Rise: A Gay Fairy Tale by Keira Andrews, Leta Blake Page A

ledge.
    Rion joined him, and they gazed out beyond the distant cliffs to the far-off waves through a break in the clouds. Sometimes it was difficult to tell where the sky ended and the water began.
    “Let’s go across the sea, Rion. Start a new life there.”
    “You don’t even know what there is like.” Rion smiled and shook his head, his pulse beginning to race. “Come now, let’s go back inside.”
    “If not there, then somewhere else. Anywhere . We could go as far as we want. See new worlds. Different lands!”
    The thought lit a flare of old yearning in Rion’s chest, but he tamped down the feeling. “It’s impossible.”
    Jack turned to him. “But why?”
    “ Why? ” Rion could hardly believe his ears. “How can you ask why? I have told you of my parents. I am duty bound to protect the treasure.”
    “What good does that treasure do, moldering here in the clouds? We can start a new life for ourselves.”
    That’s all he wants. The money. Not you . “Is this…so you’ve just been biding your time until you could talk me into giving it to you?” The hurt twisted like a rusty blade in his gut.
    Jack jerked back. “No. No! Rion, I don’t care about the money. Dash it to the bottom of the sea. Just don’t stay here, wasting your life.”
    “It’s not a waste,” Rion hissed. “I honor my family. My ancestors. My feckless brothers and sisters all cared more for their own happiness. But I will do my duty. It falls to me.”
    “Your duty to whom? How did this treasure come to be? This giant’s charade? Was there ever really a giant? Do you even know?”
    “Of course I know!”
    “Then tell me.” Jack took a step closer, his eyes beseeching. “Please. I only want to understand.”
    Oh, and how Rion yearned to be understood. He leaned over the ledge and gazed down into the valley far beneath them, seeing hints of green through the clouds. Jack stood beside him, waiting, their shoulders brushing. Rion exhaled and began the tale. “There was a giant once. He came from your land, where he was mistreated and abused, considered a freak as he kept growing, heads above the other men.”
    Jack laughed without humor. “A familiar tale thus far.”
    “Yes. But the giant—Balor was his name—he left the valley. Braved the cliffs and the waves, and survived. Across the sea he was welcomed, and found his fortune mining deep into the mountains. There are elves there who granted him the gift of magic in return for a favor. If my family ever knew what it was, the knowledge has been lost over the centuries.”
    “How did he come to build this castle? Why return to the place he was so hated?”
    Rion shrugged. “Revenge, I suppose. To lord his riches and magic over the people who had tormented him so. Do you never imagine your own revenge?”
    “Sometimes. Yes. But…”
    “What?”
    “But I’ve wanted happiness more. Escape. Revenge would bring a satisfaction that would be cold in the end, I think.”
    Rion considered it. “Perhaps that’s true.” He smiled ruefully. “Balor wouldn’t agree. Although he brought back a wife from across the sea and had many children that begat my family line, taunting the people of the valley was his passion. That’s why the beanstalk exists.”
    “To dangle the possibility of riches before them.” Jack shook his head and rubbed Rion’s back. “He was more successful than he could have dreamed. All these generations later, the people of the valley obsess over the stalk, and you’re still hoarding the treasure, a slave to revenge.”
    Jerking his head up, Rion knocked Jack’s hand away. “I’m no slave!”
    “But you are. Don’t you see? Your ancestors turned the people below into villains that controlled your family’s destiny. Even after Balor and those who ridiculed him were but ashes, it goes on. Your Outsiders are raised to hate and fear the greedy giant in the clouds, and you stay here guarding a treasure that only grows old.
    “It is my