by Peter Glenn
“I’ll be good. I swear.”
LaLuna grabbed my hand and squeezed. “You have my gratitude, Sir Damian,” she said. Then, she turned and started walking ahead of me.
We came upon the Unseelie Court a moment later. It was an outdoor arena much like its cousin, but that’s where the similarities stopped. There was no sign of anything alive, save for the two people that sat on large chairs that had been hewn out of the stone around them, and the lush canopy of stars was instead replaced with what looked like a perpetually setting sun that put a glare in my eyes and kept me from looking directly at almost anything.
Not exactly a warm welcome.
“Welcome, guests of the court,” a melodic voice said a moment later. It was kind of like Oberon’s, but in the complete opposite direction. I couldn’t quite explain it.
Still, it was welcoming, while Oberon’s had not been. Maybe I was wrong.
The voice was coming from the larger of the two fae in the throne room; the one sitting in front of me. He looked semi-human, but overly slim and lithe, like he was extremely under-fed. His face had an ageless look to it. He was dressed all in black, satiny clothing, and he had a certain power to his voice that was hard to ignore.
“And who has graced the Unseelie Court with their presence?” he continued.
Well, this was much nicer than King Stuffy and friends. I opened my mouth to say something, then remembered my promise to LaLuna and remained silent.
LaLuna had a worried expression on her face. “Your Majesty, where are the king and queen?”
“Magus and Titania are... indisposed,” the larger fae responded. “But do not fret. You have the grand honor of speaking to Melisande and Cleon, the current... appointees to the court.” He concluded his speech with a grand flourish and a slight bow.
The one speaking must have been Melisande, I figured. Which meant the silent one sitting to the left of me was Cleon. Information for later, in case I needed it.
“Melisande,” LaLuna said, bowing. “Last I heard, you were a lesser noble, not even related to the royal family. Tell me, is Regin available to speak with? I believe he would be next in line for the throne.” She bit her lip again. I wasn’t sure if they caught it, but I did. “My apologies, but I feel this matter would be best brought before the ruler of the Unseelie.”
“That is... not possible at this juncture,” Melisande said with another flourish. “I am afraid Regin is not... capable of speaking to one such as yourselves right now, either.”
LaLuna looked downtrodden. “I see. Well, then, who is the current regent?”
Melisande pointed to himself. “That would be me, of course.” His lips curled into a wry smile. “I assure you, whatever you have to say, you can tell it to me.”
I had the very distinct impression that the truth was the exact opposite, but I’d promised to stay out of this one, so I just sat there with my mouth hanging open like an idiot.
“Very well,” LaLuna said. “My tale is thus...”
Once more, she spun her tale, though I noticed this time it was a very abridged version. She left out certain parts like her mother’s death and, most notably, where baby Grace was at this very moment. Did she not trust these fae? If so, I couldn’t blame her.
“A very interesting tale,” Melisande said, nodding. “And a sad one, to boot. That poor, poor, child.”
“Indeed,” LaLuna concluded. “Very sad.”
“What is the baby’s name, child, so that I might tell you more about her?” Melisande asked.
Strange. I’d listened to LaLuna’s whole speech, and she’d never referred to the baby as a “her”. How did he know that?
“The baby’s name is Grace, my lord,” LaLuna said. “That is all I know about her. I don’t even know what powers she might have.”
“Grace, you say?” There was a flicker of recognition that passed across Melisande’s face, but it was gone just as quickly.
LaLuna nodded.
“Hmm.” Melisande looked up at the sky for a moment, lightly tapping his finger on the armrest of his throne all the while. “I have heard of the name, for certain, but...”
“But what, my lord?” LaLuna sounded a little too eager for my liking.
Melisande looked straight at us and shrugged. “But nothing. I do not recall all the specifics.”
The statement struck me as odd. LaLuna had told me after the last encounter to pay attention to what was not said. He’d said he didn’t remember all the specifics. That meant he must remember something.
I opened my mouth, but closed it again just as quickly. This was LaLuna’s fight. I’d made a promise.
“Do you have something to add, human?” Melisande asked. He was looking straight at me with a slightly bemused expression.
I pointed a finger at my chest, but stayed mute.
“Yes, you. Damian, was it? What say you in this whole sordid affair?”
I looked over at LaLuna for permission. She grudgingly nodded her head.
“Well, I... uh...” I cleared my throat and dug down. “I think you’re full of it.”
“Ho-ho!” Melisande shouted. He reared back in his throne and put his legs underneath him so he was sitting on his haunches. “The little human has teeth! What joy!”
I heard a snort from beside me. I turned and saw Cleon smiling and giggling at me. I wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good thing that I’d amused her, but at least I wasn’t dead yet.
“You are refreshing, for a human,” Melisande continued. “I can see why some of the other fae have taken such a liking to your kind.”
“Well, thank y–” I started, but LaLuna shushed me before I could finish the sentence.
“Enough with your games, Melisande,” LaLuna said. “Can you help us or not?”
“Hmm,” he said, fingering his pointy chin with one hand. “Perhaps I can. But then again, perhaps I cannot.”
“Why are all of you so damn infuriating?” I practically yelled, rolling my eyes at him.
“Ho-ho!” Melisande fired back. His eyes sparkled in the low light as he turned his attention back to me. “I like your style, little human. You are not daunted by our presence. Perhaps not the best trait, considering where you stand, but I like your gumption all the same.”
“Pfft.” I wanted to strangle him. “Just tell us what you know already so we can be off.”
“And right to the point, as well!” He glanced over at Cleon, his face practically beaming, then he looked to me again with a leveled gaze, steepling his fingers together in front of his chest. “Very well, little human. I will tell you some of what I know.”
“That’s more like it,” I told him, putting my hands on my hips and standing in the best power pose I could.
“I have heard of a child named Grace before. That much, I can tell you.”
I groaned. “I figured that much.”
“Wait!” Melisande cried. “There is more. I know who she is. Or rather, who she could be.”
My eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean, exactly?”
“Hmm.” He put a couple fingers on his chin and looked up at the sky, like Oberon had done. “That’s for you to figure out.”
I guffawed and glanced over at LaLuna. “Let’s go,” I told her, tugging on her shoulder. “They’re not going to be any more help than King Stuffy was.”
“King Stuffy?” Melisande said with a raised brow. “You mean Oberon, don’t you? That insufferable fool.”
“Tch. You’re not much better,” I sized him up and down and turned my attention back to LaLuna.
“You wound me, Damian,” Melisande said, puffing out his chest and placing a hand over his heart. “I am nothing like that horrid little man.”
“Oh yeah?” I said. This was the kind of opening I’d been waiting for. “Prove it.”
“Ha ha ha!” Melisande cried out. He leaned back against one of the armrests and placed a hand on the top of his head. “You just don’t stop, do you?” He turned his head slightly
and looked straight at me. “But very well. You have gotten the better of me in this exchange. I shall reveal a little more.”
Melisande sat up straight in his chair, legs on the ground, and his hands on the armrests. He looked more serious and more focused than he had the entire conversation.
He gave a long, low sigh. “I cannot guarantee that your Grace is the one I know, but I am willing to bet they are one and the same. Grace is not that popular of a name.” He leaned a little forward in his chair and lowered his voice. “Suffice it to say, she is fae royalty. One day, she might even become a member of the Unseelie Court, as it were. But only if things don’t proceed along their current path.”
Baby Grace? Fae royalty? Suddenly, it was all making sense. The attack on LaLuna’s mother, the people chasing after her... All of it made a lot more sense if you knew Grace was part of the royal line.
Though it only answered part of the puzzle. The attackers hadn’t shown any particular care for Grace. I could get why they’d want to kill LaLuna, but why kill Grace, as well? Shouldn’t they be protecting her? Unless I’d massively misread things.
“So Grace is part of the line of succession?” I asked.
Melisande used one hand to rub at something I couldn’t see on his outfit, then held the hand out in front of him and stared at it intently. “That is all I can say at this time, unfortunately.” He frowned at me. “Or at least, all you will get.”
“Ugh. Fine. Be that way.” I groaned again, but Melisande was staring off into space, like I wasn’t even there. It was clear I wasn’t going to get anything else out of him.
“Come on, LaLuna,” I said, tugging on her shirt again.
LaLuna bowed in front of Melisande. “You have our gratitude,” she mumbled. Then she turned and left with me.
We walked in silence for several minutes until we were back near the boulder that had been blocking our path on the way in. It was surprisingly absent once again, which annoyed me even more.
“I am sorry for taking you through that,” LaLuna said.
“Meh.” I shrugged. “It’s all good. At least we have some information now.”
LaLuna nodded. “Indeed. We know that Grace is fae royalty of the Unseelie line. But not who her parents are, or what happened to them.” She smiled at me. “But still, I suppose it’s something.”
“Yep. Maybe we can find someone out there who knows a little more about her now,” I offered.
“Perhaps.” LaLuna shook slightly and looked at a spot on her shirt like she was confused. “That’s odd,” she told me.
“What’s that?”
“The device you gave me earlier,” LaLuna said. “The one that lets me speak with Yuri?”
“My phone, you mean?” Sometimes it was hard to remember just how little she knew of the human world; especially given how expert she was in the fae one.
She nodded. “Yes, that.” She reached into a pocket to the side of her breast and pulled out the device. “It keeps buzzing at me. Why would it do that?”
“Here, let me see.”
LaLuna gingerly handed the device over to me like it had gone crazy or something. Hadn’t it vibrated when Yuri had messaged her earlier? Maybe the vibrator had been off then...
I chuckled. “It’s probably just Yuri sending another picture of Grace. It’s been hours since we talked to him.”
Part of me was shocked that it even worked in the fae realm. But hey, I wasn’t going to turn down free interdimensional service. At least I hoped I wasn’t paying roaming fees right now. That would be a downer.
But when I pressed the power button to turn on the screen, all the mirth and color drained away from my face. I wasn’t missing one cute baby pic or message from Yuri.
No, I was missing forty-seven.
Chapter Ten
“WHAT THE...?” I SAID, almost swearing at my phone. “How am I missing forty-seven messages?”
“Is that a lot?” LaLuna asked me, peeking her head over my phone.
“Meh, I mean, in a few hours, it sure is.” I tapped on the message notification icon, and my finger rapped on the side of the phone impatiently while waiting for it to scroll through and take me to the start of the oldest missed message.
That’s when I did a double take. The oldest missed message was from...
“Three days ago!” I shouted. “We’ve been gone for three days?”
LaLuna shrugged. “Time can work in strange ways in the fae realm. Sometimes hours take days in the human world. Sometimes it’s mere minutes. No one can really say for sure.”
“And you knew about this?” I gave her my best glare.
“There was nothing I could do about it,” LaLuna insisted, “so I tried not to worry about it. Besides, usually the difference isn’t too jarring.”
“Not too jarring?” I’d had just about enough of the fae realm’s trickery by this point, and was a little shorter with her than I intended.
LaLuna shrunk away from me and backed up a half step, hands out in front of her. I could see that I’d hurt her with my tone, so I took a moment to breathe in and out and relax so I could speak with her more rationally.
“I’m sorry, LaLuna,” I said. “I just... I wish I’d known. I thought we’d only been gone for four or five hours. Had I known we’d been gone that long, I would have...”
“Would have what, Sir Damian?”
She was looking at me with her big doe eyes, blinking softly in the harsh light of the Unseelie sun. It was something else.
“I... uh... I don’t know, actually.” I let out a long sigh. “I suppose little Grace was safe enough the whole time. Still, I would have made an effort to check in more or something. Not left Yuri in the lurch like that.”
Not that I’d even realized until two minutes ago that that was even possible.
LaLuna smiled at me. “I understand. I’ve been worried about what little Grace has been up to, too.”
“Exactly.” I grinned back at her.
“So, what does Yuri have to say, anyway?” she asked.
I scanned the first few messages. They were all pretty basic. Baby had nap. Baby was stinky. You change next diaper, okay? There was a smiley face emoji with that one. Baby loves her bottle. That one had a picture of Grace with one hand curled around the side of a bottle that was sticking out of her little mouth. I smiled at that one.
“Oh, not much I suppose,” I said, scrolling through more of the same. “Here’s a pic of her, though, if you want to see it.”
“Yes, please.”
I showed her the bottle pic, and I heard a tiny squeal, then I went back to scrolling through the messages. The more recent ones were a little more frantic. Where you go, Damian? Why no reply? Baby misses you.
Not exactly shocking, given that no one had told Yuri we’d be gone for any great length of time, or that we’d be incommunicado for it.
Then I got to the last message. It was from two minutes ago, so I knew he was currently active. Code blue, it said.
“Code blue?” I repeated out loud.
“What’s that?” LaLuna asked. She was biting her lip ever so slightly and had a worried expression on her face.
“Yuri’s last message. It says ‘Code blue’. Not sure what it means.”
LaLuna’s face paled. “That was the code word we decided on in case there was trouble with the baby.”
“What?!” I spat. “Grace is in trouble?”
“She could be,” LaLuna admitted. “Text him back. Ask him what happened.”
My fingers flew over the keyboard. Are you okay? Do you need us to come?
“Come on, come on,” I repeated as I tapped the side of the phone impatiently. “There’s no answer. He’s not saying anything.”
“We must go to him!” LaLuna exclaimed. “See what the matter is.”
A sickening feeling in my gut told me she was right, and this wasn’t just a case of an over-explosive diaper. I didn’t know what was wrong exactly, but Yuri’s warning message combined with no
further replies told me it was something dire. The guy could be a little overzealous from time to time, but he was very serious.
“You’re right,” I told her. “What’s the quickest way to get back to Tacobeh’s reservation?”
LaLuna bit her lip again. “Umm...” Her voice trailed off.
“What? What is it?” I demanded. I opened my mouth to press her further, then what she wasn’t saying dawned on me, and the blood drained my face. “We have to take another portal, don’t we?”
“Indeed,” LaLuna admitted, lowering her gaze. “We could use my teleportation magic, but that might alert whoever else is after her to our presence. And if it’s a false alarm, well...”
She didn’t have to finish that thought. The last thing I wanted to do was alert the enemy to Grace’s location. I’d rather go through ten portals than do that.
I nodded and braced myself. “Right. Where’s the nearest portal, then?”
“Are you sure?” LaLuna still seemed hesitant.
“Of course I’m sure! Lead the way!” I wasn’t sure, but anything for Grace, right? I’d promised to do my best to help.
“It’s right over there.” She pointed with one of her fingers toward a glowing circle in the ground not twenty feet away.
“That’s the one we could have taken to get here, right?” I said, frowning. LaLuna nodded.
Ugh, maybe I should have taken it. Maybe Grace wouldn’t be in trouble now if we’d only been faster. How could I have let my distaste for portals endanger her?
I shook my head. Thinking like that would do no one any good. Not now. All I could do now was reach her quickly.
“How is that portal going to lead us to Grace? Won’t it just take us back to the Seelie Court? At least tell me I don’t have to see those jerks again.”
“No, you don’t,” LaLuna said with a half chuckle. “It’s a hard thing to explain.” She paused and put a finger on her lips. “In addition to fae destinations, every portal can be used to transport fae to the human world. But...”
I didn’t like the sound of that ‘but’. “But what?”
“Well...” She seemed to be fishing for the right words. “The thing is, the portal can take you anywhere in the human world. Anywhere at all. But you have to... tell it where you want it to take you.”