R. A. Mayes Mayes

She/her. 22 years old. Australian.
Fiction author, mostly fantasy and adventure/action novels but have dabbled in a bit of everything. I want to become a published novelist and make a difference through my writing. Books have had such an impact on my life that it is my dream to continue this cycle of inspiring the next generation of authors through my writing.

When the Darkness threatens her home, the fiery Spymaster of Solaris must work with her enemy kingdom, Celesta, in order to defeat the person who may have created the Darkness just for her.
Spymaster
My Submission

one

Idalia

“What’s your latest update on its location?”

“The Darkness has taken the eastern coastline. Helia’s going around the outside of the mainland, cutting off escape routes before she’s going to take the Capital. By that point there will be no way out for them, and she will be unstoppable.” Callida was one of my best spies, so I knew her words were the truth.

“It’s just the north and west coastlines left before she traps them completely.” I said, looking at the map on the marble table in the soundproof room of our castle. They set aside the room for me and my spies to communicate sensitive information. It was lit by some torches on the walls, with no windows to prevent anyone from looking in.

“She’s already on the northern coastline, and she’ll take it soon. There aren’t any military there, it’s just fishing and trading ports.”

“Then it will be the west, which means she will threaten us. If she takes the western coastline, then we won’t be able to get to the mainland.”

“We have maybe two weeks before she takes it.”

“What am I supposed to do? My father won’t listen to me.”

“King Vulcan wants to keep his crown safe, he’ll fight when there is a threat to us specifically. He has to see that the threat will soon be our problem.”

“He’ll put the responsibility onto Celesta, onto Hyacinth. He won’t work with them, he wants their land.” Our neighbouring kingdom… we had been at war for millennia to win the island for ourselves. Although there had been a truce for the last two centuries regarding physical battles, it’s now the underground actions that are important. Our information needs to be better than theirs. We need to know everything about their Court to know when a good time to strike will be, and how to strike to create the most devastating damage.

My job as spymaster was the most important in the kingdom because of it, just as it was most important for Celesta’s spymaster. I wish I knew who they were. My identity was safe. The fact I was the only princess of the kingdom meant no one outside our Court would think I was anything else.

“If he does, then he will still have to prepare for them to lose, they’ve been helping the mainland where they can and have lost quite a few of their Shadow Fae.” If they had lost Shadow Fae that meant their other Fae had already taken a large hit.

“I’ll talk to him. Or figure something else out.”

“You can’t undermine him again, Idalia. You almost got banished last time.” Callida reminded me; but it was something that I didn’t need to be reminded of. But I shook my head. He wouldn’t banish me.

“He doesn’t know what I know, and information is everything. And I have each of you, completely loyal to me and not to him. He knows that much.” I said.

“What if we could talk with Queen Hyacinth? Or her spymaster? Surely there is something that we could do? Don’t look at me like that, if you’re going to go behind your father’s back again, you aren’t doing it alone.” She said. I took a deep breath.

“I’m not sure what anyone from Celesta could do. Hyacinth has no ability to force my father to do anything. He would do the opposite of what she wishes. There’s no use.”

“What if they helped to remove him from the throne?” Callida proposed. I tilted my head to the side.

“The Court would follow no one else.” I explained.

“They might follow Ayden. He can inherit the throne unlike you.” Callida told me, if it was from anyone else, I might have thought the words harsh, but I knew she was on my side. “That might have been blunt…”

“Callida, it’s okay. Ayden is more malleable than my father anyway, it might work.” I stated. “We might not need Celesta’s help. If what my brother is planning comes to fruition… I’ll talk to him. But maybe we should see if we could contact Hyacinth.”

“What did you realise?” Callida asked.

“My brother’s coming of age celebration. It’s going to be an anonymous masquerade, an attempt to help him find a wife. We could easily sneak one of Celesta’s people in for an exchange of information.” I said. Callida furrowed her brows. Her blue eyes looked down at the table for a moment.

“That sounds potentially disastrous. If they get found out…”

“We must make sure they know if they get caught, I can’t help them. I’ll probably have to interrogate them to keep my cover.”

“I can see what I can do. The ball is in what, three days?”

“Two days.” I corrected her.

“Shit. That’s very close, okay. I’ll see what I can do, but I am going to have to go now.” She told me. I nodded. “Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?”

“I must plan the rest of what we’re going to do, what we can do, how we can move forward, but I don’t think we have any other choice.” I answered. She nodded slowly as I sensed that someone was waiting outside of the room. “Tell Ingrid that she can come in.”

“Will do.”

~

I was glad that everyone was wearing masks, but masks can’t cover someone’s mind from me. I knew everyone in the room; could tell who it was by looking into their eyes, feeling their specific pattern of thought. Each mind felt different, and so there was no confusing anyone for someone else.

“You must be Princess Idalia. It is wonderful to finally meet you, your highness.” It was an older Fae, a new member of my father’s Court after one mysteriously disappeared last week.

“And you must be Lord Brantly, it’s lovely to meet you as well.” I said with a trained smile. He couldn’t tell that every thought he was having pushed into my mind. At such proximity, there was no stopping it.

“I hear you still have yet to marry.” He stated. I could already guess where this conversation was going to go.

“I’m not interested in a proposal.” I told him, not giving time for a response before I walked away from him and the weight of his mind on mine eased away. While I have control over the thoughts I see, it becomes harder when people are close to me. So, at such a crowded event as this one, it becomes exhausting, constantly keeping my mind closed off to those who didn’t know how to keep their mind blocked off from telepaths.

The balcony was open and seemed empty, so I walked there. I took a breath. The freshly cut flowers that covered the balcony brought a sweet scent to the air.

“Excuse me.” A voice cut through my temporary peace, but it scared me. Usually I would feel someone’s mind before they had the chance to address me… I turned to look at a male. He looked strange, but I was more focused on the fact I couldn’t feel his mind at all. Another telepath. Even without feeling his mind, I could feel something else, my blood running faster, some part of my power flaring at his proximity to me.

“Can I help you?” I asked in a warning tone. I had never met another telepath aside from my family members and a handful of my spies. And this added feeling, I didn’t know what it meant.

“Princess Idalia?” he sounded confused. I could only see his eyes behind the mask.

“How do you know who I am?” I asked him next, tucking my hands into the pockets of my dress.

“Only the Solaris Royals have bronze eyes and red hair like you do.” As I actually looked at his features, I realised why he looked strange.

“And you are a Shadow Fae, which means Hyacinth sent you for an exchange of information.” The Fae nodded in response. The features of a Shadow Fae which differentiate them from any other species are their midnight black hair and near-black eyes, alongside their tattoos. Markings to show they have mastered their power. The amount of tattoos this Fae had…

“I didn’t know Solaris’ spymaster was their only princess.” He responded.

“I had to make myself useful. I trained myself to listen, to remember, if I am useful here then I won’t be thrown out or married to whoever bids the highest.” Why did I tell him that? I ignored that unfamiliar and growing feeling.

“Well then, what information did you want to exchange?”

“No, not before I know who you are. I can’t feel your mind, which means you have the powers that I do. You know who I am, I think I deserve to be on an even playing field.” I replied. He tilted his head to the side. My heart was racing.

Before he could say anything to me, there was a scream from inside of the ballroom.

When I looked in, all I could see was a commotion. I couldn’t see anything through the crowd of people except for a flash of darkness in the middle of the room. I felt an unearthly tremor under my feet and knew something connected the two.

“They’re here.” The Fae stated before he vanished from in front of my eyes.

I ran into the room, but guards held me back.

“You need to be safe, Princess.”

But once the crowd cleared, I could see the destruction left behind. The centre of the ballroom now had a crater where a dark, ink-like substance covered the surface of the crater and the surrounding floor. A corpse lay at the bottom, a few unmoving bodies around the edge of the crater. But as I got closer, I could see the corpse at the bottom of the crater better.

It was black, covered in tar, looked once Fae or human.

The explosion of darkness had come from that body.

Idalia, it’s a Dark One.

Callida spoke to me from across the room through her mind.

That meant that the Darkness had infected the thing at the bottom of the crater.

And it was still breathing.

two

Idalia

“A Dark One?” I pushed my way into the meeting my father had called, hearing him mention the name given to the creature now in custody below the castle.

“My sources are confirming it.” I stated. Everyone in the room looked at me for a second before looking back at my father. It was the Court in the room, my father at the head of the table with my eldest brother standing next to him.

“How did it get here from the mainland?” One of the Court members asked as I moved to take my seat next to my father.

“Do you know?” He asked me. I looked at him for a second before I forced myself to look away.

“Not yet. I have people investigating. I also plan on seeing the Dark One for myself.” I added, avoiding my father’s eyes.

“Is that useful?” One of the Court members asked; it was Lord Brantly. The same one who spoke to me at the ball.

“Our family has a secret, our mind power. No one aside from our own blood knows of it, and it needs to stay that way.”

“Won’t know unless I try.” I said with a smile. “Lord Brantly, what are you doing to help in this situation, exactly?” I asked, my eyes locked onto his. To say I had an unsettling stare may be an understatement, and I knew it was working when I saw him shuffle in his seat.

“Idalia.” My father’s voice echoed around the room, to I turned to look at him. “You cannot speak to the Lords like that.” He told me.

“It is my job to know everything, which includes the actions being taken by the Lords in this room. If I don’t know what they are doing, then I do not know information I need, what information I need to give without compromising something else.” I told him.

“Idalia.” The tone he spoke my name with was enough to make me keep quiet. The rest of the meeting moved by quickly. I said little. I already knew I had pushed my boundaries. They didn’t call on me to answer again. Instead, they directed questions to my brother or my father. Typical.

It was difficult knowing so much and having to hide all of it. Having to hide most parts of myself in order to seem acceptable, especially to the men that deemed me useful for the time being. To have to dampen my power consciously around them so often that it had become habit.

“Sister.”

The meeting had ended, apparently without me noticing.

“Yes, Ayden?” I responded, looking up from the table. I may not have been paying attention, but I stored the words spoken in my mind. Listening without paying attention had become an exceptionally useful skill.

“Why were you asking about my plan?” For him to be asking that question, I knew the room had to be empty, knew that no one would be close enough to hear us.

“I need to know these things, especially if you want any help from me.” I replied.

“You should know I would make a better King than our father-”

“I know of your plans for Solaris, Ayden. You’re no better than him, so don’t attempt to convince me otherwise.” I responded, standing up.

“Then why would you help me? You display two very contradictory views, I’m trying to understand where they come from.”

“You aren’t exactly privy to that information.”

“Does it have something to do with the Shadow Fae that was at my coming of age?” Shit.

“Maybe it does, or maybe you asked for him. It’s no secret you crave the strangest of creatures you can find, whether to sleep with or to look at.” I replied, standing up from my seat.

“Idalia-”

“You have no idea, do you? What I can do? No one here does. Who’s word do you trust? The heir with a ploy to destroy their own father or the spymaster loyal to the throne?” I asked him, walking closer to him. “You might be in line to wear the crown, Ayden, but who has a seat at this table? I do. You might have a plan to win the crown you don’t deserve, but who knows all the secrets of that crown? I do. Who was raised as the heir for their first three hundred years until you were born? I was.”

“But then Mother gave Vulcan a long line of male heirs, and it ruined your chances of the throne. Face it, Idalia, eventually you will have to follow me. It’s up to you whether it’s willingly or in a prison cell, if I let you live.” And there it was, the side to him I knew existed, and yet he hid so well.

“Dear brother, if Vulcan knew of your plan, it’s not me he would kill. You should thank me, for keeping your secret.”

“One of many. You’re lucky I can’t get into your head, sister, or he would have married you off centuries ago.” He spoke as if he had a chance of scaring me. I shook my head.

“You forget how old I am, Ayden, what I’ve seen, what I’ve done. I’m six centuries old. If you think you could get into my head, I would have to call you delusional. If you think that there weren’t stories about me on the battlefield, stories that have been long forgotten, then you truly do not know who I am.” I told him. “I remember holding you, when you were a newborn. I remember hating you with every fibre of my being. I remember hearing of Mother’s pregnancy and praying to the Gods that you would die.”

“They didn’t answer your prayers.”

“I know, that’s why I pray to the Goddess now.” I said, looking at my clenched hands for a moment. “That crown is my birthright. Our country is the only one who holds onto the misogynistic law of only a man can wear the crown. But that is the reason I would help you, because there is something you don’t know. Helia has already begun taking the Western Coastline, and if you think she won’t take our island before she takes the Capital in order to have an unstoppable army…” I said, he froze.

“Is that truth?”

“Why would I lie?” I asked him. Any anger in him seemed to dissipate.

“That’s why the Shadow Fae was there… you are trying to create an allegiance with Celesta, with Queen Hyacinth.” Maybe he was smarter than I thought.

“We were to have an exchange of information, one that I hoped would lead to transparency and a united front against Helia. But then that Dark One seemed to know what was about to happen. The minute we were about to trust each other, the explosion of Darkness happened.” I told him.

“Vulcan would never side with them.” Ayden told me.

“You think I don’t know that?”

“That’s why you asked about my plan… how long do we have before Helia could be here?”

“Before your coming of age we assumed we had two weeks, but after the Dark One… there is no way to tell where Helia is. The Darkness moves on its own now.” That Shadow Fae said they were here. Was more than one Dark One in our home?

“I need more time than that. Do you realise how much I have to do to get the throne?” He asked me. I smiled.

“Yes, but I don’t care. You took it from me, now figure it out.”

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