I can do two things at once, you know.” He leaned in, pressing his mouth against my ear. “I’d love to show you sometime.”

you give too much of yourself down here,” he continued in an odd tone, looking down at me intently, “you risk losing everything. Because no one will ever return that loyalty. You’ll give and give and end up hollow…or dead. Remember that.”

Life can be so painful. During the worst moments, all you can do is focus on one second at a time. You focus on staying alive. You make it your only goal, and you forget everything before or after.”

“Your life is better now, isn’t it?” she asked in a small voice. I blinked back sudden tears. What a terrible, complex question. “Better in many ways,” I said. “I have food and shelter, and I enjoy working for you. I’m learning things I never could have imagined. But…I’m not free.” Lara withdrew her hand, looking hurt. “None of us are free.”

“Kenna,” he said as I stepped into the corridor. I tensed and looked back at him, although I couldn’t see anything in the darkened room. “Yes?” “You smell like smoke.” I flushed at the memory of Drustan’s lips on mine and the fiery taste he’d left in my mouth. “I was near the kitchens.” As I walked away, his voice followed. “Liar.”

Pol passed me, holding a small bundle in his arms. The goat’s face was as sad as I’d ever seen it, and tears glinted behind his golden spectacles. He laid his burden at the foot of the dais and backed away with bowed head. A tiny cry split the air. Horror crawled down my spine. A baby. There was a baby in that bundle. A small arm extended from the pile of blankets, waving a tiny fist. “No,” Drustan said, beginning to rise, but Osric motioned for silence. Drustan subsided, his face lined with rage. Kallen, too, looked furious. His fists were clenched so tightly the knuckles looked like they would burst through his skin.

“A grave crime has been committed,” King Osric said as he approached the baby. “The bloodlines of Mistei are pure. It has been this way for millennia, and you are all aware of the consequences of breaking this law. Why, then, does this sort of thing”—he flicked his fingers at the bundle—“keep happening?”

“Rub herbs in it so the wounds scar. Let her always have a reminder of what she has lost.”

Terrible

There were many kinds of strength, I thought as the crowd watched the flesh stripped from the lady’s back. The strength to oppose a king, the strength to love in the face of convention…and the strength to look at the truth, witness its horrors, and refuse to flinch. When it was done, she lay in an unconscious, bloody heap before the dais. “A toast!” The king raised his glass and downed the liquid, not seeming to notice that hardly anyone toasted with him.

“How could he do that?” Lara asked, voice raw.

“It was…” I trailed off, unable to find a word adequate enough. “Unspeakably cruel.” “A baby,” Lara said. She gripped her skirts, looking down, and I realized there was a dark stain on the satin from being near the spray of blood. “They took away her baby.”

“What will happen to the baby?” He made a rough noise. “It’s a changeling now. It will be sent to the human world, exchanged for an infant, and left to grow old and die alone.”

“A long time ago,” he said, “for that’s how these stories always start, the Fae of Mistei were weaker, but each individual had the powers of all six houses in varying amounts. No one can verify this, of course. No one is alive who remembers it, and there are Fae who have lived a very, very long time. It’s part of our lore, though, so perhaps there’s some truth to it. “The Fae realized that if they took lovers with magical abilities similar to theirs, they could enhance the powers that were strongest in their family lines. They began breeding for strength. Eventually we reached the result you see today: six houses, now five, each specializing in one branch of magic: Earth, Fire, Light, Void, Illusion, and Blood. Our identities became defined by our powers. Our houses separated and stopped sharing information.” He shook his head, looking down at the fire licking over his hands. “The problem with such a coldhearted breeding plan is that it does not account for love. And once a society is as divided as the Fae are, there’s no place for a child with the magic of two houses. The children of two worlds, as they were once called, were ostracized, turned into servants, or kept within house walls. They became changelings at the beginning of King Osric’s rule.”

One child might not make a difference, but if interbreeding were to continue…” “The houses might start making alliances.”

“My closest friend, a lady from Fire House named Mildritha. We grew up together, and truthfully, I always wanted her to be more than just a friend. But after centuries of saying she preferred her independence, she fell in love with someone else. She fell in love with the young heir to Earth House.” The realization hit me like a lightning bolt. “Leo.” Lara’s missing brother.

Mildritha fell in love with him and he with her. Eventually, it became clear she was carrying a child.”

“He did. Before Mildritha gave birth, she was whipped in front of everyone.” Pain twisted Drustan’s face. “No protest would sway the king. And Leo…He was good. He stood with her, was punished by her side. Knowing what would happen after she gave birth, he was desperate to get her and the baby away.” His throat bobbed. “He died trying to find a way through Osric’s wards at the bottom of the hill.”

“After the birth, Mildritha’s child was taken from her,” Drustan said. “Not even a week later, she killed herself.”

“Shall I continue?” Garrick shrugged off Lara’s hand as she tried to stop him again. Hit him, I silently begged, but Lara was still too meek to attack a fellow candidate. She pleaded with him while he laughed and gripped the fabric at my waist, preparing to tear my final shield away from me.

“Stop this.” A new, thunderous voice joined the mix.

Lord Kallen stood a few feet away, as still as a wildcat about to pounce. His dark eyes burned with the promise of violence. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked in the coldest, most terrifying tone I’d heard from him yet.

Una moved to her brother’s side and whispered in his ear. When she was done, Kallen looked even more murderous. “The human is off-limits,” Kallen said. “She belongs to Earth House.” Garrick had the nerve to laugh. “She’s a human. Why does it matter? She’s worthless.” Kallen moved so quickly I didn’t see more than a black-and-silver blur before his sword rested at Garrick’s throat. “Think carefully before you question my orders.”

“You can’t kill me,” he said, bravado turning to bluster. Kallen smiled, slow and awful. “Oh, believe me, I can.” The blackness grew, pressing closer and closer to Garrick’s sleeve. “Forgive my impudence, Lord Kallen,” Garrick blurted. “I didn’t mean to question your orders.” Kallen didn’t move. “You apologize for questioning my orders—yet you do not regret assaulting a servant from another house?”

“Lady Lara, forgive my insult to your house.” No apology to me, of course.

“You would have been a better Noble Fae than me.”

Foreshadowing perhaps?

“You aren’t property,” she said over her shoulder. “I—I don’t know how to have a friend. I’ve never really had one before. But I’ll keep trying.”

Do you have a name? I thought suddenly. Caedo.

Who was your last owner? I asked. The rightful ruler of Mistei, of course. I blinked, confused. Osric? No. The dagger’s hatred for Osric pulsed in my blood. My mistress would have been queen if she’d won the war. Instead she died a princess, and now I am all that remains.

My breath caught. This wasn’t just a mystical dagger. It had been one of the most important weapons in a war fought centuries ago. Caedo had belonged to Princess Cordelia of Blood House, leader of the rebellion, who had refused to bow to a tyrant and had died with her people instead.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello,” I hesitantly replied. “Are you here for information? I don’t have any.” He shook his head. “Not tonight.”

“I know of another traitor.”