A Fey Harvest (23 page)

Then maybe you should find out where it is.

Oh, right, that would be good. I asked Faerie to show me where Andrasta was hiding. She directed me to veer to the left and I swooped in low enough to see a darkened area of the forest. You wouldn't even notice it if you didn't know what you were looking for, it just looked as if the shadows were stronger there. I marked the spot mentally and swooped in a circle, to head back to the Castle of Eight.

The guards manning the ramparts scurried into attack mode as I approached but then they realized what I was and who I must be. They waved frantically at me, gesturing wildly to the blue shimmer between us, and I realized that they'd have to alter the ward to let me in. I pulled up and hovered before them, waiting as a mage scurried up to the battlements. He raised his hands, muttering something I couldn't hear. Evidently the ward muted all sounds.

Then a portion of the ward in front of me turned bright white and the mage waved me through. I darted in, giving the mage a nod of gratitude, and angled down to the central courtyard. I alighted in front of the castle and then was stuck there, wondering how I was going to get inside. I didn't want to go back into my human form since I would be very naked and lacking of any means to change that. Luckily, Danal came to my rescue.

“
Queen Vervain!” He shouted from the stairs in front of the castle. “The guards mirrored me that you were approaching. What are you doing outside of the castle? They said they didn't even see you leave, a circumstance that is very upsetting to them since everyone has to be given permission to pass through the wards. They are demanding that I discover how you tricked them. I shouldn't have to tell you what an inappropriate time this is for childish games,”

I lowered my head and looked at him meaningfully before looking back at my dragon body.

“Oh! Yes of course,” he ran back into the castle and I sat back on my haunches to wait for him. I was glad for the wait, it gave me time to come up with a better story.

Fey walked by me, giving me a wide berth while simultaneously gawking at me. It wasn't everyday that they got to see a dragon-sidhe in her dragon form, so I let them gawk. Plus, as mentioned before, I was kind of arrogant when I was a dragon and I admit I enjoyed the attention.

Then I heard the sounds of a scuffle and voices raised in anger. One of the voices was very familiar to me, though it was speaking the fey language. I followed the sound through the gardens that surrounded the main tree until I came to the Earth gardens. Massive obsidian gates guarded the entrance the gardens. They were carved into delicate swirls and soared high enough that I passed through easily. I walked by artfully arranged beds of flowers with sparkling crystals fencing them in, alcoves of tropical ferns forming arbors over amethyst benches, and spikes of quartz covered in climbing roses. Finally I came to an open space where five men were arguing.

One man was standing before four, obviously defending himself verbally. That man was Roarke, his short black hair looking artfully disheveled as he gesticulated wildly. The men in front of him all had dark hair as well and oddly enough, they shared his bright green eyes...cat eyes. They were all cat-sidhe, I could smell it on them now that I was concentrating. One of them seemed to be in charge, he was standing directly in front of Roarke, yelling at him while the other three held back.

I padded forward, coming to stand behind Roarke. The other men gaped at me, the words they were about to say dying on their lips but Roarke continued yelling, until their reactions finally registered and he turned to face me. He gave a little jump and then shook his head, laughing.

“
Queen Vervain, how ironic that you would show up now,” Roarke smirked.

I wanted to ask him why and I almost managed it but all that came out was a whooshing hiss. Why couldn't I speak? I'd spoken to a dragon before. Had I spoke to Arach in his dragon form? I didn't think so but I'd definitely spoke to Nidhogg, the dragon who guarded the Viking Well of Souls. So why couldn't I manage it?

Because you're trying to speak like a human.
Faerie sounded rather smug.

What the hell? What other way was there?

Like a dragon of course,
she sighed.
Really, how did you manage to live past infancy? Speak with the magic not with your vocal chords.

Oh. I inhaled and felt the magic come to my call but the conversation had progressed without me and before I could speak, one of the other four fey did.

“This is no concern of yours, Fire Queen,” the man who appeared to be in charge stepped forward, eying me warily. “The Prince has betrayed an oath made to his family and he must be held accountable.”

Without further ado, the other men surged forward and accosted Roarke, one holding his torso and one at each arm. The last man pulled a wicked looking dagger from a sheath at his waist. It was long, thin, and slightly curved. Roarke hissed and fought but they held him fast. One of the men who had been holding an arm, pulled Roarke's hand forward, placing it between him and the knife wielder. Roarke started to scream and I started to get really angry.

I roared, grabbing the men at Roarke's arms and pulling them off him. The man holding the knife backed up and fell, to stare up at me from the ground in terror. I threw the two cat-sidhe I had in hand, into the bushes because two cat-sidhe in hand are worth four in the bush, or something like that. They came scrambling back, I have to give them credit for that, and the one around Roarke's waist maneuvered himself to face me as well.

Claws formed on their hands, sharp teeth were bared, and short swords were pulled from their sheathes. I roared again, so angry I could feel the fire rising inside me. Coming on the heels of Aoife's assassination attempt, this was really bad timing. The cherry on my faerie sundae. The men cringed but the knife wielder got to his feet and faced me, maybe he thought I wouldn't kill him on the grounds of the Castle of Eight.

“You will stand down, Queen Vervain!” He shouted at me with a distinct air of authority that only served to piss me off further. I was mad enough that I finally found my voice.

“
The fuck I will!” I put my face level with his and shouted. “You think I'll stand by why you hurt a friend of mine? Well you got another think coming, pussy cat,” I snapped my jaws and the man backed up a step. “In fact, I'm beginning to think that roasted cat-sidhe would make a lovely appetizer.”

“
Roarke,” he focused on my friend, “tell her to stand down and accept the consequences of your actions. She's only making this worse for you.”

“
I merely behaved as any other cat-sidhe would,” Roarke growled. “I wandered and made new allies.”

“
And you ignored the order of your King in the process,” the man hissed. “Your claws will grow back, accept your punishment.”

“
Fuck you, Father,” Roarke hissed back and I looked down on him in surprise.

That must make this fey the King of the cat-sidhe. No wonder he sounded so presumptuous. Still the House of Cats was considered a sub-house to the House of Earth, it was the only group allowed to have their own royalty beneath that of their Kingdom's. I'm not sure why, sheer arrogance most likely, and possibly the ability to make a lot of annoying noises. I guess all cats thought highly of themselves but that didn't give the Cat King the right to speak to me like that.

“You will come home at once, Roarke,” his father continued. “Unless you've changed your mind and have decided to do your duty to me and the Kingdom of Earth. Then I will forgo the punishment and this matter will be over.”

“
Again I say, fuck you,” Roarke glanced at me. “I'm not a traitor.”

“
So sayeth the fey who is currently betraying his family,” one of the other men shook his head in disbelief.

“
That's it,” I growled in a low, rumbly voice. “I don't much care what you're arguing about. I don't care what Roarke has done or why you think he's a traitor. I know my friend, he's no traitor and as far as I'm concerned, this conversation is over. He's coming with me and you'll leave him be or I'll roast the lot of you, family or not.”

“
Really?” Roarke's mouth hung open.

“
Really,” I smiled at him, at least I tried. Who knows what it looked like. “I got your back, buddy. What do you want to do?”

“
You would risk war with Earth over me?”

“
Roarke,” I laughed. “I risked war with Earth over the pixies, why wouldn't I do it for you?”

“
No matter what I've done?” He looked so serious that my laughter died out.

“
You have no idea what you're doing, Queen Vervain,” the cat-sidhe King snarled. “You don't want to make an enemy out of the House of Cats.”

“
No matter what,” I nodded to Roarke without bothering to even glance at his father. “Babe, you could show up with a body and I wouldn't ask questions, just grab the shovels. We'd talk about it later.”

“
And that's why I refused to do what you ordered me to do,” he said to the other cats. “Did you hear that? When have any of you ever shown me that kind of loyalty? That kind of trust?”

“
You're such a child,” one of the others scoffed. “Family comes above all else.”

“
Let me guess,” I leaned my head down beside Roarke's. “Older brother?”

“
Oh you're good,” Roarke smirked. “I'll be leaving now, dear Father, Brothers. You can take that blade and shove it where the sun don't shine.”

“
What did he just say?” One of Roarke's brothers asked his father.

“
He said,” I blew a thin line of fire between them and us, “to fuck off.”

Roarke's father started jabbering to him in the fey language but he ignored him and looked up at me. I turned around and if my tail happened to swish through the flames and knock all of them over in the process, that was purely accidental. Roarke followed me from the garden, his sassy swagger in full force until we made it to the front of the castle, where he collapsed against me and sighed.

“Thank you.” He looked up at me with earnest kitty eyes. Funny how I'd never noticed their slit pupils before, maybe they'd always been dilated.

“
No problem,” I looked back in the direction we'd come but there was no sign of Roarke's family. “Do you need to return to the God Realm?”

“
I can't,” he stood up and shook his head. “We're fighting the Darkness tomorrow, remember? I won't abandon Faerie or you.”

“
Thank you, and how could I forget?” I grumbled. “Fight beside us then and you can return to Pride Palace after we beat the Darkness. I don't trust your father.”

“
You and me both,” he stared at me a moment, looking a little sad and very serious. “You really have no idea what you've just done.”

“
I really don't care,” I shrugged my big dragon shoulders. “You're my friend, if defending you gets me into trouble, so be it. It's not like I haven't been there before. You've had my back, Roarke. You've been there for me more than you know right now.”

“
Right now?” He lifted a brow. “No, I'm not going to ask.”

“
And I won't tell,” I agreed, it probably wasn't wise to tell him what he did for me with Aoife. “But if you want to tell me what that was about back there, I'd listen.”

“
Queen Vervain!” Danal came running around the side of the tree. “Where did you go? I've been looking everywhere. How does a forty foot dragon just disappear?”

“
I was helping...” I looked down and Roarke was gone. “Never mind. Did you get the robe?”

“
Yes, of course,” Danal sighed like he was used to dealing with idiotic royalty. “If you'll just follow me,” he waved me along to a garden to the right of the central tree, which provided enough space for me to maneuver and yet enough cover for me to change back in.

“
Thank you, Danal,” I took the robe from his outstretched hand, his head was turned away. “You can look now.”

“
Queen Vervain, what were you about? How did you fool the guards, the mages?”

“
I ran into Lady Aoife and she said she was headed back to the Air Kingdom. I asked if I could tag along so I could go scouting,” I shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

“
Lady Aoife?” Danal gave me a disbelieving look. “I'll let the guards know but I'm surprised she allowed you to accompany her.”

“
Yeah, we had some issues to work out,” I grinned. “She wanted to talk about them, so it worked out well for us both.”

“
She wanted to
talk
about your issues?” Danal frowned, clearly he'd met Aoife before.

“
I'm not very good at just waiting around and Arach was sleeping so...”

“
Well he's not sleeping anymore,” Danal urged me back inside the castle through a side entrance. “He's up and scouring the castle for you, him and his red caps. They're barging into chambers and generally being quite terrifying. He's not going to be happy to hear that you've just been out flying around without him.”