Lies of the Haven: A Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure (Faerie Warriors Book 1)

by J. A. Curtis

  Dramian scowled. He clearly didn’t have a plan. He turned away and raised both his arms. The camp became quiet, and all eyes turned to Dramian. He dropped his arms.

  “Everyone, this is Mina. She doesn’t know who she is, so neither do we. Mina, this is everyone. As you were.”

  All eyes moved to me. Then the faeries returned to their tasks.

  “They know who you are,” Dramian said. “If you want to talk to someone, go talk to them.”

  And with that, he turned to finish his conversation with Raedia and the boy. I bit my lip and watched the kids start fires, lug water, or lounge in lawn chairs. It was like I was in third grade again, and I was the new kid at a new school with no friends. That feeling was the worst. I wished my best friend Kris was here. She had been the first to befriend me at my new school, well, after she was a jerk to me at first. Would these kids turn out the same?

  With a nod, Raedia rushed into the woods, and the boy jumped and rose into the tops of the trees. I watched as he grew smaller as he jumped easily from tree to tree. Wow.

  Dramian walked over. “Here, eat these. Rowan berries.” He shoved some berries in my hand. “Our scouts should be back any second. And if you promise not to stab me in the back...” He handed me a sword.

  He was willing to trust me with a sword already? I put it in the empty sheath at my waist, the unexpected weight making me stagger.

  The cluster of berries in my hand was a small reddish orange color, each one about the size of a small bead. Hopefully, Dramian had something else I could try after I finished the tiny berries. I picked a couple off the stem and popped them in my mouth. They tasted sweet and tart at the same time. Energy suffused through me, driving the grogginess out of my body.

  Raedia streaked in from the forest.

  “What’s the report, Raedia?” Dramian asked.

  “There is plenty of game up on Beaver Tail Mountain. No humans around for at least ten miles.”

  Dramian looked pleased. A few moments later, the boy dropped out of the sky, landing flat on his feet, unhurt.

  “Arzon,” Dramian said. “Sounds like Beaver Tail is clear for an outing?”

  “Yes, sir,” Arzon confirmed, “Skies are clear, so keep low to the treetops. We shouldn’t run into any nasty weather, and I spotted no sign of humans moving toward the area.”

  “Any activity from the Haven?” Dramian asked.

  “I didn’t see anything, sir.”

  The older faeries now rose from their seats and gathered around Dramian.

  “Meet back here by noon,” he announced. “Raedia will remain on scout duty. Anyone not back within ten minutes after noon will not get their catches weighed, and you know what that means. Let’s go!”

  Raedia turned into a blur as she sped off, her braid whipping behind her, and Arzon took to the sky. The rest of the faeries released their faerie guardians. I observed the ones closest to me. Iris’s bird, though small, lifted him into the air. A reptilian birdlike woman swooped down and picked up another boy. A girl released a human-headed lion, and another girl climbed onto a creature with a man’s head and the body of an ox with wings sprouting from its sides. Both of them rose into the air on the backs of their creatures. One more boy rode on a large, shaggy, stringy-haired creature—shaped too much like a giant man for my liking—and rode off into the trees.

  Dramian’s dragon appeared. He ran up the tail of the dragon and along the ridge of its back until he came to the neck, where he sat down. He motioned for me to climb up.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “Haven’t you been listening? Hunting. Hurry, we’re falling behind.”

  I climbed up the dragon’s scales and sat behind Dramian, locking my hands around him and holding tight. We took off into the air, rising above the treetops, and soared further into the mountains—past trickling streams and gushing waterfalls, forested hillsides and sheer, rocky faces. The dragon landed in a small clearing on the mountain’s face.

  We dismounted. Dramian pulled his dragon back onto his arm and, motioning for me to be quiet, walked into the woods. Without following a trail, we made our way through bushes and twigs and other foliage. Dramian’s eyes narrowed as he glanced back at me but continued on.

  An unsuspecting thorn bush slashed my arm, and I gasped. Dramian spun to face me. “Could you be any louder? Just drive all the game up the mountain into the path of everyone else.”

  “Sorry.”

  We continued on, but I still wasn’t being quiet enough—even though I held my breath as a small branch scraped across my thigh, leaving a nasty scratch that bled—because he glared at me again a few minutes later. “Is that the best you can do?”

  “Then why don’t you take me back to camp?” I snapped.

  “And leave you with no protection so Arius could come and take you away? I don’t think so,” he said. “How about you wait here at the foot of this tree.” He pointed to the base of a large tree nearby. “I’ll come back and get you when I’m done.”

  “Fine.”

  I sat on the root of a large tree and watched Dramian disappear into the foliage and waited, and waited, and waited. How long would this take? A nearby stream broke the silence of the woods. More light began to seep through the branches of the trees overhead.

  “Bored?”

  I started. Raedia stood right over me. She sighed and sat down next to me.

  “Me too. Wish Dramian would allow me to scout and hunt. I could do both and still catch my fair share,” she said, “I could still win.”

  “Win what?” I asked.

  “Whoever catches the most game gets a free week off from doing chores around camp,” Raedia said, “And whoever catches the least, gets double chore duty, picking up the chores of the faerie who got off.” She beat a fist into her palm. “And this week would be perfect too. The latrine in the outhouse is almost full, which means we will fill it in this week and dig a new one.”

  She shot me a resentful look. “Not that you will have to do anything like that, although Dramian doesn’t put himself above menial chores. Still, I can’t see him forcing someone who might be our queen to dig a hole for all of us to dump in. Ugh, this is so not fair.”

  “I don’t mind digging a hole.”

  “Yeah, but you won’t have to,” she huffed. “We all thought that with your ability, whichever one it was, you’d have a bit more—understanding. You really don’t know who you are?”

  “Nope. Three days ago, I was a regular human kid. Now everyone is telling me I am a faerie with special abilities, perhaps a queen. And if not a queen, then a general... It’s strange.”

  “Hmm, I suppose it would be,” she said, more thoughtful than sympathetic. “To us, this is everyday life.”

  “How did you find out who you are?”

  “Margus told us. Our abilities and faerie guardian remain the same throughout every life so that makes us easy to identify. Since he knew us in our past life.”

  “Arius says you are dark faeries,” I said.

  “Typical.”

  “You aren’t dark?”

  “Nuada has always resented Margus. That’s why she tells Arius and the others at the Haven that we are dark faeries. We try mostly to steer clear of them, but five years ago, Nuada and Arius attacked us. A lot of us on both sides had just gotten our faerie guardians. The battle that followed was a disaster. Many fell on both sides, including my brother. That’s why you see so many five-year-olds running around. They could have left us alone. We were minding our own business, but they are determined to destroy us. We were all angry, but Dramian took the assault personally. He and Arius have been mortal enemies ever since.”

  The more I learned about Nuada, the more sketch she seemed. Of course, learning about her from her enemies didn’t help. They had some serious bias toward her.

  “So where is Margus? Nuada visited me right away, but Margus isn’t even here,” I asked.

  “That’s because he works. He has like twenty kids
to support,” Raedia said. “We see him usually on the weekends, and rarely during the week. That’s why we are hunting. He can’t afford to give us everything we need.”

  “Do you find it strange that only Nuada and Margus survived the battle fifteen years ago?”

  “It’s a good thing they did. Otherwise, who would teach us what it means to be faeriekind?” She stood and brushed the dirt from her legs. “I should make a round or two. Make sure no humans have set their sights on this area. Dramian won’t be back for a while. If you get thirsty, there’s a stream through those trees.” She pointed off to the left.

  She took off, zipping through the trees.

  I shook my head. Dramian and the faeries who followed him didn’t seem dark like Nuada claimed. Yet there was plenty of enmity between the two groups despite that fact.

  I couldn’t help but wonder, who was right?

  6

  A Test of Courage

  “Acts aren’t brave because someone dared you. They are brave when you have a greater reason for doing something crazy.”

  I WALKED BACK FROM the river in my pajamas and shoes, toweling off my hair. This was my third day with Dramian’s faeries, and five days since I’d been abducted from my human life. Despite being on the lookout, I hadn’t found any chance to make my escape.

  The girls and boys took alternating evenings to bathe in the river. It was refreshing once I got past the freezing cold water and the fact that I had to undress in front of a bunch of girls I had just met... Okay, so I wasn’t used to either. I had found a semi-hidden place downstream from the other girls and washed myself quickly, shaking uncontrollably while I listened to the other girls laugh and play in the water upstream. They probably thought I was strange, but whatever. After two days of sweat and dirt and the smell of smoke in my hair, at least I was clean.

  A creaking sound came from the branches above and I glanced up. Probably only a small animal, but still, I picked up my pace.

  Dramian dropped from out of nowhere next to me.

  I jumped at least a foot into the air. “You are too stealthy for comfort. You know that, right?”

  He smirked and fell into step beside me. “So, what do you think? You’ve been here a few days. Are we the monsters Nuada and Arius try to make us out to be?”

  Raedia must have informed him about Arius and Nuada calling them dark.

  “Margus will be here tomorrow evening,” Dramian said. “Before he arrives, he wants me to take you to get your faerie guardian.”

  “You talked to Margus?”

  He held up an old-fashioned blue flip phone I didn’t know people still used. “Cell phone,” he said, “I have to go down the mountain to get service, and I didn’t want to risk leaving until last night in case... Nuada must’ve ordered Arius not to attack. Arius is all action. Nuada’s subtle, devious. She would convince him to wait for the unexpected moment.”

  Or Arius was glad I left. When he realized how inept I was, he probably figured Dramian had solved his problem. I glanced over at Dramian and bit my lip, wondering if he had realized yet he had gotten the short end of the stick.

  “How do I get my faerie guardian?” I asked.

  “We do not speak of it, before or after. The experience is sacred. But I can tell you this. It will be a test of bravery.”

  Bravery. Right. Dramian’s lips pulled into a frown, and he stared at the ground. Did he think I wouldn’t pass the test?

  “How do faeries fall?”

  “Did Arius tell you anything?”

  I waited for the answer. I needed to learn this crucial piece of information.

  “There are three ways a faerie can fall,” he said. “The easiest and least gruesome is destroying the faerie guardian. The second is if the faerie is decapitated, and the third is if their heart is removed.”

  My stomach churned. Dramian must have read the look on my face because he added, “The third way is the least likely. Our faerie armor, although it is only leather, is tougher than human-made leather. Only one faerie would be strong enough to penetrate it with a sword, and even then, it would have to be a direct thrust.”

  “Palon.”

  Dramian nodded. “And decapitation? Not as easy as it looks, even with a sword. You would have to get them completely vulnerable, which usually means taking down their faerie guardian. If you can do that, you might as well just take down the faerie guardian altogether. Less effort.”

  “And how does a faerie, you know, die?”

  Dramian’s expression grew dark. “You do the unthinkable. You attack a faerie directly with your own faerie guardian.”

  Well, that was less gruesome than I imagined. “That’s it?”

  “Faeries are creatures of magic, and so only magic or other creatures of magic can destroy us,” he said. “It is unforgivable to kill a faerie. Even Nuada would not stoop so low. None of us would.”

  “You don’t think I’m ready for tomorrow.”

  He regarded me. “Do you want to be a faerie?”

  I stared at my feet as we walked. Dramian had been true to his word so far. I hadn’t been forced into any violent actions to prove my authority. He had set up training opportunities for me, and I had agreed at first mainly because sitting around all day doing nothing drove me crazy.

  But I had found the training enjoyable, even if I sucked at it.

  I wished I knew how Nuada found me. How did she know I was a faerie? Everything was so new and foreign. And yet, it also felt special somehow. What if, like everyone was telling me, I belonged here?

  Did I want to belong here?

  “It doesn’t matter what I think,” Dramian said quietly, “I will take you tomorrow, and we will find out.”

  I DIDN’T SLEEP WELL that night. Every time I fell asleep, I dreamed Dramian said, “Alright, Mina, this is your test,” and then a giant troll swallowed me whole, or a dragon’s fire burned me to death. I’d wake up in a cold sweat and lay awake for hours, fearing what I saw was a vision of the future.

  When the first light of dawn came, I slipped out of the warm sleeping bag, pulled on my armor, strapped on my sword, and made my way down the aisle of the shed. The doors squeaked as I pulled them back, and I flinched but stepped through the narrow opening and out into the cold morning air. The cool air pricked my skin, and I wished I had a sweater or a blanket to wrap myself in. I sat down on a lawn chair next to an unlit fire pit.

  “Would you like a fire?” The question startled me. A man stood next to me in simple clothes. He had large eyes, and horns protruded from his forehead. Domovoi.

  “Yes... please,” I watched him light a fire and then disintegrate into smoke, vanishing before my eyes. Creepy.

  I put my hands out toward the fire and felt them warm. For a moment, the cold and warmth battled for control inside me. I pulled my lawn chair closer to the heat.

  For some reason, when Dramian spoke before about Arius not coming for me, my heart had dropped into my stomach. But why had I been disappointed? Did I really expect Arius to care enough to come for me?

  Between Nuada and Arius, Dramian and Margus, neither group needed someone else to lead them, so why had everyone been so determined to bring me here and disrupt their carefully structured lives?

  Perhaps I was a power play. In my mind, I pictured Dramian’s group of faeries standing across from Arius’s group, and Dramian yelling with his hands flapping next to his ears, “Nah, Nah, we have the queen and you don’t—maybe.”

  I smiled.

  But what was the point? My smile faded as I glared into the fire. I didn’t want to be a pawn.

  None of that matters, I reminded myself, because as soon as I find a chance to escape, I’m taking it.

  “Good, you’re up. We can get an early start.” Dramian stood over me. “I’ll wake Raedia and have her go scout the area. And I’ll get Arzon to fetch you some dried meat and rowan berries to eat before leaving.”

  My heart started to beat faster, whether from the anxiety of the coming test o
r because I was trying out my actual authority, I wasn’t sure.

  I stood. “No,” I said. “We go now, or not at all.”

  Dramian appeared startled. “It would be safer to scout the area ahead of time in case—”

  “If Arius is there, I will handle him,” I said.

  Doubt filled Dramian’s eyes. “Then let me wake a couple faeries to accompany us.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t want others there in case I made a fool of myself.

  “We go, you and me, now or never,” I said.

  Dramian regarded me, then shrugged. He released his faerie guardian, and the red dragon flicked its tail in anticipation. We both climbed onto the creature. It spread its wings, and we rose into the sky.

  Fluffy white clouds beneath us drifted by. Even though I saw, at most, patches of ground below us, Dramian and his dragon didn’t have trouble finding their way. A few mountain peaks jutted out above the mists. We rose higher and higher. I saw where we were headed—a tall peak with a flat face on one side that dropped into the frosty clouds. The peak slanted backward so when we landed, we were still on an incline. With care, I climbed down from the dragon. If I landed wrong, I would lose my balance and tumble down the mountainside. Dramian dismounted with less care and more grace.

  “We’re here,” Dramian said, “Dead Man’s Cliff.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “Where’s the test?”

  “There,” Dramian pointed, and I followed his finger pointing past the cliff's edge and out into the open air.

  “You want me to jump off a cliff?” I laughed. “Come on, what am I supposed to do?”

  “Jump off the cliff.”

  I walked to the edge. A mist hung in the air, obscuring the bottom. We were up high, but not being able to see the bottom made my head feel light.

  I backed away from the ledge. “This isn’t bravery.”

  “You must jump in order for your faerie guardian to appear,” Dramian said.

  “Lot of good it will do me if I’m already dead,” I shot back.