Chapter 4
"All day and all night
my desire for you
unwinds like a poisonous snake."
—SAMAR SEN, "Love"
Kaye was sitting at the edge of Janet's bed when she felt a small stone bounce off her knee. Then she realised it was an acorn, Kaye pulled lightly on the acorn cap, and it came loose. Inside the nutshell, all the meat was gone, leaving an empty space where a slip of paper was coiled. Kaye removed it carefully and read the message written in a pinkish red ink: "Do not talk to the black knight anymore, tell no one your name, everything is danger. Gristle is gone. We need your help, meet you tomorrow night. LL&S"
What did it mean, Gristle is gone? Gone where? And the black knight? Could that be Roiben? She hadn't been talking to anyone else that fit that description. What did it mean, that everything was danger?
When Roiben woke on Monday he knew he had to repay the debt to Kaye, only he didn't know where she was. And declared that he was going to find that girl and he would find her today. And walked out of his house and down towards the Queens chambers on my way I found one of the servants of the court, as much as I didn't like this court the servants listened to me and did it as quickly as possible. So for once living in the Unseelie wasn't a bad thing. "Could you please find a mortal by the name of Kaye she lives in this town. Once you have found her" the centaur interrupted me "Bring her to you, young prince." "No I just want to know where I can find her, so you must place a tracking spell on the girl. Will you be able to do that?" He bowed down on his horse legs so that he was below me. "Yes I can do that for you, it will be done before you know it." Then he raced off to find Kaye for me.
When I reached the Queens chambers she was waiting for me. "Did you kill the traitor." She said as I walked towards her, she was very much the shadow tree she was named after. "Yes my Queen, I killed him. I hope your pleased." I replied as I remembered how I didn't want to kill Gristle and only wanted to talk to him and thank him. "Good that traitor will not hurt you again. And let that be an example for others like him." The queen was pure evil; I have seen her worst and seen her best, which isn't much better. I turned and walked towards the door because I had enough of the queen, I hated her, she stole me from my home and now I could never go back, I wouldn't be accepted. But before I reached the door, the queen stopped me. "And once you have found this girl, you are to bring her to me for the Tithe, she sounds like the perfect candidate." I don't answer her, I just I had closed the door behind myself, did I notice the centaur bowing down in front of me? He handed me a small slip of white paper that swirled rainbows. "Just say your name and the courts name and the place your girl is will appear." He said without raising its head. "Thank you, you may go now." Then it scampered off again.
Kaye fled to the bathroom, locking herself in a stall and sliding into a sitting position on the dirty floor. Her heart was beating so fast, she thought it might beat its way out of her chest. The space was too small for pacing, but she wanted to pace, wanted to do something that would work answers out of her tangled mind. Magic, if there was such a thing, should not work like this. She should not be able to enchant someone she barely knew without even deciding to do it. Taking a deep breath, she left the stall. She went to the sinks and splashed her face with water from the tap. Looking up, she saw her own reflection in the mirror, faded red Chow Fat T-shirt spattered with dark droplets of water, eye makeup smudgy and indistinct, blond hair hanging in tangled strands. Something caught her eye as she turned away, though. Approaching the mirror, she looked at her face again, closely. She looked the same as ever. Kaye shook her head and walked to the door. For a moment, she had thought that the face she saw in the mirror was green.
Once Roiben had found the café where Kaye was, did he walk in and look around the room. She didn't seem to be anywhere. That was when Kaye she walked out of the bathroom. Her eyes downcast and her face flushed like she had been crying. She went and sat down with the friends that she had come here with and took a gulp of coffee. That was when Roiben approached the table. "Your pardon, Kaye," I said trying to get her attention. Kaye lifted her head and her face was full of astonishment, like she couldn't believe that he was there much less real. That was when one of the boys interrupted my thoughts."Who's the Goth?" Roiben heard one of the boys say. What was a Goth? "Robin, I think his name is," The girl sitting next to Kaye, replied glumly. Roiben raised an eyebrow when he heard that, but he went on. "May I speak with you a moment?" That was when she go up and walked to an empty table but she didn't sit down.
I reached into my coat and pulled out the black shirt that she had used on me when we first met. "I came to give you this." And I smiled the one that only came out when I was thinking about her. "It's your shirt, back from the dead." How would she take a joke? "Like you," she said. I nodded, my heart fluttering. "Indeed." Then she destroyed the moment. "My friends told me not to talk to you." It shocked him, but calmly continued, "Your friends? Not, I assume, those friends." His eyes flickered toward the booth, and she shook her head and replied."Lutie and Spike." So that were the names of the other two fae's I had encountered yesterday. "I killed a friend of theirs. Perhaps a friend of yours." She didn't seem that surprise at what I had said. "You killed Gristle." I nodded I knew who that name belonged to. "How? Why? Why are you telling me this?" He couldn't meet her gaze as he spoke. "Is there some excuse that I could give you that would make it better? Some explanation that you would find acceptable?" "That's your answer? Don't you even care?" "You have the shirt. I have done what I came here to do." My anger boiling over the debt would have to wait. Kaye grabbed his arm and moved around to face him. "You owe me three questions." Roiben stiffened, but his face remained blank, he didn't want to do this now, with her angry and I frustrated. "Very well." "Why did you kill Gristle?" Her first question seemed silly, but then so where mortals. "My mistress bade me do so. I have little choice in my obedience." Roiben tucked his long fingers into the pockets of the coat."Right," Kaye said. "So if she told you to jump off a bridge…?" "Exactly." There was no irony in his tone. "Shall I consider that your second question?" That was when he realised she was shaking. "Why don't you…" The anger was clear on her face, she had one more question I could feel the weight lifting off my shoulders, once she had got her answers I would never see her again. "What's your full name?" "What?" what was she thinking I hope she knew what she was making me do? "That's my third question: What is your full name?" I could tell she had gotten what she wanted I didn't want to do this and she seemed please her. My eyes clouded with fury "Rath Roiben Rye, much may the knowledge please you." "It's a nice name." she replied to my answer, "You are too clever by half. Too clever for your own good, I think." At that her eyes narrowed to slits, "Kiss my ass, Rath Roiben Rye." Oh dear god. I was compelled to do as she said. I grabbed her arm as she tried to wave me off by throwing her other hand toward my face. He threw her forward. She shrieked. She fell forward connecting hard with the stone floor. She looked up at him, fear in her eyes. He pulled at her jeans hard at the waistband and pressed his mouth against the exposed swell of her hip.
Then everything stopped as I rose from my crouch and she slipped on the tiled floor, everyone in the café was staring at them. That was when one of Kaye's boy friends came over to help her up. Before he reached them he spoke to Kaye in a matter-of-fact tone, "That is the nature of servitude, Kaye. It is literal minded and not at all clever. Be careful with your epithets." My exit was stopped by the boy who had come to help Kaye. "Who the fuck do you think you are?" he said as he bent down towards Kaye. "Ask her," he said, indicating Kaye with his chin. "Now she knows exactly who I am." He turned and walked out of the diner no one was going to stop him now.