by N. P. Martin
"Are you going to tell me what’s going on?" I asked her. "Or do you just expect me to guess?"
She shook her head at my impatience and took a breath. "I’m just back from the Otherworld."
"The Otherworld? But you never go there. You said it was too dangerous, in case—"
"The Fae who took me found me again?"
"Yeah."
"Well, it turns out she can find me in this realm anyway."
"The Fae who took you tracked you down? Why?"
Dalia folded her arms across herself, still seeming shook up. "I was dragged through the Thorns to the Seelie Court, thinking I was going to be held there again."
"Obviously not, if you’re here now."
She nodded. "That’s the only upside to this. The downside is that I’ve been ordered to do something for the one who made me."
"Like what?"
Dalia poured herself another drink and downed it in one, slamming the glass on the desk before looking at me. "Fancy a trip to Cork?" she asked me.
"What’s in Cork?"
"Danger most likely," she said. "A lot of danger…"
How could I say no?
Book 2
Epigraph
“There is another world, but it is in this one.”
W. B. Yeats
“For he comes, the human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a Faery, hand in hand,
From a world more full of weeping
than he can understand.”
W. B. Yeats
Chapter 1
It was long past midnight, and Dalia and I were standing in a field in the center of a Megalithic stone circle—known locally as the Druid’s Altar—east of Glandore in County Cork. Above us, the clear sky was carpeted with stars that shone like jewels on velvet. The full moon, flanked on the left by the red orb of Mars, glowed a deep orange and hung so low it almost felt like you could just reach out and grab it. Nothing else lay around us but a patchwork of fields that were, for the most part, cloaked in darkness. The only sounds to be heard were the gentle rustling of the wind and the occasional squeal of a nearby fox that was most likely out hunting for one of the pheasants that could be heard crowing in the distance. It was hard not to be affected by the serenity of the surroundings and palpable sense of ancient magic in the air. Except I couldn’t really enjoy the peacefulness as much as I would’ve liked to. The gnawing in my gut wouldn’t allow it.
"When is this person going to show?" I asked Dalia, feeling the need to speak quietly in such sacred surroundings. "We’ve been here for over an hour now."
Dalia was sitting on the only recumbent block of stone in the circle, the other thirteen surviving stones all standing. She wore a long black sleeveless dress, and with her hair hanging over face, she looked like some ancient Pagan Priestess herself sitting there. "Hedrema is not a person," she said. "She’s a Fae. Completely different."
"Whatever, you know what I mean. And why here in this place anyway?"
"She said to meet her in Cork."
"I know, but why in the middle of this Druid circle? I thought Fae could enter this realm from anywhere."
Dalia sighed slightly as if she didn’t have the patience for all of my questions. She had remained mostly silent on the five hour drive down from Dublin. We arrived at the house I had rented for us in Mizen Head earlier that day, and between then and now, Dalia had maintained her broody silence. I could tell she was worried—shitting herself actually—that she was going to end up a permanent resident in the Otherworld again, the place from which she had fought so hard to escape from not all that long ago. I tried to console her on a few occasions, but she was having none of it, and would merely shake her head and sigh like I didn’t understand anything. "There are only certain places where you can enter or exit the Otherworld, this being one of them. Anyway, don’t waste your time trying to work out the motivations of a Fae, Corvin. They are—we are—different from you and everyone else."
Speaking of which, I still wasn’t sure why I was even here with her. Whatever this was, it was between her and her former Fae Mistress. I wasn’t sure how this Hedrema would react when she saw me. According to Dalia, Hedrema was extremely dangerous, not to mention unpredictable, so who knew what she would do to me when she saw me. Dalia had explained all this to me before we left Dublin, telling me that I really shouldn’t go with her just in case something bad happened to me. But even as she was saying it, I could tell she desperately wanted me to accompany her. The thought of going alone was crushing her. There was no way I would’ve let her come here alone anyway. Even forgetting about the fact that she had risked her life to help me with Iolas, Dalia was my best friend and the person I loved most in the world. Whatever danger she was in, I would always make certain I was there for her, as she would do for me.
"You get the feeling we’re being watched?"
"We probably are, if not by members of Hedrema’s court, then by some other Fae." She gestured around her. "We’re in the wilds of Ireland. The Fae rule these places."
I looked around as if I could see eyes watching, but in reality I could see nothing in the darkness. "You haven’t really told me what this Hedrema said to you before we came here," I said, now sitting beside her on the ancient block of stone. "Did she tell you what she wanted from you?"
Dalia shook her head as she moved her hair from her face while she gazed up at the stars. "I was walking through the park when she just reached out from the Otherworld and pulled me into the Thorns. As a DemiFae, the Thorns shouldn’t have cut me, but she made sure they did as she dragged me through them. I was cut to pieces by the time we got through. Then she had me dragged to her castle by two of her court members. They locked me in a dark cell for three days, and I stayed there bleeding on the floor."
"Three days?" She hadn’t been gone that long from this realm, but I knew time worked differently in the Otherworld. "I’m sorry, D."
She shrugged as she kept gazing at the stars. "Anyway, I was taken to her throne room after that. After healing me she let it be known that she was none too happy about me escaping from her, but that she would forgive me—if she can even forgive anything—if I did something for her. She said if I do this thing for her, then she would consider allowing me to remain free."
"She sounds like a right bitch," I said. "Why did she wait until now to find you if she could reach you at any time?"
Dalia shrugged once more. "Knowing her, she just wanted me to get used to my freedom. That way it would hurt all the more when she dragged me back."
"Jesus, D, have you been living in fear all this time?"
"I sort of got used to it, and eventually I just forced myself to live despite the fear."
I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her into me. "You’re my hero, D, you know that?"
She raised a smile as she bumped me with her shoulder. "You can still leave if you want. You don’t have to be here."
I shook my head at her. "Wise up. You’ve gone through this alone for long enough. I’m staying, no matter what."
"You mightn’t feel that way when Hedrema comes."
"We’ll see."
As it happened, we didn’t have long to wait to find out. There was a sudden flash of light in the center of the Druid Circle as the fabric of reality itself seemed to tear open, out of which stepped a dark figure. Dalia and I immediately got to our feet, me as much to await my fate as anything else. I swallowed in fear as I felt myself enveloped with dark Fae magic, which put me on edge if I wasn’t on edge before. Void magic I was used to; I was familiar with it, I understood it (for the most part anyway). Fae magic, on the other hand, while it stems from the Void, is a wholly different beast, a much more mysterious but nonetheless primordial magic that is, effectively, separate from all other magic. Like Dalia’s magic, the magic brought by the arrival of Hedrema felt alien and unknowable to me, like it was only meant for a certain type of being, namely the Fae, and of course the Sidhe.
&nbs
p; The light behind Hedrema soon faded until there was just her standing there under the pale moonlight. My first impression of her was that she seemed as scary as Dalia had made her out to be. Her presence alone was frightening in its intensity, made all the more unsettling by how she looked. She wore a long, flowing black dress that seemed to be made of silk. The dress was sleeveless and the neckline plunging enough to display her ample cleavage. Her skin was as white as porcelain and seemed to glow in the moonlight. Her hair was as dark as her dress and very thick, hanging just past her shoulders, framing her fine-boned face. Atop her head was some sort of crown made from branches, which seemed to twist around her head a few times before sticking up at either side, making her appear as if she had long horns. There were things tied to the longer parts, but I couldn’t make out what they were. In her right hand was a staff, which was twisted like the crown on her head, the top parts bending out in different directions. Something whitish was attached to the staff at the top, and it took me a moment to realize that it was a skull, possibly human or Fae. As well as this, Hedrema also wore a gold bracelet that twisted the whole way up her right forearm, and the fingers on both of her hands held various rings. All in all, she was quite an imposing sight to be behold, never mind the dark magic and fiendish intent that emanated from her. Like Dalia she was beautiful in her own way, but also scary fucking biscuits. If it wasn’t for Dalia, I’d be sprinting away across the fields right now.
Hedrema stood for quite a long time just staring at us both, though more so at Dalia. When she finally spoke, she did so in Gaelic. "Tá áthas orm go raibh an dea-chiall agat le teacht, mo pheata bealach," she said, her voice deep and sultry.
My Gaelic isn’t great, but I took it that she said she was glad Dalia had the good sense to show up. I’m also pretty sure she referred to Dalia as her "wayward pet." When Dalia replied, she did so in Gaelic, her tone as about as respectful as I’ve ever heard it. "Ba mhaith liom ach mo Queen, le do thoil," she said, which basically meant that she only wished to please her Queen.
I have to say, it was a little weird, not to say unsettling, to hear Dalia bow down to someone as much as she did. I was so used to her habitual irreverence and complete lack of respect for authority, that to hear her now I was reminded of my own subservience in the presence of Iolas. But that was just an act on my part. Dalia’s subservience toward Hedrema was no act. She had the demeanor of someone who was in the presence of their abuser, being meek and fearful, probably hating themselves for feeling that way. It was difficult not to feel anger toward the Fae Queen, which she must have sensed, for she suddenly turned her attention to me as she continued staring from the center of the Druid Circle. When she addressed me, she did so in English, as if I wasn’t worthy of speaking to in the sacred tongue. "You are Dalia’s little friend from this realm," she said almost mockingly. "She spoke of you more than once. What are you doing here? I told Dalia to come alone."
Before I could answer, Dalia broke in. "He merely accompanied me here. I can send him away if you like."
I looked at her, about to protest, but Hedrema hit the ground with her staff and said, "No, he stays now." She seemed to smile as she looked at Dalia. "Maybe I’ll keep him as one of my pets, like I kept you, Dalia."
I didn’t like the sound of that one bit, nor did I like the way she was goading Dalia like some sadistic bully. "I’ll do whatever you want," I said. "As long as Dalia gets the chance to earn her freedom."
Hedrema stared at me, and for a second I thought she was going to do something awful to me, like turn me into a deformed rabbit, cursed to roam these fields forever, shunned even by the foxes, who probably couldn’t bear to go anywhere near me. You probably think I’m exaggerating, but I know enough about Fae magic and what a Queen like Hedrema is capable of. It would be nothing for her to turn me into whatever she liked. "You’re loyal," she said eventually, then looked at Dalia. "I admire loyalty, isn’t that right, Dalia? Not that you would know anything about that, given that you abandoned me like you did."
Dalia merely nodded. "That’s why I’m here, my Queen, to make amends."
"No!" Hedrema’s coal black eyes intensified as she banged her staff on the ground, this time eliciting sparks of reddish magic from the twisting branches at the top. "You are just here because I summoned you here. Don’t pretend that you care when you clearly don’t!"
Even I dropped my gaze when she raised her voice, feeling like a frightened school kid in the presence of some hard-nosed bitch of a school mistress, at the same time wondering in amazement how Dalia had managed to put up with someone like Hedrema for so long. But then, what did I expect? Hedrema was a Fae of the Unseelie Court after all, and therefore hardly likely to be all sweetness and light. She stood glaring at the both of us for a long time, as though she were contemplating annihilating us out of existence just to be done with it. The impression I got was that she would have done so under other circumstances, but that she needed us, or at least Dalia, for something. She was therefore being forced to hold back her obviously unforgiving nature.
Hedrema eventually waved her staff in front of her and another portal opened up in the darkness. "Come," she said. "We shall discuss things further back at my castle." She seemed to look around her for a moment, as if she wasn’t the only one who thought we were being watched, though she made no comment about it as she stood waiting on Dalia and I to step into the portal.
Dalia looked at me as if to say she was sorry. My response was to take her hand in mine and walk toward the shimmering doorway. "After you," I said to her, and she stepped through the portal, disappearing from sight.
Hedrema stood looking at me with a slight smile on her face, a face that promised my eyes would be opened as soon as I went through the portal myself. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she said. "Are you afraid?"
I shook my head. "I’m afraid for Dalia, that’s all."
The Fae Queen stared at me with her black eyes, her face changing expressions until she finally settled upon a look of indifference. "Your fear may yet be warranted, mortal. Why don’t you step into my world and find out?"
Not the answer I had hoped for, but there was no going back now. Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the portal and into the Otherworld, a place my mother once warned me was no place for humans or the sound of mind, which at least I wasn’t the latter.
Chapter 2
Like most people who knew of the Faery Otherworld but who hadn’t actually been, to me the place has always represented a place of mystery and strange darkness that never failed to arouse a feeling of fear at the unknown dangers which were supposed to lie within, but also a feeling of excitement when one wondered what such a place might actually be like. In my mind over the years, thanks to anecdotal evidence and whatever books I had read about the place, the Otherworld was essentially like the earthly realm, but different. It was a place where magic reigned supreme and all manner of weird creatures resided, their motivations unknowable, their way of life only to be guessed at. Even when Dalia escaped the place, she talked little about it, as though doing so would be too harrowing an experience. This alone made me think of the Otherworld as more of an Underworld in the classical sense, a place where everything was twisted, fueled by raw antagonism.
Now, after stepping through Hedrema’s portal and walking a pathway through dense thorns that writhed like snakes all around us, I finally found myself standing in this mythical place at long last, a place I thought I would never get to see with my own eyes. A place that no longer existed solely in the realms of my imagination. Now it was all real, and as always when reality bites down hard, I was beginning to feel the pain. Literally, that is. For no sooner had I taken my first steps into the Otherworld, when something bit me hard on the leg, causing me to cry out in shock, as what felt like dozens of needle sharp teeth sinking into the flesh of my right calf muscle.
"Jesus fuck!" I shouted as I immediately looked down to see some ugly-assed little creature about a foot high hanging off my goddamn
leg like it was the best piece of steak it had tasted in ages. I started to fling my leg back and forth to dislodge the vaguely humanoid creature, but its teeth were so far in, it had no trouble hanging on for dear life while my blood seeped out from around its mouth. "A little help here!"
Dalia went to rush to my aid, but Hedrema stopped her by putting her staff across Dalia’s chest. "No, leave him."
Fucking bitch, I thought. Did she find this amusing or something?
Reaching down, I grabbed the creature by its small head and started pulling, but it bit down harder as it looked up at me with malicious dark eyes. The harder I pulled, the harder the little bastard held on. "Little shit!"
I used my magic then, not even sure if it would still work in this place, but it seemed to as I cast a Fire Spell which immediately ignited the creature’s back. The second it realized it was on fire, the wizened creature let go of my leg and made a high-pitched screaming sound as it flung itself down on the ground and began to roll around in an effort to douse the flames now peeling its skin away. Its squeals of pain elicited no sympathy from me, though, I’ll tell you that. The large bite mark in my leg was burning like hell, to the point where I wondered if there was some sort of acid in the creature’s saliva. I could almost feel my flesh melting away bit by bit.
In a burst of anger, I raised my hand over the still squealing creature to burn it once more, only this time to death. But I was stopped from doing so by some force that slammed me up against a nearby oak tree and held me there. The next thing I knew, Hedrema was in front of me, pushing one of the sharp branches of her staff up under my chin. "You would kill one of my kin just to save yourself some pain?" she said, sounding disgusted.
"The thing bit me," I argued, pointlessly I knew.
"Well, you’d better get used to things biting you around here." She pressed the point of the branch harder under my skin, forcing my head right back until it could go no further. "You will kill nothing here unless I tell you to, is that understood?"
