Dragon Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 3)

by Cedar Sanderson

  “What are they calling her?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard that correctly, and I know it came out more harshly than I intended.

  “Hey!” He threw up a hand and stepped back. “It’s not me, it’s what every underling who mentioned her said. I didn’t even know her real name until just now.”

  Alger, his voice brittle, “They are calling her that because rumor has it she bathes in her enemies’ blood.”

  I felt my nose wrinkle in revulsion. “Not unless she’s changed rather a lot, she couldn’t even stand to be in the room with raw meat before.”

  I ran both my hands through my hair, feeling the headache that had been building since Alger’s arrival.

  “Is she behind Margot’s killing?” I asked him.

  “I don’t know. I heard much, but nothing related to Margot… or to Lucia.”

  Mother’s voice came from behind me, “It is unlikely.” I spun around to see her standing in the doorway of the Armory.

  “Mother! I thought you were at Elleria.”

  “I was. I had a message from Alger to meet him here, to plan.”

  I shot a look at Alger, who was back to being stone faced.

  “Learoyd,” I winced at her use of my full name, and she glided into the room, closing the door behind her with a slight gesture. “Mark, dear boy, would you rather not stay?”

  She was looking full at him, and I watched him brace as though standing in a stiff wind. “I’d rather stay and hear. Knowing what’s coming makes it less likely to leave me open to unpleasant surprises.”

  She nodded with an approving expression.

  “Mother, I think we should have Bella in on this.”

  “I agree. Also, held somewhere with more comfortable… indeed, any, chairs. As well as tea and refreshments.” There was an audible sniff in there somewhere as she looked around. To the best of my knowledge, my mother had never before been in the Armory, and she looked as out of place as a china doll on a battlefield.

  I closed my eyes and counted to ten. Few people could affect me the way she could. I love my mother, but she is very domineering. In some ways, she had been the cause of my life being a living hell for longer than I cared to remember, and there was a reason I had not consulted with her before reclaiming House Mulvaney, or proposing to Bella.

  I opened my eyes. They were all still there, staring at me. I’d rather face an oncoming goblin horde than my family.

  “Shall we adjourn to the kitchen?” I suggested. It was, in this house, the only room with enough chairs for everyone I could imagine joining in this meeting.

  War Council in the Kitchen

  I picked up my coffee cup and inhaled. The black ichor of the gods was all that was going to get me through this. Night had fallen, the council had gathered, and it was time to reap the whirlwind I’d kicked into action that morning. Bella’s hand on my thigh and her chair scooted as close to mine as possible told me my new bride was nervous, for which I did not blame her. Everyone was looking at me.

  I looked back at them, savoring the coffee and deciding how to begin. Dean had joined us, Ellie was doing something quietly in the kitchen behind me, but I knew she was listening, and would not hesitate to add something if she felt like it. Ash was leaning against the doorframe, a compromise between being left out and on guard. There were sprites flickering in and out, most of them were out in the dark garden, I could hear them riotously cheering at something.

  Daffyd, my old companion and the best archer in the kingdom, had joined us at some point that day. Ash had appointed him to external security, meaning that I had wood elves inside and out. Something very few people knew about my lodge is that it was built partly around a massive oak, Ellie’s home tree, and was thus partly living itself. There were special magics involved there, and the wood elves were best able to take advantage of it.

  I was killing time, now. Bella shifted restlessly in her chair. She preferred being in action to waiting, and I didn’t blame her. Finally, with a soft pop, the final member of my ad hoc council materialized in front of the fireplace. Covered head to toe in a deep brown cowled cloak, he spoke with a deep voice.

  “Lom, introduce me.”

  I inclined my head to him. “Corwin, my friend, joins us.”

  There was a reason for that bit of byplay, as Corwin shook back the concealing hood and took a seat by my mother, who had known who it was at once. I didn’t think he was fooling anyone in this room, but technically as Corwin he could do things impossible for King Trytion.

  Now, I could begin. “Margot’s death was the final step in something that has been building for some time, and due to my illness, then the trip to the Eastern Court, I haven’t been aware of this. Lucia, and then Alger, have been keeping their thumbs on it.”

  I nodded to my mother, who was sitting very straight, her pale face composed. She took up the narrative with a steady voice.

  “Margot and I were aware that a new queen had been crowned to Low Court’s throne. We were unable to ascertain for some time the identity of the woman, who was calling herself the Blood Queen, and who wore red veils to conceal herself in open areas where we were able to scry, or bird-ride.”

  I knew she meant not physically, but like Raven had done with me so long ago, to look through the bird’s eyes at what lay below it. With the lesser birds, some amount of control to their flight path was also possible.

  “We did know that she did not mean for us to discover her, not only from her furtive movements, but…” Lucia looked at me. “Margot’s was not the first death. One after another, our informants in the Low Court fell silent. Some we knew their fate, others,” She spread out her hands and fingers. “Just vanished. Finally, Margot went to visit an old friend, to ask a very dangerous favor. I had expected to hear from her tomorrow.”

  “Could her friend have been turned, and done this?”

  She shook her head. “This person is not connected to Low Court. We were asking for the loan of an artifact, which might have gained us entrance to it in secret.”

  I raised an eyebrow, but she only shook her head a fraction. I looked at Alger, who cleared his throat.

  “Mark and I have been traveling on the fringes of the Low territory. We ascertained through inquiries…”

  Mark interrupted. “He means through getting schnockered in a lot of greasy dives where the barmaids look like they were exhumed, or in the nicer ones, like Harpies.”

  Alger glared at him, and I suppressed my chuckle. Mark had just gotten his own back for the ‘kid’ earlier.

  His train of thought shaken off course, Alger continued more conversationally. “We discovered the true identity, and the goals, of the Blood Queen. She is Dionaea, formerly wife of Lom, and she wants to rule all of Underhill.”

  Bella’s hand gripped my leg tightly. I patted it out of sight. We would talk later in private, and I would assure her again that the whole marriage had never been my idea in the first place…

  Alger went on. “What we didn’t hear anything about was a planned killing of anyone from High Court. Egged on by their queen, the Low Court grows contemptuous, saying that we are weak, soft, and lack the will to resist. However, to my knowledge there are no firm plans for how they intend to take over. I suspect this is largely a ploy by the new queen to gather support.”

  I nodded. “Perhaps. But while she likes to talk a big game, and play for big stakes, she’s also impatient. Which is why we aren’t married any longer.”

  They all looked at me, and I sighed. I’d opened my big mouth and inserted a foot up to my ankle. I’d forgotten that none of them knew what had led up to my kicking Dion out, and divorcing her quietly. She’d gone without much fuss…

  “She wanted me to maneuver a coup, and overthrow Trytion. I told her I’d see her in hell, first, and when she mocked me for not having enough magic to prevent her, I pulled my pistol on her.” I didn’t want to talk about the attempts at mental manipulation that had gotten me carrying the weapon every moment of the day, not knowi
ng if I would use it on myself when I finally felt her break through my mental shields, or her. It had come very close to being her, I’d pulled the trigger a fraction of a second after her panicked bubble had burst in midair. I’d never seen her again, and there was a book in the library with a bullet embedded in it.

  I shrugged, dismissing the memories, and seeing the looks on everyone’s face. I looked at Bella, whose eyes were full of horror for me. “You don’t have to worry about her, my dear. It’s not a mistake I’d make again.”

  My mother twitched a little and caught my eye. I looked at her, my face smooth. I would not betray my feelings again. She looked away, and I relented and looked at the others to give her time to compose herself.

  “Dionaea means to have all of Underhill. But she lacks the skills to take it. Or she did, a century ago.” I corrected myself. I knew how much I had learned in that passage of time, and my ex-wife might be evil, but she wasn’t stupid.

  “Did she have Margot killed?” Bella asked. “I don’t know what I saw in the magic remaining on the body, but it wasn’t… female. I don’t think.” She looked at Alger. “Did you know what that thing was?”

  He shook his head. “I suspect she is behind Margot’s death, but we cannot simply storm into Low Court demanding her head for it.”

  And for the second time that night, jaws dropped around the table. He smirked, almost hidden under the voluminous beard. “I’m not always a hothead. Sometimes I leave that for the boy, here.” He gestured at me. “First, we must establish the connections. And then…” he hesitated and met my eyes squarely. This was more eye contact today than we had had in years. “Then we talk to the Huntsman.”

  I nodded. Killing one Low Court royal had been enough for me. I knew he was expecting me to object, given my history with the Hunt, but this was, after all, their role Underhill. And if Dionaea had grown cunning enough to claim a throne, making those connections would be tricky enough. I looked around the table.

  “We have the inkling of a plan, then. To find the thing that killed Margot, and then discover who was pulling the strings.”

  They all nodded. I went on. “It is a slim possibility that her death was unconnected to High or Low Court, but the ritualistic manner of her return makes that unlikely in my mind. That was a message, to me, and through me to you.” I ended, looking at Corwin, who nodded. I made a mental note to talk to him alone, soon. He couldn’t go on blaming himself for her death. His subjects died, and if he took it this hard every time… he had never taken it this hard before. Something was going on, but I trusted that if it related to this discussion he would have spoken.

  “I will go, soon, but not rushing, to speak with a source who may know what manner of creature it is that killed her. I’m not raising an army and going in with drums and pipes like the bad old days of the wars between Courts. This is going to be my way, one stubborn fool with a gun.”

  Bella looked sharply at me, opening her mouth, and then closing it with a lost expression. We would talk tonight. I might wind up sleeping on the couch. But I wouldn’t risk our children, even if I were willing to risk her. And from the way she had just cut herself off, she had thought of that, too.

  I squeezed her hand under the table, a silent promise. And I looked around, meeting everyone’s eyes in turn. “Suggestions, thoughts?”

  My mother looked smaller, somehow, than when we’d sat down to the council. She was silent. I knew she’d want to talk to me soon, and I didn’t know that I owed her that. Corwin shook his head at me. I’d have his backing, he just didn’t want to give any input yet. No one else had anything to say, although I suspected that was partly because there was a lot of new information and everyone was still digesting it. We would talk again in the morning.

  Suddenly I wanted nothing more than to be alone with Bella. We hadn’t had the chance to talk about a lot of things, and this had been a hell of a day. I stood up.

  “Get some sleep, everyone. Mother, Corwin…” I nodded to them, and headed for the door.

  If I stood there doing the social thing, it would be midnight before I had the chance… Bella was right on my heels. Behind us, I could hear the soft popping of transportation bubbles. There were places and times for niceties, and this wasn’t one of them. We all needed to deal with the pain before we could deal with one another in a civilized manner again.

  Bella closed the bedroom door behind us, and threw herself into my arms. I’d been holding them out to her, so it wasn’t a knock-me-over throw like it could have been. She was crying. I didn’t say anything. There was nothing I could say, when the tempest breaks like this all you can do it hold on tight.

  I did maneuver us to the loveseat. My bedroom, with the long illness I’d been going through when it was built, was more of a self-contained suite than just a place to sleep. There were times I really appreciated that. It didn’t take her long to get to the sniffing and hiccupping stage.

  “Sorry.” She whispered into my slightly damp shoulder, hiding her face. We’d been together less than a year, but I knew this wasn’t typical of her, and she wasn’t happy about it.

  “Been a rough day, darling. Had I known…? I wouldn’t have brought Margot to you. I would have waited for Alger.” I hugged her more tightly, and then let her move so we were both more comfortable.

  She looked up at me. “No, I know what you were doing. That wasn’t anger that was theatre. And you were right, the magic was fading already when you came to me. Waiting for Alger would have meant losing it.”

  She put a hand on her belly, and I covered it with one of mine. There was nothing to feel, yet, but just knowing they were there made it all strange and wondrous. Bella hiccupped, then sighed. “We have so much to talk about. And you’re going to leave me alone while you go into danger.”

  “I have to. I know we’re partners, but…”

  She stretched up a little and kissed me, silencing what I was about to say. “I’m pregnant, not sick.”

  “You’re no less capable than you were a day ago.” I agreed. “But the risks just tripled, and I’m no gambler. Not anymore.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Going to go visit someone who knows as much about Underhill flora and fauna as Alger does. Alger would never admit it, but Conrad has made a lifetime’s study of it. He’s a specialist, not a generalist.”

  Bella frowned. “I need to talk to Alger about the library. I don’t understand what’s going on, there.”

  “He should be in council… when do you meet in full council again?”

  “Later this week. Today was a preliminary meeting to set the agenda.”

  I grinned at her. “So I broke up a boring meeting. No loss.”

  She made a face at me, then sobered. “Oh, Lom… poor Margot. Catch whoever did that to her. She was always so sweet and nice to me.”

  “I will, dear one. I have to… even if she weren’t my sister, and thus a family obligation, I think this is the pointy edge of an attack on the kingdom.”

  She nodded, and I could see the fear in her eyes. “This is… about me, isn’t it. Oh, that sounds so narcissistic.”

  “Only if you weren’t Consort-Elect, and coming into your full powers with a coronation in three months. They have to move before that, or face a united Court. So it’s not about you, but it is.”

  “And Dionaea.” She didn’t need to say anything more. There was a lot hanging in the air just from that name, things I hadn’t talked to her about, had hoped to never need to talk about. I’d fostered the impression most people had, if they knew I’d been married before, that I was genteelly widowed, and to bring up the idea of marriage was painful to me. Which is was, just not in the way they thought.

  “I was married young, for Fae, and not for the right reasons.” I began, bending my head so I was resting my cheek on her hair. She cuddled up, and didn’t talk.

  “Dionaea was my mother’s idea.” I closed my eyes and remembered the whole scene.

  First Marriage


  “I’d been told I’d die, after the elfshot. But hours turned into days turned into months… Mother was concerned about me, I’m sure. But she seemed more concerned that I would die and there would be no one left to carry on the Mulvaney line. Our House might have fallen into disgrace, but even among society it was assumed that after the third generation, the Crown would be petitioned and Mulvaney would rise again. And I was the fourth generation from Alonzo.”

  Bella murmured quietly, “I’m going to hang that portrait of him.”

  I squeezed her gently and kept talking. I only wanted to do this once. “Dionaea y Eudicott is from a dying family line. She was very proud of her heritage, and that she was the last of her line. I’m not sure what she promised Mother… You know about the Fae, and conception, yes?”

  Bella looked up at me, her eyes wide. The room had been growing darker as the lamp someone had lit was dying slowly, but I didn’t get up to relight it. All I could see was the pale oval of her face and the bright whites of her eyes. “Pixies, fairies - and the only difference between us is name, and custom, if you hadn’t already picked up on that – we don’t have a child unless it’s by mutual arrangement. Accidental pregnancy is unheard of, Underhill.”

  “I’d known the population was much lower here, than above. But I haven’t had time to consider it, and that’s a delicate subject. No one talked to me about it. But Lom, how?”

  Our hands were still interlinked on her stomach. “We both wanted. Maybe not consciously, at that moment, but we did.”

  I couldn’t see her blush in the gathering dark. Her skin, darker than mine, made a nice contrast where our hands were twined together.

  “Why did you and Dionaea never have children? Especially since that’s what your mother wanted?” Bella asked.

  “Never had a chance.” I laughed harshly, remembering the pain and confusion of a much younger man. I hadn’t unpacked these memories in a long time. “You have to have sex to have babies.”