Pixie-Led (Book 2 in the Twilight Court Series)

by Amy Sumida

  “Here we are,” our escort opened a set of double doors twice as tall as me, and ushered us through. As we passed him, he fell back and closed the doors behind us. I guess we were on our own.

  I surveyed the large room as we crossed it. It was an open space of pale gray stone floors and pale filtered light. The light came in through crystal panels set into the ceiling and that seemed to be enough for the Fairy Council, there were no other lights to be found. Carved wood arches swept up the walls to support the high ceiling, coming to dramatic peaks at the center of the hall around those crystal panels. The walls were made of the same polished wood as the arches but they were adorned with tapestries instead of carvings or crystal. Within the intricately woven art, silver armored fairies surged across a backdrop of baby blue sky and vivid green fields. War horses pawed at the air while spears of wood and steel threatened an oncoming army. The tapestries were all of battle scenes, every last one of them.

  Spaced at intervals in front of the walls, were suits of armor as well as weapon displays; shiny things with beautiful details of gold worked into the silver. It was if they'd been pulled right out of the tapestries behind them, leaving some poor fairy knight defenseless and naked. I searched the scenes for the naked guys but unfortunately didn't find them.

  At the far end of the room was a slight platform, not really a dais, just a raised area that barely required a step up. On it stood a row of ornate chairs. I lifted my eyebrows at that. Tiernan had been right, this really was a throne room, they'd just done it more subtly than the actual throne rooms of the fairy courts. In front of the platform there was a long table and that was where the council waited for us I guess they didn't want to push their luck by receiving an actual king while they sat in their almost-thrones.

  “Your Majesty,” a regal looking fairy stood, his long, straight, silky, celadon hair trailing almost to the floor. “And Your Highness, please join us,” he waved a hand to three open seats beside his own. “Lord Tiernan,” he nodded, “your presence is always welcome.”

  “I wish I were here under happier circumstances,” Tiernan pulled a chair out for me and I gave him a nasty look. Chair-pulling was just as annoying as door-opening for me and he knew it. He didn't have the excuse of ignorance like the door-opener guy did.

  “Thank you,” I mumbled as I sat.

  “Princess Seren,” the green-haired councilman inclined his head to me. “It's a honor to meet you. I am Lord Catan, Head of the Twilight Council.”

  “It's nice to meet you too,” I nodded back.

  “King Keir,” Catan looked to my father, who'd taken the seat closest to Catan. “May we offer you refreshment? Wine or perhaps something to eat?”

  “Wine would be appreciated,” Keir nodded, the lavender tips of his hair shifting forward as he sat.

  The top section of his hair had been braided back elaborately, while the lower half had been left to hang free. It was almost a feminine style but there was something about fairy men, perhaps their aggressive masculinity or maybe it was simply their dangerous demeanor, which made it impossible to see them as effeminate. Even with his sparkling star crown set atop those purple braids, my father looked entirely masculine... and rather intimidating to tell you the truth

  “Excellent,” Catan poured three glasses of fairy wine from the pitcher set before him. “Now that the niceties have been seen to, shall we discuss the reason for your visit?”

  “The vision the mirror moths gave me,” I accepted a glass of wine, “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome,” a little smile played around Catan's lips.

  I guess he wasn't used to being thanked by fairy royals but I just couldn't do that stupid head incline every time someone did something nice for me. It seemed ungrateful, or even worse; entitled.

  “Your father informed me during our scry that you witnessed a cataclysmic event,” he continued.

  “I saw the White House burning and a lot of explosions,” I frowned. “I saw a man's face and then a crow-headed staff. It came to life and cawed at me.”

  Several sharp inhalations circled the table. Catan held up a calming hand and I noticed that the tips of his fingers were stark white. The rest of his skin was a normal buttery beige but the color lightened as it approached his hands until it became unseelie white; moonlight skin. I blinked and tried not to stare at his fingers as I processed it.

  He must be a twilight fey. We were the only fairies who held both seelie and unseelie traits, being born of both lines. I peered down the table and saw that most of the fey present were twilight. There were just a few near the end who were either pure seelie or unseelie. And they were notably different in other ways as well.

  It became immediately evident to me, through both the races and the different styles of clothing, that there were both councilpersons and hunters with us at the table. The council members were dressed more like my father and I; in flowing robes or gowns, and they were all twilight fey. The hunters were a mix of all kingdoms and were closer to Tiernan in both demeanor and dress; wearing shorter tunics belted with serviceable swords over worn leather pants. Their hair was tied back and their faces looked incapable of artifice. These were warriors, not politicians, and personally, I would have felt more at home at their end of the table. The question was, what were they doing at the table in the first place?

  Back in HR, council houses were headquarters for the Extinguishers but soldiers were rarely included in council meetings. Frankly, we Extinguishers preferred it that way. We didn't want to deal with the headache of fey-human politics. That's the whole point of having councils. They did their jobs and we did ours. Yet it looked like they did things a bit differently in Fairy. There wasn't a whole lot of them, just five hunters total, but they were obviously welcome in the discussion.

  Which meant they had to be important. Probably Lords of the Wild Hunt, the same rank as Tiernan. At least as far as the Hunt was concerned. Tiernan also held the court title of Count, which made him a noble. In rank, that placed him about three levels beneath myself. Which is pretty damn high and pretty damn rare for a member of the Hunt. The nobility generally didn't join the Wild Hunt.

  “Princess Seren's vision could be interpreted in many ways,” Catan continued. “Let's not leap illogically.”

  “Jump to conclusions,” I whispered to Catan and Tiernan groaned as he shut his eyes in mortification.

  “What was that, Princess?” Catan asked politely.

  “Oh, I thought you might have been trying to use a human phrase to make me feel comfortable, as my father does sometimes. It's just that it's the wrong wording,” I explained.

  “A human phrase?” Catan lifted a brow. “No, actually, I try not to use them but thank you for thinking so highly of me.”

  “Highly?” I blinked.

  “To assume that I was trying to put you at ease,” he smiled gently. “A gracious host would have done just that and I would have as well... had I known the ways of human speech more intimately.”

  “Ah, well then,” I cleared my throat as Tiernan gave a low, relieved chuckle. “I apologize for the interruption.”

  “Not at all,” Catan waved his hand magnanimously. “There is always time for pleasant conversation.”

  “Lord Catan,” Tiernan began before I said something else inappropriate, like how I hated the way the fey thought there was always time for conversation. “I witnessed the vision with the Princess and I don't believe it can be interpreted in multiple ways. I think it's a very clear message of impending doom.”

  “Oh my,” chuckled Catan. “Impending doom. That's rather dramatic, isn't it? Princess Seren stated that there were explosions and a white house on fire. I hardly see that as doom. Things explode all the time in the human world. They seem to like it that way.”

  “Not just any white house,” Keir corrected before I could. “She saw the White House on fire, as in the American government's headquarters. The home of their president, their leader.”

  “Oh, well that's a
different situation then,” Catan began to frown.

  “My Lord,” Tiernan interjected again. “These were no minor explosions, they were on the scale of an entire city being destroyed.”

  “There were also images of war,” I added. “People dying in great numbers.”

  “That's very upsetting,” Catan frowned deeper.

  “I believe this requires some research, Lord Catan,” a hunter at the end of the table spoke up.

  He was unseelie but I sensed no hostility from him. Usually, once a fairy entered the Wild Hunt, they sacrificed their kingdom loyalties to become loyal only to the Hunt and the Council. I'd run into a couple exceptions to that rule but I was hoping they were an anomaly. This man, with his midnight hair and moonlight skin, reminded me of my Uncle Uisdean (the jerk face) but his expression was open, intelligent, and concerned. I liked him immediately.

  “What do you propose, Lord Eadan?” Catan asked him.

  “I can take a patrol into Washington DC to search for the slachdan or any type of strange occurrence that may alert us to its use,” the unseelie hunter replied.

  “The slachdan?” I leaned forward to ask him.

  “That's the crow headed staff,” Eadan explained to me.

  “Oh, wonderful. That would be very helpful,” I agreed.

  “DC may not be the slachdan's current location,” Catan mused. “It may only be its destination. We should notify the hunters already on watch in the Human Realm and the other council houses.”

  “Including the High Council?” A councilwoman asked.

  “Especially the High Council,” Catan gave the woman a stern look.

  “And the Human Council?” I asked.

  “Not yet,” Catan held up a hand when I began to protest. “It's not the time for that, Princess. Grant me your trust in this please. I have a reason for my reluctance.” I gave him a grudging nod and then he looked to my father. “King Keir, have you contacted King Uisdean about the Blue Hag's location?”

  “Yes, my brother is looking into her whereabouts,” Keir grimaced. “Though I can't speak to the sincerity of his actions.”

  “You think this may be his doing?” Catan lifted his brows.

  “I hope not,” Keir amended, “but I wouldn't put it past King Uisdean. His hatred for humanity runs deep.”

  “But something of this magnitude would have repercussions for the fey,” Catan noted. “Our worlds are linked and chaos has a way of seeping through such connections.”

  “Yes, we pointed that out to him,” I spoke up. “He said he'd look into finding her.”

  “That would be most helpful,” Catan nodded. “Perhaps you should request a meeting with King Uisdean in person, Princess.”

  “What?” I gaped at the head councilman. “Why?”

  “As an ambassador, you are allowed certain privileges that other royals are not,” Catan smiled wickedly. “You may ask intimate questions, delve deeper into unseelie politics than even a councilperson may.”

  “You want me to interrogate the Unseelie King?” I asked with horror.

  “If that's how you want to look at it,” Catan shrugged. “Though I believe interrogate is a rather harsh word.”

  “I'd prefer not to,” I admitted.

  “What would you prefer for the Human Realm?” Catan asked, his eyes going sharp and shrewd. “Destruction or salvation?”

  “You're a willy one,” I gave him an impressed look.

  “Of course, Princess,” Catan chuckled. “All council persons must be. We don't suffer fools here.”

  “I thought you were unfamiliar with human sayings,” I lifted a brow.

  “Oh, is that a human saying?” His bright brow lifted right back at mine. “I think you may be mistaken, Your Highness.”

  Chapter Four

  “This is ridiculous,” I grumbled on our way back to the carriage. “I'm an Extinguisher and the Ambassador. I should be a part of the hunt, not just a researcher.”

  “Let them run around looking for Cailleach,” Tiernan smirked. “We'll go in and catch her after they've done all the boring work.”

  “That's a rather good point,” I grumbled more, irritated that I hadn't thought of it myself. “But keeping the Human Council in the dark is not a choice I condone. I don't know if I can do that.”

  “You must,” Keir slid a serious gaze in my direction. “We need the support of the Fairy Council and if you go behind their backs and tell the Human Council something which our council wishes to be kept secret, we will never be welcome here again.”

  “It's our kingdom,” I huffed.

  “Not this part of it,” Keir chided. “This land is under council rule.”

  “And what if the Human Council discovers that I've withheld important information from them?” I countered. “What happens to my relationship with them?”

  “You don't live in the same kingdom as the Human Council,” Keir shrugged.

  “See, this is the type of thing I assured Councilman Murdock that I wouldn't let influence me,” I pointed angrily into my father's face. “I can't be an ambassador if I take sides. I have to remain neutral.”

  “Neutral, yes,” Keir grabbed my finger and pushed it out of his face. “Stupid, no. Think, Seren! What would the humans do if you told them about this threat?”

  “They'd go on high alert and probably find Cailleach,” I snapped.

  “And then?” Keir prompted.

  “And... probably...” I blinked.

  “Yes?” Keir asked with a shrewd look. “What would they do to Cailleach?”

  “Extinguish her,” I whispered.

  “Yes, without discovering the truth of the matter,” Keir nodded. “And we need to learn the truth. Cailleach may be just the tip of an evil iceberg. There could be a hidden threats that only she can alert us to. We need to speak with Cailleach not just stop her.”

  “That's a valid point,” I sighed.

  “Their ways may seem high handed to you,” Keir put a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “But those council members in there have been dealing with humans for more years than you can conceive of. They know what they're doing.”

  “Perhaps. But perhaps they're simply doing as they've always done,” someone drawled from our left and all three of us turned sharply, and rather guiltily, in the direction of the voice. It was Eadan, Lord of the Wild Hunt. Or LOTWH as I was starting to refer to them in my head.

  “Lord Eadan,” Tiernan relaxed and held his hand out to the man.

  “Lord Tiernan,” Eadan grinned broadly and shook Tiernan's hand. “You've been missed.”

  “That's good to hear,” Tiernan chuckled. “Let me introduce you. Your Majesty, Your Highness, this is Eadan Gale, Lord of the Wild Hunt. Lord Eadan, this is His Majesty King Keir and Her Royal Highness Princess Seren.”

  “It's an honor to meet both of you,” Eadan bowed briefly.

  “You as well,” I nodded, “but what did you mean by that comment?”

  “Some of us think the councils have grown stagnant,” Eadan shrugged and rested a hand on the pommel of his sword. “Stagnancy is a problem all organizations face but we fey are especially prone to it. We watch the years fly by with apathetic ease and forget that we should be doing more than watching. We should be growing, changing, learning, and adapting. Otherwise what's the point in living so long? We will live but only in the past.”

  “I like you,” I nodded and he flushed red up to his hairline.

  “Seren, you can't say things like that to a fairy man,” my father whispered. “It won't be taken lightly.”

  “Oh,” I blinked, “sorry about that. I meant to say that I like the way you think. I was just surprised to find someone so open-minded here.”

  “Well then,” Eadan cleared his throat. “In that case, many thanks, Your Highness.”

  “So you think I should alert the Human Council to this threat?” I continued.

  “No, absolutely not,” Eadan immediately and vehemently said. “I think the humans are best left in th
e dark for awhile but I do think you need to be kept apprised of the situation... more so than the council would keep you.”

  “Are you offering?” Tiernan waved his hand forward, to indicate that we should take this conversation outside.

  “I am at that,” Eadan nodded and turned to Keir. “Do I have your permission to scry you, Your Majesty?”

  “Yes, of course,” Keir held his hand out to Eadan as we reached the doorway leading out to the courtyard. “We would appreciate any information you could provide.”

  “I'll do what I can,” Eadan nodded as he shook Keir's hand. “Your Majesty, Your Highness, ... Your Count-ness,” he chuckled as he bowed to Tiernan.

  “Very funny,” Tiernan rolled his eyes as Eadan went back into the council house. He looked at our amused expressions and sighed. “Eadan and I trained together. All the recruits liked to tease me about being a noble but Eadan was the only one I'd let get away with it.”

  “You were that close?” I was a little surprised. He'd never mentioned Eadan before.

  “No,” Tiernan grimaced. “He was that good.”

  “Excuse me?” I lifted a brow.

  “He's a better fighter than I am,” Tiernan admitted with the ease of a man who knows his own worth. “And I got tired of getting my ass kicked.”

  “Damn, I wish I'd known that sooner,” I whined. “I wouldn't have held back all the Wizard of Oz jokes.”

  Keir, Tiernan, and Cat all looked at me in confusion.

  “Dorothy Gale?” I gaped at them. “Come on; there's no place like home? Flying monkeys and the Wicked Witch of the West?” Just blank looks. “The cowardly lion? The tin man?!” I nearly shrieked. “That's it, we're getting a TV and we're doing a movie marathon. I can't deal with this blatant disregard for my culture.”

  Chapter Five

  “I just feel like I should be doing more than interviewing Uisdean,” I griped as I stomped down the stairs. “I was shown a vision of the damn White House on fire. I can't just sit here in Fairy and verbally spar with the Lord of Darkness. Oops, I mean the King of the Dark Court. You know what I mean?”