A Fey New World (The Godhunter #32) - Amy Sumida Page 0,10

with a chant, the name of a location, or by visualizing your destination. Most territories in the God Realm are protected by wards and require a chant to get through those barriers but the Faerie Realm was open to anyone who could trace. That didn't mean it wasn't protected though. There was only one place where you could trace into Faerie and that was through the Great Tree at the End of the Road. And the Great Tree was guarded.

As our carriage turned around in the space before the Great Tree, I searched the Forgetful Forest across from it but didn't see any knights on duty. That wasn't unusual; the knights on tree duty weren't seen unless they wanted to be seen. But current events had me wondering if they were really there. Hopefully, their sense of duty was as strong as Isleen's.

Although I couldn't see any fey knights in the forest, there was a group of them waiting in front of the Great Tree. With them was Mallien, the Fire-Sidhe wayfarer who King Cian had sent to the Fire Kingdom to close the passages to Earth the last time we'd attempted this. It looked as if another wayfarer would be sent to the Fire Kingdom this time. Cian must have assumed we be more comfortable working with the same wayfarer.

The knights and Mallien were dressed and glamoured to appear human. Lugh, the High Prince of Faerie, was dressed in human clothing as well but wasn't glamoured; his appearance, though head-turning, could pass for human, even with his golden eyes. The gold wasn't evident unless you were standing close and by the time someone got that close, he could glamour himself.

Lugh stood in front of the knights with a grim expression on his face. He stepped forward to meet us as our carriage headed back to Aithinne. “Has your kingdom descended into Bacchanalian orgies as well?” he asked dryly.

“You're not affected?” I countered.

“No. You?”

“Not so much.” I glanced at Arach and then back at Lugh. “It looks as if it's only affecting those who are full Fey and over the age of maturity.”

“Well, thank Faerie for that,” Lugh muttered. “I don't even want to contemplate what a bunch of horny kids running around Faerie would be like.”

“I think they call them teenagers,” I said dryly.

Lugh chuckled. No one else did.

“This is Patrick, Rory, Sean, and Drake,” Lugh introduced the knights. “Air, Water, Earth, and Darkness respectively. And I'm sure you remember Wayfarer Mallien, who is of your element. My father thought we should take a faerie from every elemental kingdom with us to cover all of our bases.”

“Nice to meet you all and good to see you again, Mallien,” I said to them. “Glad to have you with us.”

“Well met, Queen Vervain and King Arach,” Mallien bowed to us.

The knights only bowed.

I was curious as to what they really looked like, especially with the Air-Sidhe. He would have wings hidden under his glamour—some sort of butterfly pattern most likely, though I'd seen them with moth wings too. I was fascinated by men with butterfly wings. It was a nice juxtaposition of masculinity and femininity.

“Hold on.” I looked at the Dark knight. “Drake? As in Mandrake?”

“Yes.” He grinned and flicked back his choppy black hair. “I was wondering if you'd recognize me beneath my new skin.”

The Dark Sidhe all had sable skin—as in pure black—and blue eyes. Since no one on Earth had skin like that, Drake had lightened it to a chocolate-oak. With his dark blue eyes—nearly black—he looked very exotic, though not as exotic as he normally did. All of the Dark Sidhe also had a specific dark emotion they could control. Mandrake's was Jealousy.

“It took me a minute,” I said. “I didn't realize that you'd been sent to serve at the Castle of Eight.”

“Been awhile now.” Drake nodded.

“Are you happy—”

“Vervain,” Arach cut me off, “where are those photographs?”

“Sorry. I guess we don't have time for socializing.” I pulled the photos out of the leather satchel slung across my chest and handed them over.

Arach chose one and held it out for everyone to see. “We can use this image to direct our first trace. The location is in England.”

Right, I didn't need the directions after all. But then again, where I was concerned, it was better to be safe than sorry. The Aether had messed with me before; it was how I'd wound up in Faerie the first time.

We all took a good look at the photograph before Arach