Chapter Text
Rhysand’s blood ran cold. The tension in the throne room was palpable, the other high lords stared at him with careful faces. He distinctly detected a bit of pleasure at his pain, there was no fear for the safety of the High Lord of the Night Court and Rhysand wouldn’t dream of expecting it.
He shifted his position, lifting his body from his bow before Amarantha. The tattoos on his knees burned as he did so, just as they always did. Another reminder of his promise and his sacrifice. He glanced at her and a shiver of fear ran through him at her anger. It was not unusual for Amarantha to be angry, usually some entertainment followed but this time it was targeted towards him.
“ It’s interesting that you bow before me, the faithful servant that you pretend to be”, her words were sharp and they cut through the room.
“ Pretend to be?”, he asked.
“ It would seem to me that you have been keeping things from me”, her gaze searched him.
“ I would never. Milady”, his words were casual, masking the fear of the worst. He reached out with his powers, trying to figure out what had changed.
There was caution and glee around the room, at the prospective downfall of Amarantha’s whore. And something else, a sick sense of glee from Amarantha’s minions. They had been given the instruction to grab him but no other information.
“ I have never given you any reason to think otherwise. There is nobody else I would rather serve under”, he made his voice soft, almost teasing. A hint at what went down beyond the throne room in Amarantha’s bedroom. The words felt like bile in his mouth.
He continued to reach out with his power, to find something, anything. But everything was perfectly orchestrated. Amarantha loved a show more than an audience.
“ What of Velaris?”, she countered, matching his town, “ Surley, my most loyal servant, wouldn't keep a whole city from me”.
He masked the shock and terror that ran through him. How did she find out? Nobody here remembered, he had made sure of that. “ I am unfamiliar with this city you call Velaris, milady”, was his reply.
He sensed confusion from the others. Nobody had known of the city, he and his ancestors had made sure of that. There was the question of how did she find out. She stood up from the throne in which she was lounging and sauntered a few feet to where he stood.
She caressed his face, “ I will give you one more chance to tell the truth of Velaris, my pet, she hissed.
“ I do not know of this Velaris that you mention”, he maintained. He knew what was going to happen a minute before it did. The Attor reached out to grab him with his claws, Rhysand let it. He would not let himself go down in this way. He was weak and feeble but he needed to know how much she knew.
Did the knowledge of Velaris extend to his inner circle, or was it merely the cities’ existenc?The Attor’s claws dug into him, forcing him back to his knees. He kept his eyes trained on Amarantha who wore her signature cruel smile.
“ I received a letter from a member of the Night Court, many members of the Night Court, in fact. Mor, Cassion, Azriel, and Amren”, Rhys had done everything to ensure that those four names would never come out of her mouth.
They had reached out to her. Why had they reached out to her?
“ I do not know of those people” that you speak off, he met her green eyes, refusing to give even a shred of himself away, no more than he already has.
Despite the Attor’s hold on him, Rhys reached out again, reinforcing his magic around her court. He pushed back the spark of familiarity at the names that Amarantha has spat out.
“ Milady. I have given you my people, our funds and my own capabilities. Surley, you do not think, I would hide an entire city from you. I’m sure this letter is a prank, simply a means meant to distract you from the curse’s deadline”
She gestured at the Attor and he was left on the floor, kneeling before her. His knees were once again burning. He masked his fear and desperation, the mask of the High Lord and Whore, ever the faithful servant.
She snorted, “ You are wrong, of course. I have always wondered, what brought out this blind loyalty. Surley it was more than the sex and the violence that being my whore offered you.”
“ And now this makes sense.You were hiding things from me.” She held up a picture of a Velaris, the city that he had ached for . A shot of the houses along the Siadra.
He allowed himself a laugh, cruel and dark reflectant of the hollowness he felt and the darkness that was fighting, made its way back up at this moment. “ Milady, you excuse me of deception based on a picture that could be from any source, and a letter from some group of people nobody has heard of over the past 500 years.”.
“ The sender is thorough and offers other means of proof. I am inclined to believe them”, Rhysand knew there was no going back at these words.
“ What means of proof?”, he asked.
A gesture of her finger produced the Veritas which shown with images of the city, his city. Of the people laughing in the streets, shopping in the stores along the Siadra. It was the city at its best, the one Rhysnad long for.
And the one he would do anything to protect. The shield that he had bound his inner circle too did not prevent anyone sending mail or messages to the outside of the Velars. Rhysand had not thought they would do this, that they would take this stand.
Why had they sacrificed Velaris? Had they found a loophole, a way to end Amarantha’s reign?
“ You are wasting my time High Lord. I have given you a chance to admit to your deceit and yet you say nothing.” But she had not touched Valaris yet, just known of its existence.
The city was still shielded, but with Amaratha’s power how long would it take her before his people would become her entertainment. Half of his Night Court had been wiped out by her, dead by her sudden whims and fancies for entertainment.
The thought of it being any member of his inner circle dead next to him had him deciding he would continue being ever the cruel high lord. “ It was a wish of my ancestors that a city be bound in peace despite the war and politics of all seven high lords. He met her eyes then,
I am bound to it milady or else I would have told you.”
Her eyes flared then at the mention of his ancestors, giving her another way to retribution for the acts against Tamlin’s family. Rhysand realized his mistake at that moment.
“ Am I not deserving to rule over such a land?”, she spoke.
“ Of course you are Milady”, it took all his strength not to get up from where he knelt and and attack her. It would not be enough to mist her if he could. He ached to reach for her throat with his hands.
“ No matter, I require your commitment, a promise that you will give me Velaris. A fitting punishment for the deeds of you ancestors don’t you think?”
There was no way that he could play this. Amarantha would find Velaris with or without him, he knew the damage that she was capable of. She had seen him crush cities with a flicker of her power.
He had seen her destroy Jurian bit by bit, one by one over a week. Velaris would not become her victims. Rhysand would die trying.
“ I will not”, his words were full of the resentment and anger that he had kept over the past century, off all the bitch had done to him, to Prythian. She had ravaged a country, had raked her claws over him till he bled every night for almost fifty years. She deserved to die just as Jurian did, bit by bit, this time in a shower of red dust.
He was not her harlot nor her whore and he would not die this way.
“ You will not?”, she repeated.
“ My people, the people of Velaris are innocent just as much of Prythian was. They will not be your victims. I will not help you destroy everything that my family has sacrificed for millennium”.
She laughed then and the other high lords startled in fear. The room had broken out in shock at his revelation and her laugher was a promise of the danger to come. It was true excitement for some, for others it meant the end of another high lord.
He unleashed his remaining power, a meager amount. But wisps of darkness escaped him, lunging toward her, they bounced off her shield and filled the room instead. He lets his wings come out then as his darkness filled this room. He let himself become the High Lord of Darkness, the one that they all knew and feared.
The darkness found its way towards the Attor and her servants. The darkness of vengeance that had longed to escape.
Finally free
“ Enough theatrics, really” , her voice cut through the darkness. And then she reached forward with her power and he flew back across the throne room, his head hitting the brick walls. It was just like that day when Amarantha had come to power and taken everything from them.
The darkness vanished as his head hit the wall again. Amaranth was on her feet lecturing the other High Lords but a buzzing in his ears had started. All he could feel was the pain in his temple,everything was pain and anger.
He knew he would heal eventually.His retribution would never be over, as long as he was still alive. He had to focus on healing first, but his power had been used so unwieldy in his thirst for vengeance. And he was so weak, it was taking longer.
He glowered at Amarantha as his head hit the wall again, the wall had begun to crumble and the dust began to coat his wings. Dust and blood from injuries. And then Kallias was before him and everything stopped.
He stared at the High Lord of the Winter Court, feeling his anger, the thrist for vengence for what happened to the younglings. It was still clear despite Rhys’s betrayal of Amarantha. Kallis reached out then stabbed him in the arm.
A wound not to kill but to inflict pain. Something glinted at the tip of the sword.
“Faebane”, Amarantha said in confirmation, “ It has its uses, I must say”.
“ Perhaps you remember its use from the war”, a quiet confirmation that she remembered Rhy’s imprisonment from long ago. “ Rhysand, with or without your assistance. I will have Velaris. I still have use for you as yet, and your assistance will make the efforts so much easier.
Rhys felt devoid of power because of the faebane, and so very weak. He leaned against the wall., staring back at the court. He could feel their emotions then
Comraderie
Sadness
Happiness at his plight
Uncertainty of whether to come to his aid
He turned and spat her feet, it was all he had left in that moment. “ Velaris will never be yours, its people will ensure that”. Amarantha seemed to ignore that and turned to Beron and his sons instead.
Eris stepped forward and there was a flicker or power- of fire directed toward his wings. And whatever servants that had escaped his wrath came forward holding him in position. Rhys couldn’t have moved if he had wanted, the pain was too great.
The heat burned his wings and the pain seemed to tear through him, somehow reaching his soul. He felt something break in him, not just because of the pain but with the knowledge he would never taste the skies again. He would likely never see them again. Cassian, Amren, Azriel, and Mor, for so long that was what kept him going.
Everything blurred as the fire intensified, surrounding the inner areas of his wing. He craved the sweet release of death, and the peaceful darkness that it would entail. He realized with horror that he had been screaming, his throat was raw.
Cassian, Azriel, Amren and Mor. He had to warn them Amarantha was coming. Their plan had not worked. His vision clouded but then the fire stopped.
“ A break is in order, it would seem. Well, tell me how to access Velaris”, she spat.
With the pain, it was easy to say nothing. This was retribution for all the pain he had inflicted, all the wings he had been forced to take.
“ Should I continue Milady”, there was Eris’s voice again. Amarantha shoved past him holding the knife gleaming with faebane.
She pressed it to his wings or the tatters that remained. He let out a growl at the press of the knife on what remained. “ Pledge your assistance or lose your wings and your life”.
Rhys said nothing, struggling as the knife went through the remnants.
But before she could continue a light shone through the throne room. And Rhys didn’t know if it was the pain arching through his wings and his whole body but then there was Cassian, Azriel, Mor and Amren.
The throne room filled with people. The people of Velaris dressed in fighting gear, the warriors of Velaris, it would seem. Amarantha twisted the blade in at the entrance of the Court of Dreams, the pain was too much at that point.
He felt himself succumbing to the darkness, only able to hear the chant of an incantation, And then the breaking of a curse, he couldn’t see it through the darkness as he tried to hold on. But he felt it as his power and strength returned to him.
He tried to move despite the pain and darkness if only to kill her himself. He managed to stand enough to unleash his power before Amarantha could even move. The other High Lords joined him and in a minute Amarantha was nothing. A pile of red dust and blood on the floor.
Amarantha was dead. It was all over. And they were all here, the Court of Dreams had saved then. Despite regaining his power, Rhys collapsed. He slid back against the stone column and succumbed fully to the night and the darkness.