Caelum bowed and gestured me to the door.
I stepped inside.
All conversation stopped.
Seven steps descended into a wide central floor. Seven tables, accompanied each by three stools, filled the space. Several tables had a fourth and even fifth member standing, despite empty stools at other tables
Unlike the outer seating, the central space mixed Seelie, Unseelie and Wyldfae as well as a smattering of fantastical creatures and the occasional human. Most of the standing patrons loomed, their dour expressions marking them as muscle of one kind or another. A group of Fae Kissed Picts clustered around a table, their priest conversing in low tones with a beautiful Seelie elf. Another table boasted a drinking game between a Viking, a Celt and a young sorcerer who’d apparently taken fashion tips from a science fiction convention when picking his burgundy and silver attire.
And we can’t touch any of the wafers as long as they’re here.
Caelum somehow picked up the loaded cart by himself and lowered it to an ogre checking weapons. The mammoth Unseelie scratched her head, scraping knuckles on the ceiling as she considered Caelum’s cart. A box of Bit-o-Honey turned uncertainty into a rotted grin. She took Caelum’s black case then hefted his cart to her side of the check counter. She shook a shaker-contained sprite over Caelum’s belongings before handing over the imprisoned Fae.
Caelum whispered to the little creature as he returned. “Let’s get a table. Little Wullie here hasn’t eaten yet today.”
As we descended, I glanced right and left. Larger dining areas to either hand were occupied by Seelie or Unseelie and no one else. A small arched doorway on the bar’s right dominated the central room’s back wall offered stairs which presumably led to the small area set aside for Wyldfae.
“Patience.” Caelum pulled out a stool for me with his foot and took another at the empty table.
I wasn’t tickled that Caelum chose the least defensible table in the place.
I don’t favor sitting dead center among all these faeries...key word being dead.
Caelum had another whispered conversation with the sprite and extended a hand. “Could you pass two elderberries?”
The sprite’s glow brightened in anticipation.
I handed over two, and Caelum slipped them into the shaker without letting the sprite escape.
“Now what?” I asked.
“We wait.”
“For?”
Caelum shrugged, fanning candy bars out across the tabletop. “Our food?”
“What are those for then?”
He winked. “Dessert.”
I folded my arms and glared. I’d gotten what I asked for, more really. Caelum had helped me enter the Goblin Market. He’d gotten me into the real thing, though there was no way to be sure the other hadn’t been real and this one some holiday version.
Wouldn’t put it past Caelum to lead me on just so he could have a drink.
“You should leave.” The suave, dour voice brought my head around.
“We haven’t received our meal yet, Knight Dolumii,” Caelum said.
A velvet cloak covered the broad-shouldered elf in a great swath of deepest violet. Long hair cascaded over his shoulders like ebony quicksilver. Moonlight silver tinged vibrant skin tones of the Greek isles, marking him a Knight of the Unseelie court. He turned more fully toward Caelum and slid a hand within his garments. Shifted fabric revealed ornate raspberry and midnight armor gilt in silver filigree. An indigo glove rested cross body on the hilt of a dark sword, index finger tapping a guard of tormented faces cast in bluish-silver.
“Unless you wish to add to my guard, you will depart unsated.”
My eyes darted from his face back to the hilt. The face he tapped shied away, mouthing in silent torment.
I rose, slipping fingers into the guard rings on my hilts. “We’re here on business, Knight.”
One corner of his lips rose, pushing a fine, ebony brow higher. “This isn’t your world, bird. You have no jurisdiction here.”
“You want us to leave, how about you tell us which of your kind have been abducting animals and why?” I asked.
“Such reasons are too numerous to list. Age would slay you before I finished enumerating the reasons to claim only the two-legged animals.”
Caelum rose. “Knight Dolumii, the Grotto is neutral territory bound by peace bond.”
Dolumii smirked. “True. No faction of faerie may accost another.”
Caelum pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m shocked, so noble a knight without the talent of words? Perhaps I could read you the rules.”
Dolumii darkened. His grip tightened and his sword slid out an inch.
The timbre of my voice rose. “There are no wafers here to prevent us from taking our true form. Draw that blade further and face a tempest of wind and water.”
No sound gave away their movement, but a prickling of the little hairs on my neck compelled me to look. I detached my eyes from their lock on Dolumii. Fae stood within both east and west dining areas, all eyes on their table.
Dolumii licked his lips. “I doubt you’ll survive accosting me.”
Caelum leaned in. “Maybe not, but we’ll be reborn.”
“You perhaps, but what about your complacent companion?”
Air fled my lungs. My nest was low, not so low that I might not be reborn, but that Dolumii knew the state of my nest left me uneasy.
Could be a bluff. He might be...Grynnberry. He’s seen my nest, and the brownies have been in Caelum’s apartment.
“I don’t know, a century lounging in an egg might well be worth ridding Faery of your like,” Caelum said. “Care to try us or will you be the one to leave unsated?”
I watched the elf like my smaller bird of prey cousins. I reached into my core, gathering the energies to fill my blades or transmogrify into a phoenix.
A bandaged grendling shambled down the stairs in a group of his fellows. His eyes locked on mine.
“You,” I hissed.
The grendling bolted back up the stairs, knocking around his companions in his haste. I bolted after him. I grabbed foul, tangled grendlings and threw them from my way.
“Quayla!” Caelum called.
I crested the stair, searching right and left. To my right, the grendling bounced downward branch by branch. Teeth latched onto my thigh.
Finding the teeth part of a seldom seen female grendling cost me a moment’s hesitation. Nausea and foulness radiated up my leg. I seized a handful of oily black hair and leapt over the railing toward my fleeing quarry. My essence shot into a Karambit and out as a glistening blade. I released the grendling’s hair, trusting the foul thing’s teeth to keep the Fae tick from being dislodged, and passed the blade to my off hand.
We hit hard, pain jarring up my leg as teeth tore muscle. Impact added to my downward thrust. My impaling knife sank hilt and blade into the grendling’s head. Grabbing hair and skull as I leapt for the next branch, I tore the grendling’s locked teeth from my flesh.
The next landing hurt more than the last.
The fleeing grendling bobbed left and right through smaller branches, nearing the silk causeways.
I squeezed my essence, pushing it out from my center to fill in the missing chunk of flesh and muscle. Healing while running turned my mad chase into leaping and limping pursuit.
Blighted hells! I’m losing him.
Rather than follow the grendling’s path through tangled branches and foliage, I bound left and leapt from a bit higher. My essence burst forth, consuming clothes and flesh, knives and hair. Light blazed a corona around me. I shrieked a battle cry and swept my wings downward for a few beats more height.
I folded my wings and dove.
Another screech forewarned my prey of imminent death.
Keep control. I need him alive.
He leapt the last distance to the silk ways, head yanked around and eyes wide with terror.
Wind swept through my wings and rattled feathers.
C
oursing blood pounded against my ears like surf the shore.
The Goblin Market folded up like a startled anemone.
Furled silk rolled together in knots and twists, cocooning my prey only moments from my beak and talons reaching him.
I pulled up, back winging hard. Phoenix eyes—model for the eagle—scoured the Market for the slightest sign of my prey.
The Market countered.
Silk shifted and swirled, blocking my line of sight at every angle.
“It’s no good.” Caelum floated next to me on his silk carpet, alone save the small pixie shaker cradled in his folded legs. “You’ll never find him now.”
The Goblin Market unfolded once more. My quarry had escaped. The traders had vanished. I couldn’t understand why it would open back up empty until my eyes saw an elven knight step out of a shimmer veil.
The new elf seemed fairer than Dolumii. Chestnut waves framed bronze skin. He held a slender golden sword. He swished it up in a salute, light catching the pumpkin orange guard and causing the embedded eyes to squeeze tight against the flash.
“Quick, land here and change back,” Caelum said
I screeched an objection, bobbing up and down in the air and searching the horizon for my quarry.
“Quayla,” Caelum snapped. “Now.”
I hesitated. Whatever Caelum’s reasons, he had them, but dropping wingless atop a floating sheet of silk seemed dubious at best. I did it anyway. The silk sagged only a little, but enough to cause a stumble. I tumbled off the carpet, pushing my essence together for another transmog.
The knight bounded from silk way to pavilion to sky, catching me mid fall. He alighted on another way with a feather-light touch and set me on my feet. “Lady Aquaylae.”
“Uh, sir knight.”
He bowed, flourishing his arms. “Gherrian, Knight Champion of the Seelie Court.”
Caelum landed. “Why do we warrant a visit, Knight Gherrian?”
The elf smirked. “Be it an occurrence far and between, away and beyond, I must concur with Knight Champion Dolumii. You are not within your kingdom and your dispensation as sheriff bears no authority in these shires.”
I blinked at Caelum.
“We’re out of our jurisdiction and instructed to stop poking the beehive.”
Gherrian laughed. “Perhaps better worded if only for your succinctness.”
“Someone in Faery is killing and abducting...our subjects. We are here to find the culprits and bring them to justice.”
The elf shook his head. “Better to seek the Sovereigns and beg a boon. None will stand aside from your way in this, not after you assaulted a faerie in the Grotto.”
“No.” I shook a finger at the knight. “She bit me. I didn’t kill her until we were beyond the railing.”
“Your word against witnesses.”
“They’re ly—”
Caelum slapped a hand around my mouth. “Very well, Sir Gherrian, we depart in peace.”
Gherrian produced Caelum’s folded cart and held it out. “The sprite, please.”
Caelum frowned at the empty cart, but traded the sprite for it, nonetheless. Knight Gherrian marched us to the gate. The three billy goat guards eyed me darkly.
The smallest addressed Caelum. “Your toll is thrice and thrice again for many tomorrows.”
“Understood,” Caelum scowled. He gestured me onto the little bridge. “After you.”
I returned his dirty look with interest but marched onto the bridge.
“Shield Aquaylae?” Knight Gherrian asked.
“What?”
Gherrian slipped out of sight through a Veil, but his voice carried. “It would be wise to mind your nests better in future.”
15: Faerie Fairplay
Quayla
Vitae paced back and forth in a corporate conference room housed on the first floor of our headquarters building. “You two are out of control.”
Behind him, an elf of indistinguishable court perused his nails, disdaining to take part in the noisome scene.
Caelum shook his head in an attempt to head off my rebuttal.
I can’t believe he’s just going to stand here and take this. Vitae isn’t any more important than we are.
The elf folded his hands behind his back, stepping between us and Vitae to glower down his long nose at us despite his inferior height. “You attacked a faerie citizen within our sovereign borders without leave to be present.”
Vitae scowled. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”
Caelum stole the initiative. “We were given leave to enter the Market after paying the toll.”
The elf barely hesitated a breath. “The Market’s current sovereign insists she did not grant you entry. Further, neither Her Highness nor her servants granted you permission to traffic addictive substances or—”
“What addictive substances?” I demanded.
“Edenberries.”
“What?” I gaped. “We got those berries from one of your merchants.”
“Likely story,” the elf said. “It’s an established fact that your residence harbors a garden full of Edenberries.”
I opened my mouth, but Vitae snarled over me. “Be silent, Aquaylae. You assaulted innocent diners on peace-bound, neutral ground.”
“That grendling wasn’t innocent,” I objected. “I caught him stealing kittens in the Howell Mill humane society.”
The elf examined his fingers. “I do not believe you can accurately label claiming animals humanity has abandoned as theft. Besides, animals are not protected under the Articles of Ararat, so your objection to a Sidhe shopping for his evening repast isn’t actionable.”
“Those grendlings assaulted me when I ordered them to stand down. Their actions fell under the Articles’ rules for protecting Creation. The grendling in the Grotto fled apprehension.”
The elf’s brow rose. “You can prove it was the same grendling? You have images? Witnesses?”
The more of the elf’s matter-of-fact tone escaped his lips, the closer my fingers grew toward steaming. I turned to Vitae. “The kitten room has a webcam. Ask the Isaac to produce the video.”
“You will keep a civil tone, Aquaylae.”
“I didn’t attack anyone inside the tavern. Blighted hells, I didn’t even defend myself until I’d leapt the barrier.”
Vitae scooped up and brandished a handful of ornate, vellum-wrapped scroll rods. “That’s not what these say—I have here no less than half a dozen official complaints about you two.”
“What complaints?” Caelum asked.
Vitae glanced at the elf. When he disdained to comment, Vitae answered. “You insulted a highly placed Unseelie Knight, refused to turn in weapons in a peace zone, bribed officials, assaulted innocent Fae, caused an affront and forced closure of the Goblin Market—someplace you don’t have any business entering.”
I goggled at him, eyes flicking from Vitae’s cold rage, the gesticulating scrolls and the elf’s cruel smirk.
“They’re demanding your head,” Vitae said
“Give it to them,” Caelum said.
The elf’s smirk grew into a barracuda’s grin.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I objected.
Caelum shrugged. “They kill you, you’re reborn, matter settled.”
Vitae darkened.
“Oh no,” the elf chuckled. “I’m afraid the debt she owes our Courts isn’t so easily settled. After Shield Aquaylae is publicly executed and reborn before both Courts, she will pay penance in apologies for her sins against the faerie.”
“Sins?!” I grabbed my hilts.
Vitae and Caelum took hold of my arms.
“A verbal apology will be required while you display your contrition by washing the feet of both sovereigns with your unspoiled essence.”
My world did a plausible imitation of Six Flag’s Georgia Cyclone.
The phoenixes on either side of me tightened their grips. My eyes traced the veins in the elf’s throat.
One talon st
roke and — “And of course, I’m afraid we must demand reparations for damaged merchandise and sales lost on account of her actions.”
“The Market closed before she reached it,” Caelum countered. “Besides, you withheld considerable wealth in honey candy, milk and local currency when returning my belongings.”
“Forfeited for your violations in the Grotto.”
I shoved Caelum sideways enough that the incredibly agile phoenix nearly lost his footing. Vitae had a moment’s warning, but I still managed to shake him off. I shoved a finger into the elf’s chest. “I. Did not. Attack. Anyone. Inside the Grotto.”
Caelum and Vitae managed to pull me back before the elf bled all over the expensive carpet. He dusted off the place where I’d touched him, disgust bending handsome features.
He addressed Vitae. “We will expect your formal answer before sunset on the morrow.”
“You can have my answer now,” I said.
Caelum tightened his hold. “Take a breath, little sister.”
I jerked free of Caelum’s grip. “Don’t you little sister me. I didn’t do anything wrong, and I am damn well not going to be the main event for some dog and pony show.”
“We await your reasoned reply, Shieldheart.” The elf bowed himself into the building foyer and vanished before I could get my hands on him.
“I’ve had enough tantrums,” Vitae snarled. “You are moving back into headquarters so I can keep an eye on you.”
Caelum cut across me. “She doesn’t answer to you, Vitae.”
“I was talking to both of you.”
“To hell with you,” Caelum said.
“I am the Shieldheart. I am responsible for this Shield and that means you have to do as I instruct.” He glowered at me. “In order to mend relations, you will apologize as required by the Courts.”
I lowered my voice. “Why wait until your next death, Vitae? Go get the spare stick out of your nest and shove it up your ass now.”
I stormed out, not stopping my headlong march until I reached where I’d parked my Jahammer in the garage.
Quayla
I slammed my apartment door closed without regard to the lecture Mrs. Cox would deliver the next time we met in the halls. I stormed into my bedroom, furious to the point of tears.
Ashes of Raging Water Page 15