Chapter 1
“What do you mean we have to
get married first?” Are they
insane? “Tabitha has been
kidnapped. We don’t even know if she’s
alive.”
“The Goblins are not going
to hurt her,” Dagda says as if I should know that.
“Goblins? Don’t they eat babies or something?” I’m starting to get hysterical now. I really need to spend a day in Isla’s
library and figure out who all the magical creatures are and what they do. And don’t do.
Dagda is trying to hide a
smirk at my naivety. How can he be so
amused when the woman that raised him has been kidnapped by Goblins? The smile is gone from his face now so I
guess I said that out loud. I wonder if
there’s a spell that can keep your lips closed if you are about to say
something that makes a situation worse?
I would be using that one all the time.
“I am as concerned about
Tabitha’s state of wellbeing as you are.
However, I am able to see the bigger picture here. First of all, the Goblins are not going to
hurt her if they have any hope of ransoming her. And second, the rings that the two of you are
wearing are shining so brightly that you could light the night sky over half of
the Dragon realm. The Dragons are far
from blind. It would be impossible to
sneak past them.”
“I’m sorry, I must be
hearing things. I thought you said
Dragons. Did you mean dragon flies?”
Please say yes.
He’s smirking at me
again. “Your ears are functioning
perfectly. I did say
Dragons.”
Dragons.”
“Fire breathing flying
reptiles that eat knights in shining armor actually exist?” Now I know he’s just teasing me. He has such a terrible sense of humor.
Well, if nothing else my
uncontrollable mumbling keeps him from smirking at me for very long. Ignoring the fact that he’s glowering at me
now, I turn to Kallen. “Is he telling
the truth?”
Kallen’s lips are in a firm
line. “Unfortunately, he is.” With a sigh, he adds, “He is also correct
about our rings.”
His pained expression tells
me how hard it was to say that last part.
He wants to charge ahead as badly as I do to rescue Tabitha, but I
suppose our stealth level would diminish greatly with our rings glowing like
this. And we can’t take them off. They are spelled to announce to the world
that Kallen and I had sex. It’s the
Fairy version of the giant red A from the Scarlet Letter. Turning to Dagda, I say, “Okay, how fast can
you marry us?”
“No,” Isla says and all of
our heads swing to her. “We will send
word to the Goblins that negotiations will begin in two days’ time. That will give us today to plan the rescue and
tomorrow for a proper hand-fasting.”
I would speak if my bottom
jaw wasn’t suddenly glued to the floor. Super
glued to the floor, actually. And then
stapled. I’m sure it will hurt closing
my mouth again. I’ll probably lose a few
layers of skin. Maybe some bone.
Since I am not able, Mom
speaks for me. “Isla, I appreciate that
you want the kids to have a proper hand-fasting. So do I.
But it seems that time is of the essence here. Why don’t we have a quick ceremony now and
the kids could repeat their vows in a proper ceremony after this situation is
taken care of?”
After everything we have
been through, Mom still calls us kids. I
guess in her eyes I will always be a kid.
“I’m okay with that. Kallen?”
I can tell that he wants to
say no. And I can tell he wants to say
yes. Instead of saying either, he says
to Isla, “What guarantee could we require if we ask for two days?” Good question. He is always so much more rational about
these things than I am. I’m working on
it, though. A month ago I would have
already been on my way to the Dragon realm.
I’m brought out of my
internal musing and back to the conversation when he says, “And are you certain
that the Goblins that took her are able to communicate at a reasonable level?”
I can’t stop the furrowing
of my brows. “What do you mean? They wrote a note so they must be able to
communicate.”
Isla shakes her head. There are tension lines around her eyes but
that is the only sign of her inner turmoil over the situation. “Goblin evolution is complicated. Some are more evolved than others.”
Now I’m totally
confused. “How can that be?” It seems like Darwinism would have taken care
of that problem.
Silence. That’s who answers my question. The embodiment of silence. And all the faces around me look
uncomfortable. Except for Mom and
Dad. They look just as confused as I am. Putting my hands on my hips, I do my best to
give the other three in the room a hard look.
I suck at hard looks.
Dagda shakes his head. “For god’s sake Isla, just tell her.”
Isla is very good at hard
looks. “Of course, your majesty.” That sounded like she had fuzzy, green chunky
stuff on her tongue that she was trying to spit out. “And are you going to restrain her so she
does not go running off and try to solve the problems of the entire Dragon
realm?”
Dagda pushes away from the
wall he’s leaning against and straightens himself up. “Have a little more faith that her maturity
has grown at least an iota since she arrived in this realm.”
“My priority is keeping
everyone alive and well, not taking chances on what she will or will not do.”
What the heck? “Um, you guys know I’m standing right here,
right?”
“Isla, what is it you’re so worried
about? Whatever it is, I’m sure Xandra
can handle it,” Mom says with more than a touch of annoyance in her voice. Yeah Mom for having my back. I give Kallen a quick glare for not defending
me. He raises a brow but that’s all the
reaction I get. Geez, am I really that
reckless about things?
Fine. “Okay, I get that you think I’m going to
overreact. I promise I won’t. I’ll sit right here on my stool and I won’t
do anything until we all agree on a plan.”
Hey, even Mom is looking a little doubtful now. So much for having my back. Parents are so fickle.
Isla sighs that sigh she
does when she has to do something she doesn’t want to do. “You promise?” she asks.
“Yes already. What??”
“The reason that there is
such a difference in evolution is that some of the Goblins are bred to be
food.” My heart is starting to beat a
little faster but I just nod for her to go on.
I even refrain from trying to pop my ears in case I heard her
incorrectly due to some sort of inner ear pressure.
She continues. “The Dragons are the dominant race in the
realm and their main diet is Goblin. As
some of the Goblins evolved, they figured out that they could breed the…for
lack of a better word – stupid ones, and offer them to the Dragons. If they did this, the Dragons would leave the
smarter ones alone.”
I fold my hands in front of
me on the counter and press my lips together for a moment. When I think my voice will stay even, I say,
“So, these ‘smart’ Goblins,” I have to make the quotes with my fingers when I say
smart. This sentence could not be said
without them. “They somehow get others
of their own race to have babies so
they can feed them to real live Dragons.
Do they at least kill them ahead of time or do they let the Dragons play
with their food first.”
Kallen puts his hand on my
shoulder but I shake it off. “Xandra…”
he starts but whatever look I have on my face stops him from saying another
word. Maybe I am getting better at hard
looks.
“You all know about this and
you have never done anything to save them?”
Each word drops out of my mouth as if I am etching them into a
tombstone. Three tombstones to be more
precise.
“My god, how barbaric are
you people…Fairies?” Dad asks. He’s picked
up a voice chisel to help me with my etching.
“How can you live with yourselves as you ignore such atrocities?”
Dagda’s cold green eyes turn
to Dad. “We also know that Cowans kill
each other at will, sometimes over trivial things such as fossil
remnants.” He means oil, obviously. “You also perform, and even force each other
to do, unspeakable acts. Some of which
are perpetrated upon your children.
Should we come to your realm and do something to stop all of that?”
“You mean come to our realm
and kill us off or force us to do unspeakable acts at your will from what I
understand of your past actions.”
Isla raises her voice above
theirs. “Gentlemen, can we please focus
on the topic at hand? Preferably before
Xandra throws someone through a wall. I
am not in the mood for redecorating.”
I take a couple of deep
breaths and try to push the magic that I pulled out of pure reflex back to the
ground. Glowering at Dagda, I say,
“Fine, you made your point. But human
sacrifices have been out of style in our realm for a long time.”
He crosses his arms over his
chest and leans back against the wall.
“Semantics.”
I’m going to ignore
him. Kallen’s hand on my shoulder helps
convince me. Yup, it’s a crap shoot
whether the hand on the shoulder thing works for him. “Moving on,” I say with more than a little
snark in my voice.
“Grandmother?” Kallen says
bringing her back to the question he asked before. “The negotiations?”
“We simply tell them that we
will not be available to negotiate until two days from now.”
How is that the logical
choice? “If I was a Goblin soon to be
Dragon food, I don’t think I’d like that response.” Kegan, who has been quiet until now, coughs
into his hand to cover a snicker. Isla
gives him a sharp look.
To Kallen, she says, “Do you
honestly believe that the Goblins are capable of doing harm to Tabitha? At the very most they have her
restrained. It is not in their nature to
cause harm.”
She did not seriously just
say that. “Um, they feed each other to
Dragons so it seems like it is in their nature to cause harm. And apparently it’s also in their nature to
kidnap people. Do they do this regularly
as well?”
Those tight lines around her
eyes have spread to her mouth now. “It
has never happened before.”
Glad to hear they’re amping
things up a bit. “So, you really don’t
know how far the Goblins have evolved, right?”
“Yes, Isla,” Dagda says
haughtily, “they may have evolved to the point of humans. That would make them capable of anything in
regards to violence.”
Mom is physically
restraining Dad’s ghostly form. I shake
my head and turn to Dagda. “Do we really
have to do this?” He raises a brow in a
‘do what?’ challenge. I sigh. “Since I want to go after Tabitha as soon as
possible and Isla has already expressed a disinterest in remodeling, I’m not
going to throw you through a wall this time.
But, if you antagonize my father
any more, I will.” I admit it – I do get
a selfish satisfaction from watching his face turn red when I refer to Dad as
my father and not him. I have no idea
why he thinks he’s earned the title. I’m
a strong believer in nurture vs. nature and Dad’s the one who nurtured me. Dagda’s nature might be improving but I don’t
think he’s even capable of nurturing.
He’s more do it my way and we won’t have a problem. Damn it. I hate it when I think things about him that
prove I’m his biological offspring.
“Perhaps we can get back on
topic now?” Isla says. I give Dagda a
last sour look and then nod at Isla. She
continues. “I do not believe the Goblins
have become violent. I believe they are
simply desperate for help. A couple of
days will not make a difference.”
“You don’t think they’re
going to hurt Tabitha if we make them wait?
I don’t know if I’m willing to take that chance. Starting a marriage with part of the family
being held hostage by Goblins seems like a bad omen.”
Kallen leans over and
whispers in my ear, “The entire Fae realm could be held ransom and our
hand-fasting will still be perfect.” I
feel my cheeks color as he kisses my neck in a promise of something I am very
much excited about. If he does that
again, I think I’ll forget about everything else.
“If you two are done, we can
start making plans,” Kegan says sourly.
He’s just jealous because Alita went home last night so he can’t be
doing the same thing. He is right,
though. Probably not the best time to
focus on our libidos.
“How shall we communicate
our response to the Goblins?” Kallen asks Isla.
“I believe Garren would be
willing to serve as a go-between. He has
spent many years amongst the Goblins and Dragons.” Is she blushing? Seriously?
Yup, she’s blushing. The red skin
from the neckline of her dark blue sundress which she can still wear to
perfection at her age (I have no idea how old she is) all the way up to her
still black hairline is a dead giveaway.
“Who’s Garren?” I ask which
makes her lips turn into a thin line.
Isla doesn’t say anything. I look at Kallen but he shakes his head
slightly. I’d be mad about him keeping a
secret from me but I get the impression this time it truly is about
self-preservation. Isla has a dangerous
look in her eyes and he might end up toast if he tells me at the moment. Which of course makes me even more curious. Is he an old boyfriend of Isla’s or
something?
Okay, the quicker we get
this settled the sooner I can corner Kallen in another room and make him tell
me the story. “Does he live in the
Dragon realm? I could just open a passage
to there to give him the message.”
“No,” Dagda says shaking his
head. “We want to keep you as a secret
weapon for the time being. The Dragons
would be far too interested in you if you showed too much power up front.”
Yeah, I guess I don’t want a
bunch of fire breathing Dragons interested in me. In a bad way or a good way. Who knows what happens if they burp or
sneeze. I’m pretty attached to my
eyebrows and hair. Hmm. I wonder if they really do breathe fire. I’ll ask Kallen that later. I don’t want to give Dagda another opportunity
to smirk at my ignorance. “Then what do
we do?”
Dagda pushes away from the
wall again and walks to the counter.
“The Dragon realm is not closed off from us. Fairies are able to enter as they please. Though most of us find very little reason to
enter that particular realm. Not
everyone aspires to be a Dragonologist.”
Is that really a word or is
he just making it up to be able to make fun of me later? I need one of those floating pens that the reporter
in the Harry Potter books had so I can make running lists of questions as
things come up. Maybe there really is a
spell for that. If there is, I probably
shouldn’t perform it. I might end up
with the universe’s largest writing implement following me around writing
things on a never ending scroll.
“I take it this Garren guy
is a Dragonologist?” The new tightening
of Isla’s jaw tells me I got it right.
“Okay, so who is going through to the realm to ask him to give the Goblins
a message for us?”
“I will,” Kallen says.
I’m about to tell him that
he’s crazy if he thinks he’s going alone, but Isla cuts me off before a word
can form on my lips. “You have a
hand-fasting to plan. Kegan, you will
bring the message.”
Kegan looks thrilled. “When would you like me to leave?” He might as well have said ‘when do you want
me to stick a hot poker in my eye?’
Twice.
“Still afraid of Dragons,
cousin?” Kallen asks. His face is lit up
in amusement.
Kegan glares at him across
the counter. “Simply because I am
cautious while around fire-breathing beings does not mean that I fear
them.” That answers that question. They do breathe fire. The giant pen in my mind can scratch it from
the list.
Kegan’s eyes expose his
lies. He’s afraid of Dragons. I start to laugh until I realize that I’ll
probably be terrified of the things as well.
“Maybe you won’t run into any Dragons.”
The look he gives me tells me that he did not find comfort in my words. Okay, I’m done feeling sorry for him.
“I will send two guards with
you,” Dagda says with real concern in his voice. Funny, I always assumed he didn’t care about
Kegan like he does Kallen because of the Cowan blood thing. That’s what I get for assuming, I guess.
“Thank you,” Kegan
says.
Dagda gives him a curt
nod. “Be ready to go in an hour.”
Isla turns her eyes to me. “Good, now we can move on to the
hand-fasting. Assuming you have not made
any more deals with Angels?”