THE BUILDINGS AROUND FORT FADED from view, replaced by a throne room more opulent and luxurious than anything he’d ever seen, even in pictures. The floor was made from fine jewels, each as large as Fort’s head, while the walls and support columns looked like they’d been sculpted of silver or platinum, but so delicately that Fort couldn’t believe that the columns could hold up anything, let alone the roof of pure gold above them.
The throne room extended for hundreds of feet behind him, where a long line of faeries waited for their chance to see the queen, apparently. But both thrones at the front of the room now were empty, so Fort wasn’t sure if they were waiting for her to arrive, or if she’d just left.
That might be good for him. The last person he wanted to see was this queen. Between Rachel and the old man in Cyrus’s cottage, he was practically shaking with nervousness about what she might do. But if the queen had just left, maybe the faerie he’d accidentally run into wouldn’t be able to plead his case, and the guards would let Fort go!
A gentle wind passed by, leaving behind the scent of new rain on pine needles, and Fort looked around, trying to find the source. But as the smell grew stronger, the wind picked up, making the candles in the elaborate candelabras on either side of the thrones flicker. The faeries in line behind him all went silent and began to kneel, and the guards pushed Fort to do likewise.
As his knees hit the floor, the wind swirled into the throne on the left, and a figure appeared in the middle of it, lounging with one leg over one of the throne’s armrests. She was taller than the other faeries, maybe even taller than a human adult, and her skin was the same dark blue that Fort often saw in the sky after the sun set, just before darkness fell completely. Her eyes shone as she stared at Fort, absently playing with a wooden scepter with a large diamond at the top.
“A human, here?” she said, smiling slightly. “Tell me: Didn’t I ban your kind from Avalon under pain of death?”
Fort’s eyes widened in shock, but before he could answer, a familiar voice spoke up from his side. “This human child knocked me over, Your Majesty!” the faerie he’d fallen into shouted. “I demand a thousand years of his service in restitution, and not a minute less!”
The queen turned her gaze on the faerie, and he immediately went silent. “You would make demands upon your queen, my child?” she asked quietly.
“Of … of course not, Your Majesty!” the faerie said. “But the laws are clear that I am owed something for his attack.”
“Indeed they are,” the queen said, spinning her scepter on one finger. “But I don’t believe that humans live for a thousand years, my son.”
“I’d happily accept one hundred years of living service, and nine hundred of undead service,” the faerie said.
“That sounds fair,” the queen said, turning back to Fort. “And what say you, human child? Why did you attack this poor faerie?”
Fort opened his mouth to speak, but it was so dry, he had to quickly swallow first. “I didn’t mean to, Your, uh, Majesty,” he said. “I was looking for a friend, and I tripped going around a corner, so accidentally—”
“Purposely!” the faerie shouted.
“Let him speak, my child,” the queen told him. “Go on, human.”
“So I accidentally fell into him,” Fort told her. “I gave him an apology right away—”
“You gave him an apology?” she asked, one eyebrow raising. She turned to the faerie. “You didn’t mention that he’d offered restitution, even if it wasn’t equitable.”
The faerie seemed confused by this. “It was but words, my lady. Nothing concrete.”
“Nevertheless, he gave you something in return for his actions,” she said, and the air around her began to darken like a storm cloud. “And now, you seek to waste my time with outlandish claims of servitude without taking into account what you’ve already been given. Where is my restitution for that, child?”
The faerie’s mouth opened and closed for a moment in fear, before he bowed low. “I offer my apology to you, Your Majesty. I can only beg your forgiveness.”
“No, I think my forgiveness is worth more than that,” she said, and nodded at the guards. “A few years in the dungeon should help you not take other people’s time for granted.”
The faerie started to object but disappeared instead, along with the two guards who’d been holding Fort. Somehow, Fort felt even more terrified of the faerie queen without them at his side. A few years for wasting her time? And she’d already said she’d banned humans under penalty of death!
Why hadn’t that part been on the sign beneath the tomb?
“My children have so much to learn, even still,” the queen said, turning back to Fort. “Now, little human, what have you to say about breaking my law? I haven’t allowed your kind here since the Pendragon.”
All of the warnings from Rachel and the old man jumbled together in Fort’s mind, and he had no idea what to say. He knew he shouldn’t bargain with the queen, or tell her what he wanted, but she already thought he’d broken her law, so really, was there anything he could say that could make things worse?
“I came looking for the tomb of King Arthur, the Pendragon, Your Majesty,” Fort said, hoping his honesty would at least be worth something. “I was hoping to find an item he once had.”
Behind him, the faeries gasped but quickly went silent at a glance from their queen. That didn’t bode well.
“Something of the Pendragon’s?” the queen asked, raising an eyebrow. “And why would you care about anything of his?”
“There is a war coming, Your Majesty,” he said, clasping his hands together to keep them from shaking. “Back on my world. And I was, uh, hoping to stop it?”
She smiled. “You humans and your wars. You never cease to amaze me.” She turned away, almost like she was losing interest. “The Pendragon failed to fulfill his agreement to me, and thus I claimed him and his possessions, even in death.” She shrugged. “Unfortunately, undead humans tend to spoil rather quickly, which comes with quite an odor, and seem to be of limited use in such a case. Therefore his belongings are all I have.” She looked at him almost lazily. “Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you for breaking my laws, human.”
Fort cringed. “We’re definitely much more useful alive than dead, Your Majesty. I didn’t realize that humans were banned from Avalon, or I’d never have come.”
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” the queen said, growing even more bored now. “Still, you are just a child, and I admit I could not actually give you the maximum punishment. Perhaps merely three decades in the dungeons will teach you to stay out of our realm?”
Three decades? Fort’s eyes widened. He couldn’t even imagine being that old! “Your Majesty, I’ve already learned that lesson—trust me! There’s no need for a dungeon!”
“I’m afraid there is, child,” the queen said. “We can’t be seen to be lenient on your kind invading our realm, now, can we? You humans tend to accumulate like flies, and once you infest an area, it’s ever so hard to get rid of you.”
She held up a hand, looking away, and two more guards appeared at Fort’s side. He knew he had to change her mind, or this was going to be it: Damian would get the book, given that he was a dragon and therefore allowed into Avalon; the world would go to war; and everything would be his fault, all while he waited until his forties to be let out.
“Please, wait, Your Majesty!” Fort shouted, and she turned back to him, looking annoyed. “I give you my apology!”
She smiled. “It’s been used, child, and I don’t want one secondhand. Even if it were still new, breaking the law combined with trying to take what’s mine of the Pendragon’s holdings is worth considerably more punishment than a mere apology.”
“Worth how much?” Fort shouted as the guards grabbed his arms. “Maybe there’s something we can trade!”
She looked at him, and he could feel something warm inside his head, like the sun on a hot day. “I see you’ve had contact with … a dragon egg?” she said, perking up a bit. “Fascinating, child. Perhaps there is room to bargain after all… .”
And then she stopped and stood up from her chair, and the entire room went dark.
“The Old Ones?” she shouted, and the walls began to shake. The other faeries ran out of the room as silently as possible, and even the guards backed away. “You, human, have had contact with the Old Ones?”