Faery Forged

by Donna Joy Usher

  I took off the horses’ saddles and gave them the same treatment I had given Lily. When they were as dry as I could get them, I let them lie down near the fire. We were certainly testing the space limits of my little clearing.

  Once I was satisfied that they were happy, I checked Aethan’s wound, pleased to see the bleeding was stopping. But his body was still icy cold to the touch. Was it possible that the bleeding was slowing because he had hypothermia and not because of my make-shift bandage?

  I lay down next to him and pulled the edge of the blanket over us. Then I chaffed his skin with my hands, encouraging the blood flow to return. Of course running my hands all over his body brought back memories that were only going to get me in trouble. But his skin felt so good brushing up against mine, and his colour seemed to be improving. His lips were no longer the attractive shade of blue they had been. I decided it would be best for him if I kept on going.

  Yep – creepy, lecherous, ex-girlfriend present and accounted for.

  When I was certain he was warming, I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder. I would watch over him. I wouldn’t go to sleep. No matter how good it felt to let my eyelids lower. No matter how nice it felt to let my limbs relax. I would stay awake until…

  ***

  Aethan’s movements woke me. I wiggled up against him, entwining my legs through his. Dark Sky, he felt so good. Still half asleep, I wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled his head down.

  I sighed as his lips touched mine. I had been hungry when I had woken but now I felt a different hunger entirely. Rolling so that I was on top of him, I intensified the kiss, moving my mouth and my tongue with his.

  He ran his hands down the length of my back, stroking my skin. I groaned and he froze beneath me. His lips stopped moving and his hands dropped to his sides. I lifted my head and opened my eyes, staring straight into his. Why did he have my shirt wrapped around his head?

  Aggghhhh. It all came racing back. The goblins, the river, him turning up wounded. Great Dark Sky, this Aethan didn’t know that this sort of behaviour had once been our favourite pastime.

  ‘Why is it,’ he said, ‘that every time I end up unconscious, I wake to find you kissing me?’

  I rolled off him and pushed myself to my knees. His eyes widened and I realised that apart from my bra and undies, I was still undressed.

  I cleared my throat and said, ‘Our clothes were wet.’ Durhhh. We fell in a river. Of course our clothes were wet.

  He looked around the clearing, taking in the sleeping animals, the drying clothing and the raging fire.

  ‘That’s a large fire.’

  ‘If we’d died from hypothermia the giants would have missed out on their chance to kill us tomorrow. That didn’t seem fair.’

  A smile twitched the corners of his mouth as he shook his head. ‘No, not fair at all.’

  ‘I like your hat.’ Isla staggered into the clearing and collapsed by the fire. ‘Dark Sky that feels good. Do you think there’s a chance the giants won’t see it?’ She stripped her wet shirt off and rubbed her hands up and down her arms, leaving bloody smears on her biceps. ‘So, are we playing strip poker or a drinking game?’

  ‘Here.’ I handed her the blanket Aethan and I had been sleeping on.

  ‘Where have you been?’ Aethan pulled her into a rough embrace.

  ‘Got dropped off a few miles downriver. Climbed a hill and could see your fire.’

  I felt my clothes. They were toasty warm. I hurriedly pulled on a set and handed another to Isla. ‘Where’s your horse?’

  Isla’s face crumpled for a second. She took a deep breath and said, ‘He pulled me to shore, but I couldn’t get him out of the river.’ She held her hands out, her eyes glazed as she stared at bleeding welts on her wrists. It took me a moment to realise what had caused them. Her reins.

  Aethan removed his ‘bandage’ and handed it to me.

  ‘Here.’ I ripped a strip off the bottom and gently took one of Isla’s hands in mine. I bound the material around the gashes, then repeated the procedure for her other wrist. After that I helped her into my spare set of clothes.

  By the time I had finished, Aethan had dressed again. I felt a flash of disappointment. That was probably the last time I would get to see that much of him. And then of course I felt wretched. Four of our party were still missing and here I was lusting after Aethan.

  ‘Can you ride?’ Aethan asked Isla.

  She moved closer to the fire and then sighed. ‘I guess so.’

  ‘Shall we douse the fire?’

  ‘Nah. If they’ve spotted it they’ll think we’re still here.’ He piled some more wood on it. ‘Besides, if the others find it, it just may save their lives.’ He picked up his knife and notched a symbol into the bark of a tree. It was the Border Guard symbol for west.

  It took a while to encourage the horses back onto their feet. We loaded our gear and gathered their reins, leading them from the shelter. I placed Scruffy on Lily’s back, but he was the only one of us that would be riding tonight. The horses had already been through too much.

  With one last wistful look at the fire, I followed Aethan and Isla back out into the night.

  ***

  ‘We need to rest the horses.’ Isla sounded half-asleep.

  It wasn’t only the horses that needed resting. I had lost count of the times I had tripped over non-existent obstacles. My legs felt like lead weights.

  ‘Soon,’ Aethan said.

  I felt the urgency too. We had to find somewhere safe to hide. The sky had begun to lighten over the last half hour, and we needed to be as far from my bonfire as we could get before the giants decided to investigate. But it wasn’t going to do us any good if we killed the horses.

  ‘Aethan.’ Isla’s voice cracked like a whip.

  He stopped and turned to look at her and she gestured to the packhorse. It had begun to stumble.

  ‘Right,’ he said, shaking his head as if trying to wake up. ‘Rest.’

  ‘What about there.’ I pointed to an area just visible in the early morning light. Steep hills descended to meet at a junction where the trees grew more densely. ‘If we can get in there it might offer some good cover.’

  Aethan nodded and started to lead Adare in that direction. Ten minutes later we reached the tree line and pushed through the trunks, hunting for an area to rest.

  ‘Over here,’ Isla called.

  I led Lily to the left where Isla was pointing. A small area opened amongst the trees.

  ‘It’ll do,’ Aethan said.

  It was going to have to do. With morning upon us we had run out of time.

  We unsaddled the horses and brushed them down before tethering them so they couldn’t wander while we slept. Apparently the horses were more interested in rest than exploring because they promptly lay down.

  I found an area of the forest floor that didn’t seem too hard and curled up on it with Scruffy, putting my dream-catcher under my makeshift pillow and pulling my blanket over me.

  When I finally opened my eyes, the light in the clearing had shifted. I must have been asleep for hours. Isla was using one of the saddles as a seat as she combed out her long, dark hair. Aethan and the horses were nowhere to be seen.

  If Isla wasn’t still with me I might have worried that I’d freaked him out the night before. But there was no way he would leave without her.

  ‘Where’s Aethan?’ I sat up and pushed my hair back off my face.

  ‘Taken the horses down to drink at the river.’

  ‘They’re all okay?’

  ‘Apart from a few scrapes and bruises, yes.’ She finished untangling her hair and threw the comb to me.

  I caught it and set to work on mine, wishing, as I pulled the comb through a snarl, that I had done it before it dried the night before. I was working on a particularly nasty knot when a tremor ran through the earth.

  Birds burst from the safety of the trees flying in a fury of wings as they fled the forest. They left a d
eathly silence in their wake.

  A second tremor shook the surrounding trees, and then a third; each one larger and louder than the last.

  Scruffy bounded onto my lap, looking around as he growled.

  ‘Isla,’ I said. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘If I were an optimist, I’d say it was a series of small earthquakes.’ The ground shook again forcing her to cling to the edge of the saddle.

  ‘And since you’re not an optimist?’

  ‘I’m going to go with giant.’ She pointed up at the sky and whispered, ‘Don’t move.’

  A torso protruded above the top of the tallest trees. The gigantic head peered down into the forest as if searching for something. I had an awful feeling I knew what that something was. Us.

  I resisted the urge to slap myself in the head. I had been looking for a hiding spot that would keep us safe from somebody our own size, not a giant. We should have been searching the hills for caves.

  Scruffy let out a low growl. ‘Shhhhhh,’ I whispered. ‘Quiet.’ He let out one more little ruffy growl before he stopped.

  The torso came closer, each step shaking us till my teeth chattered. Isla and I sat frozen in place. I know I was praying to the Great Dark Sky for all I was worth.

  Please don’t let him see us.

  An enormous head peered down into the clearing. I’m not exactly sure what the giant definition of ‘good looking’ is, but I’m pretty sure this wasn’t it. He had a huge misshapen nose squashed asymmetrically onto his face, bulging eyes that looked in different directions and a crowded mouth out of which the tip of a tongue protruded.

  One of his eyes alighted on Isla and he squealed, ‘Dolly.’

  ‘Oh fuck,’ Isla said, without moving her lips.

  He shifted one of his gazes to me. ‘Two dollies.’ Enormous hands descended towards us.

  ‘Stay still.’ Isla warned when I glanced toward the surrounding trees.

  What? This was our plan? To stay still and let him capture us?

  Before I could decide on another plan of action, a hand grasped my waist and yanked me into the air.

  ‘Pretty dollies.’ He held us up in front of him and stared at us as a bit of drool tracked from his tongue and onto his chin. Then he grinned with delight. ‘Matching.’

  He turned away from the forest and walked back the way he had come. Isla and I swung like pendulums with each thundering step.

  My little, white familiar chased after us, darting through the trees. ‘Get Aethan,’ I yelled. ‘Aethan.’

  Scruffy threw his head back and howled, but he turned and ran in the opposite direction.

  It took the giant half an hour to travel what it had taken us all night to do. He strode past the still glowing remnants of my fire and up over the closest hill. There, rising out of the rocky outcrops, was his home. I had practically built my fire on his front doorstep.

  He pushed open the front door and entered. The outside of the building had not prepared me for what lay inside. Bowls of flowers lay on the room’s two tables. Animal sculptures lined the walls. Woven rugs, scattered across the floors, gave the room a homely feel. But the oddest thing was the birds, darting in and out of the open windows and perching on the edges of the furniture. Some of them alighted on the giant’s head and others on his arms.

  He placed Isla and me gently onto the table. ‘Pretty dollies.’ He gazed at us with adoration and smiled a simple smile. Then he clasped his hands and bustled into the kitchen where he filled a pot with water and set it on a wood stove to boil.

  ‘Oh great. Faery soup,’ Isla said.

  But I had my doubts that he planned to eat us. With the birds and the sculptures I got the feeling this giant was more about love than war. But hey, I wasn’t an expert on giants. Perhaps they liked to have their cake and eat it too!

  I looked around the room for a possible escape route. The door fit its frame snugly, and even if one of us stood on the other’s shoulders we weren’t going to reach the handle. The panelling of the walls was secured by nails as big as my daggers. The only way we were going to get out was the windows, and I wasn’t sure we would be able to reach the frame from where the table sat.

  I looked back at the giant as he took the lid off a canister and threw a handful of something into the pot.

  ‘That’s herbs,’ Isla hissed as she stalked along the edge of the table.

  He waited a few minutes and then poured the brew into a cup. He blew on the surface a few times and then took a sip, grunting in pleasure at the result. I could smell the tea from where I was.

  Isla stilled as he approached us again. He reached out a finger and stroked her hair. ‘Pretty,’ he murmured, collapsing into the chair at the table. He picked her up and put her next to me. ‘Sisters,’ he said.

  He watched us while he sipped his tea, the birds perching on his arms like ants on a log. When he had finished, he picked up a half-finished sculpture and continued his work.

  His huge hands deftly worked his tools as chips of wood flew off the log and a squirrel started to emerge.

  ‘When he’s finished that it’ll be into the pot with us for a nice snack before an afternoon nap.’ Isla’s voice didn’t sound as confident of that as it had.

  ‘Is it just me, or is he large for a giant?’ He seemed far bigger than the giants Emerald and I had fought in Trillania.

  Isla tucked her legs up till she was sitting cross legged. ‘He’s a giant giant.’ She laughed lightly. ‘Bet his nickname’s Tiny.’

  He looked in our direction and smiled. ‘Pretty dollies talk.’

  ‘He doesn’t seem… nasty.’

  ‘Nor clever.’ She cocked her head to the side as she stared at him. ‘He’s an anomaly,’ she agreed. ‘But we still have to get out of here before he eats us.’

  I couldn’t disagree with that.

  We watched Tiny sculpt for a few hours. Once the squirrel’s head and shoulders had been freed from the wood, he set it on the floor and moved back to the kitchen.

  ‘Here we go,’ Isla said. She picked up a shard of wood and waved it around in the air.

  Tiny made himself a cup of tea, which he drank, and then lay down on a bed in the corner of the room. Within minutes, his snores rumbled through the room.

  ‘Right,’ Isla said. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

  ‘Only way I can see is up the curtain and out the window. You found another way?’

  ‘Nope.’

  If we jumped, we could just brush the curtain with our fingertips. I looked around for something to climb onto. Tiny had left his mug on the table. Together, we pushed it towards the curtain and rolled it onto its side and then upside down so that we had a platform to stand on.

  Using the finger hold as a step, Isla clambered up the side of the mug. She jumped onto the curtain, wrapping her arms and legs in the fabric to support herself. I followed.

  Moving across the curtain was harder than I had envisioned it would be and I was sweating profusely by the time we got to the edge near the window frame.

  ‘Whizbang,’ Isla muttered.

  ‘What?’ I peered around her to the window. We were still too far away.

  ‘We’re going to have to swing and jump.’ She clambered around to the inside of the curtain so that I could have the outside edge, and then we began to swing.

  It was hard work getting the voluminous material to do what we wanted, but eventually we swayed out towards the edge of the window frame.

  ‘We’re going to have to jump at the same time,’ I grunted.

  ‘On three,’ Isla said. ‘One… two… three.’

  As the fabric crested the arc, we both let go, flying through the air to land with a thump. I crashed onto my hands and knees, rolling over and skidding towards the open window.

  ‘Eeeek,’ I squealed as I felt open air beneath me.

  Isla grabbed my arm, but before she could haul me up, the snoring stopped.

  ‘Ahh buzznuckle.’ She lowered me instead, dropping me to the ground. I
landed on my feet and stepped back to give her room. As she dropped to my side we heard Tiny.

  ‘Dollies?’

  ‘Quick,’ she said, squatting behind a gigantic watering can.

  I looked around for a hiding spot but there were none within sprinting distance. I pressed myself against the wall underneath the frame, hoping he wouldn’t look down.

  ‘Where dollies?’

  The ludicrousness of the situation hit me and I bit back a giggle. A giant thought we were his dolls.

  ‘Dolly in here?’ His voice moved away from the window and together Isla and I sprinted back the way we had come up. Shale slid beneath our feet, forcing us to slow down or risk a sprained ankle. A quick glance behind me showed that we would be in view of the window until we crested the hill.

  The curtains on each side of the window moved as Tiny searched them.

  ‘Hide,’ I hissed, diving to the ground behind a rock.

  Isla stood behind a tree trunk.

  I peeped up over the rock. Tiny had moved away from the window. ‘Go,’ I whispered, pushing up onto my hands and knees.

  We scrambled up the side of the hill, staying as low as possible, but as we crested the hill we heard Tiny cry out. The front door slammed and he ran towards us. The earth buckled under the pounding of his feet, throwing Isla and me to the ground.

  I had a moment to hope that the hill wouldn’t collapse and then he was reaching out to grab us where we lay.

  ‘Dollies,’ he howled, tears tracking down his cheeks. ‘Why you leave?’ He held me up in front of him and I watched in horror as his mouth descended to me.

  He was going to eat us now? Raw?

  I struggled in his fist as his mouth got bigger and bigger. Isla screamed but all I could do was stare. And then his lips pressed up against the side of my body and he kissed me. My body went limp with shock.

  ‘You beast,’ Isla shrieked, pounding him with her fists.