“Of course you do,” Bracken continued. “That only makes sense. Might I ask if I could interview you when you have a few moments? I’d be more than happy to drive to San Francisco when you return home.”
Eyebrows raised, I wait to see what Clive would say. He gave me a good long look, rolled his eyes on a smile, and finally said, “I’m sure I could find some time to speak with you.”
“Splendid! Now let’s get back to the prince.” He let out a long breath and started again. “I’m not sure if you know, but reproduction is very difficult for the fae. The part of the story that initially caught my interest was this idea of him having many daughters whom he abused horribly. It made no sense. The fae cherish their young.
“The translation in one of the texts seemed suspect to me. The word was daughter, but it struck me that in a Germanic dialect of Middle English—one I’ve only heard spoken by the fae—the word daughter and the word that essentially meant chattel or possession sounded very similar.
“I could have been wrong, so I interviewed a few members of the fae. I found a water sprite who knew the dialect I’d been looking for and when I asked her about the Danube Prince, she became enraged, the water around her turning turbulent. She told me he was an evil bastard who had abducted other water fae—female only—and kept them imprisoned away from the river. When they tried to escape, to return to the Danube, he’d caught them and beat them bloody to keep them from leaving him.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “If they knew what he was doing, why didn’t Algar or the queen step in to do anything about it?”
“Ah,” Bracken said, a smile in his voice, “you know the players. Excellent. The one who calls himself the prince is the younger brother—or relative of some kind—of the fae king—names have power, and we don’t want to attract their attention, so I won’t use it,” he said.
“Yes,” I said. “Especially his, as he’s regularly sending his assassins after me.”
“My dear, I’m so sorry,” Bracken said. “He is a horribly petty man who clutches grudges as though they were precious gems. Anyway, the king protected the prince by exiling him to the human realm. With his captives. The ones the stories refer to as his daughters.”
He sighed and then continued. “Some of these poor women had never been in the human realm, had no idea their magic would work differently here. Others were stolen here, water fae from the Danube. One of his prisoners was a mermaid who had been one of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting. They were quite close, and though she was water fae, the queen gifted her with flower magic because the young woman so loved the flowers that grew along the banks of the rivers in Faerie.”
“I remember,” I murmured. “They’re gorgeous. We don’t have anything like them in this realm. Big blowsy blossoms drooping toward the water, their heads bobbing in the wind.”
There was silence for a moment and then Bracken said, “You’ve been to Faerie? Oh, my dear, I’d love to interview you as well as your husband. My goodness, what a turn this day has taken.”
The queen hadn’t sworn me to secrecy about Faerie, so I figured it would be okay. I mean, look at this right now. If people hadn’t spoken to Bracken thirty-something years ago, we still wouldn’t know who we were dealing with. “Sure,” I said. “I can tell you some stuff.”
“Excellent. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the queen’s beloved friend had been stolen. What I’d been told was that this friend observed the king in yet another of his trysts and had informed the queen. In his rage, he abducted the queen’s friend, took her to the human realm, and handed her over to his brother, relative, ally—whoever the prince actually is.
“The queen searched far and wide throughout Faerie. Her guards left no corner of her realm forgotten. The young woman was simply gone. The queen never stopped looking, though, sending her people into other realms to search. She’s been mourning the loss of her beloved for a very long time now.”
“So, this building we’re in right now,” I said, “has been a number of things over the centuries, but he referred to it as the prince’s palace.” A thought occurred to me. “Wait. He’s fae. Is it possible he’s still alive in here? I’d thought he was a ghost, but do the fae leave ghosts?”
“My dear, if he still there, you must leave immediately. You’re dealing with an exiled fae possessing a vampire—something I hadn’t considered possible. Their magics are antithetical to one another. If he can do that, who knows what else he can do?”
“Yes,” Clive said. “I hadn’t thought it possible either. They abhor us. We’re death. They’re life.”
“Perhaps,” Bracken said, “that’s an indication of how twisted he’s become, how removed from the light and power of Faerie. I wish I could be more help. I have no idea how to break a bond that shouldn’t exist. I fear only the queen herself could do it.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thank you so much. We’d never have known any of this without you. When we get home, Clive and I will drive down to Monterey to visit and talk with you.”
“Marvelous!” Bracken said. “Did you hear that, Arwyn? We’ll have visitors soon.”
“Hopefully,” Arwyn said. “Unfortunately, right now, Sam’s in trouble. In what I saw, he called you a fisherman, but he knows who you are. Or, maybe not who you are, but he senses power and sees a woman and it’s pissing him off. Does the vampire have issues with women too?”
I looked at Clive.
“No,” Clive said. “I’ve never witnessed that. He does have an issue with Sam because of her werewolf blood. For whatever reason, he doesn’t trust them and therefore doesn’t trust her. I thought he’d made his peace with our relationship when we married, but I see now I was wrong.”
“Do me a favor,” Arwyn said. “Don’t be alone with that vampire guy. It feels deeper than just I don’t like werewolves.”
A chill ran down my spine. “I will.”
“And remember,” Bracken said, “if the prince knows who you are, then the king will soon know where you are.”
“I hate that guy,” Arwyn said. “Call me if you need anything. Oh, and that one girl, the teenager. You need to see if you can help her.”
“I’m working on it,” I replied. I just needed to figure out what Léna wanted.
We said our goodbyes. It was almost daybreak before we finally settled in to sleep.
