Midnight never come by Marie Brennan

Author:Marie Brennan [Brennan, Marie]
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Fiction, Fantasy, Fantasy - General, American Science Fiction And Fantasy, Fantasy fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Historical fiction, Historical, Courts and courtiers, Great Britain, History, Great Britain - History - Elizabeth; 1558-1603, Elizabeth; 1558-1603
ISBN: 9780316020299
Publisher: New York : Orbit, 2008.
Published: 2008-06-08T19:30:00+00:00

The woman who had lured him below was joined by a second, just as short, and alike as only a sister could be. They wore tidy little dresses covered with clean, embroidered aprons, and their apple-cheeked faces spoke of friendliness and trust but they came only to his belt, and were no more human than the figure silhouetted in front of the fire, her hair shining like silver washed with gold. Michael, she breathed.

He retreated a step, risked a glance over his shoulder, saw that the floor had grown shut behind him. Leveling his swordpoint at the three of them, Deven said, Come no closer. Truly, one of the little women said, the one with roses embroidered on her apron, there’s no need for that. We brought you below, Master Deven, because there are some rather unpleasant people coming this way, and you will be safer down here. I promise, we mean no harm. How in God’s name am I supposed to believe that?

All three cringed, and one of the women gave a muffled squeak the one with the daisies on her apron. Now, now, the rose woman said, a trifle more severely. That isn’t very gentlemanly of you. Not to mention that we shouldn’t like to see our house pop up out of the ground without so much as a by-your-leave, or an apology to the folk above. We are fae, Master Deven; surely you must know what that means.

Ominous thudding answered before he could; all four of them looked up. They re at the rosebush, the daisy woman said, and then a snarl reverberated through the chamber, deep and hard, like thunder in an ugly storm.

Open, in the name of the Queen.

The two short ones exchanged glances. I am the better liar, the daisy woman said, and the rose woman answered, but they will be suspicious if they do not see us both. She fixed Deven with a stare that was no less effective for coming from a creature so small. You will put up your sword, good master, and refrain from invoking certain names while in our house. We are protecting you from what’s above, which is good for both you and us. Once we have gotten rid of these nuisances, we shall answer any question you have. As many as we know the answers to, the daisy woman corrected her. Come, we must hurry. Upon which the two of them whisked off their aprons, mussed their hair, yawned theatrically, and hurried up the stairs, looking for all the world as if they had just been roused from bed. The floor stretched open to let them pass, then shut again, like a cellar without a door. Deven said, half to himself, What…

Hush, the silver-haired creature hissed. She had not spoken since uttering his name, and now her attention was not more than half on him; she still looked upward, listening as heavy boots clomped across the floor.

Where is she? The voice he had heard before. It made Deven feel as if his bones were grinding together.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.