Flicker (29 page)

Nodding,
Filo
crossed
the shop
. “I’ll wrap it up for you
.
Back in a flash.”

As Filo disappeared upstairs
, Lee tried to shuffle behind a nearby case, but
the girl had already
spotted her. Le
e stopped dead. The girl
ambled
toward her
.

“I know you,” she grated
, a strange smile on her thin, pale lips
.
“I know your eyes.”

Lee’s
skin crawled.
She edged backward.
“You do?”

“There is talk
of a copper-haired mortal girl with
green
eyes like yours,
” the girl said,
“
who painted Summer lords and ladies, until a Seer boy returned her to this realm. Someone is looking for you.”

“Who?” Lee felt faintly dizzy.
She squeezed her eyes shut.

The girl ignored her question. “Those eyes
…
”

Almost involuntarily, Lee cracked her eyes open a fraction. Somehow, the girl held her gaze. She felt like those terrible,
dead-white
eyes were looking
into
her,
through
her. It was as if some unseen force were holding Lee’s eyes open; she couldn’t even blink.

With one bony hand, the girl reached for Lee’s face. Lee tried to squirm away, but she was frozen. Something in those eyes made her feel as heavy as lead.

“Hey!” Filo appeared in the doorway, a paper-wrapped parcel tucked under his arm. His blue eyes were dark with rage.
“I’ll have none of this! Not here!”

The girl whipped around.
Lee’s ears burned as the girl spoke again in Old Faerie. Moving toward the girl, Filo snarled something in the same tongue.
Lee felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up.
The girl backed away from
Filo
, her
scuffed
boots squeaking, until she was
pressed
against the door.

“Out,” Filo growled
, low and ferocious
. “
Now.
See what happens if you ever set foot in this shop again
.”

The girl turned and pushed the door open. The moment she was outside, Lee’s muscles relaxed. She stretched her arms, feeling her elbows pop.

“And
you
.” Filo jabbed a finger at her. “What do you think you’re doing?
Never
talk to the customers! Not without me around!”

“I didn’t talk to her,” Lee protested. “She talked to me!”

“But you talked back,” he snapped. “When there are non-humans in the sho
p, or even
half-breed
s like that one
, you keep your mouth shut and your eyes down. If I’d walked in a minute later, you wouldn’t have eyes at all right now.”

Lee inhaled sharply. “Is that was she was going to do? Take my eyes out?”

“Nah. Probably just blind you,” he said, with disturbing ease.
“Not all faeries like
humans being able to See them
. You must’ve smelled weak to her, too, or she wouldn’t have tried
.”

“
But I’m not even Sighted.”

“She didn’t know that. She probably figured you were, just because you’re h
ere. Normal
s don’t generally hang around in Seer shops, you know?”

Lee bit her lip
. “Thank you,”
she said
humbly.
“Really.”

“Don’t get all sappy. I’m just maintaining my reputation. She sho
uld’ve known better than
to pull a stunt l
ike that in here.”

For a moment, she just watched him. “Filo,” she began cautiously. “That
…
half-breed. After you left, she said
that
knew me.
She said there are rumors going around about a girl who came from a revel that looks like me. That someone is looking for me.”

He stared, gravely. “Are you serious?”

She nodded.

“Salt and sage! This is the last thing I need.
Wait here.
” Filo turned and hurried up the stairs. When he returned a minute later, he was clutching his messenger bag. He
placed his hand between her shoulder blades and
turned
her toward the door.

“Where are we going?” she asked
, craning her neck to look at him
.

“Snapdragons. I hav
e some things to trade
, and now I don’t know how safe it is to leave you here by yo
urself.” He sighed. “Just
keep that half-bree
d thing to yourself for now.
Okay?”

Somewhat hesitantly, she agreed.

* * *

The exterior of the shop was painted brown and green. Sunlight flashed across the front windows as if over clear water. A sign that read
Sn
apdragons
in big, curly letters hung in
the window. Filo
open
ed the door
, with Lee a step behind.

Inside Snapdragons, the air smelled of flowers and perfume. Light streamed through the windows, illuminating everything. There were as many shelves, boxes and cases here as there were at Flicker, but here, everything was neatly squared away.

A man in a hat and coat bent to inspect a low table covered in bottles of sparkling liquids. Two holes were cut in the back of his jacket to accommodate his
blue-
feathered wings. Nearby, a woman with dark green braids sorted through a basket of smooth stones.

Filo stalked up to the counter. “Rodney?”

A tortoiseshell cat leaped up onto the counter. Meowing, it padded over the polished wood and sat in front of Filo. It turned its golden eyes on Lee, who smiled and reached out to scr
atch its head. Filo pinched her, and
s
he jerked her hand back, scandalized.

“
Don’t do
that,” he
chastised her
, then turned
. “I’ve got business, Rod,” he continued,
apparently
to the tortoiseshell. “Feel like trading today?”

The tortoiseshell meowed again, then hopped off the counter. It
shifted
in mid-leap,
becoming
a tall
, handsome
young man with thick, wavy brown hair and golden cat eyes. Lee jumped at the transformation, but no one else batted an eye.

Th
e young man—Rodney
—leaned against the counter. His ears came to tapered points; a slim, spotted tail flicked back and forth around his legs.

“Always,” Rodney purred. “What have you brought?”

As Filo opened his bag, a cheer
ful voice spoke just behind Lee: “Fancy seeing you here
.”

She turned and found h
erself face-to-face with Jason. He was dressed in a long army-green coat; his guitar was slung across his back on a yellow strap.

“Hey,” she greeted him, glancing over his shoulder
, unconsciously searching for his brother
. “Are you here alone?”

Jason smiled
knowingly
. “Nasser’s around the back. He’s trying to sell some potions to Vori, the shop owner, for resale.”

At the counter, Rodney was speaking. “What do you want for it?”

“What do you have?” Filo asked.

Rodney grinned. “I propose we take this to the storage room.”

“Agreed.” Filo glanced at Lee.
Upon seeing her with Jason, he
made a slightly displeased face, but followed Rodney to the rear of the shop. “Don’t go anywhere,” he called. “I’ll only be a minute.”

* * *

When Nasser woke this morning, he didn’t have any great hopes for today, but it was quickly turning out better than he’d expected.
He’d just sold Vori a dozen potions; if they were as good as he claimed, she’d promised to buy more from him. Nasser was relieved; the extra income certainly would help.

Now he was standing in the Snapdragons shop with Le
e
. Jason had slipped of
f somewhere
—no doubt in pursuit of the
pretty,
blue-haired pixie girl who was s
auntering through the shop—
leaving them alone.

“Nasser,” she asked,
as
they wound their way through Snapdragons,
browsing the items
,
“what can you tell me about the Faerie Courts?”

“Well,
” he started
,
“
basically,
a Court is any group of faeries that
controls
territory
. The Courts are ruled by
a king or queen,
usually
one of the Daoine Sidhe—
they’re like
the faerie
nobility.
The monarch usually divides th
e territory among other
Daoine Sidhe, like lords giving plots of land to their vassals. Those faeries make sure the territory is monitored, and all the subjects are kept in line. They collect tribute from the lesser faeries in their lands.”
He picked up a tiny lacquered
chimera
, carved in exquisite detail
,
and showed it to her.
“Why are you asking about Courts?”

She fiddled with the chimera for a moment, then admitted,
“The other day,
when we were
in Ladders—somebody mentioned the
Summer Court to me. What do you know about it?”

“
It’s
of the two biggest powers in the
human realm. The other
is the Winter Court
. They have lands in Otherworld, but their rul
es extend here
. The human world is pretty much divided between them.”

“How so?”

“This realm is important to them. Their
monarchs
turn the seasons. The brunt of the work is done
by the planet, of course,
but their magic is so strong that they can manipulate weather patterns on a
massive
scale. They
fiddle
with the
weather
, keeping it hot where it should be hot and cold where it should be cold. They’ve been doing it since our world was young. They’ve been warring with each other just as long.”

“Warring?”

“I
t’s mostly just small squabbles,” he amended. “That’s where most freak weather comes from, you know. Little disturbances caused by their fighting. It’s what they’ve always done—fighting const
antly
. I
t’s like they can’t help it
.”

“What would happen if they
really
went to war?”

“If that happened, w
e’d have natural disasters everywhere while they fought, and by the time the war ended—and t
hat could take centuries
, mind you—the world would either be a global jungle or frozen wasteland.
And
,” he added,
“
there wouldn’t be any humans left.
”

Behind him, Nasser detected an e
nergy as it entered the shop
: Filo, apparen
tly finished trading
with Rodney
. Nasser turned to face the other boy before he could be tapped on the shoulder.

Filo
didn’t miss a beat
. “We need to talk. In private.”

“Sure.” Nasser glanced at Lee. “We’ll just be a second.”

“Go ahead.”
But she tracked them with her eyes, clearly curious.

Nasser
followed
Filo behind a large case. No other customers were in sight.

“Listen, Nasser,” Filo said quietly, not quite looking at him. “I know I freaked out the other day, but I’m not sorry. You screwed up big-time, and you need to fix it.”

“I know,” Nasser replied. “This whole thing is my fault. I shouldn’t have brought you into it. You don’t have to take Lee back to Flicker with you. She can come with Jason and me.”

“No. She can’t go to your place.”

“Why not?”

“It isn’t safe. Something happened today.” Quietly and quickly, Filo described what had happened with the half-breed. “So, if you want to keep her—and you
do
want to keep her, I can tell—I think it’s better if she
stays
at Flicker
, where she’s more protected. Just ‘til we figure out what’s happening.”