The Earl's Childe (37 page)

“Tony,” Mum said. “Will helping untangle Calbraith's hold over Max go against your inability to get directly involved in fey war issues? Is that something you can do with your powers?”

The djinni frowned at my mum. His fiery eyes appraised Max. “Will none of your magick do the same, Mrs. MacArthur? There are three more children, as well as yourselves, who are struggling with injuries.”

Mum tightened her lip to a thin line. “I have never even tried something as complicated as that. I figured you would be better suited and could do it more quickly.”

“Calbraith will recognize my presence if I do so, and while I
cannot
get directly involved, the fact I am here and, at the very least, guarding and defending the royal family, should not be without merit.”

Mum and the djinni stared at each other for a moment. Closing her eyes, she gave a curt nod. “Understood. Max,” she turned to him, “do you want me to try and sever, or at least weaken, Calbraith's hold on you?” She swallowed. “I can't promise it will be a pleasant experience, but Michael is right. He will keep trying to ‘get in' through you…and I think we'd both prefer not having to resort to iron again.”

Max nodded. “Do it. And if you have to, cut me with the blade again.” He looked over at my friends and me, though he seemed to stare at me longest. “I won't risk anyone else getting hurt.”

“All right then. Follow me to my office. I need to focus. Michael, I may need your help. Rowan…” My brother looked up. “You, too. The spell we placed on you will help.” As he trotted over to her, Mum used her coaching voice. “Everyone! Prince Christopher and Princess Maryan are in charge. Do exactly as they say. I don't need to tell you that your lives depend on it; I think you know that already.”

We all mumbled, “Yes, ma'am.”

After adding instructions to Mrs. McInnis and Eliza about food and water, she, Dad, Max, and Rowan disappeared through the “Private Area” door to my family's part of the house, bringing Isis with them, as Tony finished healing each in turn.

And we waited.

CHAPTER

18

Where I learn about things that are precious
.

Once my friends were all healed by Tony, they moved to the dining room, and conversation quickly changed.

“Man, I know I killed at least five of those beasties. Maybe six!” Chris started counting on his fingers. “That first one after Heather gave me the iron sword.” He nodded a big smile at me. “Nice work, kid! Man, that was a sweet blade! I wish I hadn't dropped it… Anyway…”

“You got maybe four, Chris, and I totally beat you because
I
got five,” Sara-Not-Beth declared. “I was running circles around them on and off Misty.”

I understood they all wanted not to think about all the awful stuff, about Dream, about how badly we'd all been hurt. Especially Livy. I didn't want to think about it either. Any of it! I hadn't even had a chance to tell Mum about Dream, and the thought of having to tell it all hurt my chest and made me not want to breathe. Yet…I couldn't stop thinking of all of it. And I couldn't stop thinking that we were talking about…
killing
.

“Yeah, but how many did our future king take out with the grenades?” Jared slapped Joe's back. “And who got a shot in on the head honcho?”

Joe bit his lip and glanced at me. Part of him looked almost as uncomfortable as I felt, but another part looked proud. His dad was a war hero; he, himself, had just saved Stormy and Max. I gave him a smile back, which seemed to brighten him a whole lot more. He'd been through his own hell before even stepping into mine; he deserved whatever props he got now.

Except, while I wanted him to feel better, and I knew that the red caps were monsters, I still felt like
we
might be turning into monsters.

Stating I needed to use the loo, I slipped away and headed over to Ermie, whose hooves were clacking in a nervous circle. Stormy lay in the corner but lifted his head to sleepily blink at me. I petted his face and gave him one of the oatmeal cookies I'd snagged from the platter Mrs. McInnis had put out, and then waited for Ermie to stop trotting.

I'm inside. I hate being inside
.

I mentally added “claustrophobic” to the things I knew about the kelpie. “Cookie?” I offered him one of the oatmeal cookies. He sniffed it and made a face, then started trotting again.

Why is this room so small?

“This is the biggest room in the castle. And it's better than being torn to shreds outside.” I looked at his legs, trying not to get dizzy with him circling me. “You didn't let Tony heal you?”

More important things. I'll be fine
.

“Will you at least let me clean it off for you? You said water heals you.” I grabbed one of the compresses and dipped it in the urn of water Mickey had brought over.

He snorted at me, but stopped trotting.
His
son.
How did I miss that?

“Have you smelled half-human people before?”

Aye. It must have been masked. Calbraith must have known… Cast a spell on the boy, a strong one… Still
. He chuffed, shaking his head, clearly upset and disappointed in himself.

“It seems Calbraith put in a lot of planning on this whole mess.” I gently patted the red-cap claw marks with the compress. They were not as gross as the ones my friends had had. “At least these don't look so bad.”

I'm immune to their poison, too
. I could still sense him feeling upset at himself.
Wait!
He turned around, flaring his nose at me.
Did the djinni miss an injury on you? Why did you say nothing?

“No, he got everything, I'm sure.” I said. “Now, let me get where that scourge got you. You still get iron poisoning. You told me that much.”

No! What are you hiding?
He flared his nostrils at me again.

“Oh.”
Oh
. I felt my face burn in embarrassment. Of course he'd notice
that
. “It's a normal human girl thing.”

He didn't put into words how
not
normal it sounded to him, but I got the gist of it in my head.

“Just trust me. You'll notice it every freaking month or so. It's annoying. Now let me finish, okay?” I offered him a smile. “Do I need to order you to let me take care of you?”

His lip twitched, and he slowly shifted his weight to the side I'd just cleaned. The wounds were mostly scabbed over now. When I walked to his other side, though, that was a different story.

“Ermie! Your fur!” There were six seeping and still bubbling wounds. Worse, though, around each wound his normally wriggling fur hung dead and brown.

It will take years for it to grow back, if it even does grow back
.

“I'm sorry,” I said. The sadness and pain in his mind-voice twisted my heart. I gently patted the wound, and he jumped away, turning his head so his eyes didn't meet mine. Clumps of dead, brown tentacle fur clung to the damp compress.

It's fine. Really
.

I pressed my lips together. “Tony!” I called to the djinni. “Tony, come here, please?”

I'll be fine! He doesn't need to touch me!
Ermie side-passed away from me as the djinni came to my side.

Claustrophobic
and
djinni-phobic, I noted.

“Yes, Heather,” Tony said, glancing between the kelpie and me.

“Can you help Ermie? And…without touching him?” “Not if he doesn't want me to.”

I walked over to Ermie, hands outstretched to him. “He's not going to hurt you. Please? I don't want to see you in pain.” I rubbed my hands up and down his muzzle and around the straps of his bridle, reaching to scratch his neck, albeit gently; there were some scabs that looked like red-cap tooth marks there, too.

With a sigh, he leaned his forehead on my shoulder.
You trust him?

I looked at Tony, thinking of what he said to Joe about choosing to be in debt to him. He didn't have to heal all of us, but he had. “Aye, I do.”

Fine, then. I trust you
.

I nodded at Tony; the weight of Ehrwnmyr's words caught in my throat. There was no teasing or sarcasm in his tone.

I do trust you. You're foolishly, stubbornly, and unrealistically kind to a fault so huge you would get your weak, mortal self killed. Do you realize how aggravating that is?

That sounded a bit more like the kelpie I knew. I chuckled.

“I'm done.” Tony stepped away from Ermie. Stepping a little farther away from the djinni, he stretched his neck to sniff at his flank.

Even my fur!
This fact made the (rather vain) kelpie very happy.

“Tha— Are you one of those people
I'm
not allowed to thank?” I asked Tony. He'd said Joe didn't have to worry, but I wasn't taking any chances.

He smirked at me. “You're welcome. Your thanks puts you in no debt to me, no. But it's good you're aware of such things.”

I smiled at him.

“If there's nothing else, Heather, it's nearly tea, and there is something I must do.”

Tea! We needed an answer about Dad's earldom by teatime!

“Okay,” I said, and he disappeared. I didn't know what answer to worry about more. If the queen gave my dad an earldom or whatever. Or if she didn't.

Echoes of laughter trickled from the dining room. No one else was in the great hall, now, but the two equines and me, save for when Prince Christopher or Princess Maryan walked out to check on us.

I walked over to the large fireplace and sat on its raised marble platform. Ermie followed me, tucked his knees in, and actually lay down beside me.

There's a reason you are avoiding your friends whom you worked so hard to keep safe?

I shook my head. “They're busy talking about how many red caps they killed.”

Ehrwnmyr stared at me for a very long time before saying,
They did commendably well, considering their youth and clear lack of training with blades. Particularly the young prince, your “best mate.”

“Yeah, I know.”

And this makes you uncomfortable
.

“They're proud of killing things. Even Joe, who…” I stopped. It was none of Ermie's business about how Joe felt about losing his bodyguard.

The kelpie tilted his head.
You
do
realize the red caps would have killed you. Eaten your friends while they still lived. While Calbraith watched. And made
you
watch, because it would kill you inside, and that is exactly his preferred form of entertainment
. He paused a moment.
I saw the other horse's body. Smelled its fear still in the air. You
must
know there was no other option but to kill them for our escape
.

“Killing still shouldn't be something you're proud of.” I frowned at him, remembering his joy when I gave him permission to kill the red caps. “Or something you enjoy.”

It is true I take pleasure in killing, and even in the taste of others' fear—and I know you don't want to hear me say that—but I do
not
take pleasure in killing one's spirit or in
that
level of torture. I have never eaten another intelligent creature while it lived
.

I didn't say anything. But I wasn't concentrating on hiding my thoughts, either.

He nudged my knee with his nose.
It is yourself you are uncomfortable with
, angry
with, the most. For giving me permission to kill
.

I nodded slowly.

They
would
have killed us all
. Worse
than just killed us all
.

“I know.” I wiped tears from my eyes with the sleeve that hadn't been flayed open by Calbraith's scourge. “Just…still.”

Still nothing. If you'd chosen to hold me back, it would have been a death sentence for all of us. Or worse
.

“I
know
. I do. But
knowing
that doesn't make me feel any better about it!”

Ermie sighed.
Nor do you even think it should. I repeat my earlier observation on how aggravating sharing your soul is. You're too precious for words
.

I scowled at him. “Stop calling me precious!”

But you're so precious
.

“You know what, I
won't
feel guilty for smacking you on the nose if you call me precious again!”

He rolled to his feet and hunched, more like a dog than a horse. Behind him, Stormy scampered to his feet, unsure of this new development.
Can your precious mortal body even catch me to do that?

“I can order you to stop!” I growled, standing up.

You would do that? Command me against my free will for no gain but your own sore pride? Alas, perhaps your soul is
not
that precious
.

“Cut it out! You're mocking me!” I swatted in the direction of his nose, but he was right. My mortal moves didn't even come close to making contact as he hopped to the side.