“How did Jeschen poison Cl’rnce?” Hazel asked, trying to keep her voice kind so she didn’t alarm the little cat.
“Not telling,” the cat said, squeezing her eyes shut. “I’m hungry.”
Hazel carefully and quietly moved her tail until she managed to swing it up and encircle it around the cat. She tightened until she had a good grip on the cat/genie. “You’ll eat when you answer.”
“No.” Silkkie wiggled a bit on Hazel’s shoulder as if settling in for a nap. “He doesn’t look so good.”
At that moment Cl’rnce stopped snoring, stopped breathing. Hazel, Gaelyn, and Great and Mighty all forgot about the cat and turned to him. “Do something!” Hazel ordered.
Great and Mighty ran at Cl’rnce and dove at his big chest: hands out. She landed hard and pushed harder so that her face went purply-red. Nothing happened. She stepped back and threw herself at him again. This time he snorted and started breathing, but his breaths were quick and shallow. “He’s getting worse,” she wailed.
“That’s it, Silkkie. No more games. Tell us about this Jeschen. We have to save Cl’rnce,” Hazel shouted. She told herself she was just worried about the Primus, but in her head, pictures played of her little brother and herself as young Dragonelles, laughing and arguing, but always family.
Silkkie snapped back, “I’ll show you, but we’ll need an army. It’s dangerous.”
Fear that the Jinn was talking about a Fae invasion sent a cold chill climbing up and down Hazel’s scales. The Summer and Winter Queens had been mentioned along with war. Was the Prophecy really happening?
Hazel ordered, “Great and Mighty will stay here with Cl’rnce, and we’ll gather an army and go after Jeschen. Now!” She had to do something. She hoped capturing this mysterious Jeschen could stop whatever plan the Courts had.
“I wouldn’t do that,” said Silkkie. “I’d leave your army here, all around the school, to guard Cl’rnce. Jeschens never do their dastardly deeds on their own. They’re always controlled. Someone wants you to go after Jeschen so they can get to Cl’rnce. Just saying.” The cat sat back and licked her shoulder.
Hazel darted a look at Gaelyn. But her Wizard Partner had her eyes closed like she did when she was thinking hard and deep. Even though now Hazel knew Gaelyn was Fae, she just didn’t seem any different than before. She was offering to help, even if she was not telling Hazel everything she knew.
“Then we’ll all stay and guard him.” Hazel paced.
“No. You need to go get Jeschen to cure your brother. And really take as few as possible. Otherwise you’ll never sneak up. The Jeschen has been to the Fae planes,” the Jinn said. “I can get us all there.”
As much as Hazel wanted Gaelyn to not be a Fae, or to turn her back on them, there was no way Hazel would trust Silkkie. She was known to love nothing better than fabricating fantastic stories. Gaelyn had just reminded them all of that. But Cl’rnce was in trouble. What if the Jinn wasn’t lying? Hazel couldn’t take a chance.
Hazel rang a bell. Immediately five Dr’gons appeared in the chamber, all wearing armor like a huge version of that worn by the knights in the Knights Academy. “Gather as many knights as are trained. Guard the school. Guard Cl’rnce. Do not let in any strangers. No, do not let in any visitors of any kind. Two of you stay in this chamber and watch Cl’rnce at all times. Only Great and Mighty comes near him. You will do whatever she says.” She gave them her most imperious glare.
The Dr’gons tapped their chests with their right paws and nodded. Two stepped to either side just inside the doorway, and the other three hurried out and down the hall in three different directions.
“Gaelyn, I’ll give you a choice. You can stay and help here or come with me and the cat.” Hazel watched her Wizard Partner. She was not sure what Gaelyn would do, if she would help. If Gaelyn stayed, Hazel would treat that as a threat against Cl’rnce, that Gaelyn was an enemy and would use the chance to attack the Primus while Hazel was away.
Squinting at Silkkie, Gaelyn shook her head. “There is no choice. Great and Mighty will keep Cl’rnce alive until we return with a cure.” She looked at the snoring Dr’gon. “If you will agree, Great and Mighty, I will cast a time suspension on him. That should stop the poison for a while.”
“Poison,” Hazel repeated to herself. She’d been so busy thinking about attacks, that she’d forgotten about the poison.
Settling down next to Cl’rnce, Great and Mighty nodded. “How long?”
Gaelyn sucked in her lips. “I’m not sure since I don’t know the poison. But we’ll return as fast as we can.” She laid a slender hand on Cl’rnce’s brow. “Stay.” His chest stopped rising and lowering. The snoring stopped.
Eyes as huge as platters, Great and Mighty asked, “He’s not breathing! He’s not dead, is he?”
Gaelyn shook her head. “No. Just suspended in time. You can tell by his color. Dr’gons turn as white as a pearl when they die.”
Great and Mighty leaned back against the wall behind her.
“Stay,” Hazel said to Cl’rnce, a little encouraged that maybe Gaelyn meant to help if she was coming with Hazel. “I like that. Can you teach my brother to fetch, roll over? Or even to work?” she asked Gaelyn. For a second she let herself believe they would solve this, let herself believe that Gaelyn’s lies had been told for some reason other than treason. She allowed a small smile to chase away a bit of her deep fears for her brother, but the moment passed, and her heart beat fast again. “Let’s go.”
Gaelyn nodded, and Silkkie complained, “What about my dinner?”
“Eat now? Really?” Hazel asked.
“Really. She’s stubborn, and she will not help unless she has food. We’re only taking a minute.” Gaelyn glared at Silkkie, mouthed “transport to kitchen” and as the cat whipped her tail, Gaelyn snapped her fingers.
Transporting even a short distance could knock a Dr’gon off their feet. Gaelyn reached out to steady Hazel, but her Dr’gon Partner flinched away, shaking her head. Gaelyn felt a twinge of regret that the sudden transport had surprised Hazel to the point of stumbling, but did trying to help deserve the glare Hazel gave her?
It wasn’t like they’d transported to some faraway place full of evil Fae. They’d simply moved to the kitchens on the ground floor of the school. Although Gaelyn wanted to help Cl’rnce, she really needed to get back to Elm Court and find out why the hall had been empty. And why Silkkie was so insistent that Hazel and Gaelyn go to Elm after the supposed Jeschen. Gaelyn was certain Silkkie was not telling the truth about Jeschen. But what was the truth?
She’d returned to the Dr’gon Realms to help Hazel and Cl’rnce, but she couldn’t get rid of the feeling that the problem in Elm was connected to Cl’rnce. It felt like more than coincidence that all this was happening at the same time. What if Summer or Winter Queen had attacked Elm? What could they have done to her people? Could the attacking Fae have been after Gaelyn?
If the attack on Elm was to get to Gaelyn, and the secret of where she had been all these years had been discovered, that made sense. Both Queens would be furious that Uncle Firth had hidden Gaelyn in the Dr’gon realms, away from their influence. Either or both of the Summer and Winter Queens would do anything to get her back to Elm. They wouldn’t hesitate to send an assassin like this Jeschen to attack Cl’rnce if they thought it would force Gaelyn back to Elm for a cure.
It was a plan that might just be about to work. Gaelyn was anxious to go back to Elm. If her Court was under attack, she had to help. If by returning, she could save Cl’rnce, she had an even greater incentive to go.
Gaelyn watched Hazel pace the kitchen. The Dr’gon shuddered as she neared the small windows and looked out and up. She hated confined spaces, and the kitchen’s puny six-foot tall windows would never allow Hazel an easy way to fly out. She growled as she paced again and again.
Gaelyn jerked away from watching Hazel. Two things were very wrong in the kitchen: the Dr’gon chef wasn’t in the kitchen, and Gaelyn could sense a
Fae. There at the fireplace, that person was a Fae. Was this differently shaped Fae the same one who had been in the tower? The stranger at the fireplace gave Gaelyn and her group a quick look, then turned back and stirred and sniffed the cooking food. Gaelyn sensed a flicker of fear before the fluffy-haired, well-cushioned, short female bustled back and forth. The stranger did not look at them, but Gaelyn was sure the cook knew Gaelyn, another Fae, was in the room.
The strange Fae moved in a frantic manner, never lifting her eyes from the pots as she added sprinkles of this and that from the rows of pockets in her apron. Finally, she nodded and said in a voice with only a tiny quaver, “No. Lunch is not ready. Don’t bother me anymore. And do not steal any of my rutabaga and strawberry tarts. They cannot be eaten yet, like I told you before.” The fluffy cook’s head turned, and she looked at them now. Gaelyn felt that the Fae already knew the answer when she asked, “Who?”
“Are you?” Hazel finished. “I haven’t seen you before. Where is our Dr’gon cook?”
“Vacation.” The fluffy old lady shuffled over and held out a green-stained hand, then quickly wiped it on her apron. “I am Jeschen. Top cook in Albion. I’m standing in for your chef. Get ready for some amazing cookery.”
“Jeschen!” Hazel hissed, fire spitting between her fangs.
Despite the flat out lie about the Dr’gon cook, Gaelyn felt this Jeschen did not give off any feelings that said she wanted to harm anyone. But she did have the vibration of a Fae whose form could change. That was rare. Had this been the slender Fae Gaelyn had seen for just a second in the tower?
Jeschen felt — sincere? Was Gaelyn wrong that she might have been the spy from the tower?
But how could this Fae cross to the Dr’gon plane, much less there be a second one in the tower? Gaelyn doubted her ability to correctly sense this Fae. Maybe being away from the Fae plane had damaged her abilities to read them. This Jeschen felt like a real cook. But why would she be in the Dr’gon Realms where Fae were banned?
“She did it!” Silkkie yowled. “She poisoned Cl’rnce!”
Gaelyn was about to dispute her cranky Jinn when Jeschen’s eyes grew as big as her pots. She plunged her hands into her apron pockets and came out with fistfuls of herbs. Tossing them straight at Hazel and Gaelyn, she muttered something Gaelyn couldn’t hear over the roar of the quick blast of air that jetted the leaves and stems into her eyes. When Gaelyn could see again, Jeschen was gone, and Hazel seemed frozen in place.
Silkkie purred for a second, then hissed. “You let her escape! Now we’ll never get the cure for Cl’rnce.”
Gaelyn glared at Silkkie. “You know where she went, I can tell.” The purr had been the give-away that Silkkie was feeling important because she knew something no one else did. And the growl … if Jeschen was a spy or assassin, she’d most likely head back to the Fae Courts. Which one?
“Silkkie is right. We have to search the Fae Courts,” Gaelyn said. She didn’t want to admit she was afraid Jeschen might be an assassin, but she wanted to get home and find out. There were enough lies between Gaelyn and Hazel. Gaelyn would have to take Hazel with her and prove that Gaelyn was on the Dr’gons’ side by capturing this Jeschen.
One hand firmly grasping her Jinn’s middle, she ordered Silkkie while at the same time she grabbed Hazel’s paw. “We transport now!” she shouted. “With me, Silkkie. Elm Court, Elm Court, Elm Court.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Gaelyn tossed them into whirling winds which were so strong they blew under and lifted Hazel’s heavy scales. Before Hazel could yell at her, Gaelyn brought them to a stop.
They were Home. Not the empty Hall, but the Great Elm Meadow that Gaelyn had loved since she was a child. The grass was springy under her feet, and the fragrance of flowers swirled all around. Everything was green and bright colors. No doubt Silkkie had taken the opportunity to not just help in the transport, but to skew it a little, away from Elm Hall. The little Jinn thought it was hilarious to not quite do what Gaelyn asked. To defy Gaelyn just a bit. It would be a short walk to the Great Hall.
Hazel brushed at her scales, which looked ruffled. Gaelyn would have laughed at her usually perfect friend, but Hazel still wore a furious frown. Although Gaelyn had been able to act calm and accommodating in Albion, being home woke the fierce, warrior Fae in her. She let herself feel anger that Hazel wouldn’t even listen or consider all their years together.
Hazel stopped rubbing at her skin and bent to a nearby flowering bush. She took such a deep sniff, it looked as if she was drinking in the hibiscus. Suddenly she smiled. “Love it!” she said and reached for a branch of the bush. “Where are we? Did we stop in the kitchen garden? I’m hungry. Yum!”
Gaelyn swatted the Dr’gon’s paw away. “No!” she yelled. “Don’t eat anything!”
“Of course,” Silkkie snarled. “Doesn’t matter how hungry you are, nobody is going to let you eat around here.” Gaelyn wanted to pinch SIlkkie for the way she was feeding Hazel’s anger.
Hazel slitted her eyes at Gaelyn. “There’s only one place where eating would land me in trouble, and that is one of the Fae Courts. Which?” she asked. Hazel’s voice was steely cold. The kind that meant she was furious but taking her time deciding what to do. This was a very dangerous Hazel.
But this was where Gaelyn had to be. “Elm,” Gaelyn said. She took a breath, pushed a short curly hair behind one ear and pulled her lips tightly together.
“A Fae Court?” Hazel asked. Gaelyn nodded.
“That’s not one I’ve heard of.” Hazel’s eyes almost disappeared in her wrinkled frown. “Is this your … home?”
“She is The Elm.” Out of the surrounding woods stepped a tall male Fae, easily identifiable by the peaked ears Gaelyn usually hid with a glamour. He was taller after all these years, but he still had the trademark auburn hair of the Summer Court. Ian might not be a native to Elm Court, but he had always been Gaelyn’s closest friend. Desperately Gaelyn wanted to tell Ian how she wished he and she had never been parted, but The Elm wasn’t supposed to be sentimental about childhood friends.
She felt both happy to see him and sad. He’d called her “The Elm.” Ian had always teased her before, calling her “Queenie in waiting” as they grew up. For him to address her formally as The Elm meant the worst. Uncle Firth was dead—the nearly impossible for a Fae, because they only died in battle like her parents, or when murdered. She was right to come. The worst had happened here.
Ian’s solemn face was barely older than when last she’d seen him. But the way he held himself straight and proud, like a warrior, told her he had grown as much as she felt she had. His freckles, unusual for a Fae, had faded. How else had he changed?
Not only did her heart break to know her uncle was dead, but she was not ready. She needed more years in the Dr’gon Realms before she was truly ready to step into her role as Elm Queen. None of this was Ian’s fault, but Gaelyn snapped at him. “No. I’m not The Elm. Not yet. I’m here for help for a Dr’gon.”
She was being totally illogical, because Elm Court would not wait for her to be The Elm. But instead she stared hard at Ian trying to make him understand she did not want to discuss The Elm. At the same time she couldn’t speak, because of the waves of sadness that took her breath away. She needed to know how Uncle Firth could possibly have died, but that was not a discussion to have in front of a Dr’gon.
One thing had not changed over the years. Ian ignored her warning glare. “I don’t know about helping your Dr’gon friends, but we here in Elm need your help.” Ian wrapped Gaelyn into a tight hug.
Though there was no danger that she would cry, Fae never did, she felt the need to return his hug. So Gaelyn tossed Silkkie to Hazel and put her arms around her friend. After a moment they stepped away from each other smiling. Happiness at seeing him almost overcame the bitter news of Uncle Firth.
A minute passed before Gaelyn gathered herself and frowned at Ian. “Did you issue The Call?” Either Uncle Firth should have done so just be
fore his death, or he should have ordered Ian to do so. When a new Queen came into her Court, there was always The Call, whether the new Queen was picnicking in the Meadow or away like Gaelyn. But she hadn’t heard it. She’d come back earlier on her own not because the Elm Call told her to come home. She had come only because she had tried to send the Fae from the tower to Elm. She’d found the disturbing, empty Hall but hadn’t stayed.
Ian shook his head, but he didn’t explain why she hadn’t been summoned.
Hazel didn’t give him the chance. “Who is this?” Hazel asked.
“Go away!” the cat-Jinn snarked trying to wriggle free of Hazel’s claws.
Hazel squeezed her, and Silkkie stopped struggling.
Kneeling briefly, Ian stuck out a slightly green-tinged hand, typical of a Summer Court royal. “I am Ian, Gaelyn’s … cousin.” He raised an arched eyebrow at her as if waiting for her to elaborate. She shook her head. He shrugged.
Hazel nodded. “I wish I could say I was pleased to meet my Wizard Partner’s cousin. Who I did not know existed. Which is no surprise since I didn’t even know Gaelyn was Fae.”
If only Hazel could let the Fae part go for a while. Dr’gons made so much of the truth. Gaelyn had come to understand that, mostly. She cared more than most Fae about Dr’gons and their truths, but sometimes she didn’t understand them. There were more important things than harping on lies.
“We don’t have time for explanations, Ian. We need to find Jeschen, or whatever her name is. Cl’rnce is dying from her poison.” Gaelyn hadn’t meant her tone to be so hostile. She shot a look at Hazel, who nodded.
Then she turned back to Ian. He stared at her like he had something to say, but then he too nodded and whistled three sharp notes. Tall lean males and females dressed in identical brown tunics and green tights emerged from the woods. He faced Gaelyn and added slowly as if to tell her what shouldn’t have to be said, “I wish I had time to help you, but our Court is under attack. This is all I have of Elm’s army. Firth was killed in a skirmish just this past evening. It was a surprise attack. We haven’t even been able to see our attackers.”
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