“A bodyguard?” Prince Arthur echoed. “Surely that’s not strictly necessary. I am a knight in my own right and I can defend myself.”
“Despite your blood relation to Morgan Le Fay, some of the Fair Folk are hostile to your presence,” the Vice Minister - a tiny, green-skinned thing with dragonfly wings who fluttered at shoulder height - said. He adjusted his tiny spectacles primly. “We’ve assigned the best and brightest of the Seeleigh Court forces for you.”
Prince Arthur glanced at Lancelot, who shrugged helplessly. Who would be guarding him? Little creatures with butterfly wings who were no bigger than his shoe?
The Vice Minister cleared his throat, and then a figure slid out of the shadows. Prince Arthur jumped. Lancelot and Gawaine reached for their swords, but then the figure bowed.
Prince Arthur could only stare. The creature was tall and slender, with snow-pale skin and coal-black hair and ocean-blue eyes and a pair of lovely blue-and-gold butterfly wings. It was a fae of some sort, with elegantly-carved cheekbones and a perfect rosette mouth, and Prince Arthur was disturbed to realize that he had no clue whether the creature was male or female.
“This is Peaseblossom,” the Vice Minister said. “He’s very good at what he does.”
Oh. Fairies could be male, then.
Peaseblossom wore a distressingly blank expression, unlike the other fairies who always seemed to be giggling and smiling at obscure things. He looked like a stiff breeze would knock him over, but when the first band of redcaps attacked, he handled a sword like a pro, and he sounded strangely competent when he said,
“Come with me if you want to live,” and extended a hand that was dripping with someone else’s blood.
(293 words)
No comments:
Post a Comment