Page 25 of The Silver Spider
She nodded, movement jerky. He stood. “Alright. Then we go, but remain vigilant. Goddamn, I know I’m forgetting something. I wish my father were here.”
As they walked, the vise around her mind and limbs loosened, as if it were happy with her decision to cooperate. Sere watched the people who passed. Mostly fae, and a fair sampling of the various races as well, but there were humans in the mix. Immortals of any species were generally easy to spot. Their eyes and skin held an internal luminance humans could never match, and they walked with a certain lightness to their steps as if they had to focus on not floating above ground.
“We’re moving into a residential sector,” Amnan said after they’d been walking the good part of an hour. Strolling rather, because they didn’t want to bring attention to themselves by hurrying—especially when the fae moved about as if they had all time in the world.
The shops and cafes and small grocery stores gradually receded, the road narrowing and the sidewalks broadening. The shorter, prettier shrubs and blossoming trees lining the public areas gave way to tall, majestic trunks topped with thick, frothy leaves. Light softened, diffused, and large homes sitting behind ornate gates become the norm.
And guards. Each home sported a set of honor guards. As she and Amnan walked, Serephone observed square plaques of silver set into the stone fences in front of each estate. Plaques that bore spidery, complex glyphs like the one she was hunting.
“The plaques,” she said to Amnan. “On the fences. What’s the chance my prey is behind one of these gates?”
“And the geas leads you here? I don’t like it.”
She did. She liked it very much. And when they stopped in front of another stone fence, twelve feet high with wide, black gates and two guards standing in front, she recognized the glyph on the plaque.
Two fae watched her as she walked forward, hand rising to trace the pattern, but they said nothing, impassive. Their master had a flare for drama because one was as dark as the other was pale. Deep night skin and flowing silver hair, the other an inverse twin with shoulder length black curls and an arctic complexion. Literally, because his lips and the tips of his ears were brushed with blue.
She opened her mouth to speak and the geas roared back to life with a vengeance, propelling her towards the gate as if an invisible hand was on her back. Amnan grabbed her, wrapping arms around her torso to hold her still. She snarled, twisting, and the guards watched, their attention on the pair.
The dark one stepped forward and he flowedthroughthe gate, not even bothering to open it first. Sere stared, riveted. Could they truly walk through objects, or was the gate an illusion?
The guard was tall, of course. She’d like to see a short fae. And in the same kind of garment as the person at the checkpoint. Their livery wasn’t gray but white edged in scarlet, the colors striking on both.
“You have business here?” the guard asked.
“No,” Amnan responded, voice tight. “She wanted to sightsee. We’re leaving.”
The man held out an arm. “Untruth. I see my Lord’s compulsion on her.”
“Your Lord’swhat?” Serephone asked. “You know what this is?”
“I may. I may not. But for you to carry this mark means— “
“Means what?” Amnan growled.
“I want to leave,” Sere said. “I don’t think I can without going in.”
“Who is your Lord?” Amnan asked. “Can he remove whatever binds her?”
“Nothing can remove it, it is a part of her blood. But you may leave—if you can. I don’t recommend you try.”
Serephone didn’t like threats—she also didn’t like the faint challenge in the man’s dark eyes. “What’s your name?”
A smooth silver brow rose slowly at the question.
“That’s not what she meant,” Amnan said, voice curt. “She doesn’t understand.”
“I am called Yuruth. I have given you my call name, now you will give me yours.”
She hesitated, then shrugged. “Serephone.”
“Serephone.” He rolled the syllables around the tongue, eyes never leaving her face. “The dragon is right. It is not, indeed, a name.”
“Feel like I’m missing something.” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, but in her defense, she was tired, and distracted, and hadn’t been able to properly breathe for blocks.
Yuruth swept an arm to indicate the gate. “There are answers inside.”
“No,” Amnan said even as she stepped forward.
