He placed his hand forcefully on my chest, pushing me back into the rock behind me, not caring how much it hurt.
My back arched beyond my control as my heart lurched forward towards his ha...
I thanked the Others as the last wooden support beam from the ceiling fell, sending fairies sprawling. It cleared a path through the fighting so we could get through to where Queen Freya and the humans were.
We scrambled ungracefully over the sharp slippery remains of the castle in time to see the horror unfold.
Aelwen gasped beside me as we watched Darach slam his hand onto Morven’s chest. She arched unnaturally up into his touch and slumped back down onto the rock.
She did not move again.
Glen let out a roar of anger and despair, so loud I was sure the Otherworld must have heard it. Aelwen began crying angrily beside me.
Even without Aelwen’s gift, I could tell that the magic, which had flowed through Morven’s veins and gave her life for all these years, was gone.
The way she lay unnaturally against the rocks reminded me of the last dead human I had seen.
Lachlann.
Tormod leapt down from the pile of stone and wood we stood on and rushed to join William, who was fighting with the gifted fairy that had blown the hall apart.
Queen Freya was crying as she cradled her advisor in her lap. She was soaked through with rain, dust from the crumbling bricks of her castle and dark red blood.
I had no time to contemplate our appearance further as Aelwen grasped my hand, pulling me down from where we had frozen to take in the horror.
By now, the enraged Glen had reached Darach and was attempting to beat the life out of him. Despite fairies being stronger than humans, he was doing considerable damage.
Darach had been stunned. Not expecting the surge of magic which returned once he took Morven’s life from her, and so was caught unaware by the furious redhead. Giving Glen a chance to attack before Darach could defend himself.
We ran, tripping over bricks and wood, slipping on the stones which the rain had made dangerous. Aelwen reached Glen first and tried to pry him from Darach, who was now bleeding profusely from his newly broken nose and split lip. One of his eyes was swollen and half closed.
Despite all of that, he still wore the same smug smile. Like he was drunk on the magic he had stolen from the girl he had not long ago called his child.
“Glen, stop,” Aelwen begged, attempting to grab his hands and stop him from delivering any further blows.
“He. Killed. Her.” He shouted, through clenched teeth, delivering a punch with each word.
His hands were bloody with both Darach’s and his own blood. His human hands fracturing and breaking as he attempted to punch through tough flesh and bone.
“He can bring her back,” Aelwen screamed so loud that the three of us flinched, despite the noise around us.
Thankfully her scream made Glen pause, bloody hands in the air ready to strike again.
“Back?”
It was then that I noticed the tears running down his face, leaving trails in the dust and blood.
Seeing the grief and hope on his face made me realise with a jolt just how young the two them were. They had to be less than twenty years of age, not old enough to be dragged into this fight.
As we travelled south from Norbroch, Aelwen and I had listened to countless stories about their village in the south and their family there.
The thought of Glen returning home to that village they so clearly loved, Morven’s dead body his only company, made my eyes sting with tears.
“He gave her life once. He can give it to her again,” Aelwen hurried to explain.
“Bring her back.” He mumbled, nodding.
His anger giving way to grief and shock at the loss of his best friend.
“The fairy is dead.” Tormod said quietly beside me making me flinch in fright.
It was then that I noticed how quiet the ruined hall had grown. The fairy had not planned his attack on the castle well at all. His companions had been defeated and were being bound with rope by the castle guards.
He must have assumed that Queen Freya would honour the promise King Ferchar made, to marry him and release his father from prison. Surely not even he could have been foolish enough to try and take over a whole castle with less than fifteen fairies.
Behind us, he lay in a rapidly growing pool of his own blood, whilst William was helping a shaken Queen Freya to her feet. Healers rushing to aid her advisor.
Queen Freya spotted me looking and began to stumble over to us. A head wound dripping blood down the side of her face faster than the rain could wash it away. I held out my hand and shook my head to stop her coming over.
She needed to heal and see what damage had been done to the castle. As William lifted her up into his arms and carried her over to an anxious looking maid, I turned back to Darach who was now laughing manically.
“I won’t do it. I won’t do it. I won’t do it.” He was singing, in between laughs.
“Give her back her life and we may spare yours,” Aelwen attempted to threaten but the threat came out shaky, pleading.
“If you don’t give it back I’ll... I’ll make you!” Glen’s attempt was even less threatening than Aelwen’s, especially as he clenched his hands back into fists to hide the shaking.
“No,” Tormod said, gently pushing the shaking Glen away. “You do not need to do this.”
“I do.” Glen insisted, wiping tears and rain from his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Look after Morven,” Tormod said, his expression hardening as he turned to Darach who was watching him nervously. “I will do this for you.”
Darach tried to flinch away when Tormod reached for him, but he was not fast enough.
Tormod gripped his wrist, stopping his retreat. I felt a flicker of nausea as I realised what he planned to do, but from the bemused look on Darach’s face I could tell he had not yet worked it out.
“Give her back her life.” Tormod said, his voice betraying none of his emotions.
Beside him, Glen now had Morven cradled in his lap and was crying quietly. Touching her cold lifeless body had drained the last of his anger, leaving him with nothing but sorrow.
My heart ached for him as he knelt in the rain clutching Morven’s body. My mind flickering back to when I had knelt just outside our castle cradling Lachlann.
Without life in her muscles and bones, Morven’s neck dropped awkwardly over the back of Glen’s arms. It was like Aelwen’s children when they were just new-borns, not yet strong enough to hold up their own weight.
Sinking down beside Glen, I lifted my hands and helped him gently support Morven’s neck.
He looked like he wanted nothing more than to push me away, but he did not. His sadness outweighing the anger he still felt for me.
“I won’t do it.” Darach sounded more uncertain now.
He was no longer laughing. Not now that he was faced with Tormod and had no one to rescue him from whatever was coming.
Tormod let out a small sigh, then he reached out with his other hand and snapped the smallest of Darach’s long slender fingers where it joined with his hand.
There was a moment of silence, as if no one could quite believe what had just happened. Before Darach let out a cry which made us all jump and my stomach churn.
“Use your gift, and give Morven back her life.” Tormod said, deceptively calm.
“I wo...”
Darach did not make it through the sentence before the next finger was snapped and he cried out once more.
I forced myself to stare at Morven’s unnaturally still face, rather than watch as Darach’s next finger was broken. I could hear Glen breathing heavily beside me, sounding as horrified as I felt.
“Just look at Morven,” I whispered, desperately hoping that he would obey.
I knew that if I stopped staring at that freckled face below me I would lose my composure.
The cries that echoe
d around the half-ruined hall would haunt me for months to come, would haunt all of us. I consoled myself with the knowledge that a healer would be able to fix his fingers within minutes.
Though it did not stop the guilt from welling up inside me, until I was sure it would choke me.
I thanked the Others for not making Darach stubborn or courageous as he gave in and agreed to bring Morven back to life before Tormod could snap another finger.
If it had been the King that Tormod was torturing, we would have run out of bones to break long before he gave in.
“I’ll do it. I’ll do it.” Darach sobbed so pitifully that I could not help but feel sorry for the fairy, despite all the heartbreak he had caused.
From the pained look on Aelwen’s face I could tell that she felt the same.
Mindful of his injuries, Tormod placed Darach’s injured hand in his lap and carefully helped him to shuffle over to Glen, Morven and I.
Not giving him any opportunity to change his mind, Tormod placed Darach’s uninjured hand on Moven’s chest.
“Give it all back.” Aelwen warned, wanting to make sure that he did not simply trick us so that he could escape.
Crying still, Darach nodded. We all watched, hardly daring to breathe, as he closed his eyes and concentrated.
Morven flinched violently in Glen’s arm and began taking slow rattling breaths, each deeper than the previous.
Glen once again dissolved into tears, sounding almost too exhausted to cry now. William, who had arrived without any of us noticing, helped Glen to his feet and helped him carry Morven to where healers were waiting.
“We need to see it,” Glen said suddenly, stopping to look back at us. “We need to see it end.”
Aelwen stared at Darach, who was weeping where he sat, not even trying to escape. It was a pitiful sight, one that made my heart ache to think about how much suffering King Ferchar had caused us all. How many people he had manipulated.
“Do it Aelwen, use the gift they gave you for good,” I said softly, which seemed to be the encouragement she needed.
Slowly, she lifted her shaking hand and placed it on Darach’s forearm. Unlike when she removed my gift, Darach remained silent other than a choked sob.
When she released him, he slumped to the floor, sinking into unconsciousness.
I now understood why mother had been so confused all those years before. It was as if nothing had happened.
We sat in silence, the rain falling around us, soaking us to the bone. Eventually Aelwen spoke up.
“It’s done.” She whispered shakily and I heard Glen give a slightly hysterical laugh behind us.
“We can go home now.” I crawled forward through the growing puddles and rubble, to wrap my arm around her.
Aelwen had spent the last decade looking after me, trying desperately to save me from my own grief. Now it was my turn to look after her.
King Ferchar was dead, no longer would human children be stolen and no more changelings could be created. At last the kingdoms of Norbroch and Culhuinn were at peace.
It was time for us to go home.
I rode towards the settlement, which would soon become the first town in the new human kingdom. My thighs were burning from such a long ride and I was glad that my journey was almost at an end.
Queen Euna and Queen Aelwen had not wanted to linger in Culhuinn, especially not after the main hall had been mostly destroyed. Queen Aelwen was shaken after using her gift on Darach, and so they quickly left to return to Norbroch and her family.
William and Tormod had managed to kill Tomas before he could do any damage to the rest of the castle. Pushing me out of the way, Adair had broken one of his legs so badly that the healers were still uncertain if he would ever walk again.
We were all lucky to have survived his attack, lucky that he had been unprepared for our resistance.
After a few days spent recovering from the fight, and putting plans in place, I travelled south with William and a group of guards.
After a surprisingly emotional farewell, Morven and Glen had continued down through a valley in the Fairy Hills, heading south to their village in Tirwood.
As we travelled I’d admitted where I was going and explained that Nieve, the human baby which Morven replaced, was now the ruler of a free human kingdom.
I had expected Morven to be angry that I’d kept the secret for so long but she simply laughed. Too relieved to be heading home to care much about anything else.
My goodbye with William or as he was known now, King William of Culhuinn, was much harder.
I couldn’t stop myself from crying as we’d hugged, about half a day’s ride from the human settlement. Without him the last few months would have destroyed me, and we both knew it.
I wanted to travel south and be with Nieve more than anything else, but I also wished desperately that he could come with me, like Mae, who would be traveling south once I’d sent word that it was safe.
“We will meet again. Culhuinn will always trade with the new kingdom. Either I’ll travel down south or you will travel back up to the castle with Nieve.” He reassured us both, his own voice thick with emotion.
“Thank you for everything,” I whispered, my breath hitching as I tried not to cry anymore.
“Thank you, Freya. You’ve given me your whole kingdom. There is no way I can ever repay you for what you’ve done for my family,” he replied, swiping at the tears which trickled down his face.
“You don’t need to repay me. You’ve set me free,” I answered, and it was true.
After the disaster that was Darach’s sentencing, I decided that I was done with being the Queen and done with Culhuinn.
Until the day I die, I will love Culhuinn as a kingdom and love the fairies who live there, but I never wanted to rule them. The best way to put an end to King Ferchar’s reign once and for all was to remove his heir from the throne, me.
I’d snuck into Adair’s chambers, where he was healing, to ask his advice before going to William with my plan.
As predicted, William tried desperately to stop me and change my mind when I told him I was going to abdicate from the throne. He promised to be by my side and help me until my dying day.
I will never forget the look of surprise on his face when I offered him my crown. It took a lot of persuasion, from both me and Adair, before he finally agreed.
He loved Culhuinn as much as me, but unlike me, he did not have tainted memories of this castle and the legacy of a sadistic father behind him.
William was exactly what Culhuinn needed.
I approached the settlement at the edge of the forest, which was comprised of a mix of wooden shelters and mismatched fabric tents. I was so ready for my journey to be over. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone on such a long ride and, with the summer sun beating down on me, I was exhausted.
As I got closer to the settlement, two humans came riding to meet me. They must have worked somewhere in the castle but I had never seen them before. To my embarrassment, I did not know either of their names.
I opened my mouth to ask where I could find Nieve but they spoke before me.
“You aren’t welcome here,” one of the men said, his animosity making me flinch.
“I do not mean any harm,” I tried to explain.
I wanted to surprise Nieve and so did not send a messenger south to announce my arrival, much to the new King William’s frustration.
The man’s companion laughed and cut me off, making me wish I had followed William’s suggestion and not risked coming here alone.
“If you think you can come down here and force us to work for you again, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“I promise that is not my intention...”
“If you don’t turn that horse around and ride back up north, you won’t like what happens to you,” the first human said and, for the first time since I left the castle, I realised just how stupid this was.
William had been right. Travelling to the settlemen
t with no guards to protect me, and no clue what I would find, was idiotic
I frantically tried to think of some way to soothe their anger and explain that I was simply looking for Nieve, but they grew bored of my silence.
In the blink of an eye the second man pulled the short axe from his belt, flipped it in his hand and then swung for me.
The next thing I knew I was at my horse’s feet, clutching my head and blinking away tears.
Later I would be grateful that he had struck me with the handle and not the sharpened side of the axe, but not whilst I was lying there seeing stars.
“I am just looking for Nieve.”
“She doesn’t want to see you,” one of them laughed.
“She’s a free woman now,” the other added, as if I could have forgotten.
From my position on the ground I could feel the rumble of more horses approaching and then raised voices. I hoped it was not more humans, eager to join in the beating.
If only William could see me now. His worst fears regarding me travelling alone were coming true already. The thought made me want to laugh bitterly, but my head ached too much for that.
I rolled onto my back with a groan and took stock of my injuries. My head throbbed, but thankfully was not bleeding, and my back ached from the fall. Movement at my side made me flinch painfully and I rolled my head to see what was happening. What I saw made me lose the fight against my tears.
My beautiful Nieve was there beside me, and she looked radiant.
“I was looking for you.”
“Look at you,” she whispered softly, her face lined with concern.
“I’m sorry. I should have sent a messenger down. I am not the Queen anymore. I gave it up to William. Please, can I stay? I understand you might have moved on, but I....”
Her lips against mine, for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, stopped my rambling. I couldn’t help but smile against them, and felt her smile in response.
Then she stood, shouting for guards to bind the two humans who had attacked me, pulling me up into her arms with ease.
“You can stay with me forever, if you want.”
The Changeling's Journey Page 30
