AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The Brownies will come to assist,” Larch intoned from behind me, in his surprisingly deep voice.
I turned in my chair to look at him. “They will? From the villages nearby?”
He puffed out his chest, purpling with pride. “From all of Faerie. All who can escape service to the queen stand by to serve you, Lady Sorceress Gwynn.”
“My kind, too,” Athena averred, deftly spinning her dagger. Someone snickered and she stared them down, sweet lavender eyes filled with defiant malice. “We can be taught. Who do you think has been chasing down and destroying all the spider spies?”
That hadn’t occurred to me. “Thank you, Athena. And pass along my gratitude.” Rogue shifted at that, but I didn’t care—I owed them and that deserved voicing. Darling Hercules added that he’d been helping as well, and I scratched his ears, pausing at his further promise.
“Darling Hercules promises to stay with me when the time comes. With his immunity to the Queen Bitch, he’ll make an excellent bodyguard.”
Decisions reached and roles decided, we adjourned the meeting. I stood and stretched, rubbing my lower back. Was my stomach rounder than when I sat down? If the pregnancy progressed too unnaturally fast, my body might not be able to stand it. Deep in my heart, the cat stretched, too, offering to take my flesh if I wasn’t going to be using it. I promised that the time had not yet arrived and maintained calm until she settled again.
Rogue observed the interchange somberly, the Dog having risen in his core as well. Tied in tandem, we were. I gave him a confident smile, which didn’t fool him for a second, but he touched my cheek in acknowledgment of all the trepidation I hadn’t voiced.
I started to take his arm and became aware that Starling was still sitting in her chair. She looked much recovered—enough to dress and come to the war council, as she’d insisted she should, as my seneschal—but now she seemed listless and weary, her hair tinged with brown. I brightened it for her, though she didn’t notice. Rogue discreetly moved away to confer with Lady Healer, who had pointedly waited for him.
“Are you all right, Starling?”
She shrugged. “I’m worried about Mother and Father, though I know they’ll be fine. It’s nothing.” She straightened her skirts, slapped her knees and stood. “Nothing to be done and there’s work awaiting me. Seneschal work,” she emphasized.
Oh, right. “You’re upset that you don’t have a job to do in the battle.”
“Well, that’s my lot isn’t it? I can’t complain.”
“But you’ll be with me when I go into labor. Mistress Nancy will need help.” Darling Hercules clawed my ankle in reminder. “Help with hands,” I modified. “Please say you’ll be there.”
“Of course, Lady Gwynn, but—”
“There is nobut.” I took her hands. “I need all the friends I can get. I’m afraid, Starling.”
“Oh, Gwynn. It will be a beautiful experience that—”
“No.” I laughed and it came out a bit hysterical. Rogue was occupied in conversation. I lowered my voice. “I need you there and Athena. Just in case. Remember what happened with Cecily.”
Her brown eyes widened, flew to Rogue. “Surely you don’t think—But you’re married! True love changes everything.”
I only hoped she was right. Nevertheless, when the time came, I would not be defenseless.
Chapter 25
Omens and Visitors
‡
I think it may be a mistake to conceptualize Faerie as its own universe or world. Perhaps it’s more of a microcosm, a bubble of alternate reality stemming offanother.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “Notes for FurtherResearch”
“So,” I saidto Rogue, a few days later, “I need to go to Fafnir’s castle.”
He’d been broodingly staring out the dome, surveying the deceptively peaceful countryside while I worked in my grimoire. I’d been going through my catalogs of the fae species, still working on a reasonable evolutionary tree for them. With the very strong likelihood that one species could eventually become another, it made for a messy diagram. I’d also tried to work out a way to indicate longevity, without much progress.
“What a brilliant idea,” he replied without looking at me, his profile sharp against the radiantly blue sky. “Or perhaps I should just deliver you directly to Titania and save her the trouble of fetching you.”
I closed the grimoire. “You know, before the wedding, it was that I couldn’t leave the castle because of Fafnir’s cabal. Now it’s because of Titania.”
He turned to survey me, not without sympathy. “Feeling imprisoned in my tower after all?”
