Luckily, Jared had told them to send a van-sized taxi, so we all fit in without a problem.
“So what’s the plan?” I asked after we were all inside the van. “We sleeping here tonight?”
“No. We need to get back right away. I’ve arranged for the plane to take us out tonight.”
“Ain’t it a little late?” asked Finn, yawning.
“Yeah, it’s late; but it’s better to fly at night. We can sleep and avoid the jet lag.”
“Where exactly are we going?” asked Tony.
I opened my mouth to respond and then realized I didn’t really know the answer to that question. I mean, I knew it was the Green Forest, but I doubted that name existed on any human map.
“Yeah, where are we going, exactly?” I asked.
“I’ll tell you later,” said Jared, motioning to the taxi driver, indicating his desire to keep our location secret from the outside world.
Spike spoke up. “What time will we arrive there?”
“After our drive from the airport? About three or four in the afternoon, give or take.”
Good. That would give me enough time to visit with Maggie in the woods and get Tim fixed up.
We arrived at the hotel and rode up the elevator to our rooms. We had to retrieve our stuff that we’d left there. Seemed a shame to not even use the rooms we’d already paid for, but I was anxious to get back. A part of me was worried that Ben’s easy release of Tony and me was some kind of scam that was going to come back and bite me on the ass.
“Aren’t you going to be too tired to deal with all this stuff – with me I mean – when we get back?” asked Tony as we walked out of the hotel lobby with our bags on our backs, Tim’s box tucked under my left arm.
“Are you kidding me? I get up every day at oh-five-thirty, thank you very much.”
“Wow. That’s impressive.”
“Tony, you are looking at a very finely tuned, warrior fae machine.” I gave him a bicep curl with my free arm for effect. “I get up at the crack of my ass dawn and work until I drop at the end of the day. Just like everyone else. Just like you will.” I gave him my most brilliant smile and tweaked his nose, for the sole purpose of annoying him. I hadn’t mentioned that little tidbit of waking up insanely early before, so it was kinda fun to share it now – get him back for making me panic around Ben, thinking for a couple of tense seconds that he was going to change his mind and stay behind.
Jared walked up to me, nodding at Tony who was now scowling playfully at me. “Jayne, can I talk to you in private for a minute?”
“Sure. Tony, go wait with Chase, would you?” I knew I could count on Chase to look out for him, just in case Ben decided to make an appearance.
“What’s up?” I asked when we were well away from the group.
“I just wanted to talk to you about the issue we still have with bringing Tony back with us. We really haven’t discussed it. I figured before there wasn’t any point unless we actually convinced him to come.”
“Okay. Shoot.”
“You remember the rule, right? That once a candidate has refused to become a changeling, he can never make the change?”
My ears started burning with fear and a touch of anger. “Yeah, I remember. They’re just going to have to change the rules.”
Jared shook his head slowly, looking down at the ground. “I don’t think you should plan on that happening.”
“Well, what the hell did we come all the way out here for, then?”
Jared shrugged. “It was better than leaving him to Ben.”
“Ben would have let him change,” I said accusingly. “He would have forced it on him. So if the Dark Fae would do it, why won’t the Light?”
“I don’t know why the rules are what they are. I just know this council in particular is set on following them. They’re very traditional. They don’t make change easily.”
“Well, they can sit with their thumbs up their asses all day for all I care. Tony is making the change or else.”
“Or else what?” asked Jared, searching my eyes.
“Or else I’m leaving with him.”
Jared sighed in resignation. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Yeah. Let’s do that,” I said bitterly. Friggin’ council. They weren’t going to decide for me what Tony and I did. I’d had enough of adults in my life making stupid decisions that affected me negatively. If they couldn’t see reason, I’d ... I’d ... well, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do, but whatever it was, it wouldn’t involve me blowing off my friend ever again.
Jared and I walked over to the shuttle that had arrived and parked in the valet area in front of the hotel. “Don’t stress over it too much,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll all work out.”
“Yeah.”
Jared opened the door so we could all climb in.
“Hey Jared?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks. For all this, I mean. For helping me get Tony back. I owe you one.”
Jared smiled briefly. “No problem.” He climbed in last, closing the door behind him.
I was sitting next to Tony in the front row of seats. I reached over and took Tim’s box from him. “How is he?”
“Still out,” said Tony.
I lifted up the lid gently, pulling back the piece of pillowcase that was covering Tim’s frail body. I glanced up to make sure the shuttle driver wasn’t watching me in the rearview mirror before whispering, “Tim ... Tim? Can you hear me?”
I heard a tiny moan in response, but his eyes stayed closed.
“Listen Tim – we’re going to get you on the plane in just a few minutes and back to the forest. I’ll get Maggie to take care of your wing right away, okay? You’re going to be alright.”
I got choked up looking at him. He looked so pitiful lying there with his broken and blackened wing. Fucking Ben. Somebody needed to zap him good – show him what it felt like to have an appendage seared off like that. Jerk.
I covered Tim back up and looked out the window, slipping the lid of the box back on. Ben was going to pay for what he’d done and for what he’d tried to do. I was going to make sure of it.
Chapter 4
We were on the plane and heading back to the Green Forest within thirty minutes. I had strapped Blackie, my most amazingly awesome dragon tooth weapon, back onto my leg and felt much more secure with its threat there for the fae world to see. Tim still hadn’t really moved much, only moaning from time to time to let me know he was still alive – barely.
Tony took everything in stride, picking a window seat where he could watch the lights of the runway go by and then the lights of the sleepy cities beneath us until we were out over the ocean and in the clouds.
I slept in the comfy reclining, soft leather seats. I tried not to worry overly much about Tim. I was fairly confident that Maggie, the witch in the Dark Fae forest, could fix him. She knew everything about bad shit happening to fae and how to dose it up. She especially loved pixie wings, so something told me she’d be an expert at getting a bad one off. At least, I hoped she would be. The fact that she lived in the Dark Forest was a bit disconcerting but I’d spent enough time with her, as she trained me to use the underground ley lines to summon my power, to know that she was decent – a little prickly and unconventional, sure, but willing to help a clueless changeling like me in exchange for a green mushroom now and again. I think I was getting the better end of that deal.
I fell into a dreamless sleep, listening to Finn’s snores and Tony’s even breathing beside me.
***
An hour before we landed, Jared came and sat across the table from Tony and me.
“Hey. I thought maybe you’d like to go over your plan for bringing Tony back to the compound.” He looked across the aisle at Chase, Finn and Spike and said in a raised voice, “Hey! Guys! Wake up and get in on this.”
They all sat up drowsily, pushing the buttons on their seats to put them in their upright positions. Ivar wal
ked over and joined us too, sitting in front of Chase, next to Spike. Even though Ivar and I didn’t see eye to eye on the appropriate way to treat guests on a private jet – me being of the mind that drugging them unconscious is rude – I was glad for his support. He was an ogre and if nothing else, visually intimidating.
“So, Jayne, tell us what you were thinking about for bringing Tony back.”
All eyes were on me, waiting expectantly for my brilliant answer.
I picked Tim in his box up from the side of my seat and put him on the table, so if he was conscious at all, he’d hear the conversation. “Uh, I really didn’t have a plan, actually.”
Spike smirked. Finn rolled his eyes. Chase looked at me expectantly. Tony seemed still half asleep, a little bit in a daze. The expressions I saw on Spike’s and Finn’s faces made sense, but Chase’s was unexpected. Maybe he had some ideas.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Chase? What’re you thinking?”
He shrugged. “Just waiting for you to come up with something. You always do and it always seems to work out one way or another.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence; I appreciate it, even if I’m not sure I agree. I’m not messing around though ... I really don’t have a plan this time. I just want to get him in there, get an amulet on him, have him speak the words that start the change and then, I don’t know, get him a room and a trainer from his race.” I looked around at my co-conspirators. I smiled weakly. “It would all work so smoothly if there was no council in my way.”
“That there’s the problem. There is a council, an’ they’re gonna be P.O.’ed,” said Finn. “Don’t get me wrong – I’m willin’ to shoulder the blame with you an’ all, but I’m thinkin’ you outta be prepared for a little kickback from the rifle you done shot here, sneakin’ off to the U.S. of A. and bringin’ Tony on board.”
Finn’s colorful phrasing made me smile. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t seem all that bad.”
“Well, it is,” said Jared, all seriousness. “We went against the council’s direct orders. They’re not just going to say ‘okay, we’ll let him change’ and it’s over. They’re going to say no – and probably a few other things we don’t want to think about right now.”
I looked at Tony’s face and was distressed to see that he was catching on to the problem. He looked as worried as I felt.
“Yeah, what we need to do is figure out where we go after they say no,” said Spike.
“Okay, well, I have an amulet here on my finger, and I’m sure between us we can remember the words that have to be said. I’ll just do it with him myself.”
Ivar was shaking his head slowly, a frown on his face. He looked at Jared.
Jared lifted his eyebrows but said nothing.
“What Ivar?” I said, impatiently. “Speak up or forever hold your peace.”
Ivar answered in his deep, gruff voice, “Deliberately disobeying a fae law earns harsh punishment. It has always been so.”
“Oh yeah? Like what kind of harsh punishment?”
Ivar grunted. “You can ask Anton about that. He has suffered the punishment.”
That was a surprise. Dardennes not following orders? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at that. He pretty much told us to go on this trip, even though the council had said that Tony couldn’t come back. Hopefully he had assumed the council would be lenient with us and wasn’t just selling us out.
“Well, since Dardennes isn’t here to ask, and I think we need to know how deep the shit is that we’re jumping into, maybe you can tell us the basics.”
Ivar and Jared shared looks once again. Ivar nodded to Jared who let out a deep breath before beginning.
“Anton Dardennes used to be with the Dark Fae.” He waited while everyone let that sink in. I had heard that piece of information before, but my understanding was that he’d had a change of heart and defected over to the Light Fae side.
“They have a council like ours, only it’s of course made up of Dark Fae. He was given an order which he refused to follow, doing instead what he thought was right; and to punish him, they banned him from the Dark Fae.”
Whoa. So he didn’t leave voluntarily? That was big news to me.
“He got kicked out?” asked Finn, shock in his voice.
“Essentially, yes.”
“And you guys just took him in and gave him a seat on the Light Fae council? That’s pretty ... generous,” said Spike, sarcastically.
“And trusting.” I couldn’t believe they could be so lax with their security, letting a Dark Fae run the Light Fae show. Sounded first-class stupid to me.
“It was a long, long time ago – hundreds of years now – and Anton has proven himself worthy many times over. If he wants to tell you the story himself someday, that’s his prerogative. I’ll just say one last thing about it – he was ejected from the Dark Fae for choosing to do something that was Light Fae in principal. He had refused to do something I’m sure none of us would ever consider being involved in.”
“What?” asked Finn.
“Like I said, if Anton wants to tell you, he can. It’s not for me to do that. But I trust him and so do all the other council members – fae who are impossible to fool.”
I always knew there was something a little strange about Dardennes. Now I knew what it was. He had Dark Fae blood running around in those veins of his. I could see that he was Light Fae now – I mean, he had given me the gift of changeling status; but that didn’t necessarily mean he had lost all of his connection to Them. I was going to be watching him a little closer now, and if the looks on my friends’ faces told me anything, they were too.
“So what’s to stop them from throwing all of you ... us ... out of the Light Fae for breaking their law and coming to get me?” asked Tony worriedly.
Jared gave him a half smile. “That won’t happen. First of all, it wasn’t a law that we not go pick you up. That was a directive they gave to Anton, that he couldn’t come get you. So he didn’t violate that directive because he didn’t do this. We did. And the council never gave us that directive. As far as they know, we don’t even know it was issued, since it wasn’t done in front of a general assembly.”
Tony nodded his head slowly, still with the same worried expression on his face. “So what law are we breaking then?”
“None. That’s the good news and why I agreed to go on this mission. But the law we want to break is the one saying you cannot become a changeling once you have refused the change.”
“Does it matter that I don’t remember refusing it?”
Tony would have made a great lawyer one day. Except that he lacked that necessary ability to go for the throat in the name of winning – although he does go for the throat with an axe when his life is being threatened; I’d seen that firsthand when we were battling orcs in the Green Forest during our changeling test.
“No.” Jared shook his head firmly. “The law was created knowing once you refused, you would be erased. That doesn’t matter to them at all. This isn’t like the law you’re used to. There are no loopholes.”
“Alright,” I said, “so now that we know we’re totally screwed, does anyone have any suggestions?”
All I saw were blank faces looking back at me.
“Okay, then – the way I see it, I have only one option left.”
“What’s that?” asked Spike, suspiciously, raising a glass of water to his lips and peering at me over the rim as he took a sip.
“Blackmail.”
Spike choked, sending droplets of water all over the top of the table in front of him and onto Finn.
“Shit on a stick, Spike! What in the hell is your problem?!” yelled Finn, wiping his arm off and shooting Spike a dirty look.
Spike wiped his mouth off and used his sleeve to wipe off the table, sweeping his arm back and forth. “Sorry about that, dude. My bad. Just wasn’t expecting that answer.”
“I’m not so sure that’s the best plan we can come up with,” said Jared, dryly.
“Jayne,” said Chase, a warning in his voice.
“Listen, from what I can see, we don’t have a choice. There’s a law that says we can’t change him. The council is going to say no. We can’t go against the law and do it ourselves or we’ll get kicked out. The only thing we have left is brute force. I tell them if they don’t change him, I’m leaving. We’ll see just how valuable I am to them.”
“I’m not sure you should challenge them like that,” said Jared.
“Do you have any other ideas?” I asked him, frustrated that all he could say was what not to do.
He hesitated for a few seconds, then surrendered. “No. I guess not.”
“Fine. Then that’s my official plan. Blackmail it is.”
Jared looked at Ivar beseechingly. “Tell her Ivar. Tell her what a bad idea this is.”
Ivar shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
I smiled. “Thank you, Ivar.”
He clarified. “Either way it works. Either she gets kicked out or Tony gets brought in. We can’t lose.”
My mouth dropped open in surprise. Was he friggin’ kidding me? That’s his idea of support? Then I saw the corner of his mouth lift, ever so slightly. “Ivar?” I said, disbelieving my eyes. “Did you just mess with me? Like, make a totally cutting joke on me?”
Ivar shrugged.
I kicked him under the table while I smiled back at him. “Bite me, you big dumb ogre.”
He lifted his eyebrows at me, tilted his head to the side and shrugged again.
“Now that’s funny,” said a highly amused Finn.
“Yeah,” agreed Spike, “you had me goin’ there for a second.”
Tony just sat there with a bemused expression on his face, probably trying to figure out our group dynamics. I should’ve told him to save his brain cells. There was no figuring out this wacky bunch with conventional human logic.
I turned my attention back to the group. “Ivar’s right, though,” I said. “Either way. You’re either going to get a new changeling, an awesome one, or you’re gonna be short one ... an awesome elemental, thank you very much, ogre.” I scowled at Ivar, trying to keep a straight face, but not really succeeding.