The Dark Fae (The World of Fae #1)(26)

“You wouldn’t happen to have seen a guard from the royal palace of Venicia arrive here with a blond-haired female wearing sea green gowns, would you have?” Ritasia asked, politely.

“Why yes. Do tell, what is going on? Before one of our guards could question the man, as the young girl seemed extremely unwell, the man and she vanished. Do not tell me that he had taken her against her will, and you are attempting to rescue the poor girl?”

Before any could answer her, she looked from one royal to the other, then smiled. “Ooooh, how intriguing. Is she a princess from another kingdom? Why would you wish to be the ones to rescue her? Is she—”

“We must go before the trail grows cold,” Deveron said, abruptly.

The woman tugged at a dark curl draped over her shoulder, then smiled again. “He wore a silver tunic and butternut breeches. His hair was blond, but streaked with a few strands of gray. And he had a strange, small, upturned nose. Looked way too small for a man-sized face. I guess you know what the young lady looks like.”

“Lady Minxsta, we really must be—”

“The girl, who is she? She looked terribly unwell.”

He knew they had to depart or be caught up in a conversation with the lady for hours. And yet he couldn’t leave until he heard more about Alicia’s condition. “Yes?”

This seemed to spur the lady on to new delights of storytelling. The fact that her favorite prince and princess cousins would be interested in what she had to say…

She would talk about it for days at court.

“Oh, yes, well, the poor little thing looked terribly frazzled. He held her tightly against his chest as she looked as limp as a starved ear of corn. But even at that, she struggled to free herself from him, and I, well and one of our guards, were concerned she was being held against her will. And now with your appearance, we learn she was. Oh the poor little thing. She squeaked out something about needing a bow and arrow…I think. It was awfully hard to understand her. And of course, that didn’t make much sense.”

Deveron glanced at Ritasia who took a deep breath.

“Anything else?”

“Only one thing. I thought it was an awfully odd thing to do. No one does such a thing when we are among our own kind. Never. It was just so queer.”

“What?” Deveron tried to keep his tone of voice reasonable, but the lady was pushing him to the brink.

Ritasia ran her hand over his arm to try to calm him. He didn’t need calming. He needed to know what was so odd!

“She turned invisible. Now, don’t you think that strange? I mean, here she is as visible as you or me, but then her fae aura surrounds her, clearly indicating she’s turned invisible to the human eye. Of course, I attributed it to the man’s taking her hostage and wearing her out with his transporting her, possibly even having drugged her. She did look in pretty sad shape. So maybe her senses were out of balance.”

He glanced at Ritasia whose eyes couldn’t have grown any bigger. “Ritasia, we must go.”

She opened her mouth to speak, then nodded.

“Lady Minxsta, as always a pleasure,” Deveron said.

She smiled broadly and curtseyed low. “Please come back soon with the poor little thing. We will make her most welcome. Oh, do you need some of the royal guard to go with you? You really shouldn’t be the ones traipsing across faery kingdoms, trying to bring her home. Where is her home, anyway?”

Deveron made a curt bow to the lady, not wishing to get drawn into an all-day discussion, then transported Ritasia and Micala once again.

When they stopped in a garden of another fae minor kingdom, Ritasia said, “What does it mean, Deveron? Why would she now be invisible?”

“She is seventeen. Remember when we were first that age? That’s when we began to gain some of our powers. We are many years older now, but she really is seventeen. I appear eighteen and have been that for years. You are nineteen…the same thing. But she is the real magical seventeen.”

“Are you saying she’s to be immortal like us?”

“No, only that being half fae, it seems her abilities are just now appearing.”

“So she can transport herself?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know.” He pointed at the ground. “Here’s the guard’s trail. We see no faery dust for Alicia. She doesn’t leave a trail. Maybe being only half fae, she never will. She may never be able to transport herself like we can either. And even if she’s able, it may be months before she can.”

Micala stretched his arms. “He seems to be criss-crossing the continent. Do you think he’ll settle down soon?”

“I hope so,” Deveron said, looking at where the trail led south. “But I’m sure when we find Alicia, he’ll be long gone or fear our wrath should we locate her.”

“I hope they’ve fed her,” Ritasia said, her voice ragged with weariness. “They won’t know she’s half human and needs to eat. It’s a good thing we can eat to enjoy the food, or leave it alone. But I don’t imagine she can live without it entirely.”

Deveron frowned. He hadn’t considered how fragile her human half could make her. “Then we mustn’t lose any more time in locating her.”





CHAPTER 14





“What have we here,” a rough-sounding man said in the dark as Alicia tried to wake. Disoriented, she had no idea where she was. She lay on something hard. When she tried to rise, chains attached to cold metal bracelets that wrapped around her wrists prevented her from moving too far. She came to the sinking realization she was most likely in a dungeon as the smell of damp earth and decaying matter assaulted her.