Sirensong (32 page)

Soon, there was a commotion out in the hall, and I tensed up, my imagination telling me it was the Queen’s guards coming to seize me. I stared at the door with what I felt sure were scared eyes, and when someone knocked, I was so tense I jumped.

“Enter,” the Queen beckoned. I hadn’t seen her move, but somehow she had changed out of the gauzy wrap and into an elaborate white and gold kimono-like gown, and her hair was gathered in a loose but elegant chignon at the back of her head.

The door opened, and Henry burst in, dressed in his usual flashy doublet and leggings. Behind him, a Knight entered, dragging Elizabeth by the arm. She had obviously been in bed when the Knights had come for her. Her hair was disheveled from sleep, and it looked like she’d dressed in a frantic rush, her skirts dragging on the floor behind her because she’d skipped the bustle. I supposed she was lucky the Knights had allowed her time to dress at all. Tears streaked her face, and guilt hammered at me harder than ever.

Henry came to an abrupt halt when he saw me standing there beside the Erlking. I thought I saw a hint of fear in his eyes, but maybe that was just what I wanted to see.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded of his mother. “Why have my quarters been raided and my servant dragged from her bed?”

If Henry had nothing to hide, I doubted he would have been able to muster much outrage over the seizure of one of his servants. It wasn’t like he had a warm and caring relationship with them.

“Forgive the intrusion, my son,” Titania said in a voice that clearly conveyed she didn’t like his tone. “I had no intention of disrupting your evening and want only to question this child.”

She gestured at Elizabeth, who looked like she was about to faint from terror. The girl gave me a pleading look, but though I’d helped her against the Green Lady, I couldn’t help her against this. I prayed that Titania would take pity on her and realize that her son was the one to blame.

Henry dialed down the outrage. I guess he saw that Titania didn’t appreciate it. When he spoke again, he managed to sound calm and only mildly curious.

“Why should you need to question a servant girl? She is no one.”

My dad had told me that Henry lacked the wit and subtlety he needed to be a star player in Court politics, and it seemed he was right. His protests, even when so toned down, were as good as him screaming, “I have something to hide!” Of course, he
did
have something to hide, so he probably felt pretty trapped.

Titania arched one brow. “If she is, as you say, no one, then this will take but a moment.” She turned to me. “Put your mortal item in its place.”

I unzipped my backpack, looking for something that definitely didn’t belong in Faerie. The first thing I came upon was my camera, but I was reluctant to part with it.

“How about this?” the Erlking suggested, holding up my gun. “I have no plans to give it back to you, and as soon as I leave your presence it will be gone anyway.”

I nodded. The gun had outlived its usefulness. The Erlking walked to the other end of the room, putting the gun on the floor approximately where my watch had been.

“Bring her closer,” Titania ordered her Knight, who yanked Elizabeth forward, practically pulling her off her feet.

Henry was still trying to play it calm, but he wasn’t doing a very good job of it. His facial expression might have been bland, but every muscle in his body looked coiled and tight. I didn’t need to see the gun disappear to be sure that I was right, but Titania would need the concrete proof.

The Knight shoved Elizabeth down to her knees while still keeping hold of her arm. She gave a little cry of pain, quickly stifled.

“There is no reason to be brutal with the poor child,” Arawn said, stepping forward and getting up into the Knight’s face. “She isn’t going anywhere.”

The Knight paled and let go of Elizabeth’s arm, taking a hasty step back. Even one of the Queen’s Knights knew better than to mess with the Erlking.

My stomach twisted as I realized the Erlking was already beginning his campaign to seduce Elizabeth, coming to her rescue, showing her kindness when no one else would. She was a miserable, broken creature, and even younger than me. What were the chances she could resist Arawn’s charms? He certainly had them, when he wanted to. Somehow, I was going to have to find a way to warn her of her danger.

But I was getting ahead of myself. I still had to prove she was a Faeriewalker. And once I did, Titania might turn her over to the Erlking anyway.

“This is a trick,” Henry said. “That is not truly a mortal weapon. It is merely an illusion, and Seamus has arranged this.”

I might have blurted an outraged response, except Titania’s laugh surprised me into silence. Henry’s cheeks reddened, and his eyes flashed with anger. And a hint of fear, I was sure of it.

“Seamus is a clever and subtle man,” Titania said, “but I’m sure he could have found a simpler way than this to strike at you if he wished.” She stalked closer to him, the coldness of her gaze now directed at him rather than me. “You seem strangely reluctant to see this test carried out, my son. Almost as though you already know this child is a Faeriewalker. Perhaps I begin to understand why you were so opposed to my decision to invite Seamus’s daughter to Court.”

Henry shook his head. “You cannot possibly think that of me! I am merely concerned that this is a trick.”

Titania’s smile was almost wry. “And that I am too weak-minded to see through such a trick?”

That shut him up, at least momentarily. His hand rubbed nervously over his hip, and I wondered if he had a weapon concealed somewhere in his doublet.

Titania turned to me and nodded. I took that as my cue to leave the room, so I made my way hastily to the door. I had to go around Henry to get there, and I didn’t like that one bit. He’d stopped rubbing his hip, and I saw no sign of a weapon in his hand, but that didn’t mean there
wasn’t
one.

The only thing that kept me moving forward was the conviction that Henry didn’t dare kill me in front of all these people, especially when that would make him look guiltier than ever. I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding when I made it past him without incident and walked through the door out into the hall. I made a point of walking past where I’d stood when the watch disappeared, just to make it doubly obvious that the gun was still there.

“Now the child,” Titania said.

The Knight who’d dragged Elizabeth into the room cast a brief, worried look at Arawn before reaching for her again. Arawn stopped him with a forbidding glare.

“I will escort her,” Arawn said, and when Titania didn’t object, the Knight backed off.

Elizabeth still looked terrified, but Arawn bent and said something to her I couldn’t hear. She sniffled and nodded, then allowed him to help her to her feet.

“Just look at her!” Henry said, and now he sounded downright desperate. “Does she look like a half-breed? You can plainly see mortal blood in that one.” He gestured contemptuously at me. “But Elizabeth is entirely Fae. You may check for glamour if you’d like.”

“How kind of you to allow me such a privilege,” Titania said acidly. “Looks can be deceiving, and I will not rely on them to tell me whether the child is a Faeriewalker or not. Arawn, please take her out of the room.”

Arawn bowed, then put a hand lightly on Elizabeth’s back and guided her toward the door. She looked even tinier and more vulnerable next to him. She wiped tears from her face as she walked, but her cheeks were still blotchy and her eyes red and swollen. I had to fight another surge of guilt.

I forced my eyes away from Elizabeth’s pitiful figure and watched Titania instead. The Queen was facing away from the door, watching the gun. Henry was looking back and forth between her and the gun, no doubt trying to figure out how to salvage the situation.

When Titania suddenly whirled on Henry with a snarl, I knew the gun had disappeared. And then Henry did what any trapped animal would do: he attacked.

I’d been right all along. Henry
did
have a concealed weapon. He must have known the moment the Knights had come for Elizabeth that he was in deep trouble.

No one had time to react. By the time I saw the glint of metal in Henry’s hand and tried to shout a warning, the gun had already fired.

A giant fist punched me in the shoulder, the impact so brutal I fell backward onto the carpet of rose petals. Elizabeth screamed, and Arawn tried to shield her with his body, but even the Erlking wasn’t fast enough to intercept a bullet. The gun boomed again, and Elizabeth’s scream turned to a shriek as blood suddenly spotted the front of her dress. Her eyes went wide with shock, and she sank to her knees.

I touched my shaking hand to my shoulder, and it came away wet with blood.

“Nobody move!” Henry yelled.

My vision swam, and I felt like the room was bucking beneath me. Maybe that was just the footsteps of the Knights and trolls as they reacted to Henry’s surprise attack. Magic filled the air, making it hard to breathe.

“Anyone casts a spell, and she’s dead!” Henry barked. I had to blink a few times to clear my vision enough to see that he’d put the gun to Titania’s head. “And trust me, I can shoot faster than you can get the Faeriewalkers out of range.”

Oh,
a dispassionate voice in my head murmured.
That’s why he shot us. To keep us from running away and making the gun go poof.
I wondered how many other mortal weapons he had smuggled into Faerie with Elizabeth’s help.

I forced myself up into a sitting position. I thought for a minute I was going to pass out. Blood ran hotly down my chest, and my right arm didn’t want to move. I was weak and nauseous, but it didn’t hurt much at all. I’d read enough books to figure that wasn’t a good sign, but I was thankful not to have to feel it.

Elizabeth was in worse shape than me. Henry’s shot had hit me in the shoulder, but he’d hit her in the chest. She was lying on her back, spatters of her blood making the white rose petals look red. Her chest was moving with her breaths, but she was unconscious, and far too pale. Maybe Henry had intended to kill her—he only needed one of us alive and in the vicinity to keep the gun operational—or maybe he’d been aiming for her shoulder, too, and had missed. He probably didn’t have much practice with mortal weapons. Either way, I knew she was in dire trouble.

The Knights and the trolls had frozen in place with the threat to their Queen. I’d have doubted Henry would shoot his own mother, except he’d obviously had no compunction about shooting his daughter.

Arawn spared a withering look for the Knights who had brought Elizabeth to Titania’s room. “You didn’t think to check him for mortal weapons before you brought him into the Queen’s presence with a suspected Faeriewalker at his side and a charge of treason looming over his head?” He shook his head in disgust, then turned to Henry.

“You are aware she is not
my
Queen,” Arawn said to Henry. He spoke in a normal tone of voice, as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening.

“And therefore this is none of your business,” Henry responded. “I’m sure you and my mother have some agreements you’d prefer not to lose, so you would prefer not to see the throne change hands. I suggest you stay out of the way.”

Arawn shrugged. “Very well. But you’ve gone through a great deal of trouble to make sure you have a Faeriewalker at your disposal. I assure you, your daughter would make a more tractable servant than Dana, so please allow me to heal the child’s injury before she expires.”

I crawled over to Elizabeth and took her hand in mine. I didn’t know if she could feel it, but after giving her up as I had, I had to give her whatever comfort I could. Her eyelashes fluttered briefly at my touch, but she didn’t open her eyes.

“You may heal her,” Henry said, “but make no attempt to move her or the other Faeriewalker.”

Arawn nodded, then moved slowly to Elizabeth’s other side, keeping a wary eye on Henry as he did so. Not that Henry’s gun could do him any damage, but perhaps he actually cared what happened to Titania. He had been in her bed, after all.

“Now, Mother,” Henry said, “we must put this unfortunate misunderstanding behind us. To that end, you will accept a geis not to harm me nor cause any other person to harm me. We will then peacefully go our separate ways.”

Arawn looked at me across Elizabeth’s body, as he put his hand over the bloody wound.

“You have to kill him, Dana,” he murmured, his voice so soft I almost didn’t hear him over the thudding of my heart.

I blinked stupidly at him, my mind feeling all blurry as the first hints of pain worked their way into my consciousness. “Huh?”

“You’re the only one who can,” Arawn continued, not looking at me anymore. He was trying hard to make sure Henry didn’t realize he was talking to me. “The Sidhe are hard to kill, remember? The Knights would need multiple spells to destroy him, and he will kill Titania as soon as the first is released.
You
need only one.”

Elizabeth made a soft, whimpering sound, and I squeezed her hand harder. I’d seen the Erlking heal a bullet wound before, and it hadn’t looked like much fun for the healee.

He was joking, right?

“Do you agree to my geis?” Henry asked the queen.

Titania stood tall and proud, her expression devoid of anything resembling human emotion. Her son had betrayed her and was even now threatening her life, but she looked neither hurt nor scared nor angry. I’d seen statues that conveyed more emotion than the Faerie Queen did right now.

“If she agrees,” Arawn continued, “he’ll get away with it. With almost killing Elaine, with framing you, with abusing his child and then shooting her.”

The pain in my shoulder had become a steady throb, but I thought it wasn’t bleeding quite so much anymore. Elizabeth’s back arched, and her hand nearly crushed mine as a cry tore from her throat. With a shudder, she went limp, and the Erlking moved his hand away from the wound, holding a squashed bullet between his fingers.