A Fey Harvest (8 page)

“I am so sorry,” Guirmean sighed. “I should have known better than to allow an asrai to serve us but she promised to behave and she can be quite persuasive. It's one of their gifts, you know.”

“
I'll bet,” I snorted.

“
It's quite alright,” Arach gave me a look and I stopped chuckling. He was right, Guirmean was new to ruling, we should cut him some slack.

“
What's an asrai?” I asked.

“
They're a type of water sidhe,” Guirmean explained. They're usually quite shy and stay in the deeper ocean. The sun can turn them into a pool of water, so usually they choose not to chance it.”

“
Yeah, that would suck,” I glanced quickly at Arach, wondering if that was an inappropriate comment, but he just rolled his eyes at me.

“
They're all very attractive and they have the magic of persuasion over the opposite sex,” Guirmean cleared his throat, “but as I said, they're usually more elusive than Dearbhail. I'm not really sure why she wanted to serve us today.”

Arach cleared his throat and gave Guirmean a look I couldn't decipher.

“Oh yes, I apologize. Here,” Guirmean held out a hand, “let me fill your glass.”

I passed him my glass as three men entered holding serving platters. These guys were all dark haired, with large liquid eyes and sweet faces. They had a similar look about them, so I assumed they were the same type of fey. Each one went to one of us, so we all had someone at our elbow at the same time. Guirmean handed me my full glass before turning to his server and taking a portion of food. I looked to my right and saw the platter held out to me at the perfect height. I took the serving fork, which was placed neatly beside the food, and took a piece of delicate white fish in some kind of creamy sauce.

“Thank you,” I said to my server and he smiled serenely, nodding his head before moving to Arach. The three waiters shifted as one, moving around the table gracefully, so that once more, we each had someone serving us at the same time. It was beautiful and perfectly executed. I wanted to applaud but when I glanced over at Arach with a gleeful expression, he just shook his head, albeit with the hint of a smile about his lips.

When the men finished their maneuvers, they headed out just as silently as they'd come in and we set to work on the first course. The food was amazing and unsurprisingly seafood dominated. Besides the fish, which turned out to be in a beurre blanc sauce, there was a fey version of lobster thermidor, and a
puff pastry stuffed with a buttery crab filling. The wine was light and sparkly, the perfect accompaniment.

“
This is wonderful,” I groaned happily as I put another bite of lobster in my mouth. “Thank you for not making me eat anything slimy.”

“
Vervain,” Arach huffed, an undertone of laughter in his voice.

“
No, it's fine,” Guirmean laughed. “I love your wife's honesty. I've never enjoyed the fey court style of conversing. All this grandstanding and posturing and then sweet compliments that actually hide insults. I never got the hang of it, much to Dubheasa's disappointment, and so would often remain behind when she went to High Court. I'm relieved I don't have to do that with you two.”

“
See,” I shot Arach a sassy look. “He's cool.”

“
Cool,” Guirmean grinned, “ yes, I guess I am but I'd never thought to hear that as a compliment from a Fire Queen. Thank you, Queen Vervain.”

“
It's her human vernacular,” Arach explained. “I'm slowly beginning to understand it myself. Evidently both hot and cool are complimentary terms, along with sweet, sick, and groovy, although I admit
sick
completely confounds me.”

“
Sick?” Guirmean gave me the wide blink. “Thank you for not using that term to describe me.”

“
You'll both learn,” I waved away their teasing. “Someday I'll have all of Faerie talking like me.”

“
Oh no, please,” Guirmean held up a hand and I thought he was going to say something funny but slightly insulting. Instead he said, “You'll lose your unique charm then. I'd hate to have to label you common.”

“
Thank you,” I smiled in delight.

“
That reminds me,” Guirmean nodded his acceptance of my gratitude. “Your god friend that you introduced me to is quite amusing. I invited him back and he's already visited again.”

“
My god friend?”

“
Kanaloa.”

“
Oh right,” I laughed, remembering how Kanaloa had helped me and Trevor catch Kael when he went on the lamb into the Human Realm. All he wanted in return was to be brought to Faerie. “I'm glad you've enjoyed his company.”

“
Oh yes, he's got some interesting ideas about underwater life,” Guirmean continued on but his voice faded out for me as I started to make connections in my head.

Kanaloa was the Hawaiian God of the Sea but he was also a god of Squid, Death, and... Darkness. Darkness, exactly what Faerie had warned me about. King Cian had said that the magic at the abduction scene wasn't fey. Well if it wasn't fey, what was it? There were only two other options; human and god. Human magic stemmed from the fey so I'd think it would have at least partially registered as fey on the King's magic radar. Also, it was virtually impossible for a human witch to have traced the Aether into Faerie. Gods could do it but they couldn't enter the Faerie Realm without and invitation, which Kanaloa clearly had. He'd been in Faerie recently, was a god of darkness, and held magic the King wouldn't recognize.

“Oh shit,” I whispered.

“
What was that, Queen Vervain?” Guirmean had obviously been continuing our conversation without me.

“
I'm sorry,” I glanced at Arach and found him staring at me in concern. “I just had a disturbing thought. The magic at the crime scene wasn't fey and Faerie mentioned darkness to me. Now you tell me that Kanaloa has been coming to visit, Kanaloa who is the God of the Sea, Squid, Death, and-”

“
Darkness,” Arach finished for me. “Oh, that doesn't look good.”

“
No,” Guirmean shook his head. “I don't believe it. Kanaloa is a good man and when he visits Faerie, he stays in Water city with me. He doesn't leave the water until he returns to the God Realm.”

“
When I was hunting Kael,” I frowned as I remembered nuances of the conversation I'd had with Kanaloa that day, “Trevor and I tracked him to the ocean, where Kanaloa conveniently appeared and offered assistance. He wanted something in return though, a visit to Faerie. It seems a little suspicious now.”

“
Why would Kael want to come here just to kill brownies?” Guirmean scoffed. “It's ridiculous.”

“
Why would any god come here to kill faeries?” I shrugged. “Who knows. Maybe he has a vendetta against the fey, maybe he's just evil. It could be anything.”

“
I have to admit,” Arach grimaced, “he's a valid suspect.”

“
I'll be sorely disappointed if it's him,” Guirmean sighed, “but I see your point. I won't invite him through until you prove either his guilt or innocence.”

“
I think that's for the best,” Arach nodded.

“
If it makes a difference,” I added, “I hope it's not him.”

“
Enough of this depressing topic,” Guirmean waved it away with a sad smile. “Let's get back to enjoying the food.”

I nodded, not wanting to spoil the meal either, but when I looked over at Arach he gave me a grim stare and I knew he was as convinced as I over the possibility of Kanaloa's guilt. The look he gave me said clearly that he wanted action but the King in him would not insult another ruler by dashing out in the middle of a meal. The conversation, and any action we decided to take, would have to wait.

Two more courses came out but they were spaced apart enough that I didn't feel like I was going to explode. The conversation became lively and entertaining, the wait-staff congenial and fascinating. Turns out the first three men were selkies, then we were served by undines, a sort of water spirit that seemed to be made of water. It was fascinating to watch them slosh about without spilling a single drop of themselves.

Dessert was served by kelpies and I had a moment of panic when I first saw their seaweed hair. Kael, the killer kelpie, had stabbed me with a stake and then when that hadn't worked, he drowned me, neither of which took, as it were. He hadn't known that my goddess immortality saved me from the types of death that would have killed me had I been pure fey.

Fey could be killed by a weapon fashioned of an element not their own. It was what had led to the myth that vampires could be killed with a wooden stake. Fey vampires, leanan-sidhe, were of the House of Fire, and could therefore be killed with a stake, wood being of the element of Earth, though a stake fashioned from ice, or even condensed air, would work just as well. Anyway, he tried to kill me, twice, and now I had a little paranoia when dealing with kelpies.

I controlled my panic. These kelpies had nothing to do with Kael or his sister, and I wouldn't hold the actions of two fey against a whole race. So I smiled when the kelpie woman laid a plate in front of me and she bared horsey teeth in her own version of a grin. The memory of drowning, attached firmly to Kael's back as he dove beneath the murky water of a lake, played out in my head but I pushed it back. I focused instead on the dessert.

Dessert was berry cordial and a fruit cake with a cream sauce. I thought it was peach but I was told that it was lanier, a type fruit that grew underwater. It was yummo and I lingered over every bite. The coffee service also came into play but it wasn't coffee that was served, it was chocolate. I'd forgotten that I'd had to bring coffee with me to Faerie, of course Guirmean wouldn't be serving it. The chocolate was delicious though, made with a little spice that kept it from being too sweet.

“
Well,” Guirmean stood up after we'd all finished our dessert. “Would you like to tour the castle?”

“
Oh, sure,” I stood up and Arach came over and gave me his arm.

“
We'd love to,” Arach nodded and Guirmean led us out of the dining room.

We went out the door the servers had been using, and found ourselves in a long hallway. To the right was a door to the kitchen and I paused to watch a large woman with tentacles washing five pots at once. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at me, her teeth like needles. I smiled back nervously.

She wasn't the only thing with tentacles in the kitchen. To her right were fish tanks set into the wall and filled with sea life. The creatures were all familiar looking but not quite right. There were types of crustaceans but their pincers were too oddly shaped to be lobsters, or
their bodies were too flat to be crabs. I realized that what I assumed I'd been eating probably wasn't what I'd thought it to be.

There were large shiny fish with whiskers, which at first glance I'd thought to be catfish but upon closer inspection proved to be quite different. The whiskers moved like limbs, grabbing food from the bottom of the tank and shoving it into a hinged mouth full of sharp teeth. Then there were the tentacled things. Not really octopus or squid, they had more than eight legs, maybe twenty, and didn't seem to have a head at all. They kind of just tumbled about the tank like magical mops.

As I watched, another woman stepped up to the tank. She had the soft eyes of the selkies, and a long lithe body. She dunked a hand into the tentacle tank and pulled out one of the critters. It let out a horrible squeal as she took it over to a cutting block. All of the tentacles wrapped around her hand and she had to do some maneuvering to get the thing stretched out. She lifted a cleaver and I turned away hurriedly.

Guirmean and Arach were watching me with amused stares and I grimaced at them before gesturing to Guirmean to lead on. He smiled and continued down the hall as if nothing had happened. At the end of the hall we turned left and stepped out onto the open gallery that overlooked the bottom floor of the castle. The river flowed beneath us in a powerful rush and the smell of salt was strong. On the wall beside us hung a line of three portraits, or what should have been three portraits, the last in the line was only an empty frame. Guirmean waved a hand to the paintings.

“These are the rulers of the House of Water,” Guirmean gestured at the first two, both were obviously a type of water sidhe. The men were regal looking, one had light green skin and one was pearly, like Dubheasa's had been. “My people wanted Dubheasa's portrait removed since she's now considered a traitor,” he sighed. “I haven't got around to sitting for mine yet. It seems a little trivial.”

“
Sometimes trivialities are important to the people you
rule,” Arach stared at the empty frame with a considering look before directing his gaze to Guirmean. “Your people have been through a trauma, they need something good to focus on. Leaving this frame empty, a physical representation of the hole Dubheasa has left, is not helping them heal. A portrait of you would give them a sense of normalcy, a feeling that the kingdom is as it should be once more.”

I stared at Arach, open-mouthed. Sometimes the psychotic five-year-old would morph into this inspiring, insightful king and it would leave me feeling kind of small and silly but seriously lucky.