Ange lifted a restraining hand. “Wait a minute. I’m running a starship, not a nursery.”
He gazed at her with contempt. “So much for your humanitarian concern, then.”
He turned and marched out the door, leaving her standing alone, her cheeks burning with guilt.
Muttering a curse on the whole Llewelyn family, Ange found a door to the outside and headed back to her ship. After instructing Jake where to begin offloading the supplies, she strode down the corridor that led to Ryol’s cabin. Reaching his door, she raised her fist and struck it a solid blow. She meant to have some answers.
“Who’s there?”
“It’s Captain Bennett.”
The door opened a crack. Ryol stared at her; his dark eyes glittered with cunning. “Ah, yes. We need to talk, captain. I’m sure you have some questions for me.”
As he spoke, Ryol pulled open the door to his cabin and moved back. Ange stepped inside. Hawk’s Flight was no luxury liner and Ryol’s quarters were small. A bed was shoved against the far wall and a stiff-backed chair occupied the other corner. To the right was the tiny head. The only other wall held a closet for clothes.
Ryol reached into a cooler at the foot of the bed and pulled out two tubes of beer. “My personal stash. Care to join me in a drink, captain?”
He broke the seal and handed her a tube.
“It’s about time you told me what you’re here for.” Ange took the icy cold beer from him. She retreated to a chair on the far side of the cabin, as far from Ryol as she could get, and perched on the edge. She was determined not to leave until she had some answers.
“As you may have gathered, I’ve made this journey to visit the meadow my brother keeps babbling about.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “I understood that much. Obviously, your brother thinks you’re doing something wrong. I’m not here to judge you. But I am concerned about whether it’s legal or not. I’ve got a license to protect. You’d better cough up some information.”
Ryol plopped down on his bed and leaned forward. “I’ve decided to tell you. You run a good ship with a clean reputation. I plan to continue to use your services, so I’ve decided it’s best to advise you about why I’ve come to Kyffin. But I warn you, you’re not going to believe me.”
Ange leaned back in her chair and surveyed her passenger. “Try me. I’ve visited my share of scum-hell worlds. Not much surprises me.”
His teeth flashed. “This might. Tell me, captain, do you believe in faeries?”
“What?” She laughed. “Sure I do, and pixies and gremlins and ghosts. What do you think? I’d better hear a straight story pretty darn quick or Hawk’s Flight is leaving, and you can find some other way to finish your business.”
His expression hardened. “I am telling you the straight story, so put your preconceptions aside for a moment and listen. This is an alien world, remember. It was certified uninhabited before the first colonists landed, but once they were settled strange things started to happen.”
“Strange things always happen.” Ange rolled her eyes. “I’ve heard this tale on a hundred worlds. The settlers start seeing balls of light in the distant hills, or unknown objects in the sky or mysterious beings who vanish the moment they are spotted.”
“Scoff if you want. That’s what happened, yes. But what the settlers saw turned out to be real. I’m talking about faeries—or at least shining creatures with luminous wings of light.”
Ange suppressed a chuckle. Ryol’s lack of honesty was irritating, but at least he was fairly inventive in his lies. “Faeries, is it? I’ll bet you have a lot of people here with Celtic blood in their veins. We humans take our folklore with us, wherever we go.”
“An interesting idea.” Ryol drummed his long fingers on his knee. “An even more interesting idea is that our folklore wants to go with us humans wherever we go.”
She frowned. “I’m not sure I follow. Are you suggesting these are Earth faeries and that they followed the settlers here to Kyffin?”
“Maybe. Or maybe they were here all along. Maybe these shining creatures, whatever they are, are spread throughout the galaxy, or inhabit a universe parallel to ours. In legend their land was called the Otherworld. It could be that they are highly evolved beings and humanity is only now catching up to them. Or perhaps their technology is so advanced the inhabitants of ancient Earth considered it magic.”
Ange shook her head. “And to think you struck me as a man with no imagination. Okay, what do these so-called faeries have to do with the meadow your brother mentioned? I gather that’s some sort of dark family secret.”
Ryol lifted his can of beer and took a long swallow, then set it down on the floor and wiped his lips. “Years ago when I was a teenager, I often climbed the mountain to get away from the settlement. My dad had died and my sister—Sharlene—delighted in finding endless tasks for me to do. I climbed high and sometimes I was gone for days. But I would gather fruit and nuts to bring back and that served as my excuse.”
She looked at his hard face. It was difficult to imagine this driven man any younger, any less intense, but she supposed even Ryol had once had a childhood.
“It was while I was climbing in the mountains that I saw the faerie lights. At first I thought I was seeing things, but soon I became convinced they were real. By then the settlement had existed for almost seventy years and it was well-known in local lore that the lights only appeared when both moons rose together—something that only happens once a year for two days. I knew I had to act fast.”
“So you chased these lights?”
“I marked out the area on the mountainside where I saw them and over the next day I narrowed down my search. That night, I found the meadow.”
The meadow. He said the words as if they held great significance. She raised an eyebrow. “And?”
“The faeries were there. They materialized out of nowhere when both moons rose together. As moonlight played across the field, they began to dance and danced until the first rays of dawn appeared.”
“A faerie dance?” She attempted a smile but Ryol’s serious look didn’t change.
He pointed a finger at her as if daring her to believe his words. “A faerie dance on such a hard, cold world as this. Difficult to accept. I could hardly believe it myself. I never told Sharene about it. She would have laughed and accused me of making up a tall tale to excuse my absence.”
“I can understand that.” Ange lifted her tube to her lips and tasted the beer. It was dark and bitter, like coffee left too long in the pot.
Ryol stared past her, a faraway look in his eyes. “Tomorrow will be the first night of another planetary year, and the faeries will come out of their Otherworld, wherever it might be, to dance in that meadow.”
Ange took another swig of beer. It was going to take a lot more alcohol before she could swallow such nonsense. Did Ryol expect her to believe him? A cold fear snaked its way up her spine. He had to be hiding some dubious activity behind this wild tale. But what? It was beginning to smell like something illegal. She’d always drawn the line there, no matter how desperate her need to keep Hawk’s Flight fueled and supplied.
She widened her eyes and gave him what she hoped was a naïve look. “All right—say for a moment I believe in faeries, even ones that dance. What makes all this matter enough to come halfway across the galaxy?”
He leaned forward. “You may believe me or not, but when the faeries dance, they leave behind a dust.”
Faerie dust! She bit down hard on her inner lip to keep from bursting out in laughter.
“I see you’re skeptical. I discovered it by accident. After their dance, as soon as they had vanished, I gathered up enough courage to walk into the field. Some of the dust settled on me. It has a strong—er—effect.”
Ange’s mouth twitched. “A magical effect, no doubt.”
Ryol half rose from the bed. “If you don’t want to hear my story—”
“No, no, sit down.” The man was paying her a ha
ndsome fee after all.
He shrugged and sat. “As I was saying, I discovered the dust by accident. Once I found out about its effect, I gathered some. A mere handful. I had to wait for the dance the following year to get another handful. The dust is very light and blows away on the slightest breeze. I scoured the meadow like any farmer looking for the last grain of his crop, only the precious substance I harvested is almost invisible. I use the rare grains as the primary ingredient in Scent of Magic.”
Scent of Magic, his powerful perfume. With faerie dust as a secret ingredient.
Ange didn’t know whether to laugh in his face or curse him for a liar. If he wanted to keep his secret ingredient to himself, fine. She hadn’t asked him to tell her what it was. If it was some rare plant found in the meadow why didn’t he just say so and be done with it?
“That’s an interesting way to make perfume,” she managed to say.
“You don’t know the half of it. I left Kyffin ten years ago with a handful of the dust hidden in a small packet in my right pocket. From that, I have built my fortune. It was a long struggle to make the money I needed to develop the perfume, but I never lost sight of my vision. Now Scent of Magic is in great demand, and the supply needs to be renewed.”
Taking a deep breath, she blinked at Ryol. His thin face looked crafty and cold.
She wet her lips. “Okay, I believe there is something on this world you want, something rare. I’m not buying this tall tale about faerie dust, but from your reaction it’s safe to say whatever it is, it’s found up there on that mountain, maybe in this meadow the two of you keep yapping about. Fine. Whatever it is, it must be a potent chemical to have that effect in perfume but there’s no reason to tell me all the details as long as it’s not illegal.”
Humor gleamed in Ryol’s dark eyes. “As far as I know, faerie dust is legal on every world.”
Ange had to give him credit, when he lied he did a thorough job of it. She decided to push him a bit. “How do you use the dust to make perfume?”
“Ah!” His face lit up with pleasure. “All it takes is a single grain, added to the perfume at the right moment, and a rich and enchanting scent suffuses the whole batch. The effect is magical indeed. In ancient faerylore, it’s called the glamour.”
“Glamour?” It was a word she disliked. One of the men who’d fallen under her spell had told her she’d bewitched him with her glamour. It was a curse.
“It’s an ancient term for the effect of faerie magic on humans. It gives an irresistible quality—while it lasts. Anyone who wears my Scent of Magic becomes overwhelmingly attractive to the opposite sex.”
Well, that explained Blane. Color rose in Ange’s cheeks as she thought of how she’d nearly laid back on that desk and spread her legs for him—and all because of a damned perfume.
It was a good thing she’d suspected he was wearing the scent.
“What if a man wears it?” she asked, wanting to know the full truth.
A satisfied smirk stretched Ryol’s thin lips. “I discovered the secret of its effect when some dust drifted down over me. I returned to the village with a few grains of faerie dust in my hair and the women threw themselves at my feet.”
Her fingers curled into fists. If he dared to show her the bottle again, she’d smash it. She could barely abide the sight of his self-indulgent leer.
He glanced at her sideways, his dark eyes taking on a calculating look. “I don’t usually wear my perfume—I want to keep my identity secret and the scent would only attract attention to me. But I have worn it once or twice to see the mighty bow before me. Certain women—beautiful women—”
Ange struggled to keep her disgust from showing. She’d heard the powerful were using the perfume to seduce those they wanted into their beds. At least Ryol’d kept his promise and stayed in his cabin during the voyage. He’d never responded to her scent as Blane had.
Not that she’d ever worn Scent of Magic. She didn’t need perfume. If only the explanation of her lifelong curse was as simple as a dusting of faerie magic. She’d take a long bath and be free.
She forced herself back to reality. “Can anyone resist your perfume?”
His gaze darkened as he continued to stare at her. “No. Those who wear Scent of Magic can have the heart of whoever they chose—for as long as they wear the perfume.”
A chill ran down Ange’s spine. What if Ryol tried his perfume on her? The thought of being kissed by those thin lips, or touched by those constantly twitching fingers repulsed her. And the thought that her attraction to Blane might be nothing more than a side effect of this potent dust was even worse. She shuddered as she suppressed the memory of the sweet sensation of his hand cupping her breast.
“Must be a big market for that,” she said with a forced smile. The idea was revolting. Who would want a love that was based on some scent affecting the brain’s chemistry? She lifted her chin, determined to keep her distance from both brothers and get off Kyffin as fast as she could.
“You can’t even imagine. I had no choice but to return here for more dust.”
She leaned back in her chair and with a neutral expression. Best to hide how foul the whole idea smelled to her. If any of it were true, he was selling whatever he’d found in the meadow to buyers who used it to manipulate other people. “People must pay you a lot for it then.”
He nodded. “They do, and many would do anything to learn the secret of its making. That’s why I hired you. This is a clandestine operation. No one must learn of my connection to Kyffin.”
“No, I suppose not.”
He seemed to sense her revulsion. His eyes narrowed. “You don’t approve of how I made my fortune.”
“It looks like you took the money and ran, leaving a lot of people behind.”
He eyed Ange. “The traders took me and Blane because we could earn our keep. They would have thrown anyone else off the ship. And even if I’d told the others about my discovery, they would have had no understanding of how to make a profit off of it. Now that my fortune is made, I’m prepared to be generous.”
She remembered the crumbling concrete of the buildings, and Michel’s patched pants. “These people could use your generosity.”
He sneered. “These people don’t care about the meadow. They don’t even know about it. They are too busy trying to scratch a bare living from this land, and they’ve lost hope for the future. That hope died before I left. The food and other supplies we’ve brought will ease their lives for quite a while. They will be grateful.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it. Blane wouldn’t tell me a thing.”
“He’s like them, suspicious of outsiders. He still thinks of himself as a colonist, I’m sure. I’ve told you more than I should have, because you can keep your mouth shut. I plan to expand my business, now that I know things are much as I left them. I want to come every year to accumulate a supply of dust. I need a ship to take me back and forth in secret. You could become wealthy too, if you cooperate with my plans.”
Although the words were spoken without inflection, she saw the cold warning light deep in his eyes. She tapped a fingernail against her tube of beer. “I know how to keep quiet as long as I’m paid.”
“See that you do.” Ignoring his half-finished beer, he pushed himself to his feet. “Both moons will rise tomorrow as soon as the sun sets. I’ll travel up the mountain to my meadow and wait for the faery dance. A fresh handful of dust is all I need to keep my customers satisfied for some time. Later, when I am ready to expand, I’ll gather more.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No. I don’t expect any trouble from Blane.”
“How can you be sure?”
Ryol smirked. “He’s my brother, and we have an agreement of our own. I’ve only told you this much to assure your full cooperation. I’ll be back first thing in the morning with a fresh supply of dust.”
She watched him with narrowed eyes. Faerie dust indeed! Scent of Magic…she’d like to have some of
that perfume. She’d use it to drive this pompous ass mad.
She shook her head in disbelief. Some powerful chemical was involved, that much was certain. Taking a sip of her beer, she considered her options. She’d do a little investigating of her own as soon as both moons rose.
Chapter Seven
“Aaachoo!” The force of her sneeze shook Ange’s whole body. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Dirt balls! The dust in Kyffin’s air made her nose tickle. Even a walk was a disgusting experience. She’d sneezed three times on her short journey from the ship to the warehouse at the north end of the first concrete building.
“Gods bless!”
“Pardon me?” Ange turned to see Blane standing in the warehouse entrance, his feet planted in his usual confident stance, his arms folded. She could have sworn he hadn’t been there a moment ago. His tall form and broad shoulders half filled the doorway. He’d spent the night off the ship, with the colonists, and she was surprised to see him alone.
“Gods bless. It’s something we say when people sneeze. The blessing keeps you from blowing your soul right out of your body.”
She sniffed at such primitive nonsense. The sparkle in his eyes suggested he was teasing her. Determined not to be sidetracked by his roguish charm, she marched past him without a glance and headed inside the warehouse. As her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light, she examined the rows of neatly stacked crates. Jake had done his usual efficient job offloading the cargo.
She heard a sound and turned to find Blane behind her. Good. She had a question for him. “All the crates marked for Kyffin are off the ship. But there are at least ten crates still on board.”
“That’s right.” Blane stared at her, his face expressionless.
Ange sighed. More of their damned evasiveness. If they wanted to pay her to transport crates from Tau Delta to Kyffin and back, that was their business. Her responsibility was done. The crates for Kyffin were off the ship, and Ryol was busy with his own schemes, whatever they were. She could go back to her ship and wait until he was ready to leave.
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