My excitement was short lived.
“Oh no, you two are the first,” she said, tapping Glen reassuringly on the leg and standing up. “You are the first humans to step foot in Norbroch in a decade.”
The first humans in a decade.
Nothing made sense anymore.
I didn’t know why King Ferchar sent us north into Norbroch, or why Queen Euna hated us so much. Once we were alone I voiced my confusion.
“If there hasn’t been a human here in over a decade, where do the human babies go?” I complained, frowning so hard my head began to ache.
“I have no idea, but I think it’s time we get some answers from the Queens.”
We spent the next few days recovering from our imprisonment. As the days passed our appetites increased and soon we were managing to eat proper meals without feeling sick.
The Queens agreed to meet us and so a few evenings later Nighean returned. She helped us dress in new clothes which were much finer than anything I had ever worn before.
I had a dark navy dress and a thick knitted cardigan to keep me warm. Glen looked like a prince with his dark grey clothes, complete with a knitted jumper. He was even given a leather belt for his dagger, which was returned to him when we were given our belongings.
We were meeting with the Queens for an evening meal and apparently, our travelling clothes were inappropriate. Nighean had burst out laughing at the thought of us wearing them to dinner.
“If only your ma could see you dressed all fancy,” I teased gently as we walked through the halls.
“If only your Finnian could see you,” Glen winked suggestively, to which I blushed and aimed a kick at his shins.
“We have more important things to think about than him,” I scolded, trying to stop my traitorous mind from remembering his tattoos, and our kisses.
“We can think about him once we’ve survived dinner with the fairy who tried to starve us to death,” Glen laughed, humourlessly.
As we followed a fairy through the halls I admired the intricately carved wooden furniture. The castle was smaller than the one in Culhuinn, but no less grand.
Remembering what Nighean said, I was on the lookout for any signs of other humans, but from what I could see everyone who lived and worked in the castle was a fairy. Each fairy we passed did a double take, as if they couldn’t believe they were seeing two humans in Norbroch.
All too soon, we arrived at the hall and the door was opened by the guard who had imprisoned us not long ago.
Glen grabbed my arm to halt my progress and I stood awkwardly as he glared at the guard. My gaze wandered between the two of them, the tension growing more and more uncomfortable the longer he glared. It was strange to see Glen holding a grudge. Usually he was the first to forgive anyone for their wrongdoings.
Eventually the guard spoke and eased the tension enough for Glen to release my arm.
“You are here for dinner, not to be imprisoned.” The guard said, never breaking eye contact with Glen.
“How can I trust you?” Glen demanded.
It was as if they had forgotten I was there.
“I give you my word that neither of you will be imprisoned this evening.”
Glen paused for a moment, perhaps like me he realised how ominous that promise was.
We would not be thrown back into that cell tonight, but would be find ourselves back there tomorrow?
“Your word means nothing to me.”
With that Glen pushed his way past the guard and headed into the hall. I could hear Queen Aelwen inside, her chair scraping against the stone as she stood to greet him.
Glen and I were both understandably upset about being starved half to death, but it looked as if he held this guard personally responsible for what happened to us.
“You had better join them.”
Queen Aelwen met me at the door and quickly ushered me to a seat beside Glen. The guard, whom I remembered Queen Euna had called Tormod, entered the room as well but remained at the door. Thankfully out of Glen’s line of sight.
I didn’t want him starting a fight, not with the two Queens in the room. That would surely land us both back in the cell.
Queen Aelwen took a seat across from me and her sister Queen Euna was sat across from Glen.
“To prevent us from being interrupted I had the servants prepare a small meal, rather than have them bring in multiple courses. I hope you do not mind,” Queen Aelwen explained.
The table before us was filled with all sorts of food. We could have fed both Glen and I’s families with the food on this table. The thought made me feel oddly guilty.
The conversation flowed easily as we made a start on the food. Queen Aelwen was eager to learn all about our travels and our village back home.
Glen tried to remain aloof and angry, but the temptation to tell his stories to a new set of eager ears was too much to resist. Queen Euna remained silent throughout, sipping occasionally at the soup in front of her.
“We promised you answers, so let us not waste any more time,” Queen Aelwen eventually said.
This was the moment I had been waiting for since we left the village. The chance to finally find out why the fairies steal our babies, and what they do to them.
The chance to find out if I could save my life, and the lives of the countless other changelings scattered throughout the human kingdoms.
All of our travelling and suffering had led to this moment, and I found myself completely lost for words.
“How about you start by telling us why you travelled to Norbroch?” Queen Aelwen said after a few uncomfortable moments of silence. “You may speak freely. There will be no consequences for your words,” she added, noting our nervous glances towards the silent Queen beside her.
“King Ferchar told us that we would find answers here in Norbroch. That here in the north a gifted fairy creates changelings to replace the babies you steal. He told us that you keep the humans and use them, for unknown reasons,” I took a shaky breath. “You’re the reason that I’m going to die and you’re the reason that hundreds of humans are dead.”
There was silence after my outburst and I feared that I had overstepped. My plan had been to simply tell them what the King had told us, but instead I found myself blaming them for the deaths of so many children and fighting back tears.
Glens hand found mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I’d said what needed to be said. I would not apologise.
“King Ferchar has lied to you about many things,” Queen Aelwen said sadly, her sister beside her remained silent, though she looked livid.
“So, you don’t have the answers we are looking for?” Glen questioned as my heart sank.
“Here in Norbroch there are no changelings and there are no humans,” she explained. “Despite this, I do not think your journey has been pointless. It seems that the King has given you the answers you seek, shrouded in lies.”
“Explain.” Glen said bluntly.
“The idea that there is a fairy gifted with the power to create new life, and so able to create changelings, is reasonable. We have never seen a gift such as that here in Norbroch, but that does not mean it does not exist. The King must have found the only fairy with this gift.”
“We met a man in Tirwood who could bring flowers back to life,” I explained, suddenly remembering the man in the inn all those weeks ago.
“We have fairies here in Norbroch with similar gifts, who help ensure that our crops grow well, if the Others will it of course.”
“So, King Ferchar steals human babies and his gifted fairy makes changelings to replace them. What does he do with the humans he steals?”
“Ten years ago, the royals from Culhuinn visited us and with them they brought over a hundred human servants, each of them only just clothed and fed well enough to ensure that they worked,” Aelwen explained sadly.
It was beginning to dawn on me just how badly we had been tricked.
“Why would he send us here?” Glen asked while I slump
ed forward, resting my head in my hands.
“He once killed a human who was... very close to us. He saw your innocence and took advantage of how little you knew about our two kingdoms. Sending you here in the hope that it would anger us.”
King Ferchar’s plan to anger the Queen had worked perfectly, but I didn’t dare voice that thought.
Queen Euna looked ready to murder someone and I hoped that it wouldn’t be me or Glen. Looking back at our time in Culhuinn, it was so clear that the King was toying with us.
After our encounter with Swift, we should have realised then that something wasn’t right. It hit me just how foolish our whole journey had been.
Glen and I knew nothing about these fairy kingdoms. We’d barely manage to survive as we travelled and didn’t even know where we were going most of the time.
Our journey had been for nothing. We knew who was creating the changelings, and why, but that meant nothing.
Not when we could do nothing to stop it.
M ae was helping me change when a serving girl, whom I often saw cleaning the hallways outside my chambers, ran in looking terrified.
“My Queen, the humans, they’re leaving.” She exclaimed, looking horrified.
Just as she finished speaking we became aware of raised voices outside. My chambers overlooked the front of the castle and when we looked out I understood her horror.
Hundreds of humans were heading towards the gates where a patrol of guards had gathered, their swords and weapons aimed towards the humans.
As we watched, the first few humans charged at the fairies and then, the fighting began. It became hard to distinguish between humans and fairies as blood was shed and people began to fall.
I wondered why the guards were fighting the humans until I it dawned on me that I had not yet told the kingdom of our plans. The guards assumed that the humans were still our servants and would no doubt hack through them all for trying to leave.
I’d never given them new instructions and so they were doing whatever the sadistic King Ferchar had told them to do in such a situation.
I was a fool, and now people were dying for it.
William shouting my name and shaking my shoulders made me realise that I had frozen.
Standing idly, watching as people died right outside my window. The pained look on his face made my heart race. I pulled myself out of his grip and headed for the door.
As I ran through the halls, I realised that I was still in my thin shift and hadn’t even stopped to put shoes on. The stone floors hurt my feet as I ran but I hurried on.
From the window, it had been difficult to see any faces, but the thought of Nieve being one of the humans struck down made me stumble and collide painfully with the wall. William helpfully shoved me forward, not allowing me to stop.
“Tell your guards,” I shouted to him as we reached the main hallway. The last thing we needed was more guards rushing in to join the fight.
The looks on the faces of the fairies I passed would have been amusing, was I not hurrying to stop the slaughter of hundreds of innocent humans. What must they think of me running through the halls with my hair loose, practically naked for the whole castle to see.
A few fairies tried to shout and tell what was happening but I ignored them. When I reached the main doors, the doormen tried to stop me.
“There is a fight occurring outside my Queen,” one of them told me, doing his best to avert his eyes.
“The humans are free to go. Open the door!”
The scene in the courtyard had worsened considerably in the time it took me to run through the halls. There were screams of anger and pain echoing all around and I could see numerous bodies strewn across the stone.
I pushed past the guards blocking the other side of the door and rushed into the crowd.
My feet slipped on the stones which were now wet with blood in many places. The fight continued as if I was not there. No one noticed one more body amongst the masses.
I grabbed the arm of a fairy next to me, stopping him from stabbing the human he held by the hair.
“Stop.” I screeched, to which he laughed and made to continue.
I grabbed onto the blade, trying to ignore the way it sliced my palm and fingers. I was only just strong enough to stop him from driving the blade into the human’s soft belly.
“I am your Queen,” I shouted and I was glad to see the realisation pass across his face.
He quickly let go of the dagger and the human before backing away, glancing with horror at my bleeding hand.
“The humans are free to leave, under my orders. Tell the other fairies now,” I gestured at his fellow guards, still fighting around us.
He hurried to do as I asked, pulling his companions away from the humans.
Fighting the urge to sob at the pain in my hand, I continued on through the crowd. The dead and injured I passed made me heave.
There was so much blood.
As I approached the gates, I realised that I didn’t have a plan. I just needed to stop this somehow.
I needed the fairies to see me and listen. To stop their attack.
I was knocked to the ground by one of those guards, my face colliding painfully with the stones. When she turned me onto my back I felt blood running from my nostrils.
“My Queen,” she gasped in shock, aborting her attempt to strangle the life from me.
“Stop your fellow guards. The humans are free to leave,” I spat blood from my mouth as I scrambled to my feet.
She looked at me in disbelief until I screamed at her to go.
The fighting was thickest near the gates so I hurried forward. I was knocked to the ground by oblivious fighters so many times that I gave up and crawled the rest of the distance.
The guards at the gate looked horrified to see their Queen appear in the middle of a fight, wearing nothing but a muddy shift, bleeding in multiple places.
“The humans are free to leave,” I called as loud as I could. “Stop the fight.”
Thankfully they were guards William knew and so hurried to obey my command, throwing themselves into the middle of fights. Ripping humans and fairies away from each other.
I turned to face the devastation behind me, four guards in amongst hundreds wasn’t enough.
Half of the people in this courtyard would be dead before the message spread far enough. The humans were good at fighting that much was obvious, but they hadn’t the stamina or strength and would soon weaken.
If I didn’t stop this fight it would be a bloodbath.
My heart pounded as I struggled to take slow breaths through my mouth and fight down the panic which threatened to overwhelm me. My nose was still bleeding freely down my face.
I put a hand against the wooden gate to steady myself and was struck with an idea.
The wooden gate had horizontal beams which could easily be climbed. A surprisingly awful design for a gate, but just what I needed to make myself noticed.
I whimpered as I used my hands, one of them deeply cut, to pull myself up onto the gate. My arms trembled as I pulled myself up two, then three beams, until I could see over the heads of everyone in the courtyard.
“Stop.” I screamed as loud as I could.
Those nearest me noticed and stopped to stare in confusion.
“The humans are free to leave.”
My voice cracked as I tried desperately to make myself heard.
Those who heard me hurried to obey, calming down those fighting and dragging the injured out of further harm’s way.
“I command you to stop,” I cried desperately, as loud as I could manage, breathless from panic.
My throat burned so fiercely that I wasn’t sure I could shout again. More noticed my cry and, from this height, I could see gaps appearing in the crowd where my guards had successfully managed to disperse fights.
A sudden wailing drone from a set of pipes made me flinch and almost lose my grip.
William appeared on the steps and with him, a piper. The
reason became clear as many stopped their fights to look towards the noise in surprise.
“The humans are free to go, Queen Freya orders you to stop this fight,” he shouted, his voice carrying across the courtyard now that the screaming and clash of swords had lessened.
He gestured towards the gate, where I held on weakly, and suddenly all eyes were on me.
“The humans are free,” I said faintly, my voice a hoarse whisper.
At those words, there were cries of happiness and joy from the humans all around me. I could see them crying and hugging, ecstatic that they could now leave Culhuinn behind forever.
It was impossible to tell how many were injured or dead from here, there didn’t seem to be as many bodies as my panicked mind had imagined.
I let go of the gate, too exhausted to climb back down, and collapsed in a heap at the base.
My palm and fingers burned, and my nose throbbed painfully with every beat of my heart. My feet were bleeding and dirty, as were my knees. My shift was torn and disgusting where before it had been crisp, white and fresh.
Despite doing nothing but rush through a crowd, I felt as if I had battled through a whole army on my own. I couldn’t muster up the will to move.
The guards from earlier returned, glancing at each other in alarm. Unsure what to do about their bloody, dirty Queen who was slumped beneath the gate.
“Open the gate,” I whispered and so they busied themselves with that and left me alone.
Arms wrapped around my chest and carried me away from the crowds, into the stables. I expected to see William but instead it was Nieve.
Her face was splattered with blood, as if she had stabbed or slashed someone. It mixed with the dark blue woad she had around her eye and smeared down her face.
She propped me up against the wall and then sighed at the state of me.
“Look at you,” she said unhappily, using her sleeve to try and wipe some of the blood away from my mouth.
“Look at you,” I whispered back.
“Free.” She laughed, tears brimming in her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Leaving me,” I was unable to stop my lips quivering pathetically.
The Changeling's Journey Page 25
