Leviathan

by Erik Schubach

  We both knew I couldn't do it, it would get caught up in the political machine, the charges dropped for some technicality, then my C-Ring would suffer unfortunate malfunctions of the water or air processing systems, or temperature control until the Fae felt we had been punished enough for my audacity. I wouldn't be the most popular person in the ring after that.

  I could feel her eyes trying to bore into me and I smiled and said, “I'm not here for Mab.” Purposefully omitting Queen to ruffle their feathers. I figure I was already in the shit, hip-deep, might as well go for a swim. I chanced looking into her eyes without taking in her face.

  Gods, they were a beautiful ice blue like none I'd ever seen before, but I concentrated on the pupils so I wouldn't be tempted to look at her face. “I'm here on an official investigation, I have questions for Aurora of House Ashryver.”

  She studied me, her eyes intense and I smirked internally when she blinked first and looked away. “And you, of course, have an appointment? The princess is a very busy woman, an important woman.”

  I patted the badge on my hip. “Here's my appointment. Now please, move aside so I can do my job, or I will bind you by law.”

  She said in challenge, “You wouldn't.”

  I shrugged and said, “Try me,” as I pulled out a mag-band and reached for her hand. “Delphine of House Kryn, captain of the Queen's Guard, I hereby...”

  There were a dozen pikes at my throat, and the woman asked as she held up a halting hand and the pikes withdrew, “You know who I am?”

  “Of course. Now, are you going to let me do my job or do we do this the hard way?” I moved one leg slightly back to a fighting stance and readied myself.

  She was silent for a long moment, then she started to laugh, she was wiping tears from her cheek as she gasped out, “You'd really take on a score of the Queen's finest? A human?” Then she composed herself and said as I caught her cocking a brow in my peripheral vision as I concentrated on the tracking of the guards who were now surrounding me, “Oh, you're serious.”

  Again I said as I wiggled the mag-band between us and repeated, “Try me.”

  She asked almost conversationally, “And what ring do you hail from, Enforcer?” I caught the implied threat but didn't waver.

  I said, “The, 'last chance to let me past before I haul your pretty little ass in' ring.”

  I caught the blades of two guards who took umbrage with me threatening their commander and went to put their blades at my throat again, but I was waiting. I slipped back and grabbed the shafts of the two incoming pikes and yanked forward, using the guards' own momentum to drive through the space I had been and jammed the points of the pikes up under the chins of each other, stopping an inch from their skin.

  Silence fell in the entire courtyard, then Delphine started chuckling, and the others followed after an awkward moment. “Duly noted, you may be more capable than you appear. What did you say your name was?”

  She mumbled into her wrist console too low for me to hear.

  And I asked, “Who me? I'm Nobody.” I locked eyes with her again and she tried to read me, and I saw the confusion when she saw no lie in my eyes. Heh, first time being named Shade worked out for me.

  She cocked her head, listening to something then nodded to herself as she stepped aside, and made a sweeping ushering motion. “You may enter, a guide will meet you at the doors, but mark my words, the Princess is too busy to see you.”

  I shoved the pikes away and the men made unappreciative grunts as they stood at attention with the rest. Mother was whispering in my ear, “Are you crazy, Knith? You couldn't have fought them off. They're Fae. Maybe one on one, but...” I gave thin air a plaintive look and she stopped.

  Delphine said, “Your pet needs to stay here.”

  Graz zipped up into the air and flew straight at the captain, screeching, “Pet? I'm nobody's pet you overgrown pile of beetle dung!” And she stopped in mid-air, a hair's breadth from the razor-sharp pike blade that was now in front of her.

  She reached out and tapped her thumb on the point and pulled back to suck the blood off the cut such casual contact had made. Then she back flapped her way toward me, stating, “On second thought...”

  I just pinched her wings from the air and sat her firmly on my shoulder. “This Sprite is a material witness and she comes with me.”

  The Captain mock bowed at me and as I stepped past I started to say, “Th...” Then I clamped my mouth shut, feeling the anticipation in her. Oh, hells no was I going to thank her. She'd just love to have me in her debt. I decided to be the bigger person and instead offered as I walked past, “You do your station and your Queen proud.” I could feel her beaming with pride as I walked, perhaps a little quickly, away.

  I heard her calling out, “Maybe another day, Enforcer. I find your lack of self-preservation... refreshing.”

  I snorted in spite of myself and just held up my middle finger as I walked, without looking back, to the chuckling of the guards. Gods, they were just as bad as the men in the Brigade.

  To my surprise, a Wood Elf was waiting at the fifty-foot tall arched doors, back against the huge frame in an aloof manner. He cocked a brow, “Oh... you're human?”

  I sighed and asked nobody in particular, “What is this? Dump on humans day?”

  To a one, this elf, Graz, and even Mother, said in unison, “Every day is dump on Humans day.” Why the fuck was I smiling? It was an old and tired joke.

  I asked, “I suppose you're my guide?”

  He nodded and offered a hand. “J'real Leafwalker. They were sending a maid, but I just had to see the Enforcer who had the balls to challenge Delphine.”

  I shook his hand and said, “Shade, and this is Graz.”

  He looked confused and said, “You know, in Old Faerie, Shade means...”

  “Just shut up and guide if you're going to guide.”

  I liked his smirk. The man didn't take himself seriously. He asked conversationally, “What brings an officer from the Enforcer's Brigade to Ha'real to speak with Rory?”

  Rory? He could be so familiar with Princess Aurora that he could call her Rory? I cocked a brow and the dashing Elf wiggled his brows. “Someday, I will win her heart. Mark my words, then the two most powerful houses on the world would be one.

  I blinked. “Wait, wait, wait... you're the J'real? Of House Thule of the Elves?” I appraised the pretty man with his roguish appearance. I may prefer women, but I still knew sexy. He had it in spades.

  He winked, then looped an arm in mine as he guided me through an endless maze of corridors, going up and down levels as he just made small talk while skillfully trying to coax information from me. The man was good and I liked him in spite of myself. It dawned on me that I was talking to a prince. I almost snorted at that because he was so, well, un-princely and mostly genuine except for what he thought was his sly attempts to find out why I needed to talk to the woman he was apparently romantically pursuing.

  I was thoroughly and completely lost by the time we arrived at a set of doors that looked like any of the other hundreds we passed, and he grasped a handle and pulled one open for me as he bowed low and made an ushering flourish with his hand. “My lady.”

  I muttered to him through a smile, “You're not as charming as you think you are, buster.”

  He stood and followed me into a huge open office space, assuring me as he scratched the tip of one of his pointed ears, “Oh but I have it on good authority that I am.”

  The cavernous space was empty except a single nondescript desk that looked to be made of a single rectangular block of white stone. There was a Fae woman sitting in the chair behind it. I started to panic. What was I supposed to do? I've never met royalty before, present company excluded of course, but J'real didn't count.

  I awkwardly bowed and said, “Princess Aurora.”

  The woman was startled and screamed and fell off her chair and I started to rush forward when she bounced up from the floor lik
e she was on springs, and spun to the door behind her, smoothing down her white skirt, starting to bow as she asked, “Where?” Then she relaxed and looked between the door and me, narrowing her eyes. “Dirty trick that.”

  Oh, gods, I was smiling at the awkward woman as she attempted to regain her dignity, adjusting the lapels on her stark white blouse.

  J'real offered, “Enforcer Shade, Nyx, secretary and personal assistant to Princess Aurora.”

  I strode forward, hand out, feeling embarrassed as I told her, “I'm so sorry to have startled you, Nyx. It's nice to meet you. I'm here on official business to speak with Aurora of House Ashryver. Is she in?”

  She blinked at me as I looked at the cute dimple on her flawlessly porcelain cheek, not daring to gaze at her face. Then she looked back at the door. “Nice to meet you. Umm... I don't really know.” She leaned an ear against the door and supplied, “She's always coming and going...”

  I grinned and prompted helpfully, “Has she come out today?” I was already loving this woman. In all my imaginings I've never pictured a Greater Fae as being awkward and almost scatterbrained. But with just my first impression of the woman, I came to the startling revelation that Fae came in all shapes and sizes just like regular people.

  I placed my ear on the door too, then J'real joined us. Nyx whispered, “I don't know, she uses the back door, I've never really, you know, umm... met the Princess.”

  I pulled back from the door and blinked at her in surprise. “But you're her secretary and personal assistant.”

  She nodded and sighed. “Yet she does everything herself. Very hands-on that one. But mark my words, one day she'll need someone to take a message, and I'll be there to message the hells out of it.”

  I smiled fondly at the woman and patted her shoulder. “I'm sure you will.”

  Then I prompted, “Mind if I go in?”

  I started pulling the two doors open and just strode in as she started to squeak in protest.

  Chapter 6 – Bohemian Rhapsody

  My armor sparked and heated and I pushed my way through the gelatin-like thick and tacky ward as the magic tried to stick to me. My face prickled at a million stings as the ward tried to take hold, then I was through. Nyx calling out behind me, “You can't!”

  A woman stood in what could only be described as a laboratory, tech den, or possibly an alchemist parlor. Maybe all of the above due to all the equipment I was seeing.

  Then I drew my MMGs and fired at the other woman in the corner who was starting to cast on me, the weapon whirred and reloaded as the Fae fell to the floor convulsing at the electric charge that was dampening her magics and concentration as the tiny pronged dart shocked her.

  I didn't even look at the man in the opposite corner who just froze, his hands halfway up to start his own casting. I said to him without looking as I took in the tall woman in the middle of the room in a long white robe, who was holding onto a large beaker of fluid, “I wouldn't. I can pull the trigger faster than you can utter the first syllable. Stand down, I'm with the Brigade.”

  Then to the woman, I bowed as graciously as I could manage while holding two MMGs pointed toward the two magic slingers. “Princess Aurora, I'm Knith Shade, Enforcer, here to beg audience.”

  I didn't know how she would react, but I didn't expect how she did as she snorted, placed the beaker on the counter in front of her, and removed silken white gloves as she said, “Knith Shade. Quite an entrance.” Her voice almost had an actual taste to me, of sweet honey with a bit of spice, it sent a not unpleasant shiver down my spine.

  Then she made a flick of her finger toward the man, and he dropped his hands then went rushing over to the woman who had stopped convulsing on the deck, without any regard to the weapon I had trained on him. He helped the stunned woman to her feet and moved quickly out a door in the wall I swear hadn't been there a moment before.

  The Princess sat on the corner of the counter and said, “Knith Shade... why do I know that name?” Then she shook her head and said in almost delighted amusement, “You're... Human.” It was surprise, not derision. She looked at me and narrowed her eyes in my peripheral vision as I focused on the alchemy rack just over her shoulder. Then she looked to the corners her guards or whatever had been. “How did you see my guards? They were behind a don't look here that I cast myself. And you got past my ward on the door.”

  I rolled my eyes and looked down at myself as I spun the weapons and holstered them simultaneously. By the gods, was I showing off for her? “Brigade armor, standard-issue, spelled to let us see magic and through bullshit.”

  I blushed at that and apologized, “I'm sorry. I shouldn't be so vulgar around a lady. I'm just on edge after meeting the Queen's guard.”

  She snorted again. “A lady? Please, tell my mother that. I like your bluntness.” Then she smirked and said in a sly tone, “If only there really were a spell to see through bullshit. But then we Fae would lose our advantage.”

  She looked past me and made a distressed sound. “Oh, and who did you bring with you?”

  I looked back to see both Graz and J'real frozen in the doorway, caught up in an immobility ward, the Sprite's eyes wide in shock, the elf's mouth open like he was about to speak. I saw frost gathering on them. Aurora was the daughter of the Winter Lady, so her magics must be similar to her mother's, rooted in a season the ship emulated on only the upper two rings of the stacks for a quarter of the year.

  She flicked a finger and Graz fell through the doorway and almost hit her face on the deck plates before she arrested her fall with her frantically flapping wings in the heavier gravity. Frost sloughed off of her and onto the deck.

  She spotted me and buzzed my way as I said, “Princess Aurora, may I present to you, Graz, Sprite of C-Ring, Beta-Stack. My... umm... consultant.”

  Graz's eye widened and she almost went into free fall as she dove for the deck and landed at the last moment to get on her knees and laid herself out, arms outstretched in supplication. Her voice squeaked out in awe, “Highness.”

  The woman strode forward as she wondered aloud, “A Human, and you consort with lesser Fae?” She chuckled and looked to the empty corner, “And tilt at windmills.” What did that even mean?

  She scooped Graz up to sit on her hand, and with her other, she reached in to straighten the Sprite's tunic as she said formally, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Graz, Sprite of C-Ring, Beta-Stack.”

  Ok, the look of pleasure on the Sprite's face from being acknowledged by a Princess of the Fae, looked to be an almost sexual thing, which had me blushing and looking elsewhere. A dreamy-eyed Graz buzzed drunkenly to my shoulder, a goofy look on her face.

  Then her attention was on me after I made sure Graz wouldn't slip off and land on her dazed butt. “So Enforcer, you said something about begging?” She shot me a sly smile at that, then added, “What brings you to my workshop at the risk of gaining disfavor with my mother's cronies? There's not been an Enforcer in Ha'real since... well there has never been an Enforcer in the palace.”

  That, was not a veiled threat like the captain had used. And it was the truth. I mean it had to be since greater Fae couldn't physically lie. It was a curse or something on their race, something to do with their missing King, Oberon. I knew plenty of Enforcers have been on the A-Rings, hells I have, but apparently not in Ha'real. Her words and tone seemed to disapprove of the way the Fae brandished their power to punish those who displeased them.

  I was going to answer, then paused and looked back at the door, where J'real was actually turning a bit blue as icicles were forming on his eyebrows.

  “Umm... what about him?”

  She smirked and shrugged. “He wasn't invited. Always trying to curry my affection, maybe this will cool his libido a touch.”

  Ok, she was funny, I'd give her that. We shared crooked smiles and she rolled her eyes and flicked a finger, and he fell forward, halfway through saying my name.

  He stumbled, but with elf-quick ref
lexes, recovered, shivered, and lifted a finger as he started to speak. She stopped him. “Not a word Jay. This delightful Enforcer, who does not fear the Winter Lady's wrath, has business with me.”

  She really believed I didn't fear her mother? Queen Mab scared the shit out of me, then I'm sure she'd scare the shit out of my shit. I knew the stories of the ice sculptures of the beautiful men and women who had displeased her, forever worshiping her beauty in inanimate frozen frustration forever.

  A morbid part of me wondered if I could sneak a peek in the receiving hall to see if those rumors were true. But even if there were ice statues there, were they actually people or were they just sculptures placed there to perpetuate the rumors?

  He bowed with a flourish and said, “As you wish, my la... mmph.” His mouth was sealed with a layer of ice, and I had never even seen her cast.

  She pointed at the open doors. “Out, Jay. I said, not a word.”

  He actually punched his own face and the ice broke, he winked first at her, then me, before bowing to both of us and backing out of the room with a roguish smirk on his face. He hopped up to sit on Nyx's desk and pretended he couldn't hear us, as Nyx slowly sat back down at her empty desk.

  The Princess sighed to me and confided under her breath, “Men. Always with the courting.”

  I nodded in understanding. “But as far as J'real, at least he's charming.”

  She chuckled out in pure amusement, “Then you court him. He's the best of the lot, it's just that... I see him more as a friend.”

  “Ouch!”

  She didn't even look back, just pointed at him and he held his hands up.

  I said plainly so there was no misunderstanding, “Not my cup of tea.” She cocked an exquisitely sculpted eyebrow.

  “Ouch!”

  And before I could stop my traitorous mouth, I was teasing, “Not that I'd want another woman's cast-offs anyway.”

  This time both Aurora and I chimed out in unison with the Elf prince, “Ouch!”

  She tipped her head back and laughed a silvery laugh that resonated through my entire body as I froze when she placed a long delicate hand with nails that looked to be perfectly manicured... ice? On my arm to steady herself. Her skin looked so... smooth, so unblemished and perfect, I resisted the urge to touch it to make sure she was real.