Faerie

by Jenna Grey

  “You’ll be out of here in no time, Lily. Just hold it together a bit longer,” she said. “You’re doing great girl.”

  She managed to get another brick out before the opening was entirely underwater, and water torrented in now, rising steadily, inch by inch. It rose around her in a gushing swell and she soon found herself up to her armpits in water. Within seconds her feet weren’t touching the floor any more and she was being forced to tread water. She kept treading water, slowly rising higher and higher up to the top, keeping as far away as she could from the carcass that kept trying to bump her.

  She looked up and saw that she was literally just a few feet short from being able to climb over the top. She could do this, she could actually do this. She felt an overwhelming mixture of hope and relief, she suddenly realised that the water wasn’t rising any more – it must have been finding a way back out somewhere and had reached its limit. After five minutes it still hadn’t risen any more. But she was so near the top – just a bit further and she could have scrambled out. She was as far away from escape as she had been at the bottom of the well. She frantically searched around the sides to see if there were any footholds she could use to climb out, but the sides were sheer, there was no way she was climbing out of there.

  She looked across at the cow, and felt a renewed surge of hope. If she could climb up on top of it, it would raise her up those last few feet and she might just be able to scramble over the edge. She tried to hoist herself up onto it, but felt her hands and feet sinking into the rotting carcass. Her arms disappeared up to the elbow in suppurating flesh and she let out a gurgle of disgust. She couldn’t get a foothold. But if she gave in, she would die. That was wonderful motivation. As she tried to pull herself up onto it, the huge bulk undulated, half submerging, struggling to stay afloat, held up mainly by the gasses that bloated its belly. She finally managed to clamber her way up onto it, so tired and cold now that the world began to fade in and out of focus. She steadied herself against the wall, shivering so hard that she almost lost her footing. She just wanted to lie down and sleep, just rest for a little while and get her breath back. How she managed to get herself on top of that dead creature she had no idea, but she looked down and found herself standing on it, bracing herself against the wall. Even standing on tiptoe, she was still a couple of feet short of being able to hoist herself out of there. All of that had been for nothing. She was still going to die. The cow corpse began to shift beneath her, her foot sinking into the body cavity, and she almost toppled. She struggled to regain her footing, but felt herself slipping.

  “Lily!”

  She looked up and saw the hand reaching down to her.

  She let out a prayer of thanks and grasped it; strong arms pulling her up, yanking her up over the edge and dropping her onto the grass.

  Connor.

  She just lay there, trembling, trying to quiet her panicked breathing. Connor knelt down beside her and she threw herself into his arms.

  “I heard you,” he said, “You are okay?”

  Lily was still shaking violently, her teeth chattering, cold to the bone, stinking and nauseous.

  “I’m okay, but it would have been nice if you’d got here half an hour ago,” she said, laughing through her tears. She pulled back and looked into his deeply troubled face. “Oh, Connor, how did you get out? They’ll be looking for you.”

  He shook his head and smiled at her.

  “It is... okay. Minnie let... me out.” He spoke haltingly, struggling still, the words almost choking him, but compared to how he was before, it was almost a miracle.

  Lily saw an image of Connor willing Minnie to let him out, and she did it with blank but cheerful compliance; she was such a fragile creature it was so easy to control her. Lily reached up and smeared the filth from her face and felt a sharp sting as her fingers touched the cut on her cheek. She pulled her fingers away, sticky with her blood.

  “You are hurt,” he said, gently touching her cheek. She winced, but within a heart beat the pain had gone and she could actually feel her flesh healing.

  “Another party trick. I can give healing, but nothing like that,” she said. “You seem so much better. You’re like a different person.”

  “It’s much... better,” he said, smiling a wonderful smile at her. “Now we... must get... you home.”

  Lily knew she was in deep shock, none of this was really registering with her, and the new Connor was simply adding to the unreality. Was she dreaming this, or was it all some cruel illusion and she was still down there in that terrible place, hallucinating and dying from shock and exposure.

  “Are you real? I can’t tell any more,” she asked.

  He pulled a lump of muck soaked hair from across her mouth.

  “I am real. You... are safe.”

  “You shouldn’t be here. You’re going to get into terrible trouble.”

  He put his fingers to her lips to silence her.

  “Stop talking,” he ordered, still smiling.

  He helped her to her feet and she almost collapsed again. Connor lifted her up into his arms and carried her. Lilly pressed close against him, still shivering in his arms.

  Lily looked around as they walked, to see if she could work out where they were, but they just seemed to be in the middle of open countryside, miles from anywhere. It brought home to her the fact that even if she could have got the gag off to call out, no-one would have heard her.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “Far from home.”

  Lily realised that she must be getting very heavy in his arms. He didn’t say anything, but he stumbled a couple of times and his jaw had tightened as he strained to support her weight for so many long minutes.

  “You can put me down. I can walk now.”

  “You are sure?”

  “Only one way to find out,” Lily said, forcing out a little laugh. Connor put her down and she stood shakily. Her legs were numb with cold, but she began to walk, unsteady but functioning, and Connor slipped his arm around her so that she could snuggle underneath, warmed a little by his body. Lily could see dim lights in the distance, which she presumed was Little Ostrey.

  “You seem to be able to deal with the Shadow People so much better than I can,” Lily said, her face buried against his shoulder. “I don’t even know what happened back there. Did someone hit me?”

  “Yes, one of the... girls.”

  He sounded more sad than angry or afraid.

  She understood. She picked up more from his thoughts than his words. The girls belonged to the Black King now, and they would be forced to do his bidding any time he willed it. She would never have wished that on anyone.

  “Oh, God, I feel so bad about that. Is there any way we can stop him using them?”

  “We can kill them,” he said, and Lily looked up to see if he was joking. He wasn’t.

  It took them some time to get back home, and Lily felt a little better by the time they got there. Lily opened her front door with trembling hands and turned to Connor.

  “Will you be all right getting back?” she asked.

  He nodded her a smile.

  “He is afraid of me.”

  And Lily knew that was the truth.

  “I wish he was bloody well afraid of me,” she said. She started laughing then, sounding slightly hysterical, and trying to smother it. “Would you like to come in for a coffee?” It was so ludicrous, so utterly ridiculous, and she just couldn’t stop laughing, partly from relief and partly from the sheer absurdity of the situation. Connor looked rather puzzled, the humour obviously lost on him; she tipped her face up to his.

  “I must go back,” he said.

  “Yes, you must, go back.” He bent forward to kiss her and she put her hand up to stop him. “Trust me, you do not want to kiss me. I stink of sick.”

  He gave a puzzled little frown, and totally ignored her, pressing his mouth to hers. Then he pulled back, grimacing.

  “Yes...you do,” he said, and laughed. He tip
ped his head forwards and bumped foreheads with her. “I love you.”

  She thought she had misheard for a moment and then it registered.

  “I love you too,” she whispered back, and turned to open the door.

  Chapter Twelve.

  Lily was disgustingly filthy, stinking of every kind of vileness, her mouth a cess pit. Like it or not she had to go and take a shower and clean her teeth. She didn’t think she had much to worry about from Claire. She had long since taken a trip to Neverland and wouldn’t be stirring until morning. Once inside the front door, Lily stood for a few moments in the hall, calming herself. In front of her was a long flight of darkened stairs to the first floor landing, and now she knew what lurked in the shadows. She had to keep reminding herself that they couldn’t touch her – that was why they had resorted to using possessed humans to attack her. All she had to do was to walk through that darkness and ignore them – there was nothing they could do to hurt her. She only wished she really believed that. That creature had poured itself into her and shown her visions of Hell, and if she closed her eyes, she could still see the charred remains of humanity and feel her flesh melting from her bones. That had hurt her.

  She drew in a deep breath and made her way up the stairs, just staring straight ahead and forcing herself not to look into the shadows. She reached the first floor landing unscathed, straining her ears to see if she could hear movement from any of the bedrooms. Claire was snoring loudly, but she could hear nothing from Kieran’s room. He was probably asleep. The hall lay in silent darkness.

  ‘Okay you fuckers, do your worst,’ she said to herself, as she made her way along it and into the bathroom.

  She undressed, peeling the sodden and clinging mess of clothing from her, and letting it slop to the floor. She was still shivering. She looked down and realised that her charm bag was gone. The bastard seemed to have thought of everything, but she wasn’t foolish enough not to have made a spare charm for herself.

  She looked at herself in the mirror, she was covered in the vilest filth; her mouth tasted like a cess pit and her hair was matted with the most dreadful things. She got into the shower and scrubbed herself clean, the water scalding her flesh. She didn’t care, she just needed to get this filth off her, free herself from the stench of death.

  It was so good to get clean – she’d scrubbed herself into a bright shiny fey again and felt so much better for it. Once back in her bedroom, tucked up in bed, everything that had happened that night almost seemed like a dream, but the cuts and scratches over her arms, and the red ring of raw flesh around her wrists where the flex cuffs had cut into her, betrayed the truth. She should have asked Connor to sort those out for her as well; they would be gone by morning, anyway. There was no way she could even think of sleep, even though she was impossibly tired, so she switched on her bedside light, comforted by its golden glow, got out her Fairy Tales from Many Lands, by Katharine Pyle, and began to read to while away the time.

  THERE was once a poor woman who had one son, a little boy so fat and round, and with such bright yellow hair that he was called Buttercup...

  Lily immediately thought of Gary and she felt a terrible wave of misery and guilt sweep over her. So much had been going on, she had almost forgotten Gary. How could she? In all of this, he was the real victim, because there was no going back for him...

  Despite her best efforts to stay awake Lily found herself dozing; she hadn’t realised quite how tired she was; the trauma she’d been through tonight, the energy she had used creating curses and ointments, calling Hecate and escaping from the well had finally taken its toll. No-one could keep using up energy and power like that without some payback. She felt her eyelids getting heavy and she finally slipped into sleep.

  The dream was a strange one, but she felt no threat from it. She was in Otherworld, or so she thought. Above her was a soft golden light, the kind of light that you only found in Elphame, bright like sunlight, but not quite real somehow. Below her was a paved mosaic floor, but it was covered with the russet tones, red – golds and yellow of fallen leaves, and there was the smell of old wood and dry forest in the air. She looked down and realised that she was in her nightdress, and she giggled. Winnie the Pooh, somehow seemed so incongruous here. She walked barefoot through the rustling leaves, looking for some sign of life.

  “Hello, is there anyone here?”

  A noise, just a whisper of sound and she turned to stare at the woman.

  She was quite beautiful, lithe and shapely, with blonde, waist length hair and green eyes. Lily knew instantly that this was the same woman that had come to their house to deliver that cryptic note, not a tart by any stretch of the imagination, but voluptuously beautiful. She wore a floor length emerald green dress, fey made, heavy with the lush bead-work that the Shee loved so much; it clung to the generous curves of her body, falling in heavy folds around her legs.

  “Welcome.” she said, still smiling, holding out both of her hands to Lily in greeting.

  “Am I dreaming or is this real?” Lily asked, moving a few steps forwards, but still keeping her distance.

  “It depends what you mean by real. Are you here? Yes, of course you are, but your body is back in your bed, waiting for very unwanted company.”

  Lily took another cautious step forwards, trying to sense this woman’s intentions. She tentatively reached out with her mind, trying to read this creature’s thoughts, but got nothing back. All she knew as that she was fey and, if her looks didn’t belie her, than she was a member of the Seelie Court – one of Lily’s kin. Lily suddenly felt quite ridiculous standing next to this beautiful goddess – a dowdy and graceless creature, dressed in a silly nightie.

  “You left me that note, and wrote the message on the wall? Why?” Lily asked, her voice a little more waspish than she’d intended. The woman gave a rather unpleasant huff of a laugh and turned her back on Lily, taking a few paces away from her, as if she’d been mortally offended by Lily’s remark. She stopped and snapped back around, an unmistakable look of annoyance in her eyes. Oh, she was fey all right, no-one but a fey could take offence that quickly.

  “Why do you think? Do you think I would help you in order to do you harm?” the woman asked, and there was no doubt she was pissed at Lily for questioning her motives.

  Lily almost apologised, but closed her mouth over the ‘sorry’, that had been resting on her lips.

  “I didn’t ask you to bring me here and I am sick to death of people playing games with me. People, good people, are being hurt and murdered by this creature and I want to know what you have to do with all of this. Why are you helping me?”

  Lily had expected the woman to be angry with her, but instead her shoulders dropped just a little and she let out a sigh, her face softening.

  “I was the one that brought you through to this world and left you with the witch. I’ve been watching over you your whole life. I’m helping you because you are very dear to me.”

  She smiled then and it was like watching the sun breaking through clouds to brighten up the whole world. Lily wanted to believe her, but she’d suffered so much, been tricked so often, she just couldn’t believe anything any more.

  “With due respect you haven’t been helping me very much. People are dying, I’m being terrorised... attacked, and I was...was... raped by that creature. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I don’t think much of your help.”

  The woman lowered her face and Lily could feel her deep unhappiness. When she looked up there were tears in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, truly I am. I’ve done what I can for you and Connor.”

  Lily gave a weak smile of apology.

  “You haven’t even told me your name. How can I trust someone whose name I don’t even know?”

  “Virginia, my name is Virginia. I’m not trying to hide anything from you. There are things you don’t understand.”

  Lily knew that her name, at least, was the truth, and her sadness was genuine enough.

  “
Like what? Why just leave stupid notes, why not give us some practical help, advice? Something... You came to my house, why not just come back another time and talk to me, explain things to me? Warn me at least.”

  Lily didn’t even bother to try and moderate her tone, but then she saw the first tear spill over Virginia’s eyelid and relented.

  “Come and sit with me,” Virginia said, moving towards the low stone bench, festooned with deep velvet cushions. She sank back into it and patted the seat for Lily to join her. Lily did, perching uncomfortably on the edge.