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Her head popped up over my skirt-clad knees and she winked at me. “He’s not so much for asking nicely, but I did drive a most excellent bargain, if I do say so myself. ’Specially since I woulda come anyway, seeing as how it’s you, dearie.”
“Thank you.” I stared up at the ceiling, trying not to flinch. For the baby, I reminded myself. Had my body really died while I was out of it for so long? A horrible, foolish risk to have taken. But I hadn’t known, had I? Mistress Nancy withdrew her hand but flipped my skirts up higher, laying her cheek against my round belly. Itfeltlike the baby still lived. I could have looked for that living cord but even the thought of opening my mind into that phase world at the moment made me queasy.
“Is—”
“Hush now,” she directed.
I lay still, wondering if she could truly hear anything. It seemed not possible and I waited for permission to speak, at which point I would offer to wish up a stethoscope.
“All’s fine.” She pronounced, drawing my skirts down, though she didn’t look happy. “I’d say you’re about five months along in human time. You’ll start showing more and more. Have you had the sicks much?”
“Not really.”
“Lucky you. Still, you’re a bit roughed-up-like in your nethers. Perhaps tell Lord Rogue to take it a bit easier on you.”
My face went totally hot and I knew I must be scarlet with the blush. “Ah. I, um, I didn’t think it would…” I floundered.
“Hurt the babe? No, Lady Sorceress, it won’t. Spare the gymnastics, but the child is well cushioned. I’m thinking more of you.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Did he force you into this, Gwynn? Because I’ll help you away if you ask it.”
More people wanting to rescue me. And awful if she thought he’d been raping me.
“No. No—not at all. I, um, I love him, see and I agreed to the wedding. It’s fine.” It sounded weak to me, especially in the face of her doubt and my not particularly feeling the love at the moment. It flashed in my head that poor, doomed Cecily had said the same things.
Though I couldn’t hear Nancy’s thoughts as I could most people’s, her expression said it all.
“Really. I have things under control.” Ha to that!
“All right then, dearie.” She patted my knee, indulging me, not believing. “Up with you then. I’m going to see that you get food from the human kitchens. The fae food isn’t all that good for a growing bairn.”
Ugh. And Nancy likely had no better idea of food hygiene than the rest of them. All the more reason to set Starling on the task. I could wish my own food clean, but I’d be happier to purge the source, for everyone’s benefit.
Athena elected to stay playing with Billy. I guessed him to be about eight or nine and she looked remarkably about the same age, with her girlish size. Except for the punked blue hair and cynical expression, she could pass for his playmate. They’d made considerable progress on the castle and were debating how to create a waterfall and moat like the real ones. She seemed happy in a carefree way I’d never known her to be. I also knew that, with her awakened consciousness, she ached for family relationships. It might be good for her to hang with Nancy and Billy.
Somebody should be happy around here.
Darling Hercules went with me, cheerfully agreeing to show me the way to the dragon’s tower. Part of my problem stemmed from the castle complex not following what would be a standard building design to me. Titania’s palace and Castle Brightness had been this way also—I’d just had people leading the way in those places. Or dragging me about, more often. Castle of the Dark Gods had been obviously modified and added on to over vast expanses of time, making it almost more like a small walled city. More than that, the insectile quality of the fae perspective showed through in its design. Spirals instead of rectangles, spherical and ovoid rooms, smaller chambers leading into larger ones in long chains. There were no central hallways, but rather a concatenation of passages, no doubt exacerbated by the magically moving entrance gate. What I’d thought of as the main hallway when the gang arrived had been only one of many.
No wonder I’d gotten lost.
If I was going to live here any length of time—and it was a mark of my black mood that it seemed unlikely and even unthinkable at this point—then I’d need a system of markers. Hell, I’d make signs for me and the kid and hang them on the walls.
The image of me, years in the future, walking these halls with a boy like Billy or a girl of Athena’s size, reading the signs to find our way, took me aback. Likely my half-breed child would exceed my abilities and would need no such markers. It would be me on my own, forever not truly belonging to this place. Without real family—just fae connections.
The thought depressed me utterly.
The dragon looked pleased to see me, puffing out a sparking breath in the chill air and nodding her chin at a basket of the apples. How Starling had gotten them so fast, I didn’t know, but I appreciated it. Darling Hercules and I stayed out of range of her magic dampening field, which she seemed to considerately keep close.
I took the velvet bag of eggs out of my pocket and opened it, setting the remaining four in front of her. As I’d planned to do all along. But no, Rogue had to be a jerk about them. He’d been good about the dragon the night before, and that morning. Probably he’d just said something out of his general pissy mood. Not that it excused him.
It was worth it though, to see her amber lantern eyes gleam with delight. With a gentle claw—which seemed unnecessary to me since the things were hard as gemstones—she gathered them close. Then she plucked an apple from the basket and held it out to me.
“No, thank you,” I said, as politely as I could. “They’re poisonous to me.”
With a dip of her chin, she insisted, and I stretched out my hands, again with that sense of reverence I’d felt when I first encountered one—probably her—in Walter’s castle. In the late afternoon light, she glittered as if covered with jewels herself. Immense and full of tangible power, she filled me with awe. As if some racial memory from a cavewoman ancestor whispered to me of dinosaurs walking the earth.
Not at all logical, but there it was.
She dropped the apple neatly into my cupped hands and dipped her chin again, indicating it. I examined it, though I’d seen them before and this could be one I’d plucked myself during the harvest at Castle Brightness. But no—the apple had changed, seeming to be made of purest gold. The basket still held regular apples, shining deep red. Well, as regular as poisonous fruit that fed the magic-free dragons could be. So, she’d changed it. Transmutation into gold.
