The Earl's Childe by T. J. Wooldridge Read Free Book Online

from your capture of the kelpie?” she asked softly.
    I hadn’t realized I was rubbing my ribs. One would think since this was all in my head that the walking wouldn’t have made them sore…or maybe they were sore from how I was sitting in my parents’ office. “A little.”
    â€œWould you permit me to heal you, then? As you are here and clearly willing to help, I would hate for you to go through this meeting in pain.”
    â€œUm, I suppose?”
    She smiled and did… something …that made her look even more beautiful than usual. I bit my lip, but still kept from looking in her eyes.
    â€œI give you my word that I will do nothing more than heal you. I know it is just your spirit here, but this should still reach your body.”
    I nodded at her.
    â€œGive me your hand, then, Heather.”
    When she took my hand, I felt warm tingles go from my fingers to my torso, and then they stopped. The slightest frown touched her face. “I have your permission to do this, Heather?”
    â€œYes,” I said, not liking that “stop” sensation.
    Once I said that, I could feel the healing magick again. It was odd, because I could feel the magick acting at the same time in this spirit body, as if it stood firmly on the woodland floor, and in my body-body, sitting in my parents’ office. It felt really weird.
    After a moment, she released my hand and turned to Lord Cadmus, who had been speaking quietly to an amber-eyed, owl-faced fey who wore an owl-feathered cape. She touched Cadmus’s arm lightly. Like Lady Fana, Lord Cadmus was more petite than a human, and had pointy elf ears and long hair, though his hair was black and stopped just at his shoulder blades. Also like Lady Fana, he had deep, dangerous, violet eyes, which glanced at Tom and me for a moment. He nodded slightly, then attended to her. “Shall we begin, my love?”
    Fana nodded and proceeded to greet everyone else there individually, which took a holy-crap-forever long time. I remembered a few. The owl-looking fey was actually an owl fey representing his owl clan, as well as being Lord Cadmus’s lead guard, and he was called something like “Hoo-ell-winn.” The head of the rabbit clan, Lady Ansa, was a ginger-haired young looking woman with big brown eyes full of mischief and pride and a nose that still wiggled in her person-form, who wore my favorite of all the outfits of the night—a dress/jumpsuit that layered different materials, in greens and browns. Several of the fancier-dressed faerie, including four who looked like daoine síth, were giving Lady Ansa looks , which made me like her even more. There was also another cat fey, a female, with pale blonde hair and possibly a haughtier look than that of the any daoine síth. She just went by “Marquesa.”
    You’re not head of the cat fey? I asked Tom, since it seemed either only one person or a couple represented each of the animal-related fey.
    No . His tone had a clear “I don’t want to talk about it, and I won’t answer if you ask” message, so I didn’t press.
    The daoine síth, three men and one woman, all appeared related in some way to Lord Cadmus and Lady Fana, and they stood opposite us on the rough circle everyone had assembled in. For the life of me, though, I couldn’t remember their names. I wondered if there were magick to that.
    Besides the animal fey and the daoine síth, there was an almost-but-not-quite human-looking woman, introduced as “Arooa,” representing the coastal selkies—glowing, face-shaped bubbles with a single unpronounceable name, representing the will-o’-the-wisps; a very short, angular man in a tattered coat, whose name sounded like clanking gears, for the brownies and gnomes; and two whom I recognized— Ehranthal and Melldadnium. The two flower pixies were also opposite me, and hard to make out beyond being tiny sparkling, winged