A Fey Harvest (10 page)

Chapter Eleven

As soon as we returned to the castle, I changed into some less elemental clothing and said goodbye to Arach, even though he'd be seeing me again momentarily. Then I asked the ring to take me back to the God Realm and into the moment right after I'd left it this last time.

“
Is he guilty?” Arach asked as soon as I reappeared.

“
I'm not sure,” I laughed, leave it to Arach to not waste a moment. “It's looking bad though. He's been seeing a water-sidhe named Gruach and she's bringing him into Faerie without King Giurmean's approval. I saw her take him through.”

“
Well that's not good,” he frowned. “We'll have to mirror King Guirmean and tell him to find this water-sidhe and watch her.”

“
Can he prevent her from bringing Kanaloa into Faerie?”

“
That's a little more tricky,” he rubbed at his chin. “You've already seen them travel to Faerie, if we stop it from happening, you may experience some discomfort from your memories changing. Or it may not work at all. I think we should let it play out and just be aware of Gruach's movements. I don't want to see you hurt.”

“
I hadn't thought of that,” I took a seat beside him on the bed. “I agree, let's leave it be but alert the others.”

“
I think maybe just King Guirmean,” Arach shot me a look. “The High King may choose to act prematurely upon this information and if it turns out that Kanaloa is innocent, he will be persecuted for nothing.”

“
Ah, okay,” I nodded, “just Guirmean then. You wanna mirror him or shall I?”

“
I will,” he got up and went to take a seat in front of the mirror. “I told him I'd mirror him about kingly issues anyway.”

“
Ah yes, kingly issues,” I said in a snotty voice as I got up and headed for the door. “I'll just divorce myself from the situation then.”

“
Leave if you must,” he shot over his shoulder as he pulled out the eyebright to rub across the mirror. “But if you ever utter the word divorce in reference to me again, I will take you across my knee.”

“
Kinky,” I laughed as I closed the door on his shocked face.

“
My Queen?”

“
Aghhhh!” I jumped and looked over to find Isleen, Herald of the House of Fire and apparently Arach's adopted mother, standing in the shadows. “Sweet Baby Jesus, Isleen, you scared the hell out of me.”

“
Are you alright?” I heard Arach call through the door.

“
I'm fine,” I poked my head back in. “Just Isleen trying to kill me again.”

“
What?” He sounded even more concerned and she rolled her eyes at me(she got that from me so I only had myself to thank for it).

“
Joking,” I shut the door on him again. “What's going on, Iz?”

“
Did you just call me- never mind,” she waved it away. “You have a visitor waiting in the solar for you.

“
I have a what waiting in the what?”

“
You have a vi-sit-tor,” she sounded it out slowly, “waiting in the so-lar for you.”

“
Yeah saying it slower doesn't help,” I rolled my eyes at her. Payback's a bitch. “Who is it and what is a solar?”

“
I have no idea who she is, and the solar is a room for entertaining guests in, called thus because of the amount of windows usually involved in its creation.”

“
Really? Windows huh?”

“
I have no idea,” she cracked a smile at me, “but it sounded good, didn't it?”

“
You are hanging out with me way too much,” I laughed. “Okay, lead the way cause I have no idea where this sunny place is.”

“
Right this way, my Queen,” she smirked and led me down the hall for a long ways before we took a small staircase up and kind of out at an angle. Finally we reached a door at the top which she opened to reveal a large room which indeed had two walls devoted to windows. What was really impressive though, was the view through the left wall of windows.

“
Damn,” I walked in, gawking at the lava pouring down the mountain, mere feet from the windows. “Would you call that a lavafall?” I looked back at Isleen but she was just shaking her head at me. “Must be one of the two falls that feed our magma moat.”

“
You think?” Isleen gave me a duh look(another thing she picked up from me).

“
Shut up,” I wandered over and sighed as the heat hit me. “Man this is nice, why haven't I seen this before?”

“
Cause you've never had a guest,” Isleen continued on in her snarky voice. “Speaking of which... may I introduce you, my lady?”

I turned around, embarrassed that I'd totally forgotten the reason I was there. Standing in the corner, furthest away from the lavafall, was a water-sidhe. She looked amazing against the backdrop of the fiery room. The chaise lounge and delicate settees were a vivid red and the walls that weren't windows were lined with vibrant tapestries of fire fey. To her left all of Faerie spread out and there she was, a bright shining pearl amidst it all.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I spurted before I could control myself because there, standing in my solar lavafall room, was Gruach, Kanaloa's lover.

“
My Queen?” I'd finally managed to shock Isleen.

“
Queen Vervain?” Gruach was just as shocked.

“
Oh!” I grasped for a reason to give them. “I, uh, I'm so sorry, you look just like someone I know back in the God Realm. Obviously I don't know you, we've never met before.” I gave a hysterical laugh which seemed to put Gruach at ease but didn't fool Isleen for one second. “Could you have someone bring us refreshments, Isleen?”

“
Sure,” Isleen narrowed her gaze on me. “But maybe I should introduce you first to lady....” she looked over at Gruach.

“
Gruach,” she supplied. Of course, it had to be her, couldn't be a nice twin or something.

“
Lady Gruach,” Isleen nodded, “and this is Queen Vervain of the House of Fire. I'll go send for those refreshments now.”

“
Thank you,” I looked over and saw Isleen give me a glance that clearly stated our conversation was not over. “Uh, Lady Gruach, is this room okay? We can move somewhere less warm if you like.”

“
Oh, no,” she smiled, completely at ease now. “This is fine, as long as I stay on this side of the room I won't dry out too much.”

“
Would you like to sit down?” I indicated a settee in front of me.

“
Thank you,” she slid onto the seat gracefully and I took a chaise lounge across from her.

“
So, I admit I'm curious over why a water-sidhe I've never met would come to see me,” I cocked my head at her and studied her. She looked so sweet but then looks were almost always deceiving in Faerie.

“
I didn't want to interrupt your visit to Water,” she smiled shyly, “but I really wanted to talk to you about something.” She looked up when a goblin woman walked in holding a tray of tea and little cakes.

“
Thank you, Mairte,” I nodded to the goblin when she put the tray down between us and she smiled, revealing stained teeth which were very pointy.

“
I bring the tray,” Mairte sang in the way the goblins spoke. “And go away, Your welcome is what I say.” She left with a big smile and I admit, I had one too. It's just so damn cute, now that I've gotten used to their faces.

“
Tea?” I asked Gruach as I poured me a cup.

“
Yes please,” she accepted one from me along with a plate of cake.

“
Go ahead,” I poured myself another cup. “What did you want to talk about?”

“
Oh yes,” she laughed and it was a sweet sound, like bird song echoing off waves. It kind of annoyed me. “I asked King Guirmean and he said that you were the type of person who wouldn't mind an unexpected visit and that I should just stop by.”

“
Oh, sure,” I smiled and then jolted back when Arach came running into the room. “Damn it, Arach, I spilled my tea.” I grabbed a napkin off the tray and started rubbing at the wet spot on my black knit dress.”

“
Sorry, I...” he looked over at Gruach and then back at me meaningfully. “I was just talking with King Guirmean and he mentioned that he'd sent a guest our way. I thought maybe I should come up and meet her.”

Ah, so that was it. He told Guirmean about our suspects and Guirmean realized he may have just sent a murderer over to have tea with me... and my husband had rushed to my rescue. I got kind of warm and fuzzy over that one.

“Ah, yes,” I put my cup down and waved a hand toward Gruach. “This is Lady Gruach, Lady Gruach this is my husband, King Arach of the House of Fire.” I was so glad Isleen had just made an introduction so I knew how to do it properly. “As you can see, he is loathe to leave me unattended and can sometimes behave oddly because of it,” I gave a little laugh and she joined me although hers sounded a little nervous. “Arach, I think Lady Gruach came on a personal matter and wished to speak with me alone. Maybe you could give us some privacy?” I hope he knew by my widened eyes that I meant he should wait right outside the door.

“
Oh, of course,” he gave a slight head bow to Gruach. “Pardon me, I have other matters to attend to.”

“
It was nice to meet you, King Arach,” Gruach said politely but I could tell she really wanted him out of the room. Maybe she was there to kill me.

“
So,” I started again when the door closed, guardedly watching her every movement. “You were saying?”

“
This seems really silly now,” she sighed. “I just wanted to ask you about your friend, Lord Kanaloa.”

“
Lord Kanaloa?” I blinked at her. Holy shit, they hadn't even started dating yet. How was this possible? Did she go into the Human Realm to find him? “You wanna ask about Kanaloa?”

“
I really find him enchanting,” she was blushing! WTF? “He's so different from the water fey I know and yet he is of the water. And he's very attractive, so dark and those eyes. I just wanted to know if he was a good man before I decided to take him up on his offer of a visit.”

“
He invited you to the Human Realm?”

“
Yes, on his last visit here,” she blushed again. “I know I look frail but I can take care of myself, I'm not worried that he may physically harm me or anything but I don't want to get my heart involved with a man who is unkind or unchivalrous. Can you tell me if he is a good god?”

“
Wow,” I cleared my throat. “Well, I don't really know him all that well but what I've seen from him so far would suggest that...” he may be a murdering bastard, “he is a pretty upstanding guy.” I couldn't disparage Kanaloa without knowing for sure, so I ended up telling Gruach the facts as I knew them. “I think you should accept the invitation.” I also knew I couldn't discourage her from going because it might fuck up the future. I obviously was meant to tell her to go for it, so I did. “He's been very nice to me.”

“
Oh, I'm so relieved,” she smiled widely. “Thank you so much for your patience. King Guirmean was right, you're a very kind Queen.”

“
Oh, I, uh,” kind? He said I was kind? Weird. “Thank you. Good luck on the romance.”

“
Thank you, Queen Vervain,” she beamed at me and I inwardly groaned because something momentous had occurred to me. If Gruach and Kanaloa hadn't started dating yet, she couldn't have been the one to let him into Faerie and since the murders hadn't been during his last visit, he either had another accomplice or was innocent.

Chapter Twelve

We finished our refreshments and when we left Arach wasn't lurking in the hallway. So he either didn't understand my hidden message, had taken off when he heard us coming, or had heard all of the conversation and determined his presence to be unnecessary. Whatever it was, I was glad we didn't catch him loitering.

I walked her out to her carriage and then went looking for him. I needed to bounce these new possibilities off him. It was still possible that it was Kanaloa. We had found evidence that there was a small fey involved. A trow, a fir darrig, or a fachan. He could be in league with one of those and just started a romance with Gruach as a back up plan to get into Faerie. No, this new development didn't get him off the hook but I was pretty sure Gruach was innocent.

“
Of course, my King,” the conspiratorial voice carried around the corner to me and shocked me out of my thoughts. It sounded furtive, like a woman whispering to her lover. Her married lover.

My stomach clenched and I called it a fool but I crept to the edge of the hallway nonetheless, sneaking a quick peep around the corner. I pulled back and held my hand to my mouth so I would start screaming. It couldn't be what I thought, Arach wouldn't cheat on me, if for no other reason than I was his only chance of ever having children.