“Mastyr Stone, what do we have here? A wolf?”
“What do you want?” Stone’s voice reverberated through the air.
“Why, you of course, but I must say you could do better than a wolf.” She snorted and wrinkled up her nose.
Rosamunde closed her eyes and focused on the elf-lord power. She wasn’t in Ferrenden Peace, but she remembered that her mother had accessed the power outside of the kingdom’s boundaries. Maybe she could as well.
Just like that, the elf-lord power began to stream into her, causing the muscles of her legs to seize.
“What’s this?” Margetta shouted.
“What’s happening?” Stone asked.
Aralynn switched to telepathy. Hold onto me, Stone. You’re feeling the power of Ferrenden Peace. I might be able to get us away from Margetta.
Margetta clucked her tongue. “Sorry, Stone, but I can’t let you keep your wolf. But don’t worry, after you’re mine you won’t care one whit for the wench.”
She raised her hands and black-and-gold power began to swirl around them. Her large violet eyes glittered with what Rosamunde knew was a sense of victory.
“Get behind me!” Stone shouted. He even turned and pulled her in that direction just as Margetta released her battle power.
“Stone, no!” Rosamunde shouted, but it was too late.
Stone’s body arched hard in the air as Margetta’s red battle energy struck him. Rosamunde tried to reach for him, but he began to fall and there was nothing she could do about it. Yet, if he hit the earth from such a height, he would die.
And Stone couldn’t die.
Something happened to Rosamunde in that moment, something inexplicable and profound. She dove after him and caught him easily, not with her arms, but with the elf-lord energy that surrounded her. At the same time, she created a wind similar to Margetta’s but which was violet in color and provided a protective shield as well. She headed swiftly in the direction of her kingdom.
She felt Margetta in pursuit. She could hear her shouting in distant streams of unintelligible words. She experienced a buffeting against her shield and knew Margetta was firing at her. Yet, her protection remained intact.
As Rosamunde flew toward Ferrenden Peace, she knew Stone was mortally wounded and needed a powerful healer badly. She had some ability, but not enough to bring him back from the edge of death.
There was one man in Ferrenden Peace who had that power, a warrior elf named Kaden. He was a friend of Joseph’s and Davido’s. If she could get Stone to Joseph’s lair, she felt certain Joseph could contact Kaden and maybe then she’d be able to save Stone.
She flew faster than ever, the wind propelling her and sustaining Stone. She stayed near him, her arm around his waist for balance, though she could tell she didn’t even need to touch him to keep him safe. As she neared her kingdom, the gold wind disappeared entirely and she knew she’d outstripped her aunt.
Margetta was gone.
As Ferrenden Peace’s veil of mist appeared, Rosamunde moved through it easily and felt it seal up behind her.
They were safe now from the Ancient Fae.
But Stone was near death.
Joseph’s home was hidden deep in the woods, a good mile from ‘Aralynn’s’ cottage, and protected behind a dozen shielding layers.
Rosamunde had never quite known where Joseph, a mere gremlin, had gotten so much power. Though she’d long suspected he’d purchased the illegal security system on the black market from a powerful fae. Right now, however, she didn’t care.
Joseph would be able to help Stone.
As she drew near, she could hear Joseph shrieking through his shields. He must have sensed her, which meant the gremlin had more power than she could have ever supposed.
She pounded on the low, arched wooden door. “Joseph, let me in right now and none of your shenanigans. I have Mastyr Stone of Tannisford here in dire need of healing. I need you to contact Kaden.”
“I’m not at home.” The gremlin’s voice carried a rough edge as though he gargled with sawdust.
“Let me speak with Davido then, right now!”
“He’s on a walk, surveying the mist. He’ll be back in an hour.”
Oh, sweet Goddess. She’d been counting on Davido being able to knock some sense into Joseph. She opened up her telepathy and contacted Vojalie.
The powerful fae returned quickly. I’m here.
Vojalie, I need a healer for Mastyr Stone. Now. I need Kaden but Davido isn’t at Joseph’s and I have no idea how to reach the elf. And the gremlin, as usual, is being difficult. Her telepathic voice broke. Stone will die if I don’t have a healer here in the next few minutes.
I’ll contact Davido. Someone will be there. Just get him inside Joseph’s home.
Rosamunde grabbed a deep breath and shouted. “Joseph, I just spoke with Vojalie. She wants Stone in your house now.”
When she heard the sound of locks turning, hope rose.
A moment later, the door opened a crack, then wider so Joseph could see both her and Stone.
With his forehead wrinkled like an old man, the gremlin wore a severe expression. The color of his skin was paper white except for a few yellowing spots. He had a long narrow nose and stood a foot-and-a-half tall. Even so, he wore hip boots to fit his diminutive size, leather pants, and a woven shirt in the Guardsman style. His hair stuck out in long reddish-brown tufts. His fingers were his best feature, however, long and shapely. They moved constantly. Gremlin’s loved to work with their hands.
Mostly, they pilfered.
Stole.
Burgled.
Schemed.
And were a wretchedly secretive bunch.
Joseph lowered his gaze to Stone. Rosamunde followed his widening eyes, and for the first time she saw the wound Margetta had inflicted.
Her stomach turned.
Blood seeped from a messy through-wound in his abdomen where Margetta’s battle energy had blown straight through Stone.
Joseph made a disgusted snorting sound, rolled his eyes and threw the door wide.
With her wind still swirling behind her, she tried to levitate Stone straight in, but nothing happened.
“This area out here is a magical dead-zone, stupid fae-wolf. I’ll have to get my sling.” He flung a hand toward the ceiling. She saw an overhead track running from the doorframe that held a series of pulleys and hooks.
She didn’t understand how a simple forest gremlin could be in possession of so much power that he could block some of her abilities. Had to be a black market spell of some kind.
He came back with a wheelbarrow piled high with canvas. She levitated Stone forward to the point where the magic stopped her. Joseph intervened and used his own considerable kinetic levitating abilities to unfurl the canvas beneath Stone.
With Joseph’s directions, Stone was soon secure in the sling. Tears were in her eyes with this terrible, useless delay in getting him safely inside.
But the moment Joseph moved the sling, the wheels on the rails whipped forward like lightning. The well-oiled apparatus shot into the house and Rosamunde had to fly quickly to keep up.
The house was entirely underground with dozens, maybe hundreds of small rooms jutting off either side of the main hallway. Each room was well-lit and full of so much polished junk, it looked like a hoarder’s paradise. If there’d been any doubt about Joseph’s essential nature, the gaudy showrooms confirmed him as a gremlin thief.
Joseph stopped the sling abruptly near a long slab of beautiful gray marble. He guided the sling directly overhead, then lowered Stone until he lay flat.
“He’s bleeding.” Joseph made another raspberry-like sound from the side of his mouth.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” She resisted the urge to scream her frustration.
She thought Joseph would either begin the healing process himself or summon Kaden. Instead, his gaze roved the metal clasp at the shoulder of Stone’s Guard uniform, then down to the dozen antique silver studs lining the
outer seams of both boots.
“Would you stop weighing the value of Mastyr Stone’s silver embellishments and start healing him?” Her voice had moved into a screech that sounded more owl-like than wolf. But she was desperate.
Joseph, levitating across the slab from Rosamunde, made another disgusted snorting sound with the usual accompanying eye-roll. “I don’t have the power to manage a battle wound like this one. Besides,” he sniffed the air, “it carries Margetta’s taint which means a poison is working in him. This man is dead.”
Rosamunde lifted both hands in the air. “But I thought you could do something.”
“You thought wrongly. Goddess save me from idiots.”
Rosamunde had never known such distress as in this moment. Tears rolled down her face. “Dear Goddess, what have I done? What I have done?”
Joseph held one well-groomed hand out for inspection. “I would be willing to summon Kaden for you … for a price, that is.” He met her gaze, his tiny cat-like, almond-shaped eyes boring into hers. “Kaden, as you know, is very gifted and would no doubt have Stone fixed up in the twitch of a mustache.”
She stared at him for a quick moment as the fine hairs all down her spine rose in protest. She thought for a moment she might actually shift into her wolf and tear his throat out. “You’re asking for payment when a man’s life hangs by the width of one of your cheap-ass nose hairs?” Though still in her Aralynn form with no fur showing, she leaped at him like a wolf, straight across the table and levitating just enough to make sure she cleared Stone’s massive body.
She extended her hands reaching for Joseph’s throat when suddenly she was grabbed around her waist and held suspended in the air.
Kaden had arrived.
He’d caught her midair and with a smooth motion set her on her feet. With his other hand, he grabbed Joseph by his suspenders and held him at face level. Their noses were separated by maybe two full inches.
“How many times have we discussed the importance of compassion over avarice, my friend? Will you never learn?”
Aralynn slowly backed away from the beautiful elf with long flowing brown hair, a face like a god, and eyes the color of the daytime sky.
“Hello, Kaden. We’re in trouble here.”
“Vojalie summoned me a few minutes earlier. She’d had one of her visions. And … apologies for Joseph’s extortion efforts.”
Rosamunde felt something from Kaden that she couldn’t comprehend. A pair of hyphenated words kept forming in her head – elf-lord – but it was far too absurd. Kaden couldn’t be an elf-lord. They were all extinct. They’d been hunted down and destroyed millennia ago. Yet the power that still hummed in her because of the violet wind she’d so recently made, prompted her again: Elf-lord.
As Kaden moved to the head of the marble slab, she felt his power like a warm flow of water moving through the tunnel.
Joseph drew close to Kaden then climbed monkey-like to sit on his shoulder apparently intent on observing the healing process. Joseph had known Kaden a long time.
Kaden glanced at her, and as he did a large pair of scissors appeared in his hands. “I need you to get these clothes off Mastyr Stone. All of them. They’ll cause him pain because of the poison Margetta has used.”
Poison? Oh, no.
She moved close and took the scissors. As she began quickly cutting Stone’s Guard coat away, the shimmering light of Kaden moved like a thin mist around him as he put his hands on Stone’s abdomen. Stone’s body arched once then fell immobile as it had been before.
She could feel the healing flow and the breath she drew shuddered with a few suppressed sobs.
She got his boots off without cutting them, but couldn’t help but notice that the muscles of his thighs had seized. Had to be the poison. She would have asked Kaden, but she didn’t want to disturb him.
She worked quickly to get his leathers off.
Kaden spoke quietly to Joseph, who in turn left his perch, then returned with a towel which he handed to Rosamunde. He resumed his post on Kaden’s shoulder.
Rosamunde placed the towel over Stone’s groin. His abdomen had started cramping as well, the defined muscles rising and falling in what would have been painful waves if he’d been conscious.
Her throat was unbearably tight as she watched the healing process. Kaden explained things along the way, specifically how the poison was slowly infecting Stone’s blood.
When Stone began to writhe and moan, Kaden met her gaze. “He’s beginning to return to consciousness and his abdomen is almost completely healed, but the poison is the problem now and he needs blood. You should feed him soon. That will help more than anything else could at this point to clear the taint from his system.”
Thinking about their earlier kiss, she pressed a hand to her chest. “I-I really shouldn’t do that. He has a number of doneuses he calls on to service his blood needs. I can bring one of them in.”
“I’m sorry, my Queen, but it won’t do. We don’t have time and I have reason to believe your blood carries more power than his doneuses. Without your offering in the next few minutes, he’ll fall into a lethargy and die. And afterward, I promise you, Margetta will have possession of the Nine Realms. Mastyr Stone is the key to saving our world. And you’re the key to keeping him alive.”
Rosamunde stared at Kaden for a long moment. She felt his sincerity and knew in her heart she’d reached a critical crossroads. Her faeness, despite the fact that she was still in ‘Aralynn’s’ form, told her he was right. And calling her ‘my Queen’ meant he knew exactly who she really was.
She’d sensed it as well from the moment he’d pulled that bus out of harm’s way: If Stone perished, the Nine Realms would be lost. Besides, from the time she’d first arrived at his Communication Center all those weeks ago, she’d known that part of her job was to protect him.
“Is there no other way?”
“No. And you must prepare yourself. Once you share your blood with Mastyr Stone, there will be no going back. Not now. Not ever. And there’s a good chance the vampire will break your heart.”
Chapter Three
Stone’s eyes hurt. A strange light pressed on his eyelids making him wonder if he’d been caught outside during the day.
He tried to lift his arm to block the glow, but couldn’t move any part of his body. He examined his limbs as best he could, but there was so much pain moving through every muscle he possessed, he could barely breathe. Was he chained up or something? Had Margetta captured him after all and now held him prisoner?
He felt nauseous and a second, very specific pain ran through his stomach and into his back. He writhed.
Help me, he called out. He tried to open his mouth, but couldn’t even manage that. Was anyone nearby?
Be at ease, Stone. I’m here.
His mind began giving shape to new images. He saw Queen Rosamunde, a beauty with long red hair, bending over him and caressing his face. Goddess, she was beautiful. For months now, he’d been attracted to her, even craved her at times. He’d never told anyone how drawn he was to the Queen of Ferrenden Peace. Yet he despised her for her arrogance and her unwillingness to use her considerable power against the Ancient Fae.
He met Rosamunde’s gaze or thought he did. Was he hallucinating? Why won’t you help the Nine Realms? You have the power necessary to defeat Margetta, but you won’t lift a finger. Why?
You’re wrong. I wish you weren’t, but you are. I don’t have my mother’s ability and I know you’ve never understood. But I truly don’t have enough power to defeat Margetta, not on my own.
He shook his head. The war will be lost because you must face her. I know it in my bones. He didn’t know why he was so intractable on the subject, except that he’d felt it from the beginning that she would be the one to vanquish the Ancient Fae.
She moved backward and vanished from sight. He realized he’d only imagined the encounter. Great. Hallucinations it was.
“I’m sorry, Aralynn. You must feed him.” Stone heard
the man’s voice, but he didn’t recognize him. Whoever he was, he was right. Stone needed blood from his donors.
He forced his lips apart and finally managed, “Get my doneuses.”
“There you see, Aralynn? He’s confirmed what must be done. Feed the mastyr or all is lost.” The man sounded stern now. Even adamant. But why should Aralynn be forced to donate?
A rough, high-pitched voice, though very male, broke in, “She’s selfish, that one.”
“Hush, Joseph. You’re not helping our cause, not when you had every intention of charging Aralynn for my healing powers. Pot and kettle, my good man.”
He blew a raspberry. “Just thinking of my future, is all.”
“You have more money than I do, than even the Queen.”
“But the wench I love, my dearest wife, wants more and more and more. You think I’m greedy? Try dealing with a female forest gremlin. Grabby, that lot.”
“Then why not divorce her?”
Another raspberry. “Like most men, I’m a slave to the needs of my cock. And Little Joseph needs her. No other woman will do.”
Stone heard the other man laugh. “I know the feeling well.”
Stone had an impression of size in the one man and a massive amount of power, more than even Stone. But Joseph, by the pitch of his voice, appeared to be the forest gremlin Aralynn had told him about. If only Stone could open his eyes.
Had he imagined Rosamunde?
More things returned to him. Of being at the mine near Charborne with Aralynn, then Margetta’s sudden appearance and her gold wind swirling everywhere. The Ancient Fae aimed her battle energy not at Stone, but at Aralynn. That’s what had happened. He’d moved like lightning to protect Aralynn and had gotten hit in the stomach. He remembered falling and thinking he would die. Then, nothing.
Now here he was. Aralynn must have saved him, though he had no idea how.
But where the hell had she taken him anyway? And who was the powerful man healing his wounds?
“Aralynn, you have to open a vein. The poison is in Mastyr Stone and only your blood can heal him.”