Page 52 of Fae Champion

I scowled. “Fine. What’s to drink?”

Her translucent wings fluttered as she flew over to the farthest carafe. “This one’s got heavy duty fairy wine. It’s the best for numbing pain.”

I pressed my lips together to make sure I didn’t ask why she recommended that one. She was probably right. Better not to know. I had idea enough since it was the queen who’d mete out my punishment.

“That one, then,” I said somberly, taking advantage of her momentary distraction to swipe a cheese knife. It was too small and too blunt, but it was better than nothing. With it tucked behind my palm, I pretended to scratch my neck, preparing to slip it down my cleavage.

Busying herself with mopping up a splash of golden wine I’d spilled on the table, she mumbled, “There’s a really sharp icepick under the tablecloth beneath the dragon’s tail, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

I jerked still with the concealed cheese knife flat against my chest, immediately realized that was suspect, then trailed my hand as casually as I could along my dress.

“I put it there when a servant forgot it,” the fairy added, still busying herself with tidying the table’s offerings, which didn’t need ordering. “No one knows it’s there but me.”

Clutching my goblet, I sipped at the fizzy, tangy wine, and when I set it back down on the table, also left the knife behind. I picked up my glass again, pretending to be impressed by the ice sculpture.

“Lady Elowyn,” Rush said from behind me, loud enough for others to hear. “We must go before Her Majesty grows impatient.”

“Just one more sip,” I trilled without looking at him; he’d realize I was up to something if I did.

With a pop that mixed with the cacophony of conversation and a haunting yet somehow still jaunty tune taken up by what I presumed was another orchestra, the diminutive fairy vanished only to appear across the table at the dragon’s tail just as I blocked it with the flare of my periwinkle skirt. She lifted the tablecloth while I swiped the slender pick. The cloth was already back in place when I wedged the blade beneath the belt of my gown.

The belt was three fingers wide and constructed of a thick fold of fabric. The icepick was slender enough to fit, and I just managed to snag its handle on the back of the belt’s modest bow when Rush tapped me on the shoulder.

“Now, Elowyn,” he said, wrapping his fingers around the hilt of his sword.

This was for our eageraudience, then.

Unable to thank the fairy for her assistance, I chugged the rest of my goblet’s contents, slammed it onto the table, and narrowed my eyes in abject hatred at Rush.

Based on how many people turned our way to watch, I guessed I was successful in conveying that this man was my enemy, I knew it, and I hated his very existence for it.

Only one of those things wasn’t the truth.

I allowed Rush to grip my arm harder than necessary, and to push me into the crowd and toward the queen. Hiroshi, Ryder, and West prowled behind us, trailed by some of the queen’s guards, and after by the pitter-patter of nosy guests in heeled shoes, hurrying so as not to miss a thing.

“Stop the music,” the queen called out before she even came into sight.

At her command, the song ceased mid-note and her guests parted like a sea, leaving her fully visible atop her dais. My father sat beside her, eyes already jittery as they swept from me to his wife and back.

“What do you have for me, Rush?” she asked as he shoved me into the opening so that I stumbled and tripped, catching myself on the queen’s portly alchemist.

Braque whined as if I were a foul carcass while he pushed me away from him. Once more I tottered, but this time caught myself, sucking in a steady breath, hoping the icepick hadn’t tumbled from my gown.

That had been close.

The queen wagged two fingers in a loop in the air, and immediately I felt a tug that pulled my body downward into a subservient bow.

Obediently, I dipped low into it. But only so she wouldn’t notice I could have resisted it. Before, when she’d snapped her fingers at me and held me immobile, she could have sliced the skin from my body and I wouldn’t have been able to move.

Was this magic of hers different? Or had something changed?

Rush dipped his head reverently at her, and next Hiroshi, West, and Ryder did the same.

“We bring you the lady Elowyn Ashira, Your Majesty,” Rush announced in a loud, clear voice. “We caught her escaping, had her cleaned up so she’d be presentable for the magnificence of your court, then brought her directly to you.”

The queen, dressed from head to toe in gold, all the more noticeable for all the silver that surrounded her, including the king’s garb, leaned back in her throne, her grin that of a satisfied sneakle.

“Perfect timing. I’ve just decided on my judgment.”

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