Page 27 of Mountain Man's Muse
“Well then, you are no fae,” EveStar snapped.
Under other circumstances, Adalyn might have laughed. But she held herself straighter and looked the other fae in the eye. “Are you a friend to the runaways?”
“The rebellion, you mean?”
The proud anger in the handmaid’s voice actually made Adelyn relax a notch. “Why are you the Ankha’s handmaid when you want to be free?”
Bitterness hardened the elegant golden fae to something steely, sword-like. “I might never be free, but I can still be a guide. Why did we survive the Iron Wars, just to retreat here within our own illusions?” EveStar gripped her hand. “Is that why you came back? To hide again? I thought you understood we need to find another way.”
Adelyn grimaced. “I didn’t understand at first. Not at all. But you can’t keep sending fae as you have. That way will be closed.” Her fault. “The Hunters’ valley is under attack.”
EveStar swayed a little. “Then it is over. For all of us.”
“No. I brought you a new way in.” Adelyn took a deep breath. “I have cuttings from the valley ferns that will take fae around Vaile’s wards. But the spores aren’t ready yet. You’ll have to sprout them here, in secret.”
EveStar tightened her grip. “I will. But you have to—”
“Arise all and bow to our steel-born sovereign!”
“Quick,” EveStar hissed. “This way.”
Hand in hand, they scuttled away from the throne as the hobgnome chamberlain stepped past the place they had just been.
Adelyn grimaced. With everyone facing the throne, there was no way she and EveStar could sneak out. They would draw too much attention. They could only bow their heads as ordered. No need to arise, of course, since there were no other seats in the room besides the steel throne.
Ankha swept into the room in a wave of black tatted lace. The diaphanous darkness floated around her, supported on the will-o’-the-wisps caught in the net. Their wistful little lights twinkled mournfully and cast stark shadows across her white cheeks, leaving her eyes in pools of unrelieved black.
Adelyn’s fingers curled into fists and she felt EveStar’s nails dig into her hand in matching, silent outrage. If the wisps were confined too long, they would fade to nothing.
The queen mounted the three steps to the throne and turned to sit. From the base of the steel throne, the black occlusions in the white marble spidered outward. The wisp-lace drifted outward too, trying to escape.
She was beautiful beyond all fae. The voracious power of her illusions made her both: beautiful and queen. No other fae could match her in either category.
They could only run away as the wisps clearly longed to do.
But Ankha wouldn’t even allow that. Adelyn wondered why she had ever wanted to come back to this place. Had she been that blinded? No, she had just been that small. Less than the faintest of wisps.
No longer. Josh had opened her eyes and made her see what she could do, really do. And she would never be merely someone else’s inspiration again. She would make her own way, be her own fae. Be her own woman.
And she would be Josh’s woman too.
She smiled to herself as warmth slid through her, chasing away the chill of the court. But when EveStar’s grip on her hand tightened another notch, she refocused.
“...This cannot continue, my fae,” Ankha was saying. Under the white marble chandelier, her shadows were even more fearsomely stark. “Since the Iron Wars, the faedrealii has kept its distance from the sunlit world, withholding our presence from the humans, except for our treasured few.” She ran her hand over William’s head where he sat on the step beside her chair. He stiffened, but his eyes were full of floating wisp light.
The queen cast her dark gaze around the room. Adelyn quickly lowered her face, letting the shadow of her veil fall forward.
“My fae.” Ankha’s whisper swirled through the room on a chill breath though Adelyn tucked her shoulders up around her ears. “If you run, I will find you. And when I find you, I will tear you apart.”
In the stricken silence, the infinitesimal hum of the wisps’ wings sounded menacing.
And even more faintly yet, came a whisper all around them: “Adelyn…”
Her head snapped up. “Oh no. Josh, no.”
EveStar shuddered. “You gave him your name?”
“I didn’t believe he would follow me. Or even remember me.” Adelyn took a step forward, unbuckling the belt as she went. “The spores are behind the stones in the belt. There aren’t many. Use them well, and maybe someday we’ll meet in the sunlit world.” She tossed the belt to the other fae.
