The Real Folktale Blues Part 10

She took a moment longer to plop another crate into a buccaneer's hands before turning back to me with a fresh smirk. "Sounds like you want information as well, which is going to cost you."

Great, I was dealing with trader ethics. An eye for an eye makes the whole world have different eyes than they were born with.

I smirked back with my eyebrows winged high. "Maybe, but I have a better question instead. What's a military leader of Charming's forces doing, loading up a pirate ship in Hue's territory, Captain Bonny?"

Her face went pale almost instantly along with her jaw, eyebrow and grin all dropping. She stepped forward and captured up my shoulder to turn us around and away from the docked boats. "How could you possibly know that?"

"I told you, I'm Gnidori." I attempted to sell it again. She wasn't buying it though. This is why I never bothered to negotiate.

"Okay. But really how did you know that?" She pressed on.

I sighed and opened my mouth to say something more when the little fox inside my pocket tried to crawl out. My eyes went wide as I realized he was my real proof. I hope.

"Seriously, don't make me say it again." I said while slipping my hands through my poncho and yanking out the fox to hold him between my fingers. Her crackling eye exploded as she clearly recognized the fox. There weren't exactly many people walking about with a baby fox in their pocket.

"Why do you have Reynard?"

"Why do you call him Reynard?" I eyed the woman before me. I hadn't chosen that name for him until after I had already met and left Bonny last time.

"Because that was the name Gnidori gave him."

I turned the creamy fox around in my fingers and lowered my neck down to stare into his silvery slit eyes with slits for my own eyes. "So that's why you insisted on having me call you Reynard. I already gave you that name?"

The cute little ball of fluff just yipped at me strong enough for his body to bounce in my hands. Then he proceeded to yawn like it was nothing. The little demon knew way more than he was telling me. Clearly whatever time I had lost, he certainly hadn't.

The fox turned his head away and laid his chin on my fingers, looking like he was going to sleep again. I sighed. "This conversation is so far from over."

By this point Bonny was looking at me funny. And as I stuffed the fox back into a pocket and glanced behind me at the twins they were both trying to stifle back laughs.

Who needs friends? Traitors.

"Look, Bonny. Maybe it was me then, but it's also me now. And back then I probably said something like: I need pa.s.sage or I will huff and puff and blow your carefully crafted world down. Sound good?" I rolled my eyes, then realized that I no longer had the shadow of a hood to cover my features.

"Resorting to extortion huh?" Ettie popped up next to me, practically in my ear.

"Actually that was word for word." Bonny said, still bewildered but warily glancing at the intensely tall blonde woman towering over me.

"This is my muscle." I said with a smile nodding my head to Ettie. "Bonny, meet Margaret; Margaret meet Bonny."

Neither of them shook hands, or even attempted to. They just gazed over each other and then proceeded to nod.

"Ettie, I prefer."

"Captain Bonny." Bonny concluded with her nod, before her electrifying gaze fell back upon me. "Gnidori wouldn't need muscle."

"My sister's kind of muscle, Gnidori would need." Han jumped in, stepping up on the other side of me, before I could say anything. He settled a hand over my shoulder which made me want to kick him.

"Let's just say I don't exercise my walking houses very much." I shrugged and got awkward glares from three different directions all at the same time. "What?"

"You do know being a witch is a crime here?" Bonny finally asked.

"So is being the Pirate King, Captain Anne Bonny." Han said with an amused expression between his jowls. It made me blink for a moment.

"Pirate King?" Both Ettie and I said in unison. I forgot how similarly we thought sometimes.

"She's the newest Pirate King as of maybe a year now. I heard it was a b.l.o.o.d.y battle to the top for that t.i.tle this year. She won it because of securing this port to dock, which no pirate has done before." Han continued to explain. Bonny seemed to become amused that he knew her.

"Well it seems big boy here is more intelligent than he looks." Bonny waved off one of her buccaneers that came to check on her as she let out that same hearty dragon bellow of a laugh I'd heard the first time I met her.

Han didn't look too excited to be called big boy. "The name is Johnny Grelles, not big boy."

"Alright Johnny, Ettie, Fake Gnidori. Maybe we can work something out for a ride. Bluebeard's tower you say?" Her grin could have mirrored the devious grin of a dragon, I'd know, I've seen one now.

Captain Bonny turned immediately to one of her subordinates. A brown-haired girl with big gla.s.ses and her legs rubbing together nervously, she almost reminded me of Ashe. "Find them a place in the cabins. We'll finish loading the supplies. And put up a cot in my room for the red one."

The buccaneer was off after a hasty glance between the three of us then to her captain. I leaned over to Ettie and whispered, "Did you even know there was a Pirate King?"

Before I could notice, Bonny was turned back to us. "Most people not tied to the Underworld are unaware of any of the royalty that exists in it. And in case you are wondering, there is no Pirate Queen t.i.tle."

Both Ettie and I were staring over at Han, wondering what kind of stuff he was getting into. But no one said anything and before long Bonny was dropping crates into our arms.

I sighed as I loaded up a couple before stealing my way up to Ettie as she pa.s.sed with a crate herself. "I may not have my hood but if we don't hurry Hue could be tracking me here. You know I'm not supposed to be in this territory."

Ettie opened her mouth to answer but Bonny's voice arose instead. "Hue? You mean Boy Blue? I wouldn't worry about him. Our last reports had him across the seas. So why don't you just focus on the work you have to do?"

She held her hands on her hips glaring at the two foolish girls who definitely looked like we were gossiping like idiots. I went stiff at attention, but I didn't see Ettie do much of anything. Bonny just has this voice of authority that gets to people. Well it got to me anyway.

"Get to work. You can't very well expect to get free pa.s.sage regardless of who you are. You have to work for it."

"Alright. Just one thing though Bonny. Why bother with Charming's Army?" I asked, actually curious to know the answer for once.

She soullessly glanced at me for a moment before letting out another dragon bellow. "Who better to steal from?"

I half-smirked. "Alright. I like you."

"Oh no. You better run for it, Captain, before you wake up tomorrow morning with her in your bed." Ettie added. I promptly proceeded to smack her stomach with the back of my hand and glare at her. She rubbed it and smiled down sweetly at me.

Then all of us laughed.

Maybe this trip wouldn't be so bad.

Right, and maybe I'm not really Gnidori. That's the only way a trip would ever not turn sour.

"Red Riding Hood. Under the Faerie Proclamation three sixty-six, you are to be apprehended or killed for stepping within the Lands of Blue."

I spun around to find the person I had already expected to be there. Hue.

I glanced to Captain Bonny with a half scowl and half smirk as we all looked to the man dressed in robin egg blue. "Overseas is he? Well, at least I was right; told you I'm Gnidori."

I only wish I wasn't.

Ten.

Code Blue "I'm stunned, Hue. That has to be the biggest collection of words you have ever said to me in a single breath." I really would have been stunned if Hue hadn't just declared my death sentence moments ago.

Hue and I had been rivals for years, even before he became a prince with his own capital. From that rivalry had born a binding law of the highest caliber, A Faerie Proclamation.

Faerie Proclamations are magically enforced rulings within the Faerie Court. They handled only the most extreme cases, like when large bouts of magic are used in the wrong ways, such as the regulation of magic beans after a Jack tore a hole in the skylands with a grown beanstalk.

Hue and I also happened to have one, which restricted me from entering any territory that he had a deed to. But like every law there are loopholes in it. I'm only magically kept out of his territory if I am fully a.s.suming the t.i.tle of Red Riding Hood, meaning I had to have my hood in some way. Since I didn't, I could get into his territory this time, thankfully. It also meant if I really had been here previously to get a ride from Bonny, then I didn't have my hood that time either.

He knows this loophole. That's why, beyond the magically enforced rule he also had a law placed throughout his Kingdom. If I did ever enter, it would be my death. And he enforced it meticulously, though I escaped the last couple times.

Oh yeah, no bad blood between us at all.

I glanced around quickly to notice everyone had gone stiff, including Captain Bonny, the twins, and a couple buccaneers. Only Hue and I seemed to be pretty relaxed.

Hue was always dressed rather decoratively and sharp; equivalent to a full suit. But even more so, he was always dressed in robin-egg blue, even down to his tie.

The strange thing was he actually lacked his fedora for once and I hardly ever saw him without it.

"Nice tie, Hue." I nodded to him, before my eyes flitted around to see guards filter out and block civilians, starting to create a semi-circle of just empty dock.

"Thank you." He spoke crisply, his mouth barely moving. He had always not been chatty, which tended to get on my nerves.

"Not any chance I could just be exiled this time around? I haven't caused any trouble. I promise." I shrugged with my voice pretty flat as I asked. I already knew the answer, or at least I thought.

"Consorting with pirates is trouble." Hue said with such cool ease.

"Ah, Midnight Magic! That was why you threw the hatchet at Bonny last time. A pirate is a pirate anywhere. I'm only a criminal in your zone." I was such an idiot not to realize Bonny was possibly involved with something when Hue attacked her. Hue tends to be respectful of rules and codes, even manners. And knowing who Bonny is now, and the fact that she is using his port means she's probably personally stolen from him.

And I'm currently standing next to her.

Just perfect.

I glanced to her and she smiled so innocently. I rolled my eyes and hissed. "That explains why you disappeared too, after you saw him. He blew your cover and you slipped away when I wouldn't notice and he couldn't go chasing after you because of me."

Bonny didn't nod, but she didn't deny it either. Besides, I knew the truth. If she had helped me previously with something then that meant I had figured this all out before. It felt awkward to relearn something I couldn't even remotely remember.

I still couldn't understand why no memories came to me. Even if it had been a memory spell to make me forget, the constant re-introduction of past things, like seeing Bonny again, would have triggered things forgotten. Memory spells were always tricky like that. It was extremely difficult to make a memory vanish without any remaining trace; even top-notch faeries had issues with it.

I saw Hue slide a hatchet cleanly from his belt at his back. Some copycat must have designed the weapons for him, since they looked so similar to mine.

I held my hands up at my side. "Really Hue? You are actually going to try to kill me simply because I came into your zone, and randomly b.u.mped into a pirate?"

"Being here is enough." He continued with his smooth dialect.

"I know. I know. I'm just trying to get overseas. You have the only port directly connected to the current sleeping kingdom." I shook my head and looked down. I could still make out his closer steps to me from the corner of my vision. But my eyes shot up as I realized. "You were just overseas. Exactly where I'm trying to go?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Following you."

"Impossible, Hue. I'm here. I've been on this side for over a day." I explained. Maybe I could kick some sense into him before he started throwing hatchets all over the place.

"I see now." He said plainly, still sidling closer to me.

"Then you lied." I accused, while slipping my hand down to unclasp a hatchet from underneath my poncho. He looked warily at me but only moved closer still.

"No."

"Then you followed the other me." More specifically whoever had my hood and cloak, but he knew what I was talking about.

"Yes." He said from a couple of feet in front of me now.

"So you think I misled you on purpose so I could sneak through your territory?" I asked. I always hated having conversations with him. It was like having a conversation with the wall Humpty Dumpty sat on, only less talkative than that even.

"No." He stated, stopping directly in front of me. That certainly surprised me at least, the answer; not the stopping in front of me.

"Then what do you think, Hue?" I finally asked breathing out a sigh.

His answer came with a swift blue hand of vengeance. I snuck my hatchet right up against the blade of his, directly in front of my neck, and we held against each other. It was almost as if he was testing my strength or something than actually trying to attack.

He leaned in close, so close that his voice was faint enough for just me to hear. "Someone is using you. And me. Be wary of the fairy."

"What?" I gasped.

His hand yanked away with his axe before he swung it up to try to collide with my side. I shifted my hatchet to catch on his, and pushed a step forward into him, which made him stumble back.

He whispered yet again, "Be wary of the fairy. You will be left alone. So you best bring back what is mine."

His hatchet unhooked from mine, and clashed yet again to my blade. I stared at him like he had just gone insane. "Hue, what the fey is going on?"

"You will need that which you never wanted again." He added, but still just as cryptic and quick-breathed as ever.

I swear, that blue man... so frustrating to deal with.

Of course, he wouldn't say anything that actually meant something. He might as well have said gibberish to me. He pulled his blade back though and jumped a few steps behind himself. Then nodded his head briefly, while his soldiers seemed to fan away from the ship Bonny's subordinates had been loading up.

"You are to be exiled from my lands Red Riding Hood. Along with those with you. However if I ever see any of them again, I will kill them under the same orders sustained to kill you. Do not expect this mercy ever again." Hue said with a much deeper voice, lower and with more authority. It was so unusual to hear him that way, especially with saying so many words at once.