Phillip finally looked down at her, and his expression eased. “You’re mine, you know. He—they—can’t have you.”
It was the same thing he’d been saying since he’d been caught, and she answered the same way she always did. “I know.” She conjured up a small smile for him. There was nothing she could do about him except hope that the Prizzoli could actually draw out some of his crazy.
Turning back to the Chief Elder, she sent her a small, apologetic smile. The elder nodded back, a smile of her own playing at the corners of her mouth.
“May the light shine down on your house,” the Chief Elder said.
“May the light shine,” Blue returned, completing the greetings. Her gaze darted to Levi, and he gave her a small nod.
Some of the tension eased from Blue’s shoulders. Good, they were still on track.
The Chief Elder cleared her throat, and Blue blushed.
Keep it together, Blue. Keep it together.
Feet shuffled behind Blue, and a small squeaking cry came from Garfield. She knew it was him and not Vivi because she could feel him in the corner of her mind. He didn’t like Phillip, and he didn’t like all these new people. She sent what reassurance she could to her little boy, but it wasn’t much.
A low voice reached her—Mo’ata, probably trying to calm the cub since she couldn’t. A new voice joined him. Forrest.
The Chief Elder looked beyond Blue and frowned.
The Prizzoli almost certainly hadn’t counted on the cubs’ presence when they insisted on Blue accompanying Phillip and then staying.
Hell, she practically had an entourage. It was a little flabbergasting. Mo’ata, Forrest, and Levi she understood, though Levi stood with his people. Jason and Felix even, representing both the Ministry and the Order. But Trevon? Why was he even here? It didn’t make any sense to her, not really.
Maybe he was still trying to “fix things,” as she had told him to do.
“Blue, Blue, Blue. My little Blue, all dressed up with nowhere to go.” The singsong tone of Phillip’s words pulled her attention back to him. The third side to this new Phillip had made an appearance. There was possessive, there was smug… and there was bat shit nonsense crazy. It had become her job to pull him from his ramblings.
If he wasn’t so deadly, it would have just been sad.
“Blue, Blue, Blue.”
“Phi, Phi, Phi,” she chanted back at him. If she could just keep thinking of him as a disturbed five-year-old, it would be so much easier.
He shot her a grin, clearly appreciating the little game. His eyes flicked to the right, where the Prizzoli stood, and Blue followed his gaze.
Levi had stepped forward. He stood no more than two feet away from her, his golden eyes fixed on the two of them. His hand jerked forward then fell back to his side.
As had only happened once before, his face was unreadable.
Phillip growled, much as the cubs would, and jerked her closer to him, though she didn’t really have anywhere to go. “Mine.” The one word turned him from a five-year-old to a scary monster. The deep echoes of another being wove through his tones, and she shuddered. A quick glance showed her the purple light once again swirled in his eyes.
Her gaze dropped to the collar he still wore, one of turammin that helped to block the crystal and hold back the bond. It wasn’t working very well, unfortunately, but it was working enough.
She braced herself and pulled his hand from her arm, lacing her fingers through his. She had to sell this. She had to get him to the Prizzoli’s land, and she had to make sure he and the crystal were cleansed.
Then she could get back to her regularly scheduled life. Maybe.
Which may or may not ever happen the way things were going.
“Phi.” She waited until he looked back down at her. “Time to go check out the new digs, right?”
He cocked his head. “It’s a prison, you know. But it’s flimsy. It won’t hold.”
More cryptic and ominous words that only partially made sense. She sighed. “Then it’s not a problem, is it?”
His eyes narrowed. “It is for some.” With those words, he was done. He dropped her hand, crossed his arms, and pouted. “So, we going or what? All this protocol stuff is boring.”
Blue looked to the Chief Elder, who nodded. “Yes,” the older woman said. “It would be best if we headed directly to Lianka.” She spoke then in something that wasn’t Common, probably Padilrian, narrowing her eyes at Lord Elias.
Yay, more undercurrents.
Elias turned and strode through a side door, the rest of his delegation following close behind. Guards remained stationed throughout the room, standing stiffly at attention. Other dignitaries and representatives stayed, scattered around, watching to see what would unfold next.
The Chief Elder bowed her head a bare fifteen degrees and then straightened once more. “Please follow,” she said in Common. Her gaze once again traveled past Blue, and her lips thinned. “All of you.” The older woman turned and cut through the other Prizzoli. Half of them followed, the rest stepping back and forming a corridor to flank Blue, Phillip, and the rest as they moved forward. Each of these Prizzoli was dressed the same as Levi in a colorful coat and sash. They were guards. Levi joined them and gestured for Blue to continue on after the elders.
Looks like I won’t get to change after all. She’d been hoping she could.
She took a few steps, drawing even with Levi, and tripped.
She wanted to blame it on the stress or an uneven floor or the shoes, that they were too big. But no, this was all her. And dresses. They’d formed a love-hate relationship on prom night that was still going strong.
Her ankle buckled, and she pitched forward. She loosened her muscles, preparing to fall just as she’d learned in some of her self-defense classes.
She never hit. Levi caught her, his arm strong around her waist. He radiated heat, and for a brief moment she reveled in it. It was as if she hadn’t been cold until she had something to compare it to. Or maybe she was simply starved for the touch of someone not Phillip.
Either way, the moment was etched in her mind, and her eyes slipped closed for the half second it took Levi to set her back on her feet.
“Good?” he asked in English.
She nodded and quickly stepped away, not wanting to set Phillip off any more than he already had been.
“Good.” She fussed with the skirt and gathered the front in her hands, pulling it up off the floor a few inches.
A throat cleared behind her. “The transports are waiting,” Trevon said.
Blue took a breath and held out a hand to a frowning Phillip, heading off his protests. “Come on, Phi. Looks like you’d better hold on to me.” She couldn’t decide if it was good or bad that she was growing used to reaching for him, touching him. Definitely do not want to live this way.
She and Phillip continued down the corridor created by the Prizzoli guards. Two broke off and led the way, and the rest followed after, Mo’ata and the others behind them.
As they exited the grand hall and stepped out into the bright sunlight of the Padilrian day, one of the guards let out a small yelp, and she received and image from Garfield: Vivi had gotten off her leash and attached herself to the man’s boot, riding it with each step the man took.
Blue’s lips tipped up.
The transports they took were just like the ones on Karran. In fact...
“Are these the same as what is used on Karran? They look the same.”
She was in one vehicle with Phillip, Levi, Forrest, Trevon, and one other Prizzoli guard. Phillip and Forrest flanked her while Levi, Trevon, and the other Prizzoli sat across from them. Levi’s expression had relaxed into his usual calm, but the other guard’s lip was curled into a subtle sneer. And it wasn’t directed at Phillip, as Blue would have expected. No, it was directed at her.
This was going to be fun.
“You don’t look at her.” Phillip said to the guard, leaning into her and placing his h
and on her thigh.
Trevon’s gaze shot to that connection, and he stiffened but didn’t say anything. Blue shifted her thigh and grabbed Phillip’s hand. She gave it a squeeze then placed it back in his lap. “Thank you, Phi. But I can handle myself.”
“You’re mine, Blue.” He stroked her hair, the gesture reminiscent of Felix. But this was not endearing, nor did it tempt Blue to play back. “I’ll protect you. No matter what. I’ve told you.”
Once more she locked down the urge to pull away and conjured up a smile. “I know.”
Across from her Levi shot a hard look at the other guard, who smoothed his expression to neutral.
Blue focused on the scenery. This was the first chance she’d had to see Levi’s home world. She’d been locked in lessons and tense meetings. She now knew that Padilra’s main export was crystal, though not the purple ones of the mountains, of course. No, there were hundreds of variants, some used only for decoration, some ground and used in dyes, some whose structure allowed them to be used in manufacturing and electronics. Some were harder than diamond (according to Trevon) and some were soft enough to use as chalk.
They were currently making their way through a small town on the border between the Formangi and the Lovar regions. During her lessons, she’d been shown a map of Padilra. There were only a few villages in the Prizzoli lands, Lianka being the main one. Most Prizzoli lived on the road in caravans and troops and traveled over set routes, stopping to trade. Large plots of land for farming surrounded each of those few villages. And every growing season, a new troop took up residence and care for those plots, rotating through a hundred or so troops of various sizes. Most troops tended to stick to certain regions and identified as from that region. Lianka, as the capital, hosted a troop from each region in turn, the exchange taking place at the same time as the changing of the guard units. The troop provided general support and services for the elders and trainees. It was an amazingly intricate system, each piece fitted together just so, and fascinating.
The language on the other hand… Her Common was getting there; she could understand most of what was said if the person spoke slowly enough. She could even speak a fair bit. Her Prizzoli, on the other hand, was a bit of a disaster, to be honest.
As they made their way out of the town, an old wagon caught her eye. It had the look of the covered caravan wagons she’d seen depicted on fantasy novels of fortune tellers and travelers, then crossed with old-west wagons. Intricate swirls and carvings covered the sides, highlighted by peeling paint. One wheel was twisted and the spokes broken. Tatters of cloth hung from the metal bands arching over the top. In good repair, it would have been beautiful. Even in its brokenness there was still something about it that tugged at her imagination.
“What is that?” The words slipped from her in English. She’d have to get better about using Common as the default, but that was a long way off.
Trevon answered her. “That is a message. We are officially entering the lands of the Prizzoli.”
The guard eyed them with thinned lips, and Levi’s gaze bounced between the two.
“Is sign. No go past.” Levi’s grasp of English had improved markedly in the last week or so.
“Let’s just say that if you thought the peoples of Firik were insular, they don’t have anything on the Prizzoli. You, Blue Faust, are going to get a peek at the inner workings of a culture that is notorious for hiding,” Trevon said.
“You all are getting this look,” she told him. “Into the culture, I mean.”
The corner of Trevon’s mouth curled up in one of his grins, and he gave a small shrug but didn’t say anything else. Once again, she wondered why he was here. She had no doubt he hoped to get something out of this, though she didn’t know what.
Maybe he just wanted a chance to cause a little mischief like the hooligan he is.
Forrest leaned into her. It was a small movement, but it brought her a measure of comfort, of reassurance. She turned back to the window. Flat plains stretched out around them. Low buildings trailed to nothing as the transport moved farther and farther from the consulate. Tall grasses rippled and in the distance mountains rose. It was peaceful, but there was something off about the scene. Something she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
Forrest started humming.
The tune was familiar and sad, though she had trouble placing it. Her head swayed in time, so slightly she didn’t realize she was doing it at first. When Forrest finished, there was a few seconds’ lull, and then he started again. Again she felt she should know it, but she couldn’t place from what.
A new voice joined his. It was a smooth, a little deeper, and kept to a soft hum that wove around the basic tune Forrest kept up.
Looking away from the scenery, she caught Trevon’s gaze. His head bobbed as he joined his voice with Forrest’s. He didn’t smile, didn’t do anything that might set off Phillip, but like the snarls exchanged with Felix, she knew this for what it was.
A quiet bit of support, from Forrest, yes, but also from Trevon.
She looked back out the window, her throat tight. Her mind raced, seeking answers and a way out of the current situation, but she only ever came up with one thing: there was no answer. She didn’t even know the full situation.
Her thoughts skipped to the amended demands from the Padilrian government, so formally proclaimed. Mo’ata had translated for her and Phillip on the day it had come down. “Blue Faust, formerly of Earth, daughter of David Faust of the Ministry of Karran, will be a guest of the Prizzoli so long as they have need of her services, to be determined by the Chief Elder and dependent on the requirements they so lay down. Service in this case does not have a time limit. She is to be the companion for one Phillip Ayala until such time as he has recovered from his ailment.”
Not quite as strongly worded as “you have to stay there forever,” and on the surface it didn’t look so bad. It all hinged on when Phillip recovered from his “ailment.” She also didn’t know yet what these “requirements” would be. She needed to find out what her guys knew that she didn’t. They had hinted, but because she was so rarely away from Phillip, they hadn’t ever been able to tell her. She knew it was bad, though. She wasn’t stupid. She’d caught the clenched fists and the angry eyes.
She had never felt quite so... helpless.
After a while the humming stopped. The mountains grew closer and the sky darker.
“How much longer?” she asked. They must have been in the transport for a couple of hours now, and her limbs had grown stiff.
“Soon.” Levi shifted in his own seat, his shoulders bumping against the men on either side of him.
She nodded. Everything she wanted to ask had to wait, so she resumed her survey out the window.
As Levi said, it wasn’t much longer before the village came into sight. Stone buildings, three or four stories high, formed the core. From there, more—most only one or two stories—fanned out into the plains. They were rectangular and simple and should have looked ugly, but somehow they fit. Beyond the buildings, wagons and caravans were parked in neat rows.
They pulled into a small parking area. Two other transports waited there, dark and silent. She couldn’t see a marker or designator anywhere to tell what was what.
The transport’s door whooshed open. The Prizzoli guard exited first, then turned and held a hand out to her. She hesitated only briefly before allowing him to help her from the vehicle. For a brief moment his grip was almost painful on her hand, and she had to suppress a yelp. Withdrawing, she moved to the side, trying once more to not trip over the hem of her dress, and waited for the others.
Phillip emerged next, coming to stand beside her, and Forrest followed after, taking his place on her other side. Trevon arranged himself behind them all. Additional guards had joined the first, and a sort of “us versus them” feeling hung in the air, Blue’s little group confronted with the not-so-well hidden hostility of the guards.
Levi was the last to exit the transport, and he
paused, looking between the new guards and Blue’s group. His features went blank. He took one step and stopped halfway between the two groups.
“Can I get out of this dress?” The words slipped from her and her tone was much harsher than she wanted, but this stalemate over nothing was pointless and had her even more on edge. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to be tripping around this place, as I’m sure to be doing if I stay in a skirt.” She sent the growing group of guards a small smile as she spoke, though she knew none of them understood English. She tried her Common next. “Thank you for warm welcome.”
Trevon let out a small sound behind her—maybe a suppressed laugh—and her smile grew into something a little more genuine. Yeah, there’d definitely been some sarcasm in that statement.
The guards remained silent and stiff, the tension growing between the two groups until an older man hurried up, halting beside Levi. He wore robes similar to the Chief Elder, though Blue didn’t recall seeing him at the reception. Stooped over, he was small, almost childlike next to the guards.
“I apologize for my delay,” he said in Common. “I am Elder Shinzu. If you will follow me, you will be allowed to settle into your quarters, and then a... meeting has been called that you will need to attend.” The last was directed to Phillip. The elder turned to Blue. “You as well, please. There will be food provided.”
The elder turned and shuffled down a narrow, stone-paved corridor that ran between two of the buildings. She would have called it an alley, but there were no transports on it or other vehicles. In fact, there was no separate sidewalk, the stone continuing uninterrupted right up to the buildings.
A new transport landed, Mo’ata, Jason, Felix, and the cubs spilling out of it. They hurried to catch up with Blue and her group. As Felix passed the guards, they eyed the cubs on their leashes, and some even grinned.
It set off a grin of Blue’s own. Oh, if only they knew...
Garfield stopped just past the guards and twisted to look back at them, causing his leash to pull tight. Felix paused and looked back at the cub. Blue halted as well and stiffened, ready to try to intercept any attack, though she was probably too far away to do much good. Around her the others also paused, bringing the whole mini-procession to a halt.
For a Pixie in Blue Page 4
