Intertwining Destinies

Chapter 20

Within the past couple of days, King Bres, the self-proclaimed fae king of the British Isles, had been receiving the strangest news from the New World. Over these several centuries, plenty of outlandish rumours had often wafted their way to his ear as he ruled over his kingdom from under the South Bridge in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. About four centuries previous, it had been reported that King Balor had ordered the teeth and tusks of six hundred trolls to be extracted as penalty for attacking a nun in the Hudson Valley in the Americas. Then two centuries later, had come rumours that Balor, while being drunk on elderflower wine in his bedchamber, had asked his chamberlain to fulfil a queen's duties to the king. Additionally, there had been gossip over the centuries of Princess Nuala's betrothal, none of which ever were proven as true.

The fae court beneath the city of Edinburgh differed very greatly from the one in New York. It boasted a palatial grandeur achieved through the toil of goblin slaves captured from the caves around the ancient capital of Bethmoora. Bres's throne was of handcrafted ivory and gold, inlaid with blue sapphires. He wore splendid silken blue robes richly embroidered with silver threads. His royal crown was fashioned from ivory in the shape of lotus petals, and inlaid with pink rubies and diamonds, such that it shone and sparkled brilliantly in the royal court hall. He considered himself to be the very embodiment of a fae king, proud and beautiful, bejewelled with the richest gems the dwarves could mine from the bowels of the earth! All of this was nothing like the hovel from which Balor ruled over the small fae population in the Americas.

It was Bres's sole desire to bring the migrated New World fae back under his dominion. He had decided to leave the expatriates a few centuries to regret their decision of choosing to stay under Balor's rule, then would see them come begging to return to a place within his new kingdom. However, the American fae had stubbornly remained with Balor, and built their markets under the many bridges that spanned the waterways of that vast country.

If the recent news of Balor's death at the hands of his own son were true, his plan might finally come to pass. But the circumstances and the mention of the Golden Army made him anxious to acquire more solid facts. It seemed too far-fetched that Prince Nuada, who had not been heard of for nearly a thousand years, had returned to avenge the fae for the torments of the ignorant human race. If this much had sounded unbelievable, it was nothing compared to what he was hearing now, as Bres sat listening to the latest news delivered by his were-owl spy, Kowannoula.

"So, you say that you saw a forest elemental come to life, and reach gigantic proportions. It tore through humans' city streets, wreaked havoc upon their land and sky vehicles, and then was shrunk back into a seed by a human woman?" King Bres asked incredulously.

Kowannoula looked at him through his round tawny eyes and nodded. Even in his humanoid form, he retained a brown feathered face. Bres turned to Lord Alpheus, his uncle and chief advisor, who waved his hand in dismissal at the were-owl before giving answer.

"Lord Uncle, what do you think is happening overseas? You can't really believe all this talk of Prince Nuada, the Golden Army and of humans possessing incredible woodland magic," burst out Bres, immediately after Kowannoula's tail feathers had cleared his chamber door.

"It is curious indeed," agreed Alpheus.

"Well, if it is true," Bres pressed on, "then I want to declare a feast in honour of my step-father's demise at the hands of his own precious son. Do you remember the pride in that old elf's eyes when he looked upon the twins? Ha! I savoured his chagrined face when he'd learned that Nuada had tried to ravish his own sister. I only regret that he could not see the kingdom and palace that I have I built for myself!" Bres's eyes gleamed with contemptuous joy.