Page 67 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Discovering I belonged to another world, another species, had given me hope that I’d finally belong somewhere, fit into my new surroundings. That hope was now circling the drain.
“What’s wrong?” Briar whispered once we’d taken seats in the smoky, crowded tree tavern called the Beaky Ladle. Concern furrowed his brow. “You seem upset.”
I sat on a stiff bench under a striped boar head, brooding because I was a foot taller than most of the fae surrounding me. “I’m all right.”
A serving wench with bug eyes and antennae—the breed of fae Briar called Middling—grand-jetéd to a table, a tray of tankards balanced on her shoulder. Her barely covered breasts bobbled with her graceful landing. She was the only other female in the place, but that was our only similarity.
Show off.
“Are you jealous?” Briar whispered, leaning across the table to take my hand. “I only peeked for a second, I swear.”
Leave it to a guy to dig his own grave.Would he be this forthright with me when we next saw Laurel Woodrush?
“No,” I answered, letting him pet my hand. “I’m justsodamn tired.”
He relaxed back in his wobbly seat and propped his foot upon the bench beside me. “Me too.” He groaned, stretching. “It’s nice to rest.”
“Speaking of rest, why don’t we do something to make traveling easier? I think it’s safe to say there are no Enterprise Rent-A-Cars nearby, but I saw a stable down the way. Couldn’t we buy ourselves some horses to ride?”
Briar folded his hands behind his head. “And when did you learn to ride a horse?”
“You could teach me.”
He grunted. “We can’t spend our meager cache of seeds on something unnecessary. We might need them for more important things.” He gestured indistinctly. “Like food. Like shelter when it storms.”
Why did he have to be so damn sensible?
“Anyway, common Dananns usually can’t afford beasts like horses. Mules, donkeys—maybe. Not horses.”
“I could ride a mule,” I said, hopes soaring. “People do it at the Grand Canyon.”
“All right. After lunch, we’ll ask the stablemaster if he has any mules.Ifthey’re a reasonable price, I’llconsiderbuying you one. Okay?”
Now beaming, I clapped.
He laughed, pleased that he’d pleased me.
Moments later, the dancing wench pirouetted over to take our order in a childish squeak that would’ve cracked me up had Briar not nudged his boot into my hip. In a charming Scottish burr, he requested the cook’s heartiest stew for us both.
After that, I sank down into my seat and continued interrogating him. “Tell me, Briar—if the fae have been in existence so much longer than humans, why is Earth so much more advanced?” I scanned the tavern’s quaint townspeople, the olden décor, the rustic furniture. “Where’s the technology, the electricity, the science?”
Scraping dirt from beneath his fingernails with the pocketknife he hid in his boot, Briar grunted. “You should be asking: where’s the pollution, the smog, the global warming?” His eyes sharpened. “Where are the oil spills? The companies raping the ground of natural resources? The orange streams? The endangered wildlife? The plagues of plastic bottles?”
My cheeks burned. Rightfully too.
“Humans aren’t more advanced than us, Amy. We just know where to draw the line. Nothing is more important to us than the sanctity of nature.”
Impressive,I thought.
“I can’t believe nobody has ever tried to industrialize. I mean, the temptation—” I shook my head.
“I didn’t say that. There’s a faction who’d love nothing more than to destroy our pristine ecosystem for profit, but we have strict laws preventing them.”
His eyes roamed the tavern, his voice lowering. “Gentian has tried numerous times to repeal the environmental laws—mainly for propaganda. If we had electricity, television, and an internet, he could badmouth your good family name on a much broader scale.”
My heart seized. “How can he repeal anything? Isn’t this a monarchy?”
“Yes, but the monarch isn’t absolute. There’s a set of high clerics that we call the Divine Cadre. Subjects can appeal to them if they feel the monarch is violating the Goddess’s doctrines. Gentian claims the environmental laws are violating his potential profitability—and subsequent happiness—something Danu would invariably wish for all her children. So far, his arguments haven’t swayed the Cadre, but he’ll keep trying.”
