One of the faeries came forward with the vine cord. I stepped back and conjured a ball of nightfire, holding it in front of me. The other four faeries made ready to fire their bows.

“You’re not putting those on me,” I said softly, and I felt Beezle on my shoulder twitch in surprise. I didn’t look at him. If I did, I would doubt myself, because I was sure he had a what-in-the-four-hells-do-you-think-you’re-doing look on his face.

“You are to be brought before the queen for judgment,” Ivin shouted.

“And I’ll go. But you will not treat me like a criminal,” I responded. I wondered if I could make the nightfire scatter, like a shotgun blast. Of course, maybe now was not the time to be contemplating new and exciting ways of using my power.

“In my eyes you are a criminal. You have trespassed on Amarantha’s kingdom with foul intentions,” Ivin responded.

I drew my power around me like a cloak, pushed it up and out so that all in the clearing could feel it. I wanted them to know just who they were messing with. All the faeries took a little sidling step backward, not a lot, but just enough for me to know that they felt my magic, and it gave them pause.

“You will not bind my hands,” I repeated. “You will treat me with all due respect accorded to an ambassador from Lucifer’s kingdom.”

“I could kill you before you wielded your spell,” Ivin said, and he pulled his bowstring tighter.

I narrowed my eyes at him and pushed more power into the ball of nightfire that hovered above my palm. “Care to try me?”

I knew that I put Ivin in a bad position. He was the authority here, a representative of the queen, and it would be difficult for him to back down in front of his men. On the other hand, my sympathy only went so far. I had enough sense to know that I needed to come to the queen on my own terms or else she would never respect me.

Everyone in the clearing was still. Ivin and I had our eyes locked on each other, each waiting for the other to make a move. The faerie who had approached me with the vine cord seemed to be holding his breath. I wanted to look at Nathaniel, to see if he would help me if it came down to a firefight, but I didn’t want to release Ivin from my gaze.

A minute passed, two. I readied my power. He wasn’t going to give in. I wondered how many of them I could take down, and if I could avoid ending up looking like a pincushion filled with arrows.

Ivin abruptly dropped his bow. The other faeries paused a moment, as if in astonishment, and then dropped their weapons to their sides.

He gave me a little bow. “Welcome to the kingdom of Queen Amarantha, Ambassador Black. We would be happy to escort you to our queen.”

I closed my hand and the ball of nightfire disappeared. I gave Ivin a regal nod. “Would you please unbind the hands of my escort?”

Ivin looked like it would pain him to do such a thing, but since he’d already embarked down this path he had to see it through. He nodded at one of the other faeries and the cord on Nathaniel’s wrists was cut. Nathaniel gave the faerie who had fought him in the woods a look of venom. If I were that guy, I would avoid being caught alone at night by Nathaniel.

Nathaniel came to my side. The leader stepped around us, another faerie next to him, and indicated that we should follow them through the woods. We walked behind them in silence.

Even though Ivin had spoken the correct words and released Nathaniel, it still felt like we were prisoners. Two faeries walked in front of us, one behind and one on either side. Their weapons had been returned to their backs but all five faeries were tense and watchful. It was clear that they didn’t trust us and that any false move on our part would result in someone getting bloody.

The terrain did not improve significantly as we moved away from the swamp. The woods became thicker, the trees larger. The way that we followed didn’t really seem like a path. There was no tramped-down dirt to indicate the crossing of many feet. Gigantic roots jutted from the ground; large branches reached into our way. Small bushes with prickly thorns scratched and caught at my clothes.

The faeries leapt lightly from root to rock, easily avoiding creeping branches and reaching thorns. They seemed to slide through the woods like water. I was more like a stumbling rhinoceros. I tripped over every obstacle, got grabbed by every jutting piece of greenery. After about twenty minutes I was sweating like a pig under my winter overcoat.

I might technically approach Amarantha like an ambassador, but I was certainly not going to look like one. I don’t generally think of myself as vain or girly, but I was sweaty, bruised and covered in dried mud from head to toe. Nobody wants to appear before a queen like that. I shuddered to think of what my hair looked like.

We walked for what seemed like an hour. After I’d tripped over my nine hundredth tree root, I decided to break the silence.

“How much longer?” I asked Ivin.

He looked back at me. “The court of Queen Amarantha is approximately a day’s walk from here.”

I stared at him. “A day? Are you crazy? I can’t take a day to walk to court. For chrissakes, Nathaniel and I can fly. Surely there’s a quicker way than walking.”

“You can fly but we cannot,” he said. “You entered the queen’s kingdom at the very borders of her authority. It is not my fault that you chose to come that way.”

“Believe me, it’s not a choice I would have made if I had known,” I grumbled. “What about a portal?”

“We do not have the ability to create portals. That is solely the province of your kind,” he said.