Chapter 11

  I stopped to change into casual black leggings under a green t-shirt, with plain socks, and a pair of green trainers. Not only did I want to be comfortable for this conversation, but I was planning on getting in some practice after this gathering of my friends and allies.

  Ariana and Emrys were just arriving through one of the Hall's inner doors as I walked through the halls toward the garden. Ken was there to let them in and had just finished welcoming them as I rounded a corner and almost ran into them.

  Ariana Pendragon - yes, that Pendragon, and apparently Arthur's daughter with Guinevere - was dressed as she usually was…blue jeans and an off-white Henley under a leather bomber jacket, and she wore a pair of what she'd informed me were Dr. Martens 1460's. I kept meaning to get myself a pair - she said they were very comfortable once broken in and exceptionally durable - but somehow hadn't gotten around to it yet. I'd just been too busy.

  (Or, as D.T. had jokingly suggested one morning while we were out jogging, I perhaps wasn't comfortable casually spending even a comparatively minuscule amount of the absurd fortune at my disposal. She was probably more right than I wanted to admit.)

  Ariana's golden hair was usually cut short, but had grown out a bit since the last time I'd seen her and now hung almost below her ears. A hand and a half longsword, its well-worn leather grip bracketed by Celtic knot engravings and a slightly curved cruciform cross-guard, hung at her left hip. Her gray eyes looked at me with obvious curiosity, but she didn't ask any questions yet.

  Emrys Hawkins, who was apparently the Merlin, just over-rejuvenated, was beside her as always. His brown hair was still impossibly messy and failing to cover his pointed ears. His bright amber eyes were still far, far too old for his teenage face, and he was largely dressed the same as Ariana, except that he carried a plain wooden staff instead of a sword, and his t-shirt had a large Autobot logo on it.

  "Transformers?" I asked. "Really?"

  He lifted his chin and replied loftily. "At its best, it tells stories about two alien cultures learning to live together, and about how two similar desires can have radically different outcomes depending on how they're acted on. You can understand why those themes might appeal to a changeling like me."

  Ariana rolled her eyes. "He's going through a phase. This month it's giant robots smashing into other giant robots. You should've seen him when he discovered Pacific Rim."

  "Anyway," Emrys said, ignoring Ariana. "You recognized it."

  I shrugged. "Transformers: Prime landed when I was about thirteen, and the boys at the orphanage liked to watch it after school. I did too, to be honest. It was usually very well written, and I could listen to Peter Cullen read a dictionary."

  "Entirely fair," Emrys said with a nod. "And that was one of the better ones."

  Together, we walked down the hall, with Ken in the lead. "So," Ariana asked, "what's this all about?"

  "You won't believe me when I tell you," I said, "and I'd rather not have to explain it more than once. I hope I didn't pull you away from anything important."

  "All right," she said, then gave her head a shake. "And you didn't. It's been uncommonly quiet lately, actually." She frowned a little. "If I were a superstitious person -"

  Emrys snorted a laugh.

  "- I'd think something was about to happen somewhere," she finished, ignoring him. "I was honestly a little relieved when Ken called and said you needed our advice. When you're apparently immortal, boredom is terrible."

  "She said with her usual gift of understatement," Emrys agreed.

  Sparkle fluttered up and landed on my right shoulder, followed a moment later by Spice and Shine, who hesitated until I patted my left shoulder, where they settled lightly. Emrys smiled at the sight. "I keep meaning to find the time to visit and meet the Fairies of Oakwood Hall. I know it wasn't intentional, but you made quite a splash in Faerie doing that."

  "Good splash," I asked, "or bad?"

  "Oh, very good," Emrys said earnestly. "Your first official act in Faerie being taking a clan of fairies under your wing and giving them purpose made Faerie as a whole sit up and take notice. You did something none of your ancestors had done since taking in that clan of brownies a couple of centuries ago, which makes you look both benevolent and nurturing, not to mention clever. As a result, there are rumblings from normally neutral and reclusive parties all over Faerie about wanting to meet you and open diplomatic relations with you. I've heard through channels that both my father and uncle have expressed an interest in meeting you."

  He trailed off and gave me a shrewd look that was far too old for his youthful face. "This meeting wouldn't be about that, would it?"

  Ariana bonked him lightly - and, I thought, affectionately - atop his head with her fist. "She told us quite clearly that she'd fill us all in when we were together, you conniving little -"

  "It's in my nature to pry!" Emrys protested.

  Ken glanced back to exchange a look with me that very clearly said, 'Hard to believe he's really the Merlin, isn't it?'

  I smiled and rolled my eyes, but said nothing. I just listened with amusement as Ariana and Emrys bickered like siblings until we finally reached the garden. I opened the big, old, iron-banded door and gestured for them to precede me.

  The garden was one of my favorite rooms in the Hall. And that was really saying something.

  It was less a room and more an absolutely enormous greenhouse, at least three stories tall and seeming to go on forever in every direction. The floor was a lush, elegantly tended lawn of perfect green grass, broken up by beds of flowers, shrubs, small trees, and other plants of every description. Its centerpiece was an enormous and very healthy old oak tree, possibly one of the oldest living oaks in the world, with branches that spread protectively over everything else within the room.

  Right up at the front of the garden was a path of slate flagstones leading to a little sitting area. There was a glass-topped round table, several wooden garden chairs, a couple of chaise lounges, and an old-fashioned round charcoal grill sitting on a square of concrete pavers. Deeper in the garden, past the oak tree, was a little stone shed that led down to the underground 'night garden', which was filled with an impossible variety of mushrooms, lichen, and other things that grew better in the dark than under the sun…including some that I was certain weren't strictly native to Earth.

  The oak tree itself was the home - or possibly part of, I wasn't sure of the biology - of Dara, a hamadryad, and the oldest resident of the Hall by several orders of magnitude. She was, she said, older than the Hall itself, which had been built around her tree as part of her arrangement with my ancestors to nurture the Hall and all who lived within it.

  Dara, currently six feet tall, with long, wavy hair the color of oak leaves, skin the color - and texture - of bare oak wood and wearing what appeared to be a catsuit of supple bark, was lounging in one of the chairs by the table, waiting for us. Wadsworth was sitting in the chair beside her, absolutely dwarfed by her. He was the leader of the Hall's brownie clan, and topped out at three feet tall with his pork pie hat on. He had leathery skin that looked, not that I'd ever say it to his face, rather like a potato, and wore leather trousers and a homespun cotton shirt.

  Penny, in her human form, was sitting on the other side of Dara, sipping a cup of tea. She had brought a fresh tea service to the garden, along with bottles of water, a tray of bread, cold cuts, cheeses, and other sandwich makings, as well as a bowl of fresh pears, peaches, oranges, and apples.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "Thank you, Penny," I said appreciatively, sitting down beside her. "Ariana, Emrys, make yourselves comfortable and tuck in if you're hungry. Spice, that goes for you and Shine as well."

  Sparkle, Spice, and Shine descended on the bowl of fruit as Ariana and Emrys sat down and began building sandwiches.

  "I learned a long time ago to eat whenever I can," Ariana said, "because who knows what's happening next. And this one," she gestured to Emrys, "could eat an entire roasted pig by himself right now."

  "I'm a growing teenager!" Emrys protested, layering ham and turkey onto slices of sourdough.

  "A seventeen hundred year-old teenager," Ariana joked.

  "I'm not a day over sixteen hundred," Emrys said primly, piling some cheese into the growing sandwich. "Anyway, you'd know, you're almost as old."

  "Children," Dara said with tolerant amusement.

  "Yes," Emrys agreed, "it is nice to not be the oldest person at the table for a change. How are you, Dara?"

  "Thriving, old friend, as you no doubt know," she replied with a smile.

  I looked at Ken. "Were you able to reach Margrave?"

  Ken grimaced a little as he sat down. "For once, no. I reached his secretary, who regretted that he was in the middle of a delicate negotiation that she couldn't interrupt. She did promise to let him know of your need for advice as soon as he was available."

  I sighed. "That'll have to do, then." I looked around the table, and decided I was in good hands anyway. "All right, let me fill you all in quickly."

  With a bit of help from Sparkle and Penny, I told them all of my meeting with Oberon, putting my eidetic memory to good use by quoting his offered deal verbatim. I wound down by saying, "So that's where I am now. In need of your advice and ideas."

  Emrys now sat frowning with his hands steepled fingertips-to-fingertips in front of his mouth, his sandwich forgotten. "Well, it's not entirely unexpected, but it is concerning." He looked around the table. "I think I can say with some safety that I am the resident expert on my uncle, the Lord of the Seelie Court?"

  When nobody disputed the point, he continued. "My uncle is many things, and while he can be impulsive and hot-headed, he rarely initiates any actions without careful thought. It is, possibly, the only way in which he and my father are truly alike, personality-wise."

  He paused for a long moment, perhaps collecting his thoughts, then went on. "He also isn't in the habit of offering favors, let alone offering blank checks like this." He looked across the table at me. "Whatever he thinks he stands to find in your library, he must want it very badly."

  "I'm uneasy about the idea of you making any deals with the Sidhe," Penny said, directing her words to me. "I've seen wizards make such deals thinking they had the upper hand, only to discover that they'd been played perfectly."

  Sparkle, Spice, and Shine all nodded earnestly, Sparkle and Spice murmuring their agreement. "Deals with the Sidhe rarely work out well for mortals," Sparkle said.

  Shine touched Spice's arm gently, and Spice nodded, then spoke very quietly. "Not only for mortals. They rarely work out well for other residents of Faerie." She laid her hand on Shine's, and the silver fairy shifted to lay her head on Spice's shoulder.

  Which left me wondering once again how Shine lost her voice. I had assumed some injury, but…I shivered a little, remembering Hans Christian Andersen's story of the little mermaid. I also wondered, not for the first time, what bound these two fairies together so tightly. Questions for another day, if ever.

  "It's unlikely that Caley would be able to escape making deals with the Sidhe forever," Ariana said thoughtfully, then nodded to me. "Every one of your ancestors that I've known - and I've known all but one or two of them - had to deal with the Sidhe sooner or later. Anyone of any power and influence in the supernatural world does."

  "Even you?" I asked.

  Ariana laughed bitterly. "On more than one occasion. And even with Emrys' sage advice, I've rarely done better than break even."

  Ken nodded. "I'm also uneasy about the idea of letting Oberon into the Hall at all, but if we manage his passage carefully…say, by having Caley temporarily move the library's entrance to the foyer, so that he doesn't have to go any deeper into the house than that…it could be done with reasonable safety. More importantly, I think if you're going to do this," he looked at me gravely, "you have to not over-reach on whatever you ask him for in return."

  "And have him fulfill the favor as quickly as you can," Emrys added. "Immediately if possible. The longer you wait to do so, the more it will tax both his patience and his power. Unfulfilled bargains are a tangible drag on a Sidhe Lord's power."

  "What he said," Ariana said with a nod to Emrys. "I made the mistake of being in debt to a Sidhe Lord once, about a thousand years ago. He let it hang over my head for a few years before he realized it was doing him more harm than it was me, and came to me demanding immediate repayment." She grimaced. "Of course, I couldn't say no and paid a considerably higher price for his original service than I'd intended."

  "Couldn't say no?" I asked uneasily.

  "Oh yes," Emrys said with a nod. "Deals with the Sidhe are very much magical contracts, and they will compel both parties to fulfill the strict letter of the agreement. Which is why they need to be handled so carefully, and made as airtight as possible." He frowned. "We should take a few days at the very least to consider the exact wording of both his offer, and any counter-offer you might make. You have until the next new moon, you said?"

  I nodded. "That was the deadline he set. He said, 'I am not yet pressed for time, but will need your response before the next new moon.'"

  Ken sighed. "Not a lot of time."

  "More than enough," Emrys retorted airily. "It's good to consider the problem, but over-thinking it can do as much harm as not giving it enough thought. And sometimes, only sometimes mind you, acting on such a deal instinctively can be better than giving it too much consideration."

  I smiled a little. "All right, then what do I ask for? I want to get that out of the way the same day he accesses the library, if possible."

  "Wise," Dara said softly, speaking for the first time since we'd begun. "I agree with Emrys' assessment of Oberon's motivations. Whatever he wants in the library must be of tremendous value to him, to offer a boon of your choice. That makes it all the more imperative to choose said boon wisely. It should not be something inconsequential, as that might leave an imbalance in your deal. Neither should it be something that will be too difficult or expensive for him to provide, for the same reason."

  "Unfortunately," Emrys said, "without knowing precisely what he's looking for or how important it really is to my uncle, it could be very easy to over or underestimate its relative value." He frowned. "Knowledge is power…but power is difficult to give in return without an imbalance. It will be hard indeed to judge that accurately…" He trailed off and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

  "It wouldn't be the first time someone offered too little for too much without meaning to," Spice said softly. Shine hid her face against Spice's shoulder, and Spice released her hand to slide an arm around her instead.

  I blew out a breath. "This sounds more and more like a terrible idea."

  Ken shook his head. "It's not. It is one that we all need to give careful consideration before moving forward on it. This was going to happen sooner or later, and Oberon very graciously offered you a decent amount of time to decide how to proceed. It's stressful, but if we're careful, we can make the best of this."

  We were all silent for a long moment, during which Emrys gave himself a little shake and finally returned to his sandwich, chewing thoughtfully.

  Finally, putting my thoughts in order, I asked, "All right, so…as Emrys says, knowledge is power. There's no particular knowledge I need at the moment, so what's a reasonable equivalent to power in Faerie?"

  "A variety of things," Emrys said glumly, staring at his hands. "Esoteric knowledge, land, material wealth…you already have a substantial amount of magical power at your fingertips, so asking for more of that would be a terrible idea. It never ends well anyway. The most important thing is to be careful so as not to overstep the value of whatever he's looking for. Whatever you ask for, it will need to be worded very carefully."

  He looked up and met my eyes. "Let me think on it, and I'll get back to you. And you should discuss this all with Margrave as soon as he's available."

  "If he becomes available," Ariana said with a frown. "The Law Offices of Summers and Winters do business with both the Seelie and Unseelie courts, and they undoubtedly know that Caley is a client of Summers and Winters as well."

  Ken whistled softly. "You think Oberon might have found a way to tie Margrave up long enough to keep him from advising Caley on this?"

  "Would you put it past him?" Ariana shot back.

  A flat "No" came from Emrys, Dara, Penny, Sparkle, and Spice all at together. Shine was shaking her head firmly.

  Ariana spread her hands and shrugged. "I can't prove it, but I wouldn't count on Margrave being available for anything less than a family crisis for the next two or three weeks. I hope I'm wrong."

  "Me too," I said softly, then sighed. "Okay, so…to summarize: We're all agreed that going ahead with a deal with Oberon isn't a bad thing to do, but it needs to be done carefully and start with me presenting a counter-offer and a well-thought-out boon to be paid at the same time."

  Everyone looked at Emrys. He shrugged and nodded. "A good summary. In my experience, my uncle can be incredibly generous in his dealings. He's also well known for doing horrible things to people who try to cheat or double-cross him."

  "Robin Goodfellow learned that the hard way," Sparkle said softly. "We all heard about what happened after the Puck sold a certain tale to William Shakespeare."

  "Do I want to know?" I asked uncertainly.

  Everybody else at the table - even Penny - shook their heads firmly.

  "All right then, I'm not asking." I started building my own sandwich. "Let's table the conversation for now. Emrys, I appreciate any advice you can offer."

  Emrys nodded graciously. "My pleasure, Caley." He smiled. "The formation of the Faeries of Oakwood Hall was a good beginning. A successful dealing with my uncle will help cement your good standing in Faerie, and is an excellent step toward becoming the neutral party in the supernatural world that you want to be."

  "Then that's what I'll do," I said firmly.