Page 50 of Fae Reckoning

Trying hard not to pout, I trained my focus on the unisus. “Sorry, Az. Okay, so what were you saying?”

With a knowing look in his eye, he chuffed. “I asked you what questions you have for me?”

“Oh. Yeah. Okay, of course.”

“Waawaa,” Bertram offered, though I couldn’t guess why.

“Alright.” To alleviate the itch to chase after Rush and give into the temptation we both clearly wanted, I unwound the plait in my hair and began to braid a fresh one. Outside of the palace, I’d been able to wave away Pru’s ministrations. “From what we could tell,” I told Azariah, “the queen was using your magic to track me somehow. Is that correct?”

“Yes.” His fluffy, soft beard quivered.

“How did she do that, exactly?”

“My magic is capable of tracking a great many things. With you being a royal, I can track your essence especially easily. It was quite challenging to get her to believe I couldn’t locate you right away. It took me only seconds.”

“Oh, damn.”

He nodded with a purse of his wide horse lips. “Yes. The fight would have been over very quickly had she not believed me. It’s why she tormented me with scenes I never wanted to see. She believed I’d do anything she asked to relieve that pain.”

“Again, I am truly so sorry you had to suffer through that.”

The line of his mouth hardened. “Thank you, Elowyn. Her Majesty has delivered too much suffering. I’m, uh … I think I’m ready to, ah, bring about her own … suffering.” He cringed as if he’d let a toot slip.

Ferally, I grinned. “Good. You are allowed to feel angry at her, you know. You’re allowed to want her dead.”

He nodded slowly as if to convince himself. “Yes. Alright. Then I want her dead. Very dead.”

I glanced toward the opposite side of the clearing to confirm that Edsel, Pru, and Larissa were still fussing over the dormant fae. West clutched Ramana to his chest as if he needed her for his own heart to beat. I looked back at Az. “We’ll make her ‘very dead.’ I won’t give up until we do. To that end, I need to know, can she still track me now that you’re here with us?”

“Not without another of my kind, no.” He canted his head toward Bertram, his horn appearing to spear a great cloud overhead from my angle. “Of course, she may have other ways I haven’t identified. As much as she is distasteful, she is resourceful.”

“That she is,” I said with a bitter scowl.

“If she doesn’t already have a way tofind you, she’ll be searching for it. Besides, she surely must know where she’s hidden away all these fae whose power I presume she’s been stealing.”

“Mmhm. I’ve thought of that. But that’s only if she realizes what we’ve been up to. That we’ve been traveling with this mysterious map.”

He tipped his head in the other direction. “True. When she discussed searching for you with Ivar, she didn’t mention understanding where you were.” He pepped up. “Perhaps she doesn’t know.”

I looked at the rows of half-dead-looking fae. “Would she not sense that we’ve moved them?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. It all depends on how it works, how connected she is to them. It’s possible that she might only notice when she goes to draw power from them next, however she does that. Or she might only notice after we’re able to disconnect them from her.”

“In other words, we don’t know if or when she’s coming.”

“Correct.”

“Waawaa,” Bertram contributed.

“Just in case,” Azariah added, “we shouldn’t linger unnecessarily.”

“Agreed. But it is getting trickier to travel with so many people and creatures gathered with us, especially when some of them are enormous dragons.”

Together, Azariah and I looked up at Einar, whose stare was pointed up into the sky.

I projected.

He turned his massive head in my direction, staring at me from far, far up.

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