“Won’t the Peacekeepers have detected it?”
“Nah. They break down after one use. Even if they know we hopped over, we’re long gone.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding and leaned against the tavern wall. “Drink?”
I nodded, too relieved to speak; I couldn’t believe that I’d evaded Peacekeeper Jerome for a second time. And to think, Max spent his all his days like this, a hair’s breadth in front of trouble. I wondered if he wasn’t really of steel, rather than copper.
11
The next morning, I found myself once again left to my own devices. Micah, whose reaction to the news that his consort had been traipsing around the Mundane realm had been remarkably calm (would it have killed him to have been a little mad?), was off dealing with his magistrates, handling matters of taxation and laws and such. Mind you, I thought he deserved a day off, being that he’d just spent the prior afternoon explaining to Oriana the whys and wherefores of the damaged iron warriors. According to Micah, the queen had accepted his explanations without batting a single golden eyelash, which was further proof that I was right about Old Stoney being a troublemaker. However, these sorts of important matters, whatever these important matters may be, were among the few things that he handled directly in the village, which meant no day off for Micah, and no day for me to spend with Micah.
Someday, I am really going to have to learn what he does all day. I mean, I had no idea of how he managed to run the Whispering Dell. Did he pay craftsmen like Ash wages? Hmm, probably not, since I had watched as Micah gave Ash the payment for my sword. So, did that mean that Ash paid some sort of a duty to Micah? And what about the gatekeepers? Were they on Micah’s payroll? Was gatekeeper a hereditary title, or was there an army somewhere around here, training gatekeepers and varied other law-enforcement types, that no one had told me about? And what about all the other people who made the village run smoothly, the street sweepers and the garbage collectors and—
Yeah. Clearly, I had no idea what was going on down there.
What made the whole mess even messier was that there weren’t only Elementals living in the Whispering Dell. As one could well imagine, the Otherworld was home to all sorts of creatures, magical and otherwise. Micah Silverstrand, the reigning Lord of Silver, was also the lord of quite a few other sorts of beasties; there was Ash, for one. On the day we’d visited the filthy smith, we’d also encountered those lovely shapeshifters, not lycanthropes, as Micah had pointed out, which just made me wonder exactly what was howling at night. This wasn’t even considering the countless other beings, like the blood-drinking tailor and the sentient tree, that were living out their lives in Micah’s village.
No matter their country, or gene pool, of origin, all who resided in the Whispering Dell, Elemental and otherwise, deferred to Micah as their lord. When I took the time to consider the vast number of beings Micah wielded power over, it gave me a migraine.
I sighed, rubbing the back of my neck. As much as I didn’t want to deal with all of those taxes and gatekeepers and other assorted beasties, if I wanted to be a part of Micah’s life, I would need to learn something about all of this…stuff. I mean, I’d been telling Micah all along that I didn’t want to be a kept woman whose only purpose in life was to be arm candy. I wanted to be his partner. Dammit, I wanted to be his equal.
Well, I can’t really learn anything until he comes back. I sighed again, then I rolled over and beat a few pillows into submission. If I decided to be honest with myself (and I wasn’t so sure if that was such a good idea), it really, really bothered me that Micah had been so calm about yesterday’s adventure at the Promenade with Max, especially after all the concern he’d showed when Max and I had gone down to the village without a silverkin escort. It was like Micah thought that the puny humans weren’t a threat, so I might as well come and go from the Mundane world as I pleased.
I’m one of those puny humans.
Resisting the urge to scream, barely, I reached toward the side table and scooped up the pendant I’d hurriedly purchased at the jeweler’s booth. It was a base metal, likely rhodium or nickel (or maybe even wolfram, ha ha), and featured an abstract fairy with multicolored enamel wings. It was the sort of charm one gives to a little girl for winning the spelling bee; she’d smile and wear it every day, until the chain broke or it turned her neck green, whichever came first. In short, it was hideous. Maybe I would give it to Sadie. Her birthday was coming up.
I rolled over and stowed the fairy pendant in the jewelry case on my bedside table, then I dragged myself out of bed. As I made my way downstairs, I made a few mental notes about the things to ask Micah when he returned to the manor. I would ask about his day, of course, as any good consort should, but while I did that, I’d try and work in a few other questions. Namely, why interdimensional travel was okay, but a short walk to the village required a day pass and a guard. As I mentally ticked off my list of queries, I passed through the kitchens. After I grabbed a cup of coffee and a scone, I went for a walk in the orchards.