Authors: L. K. Rigel
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mythology & Folk Tales, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Fairy Tales, #Mythology, #Arthurian
Goblin Ball (19 page)
London. The Dorchester
As he entered the
half-empty Promenade, Cade saw Lily’s old boyfriend sitting alone at the curved bar, brooding over a scotch rocks. The poor bloke looked pretty miserable. Cade walked on, past the pianist, and a few tables in found Duncan Edan seated with the Sarumens. They fixed on Cade in one movement as he joined the group.
Lord Sarumen, Jenna, her father, and Quinn—they were as intent as a nest of pit vipers. Cade didn’t blame Lily for begging off.
Lily.
She’d finally decided to reclaim her true name. He was glad; it fit her. She waved to him from a table further in where she and Cammy waited for him and Duncan. He gave her a wink before he sat down beside Jenna Sarumen.
“So you’ve won,” Lord Sarumen said. “You’ve come to gloat.”
“You called the meeting, Sarumen. And as to who won, I don’t feel like that guy.”
Not yet.
“The Clad,” Quinn said. “What did you do to it? It’s… normal.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Cade said.
Ha. So Lexi’s spell worked.
“You know exactly what he means,” Jenna said. “You changed it. You ruined it.”
“I didn’t do a thing to it,” Cade said. “But…”
“What?” Lord Sarumen clenched his cocktail with so much force Cade thought the glass would break. “Tell me.”
“There is an Oracle in Dumnos once again. It might be that I heard down the pub that she intended to reverse the Great Wyrding.”
“And you conveniently sold out your shares at top price. I should haul you before the court on charges of insider trading.”
“With what proof? That I acted on the foreknowledge of witchcraft? Won’t the red tops find that delicious fun.”
“But why did you do it?” Jenna said. “We’ll lose our military contracts, and the shares will plummet as soon as word gets out.”
“Pity,” Cade said. “I should have thought the iron was quite valuable, even unwyrded. People will always need plowshares and… cauldrons. Look, why are we here, Sarumen? I’m utterly out of it now.”
“Then get in again. Buy the shares back,” Sarumen said. “All of them, yours and mine. You’ve always cared about the Clad for its own sake more than what its shares are worth. You sold at top, buy back now, and you’ll still have made a tidy profit.”
“True, but there’s a problem. You’re well aware that when I walked through that door the shares were down fifteen percent from last week, and all pressure is downward.” Cade leaned forward. “Someone told. Another leak in your boat?”
Sarumen’s eyes narrowed, confirming Cade’s suspicions. The verbal quarrel had found its mark. In his life as Ross, he’d always suspected Sarumen of drowning the prince that fateful morning in 1120 off the Normandum coast.
“Um…” Jenna broke in. “That might be me. I shorted a block of shares last week. The market may have reacted to that.”
“You little fool—”
“My lord, she had to do it,” Quinn said, and Jenna shot him a look of gratitude. “With respect, we’re in too deep. Jenna saved our asses by hedging our position.”
“Damn it all. They’re worth nothing to me now, Bausiney. And they hold sentimental value for you.”
Cade said nothing, waiting for Sarumen to sweeten the pot.
“I won’t bring charges of insider trading. Never breathe a word of it. I swear.”
“You’re more afraid of the tabloids than we are.” Duncan stepped in. “Swear there’ll be no manipulation once we’ve bought back the shares. Short all you want until then, sweet girl”—he looked pointedly at Jenna—“but thereafter, it will be as if you and yours never heard of the Dumnos Clad.”
“Done,” Lord Sarumen said.
“Swear by sun and moon?” Cade said.
“I swear by sun and moon.”
“Tell your minions hands off—now, while I’m listening,” Duncan said. “I’m not a trusting kind of fellow.”
Cade waited until Sarumen gave the orders. Then he said, “Answer one question.”
Sarumen leaned back and raised an eyebrow. “Well?”
“Before the Anarchy, the night the
White Lady
sank, did you drown Prince Aethelos?”
Sarumen held his drink close to his face and swirled the amber liquid. His jaw worked, and his eyes were lowered. The dark brown lashes and eyebrows enhanced the beauty Cade remembered from that lifetime so long ago, the skin perfect and unlined. This was an immortal dark fae. Something Cade must never forget, no matter if he’d won this particular match.
“No.” Sarumen looked up.
“Could you have saved him?”
“Had I wished to.” The fairy shrugged. “I did not.”
“Fair enough.” Cade stood up. “Call the solicitors. Draw up the papers. I want it over by close of business today.”
“Can I speak with you a moment?” Jenna Sarumen beat Cade and Duncan to Lily and Cammy’s table. She looked more fragile than Lily would have thought possible. “Please?”
“All right.”
Lily gave Cammy a what-can-you-do shrug and slid out of the booth. She followed Jenna past all the tables, past Greg at the bar, out of the Promenade completely, and to a couple of chairs situated in a private alcove.
“Can you just explain it to me?” Jenna said. “Why Greg? What did you ever see in that guy?”
“I don’t know, really.”
“He isn’t worthy of you,” Jenna said. “So. Not. Worthy.”
“I know that now. But just a few years ago, I couldn’t imagine myself with anyone who treated me well,” Lily said. “I… settled. Maybe I thought any man was better than no man.”
“Great gods.” Jenna scoffed. “You were such a loser.”
“Pretty sad, yeah.” It felt so wrong having a heart-to-heart with a woman who recently wanted to kill her. “Why don’t you divorce him?”
“Can’t.” Jenna produced a handkerchief out of the air and blew her nose. “I wanted him so bad, and Daddy was so against it, I had to swear an oath never to divorce him if they’d let me have him.”
“They?”
“Daddy and the Dark Lord. They’re horrible.”
“But why?” As far as Lily could tell, none of the Sarumens could stand Greg. Why not let him go?
“To punish me for wanting something they didn’t approve of.” Jenna rolled her eyes, and all of a sudden a flood of tears came spilling out. “I had to sw…swear not t…to k…kill him either.” She blew her nose again.
“Well…” Lily patted her ex-nemesis on the thigh. “He’s human. He won’t live long.”
“There’s that, I guess,” Jenna said. “Thanks.”
“Um… not a problem.”
“I suppose you’d best get back to Cade,” Jenna said. “He’s yummy.”
“And he’s
mine
,” Lilith said with more force than she probably needed to.
Jenna raised both her hands in a surrender gesture. “Not a problem.”
Duncan Edan ended his call and laid the phone on the table, face up, as the waiter set down fresh pints for the men.
“We’ll have that in Tintagos now,” Lily said. “Mobiles at the dinner table. I suppose Moo’s daughter Sharon will be in heaven to have her mobile again.”
“She and Jimmy will also be glad of the increased spending money in her customer’s pockets when the Clad comes back to the shire,” Duncan said. “Also made possible by the availability of wireless.”
“We’ll take it slow,” Cade said. “Some things will be irritating, but many will be better. Easier.”
“But the mystic will be harder to notice,” Lily said. “Harder to hold onto.”
“Not all the changes coming are from the human side,” Cade said. “Now that Cissa and Max are married, the goblins are pushing for all sorts of integration. Jimmy and Sharon said their gob business last week was double their human business.”
“People will see what they see.” Cammy held her Forbidden Fruit cocktail up to the light, the crystal glass made exclusively for the Dorchester. “Exquisite craftsmanship created this beauty, but it doesn’t mean the mystic isn’t in it. The reflected light is magical.”
“I grew up in a desert,” Lily said. “I know what I’m talking about. The more people depend on technology, the less they believe in the mystic.”
“Tosh. It isn’t like Tinker Bell,” Cammy said. “Its existence doesn’t depend on our belief. Nonbelievers can’t or won’t ever see; that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. The mystic is eternal, like the gods, available to the eternal
yes
.”
“Best word in the language.” Duncan lifted Cammy’s hand to his lips, and her engagement ring sparkled. “Yes.”
“At any moment,” Cammy went on, “any mere mortal can choose. She can look at a lake and call it sacred or at a tree and say
I call that divine
.
Anyone. Even the plainest, silliest woman who ever lived can give herself over to it, change her life, move house to the place meant to be her home, and open a tea shop—even she can decide one day to say
I believe,
and to let the mystic in.”
“And then?” Duncan said.
“And then just see.” Cammy French gazed adoringly at the man who utterly loved her. “Just see what happens.”
Goblin Ball
Also by L.K. Rigel
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the
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(Jane Austen Variations)
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Give Me
Bride of Fae
Fever Mist
A Glimmering Girl
Goblin Ball
Contemporary Romance
Kiss Me Hello
Speculative Fiction
My Mr. Rochester
(Jane Eyre Retold)
Apocalypto Series
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Spiderwork
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