Chapter 28 #2
“All right, it’s on. Ready now?” I asked.
“Yes.” She ran a tongue over her fangs and sauntered to the door, opening it for me. “This is going to be splendid.”
“Here we are. Shoulders straight, chin up,” Schula ordered, and I obeyed. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so as she knocked I clasped them behind my back. A moment later, Eberon was at the door.
“Schula.” He blinked, then spotted me and began sputtering. “What—Wren?”
“Are you going to let us in?” Schula asked.
Eberon narrowed his eyes at her. “Of course, you unseelie vixen.”
Schula scoffed. “You know I’m not.”
He stepped back, letting us inside even as he shook his head. “I see you got into Schula’s wardrobe, little bird.”
“Where are we headed? The study?” Schula purred, thoroughly enjoying herself.
“Er, yes. By all means, follow me.” He closed the door behind us and let Schula and I lead the way. “He’s going to know this was your doing, Schula.”
“I don’t care,” she sang.
The study was just as we had left it, save for a platter of fig pastries laid out on Eberon’s desk already missing one or two morsels.
The bookshelves behind the desk looked more disordered today, as though someone had been rifling through the tomes for something specific, and the armchairs around the room had been pulled up for all to be able to sit.
And there, at the far edge of the desk, was a giant midnight fae in an armchair.
The sight of him slammed into me, and the ache of our argument suddenly paled in comparison to the ache left by missing him.
He was here. Right here, and I could reach out and touch him if I wasn’t such a coward.
Even the scent of him was familiar, that of someone who spent much of his time around campfires and in the trees.
His shirt was open in the front, and he’d laid his head back with his eyes closed.
He looked worse for his time on the border, exhausted.
“Took you long enough, Schula,” he grunted, but when he opened his eyes and lifted his head he stilled, eyes on me.
Schula cleared her throat loudly. “She’s here for a serious discussion of the border affairs, and whatever business you two still have can be handled afterward like adults.”
My mouth went dry, and I put my hands behind my back again because I didn’t know what else to do with them, but I held my ground and stood just as Schula had told me to.
Chin up, back straight, my face a mask of indifference.
Thain stared at me for a long time, and I nodded in agreement with Schula.
His eyes drifted from my painted lips, down the line of curls that rested over one shoulder, to the stretch of skin down the sides of my legs.
In the end, his silver eyes settled on the smoky quartz at the column of my neck and stayed there.
“Right, let’s compare notes then.” Eberon took his seat behind the desk and rubbed his temples, strands of scarlet hair falling in his face.
“We didn’t get to cover this in Baeleon’s meeting, Thain, but while you were gone the three of us went to Dwellonmar for Galavan’s funeral service.
Schula and I poked around for anything about the wards we could find.
As far as we can tell, Diamid wasn’t hiding anything from the other courts about the circumstances they found the body in.
None of his advisers seem to know anything about the problem with the wards either.
Out of the three of us, the only one to discover any suspicious behavior was Wren. ”
Thain raised an eyebrow and glanced up from my necklace to my eyes as Eberon continued.
“It would seem the fair king of the Spring Court has a deep interest in the ‘found youth,’ as they call her. His people entertained her, took her around the city, and of course were as appealing as possible. The one to raise our suspicions was Diamid himself. He invited Wren to a private meal and was quite forward with questions regarding her magic. It was Puko who disrupted them.”
“Of course he’s interested in what powers she has, all the crowns will be,” Thain murmured. I didn’t miss that his claws had extended slightly and were peeling tiny ribbons of varnish off the arm of his chair.
“No, it wasn’t quite right,” Schula added. “It seemed like he had more at stake than a new fae and what he had to gain from her choosing the Spring Court.”
“Then suspicion of tampering with the wards is off him, or his court at least, but now we have a problem with Wren?” Thain asked.
“It’s not enough to go off for now, but I’ll be very curious to see how the other courts react to her.” Eberon leaned back in his chair. “And with this business at the borders, everyone is going to be on high alert for anything out of the ordinary once word spreads of the wards.”
Quiet contemplation overtook us. Schula picked at a pastry, putting one small flake at a time on her tongue as she thought.
Thain stared into the space before him, swirling something in his cup.
Eberon had one arm resting on the desk, tapping a finger absently.
It was me. I was the thing that was out of the ordinary now, and it was time to deal with that.
“I need to break this seal,” I said. It felt as though the silence of the room had shattered.
The fear I’d built like a wall around the markings down my spine was nothing compared to the fear of what their presence might cause to happen.
To me, to these people who had taken me in with kindness. It was time.
“You’re sure?” Schula asked.
No. “I think so.”
Thain hadn’t taken his eyes off me since I’d sat down. I didn’t think I’d looked away from him either. When he spoke, his low timbre directed at me for the first time since he’d left for the borders, it was with a softness I hadn’t expected. “Then we will figure out how to remove it.”
It felt like a peace offering, and I was ready to reach out and take it. “I should have brought it up before, and I’m more sorry than you know that I didn’t. I was scared.”
“You had every right to be,” Schula said.
“That can be our next move,” Eberon said. “If it’s all right, though, I want to get back to the wards.”
Thain nodded, his eyes still on mine. “We can finish this later.”
Good. It felt so good to think there was hope at the end of this for me and Thain to reconcile. My shoulders relaxed, and I was able to smile as I reached for a fig pastry from the tray. “Agreed.”
“You described the investigation in detail at Baeleon’s meeting,” Schula said, moving us forward. “But not what you think caused the problem in the first place. Any ideas?”
Thain tilted his head, eyes drifting to a paper under the corner of the tray of food. He pulled out a map, tapping once on a spot at the borders. “A Winter patrol took up the watch for now. More things are slipping through, like whatever it is we were trying to hunt down after Galavan.”
“That’s most of the meetings from last night,” Schula leaned over to murmur in my direction. “You didn’t miss much. For as long as it went, it was a lot of arguing about stomach wounds and things that could make them.”
Thain continued. “It seems everyone in the Wyldes sent people to investigate not only the death but the situation of the magic.”
“Who?” Eberon asked.
“Aithne, Asher, and Reghan. Took us a day to work together in the first place, then another to get on the right trail.” Thain sighed. “I would have gotten more done alone.”
“Asher,” Schula hissed. “I hope you used him as bait for whatever killed Galavan.”
“The opportunity didn’t come up.” Thain let the smallest of grins turn the corner of his mouth upward.
“Believe me, I was looking for an opening. The only trail we had to follow was scent. No footprints, no hint of anything else. At one point, we thought we found a piece of ripped flesh in the bushes, maybe something useful, but it was too old. Galavan died in a crater of blood, and not a damned thing could be traced going in or out of it except Galavan.”
“It’s not like Galavan to put up no fight.” Eberon was twisting the black band on his thumb absently. “Or anyone watching the borders.”
“Unless it was something without a corporeal form,” Schula added.
“That’s what Aithne figured out first, not that it took long once we all saw the site.
We covered that before you arrived yesterday,” Thain said.
“In the end, we had to give up the hunt after a couple days of sleeting rain. Everything was gone. At least we could survey the extent of the damage to the wards after that.”
“And what is the extent of the damage?” Eberon asked.
“All of the Summer Lands’ southern border is exposed. The Spring Lands to the east are half intact still, same for the Winter Lands to the west,” Thain answered.
“What of the Autumn Lands?” I asked.
“The Autumn Lands touch only the open ocean and the rest of the Wyldes. The wards don’t exist up here,” Schula said. “Not that much would be able to cross moving water like that anyway.”
“As expected, this is going to require more manual guarding while the damage is investigated and repaired,” Thain added. “Every soldier and scholar can expect a summons from the crowns any time now, particularly full triquetrams.”
“And us?” Schula asked.
“Guard duty of a different sort.” Thain jerked his head toward me.
“I knew we kept you around for something,” Schula teased, patting my back.
“So, we’re to continue touring the Wyldes with Wren?” Eberon asked. “I highly doubt that to be His Majesty’s only order.”
Thain drained his glass and set it on the desk.
“This was done by someone with knowledge of the wards. Most likely a group, considering the effort it took to construct them in the first place. We continue the rounds and rule out the obvious fae powers first. If we can’t find our enemy in the Wyldes, we find them in the outer lands.
But our first task is to feel out the other courts under the guise of escorting Wren. ”
All eyes turned to me.
“Will that seem a little suspicious?” I asked. “If you’re someone the king would normally send to investigate, won’t it be odd if you aren’t at the border?”
“The other crowns and who knows who else will be poking around for the same thing we are. They’d be stupid not to.” Eberon rubbed his temples. “Everyone will know what we’re up to, but they’ll let us do it anyway.”
“So, are we to head out again?” Schula sighed. “So soon after arriving home?”
“As soon as we can,” Thain said.
“This is a more extensive trip; give me two days,” Eberon said. “Pack for every occasion. Wren, you’ll need a wider selection of clothing. We can start with Winter since you’ve received an invitation to their solstice.”
“I’ll take those two days to try and deal with—that is, to bring out my magic,” I finished awkwardly.
Schula’s expression of sympathy only made me feel worse. I should have done this weeks ago.
“Tomorrow,” Thain said. “There were a few books in the library when I was looking for witching marks. Some of them might be useful for removing the seal.”
“Good call,” Eberon murmured. “Right, I’ll begin preparations if you three can handle the rest.”
“Well, that’s settled,” Schula said, standing up. “Thain, take Wren to Maple Way and talk it out.”
“Maple Way?” Thain asked, something odd in his expression. He darted his eyes to me. I sat a little straighter and lifted my chin.
“I will not repeat myself.” Schula glared at him, a blizzard in her voice. Eberon was suddenly very busy cleaning the breakfast tray from his desk.
Thain looked me in the eye, gaze darting briefly to my necklace and back. “She’s right. I believe we are due an exchanging of words.”
I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. Schula gave me an encouraging look and waved us off. “Go on, Eb and I have preparations to make. Be ready for one last trip to the River’s Edge before our travels! I demand dancing.” Schula twirled as if to demonstrate her need of it.
And with that, we dispersed. Eberon and Schula went in one direction, and Thain and I another.