04 Silence (3 page)

The werewolf took a step forward. “There must be something we can do.”

Pietre shrugged. “You think so? I waited hundreds of years before Sophie came along, and then she waited fifty for the dragon. Perhaps you
will
have better luck with pure chance than I did, which is why I have told you that much, but I am hardly betting on it.”

Fallon
clenched his fist. “We don’t have that time to wait.”

“Wait, don’t wait. It is nothing to me.”

“
Well,
at least you won’t be here to see it happen,”
Fallon
declared, reaching for his fal
len
stake.

Pietre had been expecting it though, and by now, his resources were at a much more acceptable level. He wove his hands through the air, wrapping shadows around himself even as the boy turned. In just a few strides, he was into the trees, though the master vampire couldn’t resist one final taunt.

“I
will
watch your progress with interest.”

Briony stood open mouthed at the sight of her great-aunt, who now looked more like an older sister thanks to the transformation that had come over her.

And not much older at that. One moment she had simply been Aunt Sophie, the next moment, her true Hugtandalfer nature had shone through, leaving her as this beautiful, youthful, fanged creature of the fey.

“Aunt Sophie?” Briony asked, even though she knew it was
still
her.

“It’s her,” Archer the dragon-shifter assured her.

Aunt Sophie concurred. At least, the older girl smiled. “It’s
still
me. This is just… I guess you could think of it as the real me. Or at least the real me now that I’ve come into my powers.”

The fanged-elf man beside them, Aunt Sophie’s father, inclined his head gracefu
lly
. “And you look lovely, my daughter. But now, we must hurry to the King. He
will
want to see
his
daughter, and we should not delay.”

“My father is
really
the King?” Briony asked.

“You aren’t joking?”

“Your father, is the King of
all
the woodland elves,” Aunt Sophie’s father said.

“Sorry,” Briony said. “Do you have a name? I can’t just keep thinking of you as Aunt Sophie’s dad.”

“I am Leytham. My brother is Waltham.” The fanged elf gestured to a path leading from the meadow they stood in. “We must go to him now.”

They walked, making their way through woodland that was like that of home, and yet somehow not like it. It was too bright, too vibrant, the path lined on both sides with flowers that should not have been able to thrive in the shadows of the trees, yet which did anyway.

Leytham walked at the front of their group, leading the way. Archer, in his form of a
tall
,
golden-skinned boy with almost white hair, brought up the rear. Briony kept close to Aunt Sophie between them.

There were things that she needed to know, and that she hoped her great-aunt would
tell
her before they arrived.

“Why is
all
this happening now?” Briony asked.

“Why am I changing? It is just time.”

“No, I mean…
well,
why didn’t anyone
tell
me about this before? Why am I here now, when my…” she wasn’t ready to
call
him that yet, “when the King could have sent for me at any time?”

Ahead of them, Leytham sighed. He kept walking as he spoke. “My brother is not
we
ll.
As a people, the Hugtandalfer live for a very long time by human standards, but we are not immortal. We age, even if we do not show it. We die. Our king is one of the oldest of us now, and I fear he
will
not live much longer. He needs an heir.”

Briony got that straight away. “I’m supposed to be that heir? I’m supposed to step into the throne, just like that? Isn’t there someone else?”

Leytham shrugged, turning back to them.

“There is Prince Vigor.”

“There then,” Briony said. “You have a prince. And from the name, he sounds like he should be perfect. You don’t need… hold on, does this mean I have another brother now?”

“Not precisely,” Leytham said, “and that is part of the problem. Vigor is not truly of my brother’s blood, even if he
i
s
a
full
-blooded Hugtandalfer. Waltham adopted him when he had need of an heir.”

“You said ‘part of the problem’,” Briony observed. “What’s the other part?”

Leytham looked uncomfortable for a moment.

“That would be the part where the Prince is handsome, but cold, and selfish. Even our king is not sure Vigor
will
be suited for the throne.”

“Father,” Aunt Sophie said, “you aren’t about to take my niece into danger, are you?”

“I am merely bringing her home. Word of how King Waltham’s daughter is a natural-born leader in the human world has gotten through to Palisor. You are here because King Waltham is dying, and he wants to see you, which is why Archer was sent to find you, but that may not be
all
…”

Archer moved forward from the back of the group, interrupting what the male Hugtandalfer was about to say. “We must go now. There isn’t much time. We have wasted enough time getting Briony here, fighting that vampire at the gate.”

That was enough to make Aunt Sophie purse her lips. “Pietre. I should have finished him when I had the chance. I should have known he would not give up trying to get here just because I left. He tried to use Briony, then?”

Archer nodded. “He’s
still
out there trying to figure his way in. I don’t think
he
’ll
stop, even now.”

“Could he get in, though?” Briony asked.

Aunt Sophie sh
rugged. “Probably not. Not now.
But it is always better to be certain. Especia
lly
with him. If he were ever to get through…” Since Aunt Sophie
still
had an arm around her, Briony felt the shudder that ran through her.

“It would be that bad if he got here?” Briony asked.

Aunt Sophie nodded. “With a vampire like Pietre in Palisor, he would bring his darkness here and
pollute
the Hugtandalfers. More than that though, he would find it easy to gain more power here. Power that he could then take back to Wicked in order to
kill
both werewolves and humans. He has wanted that for years.”

“So if he had managed to persuade you to take him through…”

“Things would have been very bad indeed.
Falling
for him wasn’t exactly my best moment.”

Just hearing those words, thinking about Pietre
still
out there, brought Briony’s mood down a little.

What had happened to
Fallon
, Jake and Kevin? Were they
all right
, or was Pietre hurting them even now?

There was no way to know. No way to help.

As though sensing her mood, Archer grinned.

“Come on. You should at least see some of this kingdom before you meet its king.” He looked to Leytham. “If that’s
all
right?”

“
You
’ll
take her to the castle?”

Archer nodded, and shifted. On the path, his form took up most of the available space.

“On you get, Briony,” Aunt Sophie said. “It seems you’re doing this the comfortable way.”

Briony hesitated, but climbed onto the golden dragon’s back as it knelt to let her up. In place, she looked around. “How do I hold on?”

Aunt Sophie smiled. “For dear life.”

Briony grabbed hold of Archer’s neck automatica
lly
as he took to the air in a bound that let him spread his wings. In just seconds, he was far above the trees. It was tota
lly
different from flying with
Fallon
. That had been uncomfortable, and slightly frightening, and more like leaping than truly flying.

This was a smooth glide, higher than Briony had been outside of an airplane, with the trees rushing away beneath her. Then it was clouds.

“Archer? Could you maybe go a little lower?”

The dragon snorted with what Briony was sure was laughter, but he flew lower. Low enough that Briony could rea
lly
see everything below better. At first glance, it looked a little like the land around Wicked, but there were differences. It was a much brighter land than the world she had left, for one thing, like a painting that had been done purely in primary colors.

Those colors were subtly different too, almost surreal. The sky had pinks and purples in it as
well
as blue, like the first glimpse of sunset permanently mixed in with the rest of the sky. The clouds danced with light in rainbows of color that made Briony gasp to see them.

There were differences in the land below, too.

Instead of the flat expanse of trees there would have been back home, these ones quickly gave way to
rolling
hills
cut through with streams and deep pools.

There were creatures on those
hills
. Briony thought she saw horses, though when she looked closer, she could see the horns rising like cathedral spires from their foreheads. In the pools, Briony saw the flick of great fish tails, only for human heads and torsos to surface moments later to stare up at her.

By that point, Briony was too busy staring at what lay beyond the first
hills
to worry about the attention. Towers stood against the skyline, high enough in some cases to pierce the lowest clouds.

Walls
ringed each tower, creating a courtyard around it while separating it from the rest. Or not quite separating it. Slender bridges of white marble stood between the turrets, connecting them in a delicate web that made the castle looked like it had been draped in lacework. To Briony, it was everything that a castle in a fairy tale place like this should have been.

Archer flew on towards it. As they got closer, Briony saw that there were flat roof areas or balconies on most of the towers, looking a little like helicopter landing pads might have on skyscrapers. Except that it wasn’t helicopters landing on these, as Briony found out when Archer circled one of the towers, swooped closer, and landed in an elegant spread of wings.

Even as Briony slid down from his back, Archer transformed once more into the amber-eyed young man he had been.

“Welcome to your father’s castle, Briony,” he said smiling. “
Shall
we go inside and see your tower?”

“
My
t
ower?” Briony looked at it with shock. “
All
this is for me?”

Archer nodded. “When your Aunt Sophie came through and told us of you, the King had a tower set aside for your use. He knew you would come. Come on,
I
’ll
show you around.”

“I can hardly believe
all
this,” Briony said.

“It’s as real as I am,” Archer pointed out. “Now come on.
I
’ll
have to rush the tour as it is.”

Archer offered her his arm, and Briony surprised herself by taking it. He led her through opulent rooms, decorated with more wealth than Briony had seen in her life. “This is the bedroom, and here is the receiving room, and the solarium, and some quarters for your servants.”

“Servants?”

Archer seemed to enjoy Briony’s slight discomfort at that. “Oh,
you
’ll
need some servants.
Can’t have a princess without servants. Pages and butlers and maids and…”

“Archer.”

“Oh,
all
right. Now, Prince Vigor’s tower is over on the other side, while your father’s is in the center. I should probably take you straight to him. I know
he
’ll
want to see you. Just… try not to pay too much attention to the Prince,
all
right?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Oh, he probably just won’t be that happy to see you.”

“And
will
the King?” Briony decided that she wouldn’t
call
him her father. That
still
felt too much like a slight to the man who had raised her as his own.

“Of course he
will,
” Archer promised. “Now come on. Everyone
will
know we have arrived by now, and we wouldn’t want to keep them waiting.”