Street Fair (Fair Folk Chronicles Book 2)

by Jeffrey Cook

  "Perhaps. We'll know soon enough if they've dealt with those weaknesses or not."

  "Not going to hold out hope for some saving grace, now that the experts in Summer and Winter are both on the problem?"

  "I place very little stock in hope."

  “Is that why the rumors can't sort out whether he fired you or you quit? Did you just cut your losses and run?”

  There was another stretch of silence before the wisp spoke. “He has a daughter.”

  "Oh, yes. I know. I make it a point of hearing when my aunt has a plan sabotaged, too. I'm in favor, obviously, whether I've any regard for the Unseelie or not.”

  The blank-mirror eyes stared at him. “Are you?”

  “I am.”

  “I would have suspected you might have approved of the queen's plan, assuming your obviously discreet sources reported it in full.”

  His dark eyes twitched. “They didn't need to. It was defeated by a mortal-raised child, so it was obvious that like most of her plans, it was based in high-minded intentions and no regard for reality.” He waved dismissively. “And then, again, the matter with O'Neill. Lucky the girl was along, weren't they?"

  "Do you really think Riocard has ever relied on something as uncertain as luck?"

  Tiernan paused, narrowing his eyes. "You're sure you're not still working for the King? You sound like you still think much of him.”

  The Gray Lady faced Tiernan directly, so that he could look straight at her blankly-mirrored eyes, though the wisp continued to do the speaking. "I try to have a realistic assessment of the people around me."

  Tiernan looked away, gritting his teeth, one hand curling into a fist, the other hand resting on his sword hilt. "You may wish to watch your words."

  "You may wish to watch your temper before it gets you into trouble."

  Tiernan relaxed slightly, hand moving away from the sword hilt, but only a small bit. "As long as we're talking about realistic assessments, Lady, what do you think the odds are that the Fomoire have kept your child alive, below the ice, all these years?" He finally lifted his eyes back to hers.

  The Gray Lady tensed, and the will o'wisp darkened in shade slightly, staring back at Tiernan for several long, silent seconds, before she answered. “With these strange, growing cracks in the lake, we may find out before Midsummer, if the diplomatic efforts find no new solutions. They'll send messengers, and soon."

  "Perhaps, or perhaps my aunt will be true to her word. Or perhaps she'll assume that we've already made some deal with the Fomoire. After all, they are the enemy of my enemy."

  "And have you?"

  Tiernan smiled. "Now we're getting to the heart of the matter.” But he didn't say any more.

  “In terms of the enemies of your enemy,” the whispers resumed, “does hating the Ljosalfar, for instance, make people good neighbors?”

  “They're still Northern savages,” Tiernan said, waving dismissively. “But they've been mostly quiet ever since their last set of raids on the ogres. I'm not out to start wars, only to finish them. At any rate, be assured, Lady: if and when An Teach Deiridh sends messengers, we'll be ready and waiting for them."

  Acknowledgements

  We’d like to thank our spouses, Cody Armond and Jennifer Wolf, for their support, as well as our families: Bill, Carmen, Sam, Maggie, Ben, Jeanne, and Kiera Perkins, Gerry Cook, Carol Wells-Reed, Kelly and Scott Hendrix, and Matthew Lewis, who counts.

  Thanks to the unnamable amount of friends and neighbors for sticking by us to this point. Thanks to Ben, Matt, Nils Visser, Leslie Conzatti, and Robert Black for their feedback, and to all those who read and reviewed.

  Thanks to artists: Christopher Kovacs for the title page logo, Nikki Becklinger for encouragement in character exploration, and Shayna Walsh for providing some of the first Fair Folk Chronicles fan art.

  Thanks to musicians: Jessica de Leon (alias Vicious Poppet) for providing promotional compositions, Kenneth Petrie and Ashley Hemm Petrie for answering random bardic questions, and Ryan Murray for assurances as to possibilities for upcoming audiobooks and on various other points. (And on audiobooks, thanks again, to Matthew Rose, Bobbie Hyde, and all those who’ve helped).

  Thanks to authors: Lee French and the rest of the Clockwork Dragon authors’ consortium for immeasurable support, the New Authors community, Seattle NaNoWriMo community, and the Writerpunk community for all the rallying.

  Thanks as ever to the AFK Elixirs and Eatery in Renton, Washington, for being such a great venue for book events.

  And thanks to everyone who bothered to read this far.

  We hope you’ll join us again in each of the Four Lost Cities, which are a story admittedly much older than ours.

  www.clockworkdragon.com

  www.authorjeffreycook.com

  www.punkwriters.com

  About the Authors

  Jeffrey Cook lives in Maple Valley, Washington, with his wife and three large dogs. He was born in Boulder, Colorado, but has lived all over the United States. He's the author of the Dawn of Steam trilogy of alternate-history/emergent Steampunk epistolary novels and of the YA Sci-fi thriller Mina Cortez: From Bouquets to Bullets. He’s a founding contributing author of Writerpunk Press and has also contributed to a number of role-playing game books for Deep7 Press out of Seattle. When not reading, researching, or writing, Jeffrey enjoys role-playing games and watching football.

  Katherine Perkins lives in Mobile, Alabama, with her husband and one extremely skittish cat. She was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, and will defend its cuisine on any field of honor. She is the editor of the Dawn of Steam series and serves as Jeff’s co-author of various short stories, including those for the charity anthologies of Writerpunk Press. When not reading, researching, writing, or editing, she tries to remember what she was supposed to be doing.