by Claudy Conn
Ete turned to the queen, who smiled ruefully at her young cousin and inquired, “Now, Ete … what was all that about?”
Neither the queen nor Ete had seen that the prince had been walking towards their open door. He had witnessed Ete’s flirtation with Gaiscioch, and irritation swept through his entire being. Now what was that? he asked himself as he shifted off to find Maxine.
* * *
Maxie’s arm was numb. Her head felt woozy. She wanted everyone all around her to leave her to die in peace. She glanced up, and through her haze and confusion she saw Breslyn at the library doorway. She supposed he had just arrived from the expression on his handsome face. He was watching and listening with growing interest. And then he was studying her with his eyebrows drawn together in a harsh expression.
Maxie was stretched out on a blanket covering the sofa. No sense in ruining the leather sofa. Tally was holding a pail of bloodied water, Uncle Kennet was still mopping up her arm, and Julian was saying something about getting her to the hospital.
“Miss Reigate,” Julian said authoritatively, “we need to get you to a doctor. You need stitches and medication against infection. ”
Well, how do you like that? Maxie’s lovely eyebrows drew together. I save his life, and he’s back to calling me Miss Reigate. “Yeah, right, so the doctors can ask all kinds of questions, and we would have to make up all kinds of lies, not to mention having to endure an investigation and police traipsing about? I don’t think so!” Maxie snapped. She was now in a foul mood and wished everyone would go away and leave her to suffer quietly.
Breslyn had been listening to all this and suddenly realized something of import had occurred. He started forward towards Maxie, and his expression was ominous. “What, by all that is Danu, is going on here?”
Julian turned and quietly spoke to Tally. “Tally, why don’t you go now, and leave Miss Reigate to us. There is no reason for you to stay … call it a night. I believe we will be taking Miss Reigate to the hospital very shortly, and, Tally … I am certain it is no more than a poacher taking a miss-shot.”
Tally and Max had already formed a friendship, but still, when she dropped a kiss on Maxie’s forehead, Maxie was surprised by the affection. She reached for Tally’s hand, “Thanks, Tally … don’t you worry about anything, okay?”
She whispered, “Dear girl. Okay.”
The door closed behind her, and the prince nearly pounced on Maxie. His silvery eyes glistening with sparkles of ebony ice. “Lia … my wee bonny lass, what have they done to you?” He bent and studied her wound before turning to look at Julian and demanding. “Is this how you protect her in my absence?”
Julian bristled. “I was not expecting someone to come shooting at us!”
“Shooting?” The prince was astonished. “Who? Do you mean poachers? Was this then actually a hunting accident?”
All eyes turned on Max, and Uncle Kennet suggested, “Why don’t we all sit for one moment and allow Maxie here to tell us what she remembers.”
Dear Uncle Kennet. He was always a support. Maxie sent him a grateful smile. The prince, however, was operating in another mode. He took her hand and said, “Lia … come with me to Tir. I will heal you there, and keep you safe until this is all over.”
Maxie had read all about how fast Fae could whisk you off by shifting the cosmos to accommodate themselves—and whomever they had in their company. She had seen him poof in and out and wanted no part of it.
She quickly pulled out of his hold. “Tir? Oh no, you don’t. That is Faeryland … no, not me … not a good time.”
Julian took a bold step towards them and growled, “She is not going anywhere with you.”
The prince ignored him and cast Maxie an injured look. “But why, my Lia?”
“Because ‘the someone’ doing the shooting today wasn’t a poacher, and he wasn’t human either. The shooter was a Fae!” It was all Maxie could do not to shout. She looked around at the three men in her life. Finally, she thought, they were quiet.
However, after a moment, the silence was too much, and she began looking at each of them as she waited for a reaction. Julian was the first to speak.
“But why would a Fae use a gun? They have no need of guns—if one of them wanted to kill, they have the power to do so with the flick of a wrist … so to speak.”
Maxie was staring at him, wondering if she could deep probe his mind, when Breslyn cut into her fantasy.
“You do indeed speak the truth, Talbot. A Fae and a gun make no sense.” He turned back to Maxie. “The wee lass is confused—my poor Lia … is it the loss of blood …?”
That was condescending and annoying, and Maxie pulled a face him. “I know I am not what your people call a Sidhe Fios. And still, Breslyn, I saw through your invisibility on the first day, so believe me, I knew he was a Fae—I saw through his invisibility. But I am also human, and I couldn’t see past his hooded robe.” Maxie’s arm ached miserably, but it was time she explained. “Uncle Kennet decided yesterday it was time he gave me a letter my mother had left in his keeping for me.” She looked at Uncle Kennet with the same bit of irritation she had felt when he had first handed the letter to her. His explanation that he had promised her mother to give her the letter only when the time was right had only slightly mollified her.
She could see all three men were impatient for her to proceed. “Mom wrote that at my birth she was paid a visit by the queen of the Tuatha Dé, who actually allowed my mother to see her. The queen was there only a few moments, and she gave me the Seer power. She touched me with the Rowan Wand.”
The prince gave a low whistle. “My Queen has the ability to see and discern … wise beyond time.”
Uncle Kennet grumbled, “Why don’t you explain exactly what this Rowan Wand does, Prince?”
“It was fashioned by the queen from the Rowan Tree and dipped in its berries. When held, the user can see through all Fae magic whether it is Unseelie or Seelie. When the queen personally touches the human with her Rowan Wand, the human is given the gift for their lifetime,” Breslyn explained. “It is a rare gift … a gift she gave her high Druid priest and only one other that I personally know of—and now you.” He said this last as he looked at Maxine.
Julian remarked quietly, “And twenty-one years ago at your birth, Miss Reigate, she knew you would need the Seer ability. Remarkable.”
The prince smiled apologetically at Maxie as he managed to sit beside her thigh on the sofa. “Continue, my Lia.” He was holding his open palm over her wound, and without touching the wound he moved his hand in a circular motion. She could feel heat radiate between his hand and her wound.
“It was after Julian and I dismounted, and …” She glanced at Julian in that moment and hesitated. She could see his deep blue eyes blazing intensely as he remembered their moment. She wished she knew what he was thinking—what he was feeling.
She heard Uncle Kennet say gently, “Go on, Maxie.”
“Yes … there is a place in my head. I call it my Druid place, and it started to scream at me … telling me to look into the piney woods, and then I saw him. He wore a hooded dark monk’s robe, but I could sense … I could see … I absolutely knew he was a Seelie Fae. I also knew in that precise moment that he was going to shoot Julian. I pushed Julian out of the way, and, bingo … but if Julian hadn’t grabbed me at that moment, and pulled me along with him, it would have been worse.”
Breslyn looked at Julian, and then at Uncle Kennet. No one spoke, and Maxie was surprised when it was Uncle Kennet that finally broke the silence. “Of course you all do realize he wasn’t aiming to kill?”
Julian nibbled thoughtfully at his lower lip, and Maxie watched him with lazy interest. She wondered what it would be like to feel his sensuous lips on hers. She wondered what it would be like to feel him touching her. Hey, she told herself, we are talking death and politics here. Back to the issues.
Suddenly she realized her wound wasn’t hurting any longer. She wasn’t so very tired, and she w
as … damn! She looked down to see that her wound was healing right before her very eyes. She looked at Breslyn, and he softly whispered, “Hush … Lia …”
He chanted something, and she realized that even with her power of tongue she couldn’t understand the ancient Danu Fae language he was using. It was beautiful, and although she could not understand the words, it was strangely seductive. Then he moved his hand over her shoulder, down the length of her arm, and then back to where the wound had closed. She gasped and looked at him with real appreciation. “Man, you are certainly a good thing to have around!”
He took that as an invitation and dropped a sweet kiss on her lips. She blushed because both Julian and Uncle Kennet were watching. Julian looked like thunder as he hovered over them. She told herself to be ashamed. She told herself that she was behaving like a cat in heat, thinking of Julian’s lips one moment and taking Breslyn’s kiss the next. She answered herself that it was not her fault. The prince had healed her … a kiss was called for, and Julian … when would she ever stop thinking about a man who was back to calling her Miss Reigate?
“Why then, if not to kill?” Julian frowned at Uncle Kennet’s statement.
Breslyn turned his attention to this discussion. “Why shoot at Julian at all? Why wear a monk’s robe if he was using cloaking. Why use a gun? None of this makes sense.”
Max could see they all had big fat ‘whys’ and no easy answers. However, she had some moments ago started putting two and two together. Math was not her strong point, but this seemed to add up in her brain and tell her, Yeah—you got it.
She had an advantage. She had seen the Fae in the dark cloud in her vision. She had heard his thoughts. She looked at Breslyn and said meaningfully, “I believe you have a traitor in your court—because I have sort of seen him and I know he means to make trouble. I think the Fae in the monk’s robe is your traitor, Breslyn.”
“You have seen him?” Breslyn sounded more than astonished.
“Not exactly, but I heard him, and I know he means to try and overthrow the queen.”
“When … how …”
“My vision. Couldn’t see what he looked like, but he was helping cover up Lamia’s first kill.”
“We always have trouble of some sort in the Court—but this … this was unexpected,” Breslyn said on a low note. “Why would he clean up after DuLaine?”
Maxie saw that Julian was standing apart and regarding her with a stunned expression. He came in closer. “You had a vision … and you saw this Fae.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t tell me about this Fae vision.” Uncle Kennet was frowning at Maxine.
“Didn’t have an opportunity … but I was going to.”
“Lia … you can’t know what you are saying.” The prince was staring down at her.
She could see she had dropped a bombshell and that all the males in the room had a different take and reaction. Breslyn was closest, and she reached to touch his hand. “I am sorry … but it was a Seelie Fae hidden in a dark cloud of black magic. This Fae hates us—humans. He really hates humans. He wants to destroy the Treaty between Man and Fae. He wants to overthrow the Seelie queen. I can’t say for sure … but I believe he is the one that shot me.”
Breslyn was very still, and sudden dawning hit her. She pulled herself up on the sofa to exclaim, “Huh! You already know about this traitor … don’t you, Breslyn? You knew it was way out of hand up there in Faery … and you kept it from us.” Maxie was furious.
“We like to keep Seelie affairs close. I did not realize it had gone this far. I did not realize one of our own actually plans to physically overthrow our queen. I thought it was more of a political game he intended. I see it is much more,” he answered on an angry note and then threw up his hands. “And besides, Lia, I mentioned to you the other night that—”
“Yes, yes … new ballgame, I remember, but this is huge.” She grimaced and then relented. “The thing is everything has already happened. I was looking into the past … and all I can tell you is that he wants to use Queen Aaibhe’s attention—her interest in us—against her with your Council people … Fae … whatever. That is the gist of what I got.”
“Yes, but did he not give you a clue as to who he is?” Julian stuck in.
“He seems to hate the queen for a great many reasons … he was jealous, and he has been planning this a long time.”
Breslyn took a tour of the room. All at once he was back down at her side on the sofa and taking up her hands to say in a hushed voice, “Lia, Are you sure he did not know you were there?”
“The past. I was looking into the past. It had already happened.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how I am able to do these things. I was thinking about DuLaine, wondering how she could have left her kill without leaving clues … and wham, I found out.”
“What other visions of DuLaine have you not told us about?” Julian caustically interrupted her.
Maxie’s cheeks were hot. She remembered seeing DuLaine bring a rock down on Julian’s poor bride’s head. She was keeping that vision to herself. “No other.” She stuck out her chin, hoping to hide the lie.
“You saw the beast quench her first bloodlust … you saw her kill?” Breslyn looked at her. “Lia?” He said reproachfully, “You kept this from me?”
“I wasn’t sure what to do about it. You see, I was looking into the past … I needed time to figure things out …”
“What you are saying is that you needed time to find out who you could trust?” Julian nodded with sudden understanding.
She eyed him, and sighed. “Yes. You, well you are not very open, and the prince … the prince is loyal to his queen …”
Uncle Kennet cleared his throat. “The point is, now you both know the facts as Max has them.”
“Fine.” Breslyn was stalking the room once more. “Fine. Now, I hope you will no longer keep things from me.”
Sighing she said, “Works two ways, buddy, and besides, you need to sort out your priorities.”
“What are you saying? I am very good at discerning—” He cut himself short. “We have a dilemma here … for it is obvious we are now engaged in a two-front war.” He bent towards her. “However, my interest in you, Lia, is on my own behalf.” It was so deeply, intoxicatingly seductive that she had to shake it off in order to think. She smiled warmly at him for the compliment.
Irritably Julian interrupted. “Go on, Miss Reigate, I am certain there must be more you have to tell us.”
“Okay … yes, so there you are, Prince. The Fae in my vision believes he has the queen’s trust, her ear, and her friendship. And this Fae knows a great deal about what is going on. That makes him powerful.” She bit her bottom lip. “It occurs to me that this Fae thought he could create confusion and dissent if he shot Julian. He didn’t realize I could discern the Fae in him. Also, I think he is mad—totally insane. He hides it well … but I sensed it in his mind …”
The prince’s eyebrow was up. “And this Fae now knows you have the sight.”
“True, so he will have to regroup, alter his plan a bit.” Now Maxie was sighing.
“But to what end?” Julian’s arms were folded into one another as he walked about. Maxie watched him.
“For one thing, if I hadn’t sensed a Fae shrouded in a monk’s robe, we wouldn’t know what to think right now. We might start pointing fingers at one another. He thinks humans incapable of logical thought … and I believe he underestimates us. He probably thought we would be thrown into chaos. He might believe that chaos would hurt the queen’s cause. Also, it might show that the queen is intervening with the humans more than is prudent, breaking her own rules. It would show that she has in fact, drawn in a member of her Council—you, a royal prince, into her human festival. He might use this to manipulate your Court, turn members to his cause with a program of dissension?”
“Brilliant!” Julian said with some astonishment as he stared at her. He looked at Breslyn. “I see that Miss Reigate is exactly correct.
You have a dangerous traitor in your midst, and you must have had more than a suspicion of this. It has something to do with the murder of the queen’s lover, Conall, doesn’t it?”
The prince glared at no one in particular. He got to his feet and went to stand with his back to them as he stared into the fire, apparently collecting his thoughts. Then all at once he turned around and walked over to stand in Julian’s face.
Maxie held her breath. Any red-blooded female would. They stood head to head, toe to toe, and facing one another like that they appeared like an outstanding work of art. The writer in her started taking notes.
One a golden warrior from another world, exotic, compelling, and promising to fulfill every sexual fantasy a woman could have. The other just as exotic and sensual coming from another time in history, but not promising one darn thing! Hmmmm.
“We know we have a traitor,” Breslyn said on a hard, low note. “And we don’t have a bloody clue yet as to whom it could be. He is as much a danger to my world as he is to yours! Don’t you think I want to know who he is?” Breslyn snorted. Huh … I didn’t think a Fae could snort quite like that, but there you are. The prince was pacing once more and giving Julian his back.
“Well, this just gets better and better,” Julian snapped. “This traitor of yours has failed in his attempt this time, but he won’t stop, and while I am not concerned for myself, I am very much concerned for Miss Reigate.” A rueful expression mounted his face before he proceeded, “As you can see, she puts herself in harm’s way.”
“Precisely why you should convince her to come with me to Tir where I can keep her safe until this is all over. None will dare to harm here there … and besides … there are dimensions of my queen’s creation that none can enter without her invitation.”
“I am not going to Tir like a prissy coward!” Max knew she sounded like a child. She made a strange grumbling sound, not ladylike, but it added emphasis to her words. “Besides … since we arrived in Scotland, something keeps happening to my Druid senses. I am discovering all sorts of new abilities like … tongue, and … other things that will help against the DuLaine in the end. Here I am meant to be, and here I am staying.”