Halbrook's dining hall stood at the very top of Krefis Mountain. The residents built most of their houses within the many caves, which they created too. Hundreds of round doors were attached to the cave entrances and led out to little-fenced gardens. Some of the caves looked as if they had multiple stories, their windows large and titled along the mountain slope. Most of the original scenery had been removed. The only trees Aurelie saw among the dark rocks were those planted in their gardens, standing in neat, little pots.
They did not take the mountain path but instead turned away from the group and stopped at a door that stood on its own, attached to nothing. When Milleanne, Sasha's sister, opened the door, high arches appeared through the opening. Aurelie and Michael followed her through onto mosaic tiles which were laid to form three stones, one red, one blue, and one so white that the reflection of the sun made it very hard to look at. Five statues, all men, hunched beneath the arches which were balanced on their backs.
A breakfast table stood by the edge. Aurelie's ears blocked as soon as she released her hand from the door, and her stomach turned. She had snuck into her quarters early that morning and heard a knock on her door about ten minutes later. A young girl brought her a fresh change of clothes with a written invitation to breakfast.
They sat down at the table, overlooking the colorful paths of the plantations below. Aurelie could not see the witches and wizards working them, they sat much too high up for that.
"We hire a lot of your humans," Milleanne said, looking down along with them, "to help with the harvest."
"Do any of them live nearby?" Aurelie asked.
"It has significantly increased over the years. There's work and there's foodâfresh spring water on the west end of the mountain. My point is, we've established quite a community here, without the crown's help. Traveling merchants come by daily, purchasing the daily harvest and transporting it to the city, the humans have opened their own shops that sell our goods in the nearby villages. We don't want our way of living to be disturbed. Your father has made it impossible for us to live anywhere else but here, or to even roam the kingdom without the fear of being . . . consumed."
Aurelie looked away from the plantations and focused on Milleanne. Her hands were folded over her chest, just their wrists showing between the slit of her bear hide cloak. The mountain had been incredibly chilly. The corners of the floor were filled with snow where the workers could not reach with a broom.
"We have an agreement," Aurelie said. "I won't back out if your side comes through."
"I've had agreements with many kingdoms." Milleanne winked. "Do you care to know how many stood true to their word?"
Aurelie started to speak, but the squeak of Michael's chair interrupted her. "My Queen does not make empty promises."
"I can speak for myself, thank you, Michael."
Milleanne glanced over Michael, her eyes lightened with age but vicious with sharpness. "A young man ought to defend and love his Queen." She nodded in approval. "But you have your kingdom, or maybe even just her as your one and only charge, and I have this place. Though I want to trust Her Majesty, we have very different priorities."
"Actually we do not. Unless you want my grandfather, who plotted this whole mess, to gain back his control over the kingdom, we are on the very same side. My uncle doesn't care for his magic. In the seventeen years that I lived with him, I only ever saw him appreciate it when he didn't have to wait for his supper to cool."
She nodded. "We've drawn up a contract." Milleanne pulled a paper out of the inside of her cloak and passed it over the table.
Aurelie read through it carefully, relieved that the contract was simply written and not riddled with foreign words and phrases of entrapment. The binding between Aurelie's bloodline and the council's would be held a secret from everyone but the four members of the council, the Holver's and whomever else Aurelie decided to tell, which now included Michael.
Milleanne shifted in her chair and leaned over the table slightly as Aurelie began to read the contract for the second time to be sure that she had not missed anything. "The rules are all there as we've discussed them."
"Yes," she said, glancing over the paper. "This is the document to be included in the death pact?"
"Yes."
"What?" Michael said, jumping out of the haze he had been in for the last couple of minutes. "A death pact? You cannot be serious."
"How else do we ensure trust?" Aurelie asked him, passing the paper to him.
He stared at her blankly and yet Aurelie felt challenged by it.
This was the second alliance she secured for Highfire since she returned.
"This is too much."
"It's not." She shook her head. "They will gain a seat on the council. Their community is big and their trade is important to us. We both benefit. Not to mention they will be aiding us in a war they did not start."
Milleanne picked up a large metal flask and poured the steaming drink into her cup. Aurelie and Michael had been locked in the after glances of the argument.
"Your Queen would forever have to watch her back. Power like that will always be sought after. The old king wants his magic back, I imagine. There's no need for her to ever think of us as her enemies if we achieve peace."
"The end of a war is not peace, Lady Milleanne, but a plunder. You enter foreign land, slay their women, their children, burn their houses, starve them, beat them, kill themâcreate hell. And then you come in on a grand white horse and pronounce yourself their savior."
"Do you oppose war, soldier?" Milleanne asked fondly, with a hint of a smile tugging at the wrinkled lips.
"Very much."
"That just tells me you've fought in one."
Michael's jaw tightened. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, head shaking.
*****
In a dark basement, where light had never entered and the steel chairs chilled her skin through the light material of her dress, Aurelie glanced between the four members of the council and watched them pour their blood into a golden bowl.
When the last member of the council had finished, the sharp bladeâengraved with the same three stones that she had seen on the floor of the dining hallâlanded in her open hand. She grabbed onto it tightly and looked down, feeling both relieved and scared at the same time.
She slid the cold blade across her palm, and held her hand over the bowl, hearing it pour down and merge to that of the council.
A chair pulled back, and Aurelieâeyes slowly adjusting to the darknessâsaw Milleanne stand.
"Does anyone object to the death pact or chose not to bind themselves and their kin to the spell?" she asked with an imposing tone. Her head turned to face every person in the room. The shadows over her eyes made it look as if she was daring anyone to stand and betray their vow.
They started a hushed chant. Aurelie attempted to keep up, but it all sounded like one long sentence. She couldn't quite catch where one word stopped and another began.
Bubbles rose from the blood. Quiet popping sounds merged with the chants. The temperature in the room increased. Beads of sweat rose on Aurelie's forehead and her back. The chant grew in volume, sounding practiced in the way they said every word together, not a single word starting too early or too late by any of them.
The air grew thicker, and Aurelie had to draw a deeper breath to get enough air. The room felt smaller, and the chair below her felt colder now against her heated skin.
The chanting stopped, and Aurelie's heart dropped in her chest, and then rose up with a hard punch as if restarting suddenly.
"The deal is sealed. If anyone betrays their oath, they and all their kin shall die. Halbrook and Highfire are now forever united."
Aurelie had yet to regain her breath. She was getting rather panicked. Her hand rose to touch her chest and began to shake. "Can we leave now?" she asked, her voice quiet and vibrating with the tremor of her sealed lungs. "I can't breathe."
"Just calm down," the young member of the council said, his hand grabbing onto hers. "It's just the after effect of the spell. You'll be absolutely fine."
She wasn't fine after. While they waited for their forces to arrive, Aurelie lay in bed with a mixture of herbs and odd spices packed on her chest, and an assortment of teas that arrived at all hours. By the third day, she began to cough as soon as she attempted to take a deep breath, and Milleanne attributed the symptoms to severe anxiety and a common cold.
She thought they had attempted to kill her. More so, Michael thought so, and remained at her side like a guard dog, forcing them to send a council member down with the tea and to drink a cup along with Aurelie. However, when she started feeling better, she realized that her body had probably reacted to all that it has had to endure.