Page 31 of The Courting of Bristol Keats
“Mae said it would take time to check around. Trust me, you don’t want to use up her trifling goodwill. I’ll take you there in a few nights.”
“Can we go see Jasmine, then?”
“Why?”
“Because according to you, she raised my father, and she might like to know he could be alive, and I have a lot of questions. My father was secretive about his childhood, and—”
“She isn’t well. I’ll have Eris check.”
Tyghan braced himself for another argument, but she was silent.Thank the gods.There was no arguing that Jasmine was fragile. She’d witnessed that with her own eyes. Finally, in a softer tone, she said, “Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”
The welcome silence continued for only a few more steps before she added, “In the meantime, maybe you can tell me how my father came to be here?”
Tyghan’s pace slowed. The conversation was easier when she was angry. He had a hundred replies ready that could spike her fury again, and hopefully shut her questions down, but Eris had advised him to be civil and even charming, if possible.We need her on our side.“That would be a question for Jasmine,” he answered.
“I thought you might know, since you were aware that she raised him.”
He could tell her the story of how Kierus came to be in Elphame, but this might lead to other questions. For the time being, he needed to keep a safe distance from Kierus. Still, telling her a few early details was probably safe enough.
Tyghan was barely walking himself when Kierus arrived. “I’m told he was a toddler found wandering in a meadow, but the truth is, he was probably taken. The fairy who brought him to court was confused. She couldn’t seem to remember where she got him. She wanted to give him as a gift to the queen.”
“My father wasstolen?”
“It would seem so, or he stumbled into Elphame on his own. It still happens from time to time.”
“And no one tried to return him to his parents?”
“They tried, but by the time they found out who his parents were, they were dead.”
“He had no other relatives?”
“All of them were dead.”
“How could they all die? Was there an accident?”
“I—I’m not sure. I was—”
“Of course. It was a long time ago—you probably weren’t even born yet.” She peered sideways at him. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“Is that the same as human years? Or are you ancient?”
He suppressed a smile. “The same, more or less. Tuatha de age in a similar fashion to mortals until they reach maturity, which is around seventy years.”
“Seventy? It takes that long for you to become mature?”
“You’d be surprised. And even though some of us do make it to a great age, we’re not exactly immortal. We die from accidents or illness or by tiring of life. Royals tend to have shorter lives, because they have more enemies. The oldest fae I know of is more than two thousand years old, but most fae don’t live beyond three or four centuries. Our lifelines are left to fate, bad choices, and the will of Danu.”
“If you’re only twenty-six, then I suppose you couldn’t remember my father. He was in my world for at least twenty-four years. That’s when he met my mother at a swap meet near Los Angeles. LA’s a large city in—”
“I know where Los Angeles is.”
“Really? You’ve been there?”
“No, but we have maps of your world.”
Her brow rose, suspicious. “Had you ever been to Bowskeep before today?”
