Page 114 of A Fae in Finance
“That’s a fantastic uniform,” I said, going for bravado. I leaned around Sahir to smile brightly at Kamare.
Kamare glanced in confusion at Lene, who shrugged.
Sahir shoved me back behind him.
Kamare straightened. “Look who we have caught,” she said menacingly, apparently determined to have a monologue. “The human who cost me my place in the Princeling’s Court.”
I felt a pang of guilt, so sharp I couldn’t be afraid.
“Youcost yourself your own place in our Court, when you tried to poison someone you’d been instructed to feed,” Sahir retorted.
Oh yeah.
I felt slightly less guilty.
“Details,” Kamare muttered, waving a hand. “It is no matter.” She paused, considering. “I should kill the human on sight,” she said, “and bring the rest of you to the Queen for tribute.”
I shot a look at Sahir, who had the good sense to look flustered.
Then I glanced at Lene, who shrugged, as if to sayC’est la vie.
Even if itwasla vie, it might not bemyvie for very long. And I’d just discovered that I had a lot to live for. I turned to see three of the other faeries picking their way toward me over the jagged debris, swords in hand. I very much did not want to die by sword. I stared into the face of the nearest faerie, who stared back without interest or expression.
“She spared your life, Kamare,” Gaheris said. “You owe her a blood debt.”
The three faeries stopped—one midstep, a foot dangling in the air.
I whipped around to look at Kamare.
Kamare frowned.
“She cannot die by your hand nor by your order,” Gaheris pressed.
My friend was so afraid that the fires on his head had completely extinguished, and he looked small and strange without them—but he didn’t quail beneath Kamare’s stare.
“He speaks truly,” Sahir said. “You are bound by your honor and the gift of your breath.”
The soldier to Kamare’s left whispered something in her ear.
She deflated visibly, like the snake-balloon inShrek.
“Come along, then,” Kamare said. “You will be a tribute to the Queen as well. But you may regret the choice to live that long.”
No one spoke. I frowned at Roman, who frowned back at me in an expression that mingled sympathy and resignation. He’d slipped the hand with the ring into his pocket.
“And do not think I’ve forgotten you,” Kamare said, turning her eyes on him. “I will inform the Queen of your…liaising.”
Roman shrugged. “She is not my Queen and I am not her subject. If she wills it, I can cease construction on your sacred sites. I doubt that she wills it.”
Kamare huffed. And with that witty retort, she led our merry band away.
To her credit, it took about twenty minutes for Kamare to start gloating. She kept me and Sahir close to the front; me, as the star prisoner, and Sahir because whenever she tried to separate us he bit the other faeries, and they didn’t want to touch him anymore. The faerie next to me had a full dental impression on his cheek that would probably be sufficient to construct a retainer for Sahir.
At the exact moment that the silence started to become boring instead of suspenseful, Kamare spoke.
She turned her head back to look at Sahir. “You know, when my contacts in the Court told me you were bringing the human into the woods with only those two, I thought they must be wrong. I did not think you could be so stupid.” Her forked tongue flicked between her lips, retreated in a pink dart.
This was clearly a dig at Gaheris and Lene. “There’s no one I’d rather have with me,” I snarled, but this only made her laugh.
