Even as he thought it he knew the Hunter would’ve dragged him out of bed regardless. Would he get to see Lydia again? Would he be alive when he saw Lydia again? was probably the better question.
“You made a deal with a banished fairy. Do you deny?”
“No.” How did he address the King of Death again? “Sire.” All of Dylis’s lessons about Annwyn that he swore he’d never use might save his ass and hopefully his soul as well.
“The nature of the deal?”
“I was to find the Window.”
There was a collective gasp. Spots of color appeared on the Queen’s cheeks. She looked like Snow White, if Snow White had become a heartless immortal Queen. Her years of living at Court had given her features the sharp beauty of the fairies—and also taken her humanity if what Dylis had told him was half-true.
The King lifted his hand and silence fell. “And once you have the Window?”
“Not specified.” Caspian swallowed but noticed most of the fairies weren’t looking at him anymore. They were watching the King and Queen. It wasn’t him on trial. It was the Queen, but she couldn’t be tried. The King couldn’t act against her without bringing down the veil between the worlds.
Verden’s comments made sense. Bringing Caspian here meant there could be a meeting between father and son, but also the Queen would be publicly told off without her losing face and doing more damage to the fragile magical balance. Caspian didn’t know whether to sigh in relief or be more worried. The Queen was a powerful enemy, and her lover was in the mortal world with Lydia.
“In exchange what did you get?”
“That he would stop harassing me and mine. I have one month then my soul is forfeit.”
There were some more mutterings. And spoken aloud he had to agree it was a dumb deal, but better than Lydia handing her soul over. It was the best he’d been able to do at the time. The King nodded. He turned to his son and conferred, then to another fairy who stood behind the throne.
He turned back to Caspian. There was a weariness in his eyes despite his apparent youth. “In this instance there has been no harm done. If you make another deal with a banished fairy, you may not be so lucky. You may have a mortal soul by virtue of your birth, but you are bound by the same laws as the rest of us. Think well, child of woman, before you deal again.”
Caspian bowed. No one had mentioned the potential loss of his soul or a punishment. He took a step back, hoping to get out of the hall before someone realized.
The King raised one finger. Caspian paused. Damn it.
“You may not break the deal. A fairy’s word has weight, even in the mortal world.” The King almost smiled. “Enjoy the hospitality of the Court before you leave.”
Caspian took another step back then turned and walked toward the large doors. They swung open and once again he was in the hallway of the living castle. For a moment he just breathed, sucking in gulps of air laden with scents that made his head spin. He wanted to run back to the gateway and leave.
A shadow drifted over and beckoned him into an antechamber. There was no furniture as such. The tree roots had arched out of the ground to form bench seats that were now littered with a rainbow of cushions in delicate fabrics and bold shades. A large slab of pale rock had pushed through the grass and was acting as a table. The shadow placed a pitcher and cup on the table. Both were elegant and made of tinted glass.
Do not drink. Do not eat. Do not dance.
Three simple rules for surviving Annwyn.
He ignored the pitcher, even though he was suddenly thirsty, and concentrated on the trees forming the room. He put his hand on the trunk. The bark was smooth and cool beneath his palm and he got nothing. No impressions, no memories, no past. It was like losing his sight and being blind. Had he really come to depend on the psychometry? He tried another tree, but the result was the same.
“The gift your fairy blood gave you is null here. Our magic works in the mortal world, not here. Annwyn has its own magic. While you are here you are one of us, not bound by the laws of mortality.” His father, the Crown Prince of Annwyn, closed the door.
Felan looked at his son. The son looked older than the father. It pained him in a way he couldn’t easily express.
“Why am I here?” Caspian asked.
“You made a deal. The hearing was a necessary formality.” Felan flicked his hand. The hearing had been an excuse to meet his son, and take a shot at the Queen. Everyone knew what was going on and they were all waiting for him to do something. “I have waited years for this meeting. The opportunity couldn’t be ignored.”
Caspian shook his head. “Why wait so long—if you cared so much?”
“Few know of you for your own safety. I have enemies who wouldn’t hesitate to kill a child of mine.”
“You had Dylis look after me.”
“Shh.” Felan shook his head. “Names have power here. While the Lord of the Hunt could use your name freely in the mortal world, saying it here could bind you in all manner of ways. The same for you speaking another’s name. The more names you know the more power you have. Another reason to keep your birth secret.”
Caspian had grown into a fine man. For a heartbeat Felan was filled with regret for not seeing him grow up. “You made a good deal, one any fairy would be proud of. Now you must keep it.”
“Keep it?”
“Your word is like law, binding.” He reached into his waistcoat and pulled out the mirror on a chain. “This will help you.”
In the mirror a woman ran her finger under her eye and removed a smudge of makeup. Felan smiled. “There’s someone in it today.” He held it still for Caspian.
Caspian frowned, a flicker of something in his eyes. Then he took the Counter-Window without a word and slid the chain over his head. “You want me to return it to you. But then what will stop the Grey from killing me?”
“I wouldn’t let harm come to you. I have done my utmost to protect you always.” Everything he’d done over the last three mortal decades had been to protect Caspian. It was why he’d been such a poor father.
Caspian wouldn’t look him in the eye. “Why did you let me be born in the mortal world where you knew I wouldn’t fit in?” He spoke softly as if unsure he should even be asking.
Felan had expected the question. He’d imagined having it from a much younger Caspian, but he’d never been able to construct a meeting that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
“It was both an easy choice and one I have doubted every day over the years. Particularly now. I met your mother by chance. I was checking a doorway that had been tampered with by a Grey and she was walking through the cemetery. She was so beautiful I had to stop and talk to her. Over the next few weeks one thing led to another and I began thinking I’d found someone to sit by my side when she conceived. Even then Annwyn was in trouble.”
Felan grimaced. The old hurt was like a wound that didn’t heal. But compared to the newer one it was but a scrape. Now he had no one and needed someone to help save Annwyn. “Then I saw her with the human she’d married. His hand was on her stomach and there was something in her eye that wasn’t there when she was with me. With me it was lust and desire, but with him it was love. If I’d brought her here I’d be on the throne looking like my father in five hundred years’ time with a cold queen full of hate by my side.”
“You knew she was married?”
“She knew I was fairy.” Felan shrugged. “In hindsight maybe you should have been born here. I would have taken the throne, my father would have stepped down, and all of the current nastiness could’ve been avoided. I guess I was too selfish.” He wanted too much, he wanted everything.