“Thank you for being responsible when even I have found myself distracted. I'm impressed with your fortitude,” Arach said to her. “Now, we must be off. Brevyn! Rian!”
Our boys came running over with Dexter and Deidre, our nurials. The nurials were father and daughter—fey animals with the bodies of lions, fox-like faces, six slender legs, barbed tails, ebony fur, crimson eyes, and, in the case of the males, horns and a thick ruff of fur around their long necks. Dexter shook his head, flopping his big ears about, and nuzzled my hand. I stroked him lovingly, he was like another child to me; I'd raised him from a pup. Soon, his fur and eyes would change color for winter, going snowy white and pale blue respectively.
“We must attend to some things in the Human Realm,” Arach said sternly. “We should be back momentarily but just in case we aren't, you two will obey Granuaile.”
“But, Dad,” Rian whined, “we don't need a babysitter.”
“She's your guardian for now, not a babysitter,” I said. “And you will be on your best behavior for her, do you understand me?”
“Yes, Mother,” Brevyn said serenely, one arm around Dexter's long neck.
Deidre nudged Rian with her sleek face as if prompting him.
“Yes, Mother,” Rian said obediently.
“Thank you.” I crouched down and opened my arms.
They both came into my embrace with the nurials circling us happily, their red eyes alight.
“I'll miss you both. Be careful while I'm gone. Something strange is happening here.”
“We noticed,” Rian grumbled. “All the grown-ups are acting weird.”
“Leave them be,” I said. “You've got Granuaile and the other parents now. You should be fine.”
Dexter nudged me.
“And Dex and Deidre,” I added with a laugh. “Look after our babies, Dex.”
He yipped as I stood up.
Arach bent down and hugged each boy. “All right, you can go back to your friends now. But remember that you are princes and the kingdom is under your care while your mother and I are gone. Act accordingly.”
“Yes, Father!” The boys said proudly. They ran back to the playground with the nurials trailing after them.
Chapter Six
Thankfully, Granuaile wasn't the only responsible Fire Faerie in the kingdom. Nothing could shake Isleen's sense of duty and she was even able to wrangle some Phookas to pull our carriage in their horse-form. She also managed to get a few Red Caps to stop their activities and escort us to the Great Tree. I don't know what she had to witness to accomplish those tasks and I hoped to never find out. Before we left, Arach asked Isleen to see to the wayfarer in case he didn't make it back in time. Then we finally left for the Great Tree.
There was only one way—if you didn't count possible paths that we missed—to get into or out of Tír na nÓg—the proper name of the Faerie Realm—and that was tracing. Tracing is the magical way of traveling from one place to another by sending your body in the form of pure thought through the Aether—a realm between the realms. You can direct a trace either with a chant, the name of a location, or by visualizing your destination. Most territories in the God Realm are protected by wards and require a chant to get through those barriers but the Faerie Realm was open to anyone who could trace. That didn't mean it wasn't protected though. There was only one place where you could trace into Faerie and that was through the Great Tree at the End of the Road. And the Great Tree was guarded.
As our carriage turned around in the space before the Great Tree, I searched the Forgetful Forest across from it but didn't see any knights on duty. That wasn't unusual; the knights on tree duty weren't seen unless they wanted to be seen. But current events had me wondering if they were really there. Hopefully, their sense of duty was as strong as Isleen's.
Although I couldn't see any fey knights in the forest, there was a group of them waiting in front of the Great Tree. With them was Mallien, the Fire-Sidhe wayfarer who King Cian had sent to the Fire Kingdom to close the passages to Earth the last time we'd attempted this. It looked as if another wayfarer would be sent to the Fire Kingdom this time. Cian must have assumed we be more comfortable working with the same wayfarer.
The knights and Mallien were dressed and glamoured to appear human. Lugh, the High Prince of Faerie, was dressed in human clothing as well but wasn't glamoured; his appearance, though head-turning, could pass for human, even with his golden eyes. The gold wasn't evident unless you were standing close and by the time someone got that close, he could glamour himself.
Lugh stood in front of the knights with a grim expression on his face. He stepped forward to meet us as our carriage headed back to Aithinne. “Has your kingdom descended into Bacchanalian orgies as well?” he asked dryly.
“You're not affected?” I countered.
“No. You?”
“Not so much.” I glanced at Arach and then back at Lugh. “It looks as if it's only affecting those who are full Fey and over the age of maturity.”
“Well, thank Faerie for that,” Lugh muttered. “I don't even want to contemplate what a bunch of horny kids running around Faerie would be like.”
“I think they call them teenagers,” I said dryly.
Lugh chuckled. No one else did.
“This is Patrick, Rory, Sean, and Drake,” Lugh introduced the knights. “Air, Water, Earth, and Darkness respectively. And I'm sure you remember Wayfarer Mallien, who is of your element. My father thought we should take a faerie from every elemental kingdom with us to cover all of our bases.”
“Nice to meet you all and good to see you again, Mallien,” I said to them. “Glad to have you with us.”
“Well met, Queen Vervain and King Arach,” Mallien bowed to us.
The knights only bowed.
I was curious as to what they really looked like, especially with the Air-Sidhe. He would have wings hidden under his glamour—some sort of butterfly pattern most likely, though I'd seen them with moth wings too. I was fascinated by men with butterfly wings. It was a nice juxtaposition of masculinity and femininity.
“Hold on.” I looked at the Dark knight. “Drake? As in Mandrake?”
“Yes.” He grinned and flicked back his choppy black hair. “I was wondering if you'd recognize me beneath my new skin.”
The Dark Sidhe all had sable skin—as in pure black—and blue eyes. Since no one on Earth had skin like that, Drake had lightened it to a chocolate-oak. With his dark blue eyes—nearly black—he looked very exotic, though not as exotic as he normally did. All of the Dark Sidhe also had a specific dark emotion they could control. Mandrake's was Jealousy.