I stooped and scooped up Graz before someone inadvertently stepped on her. I cupped her protectively to me and Aurora said, “See mother, she's not like the other Humans, she protects the Fae.”
Holding up a halting hand I looked at a point in space beside the Winter Lady's face, and said while I pulled a mag-strap from my belt and saw it sparking and shorting before dropping the now useless thing to the deck and saying, “Queen Mab, I bind you by law for assaulting an Enforcer of the Brigade while on official business, questioning a person of interest in a case.”
The woman chuckled, then started laughing, then doubled over she was laughing so hard. I said pointedly, “Nobody is above the law. That is how the charter was written before Exodus.”
She stopped laughing immediately. “Oh. You're serious. Pet, you need to walk away before I get another ice sculpture to decorate my rooms.”
“I'm nobody's pet. Now are you coming with me or do I tell the world that the Fae do not honor contracts when it is inconvenient for them? That Queen Mab does not honor her own bargains?”
Her violet eyes started chilling, and I could see the air crystallizing into a fog around them. They really were pretty eyes, just like Aurora's. She looked half affronted, half incensed and I wondered what life would be like as an ice sculpture. Probably pretty boring... and cold.
But the Queen of the Fae looked at the ceiling. “Mother, please display the Fae Exodus Treaty.”
Mother responded in a decidedly cold and artificially tinny and robotic voice, “Displaying Fae Exodus Treaty. Seven point three terabytes.”
Seven terabytes!? What kind of contract was it?
She sighed and said, “The law enforcement section please.”
Again, the emotionless voice said, “Displaying shipboard law enforcement section three hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and three slash A. Four hundred-point seven gigabytes.”
I was blinking at some of the terms as they shot past, like what color icing was allowed on cakes by vendors in the A and B-Rings during any given season onboard. Or how many square feet of roads were allowed per acre of forest in the A-Rings. To what breeds of non-fae birds were allowed free flight in the upper rings of the stacks. Then the Law Enforcement heading finally scrolled up.
Did all of these ridiculous things need to be negotiated before the Leviathan was launched?
The Queen asked, “Subsections pertaining to arrest authority of Enforcers.”
“Seven relevant sections, seven hundred and ninety regulations.”
She huffed. “Why can't this stupid machine anticipate what I'm asking for? This is why technology will never replace magic.”
The irony of her saying that while standing in the Worldship, the most advanced piece of engineering ever created, which saved her entire race from extinction, seemed lost on her. Though I had to stop a grin when Aurora covered her smile with a hand.
Mab started reading but got frustrated and asked, “Is there any entry pertaining to Fae exemption from arrest, you talking tin can?”
The disconnected voice stated, “There is no such exemption, all citizens are subject to arrest for committing any infraction deemed illegal at the time which it is committed, or is suspect of a crime. All citizens are entitled due process and legal counsel as per section...”
“Shut up.” She actually looked at a loss for words.
I prompted with a crooked smirk on my face, “Mother, what is the citizenship status of the Winter Lady?”
The tinny disaffected voice droned without emotion, “The status of the Winter Lady, AKA Queen Mab, AKA Mab of House Ashryver, AKA Mable, citizenship is – currently active, citizen number F-000001.”
Huh? Whaaaa? Mable?
I dared her with my eyes. “And is she subject to arrest if she assaults a duly appointed officer of the Enforcer Brigade?”
“All citizens are subject to...”
Mab waved her hand to cut Mother off, then purred as she licked her lips, looking at me, while I looked at the wall behind her. “Oooh, this one is good. I would so love a pet like her. She's not afraid of the consequences in challenging us. We need her negotiating our contracts for us.”
“Stop it, mother.”
She looked at Aurora and then cocked a brow. “Oh I see, you already want her as your pet, daughter.”
The Queen of the Fae told me, “Oh the pleasures you will be denied now. So what deal can we make to avoid all the unpleasantness that is sure to follow?”
She was almost purring again, and the fact that she looked like Aurora's sister more than her mother, since all Fae look to be just barely adult, had me heating up inappropriately as echos of the feeling of belonging to her rippled through me. Forever young.
Mab looked as if she could read my mind as a seductive smirk grew on her lips and she somehow seemed to move into the most enticing of feminine poses. Gods be damned. I actually growled in frustration, pushing aside the inappropriate arousal, which got her tittering then standing up straight again.
I said, “You want to make a deal? Fine, I won't bring you in, but I need full access to your daughter...” Remembering I was dealing with a Fae, I pointed at Rory, “...Aurora, during my investigation... unfettered.”
Mab nodded slowly and said, “We have a deal, you do not arrest me, and you can be my daughter's lapdog until...”
I cocked an eyebrow. I knew that wording would have landed me on all fours with a wagging tail, following her daughter around.
She reworded with a smirk, “And you will have full unfettered access to Princess Aurora until your case is concluded.”
Sticking my hand out to shake, she just shook her head and insisted, “Sealed with a kiss.”
That was too dangerous. When a deal was sealed with a kiss, the Fae would be able to claim right of ownership over someone if they broke the bargain.
I shook my head at that and she shrugged and held her wrists out for me to take her. Rory sighed heavily. “Just do it. This is a better outcome than I would have thought.”
I sighed, I wasn't going to arrest her, so my part of the bargain was done, so I said, “Fine.” Then moved in to peck her cheek. She grabbed both sides of my face and kissed me full on the mouth and I gasped as cold power flowed into me and I shivered as it felt as if every cell in my body chilled. My lips were burning and some residual of her earlier whammy on me had me kissing back for a moment before she pulled away, and my body warmed again except my lips.
She hissed in my ear, a warning whisper, as I felt my lips still burning with the cold, “Know this, as punishment for even threatening to tell others I do not honor my deals, you're now marked by me. You spread even a rumor insinuating that, and the mark will activate and you will be the next ice maiden to adorn my bedchambers, forever frozen in ice to watch as I take my endless stream of lovers in bed in front of you. Do we understand each other, Enforcer?”
I swallowed as a primal fear urged me to run far and fast and I just nodded dumbly. She smiled sweetly at that and then I was seeing stars as she slapped me harder than I've ever been hit in my life.
I growled out as I held my stinging cheek, “Son of a bitch!” Then I glared at her and said, “Why did you assault me again when you were free and clear? Now I'm going to have to...”
“You should really pay attention to the wording of any deals with the Fae, child. We did not specify what you would not arrest me for, just that you promised not to arrest me. That was for daring to lay hands on me. And as smart as you think you are, making a mockery of me in my own house, you'll always remember the fact that you had been broken, and bowed to me and willingly wanted to be owned by me, even if it was for just a moment before the thrall was snapped.”
“Mom, now you really are being a bitch.”
A moment later in an explosion of burning ice bits, a little pup with violet eyes was sitting where Aurora had been. Her mother said, “Bitch, am I? You can be a bitch for a few hours and see if that doe
sn't quell this rebellious streak.” The puppy looked down at her big floppy paws and whined. Mab picked her up and said in baby talk, “There, there, mommy still loves you. You just need to choose your words more carefully.”
Oh just great, the murder suspect I needed to question, just got turned into a dog for defending me against her terrifying mother. Then the Winter Lady reached out and I flinched, but she just placed a hand on my cheek almost lovingly and said ever so sweetly, “As much as you amuse me, I would suggest you leave now before I come up with something else to do with you, child.”
I nodded in earnest as she added, “You do intrigue me, Enforcer. No one has ever broken my thrall, and that makes you... interesting.”
Oh, gods. I didn't want to be interesting to Mab. I exhaled, and my breath fogged up as it passed my still cold feeling lips, making me think of her threat. Knith and ice sculpture? No mixie.
I just left my helmet and other shorted equipment on the floor and I ran, cradling a still unconscious Graz. J'real and Nyx looked concerned for me as I ran past. As I exited into the labyrinth of corridors, I found I was instead stumbling down the stairs outside of the main palace doors.
I didn't want to think about that. Just then I wanted to go, to run and to hide.
The transport was there, the guards around it. Captain Delphine's eyes flicked to my mouth then she smirked and opened her mouth to say something, but I got right in her face, “One word... just one word and I'm hauling your ass in. My deal with Mab didn't include your indiscretion. So laugh it up Fae girl!”
To my surprise, she shut it. I added as I slipped into the vessel, “I'll be back when your Princess isn't such a bitch. It was part of the deal so don't even think of harassing me.”
I told the craft, “Spoke terminal.” I tore off a section of fried scatter armor and tore the skin suit to get at the two wounds I received from the guards who didn't have as good of control over their pikes as the others... or did they?
The bleeding wounds were shallow. I pulled the med kit from the vessel's wall and pulled out the sterilizer and two synth-skin patches. I just needed to stop the bleeding, I was an incredibly fast healer for a human. I sprayed the wounds liberally, washing away the blood, and the clotting agent went to work immediately. Then I slapped on the synth-skin patches and activated them. The low level magic cooked off in them as they bonded with my surface skin.
They would flake off in the next twelve hours or so. I could hit Med-Tech at Central to have them use a dermal repair unit to heal me up in minutes, but that always itched, my natural healing would have me good as new in a day or two, minus the itching.
Once I was satisfied I wasn't in danger of bleeding out, then I started frantically examining Graz.
She peeked up at me, opening one eye, then sat up. “Damn Knith, did you really face down Queen Mab? I take it back, you don't have big balls, you got some huge boulders, lady.”
I blinked and asked in incredulity, “Graz! You're ok? Wait, you were faking it? How much did you see?”
She shrugged. “Pretty much everything. Including your little makeout session with the Winter Lady. I was only out for a second when all that power hit you I was blown off your shoulder.”
I shoved her shoulder with a finger. “I was scared to death for you and you were faking it!?”
She shrugged. “You don't want the Winter Lady to notice you when she is in a bad mood and a stupid Human null is making her look bad.”
As I sat at a loss for words, she pointed at me. “Umm... Knith? Your lips are blue.”
I reached up to touch them and they clinked when my fried gauntlet fingers touched them. What the hells? She said, “They look like glass.”
I exhaled in panic, my breath fogging again as I whispered, “Or ice?”
There was nothing for it now. Just then I wanted to get back down-ring and get new gear and try to solve this damned case so I'd never had to deal with the Greater Fae again. I went to hit my wrist coms but saw a melted piece of slag where it should have been.
I asked the transport, “Mother?”
There was no answer. Of course, it seemed the Fae were allergic to technology so why would they put a simple uplink in their vessels?
Graz offered a tiny wrist console to me and I sighed and took it and held it against my ear canal and asked, “Mother?”
She was there, voice filled with emotion, “Knith. I was so afraid for you.” I sighed with a smile, then I realized why she didn't sound like her in the palace. She didn't want the Fae to know how... alive she was. I know what happens to things the Fae find intriguing. So she was playing dumb with them. Has she always done that over the centuries with them?
I closed my eyes as we flew and asked, “Can you just play me some music, I think I've got more of an education with dealing with Fae than I ever wanted.”
In a small voice, she chirped, “Ok.”
I sighed and let a song called “Another Brick In The Wall” take me away until we reached the spoke.
Chapter 8 – Rebel Yell
Once I got back to my Tac-Bike, I sighed in relief, breath fogging between my lips. Then I blurted out a squeak of nervous laughter when Graz randomly asked, “So, is she a good kisser?” I think I needed that, I had been on the verge of a breakdown ever since we left Mab's presence, and I'm pretty sure the little Sprite knew that. And I appreciated the distraction.
She smirked. “No, really. Like was it...”
I zipped her lips and she just grinned at me, knowing her attempt to get me out of my mind space had worked.
As we glided through light traffic toward the barracks, I thought hard about what I had learned. Not much at all besides the murder weapon belonging to Rory and she didn't seem concerned about it. I didn't get my questions answered and walked away with even more.
I was sure Aurora was trying to tell me something but she either couldn't or was physically unable to talk about it.
I laid it out so I could try to see the larger picture. One, why had she asked me about Fae DNA? Two, why had she asked about population levels and Equilibrium? They had been the same since Exodus, that is why I was actually born in the damn Clinic. If birth levels slip for any race, then children are gestated in a lab to keep the population at Equilibrium. And Three, I have never been so terrified in my life because Mab was right.
I kept dwelling on how easily she had broken me with just a glance at her face. I was truly about to give her my free will happily because, at that moment, I hadn't even mattered because Mab had been my everything.... and I hated her for it. I have never hated anyone in my life, and I could see it for the poison it was, which just made me hate her even more for making me feel this way. Was I damaged? Compromised now?
Hmmm... Four, what had she tried to tell me about Oberon's children? And how was any of this connected to the murders? Looks like I had my work cut out for me.
As I pulled up to Control, half the Day Lights in the ring powered down. What the hells? A malfunction of that magnitude hasn't happened in generations. I pitied the poor engineers and techs who were going to have to troubleshoot that.
Graz buzzed away toward the roof as I headed up the steps to the main door. Ah, is that how they got into my quarters? The building vents? I assumed she was going to check on her family.
I refocused on the case as I reached the doors. So, each of the victims had organs that allowed them to store or absorb magic. And they were taken. Wait... she had said, “There is just one anomaly.” Did the murderer slip up?
Then I remembered that the Woodling's horns were taken, they weren't an organ. Was that significant?
I headed straight to the locker room for a shower and to get new gear before I pursued anything. Some of the Enforcers I passed were looking at me funny, and a couple of them actually turned and scurried off like they didn't want to be near me. What was that all about?
A minute later I was cursing under a freezing cold shower. “Son of a...” I
tapped the hot icon repeatedly, but the temperature stayed the same. Were the hot water processors out now too? The addition of the cold water made my breath fog even more, reminding me of what Mab had done to me. I leaned in to look in the small mirror on the wall behind the shower controls that the men used to shave.
I blinked, Graz was right, my lips looked to be semi-translucent blue-tinted ice. The water droplets that had landed on them froze in place. I reached up and wiped the little frozen beads off, and it was like my fingers slid over slick glass, but I could feel my touch like my lips were still skin. Icy cold skin.
What had Mab done to me?
I exhaled and went about finishing the shower before I froze to death then just as I was reaching for a towel from the cart by the door, Captain Yon stepped in and glared at me. “Shade, Commander Reise's Office. Now.”
I blinked at him and asked sarcastically, “Can I get dressed first?”
The Centaur stared at me impassively for a moment, then turned and trotted off, calling back, “Be there in ten. Do not keep the old man waiting.”
Now what? This was not shaping up to be my day.
I glanced over to the couple men and women showering as they whispered to each other as they rushed through the cold showers. Ok, something was definitely going on that I was not privy to.
After dressing in a fresh set of sensor contact garments I headed to supply, just outside of the locker rooms and dropped the bag of shorted equipment and fried armor. I didn't have my helmet anymore as I had tossed the burning and sparking thing on the floor of Rory's lab.
Enforcer Clemmens looked up at me. One of the few humans on staff who was respected by everyone, mostly because he was what stood between you and quality, next-gen gear and old recycled crap that always had a funky smell to it, from the sweat of the many people who wore it before you, and sterilization fluids. No amount of photon or sonic baths could get the smell totally out.
The irises of his eye implants sparkled as I'm sure he was trying to read the status and identification data from the slag. He reached out and shook his head then reached out with the ancillary arms he had grafted to his augmented spinal cluster. While he crossed his one biological arm and flesh-like left cybernetic arm over his chest.
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