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Kerik is looking at Perl, awaiting his answer. Even Perl himself could be punished for saying a word about his father. But he said he’d tell Kerik ‘anything’, and he chooses to be bound by that before the laws of the Ice Court.

“In Old Magaar, Perlash-zeren-ai means the shame of the Ice Court and the Ice Fae.” It hurts to even say it. More than the lowering had hurt. The greatest pain faekind had inflicted on Perl had been done to him when he was a squawling babe.

“I know,” Kerik says. “And I know Queen Sefi named you. But why? Why did she do that?”

“Because, Sefi knew I was born of a great transgression. I was a great shame. I am. My father was not fae. He was a warlock,” Perl swallows, “a mortal warlock. He was from Azuria, from Attar. He lived during the early days of the Hevelikar, Five hundred years ago. I believe he was a philosopher to the rulers of the time. Perhaps you know his work? His name was Batraous.”

“Batraous?” Kerik says as if there is perhaps a distant memory.

“You have heard of him?” Perl says. It lifts his heart a little to think his father might still be remembered.

Kerik nods. “There was a philosopher during the days of the Hevelikar called Batraous. I think there may be a likeness of him in the Hall of Statues.”

“There could be. I have not seen that. But I would like to. After this, when we travel to Attar. Perhaps you can show it to me.” Perl wonders, as he speaks, if they will ever make it out of the Ice Court. Every moment they spend here seems to wrap him tighter into its grip. But he says, “My father studied the ancient texts in the Rose Temple that told of the great legends of the Bellator. Principally, The Books of Alios, the books written by the Artemian monks telling the history of the creation of the Bellator and the wars between them, mortals, Bellator and the fae. He gained favour with the Hevelikar by popularising these stories and the connection to the Hevelikar line. But he also discovered a great secret in these books: the fact that one of the Bellator survived, and remained hidden in the Amber Forest. He understood the hidden messages in that text, explaining that Ur-Durik would rise again and that the only way to stop him from releasing the Bellator from the vault under the forest, where they are imprisoned, was for the five fae princes to be reborn and stop them, just as they had before. And when he discovered this, he came here, to Vylenor, for help. It took him many years, first to complete the trials required for a mortal to even gain access to the fae realm. However, it damaged him. Some think that by the time he even entered the fae court his mind was broken.”

“How did he even get here? I thought there was no way a mortal could get to the faerie realm alone?”

“There are ways. Mortals cannot use a salt door without a fae to take them through it. But there is another way to get through the wards. However, it is almost impossible for mortals to use it, for it involves a ritual that takes a hundred years to create. But my father studied magic to lengthen his life and by doing that he could create a bridge into Vylenor. Creating the bridge is an extremely complex and arduous ritual, even without the length of it.”

“He worked for a hundred years just to get into Vylenor?” Kerik sounds suitably shocked.

“He was desperate. He thought the fate of the world depended on him making contact with the fae.”

“And he did. He got here and sired you. So who was your mother?”

“My father came here, in part, because he thought that he would be the one to sire the children who would become the fae princes. A man the old texts he studied call the origin. For that he needed to lie with a fae who could be his Lurella. Lurella was the fae who was mother to the first five fae princes. He did not realise what he was asking would be considered an aberration.”

“Vane told me that the fae think the mortals traitors who deserve their fate.” He looks at Perl with a clearer expression on his face. “So what you are doing, trying to help mortals fight Ur-Durik, it is treachery to the fae?”

Perl nods. “My mother is seen as a great traitor, just for helping my father. And if the truth of what I were doing here were known, it would be seen the same way. I would be guilty of a far greater crime than my previous one.”

Kerik reaches out and takes Perl’s hand. His flesh still feels frozen. He says nothing, but Perl can tell learning this truth has made Kerik see him differently. It is strange how learning Perl’s most shameful secrets seems to only make Kerik respect him more.

“But there was one of the fae who agreed with my father and wanted to help him. My mother. Her name was Irmeena. She was the younger sister of Sefi and Exeinil.”

“So your mother was of the royal line? Exeinil is your aunt? Vane is your cousin?”

“Yes. Although such things are far less important in my world than in yours. The identity of my father defines me far more than my mother’s blood. But it means my mother was very much high fae. And the fact that Exeinil loved her is the reason I live now.”

“What happened to your mother?” Kerik says, sounding as if he already knows.

“She was sentenced to death by Sefi-qui-areti-ai, her sister, my aunt — The Queen of the Timeless Court and, at that point, the Queen of Ulla too — for her treasonous action of coupling with a mortal of another sex.” Perl says it dryly. As if it means nothing. And in truth it didn’t mean much. He had never met Irmeena in any real sense. She was long dead before his earliest memory formed.

Kerik is looking at him with his mouth a little open. He looks better than he had when Perl had carried him into the chamber. He has more colour in his face. The warmth and the wine and furs have revived him.

Perl says, “I was allowed to live. As a babe I was ripped from my mother moments before she was beheaded by Queen Sefi. Exeinil took me as her ward and Sefi allowed it, but she insisted I was named so that no one would forget the terrible act that had sired me.”

“And your father? Where is he now?”

“He managed to flee before I was born. My mother helped him. She must have done. Perhaps she meant to escape with him and failed, I suppose I will never know. But he gained the power to do so from somewhere.”

“Did you ever meet him?”

Perl nods. “Actually, yes.”

“And he told you about the five fae princes. This mission you are on? Did your father task you with it?”

Perl looks at Kerik a little surprised. Although, he supposes it is not so difficult to piece that together. Kerik knows Perl’s mission involves ensuring the five fae princes are ready to face their destiny and Perl has just told him that his father had been attempting such. “Yes,” he says. “Correct.”