Page 14 of A Fae in Finance
I swallowed another bite and turned to the Gray Knight again. “My apologies, lady,” I said, straightening my spine, “for any unintended offense. I am not owed your name.”
She tilted her head in acknowledgment, but before she could speak, a commotion broke out from the other end of the table. It sounded like something shattering. I looked up and saw that someone had thrown an acorn onto the table. It had broken the Princeling’s glass.
“Do not do this, Princeling,” a woman said. Her voice carried, and she stood a little away from the table—she wanted everyone to see and hear her.
“Who begs a boon of me?” the Princeling asked. He had propped his head up on one hand, the other hand dangling a silver fork. He sprawled in the silver chair, long and lavish, and stared at her. I nearly bumped Sahir’s shoulder trying to see her.
She was just as regal as the Princeling, with blazing blue eyes and hair like river reeds, sticking up on her head like a crown.
“It is the obligatory climate protester,” Sahir murmured, so quietly I might have imagined it. He hadn’t turned to look at her, and his nose brushed my cheek.
“I speak for the rivers,” she said, “and for the trees.”
I am the Loraxran through my mind, in a very unfortunate loop.
“Name yourself, nymph.” The Princeling wasn’t even looking at her now; he had his eyes on his fork and spun it on the tabletop on a single tine. A few of our tablemates had resumed eating.
“If he does not know her, she is not of his Court.” Sahir’s black hair lay in a loop on my collarbone, curling under the lapel of my suit jacket.
“There are other Courts?” I whispered.
The protester continued: “I am the voice of all concerned. I am an emissary of the Queen.”
Around the table, everyone lapsed into preternatural stillness. The Gray Knight, on my right, had one hand at her waist, where a slender handgun was slung on a belt she hadn’t had earlier.
“Oh, so there’s a Queen now?” Jeff asked, with a level of snark I had never achieved in my life. I swear I felt my ribs clutch convulsively at my heart.
“Our guest speaks,” the Princeling said, straightening. His mouth tightened. I clenched my hands and tensed my thighs, ready to spring onto the table and protect Jeff if needed.
The Gray Knight caught my eye and raised an eyebrow. I could almost hear her thoughts:You’re going to jump in front ofhim?I shrugged, as if to sayHe’s my boss. She raised the other eyebrow, perhaps indicatingYour paltry power structures mean nothing to me, mortal.
I redirected my attention to Jeff.
“What’s the issue?” Jeff asked. “I can mediate. That’s part of our contract, you know.” Absolute silence. He chuckled with the panache of a donkey playing piano. “That’s why you pay me the big bucks.”
There was a murmur of unease. Across from me two faeries in diaphanous dresses with gray skin and black eyes slid off their stools and into the darkness. The Princeling looked around the table.
“Please continue,” he said, and gestured at Jeff.
Jeff frowned at the protester. “What’s the problem?”
The faerie woman stared at the Princeling. “Am I to fling myself before a mortal, a creature my Queen would kill on sight?”
“It would amuse me,” he replied, “if you did.”
She tossed her head, the crown-of-cattails hair bobbing. “This proposal to build a company is the end of our way of life,” she said, still staring at the Princeling.
“If she says it, does that mean it’s true?” I whispered to Sahir, my lips brushing the thin ridge of his ear.
“She believes it so,” he replied. I shivered.
“Your factory will poison our rivers, and human greed will poison our lands.”
“She has no prophecy,” the Gray Knight whispered, helpfully, into my other ear. “Look at the eyes.” I did. Blue and bright against the night sky, gleaming with reflected starlight. Nothing about her eyes screamedI have no prophecyto me.
“And, Princeling, your fondness for humans has not gone unnoticed by my Queen. Desist,” she finished, “or the Queen will consider your lands forfeit. She will raze your factory and rule your Court.”
That soundedvery bad.
