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Lysa was nothing like Windhelm. Though the streets of Windhelm were larger, and just as busy, there was a serene quiet to them. Everywhere you went, music graced your ears, though you would never be able to figure out where it was coming from. And no one pushed past each other to get to where they were going, either.
I had been shoved around more times in the last few minutes than I had been my entire life before now. This city was chaotic. A gaggle of sound, and smells, and Fae. It was fascinating and magnificent, and the deeper I went into the experience, the less tense I found myself. Even Gullie seemed to relax, although she was more drawn in by the heady aromas wafting off the food carts than she was with anything else.
I could tell the weird jerky Valerian had fed us hadn’t really done it for her.
We didn’t have time to hang around, though. We had woken up with just enough time to make it to the guild hall before our meeting with the huntmaster. When Valerian had mentioned a guild hall, I had expected a large, grandiose building that stuck out from the others around it, but we seemed to have stopped by a side door in a quiet alley.
Valerian knocked, and after a moment, a slit in the door opened and a pair of eyes appeared.
“Beautiful weather we’re having, isn’t it?” asked the eyes.
“Too cold for my comfort,” said Valerian.
The slit drew closed, then the person on the other side of the door began to unlock it.
“That’s a dumb password,” Gullie said against my ear.
“Not if you’re Winter Fae,” I whispered, “We’re never too cold.”
The door opened to reveal a tall man with a wide jaw on the other side of it. He examined us with dark, dangerous eyes, then gestured with his head for us to get inside. Once we were through the door and in the small room beyond it, he scanned the alley and slammed it shut behind us.
“Rolan’s inside and waiting for you,” he barked.
Valerian nodded, then placed his hand against the small of my back and ushered me toward the adjoining room. I pushed the door open and entered a room that was much larger than the one we had come from.
There were round tables here, surrounded by stools. Some of the tables had empty cups and plates on them. There was a bar nearby, a wall of barrels behind it and goblets hanging off hooks. The place was empty, but I could smell the remnants of the breakfast that had been consumed in this place a short while ago.
From a door in the back came a woman with fair skin, pointed ears, and a braid of white hair. She scanned us all, then walked over to the bar and stood behind it. “Take a seat,” she called out, “Rolan will be down in a moment.”
“Thank you, Irena,” said Valerian.
Irena cocked an eyebrow and frowned at him. “I haven’t seen your face around here for a while,” she said. “We all thought you were dead.”
“Rumors of my passing have been gravely exaggerated.”
Feeling like I had to interject myself into the conversation, I pulled my hood down as I took a seat. Irena’s eyes widened, her eyebrows arched, but that was as far as her reaction went. “So, it’s true,” she said.
Valerian looked back at me, his eyebrows pinching in the middle of his face. “I thought I asked you to keep that hood up,” he said.
“We’re in a safe place, right?” I asked.
“It’s not safe yet.”
“You can all relax,” Irena said, “It’s not like I’m going to summon the guards on you…Princess.That would require effort.”
“Is that all?”
“I could give a rat’s tail about who’s Queen, or King, or Princess. Valerian’s one of ours, though, and you’re under his protection. So long as that’s true, you have our protection as well.”
“Thank you,” I said, curtly nodding.
“She seems nice,” Gullie whispered. She was hidden by my hair, and speaking quietly enough that I didn’t think she could be heard. “Ex-girlfriend, maybe?”
“Shut up,” I hissed.
“I’m just saying, it looks like they have history.”
“Probably not that kind of history.”
