A Fair Fight (6 page)

She couldn't quite understand everything that Riocard and Orlaith, along with their primary advisors, were discussing, and the music kept depressing her, so eventually, magic or no, she left the table to check in on her friends.

Finding Lani wasn't hard. The menehune were gathered with the brownies, or at least the brownies who weren't helping to make sure the table was set with enough cups and enough drink, or trying to politely guide arrivals from other regions to their places at the table. Lani was talking quietly with her father, who was dressed in Hawaiian ceremonial garb, even while the rest of his small delegation were dressed as if they might be ordered to go to work building something or other at any moment.

Megan waited, not wanting to interrupt. They finished speaking a few seconds later, and Lani stepped over to her. "Hey, you okay? I know this is kind of weird."

"Really weird, but yeah, I'm all right. Have the tengu or any of the other Japanese faeries shown up yet?" Judging by the morning with them, Megan hadn't really expected to see them this evening, but she had to ask.

"No, and they're probably not going to right away, if they show up at all. This is just kind of initial strategy talk, the royals trying to impress people, and people with an agenda showing up so they can put their two cents in right away, and the royals can determine if they'll actually be helpful or not."

"No wonder my dad looks so unhappy."

"Yeah, this isn't really his kind of..." Lani paused at the sound of raised voices, then sighed. "Speaking of agendas."

Megan wasn't sure if she wished she understood ancient Greek or was really, really glad she didn't, at the sound of some of the things Cassia and the figures gathered in front of her were saying. She knew her art, and Cassia, well enough to recognize most of the assembly. There was a single centaur looking around warily, almost ignoring the rest. Two one-eyed giants, cyclopes, loomed behind the rest, both staring down at the scene playing out in front of them. And then there were six figures, three females—Megan could tell one was a dryad, having heard enough in the past year about who was and wasn't a dryad, one was probably a nereid, and the last was some other kind of nymph dressed in vines—and three males, one of whom was a proper Bronze-age satyr, one a smaller Roman faun, and then a figure who looked almost like a male version of Cassia, with the mix of features. All six of that group formed a half-circle around Cassia and her cats, with the full satyr, the mixed satyr, and one of the nymphs occasionally stepping forward to more directly get into Cassia's face.

Much as Megan knew she should probably leave what looked like a volatile situation alone, curiosity won out. Lani tried to stop her, but ended up just sighing and tagging along, after a last, quick hug for her father.

As they got closer, Megan could hear the satyr speaking in almost threatening tones. “Don't want to be tangled up in another mess. We don't know that there'll be a direct connection. And if there is, we're not sure we want to risk being away from home when our own problems come back.”

Cassia growled back a response. "Idiot. You really think you stand a chance if the Titans did get loose, huh?"

The satyr reached out and shoved her, which drew a growl and a near lunge from Maxwell, before Cassia put a hand on the cat's head, calming it. Not that she looked especially calm herself.

Despite her staring daggers at him, the satyr continued. "I'd rather not die being someone else's cannon fodder before I get to find out." The comment drew nods and vocal agreements from the others and inspired one of the nymphs to step in and try to push Cassia as well.

This time, Cassia didn't so much as budge, at least until she turned her head to glare at the nymph. The woman backed away quickly after that, and Cassia turned her attention back on the satyr.

"Fine, go back to Greece. No one here needs you anyway," Cassia spat back at him, before turning to walk away.

Lani and Megan scrambled up to her. A couple of the other bunch looked, for a moment, like they weren't done causing trouble yet. The faun starting towards Cassia. The centaur grabbed him by the shoulder, said something in Greek, shook his head, pointed at Riocard, and said something else. The faun quickly took two steps backwards again, and the rest gave Megan, Lani, Cassia, and the cats some room.

"You all right, Cassia? That looked pretty intense," Megan said.

Megan assumed the first words out of Cassia's mouth were swearing, directed towards the other delegation, but it was quiet enough that no one looked at them. Finally, she answered in something Megan could understand. "I'm fine and will stay fine as long as they stay the hells away from me, or better yet, go home."

"So you know those guys? They're not just being general-purpose jerks?"

"I used to party with some of them. War parties, mostly. If they'd get their heads out, they're not bad fighters. But they're going to mess this up."

"We'll hope for the—" Lani started to speak, before Ashling showed up, the Count settling on Lani's shoulder.

"Come grab a seat. The king wanted to see you."

"Us? Doesn't he have a lot of more pressing business, dealing with some of the folks showing up?" Megan said.

"Plenty, but it sounds like he has a mission for us. I hope you remember the lessons in sneaking I gave you, Megan."

Megan rolled her eyes but headed back to the table, letting her father finish an exchange with Inwar. He finally turned back to them, and the fake, diplomatic smile turned into a more tired, but more genuine one. "We have word that the Courts of Japan may grace us with a few representatives. I understand I have Counts-to-Eighteen's vaunted mastery of Go to thank, though I don't recall anyone assigning you that direction."

"Caw, caw."

"Yes, yes. One must have aspirations, but I understand that there's an organization for recognizing the world's best Go players. Keep practicing, and maybe they'll one day have to be a little more accepting."

"Caw."

"Indeed. But I also don't recall asking about that errand. Any other surprises we should be aware of?"

Megan was tempted to tell her father about the dogs back at the pizza place, but she was pretty sure Cassia or Mr. Kahale had already passed the information on. "Nothing, Dad. We haven't really had time."

"Always such a limiting factor. Ah well, then, since you have taken it upon yourselves to become diplomats, the smallest possible delegation seems particularly suited for Ashling and the Count."

"Oh?” Megan wondered if there were some sort of pixie-size joke in that.

“
There are very few of our sort of folk in Spain, but those they have are learned and talented. And so it seems proper enough to send two of our own experts in linguistics, with a particular affinity for minor Spanish dialects.”

Megan groaned.

Ashling and Lani each had a few questions for Riocard, which Megan mostly missed, listening to the harps playing instead. Finally, the others left the table, so Megan followed along. Lani went back to her father to catch him up on what she'd been assigned to do—assuring him she could even make it to school first—and then went to inform Kerr. The brownie was helping to head up a food crew, assembling outdoor cooking pits.

After a few words with Lani, Kerr approached Megan. "Don't worry, I'll check in on things at your house. If you're not back by a reasonable time Monday night, then I'll come cover for you again.”

“
I hate to take you away from your kitchen.”

The brownie shuffled and shrugged. “Even the chef can take time off, given cause.”

“
Honestly, I hate lying to Mom even more now.” It wasn't like it used to be. She couldn't be sure her mother wouldn't understand. But where could she even begin?

“
Still probably best not to leave her panicking.”

“
Yeah. Thanks, Kerr.”

Chapter 9: Proactive Princessing

Despite all of the recent experiences, it ended up being school that felt really surreal to Megan. She kept looking to windows for signs of giant dogs, and daydreaming about exotic locations and people with the heads of animals riding fantastic beasts. She managed to keep up with her actual note-taking and assignments, but even with a decision on college looming, everything seemed drearily unnecessary compared to the preparations for a war just a ring of mushrooms away.

She caught up with Lani at lunch, getting her food and heading straight for the art room. Normally, Megan was allowed to come in during lunch to draw or work on projects after her lunch, with the teacher occasionally looking in on the students who did come in during lunch hour. Today, she just wanted to sit in the back and talk quietly. "I feel sorry for Kerr, but I kind of hope this takes a while."

"I don't know. Most of the time, I'll take AP World History over 'Stupidly Dangerous Things 101.'"

"This is just a diplomatic mission. How badly can it go?"

"How much time have you spent in Faerie, now?"

"Not enough. I should be there. That's serious."

"College is serious too, Megan. So are finals. Have you told your Mom, yet?"

"No, but I will. I just need to figure some stuff out. I'll do it after this quest."

"All right. Let me know if you need any help with homework. You still need to graduate."

"I know. Trust me, I know. And I will. But seriously, you can't tell me you're not going a little stir-crazy here, trying to deal with equations and old wars and things when you know there's a real worlds-war about to happen?"

"I happen to like equations. They help me forget some of that. But, okay, maybe I have just a little senioritis. I'd still rather we all go to college than go to war, though."

"Even if I pull rank and princess my way into getting you your own trebuchet?"

Lani grinned. "Okay, so the trebuchet was kind of neat. Princess isn't a verb, though."

"It is when I do it."

Within two hours of school's letting out, they were in an otherworldly cave, standing in front of a familiar large reddish dragon. The golden-haired, bright-eyed maidens—golden like metallic wire, bright like spotlights—surrounded him, much as they had in the Goblin Market months ago.

“
Hi, Xurde,” Ashling said cheerfully as Megan looked up at the draconic cartographer—and up, and up.

Justin was wearing his coat over his chain mail—and, significantly, over the Sword of Light, so as to not appear awkwardly magic-slaying. For running these kinds of errands, he'd also brought the white shield the Kahales had replaced for him, but as additional sign of trust, kept it over his back. He and Cassia bowed. Lani and Megan curtsied. "I'd forgotten you were Spanish,” Megan said.

The huge draconic head nodded. “Asturian, to be precise.”

Megan didn't know what that was, but Ashling oh-so-helpfully leaned in and whispered “Asturian has a lot more Xs in it than most forms of Spanish.”

Megan did not sigh at Ashling because they were being diplomats. “Thank you for the help fighting Mister O'Neill." Megan very carefully applied the ex-professor's current title, after he'd risked everything for a chance to become king and lost all of it, including his former life.

"You paid for the receipt," the dragon answered. "I did nothing but business. The risk and resulting rewards were yours. The losses as well. Pass my condolences to your father."

Megan's expression sobered, and she nodded. "I will. But maybe you can tell him yourself. I think he'd appreciate that. You may have heard there's a diplomatic conference happening. We're here to officially extend an invitation, and it looks like you're the person to see."

“
Looks can be deceiving,” the dragon said, the cool mist of his breath hanging in the air. “Fortunately, Senor Perez is here. You'll want him in on any talk of political business.”

"Who is Senor Perez?"

"Down here," came a heavily accented voice, as a mouse in a red jacket and a black Cordobes hat with red fringe circled around the dragon. "I did indeed hear of the conference. Senor Xurde and his ladies were kind enough to wait with me for the invitation."

“
Oh. Well, thank you for being here. Are you able to come to Murias soon for the discussion?”

“
On that, I'm not sure. No offense meant, but Orlaith can't even keep her own house in order."

“
Well, it's not entirely her house for the rest of the week: my dad's officially in charge right now.”

“
Ah, yes. Seasonal things can be difficult to track, since I work all hemispheres.”

“
Makes sense. And you're definitely not going to upset me by not trusting the Queen, but can you tell me more about what you meant just now?”

“
I was referring to the difficulties of entering into a massively multinational diplomatic situation with someone who couldn't reach workable terms with her own nephew.”

“
Oh.” Megan searched her memory for a vague reference. “Right, the one who tried to fight with cold iron?”

“
Yes. Tiernan, to my knowledge, is the only nephew she has.”