Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
Elaine
Prince Rha’s guards found us before we managed to visit the palace. Timur and I had just washed each other’s hair, getting ready to leave, when a loud knocking came on the gate of the main entrance.
Timur flew downstairs to meet them, then returned to the bedroom, carrying a big, heavy trunk with him.
“For you from Dawn,” he said, setting the trunk on the floor by the bed. “I should’ve known the prince would comb the city to find where I’m hiding you.”
“Is Dawn here in the house?” I clapped my hands like a kid, too excited to hold it in.
“No, she’s waiting for us at the palace,” Timur stopped me from running out of the bedroom naked. “The guards will escort us. I suspect Dawn found out from the prince that I carried you off to Teneris without a stitch of clothing.”
I stopped, rooted in place at what that meant.
“Did Prince Rha see me naked?” A blush of mortification crept up my cheeks.
Timur shrugged, unconcerned.
“He might’ve glimpsed something while I held you in my arms, but trust me, he didn’t look too closely. All the fae who did look are now dead.”
His comment was sobering. So many had died. Yet I felt no sadness from their deaths. On the contrary, the air seemed cleaner now that most of the pleasure traders were gone.
Timur opened the lid of the trunk and pulled out a dress of gray-and-blue silk.
I hadn’t seen colors like that in Alveari before.
Shadow fae didn’t particularly care for aesthetics and used fabrics in the natural colors of the fibers they were made of, which were normally black, green, orange, or beige.
“It’s so pretty.” I ran a hand over the satin weave of the shimmering fabric. Dawn knew I’d like it because these were my favorite colors.
“There is more.” Timur gestured at the open trunk stuffed with silk clothes and velvet jewelry boxes. “The guards said Queen Abeille is arriving in Teneris today. I supposed Dawn wanted you to look your best.”
“Well, she clearly didn’t want me to show up naked. Or you, for that matter.” I pulled out a black skirt in his size. The fabric shimmered with violet in the folds when draped.
I brushed and pinned up my hair, and we got dressed quickly.
In addition to the new skirt, Timur also put on a black cloak.
I didn’t question it. He seemed comfortable in his body now that the pain was gone.
He’d been using his wings with ease. But I supposed he still preferred to wear a cloak in public to avoid unwelcome attention and intrusive stares.
The guards waited for us with a chair for Timur. It was a regular chair, void of magic, and instead of wheels, it had bars for the guards to carry it.
He paused momentarily, staring at the chair. He could fly to the palace in a fraction of the time it would take the guards to carry him across the city’s busy streets.
“It’d be convenient to have a place to sit down when you’re there,” I pointed out.
He nodded and took his seat in the chair.
The guards waited for me to climb in as well.
I sat on Timur’s lap, and for a moment or two, it felt like we were back in Ashgate, going to see another client of ours.
Even the busy streets and the thick crowds that had already gathered in the plaza by the palace gates couldn’t completely shake that illusion.
The reality of being back in Teneris fully settled only when we entered through the palace gates. The guards who delivered us here set the chair down, and I climbed out, stretching my legs.
“Joy Vessel Elaine?” A man got off a bench in the inner garden and swiftly headed toward me. “It’s an honor to see you again.”
“Sigid?” I exclaimed, genuinely happy to see the Joy Vessel Keeper who had always been kind to all of us. “Oh my goodness, I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“It’s the tendrils, isn’t it?” He grinned, pointing at his arms.
Only now I noticed that his tendrils were hidden, no longer clipped like Joy Vessel Keepers were required to do.
“Are you not a Keeper anymore?” I asked.
“Oh, I am. I’m Lady Dawn’s personal Keeper now,” he said proudly, and I noted the special emphasis he had put on Dawn’s new honorifics. “But His Highness decreed it’s no longer necessary for us to wear the clips.”
“That’s kind of him,” I said.
“It really proved unnecessary since our humans now decide for themselves whom they wish to share their joy with. And if anyone in the palace disrespects their wishes and tries to assault them, Prince Rha can just order that fae beheaded,” Sigid explained casually, then turned his attention to the cloaked Timur who remained seated in his chair. “And this must be General Timur?”
“Greetings.” Timur was brief.
Sigid bowed. “Welcome to the royal palace of Teneris. Lady Dawn is busy with the final preparations to receive the queen, but she ordered to let her know the moment you arrive. Would you like to wait in the lady’s drawing room while I go look for her?”
Among the courtiers taking a stroll through the gardens and the servants rushing with errands in preparations for the welcoming ceremony of the queen, I spotted a small group of human men by one of the fountains.
“Can we wait here instead?” I asked Sigid, recognizing Erik as one of the men by the fountain.
“Absolutely.” Sigid gave us both a bow again. “If you need anything at all, please let a servant know.”
When he departed in search of Dawn, I touched Timur’s shoulder.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said, taking a step in Erik’s direction.
A part of me feared to learn of all the atrocities Erik might’ve gone through in Ashgate. But I had to make sure he was okay now and to find out if I could help him in any way.
I only managed to take a step or two away from Timur before Erik noticed me too.
“Elaine!” He jogged to me with a wide smile. “It’s so good to see you, cage mate.”
“Cage mate?” I snorted a laugh as he grabbed me into a quick, firm hug.
“It’s closer than a roommate, isn’t it?” He stretched his shoulders, clearly relishing the freedom after the confines of the cage. Tilting his head aside, he spotted Timur behind me and gave him a two-fingered solute. “Greetings, General!”
Timur nodded silently.
“You’ve met?” I asked Erik, bewildered by his smile and his easy tone.
Where was Erik’s usual apathy? Or maybe this was the real Erik, and I’d only ever seen the numb, sad side of him before.
“We met. Briefly,” he replied. “On the night when the general descended on Mazra’s little brothel like a fiery fury of vengeance to retrieve you.”
“Listen…um, about that,” I hesitated, afraid to spook his happy smile by mentioning the recent past. “Is everything okay? With you?”
His smile dimmed but didn’t disappear completely, hiding in his eyes that were far more animated than I’d ever seen them before.
“Ahh. That was quite something, wasn’t it?” He ran a hand through his sandy-blond locks that were considerably longer than I remembered too.
Timur had protected me from the worst. I spent most of my time in Ashgate falling in love with him. Taking in Erik’s gaunt frame and dark shadows under his eyes, guilt flared inside me at the thought of what he and the other humans must’ve been through.
“It must’ve been awful,” I exhaled, dropping my gaze.
Erik cleared his throat.
“Well, not that awful,” he said, then added, meeting my questioning stare. “The first time Mazra tried to manhandle me by dragging me off the auction platform, I punched her in the face, right there in the tent.”
“You did?” I gasped.
“I know, she’s a woman, and I shouldn’t have—”
“Erik, Mazra was as tall as you and ten times stronger.”
“Still.” He winced. “Not something I would normally do. But for some perverted reason, that punch made me her favorite. She listened when I told her what we liked and how to make us happy. She fed us well and even tried to get our favorite foods from outside of Ashgate. I taught her everything she knew about the art of oral sex,” he said with a crooked grin.
“But then… Then she learned about that fucking tea…”
He glanced at me, gauging whether I knew what he was talking about.
I nodded.
“Yeah, so,” he continued. “The tea made us all constantly horny. I never had so many blow jobs in my life. All three of us were jerked off constantly. It’s a miracle our dicks didn’t fall off.
” He grimaced, scratching his chest. “But all that tea-induced sex joy wasn’t very good for the fae, either, as it turned out.
Mazra started forgetting things. Sometimes, we’d go for a whole night or even longer without food.
Nobody bathed anymore or wore any clothes.
I believe she even forgot to guard us properly.
We could’ve escaped probably even before your general showed up.
Except that they kept pumping us with that fucking tea, and sex was all I could think about.
Until the good general flew in.” He gestured at Timur with a ceremonial bow that could be considered mocking if it wasn’t for the earnest expression on Erik’s face.
“That was when it struck me, ‘What the fuck am I doing here?’”
“I’m so sorry, Erik.” I took his hand, and he squeezed it briefly.