Kelpie (Come Love a Fey) (22 page)

I
knew what he meant.  I couldn’t answer him.

“No
matter what your kind or my kind does, there is justification.  If your kind
were completely eliminated- if the good were sacrificed with the bad- the world
would be safe for my people.  The creatures, the plants and the spirits that
reside here, would be safe.  Then should I support the ones who follow this
path?  Should we extinguish all that is good in your race along with the evil? 
And the fey who depend on humans to live?”

I
dug my fingernails into the rough bark of the log.  I got the feeling I wasn’t
just speaking with some random fey.  This was someone important, someone who
really could make this decision.

“And
if I took the other side- would I watch my children die, watch them fade one by
one until there were no more of us left in this world.  This would also put an
end to the fighting.  Maybe humans would have a chance to change if our kind
weren’t pushing them toward annihilation.”

He
leaned close and looked into my eyes, tucking my hair behind an ear with his
graceful hands.  “I feel that you are somehow very important in all of this.  What
should I do, girl?  What would you do to protect the ones you love?  Would you
kill for them?”

I
stared into those strange eyes.  They were old- tired, maybe?  “I don’t know,”
I whispered, scared. 

There
was a soft sound as approached through the fallen leaves behind us.  I whirled
to see Leith, his face red and his expression one of supreme annoyance.  “Good
day, Your Highness.  Are you done with Ada?”

The
man beside me laughed.  “I apologize.  I was having such a splendid time
talking to your young woman.  I lost track of the time.”

I
looked at Leith questioningly.  “Why are you so mad?”

He
snorted.  “He put up a barrier.  I could tell you were around here somewhere,
but I couldn’t see you.  I’ve been looking for you for
two hours
.”

I
wiped my palms on my jeans and stood.  I could swear I had only been here for a
few minutes.  The king stood and took my hand.  His head came up to about chest
level on me.  “It was a pleasure to meet you Ada.”  Lifting my hand, he pressed
his lips to the soft underside of my wrist.

His
eyes met Leith’s and he smiled.  “Kelpie, if you don’t take better care of your
possessions, you’ll lose them.”

He
grinned at me.  “If you ever tire of his beastly attitude, you may always come
see me.”  He tilted his head.  “In fact, it’s been a long time since I took a human
wife.”

I
gaped and stammered.  “Uh…I’m not…I mean, you see... that’s…”

Leith
grabbed my wrist and dragged me away from the lake.  “Let’s go!”

The
fairy king’s flutelike laughter rang in my ears.  “Leith,” he called jovially, “I
have something else that belongs to you.”

My
irate companion turned back to the small man, catching the leather pouch the
king tossed our way.  He turned away again without speaking, his lean jaw
flexing as he clenched his teeth.

*****

Leith
dragged me into the woods, his expression thunderous.  He had one hand wrapped around
my wrist.  The other clutched the pouch the king had given him.  I puffed along
beside him, completely confused.

Finally,
I jerked away from him and made my way to a big rock.  I plopped down and
glared at him.  “Do you wanna tell me what the hell you’re so mad about?”  I
gestured back the way we came.  “And was that really the freaking fairy king?”

He
crossed his arms and leveled an evil look at me.  “You would do well to choose
your companions more wisely.”

I
raised my eyebrows.  “What?”

He
flung his arms out in frustration.  “Not all fey are as benign as I am.  Are
you trying to get yourself killed?”  Leith admitted he liked to eat humans, and
he called himself benign?  I had never seen him so angry before.  He certainly
didn’t look benign, just now.

He
rolled his shoulders back, as trying to ease the tension there.  “The king is…
he’s not like a king in your world.  He wasn’t elected or chosen.  He is simply
the oldest and most powerful thing in this world.  If he asks us to do
something, we tend to obey without question.  There isn’t really a choice.  No
one could ever defeat him if he decided to force you to do something.  And even
if you were inclined to disagree with him, there would be a thousand other fey
who would kill you just for your impertinence.”

He
seemed realized that he was pacing, and stopped abruptly.  “I apologize.  You
can’t be blamed for not knowing how our world works.”  He leveled a glance at
me.  “Though if you hadn’t been so stubborn, I might have had more opportunity
to enlighten you.”

I
waved this away.  “Yeah, yeah.  So why do you hate the king so much?  It kind
of seems like you have some personal grudge.  I mean, all he did was talk with
me.  He was nice to me, even though I’m
just
a human and all.”

Leith’s
eyes darkened.  “He seemed more interested in you than he should be.”

I
stared at him in surprise, mouth hanging open.  His expression grew murderous
and I burst into laughter.  He paced over and dropped onto the rock next to
me. 

“Are
you having some sort of episode?”

I
hugged my stomach, still snorting with laughter.  “Oh, God it hurts.”  I wiped
my eyes and glanced at Leith to find him regarding me with a weary expression.

“You’re….
jealous that another fey talked to me.”  I giggled again.  It was just so
absurd.

He
looked away, shaking his head.  “Of course not.  Feel free to marry the king
and become his new human concubine.  Then I won’t have to worry about keeping
you safe.”

I
drew a breath and tried to stop laughing.  “You think he was serious back
there?”

He
gave me a sidelong glance, one corner of his wide mouth lifting in a reluctant
grin.  “No.  He just wanted to get exactly this ridiculous sort of reaction
from me.”  He shrugged.  “So you see,  I’m not jealous at all.  I am merely
humoring the old man.”

I
pressed my lips together.  “Mmm…of course.”

He
laughed then, losing some of his tension.  “Please be more careful in the future. 
He could have just as easily been one of the Unseelie.  What if that had been
Adhene back there?” He rolled the pouch around in his big hands and I leaned
against his side, looking at it curiously.  “So what’s in the bag?  A present
from the king?  I thought you hated each other.”

He
snorted.  “We do not hate each other.  This is something he has been holding
for me since I disappeared.”

He
opened the drawstring and dumped the contents into his hand.  I looked at him
in surprise.  “That’s yours?”

He
nodded.  In his big hand lay a deep blue gem that glinted and sparkled in the
sunlight.  It was larger than a fifty cent piece and cut in a roughly heart
shaped design.  It wasn’t faceted, but it sparkled nonetheless.  It was
surrounded by coils of tarnished silver, and suspended from a delicate chain made
of the same stuff. 

“My
family calls it the Kelpie’s Gem.  It is an heirloom, of sorts.  My mother wore
it often, and she gave it to me when I was a child.  She said it would warn me
of danger.”  His hand closed around the pretty stone and he looked distant.  “I
wore it every day of my life until the night before I woke in your tent.”  He
frowned.  “Mair took it from me that night.  She insisted I give it to her,
convinced me that someone was trying to steal it.”

I
glanced at his closed hand.  “How did the king get it?”  I refrained from
pointing out that it could have warned him about being poisoned.  Obviously,
Mair wasn’t as loyal as he thought.

He
shrugged, becoming his usual self again.  “How does the king do anything he
does?  He knows everything that happens to his children.”  He grinned.  “My
father once told me it was a gift from the King.  That the king gave it to my
mother because he admired her.  Who knows?  Maybe he has some sort of link to
it.” 

He
turned to me and opened his hand again.  “I don’t need its protection anymore.”

I
looked at him blankly for a beat.  “Wait- you’re giving it to me?” 

He
nodded, his flat expression giving no clue to his thoughts.  I shook my head. 
“I can’t take that.”  I touched the stone with a fingertip.  It was warm.  “For
one, I don’t think that thing is costume jewelry.  It’s not like I can just
wander around with a gemstone that size.  People will notice.”

He
continued to hold out his hand.  “And it’s valuable to you.  It was your
mother’s.  It was a gift from the freaking fairy king!  You can’t give it to
me.”

He
lifted the necklace and draped it around my neck.  Then he lifted the neck of
my shirt and tucked it underneath.  The gem dangled between my breasts, its heavy
warmth like a heavy second heart.

His
fingers brushed my neck, where the chain lay.  “Just hold it for me for a while
then.”

I
looked into those deep blue eyes, the same color of the stone.  I was missing
something here.  He planted a gentle kiss on my forehead, then stood and walked
away.

 “Come
on.  We need to get back soon.  I’m hungry.”

*****

My
conversation with the king had left me unsettled.  On my way home from work the
next night I did something I never do- I switched the radio to NPR.  They were
doing a human rights story about child slavery in third world countries. 

When
I got home, Leith was sitting on the couch eating Cheetos and watching the
nightly news.  I changed into my pajamas and flopped into the recliner, drawing
the throw around me like a cocoon.  He waved a graceful orange hand in greeting
and went back to absorbing current events.  I picked up a magazine and
pretended to leaf through it as I listened to the news, hoping desperately to
hear something redeeming.

I
listened grimly to the news.  A woman had been found murdered in a hotel a few
towns over.  A child had been removed from its home and the parents taken to
trial for suspected neglect and abuse.  A commercial yammered on about the
newest I-Phone.  The news moved on to global issues.  The U.S. was celebrating
the capture and killing of a wanted Libyan terrorist.  The reporter issued a
bland warning about graphic material before the images of the man’s bloodied corpse
flashed on the screen.  This shot was followed by images of people celebrating
in the streets.  The reporter listed the man’s horrific actions, stating that
the people in his town lived in terror.  I couldn’t decide which was worse: the
man’s inherent desire to oppress and hurt his own people, or the rest of the
world’s joy at his bloody death. 

I
stood suddenly, needing to move.  Leith looked at me in concern.  “Is something
troubling you?”

I
shook my head and went to grab my sneakers and jacket.  “I just need some air.  I’ll
be back.”

I
headed down the sidewalk leading to the park.  I saw a smiling woman pushing
her son in a stroller.  They headed away from the park looking exhausted, but
content.  I let out my breath in a slow exhale.  There were good things in this
world.  Pure things.  A horn honked, making me jump, and I glanced up to see a
furious man in a Honda leaning out his window to flip off another driver who
had just cut him off. 

I
sat on a cold park bench and scuffed the toes of my sneakers across the
concrete.  I thought of just how wrong the world was.  I sat here in safety,
while somewhere out there a little baby was starving to death, or being beaten,
or neglected or abused.  Somewhere out there groups of people were plotting to
kill other groups of people.  Humans were being extorted, used, abused, tortured,
and thrown away by other humans.  And those were just things we were doing to
ourselves.

The
king seemed to think that my thoughts and opinions had some bearing on the struggle
between the humans and fey.  I had no idea what that meant.  How could one
human woman be important in something so huge?  I rubbed my temples, lost in
hopelessness.  Just what was I supposed to do?  Part of me wished I had never
met Leith.  I felt small for even thinking it.  Weak and cowardly.  I hunched
my shoulders and pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt, wanting to hide from the
world.

There
was a scuff of feet on the sidewalk and I looked up, expecting to see Leith.  I
swallowed my surprise and tried to look unconcerned as I met the eyes of the
police officer.  They were a beautiful, vivid green that I had never seen on a
human.

He
gave me a polite smile.  “Good evening miss, may I have a word with you?”

 I
nodded and he came to take a seat on the cold bench next to me.  He looked out
across the park, and I studied his profile curiously, wondering what was going
to happen.  He didn’t look like the typical cop stereotype at all.  He was
slender, with pretty, delicate features and feathery blond hair that peeped out
from under his hat.  I wondered how much of his appearance was glamour.  Was I
seeing the real person, thanks to my gift from Leith?

“I’m
wondering,” he said casually, “if you might know anything about the guy on the
news?”