Little Red's Riding

Going to the Ball

Silas scanned the courtyard, with Oliver and Soren on his left and Herr Isenburg on his right. On Herr Isenburg's arm was the Faye girl who Dahlia had met at the Fairy Circle a few moments before she was taken. He had been surprised to see her when they were preparing to leave, but the German had explained that she wasn't just any messenger sent from the Fey King to negotiate and she had insisted on accompanying them into the palace. Skye was, he had explained while they were getting ready for the ball, the only surviving heir to the Fey throne, and she had single handedly convinced her father to send half of his army through the veil to aid them in their cause.

The Widow Lemp was on his arm, and Oliver was escorting Lottie, although if Silas had had his way he would have sent both of them back to the village to help prepare for whatever was going to happen when the fighting started, because they all knew that there was a very good chance that it was going to spread if they didn't manage to kill the King and anyone who might step into his place before the night ended. But Garin had insisted that the more women accompanied their party the better and even with Lottie and Mrs. Lemp they were far outnumbered with all the Alphas accompanying them.

The outer courtyards had high walls that even a werewolf wouldn't be able to jump. Lights twinkled all around them and music was playing, as children ran, weaving in and out around the legs of the adults, who were eating and dancing and laughing and enjoying the first night of the celebration. Silas swallowed hard as he watched two boys chasing each other and hoped that the King's guards would be as careful with the civilians in the area as their side would be.

Their entire army couldn't just come inside the walls of the palace. At first he had hoped that they might. But it had quickly become obvious that they had too many fighters, especially after Skye was able to borrow so many Faye fighters from her father. And so they had divided their soldiers into four groups. First there were the Alphas that would accompany Silas into the main ballroom. Then there were the fighters that would slowly make their way in ones and twos and threes and fours into the outer parts of the palace. They would filter through the rooms and courtyard until they were everywhere, waiting for their moment to strike.

More of their fighters would appear to linger throughout the city, celebrating in the streets, which was also common, as not everyone could make their way to the palace. Even with the large outer courtyards, the palace grounds could not contain all of the inhabitants of the city and so there were vendors that set up and sold their fares in the streets. And finally the rest of the massive army, mostly the Faye, waited in the forest just outside the Capital. These were the soldiers that could not blend well with the humans. They would be recognized immediately and would call attention and quite possibly alarm if they were noticed.

When the signal was given from the inner ballroom it was to be spread further and further to the outer groups until everyone heard it. Each of the first three groups had two people who had been given small but loud fireworks to light off. If whoever was in the inner ballroom could escape to a balcony to do it, all the better but if they couldn't it might just add to the confusion and kick off the fighting.

"Ready?" Mrs. Lemp tugged lightly at his arm, and taking a deep breath he nodded. His wolf had been oddly quiet since they'd arrived at the palace gates.

"She'll be in your arms soon."

"I know." He murmured, his eyes fixed on the main doors to the palace that they would be entering through in a few moments. After a long pause he spoke again. "But thank you."

"You'll thank me by saving my daughter. And proving you're every bit the Big Bad Wolf that all these men here think you are." She chuckled at the end as if the idea was ridiculous and even he managed to crack a smile.