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Pulling my magics up as far as I dared, I kept each of them ready as I hit the top steps and froze.
“That way is sealed. They must have known we were using it before.” The voice drifted through a closed door right at the top of the stairs, the sound of quick steps and what could have been paper following right behind.
“What about near the red gate? We need to get out of the city. I don’t care if we have to fight our way out.” Another voice, different from the first, responded as the sound of more steps echoed over to me.
Two. There were two. No wonder the pull was so strong. Without thinking I placed my free hand on the other blade as if they were going to rush out right then.
“We aren’t going to fight our way out,” the first one responded, the sound of feet ceasing. Someone must have been pacing.
“We will if we keep losing safe houses and safe routes like this–”
“We are already in enough trouble as it is. This is what you get for going in there, and for what–”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” a third voice cut off the first, the tone powerful and strong. With only those few words all those coils that were entangled through me gave a strong pull.
Three. There were three Fae in there. Not just that, three powerful Fae.
I had never felt a different strength in the pulls before, even when I had been hunting more than one. But there was something about these Fae, or rather that last one, that was different. It wasn’t only in the way the twists of power that led me to him were reacting to his voice. It was in his voice, there was something powerful there. Something ancient and commanding, something that caused the other two to back down.
“I was given a chance to enter the Runturin and I took advantage of it. No one even noticed an extra guard following the wedding procession past the gates.” He chuckled, the other two joining in with a low sound that only seemed partially amused. Using the masking of the noise, I stepped onto the landing, taking the last few steps toward the door that was housing the voices.
It was no wonder I could hear them so clearly, the slats that made the door were old and poorly constructed, huge gaps were left between the warped and cracked wood revealing a table with a lantern and what looked like a map on the surface. Three figures stood on either side of them, most of their bodies too far apart to be seen through the door. I didn’t dare move. If I got too close they would see me through the door, or worse they would hear me. I was frozen to the spot, staring at the map as they did, as they circled around it.
“They didn’t notice that the guard became some unnamed royal from a far away kingdom?” The second voice answered with a laugh.
“I still can’t believe you left that woman a letter.” The first voice, what I could now see was a Fae with a blue tunic, said, stepping around the map so I could see him better. Out of the three, he was the only one with short hair, the shaggy crop more brown than the stark blonde of his other companions. Perhaps it was the brown hair, but there was something familiar about him. As though I had seen him somewhere.
“I needed her to know that I was there,” the powerful Fae was still laughing, but the first, the one with brown hair, wasn't.
“It puts things in danger, Vaelar.” He leaned over the table, facing this Vaelar with a snarl. He was furious, but that wasn’t what I was staring at. The brown haired man’s ears were round, his teeth held little more of a point than my own. He wasn’t Fae at all.
“Calm, Theadore. Everything will work out.” Vaelar was strutting around the table now, his dark tunic and breeches glinting the candlelight as though they were made of silk, they probably were. I could even make out the hint of a gold chain round his neck.
“How?” The first man snarled, the second one had retreated from the conversation, his focus only on the map now.
“I saw the princess.” Both of the others started at that, their eyes going wide. I used the flurry of questions that came after that little proclamation to mask another step forward and out of sight of the slats in the door.
“Where? Why didn’t you tell us before? Was she by the queen?”
“Are the rumors true? Will she be of use to us?”
“Calm, calm,” Vaelar put his hands up, the motion as obscured by the door as he was. I could only make out his back. “She is where we heard she would be. I did not make contact, hence the note. My hope is that word will reach her and she will be ready for us. I was, however, able to speak with Elara.”
They all stiffened, I along with them, my fingers tightening around my blade as the heat of my fire thrummed and burned along my skin in preparation.
“Is she…?” The Fae and the man exchanged a look as the haughty blonde Vaelar continued to strut around the table, his face always turned away from me. I saw little more than the point of his ears through his long blonde hair, long slender fingers resting on the grip of a rapier.
“She has magic,” Vaelar said the word in a whisper, the other two hanging over the table. I barely stopped myself from taking a step forward.
Magic. Elara had magic. I wasn’t surprised seeing as all Requisites had magic, but there was something about the way he said the words. As though she held the magic all on her own, even without a Catalyst.
Everyone in the Realm had been told she was useless. Magicless. I had known she would have magic when she faced the queen, but that was magic with her odd Catalyst that the stories said was addled.
But he spoke as though she had magic on her own, magic without a Catalyst. This man… no this Fae…
Fae.
The world seemed to stop. A Fae had seen the princess. A Fae knew she had magic.
