Steal the Sun (Thieves #4)(50)

I took a deep breath and nodded because I was as ready as I was going to get.

Herne the Hunter took my hand and we ran off into the night.





Chapter Twelve





“Where exactly are we going?” I asked once we got past the palace walls. We had to be quiet as the whole palace was guarded. We’d waited in some bushes while the guards made their rounds. The minute they went past us, we leapt over the high white walls that separated the queen’s abode from the valley. Well, Herne leapt. I kind of tried to rock climb. Finally Shuck took pity on me and let me climb on his back and then over the high wall. If Herne had wanted Spider Girl then he’d come to the wrong place.

He motioned to the woods in the distance. “There. We’re going to a place deep in that forest.”

“And what, exactly, are we looking for?” I probably didn’t want to know, but I asked the question anyway.

“An ogre.”

Nope, I didn’t want to know. An ogre is a big, nasty creature that likes to gnaw on human flesh. Oh, it would pretty much eat any flesh it came across, but it was particularly attracted to flesh that talked back to it. Its pet peeves included anyone walking into its territory and anyone thinking about walking into its territory. The ogre’s likes included eviscerating those foolish enough to walk into its territory. It’s important to stay out of the big dude’s space or he will polish you off with a nice side salad.

I’m joking about that last part. He would never eat salad.

“Are you insane?” I stopped my forward progress since every step brought me closer to the No Trespassing sign.

Herne turned and the dogs sat back on their haunches. “Look, Your Grace…”

“Call me Zoey.” I wanted to be on a first name basis with the last person I would probably see.

“All right then, Zoey,” he said with a satisfied smile before continuing his explanation. “As far as I can tell, to this point the ogre has remained undetected. It has probably eaten anyone who might have reported its presence. The ogre shouldn’t be in these woods. It’s not a Seelie creature.”

“So, there are a lot of non-Seelies in this sithein.”

Herne nodded. “But they have the queen’s permission to live here. For the most part, they’re fairly helpful creatures. The ogre is neither helpful nor would it be welcome.”

I got that. Creatures who liked to eat people were not welcome. “So Miria doesn’t know there’s an ogre currently laying down roots in her forest?”

“No, and I intend to make it so she never knows.” Herne seemed to think that was enough of an explanation so he and the dogs started back up the hill.

I rolled my eyes and gathered my patience. I had to run to catch up. “So how did Shrek get here?”

He looked at me curiously.

My extensive pop culture knowledge was lost on these people. “The ogre. How did he get here?”

“Oh,” he said, finally understanding. He nodded and began walking again. “That remains a mystery.”

Yeah, I bet it was. I was pretty damn sure there was more to the story. “I doubt it just popped into existence in the middle of a Seelie sithein.”

“Fine. The ogre was ours,” he conceded. “It’s lived in the woods outside of Angus’s stronghold for as long as anyone can remember. It served a purpose there as a sort of defense mechanism. We’ve always made sure he was properly taken care of. We fed him regularly and even treated him with condemned prisoners to feast upon. He had a good life.”

“Nice,” I said, but my sarcasm was wasted on him. “So ogre boy is living the high life but he just up and leaves one day? Maybe he got lonely and went looking for an ogress to call his own.”

“It doesn’t work that way. He wouldn’t think to seek a mate. He would take a female if we managed to produce one, but he wouldn’t leave to look for one. You must understand that the ogre is first and foremost a stupid creature. It’s a miracle that it ever learned how to wield a club as a weapon. It doesn’t think beyond eating and taking a nice long nap.”

I kept my mouth closed because he could easily be talking about Lee, too.

“It does nothing on its own.” Herne’s long legs ate up the distance, and I jogged to keep up. He was dressed in brown pants made from some sort of animal skin and a linen shirt. He had tall leather boots on and a cape with a hood over his shoulders though it was a warm evening.

“So it probably wouldn’t have gone for a long walk and crossed into the Seelie sithein?”

“No, Zoey,” Herne said with a frown. “It wouldn’t leave its territory on its own. It must have had help from someone.”

Things started to fall into place. There was only one real reason to smuggle in an ogre. “It had help from someone who wanted to start something with the Seelie.”

“If by something, you mean the war to end all wars, then yes, they wished to start something.”

“Yeah,” I commented. “We had one of those wars to end all wars on the Earth plane. Didn’t live up to the name. We’re still fighting.”

“Well, you did not do it right, then. I assure you, when the fighting starts this time, we will kill them all and they intend to do the same to us,” Herne said bitterly. “We Fae tend to be thorough.”