The Monster's in the Details by Ren Ryder

Author:Ren Ryder [Ryder, Ren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Derek Edgington Productions LLC

Chapter Thirteen

I laid boneless with my cheek pressed against the crystal floor. I was strung-out. Disoriented, I looked around at the diminished crowd. Most the court had dispersed in my absence, but some few had remained behind to hold vigil in case I returned.

A young centaur trotted sideways and stomped its hooves upon sighting me. “My queen!”

That’s my cue.

I yawned and sat up. My eyelids felt heavy, and I was fed up with tests. The show was over, I wanted to say.

Lady Maere looked poised and ready on her crystal throne. “A champion returns. Whether you are sane, that is another question. Those that return are often, warped, by the djinn’s influence.”

I shrugged. “In this or any world, I’m as sane as I can be.”

Lady Maere peered at me as if she could see into my thoughts. “The court bears witness, you have withstood the test of mind.”

Apparently a coherent response was enough to prove my triumph over the djinn. I had done no such thing of course, but somehow I’d satisfied the test’s original conditions. I looked, but there was no ring of shadows on my finger.

It was hiding?

The tiny crowd cheered in tandem, “Witness!”

Bell tugged my left earlobe. “Djinn, see, I told you it was a djinn!” Bell exclaimed.

I raised my eyebrows at her. “When might that have been? Before or after you fell into a stupor?”

“Ugh, I can’t with you!” Bell crossed her arms and kicked the air.

I smirked.

Lady Maere gestured to the huntress who’d been holding my staff hostage since my kidnapping. “Please, return the champion his weapon so he may be on his way.”

Maive took it upon herself to stalk over to the woman, who was slow to respond to the faerie queen’s request, and liberate it from her grasp. She walked back over to me with purposeful steps. Immediately suspicious of her motives, I stood and prepared myself for the unexpected.

“No hard feelings, right?” Maive asked as she handed over my staff.

“Right,” I lied.

Lady Maere’s steady gaze drew my attention. “I expect you must want to be on your way. You’d best arrive before Oberon calls a close to his first trial, or else your efforts thus far will all have been for naught. You still must make the trek across Dayside. No matter how soft the Wildwood may appear, it does present its own, shall we say, unique, dangers.”

Bell elbowed me upside the temple and whispered, “Say your thanks, idiot!”

I took a deep breath. “Thank you for your hospitality,” I said, trying to sound like I meant it.

I didn’t.

This brought a small smile to Lady Maere’s face. “Go forth with the knowledge that, should you need it, you have the recognition and support of Lady Maere, Phantom Queen of Thorns, Guardian of the Night, Herald of Death.”

I blinked. “Thank you.”

I wondered at the inscrutable faerie queen’s intentions. Had she been aware of my plight all along?

“Oh, and you may take your pick from my huntresses— one shall guide you safe out of the Nightside.

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