The Hunt for the Three Roses

by Jason Hubbard

  “Thank you, dear, I’ll get to it later,” he said, putting it on a desk corner.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but it’s very important and needs a response right away.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her but obediently unrolled the strip and read the message: A fairy is following me. Help?

  “Oh, er … right, right!” he clumsily said, then gave a reassuring smile. “Of course, I’ll get on it right away.”

  “Good. I’ll be in the dining hall if you need me, or I’ll be in my room later.”

  “Very well, I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

  Callie gave a knowing smile and nod of the head, then went to get breakfast. This was the extent of her plan; from now on, it was all up to Master Brown. She crossed her fingers, hoping he would be able to do something about this mysterious stalker of hers.

  Three hours later, her hope was starting to wane. Her guard duty was fast approaching, and she had wanted Master Brown to come up with something by the time her shift started.

  As she lied in bed, she daydreamed about all the things she’ll say to this fairy, making every question count. If it was true Rainer was her master, then she was the reason why Rainer knew Callie would be at the Rocking Turtle tavern and St. Kevin’s Church. No doubt the evil bitch would have to be punished.

  At last, there was a knock on her door. Master Brown was there with a tray of food. “Hello, Callie. I’m meeting a friend of mine—she’s the one who wrote that note—and I thought you’d like to come along. You know, for protection.”

  Callie wished he had phrased that excuse better, but she smiled and agreed to accompany him. On his tray were a bowl of porridge sprinkled with brown sugar, a jar of honey, and a cup of milk. There was also a peculiar glass orb bigger than her fist mounted atop a small pedestal with four iron claws. She assumed it was some magical contraption to ensnare the fairy with.

  Outside, autumn’s chill was especially crisp, making her thankful for her new leather jacket. Tendrils of steam rose from the hot porridge, although they grew faint as the two travelers neared their destination: A grassy expanse with groups of oaks and maples surrounded by shrubberies. Master Brown made to cut through the field but halted halfway. “Oh, damn, I forgot something at the house! This porridge will get cold by the time we come back. Let’s just leave it here for now.”

  Callie nearly said that it made no sense to leave the food behind as Master Brown set the tray on a short brick wall, but she trusted that he knew what he was doing. His statement was probably meant for the fairy, not just her.

  They double-backed some ways, then went down an unfamiliar path of alleys and side streets to swing back around. “Trust me,” Master Brown said. “Porridge, milk and honey … irresistible.”

  Once they came within view of the field from the mouth of an alley, Callie saw that the fairy was indeed feasting on the sumptuous snack Brown had laid out for her, her tiny legs sticking up in the air as she plunged her torso into the cup of milk. “Is this for me?” she asked as she picked up a bow and quiver that were leaning against a wall.

  “Yes. That glass orb must be shattered for the trap to work. I’ve seen you practice your archery; think you can get closer and hit it?”

  Callie pulled out an arrow and fitted it on the bowstring. “Are the arrows enchanted?”

  “No. The fairy would sense the enchantment coming and fly off. That’s also why I can’t use a spell. This all depends on you. Hurry before she gets away!”

  Callie hunched over and snuck across the street to stop next to a hedgerow. She was close enough to hear the flutter of the wings, and she sneered in hatred for the meddlesome creature. It was thanks to her that a cleric had wound up dead, and she probably scouted ahead for Rainer’s other victims, too. She needed to be put down, and Callie probably had only this one chance to do it. Luring the creature in with food might not work a second time.

  She slowly worked her way along the hedgerow, trying to get as close as she dared while remaining out of view. She then stopped and peeked out to witness the fairy now devouring the honey while swaying her forelegs back and forth. The scene might have been cute if Callie hadn’t been aware of how deadly the thing was. True, an enslaved fairy was incapable of killing a person, but if not for its binding spell, it could blast Callie away to high heaven if it wanted.

  With nary a second thought, Callie stood and nocked back her arrow. The orb was three meters away and there was a light breeze that came and went at random. The odds were in her favor; now to see if all her training would pay off.

  She clenched her teeth and released the arrow. For a split second, she feared she had miscalculated, but then the arrowhead struck and shattered the orb, releasing the magic inside that created a round barrier with a yellow glow. The fairy darted to and fro, slamming against the barrier’s interior, but the barrier showed no signs of breaking. The meddlesome little thing was trapped.

  “Well done!” Master Brown exclaimed once he reached the scene. “Now let’s see what she’s about.”

  “I think I already know,” Callie gravely said.

  “Let me out! Let me out of here!” the fairy cried in her tiny voice as her captors approached her. “Please, let me out of here!”

  “Why were you in my room?” Callie demanded.

  The fairy crossed her legs and put her hands behind her back. “I … I got bored, and I wanted a look at your things.”

  “You mean you wanted my jewelry? Who sent you?”

  “Um … I can’t say.”

  Callie put her sneering face close to the barrier. “Was it Rainer? The man who killed the bishop last week?”

  “I … I …” The fairy’s defiant expression fell apart, and she broke into tears. “Yes, it was him!”

  As the fairy sobbed in her hands, Callie’s heart softened and she began to feel sorry for this pitiful creature. It never occurred to her that the fairy didn’t want to follow Rainer; she only did because the power of her binding spell compelled her.

  “We can’t allow you to keep an eye on Callie,” Master Brown said. “Nor can I have you breach my ward.”

  “Oh, please, please don’t give me back to him,” the fairy said, pressing her hands against the barrier. “You’re a great sorcerer, right? You made this cage for me; surely you can break the spell on me. Please, I only want to be free!”

  Master Brown rubbed his chin. “I’m not as strong as a sorcerer. I can only break the binding spell if I have the box here, and only if I can find a way to break through it. I’m sorry.”

  The fairy made a sorrowful groan and sank to the bottom of the barrier, softening Callie’s heart further. “When’s the last time you saw Rainer?” Callie asked.

  “Yesterday,” the fairy said, wiping her eyes.

  “Did you also see my friend Sean? You must know who he is, right?”

  “Oh, that guy with light brown hair and brown eyes?”

  “Yes, that’s him! Is he okay? Is he … is he still alive?”

  The fairy’s hesitation made Callie’s heart skip a beat, but she eventually nodded and said he was.

  “Great! So where is he? In the Red Borough?”

  “Yes.”

  “What is the exact address?” Master Brown asked.

  “Um … Thirty-three Glover Street. He’s in the cellar.”

  Callie clasped her hands together, her heart a mixture of hope and fear. It was good that Sean was alive, but if he was being kept in a cellar by a sadistic murderer …

  “Will you let me go now?” the fairy asked. “I helped you, so it’s only fair that you help me. Please?”

  “I’m sorry, little one, but we can’t do that,” Master Brown said.

  “But why not?”

  “We need to confirm that you’re telling the truth,” Callie said. “It’d be no good if you lied to us.”

 
“No, Callie, we need to give her to the city guard,” Master Brown countered. “It’ll be up to them to look for Sean.”

  “No, please, I need to go back to my master,” the fairy said. “If I don’t see him tonight, he’ll punish me!”

  “Master Brown, maybe we should think about letting her go …”

  “We can’t look for Sean ourselves, and we can’t give the guard an address without explaining how we got it. If they learn that we let her go, they may charge us with abetting a criminal. We must turn her over.”

  The fairy turned to Callie with pleading eyes. Callie closed her own eyes and slowly nodded. “Okay. I guess we have no real choice. We’ll do what the law would have us.”

  The fairy protested in desperation as the house mage picked up the round barrier, and he and Callie headed for the nearest guard station. Callie hated herself a little for turning the fairy in, for the poor creature was as much a victim of Rainer’s as she herself was. But Master Brown was right: She couldn’t leave her post to look for Sean, and in the end, getting Sean back was what really mattered. And as long as the fairy was in the guard’s custody, she wouldn’t be able to spy on Callie and report her whereabouts back to Rainer.

  It was a win-win for her. She only wished the guard had a sorcerer who could break the fairy’s binding spell. They should, because there were few fates worse than having to serve that murderous bastard.

  She served her patrol shift with a lighter heart than she had in a long time, certain that Sean would return home soon. She didn’t quite know what she’d say to him or how he would regard her, but she would be sure to do right by him. It was the least she could do for the mess she got him into.

  She ended up telling her fellow guards of her little afternoon adventure, which got mixed reactions. Some were amazed while others were wary of her, not sure if she should remain at the house since she was drawing the attention of a powerful fairy and a brutal killer. She assured everyone that the killer would soon be captured and be a threat no longer, so there was nothing to worry about—in spite of the lingering doubts she herself had.

  Once her shift was over and she had a glass of warm milk, she retired to her room where her roommate was still out. Callie assumed she was on a date somewhere, having a dinner and dance with that blacksmith’s apprentice who drew her attention. Callie would say that she did her roommate better by nabbing a knight, but considering how she felt about Sir Barnes, she couldn’t say it with confidence.

  She wearily removed her shoulder guards in the dark, then turned a lantern switch to light it. As soon as she did, a ball of light suddenly appeared by her bedside table, and she yelped in fright. “What in the hell …?”

  “It’s only me,” the fairy said, sounding understandably resentful.

  “How did you get here? Why aren’t you at the guard station?”

  “You think that stupid barrier could hold me forever? I broke out of it.”

  Callie swallowed hard. “So why are you here?”

  “I told my master the guards were coming for him, and he sent me back to you.”

  “What? No, now he’ll kill Sean before he leaves!”

  The fairy shrugged. “Maybe. Anyway, I came to give you something. Consider it a message.” She gestured to a rolled-up cloth on the table.

  “What is that?”

  The fairy didn’t reply, only departed through the window which Callie then shut tight and locked. With her hopes suddenly dashed, she picked up the cloth with shaking fingers and set it by the lantern for a better look. She had some idea what was inside, but she didn’t want to think about it. Perhaps she should wait until morning to open it when she was rested, or perhaps she should toss it out and never think of it again. Whatever “message” Rainer had for her couldn’t be worth the heartache.

  It was a good rationalization, but for whatever reason she unfurled the cloth anyway, detecting a faint odor of rot. Once she spotted the contents, she gasped and put her hands over her mouth, her eyes glued to the cloth until tears flowed down her face. She then fell on her bed and sobbed uncontrollably, clutching her pillow in a death grip.

  Her cries drew in two maids from the hallway. Once the maids saw the cloth and its contents, they ran to get the guard chief and the count. Count Guyver seized the cloth and comforted Callie, relieving her of her duties tomorrow so she could grieve in peace. Then, after little debate, the count agreed to have the contents buried deep underground where a roaming animal wouldn’t find them.

  After all, what else could one do with blood-encrusted fingers and toes?

  Nyx soared above rooftops and hills, her gossamer wings nearly invisible in the speed of their rhythm. It was rare for a fairy to traverse through a human settlement these days, causing some people to mistake her for a shooting star in the night sky. She heard their wishes as fairies were wont to do, but she would rather spit on the wishers than grant them their hearts’ petty desires.

  She was glad to be away from that house with its magical ward that felt like slime all over her skin, but now she had to go to an even worse place. It mattered not whether she wanted to go; once her master gave her orders, she had to obey them. It was either do that or risk termination.

  All humans were horrid, corrupt beings in her eyes, but Rainer was among the most vile. The way he took such pleasure in plotting against others and slaying them made her wings wilt. Fairies may have been simpler creatures who were not as intelligent as humans, but at least they didn’t turn on their own kind. If betrayal and sadism were what intelligence wrought, then fairies definitely had the better end of the deal.

  And to think a man like Rainer apparently had the blessing of some mighty deity, whose magic kept his life intact when it should have expired a long time ago. Such a deity must truly despise humans to sustain one who inflicted such suffering … or perhaps this deity despised life itself and would make a champion of anyone who would destroy anything.

  Over Nyx crossed the city’s defensive wall, she lowered into the outlying forest, where she darted past tree trunks as fluidly as a fish in a current. A lone fairy had to be careful in a place like this, lest she be mistaken for food by an owl or amphibian. Hell, given her current mood, she almost wished a predator would strike at her, so she could obliterate it into a hot gooey mess. There was nothing in the binding spell against her killing something that wasn’t human.

  She soon came across Rainer, sitting by the campfire she’d made for him moments ago. He had laid by a pine tree his satchel and rucksack that contained all the things he could take with him on short notice. She came up to the fire to face him. “It has been done, master. I delivered it, and she was quite distraught to—”

  An icy needle of fear ran down her spine upon seeing the binding box, lying on a rock within her master’s reach. Was he going to put her away in hibernation, or …

  “Your job was simple,” Rainer said with his head down, warming his hands in the soothing heat. “Keep an eye on her. Don’t let her see you. How hard was that?”

  “It … it wasn’t so hard. I did it for months without being seen.”

  “True. You did good for a long time, so what changed?”

  Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, Nyx said in a small voice, “I peeked at her through her window. I wanted to see what dreams she had. She must have seen me.”

  “Is that the truth?”

  “Yes, master.”

  “You always look to the left whenever you fib, you know.”

  Nyx made to say something but stopped herself. Did she always do that and never noticed?

  “The truth. Now.”

  She took a deep breath and said, “I went into her room to look at her things because I was bored. She must have heard me without me knowing. And that was when that stupid sorcerer trapped me and gave me to the guard.” She winced, expecting her master to strike her with an open hand, but he merely he
ld his pose with his palms facing the fire. There, that wasn’t so bad. Maybe Rainer would prove to be kind and understanding for once.

  But then Rainer picked up his head and glared at her. “I can’t go back to the Red Borough anymore thanks to you. And thanks to you, I had to abandon that boy. I wasn’t done with him yet.”

  “I’m sorry, master.”

  “You’ve compromised me, Nyx, and you’ve made yourself a liability since everyone knows you now.”

  “I’m sorry, master.”

  “And I swear to bloody Micah, if you say you’re sorry one more time, I’ll give you something to really be sorry about!”

  She bit her lip and sadly nodded.

  Rainer sighed and shook his head. “Oh, Nyx, what am I to do with you? What is there for me to do?”

  “Oh, please, master, is there anything I can do to make it up to you? I can gather berries, kill and dress a deer, fetch you some warmer clothes … I’ll do anything.”

  Her lower lip began to quiver as she looked at him with pleading eyes. There had been times when he made her do awful things as punishment, such as sit still in a hornet’s nest and slowly dismember a sow until it bled out. But surely he could still prove merciful. He still had need of her even after she put him in a bad state; she could be useful in so many ways …

  But deep down, Nyx knew that Rainer had always hated her. He hated all fairies and only used one whenever he had the stomach for it. And tonight had been the last straw; she had failed and irritated him too many times for him to tolerate. He picked up the binding box, flipped a lid on one corner, and yanked on a small knob beneath, pulling out a square-shaped rod inscribed with runes. Exposed to the fresh air, the runes glowed with a soft blue light, activating a powerful spell. Before she could react, an electric current coursed through Nyx’ body, straightening her limbs and making her hair stand on end. The pain was unbearable, and she would have screamed if her teeth weren’t clamped shut. Her lovely gossamer wings disintegrated into nothing, and tendrils of smoke rose from the crackling electric bolts.