Page 23 of Lord of the Hollow Court
Katty peeled open an eye, fumbling for the edge of the door as Rineke pulled it open. She slipped in under Rineke’s arm, immediately doubling over. She stood like that for several minutes, breathing too hastily to catch her breath.
The door popped open again. “Morning, Rin,” a faerie half her size said, then flitted down the stairwell. Katty gawked as she went. Every inch of skin visible around the faerie’s uniform—including her shaven head—was covered in leopard spots. She was a creature straight off the pages of books twice over.
“Who,” Katty panted, “was that?”
“That’s Juna. You’ll want to get on her sweet side. She works in the kitchens. She’ll slip you an extra bit of dessert if she likes you and thinks you’re down.”
“How—why—”
“The spots?” Rineke chuckled. “That’s called a glamour. You don’t know about those, do you?”
Katty shook her head.
“It’s a small illusion—a way some faeries express their individual character. ‘Course if you’re more powerful like his lordship, you can do all kinds of things with it. All the best front-of-house glamours were done by him personally.”
Katty considered this for overlong, wondering what type of person was best expressed as a jungle cat, then blanched. No, it didn’t seem wise to be on the wrong side of Juna.
At the same time, another thought occurred to her. “Could a glamour, as you call it—could that make a man appear as a horse?”
Rineke shrugged, then glanced down the stairs. From the sound of it, dozens of other fae were filtering from their rooms and taking the stairs from the floors below. “If he were powerful enough, sure.”
“Could it make a man appear headless?”
Rineke turned, nose wrinkled. “When did you see that?”
“Last night. In the woods.”
A shadow flitted across Rineke’s features, making her eyes widen. She turned her head to try to hide it. “I don’t suppose that headless man offered his name?”
Katty sniffed at the memory, of how terrified she’d been. “No, but the horse—there was a fae man called Muis. He was beside me, and in the next moment there was a stamping black horse in his place.”
“Might not be a glamour,” Rineke said, sounding nervous. “Then again—there was a beggar who came here yesterday, claiming he was a fae sorcerer. I don’t know much about it, but I gather the master dismissed him. If it’s him, he might be out to make trouble.” She ducked her head to meet Katty’s eye. “If you see him, you should call someone. And try to get away.”
Katty narrowed her eyes. “But he tried to help me. He seemed sonice.”
“High Fae can seem a lot of things,” she admitted. “Mind what I said. Can you go down the stairs now?”
“I think so.”
Katty leaned heavily on the railing as she went, trailing Rineke and wincing whenever the other fae came too close. Each greeted Rineke as they passed her.
“Alright, Rin?”
“Morning, Rin.”
“Helluva night, Rin. Didn’t sleep a wink.”
“Full day ahead of us, Rin.”
This last one, Rin offered an answer beyond a nod and a “morning.” “Full fortnight ahead of us, I think,” she replied.
Katty faltered. “What do you mean, a full fortnight?”
All fae eyes—black, green, yellow and violet—went to Katty. A few of the fae sniffed the air.
“Might as well show you,” Rineke finally answered. Her mouth twitched into a frown. “Come with me.”
Chapter Twelve
