Falling Into Faerie After

by Mercedes Jade

  I was not putting down my bow to drink from a birdbath, no matter that I suddenly seemed very thirsty and the water looked refreshingly clear. It had been a while since I wet my tongue, parched throat burning to take a big gulp.

  My bow clattered to the ground.

  “Don’t be shy, my Lady,” the boy said, shoving the chalice into my hands. “You needn’t fear that the water is tainted. The Dark blood was downstream and King Selvyth ordered the lagoon dredged of all fouled creatures, then drained and salted.”

  I stopped myself before I brought the cup to my lips, peering deeper into its contents and wondering if I saw a rusty glimmer of red. Loren bumped my knee in a subtle hint. I glanced up to Kheelan for guidance.

  “Do you refuse Aerien’s hospitality, my Lady?” the boy said, sounding less hospitable by the second.

  I shook my head and Loren touched my arm, cool magic sneaking up until it was a shiver across the back of my neck. My gracious refusal was stolen from my lips as if lost to the wind that blew strands of my hair onto my face.

  “Our Lady is mute,” Kheelan said. “She has been taught by her Master not to ever partake of food or drink without approval from him or servants delegated to her care. Halfling girls can be so delicate and need constant supervision.”

  He was telling a boy likely three times younger than me that I needed a keeper. I didn't see anyone out here watching that the young boy was kept safe and out of trouble. In fact, it appeared the boy was given the job of greeting strangers to the town, somewhat like a watchman, a job more suited to grown men and soldiers capable of defending themselves against unknown threats. What could the boy do if I took this jeweled cup and ran away with its riches?

  “She is defective?” the boy questioned, blue gaze looking me up and down more sharply.

  Wait a minute. A disability wasn’t a defect.

  “Not at all,” Loren smoothly said before I could speak. “Our Master merely prefers his females silent unless they're making more pleasurable noises for his amusement. This one had a musical scream under the right lash,” Loren added, dropping his hand to hover over the whip fastened to his hip.

  Words burned in my throat more than the thirst that plagued me. My voice had only momentarily been stolen by Loren’s magic as a reminder to keep silent and stick to our roles. I was tempted to denounce them all for their boarish behaviour, but the unspoken threat earlier that had made Loren guard our back and the rest of us draw weapons held my tongue as effectively as magic. I needed to trust Loren and Kheelan to do what was necessary to keep us safe.

  “Her Master cursed her then? Did she misbehave?” the boy asked, an almost cruel smirk as he tried to meet my timidly downcast eyes.

  I imagined myself dumping the water over his head.

  “Magic that makes her more agreeable and a better concubine can hardly be termed a curse. It was his gift to her for birthing his daughter.”

  Oh, really? I had no idea Loren was such a talented liar. That can’t be something he learned from the Fae. I guess he was showing more of his human side.

  “She’s a proven breeder?” the boy said.

  I blushed to think we were discussing such things with a child himself. He shouldn’t even know about the birds and the bees yet. The twins were probably feeling just as awkward beside me.

  “Yes, this trip is to find a healer. Her cycles have stopped since the birth and our Lord would like to try again for a son. Halflings can be fruitful, but some only retain their fertility for their human lifespan,” Kheelan said.

  They were both excellent liars. I felt like a prized horse being talked about in an auction barn. This was starting to creep me out, although annoyance still won. The golden chalice weighed heavily in my hands. Thirst only grew in the hot sun baking me as they casually discussed menstrual cycles like changing weather.

  Thankfully, the twins had taken their subservient role seriously, keeping silent watch as they stood just behind me on either side with their swords in hand.

  “We do not have healers here,” the boy said.

  “No matter, we need to rest. Our Lady tires of sleeping on the uneven ground,” Loren said.

  Last night’s bed had been crowded. I had no choice but to sleep with all that warmth and security wrapped around me.

  “All noble Fae must drink to prove their worth, good Sirs, else she may not enter,” the boy said.

  “Surely there are exceptions, young Lord,” Loren said. He lowered his voice to a whisper as if divulging something secret. “We do not even know if her cycles have stopped because she is breeding again. The signs are not as clear with Halflings. They’re so delicate and sickly, the maladies of breeding are much like the other ailments that plague them.”

  Loren was making me sound awfully weak.

  “She’s diseased?” the boy said, sounding horrified.

  “Of course not,” Kheelan said, scoffing. “Don’t you know anything about Halfling biology? What are they teaching lads these days?” he said, turning to Loren, then he looked at me. “A special diet and exercise routine must be maintained for Halflings, especially those reserved for breeding. If you indulge them too much, they become lazy and plump.”

  My curvy bottom was not plump. This was payback for all the junk food I had forced on Kheelan when he had waited for me outside the restaurant I worked. I turned pink with indignation, wondering if any of my other Marks had been sizing me up. Last time I shared any of my powdered donuts with Kheelan.

  “Our Lady is perfect, of course,” Kheelan added after he had waited long enough to get me worked up. His eyes were laughing at me as I glared at him.

  If I just drained the cup, would they all stop talking about me and get on with the whole point we were visiting this bizarre town? Kheelan would have been better off telling me about their magical customs agent instead of showing me the pretty snow globe view from the hillside.

  “It is poison,” Loren said, voice halting my action as I tipped the cup up towards my mouth.

  A sly smile formed on the boy’s lips. “Oh Sirs, you spoil the fun. I do enjoy educating the ignorant ones. Most Lords and Ladies know what it means to drink of the town’s cup of hospitality, but a Halfling like yours would be sick on the path into town and begging for the cure.”

  He had tried to poison me? The town hospitality had more in kind with the warm witch’s hearth in Hansel and Gretel than a true welcoming. I should have known better.

  Jackson forced the cup from my lips. I wasn’t about to willingly drink poison, but it was so hot out here. I kept a firm hold on the chalice until Kheelan reached over and pulled the cup from both of us.

  “We will drink from the cup as her loyal representatives and servants, young Lord,” offered Kheelan. He waited with the cup in hand.

  “I need bloodstones,” wheedled the boy.

  “Poison in our guts will only sour the magic. Why not take a larger bloodstone price instead to grant us entrance?” Loren suggested.

  “I can’t break the rules for one or all will try to bargain their way out of drinking,” the boy said, looking behind himself at the birdhouse fountain. I could see a flicker of wings glimmer inside as something moved behind one of the carved openings. “We can’t be too careful with who we let in when such Dark happenings occur so close by.”

  “How many stones do you need, young Lord?” Kheelan asked.

  “Twelve,” he answered, greedily reaching towards the birdhouse. “And one of you must drink from the cup.”

  “Six if I drink,” Kheelan retorted.

  “Eight and you drink,” bargained the boy.

  “Eight total for our group to feed upon those of us that volunteer and you strip your glamour for the Lady,” Kheelan countered. “And I will not drink.”

  Feed? All those hairs on my arms stood up again. I snapped my eyes to the boy and wondered exactly what he really looked like if that was glamour.

  “Ladies enjoy beauty,” the boy said, reluctantly pulling away from the fountain
to face Kheelan again. I wanted to tap my toes in impatience. Were they going to draw out the bargaining all day?

  “She could admire your power rather than you play the foolish child. Don’t you tire of such simple games?”

  “You’ll pay four more stones for the cure even if you don’t drink,” the boy answered.

  Kheelan handed over the full chalice of poison. “I’ll pay the four extra stones myself and I expect you to offer that cure for free to the next Fae asking for it.”

  “Nothing is free,” the boy said.

  “Paid in advance. Remember, a pixie’s wings flap against air that you once breathed,” Kheelan cryptically replied.

  “Pretty words are all a male in such debt can afford,” the boy retorted.

  “Do we have a deal?” Loren asked. “I am the other volunteer for the stones, of course.”

  “Give me a kiss, Halfling, and I shall honour the terms presented,” the boy said, eyeing me with a sideways glance. I had almost thought myself forgotten during their last bit of bargaining.

  I looked up to Kheelan but he didn’t indicate what decision he wanted from me, meeting my inquiring gaze with a blank look. This probably was the best deal we were going to barter if he was keeping his silence now. Even if I didn’t quite know what blood stones were and I was still shocked about the attempted poisoning of the ‘town’s guests’ as routine, I knew that bargaining was everything for the Fae. One had to give a little to get what she wanted.

  I stepped forward.

  The boy smiled and revealed pointy teeth, not just fangs but two racks of piranha sharps that did not suit the cherub at all. They were gleaming white instead of bloodstained, but I could easily picture him tearing into flesh.

  I held my hand out for the boy to take. He widened his toothy smirk, noticing my fine tremor, and shook. Quickly, I firmed my shaky grip and pulled his hand up to kiss the back of his knuckles. Even the mere touch of my skin against his made something crawl inside me, repulsed. I dropped his hand as he snarled and I backed up to hide with my brothers providing bulky cover. They crossed their swords in front of me.

  “Do you wish me to waste magic before the bloodstone price is paid?” Kheelan casually inquired as he delivered a threat without a change in his pleasant tone.

  I should have picked up my bow from the ground. This might turn out to be a fight after all.

  The boy turned his snarling face to Kheelan. “That was not the kiss I wanted.”

  Somebody had issues with polite refusals.

  “It is the only kiss you bargained for and you should show your gratitude with the drop of your glamour as agreed,” Loren said.

  “You never said all of my glamour,” the boy retorted, using the same reasoning we had against us. His voice was distorted, no longer a melodic, youthful timber, now sounding as if the mouthful of razors had cut his throat and tongue to sharpen his tone. “Come here, my pretties,” that ruined voice coaxed as he turned from us to the fountain birdhouse.

  I shivered. This was a nightmare disguised as a perfect dream. I needed to wake up. Kheelan had bargained to remove the boy’s glamour only for my edification. He knew what lay beneath and I had to know as well. My life might depend on seeing under Faerie’s layers of glamour when I was alone.

  “Stay behind the swords,” Loren whispered to me as he walked around to join Kheelan. They both shed their shirts but kept their weapons with a wave of Kheelan’s hand and magic.

  A tiny silver leaf fluttered inside a window of the fountain birdhouse. I looked and suddenly the entire birdhouse was filled with the flapping of leafy wings that beat up and down rhythmically. It was as if the house wanted to lift up with its inhabitants beating inside like a hive of angry bees, building a buzz of energy that I could feel from where I stood, a charge like static electricity in the air.

  “Twelve,” the boy’s voice said with a crack, pointing a long, bony finger that shouldn’t belong to his body at Kheelan.

  “We can split the bloodstone price,” Loren said.

  The boy spat on the ground in front of Loren, something dark and foul coming from his mouth. His toothy grin was still spotless as he denounced the offer. “I want to see him crawl. Drain him until your bellies burst, my pretties,” the boy ordered in that horrible voice. It scraped my brain like nails against tortured glass, a sound so awful, it made me feel as if my ears were bleeding.

  Something darted out from the birdhouse, a quicksilver flash that I felt as a breeze at the same time my eyes picked up the movement. It was followed by another and another until suddenly all the windows were pouring out a stream of tiny, flying creatures. They had to be real fairies but none of them held still long enough for me to get a full impression, swarming around all of us in an horde of colourful wings that descended to feed.

  I was seconds away from screaming my terror at being attacked by angry butterflies. Each time one of the wings got too close, it left a sharp, little wound like a papercut. The tiny creatures cared nothing for personal space, flying so close to my face I was even afraid to open my mouth, and that might have been all that kept me suffering silently.

  “The pixies do not touch her or her human pets,” Kheelan demanded. His voice thundered with power.

  All at once, the swarm hovered, wings beating as one and every eye focused on Kheelan. I finally got to see the little bodies attacking us. They were perfectly proportioned, each carrying tiny weapons scaled down. Arrows with full quivers and bows were in their hands at the ready, and ivory daggers shaped like miniature fangs hung in belts at their hips. Their sex was partly displayed, no clothing for their chests and a simple loincloth for the males or short skirt for the females, both made of a cloth I couldn’t identify, although it seemed to be a leather of some sort. Skin, my brain whispered.

  I might not be able to scream but I could be sick. I tried to think of something else, anything but the cannibalistic pixies about to eat Kheelan. Blood price, bloodstones? It was a barbaric cost to bear.

  Kheelan was doing this to spare me the poisoned drink. It wasn’t fair. Raising my hand straight up to test something, I touched one of the hovering pixies on the foot and slowly pushed it over a few inches. Suddenly, all the pixies turned to face me but they didn’t do anything else.

  “What are you doing?” Jackson whispered.

  I gently pushed aside the protective swords of my brothers and walked forward. The pixies parted enough to let me past, closing in on my back so I couldn’t reverse my way without hitting them. I headed toward Kheelan, not stopping even when he leveled me with one of his withering looks. I wasn’t the one paying the price but I could be there for him when he did it. The urge to be with him pricked at me, easing with each step I took.

  “Mistress, come to hold me still?” Kheelan mocked as I finally halted in front of him.

  I held out my hands silently, palms up. Kheelan could shove his issues with being touched aside for a few moments.

  “How tender,” the thing that was not a boy crooned. It came out so scratchy he may as well have screeched.

  Kheelan’s stormy eyes pierced through me before his hands grabbed mine roughly and yanked me up on my tiptoes to press both of my palms on his chest to cover over his heart. “Don’t let go,” he whispered.

  My hands froze. Ice turned my skin such a cold white that even the air around me felt scalding. It climbed up to my shoulders before the first pixie dove down at Kheelan’s vulnerable back. I shivered under Kheelan’s frozen cascade of power rippling over my skin, and then deeper and closer to my heart. Waves of ice sunk into me from the outside and hardened my body against the cruel wings of the pixies cutting into Kheelan’s skin as they swarmed us.

  Kheelan was seeping ruby drops from a thousand cuts, beaded on his skin like a bloody mist that blushed his pale cheeks. His stormy eyes turned so bright blue with power that I could have mistaken him for Aeric, but whenever I had looked in the younger brother’s eyes, I hadn’t seen the pain and regret Kheelan showed to me.r />
  The magic under my hands weakened as more pixies latched onto Kheelan’s skin, many slamming into him for a quick bite but only a few plastering their bodies against his chest and arms to really feed. They grouped mostly around his heart, a burning touch against my hands as their bodies crowded closer around my fingers that had slowly became less painful with the weakening of Kheelan’s magic.

  The heart under my touch stuttered. I would have disobeyed and removed my hands from Kheelan to pull the parasites off him, but somehow he knew my impulse and acted first. Kheelan’s hands grabbed my shoulders and he pulled me closer to his chest, mindless of the pixies we smothered between us. His lips crashed against mine and there was blood, whether from his pixie cuts or our teeth, I don’t know, but the painful kiss was a desperate plea. He whispered against my lips and I didn’t catch the words but I felt his intent.

  It had probably been a warning he spoke but nothing could have prepared me. My heart nearly burst with the magic he shoved through my hands and into my chest. I drank down his plea and the magic he gave me, opening my mouth and breathing against his lips, a gasp as power wrenched my body. I would have twisted from his embrace if not for his strong grip on me.

  A whistle sent pixies swirling around us in a giant circle and another had them darting back to their house in a single line like a ribbon of thread unwinding until all that was left were the twelve that Kheelan had agreed upon. It only took a few seconds, each individual pixie going faster than my eyes could see, a blur of color and the pressure of a thousand wings beating gone in a flash. I blinked my eyes to clear my vision of the dust their frenzy had driven up.

  “Are you ready to crawl?” the boy's voice asked, back to sounding sweeter than ever.

  The twins had voices like that when they were younger, able to give me a pleading look and ask for anything, although all they ever wanted was me. A kiss goodnight, a promise to be there the next morning when they woke. This monster was so close to their vulnerable boyhood pitch.