by Spear, Terry
“How come none of you are any older than seventeen?” Deveron asked again. Many fae didn’t have their abilities until they reached seventeen or older. How did this boy fae travel?
“We are peaceful here. When our youth grow too old, they move on.”
“So they don’t have a choice,” Deveron said.
“They wish to move on,” Tameron said.
Deveron didn’t believe him.
Tameron smiled. “They want to have girlfriends and boyfriends and mates. It is time for them to move on.” Then he switched the subject. “You have had trouble in the human world?”
No one said anything.
“Over her,” Tameron said, pointing to Cassie. “She has caused trouble between you and your queen, and with her own people, is it not true?”
“She is my friend,” Alicia said, instantly perking up and defending her.
“I can see this. It is unusual for the fae to become so attached to a human.” Tameron sat up taller. “Fae seers?” He threw the words out as if it suddenly dawned on him as to who they’d had difficulty with. “You had trouble with fae seers?” This time he was more direct in his approach, wanting an answer.
“Yes,” Alicia said, but she didn’t go into details.
“We must learn to get along.” Tameron took a deep breath.
Again, Deveron thought the boy was older than his years, both in the way he spoke and the way he led this group of kids. He seemed like an old soul who had seen way too much death and dying.
“Where are the fae seers now? Dead?” Tameron asked.
“One is. I was their prisoner. Another fae came to rescue me, and they tried to manacle her as well. They intended to drown us.”
“I see.” Tameron wore that superior expression again.
Alicia frowned at him as if she thought he believed she and Ena had had another choice. She had nothing against the humans. She had thought she was a human—a fae seer herself. So Deveron knew the boy’s reaction really irritated her, but because they couldn’t get out of this forest without Tameron’s help, she appeared to be controlling her temper.
“The other fae had to kill him. There were two, and Ena couldn’t talk them out of it.”
Tameron nodded, and this time he seemed to agree. “The other one?”
“A guest in the dragon fae’s keep.”
“A slave,” Tameron said, not about to be lied to.
Alicia shook her head. “I’m sure my grandfather would have had the boy terminated. But Ena must have asked for him as payment for rescuing me. You must understand, she is a dragon shifter. And they are notorious for wanting to hoard treasure. Taking a troublesome human in payment was a sacrifice she was willing to make to save his life.”
“Why?” Tameron asked.
“I wished it.”
Tameron studied her. “Your grandfather is the king?”
“Yes.”
Tameron nodded. “Why did you wish to spare the human’s life when he would have drowned you?”
“I lived with the humans.”
Startled gasps sounded from the fae seated around the fringes of the forest.
“I didn’t know I was not human.”
Cassie said, “Yeah, and I was her best friend and didn’t have a clue either.”
“Right. So I figured what if he, the human, Brett, was like me? That he was a fae seer because he was truly all fae?” Alicia asked.
“Yes, but what if he is not?” Tameron leaned forward and eyed her with interest.
“I don’t know. We’ll wait and see. Maybe someday if he doesn’t gain a fae’s abilities, Ena can return him to his world. But for now, he is a guest. He’s sleeping in a chamber, not in the dungeon.”
“That is odd. I wouldn’t have expected it of your kind. The dragon fae, I mean. I’ve heard they’re very warlike.” Tameron’s eyes widened a bit. “Others?”
“Two, in my castle’s dungeon,” Deveron said. “They didn’t fare as well. They knew where Alicia was being held and wouldn’t say. We knew they intended to kill her. They’ll live, but we haven’t decided what to do with them yet.”
“There were others who tried to stop me from seeing Cassie,” Micala added.
Tameron let out his breath. “We must have peace with the humans. Even if they are fae seers. If we prove we won’t harm them, they won’t harm us.” He motioned at their empty bowls. “Are you done with your dinner? It is time for bed. Girls stay with girls and boys with boys. If the girls and boys want to start mixing it up, then they have to leave.” Before Deveron could say anything, Tameron smiled and said, “Except for the four of you. I will keep you around for a while longer. But the division of the sexes remains in force.”
Deveron rose with Alicia, his arms securely around her shoulders. Micala stood and helped Cassie up from the leaf-littered ground and slipped his arm around her waist.
Tameron grinned. “Do not think to fight me on this. I’m in charge here. You may be a crown prince and she is the princess, but here, I am king.”
“Are you?” Deveron asked, serious.
Tameron looked a little sad at the notion, and then nodded. “I am.”
Micala looked at Deveron as if he wanted to fight Tameron about staying with Cassie.
Alicia said, “We’ll be together, and we’ll be all right.”
Tameron chuckled. “You will all live.” And then a couple of older girls led Cassie and Alicia to one of the treetop houses where they had to fae travel to reach the porch. Tameron took Deveron and Micala to another. “You can see where they’re staying from here. Don’t worry. They will come to no harm. Your fae trackers will never find us.”
“How did you keep them from finding us?” But Deveron thought he knew the answer already. He didn’t know much about the scorpion fae, except that they had claimed Arizona as the place they loved to go when on a forage to the human world. They were a long ways from the dragon and dark fae kingdoms so they’d never fought with them. But he had heard they had some powerful mages.
“Magic,” Tameron said.
Deveron nodded. And then Deveron wondered…was the fae using magic to hide his age?
The boy smiled at him.
He read his mind? Tameron chuckled. “Your bed. And Micala’s.”
Deveron had never given him his cousin’s name.
Chapter 11
Except for the fact Ena knew her brother thought he was saving her from both the dark fae queen and the dragon fae king’s wrath should she get between them and Princess Alicia and her human friend, Cassie, Ena was ready to kill her brother. She couldn’t believe he’d locked her in his dungeon, which unlike her own was used for prisoners on occasion, like now. But she would never have believed her brother would use it on her!
Even his guards were afraid to see her in such a terror, leaving her meals for her when she was sleeping, probably afraid she’d scorch them. She figured the bars of the cell were resistance to flame, but she’d shifted anyway when she realized Halloran had no intention of returning and releasing her anytime soon. When she couldn’t melt the bars, she’d roared until she was hoarse. She’d had barely a voice and that made her even angrier.
Finally, she’d given it a rest and it had returned for the most part by this morning.
She worried about Princess Alicia, Cassie, and her prisoner, Brett. But there wasn’t a thing she could do about them when she couldn’t even break out of her cell!
Then she heard the lock on the dungeon door at the head of the stairs down the hall click. She peered through the gloom of the dark dungeon, her cell having no window, and there were no lights on in the place, though with her dragon sight, she could see at night also. She watched to see if it was the guard again, or her rotten brother, finally coming to release her. She’d already had a meal earlier, so it couldn’t be that anyone was bringing her a snack.
Her heartbeat was speeding up in anticipation she would have a fight on her hands.
She heard several footfalls coming down t
he stone steps, and she tried to judge the height and weight of the people. And why so many would be coming to see her, she hadn’t a clue.
A man, older, his step slower, women, lighter in build, their footfalls cautious, and then a man’s footfalls running down the stairs after them, confident, in a rush, unlike the others.
What was going on?
Then she saw her butler leading the pack. Ryker? At first, she was alarmed. She thought her brother meant to lock him away, too. Then she saw Cook, her cleaning maids, and her lady’s maid, followed by her prisoner, Brett.
What in the world?
Ryker rattled a ring of keys and hurried to unlock her cell door. “We must hurry, mistress.”
She frowned at her gathered staff, their expressions anxious.
“We’re breaking you out,” Brett said, smiling.
“Where are the guards?”
“We took care of them,” Brett said.
She turned her frown on him.
Ryker shrugged. “He’s the one who convinced us to learn where you were and free you. He insisted he come along to help.”
“Thank you,” she said, as they hurried down the hall, and then up the stairs, unable to transport inside the castle because of the iron ore in the rocks. She was surprised beyond measure that her staff was here. “Where is that dastardly brother of mine?”
“The king gave him a mission. He’s out of our territory at the moment,” Ryker said.
She cast a disbelieving look back at her butler. “He left me imprisoned while he’s running around the fae territories?”
“Aye, mistress.”
“The princess? Cassie?”
“They escaped the dark fae trackers from what I heard tell from the gossip that has spread among the servants at the Denkar castle and to the rest of the dragon fae court and beyond. After that? No word as of yet.”
She glanced at the two guards lying on the floor out cold at the entrance to the stairs leading down to the dungeon.
“Brett knocked them out,” Ryker said. He sounded immensely proud of the human for his deed, and she wondered what had transpired since last she’d seen the way her butler had acted toward him.
She raised her brows at Brett. He shouldn’t be able to touch a fae when he was a prisoner!
He shrugged. “No one else volunteered, and they came after Ryker with a staff. Luckily, they didn’t pull their swords or I wouldn’t be around to talk to you now. But they didn’t want to hurt your staff. Just keep them from freeing you. I was kind of an unknown quantity.”
She shook her head as they hurried toward the main entrance to the keep. Several maids watched them, but no one made a move to recapture the prisoner or interfere in any way. She gave them such a dark look and would have shifted into her dragon form if they’d stepped one foot in her direction. So she figured that’s why they stayed back and didn’t try to stop them.
“What about Alton?” she asked Ryker. “Was he in on this? I never once saw him, but I figured as close as my brother and he are, he would know I was in Halloran’s dungeon.”
“I don’t believe he knew, mistress. Brett was locked up in his chamber, but he heard Alton calling out, trying to get anyone to answer as he came by the keep several times to see you. Since your brother had dismissed us to keep us out of harm’s way…he said, we weren’t there to tell Alton that your brother had taken you away. We would never have guessed he locked you in his dungeon, which is probably why he did so. We made inquiries right away, of course. But when we returned to your castle, and found Brett was the only one still there and locked in his chamber, we continued to try to locate you. We’d already come here once before, but everyone on your brother’s staff insisted you were not here. Brett was the one who convinced us that you needed saving.”
“Thank you,” she said again to Brett, and then to the others. “And all of you came because?”
“Brett thought that if we all arrived here at once, your brother’s staff couldn’t refuse us. Which was true. His butler tried to keep us out, but we all barged in, overwhelming him. The guards were a little more difficult, but Brett said he had martial arts training. I had no idea that the arts meant kicking and using your hands to take down your opponent.”
“Martial arts,” she murmured, wondering about such offensive maneuvers. Was her staff at risk?
Her butler quickly shoved the door open to the castle, and she could see it was dark, stars twinkling across the blackness, no hint of a moon, but the dawn was beginning to lighten the morning and the shops in the village would be open soon.
“All right. I have something I must do,” Ena said. “Return to the keep. I’ll bring Brett home shortly. And…thank you again.”
They all gave her smiles as if they’d been thrilled—albeit apprehensive initially—to be in on an adventure to rescue her. She wondered if they dreamed of what it would be like being Ena and chasing off on missions—somewhat dangerous—when all they had to do was their chores day in and day out. Maybe she could change that—a little.
With quick goodbyes, everyone left to return to the keep except for Ena and Brett.
“I didn’t believe your brother would hurt you, but your staff was becoming more and more anxious with your absence,” Brett said.
“Seems to me that you were more concerned than even they were.” She still couldn’t believe Brett and her staff had come to rescue her. She was the one who was supposed to do missions like that, not her staff. And certainly not a prisoner.
He shrugged as if it didn’t mean a whole lot to him. “I don’t know. What if you never returned? Your people would find new jobs. Me? The king would probably decide to kill me. But not only that, I owed you one. You stood up to your king for me. No one’s ever risked their livelihood, even maybe life, for me.”
“We’re even then.” She didn’t want to think on the matter any further. This was just all too bizarre to deal with. “Can you stomach more fae travel?”
“It doesn’t bother me.”
“Good.” She took hold of his arm. “We’ve got a couple of errands to run.”
When they arrived at the local village where the dragon shifters and their staffs tended to shop, the places were just beginning to open. Shopkeepers were hauling out their tables to display sale items. Others were unrolling their striped awnings to shade customers while perusing the sale tables when the sun rose high in the sky later in the day.
Brett looked like an owl, his head turning from side to side, taking in the village shops—a weapon shop featuring swords and daggers, the winery, stables, clothing shops, one for men and two for women, a boot shop, a butcher shop, a farmer’s market, and three taverns.
“Why is everything so…behind the times in the fae world?” he asked.
She stiffened. “We are not behind the times. We just prefer the…status quo. Surely, sometimes you wish you could stop time and enjoy what you have for a while longer and not have to constantly update what you own? What a waste.”
He didn’t say anything as she walked him toward the boot shop. She glanced at him.
“I can’t say that if a company has a new product coming out in the line of electronics that I wouldn’t want it.”
“Are you like the rest of your kind who have to have what everybody else has?”
He shook his head. “Not everything. I don’t care anything about what sneakers anybody else is wearing, or any other piece of clothing, for that matter.”
She nodded her approval, then noted the number of shopkeepers sweeping off their clean porches, watching as she and Brett walked by. Yes, yes, so it was unusual for her to be escorting a human around the village, who happened to be a prisoner, and she imagined that everyone wondered where her brother had hidden her and had finally released her, but really? Nothing better to do but gawk at her and Brett?
“I thought maybe others would be dressed like you are in your world, but you don't seem to care what others are wearing either,” Brett said.
“You d
on’t approve?” She arched a brow at him. She knew she shouldn’t have asked. She shouldn’t have cared what the human thought concerning the way she dressed. Even so, she was curious, which had always been her downfall.
He smiled in a way that said just how much he approved, but it had more to do with the way she looked in them than what she was wearing, if the way he looked her over so methodically with an upward curve of his mouth said anything.
She felt her whole body overheat at once. Which was ridiculous! She reminded herself she shouldn’t have cared what he thought. His smile broadened a little as her face felt even hotter.
“I can’t believe you don’t have cell phones, televisions, or computers,” he said.
“We live fine without them.”
She shoved open the door to the boot shop to get this business over with, and then put him to work in the garden where he would stay all day to earn his keep.
“But what do you do for fun?” he asked.
“Swim, hike, fly, play board games. Do any number of things—many of which are outdoors. We sometimes have dragon balls. We have a semi-annual fair where some of us compete at flying, hunting, and flame throwing.”
That finally shut Brett up. She was sure he was still shook up about the human who she had to turn into ashes.
The shopkeeper, Mr. Fitzwilliam, stood dusting boots and smiled at her, giving the human an icy glower. She imagined the word had gotten around that Brett wasn’t a slave but a fae killer and her prisoner.
“Mr. Fitzwilliam,” she said in greeting. Then she turned to Brett. “Pick out a pair of boots.”
“There aren’t any prices on them.”
“Just any you wish. Just pick a pair that are comfortable.”
“But I don’t have any money here and…”
She folded her arms and looked crossly at Brett. She never bought her staff clothes. She paid them a weekly wage. They purchased their own personal items. With Brett, she didn’t have a choice. She wasn’t about to listen to his sneakers squeak on her stone floors any longer. And if he wore fae clothes, he wouldn’t stick out so much. Besides, they were comfortable.
