Maebe looked to Chareen, ensuring that the woman hadn’t planned to answer before doing so herself, “Then you will be welcome among my people until the end of your days. And you would be able to count yourself among my court.”
The whispers had turned into full out cries of joy and happiness then. Some of the older kids seemed to be wary of the offer, but hopeful, I thought.
The Fae had joined Maebe, who turned and began to cast her spell complete with gestures, eccentric words, and gathering darkness. Children cried, their fear winning over, and I turned to help the others calm them.
I turned back in time to see Maebe grip the sky with her hands and tear reality in two. A rift of light and darkness opening and several figures walking through.
“Time to come along children!” I called, motioning toward the rift. Some of them were scared, but the older children lifted the younger ones and led them toward the rift. Maebe stood at the side of the opening, sweat on her brow, but she didn’t look nearly as tired as she might have.
Next to her stood her mother, Eiran’a, in her full glory. She wore a form-fitting, ice-white dress complete with ice crystals that dangled from a collar around her throat. Her hair was stark white, and she made no attempt to appear less beautiful than she was. Her skin was the same dark tone as her daughter’s, but she looked so different from Maebe that I would definitely not be confusing the two.
As I approached, Maebe saw her opportunity to get away “If you will forgive me, mother, I have a child to see to.”
I watched as my wife moved toward the girl, and they spoke in soft, muted tones as Maebe raised the shadows around them.
“You make her weak, mortal,” Eiran’a’s voice crept forward icily. I rolled my eyes, then turned to face her.
“Hello, mommy dearest,” I tried not to be sarcastic, her blank face giving me no indication my snark would reach her. “And aside from marrying someone who would merely use her for her power and station—how is that?”
“She could have moved on the new Seelie Court if it hadn’t been for her dalliance here in the mortal realm,” she commented dryly as she looked haughtily over the children who passed not twenty feet from us into the Fae realm.
“Yeah, and there would be some new threat to your power almost immediately.” I observed my nails as if in disinterest. “Specifically, the threat of the Dofilnarr who seem to be working with the Seelie.”
Her gaze shot to mine. “You you will mind your tongue, kitsune. You know nothing of the threats to our realm.”
“No, I don’t.” I smiled sincerely. “But I’m learning. And not only am I learning, but I’m helping her as well. Did you know that she now has two alliances with kingdoms in this realm?”
The queen said and did nothing, so I continued, “These fine humans here, that have so nicely volunteered to help you all be a little more fertile—yeah, I know about that—and give you something to do and children to spoil and love.” Her shoulders tensed and she seemed displeased, so I did what I always did when confronted by something that could easily kill me.
I was a raging smart ass.
“And let’s not forget that she even managed to gain an alliance with the high elves’ new king. Something you lost, and she found again.”
She was inches from me then, the rage in her features should have made me piss my pants, but it was much too cold for that. “If I were you, I would never speak to me that way again, mortal.”
“Yeah, and if I were you, I would find a better way to spend my time than judging the one creature in the world who seems to love a frigid bitch like you,” I said back, growling and shoving my own face forward angrily. “She loves you and her people. She’s working herself sick over here trying to ensure that all of the people she loves are taken care of, first and foremost her people.”
“Then why in all the realms did she choose you as king?” The former queen said, her tone spitting venomously.
“Because I love him, mother,” Maebe’s voice greeted us before her arms wrapped around my shoulders protectively. “For the same reason that you married father.”
“Do not speak of that…that…fine.” Eiran’a stood erect and held her head high. “If you refuse to learn from my mistakes, so be it. You will understand why I gave my heart to the Frozen Depths soon, child. Far be it from me to attempt to spare you that suffering.”
As she turned to leave, she halted and graced me with an icy glare. “No matter where you go, mortal, I can find you. Remember that.”
“Yeah, and when you want to have dinner with us, I’ll bring dessert.” She looked confused, and honestly, I was too. I shook my head and growled at myself. “Look, I don’t want you and I to hate each other. I love Maebe. I will care for your people as best as I can. I’ve not lied to her about any of my intentions—ever. The least you can do is support her, even if you hate me.”
Eiran’a blinked at me before regarding her daughter. “I will always support her. As she did so for me. My daughter is all I hold dear other than my people. For someone who thinks that I ‘hate’ him, you are surprisingly calm.”
She turned back toward us and stepped forward until she invaded my personal space once more. “I do not hate you, Zekiel. I hate what you represent, and the pain my daughter will experience once your time here is at an end. I wish you both happiness, all of the happiness I had before the end. Fare thee well, Zekiel.”
Eiran’a glanced at Maebe, a soft, sad look in her eyes then left without another word.
A sigh of relief escaped my lips, “That wasn’t so bad. All things said and done, I kind of like your mom.”
Maebe smacked my arm lightly. “We can discuss that later. I sent Servant to collect one more thing, then the portal will close.”
“What did you send him to collect?” I stared at her with a pointedly worried look on my face.
“Just some trash,” Maebe replied flippantly.
Three minutes later, Servant, in his original tiger form, dragged a screaming man onto the beach by his leg.
“What the fuck is that, Mae?” I cried as I bounded toward the two of them.
An impossibly strong hand gripped my arm and pulled me back onto my ass, my legs flying into the air.
“As I said,” her voice a harsher tone reserved for anger. “Trash.”
Servant dragged the man over to us, then sat with the leg still in his mouth before dropping it onto the ground and putting a paw on the man’s back.
“This is the lie that you followed, Servant?” Maebe tilted her head as I climbed back to my feet next to her.
“This one reeks of lies, but his is the same scent on the girl.” Servant eyed the man hungrily.
“Come here, child.” Maebe waved to the girl, who looked to be in her mid to late teens. “Do not fear, he cannot harm either of you.”
I frowned and noticed that the boy who was there had to help her walk forward, he looked to be younger than her by a few years as well, so maybe around ten to twelve? Kids looked different here than they did at home.
“Is he the one who harmed her?” Maebe squatted down to be at eye level with the boy, who nodded erratically. “I see. Tell Servant what his favorite lie was. What did he promise you both?”
“He would always promise that he would care for us and love us,” the girl whispered. Her pale, milky eyes unseeing as she looked ahead.
“He said he was an alchemist,” the boy sniffled. “Said that he could give us a good life if we would help him with his work. Then we would be rich!”
The horror of what these two had been through dawned in my mind, and I wanted to murder the sonofabitch right there. Right then.
My rage made my vision turn red for the first time in a while, but the voice of the wolf was gone. I was responsible for this.
Then I got to thinking. If his experiments had been on her eyes, then maybe I could fix this. Better to try and get help, though.
Jaken, I need you over here, buddy. Balmur, you too. I called to those two and
held a hand up to get their attention. Within seconds they were there.
“You needed us?” Balmur asked with an eyebrow raised as he took in the scene.
“You more so in a second.” I patted the fire dwarf affectionately on the shoulder, and he shrugged. “Jaken, you have anything that can cure organs?”
“Not really specifically, but I have that buff spell that protects us from adverse effects.” he held his hand out like he was going to cast it and I waved it off.
“We’re going to try to help you, but I’m going to need to touch your face.” The girl drew in a ragged breath and watched us.
I looked to Jaken, “Can you pray and kind of enforce a holy spell for me?” He nodded, and I put a hand on each side of the girl’s face. “I don’t know if this will work, but I’m going to try to heal you, okay?”
She nodded tears in her eyes once more. Jaken touched my shoulder as he began to pray, “Lady of the Rising Sun, whose Light brings joy and righteousness to the land, I ask of you…”
I tuned him out as I focused on holding the spell Purify for a full thirty seconds, then used Vulpine Casting to halve the spell cost to 800 MP.
Warmth flooded me, spreading from my shoulder where Jaken touched, into my chest, then to my hands. Finally, as I released the spell, the warmth flared through me and into the girl’s head.
She glowed a vibrant orange for a moment, then blinked a few times, dark tears fleeing from the corners of her eyes. “I can see…” She looked at her hands, then the boy who wept openly in joy. “Seamus? Oh, Seamus, it is you!”
“Go now into the portal, little ones,” Maebe whispered, her voice sweet and cheerful.
The man at our feet cried out again, and I grimaced. “Balmur, you want to mete out a little eye for an eye justice?”
The dwarf frowned, blinking as he pointed from the girl to the man on the ground and smacked his head, “Shit, and here I had forgotten!”
He leaned down and flipped the balding, skinny man onto his back as he struggled for all he was worth.
“Balmur.” Maebe touched his shoulder lightly. “Do not kill him.”
It had been an order, and I would help see it through. “Jaken, you uh…may wanna go away buddy.”
The paladin nodded stoically and moved away from us as Maebe erected a shadow barrier and grinned, “You may begin.”
It took only seconds for us to finish our grim retribution, I made sure I healed him, and he would live. He wouldn’t see, but he would live.
“Servant.” Maebe stroked the Fae creature as she eyed the man. “Take him into the Fae with you and have my mother add this one to my collection. Also, take the girl to her as well. My mother will appreciate her as she should be.”
The tiger nodded eagerly, then turned to me. “You aren’t half bad as a king, call me again.”
He not-so-gently grabbed the unconscious man by his leg and trotted off through the tear. Maebe took her place next to it and grasped the sky once more to slam it shut with an audible groan of effort. Then she collected the mushroom and put it into her inventory.
Jay had counted two hundred and thirty-seven babies, children, and teens that had gone through the rift. And of that amount, nearly sixty had sworn to return once they were strong enough. That had been a decent payoff, right?
Balmur had fed one of the man’s eyes to his own and was excited to see that when a normal eye was fed to it as upkeep, the magical effect was still safe. That was great to know.
The queen and her daughter thanked us for our service to the kingdom and opted to go home with news that we would be by in the early morning to collect our paperwork for the dungeon.
We walked back to the inn a little weary, but with a lightness to our steps that I felt was much needed. We had saved lives tonight. Granted one asshole was definitely going to get his, but those kids? Those kids were in good hands now.
That was what mattered to me.
Chapter Twelve
The following afternoon we were on our way back to the castle to gather our documentation to get into the dungeon.
We didn’t even make it to the gates when the king, queen, and their daughter met us at the bridge to their castle. Their finery was forgotten, they wore normal clothes, and they had nothing but smiles.
“Two hundred and thirty-seven, with sixty oaths to return.” The king grinned broadly. “Several of them expressed interest in magic. But it was all thanks to your offer. So, here are your papers, your letters of introduction, and our gratitude.”
“Should any of you need more, please, do not hesitate to ask, and if the Unseelie Court has need, we will rise to assist you.” Queen Chareen bowed her head once, then nudged her daughter, who hung back shyly.
“Come out, water mage,” Zygnal ordered patiently from the water nearby. “Speak to them as is expected of a princess. If you are to have any chance at proper magic, you will need to overcome your shy nature.”
The girl regarded the direction the voice had come from sourly and marched out from behind her mother.
“Thank you, lords and Queen Maebe, for helping our kingdom, and our people,” she spoke measuredly as if she had practiced quite a bit. “And thank you, King Zekiel, for helping introduce me to Zygnal. That was very nice of you.”
“Was that so hard, child?” Zygnal’s voice bubbled our way from the water, and the princess shot a murderous glare her way.
“You are welcome, Princess Villeroa.” I bowed my head, and Maebe just smiled. “Good day to you all, and should you need us, Zygnal will have a way to reach me. That, or whisper my lovely wife’s name. She will know who you are then.”
Maebe smiled larger than before, and we turned to leave.
“I forgot; we going to be on our own?” Yohsuke smacked my arm as we walked through the city toward the gates. “Or will we be taking the Braves as well?”
“The Braves offered to meet us at the gates while you were getting some more supplies this morning,” Jaken supplied as he observed his surroundings. “Jay requested that they show him something on his way there.”
As we continued on our way, I noticed more and more of the royal Zephyth guard on the streets.
“I wonder what’s going on?” James grumbled as we watched the goings-on.
From the looks of things and the royal family’s avulsion to how things had been run according to reports, I’d have said it was a good house cleaning. But I had been wrong before.
Once we made it through the gate, under the watchful eyes of more Zephyth royal guards, a crowd gathering around something beside the inn we had stayed at before entering drew our attention. I had yet to see our new friends, and that concerned me a little, my frown evident to anyone who might glance my way.
A sharp whistle pierced the air, and I glanced toward the wall itself and caught a glimpse of Manly waving to us behind her cart, “Y’all are missin’ a show!”
I looked at the others, Yoh, Maebe, and James shrugged; the others were already on their way to the spectacle.
We arrived, having to push past a couple of the locals, but once we got there, the sight was worth the hassle and confusion.
Seven of the guards, dressed like the ones who had been on gate duty when we arrived, were in stockades, little racks that held the hands and head of prisoners in an awkward, almost bent over manner. That way it was nearly impossible for them to rest or be comfortable. In addition to the guards, a normal-looking man in finer clothing with a balding pate was also detained.
In front of them, was a single stake with leather draped over it, but the man in the center of the ring was the real sight to see as he spoke to the crowd, “These people you see before you had deemed it fit to forestall entry into the city, and thereby mistreat the people, our guests, and the reputation of Zephyth to any and all comers and goers for monetary gain.” It took me a second to realize who it was, the guard who had searched the elderly couple before us. “By royal decree, they are to be held in the stocks for all to see for seven days,
fed bread, and water once a day, and lose all worldly possessions. They took much from the fair people of this city, of this country, and it is their turn to pay.”
“You were there with us!” Spat the fat guard that had been the loudest when we’d tried to get in, the obvious leader.
The guard nodded stoically. “I was, and my punishment is even more severe, as I had known it was wrong and been too afraid to stand up for myself.”
He wore a simple off-white shirt, cotton pants, and worn black boots. Outside his armor, he looked to still have a decent build, and considerably younger than he had before. He made his way to kneel in front of a stake in the ground that was taller than he was kneeling and tied his hands together with a piece of leather.
“What’s he doing?” Muu asked, but I couldn’t take my eyes away from the man.
“He prepares himself for his punishment,” Jay’s voice startled me. I turned to see him standing between me and Yohsuke with a somber look on his face. “This is a part of my duties that I do not enjoy. All of you, please, do not interfere in this.”
He stepped forward, and doffed his armor, his clothes underneath were simple, and unadorned. His somberness reached the crowd, too curious and concerned to even whisper as he went about his business.
Once his chest piece was off, he rolled his shoulders and neck as he sat it down, then looked to the crowd.
“Some of you are familiar with who I am.’ He spread his arms wide. “To those of you who are not, I am Sir Jay Renald, Knight of His Majesty’s realm, head of His Majesty’s Guard and ethics tutor to the princess. This latest title, I hold in high regard, as it is my firmest belief that we, as a people, should hold ourselves responsible in all things.”
He pointed to the man kneeling at the stake. “When questioned about the goings-on at this gate, this young guard was honest and forthcoming. He advised me, under oath, that he simply followed the orders of those to whom he had been trained to follow. That in all things, he attempted to never harm anyone when in the course of his duties. And that when he had spoken ill of those who had been corroborating this farce of order and duty, he had been threatened and blackmailed into silence.”
Into the Darkness: A Fantasy LitRPG Adventure (Axe Druid Book 4) Page 29
