by Jory Strong
Deidra followed him, nearly gagging at the rank smell of offal and blood and burning flesh.
Even knowing what to expect, the hair along Deidra’s neck and spine lifted at seeing the three hags. They wore lowcut black gowns that had long splits in the sides. From the knees down, their legs were those of a boar. From the knees up, they might have passed for human and according to myth, could for short periods of time.
But without glamour, their mouths were larger than human mouths, and instead of short canine teeth, theirs hooked outward like tusks. A slash of those teeth would open arteries and create geysers of hot blood, though their magic would keep their prey’s heart pumping until they were drained dry.
Two black-haired hags huddled in the background next to a cook fire. They were much thinner than the silver-haired woman who sat on a throne of human bones.
Their gazes held the hungry look of beings whose bellies were never full. One of them tended a spitted rabbit above the flame. The fur had been burned away and the fire sizzled as dripping fat hit the burning wood.
Perched on stands toward the back of the cave were two golden eagles. They were hooded, and sitting between their legs, where sharp talons gripped rough branches, were fey beings called riders. They were dryad, their skin like that of tree bark, and their hair the texture of springtime leaves.
One, a female, had red, Autumn-colored leaves as hair. The other had Summer-colored green hair. Around their necks, a thin strand of the baoban’s silvery hair kept them enslaved.
Revulsion shuddered through Deidra. It was an abomination to do this to a pair of riders. Even the Sidhe would never consider imprisoning this type of fey, believing it a privilege to attract any of the dryad to their kingdom.
The hag on the throne snapped her fingers and the hag who wasn’t tending the spit cut away one of the rabbit’s back legs. She placed it on a plate that had once been a human shoulder blade and, saliva leaking from the corners of her mouth, carried the plate to the throne.
The baoban on the throne lifted the leg and took a bite of meat that was bloody and mostly raw. Little grunting sounds escaped as she chewed. And after stripping most of the meat from the bone, she set what remained of the leg back on the plate.
A steady stream of drool dripped downward onto the swell of the plate holder’s abundant breasts. Her gaze was locked on the meal.
“Mistress,” she whispered, more saliva escaping with the entreaty.
The hag on the throne ignored her. “Have you failed me?” she asked Tobik.
His eyes darted to longer spits resting along the cave’s wall. “No…no mistress. The artifact is here! We almost had it but one of the IRE dragons appeared. Before we could attack again, clan members encircled both the dragon and the fey hound in possession of the artifact. They portaled away, coming here. I can feel the artifact. It’s like a beacon now that it’s been returned to this realm. We can retrieve it.”
“We? The only thing that spares you from ending up on my dinner plate is the alliance you brought me.”
The hag’s gaze fell on Deidra, searching for fear but Deidra suppressed it by remembering how close she’d been to victory. Next time Kellen wouldn’t escape.
“Does Tobik speak the truth?” the hag said.
“Yes. I was seconds away from possessing the artifact, seconds, when the dragon interfered and then a portal opened and Kellen was pulled into this realm.”
The hag licked grease from her fingers. “I can feel a human presence rippling alongside the magic, and occasionally the breeze torments me with the scent of favored prey. Did you know the grigs returned earlier with a human female?”
Deidra fisted the silvery braid and said, “I’ll happily feed her to you.”
“Oh, yes. We’d both like that, wouldn’t we? You may call me Herrica.” She lifted the rabbit leg, grunted as she stripped the remaining meat and ate it, then cracked the bone and sucked away the marrow.
When she was finished, she tossed the leg to the floor near the fire. The other two hags lunged for it, in a shiver of magic giving up their human forms to become boars.
Adrenaline flooded Deidra’s system, accompanying the shock of discovering that an already dangerous being was even deadlier. She’d never heard it said that the baoban sith could take another form, though the histories featuring them were ancient by fey standards.
The boars pushed and shoved, using their foreheads and bodies rather than tusks to determine who would come away with the prize. They became human again, and it was the one who’d been tending the spit who won the battle. She turned her back to the loser and greedily crunched and sucked the silver-haired hag’s leavings.
Herrica tapped her fingernails against the bone throne. “There is magic enough in this realm for you to take your hound form?”
“Yes.”
“Then you will slip into the grig’s territory and spy on them. Find out what form the artifact has taken and what they intend to do with it.” Her gaze dipped to the braid clenched in Deidra’s hand. “Keep it, use it if the opportunity presents itself, but return with information or the artifact. Fail to uphold your part of the bargain…”
She snapped her fingers and the drooling, black-haired hag now tending the spit carved the rabbit’s remaining back leg from the carcass, causing flames to leap and sizzle.
The hag put the meal on a scapula plate and carried it to Herrica. Herrica said, “Go.”
Deidra left the cave. Under the night sky, she inhaled deeply but it took distance and several more breaths to rid herself of the stink of the baoban sith.
She shuddered, the adrenaline that had flooded her system only slowly leaving. She let go of the human form and lifted her nose to scent the air. The smell of apples reached her. Grigs.
She made the connection then, understood the rancid combination that marked Tobik’s scent—apples and baoban stench—the smell of magic corrupted, the stink of a traitor. He wore no hair collar because he’d ingested Herrica’s blood.
Deidra broke into a ground-eating lope. And as she ran she imagined finding the human female alone and ripping out her throat. If the opportunity arose, the baoban would have to be satisfied with a carcass.
She didn’t stop running until she came across the first magical trap. It was set several feet into an orchard of apples.
Compared to those set in other fey realms it was nothing, a snare that would catch its victims and force them to look into a mirror created by dew. But it must have been effective against the baoban.
There was evidence that at some time in the past, one of the hags had been caught. Strands of black hung from branches and clung to tree trunks as if the caught hag had shrieked and ripped at her own hair.
Deidra skirted the trap, her sense of smell allowing her to avoid others just like it, as well as magicked spots that would have warned the grigs of her presence.
The orchard grew denser. Other creatures also hunted among the fallen leaves and apples.
To her left a rabbit’s scream ended abruptly. High above, a gout of flame was followed by the crash of something through foliage.
A mouse hit the ground in front of her. She stopped, nudged its charred body with her paw, cooled the unexpected meal by flipping it several times and pressing it to the ground.
She gobbled it down then crept forward as Kellen’s scent reached her, along with the smell of human female and sex.
Silently snarling, Deidra came to the place where he’d fucked the human. The scent was fresh, as if she’d only missed encountering them by a few minutes.
Saliva dripped from her mouth and onto the ground. He would pay for this by watching the human die. And if he’d mated the pathetic weakling, all the better—he would suffer the agony of her loss without gaining the escape of death that was respite in the mortal world.
She crept forward, following Kellen’s scent. The smell of apples intensified with each step, accompanied by that of burning wood and roasted nuts.
Keen hearing b
rought the sound of conversation. She crouched lower, slowed her pace to avoid being discovered, and finally stopped when she could easily make out what was being said.
* * *
Hand-in-hand, Analia and Kellen sat down in a place that was opened for them along the campfire circle. Her face was heated and flushed, not from the fire but from the knowing glances—and the smirk worn by Crew, who was a quarter of a circle away.
To her right, Kellen muttered, “Your turn is coming,” and the dragon visibly shuddered while her heart fluttered and her gaze flew to Kellen’s face because that sounded like he meant to stay in her life.
Hope actually sent ache streaking through her chest. And she gripped that hope tightly.
She expected Gellawin to demand the charm in Kellen’s possession but instead the elder said, “We’re a people who go a-wandering. Many, many centuries ago, perhaps twenty of them by a human’s reckoning, one of us fell in love with a sorceress named Edea while visiting the human world. She convinced him to bring her back to this realm, where they lived for a while.
“Nizzo was totally besotted by Edea, and she seemed to be equally in love, despite his changed appearance in this world. As you’ve glimpsed, in the human world we can glamour ourselves with magic. We can be short or tall, fat or thin, and more attractive or less.”
The pop-pop-pop of roasting nuts halted the story. After the nuts were collected and put in a bowl, one of the female elders took up the tale, saying, “Our magic comes from the land. It seeps into the water and ultimately ends up in the sacred lake. Edea convinced Nizzo to remove a piece of crystal from the rock lining the cliff above the lake.”
Around the circle, children crawled into their parents’ laps and received a comforting hug. Gellawin resumed the story. “If Edea and Nizzo had been caught, they would have been banished forever, and the crystal returned to the sacred lake. But they found a way to hide the crystal so no one in the clan knew they possessed the sacred artifact. Time passed and then one day, Edea told Nizzo that she needed to return to the human world to see to her elderly family members. Back then, the human realm was one of vast tracts of lands with clustered settlements of people. It was a place of constant battles and ever-changing rulers. In those days it was also a place where supernaturals hunted in a way they can no longer do. She told him that if they split the crystal into two parts, then they would always be able to find each other, and that perhaps being in possession of a piece of the crystal would give her added protection in the mortal world.”
The bowl of freshly roasted nuts reached Gellawin. He took the bowl and another of the elders, an old man with a fringe of gray hair around a gleaming bald head, continued the tale.
“By then, she’d given birth to a son, my ancestor. The human realm was a dangerous place, and she was able to convince Nizzo that it would be better if he remained in the grig realm with their son. Understanding what it meant to have a duty toward clan and family, Nizzo couldn’t forbid Edea from returning home to care for the elderly. So between them, they split the crystal they’d taken from the sacred lake into two pieces.”
Furgil took the tree-shaped charm he’d stolen from Analia’s apartment out of his pocket.
Next to Analia, Kellen gave a low growl and her gaze hurried to his, silently asking him to forgive her for not telling him about the charms.
“You can make it up to me, later,” he said, the sensual heat in his voice and eyes chasing away worry with anticipated pleasure.
Furgil passed the charm to the right. It went clan member by clan member, each of them touching it, even the tiniest infant.
It traveled the full circle, returning to the young grig whose earnestness had made it easy for Analia to forgive the trespass. He sent the charm back around the circle, though this time it remained with the elder who reminded Analia of a monk.
The elder said, “She must have been a sorceress of some skill in the human world, and that power was greatly amplified by the crystal. She crafted two charms that could be kept close without being discovered by other clan members. Only those of us descended from Nizzo and Edea, and the clan elders, have known what form those charms took, though any grig in proximity to the crystal would recognize its source. My ancestor suspected nothing, but soon after the creation of the charms, it was Edea’s night to do the honors at the fire circle.”
A flick of his hand indicated the women tending to the feast and the old man who was in charge of the bowls. “She slipped an herb into the bowl with the honeyed seasoning. Then everyone, man, woman, and child fell into a deep sleep around the fire circle.”
Analia hugged her knees to her chest, and heard the low growl in Kellen’s throat at learning of the treachery that had left so many people vulnerable to attack. She shivered, imagining how easily infants and toddlers could have died.
Kellen placed an arm around her. Leaned in and brushed his lips against her hair, sending heated comfort to chase away horrified chill.
The monk-like grig continued, “Edea took both charms and left. She didn’t have the ability to create a portal, so she used her head start to escape our realm on foot. Trackers followed her path, then followed rumors of her passing through different territories until she reached a portal realm. It seemed likely that she’d found her way back to the human world. But she never returned to her family, never sent wealth or helped to ease their struggles. The grigs watched them, and as they aged, my ancestors—including the son she’d abandoned—took care of feeble elders and saw to their burials.”
He glanced down, turned the tree-shaped charm over and over in his hand. “In the human world, the two crystal charms probably allowed her to use glamour to appear irresistibly beautiful. She would have easily gained wealth and the kind of power humans have always sought. Clan members hunted for decades, chasing one rumor after another, but never catching Edea. More decades passed, and as the first century mark was reached, the tale of Nizzo and Edea became a story from the distant past.”
He looked up from his study of the charm. Gellawin resumed the tale. “More time passed. The grig no longer searched for the crystal taken from the sacred lake, but when we went a-traveling, we listened for word of the artifacts. And eventually, word came of sorcerers hunting in every corner of the human world for two pieces of luminescent green crystal that when reunited and fit together would bring whoever possessed them great power. It was also said that among those searching were the descendants of the woman who’d created the mysterious artifacts, and they were desperate to break the cycle of bad luck that had befallen them since losing the crystals.”
Analia gasped, drawing everyone’s attention. “When I first saw the old man at the supernatural fair, I thought he’d lived a life of hardship.”
“He was in possession of both charms?” Gellawin asked.
“Yes. He said the charm had picked me—at the time I didn’t know there were two of them—and I thought it was probably a clever sales pitch. When I asked him how he knew the charm wanted to be mine, he said it had picked me to see it home. And that his family had a connection to the charm that went back generations.”
Kellen leaned forward. “Are the charms sentient?”
The grig who looked like a monk glanced at the tree-shaped charm in his hand. His thumb stroked along a branch covered in tiny symbols. “It’s possible the spells worked on the crystal pieces created a connection to Edea and her descendants. Or, perhaps she altered and added to those spells once she was in the human world.”
Furgil blurted, “What about the magic being able to shift between pieces when it felt threatened? You didn’t tell us to expect that, Dugald. It fled the moment I picked up the charm from among Analia’s collection.”
The young grig shot an apologetic glance her way. And she forgave him with a smile.
Dugald turned the tree-shaped charm over in his hand. “Something changed it in the human world. The shape of the charm has been correctly passed from generation to generation, but it is no longer the pur
e green of the sacred lake’s crystal wall.”
Analia released her knees so they were no longer pulled to her chest. She cupped her hand around Kellen’s muscular thigh, and he covered it with his, earning them both an eyeroll from Crew.
“The old man warned me not to wear both charms at the same time. He must have known, or guessed, the magic could shift between the apple and the tree.” She glanced at Kellen. “I bet that’s why you couldn’t sense very much magic.”
He nodded. “It’s also why the charm fell away from your wrist when you were attacked, and just before we stepped through the gate at the astrologist’s house.”
A twinge of pain in her chest had her looking away from Kellen and remembering his accusation after the astrologist’s reading. He cupped her chin and forced her gaze back to his. “Forgive me?”
“Now I’m going to be sick,” Crew muttered.
“Forgiven,” she murmured, turning back to the grigs around the fire circle. “Who is your enemy and why do they want the charms?”
The gathered grigs shivered and Analia saw parents hug their children more tightly. “It’s dangerous to say their names,” Gwendolen piped up, reminding Analia of the warning the small girl had received earlier.
Analia nodded, acknowledging the warning. “What is safe to tell us?”
“One of us is working with them,” Gwendolen said, outrage in her young voice. “He was banished so he’d learn a lesson. Only instead of learning a lesson, he joined them.”
Next to her, Kellen stiffened. “Is he capable of creating a portal?”
Many of the adults nodded. Gellawin said, “That is part of the reason why our enemies want the charms. With the help of the shamed one—Tobik—and by drawing magic from the crystals, they will be able to glamour themselves and go to the human world to feast. But more importantly, they will be able to bring humans to this world—humans who can be used to hunt us as a source of meat, as well as humans who can be used for…” He glanced at several of the young children and continued, “Used to create more of our enemy, though they might also trap other fey for the task of impregnation.”
