Chapter 6 #5
‘What I mean is, the dress is for you, Bryn.’
‘All right.’
She stirs the mushrooms and pours in the whisked eggs.
‘If you like it, it…would be best if you continue to look like the other human females here.’
She glances back at me, her brows knitting together for a moment before she nods. ‘Oh. Yes. I understand.'
And then she goes back to pretending that I’m not there.
I hear clomping down the stairs. Two sets of boots.
'When do you see Dane?' Morgan asks from behind me.
'Soon,' I say. ‘He sent me a message late last night before he went back to the Underhill. He asked that I get there early. Wants to have a conversation with no one listening.’
'After yesterday, that makes sense,' Jak mutters. 'I'll be in the healer’s room for most of the morning.’
'I’m taking Bryn around Halsford to show her her new home,' Morgan says.
I cast an assessing eye over him.
'Do you think that's wise?' I ask.
'She'll be with me,' he says, drawing himself straighter, puffing out his chest slightly.
'Yes, but with the humans being so angry yesterday…’
Morgan scoffs. ‘That was just Tavish’s men stirring the pot. They’ll have calmed down by this morn.’
'And we can't keep her locked up here,' Jak mutters. 'She wants to be in the Light Realm. She can't be a prisoner in our cottage just because a few don’t want her here. I doubt she’d simply stay indoors if you asked her anyway.' He snorts. ‘You can try ordering her if you like.’
‘I wouldn’t attempt that,' I reply with a chuckle, glad that my friends are actually speaking to me even if it is to disagree. ‘But don’t leave her alone.’
‘I won’t,’ Morgan mutters, following that with a, ‘I’m not you,’ tacked on the end that makes me wince.
Get fucked, Morgan.
I know I have a long way to go before things at least appear as they were on the outside, but the constant barbs, deserving as they are, are wearing thin. If they want to punish me further, I’d rather they did it with their fists.
'I'm going to the Hall now,' I murmur instead of what I’d like to say. 'I'll see you later.'
I'm ignored as I leave the cottage, and I take a moment to stand on the stoop and remember in the crisp, morning air, that it’s been only days and that I deserve this.
I walk to the Village Hall, but I don't go in the main entrance.
Instead, I go around the side to where Dane, Lia, Grey, and Kal live when they're in the Light Realm.
I scratch on the door so as not to wake the neighbors.
From Dane's message to me, I assume he wants this meeting to be as clandestine as possible, which means it would be best if old Maggie, the curtain twitcher in the next house, doesn’t see or hear me arrive.
The door opens a crack, and Dane’s face appears. He steps back and lets me in without a word, closing it behind me and drawing the bolt across. He looks as if he hasn't slept a wink all night.
I give him a questioning look and he shrugs. ‘I always lock it now. Halsford is different than it was. As much as I hate to say it, I don’t trust all of them anymore.’
I nod in understanding. ‘Hadn’t realized how much things had changed until yesterday,’ I remark.
He shakes his head.
‘Anyway, morning,' he greets, gesturing to the front parlor.
I go through the door into the bright, sunny room and sit in one of the comfortable fae chairs, noticing a little belatedly that Lia is there already, sitting in the corner with a cup of tea.
‘You’re up early,’ I remark.
‘Locke,' she says warmly. ‘Ath had a bad dream.’
‘Woke us all just before the sun this morning.’ She stifles a yawn. 'How is Bryn? Is she settling in all right?'
'Yes, of course,' I say. 'To be honest, she just seems happy to be in the Light Realm.'
'Yes,' Lia says with a frown. 'Of course she would be.'
'Is there some reason she…shouldn't be?' I ask simply to hear what Lia thinks about the recent goings on in the village.
‘Other than what I saw and heard yesterday?’
I nod.
'Just a bad feeling, I suppose,' she hedges. ‘I might ask Gwen to call on her, if that’s all right?’
‘Of course, but why?’
Lia’s face gives little away. ‘Just that they’re both Dark Realmers, both women who were slaves for most of their lives,’ she says vaguely.
‘I thought Gwen and her mates had left the village,’ I say.
Lia shrugs. ‘Only to the next valley, and one can hardly blame them. They were here first. It was their generosity and goodness that made Halsford what it is. They helped us build most of it. For them to be driven out by the likes of Tavish…’ She makes an angry noise deep in her throat.
I sit back in the chair, getting more comfortable. ‘I hadn’t known until Jak told me yesterday.’
Lia leans forward, her bright eyes fixed on me. ‘I wonder if we shouldn?—’
‘Lia, you aren’t talking village politics already, are you?’
‘It isn’t politics, Dane,’ she contests. ‘It’s basic decency!’
‘Well, we have other things to speak about at the moment,’ Dane says easily, putting a steaming mug in front of me.
‘I assumed you’d want a cup.’ He glances at Lia. ‘As my female didn’t offer.’
Lia scoffs. ‘I’m the Harbinger, Dane. Why would I offer refreshment when you, my trusty servant, is here to do it?’
‘Careful, female,’ he rumbles low and she lets out a chuckle.
‘Thanks,’ I say to Dane, taking a sip and then putting it back on the polished wooden table. ‘I assume I’m here to discuss the information I gleaned from the pits?’
They both nod.
‘We think we might know the location the fae was speaking of, where they’re intending to take so many Light Realmers from,’ Lia says.
Dane sits down at the table with us.
'Go on,' I say.
'You said they talked about a large city and a festival,’ Lia begins and I nod.
‘Well, there are obviously plenty of cities in the Light Realm, and all of them have festivals,’ Dane explains, ‘but?—’
‘But,’ Lia’s eyes sparkle as she leans forward again in excitement. ‘There was mention of altering memories, isn’t that right?’
I nod slowly. ‘Yes, but Fiana is a mage. It would be easy enough to work a conjure to make them forget.’
Like I did.
‘Then why hasn’t she done that before?’ Lia asks.
I stop for a moment, thinking.
‘Because she hasn’t needed to?’ I guess. ‘They take caravans, hunting parties, so that people simply disappear and no one knows what happened to them.’
‘But has that been by design,’ Dane interjects, ‘or by necessity?’
‘I don’t follow,’ I say, glancing between the both of them.
‘We think that Fiana hasn’t taken a bigger settlement, or a city because she hasn’t been able to. It’s my belief that she can’t work a conjure so large in the Light.’
‘But the Underhill are adamant that she’s very powerful, and very skilled,’ I argue.
Dane and Lia glance at each other.
‘It’s in some’s best interests for decisions in the Underhill to be made out of fear,’ Lia says.
‘But, also, Varrik used the Dark Realms to make himself powerful. If Fiana is doing the same, she may not be as strong in the Light Realm. Gaila, the First, made many changes to keep the Light safe when she closed the Breach. Power based in Dark Realm magick isn’t as potent here.
The god, Ceres, the Second, was lured here so that she could defeat him while he was weakened. ’
‘True,’ I mutter, remembering the story of Gaila and my lessons in Dead City. ‘There are some who were truly powerful in the Dark, and yet could barely do a basic conjure in the Light.’
‘Fiana has skill with magick, yes,’ Dane allows. ‘But she tended to keep her conjures small as one of Varrik’s Elites, relying on her reputation and cruelty more than casting. She may not be as formidable as the Underhill would like everyone to believe, especially not here.’
‘So, then what’s different this time?’ I ask.
‘Exactly!’ Lia exclaims. ‘We think the city is Kitore.’
‘The First City?’ I ask.
‘Yes, it’s known for its festivals,’ Dane begins and I frown a little.
‘You said yourself that all the cities in the Light have festivals. Why Kitore?’
‘Because of the city wards,’ Lia interjects. ‘You know about them, yes?’
‘Everyone knows about them,’ I mutter. ‘Jak wants to go to the Great Library to research. Luckily, I’ve been able to delay him for now, but I wouldn’t set a toe through the fucking gate if I didn’t have to.
The wards are too unpredictable to nonhumans.
They’ve even been known to meddle with the residents of the city and I’ve heard they’ve become even more precarious of late. ’
‘So they say,’ Lia nods. ‘It’s also said that many of the fae that were taken from the Underhill who went missing there were forgotten.
No one recalled them ever being there after a time though they were seen.
Of course, some of that was to do with the mage who had possession of the ward key, but we believe that Fiana might have a way to alter the wards how she sees fit, or she’s found some conjure that makes it possible on a large scale. ’
Dane stands. ‘We think the plan is to attack Kitore during a festival and use the city’s own wards to make the people who are left behind forget about the ones they take.
No alarm will be raised, and they can keep going back, time after time.
Thousands live in that city, Locke, and Fiana would have access to them all. ’
I give them both a dubious look. ‘Do you have any proof?’
Lia lets out a long breath. ‘Not enough for the Council Five to act. But we're going to send a bird to the Great Library today. News shouldn't be too long in coming now that it's spring.’
'And the wards will let birds in?'
Dane nods. 'We've sent birds before and received replies. Vivienne, the First Scholar, is an ally. She's corresponded with us before, and Jak knows her quite well.'
I nod. 'Yes, he spent time in the Great Library during his travels in the Light. But if the First Scholar is on our side, perhaps it would be faster to simply go there. If safe passage in the city was assured. Jak could travel there via the Breach. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.’
Lia and Dane give each other a speaking glance.
‘What is it?’