Dragon Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 3)

by Cedar Sanderson

  She stamped her foot. “Coward. You would betray our cause? We stand on the brink of reclaiming Court for the fairy people, and you would not give of your time and security for this?”

  Reclaiming Court? This woman was a moonbat. Court was still the same stuck-in-the-mud system it had been since before my birth, and Bella actually promised to reform some of the injustices placed on the ‘people’ by the former queen. That one had been fonder of her own comfort than any concern for the populace she did her best to ignore.

  The fairy sat down, and looked pointedly away. An older fairy, his face plump under a white fringe beard, bald head, and round belly, stood up. I recognized him as a historian, although I had never met him outside a few court functions.

  “King Trytion,” he began, not looking at the raging Lady Laenven. This was a good sign. “I would be honored to be appointed observer.”

  Trytion nodded. “Thank you, Lord Byrne. This will not be forgotten. Duke Mulvaney,” he turned to look straight at me, his brows drawn together. “Can you be ready to depart immediately?”

  I nodded. “I can, but the consort-elect, and the Librarian may need to change and gather supplies.”

  Alger snorted audibly. Bella smiled slightly, and her voice when she spoke was pitched loud and clear as a bell. “I stand ready, my lord!”

  “Then go quickly, and return without delay, the Charter in hand. I will speak with the council in your absence.” Our king commanded, his face as hard as stone, but his eyes fixed on Lady Laenven.

  That sounded suitably ominous. I walked to the edge of the dais, meeting Lord Byrne, Alger, and Bella there.

  “Alger, lead the way.” I asked, and he pulled a bubble up around us instantly.

  The Library Path

  He debubbled us in my own library. Lord Byrne looked around, his eyes wide in surprise. “I pictured it as being… larger.”

  I laughed. “This is my home, not the Library. I think we are here for?”

  Alger harrumphed. “Clothes, supplies, weapons…”

  “Here and I thought you were all prepared.” I teased him, smiling. “You said the library was only dangerous if a stack of books fell.”

  He shook his head, looking gloomy. “This isn’t going to be a walk in the park. The Library is in a hostile place, and even inside it, there are dangers. For one thing, it’s… changing. Becoming less open with every passing day. I am afraid we might be too late.”

  I stared at him, trying to wrap my brain around this development, and to squash the rage building up inside me. He’d downplayed it, when we were planning the initial expedition. Why had he lied? But yelling at him wasn’t going to help right now.

  Bella patted his arm. “I still have access to much of it, I think. More than you do, as we already know, even if we don’t know why that is. Besides, if I’m not crowned Queen, it’s not the end of the world.”

  I caught the shock on Lord Byrne’s face. He hadn’t realized she was a reluctant appointee, obviously.

  I growled at my former mentor. “We need information, Alger, as much as you can give us, about this place, and what we need to have with us.”

  Bella nodded. “I already know from the ogre mission how difficult it is to pull equipment from one dimension to another, I don’t know even if I can do that from the library. I’ve only ever accessed the books and material virtually, not physically removed them from the library.”

  “I thought I’d seen you?” I remembered some nights with her reading by my bed while I was ill and she thought I was asleep. Watching her peaceful face, wisps of hair curving alongside her cheek and pearly ear; that had been balm for my soul. Bella shook her head.

  “From your own library, or, like this…” She held out her two hands, palm up, and focused. A large tome appeared in them, glowing slightly, but otherwise looking solid. I reached out, and my fingers passed through it with a tingle. She carefully balanced it on her swelling stomach and one hand, turning a page with her now-free hand. “I can manipulate it as though it were a physical object. As you can see, it even seems to have mass.”

  “Can you hand it to me?” Lord Byrne reached out.

  “I don’t know,” Bella closed it and extended the big book toward him. But as she let go of it, the energy faded away and the book disappeared. “Huh, not that easy, I guess.”

  “Lord Byrne,” I started to speak, as his face fell when the book faded out. He turned to look at me.

  “Please, call me Forrest if we are going to be adventuring together.” He grinned puckishly.

  I hesitated. “Forrest, then. Adventuring is one word for it. Have you… ah, adventured before?”

  He shook his head. “My life has been dull, I’m afraid. I applied myself early to my passion for history, but my time is much consumed with my estate. This is an opportunity to not only see the legendary library Alger has compiled, but to do things.”

  “I see.” I did, too. I could easily have wound up in his position, had pivotal moments not happened. But they had, and with Alger muttering under his breath about dimensional planes, and nightmares, I was beginning to feel very uneasy about dragging a civilian into this particular adventure. I was past feeling uneasy about taking Bella along. I didn’t want to take her… On the other hand, it was by royal decree. I had to take him, and I had to keep him alive, and at least mostly intact. “Follow me, please.”

  This was getting to be almost routine, inviting people into my sanctum. Forrest looked wide-eyed around the Armory.

  “Have you ever done any hunting? Handled a weapon?” I asked him.

  He shook his head. “Mother didn’t approve of blood sports.”

  I raised an eyebrow and he looked sheepish and rubbed the back of his neck. “I know, but, well, you have a mother.”

  “I do. And she can be demanding. But since you don’t know how to protect yourself, that becomes a problem here and now. Blood sports aren’t any fun on the receiving end, trust me.”

  I took a Mossberg off the wall rack and handed it to him. He took it awkwardly. “Well, I know that end is where the bullet comes out, but…”

  I took it back, and walked along the racks for a minute. He stood in place and watched me curiously. I paused, my hand hovering over a bow, and then dismissed it. He didn’t look like he had the upper-body strength for that. Underhill, firearms were rare. Archery was more likely to be taught to youth here. Finally, empty-handed, I came back to him.

  “I have an idea.”

  He looked puzzled. “Do I need to be armed? I am not sure I can be any help, but I don’t want to be a hindrance, either.”

  “We’re going to arrange a bodyguard for you.”

  “That sounds reasonable. But do we have time?” He was still distracted by all the shiny sharp stuff on display. He wasn’t really paying attention to the firearms, I noted. A fairy downfall, that. If they armed their armies like humans did, Underhill would be a very different place. I didn’t mean to make that suggestion, ever.

  “We will make time. Let’s go.”

  He followed me up the stairs again. I flicked message spells off my fingertips as we went. Alger was in the library, looking at a book. His staff leaned against the shelves. He didn’t look up as I took Forrest into the kitchen.

  “First order of business, eat.”

  He sat in the chair I’d pointed at, looking puzzled. “Well, I appreciate this, I am hungry, but…”

  “We have time. I don’t know what you thought, that we’d just jaunt off in a bubble to the library and be back in an hour? The coronation was recessed until, say, dinnertime?”

  I wasn’t being nice. I wasn’t trying to be nice. He looked like I’d hit him across the face with a dead fish. I kept going. “You think I meant to go away for two months? Sometimes these things don’t go according to plan, and this time, we don’t even have a plan. I don’t have enough intel to plan.”

  I didn’t see Ellie, which was odd, so I looked in the chiller cupboard and found the ingredients for an omele
t. That would work well, lots of protein. I would need to make enough for all of us.

  “You understand that the human realm, Above, and Underhill are two separate planes, yes?” I was cracking eggs into a bowl while I lectured him. Either Bella or Alger knew more about this, but I was the one with the experience when it came to crossing between them.

  “Yes, I do, and the theory is that they are only loosely connected, which is why there are sometimes great time differences between them.” His answer had me nod as I dumped cream in the eggs. I can do omelets with water, milk, even that nasty blue watery stuff some humans favor, but cream was what Ellie stocked my kitchen with.

  “It’s been a long time since we had a shift, which means they are currently stable. But the Library in in a third plane. One I have never visited. I’m not sure anyone has besides Alger.”

  “Oh.” He looked thoughtful. “I wonder if a small monograph after we return will be in order.”

  I found myself laughing as I gently folded the omelet in the pan. “If we return, m’Lord. Alger doesn’t seem to think it’s going to be easy, and I’ll let you in on something. He’s been worried about the Library for months now, but he hasn’t gone there to look into it, and it’s possibly the most important thing in his life…”

  Alger’s voice broke into my soliloquy. “Not quite. But it is the most important tool I had. Losing it has been like losing a hand.”

  He sounded tired and sad. I waved him to a chair while I plated Lord Byrne’s omelet. “I was just telling our amanuensis here how dangerous this is likely to be. Care to elaborate for us?”

  “Amanuensis?” Alger sounded amused.

  “I was thinking perhaps a monograph…” Byrne offered hesitantly. Alger still had a reputation, I could see.

  “Ah, certainly, although I will want to review it before publication. Some details are best kept close to the vest, my good fellow.”

  I could guess that meant things like the exact location of the Library. “And this is predicated on us getting back here. Which you implied might be a problem.”

  I started Alger’s omelet, wondering where Bella was.

  “Well, it isn’t that there are specific dangers I can warn you against.” Alger looked at Byrne, who was tucking into the food with a hearty appetite. “Am I correct in assuming you have never visited Above?”

  Byrne shook his head. “I have, once, to see a castle mentioned as being the dwelling of an ancestor.”

  I wondered if this meant he had human blood, as well, or if he meant a Fairy who had chosen life Above for a time. It happened far more often than history had recorded. But I let Alger continue, curiosity about Bryne’s family was irrelevant.

  “Then you are aware that Above is more rigidly physical than Underhill is. You will not have had time to see, but Lom’s home here is an example of the manipulation possible on this plane. He can have a window open to every season of the year, rather than being limited to the weather and vicissitudes of the climate surrounding his dwelling. Humans cannot manipulate their weather, not even to keep a storm from destruction on a scale Underhill cannot conceive.”

  I slid Alger’s omelet onto his plate and started Bella’s.

  “Thank you, Lom. As I was saying, the planes become more plastic the further, er, down you go. It’s not a direction, but it will do as a metaphor for understanding.”

  “So the third plane, where the library is, that is most plastic?”

  “Practically unformed, Byrne.” Alger waved his fork with no regard for the molten cheese quivering from his bite of omelet. “Exciting, really, if it weren’t so demmed dangerous to stay there long. Magic, or the force we call magic, flows freely.”

  “Oh, rather.” Byrne looked fascinated.

  “What can we expect, Alger?” I wanted to keep this discussion on practical, rather than academic interests. “Other than a lot of change and magic?”

  “Hm, well, it’s hard to say. Last time I was there, I had to move very cautiously. Too much noise and you attract… things.”

  “Things?” I wasn’t happy in his vague definitions.

  “Very big things, or swarms of little ones.” He nodded, like he’d told me something useful.

  “Can I shoot them?”

  And that was Bella, looking lovely in jeans, sweater with an edge of t-shirt hanging below it, and a pack slung over her shoulder. She wore her pistol holstered at her waist and strapped to her thigh in the approved manner. I realized what had taken her so long… and Ellie, who walked around her where Bella was standing in the kitchen doorway and headed in my direction. They had been modifying her gear to fit around her pregnant belly. She wasn’t huge, yet, or I would have forbidden… Oh, hell, who was I kidding? I couldn’t stop her if she wanted something.

  I let Ellie take over the cooking and went to embrace Bella, ignoring the identical smirks on the other men’s faces. I could just imagine what they were thinking, young love and cute as puppies. I didn’t care.

  “Ah, well, I don’t know.” Alger finally got around to answering her question.

  “You don’t know?” Bella sat down. I gestured at Ellie to give her that omelet I’d been cooking. “What did you do?”

  “I mostly hid.” He admitted. “I was alone, and it was no time to find out just what it would take to defeat them.”

  I grunted. Not unwise, alone in a strange place. But not terribly helpful.

  “We can leave when Lord Byrne’s bodyguard shows up, then. Better to get it over with, unless you think a reconnaissance trip would be helpful.” I will admit it pained me to say that. I just wanted it over, this waiting thing was painful.

  “No,” Alger shook his head. “As it is, this is going to be difficult to keep even a small party stealthy. Penetrating the veil alerts them and they would be waiting when the rest of us arrived. Division invites defeat in detail, as you know.”

  Speaking of defeat, I wondered how Dionaea’s bumbling army was doing. This little detour in the coronation was only playing into that timetable. Just how closely was Lady Laenven in contact with the Low Queen?

  I’d sent messages earlier, while looking like I was browsing my Armory for a weapon for Byrne. Now, I was waiting for responses. But I had one more question for Alger.

  “How did you learn about the Library, and how did it come to be on the third plane if so few know about it? You keep implying you’re the only one who’s been there.”

  He nodded. “Of all the written records, there are only allusions to the other plane, and those couched in terms that make it seem as though it were only a myth, a place of dreams. However, I became convinced that the Library was a real place, when I was taken into it as a lad.”

  That meant it was something that had been there for a very long time. I had only ever known Alger as old. I’d never stopped to think about his boyhood. “Who took you there?”

  “My teacher, as I was your teacher.”

  Ouch. I was all too familiar with Alger’s teaching methods, which often enough involved invading my inmost thoughts and dreams and manipulating them to his own ends. He was telling me that he’d been taken on a dream journey to the Library, then. And this had to have happened a thousand years or more ago. Great-Uncle meant he was my great-grandfather’s brother, in this family. All the others were gone, he was the oldest pixie that I knew of.

  “How did you find it again?” Bella was acutely interested in this, since she’d been the inadvertent second librarian after Alger gave her access. I knew she would be looking forward to seeing it in reality.

  “It took a long time, searching, dead ends… I thought for a long time it was in the Human lands. I finally succeeded in opening a gate to the other plane, only to have it collapse on me.”

  He looked positively glum, an odd expression for the normally confident and sarcastic mage. “Not sure how close I was to dying, but I don’t think I’ve been closer any time before or since.”

  “You fill us with confidence.” I told him, my tone dry. I he
ard a knock at the door, and Ellie went to answer it.

  “I can open a stable gate. I think I can hold it open long enough to get us all through.” He looked at Bella “My dear, will you be up to helping me?”

  She grinned. “I’m pregnant, not ill. Of course.”

  Ellie returned, with three sprites flying close behind her. I nodded at them. “Ewan, Ian, Mac. I have a mission if you choose to accept.”

  “Och, coom on naow. Y’know we allus say yus.” Ian’s accent was, if anything, thicker than his brothers’. If they were brothers. I had trouble keeping track of the complex clan relations.

  “This isn’t either Underhill, or Above. It’s another place entirely. We don’t know what the dangers are, but we do know that it will be dangerous. It’s a place where stealth is more important than killing everything in our path, and finally, I need the three of you to stick to him,” I pointed at Lord Byrne, who was looking like his internal meter was swinging back and forth between academic interest in the elusive sprites, and revolt at their table manners. Ewan was currently gnawing at a chunk of ham almost the size of his head. He hadn’t grabbed it off Bella’s plate, at least, she’d skewered it on her fork and handed it to him. The fork was as long as he was. “Like cockleburs to a collie. He’s a scholar, not a warrior, and it is crucial he returns to Court alive.”

  Ewan nodded, taking up a position near Byrne’s left shoulder. “E’en in one paice, shore.”

  “Yes, we want to keep him intact.”

  Byrne was looking alarmed, and I threw that last comment at him just to reinforce the gravity of the situation. I didn’t need him wandering off to check some oddity out, and putting the rest of us in danger.

  “Now that you are here, let’s go. Alger?”

  “Hmph, boy, you have no sense of theater. Follow me.”

  He led us out to the garden, which was in winter. It had been fall when I found Margot, and the ghoul, lying here. I tucked that away. It wasn’t time to deal with that yet, revenge really was a dish best served cold, and having Bella crowned was just a twist of the knife before I delivered the coup de grace.