Firewyrm

by Erik Schubach

  I heard her squeak as she burrowed down the front of my armor, “Not this again!” And the ship sank into the ward as we descended to the clearing of a courtyard below us.

  Just like the Winter Palace, the power sparked off of my scatter armor, which would be useless against a spell of this magnitude anyway, and I felt the magic probing my body and mind.

  As it probed, I pushed back, hard, growling at the foreign magics, “Get away from me!” As if it were alive, it recoiled, then it was gone and I was hissing out to the ward, “She's with me!”

  Graz was spasming and glurking like she was being crushed by some invisible snake. The magic seemed to hiss back at me then abruptly released her.

  This wasn't the first time I cursed the fact that even though she was a lesser Fae, her larger cousins actually did treat Sprites as vermin. So this ward and I were not destined to become friendly.

  The others were looking at us as I pulled Graz out by the wings, held her in front of my face and asked, “You good?”

  She shook her head as if to get the cobwebs out then almost pouted. “Yeah... I'm fine.”

  I let her go and she buzzed to my shoulder and we realized the commander and the pilot were looking at us like we had grown two more heads. They hadn't even noticed the wards. I explained, “Fae magic and I aren't on the best of terms. Titania's wards tried to... umm... prevent my and Graz's entry.”

  Then Commander J'mayaght blinked, realizing what had happened. “You mean to tell me the Queen's defenses tried to rebuff you?”

  I nodded and carefully when Mother whispered in my head, “Careful.”

  I then responded, “Crush, us? Exterminate us? Yes.”

  The pilot said, “If the wards were up, you'd be paste. They're crafted by Queen Titania herself. And you're invited... the flying vermin, not so much.”

  Graz darted at the man, her dust sifting angrily, and I caught her wings and pulled her back to sit indignantly on my shoulder as she shouted at him, “You stupid big! You'll regret...” I made a zipping motion over her lips and she crossed her arms over her chest with a harrumph.

  “As I said, I'm not on the best of terms with Fae magic.” I pointed out.

  The pilot looked at me like I were simple. “You'd be dead.”

  But the commander studied me then said thoughtfully, “Your scatter armor was sparking.”

  I nodded. “Exactly, it is what saved me my first time to Ha'real too.” Lies, lies, all lies. But both Mother and Princess Aurora think it would be unwise for more people to know that I am partially immune to magic than absolutely have to. The two men looked at me suspiciously but said nothing else about it.

  The commander and I were met by a dozen armed guards with magic focusing lances pointed our way when we stepped out. The Greater Fae of the Summer Court, had healthy bronze or ebony skin, whereas the Winter Court had skin so pale it bordered on snow-white but was equally alluring in its own way. And the members of both courts were equally and stunningly beautiful to the one.

  It was explained to me in school, that Earth's star, Sol, beat down intensely on the Summerlands, and that healthy bronze of their skin was called a tan. And Sol did not favor the Winterlands so they became much paler than the other Fae.

  The commander started to protest but a lance an inch from his eye dissuaded him of it, the guard wielding it, a very pretty and muscular Fae growled out a command, “Come out now, Winter!”

  The pilot stepped out nervously, hands held up to show he was unarmed. The Guard craned his neck. “Who else is in there?”

  The poor man looked ready to run at any moment as he swallowed and said, “Nobody.”

  The Guard motioned for him to step aside and three guards ran into the transport, then stepped back out a few seconds later, a female with gorgeous tattoos of glowing magic runes on her face, whispered to him. He looked at us and accused, “The alarm spells were triggered. Winter magic was detected.”

  I'm sure I looked as sheepish as I felt as I pointed at my crystal ice lips. “I have Mab's mark. And Graz here is from the Winter Court.”

  He jabbed his lance toward me as he leaned in. I had had about enough of that. I slapped away the blade of the lance and took a half step forward. “Get that out of my face. I'm Lieutenant Shade of the FABLE office, and I can bind you by law for threatening us, especially since we were invited by Queen Titania and President Yang themselves. Now lower your weapons or I'll shove them where the sun doesn't shine.”

  The man actually growled at me. “I am the Captain of the Verd'real home guard, you wouldn't dare, and wouldn't get a single step before I ran you...”

  I took a single step forward as the commander was trying to call me off. I caught the shaft of the lance as the Fae instinctively swung it to defend. It was all I could do to catch it. His strength was many times mine but my speed was honed by years sparring with races faster than me and by my unique genetic makeup. I took his moment of shock, that a human was fast enough to block him, to pull a mag-band from a belt pack.

  As I was saying, “Captain Yar, I bind you by law for assaulting a...”

  The commander was snapping at me, “Shade... stand down! That's an order.”

  I sighed and then leaned in to look the Fae in the eye, something I'd never have done before learning more about Fae glamour, knowing they couldn't glamour you without your permission or they could face dire consequences with their own courts. I was showing him I wasn't afraid. I smirked and stepped back.

  The man studied me as he lowered his lance and had the others do the same with a hand motion. “You know who I am?”

  “What kind of liaison officer would I be if I didn't have files on all the high ranking Fae?”

  This was just a repeat of the posturing that went on at Ha'real. Were Fae really this predictable? It was like everything was a test, a dick-measuring contest, only I didn't wish to play.

  He asked with a smirk of his own, “Did you know that Shade means...”

  I waved him off. “Nobody... yes.”

  He nodded, apparently done with me as he turned to the commander. “Commander Reise, your pilot will have to stay with the vessel.”

  The Elf cleared his throat. “I'm Commander J'mayaght, I'm ranking officer of the Alpha-Stack and...”

  Yar finished for him, “Your rank means nothing in Verd'real. This is the Summer Lady's domain.”

  Ahh... so the commander had invited himself along, trying to gain the favor of Titania. He wasn't requested, only my commander, my partner, and me. I realized that everyone attending were the ones that knew most of my capabilities, including the President. Only Titania herself wasn't aware of my little idiosyncrasies... or was she?

  The Captain stood to one side. “Lieutenant, the Queen is expecting you. You'll have to leave your pet here.”

  Before I could blink, Graz shot off in an angry red blur, and the Captain froze. The Sprite buzzed in front of his face, her tiny sword a hair's width from his left eye. “Apologize, you dumb big, or we're all going to see just what's inside a Greater Fae's eyeball. Maybe all the stupid you've got in your head will fall out.”

  The man didn't even blink, he just stepped back a step and then bowed slightly. “It takes a rare gift to take me by surprise, noble Sprite. You've a warrior's spirit and your speed is formidable.”

  Hey! I had just done the same thing and Graz gets the recognition? Then again, humans were below all Fae, even lesser Fae, in the Greater Fae's eyes.

  Graz was grumbling as she buzzed backward to my shoulder, “Damn straight. The day a big can...” I cocked an eyebrow at her and she quickly zipped her lips.

  I sighed in resignation saying, “Her sorry little ass is with me.”

  The man grudgingly bowed to us and made an ushering motion as other guards blocked the commander. As we stepped past, Graz quickly unzipped her lips and whispered to the man, “She's got a weird fascination with my ass. It's a human thing.” Then she zipped up again and t
hrew away the imaginary key as I huffed in exasperation.

  The man paced us as we walked up the steps to the doors that looked to be made of carved ivory, and I could see sigils and runes woven intricately through the structure like little filaments of silver gifting the impossibly delicate-looking construct strength and power. The Queens of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts were terrifying, the sheer amount of power they wielded and how they could even weave spells as complex as what I was seeing with but a thought.

  I mentally questioned how much of this I was seeing with my innate ability and how much Mother was providing me from the residual magic scans of my armor's systems. She caught the thought and provided, “About equal parts.” I poked her mentally to get out of my thoughts. I swear I heard a ghostly giggle.

  Ever since I learned that many of the things I did, which I had always attributed to my armor, were actually just me. Like dissipating spells, I thought my scatter armor was doing or seeing some types of magic. It was like I was having to re-learn everything I believed about doing my job as Enforcer. I think in some ways I had been better off not knowing, then I wouldn't always be second-guessing the magitech of my gear.

  The four guards at the doors stood at attention, and the Captain spoke a word of power and the doors swung inward, making no sound, not even a whisper of air as those massive doors moved through it.

  He made an ushering motion and I swallowed and stepped inside, looking back to watch the doors swing silently closed on their ghostly wings. The captain wasn't coming with me? I started to turn as I wondered how I was supposed to find... ah.

  Standing before me was the seven-foot wall of furry muscle of a Grindle. The ethereal lights above glinted off of his tusks, and his small, dark eyes were narrowed. Ok, my sort-of partner wasn't a happy camper. And how had he gotten here before me, and in dress uniform no less?

  The only way he could possibly get here from the Beta-Stack before me... I paled. I wasn't a fan of Jump Pods. They felt like glorified translucent coffins to me. Spit out of one ring to free float in space to the jump terminal in another ring, with only a clear tube with the compressed gas thrusters at the top and bottom of it for micro-adjustments of your trajectory between you and the unforgiving hard vacuum of space.

  Sure the clear plastic pods were spelled against micrometeoroid strikes, but there was so much that could go wrong. Well fine, maybe it was my own paranoia. I've only heard of two incidents in my life on the world. But both prospects were not on my things-to-do list. One had to be recovered by Ready Squadron at the very extreme limit of their range, and one is forever floating in space somewhere. It couldn't be located after it missed the jump terminal on the receiving end.

  Jumping from ring to ring in the same stack was one thing, but Keller had to have done a lateral transit jump from one stack to a counter-rotating stack to get here first. And that is where it was as much number-crunching as grabbing your bootstraps and praying. Mother started to explain in my head, “It is one of the safest ways to travel, Knith. I can explain the math to...”

  I muttered, “Nobody asked you, Mother.”

  Causing Daniel to blink at me in confusion. At least it got the grim look off his face. I pointed at my head. “Mother is nattering at me.”

  She harrumphed in my head.

  He huffed then asked, “What shitstorm are you dragging me into now, Shade?”

  “Is that any way to speak to your superior officer?”

  “Let's see how superior you are with my hoof jammed down your throat.”

  “Promises, promises,” I smirked.

  He exhaled then smirked back. He was a good egg.

  Graz asked, “Want I should make some bacon jokes for you, Kni... eeep!”

  Daniel had snatched Graz from my shoulder, holding her by pinched wings right up to his face, and he huffed, sending her dust streaming as he growled, “Nobody was asking you, you freeloading thief.”

  Graz dangled there a moment, shrugged, then kissed him right on his wide nose. The big man exhaled loudly then chastised her as he dropped her, “Keep your yap shut in there, this isn't your court, and there's no telling what the Summer Lady may do to you if you mouth off.”

  She buzzed up to hide in my hair behind my ear before she fell half her body length.

  Ok, so why did he intimidate her when I couldn't even get her to move out of my bedside table with her family?

  He looked at me expectantly, apparently still wanting an answer from me when the doors opened again, and the Brigade Commander of our Beta-Stack stepped in... in his dress uniform as well. I looked down at my armor, feeling underdressed.

  Commander Reise looked at me, ignoring Dan. “I swear to the gods, Shade if you've made the Brigade look bad.”

  I defended as I contemplated why everyone was assuming I did something wrong. “All I did was help out with the fire. I don't know why we're all being called in.”

  Then someone cleared their throat, we looked to the six armed guards who had been standing there while I bantered with Keller. They all looked perturbed. “If you down-ringers are done, the Queen awaits. Nobody keeps the Summer Lady waiting.”

  The guards seemed to form up around us. Not menacing at all... so we decided that maybe it would be prudent to follow as they started herding us forward. I thought I caught Graz muttering something about Summer tin soldiers. She was going to get us all adorning Titania's gardens with roots and leaves, wasn't she?

  I've often wondered about the animosity and rivalry of the two courts, and what had spawned it. But all of the history files and even old physical paper books I've found didn't lend any clarity on the subject. I had asked Graz once and she just said, “Summer sucks.” And when I asked Mac, he was cryptic as always. “Things often do not follow logic when it comes to matters of the heart.”

  I assume he means when King Oberon, who I still think he is, had married Queen Mab, but then cheated on her later with the Summer Lady. But that didn't track, because it is said that Oberon had married the Winter Lady to stop the hostilities and the Winter Court's decline into violence.

  I felt as if my neck was on a swivel as I took everything in. The palace was as beautiful on the inside as the outside, only instead of looking to be made of trees and wood, the inside seemed to be carved from one solid block of ivory. Sweeping ceilings and grand staircases were everywhere the eye looked. Even the grand chandeliers were seamless as if they grew out of the ceiling and there didn't seem to be a source for the light they shed.

  We were led through some doors into what looked to be a greenhouse carved from a single, impossibly clear crystal. And in it, was a frightening receiving hall. It was lined by an orchard of trees. The trunks of which looked to be formed like beautiful men and women of all races, their arms reaching up to the light, becoming branches with large green leaves and flowers blooming.

  I would have looked at the trees in awe if I hadn't known what they were. They were the people who had displeased the Summer Lady in some way. Where the Winter Queen had a habit of transforming those who had slighted her into ice statues, the Summer Queen felt it appropriate to punish people by changing them into living trees.

  Maybe for a day, week or month, and in some cases, centuries or more. Some, she vowed, would adorn her halls and bedchambers until the Leviathan reached our destination in another five thousand years.

  I was chanting in my head, “Don't piss off the Queen. Don't piss off the Queen.” as we moved up to the raised throne of moss and flowers on a platform that dominated the far end of the space. Fairies and other tiny Fae flitted about, pollinating the flowers in the room, leaving twinkling trails of light.

  One tree caught my eye, a female centaur rearing on her hind legs. Ah, so that's why they said the prior Commander of the Alpha-Stack had retired two decades ago. She was a gorgeous tree with a fierce, defiant look on her face, and white blooming flowers on her branches.

  I almost jumped out of my skin when the Summer Lady wh
ispered in my ear, “Beautiful, isn't she? I can't wait until you adorn my palace... what sort of blooms might you produce?” I stumbled back. She had just been sitting on her throne a moment before, with the President looking longingly at her.

  My mouth worked without sound in my shock. She grasped my chin and turned my head side to side, examining the ice of my lips. Her Fae strength made resisting futile. She furrowed her brow then quickly leaned in and actually licked my lips. The warmth of her tongue sent a pleasant, involuntary shiver through me as she released my chin and contemplated for a moment before saying, “You wear Mab's mark. Perhaps you'll adorn her halls as a sculpture instead.” She sounded bitter about my ice lips.

  I almost apologized for some reason but she wasn't there. I spun, looking around to see she was back on her throne. I've never seen speed like that, even in a Greater Fae, so it had to be magic.

  She spoke as we arrived and her guards formed a ring around us, “Now that we are all here, President Yang...”

  “Kyoto, please, majesty.” The very married president, her half-elven features making her look elegant and seductive, was fawning over the Summer Lady just as much as she does the Winter Lady. She had never met either, even as president, until the events that led up to me being assigned to form the FABLE office.

  It was almost embarrassing that our leader was a Fae fangirl, and I wanted to grab her and shake her to tell her to snap out of it and act as a President should. The Summer Lady was eating up the adoration though as she gave a dazzling smile to the half-elf that had even me warming up in some inappropriate places. “Of course, Kyoto, dear.”

  Oh, don't feed the monster, Titania. I'm sure the President had almost orgasmed on the spot at the Summer Lady calling her dear. I cleared my throat, causing... Kyoto to look toward me. She saw my expectant look, then she stood taller, straightened the hem of her blouse and the fire and steel that won her the election reasserted itself as she stood tall and proud.

  Better.