Page 124 of Hijack the Seas: Seismic

She made a face. “They send their people to court to protect their interests, not for any real loyalty. They look down on the fey, even the highborn, whereas we humans. . . We’re nothing to them—less than animals.”

“Yet he didn’t mind crawling into bed with an ‘animal,’” I said, feeling my color rise.

“Men,” she and Bodil said together and then looked at each other in surprise.

I guessed some things were universal.

“I’m only a quarter as a result,” Enid continued. “And they do not claim me or allow me to claim them. When I fled to them after . . .” she gestured at her face. “They wouldn’t help me. They said my grandmother should have done as instructed and spared us all. They had me beaten for daring to enter their halls and threw me out.

“They swore to kill me if I ever returned—and anyone with me.”

“Sounds familiar,” Pritkin said. He’d had much the same reception when he’d visited his fey relatives and been made to regret it.

“Much has happened since then,” Faerie said. “The shocks they have endured may have taught them wisdom.”

“And if they haven’t?” Enid demanded.

The shrug was back. “Then you must decide who you would rather face, your kin or the Horrors.”

“Well, isn’t this just peachy,” Alphonse said savagely.

“I did not say it would be easy,” Faerie said. “But the passage between here and the palace was destroyed in the siege, and you saw what trying to go aboveground is like.” She paused slightly. “It is a short swim—”

Alphonse had things to say about that, as it seemed that, unlike the rest of us, he had been paying attention. Only he’d thought I could rest up and shift us back, so he hadn’t cared. Now that he realized it wouldn’t work that way, he was starting to freak out.

No shame, I thought, staring at the inky water.

No shame at all.

“If you’re a goddess, how about some help!” Alphonse snarled at Faerie.

“I am helping you to the extent of my abilities.”

“That I do not believe,” Æsubrand said. Suddenly, he looked less like a bedraggled war veteran and more like a prince. The moonlight loved him, turning his hair to silver fire and making his frosty complexion look more alive. Instead of a statue carved out of marble, cold and unfeeling, he had a faint blush on his cheeks and silver flames for eyes.

He didn’t seem to like what he took to be blasphemy.

“If you are who you say, nothing should be beyond you,” he added. “This is your realm.”

“Was my realm,” Faerie snapped, showing genuine emotion for the first time. “It is mine no longer. I am a fugitive in my own world, forced to hide from beings who would devour me, as they have so many of my children.

“They are lost now, millions of them. Most of them, if truth be told, even in your father’s kingdom, young one. Worse, they are not dead; I could recover them if they were merely dead. They are gone, devoured by the gods and those things the gods sent as a plague upon me.”

“Devoured?” Æsubrand looked like that did not compute. “You lie. We are their servants—”

“Treacherous, deceitful servants,” I pointed out. I doubted he’d been planning to use his newfound kingdom to help dear old Dad in his bring-back-the-gods quest. Bodil wouldn’t have partnered with him if so.

“Perhaps,” the prince said. “But my father is not. He has risked much for his plans, ill-advised as they may be—”

“Which preserved his life, however little he may be enjoying it,” Faerie said with an edge to her voice. “But when the gates vomited forth the gods and their beastly dogs, they feasted on everyone else. They were starving after so long, and, well. There are many ways to serve, are there not?”

Æsubrand stared at her in shock.

“She means serving yourself up on a platter, princeling,” Enid said, in case he hadn’t understood. “I suppose we’re all equal now, aren’t we? Just food for the gods’ . . . and their dogs.”

“Shut your mouth, slave!” he snarled, turning on her, his shock shifting to anger in an eyeblink.

And met the same fire in her eyes. I didn’t know what her problem with him was, but she obviously had one. Maybe because he was the pampered son of the king who had been slaughtering all those part-human soldiers for so long.

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