The anniversary of her birth is not until next month. No one knows the future. Maybe I will be the one she proposes to.Maybe today is the day she realizes I would make a far better match than the Nolan.
“Can you not order the Nolan to guard something instead?” Like a rock at the bottom of the canyon. I would be more than happy to show him the quickest way to reach it.
“Kerris says he is on holiday.”
“What is ‘holiday’?”
“A Seelie word for long break.”
“A long break from guarding?” We were charged with guarding our clan and the bridge for years. We did not get long breaks. “Do you remember the time someone shot Gryffin in the foot, and he was still expected to work his shift at the bridge?” Where was his holiday?
“You mean the timeyoushot Gryffin in the foot?”
“We do not know who the culprit was. There were many arrows that day.” It was me who shot my friend in the foot. In my defense, the accident was not entirely my fault.
Ever tosses the empty skewer into the fire with a groan. “The quarry, Maddox.”
Ah, yes. The quarry. “I will join you at this quarry.”
Nodding, he hands me a skewer of my own. This is how we share most of our meals: out in the garden, beneath the persistent sun, where the Seelie cannot be offended by our diet. I have tasted their vegetables but have yet to find one that is quite as pleasing as fresh venison. Some of the fruits are almost palatable, so Ever and I eat those when we are required to dine with them.
“You will need a change of clothes,” he says. “There is water for swimming.”
Nia Quill will be swimming? Why did he not mention this first? Then I would not have had to consider my response. She is sure to choose me once she sees how impressive my?—
He bumps my knee with his. “You must wear trousers.”
“While swimming?” That seems like an awful waste of perfectly clean trousers. I swipe a smudge from the dark wool. Mostly clean.
“The Seelie wear swimming costumes.”
Costumes for swimming? What will they think of next? “Why?”
He shrugs. “Modesty.”
Then how is Nia to know that I am a far more impressive male than the Nolan? I will have to think on this predicament. “What time do we leave?”
“Noon.”
This does not give me much time to prepare.
No matter. I have a spare pair of trousers in my wagon.
I finish my breakfast and wash up in the garden’s fountain before bringing my mount to meet Kerris and Ever in front of the castle.
Biscuits trots along after me like the faithful goat he is, but I do not think a quarry is the place for him. Besides, he makes my unicorn, Dusk, skittish. I carry him back to the wagon and tie his collar to the rope attached to the wheel.
“Be a good goat.”
He bleats his agreement. My Biscuits is very intelligent.
By the time I return to the front of the castle, the king and queen are already sitting atop his unicorn with ten Seelie guards waiting on their own tiny horses behind them. It seems a silly thing to have so many small males trailing behind my friend in order to “protect” him. If trouble were to arise, Ever would be the one saving them. I have tried to explain this, but the guards do not listen to me.
I stuff my foot into the saddle’s stirrup and lift onto my unicorn’s back. Dusk snorts, displeased to be moved from the lush gardens. His stomach has become round with Seelie grass. If he is not careful, he is going to become too heavy to walk.
He is not used to the abundance on this side of the canyon. None of us are. It is a wonder the other Unseelie have not abandoned our land for theirs. I thought perhaps our friend Gryffin would come, but he has chosen to remain in the shadows. I have tried to tell him how happy the sunshine makes me, but I fear that is what keeps him away. Gryffin Hew would not know happiness if it shot him in the foot.
As it turns out, “quarry” is the Seelie word for lake. This one is large and very blue, with a platform extending from the rocky shore into the water. Some fae leap from the platform while others jump from the bone-white cliff butting against the lake’s eastern shore. They scream the whole way down, even the males.
