To them, none of this was truly real and it was easier to just stay out of the way. Most of the more experienced masters were like Gel, sitting against the wall and watching. The only real sound in the chamber was the chanting of the priests, left alive for their skill with the gates, and the fearful chattering of the humans brought in-sometimes against their will-to become masters for the newest sylphs. She looked at him critically, her hands clasped behind her back while the sylphs behind her continued their silent display. Before him stood what appeared to be a young girl, except her skin was formed of smooth marbled stone and her eyes were rubies. She was only supposed to feed from him after all, him and the four others caged with him.Īre you all right? he heard Shasha ask in his mind. He’d spent years locked in a cage not much larger than he was himself, his tongue chopped out to keep him from speaking to the earth sylph who had been bound to him. Gel closed his eyes, not really wanting to remember that day any more than he did any of the days before it.

He’d seen how much they had destroyed, including all of the nobility and even the emperor himself. He’d seen the battlers the day the queen had arrived. He’d been told it was a small hive past the gate, one badly depleted by predators, though Gel couldn’t imagine what kind of predator would threaten sylphs. The sylphs danced around it, calling those on the other side to come through and join them. In the center of the chamber, a circle of noncolor gleamed, floating a dozen feet above the ground. Not in Meridal, where even human beings were once sold as slaves and sylphs had been nothing more than property. They were ecstatic with the idea of being free, the joy of being allowed to do what they wanted and to interact as they never had before the queen came.

Over by the far wall of the massive chamber, Gel sat on the floor with his arms across the tops of his knees and watched the sylphs play.

Air, earth, water, fire, healing, and battle, they whirled in a mad happiness that had no music. Despite the fact it was once a place used to lure and trap their kind, the underground chamber they used was now a brilliantly lit place of joy. There were hundreds of them, a storm of colors swirling around each other in a glorious celebration of life.

Queen of the Sylphs by L.J. McDonald