Ariel's Tear by Justin Rose

Author:Justin Rose [Rose, Justin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: literary, fantasy, magic, young adult, fairies, goblins, quest, immortals, rehavan
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The sun rose dully on the fourth morning. From her perch on the roof of the fairy keep, Randiriel could just make out its hazy outline behind a bank of thick gray storm clouds. It rose slowly from the eastern horizon, its dim light seeping over the forests like a stain. The eastern side of the Faeja was darker and wilder than the western, heavy with hundreds of miles of forest. It was all, technically, under the Iris. But the lands to the east held no real allegiance to man. They were the forests of the elves and the gnomes, steeped in ancient allegiances and enchantments far predating any single empire. As the sun climbed, the forests shed their deeper shadows, lit with a pallid gray. Their leaves took on the muted colors of an old painting. To the distant northeast, Randiriel thought she could see the gleam of Lake Esrathel, home of the merpeople.

When the light of dawn finally struck the Faeja, the sun had nearly risen; it devoured the plains beyond rapidly. Randiriel turned and watched as gray chased black across the plains of the human empire, swallowing the scattered woodlands and miles of farmland in dreary daylight. She knew that somewhere, miles beyond the horizon, lay the mighty Western Mountains, the true end of the Iris’s dominion. And somewhere between those distant rocks and the river which flowed beside Randiriel’s keep lay the Capital, the center of human order, the Crystal City.

There’s a flag out there somewhere, a golden iris sown in sky-blue silk.

That’s what Geuel had said. Randiriel scoured the plains with her eyes, knowing that the Capital was beyond the horizon but still wishing she could see its distant sparkle. She wondered what it would be like, to believe in a symbol so purely that you would die for it. She pictured herself as a woman, as if she had never become a fairy. She thought of living in the Capital, walking beneath that banner every day and knowing that it was her own. The fantasy was nearly intoxicating. To live every day with a fear of impending death, to spend every moment as if it might be your last, to know that your life was as brief as a winter breath.

Perhaps that was why the humans loved their symbol. The symbol was a taste of eternity. Every human was born to die, but the Iris never had to. The Iris could go on and on through the ages. And when a man gave to the Iris, his gift lasted.

Every one of them would bleed again, just to see it wave where it has never waved before.

Randiriel smiled to herself. She would see the Golden Iris. She would watch it wave above the Crystal City and try to believe. She looked down at the dull silver of the fairy keep. The Fairy City had been beautiful. But trivial. Temporary as childhood. While Ariel had meant it to last forever, it had passed in a matter of days.

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