The Ascension Page 5

  That seemed to mollify the Summer Queen, who offered her arm to Sparks.

  “In that case, my son can come with me and start to learn some of the more convoluted politics of my kingdom. I am afraid that people here do love their complicated schemes.”

  She walked off, arm in arm with Sparks, and together the two seemed even brighter than they were alone. For a minute or two, Gem danced with one of the fairy men, whirling with him in a dance whose intricate choreography left her feeling flat footed and clumsy by comparison. When he politely suggested that she might like to take a moment to step back from the dance floor and rest, Gem took ful advantage of the opportunity, while her partner switched his attentions to a nymph in a lurid green bal gown.

  Gem didn’t care. In fact, as far as she could see, the whole thing gave her the perfect opportunity to try to find out more about Henry Word. She looked out over the teeming bal room, with its nymphs and satyrs, woodland spirits and other strange dancers, and knew that someone there would have to have heard something. It was just a case of working out whom.

  Gem found herself running through a rapid medley of conversations, each one seemingly a copy of the last. She would wander up to an individual or a group, and they would general y be more than happy to include her in the conversation.

  Some of them were positively obsequious in their treatment of her, which Gem put down to the fact that as both a human and the ruler of a strange land, she was something of a novelty.

  They would ask her questions about her land, and her past, and chatter happily about tangential things from the Summer Queen’s court. What colors were proving popular. The officious behavior of some of the fairies charged with overseeing their woodlands. Whose social gaffes had resulted in t he i r ostracism from the group this week. It reminded Gem a lot of the way people would gossip and bicker at her school.

  A lot of the gossip and questions revolved around Sparks. The fairy folk, the women especial y, wanted to know al about him, and also about his connection to Gem. What had his life been like on this human world? Had he been treated badly there?

  Were he and Gem an item? Gem did her best to keep her answers fairly perfunctory, remembering the Summer Queen’s words about intrigue and not knowing how much it would be appropriate to give away.

  She didn’t have much luck finding out about what might have happened to Henry Word, though.

  Every time she tried to steer the conversation around to the topic, Gem found people shrugging and saying that they hadn’t heard the name. If she pressed them, they merely said they did not know, and went back to their conversations. Increasingly, Gem felt those conversations starting to exclude her.

  If she wasn’t going to tel them what they wanted to know about Sparks, it seemed that the fairy folk were going to stay aloof from her. A couple of times, Gem even half heard acerbic comments behind her back, but she knew better than to react to them.

  Instead, she decided to look for Rio, on the Instead, she decided to look for Rio, on the basis that he might have found something out. Gem looked careful y around the bal room, looking for some sign of the dark-haired boy, but there didn’t seem to be any. When Gem managed to accost a passing fairy and ask after him, she found herself pointed wordlessly in the direction of a blonde-haired fairy woman in a flowing silk dress.

  “Excuse me,” Gem said, “have you seen my friend Rio, by any chance?”

  “The human boy?” The fairy woman quirked a lip. “It seems you weren’t watching him as closely as he was watching you. He treated me most callously, paying me no attention and then running off as he did.”

  Gem winced. The last thing Rio would have wanted was to watch her with Sparks. He had probably run off somewhere to sulk about it.

  “Did you see which way he went?”

  “Oh,” the woman waved a hand vaguely at the doors, “I think he went… somewhere. Frankly, I tend not to keep track when they clearly aren’t interested in me. He didn’t even compliment me on my dress!” She twirled happily so that the skirt of it bil owed. Gem took the hint.

  “It i s a lovely dress, and I’m sorry Rio didn’t pay you more attention. He can be a bit hard to understand sometimes.”

  “Oh, not that hard,” the fairy woman said. “I think he went out into the garden.”

  Gem nodded her thanks and set off in that direction, stepping out into the cool air of the garden.

  She looked around, trying to find some sign of Rio, but there didn’t seem to be any. Gem kept walking, deciding that Rio had merely hidden himself away somewhere. She walked past the ornate fountains, trying to think of something that would make a suitable conciliatory gesture.

  The howl of a wolf cut through the air, and Gem started. In her haste to rush after Rio, she had forgotten Dr. Brown’s warning that many of the denizens of Myriad could make a brief meal of a human. Deciding that even Rio wouldn’t be foolish enough to stay outside when there were wolves around, Gem turned and headed back towards the palace.

  Out of nowhere, strong arms wrapped around her, pinning Gem’s arms to her sides as they her, pinning Gem’s arms to her sides as they crushed her back against someone behind her. A glance back revealed a leering human face topped by goat horns. The satyr licked his lips. A second satyr approached Gem from the front.

  “We’ve been watching you, little human,” the second one said. “Watching you ever since the hunt.

  We’ve always wanted to eat human, we have.”

  “Of course,” the one holding Gem said in a bleating voice, “that’s not al we’ve wanted. The way you humans smel … so al uring. We might have to keep you alive a while. After al , the Summer Court is known for its hospitality.”

  It laughed at its own joke. Gem decided that talking her way out was probably better than trying to fight two magical creatures, both of whom were connected to the Summer Queen’s court.

  “I’m not human,” she said. “I’m Anachronian.

  More than that, I’m the Queen there. Do you real y want that kind of trouble?”

  The second satyr shrugged brusquely.

  “Human, Anachronian, who cares? It’s the same thing. As for being a queen… there’s only one queen around here.”

  It took a step forward. It didn’t get to take a second. With a snarl, a large, grey wolf bounded forward, pouncing on the satyr. It bore the creature to the ground, pinning it there as the satyr thrashed. Its teeth fastened onto the satyr’s throat and there was a snapping sound.

  The satyr holding Gem let her go, then stepped slowly towards the wolf.

  “Nice wolf,” he cajoled, “good wolf. You just stay there while I-”

  Gem stepped forward to place a hand on the satyr’s shoulder.

  “Deleterious.”

  The creature fel back, dead. Given what it had tried to do, Gem didn’t feel particularly repentant about it. It did, however, leave her facing up to a huge wolf that was staring at her with deep soulful familiar brown eyes and blood on its muzzle.

  Gem tried to judge whether she would be able to make it back inside before the wolf could leap on her, and decided that no, she probably wouldn’t make it more than a yard or two.

  It was at that point that the wolf made a low whimpering sound, wagging its tail as it did so.

  whimpering sound, wagging its tail as it did so.

  Unless the habits of wolves were very strange, it looked a lot like it was trying to be friendly. That certainly fit with the fact that it had just saved her.

  Even so, Gem couldn’t quite bring herself to pat it on the head, and the two of them stayed there staring at each other for several seconds.

  “Hey, where are the others?”

  “Do you think they’ve found that human girl?”

  “I hope so. Though if they start being stingy about sharing, they’l regret it.”

  The bleating voices weren’t far off. Worse, they were getting closer. Gem knew that she had to get out of there before more satyrs arrived, so she turned back to the par
ty. She found her way hampered by the sudden grip of the wolf’s teeth on the hem of her dress.

  “What?” Gem demanded. “What do you want?”

  The wolf let go and bounded away a few steps, then turned back to look at her.

  “You want me to fol ow you? Of course you do.” Gem looked back to the party and the wolf growled, just a little. “Al right, al right, I’m coming.” The wolf yipped once and set off across the lawn. As it headed towards the waiting woods, Gem did her best to keep up.

  Chapter 7

  Gem ran after the wolf for what felt like an eternity, though that was probably just the effects of trying to keep up with four legs when she only had two. She wasn’t sure what people back at the palace would say when they found out that she had absconded in the middle of their party, but right now she didn’t care. Not if it got her further away from those satyrs.

  The trees flashed past as they ran, but eventual y Gem had to stop, leaning against one of them in exhaustion. To her surprise, the wolf stopped too, looking at her with those soulful brown eyes. It lay down, obviously waiting for Gem to recover.

  Were wolves general y that accommodating?

  As an experiment, Gem held out her hand to the creature. It hesitated only a moment before moving forward to nuzzle her hand and lick her fingers. The sensation of the rasping tongue tickled, and Gem fought not to laugh as she sat down at the base of the tree, folding her legs under her. The wolf responded by putting its head on her lap, looking up at her with what Gem could only construe as a contented expression.

  Because the wolf didn’t seem inclined to constrain her from doing so, and because it was the first reassuringly normal thing she had run into since she had arrived in Myriad, Gem let herself enjoy the simple closeness of the creature. She petted it, running her hands through its fur the way she might with a dog’s, then hugging it close. The wolf didn’t seem to mind. In fact, it seemed to almost relish the contact.

  Sitting there, Gem tried to keep her mind just on the wolf, but it wasn’t easy. Fragments of thoughts about Henry Word, her parents back in Manhattan, even Sparks and what he’d turned out to be ran round in her mind. With a start, she realized that sitting here under the shade of a tree was the first time she’d had to truly stop and think about things since Henry Word had told her the truth. More than that, it was the first time that Gem had allowed herself to think about it al . Back in Anachronia, it had been easy to pretend that there was too much to do, and that stopping to think meant being remiss in her duties as a ruler.

  What did she think though? Truthful y, Gem wasn’t sure. Her feelings, as far as she could tel , were spinning round in a maelstrom, wil ing to forgive everyone involved one moment, then angry with them the next. How were you supposed to react to things like this? Gem shook her head, trying to clear it. Until she actual y found Henry Word- her father, she added mental y, trying the words on for size- there wasn’t much point in speculating. For now, it was enough to just sit there, cuddling a remarkably congenial wolf, and trying not to think about what might have happened at the party if it hadn’t arrived.

  They stayed like that for long minutes, until final y Gem had to shift positions a little before her legs went to sleep. A growl escaped the wolf’s jaws, low and threatening.

  “Wel , I’m sorry,” Gem said, “but I can’t just sit stil forever.”

  The wolf ignored her, leaping to its feet and growling louder. The growling wasn’t directed at Gem though, but at the woods around them. The growl rose to a crescendo as the wolf stiffened, staring out into the trees.

  It was like the woods melted back to reveal them. One moment, there was only trees and earth.

  The next, more than a dozen huge wolves padded into a rough circle around the tree where Gem sat.

  Just one of them would have been a daunting prospect, but a dozen together was far worse. The circle of wolves tightened gradual y, apparently to preclude any chance of Gem escaping from it.

  “You know,” she remarked to the universe in general, “just once it would be nice if I could get through the day without being thought of as a snack.” A shaggy, white wolf, that looked over the others with a confidence that made it obvious to Gem who the pack’s alpha male was, advanced deliberately from the circle, stopping just a short leap away from her. Gem stood careful y. She had had enough. A dozen feral wolves might prove to be too many, but she could certainly use a ruler word to make sure that the first one to move didn’t get anywhere near her.

  A shiver seemed to go through the white wolf.

  No, Gem decided, not through the wolf. Through the world around it. It trembled until Gem couldn’t quite keep her eye on it and then, the moment she turned away for an instant, the wolf was gone. In its place stood a muscular man in what had to be his late forties, though the long, white hair that hung halfway down his back probably added at least a couple of years. Gem found herself staring in flabbergasted shock, not so much at the fact that wolves could turn into people, after a couple of months around a dragon, that kind of thing struck her as almost normal, but at the fact that the man in front of her would wander around the woods like this wearing nothing more than a large loincloth.

  Gem looked around, and found that the other wolves were gone too, replaced by younger men wearing no more than their leader. They were al muscular and tanned masculine perfection, but even so…Gem brought her hand up to her mouth.

  so…Gem brought her hand up to her mouth.

  Gem realized that she was rambling. Perhaps she had underestimated the shock of wolves turning into people after al . A series of movies of dubious quality probably hadn’t done much to prepare her for the reality of running into a dozen real werewolves.

  Make that a baker’s dozen, actual y, because it was a fair bet that the wolf with her would have transformed too.

  Gem looked round for him and found him kneeling beside the tree, apparently exhausted by the change. He was dressed the same way as the others, and Gem couldn’t help her eyes roving over him for a moment. He was just as muscular and tanned as the others, but slightly more slender. A tattoo of a mechanical claw ran over his left shoulder.

  It was only when he looked up that Gem realized who it was.

  “Rio?”

  “Hi Gem,” Rio said hesitantly. “You know how I said that nothing much happened to me the last couple of months? Not entirely true. Don’t be scared, ok?”

  Gem didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t believe that Rio was… wel , a werewolf. It seemed too much of a coincidence, on top of Sparks and her.

  On the other hand, it did make a bizarre kind of sense. Far from making it seem like an aberration, Rio’s newfound werewolf status seemed to fit him perfectly. It took those currents of vigilance, control ed violence and cunning that had been in Rio before and brought them to the surface, turning them into something almost primitively dangerous. It was like seeing through a façade to something far more direct. Also, Gem had to admit, far more enticing.

  Rio stood with difficulty, taking Gem’s hand for support. He kept hold of it as they turned together to face the white-haired man and his… would pack stil be the right word while they were human, Gem wondered, and decided, given the look of some of the young men, that it probably would.

  The white-haired man’s eyes gave Gem a cursory glance, but most of his attention seemed to be reserved for Rio.

  “You are one of us.” He snapped out the words, and Gem thought that he was simply being curt until it occurred to her that the clipped way he spoke was closer to a bark than anything. “Not this place, though.”

  Rio shrugged.

  “I come from East LA. It’s certainly not the woods.”

  “No.” The man appeared to sniff for a moment, and Gem found herself thinking about how sensitive a wolf’s sense of smel would be. “You live with non-weres.” In an abrupt change, he nodded to Gem. “Who is she?”

  “Gemma James,” Gem said, offering her hand. “That’s Rio. We come in peace.” The
werewolf stared at the proffered hand with circumspect blankness, obviously unsure what he should do with it, and just as obviously worried by it. Gem didn’t think that this was the time to start explaining the gestures of salutation her culture used, so she decided instead to solve the problem by putting her arm by her side again.

  “Good.” The werewolf leader looked at her closely then. “You’re not from Myriad either. Why are you here?”

  you here?”

  There was just a hint of chal enge to his tone, and Gem knew that it was important to give the right answer. For al that the people around her looked human, some tingling sense at the back of Gem’s mind told her that they would think at least as much like wolves as people. That would probably include wanting to defend their territory. It wasn’t a very palatable thought. Not when there were a dozen of them. As if to substantiate her fears, al the young men in the circle trained their eyes on her as their leader asked it. There was a clear sense of what would happen if he told them to attack.

  Wolves in sheep’s clothing, Gem thought to herself, except that of course they were actual y wolves in not that much clothing.

  “We’re here looking for my… father. He has disappeared, and we think that he came to this world. His name is Henry Word.”

  “Many people come through Myriad.”

  Since it wasn’t an outright denial, Gem decided to press on.

  “He would have been in a wheelchair, a kind of chair on wheels, because he has lost both his legs. He is general y very wel dressed, he has short blond hair, and he has eyes like mine. Sometimes, his way of doing things can be a bit… unorthodox, so he would probably have stood out.” The werewolves’ leader appeared to think about it for a minute, he glanced around the group of young men, and Gem couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t to check whether they had heard anything.

  Final y, he turned back to her.

  “No, we have not seen anyone like that in our woods.”

  Gem looked to Rio, who shrugged. He leaned in close to whisper to her.