A Risky Proposition

by Dawn Addonizio

  “Excuse me,” I said loudly.

  She turned to look at me with a polite question in eyes that were an even deeper shade of brown than mine. “Yes?” she asked. She had dark, ruddy skin and a compact torso that looked out of proportion to her height—even though she was barely pushing five feet tall.

  “Do we know each other?” I asked.

  She studied me, her eyes alighting on my unwieldy brooch. “Uh, no. I don’t think so. Should we?” she inquired. Her speech was rough, and colored by an accent that I couldn’t place.

  “Well, my friend saw you following me, and we thought perhaps it was because you recognized me from somewhere.” My tone bordered on accusation.

  She tore her gaze from the chunk of crystal to my waiting stare. She looked from me to Sunny in silence for a moment, and then sighed. “Beautiful. First day on the job and my cover’s already blown.” There was a wry twist to her sturdy lips. “My name’s Galena. Pat Sparrow asked me to keep an eye on you, Sydney.”

  “Agent Sparrow didn’t say anything to us about having Syd followed,” Sunny said suspiciously.

  Galena’s dark eyes twinkled with humor. “Well, I could flash you my Seelie badge, but I don’t suppose that would mean squat to you. And I assume he didn’t say anything because I was supposed to stay out of sight—you know, not interfere with your daily routine or give you any cause for concern—just make sure you didn’t get into any trouble. You can ask him the next time you see him.”

  “I will,” I asserted with a mutinous expression. “I’ll ask him why he felt it was necessary to have someone spy on me.”

  Galena let out a gravelly chuckle at the annoyance in my voice. “I could see how that might make a girl a bit temperamental—but take it easy on him, Sydney. I’ve known Pat for a long time, and I’ve never seen him this personally involved in a case. I get the feeling he’s just worried about you.”

  My anger deflated, but I still couldn’t help wondering if this had anything to do with my earlier refusal to tell Sparrow about Ophelia.

  “And since my cover’s blown anyway, I have to tell you,” Galena added, “that brooch is absolutely fantastic!”

  Sunny flicked me a comical look of disbelief.

  I glanced at the sparkling monstrosity weighing down my shirt, shocked by the envy in Galena’s tone. Then my eyes settled on the colossal onyx earrings sandwiching the sides of her face, and her elaborate matching gold and onyx necklace, and I decided maybe I shouldn’t be so shocked after all.

  “It was a gift from the woman who owns Haute Hannah’s, down the street. I do some work for her,” I explained. “It’s actually kind of…overstated for my usual wardrobe. I’d give it to you, but with my luck Hannah would find out and be eternally insulted. If you really like it, you should take a look in her shop. She designs all of the jewelry herself, and she’s kind of pricey, but this is a good example of her style.”

  “It’s just gorgeous,” Galena admired. “Maybe I will stop by her shop some time.”

  “Just watch out for her perfume,” Sunny muttered.

  Galena gave Sunny a questioning look, and I took the opportunity to study her. I couldn’t figure out why her proportions seemed off.

  “What are you?” I blurted. “I mean, I assume you’re not full human since you work for the Seelie police—or maybe you’re not human at all. Although I guess I don’t really know much about it…” I trailed off, hoping that whatever race she was, I hadn’t just insulted her.

  Galena looked amused by my discomfort. “I’m a dwarf.”

  “Aren’t you a little tall for a dwarf?” asked Sunny. “Not that I’ve ever seen one—but I’ve read about them. Although I suppose that was fiction. Regardless, dwarf—doesn’t that denote, you know, someone smaller? You must be, what—five feet tall?”

  “I saw a dwarf once, at the Seelie Police station,” I put in, “but he couldn’t have been more than three feet tall.”

  “That would have been my brother, Galen.” Galena nodded. “He usually works the front counter.”

  “Yeah,” I said, recognition dawning at the similarity in their names.

  Galena glanced around and then lowered her chin to direct our attention downward. She bent to drop her bags on the sidewalk and, pretending to look inside one, quickly lifted the hem of a pant leg to reveal the strangest ‘shoe’ I’d ever seen.

  It was black lacquered wood that had been carved to mimic the contours of a normal sized shoe. A two foot wooden stilt extended above it, at the top of which rested a second, smaller shoe that held Galena’s foot.

  Grinning at the expressions on our faces, she released the fabric of her slacks so that it fell in a curtain to once more conceal what had to be the monster of all high heels.

  “Impressive. How long did it take you to learn to walk in those?” asked Sunny.

  Galena laughed. “It took a little getting used to, but it’s not as hard as it looks. They’re dead useful for undercover work in your realm, especially since glamour spells can be unreliable and that type of magic doesn’t come naturally to dwarves.”

  “I never would have guessed,” I marveled.

  “Not bad, right?” Galena looked pleased.

  “So, do you do a lot of undercover work here?” I asked curiously.

  She shrugged one silk-clad shoulder. “Now and then. But these baby’s are only for when I really want to blend in. It’s not as if dwarves have trouble passing for human.” She winked. “You’d be surprised how many faerie folk walk among you every day—mostly for purely harmless reasons. Although fugitives will sometimes defect here in an attempt to avoid capture in the faerie realm,” she added more soberly.

  “And we try to keep an eye out for immortals frequenting your realm in the hopes of taking advantage of humans. Take this nasty unaligned soul business, for instance.” She sighed. “Everyone’s had to put in extra over-time on this one. Although, I have every faith that Pat will crack the case eventually. That boy’s got mad skills, and he’s not too hard on the eyes either, if you know what I mean.”

  Galena grinned impenitently.

  “If he thinks protecting you will help, sweet thing, I’m not about to question it. Speaking of which, I should probably get back to pretending to secretly follow you. If you don’t mind, just ignore me and keep doing whatever you were planning to do.” Her voice was tinged with chagrin.

  “Are you sure?” I asked, uncomfortable with the thought of her trailing us all night while we enjoyed our drinks, dinner and shopping. Not to mention that I wouldn’t have minded hanging out with someone who had some history with Sparrow.

  “We’re going to this great little Indian restaurant. You’re welcome to join us,” I offered.

  “Thanks, but I’m supposed to be on the job. Besides, I think I need to spend some time practicing my stealth techniques.” Her lips twisted in self deprecation. “Just remember—if you run into any trouble, I’ll be around.”

  Galena bent to pick up her white shopping bags, pushing the tissue paper aside for a moment to reveal twin, short-handled axes with gleaming half-moon blades. “Mithrium,” she said proudly. “Light as air, but they’ll cut through anything—and anyone. Just give a holler if you need me.” Then she rose and strode away, black pant legs swishing above her hidden two-foot heels.

  I watched her go, trying to picture the jewelry-laden dwarf wielding those double axes with that huge hat flopping around her ears. Somehow I had no doubt that she’d be a force to be reckoned with.

  “Never a dull moment,” Sunny commented as we crossed the street toward the station wagon.

  I blasted the A/C to dry our sweat and then pulled out into the late afternoon traffic.

  “Do you think Sparrow’s spying on me because he’s hoping to find out who told me about the goblin?” It hurt to think that Sparrow mistrusted me so much that he’d have me followed without telling me about it.

  She held her long curls up off her neck and glanced at me thoughtfully. “I think Patric
k Sparrow wants to protect you, Syd. And sure, it probably bugs the crap out of him that you won’t tell him where you got your information.” She chuckled. “But unless I’ve completely misread him—I’m pretty sure you can trust him.”

  I frowned as I considered that. I was pretty sure Sparrow could be trusted too, but it eased my mind to hear it from Sunny. I’d trusted Jeremy and look how that had turned out. Just thinking about his betrayal hurt like hell, so I pushed it back into the numbest corner of my heart again, telling myself I’d deal with it later.

  All I knew for sure was that I needed to be careful.

  Chapter 13 – Milk And Honey

  Relaxed and happy from exotically spiced Indian food, and laden with bags containing new novels for our bedside tables, Sunny and I returned to the penthouse for the evening—only to be assaulted by a frantic faerie.

  “Oh, Sydney—thank Titania you’re home! Come on, we have to go right now or we might not make it!” A frazzled Emily greeted us at the door in her dress of drably shifting colors, tattered wings abuzz. She motioned anxiously for me to follow her.

  “Go where?” I asked in alarm.

  “Lauringer’s agreed to meet you, honey, and if we keep her waiting, we likely won’t get another chance!”

  “Lauringer? Now?” I repeated, panic crowding my pleasantly spice-muddled mind.

  “I’ll transport you; you’ll just make it—I hope.” Emily reached into the dull folds of her dress and pulled out a tiny grey pouch. She flitted up to hover above me. “Keep your eyes closed, honey, and try not to fall when you land.”

  I shot Sunny a helpless look and found her expression hovering somewhere between encouragement and fear. “Oh, wait!” she cried.

  Emily made an impatient noise as Sunny dashed into the kitchen. I heard the rattling of metal pans being shifted inside a metal drawer, and realized what she was up to.

  We had decided to hide Angelica’s mysterious, dark green vial inside the drawer beneath the unused stove. I didn’t want it anywhere near where we slept in case it was dangerous (never mind the fact that it had been in my bedroom all along). We had settled on the kitchen as the safest place.

  Sunny sprinted back into the foyer with the small vial wrapped in a thin, blue and white striped napkin. “Here,” she said breathlessly as she took my bag of books and folded the object into my hand. “Good luck, Syd.” Her eyes held mine for a moment, lending me an unspoken strength.

  “Thanks,” I said softly. I looked up at Emily, still hovering above my head. “I’m ready,” I told her, my calm tone belying the trembling in my midsection as I closed my eyes and stiffened my knees.

  I grasped the hidden vial tightly. If anyone knew what the strange object was, Lauringer would. If anyone could lend the magical help to prove Balthus guilty and get me out of my contract, she could. I told myself I should be excited about this meeting—not terrified.

  My wobbling insides weren’t convinced.

  A familiar iciness swept down over my body and I held myself rigid as the gut-clenching loss of gravity overtook me. I was beginning to feel as if I might lose my already questionable grip on reality unless the falling stopped, when I abruptly slowed, as if cushioned by some immense force that lowered me the rest of the way to the ground.

  I kept my feet this time—only just—and vaguely registered the crackle of something being crushed beneath them as they accepted my full weight.

  I took a deep breath and opened my eyes to a dim world of lush green. I stood in a shadowed clearing, leaves and small branches cluttering the woodland carpet beneath my feet, and the untamed forest closing in thick around me. Barely enough light remained in the deepening dusk to filter through the intertwining branches above and illumine the spaces between the trees.

  A milky blue orb, the size of a large marble, sprang to life in the darkness before me. Emily called in a hushed voice, “Follow me, quickly now!”

  There was nothing for it; I began to pick my way through the snarled vegetation behind her, alternately thankful for my jeans and cursing the open toes of my sandals. I was too out of breath, and concentrating too hard on not losing sight of her bobbing blue faerie lamp, to ask questions. It was almost pitch black now, and I stifled an expletive as my big toe caught on another tree root and I miraculously managed not to fall and break my neck.

  Head down in an attempt to see where I was stepping, I thought about how I was going to have to soak my aching toe in peroxide when I got home. It was probably a good thing it was too dark to see the abused appendage. I was definitely going to have to redo my pedicure.

  I looked up just in time to keep from careening into Emily, who had stopped short. She was staring into the blackness ahead, mumbling to herself.

  “Why did we stop?” I hissed after a moment, as much to fill the growing silence as anything else.

  Actually, silence wasn’t really the right word. There were rustlings and chirrupings and the crackling of branches and the hum of the forest coming to life all around us. And the more silent we were, the louder it seemed to grow. I thought I recognized the song of the tiny golden-brown frogs mixed into the forest’s cacophony, which made me feel a little better. But those cracklings made it sound as if larger things were moving nearby as well, and it was freaking me out.

  “Aha! There it is!” Emily exclaimed, her voice mingled with triumph and relief. “This way honey—I was afraid we’d missed her.”

  A glowing light appeared, shining through the trees ahead of us. I could just make out the shape of a cabin beyond the columns of thick, gnarled trunks. I got the strange feeling that it hadn’t been there a moment before. I followed Emily toward the structure, my now throbbing toe thankful for the assistance provided by the light.

  We cleared the last of the trees, and spread out before us was a large, rustic-looking A-frame log cabin. Its exterior was well-tended, the numerous picture windows clean and trimmed with fat flower boxes spilling over with vibrant blooms. A heaping pile of firewood rested to one side of a cobblestone path leading up to a front door painted grass green.

  “Well this looks cheerful,” I commented grumpily. “Why didn’t we transport straight here? I could have done without the nature hike.”

  “Magical protections, illusion charms and location shifting spells,” Emily panted as she flew up the path at a breakneck pace. “Hurry—put your hand on the door before it shifts again!”

  I stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment before sprinting forward after her, as quickly as my complaining feet would carry me. The entire cabin seemed to go a bit hazy, fading into more of an apparition of a cabin than a solid structure, and I expended my last ounce of adrenaline to move faster. I collapsed hard against the door, wheezing, thankful to find it a physically substantial mass beneath my fingers. It made me wonder if I hadn’t imagined the whole fading thing.

  When I finally stopped puffing long enough to spare a glance for Emily, she was smiling down at me in weary relief. “You’ll be fine now, honey. Just take a minute to collect yourself and then go ahead and knock on the door. I’m sure Lauringer already knows you’re here. She’ll send you back home when you’re done—by a much more direct route, I’ll wager. And sorry for the trek through the forest, it really was the only way. Good luck, Sydney—I know if anyone can help you, Lauringer can.”

  She gave me a warm wink of encouragement and began a slightly unsteady flight back up the path toward the trees, dull yellow faerie dust trailing behind her.

  “Wait!” I choked out, overwhelmed by a surge of panic. Emily turned to look at me questioningly. “You’re not coming with me?”

  “No, honey,” she answered, her eyes sympathetic. “This appointment was for you. Lauringer doesn’t mind making sure I have Ophelia’s memory dust when I need it, but with the way she is…I just think you’re better off meeting with her alone.”

  “But…Lorien!” I said, concentrating hard and turning her name into a call as I spoke it.

  Emily stared at me in
confusion.

  “My faerie guardian, Lorien,” I explained breathlessly. “She’ll never forgive me if I meet with Lauringer without her. Lorien!” I called again.

  Emily just shook her head. “Not a good idea, honey. Besides, this entire place is warded—she can’t hear your call. You’d have to go all the way back through the forest to escape the wards—and if you did, you’d never find this place again. You’ll just have to meet with Lauringer without her. I’m sure she’ll understand.”

  I seriously doubted it. I slumped against the door with an unhappy groan.

  “Chin up, honey,” Emily said bracingly. “Now you listen to me—you’ll be fine. You just remember what can happen if you don’t find what you’re looking for. Okay?”

  I took a steadying breath. “Okay,” I repeated, standing up straighter. “And thanks again, Emily—for everything.”

  Her smile was weary as she nodded and turned to fly away once more. I stood against the door, restraining the urge to call her back as I watched her disappear into the forest. When she was no longer visible, I grimaced and glanced down to take inventory of myself. I was a mess.

  My jeans were streaked with dirt, my sandals were beyond filthy and my toe was bleeding. My black shirt appeared to have escaped without much damage, although it was slightly askew and Hannah’s ridiculous brooch was still pinned to it. Sunny had dared me to wear it to dinner and during our trip to the bookstore. I unpinned it now and pushed it into my pocket, where it created a large rock-shaped lump.

  I pulled the edges of the napkin containing the glass vial from my other pocket and clutched it in my hand as I knocked on Lauringer’s green front door. It opened immediately to reveal an attractive young woman in a smart navy business suit and matching fitted gloves. She stood before me in her stocking feet, her waist-length golden-blonde hair hanging loose about her shoulders.