Chapter 6
Alexis’s heart pounded when she saw Christie again. She wasn’t expecting to see him so soon. What did the Faery King mean by bringing him here?
The King couldn’t know what happened between Christie and Alexis. He must have some other reason to bring Christie to his court. Maybe the King would get that business over with, and Christie would leave.
Christie stared open-mouthed at the crowded throne room. Everyone smiled at him, even that gorilla Alasdair Sinclair. Christie recovered quicker than Alexis expected. He squared his shoulders and strode into the throne room. He looked neither right nor left.
He walked all the way to the throne and went down on one knee in front of the steps. “Your Majesty.”
“Rise, lad,” the King told him. “Ye neednae stand on ceremony here, although everybody else does.”
The King waved his hand and shot a grin at Alexis. Of everyone in the room, she alone wore her plain old clothes. She hadn’t changed since she came down here, and the King never implied he wanted her to. He invited her to this audience exactly the way she was.
Christie got to his feet. He faced the King with his head up and his eyes flashing. He never bowed to anyone. “You’ll forgive me, Your Majesty. I dinnae understand the meaning of this. Your men brought me here against my will when I was traveling on my own account through the land. I dinnae mean any disrespect when I say I’d appreciate an explanation.”
The King got out of his seat and hurried down the steps. He clapped Christie on both shoulders. “My good lad! Of course ye need an explanation, and I never meant for ye to be taken against your will. I ken you’re on a mission, and as ye can see, I can help ye accomplish it faster here. That’s why I brought ye—that and the simple fact that ye belong here.”
“Belong here!” Christie repeated. “I dinnae even ken where I am, let alone belong here.”
The King laughed. The cheery sound infected everyone who heard it. No one could mistake that laugh for mockery. “My dear lad, this is Faery, and you are Faery. That’s why you’re here. I make it my task in life to bring all the lost Faery home. That’s what Alexis is doing here, ye ken. Ye must ken your own kind, lad, and ye cannae do that until ye come down here. That, I’m afraid, is the only reason I had to insist ye come under the most strenuous circumstances. Ye wouldnae come otherwise, am I right? And then ye wouldnae ever kenned we could help ye the way we can. Ye would flounder and search above for… well, forever, and we couldnae have that.”
Christie shrugged. “I suppose that’s so, but, Your Majesty, far be it for me to contradict ye, but I’m no Faery. I’m a wolf of the Clan McLean. I’m no Faery.”
The King laughed louder than ever. The whole company laughed, and Fergus’s eyes twinkled. The King put his arm around Christie’s shoulders and hugged him. “Ye werenae Faery afore, but ye are now. Now come along. We have some business to attend to.”
Christie tried to resist, but the King drew him up on the platform next to the throne. He stood Christie right next to the throne, right next to Alexis’s chair. He cast a quick glance down at her, and she looked up at him. The tension of their last meeting stood between them. He hardened his features against her and turned his back on her to face the King.
The King’s voice boomed over the hall. “Now, we have the matter of the southern boundary dispute to settle, and then we’ll tend to the incursions through the temporal portal. Is there anything else pressing, or can we all go to the feasting after that? I’m starving.”
The company erupted in laughter again. An old man came forward and whispered in the King’s ear. He nodded. “The southern boundary dispute’s settled, then. What do ye have to report from Urlu?”
“Our patrols are monitoring the situation,” Fergus replied. “The enemy has made a very concerted effort to avoid entering our land, so we can only assume they’re targeting ye and yours—Heaven kens why. They dinnae want to rankle the Urlus, I suppose. They have no idea we’re working together.”
“Good for them,” the King shot back. “Continue your patrols. Let them think they’re keeping your kind as friends. Then they willnae expect any retaliation from ye when the time comes.”
“Aye, Your Majesty,” Fergus replied. “Angus has taken that policy so far. He’ll wait on your word when to spring the trap.”
“Excellent. I like your brother’s thinking. Now about the temporal portal. What can ye tell us about it, Alexis?”
Everyone turned around to stare at Alexis—everyone including Christie. He stood right in front of her, and his eyes searched her face for some explanation. He still couldn’t understand what was going on or why the King of Faery should consult her on a matter of national importance.
Alexis’s cheeks burned. She swallowed hard to get her throat working. “I can’t tell you anything I haven’t already told you. It’s…well, the portal is out of control. No one knows when or where it will open again or where it will open to. It just happens.”
“Nonsense,” the King shot back. “It must be coming from some source. Whatever’s causing it must be making it open and close for some purpose.”
Alexis couldn’t look at him or at Christie any longer. She cast her eyes down at the floor. “I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t know what’s opening it or closing it. I guess that’s what I meant to say.”
“Well, that’s a different matter, is it no’?” the King replied. “If ye dinnae mind, I’ll ask ye to make a study on it and report back. You’re the one best able to discover the whys and wherefores of this thing.”
She fixed her eyes on the floor. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Splendid!” he exclaimed. “Now we can all eat. You’re all dismissed. McLean, you’ll meet me and Cameron back here after dinner to discuss the particulars of your mission and how best to accomplish it.”
Alexis glanced up. Christie still stared at her with that fixed, hard expression on his face. He answered the King in a clipped snap over his shoulder. “Aye, Your Majesty.”
The King stood up and proceeded down the long hall. His subjects and admirers went down on their knees before him. Fergus followed behind him, and he waved for Christie and Alexis to attend the King, too.
Alexis had no choice but to walk at Christie’s side all the way out of that hall. They crossed the entrance where Christie first appeared and entered the Dining Hall beyond. The lords and ladies swirled into the Dining Hall and took their places at the long table. In a moment, waiters and butlers of all ranks flooded into the room and started serving the feast.
The Faery King touched Fergus’s arm. “Take over for me here for a moment, will ye? I’ll be right back.”
The King took Alexis’s arm and steered her away into a quiet corridor away from the feast. The sound of talking and serving faded, and she lost sight of everyone but the King.
He murmured in an undertone to her. “I didnae mean to embarrass ye in front of the company like that. Is anything amiss, that ye balked at my directive? I thought you’d make the best candidate to investigate this matter, seeing as ye have had direct dealings with it in recent weeks. Was I mistaken?”
“I didn’t know you wanted me to do something like that,” she replied. “I thought you brought me here…you know, for some other reason.”
“I told ye why I brought ye here,” he told her. “You’re Faery, and ye havenae kenned it ’til now. Ye have been wandering lost all these years. It’s our priority to bring the Faery home. I thought ye understood that.”
“I did.” She couldn’t stop her cheeks burning. “I just thought… you know, that it was a little deeper than that.”
He cocked his head. “What could be deeper than that?”
“Listen, James,” she replied. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me, and I really appreciate you bringing me here. You’ve been very kind, and I’ll do all I can to help you investigate this portal incursion, as you call it. Just so you understand I don’t really know anything about it. I don’t even know how to go
about investigating it. I never even knew anything about it until a few days ago.”
“Do ye no’ see?” he asked. “That’s precisely why you’re the best one to investigate it. No one down here kens anything about it more than ye do. Ye have been traveling through it again and again, so you’re one step ahead on all of us. That’s why I chose ye for this mission.”
“I just don’t want to let you down. That’s all.”
He put his arms around her. “My dear lassie! Ye willnae let us down. Ye willnae let me down. Just do your best. The best ye can do is give us any information ye have on it. That’s all we need, and I dinnae have anyone better for the job than ye. All of Faery depends on this.”
“Really?” She peered into his deep brown eyes at close range.
“Aye.” He kissed her on the forehead. “Now come along. You’re skin and bones, and ye need to eat.”
He ushered her back to the Dining Hall. Long before she got to the door, she spotted Christie standing in the doorway. He wasn’t watching the feasting. He was watching her. He saw the whole exchange between her and the King, but he couldn’t have heard the words.
He saw the King put his arms around her, and he saw the King kiss her. Alexis didn’t have to wonder what conclusion he drew from that. It was written all over his face.
He narrowed his eyes at her when she approached him. The King walked straight past him into the Hall and took his place at the head of the table. Christie glared at Alexis. Then he turned his back on her and faced the Dining Hall.
Alexis wanted to run away and hide. This whole experience turned into something so far removed from what she hoped, she didn’t want to face it anymore. Why should Christie’s disapproval mean squat to her? She hadn’t done anything wrong.
The Faery King wouldn’t look sideways at her. She fooled herself into thinking he invited her to his Kingdom out of some romantic attraction when it turned out he had a different motive. He cared about her as one of his Faery subjects.
She never knew she was Faery until he told her. Now he wanted to help her claim her birthright. That was all. That was just the sort of King he was.
Even if, by some miracle, there was something going on between her and James Stewart, Christie McLean would have nothing to say about it. She bonked him on a drunken night in some backwater inn. She told him then and there she didn’t want to have anything more to do with him. He had no business getting jealous of James or anybody else—not that there was anything to get jealous of.
So why did she get so distressed when he turned his back on her? Why did she hesitate to look him in the eye?
She wanted him to disappear. She enjoyed her time in this Faery castle under the ground before he turned up. Now he spoiled the whole experience with his assumptions and his judgmental attitude.
What could James possibly want with Christie anyways? The King wouldn’t take an interest in Christie just because he wanted to find the Urlus. James was King of Faery. He wouldn’t take any notice of a man on the surface unless that man directly impinged on Faery itself.
What could Christie have to do with Faery? The King said Christie was Faery, that he wasn’t before but he was now. What did that mean? How could a man just up and turn Faery without knowing it?
The King sat up straight in his seat and waved across the Hall to Christie standing in the door. He motioned Christie toward him, and Fergus turned in his seat at the King’s right hand to smile at Christie. Something was going on. Something big was about to happen.
Christie took a step into the room when a large block of stone dislodged from the mantle shelf above the fireplace. It sailed across the room and crashed into the back of a man sitting at one of the tables.
The man folded forward and planted his face in the fois gras. Screams ripped through the room, and ladies started back. The stone block hit the floor. The Hall burst into chaos when one of the supporting keystones in a ceiling arch overhead broke out of its place and crashed into the table right in front of the King.
The table scissored in two. Dishes sailed into the air. Screeches and shrieks pierced the Hall. Everyone jumped to their feet. Alexis wanted to flee, but she could only stand and stare at the horror unfolding before her eyes. Would it never end? Would it follow her for the rest of her days, even here?
The King bellowed orders at everyone, but no one could hear a word he said over the din. With the keystone removed, blocks rained down from the ceiling all over the company. At the same time, a picture sailed off the wall and went spinning into the air. Its corner caught a man behind the head and knocked him senseless to the floor.
People bolted and ran for their lives. A lady in a puffy gown rushed to the fallen man’s side. She tried to drag him to his feet, screaming all the while. At the same moment, a metal shield flew off the wall and went zinging through the air. It sailed straight for the Faery King’s face.
James Stewart stood stunned. The shield would have severed his head from his body if Christie hadn’t tackled him from behind. He slammed the King to the floor, and the shield went spinning off to crash into the far wall.
Alexis didn’t see any more. She turned on her heel and ran. She had to get as far away from this place as she could before someone found out. She had to preserve this blessed country from her own power. That was the only way she could stop the horror.
She couldn’t think of anywhere to go. She couldn’t get out of this place when she didn’t know how to activate the mound that brought her here. She ran up the stairs in a blind panic. She ran all the way to her bedroom and bolted the door behind her. She flung herself on the bed and buried her face in the pillow.
Chapter 7
Christie stood at the King’s side in the empty throne room. Fergus Cameron strode into the room and joined them. “The maids say she’s on her way down now.”
The King sighed. “This is much worse than I thought. I didnae think it could come here.”
“What is it?” Christie asked.
“Do ye no’ see?” Fergus replied. “It’s the curse, the curse she brought with her from her own world.”
“How is that possible?” Christie asked. “It never took this form afore. It’s all these dragons and vampires and giants and what all.”
“I ken it as well as ye,” Fergus replied, “but it’s taken this form now. No one can understand it like she can, and she willnae talk. Perhaps she doesnae understand it herself.”
“Whether she understands or no’, it’s here now,” the King replied. “Now we must deal to it and no mistake afore it tears the whole world apart.”
Fergus rubbed his chin. “If I understand these things right, it’s she that’s tearing apart. That’s the meaning of this. It’ll tear her apart, too, until she gets it repaired.”
“How can she do that if she doesnae understand it?” Christie asked.
“We must send to Urlu,” Fergus replied. “Hazel’ll deal to her. If anyone can understand what she’s going through and how to cope with it, it’s Hazel.”
“She’ll no’ listen to Hazel nor anyone else,” Christie snarled. “She’ll push away all efforts to help her. I found that out myself.”
The King started to say something when footsteps stopped in the doorway. The three men turned around to see Alexis standing in the door. She studied the party with suspicion, and she didn’t enter the room.
The King marched over to her with his arms out. He overcame her resistance to draw her into their circle, but she refused to smile at anyone. She glared at Christie and Fergus. Her eyes darted from one face to the other and then to the door.
“Me dear lass!” the King exclaimed. “Just the person we all wanted most to see. Ye can help us with this matter if anyone can.”
“The only way I can help you is to leave,” Alexis replied. “I’ve seen this before.”
“Nonsense,” the King shot back. “I went to a lot of trouble to bring ye here, and I willnae turn ye out over a little matter like this.”
“Y
ou call this a little matter?” Alexis snorted. “A man is dead, and the next time it happens, it’ll be a lot worse. It will keep getting worse until it destroys the whole city. You know that. I shouldn’t even have to explain. I’ll leave, and the rest of you can live in peace.”
“The rest of us would live in peace,” the King replied, “but where would that leave ye? No, we willnae turn ye away at a time like this. The only true way to stop it is to repair the fabric.”
“What does that mean?” Alexis asked. “I don’t even know what fabric you’re talking about, so how can I repair it?”
“We can summon wizards and seers and the like to help ye find out,” the King offered. “Ye neednae leave to deal to this nightmare alone. Ye have had enough of that for one lifetime, I’ll wager.”
“More people will die in the meantime,” she countered. “All these people are your responsibility. You can’t sacrifice them for one person.”
“It’s no one person I’m sacrificin’ them for,” he returned. “It’s them I’m thinkin’ on. You’re one of us now, lassie. Your destiny is all bound up with ours. If ye go down, we all go down. Do ye no see that?”
She shook her head. “Me leaving is the quickest way to make sure everybody is safe. You don’t have to spare my feelings when I already know what to do.”
“There’s another way,” he told her. “Ye and Christie must work together. Ye each hold the key to this mystery. Ye must get together to solve it and sort out what’s to do.”
Christie and Alexis both started back at the same time. “Work together! No way!”
Christie waved his hands in the air. “Ye dinnae understand, Your Majesty. Far be it for me to contradict ye…”
“Then dinnae contradict me,” the King replied. “I think I ken a bit more about me own realm than ye, lad. I’m gi’in’ ye a direct order to work with Alexis. Ye both hold a piece of the puzzle, and together ye can find the holes that need repair.”
“I’m not working with him!” Alexis snapped.
Curse Breaker (Phoenix Throne Book 7): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 4
