“Look at the scars her father gave her,” said one.
“How could she live through that—it looks as though she’s been mauled by beasts.”
“Don’t you know the story?” said a third. They all looked at Ariana, instead of the fairy queen, as the third one continued. “Her father called his beasts to torture her every morning for three years.”
Ariana’s mouth tightened as she remembered, too. And then that three minutes was up as well—she’d won freedom for Gabriel.
The fae under the cloak began to grow, and Ariana let the cloth fall to the ground. At first I couldn’t figure out the challenge. The creature had changed into another fae, a large male with almost human features. His skin was the color and texture of a silver birch, some places smooth and white and others rough and dark gray or black. His hair looked like shredded bark and hung around his face. He wasn’t ugly or horrible—but then Ariana started to shake.
Beside me, Samuel stiffened, a low growl beginning in his throat.
“Hello, daughter mine,” the fae-man with bark skin said. After that, he switched to Welsh; the accent was so obscure I couldn’t tell what he said. He raised his right arm—and I saw that it had no hand on the end of it—and petted her hair with it.
Ariana’s father had been a forest lord, but evidently not the same kind of forest lord as the one the fairy queen held, because he looked quite a bit different.
The fairy queen had been using her people to weaken Ariana for this moment, to remind her of what had been done to her by this man. But she had underestimated Ariana if she thought Ariana was going to lose this easily. Her arms tightened on the man and pulled him next to her.
Samuel’s Welsh I could understand: he wasn’t talking over the phone, he was speaking slowly, and what he said was pretty simple. “He can’t call his hounds, Ari, my love. Don’t worry. They are dead and gone. I made sure of it. He’s not real, not real. She doesn’t have that kind of power. My da, he killed yours. I killed the hounds, and they are not coming back.”
Patiently, he kept up the refrain, giving her something to listen to other than the fae, who evidently wore the face and form of her abusive father.
I was watching the face of the witch, and I wasn’t as certain as Samuel that her father wasn’t real. Witches can do some very scary things. The first three things the fae turned into—fire, ice, and smoke—those all smelled of fae magic to me. This one—other than the scent he bore, which was his own—this one reeked of black magic, witch’s magic—and witches could call back the dead.
For three minutes, Ariana held the man who had been willing to torture her until she was mindless. At the end of the three minutes, she could have let go and walked out of the Elphame, leaving Samuel and me to stand prisoner. She was tougher than that. So when her father turned into a snarling werewolf that bore more than a passing resemblance to Samuel, she went to her knees so she could pull him close and stared—at Samuel. Her eyes grew black, and her face went blank, but she held on, mouthing one word over and over—Samuel’s name.
Samuel went to his knees, too, his eyes white and wild.
“Not here,” I told him, and it was my turn to talk. “You cannot change here, Samuel. You have to get her, Phin, and the kids out of here. You have to—she’s not going to be in any shape to do anything. Hold on.”
She wasn’t going to be able to free me: first her father, then werewolf, and I could take a pretty good guess at what the final shape would be because the fairy queen had no intention of letting me go.
She who had been Daphne thought I was the proper owner of the Silver Borne. She thought that when she released Gabriel, our bargain about my safety would be over. Evidently, I wasn’t human enough to benefit from the guesting laws that prevented a fairy queen from killing the humans who came into her realm. She could kill me and get the book.
She’d have been right had it not been for one thing. I didn’t own the Silver Borne; Phin did. When she killed me, all she’d get was a boatful of trouble—and I’d do my best to convince her of that once the others were free. All I’d have to do would be hold out until Adam came to get me.
Of course, if Ariana managed to hold on to the last shape the fae took, it would make my life a lot easier.
For three minutes, Ariana held on to the werewolf—and then it changed. The hound looked a little like a giant beagle: white with brown spots, rounded ears that hung on either side of its face, but there was no sign of the friendly expression that most beagles live and die with.
Ariana looked at the hound she held, her arms wrapped around its throat and her legs tucked almost under its body. For a moment, nothing happened and, despite myself, I felt a great leap of hope. I didn’t want to be left alone with the fairy queen, who wanted to kill me.
Then Ariana rolled away from the hound, who must have looked like one of the hounds her father had tortured her with, and curled into a fetal position, her mouth open and screaming, but the sounds locked in by terror. Samuel picked her up and crooned to her. Not saying anything, just giving her his voice. He hadn’t forgotten who the enemy was, though. His eyes were on the fairy queen.
“Five,” said the fairy queen, sounding moderately grumpy. “I thought I might get to keep you, werewolf, too, but she was stronger than I thought.”
Samuel snarled at her.
I noticed that Zee’s rock, lying on the ground under the belly of the hound, who was focused on Ariana, was flickering.
“Samuel,” I told him urgently. “Zee will be waiting. Get the kids and Phin, too—” Especially Phin. Any fae willing to use a black witch and allow her to torture another being was not someone I wanted to give more power to. We needed to get Phin out of here and safe so the Silver Borne was out of her reach. “Take them and get out of here.”
“Can’t you help me up?” Phin asked Gabriel. He knew what we needed.
There was a momentary pause, but when the queen didn’t interfere with Phin’s request, Gabriel helped him to his feet.
“You,” said the queen, pointing to the fae nearest to her. “You take them to Outside and let them leave. You’ll have to carry the human man.” She looked at Jesse, then glanced at Gabriel. “Go, children, and when you are outside my Elphame, be thou as thou wert.”
The fae she’d pointed to bowed deeply and picked Phin up with the same ease that Ariana had displayed. Not all fae are so strong. Silently, Jesse and Gabriel followed him when he started out the door.
Samuel stopped and kissed my cheek, still holding Ariana, who was shivering in terror. “Stay alive,” he told me.
“Planning on it,” I said. I gave Ariana, who was very deep into a panic attack, a wary look. I remembered her concern when she’d returned to herself last time, and so I added, “You stay alive, too. Now get out while the getting is good.”
“Semper Fi,” he said, glancing down at Zee’s rock. Then he hurried after the others.
So far as I knew, Samuel had never been a Marine. But he’d known I’d catch the reference. The Marines never leave a man behind. He’d be back, and so would Adam. All I had to do was survive.
We all waited until the fae who had escorted them out returned. He bowed to the queen, and said, “They are Outside, safe and alive, my queen.”
I took a deep breath, and a few seconds later Zee’s stone was just another gray rock among the roots in the floor of the cave. They’d made it with almost two minutes to spare by my rough count—though probably Zee had held the opening until he saw them.
“My bargain is done,” the queen told me.
“Fine,” I said.
“You will exchange the book for your life.”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “I’ve considered it—and decided that it is not going to happen.”