The Fox’s Tale

I dropped the book onto the ground, and Lucas grabbed my hand, turning it over and examining the skin on my palm and fingertips.

“Mind telling me what’s going on?” I asked; bewildered by his behavior.

He didn’t respond. He simply dropped my hand and walked to the fireplace where he grabbed the log tongs. He strode back over and grabbed the book off the floor with the tongs and then hurled it into the fireplace.

His actions sobered me up fast. If he didn’t want to touch it, what the hell was it? The fireplace roared to life and the book began to shriek as if it were alive. A horrible stench, like overripe garbage, filled the air and I wrinkled my nose in disgust.

Quinn woke with a jolt. “Lucas! Fuck man! This isn’t the way!” he bellowed. In his haste to get up he fell off the sofa and hit the floor with a thud that made the picture frames rattle. The door to our bedroom suite flew open and Esmeralda came running out, a concerned, but bleary eyed Ellery behind her.

“Who or what is screaming?” she demanded. “And what is Quinn blathering about?”

Quinn popped up off the floor and ran to his brother. “Oh thank fuck, you aren’t hurt.” He ran a hand over his face and sagged with relief. Then his head reared back. “What the hell is that stench?”

“Why would Lucas be hurt?” asked Esmeralda.

Quinn looked at me, and then we both looked at Lucas, and then all three of us looked at Esmeralda who was tapping her foot with impatience.

“Well?” she demanded. “I asked you a question, and I expect an answer.”

Lucas turned his attention back to the fire and fished the offending object out with the tongs. “This is what was shrieking, Esma. As for what Quinn was blathering about, it was nothing more than a nightmare.”

Esmeralda peered over the furniture to get a look at what Lucas was referring to. “Is that what I think it is?” she asked as she pulled her robe closed at the neck.

“What is it?” asked Ellery.

“A goblin handbook.” Lucas put it down on the hearth. “A foul, cursed thing, bound in the skin of one of their own.”

I rubbed my hand up and down my sweatpants. “Blergh! I touched that? Oh gross.”

“You touched it?” Ellery hurried to my side. “Let me see your hand.”

“I already examined his hand, and Alexander appears to be unharmed.” Ellery shot Lucas a look of disapproval and checked my hand over herself. When she found nothing amiss Lucas said, “are you satisfied now? I would not lie to you.”

“Oh, but you’ll lie to me.” Esmeralda had seated herself on the leather sofa and glowered at Lucas. “Don’t try to deny it Lucas. Dreams are my medium after all and I know for a fact that Quinn was dreaming about getting it on with an entire group of girls in identical green outfits with short skirts.”

Ellery gasped and glared at Quinn.

“Not you!” he hastened to explain. “I know what you’re thinking and it wasn’t the cheerleaders, it was the field hockey team.” He sat down with a groan. “I mean, have you seen Bianca Taylor? She could crush a man’s skull with her thighs; they’re so toned.”

“Quinn. Enough.” Lucas shook his head at his brother as Esmeralda studied him.

“You don’t trust me do you?” She looked down at her hands. “I suppose I deserve that. I’m not exactly a direct or open individual. The way I was raised, honesty, sincerity, and earnestness got you killed, or worse. I don’t expect that any of you will understand that, having grown up with parents and other family who loved you.”

She looked up at Lucas. “Yes, even you. Your father was an abusive asshole, but you had your mother, and Anya, and all your brothers and sisters. I had no one, no one until you, Lucas, and then that was taken from me, and I was alone again until I had Rowan and she was taken from me too.”

She turned her attention back to me. “I wasn’t meant to be queen, you know. My older brother was the heir, and he convinced my father that I should never be marked so that I could be used as a,” she paused. “Are you a whore if you aren’t paid?” Ellery went and sat beside her, taking her grandmother’s hands in hers.

“Ah fuck,” I whispered.

Esmeralda gave a small shake of her head and continued. “I had no desire to be used in that manner, and fortunately my brother had a number of handsome courtiers, and I made up my mind to convince one of them to mark me.

That way my parents would have no choice but to let me marry someone. A whore isn’t worth much if she can get pregnant, and they wouldn’t want a number of bastards running around. My parents could barely tolerate the two children they did have.”

She stared at Lucas with longing. “But then you came to Court and I knew the moment I laid eyes on you that you were my Other.” She turned away from him and back to me. “The only reason I didn’t mark Lucas in return when he marked me was because we were interrupted by my father.”

“And that’s what got you banished from Court?” I asked.

Lucas swallowed hard before answering. “That wasn’t it, although King Roland was livid. He wanted us to pretend that it hadn’t happened, that it was all an accident, that one of the Fae had marked her. I always assumed that he was opposed to having an Incorruptible for a son-in-law, but now.” Lucas stopped speaking and blinked back some tears.

“Why were you banished then?” asked Ellery.

“For breaking King Roland’s hand.” Lucas shrugged when we all turned to look at him. “He slapped her. I took exception.”

A small smile crept over Esmeralda’s face. “Father never did regain the full use of his hand you know.”

Lucas returned her smile with one of his own. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“How did you become queen then?” I asked.

“Well, when everyone ahead of you in the line of succession dies that’s what happens, Alexander.” I looked at her in alarm and she smiled again. “I know what you are thinking; that I murdered my father and brother in order to take the throne, but that isn’t true.”

“Did you have them killed?”

“Ah, you’re learning! No, I did not. My brother managed to get himself murdered during the Easter Uprising. I did not mourn his loss. My parents were felled by an illness that swept through the realm a few years before Quinn was born. In addition to them, it killed three of the male members of Father’s High Council, his bodyguard, and some of their friends.

“The males were taken very quickly, with their female Others lingering for a few years before succumbing to the combination of grief and sickness. Funny thing, those who died had all expressed an interest in enjoying the pleasure of my company before Lucas marked me.”

I raised my eyebrows at Lucas and even Quinn turned and looked at him expecting a confession.

“Don’t look at me, that wasn’t my doing. I would never have risked Esma’s life in that manner.”

“Your dad?” asked Quinn.

Lucas shook his head. “No, it would have been too unpredictable. Had he been the one to poison King Roland and Queen Isolde he would have made sure that only they perished. He was delighted that they had died however. He thought that Esma would be an ineffective ruler, and that getting her to dissolve the treaty between our kinds would be a fait accompli.”

Esmeralda smiled in a manner that made me take a step backwards. “Yes, well, your father was a terrible judge of an individual’s true nature. Thankfully, or else he would have realized that you were undermining him. Tell me, did he ever realize that you’d been made High King on your one hundredth birthday or did he die as ignorantly as he lived?”

This time Quinn gasped. “I thought you didn’t become High King until Peregrine was dead! Why did you let him keep on keeping on?”

Lucas took his time answering. He ran his hands over the back of the sofa and took a few steadying breaths before answering.

“I did not feel ready for that level of responsibility at that time. I was unsettled and had only just finished raising Danika, Abraxas, Juliet, Ophelia and Amaris to the point where they could establish their own households.

“I worked behind the scenes to minimize the damage he wrought and to slow the rate at which he fathered children.” He looked at Esmeralda. “To answer your question, he realized as I drove the sword into him, but by then it was too late. Now, tell me how it is that you know that, Esma.”

Esmeralda gazed at him in confusion. “I do not understand what you mean, Lucas. How could I not know that? You told me.”

“I did nothing of the sort. I told no one I was High King until I claimed it openly upon Father’s death. Not even Laurent knew, although I’m sure he suspected. Only Mother knew and that was because she was the one who performed the ceremony.”

“Lucas. You sent me the athame that was used. Didn’t you?” Lucas shook his head and Esmeralda heaved a breath of annoyance. “I sent you a bouquet of irises in reply. Did you not receive them?”

“I did, but there was no card or any other identifying element. I assumed they were from Mother, and I did not wish to be congratulated so I threw them into the far reaches of my yard. They still bloom every spring.”

“Well of course there wouldn’t have been a card! Just because I was heartbroken didn’t mean I was an idiot. Do you mean to stand there and tell me that you didn’t understand a single one of the messages I sent to you over the last two hundred years?”

“How many did you send?” he asked.

“At least four a year.” Esmeralda gaped at him. “Unbelievable. No wonder you don’t trust me.” She put her chin in her hands for a moment and then rounded on Lucas once more.

“Not even the costume for the Twelfth Night Ball? Surely you understood that one? You sent Quinn like I hoped you would and he was dressed as you had been the night we met. I interpreted that as confirmation you had understood.”

“I sent Quinn because seeing Ellery dressed like her mother upset me. He had been invited. He could attend and see that she and Alexander were safe. He was dressed as I had been because it was the easiest costume to pull together at the last moment.”

“Damnation.” Esmeralda shifted her position, adjusted her robe, and glared at Lucas. Lucas, for his part, looked chastened. Finally, Esmeralda pursed her lips and pointed at the nasty little book on the hearth.

“Now will someone let me know why that thing is in Ellery’s home?”

“It’s proof, your majesty,” I said.