Read Online Queen of the Sylphs by L. J. McDonald - Free Book Online Page A

Gabralina.
    She watched Justin storm past, angry and hurting, and she sighed. In a lot of ways, Sylph Valley was a great deal like Yed. She studied the house she’d been watching and turned away, wandering back to her friend’s tiny, unappealing apartment. If she was lucky, she supposed she’d find some sleep.
    Solie sat in the conference room and listened with amazement to Leon’s story. The romantic heart in her fluttered at the thought of Ril and Lizzy finding each other as they had, in a land far away, and the part that wanted to be a mother could have wept at how far Leon went to find his daughter. She needed to swallow a lump in her throat. Under the table, Heyou gripped her hand.
    The political ramifications of his voyage were what really sank into her mind, forcing out thoughts of romance and family. Leon laid everything down very clearly, and the people around the table reacted so that Solie would have been able to tell their shock even if she hadn’t had their emotions projected at her by each of the present sylphs.
    Leon was dressed again in the blue and gold uniform that both he and Devon wore to show their service to her. Ril’s garb was far more ostentatious—there was more gold, more ornamentation—but he slouched in his chair, not appearing to pay attention. Solie didn’t really mind; she’d brought Heyou, after all, and he wasn’t paying attention either. From the way he and Ril were looking at each other, she suspected the sylphs were having a silent conversation.
    Mace, however, was paying attention. He sat on Ril’s other side, and he was the only battler there without his master. He frowned as he listened, no doubt weighing the danger of making an alliance with a country that had more than seven hundred battle sylphs, all with their own queen.
    Beside him, Galway also leaned back in his chair, the tips of his fingers pressed together. Unlike Leon and Devon, he wore plain clothes; his beard was shaggy though clean, his bald head gleaming. Devon was beside him, scribbling furiously onto parchment, while Airi sat in the chair between him and Heyou. It was one of the few times Solie had seen the air sylph in solid shape, and she’d made herself appear a young woman, probably in honor of the seriousness of the meeting.
    Solie shifted in her chair, sucking her lips into her mouth as she thought. “How much of a risk are we taking of a couple hundred battle sylphs showing up and conquering us?”
    Leon shook his head. “Logistically speaking, little. It wouldn’t be worth their while. It’s an incredibly long distance for them to come; they’d have to set up a supply base on this continent first, and honestly, we’re not big enough to be worth it. Politically, it’s not worth it to Eapha, either. She’s in the same situation you were six years ago.” He gave a brief smile. “Only, she has a lot more sylphs backing her and a human population that doesn’t even know what’s happened. Their system is completely gone. Smashed.” His smile faded, and she could tell he had no regrets.
    Beside him, Ril growled. “Good. They were worse than the masters in Eferem.”
    Heyou didn’t react, but there came a strange energy from Mace and Ril. Solie knew how bad it had been for Claw, also, having come from Eferem. Ril had been blessed to end up bound to Leon, but he’d still been a slave for his first fifteen years in this world.
    Solie felt a flash of Leon’s eternal regret. His battler didn’t react. While Mace’s and Claw’s original masters were both dead, Leon wasn’t. The very fact that Ril was sitting beside him showed he’d been able to forgive.
    Still, murder was murder. Solie didn’t want to think about a floating island filled with an emperor, his family, and who knew how many officials, guards, servants, and slaves drifting out over the ocean and being dropped. Nor did she want to imagine the hundreds of officials who’d survived that fate only to be hunted down in the city