Dy glanced at her distractedly, then seemed to realize what she’d said.“Oh, honey, I’m sorry.I didn’t mean that how it sounded.It’s just been so long since I’ve done this and every league this job puts between me, Phin, and the babies is gutting me.Maybe Iamtoo rusty, not cut out for the bandit life anymore.”
This was even worse than Cha had feared.“Out of practice, maybe, but never rusty.This is a bump and it’s natural for you to miss your family.”
Dy gazed at Cha, her lovely blue eyes watery.“I do miss them.And I’m lonely.I thought this would be about you and me again—not you cutting contact and canoodling with some guy you picked up.”
Ouch.And fair.“I’ll ditch him now,” she promised recklessly.“You matter far more to me than anyone else.I don’t care how useful Prince Charming might be in the fae realms ahead,” she added, not above reminding Dy of that salient bit of information, just in case.
Dy laughed, shaking her head, but at least no longer so upset.“You never change.”
“Is that a good thing?”Cha asked hopefully.
“Promise me this,” Dy said seriously, instead of answering.“Promise me you won’t let this Prince Charming distract you.That you’ll put me and this job first.”
“I so swear.”Cha seized Dy’s hand, turned their joined hands to the side, and spit into the space between their palms, clutching tight so Dy couldn’t immediately pull away.
Dy shrieked and extracted her hand with a small buzz of magic.“I can’t believe you did that!”
“Think of it as Warg slime,” Cha replied with an easy grin, “only cleaner.”
“I hate you,” Dy grumbled.
“Back at ’cha, babe.Get ready to fly.Those border fae won’t know what hit them.”
~21~
The Box O’Bribes
Returning to theidling Katu, Cha vaulted into the jump seat and rummaged in the rear compartment to dig out Phinny’s box o’bribes, before sliding over and into the driver’s seat again.
“Miss me?”she purred to Azul, who gave her a bored stare.
“I was enjoying the peace and quiet.”
“Glad you savored it, as rest time is over.”She pinged the gold channel.“Bandit here, hailing one and all of you poor suckers currently with thumbs up their asses stuck on the Thirteen by the big black line.I need a parting of the sea, stat, so I can unplug this toilet.”
Azul slid her an incredulous look.“Do you say these things to deliberately disgust me?”
“Nope.I do it to disgust everyone,” she answered cheerfully as the path-box chorused with cheers, rude comments on her metaphor, and—best of all—enthusiastic embellishments on the imagery.Given that Obsidian fae were involved, the conversation rocketed downhill rapidly.But the carriages also made way for her, parting to create a clear lane that Katu sailed through, thrumming with pride.It was kind of like winning a race, albeit a bit sideways.Cha patted his dash.“Good kitty.”
It took a bit of jockeying to get through the densely stalled traffic as they reached the border.It was defined by a wall, a black one, of course, towering to the sky and running as far as the eye could see in either direction.The silhouettes of black gargoyles perched at regular intervals at the top, ready to drop on anyone so foolish as to attempt to run the border.This wasn’t the only crossing into Obsidian, but they all looked essentially the same.
The Thirteen ley line forked a short distance before the wall, the inbound leys leading to a series of gated arches.In keeping with theme—the actual fae tended even more towards dramatic architecture than their human imitators—the gates had been made to look like a spiked portcullis that lowered from above, as in a gothic tale.The gates were all down, filling the archways with overwrought iron twisting and twining like menacing black vines with bristling thorns and roses.Obsidian fae guards, equally spiky and gothic, stood sentry at the gates, while the border agents sat in their glass cubicles, reading books or having conversations with their colleagues, apparently at leisure—and totally ignoring the demanding questions from the carriages idling at the front of the lines.
On the outbound side, the gates stood open, allowing traffic to flow freely from Obsidian into the human realm.“Anyone can come out, but no one can get in,” Cha intoned.
“I’m sure that’s backwards,” Azul said, eyeing the Obsidian fae.
Cha gestured to the two sides of traffic.“How is it backwards?You can see for yourself.”
“What I can see is that the gates are down and we’re going nowhere.”
“Watch and learn, my darling blue devil.”She angled Katu around a train of donkey carriages, whose driver rounded on her angrily.He’d been parked in front of a placid and towering Obsidian fae guard, who stared stonily past him, unmoved, possibly not even noticing the ranting, red-faced human as he implacably blocked the way.
“Look here,” the angry ley rider shouted, “I’m—oh, hey Bandit.You’re on the road again?Katu’s looking in fine form, as are you.”His gaze lingered appreciatively on her and Cha nearly pointed it out to Azul.
“Thank you, darling.”She fluttered her lashes at the ley rider, whose name—real or assumed—she couldn’t recall for the life of her.Had she slept with him?Maybe.He looked like her type.“Let me give this a try.”
“Happy to yield to you,” he said with a wink.“As you likely recall.”
