“What about it? As you so evidently know, it is a mere fraction of my heritage. I am unable to take dragon form under normal circumstances.” Bella was magnificent. She was calmer than I had seen her in… I wasn’t sure I had ever seen her this cool and collected. I might be on the brink of explosion, but she wasn’t.
“You are a monster…” Laenven hissed.
“Actually, no.” Byrne cleared his throat and stood up, between Laenven and Bella. He faced the older woman, and slowly took off his glasses. “As a matter of fact, dragon kind predates the Fae, and may be the cause of our ascendancy on this plane.”
Laenven’s mouth was hanging slack, a most unbecoming look. I felt a certain glee as Bryne carried on in his most pedantic tone. “Dragons may even have excavated the Great Hall, before fairies took up residence. It is certain that their civilization sheltered ours, and after what I saw at the Library, I would go so far as to call dragons the mentors, the masters, and Fae the apprentice student at their feet.”
The old woman spluttered wordlessly. She was turning a very interesting color, sort of a brick red. Her rouge created pale spots on her cheekbones. I wondered if her heart could take this sort of insult.
Byrne, ignoring the impending stroke victim, turned away to face Bella and Trytion. “In Bella’s ascension to the throne, we see the culmination of thousands of years of partnership. It is most fitting that the last dragon should rise to join us in ruling Underhill.”
Bella had a funny look on her face. I wondered if it was sheer astonishment, because that is what I was feeling. This was absolutely the last thing I had expected.
“Enough.” Trytion stood up, his voice booming. “I ask you, is there any who can find true grounds to object to the coronation of the Duchess Mulvaney?”
No one spoke. I found the time to look at Buckingham, who was looking shattered. I made a mental note to have a man-to-man talk with him. It was long past time for that.
Trytion held them all with his gaze for a long moment. Still, there was silence. Finally, he nodded, and the whole room took a breath. He stepped off the dais, and reached out for Bella’s hand. I stomped on the little jealousy critter that raised its head in my brain every time they did something like that. Bella gripped hands with him briefly, and he nodded at me.
“We will reconvene at morning on the second day for the coronation, then. You are dismissed… Lom, stay here a moment.” He finished that in an undertone meant for Bella and me only as we stood close to him.
While everyone was filing out of the room, he spoke quickly and quietly. “Took the wind right out of that biddy’s sails. Byrne surprised me, didn’t know he’d made a study of that part of history.”
“I think he’s studied more of it than any of us know.” Bella sighed. She leaned against me, as the last person left the room. The three of us were alone. “That was…”
“I really wanted her to give me a reason,” I admitted. I knew they would understand what I meant.
A message spell appeared and zipped to Bella’s quickly raised hand. “They need me.” She looked at Trytion. “Will we see you?”
He shook his head. “Regretfully, I must remain at Court to make arrangements.”
“Bullshit, sir.” The both of them looked at me with shock on their faces. “That’s why you have Joe and a host of minions, to make arrangements. You need some time to get away from it. We will see you at dinner. Now, if I may, I’m taking my wife home.”
Trytion looked at Bella. “This is going to be interesting, I can see. Very well…”
I made a rude gesture at him and bubbled us. I needed to get out of there before I exploded, and it wasn’t his fault.
The Crowning Moment
The morning of the coronation didn’t dawn so much as gradually lighten under a heavy layer of clouds. This wasn’t surprising, since it was the weather we’d been having since our return from the Library, and it was late winter almost spring Underhill. I found myself holding a baby, and listening to Ellie argue with Bella.
“I only wore it for a few hours.” Bella was protesting. “And you must have cleaned it by now. Taking it in to compensate for baby belly isn’t difficult.”
“You are not going to reflect on him,” Ellie pointed at me, and I looked down at my son.
“This is what you have to look forward to. Don’t ever fool yourself, the ladies are in charge.” I murmured, and he scrunched his face up.
Ellie hadn’t been listening to me, and she kept going. “By wearing the same dress today. Would you wear the same dress to the second wedding?”
Bella opened her mouth, caught my eye, and closed it again. It wasn’t that we could read one another’s minds, it was the tiny headshake I had given her. This was Ellie’s reputation. Everyone knew who took care of Bella.
Bella subsided and allowed herself to be dressed. She had, over the last day and a half, developed a strong tendency to ball up like a hedgehog with the prickles out over any resistance. Allowing the babies to be given bottles. The dress. I was sure there had been other little things I’d missed. She hadn’t been in the mood to talk about it last night, had just curled up in my arms and cried herself to sleep quietly.
I was worried about her, and I didn’t know when I would have time to get her away from all this, and have the time to do the grieving and processing she really needed. We had the momentum, and I knew how important the coronation was, even if she didn’t. I was fairly sure she did, or she would have backed out after the Library.
All I could do was stand strong for her. She reappeared, pale, dressed in a royal purple gown with a long train. Ellie wasn’t being subtle, this time. I handed my son to Luned, with a last kiss on his tiny forehead, and took Bella’s arm.
This time, at Court, I was standing in the semi-circle of the Council around Bella. Trytion, not Corwin, had pulled me aside the day before and chewed me out royally for having shirked it the first time. I thought he was as angry for having missed it himself as he was at me. None of us were accustomed to me being on stage, as it were. I didn’t like it, but for the two of them, I’d do it.
Laenven was pale, her lips pressed together so tightly they had almost vanished. Buckingham looked as though he’d aged overnight. But they both took oath to the Queen as the crown passed through their hands. I was at the far side, so I watched each of them as the crown passed toward me. Finally, it was in Mother’s hands, and Lucia’s tone was firm, even triumphant, as she spoke.
“I approve Belladonna Mulvaney as Queen!”
Then it was my turn, and my hands felt numb as I took the cool weight into my hands. The line about the activation crossed my mind, and I wondered again what it meant, and should I worry about Bella? But my lips formed the words, and I could hear a faint echo as they rang through the huge room.
“I approve.”
I stepped forward, the crown in my hands, and Trytion took it from me. As I stepped backward into my place again, he turned to Bella, who dropped to one knee and lowered her head. I was viscerally reminded of the knighting ceremonies of the past. This was not an obeisance of Queen to King, when it came time, Bella would stand in Trytion’s place, crowning his successor. The gleaming gold against her black hair, Bella looked up again, not at the King, but past him, to me.
I smiled at her. Inside I might be a mess of worry, but she needed me. Trytion reached for her hands, and helped her up. Together, smiling, they turned to the crowd, as court was already beginning to stand, applauding.
The thunderclap of sound caught us all by surprise.
In the aisle, a black bubble had appeared, and as I watched, it burst, sending a wave of dark smoke into the room. The smoke sank to the floor, oily and creeping. Where the bubble had been, Dionaea stood.
I recognized her instantly. She hadn’t been much of a wife, but I had known her well. She was wearing a sleek black gown, and what was more interesting to me, holding a Heckler and Koch MP5 cradled in her arm. She sneered at the audience surrounding her.
/> “Take your seats, the show is only starting.” She laughed, throwing her head back. “The Evil Fairy is here!”
She was mad. The old fashioned, bang them into Bedlam definition of mad. I considered my options. While she was that far away, I wasn’t carrying anything on me effective at that range. The Colt 1911 strapped to my body was shorter range, and inconvenient to get in these robes. The family sword, belted to my waist… well, you never bring a sword to a gunfight.
Dionaea swayed forward, stroking the gun. Now I knew why Georgio had been targeted. The ghoul had been a reliable arms dealer for me. She hadn’t been able to buy him…
“Well, well…” Dionaea crooned. “I wasn’t good enough. And you think you can replace me.” She stopped, and drew herself up. “But it’s too late. I have the Queen’s Crown, and you know what that means.”
She took a few more steps. I tensed, coiling like a spring. She was almost within range. I only regretted not having a chance to drill with the robes on. I’d never foreseen wearing them, and had never practiced drawing the gun through all the folds. Dammit…
The rest of the room seemed frozen, all eyes on her. Alger was in the niche, I knew, and I didn’t understand why he hadn’t made a move yet. Dionaea started to swing the gun toward Bella, with a throaty chuckle.
What she couldn’t have known was how deadly Bella could be, and that I knew something no-one else in the room knew. Dionaea had no idea what she was doing with a gun.
I’d refused to teach her, even though she had pouted and made my life miserable over it. I never told her the truth. I didn’t trust her. Not that she was incompetent, of that I had no idea. But that she would just spray and pray… she was holding the MP5 by the pistol grip alone, and I knew.
The world narrowed to just her, and the slender pale finger wrapping around the trigger. I broke the stillness that gripped us all, and ran toward her.
I didn’t even try for my gun. In a Tueller Drill, you have twenty one feet to reach the gunman before he can fire. She was a little further than that. I had two things in my favor. One, I knew that a bullet rarely stops an oncoming body, especially not a determined one. Hell, even several bullets didn’t always stop them.
Two, I…
She pulled the trigger, and the second thing I knew happened.
She had it set on full auto, and I was close enough to see the look of surprise in her eyes, to see her mouth form a little moue of surprise as the gun muzzle climbed. The only thing she was endangering was the ceiling.
I hit her.
We went down in a tangle of limbs, black velvet, gun, and my sword. I hit her, once, blow to the temple and saw the dazed look as that sank in. I rolled off her and tried to untangle my sword so I could finish her, and she screamed in rage.
Before I could fully unsheathe it, she was gone. I stood there, panting, looking at the gun and a high-heeled shoe she had left behind her. I picked up the gun and put it on safe. Now that I could see it clearly, it was filthy. I wasn’t going to try firing it, and why it hadn’t jammed…
I turned to look at Bella. She was standing on the dais, holding a spell in her fingers.
“Sorry I got in your way, babe.” I said before I thought about it.
She let out a little laugh, and put the spell away. “I…”
Something behind me got her attention, and as her voice stopped, I spun around, holding the gun and sword ready. The MP5 might not be fire ready, but it would make a club… I dropped them to my sides and started toward the figure that had just pushed through the great doors.
It clung to one of them as though the effort of gaining entrance was all it could manage. Filthy, furry, matted… it was Sean, the wolf.
He weaved away from the door, and I saw the muzzle. Oh, damn…
I looked over my shoulder. Bella was right there.
“Take this.” I shoved the weapons at the person who was sitting by the aisle. Devon blinked up at me. “Hurry.” I snapped at him. He took them.
I got to Sean in time to catch him. He flailed weakly, but I wrapped my arms around him. He was skin and fur and bones. The big wolf whimpered, and I felt his muzzle land on my shoulder.
“Here.”
Byrne was there, now, he’d taken off his robe and was making it into a pillow. I lowered the wolf onto the floor, trying to make him comfortable. Bella knelt on the other side of him, and I could see the tears shimmering in her eyes.
I reached for the buckle on the muzzle, wincing at the matted fur under it, and the torn-off-claw stuck in it. I fumbled at it, and he reached up with surprising speed and grabbed my hand.
“No…” He whispered. “Don’t…”
The Wendigo
“What the hell happened to you?” Sean hadn’t been a friend, exactly, but showing up, dying, at my wife’s coronation couldn’t be a coincidence.
The big wolf was wasted beyond belief. I could smell the sweetness on his breath. He was dying, fast. He closed his eye, and gasped a little.
“Don’t die on me.” I growled at him.
“We…” His eyes opened slowly. They were crusted with yellowish matter. “Wendigo. I won’t bite.”
That was almost clear. “The Wendigo got you?”
He nodded. Bella reached over my shoulder with a cup, and a straw in it. She’d brought a stock of those human inventions Underhill when I was ill to the point of death. I stuck it in his mouth, and he sucked greedily. Then he turned his head away, with another whimper.
“Don’t got long.” He spoke a little easier with the water in him. “Had to tell you… little fuzzy, here.”
I realized he wasn’t making a bad joke, his eyesight was going. His brown eyes were clouding over as I watched. He took a long, labored breath.
“Wendigo, bad news.” I nodded. I’d let him deliver the news he’d suffered for. “Dionaea wants all… Underhill.” He rasped. Bella huddled up next to me, ignoring her train and dignity, and took his paw in her hand gently.
He smiled at her. “Pretty… crown. ‘Grats.”
“Sean…” she whispered. “Why did you risk it?”
“Had to. She’s bugshi… Sorry the rug’s mangy.”
His voice was growing fainter. I leaned closer to hear it. He closed his eyes, as they turned pure white. “Baba Yaga. Gang…”
He was gone. His chest caved in, with a sickening wet crunch. The whole body twitched, and spasmed. I backed away as it writhed. The jaws inside the muzzle snapped weakly.
“Lom, what’s happening?” Bella had scrambled back hastily, encumbered by her train.
“The Wendigo. It’s a hunger, you see. He’s dead, and there’s nothing holding it back. Damn…”
I threw a spell over the body, sealing it and the area around it. I wasn’t going to risk that infection or whatever it was, spreading. The corpse took a long time to go still, and I looked around the room with a sigh. Joe and his men were shepherding people out the side doors.
“This casts a shade on your moment.”
“So did Dionaea,” she reminded me.
That had been a lot to happen in very little time. I shook myself out of the funk I could feel creeping over me. “We need to talk.” I turned to look for Trytion.
“We need to call someone in, first.” Alger walked up, Devon in tow behind him, awkwardly holding my weapons. I took the sword and resheathed it.
“Who isn’t here already?” Bella looked around the room. Most of the people were gone, mother was sitting on the dais, Trytion was nowhere in sight. Lucia beckoned to us.
As we walked toward her, Alger answered Bella. “The Huntsman.”
“What?” Bella stopped, and her voice rose an octave. “Why do…”
“Because with this,” My mother held up the shoe Dionaea had dropped. “The Hunt can track her.”
“And with the death of the wolf, we have the hard proof we needed to unleash the Hunt.” Alger filled in.
Bella nodded, after a long moment of thought. “I don’t like it. But I liked h
er showing up here even less. Lom…”
Delayed reaction, I knew. She wouldn’t fully react – hell, I wouldn’t either – until later. Then we’d have the shakes together. I’d run straight into a stream of fiery lead a few minutes ago, for her.
“I froze.” Bella wrung her hands together. “I couldn’t move.”
“No one could.” Alger gripped her shoulder. I was afraid to embrace her, because I knew that if I did, she would dissolve into tears and she didn’t need that right now, nor did I. “Dionaea had something in that smoke of hers, a hypnotic agent, or a spell like it. She had us all in the palm of her hand, even Lom didn’t react as quickly as he could have.”
I nodded when she looked at me for confirmation. “She wouldn’t have risked popping in like that unless she was very sure of herself. I’m actually not sure why she did it...”
She was a distraction.” Bella had a faraway look on her face. I recognized it as thinking fast, and puzzle pieces dropping into place. I’d seen it before. “The wolf was the real threat. Only…”
“We knew what the Wendigo could do, so we didn’t give him mercy.” I finished. Had I undone that muzzle, he would have ripped through the crowd spreading famine and death in his wake. The infected would in turn have passed it on. I shivered.
“She meant to decimate us.” Bella spoke softly. “It was a cruel ploy, to use that poor man like that.”
“She thinks we’re soft.” Lucia stood up, gripping the shoe in one hand. She bared her teeth in a pseudo-smile. “She took my daughter’s life, and we didn’t immediately retaliate. She thinks we won’t.”
We all looked at her. She lifted a hand to her lips, her fingers bunched together. She blew across them and spread them wide at the same moment, and a flash of energy blinked out of existence.
“She thinks we won’t call the Hunt to ride forth. Because we haven’t in so long. But she is wrong, and we shall have vengeance.”
Dragon Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 3) Page 20
