Quill and Cobweb (The Chronicles of Whynne Book 2)

by B. A. Lovejoy

  “He will not come back,” said the King, reading my mind. “Not unless I call him to. It’s smart of him, I do hate to give a command more than once, I find it grating.” Theo’s fingers drummed on his desk, his voice informing me, “he’d have to listen, you know. Just as you would. All fae are forced to obey their king’s command, it’s in their blood. Not that I like to use it often.” I turned around just in time to see him lounging back in his chair, a borderline cocky look across his face, “he is testing me in other ways though, perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to see it.”

  “I would not consider that to be lucky.”

  “Even if I had him on his hands and knees, begging you to take his promise?” Theo asked, and I felt my stomach churn. “Wouldn’t that be enticing? If you would like it, then I would too.”

  I could not look at him any longer. Guilt sat heavy within me.

  “You are quite fond of him,” Theo noted, leaning forward onto his forearms. “Astounding.” I looked up to find him inspecting me, interest coating his features.

  For a moment, I felt glad that Luka was not there, because I wondered how much my face gave away.

  “Well,” said Theo decisively. “I don’t believe in wasting time.” There was a glint in his eye as he leaned further forward, forcing me to look at him. “In no more than a few minutes, you’ve shown your hand. Now let’s settle our little dispute.”

  “There is no dispute—”

  “Yes, there is,” he corrected. “Because you have not been doing as you were told, you have not been trying in the slightest.” Oh, how he loathed that, I could see it plainly. “You forfeit any duels in training and are useless to your teachers, and then you have the nerve to think that I will not hear of you brawling in the streets. I left you to learn your lesson in this camp in order to try and encourage you, but unfortunately, you seem to thrive in squalor. The food gets low, and you do not complain. The fires go out at night, and you do not blink. It’s annoying, it all should have broken you by now.”

  I did not expect him to be so blunt.

  “And so, I shall do what I must,” Theo said, “and state myself rather plainly.” His nostrils flared in annoyance, and yet he still tried to hold the same calm, even demeanor. “Winter approaches, Wren, it will not get any warmer. There will be no extra provisions. I’m sure you’ve figured that out by now, and perhaps you do not mind that at all. So let me appeal to your sensibility, it will not be just you who freezes.”

  “Luka’s smart enough to know when to stop,” I said. “He wouldn’t hurt himself for others.” I may have loved him, but Luka still had a thread of selfishness in him.

  “Hm,” said Theo. “I really thought that would work. Let’s try something else—You stay here, I let the camp know that he’s an Unseelie.”

  I stiffened.

  “You didn’t think of that, did you?” Theo asked, utterly content. “I could so easily ruin him, so easily tell everyone what he is, and things would get worse. Much worse. What would you do then?” He asked, then noted. “I find you two funny, because I remember Adam said that you absolutely detested the Unseelie boy, and now you’d do anything for him.” His mouth curved into a smirk, “the sentiment does not go both ways, in case you were wondering.”

  “What do you want?” I demanded, tired of the game. “Just name it and be done.”

  That pleased him. “What I want,” he said, relishing in dragging it out, “is obedience. I want to say jump and you break your legs trying to do it high enough. I want you to behave as you are meant to, and him to follow along.” He wrinkled his nose as he explained, “I gave you all the time in the world to be ready, and yet you didn’t listen. Now I want you to face the consequences.” I jerked back as his hand rose, a glimmer of light dancing between it, the blur of colors slowly coming into focus. It took me a while to realize what I was seeing. “Court. You’ll be in the palace under my watchful gaze, nothing more. In fact, you might find it luxurious considering your current circumstances. As a noble you know how wonderful the palace can be. Of course, I can’t really have you interact with anyone or actually in the building, but—"

  I wasn’t stupid enough to trust it, “at what cost?”

  His smirk widened, more and more of his perfect white teeth showed. “I think you can guess the cost; I do hope you are not as slow as you are presenting. The country’s in unrest, and more Unseelie are moving out of the shadows each day. It stands to reason that, seeing as there are some dark and unsavory presences near the walls of my estate, I should like to be protected. No worries though, you two will be in an outpost just off the palace.”

  “It’ll be just us?” I said with a glimmer of hope.

  “I know better than to leave you two alone.” There went that hope. As if answering an unspoken question, one I hadn’t yet formulated, he explained, “the key to winning a war is having a strong heart and even stronger boundaries.”

  “That seems far too simple a sentiment,” I said.

  He rose, shaking his head at me. “You know so little of war.” If I had a father, I imagine he would have chided me in such a way. “Adam will stay at my side, of course, but keeping you there will give me some peace of mind. I’d prefer that you were busy up until I need you, and perhaps this will train you in ways that traditional camps don’t. You do a little work and you get a nice, cozy life for you and your pet. Don’t worry, Camden told me how important it was for you two to stay together.”

  My pet. I tried not to bristle at that. “The Unseelie have been drawing nearer to the palace, the only place worse off is Lynn. I’ve heard the merchants who come here speak of it, they won’t even go down there,” I said.

  “Then you should be glad that you’re not in Lynn,” he said, pushing in his chair, “and know that I am capable of kindness. You may not recognize it, but I am. I am giving you what you want, aren’t I?”

  It took everything in me not to ask him what he considered kindness.

  “I’ll give you company, I suppose. Perhaps we’ll even deliver your letters to Winry while you stay, though I heard your family has a home in the capital as well,” he offered. “Maybe I’ll even be nice to you and send Nikolas your way.”

  Somehow, that did not settle the rising heat in my blood. He realized that. He was enjoying this far too much.

  But then, just when I thought he was done, just when I thought he would saunter past the curtain and leave; he stopped. His hand in the furs, holding the very same fox tail Adam had, he turned to me once more. His eyes took me in, focusing on my face as if to remember me, or perhaps he was remembering someone else. “And since I already know you to think me to be the villain, I shall tell you what I know and what everyone else refuses to. I am kind now; I am doing what I must to please you now, but I believe this whole heartedly; this fairytale you have crafted will not last, this fantasy I have indulged you with will not hold. You will continue to do what you will for love, and perhaps it will keep you happy for the time being but know this; humans are not meant to be with Fae. Unseelie or otherwise. You will regret it.” His fingers curled around the pelt, his chest rising with a deep inhale, “but for the time being, it suits my needs, so do carry on.”

  Chapter Four

  “Well?” Luka asked as I exited the tent, and I felt an instantaneous wave of shame at the question, “you didn’t fall for anything, did you?”

  “No,” I swallowed, averting my eyes from him. “Of course not. How could I believe anything he says?” When it came to Luka, I was a terrible liar.

  He knew. There was no thinking otherwise. Most of the time fae were so used to lies that they believed them blindly, but Luka could read me plainly. “What did you agree to?” He asked, and I sought to reflect on it just as quickly as it hit the air.

  “What did he ask of you?” I countered, keeping myself from looking at him. It was the easier way to be, the easiest way to face my situation. How would I explain myself? How would I justify deciding to leave, diving even closer to the
Unseelie? He’d know soon anyway, but I could try to keep him from knowing the truth of my reasoning despite that.

  “I’d rather not say.”

  “Then I’d say I don’t owe you an explanation,” I said sharply, practically stomping as I walked away from the tent. None of the guards tried to follow me, but Luka did.

  “Are you angry with me again?” Luka asked, his voice toned in a way that made it sound almost typical. “You must know that while I find it quite charming, others might find it worrying to witness.”

  I wish I could have told him that I was not, that instead I was mad because I had been so easily played. But I couldn’t, so instead I said. “We’re going to the capital, just down the mountain from the palace.”

  “The capital? More than that, the mountain?” Luka was astounded, “Wren, I thought the goal was to stay out of the King’s clutches. Why on earth would you go there?”

  “Why on earth would we go there, seeing as how you will be coming with me,” I said, whirling on my foot to face him. His hands were in the air defensively in a show of peace before he stopped. “You will be coming with me,” I said, the command tainted with uncertainty.

  “Are you ordering me now?” Luka was less than amused. “Wren, I would not wish to be near the King if I were you, he will not be kind to you.

  “I was unaware, I thought that he would simply let me lie low and do as I liked,” I said humorously. “That seems to be how he treats Adam. Oh well, at the very least we will be warm. Theo assured me of that.”

  “Theo? You’re on a first name basis now? Is that part of the deal you made?” He pressed, and suddenly I was turning away, too ashamed to look him in the eyes. “Wren, you are terrible at keeping secrets, give in. Be honest with me.”

  I could not, not as the reality began to set in. The fact that he had likely refused his own deal, one that might have alleviated our situation, and likely planned to suffer to make up for it. I’d given him the only thing I could, and I knew he would disagree.

  “Honey, dearest, sweetheart, my love,” he called, his voice viciously sarcastic as he stormed after me. I felt the eyes of others begin to turn our way to witness the spectacle. “Darling,” he said particularly mockingly, grabbing my forearm and tugging me into his chest. “What will it take to make you look at me?” He asked irately, his hand catching my waist as I tumbled into him. “I do not appreciate this, Wren.”

  Everyone could see. In any other situation, I would have wanted this. I winced, pushing him away. “We need to pack,” I snapped.

  “To go to the capital?” He asked. “Right now?”

  “Well, I hardly think he’d let us go alone,” I said. “You should be happy,” even though he most definitely was not, “there is a large difference between here and the palace.”

  “But we are not even going to the palace,” he said, not eager to let me get away. “We are going to the mountain, where the forest is even thicker. If you’ve not realized, the difference between there and here is that one is relatively safe, and the other is not. You are going to the one that is not.”

  “An Unseelie killed a human man just feet away from us, Luka.”

  He was silent.

  “You are coming,” I informed him, our tents so close that I did not feel I had any more time to argue. “You said it yourself, you stay with me.”

  “I am staying here. If I cannot force you, then I can choose not to watch you suffer,” Luka said. “Unless you can tell me what reason is so enticing that you’ve decided to leave,” he requested, watching me closely. “What has changed about our situation?”

  “What has changed about our situation? Now I know the gravity of our location, that we live in a place where someone vanishes every night. Where there is not enough food to go around. Where winter nears like an executioner raising his blade. Are you joking?” I asked. “And what has changed? Luka, you might find it bearable now, but if he makes good on his promise and tells people what you are, it will not be bearable for much longer.”

  And then I blanched.

  We were close to the entrance to our quadrant, only feet away. We couldn’t have been more than four minutes alone, and yet I had to stop. My mouth agape, the realization hitting me.

  “Was that so hard, my dearest darling Wren?” Luka drawled, pressing past me. “You are terrible at keeping things from me.”

  “You played me!” I howled, barreling after him.

  “Are you not happy?” He asked. “I’m going to pack as you asked.” He quirked his head, “or are you mad because you know you cannot lie to me, and I refuse to be evaded?” I could have punched him. I should have punched him. “The forest is thick there,” he said gravely, and I chose not to hurt him any further.

  “We are not playing the same games that we do here,” I informed him as we approached our tents. “You will not ignore me most of the day, and you will not con me into doing what you like again.”

  “No,” he said, “I don’t think I ever wished to.”

  “You will acknowledge me,” I demanded, not allowing him to respond. “We will not play at being strangers anymore. And we will not be returning here.”

  “No,” he said, his eyes skimming over me with interest, “I do not think I should wish to be a stranger to you any longer, Wren.”

  Good. I nodded, taking one final look at him and then turning to our tents. If it was possible for my mouth to fall any further, it did.

  Black ink leaked out of my tent, the product of many bottles broken and an obscene amount of paper ruined. I had not seen it before, not with the guards blocking my view, but now I did. A part of me wondered if there would be anything left to salvage, or if years and years of my life had just been thrown away. Perhaps that Wren, the one who had wanted to be a replicator, had never been of any use to the world, and this was the universe letting me know.

  “I will buy you more,” Luka repeated his offer, his hand rising to my shoulder. “Of everything, of anything you like. Fountain pens and colored inks, as much paper as you can carry. I’ll even have them demonstrate how to fill the fountain pens this time so that you do not have to lower yourself to asking me.”

  “Why bother,” I said hoarsely, “it is not of any worth to anybody else.” It had not been of any use to anyone in a long time.

  “Replicating is a part of you, and I am undeniably fond of you,” Luka said. “Things do not need to be useful to be important. Look at me, you’ve called me far worse than useless,” he said with self-depreciation. “I’m still important despite it.”

  I did look at him, the smile still not returning to my face. Normally, such a joke would hit.

  “Besides that, it could be of use very soon. Wait in my tent,” he said, “I will grab your things for you.”

  Three vials of ink and two dull fountain pens remained, not a single quill or sheet of paper survived. Clothes, the little that I had that had been chosen and packed away with the help of my sister, were ruined by large swaths of black ink. Even my trunk, which was enormous and rather sturdy, sat damaged. A sizeable crack was on its side, the inner lining stained with ink. My mother had brought that very same trunk to the Laurents’ eighteen years ago, now it had been intentionally ruined in a matter of minutes.

  “The capital will be crowded, but there is a town near it,” Luka informed me as he packed, setting stacks upon stacks of books in both my trunk and his. “We will go there when given the chance and we will find what we can, then order in the rest. We’ll put it on Kristin’s tab and have them mail the bill; he won’t mind. If anything, he’s happy when I spend money, because it reminds him that I’m still alive.”

  “You’ve not received letters from your family either then,” I summarized. “I know that you wrote him once before, did you not receive a reply?”

  “You hadn’t commented on it before, so I thought you had not realized and did not wish to upset you,” Luka replied. “You always have been easily distracted,” he noted.

  “I thought
Winry was too busy with other pursuits to respond to me,” I said, shooting him a scolding look. “Believe it or not, she has things to do other than pay attention to me. She has a whole greenhouse to rebuild and is probably finding a way to convince Eli to simply gift her his father’s telescope to go with it.”

  “For all we know, she likely is,” Luka agreed. “Winry is an interesting girl, very opportunistic.”

  “Do you think I will ever see her again?”

  “Yes, but only on your death bed,” Luka said sarcastically. “She’ll likely head that direction the moment she hears that you are going to the capital. Knowing Winry, it will be just another adventure. No need to wait a hundred years, though I assure you that if you did, she would still look just as young and innocent as you remembered her.”

  I frowned, almost withholding my comment as I inspected a book he placed upon my lap, the familiar copy I had given him months back. “In a hundred years you will still be young too,” I said, flicking open the cover.

  “Perhaps,” he said, “or perhaps you will be as much trouble then as you are now, and you will haunt me day and night. Then I imagine I’d be quite old, centuries older even. All the while you’d still be there, piling the foods you dislike upon my plate and stealing sips of my coffee.”

  “Mhm,” I perked. “Do you think they have coffee?”

  He could only groan. “Come here and be of actual use, rather than watching me. I’m not a performance piece.”

  I groaned, sliding onto his bedroll to kneel beside him. Luka’s tent was, unfortunately, a mess as well, but for a different reason. Seeing the silver he earned as nothing of value compared to the vast swaths of treasure at home, he took advantage of the merchants and spent a great deal gathering books and various documents that he found to be of interest. So much research material stood there now, there was no way we would be able to keep it all. I think if given a proper discharge, he would begin sending it ahead of his leaving in order to keep it all. Thankfully, some of it was familiar, I was sure there were copies at the Kinsley estate, he’d only bought them for use at the camp. Others, however… He held them in his hands too long, debating their usefulness before setting a few aside and deciding to keep others, his face methodical as he debated with himself.