The Steward (55 page)

After a few more moments Billy still hadn’t shown up, and I felt genuine panic. The possibility that they intercepted him settled on my frayed nerves
.
My stomach lurched. I calmed myself the best I could and looked back towards the lake.
Oh hell no...

In the moonlight, the Capri
bobbed, untied,
in the dark water fifty feet from shore. The rope floated in a loose curl in front of it—exactly like my nightmare with Doug. I
didn’t just feel
trapped—I
was
trapped. I fought to control my heart rate and again tried to steady my nerves. With my shaking hand, I also wiped a tear from my cheek—I’d never been this terrified in my life.

I glanced back at my boat, just a dark shape now.
They’re not missing a trick. They want me to think about what happened to Doug in my nightmare.
That realization made me angry and I felt my courage returning.
Doug is not here, and I am not frozen.
I smiled

I dropped my shield for a moment. “Chalen, I’m here,” I called out.

“This way,
Maebown.
”
He laughed at me from the dark path that wound
through
the island’s interior.

The path disappeared
into the
ink black
of
the trees and I couldn’t see where to walk—I needed a torch. Scanning the ground at the woodline, I found a tree limb the size of a baseball bat and concentrated on the end of it. It burst into flames and lit up the area around me. It only made the shadows lurking at the edge of the light that much darker. I pushed it out in front of me and to the side, trying to find t
he
optimal position to hold it. Then, against Billy’s orders, I started walking.

I’
d
always heard people say that the first step
was
the hardest. That
was
n’t true—it
was
an ugly lie, in fact. The first step was hard, but each one after that was more difficult and more terrifying
than the last—e
ach
step
led me further into the darkness.

Clouds hid the moon, making the pitch darkness even more oppressive—all designed to terrify me. It
worked
. Chalen
counted
on my desire for self-preservation
, and he would use that
to force me into saying I would leave. I dropped my barrier for just a second and reached out with my mind. I was forty steps inside the island—I’d been counting each one, calculating just how long it would take to sprint back to shore. Too late, though, I felt them all around me.

As I had assumed, there were Fae, six of them, between me and the boat. I threw my barrier back up, but left my mind lingering out past it. I hoped they didn’t notice.

Without Billy
t
here
,
I began to weigh my options.
I could always lie to Chalen
.
I took a couple
more steps. My mind liked that option. I could lie, convincingly, and get off the island unharmed. Then, at midnight, I could give the Council my real answer.
That would be too easy, wouldn’t it?
Chalen had a plan of some kind in place for that. He was a step ahead, and for all I knew, he could have been planning this moment for a lot longer than the
time since the
Water trial.

That possibility lingered in my head for too long. Of course he had. It made sense. He
had
wanted to talk to me the entire time I’d been here—he knew this day
would come
. My resolve faltered momentarily and a chill ran down my spine. I lowered my shield and allowed my emotions to seep out. I heard laughter all around me.
My a
nger returned,
forcing
me forward.

There were no leaves on the trees, and the branches overhead looked like wooden claws. My torch lighted the ground beneath me and just part of the path ahead. Light reflected back off the tree trunks and underbrush. As I moved forward, shadows flickered and moved in the opposite direction. It gave me the uncomfortable sensation of moving faster than I was. The Unseelie were keeping a distance, all
of them
except the one who stood in front of me and slightly to the right.

The
thump-thump, thump-thump
droning in my ears accelerated despite my best efforts to calm down. It
continued to quicken as
I went further. I knew the Unseelie
walked
through the woods
on purpose
, probably crunching leaves and branches
to heighten my fear
, but
happily
my barrier prevented the sound from reaching me. All I could hear was my heart beating, my rapid breath, and the noise of my own steps as I moved. So unsettling.

Chalen
stood
in the clearing, and had taken his younger, more viscious form. He smiled at me and
,
for a moment, I thought I saw fangs. I ignored them, and looked him squarely in the eyes. He said something and laughed. I didn’t hear it, but I didn’t need to
,
because I could imagine his vitriol well enough.

Stepping into the clearing
,
I stopped twenty feet from him, but I kept my barrier up
, making it
stronger. I saw his lips move again but I still couldn’t hear, so I dropped my shield. I felt the wind blow across my face and it sent a shiver though my body. One of them darted in closer.

“...been waiting for...” was all I heard him say.

When the other Fae
got too
close, I blocked it by throwing my barier back into place. Chalen realized I couldn’t hear him
,
and stopped talking. He looked behind me and shook his head before
he raised
his marble-white fingers and
motioned
for me to lower it again. I did, but
I stayed
ready to throw it back up in an instant.

I’m sure the intrusion was merely a test. They wanted to know how quickly I could defend myself. I heard them now, moving through the forest
,
getting closer. What I hadn’t counted on were the growls.
U
nable to stop
shivering,
I turned
my
fear
in
to anger. I was much stronger than I had been six months ago when they attacked Gavin on the hill. This time, I thought
,
deep in my mind where I knew they couldn’t peer, it would be more difficult to throw me around like a rag doll.

“So nice of you to keep your promise. I didn’t think you would,” Chalen said. He had a pleasant expression on his face that seemed completely out of place.

“Of course I’m here. I gave you my word.”

“Well, and here you are.”
He paused briefly to let his cruel smile work on me.
“I take it you have an answer for me
?
And I hope you are prepared to make another promise
. T
his one will require collateral, I’m afraid—your family’s lives should you break it.”

I never used much foul language, but I
thought
some awful things at that moment.

“I have an answer and I will swear that it is honest. That will have to be enough.”

“It may not be,” he said. The tone of his voice was gentle, like the voice you use
to
scold a small child. I really hated the patronizing voice—I would prefer
screaming
and
threatening
.

“I know. If I give you the answer you don’t want to hear, you won’t let me leave the island.”

He smiled, looking more sinister.

“No,
we
will not.”

I shuddered involuntarily—it brought a new round of laughter and snarls. When I looked to my side, I went cold. The enormous wolf-bear beasts from my nightmares were at the edge of the clearing. There were three of them to my right and three on the left, their predatory eyes glowing in the torchlight. The rest of the Unseelie were in human form, all in shimmering silver robes—some were scarred like Chalen, but the others were beautiful. Especially one of them. It was in the form of a tall, striking woman, with pure white skin, long black hair and deep brown eyes. She
appeared both exquisite and sad at the same time, but beautiful …
until she smiled. Her smile made her look cruel.

I focused on Chalen.

“I need a promise from all of you, first.” I said calmly.

That caught all of them off guard, except Chalen. The beautiful woman looked at me with contempt
,
and glanced back to Chalen. Chalen
smiled
and
nodded
his head. He knew what promise I would ask for, but I said it
aloud
anyway.

“If I leave the Weald
,
and give up my place as Steward, I need a promise that you’ll bring no harm, ever, to me, anyone in my family, or any of my friends.”

“We will not bargain with a Mayfly,” the beautiful woman
jeered
.

I turned to her, glaring. She met my glare, and smiled. If any of them were the Aetherfae, it was her.

Chalen grew impatient. “Maggie, Steward, we will permit the infestation of your wretched family to leave this place. We will give you ... a month. We have no interest in your friends. I will make no guarantees, though—I do not speak for all Unseelie. But I
will
promise you one thing: make the wrong decision, and your family and friends will suffer for your mistake. Thank you for having them so close tonight.”

There
were
no sneer
s, no bursts of
laughter. All of them stared at me with stone-cold, emotionless faces—it was worse. I wasn’t
afraid
for myself
,
I was
afraid
for my family
,
and that fueled my anger and my confidence. I counted them again, forty-nine.
Had I overcounted earlier?

“One month, no harm to my family?”

“Yes.”

“And promises from all of those here?”

“They have agreed.”

“You said you don’t speak for
all
Unseelie
. A
re there others
who
may not agree?”

“No!
Enough with the incessant questions
!
The other Unseelie couldn’t give a damn about you.”

“Wow,” I said, feigning shock.

His anger faded, but he looked completely annoyed.