Somehow she didn’t feel much better about it when the Summer Queen wrinkled her nose and said conspiratorially, “Actually, I knew that last bit.”
Rhianna said, “Oh, well, if we’re doing everything all at once… I’m probably not as grown up as I should be. I was born in Pasadena, but I live on the other side of the country now. And I’m an agent of the Office of the Unexpected.”
Rhianna got the same nose wrinkle from Summer. “A spy, you mean. That’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“I write reports,” said Rhianna gravely. “Pages and pages of reports. It’s actually pretty boring.”
The Summer Queen stopped outside another pair of doors and flung them open into a room similar in size to Griff’s playroom, but outfitted lavishly as a princess’s bedroom. “Tada! Come in. Make yourself at home. Somebody will bring snacks. They’re always trying to make me eat more.”
There was a plush pink and gold armchair nearly surrounded by bookshelves, a giant canopied bed covered in topaz and blue pillows, a white wooden table with three chairs around it, a drafting desk with its own swivel chair, a window seat with more books, and, incongruously, a small television and a game console in front of a bean bag chair.
Branwyn went to the armchair while Rhianna put her bags on the table and sat there. The Summer Queen threw herself onto the oversized bed and beamed at them.
“Your turn for the rest of the answers, Summer,” said Rhianna lightly.
“Oh right. Gotta get info for those reports, right? I’m not as grown up as I’d like to be. Where I come from… here, I guess? That’s a tricky one for me. And of course, I’m the Summer Queen, which isn’t any more exciting than writing reports.” She looked between them. “What?”
Rhianna asked, “I don’t want to be rude, but… are you honestly a kid, Summer?”
The Summer Queen pulled a face. “That is rude. But you don’t know, so I’ll forgive you. But yeah. I’m a kid. An immature person. This body does not yet have the boobs I aspire to.”
“And why not?” asked Branwyn.
The kid Queen shrugged. “I can’t do magic. I have to have a body, though, or everything would fall apart. And nobody else can make a body for me. So when I die, I start over again as a normal mortal zygote in the nearest available mom-type. It’s very painful for me, and very scary for everybody else.”
This caught Branwyn’s professional interest. “Are you the same person each time? Do your memories carry over?”
“Well… I said mortal, but it’s just the body, you know? I am the Summer Queen. So I know stuff. And I’m me. But I still have to be a fetus and a baby and learn how to use my body just like any baby does. It’s so boring. They’re always saying, Be careful, Your Majesty. If you die, it will hurt, your Majesty, but they have no idea what it’s like to be stuck in a body that’s practically always too young or too old for whatever I want to be doing.” An old bitterness twanged in the Queen’s final sentence, and Branwyn remembered the Queen of Stone’s distaste for her courtiers.
“That sounds dreadful,” said Rhianna with sincerity. “Not being able to use any magic in Faerie sounds like—”
“It sounds like any human in Faerie,” said Branwyn. “Speaking of which—”
The Summer Queen’s brown eyes hardened for a moment. “Not like either of you. Both of you have more magic than I’ll ever have.” Then she shrugged again. “But it doesn’t matter. I still manage to have fun. Speaking of which, let’s sort out one more thing and then we can get down to business. I’ve got one more important question, and it’s your turn for answering.”
“All right…” said Branwyn. There was a worrying light in the Queen’s eyes.
The Queen rolled from her stomach to a sitting position, grabbed a big pillow to hug, and said breathlessly, “Which one of you is responsible for that incredibly hot monster downstairs?”
13
The Summer Queen
“What?” said Branwyn flatly, shock temporarily blanking her mind.
Rhianna, frozen while digging through the supply backpack, said, “Uh, what does ‘incredibly hot’ mean when you use it?”
The Summer Queen looked between them again. “Did I get it wrong? Sexy? Amazingly attractive? Super cute? I don’t like that last one, though, because it makes me think of Griff. Come on, which one of you is it? He said one of you was his mistress, he just didn’t say which one.”
Silently, treacherously, Rhianna pointed at Branwyn. The Summer Queen at once turned her full attention on Branwyn. With a big smile, she asked, “So, are you two, like, together? Coupling? Or is it just platonic?”
Branwyn clasped her hands in her lap and leaned firmly against the chair back. “You spoke with him?”
“I sure did! Right after I left you with Griff, I ran down to see what all the fuss was about. He was sitting on that stone. I said hi, and we talked some.” She giggled. “I asked him if he was as dangerous as everybody said, and he said he was more dangerous.” She fanned herself with her hand. “See? Hot!”
Branwyn decided they needed to push through to the business part of the agenda and out of the Domain of Summer as soon as possible. That meant providing the answers the Queen claimed they owed her. “We are not ‘together, coupling,’” because dreams don’t count even if… She pushed that distraction down. “And it is not platonic. We have… a business partnership at the moment. It’s temporary.”
“Ooh!” The Queen’s eyes sparkled. “I wonder if I could form a business partnership with him, too. As, you know, a stepping stone to other things.” As Branwyn opened and then closed her mouth, the Queen continued. “Well, we can talk about that more later. Tell me what you want from me, first.”
Branwyn glanced at Rhianna, who motioned her to go ahead. “A faerie bound to Summer slaughtered a town on Earth. Most of the children of the town survived and, we suspect, were taken to Faerie. Do you know where they are?”
The Summer Queen pulled another face. “Gale. It was so tragic how he lost his love. And he still hasn’t completed the task Honeychord set him to. I guess it’d be fitting if Honeychord unbound him, but that’s such a sad ending.”
“It was a sad ending for about four hundred other people, too, Your Majesty,” said Branwyn, as neutrally as she could.
The Queen pushed her lips out in a pout. “Oh, don’t get stuffy with me. I made sure the children survived, didn’t I?”
“So you do know where they are?” For some reason, this made Branwyn more on edge rather than less.
“I do,” said the Queen delicately. “What would you do if I told you?”
Rhianna took over briskly. “My employer would like to place them in the care of human families. Ideally, we’d like to arrange a controlled release so we can complete a full physical evaluation for each kid, but if we have to retrieve the whole crowd at once, we can work with that too.”
“Hmm,” said the Queen. “Well, that’s not my decision. I arranged for their rescue, and I know where they are, but they’re not in my care and I can’t force their keeper to release them. You’ll have to work that part out on your own.”
“But you’ll tell us where they are?” asked Branwyn eagerly.
The Queen waved a finger back and forth. “That’s the favor you have to pay for.”
“All right,” said Branwyn and Rhianna simultaneously.
“Guys, you’ve got to be a little more reserved making bargains. At least ask before you agree to pay.” The Summer Queen hopped off her bed and stood beside the window seat. “But I’m nice. I don’t want much.” She looked out the window. “That beast the monster mentioned is breaking through the wall. I’m calling Night to the Domain so Harvest’s children will stay inside while everybody who wants to play with the big bad wolfie does so. I’ll not only tell you where those kids are, but give you a shortcut to their location, once dawn breaks.” She gave them a little smile. “Until then, we can have a slumber party.”
Branwyn considered this. Then she considered her
alternative solutions to finding the children. With Severin’s help, she could probably put together an alternative. Travel might be an issue though.
Rhianna raised her finger. “Point of order? What determines when Night moves on?”
“See, that’s the kind of question I want to hear!” The Queen spun in a circle. “I do. Or somebody else could call her, I suppose. But probably me. I won’t keep her here for more than eight hours once she covers the Court. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
“And eight hours here is how long on Earth?” Rhianna asked patiently.
Breezily the Queen said, “Oh, we’re at a one-to-one ratio here, because of the Well of Time. And there’re clocks everywhere. I don’t want to trick you. I just want to have a slumber party with some friends.”
That big-eyed earnest look reminded Branwyn so much of Brynn wanting to tag along on this trip into Faerie. She suggested, “How about you tell us, and we get the kids, and after that we come back for this event? I can even bring along some friends closer to your…. More like you in temperament, anyhow.”
The Queen pursed her lips. “Ohhh. That’s really tempting. Like, we should make another deal just for that. But… this is too perfect an opportunity. I mean, you’ve got that monster downstairs, and I bet he’s going to fight the beast of fire and thorns, and I want to seeeeee. And do makeovers with real makeup. You’ve got real makeup, right, Rhianna? And I definitely want to talk about boys.”
“Can we talk about girls, too?” asked Rhianna, taking this far too seriously for Branwyn’s tastes. A slumber party with Severin downstairs was way too dangerous an idea to be genuinely considering.
With a generous gesture, the Queen said, “Feel free, if you want. We can talk about hotties of all types.”
“Good!” said Rhianna, evidently oblivious to Branwyn’s attempts to signal her to slow down. “I do feel like I ought to tell you that the beast… it doesn’t go down easily. Or rather, it keeps coming back. Do you know what it is?”
“Nope,” said the Queen. “Maybe some angelic critter sent to cause havoc? They shouldn’t be able to get past the Binder, but who knows these days.” She joined Rhianna at the table and peeked into the open backpack. “Don’t worry about it. Eventually it’ll be destroyed, assimilated or caged. It’s certainly not the first time we’ve had to deal with something like this.”
The Summer Queen’s lack of concern amplified Branwyn’s discomfort with the situation. It didn’t seem right that her personal territory was being invaded by a mysterious creature and she was more interested in a slumber party.
But she had to work with what she had. Her fingers moved over the gem in her hammer, tickled by the bubbling of the stored souls. As for herself, she’d napped well, but she’d exhaust herself trying to do what the Queen was offering to do for an objectively low price.
It was a tempting offer, despite the danger. She tried to remember the Queen’s exact statements in her head. She should have taken notes. Actually, she should have brought Marley. Marley could have handled the notes and the worrying.
But no. Bringing Marley would have made everything more complicated, and depending on who came with Marley, might have constituted an act of war.
Rhianna and the Summer Queen were pawing through Rhianna’s makeup case. Branwyn was pretty sure Rhianna had so far only implied future participation.
“Let’s make the deal clear before we start the makeovers.”
The Summer Queen looked up, surprised. “I thought I was pretty straightforward. You two haven’t agreed yet though. I noticed that.”
Branwyn grimaced. “We stay for a slumber party. In exchange, you tell us where the Tucker kids are, and put us on a shortcut there. I need one more thing though. Tell me that your shortcut will save us at least eight hours.”
“I can’t,” said the Queen promptly. “How could I? I don’t know what you might accomplish on your own. But I am not trying to trick you, and I do intend on helping you.”
Branwyn blew out her breath. That was the best she was going to get. “Fine. If Rhianna accepts, so do I. You two work out the agenda while I go talk to His Nibs.”
The Queen perked up. “Ooh, the monster? Can I come?”
“No, no,” said Rhianna quickly. “Branwyn gets shy. Besides, if you like him, you’ve got to play it cool. If he knows you’re interested, he’ll just jerk you around.”
Her eyes widening, the Queen focused on Rhianna. “Yeah? Tell me more!”
Branwyn made good her escape. She encountered a faerie lady outside the door, with a tray of cakes and potato chips, got directions to the base of the Court, and started the hike.
It felt good to be by herself for a few minutes. The interior of the Summer Court was well decorated in pale greens and white, with pastel accents. Out one leaf-shaped window she saw the airship dock, where two faerie ladies were disembarking from a ship with moth wings.
She tried to enjoy the scenery instead of thinking about what was ahead or behind them. Without thinking about the next few hours, or the glint on Rhianna she hadn’t yet managed to look at closely.
She realized that was something she could do at this slumber party. It was in the nature of three-person slumber parties that when makeover time happened, somebody would have time on their hands. Penny had performed plenty of makeovers on Marley while Branwyn had sketched or colored. This would be far more constructive.
She made her way to where the market was closing and was forced to refuse a crumbly cinnamon-scented pastry from a cheerful child of Harvest. Instead she walked outside, into the fragrance of wisteria and honeysuckle drifting on the evening wind.
After breathing in the fresh air for a moment, she strolled over to where they’d left the sailing stone. The courtyard had acquired a population while they’d been away, including a few male faeries in ornamented armor who seemed both self-important and ill-at-ease among the Harvest’s children gawking at the sailing stone.
But Severin was no longer in his place at the top of the stone. Branwyn eyed the armored faeries and decided not to summon him there. They seemed on edge enough without a monster appearing out of nowhere among them. Instead she returned to the row of blooming hydrangea shrubberies forming a narrow walk between the secondary courtyard and the front entrance to the Court.
“Severin,” she whispered.
I’m here, he said, touching the back of her neck.
“Not busy?”
Not yet.
“Are you hiding in that place?”
No, just lurking in the shadows. There was a rustle of shrubbery, and he joined her in the greenery, looking at her impassively.
Branwyn stared at him for a long moment, trying to see him from the perspective of the Summer Queen. He wasn’t nearly as beautiful as the angels, nor as attractive as most of the faeries. But that was just bodies, wasn’t it? The Queen was a bored, semi-immortal teenager, and he was the sardonic, mysterious monster who would happily wipe out her people. It could make a sweet romance, but only if you cut away everything about it that was true.
He brought his hand up as if he was going to touch her face, then dropped it again. With an edge in his voice, he said, “Did you come down here just to look at me like that?”
Branwyn shook herself. “Night is coming to visit. We’re going to stay here while she’s in town. In the morning, the Summer Queen will send us to the Tucker children.” She watched his face, but he remained impassive.
“Hmm. Will she now? She came down to see me.”
“Yes,” said Branwyn, keeping her face like stone, because two could play at that game. “What did you think of her?”
He gave her that shark grin. “I thought she looked very fragile. I wanted to snap her neck, just to see what would happen.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to be telling her that when she inevitably asks what you said about her.” Branwyn ran her hand through her hair, then pulled out her ponytail and rubbed her head with both hands.
Severin watched her,
an amused gleam in his eyes. “You could.”
Branwyn gave him a severe look. “I have a feeling you know exactly what would happen if I told any sort of teenage girl that her crush was far too dangerous for her.”
“I do,” he said. “I always went with exposing their embarrassing personal secrets instead. Or just killing them, of course. But in this case, perhaps we could get that location a bit faster. I don’t really trust the Wild Hunt.”
Branwyn found herself actually considering the suggestion. Slowly, she said, “That might work. But I can’t imagine you’d like it very much. You’d probably have to stay here a lot longer than eight hours while we did the kid-rescuing.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He gave her another one of those shark smiles.
Puzzled now, Branwyn asked, “Do you want to be her pet for a while?”
“Not in the slightest, cupcake. All I’d have to do is promise to be her boyfriend for the rest of her current life, and then make sure her life is very, very short.”
Curiosity beat out horror. Branwyn said, “She’s not dumb. I’m pretty sure her definition of ‘boyfriend’ would disallow any neck snapping.”
With a ripple of his shoulders, Severin said, “I wouldn’t have to do it myself. I'd just finish a couple of conversations.”
Grimly, Branwyn demanded, “What have you been doing down here?”
He spread his hands. “She’s got all these weak boys of Summer wandering around. I’ve been fixing some of them.”
“Fixing them,” Branwyn said flatly. The wind gusted, blowing flower petals between them.
“Well… I suppose it does depend on your perspective. Personally, I thought it might be useful if a few of them remembered how to be dangerous when that beast gets here, so I’m helping them understand their options. Really, they’re all close to breaking anyhow.”
Slowly, Branwyn started tying up her ponytail again, staring at him hard. “Go on.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You sure you want to know?” She tightened her jaw, and he laughed. “Apparently she’s unusually trying this time around. Wise Sir Centri of her shining knights thinks she’d be much easier to handle as an infant. And the oh-so-passionate Sir Axis is extremely upset that she’s been smiling at the likes of me instead of him. And that’s just what I’ve discovered in the last hour or so.”
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