Deception (20 page)

Ian and I talked a little more before we moved to meet with the informant.  Ian assured me I needed to keep my head held high like a queen should be expected to do and to never look like I don’t know the answer to something.  “Your eyes give you away,” he smiled a kind of unrestrained grin that traced his lips so often.  He’d simmered down after the soap opera from before.  “If you don’t know what to say, just nod at me and I will answer for you.  But make it look like your telling me too.  And remember, they can read your thoughts so be on your guard.”  He hesitated. “And I asked Pike to be listening too.  He can relay it to me.  I know you don’t want me to hear, but I feel like I cannot guard you fully.  It is agony to not be able to protect you that way.”  I almost felt sad for him, but the private thoughts I wanted outweighed the other.  I didn’t like the idea of Pike listening, but the fact that he was telling me made me slightly more open to the option.  I would at least be prepared for what I let go through my mind.

“Why is it so important to you?”

“It wasn’t so much before,” he answered half-heartedly.

“Before?”

A long sigh left his mouth, “Never mind.”

“No, tell me Ian.”

He wasn’t going to, but I insisted once more and then he blew up. “Because he
CAN
, Grace.  He can.”

Oh!  Okay.  Man jealousy. “Will you tell me when so I at least can be prepared to curse the boy with warts or broken bones?  I am not completely opposed when I know it is happening.”

“Yes!  But Pike’s own agenda will be mixed in there.  Think carefully.”  He looked less than reassured, but I could tell he still didn’t like that Pike could hear or talk inside my head.

“I need to confess something to you, since you cannot read my thoughts and all.  I will warn you though, it is girl logic.”  I felt responsible for all the heartache he kept putting himself through.  What could I possibly tell him that he didn’t sense or already know?
“I feel almost like you are my flashlight in a room full of darkness if you will excuse the analogy.”  He tilted his head in confusion.  “Just let me finish.”  I continued, “I am supposed to be some kind of queen and I am obviously some kind of sidekick.  Are we a team, mutually speaking, or am I just eye candy for the crowd?  Are these guys really going to listen to me, or am I just a pretty little thing on a pedestal?” I pointed to my dress.   “I understand we have to make them think I am the new queen and the fulfillment of the prophecy and all that jazz, but how will they know you didn’t just bring any human girl up her to show off.”  I took a long awaited breath.

“Sweet sorrow princess, I will not have the opportunity to watch you die.”  That’s what he’d said to me on the stage before I ran away from him and Pike’s, then Christian,  scenes that day. 

“My Juliet who always speaks her mind.  I know why you did so well in school and am equally amazed by how you so often got your way with the teachers without magic and that mouth of yours.”

  Ian didn’t realize he was reminding me of that horrid day with Christian in Drama.  Both boys knew very well I had all A’s in every subject.  Everyone knew I couldn’t resist having the need for being a perfectionist.   But still, I didn’t want to be
Christian’s
Juliet when I was in drama class whom I know now couldn’t be so shy if he intended to be in drama.  He dropped out the same day I did, never saying a word on the stage.  

In response to my speech he gave his own, “You are not some kind of toy queen you seem to have convinced yourself to be.  If you are going to survive all this, though, you will need protection.  There is still so much you don’t know and there is not enough time left in this day alone to tell you all you need.  I am not sorry for protecting you, so don’t ask me to be.  Take me as I am, Grace.  Maybe we should have stayed at court a little longer to learn a little more, but for now that will have to wait.  Whatever decision we come to today, we will stop and go over everything before we return.  I promise you that.  But I need you to react like a queen, also.  When the Nyms come to the clearing, we have to be authoritative.  We cannot seem disoriented.”

This all made sense to me, but he still escaped the answer to the questions I asked.  Oh, I could keep my dignity and act the part, but I still felt like something was missing inside me and couldn’t put my finger on it yet.

I heard Pike say something like “Females are all the same”, but I acted like I was self-focused.  Where his comment came from, I didn’t know or want to know.  It wouldn’t do well to look childish now.  Pike held his hand out to me looking the opposite of what his comment suggested, “Your lead, my queen!” 

He was just trying to get me to react so I gestured for him to lead with no readable emotion on my face.  I didn’t want to argue with his refusal, so I started walking.  When I looked back to be sure Ian was behind me and not Pike, they both were, side by side.
Super!

One of our court guards complained about the rain’s soggy mess it left behind and walked to the clearing and hoped he wouldn't flip around revealing he was someone from high school too.  Mister complainer frat boy complains like one of those stupid soccer jocks with a scary rash of jock itch.  Mike’s twin maybe?

Pike bellowed out loud and tossed me a thumbs up the direction of the guard.  “You nailed that one.  But no, Mike wasn’t one of us.”

Ian glared at me. I threw my hands up in surrender, then tapped my head without saying anything indicating I would control it better.  But it
was
funny
. 
Score one for me.  Score negative fifty for Pike.

Negative fifty?
He shouted in my head.

I shouted back,
Yeah, you lost so many points in the last twenty-four hours for your arrogance alone.  Mike has nothing on you.  Better to catch up now.

I shall attempt to meet the challenge. 
His body never indicated the hidden conversation.  I wondered then if Ian could read Pike at any given time or exclusively like Ian said he could with me.  I was betting Pike hid it more than he opened the frequency.

Pike arranged for the Nym informant to meet with his comrades and he was on the way now.  I never asked how he sent word to this informant. I trusted Ian. I wasn’t sure about Pike yet.

We walked about ten steps when Pike, who was walking ahead by this time, stopped abruptly and held his hand up. I froze only because it almost hit my face.  Before me, Pike stood statuesque in a pose as I took him in thinking with surprise he has not found a girlfriend yet.  He is quite attractive.  Even some girls like a jerk who is at least hot.

He jerked his head to me even though there was an obvious danger and my mind wasn’t following the given directions to stay silent inside and out.  I saw that his eyebrows were raised to his forehead and of course, the standard puffed chest man mode in full action. He heard me even though I tried not to necessarily say it in my mind
. 
I thought maybe if I didn’t form the sentences wholly, it might not convey the same.  Guess I was wrong.

Ian stayed still at first, and then protectively, quietly grabbed my arm.

Ian swung left and Pike right.  Pike doubled back against me ignoring Ian’s manhandling and making it look like it was a safety thing.  His mouth touched my ear. 
Yuck!
   “Advice for free.  Don’t always tell tree boy here what you are thinking.  He might wonder!”  Tree boy? I have heard that before.

Ian was back around and Pike was standing beside me looking absolutely guilty of nothing.  Ian missed it completely.  Men are dogs.  All of them
.
  Worse, Pike can read my every thought about Ian and his about me.  I hope he enjoys the thought of the euphoria Ian’s kisses send.

I chanced a look at Pike and was greeted with venom.   Ian was still preoccupied so Pike went for round two, “One day you will wish it was me.”  His face said just how much he really wanted to say and would probably later on when he had the chance.

I stepped away fast with my heart pounding loudly.  I didn’t want to be anywhere near his advances no matter how much my heart sped up with it.  It was just the idea of a guy making those advances that made me react to him, not the actual attraction.  Besides, who wouldn’t be attracted to tall, dark, and gorgeous?  I just haven’t been around other men much. 

We stepped into our places as rehearsed before.  After a few seconds, a shorter than average creature like person I guessed was a Nym with a long face and absolutely no smile, stepped out of the brush.  Ian let go of my arm just as Pike stepped forward and shook the creature’s arm like some kind of greeting.  I’d guessed by now that all the pausing meant they were talking in their heads.  Why, now, did I realize this?  Had Pike sent my thoughts to Ian all this time? Could he block them from Ian when he wanted?  The answer to that last question was yes because Ian would have flipped a lid at some of my thoughts.
Ugh! 

  The creature vanished without any trouble and three more walked into our view.  My extra sensitive hearing caught their movement and I briefly wondered why I could hear moving sounds well and not voices.  If I could choose the magic, I had a clear list ready to download into my brain.

By now all had walked completely in the clearing.  Two of the others looked like the smaller versions of the creature we had just encountered.  But the fourth one was different.  More authoritative in his stance.  I guessed these guys to all be the Nyms described to me earlier and astonished at my own self imposed judgment of what I assumed and what was reality.  He was grayish blue and mostly looked like some human/ Fey/elf combination of some kind. 

“Is this the one?” he asked.

Pike nodded.

“And trusted?”

Pike nodded again.

I was surprised that he backed me at all. 

Guard your thoughts, Grace.

And so demanding.

“Kinsler is on the move.  He cannot find her and its killing him,” the authoritative Nym sneered.

Did he not know I was the queen?  I am confused.

If I hadn’t been so in tune with Ian’s every movement, I’d have never caught Pike throwing some kind of signal in his direction about me.  My eyes slid toward Pike and immediately locked onto Ian who was so still.  Pike’s hand jerked upward into a fist.

Ian stepped up making some kind of a quick decision and announced, “He cannot find her until it is for us to say.  If he thinks she is in the court, then he has no reason to think he should find her elsewhere until we are ready for him too.  This is the new Seelie Queen.”

It was a big chance to take, but I had just given myself away nonverbally, even though it wasn’t intended to be disclosed.  I realized too late that Pike and Ian had a signal system worked out.  That just made me mad, but had to accept they were just trying to keep me safe and happened to predict my idiocy.  I was trying hard not to visualize any of this for I’d learned that most of the mind reading,
most
, was from pictures sent by the brain, not just words.  It didn’t work right every time evident by the fact that Pike spends much of the time snorting at my inner dialogues.

The creature Pike had just called Aiden, licked his lips as he watched me in a different light.  I didn’t like the look in his eyes.  It had all kinds of hidden seemingly unwanted agendas written all over it allowing ice to form in my stomach just thinking about it.  Aiden said, “He will not rest until he has her.  And I can see why.”

Both Pike and Ian stretched their necks like it was a man intended signal to back off or else.  

“His spies only take news of her being kind and loving, not deviating and hateful.  What threat does he still hold to for hurting her if this is what they report?”  This coming from Pike was a bit odd.  I couldn’t have imagined him talking
nicely
about me. 

The creature continued, “It is his lands.  That is all he cares about.  If he takes her, and keeps her alive, he will never let her go.  You know what he will do.  It is not the killing he wants the most.”

Pike’s silence was disturbing to me.

Ian spoke, “Will he listen?”

“To who?”

“To her?”

“You better have her well guarded.  Tasty isn’t she!” 

Well guarded? I was appalled at being called
tasty
.

“Don’t trust anything he says.  He will want her no doubt,” he licked his lips again watching me while he talked bargains with Pike.

“He already does. Arrange a meeting, in one week’s time,” Ian said. 

Is he crazy?  This Kinsler sounded dangerously close to psychotic.

Pike faced me, “He is.”  He turned to Ian, but didn’t speak out loud to him.  I assumed they were talking in their heads.  I was about to bring up a funny mental image, but stopped myself.  I looked at Ian and pictured his lips not moving while he was talking.   Pike looked at me suddenly.  Dang, he caught the image.  Pike got a funny look in his eyes.

Ian reached out like he was going to hit Pike, but then recoiled.  They gained their composure.

“My, my, she is a tasty one,” the creature licked his lips again. I was appalled on all levels of the gross meter.   My face cringed up then relaxed immediately, and I smiled a fake smile.

“You know I cannot carry this message, but if you draw it up, I will make sure it gets found,” Aiden hinted at his own deception.  His blue-tinted face smiled evilly still watching me.  He seemed to like all this lip smack scheming.  So maybe I should throw the curve ball they all needed to make the deal done.  I had the inkling to prove this Kinsler guy wrong.

“Consider it done,” I spoke for the first time out loud feeling something inside just hit me.  I knew what to do and how to do it.  The Nym was taken aback, whereas he stared blankly.  He opened his sharp, pointy teeth a touch then closed them.  His lips didn’t seem to connect.  If this creature thinks I am sooo…tasty, then how about a little charm back to complete the deal.  I bowed with a curtsy. 

Pike went pale white.  Ian’s fist drew up.

“I have never been spoken to by a queen.”

Pike and Ian looked at each other with no expression on their faces. “What is she doing?” they both thought simultaneously and it went straight into my own brain wave activity.  

I pulled out the silver maple leaf hanging on my neck and held it in my hand, kneeled before the creature named Aiden with the sharp pointy teeth, and willed him to do what I asked.  If this amulet really belongs to the queen, let it do its magic.  Or me.  I concentrated hard on making this creature do what it wanted.

He was still bowing, “Forgive me...for doubting your beauty as ignorance.  You are...unusually kind, my queen.”  The creature stuttered almost every word.

“Aiden, I will consider it a personal favor if you will make sure my letter is found by the right mediator.”  I smiled, my voice intoxicating and smooth like warm water flowing through my fingertips.  Not like the usual girl I tried to portray. 
I was tasty, remember?
   Ian was dazed.  Pike was in shock.  And I loved every second of it!  I was born for this.

The creature was bewildered enough he stumbled as if drunk. “Yes, it will be done,” he slurred his words.  And he turned and continued to stumble away into the forest without so much as a salute to Pike or Ian.