Page 68 of Ryld's Shadows
Kai had photos of the van, of the children in the van and of the fairies in the cages. Anything else could wait until AURA social services and investigators caught up to this mess. Hank had left his phone with Ryld and Kai sent him a text letting him know their mission had been successful, they were unhurt and on the way back. They took a small detour once they reached the center of Pixieland. Kai held up his hand to halt in front of one of the wagons and before he dismounted a figure was pulling the door open.
“Sean? Sean Dove-Feather?”
“Kai Hiltas. What’s going on here?”
He must have asked the question just to confirm because Kai already saw the gleam of a blade in his hand and he was eyeing the adults in the back of the wagon.
“Sean? What’s—Oh.” A pixie woman wearing a flowing robe came out behind him. Her eyes were on the kids, and she didn’t wait for an answer before going right to the smallest of them. “He’s pale as milk. He needs to eat immediately. Come, come with me, I have food inside.”
The children, both pixie and fairy, followed her eagerly, and Kai felt a small weight lift from his heart.
“These…” Kai cursed for a bit in drow when he couldn’t find words in the human language. “Have been selling your children. Tonight, we caught them at it.”
Sean leapt into the back of the wagon, wings blurring. He stood on the seat over the aelfe woman with the knife at her throat and spit a few choice words of his own in his own language.
“Sean.” Kai kept his warning soft. “There are witnesses. If you murder her, I would like nothing better than to lie about it, but I can’t.”
Hank took a more direct approach. He’d already grabbed Sean’s arm before Kai finished speaking.
“You think I care? After what this bitch has done?”
“I won’t let you kill her, much as I’d like to,” Hank said. “She’s not the one at the end of this, she’s only one small piece, and we need her to get everyone in our net. Okay? Be reasonable, Sean. Those kids need your help more right now.”
Sean pulled away but didn’t slice her throat. He backed off. “Get them and yourselves out of here. Word is already spreading, and I can’t promise you safety. You’ll have to rely on being fast.”
“Tally ho,” Kai said in what he hoped was an ironic tone. He pulled his mare’s head around and gave her a little kick to get her moving. With a snap of the reins, Hank set the horses off, the cart thundering after at its best speed.
Which…it was a delivery cart. Best speed wasn’t much more than a lumbering canter. Still, they cleared Pixieland with nothing more disastrous than the disconcerting knowledge of being closely watched.
There were no more stops until they reached the aelfe court. Of course they had been seen already by the time they pulled up and most of the elves had come out or were watching with curiosity what spectacle the drow was bringing them now.
Kai searched the faces for one he knew. “Clematis.” He nodded to her where she hung toward the back of the small crowd. “Please ask Lady Jessamine if she would have a few moments for us?”
She raced off, skirts flying. One didn’t summon an elven queen, of course. One could request, and while Lady Jessamine might have relished pomp and ceremony, this disturbance was not something she could put off.
She came out to them with all the regal bearing and grave seriousness she could muster. “Kai Hiltas, I presume you have a very good explanation?”
“My lady, I have news of a dire nature and much to share with you. But for the moment, briefly, these three—and others—have been involved in the selling of children from the orphanage your ladyship sponsors. Pixie and fairy children both, tohumanbuyers. They take the children under false pretense, then sell them on.”
There were hisses of dismay from the court. No one here would be so naïve that they didn’t know what that meant.
Lady Jessamine only had to make the slightest gesture and the elves hushed. “And what makes you believe this to be true?”
“We have documents, my lady. Financial and contractual evidence. The lack of adoption records. And this evening, we caught them at it, using spelled cages to transport the fairies and an unmarked van to transport poorly cared-for pixie children.”
Hank reached into the back of the wagon and brought out one of the cages to emphasize the point. This time the sounds of outrage and hisses of disgust were not so easily quieted.
Lady Jessamine waited for the murmurings to die down before saying, “Very well. As a respected agent of AURA and a valued guest here at this court, I take you at your word, but would still like to see your evidence. And to speak with the prisoners.” She made a few more gestures to one of the aelfe nearest to her, and he gathered two more to see to the prisoners in the back of the wagon.
“Come with me please,” she said to Kai and Hank.
“Of course, my lady.” Kai dismounted and waited until Hank had climbed down from the wagon to join him. “I’m prepared to share everything with you. We waited until we were certain, until we had enough evidence to share with you.”
“Of course,” she said softly, and Kai thought he saw a flash of anger in her eyes. Good. This was something to be angry about. “Come. We will discuss this in my receiving room.”
Hank paced beside him as Kai gathered all the evidence in his mind. He would need to retrieve his laptop at some point, but what he had on his phone would do for now. His hands shook from the excitement of the chase—terrible though it had been, he couldn’t help the adrenaline rush that came with a puzzle solved.
Lady Jessamine took a place on the vine-patterned loveseat in her receiving parlor and patted the cushion next to it. Kai perched there, and Hank remained standing at his right shoulder. Still playing the servant, though that was his choice.
