Part 4 (1/2)
”And she won't come here, so I have to go there?”
”No, we have to,” Sean interjected. ”Your father charged me with caring for your safety.”
”What do we say to the queen? I've never met a queen before.” Elia seemed excited at the possibility.
”You've met Alora,” Keelie reminded her.
”She's a tree,” Elia said dismissively.
Keelie wanted to kick her. Alora was much more than just a tree-she was a gift from the Wildewood Forest, an acorn who'd ultimately saved the Dread Forest and become its Queen Tree, as Elia well knew.
Keelie wondered where, exactly, the high fae lived. Not Under-the-Hill, where the dark fae lived in the Dread Forest. The s.h.i.+ning Ones loved light. Maybe at the top of one of the mountains? She didn't do well with heights. Elia would probably thrive there.
”Lady Elia will not go to the High Court,” Terciel said, glaring at his guests. ”Her child must be protected, and the fae do not get along with elves, as I have mentioned.”
Elia looked stricken. She opened her mouth, but closed it again without speaking.
Terciel stopped to turn his scary gaze on Saliel, who had snorted. ”Lady Keliel is uniquely qualified to go, since her, er, mixed blood may be acceptable to the fae. Lord Sean, of course, is her protector and must attend her.”
”So they'll love me because I'm a mutt?” Keelie took a tentative taste of the salad. She'd kill for a tofu hot dog.
”Mutt.” Terciel seemed to consider the word. ”Yes, I believe that is correct. The dwarves speak well of you.”
There were dwarves here, of course. They lived under mountains and forests. Keelie's heart warmed as she thought of Sir Davey and Barrow. Maybe the ones who lived here knew them.
”Is there anything I need to know before we go?”
Lord Terciel looked at her silently for a long moment. ”You are our hope, Keliel. Go, speak to the queen, and ask her to agree to a meeting of all who live in the Northwoods. A summit, if you will. Do not linger at the High Court. It is seductive, and time does not flow there as it does here.”
”What dangers might we encounter?” Sean asked.
Terciel and Miszrial glanced at each other quickly.
Not a good sign.
Sean frowned. ”We will be prepared to do battle, if need be, to return here.”
Terciel nodded. ”It would be wise. Do not draw weapons while you are there, unless you are directly threatened. At midnight tomorrow night, you will travel through the portal. Rest now.”
Keelie met Sean's troubled gaze. She thought of what the trees had told her. The fae were all around, it seemed. Did that mean the bhata, or had Queen Vania sent spies to watch them? Or maybe the bhata themselves were her spies. This forest was very different from the Dread Forest, which, despite its scary name, only inspired dread in the humans who neared it. She'd call Dad as soon as she got to her room. This sounded way more dangerous than he'd described.
By the time Keelie returned to the lodge she was exhausted. She punched her father's number into the phone again, but no luck.
”I don't get it,” she told Sean. ”It's not like it relies on cell towers. This works with forests. Why won't the trees connect my call?”
”Ask the trees.” Sean yawned. ”I'm going to bed, Keelie. I've got to tell you, I'm worried about what Lord Terciel said. I'm glad I brought my armor and sword.”
”Maybe a gun and hand grenades would have been a better choice,” she muttered. ”Go on to bed. I'll be right behind you. I'm going to try one more time.”
”Good night then. Don't go outside alone.” Sean kissed the top of her head and went upstairs.
The lower rooms of the lodge were spartan, and Keelie was ready to go to bed, too, if only to give her backside a break from all the stone seats. Apparently the Northwoods elves didn't believe in cus.h.i.+ons. She stood close to a window and tried her father's number again. Nothing. With a sigh, she headed up the stairs. Elia had hurried ahead of them and gone to bed without saying good night.
Keelie's room was just as she left it, except that the logs in the fireplace were fresh. Someone scratched at the door. She hurried to open it, hoping it was Sean, but Knot crept in. The hall was deserted.
She looked at the door. The scratching had come from shoulder height. Her shoulder, not the little kitty's. She shrugged. This close to the fae court, there was no telling what the cat would do.
”Where were you while we went to dinner?”
Knot jumped onto the bed, ignoring her.
”You didn't miss much. Slug steak. Turns out it was some giant grilled mushroom, but it sure tasted like slug.”
Knot yawned, showing much kitty fang.
”Yeah, me too.” Keelie said. ”You aren't going to invite all your fairy friends in here to party, are you?”
Knot blinked at her.
”Just a warning. I need sleep.” Keelie undressed and slipped into bed, relieved that the sheets were clean and fragrant with lavender. She'd half expected burlap. She closed her eyes, wondering what the next day would bring. The High Court sounded kind of exciting, actually. If she didn't reach Dad tomorrow, she'd have to go without briefing him on Peascod and the Green Man. She fell asleep thinking of the fairies and the trees, and how the elves fit into the mix.
Later, the sound of weeping awoke her. She was pretty sure it was Elia, and as she tried to drift off to sleep again, she felt a pang of sympathy for the elf girl who'd expected so much and received so little.
She couldn't sleep. She got up and opened the door of her bedroom. A reddish light shone into the window at the end of the hall, and she crept toward it, wondering what it could be. In a human town, she wouldn't think anything of it, chalking it up to an exterior light. Nothing like that existed here.
She reached the window and looked out at the thickly wooded view. The trees called greetings, which she answered until she saw the figure that watched her from the ground below. It seemed like a man, but had huge antlers like a deer. Like the hunter she'd seen in the vision. Like the deer that had raced alongside the wagon.
She ran back to her room and closed the door tightly, wis.h.i.+ng she could climb into a friend's bed for comfort, but Elia and Sean were not candidates for that job, for very different reasons.
Knot was standing in the middle of her bed, back arched and fur on end. Keelie leaped under the covers and yanked Knot in with her.
”Dad?” Keelie came quickly awake. She wasn't in her cozy bed in her father's timber-and-stone house. She was in the Northwoods elven village of Grey Mantle, and the sound she'd heard was not her father. She lay very still, listening. There. Claws clicking on stone, then breathing close by.
She turned her head slowly, eyes still closed, dreading the monster she'd see. Did Herne have claws? Wouldn't a deer have hooves? She hadn't thought to look.
She opened her eyes and her breath caught in her throat. A coyote stood next to her bed, staring at her, clearly visible in the undulating bands of light from the aurora borealis.
When their eyes met, his mouth fell open, black doggie lips lifting in a pleased grin that showed very sharp white teeth.
”Coyote?” she whispered. ”Are you really here?”
”You're not dreaming me.” His goofy grin widened and his tongue lolled out of the left side of his jaw, like a damp carpet unfurled over a jagged balcony. ”You got anything to eat?”
”Not for a coyote used to eating out of Wolfgang Puck's dumpster in Los Angeles.”
The fairy rolled his eyes. ”I'm going back to town. At least they have hot dogs there. Probably tofu ones, but I know where they are.”
”It is you.” Keelie sat up. ”How did you get here?” She'd met Coyote in her Los Angeles neighborhood recently, and then learned that the fairy had lived there when she was a little girl, too.
He c.o.c.ked his head. ”You have no idea what awaits you. I've been summoned to offer my help.”