Chapter 22 …And No Place to Go
…And No Place to Go
One of the pixies fluttered up to hand her a jeweled leash affixed to a collar of amethyst jewels around Katu’s neck. Much as he didn’t love being collared, this one seemed to please him. The amethysts looked good against his glossy fur, and he pranced happily, showing them off.
Azul escorted them through the palace, Cha on his right arm with Katu beside her, Dy on his left.
This time they proceeded through ever grander hallways that focused into one corridor that spiraled up in lazy circles around the central atrium, an echo of the spiraling ley line outside.
Except this was festooned with art of various kinds.
Azul kept up a polite courtier’s patter, pointing out exquisite pieces and other notable sights, for all the world as if they were human envoys of note.
Cha supposed she could take a clue from that.
Except that she had no idea how a human envoy of note would behave.
Most of the humans who hobbed and nobbed with the fae were grasping and greedy pigs who’d as soon sell out their own race to fae oppression for the opportunity to line their pockets with a few more copper coins.
They also notably mimicked fae appearances in the most annoying-to-the-point of nauseating ways: dyeing their skin and hair, and even going so far as to have extraordinarily invasive surgeries to modify their faces to look more fae.
And no, it didn’t actually work. Outside of their insular, self-congratulatory circles, they just looked bizarre, neither human nor fae. Just messed up.
Cha supposed she should be glad that Azul hadn’t wanted her—or Dy—to follow that mold.
Maybe he didn’t think much of the practice either.
Although he had looked convincingly like a human fop with fae aspirations, the way he’d glamoured down to pass more or less unnoticed in human realms. At least, as much as a staggeringly gorgeous fae prince could.
The fae that they encountered on their progression seemed to eye them with curiosity tempered with deference.
They inclined their heads graciously, then fell into quiet conversation, as if speculating about their identity and the purpose of their visit.
A few of the most richly dressed even fell in behind them, after a discreet interval, clearly intending to follow them to court and have in-person seats for the coming show.
Cha appreciated now why Azul had insisted upon them dressing to the hilt for this occasion. Whatever he had planned, it certainly would help for them to seem important. She caught Dy sneaking a glance at her and they shared a bemused smile. Yeah, not bad for a couple of smugglers.
Hopefully they’d live to tell the tale.
The throne room turned out to be at the pinnacle of the palace, after a prodigious amount of circling uphill.
Apparently the Citrine royalty didn’t want anyone claiming an audience with them unless they were able enough to make the climb.
Not that the fae seemed to be concerned with fairness or egalitarianism in any sense.
They lived on the lethal edge of predation on anything or one weaker than they.
Not that humans were much better. To be fair, it could be said that the fae were simply more accomplished.
They tricked, thieved, murdered, and oppressed at a whim.
Because they could, they did. Present company excepted.
She hoped.
Catching her sliding him a speculative look, Azul raised one brow in elegant query and tilted closer to her. “What?” he asked in a quiet murmur.
“Just wondering how many humans you’ve personally slaughtered,” she answered lightly, trying to make it more of a joke than it was.
“I’m a Prince of Amethyst,” he returned very seriously. “I outsource slaughtering of mortals to servants. So unsavory to bloody one’s own hands with such lowly tasks.”
“Ha ha.”
On Azul’s other side, Dy snorted. Oh yeah, she could be amused. She wasn’t marked as the human pet of some potentially cruel fae serial killer.
“Now behave,” he said before she could say anything else. “Follow my lead. It shouldn’t be difficult, even for you, as the Citrine royalty don’t expect humans to be intelligent or articulate anyway.”
She glared at him for that jibe, but laughter sparkled in his eyes. Probably getting her back for asking about the slaughter thing, but how is a girl supposed to know these things if she doesn’t ask? Mass-murdering her race would be a definite red flag.
They entered the ballroom, saving her thinking up a clever retort. Which was good as she didn’t have a very good one and she really hated to prove his point.
Following the overall circular theme, the throne room didn’t have the royals at one end of a long hall presiding over others.
Instead, a raised dais sat in the middle of the domed space, tier upon tier rising like an elaborate wedding cake, with a couple standing on top.
If not for their large and fanciful butterfly wings, they’d look an awful lot like the little spouse figurines that typically occupied that position on that kind of cake.
All the way around the dais-cake, more figures perched, stood, hovered, or sat with legs dangling.
All of them beautiful to look upon, all gorgeously turned out in whatever state of dress or undress they’d chosen.
Belong, more exquisitely dressed fae milled about, in small groups and bigger clusters, conversing quietly and clearly keeping an eye on the elevated fae.
Some approached fae on the lower tiers, who either spoke with them or ignored them completely.
Occasionally someone was allowed to pass up the obvious hierarchy to move up the ramp to the next fae.
Cha really hoped they weren’t going to have to go through that tedious process. Besides which, it looked like it might take a very long time and she was getting seriously hungry. Never mind the thirst drying her throat to a crackle.
Azul led them in a circuit around the crowded room, sparing her that immediate worry.
The throng parted before them, giving them wide berth, though Cha wasn’t certain if that was out of respect for Azul or concern for catching mortality from the humans.
The wrinkled noses and compressed lips pointed to the latter.
Cha simply smiled, tempted to produce a hacking cough or a little snot.
“Don’t,” Azul said under his breath, managing to pack a world of amusement into the one, barely audible word.
“Stop reading my… feelings.” He’d promised her that he couldn’t exactly hear her actual thoughts, but that the life debt between them allowed him to feel her very strong emotions, particularly related to her life being threatened.
That’s how he’d found her in the Moonstone jail, by following her, well, fear of torture and death, she supposed.
Possibly she was worried enough about this royal audience that she was sending up my life is in danger signal flares, but that seemed unlikely.
That’s why she’d assumed he wasn’t really talking to her before on the journey to Citrine and that she’d dreamed it.
Except it he’d indicated that conversation had been real.
But why had it happened only in Obsidian?
“I don’t have to read your heart or mind,” he replied, voice rippling with that amusement. “Your face shows everything you’re thinking.”
“Then you have amazing peripheral vision,” she shot back. She was sure he hadn’t looked directly at her.
“I do, actually.”
“How nice for you.”
“I think so.”
“You two are so damn much alike, it’s scary,” Dy said, still quietly, but enough for at least them to hear. “Do you have to do this now?”
“Yes,” they answered at the same time. Cha snorted.
“It’s a tension reliever,” Cha explained to Dy, “but we will stop.” She squeezed Azul’s arm to emphasize the decision and he slid her a slight smile, eyes sparkling with violet light.
Then he abruptly sobered, gaze going ahead to the first tier of the dais-cake as they rounded the far side. “There. Is that your ‘Sunshine’?”
Indeed, there she lolled in all her glamoured, naked splendor.
She took up extra room on her space of the ramp, having set up what appeared to be a velvet loveseat.
Draped lasciviously over it, she lay with heavy-lidded eyes as a petitioner spoke to her.
As they watched, she yawned elaborately and flicked her fingers at him to go away.
Clearly taking advantage of the dismissal, the fae sidestepped the loveseat and headed up-ramp to the next station.
Good to know that one could be passed up the chain of command, too, Cha supposed.
“That’s the one,” Dy answered for them both, for which Cha was grateful.
Although, it turned out, Azul didn’t really need a reply from either of them. Sunshine spotted them in that moment and sat bolt upright on her settee, face a picture of alarm, doe-like eyes wide and scanning for available avenues of escape.
“Don’t even consider it,” Azul instructed icily. “You will explain.”
“Your Highness.” Sunshine sank to her knees, bowing deeply, then lifting an already tear-stained face.
That was quick. Cha also noticed that Sunshine drew her shoulders back when she sat up, so her chest popped out ostentatiously.
Because they were standing a level below her, that put her tits pretty much right at eye level.
They looked bigger and rounder than before, the nipples darker and more prominent, her waist narrower in contrast. Wondering if Dy had observed the same glamour-tweaking, she glanced at her partner, who rolled her eyes in disgust. That was a yes.
“I didn’t know, Your Highness,” Sunshine babbled. “I didn’t realize she was your pet. I would never have played with her otherwise.”
“You somehow entirely missed my mark on her?” Azul inquired in patent disbelief.
Dy’s eyebrows flew up and she gave Cha an incredulous look. Yeah, she’d neglected to mention that part.
She shook her head a little in a no big deal gesture.
Dy glared in don’t give me that shit.
Cha shrugged in what can you do, they’re fae.
Dy folded her arms in you’re going to be explaining this later.
Cha nodded an I apologize, there’s been a lot going on.
Dy sighed a that’s what you always say.
Cha grinned I’m an asshole, but I’m your asshole.
Dy smiled a weary I know, but I worry about you.
Cha nodded acceptance. I love you too.
See? Humans could do telepathy too.
Meanwhile, Sunshine was weeping and babbling apologies.
The scene was drawing an interested crowd, which Sunshine appeared note, playing to the gathering as much as to Azul.
For his part, Azul didn’t seem to be doing much of anything, letting her play out her theatrical apology.
Cha trusted his instincts for this. However he thought best to mitigate whatever political costs could result.
A musical fanfare wafted over the gathering, something that struck Cha as announcing the arrival of a Personage.
She glanced up, but the royal figures far above remained on their same top perch, ignoring the goings on below them, physically and metaphorically.
But the crowded floor—more packed than even before—rippled, groups flickering away as one, like a school of fish flashing in the other direction as a predator approached.
If she hadn’t been touching him, Cha might have missed Azul’s reaction. As it was, he barely showed one, except that his skin shuddered lightly, just once, and she caught the distinct wave of dread from him. She looked up, searching his face for a clue, and saw the apology in his eyes.
Uh oh.
From the corner of her eye, Cha didn’t miss Sunshine’s reaction either.
The blonde fae sagged in clear relief, her eyes lighting with adoring hope.
Cha began to get a very bad feeling about this.
It wasn’t magic, but a purely human sixth sense for when a gig was about to go south.
She couldn’t claim it had actually saved them from catastrophe, but the prickle of warning had at least let them duck the full catastrophes and muck about in various shades of disaster.
She met Dy’s questioning gaze and nodded in yes, we’re fucked.
“Hello, Your Highness,” Lenorae said smoothly, giving Cha an arched brow look of disdain as if she were a muddy puppy clinging to Azul’s boot.
She held out an imperious hand and—like a fucking puppy, himself—Azul dropped Cha’s arm and went to Lenorae’s side, tucking her hand in the crook of his elbow, a spot surely still warm from where Cha’s had been.
Putting a hand to Azul’s cheek, Lenorae gave him a brilliant smile—and then a deep, passionate kiss.
A kiss he returned with interest.
Lenorae gave him a loving smile that she then turned on Cha, her smirk turning smug and delighted. “Hi there, Bridget. Fancy seeing you here. Took you long enough.”