How could I not?
The crowd parted and a Dark Fae woman approached. She was tall and slim, with the trademark angular features and overlarge gray eyes of the Dark Fae. Her gleaming black hair was pulled back in a braid, and she wore simple dark leggings and a sleeveless tunic.
She also wore a sword that remained in its harness, strapped to her back. Her hands were empty and lax at her sides as she came face to face with them.
Vetta broke her promise of silence in a whisper. “Xanthe.”
Seremela’s arm tightened on her in warning.
Other than a slight smile and crinkling of her eyes, an expression that was gone almost before Seremela had registered it, the Dark Fae woman gave no sign that she heard Vetta. Instead she turned to Duncan and said, “Please allow me to assist in escorting you safely from this place.”
“Why should we?” Duncan asked.
“Because I, too, know that the girl is innocent,” said the Dark Fae. She spoke English perfectly, with a trace of accent, and raised her voice as she said it, causing another reaction to ripple through the avid-looking onlookers.
“Then by all means,” said Duncan, as he gestured to the aisle in front of him. “After you.”
The woman Vetta had called Xanthe inclined her head and took the lead, while Duncan fell back. He gestured for Seremela and Vetta to go ahead of him, and he came up close behind them.
Warily, Seremela followed the Dark Fae woman, while she tried to think how the maneuver might possibly be a trap, but she couldn’t see how—the woman had, after all, made very public declaration of Vetta’s innocence and support.
They worked their way through the rest of the casino. With the Dark Fae ahead of them, and Duncan guarding them from behind, Seremela felt marginally more secure. She devoutly hoped it wasn’t an illusion.
She asked Vetta telepathically, “Do you know this woman?”
“Not really,” the girl said. “I know who she is—or was, anyway. She was one of Thruvial’s attendants. He had three. I guess that’s traditional?”
Vetta was correct. Dark Fae triads were quite traditional and appeared in various forms in their society. Seremela wondered where Thruvial’s other two attendants were.
She said, “Yes, it is. What do you know about her?”
Vetta shrugged. She looked and sounded exhausted. “Like I said, nothing much. She’s quiet and keeps to herself.”
“Okay,” Seremela said.
They fell silent. Later Seremela would have dreams about that hellish walk through Gehenna, the dreams filled with a creeping sense of dread while a host of creatures stared at her with hungry gazes and stalked close behind her, moving in for a kill.
Then finally they stepped out of the tent. The cooler desert night air outside was indescribably wonderful. Seremela and Vetta took deep breaths, almost staggering with relief, as the Dark Fae woman paused to look over her shoulder at them.
“Don’t stop,” murmured Duncan. “We need to go quickly.”
Seremela nodded, and their small group moved into a different formation. This time the Dark Fae woman fell back to walk at Seremela’s side, while Duncan moved up beside Vetta on the other side.
The Dark Fae woman said, “We should not go through the crowded part toward the center of the camp. It is quieter along the outskirts.”
Duncan and Seremela looked at Vetta for confirmation. The girl said, “Xanthe’s right. The camp’s quieter around the edges.”
“Show us,” Duncan said.
Both Vetta and the Dark Fae woman did, and they were able to move quickly through the quiet, shadowed area. They had circumvented the encampment and reached the edge of the massive parking lot when Seremela couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
She stopped, pulling Vetta to a halt. The other two stopped as well.
Seremela said to the Dark Fae woman, “You. What is your name?”
“Xanthe Tenanye,” replied the Dark Fae.
“You just left her there,” Seremela said. “You knew Vetta was innocent, and you let them imprison her for—what, two days? She was terrified and all alone.”
“I did not leave her,” said Xanthe. Her large gray eyes seemed to gather all the meager illumination from the moonlight, while her hands remained at her sides. “I stayed in Gehenna for the last two days, watching while I tried to figure out what I could do for her. I would not have let them hang her.”
“Interesting,” said Duncan. He had moved so that he was much closer to the Dark Fae. “How did you know Vetta was innocent, and how would you have stopped it?”
“By confessing, if I had no other choice,” said Xanthe Tenanye. “I knew Vetta didn’t kill Cieran Thruvial, because I did.”
“You’re a killer?” Vetta said it with such a squeak of surprise it would have sounded comical in almost any other situation.
“You may call me such, if you must,” said Xanthe.