Part 36 (1/2)
”A mortal with the power to enchant,” he whispered, utterly beguiled.
But there, blood and dirt on her knee. The sudden jar of that foul evidence followed a rude tap from Gossamyr. Ulrich shook his head. ”What was that for?”
”The spell worked.” She bent to retrieve the gown. ”And you were starting to drool.”
”Was not.” He dashed out his tongue across his lips. No drool. A man had to check. ”Sorry. Gossamyr, you are wounded.”
”It's from the revenant.” The gown fell to her knees. A tug of the braies completed her renegade attire; the entire right leg was stained brown from dried blood.
”You must let me tend it. It looks bad.”
”No worse than a bite from a werefrog. You did put a mustard plaster to your bite?”
”Anon.”
She bent and ripped the front of the skirt all the way up to her thigh to allow her legs ease of movement, then grabbed the half staff leaning against the wall. A fistful of arrets was retrieved from the floor in a clatter of obsidian.
”Where be you off to?” He followed her down the ladder. ”Shall I saddle up Fancy?”
”I go alone. Ulrich, you must tend that bite or it will fester.”
”My uncle has prepared a plaster. Will you stop?” He sprinted to meet her at the front door. ”There is danger. You need protection.”
”From s.h.i.+nn?”
”You go to call him out? But the city...the Red Lady... Will your father not be in danger?”
”I ride out from the gates of Paris. I must have answers, Ulrich.” She smiled, a brief yet genuine smile. A touch to his hair, she drew in his scent. Ulrich closed his eyes and tried to scent her but smelled only the onions his uncle boiled over the hearth.
”You don't remember me,” she said, ”but I remember you.”
He lifted a brow.
”When you danced. I stretched out my hand and touched your hair as you spun past me.”
”You...saw me? Yet, I danced but a few days ago...”
”Faery time is confusing.”
”Faery time is a b.i.t.c.h.”
She nodded. ”I truly hope you can get back that which was lost to you, Jean Cesar Ulrich Villon III.”
”Do you? I thought you against my quest to bring back the dead.”
She shrugged. ”I wish your twenty years returned to you. One way or another.”
With that she leaned forward and kissed him aside his eye, right over the green bruise. Forgoing a farewell, she left without turning back.
”Would that you could help me, Gossamyr of Glamoursiege,” Ulrich said as he watched her approach Fancy. ”But I do not think a mere mortal will serve me now. If there is a unicorn to be found I shall just have to sniff it out myself.”
The city gates were more willing to let one pa.s.s out of than into Paris. Reports that the Armagnacs were pillaging on the west side of the city provided little relief to the antic.i.p.ation swirling in Gossamyr's gut. She traveled south but kept her eyes peeled and ears p.r.i.c.ked for danger.
The evening beckoned with soft schusses of meadow gra.s.s and the brays of a flock of sheep waiting entry.
When Gossamyr reached the water mill where yesterday she and Ulrich had stopped, there was no need to summon s.h.i.+nn. She dismounted, dropping Fancy's reins and leaving the mule to root at a patch of trampled gra.s.s. Striding toward the stream where she had bathed in the rain, Gossamyr fisted her fingers at her thighs and tightened her jaw.
Chiding words spoken by Mince visited her thoughts.
Do not react. Listen with an open heart. Your father acts only as his wisdom allows. He knows little of growing girls and their hearts.
And if their hearts be mortal?
The nemesis s.h.i.+nn had bid her seek solace from had been placed there by s.h.i.+nn himself.
Her strides were unhampered by the heavy gown, for the cut exposed her braies to the thighs. Arrets clicking at her hip, there was no need to call out to announce her presence.
s.h.i.+nn did not turn around. Cloaked by the feathered cape, his broad shoulders squared him, increasing his presence. Hyacinth perfumed the air. So very light, the paleness of sky that surrounded the formidable Glamoursiege lord. Truly, a man who could command troops with but a word.
Gossamyr faltered as she gained him. Was that it? s.h.i.+nn was a leader, not a compa.s.sionate father. He had lied to her only because that is all he could muster.
Not an excuse.
Fisting her fingers at her sides, she opened them, then closed them tight. If he did love her, then he owed her an explanation.
”I would beg your forgiveness,”he said as Gossamyr stopped behind him. He swept out an arm and lifted an entreating palm upward. His blazon, which ended in his palms, sparkled with the rays of the setting sun. Still he did not turn to face her. ”But I have never been one to beg. And I fear your anger is too strong to allow such mortal emotional fumbling.”
The fetch had clued him to all.
”Why did you not tell me? Ever? When I was younger?” So wanting to beat upon his shoulders, to empty out her anger, Gossamyr suppressed her rage-for the truth. But not all of it.
She gripped him by the shoulder and shoved. He turned to her. Fine lines creased from the edges of his eyes and mouth. And his hair! She had not remarked it, but-it was silver. Now the small horns had darkened and tightened in, standing out against the long strands of faded hair. Bronze glinted in twists about his crown. ”Wh-what happened to you?”
”I have been battling the revenants.”
”I have been gone but a few sunsets!”
”Many more moons than you can imagine have risen in Faery.”
”Be time so mutable as to steal many moons from me? To do this to you?”
She thought of Ulrich's horrid dance and all the time he had lost here in the mortal realm. And Avenall; he had stated but a mortal year had pa.s.sed since his mistress had been banished; less than a moon since his banishment. How to comprehend?
Had she lost Time since Pa.s.saging to the Otherside?
”My trips to the Otherside are risky in that the pa.s.sage of Time takes from me that which Faery holds off-mortality. You will not understand, but I have mourned your absence far too long.”
”An absence you could have prevented!” Clutching her chest, she gasped at the weight of her heartbeats. Such pain did pierce her there in her heart! So much she needed to learn, and yet she should have known all along.