“All right. And then?”
“It was a faerie tale. A recounting of a woman named Rivella. A Fire-Sidhe. You said you knew her.”
“I do know a Rivella who is a Fire-Sidhe.” He narrowed his eyes. “But she has done nothing of note. Nothing that would be written down.”
“Oh, she will. She's going to leave the Fire Kingdom and marry the King of Earth.”
“I see.”
“That's beside the point.” I swished my hand down. “I was wearing the ring. I always wear it. We started talking about Rivella and her king, and I was teasing you a bit. You asked if I truly want to come back here, to the Middle Ages—”
“The Middle Ages?” Arach cut me off.
“That's what humans call this time period.”
“Humans.” He sneered. “They're always assigning stupid titles to things.”
“Yeah, all right.”
“What is this age betwixt that it is named so?”
“Did you just saybetwixt?”
“Yes.”
“Betwixt.” I shook my head. “Wow. All right, so you asked me if I wanted to be in this time, and I said I would if it was a real faerie tale. That triggered the ring, and it started to glow. You caught the glow before I did and yanked the ring off my finger. I assume you were trying to stop it from sending me here. But all you did was send me here without the ring.”
“I took the ring from you?”
“In the future, Arach!” I made an annoyed sound. “I really do sound like a crazy person.”
“Indeed.”
“Look, if you could just take me to the High King, I'll tell him who I am, and he will hopefully give me the ring.” I paused, that pesky changing the future thing occurring to me again. “This might get tricky. All right. If he doesn't offer me the ring, I'll ask for it and even explain if I have to. But I can't take it with me. I'll have to wish for it to take me back to my time and then you must pull it off my finger again. Or maybe I can just hold it, then toss it to you. Once I'm gone, you can return it to King Cian and advise him to give it to me again the next time he sees me. And to act as if he's never met me before.”
“You are a raving lunatic!” Arach strode across the room.
“Arach, please! Look at me. Just look. You don't know me, and I'm aDragon-Sidhe. My story sounds insane, but it's the only explanation that works, isn't it?”
Arach paused in the doorway, then shouted into the corridor, “Fearghal!”
“Fearghal? Really? You can't handle me on your own, so you're gonna call in the Captain of the Goblin Guard?”
Arach gaped at me. He didn't recover until Fearghal presented himself.
“Hey, Fearghal,” I said.
Fearghal frowned at me, then spoke to Arach in Fey.
Arach responded in the same language.
“Rude!” I said. “You know I don't understand Fey.”
“You don't understand it at all?” Arach looked at me like I was a traitor to my race.
“No,” I huffed. “I told you; I wasn't raised here. And I never learned more than a few words.”
Fearghal scowled deeper.
