A Taste for Blood (The Godhunter, Book 6) (9 page)

“
You rode the Aether here?” The strangely colored eyes swiveled down to mine. “What kind of human rides the currents of thought? That is a road for fey or gods alone.”

“
I'm a goddess, technically.”

“
What is
technically
?”

“
Ah,” right, if he was fey, and it was hard to deny that he was talking pure truth, he wouldn't know any modern terms. I bit my lip as thoughts whizzed through my brain. How did I land in Faerie? What was I going to do to get home? What was it Thor had told me? Something about the fey withdrawing a long time ago and how no one wanted them back. Leave it to me to find them.

“
Yes?” Danal prompted.

“
Oh, sorry,” I gave an uneasy laugh. “I was born human and then made a goddess.”

“
How so?”

“
I drank something,” I shrugged as much as one could while being carried through the air by a faerie.

“
Ah, of course,” he nodded like it had made perfect sense. “What is your name and talent?”

“
Talent?”

“
Your magic?”

“
Oh, right,” I laughed. “My name is Vervain and I'm a goddess of  love, lust, victory, war, and lions.”

“
Vervain? A very powerful name for a human or was this granted to you upon your ascension to goddesshood?”

“
No, it's mine,” I smiled, happy to find someone who understood my name. “I was a witch before I was a goddess.”

“
Ah, a wise woman,” he nodded again, as if I had impressed him. “And here we are.”

I looked over my shoulder, expecting some Tolkein-esque, ethereal, elven castle, all white spires and stuff. It was a castle all right but that's where the similarity ended. We were still in the forest and the castle was made
of
the forest, it was a castle of trees. Not lumber, trees, and I'm not talking about some kind of Ewok village, with rope bridges in the branches. The trees
were
the castle, shaped into it. There were eight of them total, all grown together, widening into walls at their bases while splitting into towers at their tops. Seven formed a circle around the largest tree, which sat at the center and whose top formed into three separate towers adorned with scores of branches, all lush with leaves.

There were numerous windows in the trunks and even branches, through which light shone, giving it the appearance of a holiday monstrosity, and from the tops of several leafy towers, banners poked out even higher, waving in the breeze. We started descending toward an opening in one of the walls, some kind of gate with its doors flung wide, and I began to make out the figures of armored men walking the battlements formed of living trees. Some called out to us, raising hands in greeting, and Danal called back to them in their language.

“Do not speak until we reach the High King and he gives you leave to do so,” he whispered to me as we landed.

“
Right, got it, no talking,” I mumbled as he let me go.

He gave me a sharp look, probably trying to decide whether or not I was being sassy, and I gave him my innocent face. Big blinky eyes, blink, blink, blink.

He frowned and took my hand, wrapping it around his arm and leading me toward the gate as if I was some visiting dignitary. I was suddenly glad I'd worn a nice black dress, long sleeved but body skimming, with my high boots. At least I wasn't in fighting leathers or jeans. I was even more glad that I had my wolverine gloves on, along with the emerald pendant Odin had given me. This just might be the situation for which I needed them both.

We passed through the gate and I couldn't help looking up to where the trunk of the tree formed seamless walls and a vaulted ceiling. It was amazing, like when you grew a fruit in a bottle and it conformed to that shape. Somehow, the faeries had made the tree grow to suit their needs. I reached out to touch the bark and immediately pulled my hand back when I realized that this tree, like the others I'd noticed earlier, seemed to be breathing.

“Don't touch anything,” Danal whispered to me and pulled me along.

“
Why do the trees breathe?” I whispered back.

“
Because they're alive,” he looked at me like I was an imbecile. “They filter toxins through their roots and release clean air through their leaves.”

“
Yeah, our trees do that too but they don't move with each breath.”

“
Maybe you shouldn't speak at all,” he frowned at me, “even after King Cian gives you leave.”

We emerged into a courtyard that seemed to flow around the central tree completely. It was sectioned off with gardens and orderly paths which were being walked by all sorts of interesting people. Hair colors were every shade of the rainbow and then some, competing not only with the beautiful clothing they wore but with the fantastical flowers and fruit growing everywhere. The air was scented with blossoms and ripe fruit, while the sound of conversations and music flowed as gracefully as the people themselves.

Beneath it all was the sound of water on stone and I noticed several water features sprinkled about, ranging from pools to fountains. I watched as a head broke the surface of one of the pools, greenish-blue hair melting into the color of the water and liquid eyes staring at me intensely. I shivered and looked away.

A dog raced by and then stopped short, lifting its head and blasting a stream of fire from its nostrils. A brazier I hadn't noticed till then, lit up and the dog huffed once and ran away. I focused my attention back onto the trees.

Each tree making up the outer wall seemed to be a castle unto itself, with mass amounts of faeries entering and exiting, going about the business of being fey I guess. There were also smaller creatures whose appearances were too numerous for me to focus on. They were mostly of darker skins, with misshapen or overly exaggerated features. A little scary but in light of everything else, they were minor disturbances for me.

A few faeries tried to stop Danal and speak to him but he said a few curt words and we kept walking. Soon we were at the base of the central tree. Here the roots formed steps leading up to a large doorway. We went up them and through the door, my sight blinded for a moment by the bright lights.

When I adjusted, I was able to see the plush carpet we were walking over and the detailed tapestries hung along the walls. We were heading down a large hallway, garnering quite a bit of attention from passerby, and above us floated glass orbs swirling with white lights.

“
Watch your step,” Danal hissed at me when I nearly tripped because I was staring up at the orbs.

“
Sorry,” I mumbled and tried to focus on my feet.

We went through several hallways, turning and twisting so much that it would be hopeless for me to try to find my own way out of there. That didn't help my growing unease at all. Then I spotted a cat. A beautiful, sleek, black cat with a white spot on its chest and bright green eyes. He was sitting in the middle of a doorway, looking perfectly at home in this strange world, as most cats do in any surrounding. I was so shocked to see something familiar, so happy to have found a piece of solid ground in an unstable world, that I let go of Danal's hand and approached the animal.

“Hey, beautiful,” I called and crouched, holding out a hand to it. “What are you doing here?”

“
Vervain, no,” Danal reached out for me and I automatically looked over my shoulder at him but his hand fell back before he made contact, and his eyes grew wide as they focused on something behind and above me.

I turned around, catching the tail end of what must have been a shapeshift. The air still shimmered a bit and the body before me was a little hazy before it sharpened into being. I was left staring at a pair of leather-clad thighs where previously there had been only cat. I frowned, instantly knowing my mistake, as I lifted my head and looked up a wide chest into a ruggedly beautiful face. I gasped and shot to my feet.

“Hey, to you as well,” he grinned widely at me, showing off pointed canines. “Beautiful English speaker. I reside here, a better question is, what are
you
doing here?”

“
I found her at The End of the Road, while I was on patrol.” Danal spoke, thankfully in English. “She came through the Aether and we are bound for the High King, so you'll do well to leave her be, Roarke.”

“
She
spoke to
me
,” he shrugged and leaned back against the door frame. “Chivalrous law dictates that I respond.”

“
You have no chivalry,” Danal grabbed my hand and pulled me back to his side. “Now leave us be.”

He turned and I went with him, walking faster now through the hallway. I chanced a glance over my shoulder and saw Roarke following us with an easy gait. He gave me a wink and a smirk and I couldn't help but smile back. I knew his type immediately and how appropriate for him to be a tom cat. He had
player
written all over him. I focused back on our path, remembering my earlier slip and not wanting to repeat it in front of an even larger audience.

Finally, we came to a set of double doors, thrown open to welcome the throngs of faeries moving in and out of them. They parted like water to let us through, several giving Danal discreet bows or nods. Past the bodies, I glimpsed a huge room with an open ceiling ending in tree branches high above. Sunlight filtered down through the leaves but there were several of those floating globes to add further light to the room. Branches angled in at different levels, forming benches in the open air for the winged fey to make use of. There were quite a few up there, sitting on those benches as well as just hovering in mid-air as they spoke to seated companions.

Looking up at them was a bit dizzying, so I returned my gaze to the ground level of the room. There, the furniture grew out of the floor, sleek and graceful but covered with luxurious pillows and padded seats. Nothing covered the walls. Instead, they were polished to an almost mirror-like sheen, reflecting the populace back upon itself until the room seemed limitless. The faces in that limitless crowd were alien, eyes a little too wide, noses too sharp, lips too generous. They stared at me like I was an insect they'd never seen before, repulsive but fascinating and possibly delicious.

Yet they kept parting for us and we kept walking until we reached the far end of the room, where a dais rose up from the floor and formed two massive thrones. The throne on the left was sturdy and powerful, with thick branches laying side by side and then reaching from the throne's back toward the sky with a clawing tenacity. The second throne was more dainty. Paler branches twisted about each other in a sensuous dance, flowing into arm rests and then a fragile back topped with a fan of blossoming branches.

In the first throne sat a man clothed in a blue velvet tunic and black leather pants. He had a sword slung casually on his hips and it rested easy beside him, even in the confines of the throne. He was pale but with a golden shimmer to his skin that was arresting and his hair was the palest, brightest white I'd ever seen. It almost hurt to look at him. The bright hair flowed over his shoulders and down into his lap, framing a powerful body and a face that was both harsh and kind. Sharp gold eyes took my measure as perfectly winged eyebrows rose.

By his side, in the second throne, sat a woman with skin even paler than the man's. There was no shimmer to her skin but she didn't need it, her hair was her best accessory. It was deep, blood red but it shone like a jewel, each individual hair seeming to be faceted, sparkling in the light like a perfect gem. It flowed over the throne and down to the floor, to lie in a pool around her feet. Her eyes were as red as her hair and just as shiny. She looked on me with cunning, the look of a woman in power, a woman who has had to utilize wits instead of brawn. Her lips twisted up in a smile, almost as if she acknowledged my assessment and appreciated it.

The King spoke but it was in the language I didn't understand. Danal replied and the gathered faerie gasped. That didn't seem like a good thing to me so I frowned up at him and the woman on the throne, who I assumed was the High Queen, laughed a little. The King looked over to her and she spoke softly to him before he returned his gaze to me and Danal. They spoke some more and I decided that for once in my life, I was going to keep my damn mouth shut. I looked over my shoulder and saw Roarke leering at me. Great.

“
Danal tells me,” the High King immediately caught my attention when he started speaking English, “that you traveled here from the Human Realm, through the Aether. How is it that you found Faerie?”

“
Honestly,” I shook my head, “I have no idea and it was from the God Realm, not the Human. I've only traced the Aether with directional chants before and I've never had any problems, so I thought I'd try my hand at just using my thoughts to direct my journey. I guess that didn't work out so well.”

“
Indeed,” the King's lips quirked once. “What were your thoughts focused on when you began your... trace? Is that what you call it?”

“
Yes, your majesty,” I frowned when everyone started twittering at my attempt at courtliness. “Your highness?” More laughter. “You most awesome High Kingliness? What am I supposed to call you?”