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“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay—looky, no touchy.” He hiked his rainbow robes up higher and wedged the globe between his pudgy knees, the long wooden staff end propped on the floor. He rubbed his hands over the surface, whispering magical-sounding words that came across as so much nonsense. How could he not know his show didn’t work on me? I wondered if he’d learned the fae tongue because he didn’t have the telepathic mind magic. I hadn’t been able to read Nancy’s mind either, come to think of it.
Interesting.
Images floated up in the globe and I watched, utterly fascinated, at the movie play of them. Icy peaks, with sharp edges, rolled past, as though we soared above them. Not ice—glass. The infamous Glass Mountains, ridge after ridge of them. I’d flown over the Rocky Mountains more than once and these had to be twice as tall.
In the distance, one peak rose above them all, crowned with a fantastical castle made entirely of glass. It glowed with a beacon of light. The walls peeled away as the images unfurled, taking us inside to a fabulous throne room, this one crowded with fae of all shapes and sizes, glittering with color, while the sky outside glowed like the northern lights.
Perched on the throne sat Titania, in all her naked loveliness, her body featureless as a Barbie doll’s, colorless gleaming hair flowing around her. Her pale eyes surveyed the crowd. Beside Titania, in an identical throne and devastatingly handsome in black, was Rogue.
She smiled at him and he took her hand, interlacing his fingers with her many-segmented ones, as he had so often with me, and then kissed her pale skin. Leaning over the joined arms of their thrones, she threaded her free hand into Rogue’s glossy loose hair, tugging him down for a deep and sultry kiss, which he seemed to greatly enjoy. She whispered something against his lips and he threw back his head, laughing.
Sitting next to the awful, stinking Walter, who sniggered like a twelve-year-old at the kiss, I felt like I was back in seventh grade, certain that the kids laughing at the next table over were making fun of me.
“She’s a babe too—in a creepy, preteen kind of way,” Walter observed, rubbing a greasy finger over the smooth crystal as if he could touch her that way. “But you can see that your mighty Lord Rogue has moved on to greener pastures. Pretty sucky of him to leave you unprotected, but all the better for me.”
“Right. Our duel to the death.”
He nodded, then put his hand on my leg. I had to stiffen all my resolve not to knock it off like a poisonous insect. “You know, maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. We could be partners—combine powers. I can teach you all kinds of stuff. We could challenge Rogue and Titania to a duel! Like Masters of the Universe stuff!”
“Gee, Walter.” I affixed a sadly hopeful look to my face. “Would you really do that for me? I’d hate to drag down your reputation and make you look weak.”
“Hmm.” He pursed his lips, looking uncomfortably like a duck about to barf. “I do have that to think of. Sorry, Gwynnie—no can do. Gremlins!” He shouted, right next to my ear and I flinched. “Take Lady Gwynn to her rooms. Tomorrow, we duel.”
*
I’d been concernedthat he would have separated us—which would have been the smart thing to do—and that I’d have to go looking around for the rest of the crew. Fortunately, despite the great size of the castle, there didn’t seem to be many actual bedchambers, and we’d all been stowed in the same tower.
Starling shrieked my name and ran up to embrace me, tears in her eyes. “I was afraid we’d never see you again!”
“Silly.” I tugged a lock of her hair. “This would change color if anything happened to me, right? Besides, ol’ Walter is all about the big duel tomorrow.”
Darling, Blackbird and Thumbelina all came trotting in from their various rooms, greeting me according to their natures. Darling complained that the battle armor itched and, with an apology and deciding that undoing wasn’t the same as doing, I poofed it and used my nails to give him a good scratching.
“Please tell us you have a plan for tomorrow and you know what you’re doing,” Blackbird said.
“Hey guys—I have a plan for tomorrow and I know what I’m doing.”
Thumbelina snorted and Starling rolled her eyes.
Blackbird did not look amused and instead regarded me with a stern look and a tapping foot. “This is hardly a joking matter, Lady Gwynn.”
“No.” I stood up and found a chair to sit in. Darling followed and immediately leaped into my lap, dragging his tail under my nose. “But I really do have a plan that I feel 98 percent sure will work and then we have much bigger fish to fry.”
“And that 2 percent chance that it won’t work?” Thumbelina turned her dagger in her hands.
“Then I’m dead and you all have to figure out your own way out of here—something you might want to put thought into, Thumbelina, since Walt added you into the bargain as his girl toy.”
“I’ll cut his tallywhacker off first.”
“I figured. I was very careful not to promise that you or Darling would be compliant. You owe him nothing except that he thinks he gets to keep you. He’s really quite dreadful at bargaining—I don’t know how he’s made it this long.”
“He has been out here alone,” Blackbird mused.
“But he’s allied with the other fae, right? Falcon’s enemies?”
“True. Still there’s no telling how that relationship works.”
I frowned at her, but this wasn’t the time to pursue that avenue of questioning. “At any rate, we need to discuss the plan for tomorrow. And is there anything to eat?”
