Witching Fire (The Wild Hunt #16) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,5
and she joined me. “Is this about the dragons?” We were in the middle of a war against Typhon, the Father of All Dragons. Or rather, the gods were going up against him. Those of us who were puny and easily crisped by dragon breath were taking care of the collateral damage, which included a massive number of dead rising, and all sorts of delightful fallout like that.
But Phasmoria shook her head. “No, actually it doesn’t. Did your father ever tell you about the Banra-Sheagh?”
The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard of it. “No, I don’t think so. What…who…are we talking about?”
She took a deep breath. “I wish your father hadn’t been so remiss in his duties. Granted, he’s one of the Exosan, like you, but he owed it to you to tell you more about your heritage.”
“My heritage? You mean his family…your family?” I was confused now. If we had a relative named the Banra-Sheagh, I’d never known about it.
“Not exactly.” Phasmoria paused, biting her lip. “All right, do you even know that our people have a queen?”
That was a new one. “Nope. I thought that we Ante-Fae are mostly…anarchists, so to speak. We don’t have a ruling government like the Light and Dark Fae do.”
“Yes, we do, though some of the youngsters like you don’t know about her because you’re being brought up in a human world. The Banra-Sheagh is Queen of the Ante-Fae. She’s ancient—far beyond reckoning. Like Arachana, she’s almost a goddess.” She paused, still looking troubled.
“What’s going on? Why does this matter to me?”
“Because the Banra-Sheagh has commanded you to come before her.” When Phasmoria grimaced, I realized this wasn’t exactly a good thing.
“Me? How does she even know about me?” I was thoroughly confused now. I knew the Light and Dark Fae—who had evolved from the Ante-Fae and were technically our descendants—had their twin courts. But I had no clue about a governing council of the Ante-Fae.
“Unfortunately, your grandfather—Dougal, Curikan’s father—still communicates with the court. I believe that he put the bug in her ear.” My mother leaned back, crossing her legs. She swept her hair back into a ponytail and wrapped an elastic hair tie around it. “I’m not as much of an Exosan as your father, but even I believe we’ve outgrown the monarchy.”
“What could the Ban… What’s her name again?”
“The Banra-Sheagh.”
“Thank you. What does the Banra-Sheagh want with me?” I had no clue why an ancient queen would be interested in meeting me.
“I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this, Raven. You can’t ignore it. To do so would be suicide. The Queen can execute any member of her court who pisses her off. So you have to travel to Reímseil-Tabah, the realm in which she lives, and go before her.”
I could sense Phasmoria’s worry, and when my mother was worried, there was always a good reason. She wasn’t the type of woman—or Ante-Fae—to be scared of anything. I tried to think of every possible reason the Queen might summon me, but couldn’t come up with any. I kept to myself for the most part, and yes—I was Exosan, meaning I liked the human world and hung out with humans—but there were plenty of Ante-Fae who were Exosan now.
“Maybe it has something to do with Pandora?”
“I don’t know, child.” Phasmoria bit her lip—a gesture alien to her. “I met the Banra-Sheagh one time when she summoned me to court. She wanted to congratulate me on being promoted to Queen of the Bean Sidhe. The meeting was short and to the point. I walked in, knelt before her. She bade me rise, said a few words of how I was making the Ante-Fae proud with my actions, and then boom, the guards escorted me out again.” She shivered. “I can tell you, even that short a time was creepy as shit.”
“That doesn’t bode well. When do I have to go?”
“I’m not sure—she’s sending an official escort. I’m friendly with one of her personal guards and that’s the only reason I know about this. He told me what he could get away with. And now you know everything I know. He did mention that the Banra-Sheagh wasn’t in a good mood when she gave the guards their orders. You’ll probably get the summons tomorrow. I’ll go with you, of course. I’m not letting you walk in there without me.”
Grateful once again that my mother was who she was, I stared at the floor. “What’s she like?”