Page 110 of A Fae in Finance
Lene stared down at the splintered wood at her feet. “Would staying in Faerie be the worst fate?”
I cleared my throat, unsure how to answer. But she didn’t seem to expect anything more from me—she turned and led me back the way we’d come.
Sahir and Gaheris had disassembled the entire campsite and stood waiting for us, both staring at nothing. They already had their packs on, and expressions like mountaineers on their way to a pet goldfish’s funeral.
“Shall we?” I asked, aiming for cheer. Sahir frowned at me with absolutely none of the heat I remembered from the night before, and I resolved not to speak again unless spoken to.
“We must assume that the Queen will have more soldiers along this way,” Sahir said. “As these ruins are sacred to her, and Roman is not her subject.”
I nodded, jaw clenched.
“Are you… okay?” Gaheris asked me, clearly using the word in the hopes of cheering me up. “You look distressed.”
I attempted a close-lipped smile. Gaheris flinched.
“Just follow behind me,” Sahir said, with the resolve of a man expecting to be punched in the face.
He started toward the far end of the clearing. I filed behind him, with Lene and Gaheris bringing up the rear.
Our journey felt terribly slow: Sahir stopped us every few minutes to slip his pack off and scout forward. I never saw any sign of the Queen’s soldiers, or of any other faerie.
The treescape changed abruptly into something resembling a swath of palm trees. The ground beneath our feet was drier, sandier.
I opened my mouth to ask about it, but Sahir held up an imperious hand. He hadn’t even been looking at me. I closed my mouth again, recommitting to my vow of silence.
We came upon the first built structures without warning. There was no break in the trees, no change in the light.
The ruined pillars, in among the swaying almost-palms like so many more trees, rose up in two identical lines. We stood at the first of them, staring down the rows at the place where sheets of familiar blue magic were strung across like banners hung on invisible walls. I took a step forward, and Sahir caught my arm. Lene and Gaheris separated, each creeping along the outside of one of the rows of pillars, their heads on swivel. Sahir stood with his back to the ruins, staring the way we’d come.
I did my part, too: I tried not to move, breathe, or think. I looked around for my friends, but they’d disappeared into the trees—presumably scouting for more invisible enemies. I slumped, leaning against one of the pillars. The scratchy edges of mosaic tiles pressed into my arm in the swirling colors of the undersea images the Gray Knight had shown me.
“Oi!” someone said, irate. “Get off that, you lug.”
I straightened, looking around.
The Builder who I’d met at the Princeling’s factory stepped between the two nearest pillars, picking his way over some of the larger stones scattering the sandy ground.
“You’re Roman?” I hissed. “You?”
Sahir appeared from nowhere. He stood next to me and bowed his head, his face impassive. “Builder,” he said in greeting.
“What’s this, then?” Roman asked, looking me up and down. “You’re that human girl the Princeling calledlady.”
He sounded like a man who had, in childhood, seen a film where an American actor from New Jersey portrayed a Cockney chimney sweep, and then made that his personality.
“What’s a human doing in the Queen’s Court?” Roman continued, scratching his head between his two curling horns. He shook his head, jowls vibrating, and dislodged some dandruff from his scalp.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been shocked that he’d been putting on airs for the Princeling. The accent was really throwing me for a loop, though.
“You were in the Princeling’s Court a few months ago!” I exclaimed.
“I am aware,” Roman said.
Sahir stuck his elbow so far into my ribs that it came out the other side of my body.
“I have come to see you, Builder,” I said, adopting the title and an attitude of serenity.
Sahir took a half step in front of me, so I had to peer over his shoulder. He seemed tense.
