Semper Fidelis
Chapter 17
Perhaps I was biased by being the Winter Court Emissary but I felt that if anyone was going to be able to fill in a few more pieces of this puzzle it would be Lady Maeve. The Winter token being the odd item out in this mystery it needed a further explanation and neither Summer Court nor the Wyldfae would likely be able to provide the types of answers I needed. And if they could provide them then that very fact alone would assuredly make them desire not to and probably put all our lives in jeopardy.
Daniel and Elaine arrived almost at the same time, Daniel by cab and Elaine pulling up across the street in her rented car. I was going to compliment her luck on keeping a modern car running, a feat Harry could not accomplish for so many days, when the engine of her car suddenly revved up even after she had turned it off to the point of screaming as it redlined and then the entire v vehicle shuddered into a smoky and silent death. Thankfully Daniel upon seeing this event had the immediate sense of mind to keeping the cab here on standby for our use while Elaine went inside quickly and used Harry's phone to call her rental company to come collect their car.
We put our bags in the trunk of the cab and all three of us piled into the back seat because the driver was nervous having anyone sporting armor, a sword, or a flail riding up in the front next to him. I guess some people are easily put off by the simplest of things. He did make an awkward apology but said since his last car a few years ago during a blackout had gotten stepped on by what he was certain was a dinosaur there was no way he was taking any chances with the passengers he let into this one. I guess all things being equal that was not an irrational decision.
I gave him the name and location of the two destinations we had to head for. The first was a sporting goods shop and the second a place even stranger and more unlikely which raised eyebrows with my two companions. I would have to explain all this to them in a minute but I first needed to know what they had learned during the day.
"Elaine, what is the word from Summer Court?" I asked hoping against hope for some good news but not really expecting her to provide it.
"I was unable to speak to any of those aligned directly with Summer but I did chat with a pixie over in the city's botanical gardens and she said everyone in the Nevernever was now was aware that the Summer Lady and Summer Knight were close to death and that war between the Courts was on the horizon. The Wyldfae have begun to choose their sides and the pixie was leaving to do so soon as well though she said she like most this time preferred to remain neutral in these events and let the courts' forces settle things without them." Elaine replied which should have been some good news but really just confirmed the worst of what I already feared.
"And what about Summer's preparations for war?" I asked. "Will they attack anytime soon?"
"The preparations continue." Elaine replied. "Supposedly Queen Tatania has left the court and both her and Abagalesidhe are in the field rallying their remaining forces. All those ere on the mortal plane have returned for this summons which is why only Wyldfae remained to be questioned. More of Summer's forces are rumored to have defected it seems and only the presence of the most powerful nobles appears to be keeping still others from doing the same."
"The pixie did say though that the current rumor is those defecting forces of Summer offered their loyalty more to the Lady of Summer than to the Summer Queen. Some go so far as to whisper that they suspect that Queen Tatania was even behind the attack on Lily and Fix in order to better secure her own powerbase by removing a very popular rival. I know this is a lie but I seem to be in the minority. Supposedly Abagalesidhe has not been so forgiving and personally struck down a few who dared to make such a comment as an example to others."
"With the army and nobles in the field have they left Lily and Fix alone and unguarded?" I asked in complete surprise.
"No, both still have their personal guards and retinues, a small token force at best, because even though Queen Tatania desperately needs these additional soldiers, she cannot make it appear that the rumors of her fearing a rival to have credence by leaving the Lady and Knight unguarded and vulnerable. Instead she must show she is doing everything for their survival even though no one truly expects them to recover." Elaine explained.
"Well that is something we can use to our advantage at least." I said somewhat happy with this additional complication for it screwed up for the other side what I now suspected was the real plan in motion.
"How can you say that? If someone were to slay the pair now it would better serve the Queen's purpose for she could transfer their power to others such as Abagale." Elaine explained and I was reminded that she considered some among the Summer Court like a certain centaur to be close acquaintances if not friends. "As it stands Queen Tatania dares not begin a fight with this power unavailable to her, but dares not hurry the process forward by ending their lives for fear of that action causing her to lose even more of the remaining forces she still has the loyalty of. Mab has maneuvered Queen Tatania into a perfect no win situation."
"Yes, or as our friend Lord Kline would say Queen Tatania has been placed into check." I said agreeing with Elaine before turning my attention to Daniel.
He was enraptured of our conversation even though he probably understood only a bare sliver of it. "I noticed that you were unsuccessful with the task I asked you to do?" I questioned though I was ninety-nine percent sure of the answer before he said it.
"I did what you asked but…" He seemed to want to say more but was unsure if he should.
"Don't worry about it." I said brushing it off. "After you left I came to expect this would be the result. In fact I would have been surprised if what I had asked you had actually come about." Yes the pieces certainly seemed to be in the right places.
"Alright what have you learned?" Elaine asked realizing I was holding my own cards close to my chest as I gathered their information first. Fortunately at this moment we were just pulling up to the sporting good shop I had requested and that was thankfully still open. I told Daniel what I needed and he looked at me oddly. Thankfully, being a wizard allows one some leeway from automatically being placed into the 'crazy relative' category and Daniel decided to humor me and run in to buy what I told him we needed. Elaine had no compunction of looking skeptically at me.
As Daniel was in the store I laid out to Elaine all that I had figured out about the poisoning and who I suspected was behind these events. She was resistant at first to both my synopsis and suspect list but as I made my case point by point I could see her initial opposition to the idea crumbling. By the end of my explanation, while she still seemed a little skeptical, she was willing to admit it indeed had possibilities of being correct. In truth I almost preferred to be wrong based upon what that meant.
"You realize that this goes completely against Occam's Razor that Harry always says is key to an investigation, right?" Elaine said still not ready to join my side.
"Yeah, but even you have to admit the Winter token instead of making that explanation more likely screams of a set up, right?" I asked just as Daniel got back into the car carrying two small Tupperware dishes of necessary supplies. He tried to hand them to Elaine who was sitting next to him as he buckled his seatbelt but she was having no part in this or willing take what it was that he was holding.
"Give it to your sister." Elaine said. "This is her crazy idea after all. It is a scheme so twisted it would make Harry proud."
I smiled at this but turned away to stare out the window. Elaine understood now why we were headed to the second destination but had no idea of the history behind this. I caught Daniel looking at me out of the corner of my eye as we got closer and figured that thanks to our soulgaze this morning he probably understood what this meant to me. And because of that I had to remain cool and not show how much I was shaking with fear inside.
As the taxi pulled up in front of the building I could not stop myself from turning and looking at a place that up until now I had done everything I could to avoid, which really did not require much. Fate of course never seems to give me a break. Considering that Daniel's involvement in these events seemed based in part of our shared event of more than a year ago I could hardly be surprised though that after reliving the assault in our home by the phages that now I was forced to return to the Pell Theater once more where Scarecrow and the Reaper had taken me after their attack on our home.
I remembered being carried away from our house by the pair for what seemed like an eternity. I had screamed and screamed until my voice was raw from the fear. No one on the somewhat busy Chicago streets came to rescue me when I screamed, and anyone our paths crossed fled when they felt the terror the phages emanated from their bodies. When my voice finally gave out I just prayed I would faint from overwhelming sense of panic I felt but the two holding me seemed to have ways to make sure that never happened so that they could continue to feed off of my fear.
They had paused outside the Pell Theater so that when I opened my eyes I would know exactly where I was and why I was here. This is where the first of the phages had emerged from at my unconscious call and the pair wanted me to understand even without saying so that I had been responsible for it all; the pain, the wounds, even the deaths. I found the strength to squeak out a last shriek of denial and that seemed to be their cue to take me inside.
As I sat in the cab now looking at the theater once again I saw that very little had changed in the past year plus since that night. Mr. Pell was a simple business man and did not have the money to make major improvements compared to the big multiplex theaters in most of the malls around town. He had agreed to help host SplatterCon in part to raise money for restoring his business but those funds and more had gone instead to paying for his unforeseen medical bills; bills that I had been responsible for.
A cult following had grown up immediately after these events where horror movie fans all wanted to see the theater open again and show only these types of movies once more. Some urban legend had been created from these events that said the characters from these movies sometimes came to life here. Instead of scaring people away this story of danger became a draw for more potential business.
Mr. Pell though would hear nothing of it even when he understood the ticket sales would have made him significantly richer. I had heard a bigwig in Chicago had even offered to buy him out, but Mr. Pell turned him down. He swore that no horror films would ever be shown on the screens in this theater ever again.
I looked at the still lit up marquee and saw that Mr. Pell had taken that idea one step further. Not only were no horror movies shown at the Pell Theater anymore, but the theater only played movies, primarily Disney and other kiddies' movies, and those only during daylight hours. Surprisingly this family friendly decision brought in slightly more business than before the events of SplatterCon so other than the medical bills Mr. Pell had actually come out in a slightly better position. I wished that the same could be said for the rest of us.
"Molly, are you sure you want to do this?" Daniel asked me with a voiced so filled with concern that Elaine even raised an eyebrow. A lot had changed since she left she was only now beginning to understand. I had to remember later to thank her for helping it come about.
I turned and looked at the two of them and as calmly as I could I tried to sound as strong as Harry would under this type of situation. "It's not about what I want Daniel." I said as I reached though the Plexiglas and handed some cash to the cabbie before I opened the door to get out. "It's about doing what needs to be done." Yeah I so wish I felt as confident as I sounded.
Daniel followed me out and then Elaine as we waited for the cabbie to open the trunk so we could each retrieve our packs. "You know how I have said you are sounding too much like Harry?" Elaine said to me with a smile of support. "Forget I said anything Molly. I think you are learning all the right lessons and should be proud of yourself." Yeah I just might do that if we actually live through this night.
We waited for the cab to drive off before we tried the front doors and found them locked. No real surprise there since it had been dark for almost four hours now. Having been here before I led the others around to the emergency fire door in an alley on the side of the building. The door was locked here too of course but I figured a spell would take care of it.
"Forget it kid." Elaine said pulling forth a set of lock picks from her pocket. "Harry said this was a good skill to learn if I was going to be a private investigator and I have to admit it keeps my fingers nimble. I figure five minutes tops and we will be inside."
"Are we in a rush?" Daniel asked before she started looking back and forth at the two of us.
"A little I guess." I answered.
"Then stand back ladies." He said pulling a three foot long iron crowbar out of the gym bag he carried and with a practiced ease slammed the end into the space between the door and the jam and with one flex of his arms popped the door open. I could see Elaine was smiling in approval and I had the distinct impression she was still seeing him in his Spartan costume. Sometimes being a sensitive wizard can really be disturbing!
"So this theater has a crossover point to the lands of Winter?" Elaine asked.
"Even better." I said as I led the other two into the building, past the bathrooms, offices, and concession stands and finally to the big screen of the theater itself.
"Better how?" Elaine asked once we finally stopped.
"I figure we don't have a lot of time to waste just wandering around freezing in the snow as we look for the Winter Court." I said as I stood in the middle of the stage at the base of the screen and held my Winter token up to touch the canvas material. Instantly a portal opened up in response. "That is why this one takes us directly to Arctis Tor, the center of Mab's power." Without a chance for Elaine to object I stepped through the portal and into the lands of Winter once more, this time though on my own two feet not carried by a pari of nightmares.
For those who have never been there, or should I say the lucky ones who have never been there, Arctis Tor is like the most inhospitable parts of Siberia, Antarctica, and Buffalo, New York all rolled up as one. It is a hard, unforgiving environment populated by nasty things that for fun have competitions to see who can kill and eat even nastier things than themselves. That Darwinian approach leaves only the meanest, most cunning, and ill tempered creatures to call this place home; which is exactly the types of things Queen Mab likes to keep company with.
I stepped through the portal and into a snow bank, no surprise as that was the principle and dominant land feature, and waited for the others to follow suit. My faerie attire kept me surprisingly warm in temperatures way colder than where we had left Chicago. Daniel followed nearly on my heels and while dressed warm for a Chicago winter night, his first breath in the lands of Winter was almost his last. One does not suck gouts of frozen air into the lungs, which happen to be all moist, and hope to survive for long. Thankfully, he adapted quickly and took very shallow breaths through his nose though I could see the chill was getting quickly getting to him none the less.
Elaine stepped through last, though not attired in faerie clothing her own emissary token placed a glowing shell of warmth around her. On the good side it kept her from freezing, but on the bad side she instantly sank into the snow that was mid thigh high on her. Daniel came to her rescue and between his strength to lean on and her Summer provided warmth the two supported and balanced each other out.
"So which way do we go now?" Elaine asked looking around and seeing almost blinding blowing snow making drifts across seemingly endless tundra in all directions. But even with all that cold and snow trying to white out my eyes I could sense we were not alone.
"We stay right here." I explained drawing my sword and pulling magic to me. "We need to talk to the welcoming party first."
At my words half a dozen grey, shaggy shadows stood up from under the snow banks they had been sleeping under as they served as a guard for this portal. Each was more than two feet taller than me, slightly smaller than Lord Kline perhaps, but double his mass in polar bear like mixtures of tough hide, warming fat, and solid, deadly muscle. A sudden reminder that something had killed one of these things quickly and quietly right outside of Harry's apartment did not make me feel any safer about what I may be facing this night if things went according to plan.
One of the creatures took an angry challenging step toward me since I was standing out front of our small group. It gathered hostility at obviously sensing the Summer magic of Elaine's token and thinking us to be enemies if what I sensed was correct. "Stop!" I ordered it raising my hand in its direction. It either had dealings with wizards before and was wisely cautious or it found my challenge to be mildly entertaining to allow to continue. "Go inform Lady Maeve that her emissary wishes to speak with her." I ordered showing the creature my own Winter token as a proof of my identity and granting me the protection of the Winter Court.
The shaggy creature growled at me and I could tell it was debating if it should follow my command or not. Like I said things in Arctis Tor are rather disagreeable by nature and while I have received many approving smiles for my look as a perky wizard apprentice, I really do not rate all that high on a yeti's intimidation scale. Thankfully I have magic at my disposal to back up my other assets.
I gave a quick thought to the situation and called up a spell, raising my hand high above my head and pulling the heat from Elaine's token to burst into a flaming beach ball of fire above my head. "You would be wise to do as I command unless you want to feel the Summer fire." I said making the ball of flame pulse in my hand as if eager to fly toward a target. The yeti got the message and he turned and ran off into the snowstorm while its other five companions pulled back so they were only vague shadows in the snow at the edge of our vision. Their silent message is that they would guard against any further foolish moves on our part. Only when they settled in once more did I let the flames in my hand extinguish so that I had other magic available to me if it was required.
"Are you crazy?" Elaine said in a harsh whisper. "You can't threaten to use Summer's power here in the heart of Winter." Her eyes showed a mixture of outrage and fear. "How were you even able to do that? You are not Summer's Emissary."
"I'm not." I agreed. "Therefore that magic is beyond my ability." I said with a smile.
"But I saw you…" Elaine said and then stopped. "You used an illusion!" She reasoned.
"Yeah I figured there is no way Mab or Maeve can be insulted if I only looked like I used Summer's powers." I said with a smile. "It's certainly not my fault that their door guards fell for it."
Elaine laughed more out of nervousness than joy. "You are so going to get us killed."
"Oh I doubt it." I said.
"After that display of our guard's inherent mental weaknesses and your explanation I will also agree you will not die, at least not right this instant." Maeve's voice said from close by as she stepped forward in her radiant glory to look at the visitors to her Queen's domain. "That thing with the Summer flame illusion was really very good Molly." Maeve said. "You are certainly as creatively resourceful as your master. Would you perhaps be interested in a more permanent position among our forces? We are always looking for new and fresh talent."
Being a wizard attuned to emotions I was suddenly overcome by the strong sense of wanton desire that Daniel felt upon seeing his first Fae, or at least the first one not trying to kill him. No longer attempting to pass herself off as a mortal I saw that Maeve appear as he natural self with deep green feline like eyes highlighted with black and impossibly long lashes that Max Factor would pay millions for to put on a billboard. Her skin was almost too pale as if sickly and her multicolored strands of blue, green, and black hair made this stand out even more so. She was wearing a leather dog collar studded with diamond icicles and a regular crew neck T-shirt that had been violently converted to a V-neck by ripping down the front to maybe an inch above her navel. It was also so tight that she was almost bursting out it, almost that is much to Daniel's frustration. The shirt mockingly asked 'If he's your boyfriend why is he with me?' Lastly she wore a leather miniskirt that would have cause Madonna to put her foot down and boots for tromping in the snow; deep blue thigh highs with at least a six inch heel.
"I already have a job but thanks." I said in response as she stepped up to the point of just violating my personal space as if to show me that she did not fear me. I half suspected this was more as a show for the yetis who were still moving around out at the edge of my vision.
Elaine pulled on Daniel's arm to stop him from staring now that an icicle stalagmite was growing beneath his which of course also drew the Winter Lady's attention. "Oh he's a cute one!" Maeve said sizing up my brother as if he were still dressed as an out of work Spartan. "What would you be willing to trade for him?" She asked me with a quite serious tone.
"I'm not here to trade for anything Maeve." I said drawing her attention back to me. "We still have a binding agreement between us and I expect you to fulfill your part of the bargain. I have come here for more information." I said more as a command than a request to provide my own starting point. This made her eyes flash dangerously at me. I sensed both Elaine and Daniel tense but I tried to remain calm under her intense scrutiny.
"You do play a dangerous game child with your illusions." Maeve replied. "But I told you before you have neither the charm nor the intimidation ability of your master Harry so do not try my patience." Did I happen to mention that Maeve just seethed with raw power compared to either Elaine or myself. How Harry had taken down Aurora, Maeve's counterpart in Summer, now seemed all the more incredible to me when I was faced with just what the level of task that had been.
"See that is where you are wrong Maeve. You think I am bluffing when I figure I have very little to lose so also little to fear." I replied though holding onto my air of cockiness. "By the way I reckon things, if you decide to kill me then the real villain behind the attack on the Lady of Summer and the Summer Knight remains free. Maybe he or she decides to come after you next since they have demonstrated they have the ability. Or on the other hand Lily and Fix will die and the power of Summer they hold will be reissued just in time for a war when the Winter Court is short its own Winter Knight. Maybe you and Mab win with the peak of winter so close but then again maybe you don't. Either way, one faerie court is destroyed and the other ends up much weaker and easy pickings for any other enemies the court has made over the centuries. So if that is what Queen Mab wants as an epitaph we both know I can't stop you."
She seethed at all of this but to my credit what I said actually calmed her. I had not challenged her power, which she had tremendous pride in, I merely challenged the way she chose to act and wield it and showed her how the course she suggested would in the long term be disastrous for her. And in this case with what was at stake even Maeve in her pride could see that I was in the right, though she hardly was willing to admit it.
We stood facing each other in a long tense moment of silence before she finally spoke again. "By the terms of our contract you may ask your questions Winter Emissary." She said ensuring to use my title of a member of her court to likely appease her bruised pride and remind Elaine and Daniel that my competence and fearlessness, all an illusion as far as I was concerned, was why Winter had accepted me in Harry's stead in the first place.
"Thank you for your honor and wisdom Lady Winter." I said trying not to provoke Maeve any more than I already had. What I needed from her now was simple honest answers. The honest I was pretty much assured of by our agreement but as I have said in the past faeries have a way of twisting words in their answers so that they may tell you the truth but you are left with the wrong impression through your own interpretation. With Fix and Lily close to death I had no time for playing these types of word games. An annoyed Maeve wanting to answer my questions and be done with me best served my current needs, or at least that is what her emotions bespoke.
"Since we last spoke even more of Summer's forces are said to have defected and all suspect they have come to Winter's side." I explained setting the stage. "Are you aware of any gathering of former Summer armies under the banner of Winter?" I asked.
"There are no Summer forces in the domains of Winter with perhaps the rare exception of a few singular spies numbering in total less than ten that Queen Mab takes great delight in torturing." Maeve replied. "We too admit that Summer's armies in the field appear smaller than what our intelligence suggests but it is our belief that the Summer Queen is merely hiding her own forces in order to lure us into a false sense of security. We suspect their claim of defecting armies merely provides Summer plausible deniability of responsibility when these same forces attack us."
"How could Summer hide her armies?" I asked Maeve. "While the Queen's are powerful the magic to maintain such a veil would be incredible hard to maintain."
"That is true and we would undoubtedly sense such a spell." Maeve responded. "But our detection magic has the same limitations of all such spells. A large body of water would shelter them against our scrying. More likely though, Queen Tatania has merely sequestered her forces on the mortal plane near one of the portals to the Winter Demesnes. When our armies engage in battle these forces will come through this hidden gate and strike at the heart of Winter."
"That is why you have the yetis guarding this gate." I suddenly understood.
"Indeed." Maeve said while nodding her head slowly. "The beasts serve as a first line of defense, a tripwire force, to alert us if anything not of Winter comes through these portals like you did."
Okay that seemed to me a logical answer and even Elaine seemed unable to find a means to argue with the story Maeve was saying to us since it fit the facts as we knew them. That meant it was time to turn the more important subject. I held my own Winter token out in my hand toward Maeve. "Can a token be stolen from the one the Queen or Lady gift it to?" I asked her as politely as I could to show that there was respect and honor for the gift.
"No." Maeve said. "They are created with a specific living being in mind. Once a token is placed in the hands of that individual it remains in their possession until they are no more or the terms of the contract are fulfilled." She said in response then elaborated even further. "Most tokens merely represent a favor due, Winter's equivalent to gold or currency that represents a service that may be 'bought' by the one so gifted because of a debt owed by the court."
"But you made this one for Harry yet I was able to take it up." I pointed out to her this inconsistency from what I had observed.
"That is because you are his apprentice and therefore a recognized extension of his power or his self." Maeve replied confirming the story I only suspected when this all first began. "His bond as your master also obligates him to be responsible for your actions. You are therefore like an appendage of him and the token accepted that and allowed you to pick it up."
The White Council viewed my apprenticeship in much the same way which is why Harry would die if I ever screwed up again. Any crime I committed would be looked upon as if he had done it so himself.
But how Maeve explained the power of the token made even more sense as to why whatever had killed the yeti delivery man had not taken the token with him. It simply could not because it had not yet been delivered. This seemed to confirm, as I now suspected, the yeti had not been a random murder by whatever was causing exsanguinations in Chicago. It was the target, or if my theory was right, the secondary target that the creature had come for. Perhaps the others were merely food or a means to cover the creature's tracks. I figure time would show that.
But to be safe and thorough I had to narrow down a few other possibilities especially in front of the Summer Emissary so she could report honestly on what she heard rather than on deductions and assumptions we made. "Can a token be given from the one you honored it with to unto another of their choosing?" I asked.
"It can." Maeve confirmed complicating the simplicity of my deductions. "But like your barter system this must be exchanged fair value for value. A favor cannot be transferred from one mortal to another on a whim or the token loses its value and disappears. It may only be traded for a good or service that the Winter Court acknowledges is of equal or greater value."
"So if I saved the life of someone with a favor, they could gift this to me in return." I asked.
"Indeed." Maeve confirmed with another slow nod of her head. "And you offer a good example for the subject you speak. A life for a service would demonstrate a powerful respect for what a Winter token represents so we would honor it. A smaller kindness such as giving as a birthday gift we would take as an insult of the original gift and therefore null the obligation before making our displeasure known."
"But could I buy it from the owner?" I asked. "If I could offer say a million dollars for the token would that work?"
"No." Maeve replied. "Money is a concept for your mortals. What is gold but rocks from the ground or your money than merely just paper? Neither substance holds any weight of value to us, though we are more than happy to trade it to mortals in exchange for things we desire it since you humans tend to hold it in such high esteem."
"And what happens to a token if it goes unredeemed at the time of the owner's death?" I asked.
"When a token no longer senses the life force of the one they are attuned to then the token fades away." Maeve answered. "It takes about a week of time in the mortal world since it is recognized that if gifted to someone like your master events may transpire where he is beyond its ability to sense for days at a time. But still no one else can call on its power during that time unless they are a recognized extension of the owner such as you are with your master. You cannot kill and owner in order to get the power of the token." She elaborated further.
"But can they be moved during that time?" I asked suspecting this was important.
"Yes I suppose so." Maeve replied. "Normally the token locks onto the life force of the owner and through its own inherent abilities will stay in close proximity with its owner." That explained how mine had reappeared in my room this morning when it had disappeared or likely fallen into the snow when my close evaporated.
"But if the owner were dead the token would once again be able to be moved by a third party in order to find its true owner." In essence it would return to a neutral state for transport like when the yeti was carrying the one that was now mine. Yep that made me even more certain I was on the right track about a lot of things.
"Okay for the most part you cannot buy one, sell it, trade it, kill for it, or steal a token is that correct?" I asked wanting to confirm that I was right in my understanding before moving onto the most important part of this meeting. Maeve seemed to desire this as well.
"That is true Emissary." Maeve said. "And all this is a waste of my time. The Emissary of Summer could have explained all of this to you as she has held one for most of her life. I warned you not to try my patience with questions beneath me." Her eyes started to flash with annoyance but thankfully she was not yet up to the point of wanting me dead, or so I hoped.
"Those were merely to ensure for all we have a common baseline of understanding Lady of Winter." I said adding just a little supplication to my voice. Not enough to tell her I submit myself to her will or that she had me afraid, only enough to render her respect and temper her anger just a bit.
"Then what do you really want to know?" She asked me with a little bit of intrigue in her voice.
"I need to know about those you have given tokens to." I said in quick response.
"That is completely out of the question." Maeve replied. "Even if I had such a list I am not about to share it."
"Come on Maeve." I said with a skeptical eye and clued onto the vagueness of her reply. "You are too crafty not to know everyone Winter owes a favor to. You might be called upon to fulfill it's obligation so it's in your interest to have such a list."
"Even so I will not reveal this before an agent of Summer." Maeve said looking at Elaine.
I guess this made sense because if Summer knew all those who could lay a claim on Winter and was able to offer these mortals significant bribes to use these favors in a way to give Summer an advantage in their eternal struggles Winter would be harmed irrevocably. In that way those carrying a token of the Faerie Courts were either liabilities or spies and neither offered any advantage by being exposed.
"I do not want the list I merely want to ask you to answer a few questions based upon what you know of the list." I said trying to thread the needle in order to prevent a war.
"I will consider your questions but my loyalty to the Winter Court still holds preeminence over any obligation I have to answer your questions Emissary." She warned me. I merely nodded in response to this advisement.
"I will also restrict my questions to what I believe are at best former agents in your employ so as to not cause your court any potential future hardship." I said trying to appease and explain that I understood her underlying concerns.
"It is our court Emissary." Maeve said. "When you took up the pin and were accepted by the Queen you aligned yourselves with us until the terms of that contract are fulfilled. Never forget that for I assure you that we do not." She explained making sure I understood that I was tied into these events now as fully as she was and any repercussions created for Winter would be felt by me as well. "However, your restrictions on the subject at hand seem to be reasonable and acceptable."
"Did you have a mortal chef in your employ who has died in the past week?" I asked trying to phrase the question in such a way as to protect the court, my court, from revealing if any are currently employed.
Maeve laughed in response. "No." She said simple and I thought she was finished with that answer but she continued on after an additional shake of her head. "What use would the Winter Court have for such soft and petty weakness? We prefer to demonstrate our strength and leave weak things like honoring chefs for Summer to indulge itself in with their silly banquets and dances." She answered me but the insult had been leveled straight at the Summer Emissary.
I turned to look at Elaine and saw her seethe under this attack but her eyes turned away from Maeve and toward me. I cocked my head in such a way as to see if this answer was deemed acceptable to her and while it took a moment for her anger to dissipate, eventually Elaine caught onto my silent question and nodded her head just once and slowly enough to say she had heard all she needed to. But that did not mean I was ready to quit questioning just yet. I'm pretty sure I could get another puzzle piece in place if Maeve was willing to answer a few more questions.
"But you did give a token to James Marteen the figure skater didn't you?" I asked.
Maeve's eyes flashed at me past warning and directly into anger. "I will not talk about who may or may not have been given a token." I'm certain I was right up at the edge of what Maeve was willing to accept from me so that made the next thing I had to tell her even more dangerous.
"I did not break any trusts Maeve." I said trying not to enrage her any further. "Jimmy Marteen is dead."
"WHAT?"
"He is dead." I replied calmly again. "Whatever killed your yeti delivery man also killed him at least a day or so before that."
The look of anger on Maeve's face, no longer directed at me since she was experienced enough not to shoot the messenger, now boiled into pure seething rage. I understood these implications for what they truly were at once, thanks in part to my ability to read emotions. The Lady of Winter was not angered that one of their Court's agents had been killed, she was too cold for that; pardon the pun. Maeve was fuming like a spoiled child obviously because charming and handsome Jimmy Marteen had been her lover, or at least a special play toy to amuse her. Now that toy was no more.
The fury of the storm around us began to intensify in response to her emotions so I had to scream above the howling winds for her to hear me. "Maeve, when we last met you had said not all the Winter tokens were accounted for. You were talking about Jimmy's weren't you?"
She raised her hand to the sky and lightning flashed among the clouds. If you have never heard lightning in the middle of a snowstorm then let me tell you that the echo it makes is even worse than during a rainstorm. Maeve's eyes turned toward me again in response to my question. "Yes." She said screaming with the storm. "I selected him to be the champion of your Winter Olympics. Who is better suited than I to select the one to wear such a title of Champion of Winter?"
I could not help myself from backing up a little bit while her fury and pain intensified around us. If I ever doubted what Harry said about how emotions can fuel magic and cause unforeseen consequences I had more than ample evidence playing out in front of me.
"Winter Emissary, tell me who in Summer did this?" Maeve asked, well alright demanded of me." She stared past me at Elaine with undisguised hatred of her connection to her rivals.
"I do not know yet." I said honestly. While I think I had pieced together a lot of the story, this was one area that I could not honestly offer a guess with. I especially would not offer up anyone I suspected to Maeve while she had a look of murder in her eyes.
"You will find for me the one responsible Emissary." Maeve said. "You will find them and wreak my vengeance upon their body or if they are beyond your ability to do so you will call upon me so that I might do the same." Her words were so commanding that I dared do nothing but merely nod and accept the task placed upon me.
"What else do you require?" She asked me barely able to still think rationally.
I was about to respond with 'nothing' in order to get us safely away from this barely contained walking death sentence, truly Hell hath no fury like a women harmed, when what I had learned so far clicked a little more into place. There was one thing that might be handy.
"Only one last thing I require Lady of Winter." I said reverting to my formal and respectful tone. "Can you provide me a general map of the Fae lands in the Nevernever?"
She looked at me barely in control of her rage and then called forth the yeti that had carried my announcement. I expected her to order it to retrieve such an item for us but Maeve was much more primal than that at the moment. Instead she spun the eight foot beast that towered two foot and three times her weight around so its back was to her and with nothing but her bare hands and a bit of magic to back them up ripped the pelt off its back.
The yeti screamed in agony and fell to the ground spewing blood across the snow but Maeve gave it no more consideration. Instead through magic she held the four foot by four foot piece of hairy skin up before her as her hands drew upon the flesh with cold, dark, and evil magic that I was nearly overwhelmed with just by standing in its presence. Once completed, she rolled it up like a small rug and tossed it to me and I stumbled to catch it.
"Our business here is through Emissary." She said dismissing me. "Call not upon me again until you have accomplished your tasks or so I may stoke my vengeance upon the one responsible for my champion's death." I merely nodded and she was off with a flash of black light, that is if black light can actually flash. I guess I will have to ask Harry what the proper word for when this happens.
I signaled to Daniel and Elaine that we were through here and we backed up slowly through the portal behind us. Before I left I noted the remaining yetis had come forward at Maeve's departure with hatred and hunger in their eyes and they were staring at us. They had obviously sensed their Lady's displeasure and been fueled by these emotions as well.
As I stepped back through the portal I watched them turn upon their stricken number still lying in the snow and began to feast on him while its movements proclaimed that he was still alive, at least for the moment. As I said only the harshest, strongest, and most dangerous things survive long in the Winter Court.
I sent Daniel to go flag us down another cab figuring this would give Elaine a chance to make any remaining arguments or back out before we went into the next step of my plan. To her credit she did not do either even though the increasing chance that I could be right about what all was going on was not easy for her to accept.
"Can I count on you?" I asked Elaine. The irony that Elaine's history of actions hardly ever made anyone want to trust her and that I had hardly given her any hint that I ever planned to anyway was not lost on either of us.
She thought about that for a moment. "My goal remains to remove my indentured servitude to the Summer Court." Elaine explained. I understood her concern based on her thrall history. The fact that I had just agreed to a new tasks to serve as Maeve's agent of vengeance had also scared Elaine but since I was fairly certain these events were directly related I did not spend a lot of time beating myself up over this slip up. "Providing I can free myself you have my support."
By the time we made it around to the front of the building Daniel had a cab waiting and was packing his bag in the trunk while waiting for us. I did the same and we all piled in once more as I gave the cabbie our destination at the Science and Technology Museum. I really would buy a season pass to this place based on the number of times lately I've had to go there but since lately these have all been after hours I really do not see what good it would do me.
We unloaded again and I led the pair around to the back. I figured sooner or later the museum was going to get wise to my break in point and sure enough they had, which was rather unfortunate for them. The back door was standing propped open this time because a pile of clothes had been jammed under the open door. On closer examination I was able to see it was actually the skin and bones of a new night watchman, sucked dry like the others we had found. I'd say this was a surprise but in reality it wasn't. Daniel looked in shock but Elaine and I signaled for him to come with us and be ready.
All the museum's lights were on and there was no attempt at stealth or anything obviously hiding in the corners. We made our way along the shortest path to our destination; like I said I have been here a lot lately and pretty much know the best way to get anywhere in either light or total darkness.
"So this other portal is really in the Fairy Castle? Isn't that just a little obvious?" Daniel whispered to Elaine as we came around the last corner.
Master Rupert Highpelt stood in the middle of the hallway obviously awaiting us. Five cases of bang sticks lay to his right, nearly fifty to a case pointing upward in their gun case like stands. Also two large foot lockers worth of horseshoes lay to his left. I guess he had not gotten his secret shipment out after all.
"I was told if the opportunity presented itself I was to inform you that as of this moment this portal is now known as 'Fairy Castling.' The little solid dwarf smiled wickedly at the three of us.
"You had me baffled at first with the whole looking like a dwarf thing." I said. "That really was a smart way to hide your true identity."
"I have done similar in the past." He replied. "But since you seem to know me what gave my identity away?"
"First it was the death of your other apprentices. That gave me some idea you were more than you seemed. But mostly even though I had not read the book in a while but my brother gave me the vital clue though it took me time to recognize it." I said thinking not of Daniel but rather of Little Harry. "Nice play on names Master Rupert Highpelt… or as children around the world know you… Rumplestiltskin." I said revealing his true identity.
"Touche'" He replied. In little more than an instant he was no longer a dwarf but a ten foot spider, obviously still sporting injuries from our earlier encounter so that gave me a little boost to my confidence though there had been four of us able to fight then. I was impressed that a four hundred year old fairy tale that spoke of a dwarf like creature who spun hay into gold was not really all that far from the reality of a dwarf imitating creature that was actually a spider. I only wondered if we would live long enough to tell anyone else.