Page 98 of Fae Champion

Rush drew his sword and prowled several steps toward the throne, causing Braque to unlatch the top flap of his new potions satchel and Ivar to go rigid and draw his cutlass.

Sundo chewed with his mouth open, flecks of spit, blood, and gore splattering Hiroshi, whose eyes were distant, as if he’d fled his body until it was all over.

“Good, Sundo,” the queen said, her grin entirely wicked as she took in the pain etched across Hiroshi, Ryder, West, and Rush’s faces.

“No,bad Sundo,” I said, injecting full command into my voice. It was like talking to Saffron, if the dragonling were several times larger and ugly as a hairy, filthy butt crack.

“Sundo, very bad,” I continued as if reprimanding someone foreatingmy friend were the most normal thing in the world.

He paused mid-chew.

“Would Sundo enjoy being eaten?” I insisted, and the pygmy ogre tilted his head in consideration, swallowing part of his bite loudly.

I cringed. “No, Sundo wouldn’t. Sundo wouldn’t like it at all. Sundo would be very sad. Sad, sad, sad.”

Sundo swallowed the last of his mouthful, his face crumpling as if he were picturing himself being the one eaten.

“Sundo shouldn’t do what Sundo doesn’t want done to him.”

“Nonsense,” the queen snarled. “Sundo, ignore her and eat his arm.”

But the pygmy ogre hesitated, looking from me to the queen. Even Bandel watched the back and forth as if he, too, were in the throes of indecision.

“Thelanddoesn’t want Sundo to eat anyone,” I urged, unsure whether this was true or not. If the queen channeled the land’s power, maybe it was as dark as she was. “The land saysstop.”

Sundo dropped Hiroshi’s arm but remained beside him.

Rush pressed the tip of his sword to Sundo’s fat neck.

And Ivar stalked forward to point his cutlass at Rush.

Mouth agape, Bandel looked on.

“Oh, for Ether’s sake,” the queen muttered, rising but standing by her throne. “The land isn’t saying anything about Hiroshi’s arm.”

I didn’t know if I could do it on command—I’d tried to access my magic before and failed—but I willed whatever had made me glow before to surge forward now.

Based on how Sundo and Bandel’s eyes widened, I guessed it worked. A glimpse at my hands confirmed it.

Willing my voice steady and all-powerful when I was practically quaking inside, I boomed, “The land’s magic says that Sundo and Bandel should be good, or…” Did pygmy ogres care about the promise of the Etherlands like the rest of the fae seemed to? I had noidea, but: “…or Sundo and Bandel won’t be allowed into the Etherlands when they die. They’ll be told they were … bad boys and won’t ever be allowed in. They’ll float adrift and alone forever, sad, sad, sad.”

Sundo blinked repeatedly and sniffed, rubbing at his bulbous nose and smearing Hiroshi’s blood across it. Bandel’s shoulders shook as he gazed forlornly at his bare, chubby feet.

Sundo crouched down, nearly crushing Rush’s legs as he and Ivar scattered to get out of his way. Like a fat, stalky, old tree, the pygmy ogre crashed to the floor, where he sprawled, bawling, “Sundo good boy. Sundo go to Etherlands. Sundo no eat arms. Sundo gooooood boy.” He wailed.

Bandel was relatively quiet as he watched his fellow ogre.

But his lip quivered and he blurted, “No, queenie, Bandel good. Good boy, good boy, good boy.” He continued chanting the phrase, whether to convince her or himself of it, I couldn’t tell. He backed up against the wall, still muttering.

The queen’s nostrils flared and relaxed, flared and relaxed. She slammed back down onto her throne, her fingers clutching its sides, the rubies on her fingers too much like blood as the life-giving liquid dripped from Hiroshi’s arm onto the floor, where it had already begun to pool.

If he could regrow the entire limb, I assured myself, he could repair the enormous chunk missing from hisarm. But that assurance did nothing to appease the agony glistening in his now flat gray eyes.

“Ivar,” the queen said, too quietly over all the fuss Sundo and Bandel continued to make. “End them. They’re giving me a headache.”

She rubbed at her temples, those rubies catching the light as she did so.

Ivar ducked and whirled, cutlass first, and sliced Sundo’s head clean off.

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