Queen of the Sylphs (7 page)

She glanced at Sala, who was watching the boy with the big mouth being shaken by his father while the man demanded answers. Gabralina saw the speculative look on her friend’s face. She felt a familiar chill.

“Interesting,” Sala said before they continued on the tour of the town. “So, tell me. Who was that blond man with the beard? He’s cute.”

Devon Chole watched the two women stroll off, Gabralina chattering about how Leon had saved her life and how he was chancellor for the Valley. The beautiful blonde and her much less attractive friend were soon out of sight, and he shook his head with a sigh. Gabralina was definitely not available, even if she’d had anything to her other than looks, which he doubted.

Turning back, he saw Justin Porter storm away from his shocked father. It wasn’t often that Cal Porter was rendered speechless, but the man gaped after his son while the crowd murmured about what they’d just seen. Devon wondered how serious this was going to turn out. In the city he’d been born in, what Justin said would have ruined Lizzy’s life. Here, women were less restricted. Lizzy had every right to be with Ril and, crippled or not, the battler was no one to mess with.

It was still sad. Until now, none of them had known if Lizzy would come back. Here, in the first moment of her return, Justin had hurt her as much as anyone could without touching her. All because he hadn’t gotten what he wanted. To Devon’s mind, that showed a lot more about Justin’s quality than it did Lizzy’s.

Airi ruffled his hair, constantly blowing it up and smoothing it back down. Devon kept it just long enough for her to be able to do so without it getting in his eyes. He felt her attention turn to the boy and heard her sigh.

He’s angry,
she said.

“I’d imagine so,” Devon murmured. “Still, I guess that was the worst he could do, and he only managed to make himself look like an idiot.”

I guess
, Airi replied.

Devon turned, intending to head back to the queen’s hall. Given the recent problems, Solie was staying away from crowds and had sent him to find out what was going on. Heyou might have come instead, but sylphs didn’t always give human descriptions of events. Heyou was one of the worst culprits.

Completing his turn, Devon came face to chest with Mace. Heart pounding, he glanced up. Even six years after this place was founded, he was still terrified of battlers. He’d been raised to fear them, those bound by Eferem’s masters, and by the terror brought by their projected hate. He’d also seen them fight, which still brought nightmares. Mace was at the forefront of those nightmares, tearing men apart around him while Devon tried to flee. It didn’t help that Mace could feel exactly what Devon felt and didn’t care at all.

He felt Airi press against his back, sharing his fear even while she tried to comfort him, and Devon swallowed. “What is it?” he managed to ask.

“Arrange for the queen to meet with the chancellor first thing in the morning,” the big battler said. A moment later he vanished, swirling into smoke and lightning and then soaring away over the crowd.

Devon sagged, exhaling heavily. “Right,” he muttered. “Whatever you want.”

Chapter Five

For the nights he wanted it, Ril had a room in the Petrule house. A proper bedroom had been set up in the attic.

It was better to have a room of his own, though he’d never admit to anyone that he appreciated having his own space. It still felt unnatural. He was the only sylph who needed to sleep on a regular basis, though, and he didn’t much care to do so lying on the floor. He was now of the opinion, however, that the bed was too small.

Shifting and nearly falling off the edge, he snapped awake, lying on his side with his arm over Lizzy. She’d crept up the ladder to join him after her parents and sisters went to sleep, probably without her mother knowing. After Betha’s reaction, he hadn’t been sure he’d ever be let near her or Leon again. He was glad Lizzy had taken the initiative, but the bed was definitely too small. The wooden frame was pressing into his back.

Ril kissed his lover’s bare shoulder and rolled off the mattress, catching himself on the wooden floor with a wince. Achy and out of sorts, he stood and headed down the ladder, needing to move these human muscles he’d given himself. More, he needed to go to his original shape and rest, but he couldn’t do that without dying. Not unless Luck the healer sylph helped and another sylph held him together. The same injury that made him need to sleep now kept him from changing shape without agony and from changing to his original form at all. Normally that didn’t bother him so much, but he and Leon had been gone looking for Lizzy for a long time, and just being home made him itchy.

Ril climbed down the ladder and then the stairs that would take him to the main floor. Everyone was asleep. He could feel Leon and Lizzy most clearly, but he could sense the others as well. Not wanting to wake them, he went into the kitchen. He didn’t need to eat human food, but the chairs were comfortable. He sat in one and looked out the window at the night sky.

There were sylphs out there, none of them needing sleep. A few humans as well. Ril sensed their emotions and scanned them by instinct, looking for hostile feelings that might be a threat. He was just turning toward one, a snarl on his lips, when he heard footsteps in the hall. A moment later, Leon’s wife appeared, dressed in a long nightgown with her dark hair braided and hanging over one shoulder.

“Betha,” he said. His snarl was gone.

The woman stared at him, her lips pressed tightly together, fine lines stretching out from the corners. She’d been part of his life since he first came into this world, trapped in the body of a hawk. At first she’d been the only woman he’d seen on anything approaching a regular basis, and then she’d been the mother of all the girls and his beloved Lizzy. Finally, once he gained his freedom, she’d allowed him to live in her house. They’d never been close.

Ril felt her anger and frustration, and he glanced down at his hands on the tabletop. While Betha resented that she shared too much of her husband with him, she’d never been cruel. They’d had a quiet sort of coexistence where Ril did what she asked and they tried not to get in each other’s way. That peaceful truce was ended. He was sleeping with her daughter.

She had no control over him; she wasn’t his master the way Lizzy and Leon were and she couldn’t order him. While battle sylphs were subservient to females, Ril was different in that aspect as well. To save Lizzy, he’d killed a lot of women in Meridal, yet he would never hurt Betha. She was no threat to Lizzy, only to him.

“I looked in Lizzy’s room,” Betha said, standing on the other side of the table with her hands on the back of a chair. “She’s not in there.”

Ril watched her evenly. He might never hurt her, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t fight back. “She’s fine.”

Betha’s lips tightened even more. “Where is she? In your room?”

Ril nodded, his tension increasing. He had to calm himself or wake his masters. He felt a sudden urge to lash out with his hate, but he suppressed that as well.

“She’s sleeping,” he said.

“I’m sure she is. Do you have any idea of what you’ve done to her?”

Saved her from being raped by dozens of battlers,
he didn’t say. If he hadn’t already made Lizzy his master, she would have had a much harder time in Meridal in that harem. But all of them had decided not to tell her mother about that.

“What is it you think I’ve done?” he asked.

Betha yanked her chair out so that she could sit down. She flattened her palms against the table. “She’ll never be able to marry now,” she said. “She’ll never have children. Or grandchildren. You took that from her, didn’t you?”

Ril glared back, forcing himself to think through the anger that was filling him. He was a battle sylph and Lizzy was his master. He knew her feelings, just as he knew those of the woman seated across from him.

He snorted. “Took it from her or took it from you? Lizzy doesn’t want children. She never did.
You
want grandchildren. Well, the rest of the girls can give you some. If they want to.”

“How dare you?”

“I love her! I’m not apologizing!” he roared. Then he paused. “Leon’s waking.”

Both he and Betha were silent, staring at each other while they willed Leon not to wake. Ril felt his master stir, roll over in bed, and then drop back into a deeper sleep. He gave an internal sigh of relief.

“He’s asleep,” he said.

“Isn’t it bad enough I have to share my husband with you?” Betha hissed. “Now you take my daughter?”

“I never took Leon from you,” he replied, “and I haven’t taken Lizzy. At least you know I won’t leave her, or betray her, or run off and leave her to be kidnapped from a stinking dock.”

Betha looked away. She said nothing.

Ril stood, leaning over the table toward her. “I may not be able to give your daughter children, but I can promise you this: I’ll give her everything else.”

Then he turned and went out, not wanting to be there anymore. Betha would either hate him or get over it. There wasn’t much else she could do. He was what he was, and he couldn’t change that. Nor did he want to.

He walked out the front door and into the darkness, still too restless to go back to his room. He felt hungry as well, but he was more in the mood for Leon’s heavy warm energy than Lizzy’s light sparkling kind, and it would cause all kinds of hell for him to go into Leon’s bedroom right now. He didn’t really need to feed anyway. It was just part of the itchiness.

He let the energy of the night flow over him instead, trying desperately to relax. It was poisonous to him, but the breeze was cool on his bare skin and the clear sky vaguely hypnotic overhead. Not so hypnotic that he didn’t pick up the emotions coming from beside the rock wall that separated the front garden from the street. He’d felt them earlier, before Betha came in for her little confrontation, and he recognized them now as easily as he would from any of his other masters.

“You’re not welcome here, Justin,” he said.

The youth stepped out from the shadows, glaring. Ril glared back. Even before the last few months he hadn’t liked him. As a child, Justin had been needy and obsessive. Cowardly. Since he’d been turned into a feeder in Meridal, he’d become bitter and angry as well. Right now he was outraged.

Ril held his emotions under control. He couldn’t help but project anything strong he felt to his masters, and he did
not
want Justin knowing what he was going through. Nor did he want to wake Lizzy or Leon.

“Go away,” he repeated. “Lizzy doesn’t want to see you.”

Justin sniffed, ignoring Ril and walking forward. A growl finally stopped him a few feet away.

“I realized something tonight,” the young man said. “You know what it was?”

“I don’t care.”

“You should,” Justin snapped. “It’s your fault. I went home with my father tonight, and you know who I saw? I saw Stria, my father’s earth sylph, and I realized that I’m stuck being master to
you
, so I’ll never be able to be master to
her.”

“I sure she’s relieved to hear that.”

Justin’s face went red, obvious even in the darkness. “I wish you were dead. You took everything from me.”

Why was it that everyone was thinking that tonight?

“I didn’t take anything you actually had,” Ril pointed out.

Justin’s rage exploded inside of him, flashing out so brightly that Ril snarled at the feel of it. So did other battlers. Ril heard a distant roar and sent out his thoughts.
I can deal with this.
He didn’t want anyone believing he needed rescue. Not from this pathetic human.

“Go away,” he repeated. “I mean it.”

“Why didn’t you die?” Justin raged. “You bastard! Just die already!”

Ril flinched, the absoluteness of that order rocking through him along with a sudden fear. Whatever else he might be, this youth was his master and no sylph could disobey. Leon had bound Ril in Meridal to obey only him, but he’d given that freedom back when they left. That had once again granted Justin the ability to hurt him. And while Leon had warned Justin never to take advantage, the boy didn’t seem to care anymore.

Ril felt his rage, and he felt his order, but the order had no direction. He bucked anyway, instinctually trying to obey.

“Justin.”

Startled, the youth looked up. Betha stood on her front porch, her arms crossed under her breasts.

“Mrs. Petrule?”

“Leave my husband’s battler alone.”

“But . . .” He gestured impotently at the shaking Ril. “But—”

“Leave him alone, Justin. He’s a member of this family. Go home. Now.”

Justin glared at her, his lip trembling. Then he turned and stormed away.

Betha stared at Ril. Walking down the steps, her arms still crossed defensively in front of herself, she approached. Staring him right in the face, a moment later she sighed. “Come on, Ril,” she said. “Let’s go inside.”

She had no control over him, but Ril obeyed her anyway. Neither of them spoke about that night to anyone.

Half a block down the street, attracted by the shouting and now hidden in the deeper shadow of a home, Sala paused. She hadn’t been able to sleep and had been out walking, thinking about what she’d do with herself here. This was a nice little place with a lot of potential. She really couldn’t have stayed in Yed, anyway. Not after what happened to Gabralina.

She watched Justin storm past, angry and hurting, and she sighed. In a lot of ways, Sylph Valley was a great deal like Yed. She studied the house she’d been watching and turned away, wandering back to her friend’s tiny, unappealing apartment. If she was lucky, she supposed she’d find some sleep.

Solie sat in the conference room and listened with amazement to Leon’s story. The romantic heart in her fluttered at the thought of Ril and Lizzy finding each other as they had, in a land far away, and the part that wanted to be a mother could have wept at how far Leon went to find his daughter. She needed to swallow a lump in her throat. Under the table, Heyou gripped her hand.