Shadowlander (14 page)

The king glared at his son. “Is this so, Rook?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. But I did not know until recently that she was a Seer.”

“And yet you claimed her power as your own?”

Rook nodded, putting his hands behind his back and standing tall. “She gave it to me willingly, sire.”

Cate didn’t like being in the middle of their argument. She was beginning to feel less like an honored person among them and more like a bone being scrapped over by wild dogs. The king turned his fierce gaze on her. “Did you do this willingly?”

Cate took a step back at the vehemence of his gaze. “Isn’t that question a little personal?” She wanted to hide behind Rook, but with a whole group of fae watching, she was stuck being the center of attention. And now everyone knew just how intimate she and Rook had been. Cate couldn’t imagine a more mortifying moment.

The Shadow King sat back on his throne and stroked his dark beard. “Very well. Take her away until we have determined what to do with her.” Cate’s stomach dropped to her golden slippers.

“What? Didn’t you just give me this halo-circle thingy? Isn’t that supposed to be like a Get Out of Jail Free card or something?” Rook and the king didn’t answer her, because they were too busy staring daggers at each other.

Two of the royal guards walked up on the dais, grasped her firmly by the arms, and began to walk her down the steps.

Rook looked like he was barely maintaining his composure as he watched the royal guard escorted her out of the throne room, his eyes burning with anger and vengeance. The heavy ornate doors closed behind Cate with a thundering boom, but she could hear the raised voices of Rook, Kallus, and the king as they argued with one another.

The guards guided her down a series of increasingly smaller hallways until they came to a metal door with a batch of locks along the righthand side and a turning wheel lock in the center.

The heavy door swung open, and Cate could see the cell wasn’t much bigger than her office at the advertising agency. But this was made from solid stone, and the walls were streaked with black and green slime where moisture trickled down.

As her eyes adjusted to the meager light of the torches, they revealed Maya sitting on a squalid, lumpy mattress, her face grimy and streaked with tears. Her short skirt and scoop-neck T-shirt were streaked and stained with dirt, and her golden hair looked brittle and dull. “Maya!”

Her friend’s eyes went wide with surprise and her relieved smile lit up the room as she raced toward her with arms outstretched. “Cate? Is that really you?”

Maya’s hug was fierce as the door clanged shut behind them both and the guards walked away. “You have no idea how crazy the last twenty-four hours have been!”

Cate smirked. She had a pretty damn good idea.

“I think we may have been abducted by aliens,” Maya whispered confidentially in Cate’s ear.

Cate pulled back from the hug. “I’ll admit this is a far different place, but these aren’t aliens.”

“You haven’t seen—”

Cate held up a hand to stop her. “Just trust me on this one.”

Maya frowned, crossed her arms, and plunked herself back down on the worn-out straw-filled mattress. “If you’ve got a better explanation, I’m all ears.”

A familiar thickness crept into Cate’s throat. It grew difficult to swallow. She’d stopped warning her friends about the fae she could see but they couldn’t in about the third grade. Being teased one too many times for seeing “invisible monsters” had made her leery of telling anyone the truth who couldn’t see them. She blew out a slow stream of breath to steady herself. Maya could see them. She’d have to believe her.

“They’re faeries.”

“Oh, no they’re not. There aren’t wings. Well, on some of them, at least. They don’t sparkle, and I don’t know about who brought you here, but Kallus is not the size of Tinker Bell.”

The steady plinking drops of moisture from the cell’s stone ceiling were going to drive her nuts. Cate pressed her index finger over her brows to stem the headache beginning to throb between her eyes. “They’re dark fae, Maya. They aren’t all lightness and sparkles or tiny. Now, listen to me. If we’re going to get out of here, we don’t have much time. In less than two hours the rift we traveled through won’t let us go back. We have to get out before then or we’re screwed.”

Maya’s lips pressed into a firm line, her eyes bright with determination. “Tell me what I have to do.”

Cate took a seat beside her. “I’ve got a plan, but you have to follow my instructions exactly if it’s going to work.”

Smudges of shadows beneath Maya’s frightened eyes told Cate her friend’s trip to the fairy realm had been more of a waking nightmare than a dream.

The stench of mold and mildew was strong in the cell, and Cate didn’t want to think too long or hard about the scuttling sounds coming from the dark corners.

Maya followed Cate’s gaze to the shiny streaks of green and black slime, then frowned. “So what’s with the ball gown and crown?”

Cate sighed, the heaviness of it coming straight from the center of her chest. “Even if I tried to explain it, I couldn’t. Let’s just say that I’m a political prisoner. The only thing I’ve got is that the king’s son is on our side and he’s promised to help me get you out.”

Maya hugged her hard. “I’m in, whatever this takes. And so help me, I’m never going on a blind date ever again.”

Cate pulled back and rubbed her hands up and down Maya’s arms, trying to warm and reassure her. “Don’t beat yourself up. Anybody could be taken in by a glamouring fae.”

“Is that how you got here?”

Cate shifted her weight to her other foot. “Not exactly.” Did she dare tell Maya the truth? Her heart twinged a bit. Perhaps Maya was better off not knowing. It had always creeped out her childhood friends to think that invisible beings were cavorting about them and there wasn’t a damn thing they could do about it. Perhaps it was best to stick to only the essential facts. “I saw the guy you were with when you ditched out on lunch. He looked like bad news, so I found a way to get in so I could bring you back.”

“How was I supposed to know he was taking me here as some kind of sick fraternity joke?”

Cate frowned. “Is that what he told you?”

“At first. For a while I thought perhaps he’d put something in my drink and drugged me and I was just hallucinating. But then I didn’t wake up...”

“It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is getting us home. Right?”

“Right.”

Cate fished into her pocket, pulled out a few of the rusted nails, and handed them to Maya. “I want you to put one of these between each of your fingers and hold your hand in a fist, like this.” She demonstrated. It made Cate look as if she were wearing a lethal spiked glove, the long rusted points looking savage and very, very dangerous.

Maya rolled one of the nails between her fingers. “But they’re just old nails.”

“Iron is poisonous to them. As soon as the guard gets near enough, we’re going to both hit him as hard as we can. Scratch his skin if you can, or leaving them stuck in him is even better.”

Maya gave her a saucy grin. “I didn’t know you had this vicious side to you. I approve.”

Cate couldn’t help but smile back. “Thank me after we get out of here.” They were taking an awful risk, but if she could get them to the tapestry, she knew where a portal could be found.

“So once we hit the guards with the fists of fury, then what?”

“We run like hell.”

Chapter Nine

It had taken every inch of willpower Rook had possessed not to bolt after Cate like some greenling. He was still shaking, a potent mixture of anger and worry pulsating in his blood. He didn’t want the guards touching her. No one would touch her. And if they did...he’d do more than challenge them to Cattan to fight for their honor—he’d kill them outright. Falling short of that, he wished he could plow his fist into Kallus Thayer’s face. Repeatedly.

Kallus stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Rook, as if he were an equal, which only fueled the rage already fired in Rook’s belly. “You can’t possibly give Rook credit for this Uplander, Your Majesty. She’s a Seer. By right she should have been brought directly to you. So therefore, she is your conquest.”

The Shadow King frowned. “Do not recite the laws to me, Kallus Thayer. I know well enough what my son should have done. But if I choose to count the Seer as his conquest of the Midsummer’s Eve, then I shall do so.”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Kallus bent in half, his forehead touching his clasped hands in respect before he straightened to his full, impressive height. “But may I respectfully ask for a Cattan? It is a matter of honor that Rook Blackwood, Prince of Shadows, seeks to take my conquest from me after she has already been declared mine. He only brought the Seer here because he was trying to take my conquest back. She is related to the Seer somehow.”

“What say you, Rook?”

The king’s question startled Rook out of his own dark thoughts. In truth he’d only been barely listening to Kallus wail on about whatever thing he wanted from the king. “Whatever Your Majesty wishes is just,” he smoothly replied.

“So you would accept Kallus’s challenge of a Cattan for the Seer and her friend?”

Rook mentally shook himself. Kallus had challenged him to an honor duel for both Cate and her friend? When in Morgolath had that happened? He needed to focus.

If Kallus wanted a fight, he’d be happy to oblige. He’d been Kallus’s rival for his own father’s attention long enough. Thayer was nothing but an honored guard, not a blood son. Maybe beating him senseless would take the edge off the throbbing pain in his chest. “If that is what you wish, Your Majesty.”

A small smile tugged at his father’s lips. “What I wish is for my strongest and bravest warrior to lead my people to victory, first against the Wyldlings and then against the Uplanders.”

“And what of the Seer, Your Majesty? What is to be done with her?” Rook tried not to appear too eager, but it was damn difficult.

“For now, nothing. She is remaindered to your care. But when the time comes, I will want her absolute support of our cause. That bit of convincing I will leave to your capable hands, my son.”

Rook bowed his head, both in respect and out of gratitude for the boon his father had offered him. If Rook bested Kallus, Cate would be his and he could return her friend home. He just hoped that she’d waiting on him as he’d asked her to.

The doors of the grand audience chamber burst open, accompanied by the clatter of metal on metal as a group of armored guards pushed their way in. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” one of them cried out. “The Uplanders have escaped!”

Rook’s stomach curdled into a tight knot. Damn.

The Shadow King swore. “Kallus. Rook. Go after them. Bring them back. We are too close to the end of Midsummer’s Eve to lose either conquest now! Go!”

Rook and Kallus bowed and turned in unison, jogging out of the grand audience chamber. “Get me my mount!” Rook shouted to a waiting squire.

“Belay that order. There’s no time!” Kallus growled in response.

“We can catch them faster if we’re mounted.”

Kallus frowned. “Use your head. Chances are they’ll race for the first portal they can find.”

Kallus had a point. Cate had asked a lot of questions about the portals and precisely how they worked. She’d know what to look for and what to do, and they’d passed the oldest and most powerful of them on the borderlands. As smart as Cate was, she had to have noticed. But it was close to midnight. The portals would not function without the key coin. And he assumed she still had it with her, making every moment count.

“Fine, Thayer. We do it your way. But if I lose her, gods help you, I’ll skin you alive with my bare teeth and cast your soul down to Morgolath.”

Kallus gave him a feral grin. “I’d like to see you try.”

Rook got into Kallus’s face, fairly spitting the words at him. “Don’t cross me, Thayer. There won’t be a healer who can sew the pieces back together when I’m through with you.”

Kallus grabbed a sword from the page who held it and swung in a fast, gleaming arc, spinning so quickly the blade nearly disappeared. “If I do my job right, I won’t have to cross you, Blackwood. The Shadow King will give me your Seer as a reward for finding them before you do. Which one do you think they took?”

Rook glanced at the tapestries. The snow fell softly at the borderlands, but in the blanket of white he could still make out two sets of footprints. “There!”