Page 6 of Silver and Lead (October Daye #19)

Arden stepped briskly forward, grabbing my upper arm with one hand while she sketched a circle in the air with the other. A portal opened, accompanied by the scent of redwoods and blackberries, and she pulled me through into someplace else.

The portal closed behind us, and I looked quickly around.

We were in a small lounge, although I doubted that it was one of the ones attached to the bathrooms: it was too nice for that, and one entire wall was made up of windows, looking out on a trellis dripping with blackberry canes that drooped under the weight of ripe dark purple fruit.

A few of the windows were cracked open, allowing the berry-scented air to trickle inside.

A table had been set up at the center of the room, piled with plates of cucumber sandwiches, scones and cream, and blackberry tarts. My stomach growled as uncomplicated hunger washed through me, not a hint of nausea. I glanced to Arden. She nodded.

That was all the permission I needed. I moved toward the table, grabbing a small plate and beginning to fill it with a heavy hand.

Arden had more or less admitted that this was an ambush, meaning this food wasn’t intended to be shared with anyone I didn’t decide to share it with.

That was fine by me. If my Queen was going to ambush me, feeding me was really the least that she could do.

Arden waited until my plate was full before she made a small coughing noise to get my attention and said, “It’s been hard to get a message to you these past few months. Tybalt and May have been running interference.”

“Can you blame them for being a little overprotective?” I asked. “We’re all still recovering from what we went through. Poor Rayseline is barely leaving her room.”

“Why? I thought she spent the duration of Titania’s enchantment in the former Blind Michael’s lands, which should have been…”

“If you say ‘restorative,’ I’m going to have to throw a scone at you.”

“I wasn’t going to say ‘restorative.’ Just that for someone who has such a complicated relationship with most of Faerie, I can see where being removed from it entirely might be something of a relief, especially since her memories weren’t tampered with the way the rest of ours were.”

“You’d think. But Blind Michael’s lands weren’t exactly a nice vacation spot—and remember, we were all enchanted for four months .”

“What does that have to do with—oh.” Arden’s eyes widened as the significance of those four months finally hit her.

I nodded. “Yeah. Oh.”

Rayseline Torquill is the only daughter of my sworn liege lord, Sylvester Torquill of Shadowed Hills.

She’s also my cousin, technically, even though we aren’t actually related.

Family trees can get remarkably complicated in Faerie.

When she was born, she was half Daoine Sidhe, and half Blodynbryd laced with Kitsune.

Blodynbryd aren’t mammals, and Raysel’s body had been tearing itself apart from the moment she was conceived.

That might have been difficult but survivable, had she not been abducted as a child and grown to adulthood in an enchanted prison, with only darkness and isolation as companions.

The trauma of that time had led her to do some pretty awful things, and she’d been elf-shot, meaning she should have slept for a hundred years.

We have a cure for elf-shot now, created by the alchemist Walther Davies, and waking Raysel had become possible.

But I had spoken to her while she was sleeping—it’s a long story, just go with it for now—and she’d begged me to find a way to get her away from her parents.

She needed to rest, recover, and decide how she was going to move forward from everything that had happened, everything that she’d done.

She needed to figure out how to be herself, and not the pretty prisoner her mother wanted her to be.

That was something she had in common with me: my biological mother, Amandine, always had firm ideas about what she wanted her children to be, and wasn’t inclined to change her ideas just because we turned out to be people rather than pretty dolls for perfect playtimes.

But unlike me, Raysel’s parents hadn’t divorced, and she hadn’t been given the opportunity to decide which of them she was going to belong with.

She was trapped. I was supposed to be a hero, and so, when she’d finally been woken up, I’d done what I could to save her.

I’d claimed offense against her for her crimes, backed by the Duchess Lorden and Tybalt, and I’d managed to get her released to my household for a year’s time.

One year. Eight months of which were already gone, four stolen by Titania, the other four spent dealing with what had happened during that ordeal and trying to readjust to the real world.

“There has to be something we can do,” said Arden.

“The laws of offense are pretty clear, and strictly time-based,” I said grimly. “Four more months and she goes back to Shadowed Hills, whether she’s ready or not.”

“You know, I’m the Queen in the Mists, and her father is one of my vassals,” she said. “I could order him to let her stay with you.”

“Can you order her mother? Luna’s a duchess by marriage. I’m not sure whether that means she’s directly sworn to you.”

“She isn’t, but her title means I have some authority over her all the same.” Arden frowned thoughtfully. “I’ll figure out a way we can extend her time in your care. I know she needs your hospitality to help her healing. But Rayseline isn’t why I wanted to speak with you. Please, have a seat.”

I sank gratefully into one of the chairs next to the refreshment table, noting as I did that my plate was already half empty.

I hadn’t even noticed eating what I’d chosen.

That said something about the care Arden had taken in selecting her high-calorie bribes: none of them were upsetting my newly finicky stomach in the slightest.

“So what do you want?” I asked, leaning over to take a few more slices of crostini smeared with a tart mushroom spread and sprinkled with watercress.

According to the pregnancy books that May had been reading obsessively, I wasn’t supposed to have half the things on this table, but that was in the mortal world.

I had every faith that Arden wouldn’t serve me anything that could hurt me.

Maybe upset my stomach, sure, but hurt me? She would never knowingly do that.

“Titania’s enchantment removed several of us from our positions,” said Arden, sinking into another of the chairs and choosing a chicken salad sandwich for herself. “Muir Woods was entirely sealed off for the duration of the spell. No one could get in or out.”

“Tybalt told me,” I said, trying to figure out where she was going with this.

“Did Tybalt tell you that it didn’t seal until she removed me from my position?”

I frowned. “Okay, so what?”

“No one was able to get into the knowe after it was sealed.” Arden paused, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand. “But there was a window when they could have, and well, someone did.”

I sighed. “I’m guessing I’m not going to like whatever you’re about to tell me next, so maybe you should just spit it out.”

Arden dropped her hand. “The royal vaults have been raided. Almost everything of any value is missing. Including the hope chest.”