The Shadowed Path

4. Reine-2

Inside, the hotel continued the New Orleans theme with bright colors in a small but warm lobby with rich red carpeting, ornate wood, and brass accents. A crystal chandelier hovered without a chain and cast rainbows through the space. The two Fae behind the check-in desk, one male and one female, also would have fit right in at a fancy hotel with their dark uniforms and name tags. A quick glance at one name tag revealed that instead of languages spoken, it listed magical talents. As it turned out, the female Fae was named Lorelei, and she specialized in pet behavior and removal of curses from objects.

I had to ask, "What do you mean by pet behavior?"

She smiled at me, her sky-blue eyes striking. "I calm the animals and convince them not to scratch, bite, or engage in insolence toward their human or Fae companions."

"Insolence, huh?" I arched an eyebrow at Sir Raleigh, now in non-threatening cat form at my feet, and he glared back at me.

She leaned over the desk to take a look at him. "Oh, what a cutie! Grimalkins are a bit more challenging. They tend to have the personality of their summoners."

"Thanks for the hint."

She handed me the keys to my and the humans' rooms and gave Ellerin his with an extra broad grin. "Good to see you again, Wanderer. I'm working my usual hours."

Ellerin's face flushed, and I bit back a laugh at his discomfort. Dare I say, that was the first human expression I'd seen him adopt? I resisted the urge to comment until we'd climbed a couple of flights of stairs. The thick, red carpeting muffled our footsteps and would hopefully keep sound from carrying.

Still, I teased him as quietly as possible. "Her usual hours, huh?"

"None of your business, Princess."

John drew in a breath behind me, and I just knew he was going to say something about not letting romantic dalliances interfere with our mission. I had started to turn to tell him to keep his mouth shut when an, "Oof" told me Kestrel had thwacked him.

With gentle tugs, our keys pulled us along to the fourth floor, and we went to the humans' room first. The rooms turned out to be mostly like human hotels with a few exceptions. Each had a tree resembling a Ficus growing in three of the four corners. Their trunks disappeared into the floors, and fairy lights moved among the leaves, but didn’t attach to any cords. The canopied beds looked like they'd been purchased from Fairy Tales 'R Us, and vines twined through the bathrooms along the tops of the mirrors and dangled to make up the shower curtains. Instead of a television, antique bureaus held a black obsidian mirror. Thankfully, the towels looked normal.

"This is amazing." Kestrel walked through her and John's room and gasped with delight at each new Fae feature she discovered. "How does housekeeping work?"

Ellerin leaned against the doorframe and watched her with an indulgent smile. "The branches from the tree and the vines in the bathroom will take care of it."

John, meanwhile, stood as far away from the living hotel room features, arms folded. "Are they safe?"

Ellerin sighed. "Yes, for the most part. Just don't touch them."

Kestrel drew her hand back from the tree in the corner to the right of the window. "Why not? What will happen?"

"Probably nothing, but you never know."

Kestrel walked over to the mirror. "Is this the TV? How does it work? What kind of channels do you get?"

"That's for scrying. Please don't… Well, wait until you touch it. It could be informative, but we don't have time now. Princess, are you ready?"

We ordered room service for John and Kestrel and admonished them not to go anywhere. I told Sir Raleigh to stay and watch over them. Then Ellerin accompanied me to my room and waited outside while I put my pack in the hollowed-out boulder that served as a safe. When it came time to choose a code word to seal it, I said the first one that came to mind—Lawrence. I hoped he was managing back at work, where it must still be chaotic.

I walked into the hallway to find Ellerin looking at a menu card for the restaurant below. Some of the food listed made me homesick and even hungrier than I had been, and I couldn't hide the eagerness in my question, "Are we eating downstairs?"

"No, not right now. We have our meeting to get to."

He motioned for me to follow him, and I did. We took the stairs down to the lobby—no elevators in Fae hotels—and I grabbed an apple from the bowl on the front desk on the way out. I ate as we walked.

"Where are we going?" I hoped the meeting would be short. The apple wouldn't keep me satiated for long.

"You'll see."

I shrugged. From what little I'd heard of the gray Fae, they liked to be more inscrutable than even the high light Fae. I again felt sympathy for the humans who had entered into Fae bargains as I had when I accepted my original mission from my mother. Not knowing what to expect was stressful, and here in the capital city of the dark Fae, I anticipated a surprise around every corner.

As far as I could tell, Ellerin led us away from the gate that had brought us into Cruaidh, which I surmised must be near the city center. While I had a decent sense of direction, I'd never had to develop it—high Fae were typically driven everywhere by servants. I managed in the Earth realm by taking my cues from nature. Here, I found myself at a loss, as the streets themselves seemed to have a purpose of confusion for the unwary. A defense against invasion? But who would invade a Fae city? All our enemies had been driven out, and the realm made inhospitable to them. I didn't know how. Something in the air? A Fae-concocted microbe? When I'd left Faerie, I'd been a healer, but I hadn't pondered it that much, just accepted it as part of Fae history and moved on. In other words, I’d focused exclusively on healing Fae, and an unexpected gratitude for my time and experiences in the Earth realm bloomed in my chest.

I reminded myself to pay attention. Why the confusion spell on the streets? Did the dark Fae expected to be invaded by the light or the gray Fae? The notion made me shiver. Had the treaty eroded, or had something else changed?

Ellerin looked lost in his own thoughts, his mouth set in a determined line, so I cleared my throat to get his attention. He blinked. "Yes?"

"Has there always been an Obfuscation Charm here in Cruaidh?"

He stopped and raised his chin, his nostrils flared. "Ah, right, I feel it now. In this part of the city, yes." He started walking again, this time more quickly, like where we were headed drew him toward it. I found myself almost trotting to keep up with him.

"You couldn't feel it before?"

"As a Wanderer, such spells don't affect me. I'm enemy to no one, so they're not aimed at me."

"Really? You don't have any enemies?"

He chuckled. "I have enemies, but there is no one I wish ill. Well, almost."

"I knew it. Everyone has been wronged by someone, and it's hard to get over. Who's been the bee in your bonnet?"

"Such a human expression, Princess! And my business is my business."

Message received—not my business. I thought about a roundabout way to get more information from him, but before I could ask, the street we walked on dead-ended in front of a large, stone wall topped with iron spikes. Unlike at the hotel, these created a sense of friction in the air, a high-pitched whine that made me want to cover my ears and head the other way.

I placed my hands over my ears, not that it did any good. "What is this place?"

"The Fae Asylum. And this is where we're having our meeting."