He hurried over to hug me and even offered me a rare smile. “I'm glad you're going. He needs you.”
“Thank you for scrying me. I love you, Fally.” I kissed his cheek.
“I love you too, Mother.” Falcas looked at his father. “I'm sorry, Father.”
“It's all right.” Tiernan hugged him. “Next time, try speaking to me again before you go behind my back.”
“Yes, Father.”
“We should be home by tonight. If we aren't going to make it back, I'll scry you.”
Falcas nodded.
“Seren?” Latharna, Tiernan's sister, came into the room with a cloak in her hands. “I heard you were here.” She hugged me. “You're going with Tiernan?”
“Yes, Falcas called me.” I took the cloak she offered. “Thank you.” Then I smiled at her rounded belly. “How's the baby?”
“Active.” She grimaced. “Gabrielle sings to my belly, and it calms the babe.”
“You both must be getting excited.”
“All three of us are, yes.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Is, uh, um, are you still with Kofi?”
Latharna grinned. “We are. He's become dear to us.”
“I'm glad. The more parents, the better, in my opinion.”
“Yes, that's clearly what you think.” She laughed. With a hand on her belly, she looked at Tiernan. “Be careful, Brother. Falcas is worried, and when he's worried—”
“I know.” Tiernan cut her off, but kissed her cheek to lessen the sting. “We'll be careful.”
Latharna and Falcas walked Tiernan and me to the massive golden entry doors and then stood within the archway, watching us as we went down the steps to the courtyard. To my right were gleaming white barracks, lined up like bookshelves with little gardens and recreational areas between. To my left were stables and the new garages for the sleek metal vehicles that were waiting for us in the courtyard. They looked like cars from the future, and in a way, they were. They were cairs—vehicles manufactured by the Imps that ran on Air Magic. The Imps had made a lot of improvements to the original prototype.
Originally, cairs relied on their wheels. Now, they only had wheels as an emergency measure. If the Air Magic thatfueled them was drained, they could be pushed. But this fleet of silver cairs already floated a foot off the ground, fully fueled. With their flying capabilities, they could be navigated at top speed without fear of hitting an animal or a carriage.
I had a feeling we'd be pushing them to their limits on this mission.
Tiernan surprised me by climbing into the driver's seat of the closest cair. But then again, Tiernan hadn't been born royalty. He had been a Lord of the Wild Hunt for most of his life, and he preferred to do things for himself.
Two of Tiernan's guards got in the back. I got into the front on the passenger side. There were no seatbelts, and the seats in both front and back were benches. I stroked the green velvet upholstery as Tiernan pushed the button to start the engine. With a soft whir and a faint glow that seeped through the seams of the dashboard, the cair came to life and rose.
Tiernan adjusted the settings so that we stopped about five feet off the ground, and then he pushed on a foot pedal. We glided forward, taking the lead in our convoy of four cairs. The massive golden gate stood open for us, held between gleaming white walls. This side of the castle walls was bare, but outside, their gleam was merely a background for the golden vines that crawled over them in curling patterns. I glanced back as we left the courtyard and headed down the winding road. Atop the tallest tower shone the symbol of Seelie—a gold sun, its rays spread wide.
For a second, another castle superimposed itself over Seelie in my mind, its walls formed of dull gray stone instead of polished white marble, and its shorter towers lacking adornment. The gate showed only mist through the black bars,and that was the view from either side of it. The Royal Palace of Hell didn't need to be flashy to instill respect. Every soul on the planet knew the power of the man who lived there.
I sucked in a breath and looked forward. Twelve days. Star said he'd come for me in twelve days. But he couldn't. Demons couldn't lalek onto the planet of Fairy. He'd have to be brought over by one of us.
“Or walk a rath,” I whispered, thinking about the human attack on Fairy that had prompted the closure of many raths and the installation of rath lords to guard those that remained.
“What did you say?” Tiernan asked.
“Huh?” I looked at him. “Nothing.”
The thick forest surrounding Castle Seelie swallowed us, our cair too low to surmount the canopy. Tiernan took us higher, but still not high enough to see over the trees. We leveled out about ten feet above ground, high enough to fly above any carriages we encountered.
Tiernan hit a button on the dashboard with a long, elegant finger. “Increasing speed now to fifty knots.”
