Beauty (A Faery Story 3)

“Sure thing, Shim. I’ll patrol.” Duffy cleared his throat and walked outside.

Shim felt helpless. Gods, he was utterly useless. For the last thirteen years he’d been so weak, and now that he had some modicum of strength back, the sunlight was holding him in.

“Shim!”

He ran to the door. Duffy was pointing off in the distance. “That cloud is covering up the sun.”

He was right. Sure enough there were far more shadows and shade than there had been but minutes before. He stepped out and his eyes burned, but he could walk in this. “I need to find Bron.”

Lach would want him to. Lach would want to fight the battles while Shim took care of their wife. He felt his twin’s deep satisfaction with that idea. Since they had been on the same plane as their bondmate, he and his twin had been so much more in synch even without the deepest of bonds.

Lach was fighting. Shim could feel it. He closed his eyes, and he could see it in little flashes. Lach bringing his sword down and skewering an opponent, strength flowing through his veins like never before. They were outnumbered, but not for long. Every foe they brought down became Lachlan’s. The enemy didn’t just lose a fighter. With every death they gained another opponent.

Shim grimaced. Even this low light hurt his eyes. He closed them and searched for some fire. It sparked to his fingertips, but he hesitated to use it. The villagers were running. The scene was far too chaotic. If he started a fire here, how many innocents would he lose?

Bronwyn. He needed to concentrate on Bron.

He opened his mind and sought their connection. Even with her shields up, he knew she was alive. He simply couldn’t see through her eyes or feel what she was feeling.

He could, however, tell that she was close.

And she wasn’t the only one. Four guards rounded the corner and began walking down the narrow street. Shim pulled Duffy in. He was carrying an axe. No matter how small he was, the guards wouldn’t like that. Fire pricked at Shim’s fingertips. He could roast them, but the street was so narrow and the roofs around him were all thatched with straw. One errant flame and the village would go up. It had been easier in the town square. There had been room to maneuver.

“You!” The largest of the guards shouted at Shim. “Bring out your women. The king requires all women to report to the town square for inspection.”

Shim didn’t like the sound of that. Gillian was in the store. He had to hope she was doing what she’d said she would do, manning the rear window. “We don’t have any women. It’s just me and my brother.”

The guards took in Duffy.

“Well, lookee here. The mayor of this town is lax. A fucking gnome. Don’t you know your kind aren’t welcome here, you little piece of shit. No non-sidhe. Looks like we’ll have some fun tonight. You’ll look good on the end of a pike, wee one.”

The guard laughed, bringing the others in.

Duffy, not one to shrink back, walked up, his axe in his hand. “Now I’d like to know what you think to do with those women. I can’t think of any good reason to call forth all the women of a town. What kind of men do you call yourselves?”

The biggest of the guards stiffened, his limbs taking a predatory stance. “I call meself loyal is what I call me. And the king has decreed your kind to be undesirable and all who would aid you to be traitors. Now I think it’s about time to take care of this. Glannis didn’t tell us to bring non-sidhe to her so we can do whatever we like to these two the way I sees it.”

Why the hell didn’t he have a sword in his hand? Perhaps because his father had thought him too weak to hold one. Perhaps because until he’d had first blood, he had been too weak to really wield one.

And Duffy wasn’t smart enough to run. He hefted his axe and swaggered out into the street. “I think we’ll have to see about that. And I won’t let you hurt a bunch of women.”

“The wee one thinks he’s a warrior.” The guards began to circle in a predatory fashion, like jackals looking for an easy meal.

Shim stepped behind his adopted brother. “Duffy, I think we should go back inside.”

“That option is gone now,” another guard said. “We don’t let fucking gnomes talk to us that way. And they’re certainly not going to threaten us with axes.”

There was another sonic boom. It startled the guards and gave Shim a chance to focus. He let the fire build in his fingers. He couldn’t torch the fuckers the way he wanted to, but he could try to take them out one by one. The fire sizzled along his skin. It was so much easier now. The power was right there at his fingertips. He could tap it without losing control. It was his.

One of the guards put a hand on him. Shim let the power fill him.

There was a scream and the guard fell back, holding his hand up. It was already blistering. Shim could feel his power. It wasn’t just in his hands or flowing from his gut. He was his power.

He sent out a little flame from his fingertips, catching the nearest guard’s tunic. The guard stepped away from Duffy, trying to put out the flames.

But Duffy was too close to the others. He was wielding his axe, proving that he’d taken his training seriously. He caught one guard squarely in the chest, but he didn’t have the strength of a larger man. The axe struck, but it clanged and bounced back off, sending Duffy to his ass in the dirt.

Shim was just about to send fire to the guard standing above Duffy when he hissed as a terrible pain caught him on the bicep. Blood flowed down his left arm, soaking his tunic.