I spent the night tossing and turning without getting much sleep, and woke up bleary-eyed on Sunday morning. Today I would have to face Count Duncan and admit the truth of what I’d done. Glen continued to promise that I wasn’t going to get in trouble for my part, but I still felt nervous, with my stomach twisted up in knots.
There was a rich brunch buffet prepared by the castle staff, but I barely managed to nibble some toast and drink a cup of hot tea, which didn’t really help to settle my stomach. Then there was nothing to do but wait.
I arrived for my appointment outside of Count Duncan’s office early, and his wife Serafina showed me in promptly as the clock in the hall chimed ten. I’d only been in his office once before, when I passed my witch test on my thirteenth birthday. Standing before his immense wooden desk, looking around at all of the paintings of Fae dignitaries glaring down at me from the walls, I felt just as young and afraid as I did that day three and a half years ago.
“Good morning, Your Grace,” I said with a curtsy, falling back on court etiquette.
The Count smiled at me warmly and pulled up a wooden chair next to him. “Come sit over here by me, Rosamunde,” he said in a gentle tone. “This is official business, but we’re not in front of the full court here, so you can talk to me like a friend.”
I walked around the desk, careful not to bump into anything, and sat down. “Yes, sir?” I wasn’t sure how to address him in a less formal manner.
“Duncan is fine,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. “Now, my grandson tells me that you’re very nervous, so I just want you to relax as much as possible. Nothing is being decided today. Just tell me what happened in your own words, and then I’ll ask you some questions if anything’s unclear. I won’t punish you for anything that you tell me. This is just about finding out the truth so I can deal with the situation we’re in.” He raised his eyebrows at me. “Does that sound like a fair deal?”
“Um, okay.” I took a deep breath and looked down at my hands folded in my lap. “I want to start by saying I’m sorry for not coming to you sooner and for making everything worse. I made a mistake. I really want to fix it now.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “Glen conveyed your apologies several times already. I don’t want you to wallow in it. Let’s just get through your side of the story first, and I’ll worry about how to fix it later.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. Glen and I had gone over how much I would tell his grandfather, to support his lie that I had been working as a spy for him the whole time. “Well, at first, I tried to let the Court’s investigators find my mother, but I was worried about my sister, so I thought maybe I could find some kind of clue that you couldn’t.” It was easier to keep talking if I kept my eyes focused on my hands instead of on the Count. “I had some pictures from her store, before she cleaned it out. I went through them and found out that she had bought some of her supplies from another store in Cave City, so I went there looking for—for anything, but starting with the black market mushrooms.”
Duncan bobbed his head once. “Yes, Black Forrest Dreams, run by the dwarf Angelica Muhlenberg.” He turned to a note on his desk. “We searched the store yesterday but didn’t find any illegal substances.”
I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Things were happening just like before, with Mom and her Unseelie friends covering their tracks before the Court’s authorities could catch them. But I was done dealing with them—maybe the Court really would get to the bottom of things this time. The evidence I gave could help fill in the blanks and unravel their conspiracy.
Taking a deep breath, I continued, “I didn’t find anything at the store, but the woman there was very upset and told me to leave, and then at home I found a threatening letter with the Unseelie symbol on it. I showed that to Glen and the others, so they wanted to know how I recognized the Unseelie, and then I told them about seeing it in Byrnes Camp—the ghost town—before. And that my scrying spell told me the letter was delivered by the ghost of Sheriff Baumann, who’s also in Byrnes Camp. So we went there looking for more clues.”
Duncan nodded again. “Yes, unfortunately, that site has been used as a base of operations for the Unseelie before. I didn’t think they would return there, but my grandson showed me the new message you found there.”
I glanced up and saw his mouth twisting down into a frown. “That was the point when you all should have come to me,” he continued in a stern tone. “But Glen already explained that it was his decision to keep this knowledge among yourselves, so don’t apologize again. You figured out that the message indicated new communications should go through your mother’s store, so you made a plan to contact her?”
I coughed and my eyes slid to the left, not quite focusing on the stuff on his desk. Glen’s plan had been for Heather to contact my mom and leave me out of it, since he didn’t want me to know too much about the Unseelie. I’d written my own letter without telling my friends, and I hadn’t told them when I’d gotten a response. But I had to be careful how I phrased the next part of my story, because a faeriekin like Duncan would be able to tell if I was lying.
“I wrote a letter to my mom,” I said, as if it naturally followed from Glen’s plan. “I begged her to turn herself in, or at least to let my sister come home safely. She didn’t answer me directly, but then at school I was approached by Zil—Elizabeth Burbage.” I wasn’t sure how many people knew of the pookha girl’s unusual nickname, and I wanted to be clear.
Duncan said nothing, but he kept his gaze focused steadily on me.
“Zil said she couldn’t tell me if she’d seen my mother or not,” I added quickly. “But she let stuff slip that made it sound like she had. She promised me that she didn’t know where Akasha was, though, and I believed it.” My voice shook. “Anyway, she said I could get my sister back if I did things for her. That’s why I stole those things.”
The count folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Please describe the things that you took.”
The stealing was part of why I could get in major trouble, but I had to be totally honest about it now, especially since I’d lied before. “A book from the castle library called The Trial of Charles Byrnes,” I counted off on my fingers. “Pictures I took to copy Glen’s notes from the sorcery class at school. A few of Ashleigh’s hairs from her bedroom. I gave all of them to Zil, except for the third one, because they told me I couldn’t see her anymore. I gave those to Marzell Hoffman, because the ghost sheriff gave me another letter saying I was supposed to talk to him, then. And Marzell gave me a note from Zil, so I knew he was helping her and the Unseelie.” I’d gotten the order of events jumbled up in my retelling, as I remembered more details.
Duncan raised his eyebrows again. They looked really pointy when he did that, like he’d shaped them into triangles on purpose just to intimidate witnesses in his Court who were trying to avoid saying certain things. Well, maybe I was reading too much into them.
“Do you know why they wanted those things in particular?” he asked.
I lowered my eyes again. “Well, the first one they told me was just to get some kind of information from the castle to prove I was loyal to them instead of the Seelie.” I swallowed hard. “I—I picked the book because it mentioned opening some kind of gate, and Glen had been really strict about not letting anyone know about that. I thought it would go a long way toward getting their trust. I knew it was kind of dangerous, but I didn’t think there was enough information in the book for them to actually try anything.”
Duncan coughed, which made me look up in surprise, just as he tried to hide a smile behind his hand. “Yes, and my grandson says that the book was his idea for similar reasons. I’m not interested in assigning blame. What about the others?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t know why they asked me for Glen’s notes. I—uh, we—didn’t think there could be anything dangerous they learned from them. At the time, we had no idea they would ask for his help. But then I did ask to know about the thi
rd thing, because Zil said specifically that it had to be an object with personal ties to Ashleigh, and I knew that could be used to hurt her. She said it was to put a tracking spell on Ash. Again, we didn’t know about the kidnapping plot at the time.” I squirmed in my seat again. Whenever I was brave enough to look at Duncan, I couldn’t read his expression to figure out how much of my story he believed. I was telling the truth about how little I knew, but it sounded suspicious coming out of my mouth now.
“When did you find out the truth?” he said in a neutral tone.
Deep breaths. “Marzell told me to lure Ashleigh away on a ski trip for her birthday, and that raised all kinds of red flags.” I bit my lip. “So I tracked down Zil and demanded to know the whole plan. She spilled everything—the kidnapping, blackmailing Glen, forcing him to open the gate.”
Duncan sighed and turned back to his notes on the desk. “So once again, you and Glen decided to take matters into your own hands—”
“I wasn’t going to go through with it,” I insisted. “Even if it was a chance to get my sister back, I wasn’t going to risk Ashleigh, let alone everyone else, if Glen really did open that gate. He said that I could face my mom, try to get Akasha, and he would stop the ritual while finding out everyone who was involved. We all thought that if we told the whole Court, it could get back to the Unseelie, and they’d run before we had a chance to catch them. Because there could be spies.”
Duncan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands before him, and fixed me with a piercing stare. “Did you know anything about Sir Allen’s treason?”
I shook my head with honest ignorance. “No. Zil said they had spies in the Court, but I wasn’t sure if she was bluffing. I had no idea it was one of your guards. I barely knew who Sir Allen was before he got arrested.” I only had vague impressions of meeting the faeriekin knight in passing at parties and other times at the castle. Glen and Ashleigh were the only faeriekin I spent time with.
“That brings us up to Friday afternoon,” he prompted me.
Oh, dear. This was the worst part. I took a deep breath and gave him a condensed version. I even admitted that I let my mom go after she told me that Akasha had a different father, and she’d cast the spells to save her marriage after the affair.
By the end of it, I was gripping the sides of the wooden chair and breathing heavily to hold back the tears. I’d left out the parts about cheating on my boyfriend Kai with Zil, and some of the more personal things that Mom said to me, but they were all fresh in my mind. Fortunately, Duncan let me get through all of it without interruption, and if he knew that I wasn’t giving him certain details, he didn’t press me to reveal them.
“Very well.” Duncan turned back to his desk and shuffled around some papers, the serious Count once again. “We’ve received all of the material evidence you’ve turned over, but please tell us if you find or remember anything else that could help. We’re continuing to gather evidence in this matter, so don’t speak of this to anyone except those officially appointed by the Court. The trial is set for February 27, the next full moon, so that Fae can attend. You have agreed to give your testimony at the trial, and you may be questioned again before then as we prepare, so please be available.”
He cleared his throat and glanced back at me. “If you don’t feel safe from the Unseelie, you and your father may continue to stay here at the castle for as long as you like, and you may have any other protections that are within my power. What do you think?”
“Um—I think I’d better ask my dad about that.” And my friends. They would know better how much of a threat Mom and the others could still be to us.
The Count nodded a final time. “Let us know. Thank you for your cooperation, Rosa, and for your attempt at helping this Court. However, I think we’ll request that you refrain from contacting the Unseelie or any other dangerous individuals on your own in the future.”
I knew a dismissal when I heard it. I stood up and curtsied again. “Yes, Your Grace. I don’t want to ever go through this again,” I said, and I meant it. Undercover work just didn’t fit with me.
I turned and hurried out of the room, hoping that Count Duncan had no reasons to doubt my testimony, and went to tell my friends what had happened.
Dad and I decided that it was safe enough for us to go back to our little rental house by the river, with a new ghost protection ward from Ashleigh to keep out unfriendly spirits, but I came back to the castle the next day for the arraignment. Monday was President’s Day, so lots of people had the day off from work and school, and it felt like everyone from Madrone and the neighboring towns had shown up to watch. The Court’s Main Hall was filled with spectators, and more spilled out into other rooms and hallways.
Seeing the crowd that showed up just for the arraignment, I was nervous about the trial coming up in just nine days. The big news was already spreading out of our tiny community to the rest of the world. People would probably show up from all over California to see such a huge scandal in one of the local Faerie Courts. I’d be on the stand in front of all of them, explaining how I’d helped the Unseelie and let my own treacherous mother go free. Just thinking about it made me almost start hyperventilating.
Today, though, I wasn’t allowed in the courtroom while Count Duncan announced the charges against the accused. I had a seat just off to the side of the Hall’s main entrance, where I could wait to hear what happened.
Glen had warned me to brace myself for the worst—they hadn’t been able to find much material evidence against most of the people I’d named, so it was my word against theirs. They’d probably be brought up on lesser charges for now and released on bail. But he promised me that the Court’s official investigators were still searching hard for more evidence before the trial, and also looking for my mother, who could help link the whole group of conspirators together. His grandfather had even offered a lighter deal to any of the accused who gave up my mom’s location, but so far, no one was talking.
So I sat on the edge of the bench and stared at the door. I didn’t trust my legs to hold me if I stood up, but I was too nervous to sit still, so I jiggled my feet to pass the time. I’d hoped Ashleigh or someone would be able to text me the news, but of course cell phones weren’t allowed in the courtroom, so I would just have to wait to find out like everyone else.
After what felt like an eternity, the doors opened and the excited crowd spilled out. I climbed up on the bench and craned my neck to see over the sea of faces, trying to glimpse Zil or one of the others who’d been arrested, but they were all taken in and out of another entrance.
Glen, Ashleigh, and Heather all knew where to find me, so they pushed through the spectators over to my bench. Glen held up a hand to help me down with a shake of his head, and I knew from his disappointed expression what the outcome was.
“It’s just like we thought,” he said in a low tone, bending forward to speak into my ear. “Only the dryads and the satyrs were directly involved in the ritual, so they’re charged with that and being held without bail. Also my grandfather’s guard, that Allen, is charged with treason and being held. The Hoffmans were charged with accessory to kidnapping because they told me about Ashleigh, and Elizabeth was charged with blackmailing you into stealing, but they’re out on bail. School is going to be awkward tomorrow.”
I stiffened. I hadn’t even thought about the implications for school. Zil and Marzell were both in our class at Crowther Private Academy. We’d all have to face them.
I didn’t have much time to process that, though, because Ashleigh grabbed my other arm.
“There are other people looking for you,” she said, and pointed back at the door.
Sure enough, my kitsune ex-boyfriend Kai and my Fae patron were both there. They’d spotted me with my friends and were heading toward us now. I couldn’t think of a worse combination of people to face at the same time.
5
Hard Choices
Rosamunde
The Fae’s
longer legs reached me first. I’d learned to accept by now that he could just show up whenever and wherever he wanted to without worrying about how thin the Veil was like other Fae, so it didn’t really surprise me that he was there. What worried me was the way that he practically glowered down at me over my friends. No winks, no joking around, just a few words: “Rosa, we need to talk. Alone. Now.”
Ashleigh, Glen, and Heather all turned around to look up at him. They didn’t exactly trust the strange Fae who didn’t seem to have an official title or even a real name, since he called himself something different every time he showed up.
“What do you need her for?” Glen asked, drawing himself up to his full height and not so subtly flexing the muscles on his arms.
The Fae didn’t even look at him. “It’s personal, if you don’t mind?”
Kai had just managed to push his way in through the crowd and slipped between Ashleigh and me. “I mind. I need to talk to her more.” He looked back at me apologetically. “I had no idea how serious this all was, Rosa.”
Ugh. I definitely didn’t have the energy to deal with my ex right then, because I was sure he was going to beg for us to get back together, and I still didn’t know if that was a good idea. And I trusted my patron when he said that something was important. He could have information about my mother.
So I nodded to my friends to tell them it was okay, and accepted the Fae’s offered arm. “Sorry, Kai, but I think I’d better talk to him first. I’ll catch up with you later, guys,” I added to the others.
Glen and my other friends stepped back with answering nods, but Kai looked hurt. His fox ears slumped dejectedly. Too late, I remembered that once Kai and my patron had acted like rivals for my attention—a lifetime ago, before things happened with my mom, before Zil.
Fae of Calaveras Trilogy Box Set Page 54