Like I gave a rat’s ass what my father thought. I didn’t share that particular opinion with the king, though, as I doubted it would help my case. When I just stood there without saying a word— the one skill I can credit my father with teaching me—Nandin turned away.
“Fine. We wil talk again at a late breakfast. Gilda and Naveen wil provide you with anything you might need this night.” He turned, his cloak fluttering behind him as he swept away. He paused just before he reached one of the arches. “Sweetest dreams, my dearest niece,” he said, almost as if it was an afterthought. There was no affection in the words this time. Then he stepped through the arch and was gone.
That left us with the harpies, and I shuffled my feet, for some reason even more uncomfortable with their presence than I was before. They watched me with eyes that were a little too round, but they said nothing as they led Falin and me through countless dark corridors. Our footsteps echoed in the seemingly endless space, contrasting with the whispers trickling out of the shadows.
We saw no other living soul until the harpies stopped in front of a large wooden door. Then a short cloaked figure stepped out of the shadows. It looked like the planebender who’d opened the door through Faerie for me. I wasn’t positive, but he was the right height. I’d have liked to question him and ask him how he’d closed the tear like he had, but the raven-feathered harpy turned on him.
“His majesty said you’re not to talk to her. Not tonight,”
she said.
The figure stood very stil for a moment; then the front of the cloak split open and a hand emerged. It was a smal hand, somewhere between the size of a child’s hand and a teenager’s, and the soul beneath shimmered with just a hint teenager’s, and the soul beneath shimmered with just a hint of yel ow. Human. He reached out as if he would touch me, and the harpies swooped between us, their wings spread as they squawked.
I stumbled back, away from the flutter of massive wings, and Falin was just as suddenly in front of me, passing PC
to me as he drew his blades. And then, as fast as the squabble had started, it was over. The harpies folded their wings, stepping back, and the cloaked figure was gone, presumably back whence he had come.
Why doesn’t Nandin want his people talking to me? Or perhaps it was the planebender in particular.
I didn’t have a chance to ask. Not that the harpies were likely to tel me even if I did. The hawk-feathered harpy used the claw at the joint of her wing to pul a circular handle, and the wooden door swung open.
The suite they showed me into included three rooms, two of which were each as large as my entire apartment and more opulent than my father’s mansion. The hawk-feathered harpy walked Falin and me through the whole suite while the raven-feathered one waited at the door.
Once we’d seen the entire suite she turned back to me.
“Do you need anything?” she asked and then eyed my completely inappropriate bal gown. “Clothing? Food?”
“I’m good,” I said, and then glanced at Falin. He shook his head, which was fine with me. I’d rather not accept any gifts from the fae, and my goal was not to eat while in Faerie—which meant I hoped I found Hol y and the accomplice soon.
The harpies nodded and then left without a word. It wasn’t until the door shut and I heard it latch that I realized there was no doorknob on the inside. Falin and I were locked in the suite, the rooms our cage. While it might have been the nicest prison I’d ever seen, a gilded cage is stil a cage.
Chapter 33
PC had thoroughly investigated the suite to his own satisfaction and curled up in the very center of a bed that looked big enough to sleep ten, but I was stil pacing. I’d told Falin the basics of what I’d learned since he left me at his apartment. I didn’t tel him everything—the shadows in the room whispered, and I was afraid they listened too—but I told him about Hol y and the gist of what the accomplice was attempting. Then it was my turn to demand some answers. “So why are you here? In Faerie, I mean. I was more than a little shocked to see you at the winter court.”
“If you stop pacing, I’l tel you.” He patted a spot on the bed beside where he sat on the edge.
I didn’t join him. If I crawled onto that bed I’d end up asleep. Hel , I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t fal fast asleep stil standing, but I wanted to talk before I surrendered to sleep. I did stop pacing, though, forcing myself to be stil .
“I might have shocked you, but you scared the hel out of me.” He stood and walked across the room to join me, since I wouldn’t go to him. “I returned to my apartment and, wel , I imagine you know exactly what I found.”
The aftermath of the gryphon attack.