Hidden Crown

by Emma L. Adams

  “Why should I do you a favour?” she said.

  “Because I have information that I think you’ll want me to keep to myself,” I told Lady Aiten. “Lord Kerien worked for the Erlking. The Erlking told me himself, and he told me another of his close advisors was you.”

  Silence hung between us for an instant. “You lie.”

  “Prove it.” For once, being distrusted by default worked in my favour. “I might add that the killer seems to be targeting the Erlking’s former advisors, so the more people who know, the more likely it is that you’ll be the next victim.”

  Her gaze cut into mine. “I give you my word that I will not allow anyone to harm your family for the duration of your time as Gatekeeper, provided you share that information with nobody else.”

  “Done.” Lady Aiten must really not want anyone to know she’d worked for the Erlking. And she couldn’t lie, so she’d be bound to keep her word. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

  “I hope you’re ready to pay the price for that bargain, mortal,” she said softly.

  When Lady Aiten walked back to the meeting room, I released a breath, some of the tension leaving my shoulders. Her influence wouldn’t keep every Sidhe from harming my family, but it reduced the risk that Mum would be hauled off to jail while my back was turned.

  “That was risky,” said Darrow.

  “So was saying and doing nothing,” I said. “The Gatekeeper’s treaty isn’t enough to guarantee my family’s safety at a time like this.”

  “No, you’re right.” Surprising hints of respect gleamed in those deep aquamarine eyes. “You handled that admirably.”

  My mouth fell open. “Praise. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  He frowned. “I always tell you when you perform well.”

  “You spend ten times as long pointing out my flaws.” I shrugged. “But I like it. Keeps me on my toes.”

  He shook his head. “Are you always so… direct?”

  “Mum says I wear my heart on my sleeve.”

  His brow wrinkled. “That sounds painful. Unless you’re referring to that iron you wear?”

  Right… the band on my wrist. Of course he would have noticed it, though it surprised me that he hadn’t said anything until now. “It’s a figure of speech.” I pushed up my sleeve to my elbow. “But I guess it is, technically. This is a gift from my sister.”

  He read the word engraved into the iron band. “Lynn. Your name.”

  “Our name.” A reminder that the Sidhe would never take away our loyalty to one another. Darrow, being as literal as the other fae, probably wouldn’t understand the concept.

  His gaze clouded, then cleared. “Like partnership bonds.”

  “I guess.” Instead of engagement rings, the Sidhe often exchanged engraved bracelets or other trinkets engraved with the name of their beloved. “Do they do the same where you come from?”

  “Yes, but I think it’s unwise to make a public declaration of one’s weak points,” he said.

  “You and I have very different ideas about what constitutes weakness, Darrow.” I’d almost forgotten his words when we’d first met, when he’d insinuated that having a conscience meant opening oneself up to being stabbed in the back. Being raised by the Sidhe had likely bestowed the message that being human was a weakness, but the slightest edge to his voice spoke of a history even I wasn’t nosy enough to go poking into—yet. Maybe I’d save that for the next time we were both in close proximity to a vat of elf wine.

  “I suppose we do,” he said.

  “Maybe it comes with not being immortal, but I figure it’s better to risk heartbreak than to spend your life closed off from everyone.” I held up my wrist, revealing the band. “Also, there’s a reason this is made of iron. As far as I’m concerned, that’s no weakness at all.”

  “I respect your opinion,” he said. “Your lessons for the day are over, but Coral asked me to inform you that she has a surprise for you back at the Gatekeeper’s base. You’re invited to spend the night in Faerie, if you so wish. Extra guards will be posted outside your doors.”

  “I’m not all that keen on the idea.” Then again, given Mum’s earlier behaviour, heads would roll if I stayed at the Lynn house and the Sidhe dragged me out of the bed in the middle of the night. “But fine. As long as I get to sleep in.”

  13

  As it turned out, I needn’t have worried about my return to the Gatekeeper’s training base. Coral had mobilised the other half-Sidhe to prepare for my return, and I entered one of the training rooms to find them seated around a makeshift picnic table laden with the bottles of wine from the earlier training exercise and plates of pizza that looked like they’d been lifted straight from the mortal realm.

  “It’s not quite the same as a party,” she said. “Hope it’s okay.”

  “Are you kidding? It’s perfect.” I picked up a plate. “I’d take this over a fancy ball. It’s just what I need right now.”

  “Awesome.” She beamed, passing plates around. “We’re on your side. All of us. What the Sidhe did to you was bullshit.”

  “It was,” agreed one of the half-dryads.

  It looked like all the other bodyguards had come to join in. Except for Aila, but that suited me just fine. “I don’t want you in trouble for slacking off on duty.”

  “We’re rotating shifts. Anyway, we won’t get into trouble for smuggling in pizza and shot glasses.” Coral winked, taking a seat at the table.

  “I knew you smuggled it in.” I grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza, dripping with mozzarella.

  “Faerie doesn’t have Dominos,” added Willow.

  “I like you already.” I gave Coral a grin. Willow’s olive-tinted skin and thick dark hair put me in mind of Lady Aiten, and I wondered if Coral had seen them side by side and put two and two together.

  I’d never been shy about making friends, and I had a great buzz going by the time we’d finished the first round of shots, enough to introduce the others to a few drinking games from the mortal realm and share some of the less scandalous of my stories.

  Darrow entered the room in the middle of a long anecdote about the time I’d accepted a dare from a half-Sidhe and ended up chased across the Highlands by a pack of Little People wielding sharp instruments.

  I gave him a wave. “Come to join in?”

  “No. There are some Sidhe here who want to talk to you?”

  “Seriously?”

  I dragged myself to my feet and walked into the entrance hall to find three unfamiliar male Sidhe standing side by side.

  “What is it now?” I said. “We were playing Never Have I Ever, not plotting murder.”

  Coral stopped beside me. “Uh, Hazel, they aren’t from around here.”

  Now she mentioned it, the newcomers wore long dark clothes, in total defiance of Summer’s usual bright fashions. While their eyes glittered in the same green shade as most Seelie fae, their hoods were up, masking their ethereal beauty. The Sidhe in the centre stood a foot taller than the others, a giant even by faerie standards, which made his two companions look puny in comparison. Unfortunately for all of them, their cloaks looked like they’d been bought by someone who hadn’t bothered to check the sizes, because the two shorter Sidhe were surrounded by puddles of spare fabric while the central Sidhe’s cloak ended around his knees.

  “Who are you?” I said.

  “You took our king from us,” said the Sidhe on the right-hand side of his giant companion.

  “I didn’t take anything from anyone,” I informed him. “If you aren’t a Gatekeeper’s Trial, please kindly get lost.”

  “We do not respect the Gatekeeper,” added the leftmost Sidhe.

  Coral swore under her breath. “You revoked your Court vows.”

  “They what?” I’d thought only exiles were free from their binding to the Court, at the cost of being stripped of their magic and booted out of Faerie altogether. These guys didn’t look like outcasts, but they didn’t look like much else either. Except
Lord Voldemort’s followers, maybe.

  The tallest Sidhe lowered his hood, revealing a waterfall of silky dark hair topped with a thorny circlet. “The everlasting king still wears his crown, and we await his return.”

  “Then go and wait for it,” I said. “Are you’re implying the Erlking is still alive?”

  I should have seen something like this coming. In Faerie, immortality had ruled for countless generations, and the ripple effects of its loss were only just beginning to stir. I hadn’t expected some of the Sidhe would flat-out deny the Erlking was dead, though.

  “He will live forever,” said Right Sidhe. “And you are preventing his return.”

  “I’m not hiding him under the bed.” I folded my arms. “And we’re busy, so if you don’t mind…”

  The snick sound of weapons being drawn pulled a sigh from me. I wasn’t drunk enough for this, not to mention only armed only with a plastic pizza fork.

  Coral raised her fists. “Stop threatening the Gatekeeper and go and talk to the Sidhe if you’re concerned about the heir to the crown.”

  “The other Sidhe have moved beyond their former king already,” said the central Sidhe, anger darkening his expression. “They are plotting to drown his loss in revelry.”

  “They’re organising a funeral?” There’d never been such a thing as a funeral in Faerie—for obvious reasons—but the Sidhe never passed up an opportunity to throw a party. “Look, I’m lost on how this is supposed to be my fault. Do the other Sidhe know you’re defying your Court vows?”

  Right Sidhe raised his blade. I threw the plastic fork in his face, causing him to stumble onto the end of his overlong cloak, and swept his legs out from underneath him while he was unbalanced. Coral traded punches with the other short guy, who was a surprisingly sloppy fighter for a Sidhe. Maybe they’d been drinking, too. With one well-timed strike, she sent him crashing sideways into a puddle of cloak.

  As I’d predicted, the bigger guy was even easier to knock down. I feinted, then punched him hard in the gut, winding him. Then I grabbed one of the Sidhe’s discarded blades and thwacked him over the back of the head with it. He went down like a falling pillar, right on top of his two buddies. Two piteous shrieks came from within the tangle of cloaks, and it was at that moment that Darrow entered the main hall again.

  “What is going on in here?” He eyed the pile of fallen Sidhe. So much for the extra security guards.

  “We were just having a friendly chat.” I kicked the big guy when he stirred. “About the Erlking and his death. Seems they’re a bit delusional about his untimely passing.”

  “I’ll take care of them,” he said. “You should have called me.”

  I gave the nearest Sidhe a poke with my foot. “I’d be more concerned about their safety than mine, to be honest.”

  A grin crept onto Coral’s face. Then she broke into laughter, and so did I. Darrow looked at both of us as though he was seriously questioning our sanity, which only made me laugh harder.

  As far as assassination attempts went, that one had been downright fun.

  Raised voices in the corridor outside my room jolted me from sleep. Lifting my head groggily, I distinguished Coral’s frantic voice among the clamour.

  I got out of bed and pushed the door open. In the main hall, Coral stood with her back to the wall, while several Sidhe surrounded her with their weapons drawn. Lady Aiten’s remorseless gaze pinned my friend to the spot.

  “Lady Aiten.” I walked over to her side. “What’s going on this time?”

  “Your friend has committed treason.”

  I gave Coral an alarmed look, my heart plummeting. “If you mean those fanatics we trounced yesterday, they broke Court law.”

  “We have spent the last day scouring the Court for a bow that cannot miss its target,” said Lady Aiten. “Our records show that the Erlking traded an item that fitted that description to an ally some years ago.”

  My brain woke up a little. “You mean the weapon that killed the Erlking? There is a talisman in the form of a bow that’s enchanted never to miss?”

  “Yes,” said Coral quietly. “It belongs to my own Queen.”

  Shit. “Really?”

  Coral raised her chin. “The Sea Queen has owned the bow since the days of the treaty with Summer and would never turn it on her allies. You’re welcome to search my rooms if you want to ensure I don’t have any talismans with me.”

  “You’re free to search mine, too,” I put in. “I’ve had as much contact with the Sea Kingdom this week as she has.”

  Lady Aiten’s eyes narrowed. “Coral is the only member of the Sea Court known to be here in Summer, so naturally, she’s our first point of contact with the Sea Kingdom.”

  “If you wish to speak with the Sea Queen, you’ll have to go in person,” said Coral. “She hasn’t set foot on land in decades.”

  “In that case,” said Lady Aiten, “you are to speak to her yourself and confirm her talisman was not involved in this atrocious crime.”

  Damn her. I’d forced her to swear not to harm my family, so I’d bet she’d gone looking for ways to target my friends herself. Granted, I hadn’t known the Sea Queen possessed a talisman which fitted the description of the weapon used to murder the Erlking, but Coral had committed no crimes. I didn’t doubt that for an instant.

  “Coral is my bodyguard,” I said. “She can’t do her job if she’s away in the Sea Kingdom.”

  Lady Aiten turned to me. “Then you’ll go with her and act as our emissary to speak with the Sea Court.”

  “Lady Aiten.” Darrow entered the main hall. “What is going on?”

  “We have found evidence that the weapon used to murder the Erlking matches the exact description of a talisman owned by the Queen of the Sea Kingdom,” said Lady Aiten. “As an ambassador for the Sea Kingdom, Coral must return and speak to her Queen to confirm her talisman was not used in the crime. The Gatekeeper will go with her.”

  “Very well.”

  “Excuse me?” Whatever happened to his taking my side against the Sidhe? I hadn’t signed up for an impromptu trip into the ocean, and if I left, there might not be a Court to come back to at this rate.

  On the other hand, what if the talisman the Sea Queen wielded really was responsible for the Erlking’s death? Perhaps the truth lay beneath the waters of the Sea Kingdom, not here in the Court.

  “Hazel requires testing in diplomacy and negotiation as part of her Trials,” Darrow said. “Provided she comes to no harm, I will allow her to go to the Sea Kingdom and speak with the Queen.”

  Ordinarily, I’d leap at the chance to go as far away from Summer as possible while the Sidhe argued among themselves, but it couldn’t be more obvious they wanted me gone in a more permanent sense. If I perished in the depths of the ocean, my bargain with Lady Aiten would become void.

  “It is settled, then,” said Lady Aiten. “We shall take our leave.”

  The group of Sidhe about-turned and vanished in a flash of green light, leaving the three of us alone in the cave.

  “Wonderful.” I gripped my right wrist with my left hand. “Sorry, Coral. I hoped they’d started to come around and stopped accusing innocent people. I… may have baited Lady Aiten yesterday for letting the other Sidhe go after my family.”

  “There’s a great deal of unrest in the Court at present,” said Darrow. “Speaking to the Sea Queen will assuage their fears of an outside threat and will also confirm we still have an ally in the Sea Court.”

  “That’s if their Queen doesn’t take offence at being accused of murdering the Erlking,” I pointed out. “Besides, the unrest isn’t going to go away in a day. Look at what happened last night. I bet those fanatics aren’t the only ones out looking for trouble.”

  “Perhaps, but by the time you return, the Sidhe will have come to a decision on whether to conduct a celebration of the Erlking’s life and death,” said Darrow. “It has been so long since death has touched the Court, but many believe the Erlking would have wanted i
t.”

  “Celebration,” I said. “You mean some of them want to throw a funeral party. Let me guess… Lord Niall is one of them.”

  “Yes.” His mouth thinned. “If you go with Coral to the Sea Kingdom, it will count towards your Trials whether you learn anything new or not.”

  Translation: going into the Sea Kingdom would bring me one step closer to getting rid of the bond. As a bonus, I might find out which Court Darrow really belonged to. I wouldn’t lie, I was kind of curious about how things worked in the independent Courts, and with Coral at my side, I’d have at least one ally.

  “Fine,” I said. “I’ll have to drop by the Lynn house first to grab a water-breathing charm. Will I need anything else?”

  “I recommend wearing suitable clothing,” said Coral.

  “Pretty sure Mum has a faerie-proof wet suit somewhere.” She’d been on a fair few diplomatic missions herself. “I’m just going to grab some shoes, then we’ll leave.”

  I backed into my room and threw on a fresh outfit, not that it mattered considering I’d need to change into something suitable for swimming in when I got back to the Lynn house. I splashed water onto my face to wake myself up and imagined Mum’s expression when I told her about my mission. I couldn’t just have a normal Gatekeeper’s induction, could I?

  I re-joined Coral in the main hall. “Let’s go and meet the Queen.”

  “You know, I’d have liked to take you on a tour of the Sea Kingdom when your Trials are over,” Coral admitted as we walked out of the tunnel and into the daylight. “But this is different. The Queen might well lash out at you for accusing her.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I’d like to stay out of the Court until the Sidhe stop arguing about funerals,” I said. “You never know—the Sea Queen might have a theory about the Erlking’s death that we haven’t thought of yet.”

  It wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that the Seelie Queen’s conspirators weren’t all from this Court, either.

  “She might,” said Coral, but she sounded doubtful. “That talisman is designed for war. There hasn’t been one in our Kingdom for a very long time.”