He nodded and pulled a small black gem out of thin air and pressed it into my hand.
“Keep this, then,” he told me. “You cannot lose it, and when you know what Boon you need, use it to call me. A Boon from such as I is best well thought on.”
“I was sent to help,” I admitted. “I am a Vassal of Queen Mabona.”
I barely finished the words before the room warmed and the world shifted.
“And you have performed well,” Mabona said, appearing from nothingness. Not even Between, I don’t think. She was just suddenly there, as if summoned by her name.
“You are not supposed to be here without permission,” MacDonald observed drily.
“I did not think you would mind,” She replied, and the Wizard gave a weak attempt at a smile.
“Your action is noted,” he told Her. “But I hold, and have always held, that the Boon is owed to the actor and not those who sent him to act. The thought is appreciated, though.
“Now, I dislike to be rude, but I would prefer this conversation be carried on somewhere other than my bedroom,” MacDonald told us all. “I do have several hundred soon-to-be-ex-employees of mine to deal with as well, so would it be possible for us to reconvene—and bring the new Speaker of the Clans in as well—this evening?”
“What will happen to the Enforcers?” Oberis demanded. “They followed Winters—people have died for their actions.”
“I will strip them of the power they were granted,” MacDonald said coldly. “And then I will strip them of any memory of their time with me, and any knowledge of the supernatural. They will live the rest of their lives with a nagging feeling they were once part of something incredible and they threw it away. I will have no more death in our city; do you understand?”
Oberis nodded.
“I will meet you all in the lobby in four hours,” the Magus continued. “We have much to establish as to where we go from here. I have apologies to make, and this city will change. Hopefully for the better.”
“Walk with me,” Mabona instructed the three of us fae. We obeyed, and in a moment, we were elsewhere.
It took me a moment to recognize the inside of the hotel that functioned as the fae Court in Calgary. The scent of life and greenery all through the enchanted building helped relax me, but the memory of letting Winters suffocate to death in front of me stuck in my head. Peace was going to be a while in coming.
“You are going to be well, Lord Oberis?” Mabona asked. The fae lord bowed his head.
“MacDonald...knows me well enough to do a perfect job of healing,” he confirmed. “I am well. Concerned for my Court, so if you will excuse me?”
“Of course,” she allowed. “I wish to speak with my Vassal in private, in any circumstance.”
Eric took the hint and followed Lord Oberis out of the Court’s grand hall, leaving me and my Queen alone. She gestured, and the moss quickly grew into a simple approximation of chairs. She took one and patted the other.
“Sit, my dear boy,” she told me. “You have done well, far beyond my hopes.”
“It was not by choice,” I reminded her, and she nodded.
“Indeed,” she agreed. “And as you have done so well, I will do as the Wizard did—for your superb actions here, I owe you a Boon. Name your reward, child.”
It was almost harder to know what to ask the Queen for than it had been to know what to ask MacDonald for. On the other hand, She knew things about me that he did not.
“Tell me who my father was,” I asked.
She sighed, deeply.
“What I can tell you will cost no Boon,” She told me. “Your father was a Hunter—you must have realized that when you walked Between, for only the riders of the Wild Hunt can pass that gift onto their changelings.
“He was also noble fae, as you must have also realized since he was my Vassal,” She told me.
“I thought the walking Between was from the quicksilver,” I admitted.
“Quicksilver only makes you stronger,” the Queen explained. “It does not give you any gifts you would not wield normally. I will ask Oberis to teach you more of the Between and its paths—I will likely not have time.”
“But what about my father?” I asked again, not willing to let this go yet.
“I cannot tell you more,” She admitted. “It would be no kindness to you if I did—it could easily cost your life. Your father had many enemies, and you remain concealed from them as long as your blood is not spoken of aloud. I will not tell you his name.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that, and I was silent for a moment as I considered.
“What,” I said slowly, allowing my drawl to slow the words as I considered something else worth a Power’s boon, “if I were to ask to be released from my fealty to you?”
“I would be displeased,” She answered, equally slowly. “But I would be forced to grant the Boon. Think before you ask for such things, however, as the costs are many.”
“To escaping slavery?” I asked.
“You are not a slave, Jason Kilkenny,” my raven-haired Queen told me. “You are a Vassal. This relationship has obligations and rights both ways. As my Vassal, you hold diplomatic immunity across all fae Courts. From me you will receive aid and information to help keep the peace and fight evil. Think what would have happened here”—She gestured around us—“if I had not tasked you to seek out the plot on MacDonald’s life.”
Taking my silence as a sign, She explained quietly.
“Truths that are now unveiled would be secret. Many would be dead who now live. A war would have started, and Winters would have succeeded,” she said bluntly. “Oberis would be dead. MacDonald would be dead. Many would have fallen prey to the vampires. You stopped all this.”
“Not alone,” I disagreed. “I worked with others, had help—I often just watched.”
“And yet you were the catalyst to so much—because you were my Vassal and served the task I gave you,” She reminded me. “Without you, this city would have burned. Without my aid, you would have died.
“You are your father’s son—it is not in you to stand aside from evil,” Mabona told me. “As my Vassal, you will have the aid and authority to fight it. And while I do not often offer Boons, there are many rewards in my service.”
I touched the collar of the rune-encrusted bulletproof vest I wore under my shirt. Without that gift from Her, I would have been dead. She was right in that, at least. And She was right that I wasn’t willing to stand by and let harm come to the people around me. Stupid of me, but She was right.
“I will hold the Boon,” I said slowly. “And I will hold you to your promise to release me if I call on that Boon.”
“Done and done and done,” She confirmed, repeating three times to prove She would honor the promise. “I want your service, not your unthinking obedience.
“There is something I want in return, though,” She told me. She waited for me to respond, and I gestured for Her to continue. She’d already thrice-bound herself, which made it unlikely what She wanted would be too strenuous.
“I want you to swear fealty to me in your own voice and by your own choice, as well as fealty by your father’s blood,” She said simply.
I sat there on that moss chair in the Court for at least a minute in silence. She waited—I guess when you’ve lived longer than any human could dream of, waiting a few minutes isn’t a big deal.
By my own voice and my own choice. The words were like tombstones—while the boon I held gave me an escape clause if I swore fealty to Her, I would no longer be able to say I’d been forced into this. I would choose to follow the Queen, to accept Her orders, to obey.
I would be a volunteer, not a conscript, which would change...everything. And nothing. I would serve either way. She would release me from my fealty if I invoked the boon either way. It just changed...context. It made it my choice to be a Vassal, because I could claim the Boon now and walk away.
But She was right. I didn’t have it in me to walk away from
need. And Her aid had kept me alive this far, and She was right that I would have died without it. I wasn’t so sure the city would have burned without me, but I did seem to have been in the middle.
Finally, I made up my mind. I stood from the moss chair and knelt before Her as She rose to Her own feet. Alone on that mossy floor, we faced each other, and the words were in my mind—like I’d always known what they were.
“I, Jason Kilkenny, offer You my fealty,” I said simply. “To serve with honor, to obey with fidelity, to answer with truth. Your foes are my foes. Your allies are my allies. Your will is my will. I am Your Vassal.”
“I, Mabona, accept your fealty,” She responded. “To reward honor with honor, fidelity with trust, truth with truth. While I am your Lady, you will never be without aid or reward or allies. Those who speak against you speak against me—as my foes and allies are yours, so your foes and allies are mine.
“Fealty flows both ways. I am your Queen; you are my Vassal.”
I called Mary from outside the hotel. After the phone had rung three times, my heart started to quicken with worry, and then she finally picked up.
“You’re okay?” she asked, right off the bat.
“I am,” I confirmed. “You?”
“In desperate need of a shower, but unhurt,” she told me. “There weren’t enough of the feeders in any group we found to be a threat. What happened in the Tower?”
“I killed Winters,” I told her simply. “MacDonald ended the fight and is dealing with the Enforcers. The Queen is here and there’s a giant conference at the Tower tonight—MacDonald wants to try and sort out where we go from here.”
“I’d heard Winters was dead—why didn’t you call me sooner?” she asked. “I was worried.”
“I’ve been tied up with the Queen,” I said. “We were...discussing things. I think we’ve settled on terms of service I can live with.”
“You’re seriously the Vassal of a Power?” Mary asked. “I know Eric said you were, but no one else has said anything about it.”
“We’re keeping it quiet,” I explained. “Being a Vassal normally includes a large bull’s-eye, and I’m not up to the usual weight class of Vassals.”
“I haven’t told anyone, and I won’t,” she promised. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be at this conference; it sounds like Enli is just bringing a small escort.”
“Can you come for me?” I asked. “The Queen is going to need at least some people around Her so She doesn’t look outnumbered.”
Though, with the exception of MacDonald, my Queen had everyone else in the city outnumbered.
“And I want to see you,” I admitted.
“I’ll meet you there,” she promised. “But I definitely need to shower and find another set of dress clothes.”
“I will see you there,” I agreed, and we hung up. Her closing words caused me to look down at the state of the expensive suit Talus had paid for this morning.
Blood spattered it, a good portion of it mine. Tears and rips in the cloth revealed the healed skin beneath. I needed to change.
Almost as I finished the thought, however, Mabona reappeared from wherever She’d vanished to and handed me a suit bag.
“Wear this,” She instructed. “The people at this meeting are the ones in this city we want to know you’re my Vassal—they’re the ones who have to honor your diplomatic immunity.”
I opened the suit bag and for a moment wished I could just show up in my tattered suit. Swallowing, I slowly dressed in the perfectly fitted black-and-gold uniform. Any real soldier would have laughed at the amount of braid, and then been silenced when he saw how easily I could move in it.
The long purple cape, however, I drew the line at. When I pulled it out of the suit bag, I looked up at Mabona.
“You cannot be serious,” I told Her.
“The cape is the only part of the uniform of my retainers that has never changed,” She told me. “There is a long and illustrious tradition behind it. It’s also one of the more powerful shields against Power you will ever wear.”
With a sigh, I slung the long cape around my shoulders and stood straight. A nearby hotel mirror showed me just how ridiculous I looked, but it was what my Queen wanted. I’d made my choice.
There was no sign that there had ever been anything resembling a battle when we arrived at the ground floor of MacDonald’s tower in a black SUV borrowed from Lord Oberis. Other cars were also arriving, and neatly dressed valets directed people inside and took the vehicles.
The valet that met us didn’t even finish his first sentence before I realized it was little more than a recording. The “valets” were illusions wrapped around energy constructs, preprogrammed extensions of MacDonald’s will.
I passed the keys to the construct and felt my flesh shiver as the illusion brushed my flesh. It took over the vehicle, and I preceded my Queen with an abortive attempt at the stylistic flick of the cape you see in old movies.
Mary was waiting by the front door, and Enli stood with her. I inclined my head to the new Speaker and pointed him out to Mabona.
“My Queen, this is Speaker Enli of Clan Enli, leader of Calgary’s shifter Clans,” I introduced him to her. “Speaker Enli, this is my Lady, Queen Mabona.”
Enli bowed, deeply, to the Queen.
“Mary told me that You would be here, Your Majesty,” he greeted her. “I wanted to see You with my own eyes. It is rare that we are graced here by one of the Old Powers.”
“We do not like to meddle in the affairs of other Powers,” Mabona reminded him. “I am here by request, as I had an involvement in resolving the situation.”
“So I am told,” Enli said, and bowed slightly to me. “We owe Jason a large debt, which will not be forgotten.” His words were addressed to my Queen, but his eyes were on me.
“I would like to offer the services of Mary Tenerim, one of the old Speaker’s Clan, as an additional escort and guide to our city,” he continued smoothly. “She and your Vassal have some experience working together.”
Mary and I both blushed. For all the high-minded and formal speech they were wrapping around the offer, the twinkle in both Enli’s and—I was sure—Mabona’s eyes showed they both knew exactly why Mary was joining the Queen’s party.
Given that, I shrugged, stepped forward and swept my girlfriend into a tight embrace, kissing her fiercely. Despite everything that had happened, we had survived. The city had survived.
And I was going to make sure that it kept surviving. As we walked into that conference, as retainers to an Old Power of the world, I fully accepted what I had decided earlier. I accepted what I had become.
My name is Jason Kilkenny. I am a Vassal of the Queen of the Fae, and Calgary is my city. It is under my protection, and through me, the protection of my Queen.
You have been warned.
Other books by Glynn Stewart
For release announcements join the mailing list or visit www.glynnstewart.com
Changeling Blood
Changeling’s Fealty
Hunter’s Oath (Upcoming)
ONSET
ONSET: To Serve and Protect
ONSET: My Enemy’s Enemy
ONSET: Blood of the Innocent
ONSET: Stay of Execution (Upcoming)
Starship’s Mage
Starship’s Mage: Omnibus
Hand of Mars
Voice of Mars
Alien Arcana
Judgment of Mars
Starship’s Mage: Red Falcon
Interstellar Mage
Mage-Provocateur (Upcoming)
Duchy of Terra
The Terran Privateer
Duchess of Terra
Terra and Imperium
Castle Federation
Space Carrier Avalon
Stellar Fox
Battle Group Avalon
Q-Ship Chameleon
Rimward Stars
Operation Medusa (upcoming)
Vigilante (With Terry Mixon)
Heart of Vengeance
Oath of Vengeance (upcoming)
Stand Alone Novels
Children of Prophecy
City in the Sky
Changeling's Fealty (Changeling Blood Book 1) Page 31