He nodded, and his thought message popped into my head. Can you hear me?
“Yeah. Good. What—” I zipped my lips as the elf continued.
“Your wing has been prepared, of course.” The elf fell silent as Roger made his way up the side of the procession with a confident swing of his shoulders and a commanding bearing. He was being professional. “Ah. And Roger Nevin. Yes, I had heard your two factions…connected once more.”
“Yes, it has been a remarkable pairing,” Romulus said, pretending the elf’s words didn’t drip with disdain. “Very effective.”
“Quite.” The elf paused, and no one rushed in to fill the gap with words. “Well. I’ll show you to your wing. Roger Nevin, your rooms are always available, as you know. My associate will show you the way. Romulus, you have some…guests with you, do you not?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, we do. We will be presenting them, in person, to the king and queen. Rooms within our wing will be sufficient for them.”
“Yes, except for the fugitive, of course. He’ll need to come with us.”
Penny shoved me out of the way and slipped her hand into Emery’s. “They won’t take you. If they try, we’ll resist.”
If they take me, make sure she stays safe, Emery thought, and I opened up my brain to all the voices around me. Thankfully, the shifters had taught the fae how to shield their thoughts, and I didn’t have dozens of voices battering me. Don’t let her try to rescue me. If they kill me, look after her. She’ll feel like dying. Don’t let her.
“If you die, we all die,” I said with zero sentimentality. It was a fact. Penny would resist, I’d help her, and we’d either all live and walk out, or all die for our efforts.
But if we were going to die, I intended to take as much of this castle down with me as I could.
“I am quite appalled by the lack of communication within your establishment, I must say,” Romulus said. “On our way out of the Flush, we left one of your smartest foot soldiers alive explicitly so that he might tell you our position on young Westbrook. I really dislike repeating myself, and I have had to do it far too often with your faction. Once and for all, he merely played a trick. Hanging does not fit the crime, not by a long shot. Moreover, anyone that is to be executed must have a trial with a high-standing custode present. Given he has not had a trial, he will not be executed, per the laws set forth long ago. I have brought him here in good faith so that he might have that trial, and I will stand up at it and wager his punishment, as is proper. Until then, he will remain in my care.”
“I understand, First, it’s just that… Well, that’s not how we do things anymore. Since you and yours walked away and left your positions empty, we’ve had to come up with other means by which to police our lands. The sun has set on your usefulness, something your kind brought on themselves.”
He just laid out exactly where the custodes stand in the Realm, Emery thought. On permanent vacation. They aren’t even going to pretend to honor the original agreement.
Darius had anticipated that, but he also believed Romulus would try to force the issue. I was safer with the warrior fae than without them, so said the Seers, but I’d be safer still with a big host of them away from the elves, in a place we could defend against Lucifer.
I just hoped I didn’t get kidnapped before any of that could happen. We were entering the belly of the beast.
Twenty
“We have come in good faith,” Romulus said to the elf, who had not budged. “We will keep Mr. Westbrook to his room until you can see him.”
“I think I’ll just take him with me.”
“We both know that isn’t wise, just as we both know what happened to the war parties that tried to do exactly that. I assume that message was delivered?”
Despite myself, I felt a smile budding on my lips. Romulus was pretty bad-ass. Those manners really shone when he was issuing threats.
“You have a girl in your vicinity,” the elf went on. “We wish to question her.”
Romulus won that round, Emery thought, his shoulders and arms relaxing slightly. I won’t be killed today.
“Yes, so we do. And we will present her and the Second Arcana at the same time. Until then, she will also stay to her room. Have no fear—she cannot fly. She’ll be quite safe until the king and queen can fit her into their schedules.”
Silence met his words again.
This elf doesn’t have the authority to force the issue, nor does he want to lose his head for trying. It’s interesting they haven’t tried to charge the fae themselves with murder. I wonder if the king and queen will bring that up.