by Phil Parker
I felt better for unburdening myself, I felt lighter somehow.
‘And Oisin, now you’ve seen what’s happening first hand, you can use your powerful talent as a storyteller to persuade the Light Court to remain neutral.’
‘Please, Rob, there has to be another way. They’ll kill you.’
‘I’m still a Trooping Fairy. My life is worth nothing.’
His eyes darted across my face as though searching for something.
‘You’re serious aren’t you?’
Now I’d shared with him what had been lingering in my head for so long I looked at his anxious, beautiful face and smiled, took one hand and squeezed it.
‘I’ve had enough Oisin. I live amongst people with the lifespan of a fruit fly. I have little in common with them, they judge me for who I am. I’m an outcast in both realms.’
Suddenly his lips were on mine, hot and exciting. His arms held me tightly and for a moment I wanted to give in to the sensations flooding my body.
Instead I pushed him away.
‘We’ve got an early start in the morning.’
I turned over and waited to hear his breathing slow. It didn’t, not for the longest time. I stared into the darkness of the shack where a family had lived, a family now dead or, at best, their children would now be in another world.
Oisin was a poet and storyteller. He couldn’t understand what it meant to be a soldier and, despite everything, that was what I still was. I’d tried to run away from facing that truth. There was so much darkness in this world, if I could remove its immediate threat, in the form of Llyr, then I might be able to bring a little light into it. I smiled at the irony. Mankind had always portrayed me as a demon, and they weren’t so wrong about that label. I needed to kill, it was what I’d been trained to do. Llyr would be my last victim. It was fitting because by removing him, others could live. I was a Trooping Fairy, an elite warrior of the Fae, pledged to protect others and obliged to die in the process.
It was an obligation I’d avoided for far too long.
Chapter 14
Adrenalin thrummed through my veins, I had never felt so alive. We crouched behind a large rhododendron bush and peeked out to examine the comings and goings of the manor house in front of us. It wasn’t palatial, despite Lord Taranis’ wealth, he used it mainly as a hunting lodge I’d been told. It was probably why security was so lax, a fact that made our rescue so tempting. I was a princess of the Light Court, breaking into the home of someone so powerful risked not just imprisonment but political embarrassment for my family, their punishment would be even worse.
A couple of boggarts had stomped past the front entrance a few minutes before and now lounged against a garden wall, rather than continue their designated path of duty.
‘Why aren’t they moving?’ Clodagh hissed impatiently. ‘The guards on the inside will be monitoring the front entrance if they hang around much longer.’
She fidgeted with the strap of her hat constantly, a nervous habit she’d adopted the moment she put on her disguise. She looked ludicrous, though she’d been quick to point out I didn’t look any better. We wore the overalls of laundry servants, which I’d acquired the day before, they were dirty and smelled of sweat but that made them all the more realistic. We’d decided to wear large brimmed hats to hide our faces, laundry girls were known for such affectations, anything to retain some degree of femininity with the overalls.
‘Give them a minute, they’ll move.’
I spoke like I had a detailed knowledge of boggart behaviour, it was more of an expression of hope.
Midir rolled his eyes and shook his head, a gesture I chose to let slip. My big brother’s willingness to join in our adventure had been difficult to obtain, I’d only achieved it by threatening to tell two young women in the Court that he was screwing both of them. I’d hoped to avoid needing to use any man but I had to concede that if things went wrong, we might need some muscle and Midir had plenty of that.
Seconds later the boggarts proved me right, they picked up their spears, stretched their short arms and ambled off on their stumpy little legs. They didn’t possess a serious threat to anyone who could handle a weapon, which discounted Clodagh and me, though I’d noticed Midir had a knife sheathed in his belt.
We sprinted across the drive, feet crunching on the gravel and pushed open the heavy main doors. Inside was a surprisingly small hall, thankfully unsupervised, a corridor led deeper into the house.
‘In here!’ I hissed at the others.
A thick curtain hid a small cloakroom and we concealed ourselves behind it briefly and listened for the thud of approaching boggart boots. The place was exactly as my source had told me, a young steward called Tighe who’d worked here and who, I knew, was attracted to me. I pitied the poor man if his taste in women meant he thought me pretty, I’d decided his charm was probably more a reflection of his ambition.
The lack of any patrolling boggarts allowed us to slip out from our hidey-hole and sprint down the corridor. The place appeared deserted. According to my reliable informant Tighe, Taranis was at home in his castle and had no plans for hunting today so his retinue would be with him. Nonetheless, we silently ran along the stone-slabbed corridor with its oak panels that made the place look dreary and dark, this really was a depressing place to live and it triggered even more sympathy for the woman we were hoping to rescue.
We arrived at two staircases. One led down, to the servants’ quarters and the cellar, the other was wider and grander, lined with portraits of Taranis’ stern-looking ancestors. Clodagh glanced at me nervously as she hurried towards the narrow staircase with her pannier filled with old shirts and crystals which looked like soap powder but had a very different purpose. Midir and I scurried upstairs to the first-floor suites.
We reached the top, paused to listen for any guards and, reassured we were safe, made our way along the wide passageway. There were doors to bedrooms on either side, each of the closed.
‘Are you sure she’ll be in a bedroom, if she’s being kept prisoner?’ Midir whispered as he carefully opened the first door, and peered inside and closed it again.
I did the same on the other side of the passageway. Inside all the furniture was covered with dustsheets and looked like it hadn’t been used in a long while.
‘I told you,’ I sighed. Midir had to doubt everything I told him for some reason. He’d always been the same, even as children. ‘Taranis has put out the story that he’s looking after Sibeal because she’s been taken ill.’
Another bedroom, just as empty and unused as the previous one.
‘Tighe told me Sibeal was brought here in a coach, she was unconscious. I think Taranis decided to abduct her while Llyr was in the human realm. He had the same idea as me.’
Midir didn’t react to that fact and I wondered if I was being spectacularly paranoid. Sibeal’s refusal to develop Llyr’s dragon-breeding programme had led to her imprisonment, I couldn’t see why Taranis would interfere. I checked inside another bedroom, it was empty. Something in the back of my mind niggled like an itch, Taranis and Llyr weren’t close, certainly not allies, which meant there had to be another reason for spiriting Sibeal away at the opportunity Llyr’s absence offered. I couldn’t work what it might be and I didn’t like not having answers, especially when I was risking so much.
We heard the boggart guards long before we saw them, their heavy-footed march hammered on the wooden floor. We hid in a linen closet half way along the passageway and kept the door ajar. Half minute later we heard the snorted conversation of two boggarts as they drew closer, to stop directly outside our door. My pounding heart almost skipped a beat. They sniffed the air, boggarts are known for their keen sense of smell and I tensed. In the dim light I saw Midir’s hand reach for his knife, I shook my head to discourage him, his knife wasn’t that big and boggarts could inflict serious damage with their huge tusks. He shook his head in return and glared at me, he wanted to be the hero. This was why I’d hesitated about bringin
g him along but then I doubted I’d be able to escape if they did open the door, they’d block it easily.
There was more sniffing but then I relaxed. Their interests lay in the smells from the kitchen downstairs, they were more preoccupied in working out how they could get there before the rest of their comrades. They marched towards the staircase with purpose.
Back in the passageway again I felt a slight movement of air, which told me Clodagh had done her job. I turned to Midir, busy opening another bedroom door.
‘The ventilation system has been turned on,’ I said.
He nodded and reached inside his shirt to pull out his mask and placed it carefully over his mouth and nose.
‘Hardly seems worth it, knocking out a handful of boggarts , I could have done that easily.’
He didn’t see my ironic smile behind my own mask. How typical of a man to want to use violence to solve our problem.
‘And that would have made this look like an attack.’ I’d explained all this but it represented another example of not listening to your sister. ‘We have to avoid any connection between the Light Court and Sibeal’s disappearance. By using the sleeping gas no one will know who was involved. This is the subtle method.’
‘Still say my way is faster.’
It was typical of my brother to refuse to listen. From the stories that reached me, his seduction of women lacked any subtlety too.
Downstairs I heard a couple of heavy thumps, I guessed our guards were finding sleep irresistible. We hurriedly peeked into each bedroom, aware we had little time before our Clodagh’s chemical concoction wore off. I opened the door of the last bedroom at the end of the passage and gasped through my mask. Our rescue mission had just turned a lot more complicated. It explained why Sibeal’s arrival had required a coach and a stretcher.
The woman lay on a bed, surrounded by medical equipment, there were tubes connected to her wrists and a mask over her mouth, like the one we wore. It meant when we drew closer her eyes were still open, though a little unfocused. A nurse lay on the floor, unconscious, a notepad next to her. I picked it up and read it. I didn’t understand everything but I didn’t need to be a doctor to know what they were doing.
They were experimenting on this woman.
Midir stood over her, held her hand in his and spoke softly, telling her she was going to be all right, he was going to rescue her.
‘I don’t think she’ll understand you,’ I said, ‘the things they’re pumping into her…’
Midir shook his head. ‘She can. She’s looking at me now and she’s just squeezed my hand. I think she’s trying to speak.’
He went to lift her mask.
‘Don’t! She’ll inhale the sleeping gas.’
He nodded, taking his free hand away quickly. He bent down, placed an ear close to the mask then shook his head.
‘Can’t tell what she’s saying. We need to get her out of here.’
He started to pull the pipes out of her arm then noticed the woman wince, I pushed him out of the way.
‘Midir! Stop! We don’t know if it’s safe to move her.’
He looked at me, big blue eyes widening in concern over his mask, then at the woman on the bed. He shook his head.
‘We can’t leave her here, Filidea. It isn’t right. Whatever they’re doing, it’s wrong.’
Neither of us knew that for certain but in every normal way, the woman looked healthy. There were no apparent injuries, she had a good colour, a check of her pulse showed it was slow but nothing to worry about. Clodagh, breathlessly, ran into the room and halted instantly, just as we’d done.
‘What have they done to the poor woman?’
She performed similar checks to mine. The only difference this time was in Sibeal’s eyes, they held ours as we bent over her and I could see her jaw working. I leaned over to hear what she said. Her voice was little more than a whisper but her message was clear enough. She wanted to escape. It was reason enough. I pointed at the notepad by the side of the nurse’s sleeping form
‘Bring it with us Clodagh, it will help us find out what they’ve been doing.’
Delicately, carefully, I removed the pipes connected to Sibeal’s veins. Midir picked her up and cradled her in his arms, with ease. He’d proved useful after all, in her condition I had no idea how we’d have escaped with her otherwise. He looked into her face with a huge, beaming smile that conveyed assurance but I knew my brother, despite her condition, he saw something more. Sibeal was an attractive woman, blonde curls and cornflower blue eyes, just like Oisin. I’d never seen my brother so chivalrous and I knew why.
We hurried along the corridor and down the staircase, out the front door after checking there were no more guards patrolling the perimeter of the house. Midir didn’t appear to struggle as we ran through the gardens, along the narrow track where we’d hidden the horses. We’d anticipated Sibeal would be able to ride and I looked at my brother anxiously. He shrugged his impressive shoulders.
‘I’ll hold her in place on my horse, you take the reins of the spare one.’
‘Will you be able to hold her and ride?’ I asked.
I got a withering look and decided not to underestimate my brother’s skill where horses and women were concerned. We trotted along the track until it brought us to the junction with the road to the manor house. Our plan had been to appear as though we were four people out for a casual ride, Sibeal’s nightwear and semi-conscious state in wrecked that idea.
‘We can’t go to my rooms at the palace,’ I said.
Anxiety was making my heart rate increase again, this time the adrenalin was caused by the unravelling of our plans. I felt proud of my detailed plans and preparations, I thought I’d considered every possibility. Rescuing a semi-conscious woman hadn’t been one of them. I liked to be in control, I didn’t cope with unpredictability and suddenly that was what confronted me.
Midir was the opposite, he shrugged and grinned at me. ‘Don’t worry little sister. Your big brother has the answer. Good thing you brought me along eh?’
I didn’t like his patronising tone but he was right and we both knew it. I swallowed my pride and waited for his solution.
‘I have a small cottage not too far away, we’ll go there.’
This was new to me. ‘What cottage?’
He gave me a wolfish grin. ‘Just a place I keep to entertain certain guests.’
I rolled my eyes, I should have known. ‘Women.’
‘Married ones usually. It’s more discreet that way.’
We took off. I’d started to invent stories to explain our situation when we met other travellers but none of them sounded credible so I was glad when we didn’t stay on the road for very long. Midir took us through a rickety farm gate and across a couple of meadows, through a wood filled with the sounds of birds and then along a cart track that took us into a valley where a narrow stream gurgled through it. It was a rural idyll, complete with rustic cottage which I realised was an old, sadly neglected mill as we got closer. Its wheel was rotten and didn’t move, the guttering was filled with grass and the roof looked like a strong wind would dislodge it. I glanced at my brother in mild derision. As usual he gave a shrug and grinned.
‘It serves its purpose,’ he said.
We offered to help Sibeal into the cottage but Midir was having none of it, somehow he slid gracefully down from his horse without disturbing the woman in his arms and strode through its doorway. He placed her on a chaise lounge, the main item in what was otherwise a sparsely furnished room, I was in no doubt about its usual purpose.
Despite the journey our patient looked more alert and healthier. Clodagh brought her a glass of water and we sat on the floor and waited for her to speak, Midir sat close to her, still holding her hand.
‘Thank you,’ she said a little hoarsely after we’d introduced ourselves. ‘I thought my life was coming to an end.’
Gradually, she found it easier to string sentences together and to concentrate, so she could explain. She
told us how she’d argued with Llyr after discovering the real purpose of his dragon breeding programme, how he’d tried to steal her research. When she released her wyverns, animals that had been her particular favourites, he’d lost his temper and had her hauled off to a room in the Dark Court’s palace. She’d remained there for some time, she wasn’t sure how long but then she ate food which, she realised afterwards, had a drug in it that made her sleep. She’d woken up in the manor house with Taranis sat in front of her. He’d questioned her repeatedly about her findings from her programme, something which confused her, he’d never been interested in her research. Not directly at least. His interests turned out to be like mine.
‘He’s investigating genetics, the same as me,’ I said.
The woman looked at me, those piercing blue eyes were full of intelligence I could tell, despite the drugs. She’d come to a swift conclusion.
‘Is that why you rescued me?’
I nodded, without realising why she’d asked. She became more guarded suddenly, glancing at Clodagh and then Midir, her eyes remaining on him for a few seconds longer than was necessary. My brother grinned at her and she blushed.
Suddenly her concerns made sense.
‘Don’t worry, I’m not trying to steal your research, I’m not like Llyr and Taranis. Clodagh and I have our own findings, we think we can achieve more by working alongside you.’
I outlined some of the conclusions we’d formed, I wanted her to trust us, as I spoke her eyes widened considerably.
‘Are you scientists?’
I chuckled at the compliment. ‘No. We’re enjoy researching in the palace library and came across some theories we thought had merit. But we needed an expert to take us beyond the amalgamation of theories.’
She grinned before stifling a yawn.
‘Taranis was experimenting on you, wasn’t he?’ I asked.
She gave a heavy sigh, it was obvious she was tiring quickly. ‘Yes.’ She was struggling. ‘He violated me.’
Clodagh and I both clamped our hands over our mouths to stop ourselves from reacting the way our hearts and minds demanded. She spoke the words objectively, as a declaration of fact and without emotion. It gave her strength. She marshalled her energy.
