“Thank you,” one of the women said as she handed the baby back to the blonde woman. The Goblin Queen, Aine had called her.
She didn’t look like what I thought a goblin looked like.
She’s fae, and human. Brennan is fae. He rules the Goblin Realm. But he’s not a goblin.
Are you trying to give me a history lesson?
I’m trying to make sure you don’t make a fool of yourself in front of people. We’re related, after all.
Point taken, I smiled in Aine’s direction.
Good. Don’t embarrass me or Fangorn.
I will be fine regardless, Fangorn chimed in.
See? I thought smugly. He’s fine.
“They’re doing it again,” Drake said, gesturing around at me, Aine, and Fangorn. “It’s like they can’t help it.”
“We can’t,” Fangorn said.
“You’re Aodan? Aine’s brother?” The blonde woman came toward me, the baby cradled on her shoulder. “I’m Iris. You’re part human, aren’t you? Is this the first time you’ve been in the Realms?”
“I didn’t even know what the Realms were until a couple of hours ago,” I answered her.
“Then don’t let all the weird stuff get to you. It takes some getting used to,” she said with a smile. When she smiled, she went from attractive to beautiful. She turned, the smile still on her face. “This is Brennan.” She pointed at the man. “And this,” she patted the baby, “Is Kenric.”
The baby didn’t stir.
“I am glad you’re here,” Brennan said, offering his hand.
Thanks to Drake, I knew what to do now.
I clasped his forearm. He gave mine a squeeze.
You need to let me know what’s expected, you know, with manners, I thought.
Oh, we care about that now?
Figures it was Aine. Sarcasm must be a family trait as well.
Aine will need to be your guide. Dragons have their own rituals.
That’s a lot of help. I shot a glare at Fangorn.
“I’m not sure,” I said to Brennan. “I’m only here because I have to be.”
“What’s happened?” He looked from Drake to Fangorn.
Quickly, Fangorn filled everyone in on what had happened from the point that he came to see me. Thankfully, he didn’t include all the details of our conversation. That was a good thing. I didn’t want everyone to know everything about me.
No one here is your enemy, Fangorn said.
Well, that’s on me to decide for me.
Very well. Try to start from a place where trust is possible.
For Pete’s sake. I rolled my eyes.
Aine met mine, and she smiled in understanding.
I looked away. All the family things, all the comfort—it was coming too fast.
“See? They’re doing it!” Drake pointed at the three of us.
“You’re really bothered by this,” Iris said, patting Kenric and rocking back and forth slightly. “It might lead one to believe it’s due to something personal.”
“Be quiet, ladyship,” Drake said.
Iris only smiled into the baby’s hair.
“It’s natural for us to engage in this form of communication,” Fangorn said. “It’s not meant as discourtesy in any way.”
“He knows that,” Aine said. “He likes to complain.”
“Yes,” Iris and Brennan said together.
There was a moment of silence, and then everyone but Fangorn and I started to laugh.
Drake must make this kind of complaint regularly.
Fangorn smiled. He does. But do not be fooled. He is a fierce warrior, and intensely loyal. He was Brennan’s second for years, before he was given the Dragon Throne. He and Iris are both fierce. They rescued Brennan when—well, that doesn’t matter at the moment.
He is a good man. And he hates Eilor, Aine added.
You’re not biased or anything, I thought.
I’m very much biased. But that does not change the truth.
“Did you converse with Eilor?” Brennan asked me.
It pulled me from the head talk.
“I did. I thought it was Fangorn. They sound similar. I mean, he’s definitely got a douchebag edge to him—”
Iris laughed. Everyone looked at her.
“I don’t get to hear human slang much anymore. It’s a funny word to describe what a hateful and arrogant man Eilor is,” she added. “It’s pretty accurate,” she said to me. “I’m sorry. Go on.”
“Now I can tell the difference between Fangorn and Aine. When Eilor told me that he had Margrite, he sounded different from Fangorn. I could tell the difference between them now.”
“I envy this form of communication,” Brennan said. “We have the mirrors but if we could talk between minds, it would be faster and private.”
That was something I hadn’t thought about. I’d been stuck on the fact I had voices in my head like a crazy person.
Maybe a change in perspective is something to consider. Aine wasn’t looking at me.
You going to drop in all the time like this?
Fangorn gave me what Margrite called the side-eye. And he wanted to laugh, but he didn’t.
Perhaps your elders are worth listening to.
“What did Eilor tell you, Aodan?” Drake said.
“He said… uh…” I had to stop thinking about a comeback to Fangorn. “He said when I came here, to the… uh…” I waved my hand around.
“The Realms?” Iris asked.
“Yes. The Realms. He said he would contact me.” I frowned. “How much time does she have?”
“Your friend?” Brennan asked.
He reminded me most of Aine. They were both quieter than everyone else in this room. Watchful, careful, deliberate. Those were qualities I appreciated. All the noise was getting to me. Margrite and I knew how to be quiet with one another.
I nodded. “She’s human. Fangorn said she couldn’t make it here.”
“No, she may not,” Fangorn corrected.
“That is not what you said,” I frowned at him.
“She has a chance,” Brennan said. “Most of the people here are more human than anything else.”
“What? Aren’t you all magical woo woo and shit?” I was so surprised I spoke without thinking.
Iris started to laugh. Everyone else smiled.
She handed Kenric to Brennan, and leaned over, laughing. “You guys are missing out on the way humans talk. It’s been so long, Aodan! I miss it!”
“What is wrong with the way we speak?” Brennan went all frosty on his wife.
“Whatever, Bren. Save your indignation. No, I just miss listening to people who talk like I did. It’s not personal.”
He didn’t look convinced, but he cradled the baby, doing the same rocking back-and-forth thing Iris was doing earlier.
“Brennan is right. She does have a chance. The Realms are not good for humans. There’s something in the air, basically.” She shook her head. “Don’t ask. I got a lecture that lasted all day when I asked for specifics. But she can live. And Eilor is a practitioner of magic. He’ll keep her alive. He needs her.”
That was the second time someone had said she’d stay alive as long as she was useful. Another thought struck me. “Who else is human?”
“I am,” Drake said immediately. “I was wished here seven hundred years ago. I didn’t die, and my parents adopted me.”
“Me, too,” said Iris. “I’m a quarter fae, thanks to my grandmother.”
“I’m half human,” Aine said. “So are you. Our mother was human, and our father half fae, half dragon.”
“So she could live?”
Everyone nodded. “There’s no telling why some people live and others don’t.”
“I think you should alert Eilor that you are here. But before you do, may I ask you a few questions?” Brennan asked.
“I guess?”
“Tell me about the box you stole. Fangorn tells me that Stefan wanted it. Called it a casket. I haven’t
heard that in a long time.”
I shrugged. “I got word of a really good paying job. It was halfway easy, with the complication that I had to steal it from another guy who’d already stolen it. When I went to find it, I saw Eilor—at least I think it was him. He was in a portal, and he kicked a woman in the face.”
Brennan and Iris looked at one another. “Eleanor,” she said softly. Then she looked at me. “That’s another story. It’s not important now. Please go on. I’m sorry for interrupting.”
The thief in me wanted to dig, to find out the details, the information. One thing I’d learned was that information was a valuable as any physical thing. There were so many stories within stories here.
“I stole the box. I got to my fence, and he called the client.”
“Who was it?” Brennan asked.
“A woman and man. Young. She was one of those good-looking snotty women. He was good looking, and,” I thought about them. “She was in charge but he calmed her down when she started getting angry.”
Brennan nodded. “I think I know who that might be. They are of no danger. I’d be surprised if they had any clue what was going on,” he added to Drake.
Now Drake nodded. Then he looked at me. “Where does Stefan come in?”
“When I arranged to meet Eilor, thinking he was you,” I said to Fangorn, “This Stefan guy shows up, and starts yelling that Eilor’s this and that, and he set him up and stole the casket for himself and lots of drama stuff.” I rolled my eyes. “I think Stefan is the boss that the guy I stole from works for. He’s supposed to be dangerous, and he puts off that vibe for sure. But when he started ranting at Eilor, it was kind of pathetic.”
“He is dangerous,” Drake said flatly. “Very much so. But like Eilor, he gets mad, and he acts when he’s mad. So he wants to come home,” he looked at Brennan and then Fangorn. “That would be very bad.”
“There are now two fronts. The mysteriously back from the dead Eilor, and his equally mad brother,” Aine said.
“Oh, come on. You were getting bored,” Iris teased her.
Aine crossed her arms. She didn’t answer.
I glanced at her, brows raised in a question.
Maybe.
It nearly killed me, but I didn’t smile.
“Well, we must first concentrate on the safe return of Aodan’s friend Margrite. Then we can focus on Stefan.” Fangorn didn’t seem ruffled. “Do we have a plan? It would not be wise to let Eilor have the upper hand.”
“As a matter of fact, we do,” Drake said. “But everything is easier over food. Let’s eat, and we’ll talk it out.
This further delay was going to make me crazy. At the same time, it made me think of Margrite. I hated delay, and she made me plan with her, account for all possibilities before I did a job.
She would appreciate this.
I’d have to tell her, when we got her back.
If we did.
20
When these people ate, they did it right. As the tray of bread, and cheeses, and fruits that I didn’t recognize, along with cuts of meat got low, one of the serving women came in and refilled it.
Not that I wanted to say it but it was like magic.
I listened. That’s how I planned best—to hear the plan and make it work for me.
“You don’t think he’ll be suspicious that I’m yelling for him?” I asked, tearing my millionth piece of bread. It was so good.
Aine was the one who answered. “No. He’s very, very clever, and has an amazing sense of preservation, but he’s not good at assuming others will be smarter, or even as smart as he is. He’ll assume you’re just a human, and you are panicking and not thinking rationally.”
“He knows I’m with you, though. He told me to ask you to get me here. He knew that I’d have to. There was no other way to get me here,” I turned to Fangorn.
He nodded. “He will expect me to be with you. No doubt he has a scheme that involves both of us. All three of us,” he looked at Aine, “If he can manage it.”
“She’s not going with you,” Drake said.
“She is,” Aine said.
“He’ll know you are close. He has the pendant still,” Fangorn said.
“You have mentioned that but I am unfamiliar with the pendant. Why does that matter?” Brennan asked.
“If you recall, one of the things Eilor always wore was the ring of the Dragon King, which he thankfully no longer has, and a large pendant with a red stone. That stone has my blood in it. It allows him, when he wears it, to hear the thoughts and collective awareness of the dragons. It allows him to participate like a dragon. He used it to insure I had no privacy after Lionel escaped and he realized that Lionel and I were speaking over distances.” He looked down at his plate, which only had fruit on it.
Aine put her hand over his. Neither spoke. Then Fangorn looked up. “We must get that pendant from him. And I insist—” he stressed the word, looking between Drake and Brennan, “That it be returned to me. It will not go to either of you, or your father. It is my blood. I will not have the last of us used in any way by another.”
The dragon rumbled in his words. He was deadly serious. I could tell that something bad had happened with him, with other people using him. I knew about Eilor, but I wondered what he had against Brennan, or Drake, or their father.
Jharak, their father, is also the Fae King. He is one of those who put me and the rest of us into the care of Eilor. And never bothered to check on us again, Fangorn’s words rumbled through my head. Brennan already covets our communication.
He thinks it would be useful. He doesn’t covet it, Aine objected.
Useful leads to reasons why someone should have something, regardless of whether it is right. Fangorn wasn’t budging. Do not go against me on this. I will not allow it.
“Are you dictating terms?” Brennan didn’t look bothered, but something in him shifted as well. He was also deadly serious.
“I am. If you will not agree, I will help Aodan with no assistance from any of the leaders of the Fae Realm. Given all that my kind have suffered at the hands of yours, there is no reason to deny my demand.”
Brennan took another bite of cheese. “You’re right. Jharak might have something to say about it, but we were not good stewards to the dragons. It is reasonable.”
I felt Fangorn relax next to me. “Then the pendant is mine.”
Brennan nodded. “It is. Although I would ask if you would work with me on something when this is over?”
“What is that?”
“Some way to improve on communication. The mirrors work, but they are not easily concealed, and they can be lost or stolen.
“Or given away like they were some sort of treat,” Drake said, glaring at Iris.
She ignored him.
Brennan ignored them both, talking to Fangorn. “We need a better way. Since the dragons have been using a different form of communication, I would welcome your help in this.”
Fangorn stared at the other man. I was glad I wasn’t on the other end of those green eyes. He was intensity with a capital ‘I’.
“I will.”
I felt the entire table relax.
“That doesn’t explain why I can’t be with you,” Aine said.
“Because he will know. And it’s better that he believe Aodan and I are alone.”
“Can’t he hear us now?”
“How have you kept him out?” Fangorn asked.
“I imagine shutting a door and putting him on the other side of it.”
Fangorn nodded. “I’ve felt you do that. It’s crude, but effective.”
“You know a better way?”
“Of course. I’ll teach you. I’ve taught Aine, so that we are safe from him.”
“Then bring it,” I said. “I don’t want him in my head.”
“We do not have the time now. Keep your door closed. Although you will need to let him know you are here. We should not be here, in the Dragon Castle,” he added, looking around the table.
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“You think he can tell?” Iris asked.
“I think it unwise to assume he will act carelessly. He has managed to escape all of us and avoid death. He ought to be dead several times over, and he is still alive.” Fangorn sighed.
“Yeah, he’s annoying and a menace,” Iris said. “Will you go back to your home?”
Fangorn nodded. “I am sure Eilor has an idea of where we are. The caverns are well guarded against him. The others would tear him apart should he come near,” he added.
He sounded like he relished some tearing apart himself.
I could understand that.
“So we call him tonight?” I asked.
“Yes. And that is another reason you must stay here, child,” he said to Aine. “We need you to relay what is happening to Drake and Brennan.”
She nodded, although she didn’t look happy.
“We’ll have portals ready. We’ll get her out of there,” Iris said to me.
I believed her. While I wasn’t ready to throw in with these people, I didn’t think they were lying to me. They were too pleased to have me here. It wasn’t gushing, or over the top. I could tell they were happy—not just for themselves, but Aine and Fangorn.
Aine was right. This was a family.
Of course I’m right.
Go away.
Across from me, she smiled.
After the meal, Fangorn and I used a portal to go to the caverns where the dragons lived.
“Will the rest be there?” I asked. “Are they shifters, too?”
“No. I am the only shifter. A few will be there. All of them know of you. All of them are very happy that you are here, that you have come back to us, for however long. There are so few of us left, all of us matter even more than we did before.”
I looked at the opening. It didn’t look big enough for dragons to go in and out freely.
Come, Fangorn thought.
I followed him, and there was some sort of barrier, but it wasn’t solid.
Only dragons can pass, he added.
Ah. This was magic and woo woo.
Thinking about that made me think about Nala. I’d pulled the Dragon deck. The memory of all the dragons flashed through my mind. They’d been beautiful. I hoped the dragons I was about to see were too.
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