The Rise of the Dark Lord Page 10

  Even gray and shadowed and clearly sinking into herself mentally as well as physically, in her true elfin form, she was amazing.

  But she was losing hope.

  I could see it.

  And she had reason.

  They were going to clip her beautiful wings.

  So something had to be done.

  And I was sensing the someone who had to do something was going to be me.

  15 February

  Ash, Aidan and myself testified today.

  An elfin trial, maybe not surprisingly, was not like a human one.

  There was no jury, for one.

  Just three male elves who sat in a triangle at the front of the room and watched the proceedings, looking kinda bored.

  I recognized one of them. He’d come to the Gathering I’d been summoned to all those months ago.

  This was, by the by, officially the “Imperial Order.”

  The collective of the race of the elves was known as The Imperial Order like Americans were known as Americans. But these three males were like a super abbreviated version of Congress.

  The King and Queen were the Big Kahunas.

  The Imperial Order were their mouthpieces and made most of the minor and some of the major decisions based on their interactions with their people, unless, of course, the King and/or Queen vetoed it as they had the final decision in everything.

  Both the King and Queen were there, but they didn’t say anything.

  In fact, the only person who spoke was the prosecutor-type elf (BecBec had no defense attorney, no one spoke for her at all, not even herself).

  And this male could pontificate at length, which he did.

  I mean, I did not know you could say so much about performing the Forbidden and how wrong it was, and how long it had been since someone had done it, and the ramifications to the human and Fae world when it was done.

  I was pretty sure his intent was to bore the triumvirate into a guilty verdict.

  So even though I normally had the attention span of a gnat, I also had bruises all over my thighs under my ecru and sparkle-sequined tutu where I pinched myself so I wouldn’t lose concentration.

  Ash (of course) noted what I was doing and tried to take my hand.

  But I sent him a look and he quit doing that.

  Aidan testified first and I think he said about five words, all of them interrupted, before he was dismissed from the stand.

  He looked infuriated as he resumed his seat beside me.

  Ash didn’t fare much better.

  So he looked enraged when he took his seat at my side.

  In other words…

  This was a waste of time.

  And a total farce!

  I was last.

  And I was ready.

  I let the prosecutor male interrupt me and I sat and listened as he preached and preened and pointed balefully at a visibly terrified and alternately hopeless-looking BecBec while I sat the stand and he didn’t ask any questions of me at all.

  And then when I was dismissed, I stood.

  But I did not go back to take my seat.

  I turned to the triumvirate.

  “The human Mathilda, you are dismissed from your testimony,” the prosecutor-type male announced behind me.

  “This is your world and this is how things are done,” I said to the triumvirate, feeling the keen attention of them, and the King and Queen.

  “The human Mathilda! You are dismissed!” the prosecutor-type male’s voice was rising.

  “And please, I beg you, do not take this as disrespect that I speak directly to you.”

  “The human Mathilda! You are dismissed!”

  “Rules are important. Laws more so. I get that.”

  “Remove her to her seat!”

  “Touch her and every Faerie Mound will be destroyed,” I heard Ash growl.

  There were gasps.

  I ignored all this.

  “And everything this gentle Fae has said about how important it is not to break them is true. But Sebastian Wilding is my destiny and Bellabeccabec played her part. Your world is so beautiful, my world must seem insignificant. But it isn’t to me. And I’m fated to save the woman who will make great and amazing and important change in my world. And he is fated not only to keep me safe in doing that but also make me happy. Bellabeccabec played her part. Maybe it wasn’t right, but it was her destiny. So please, please, please, do not clip her beautiful wings for simply meeting her destiny.”

  With that, I walked from the witness stand (which was just a chair on the floor in the center of the round room) and moved back to my seat.

  Though, I was pretty proud of myself that I didn’t flip the bird at the prosecutor as I went.

  “You will disregard that disrespect!” the prosecutor demanded pompously of the triumvirate.

  “You make a meal of this, Golinienien,” the king sighed. “Move on.”

  After I sat between Ash and Aidan, I glanced up at BecBec in her box situated ten feet up on the wall and saw her staring blankly at nothing.

  “We totally have to break her out,” I muttered as Golinienien resumed holding forth.

  Aidan made a noise like a grunt.

  “Hush,” Ash shushed me.

  I ground my teeth.

  The torture of that day (for Ash, Aidan and me, not BecBec) ended about half an hour later with the announcement the prosecution rests, and the verdict would be shared in the morning.

  The boys and me trudged back to our quarters and had a very lifeless dinner of delicious food that tasted like sawdust (at least to me).

  None of us was looking forward to tomorrow.

  The writing was on the wall.

  By the way, Faerie Mounds were important not only as they gave the elves entry into my world, but because that gave them entry into alternate dimensions, the only gates to which could be found on my world.

  Wrap your mind around that.

  Alternate dimensions!

  And Ash’s threat was a big one because, if these immortal beings were stuck in their Realm without various other worlds to explore, they’d wish they could die because they’d perpetually be dying of boredom.

  They needed those Mounds, and more, they needed the witches and Le Société, who guarded them.

  So…there.

  20 February

  Right, so, well, not a surprise.

  I was in big trouble.

  Because my pleas fell on deaf ears and BecBec was sentenced to having her wings clipped.

  I had a strong suspicion Maithieliel was behind that because, when the verdict came down, Cystiennien looked fit to be tied.

  Which meant BecBec would not only be flightless as they severed then cauterized the muscle that moved the wings, they also mutilated the wings so those glorious appendages would be reduced to little stubs on her back.

  A great shame to any elf.

  One to be borne for eternity.

  And obviously, I couldn’t let that happen.

  And Sarionion (pronounced Sar-ee-oh-nee-on, or Amethyst Hottie) and Traeneanean (pronounced Trey-nee-ah-nee-an, or Citrine Hottie) wanted to bed me.

  And apparently elves were super horny, and even though they’d seemed cool that Ash had laid down the law that wasn’t going to happen, they tended to get fixed on things they wanted.

  They were also Guardians of the Realm so they pretty much had carte blanche to go anywhere they wanted and thus had access to everywhere I needed.

  Ash had shared all of this with me not really thinking I’d take things so far.

  I knew him.

  But I guess he was still learning about me.

  One thing he knew about me, but didn’t know I would use it, was that I had serious magic.

  And I had my wand with me.

  So…um…

  Gaolbreak!

  Eek!

  10 March

  Okay, obviously a lot going on. So I’ll just get right to it.

  Since we suddenly found ourselves fugitiv
es (or, uh, I’d suddenly made us all fugitives) and we had to get out of the country and away from any Faerie Mounds ASAP (the USA didn’t have any Faerie Mounds, FYI—in fact, it was rare the Fae crossed the pond), I did not meet with the guys at the Institute to give them a pep talk, thank them for their allegiance and encourage them to gird their loins and eat their fiber.

  Ditto with not being able to meet with Le Société to talk them into casting their lot with the Modernists.

  Last, I had to miss the second meeting in London with our producers and the people at the BBC to discuss our cookery program (which sucked on a variety of levels, one of which was that I had a killer outfit for that meeting, another was that I loved London, and a third was that I wondered, since Ash was a Sir, if we might be able to stop for tea at Buckingham Palace).

  No.

  Instead, Ash commissioned a private plane.

  By the by, this was awesome, because it was the-lap-of-luxury posh, as well as terrible, because everyone knows, once you go posh, you can never go back.

  But we couldn’t fly commercial, obviously.

  Non-magical people couldn’t see the elves, but they still existed so they needed to sit their asses somewhere. And although the elves had a way to fold and tuck their wings so they could pass as humans or they could reduce themselves to fit in my purse, Sar and Trae flatly refused to do either.

  And BecBec wasn’t responding to anything at all and seemed to be acting solely on autopilot.

  So, as such, we flew back to Denver.

  That “we” being me, Ash, BecBec, Sar (rhymes with “far”) and Trae (said like “Trey”).

  And Aidan.

  That was Ash and Aidan’s decision, as Ash explained (irritably, and this not because Aidan was with us, but because I’d freed BecBec against his wishes and with his (and Aidan’s) forced participation since I was going to do it with or without them, and, as Ash had been demonstrating when it came to me, there was no without him), “You need as much protection as you can get. Seymour is the Mathilda Scholar, but he’s also the foremost specialist on the Fae.”

  Aidan, so totally a genius.

  Needless to say, my decision to break BecBec out of prison was not a popular one even with my posse.

  Dad was furious.

  Gabe was disappointed.

  Mom was beside herself.

  Even Su thought I’d lost my mind. (“You don’t force your ideals on other peoples!” yadda, yadda, yadda.)

  Dad and Gabe flew home from Washington and there was a lot of drama, lectures, shouting and demands that I make overtures to the Imperial Order as well the King and Queen personally, apologizing for my grave mistake, explaining my emotions got the better of me, extending offerings of recompense and promising to return BecBec, Sar and Trae to them to do with as they will.

  Just to say…

  No fucking way.

  About three days into this, when Dad was sharing that he himself begged Prunella to act as an intermediary on our behalf to negotiate the return of the elves, and she reluctantly agreed, and I was sitting in Mom’s living room, fuming (I mean, did no one respect the SuperWitch, in other words, ME!?), with Ash and Aidan standing to one side of me, Sar and Trae to the other, I looked to BecBec curled in a club chair.

  Her wings were tucked tight to her body like she was protecting them.

  She was eating.

  But she was not talking.

  And she had not come out of herself even a little bit.

  I cut my father off in mid-bluster and called, “My lovely, you need to go up to your room and have a bit of a rest. You don’t need to be here for this.”

  She was staying in my old room.

  Marcus had flown back to England to deal with this issue within Le Société (they weren’t real thrilled we’d done it either) so Sar and Trae were staying in the Carriage House.

  Aidan was back in his old room.

  It was all a bustle again at The Acre.

  BecBec didn’t even look at me.

  “Matty, are you listening to me?” Dad snapped.

  I looked at Dad.

  “I’m not returning her. If need be, we’ll go on the lam.”

  “Fucking hell,” Ash muttered.

  “Are you unaware that everything about the existence of a number of races is hanging in the balance of what started Hallowe’en night and every member of all those races is looking to you as the means, whether they think it will be good, or bad, of how we will go forward?” Dad demanded.

  “They can sort themselves out. BecBec saved Ash’s life. Hers will not be forfeit because of it and I’ll do whatever I have to do to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  Dad flung an arm at BecBec. “She’s immortal!”

  I stood and shouted, “Yes, Dad! And as much as I hate to point this out, some time in the future, Ash will be no longer. I will be no longer. The children we’ll have will be no longer. Our children’s children will be no longer. But BecBec will endure her punishment until the entire universe blinks out of existence! In other words, the punishment does not fit the crime!”

  Dad shut up.

  “This is true,” Josie said softly. “In fact, it’s debatable a crime has even been committed.”

  “Word!” I snapped.

  God, I loved Josie.

  “Okay, so, sure,” I carried on when no one said anything. “She did wrong as pertains to their laws, and she knew she did wrong, and if she has to endure some sentence for that, she does. But not that. Absolutely not that.”

  Still, no one said anything.

  Then someone did.

  “Maithieliel had a great love.”

  Everyone looked to Sar seeing as he was the one who was speaking.

  “He was human,” Sar kept going. “She tried, in vain, and with much obsession, to bear his child. Wee babe after wee babe after wee babe perished in her womb or the moment it left or within days or weeks of mewling pain after it was born. It drove her mad. It drove her human male mad. It drove Cystiennien mad.”

  As it would.

  Yikes!

  “Years passed and her human grew old and frail. But she saw no gray or wrinkles. She saw only the handsome, virile man he once was. And when it was his time to leave the earth, she went to Cystiennien and wept and pled and tore at her hair in demand that he give permission, as it had always been solely his wont to do, that she could sing the Lament, again and again and again, to make her human stay with her for eternity. Cystiennien was not mad with love and grief. He knew this was no existence for this male. To be kept in a state of aging, then decaying, so Maitheiliel would not lose her love. So he forbid it.”

  All righty then.

  Things about the Fae were coming clear.

  Things about Maitheiliel were becoming clearer.

  Being forced to live while your body decayed just so your lover didn’t have to let go?

  I mean, fixate much?

  “And when this male died, Maitheiliel lost what little was left of her sanity. For centuries, her sorrow manifested itself on her people. She was once greatly loved, but she grew greatly feared. It was she who made the faerie when she forbid all Fae from moving about the earth in our true forms so that humans could not fall in love with us and we were not of a size and stature to share relations with them. She forbid the Lament for any and all purposes. But that was not all she did. She rained great terror on her people in a wrath that was fueled by the depths of her mourning. Eventually, her grief waned, and she was no longer feared, but with what she had done, she was reviled, and finally, simply tolerated. And her sorrow came again with the realization that she lost the love of her people. But she did not remind them why she once held their love. Instead, she became bitter, and as such, they continued to withhold their regard from her.”

  He took a long breath.

  And kept going.

  “Cystiennien has love and regard from the Fae. But, once the strongest ruler in any realm, he is now considered weak, for his love of his wife
allowed her these sulks and rages at the expense of their people. Of course, the love you have for the one who owns your heart is the most important love of all. But he did her no favors not getting her in hand. And his people suffered for it.”

  This was all very fascinating.

  But I wasn’t all that sure why he was telling this tale.

  “You do not follow bitter or weak leaders,” he stated. “At least, you do not do it for long, for if you do, you become a bitter and weak people. And Fae are not bitter, nor are we weak.”

  Okay.

  Well.

  That would explain why he was telling us this tale.

  “If The Mathilda did not free Bellabeccabec and the sentence was carried out, there would have been a great revolt,” Sar informed us. “There are many who had been whispering of it for centuries. Whispers that changed, after The Mathilda came to be known as walking the earth, and then the Battle of The Tor happened. Whispers of hope that our time had come that we did not have to debase ourselves and become diminutive creatures looked on as endearing or feeble by races that are physically and magically our inferiors. Shackle ourselves and our urges and not do as we wished with our bodies and our time.”

  He stood straight(er) and kept going.

  “I am most proud to have played a part in freeing Bellabeccabec and serving alongside The Mathilda. Bellabeccabec is known and revered in the Realm as the Fae who knew her own will and took charge of it. What she did is considered very brave and is also looked upon as the end to all of our suffering under the tyranny of our leaders. And as such, I will not return to my Realm with her or on my own until the King and Queen rescind the sentence levied on Bellabeccabec and remove the strictures that were enforced at the whim and madness of only one of our race.”

  Sar looked to Dad.

  “It is heartening how deeply you respect the Realm and its leaders. However, in doing so, you inadvertently go against the will of its people.”

  Well, there you go then.

  “We are Guardians of the Realm,” Trae spoke up. “We are not Guardians of the Arbitrary Rule of Cystiennien and Maithieliel.”

  I fought smiling.