Chapter 16 In Which I Tell Jordan the Truth #2
“Are you joking?” he asked. “It seems obvious to me. You… go on the quest.”
“It could be dangerous,” I reminded him. “The Queen is deadly to humans.”
“It sounds like staying in Faerie at your job is also deadly to humans,” he said. “Or, human. You specifically.”
“If I die, will you tell everyone what happened?”
Jordan made an uncomfortable noise. “Don’t die, Miri. I don’t want to have to explain any of this to Thea. Or worse, your mother.”
I sighed. “I’ll do my best.”
“You should tell Thea, too,” he said.
“I don’t know how,” I admitted.
“Just starting is usually the best way.” Jordan sounded sleepy again.
“I have to go to bed,” I said. “I love you.”
“Love you, too, Mir.”
After we hung up, I didn’t go to bed. I logged onto my computer and spent three hours editing the formatting in an Excel model.
In my dream, a thick hairy hand reached out and pulled the ring from my finger. “This is mine,” a voice said, and the world around me cracked and shook.
I shouldn’t have been surprised to wake up to Lene, Gaheris, and Sahir standing over me like three not-very-wise men, Lene shaking me and Gaheris’s flaming hair providing most of the light in the room.
“Good morning,” I said, sitting up. “Is this an intervention?”
“You’re taking off work,” Sahir said. “I know where Roman is.”
I pulled my covers up my chest, trying to retain the last bit of sleepy warmth.
“I know where Roman is, too, Sahir,” I said, in tones of deep irritation. “He’s at the edge of a sacred forest repairing some ruins.”
“Miriam,” Sahir started, and then stopped. “Ah,” he said. He looked around the room and settled on a bare patch of wall near his left arm. “I realize that perhaps humans are not aware of geometry,” he said, flicking his fingers toward the wall. A large grid appeared in the dirt.
“Geometry,” I repeated, a bit dazed.
“This is a square,” he said, outlining a four-by-four square with another flick of his fingers. “The area of the square is sixteen—do you see?”
He proceeded to count each of the smaller squares contained in this large square, tapping each with his finger.
I stared at him.
“And this is a rectangle,” he said, outlining an eight-by-two rectangle.
“It also contains sixteen squares. The area is still sixteen. But the perimeter”—he emphasized this word with two pulses of light around each perimeter—“is different for each of these shapes. The one has a perimeter of sixteen. The other has a perimeter of twenty. Do you see?”
Unable to form words, I nodded.
“Do you see also why it would not be convenient to walk the perimeter of the forest, looking for ruins with no further guidance?” he prompted.
We stared at each other.
“Uh. Yes,” I said, because it felt easier than explaining the traumas inflicted on me by my geometry teacher.
“Good. Then get up.”
“What about Doctor Kitten?” I asked, looking at the cat in question.
“We will be gone for two nights,” Sahir said. “The cat will be perfectly safe.”
He must not have found my expression particularly reassured. He glanced at Lene, helplessly.
“We will take Doctor Kitten,” she declared.
“Will that be safe for him?”
Lene and Sahir exchanged another look.
“My sister, Nele, will stay with Doctor Kitten,” she declared, with the same level of confidence as before.
“Who?” I scooped my cat into my arms.
“Her sister, Nele,” Gaheris said. “She also has an affinity for cats.”
“You have a sister?” I asked, staring at Lene. “Why didn’t I know that?”
She blinked back. “You have not asked many questions about me.”
Well, I was a bad friend.
I slid out of bed and rocked Doctor Kitten gently. He patted my cheek with his paw. “Okay, fine, but let me prepare for this. I need to request time off. I want to meet Nele before I leave her with Doctor Kitten. And I have no idea why you couldn’t have waited until breakfast to tell me this.”
“It is breakfast time,” Gaheris said. “You were just still asleep.”
Sahir stalked over to my desk and unplugged my laptop. “Here,” he said, thrusting it in my general direction. “Email your boss now. Gaheris will retrieve Nele.”
Gaheris turned with alacrity and exited the room.
I went for my suitcase, still on the floor by my bed, and grabbed the clothes on top—the soft green leggings and long tunic the Gray Knight had made for me all those months ago.
“Can you all let me get dressed?”
Lene, who had picked up Doctor Kitten, sat on the bed, her short legs dangling over the edge. “Please do,” she said.
I stared at Sahir, who stared back. I raised an eyebrow. Sahir sighed with the gusto of a man performing his favorite activity and pushed past me, his arm jostling my shoulder, to leave the room.
“Nele is lovely,” Lene said as I pulled the leggings on beneath my nightdress. “She will care for Doctor Kitten as well as I do.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t ask questions about you.” I turned my back to Lene and attempted a complicated maneuver involving a sports bra, my left arm, and the neck of the nightdress. It ended with my shoulder jammed into my left cheek.
“Friendship can be difficult when one party is imprisoned against her will in a magical land and the other party sleeps for eighteen hours a day,” Lene said, in the tone of someone stating a fairly evident fact.
“That’s very wise,” I said, attempting to dislodge my shoulder. Then I glanced at her, sitting primly on the bed with my cat.
“Lene, is it dangerous for you to help me find Roman?” I asked. “I’m sorry, I don’t fully understand the intricacies of inter-Court politics,” I added, when she glanced up.
She shrugged. “I will brave the danger as fair return for what you have given me.”
I glanced down at the cat, not sure if she meant she thought I’d given her Doctor Kitten. He stared back at me, implacable. I pretended his expression meant You’re stuck with me forever and not This is my new mom.
“Could they… kill you?” I asked, in a voice that sounded awkward to my own ears. What would I do if she said yes?
“No,” she said, which was a relief. “Have you never been a political prisoner before?” she continued, which was not a relief.
“Ah… no,” I said, shoulder still stuck to ear. “Have you?”
I extricated myself from my nightdress and straightened everything out.
She looked bewildered. “Of course. It is fairly common when we travel the roads in Faerie to be waylaid by overzealous soldiers of one Court or another.”
I blinked at her. She blinked at me.
“So then what happens?” I asked, rubbing my arm to bring some feeling back into it.
She wrinkled her nose. “The soldiers bring you to their liege as tribute. Their liege offers you an opportunity to swear fealty. If you choose not to, they will negotiate with your liege against your return.” She paused and frowned at me.
“I do not know what would happen if the Queen encountered you,” she said.
“As humans are usually killed on sight at the Queen’s Court, I do not know humans who have met her. ”
“Very cool,” I said, grabbing my shirt and yanking it on.
“Cool?” she repeated. “I do not see the connection to temperature. Is this a human idiom?”
“Uh. Yes.” I patted myself down to smooth any disarray. “I’m dressed,” I added, still at a normal volume, and Sahir opened the door immediately. “Creep,” I said, mostly for my own benefit.
“I am not a creep,” Sahir said, leaning against the doorway. “I am efficient with everyone’s time.” He’d folded his arms across his chest, his biceps straining at the sleeves of his shirt. This felt intentional. The man had magic shirts; he could have sized them appropriately if he wanted to.
Gaheris came up behind him, leading a small woman who looked remarkably like Lene, with the same brown fur and delicate features. “Efficiency is an odd value,” he said. “It never interested you before you went to the human realm.”
“Hi, you must be Nele,” I said to the woman with him.
“Oh, yes!” Gaheris exclaimed; he was an enthusiastic, if indifferent, student in my human classes. “Nele, I hope all is well with you. This is my Miriam.”
Gaheris looked at me hopefully.
“Very close,” I said, gently. “I’m your friend Miriam, not your Miriam.”
“Well, you are my Miriam,” Gaheris said, perplexed. “I do not have another.”
“Hello, Doctor Kitten,” Nele said, ignoring us both. She walked past me and hopped onto the bed next to her sister.
As Lene had months before, Nele started yowling at Doctor Kitten. My shoulders sagged as he yowled back. Even if I did find a way back to the mortal plane, Doctor Kitten would miss Lene—and now Nele—terribly.
I hadn’t expected to coparent my cat with a faerie, but sometimes life surprises us.
“Thank you for staying with him,” I said.
Nele ignored me.
“As soon as Jeff agrees to your request, we will leave,” Sahir said.
I grabbed the computer off the bed, Nele and Doctor Kitten still yowling in a miserable duet, and opened it. “Does the Princeling know?” I asked, typing in my password.
“I have told him that we will go into the woods, for your health,” Sahir said. “He does not know much about mortals, but he knows you have been unwell.”
Feeling an insane mixture of anxiety and disinterest, I drafted an email to Jeff. The faeries settled in around me: Sahir on the other side of the bed, and Gaheris on the floor by Lene’s and Nele’s feet.
For a moment, I considered not sending the email. The bargain—My job—
But Roman was the Princeling’s only bargaining chip. And unless Roman had a way to set me free, I would be trapped forever, whether or not I took two days of vacation right now.
Hi Jeff,
I was wondering if I could take a few days off to recharge.
I have been feeling under the weather. I was thinking today and tomorrow might be good since the workload is lighter.
I know this is short notice so let me know if this does not work.
The Princeling knows I want to take off and has agreed to it.
I will of course be available for calls and as issues arise. Please let me know if this works.
Miri