“I seem to recall a certain pirate,” Kele said.
“Oh, aye, and I’m not embarrassed by it.”
“Nor are we embarrassed to be musicians,” Simon replied.
They hunted – Thorin’s folk feasted on light Faery while Simon’s sought out the nearest Human village. When they were all sated they talked of times past, and Thorin told Flynn tales of Kele and one or two others from when they were not yet a band.
Flynn enjoyed Thorin immensely, not because of what he’d told about the others, but because he was an easy-going leader who didn’t concern himself with rank.
As the stars faded the Vampyres went to their lairs. The twelve were divided into rooms near one another. Thorin’s coven had rooms closer to the front of their dwelling under the roots of a tree in case of trouble, which they hoped wouldn’t come.
The next evening Simon’s coven was greeted by Thorin and his folk who had fingers to their lips.
“Artemis has been by with his followers. He said they heard you were preparing to leave and thought you might not bid him adieu.”
“What did you tell him?” Simon asked.
“I said you’d not come this way that I knew.”
“Does that not put you in danger?” Simon asked
“When was I one to cower from danger?” Thorin asked with a chuckle. “We have means of getting you away so you won’t appear to leave from here. You’re not averse to making your way through tunnels?”
“I’m not averse to anything that will help me avoid Artemis.”
Thorin patted him on the back. His beefy hand would have knocked Simon across the room if they’d been light Faeries.
“Gather your things and follow me. You’ll have to forego feeding for a while. I could offer you Faery fare, but I know you don’t partake.”
“Thank you, no. We can bear up the night if necessary.”
Thorin led them through tunnels that dipped, rose and twisted in all directions. He was unerring in his decisions on turns even though Shauna Faun, unused to such passages, was completely lost. It felt like hours that they walked through near darkness.
They finally reached an exit and could hear the sea. Thorin went out first to check that Artemis hadn’t sent his scouts ahead to the coast. He saw none of that coven and signaled for Shauna Faun to come out.
“Not your usual port, my friend, but that ship yonder,” he said, pointing to one at the end of the pier, “will take you to your homeland.”
After grateful farewells, they went out to the ship two at a time, Flynn and Caelen first, followed by Harry and Arwen some time later. While Humans couldn’t see them through the glamour, it made them look bright to other dark Faeries. If Artemis had sent spies, it would not do to have all twelve entering the ship in quick succession.
The others, over the course of two hours, had gone to the ship with their bundles. Simon and Zoe were last. Simon once again thanked Thorin for his hospitality and all of the trouble he’d gone to in safely getting the band away.
“Think nothing of it,” Thorin said. “There will come a time when I may need your help, and we’ll call it even. For now, take this. You may have need of it.” He pressed something wrapped in cloth into Simon’s hand. Simon could tell from the shape it was a wooden stake. He smothered a shudder, knowing that it might prove necessary to save his own life or the lives of his friends. He smiled grimly and nodded as he put it in his belt.
Simon and Zoe spread their wings and flitted out. The exit to the cave was hidden and they appeared to come from the wooded area a few hundred yards from the street that crossed in front of the busy dockyard.
Horses and carriages filled with Humans trundled down the street, and the two dark Faeries fluttered alongside a horse for a bit until they reached the loading dock. From there they wound their way among boxes of cargo. A few dozen feet and they’d be through a porthole.
Artemis and two of his guards, Glowdyn and Balthazar, dropped down in front of them, bringing them up short.
“So, Simon, not even a goodbye for an old friend?” Artemis asked, a malevolent grin dividing his face.
“Artemis, it is good to see you,” he said as they landed on a cargo box. Zoe kept close to Simon.
“So good that you went slinking off –”
“Indeed, no. Our touring took us well north, and it would’ve been extra journeying to return south. My coven is anxious to return home.”
Artemis grimaced. “You let your subjects dictate?”
Simon straightened. “They are not my subjects.”
“They swore no fealty to you?”
“They did, but what manner of fealty is not your concern.”
Artemis twitched his head, and the guards flitted toward Simon and Zoe. The two unfurled wings and flitted backward, landing on a different cargo box. Artemis and his guards were not glamoured. Still, three to two weren’t great odds, and dawn would soon arrive. Simon and Zoe hadn’t eaten, so their strength wouldn’t be as great.
As the two guards and Artemis all charged at Simon and Zoe, the Human sailors arrived to haul the boxes onto the ship. Unable to see Zoe and Simon, they saw only wings and tiny bodies of what they took to be three insects landing on the box. One sailor swatted at the three, knocking them halfway across the dockyard and barely missing the two invisible Faeries.
Simon and Zoe ducked down alongside the raised edge plank of the box and let the sailors carry them onto the ship to avoid Artemis and the others. It took Artemis and his guards a few moments to get up and orient themselves. Had they been paying attention they would have seen the sailors’ approach. As it was, Simon and Zoe had only barely managed to duck away from the Human swat.
As soon as they were near enough to the ship, they scuttled off the box and flitted away, ducking into dark spaces in search of their friends.
“Simon!” Calana called. It took him a moment to locate her and then he and Zoe dashed toward where she waited. “We expected you before now. It’s nearly dawn.”
“We were delayed,” he said, and the three of them went to where the others had made a secure resting space.
Once they were settled, Simon explained what had happened.
“He won’t board the ship. It leaves in the morning,” Calana said.
“Let’s hope.”
“He needs to go to ground. It’s nearly dawn. He can’t look for us now.”
“We can’t depend on the idea that he won’t follow. He thinks he’s far superior to all of us as well as to Humans.”
“Didn’t he embarrass himself by a Human having the best of him?” Kele asked.
“You know he won’t take the blame for that. For now we must rest. Time enough to think tomorrow.”
The voyage home was faster, but more treacherous, the more northerly route subject to fierce storms.
The first night they were cautious, traveling in fours, two to keep watch while the other two fed. They fed as quickly as they could. They were hungry from not eating the night before, but they couldn’t risk being caught if Artemis was on the ship.
By the third night they began to think they were safe, but they continued to feed in fours. It might take Artemis time to find them in the large Human ship.
Harry came racing back after a venture out to get some air. His look was fearful.
“What is it?” Simon asked.
“I saw one of Artemis’s thugs,” he said.
Simon closed his eyes, his worst fear realized. “Did he see you?”
“No. He was looking out to sea.”
“You’re sure it was one of them?”
“Yes. I remember him from the dinner. I think his name is Balthazar. At the banquet, he never left Artemis’s side.”
Simon nodded. “So, he followed us. I wonder that he’d leave his kingdom.”
“Perhaps he only sent his henchmen.”
“It would be the most likely, but we can’t depend on that.”
There would be no singing on this journey, no lights
off the bow of the ship. They would have to be wary.
“Someone stays with Flynn at all times,” Simon said.
“Caelen is with him always.”
“Caelen is in love. Someone less emotionally bound. We would do well to be in fours always as a precaution. Four more days of this journey and we’ll be in our own land. He might be foolish enough to send them, but we have the advantage then. If Artemis is not with them, they may have orders to slay us or die. It wouldn’t be worth their lives to return with any of us still alive.”
“So, it’s to be our deaths or theirs?” Harry asked.
“It’s the only way, I’m afraid,” Simon replied. “We must be careful. We don’t know whether it’s just the two or if Artemis is with them.”
“You don’t suppose,” Harry asked, “that there are more of them?”
“Artemis probably didn’t plan on being thwarted. I think their boarding the ship was a last minute idea. They thought to catch us long before the port. But Artemis is prideful and thinks he could best any one of us. He doesn’t respect me as a leader. He thinks I’m weak. And if I know his mind, he’ll want all of the men killed and all of the women who are too resistant. But he’ll want Flynn captured. He hasn’t forgotten that Flynn spoke out of turn and he’d take delight in punishing him and enslaving him. Flynn would beg for sunlight before Artemis was satisfied.”
“I don’t think Flynn needs to know that,” Harry said.
“He’ll not hear it from my lips,” Simon replied. “It does no one any good to hear speculation when we’re not even sure how large an enemy we have.”
Even without Flynn being told of Simon’s suspicions, he was too frightened to leave the cupboard except to feed. He only did that because the others convinced him they’d need everyone’s strength if a battle ensued.
The four remaining nights felt endless to Flynn. At least he had Caeli by his side.
Simon and Harry searched along with Zoe and Arwen. They suspected the enemy, unused to traveling across the sea, would lack knowledge of some of the hiding places a ship could provide their kind. They hoped it would make them easier to find. If Artemis were with them he might have knowledge they did not.
A few times they thought they saw Artemis’s men. They were never together, but Simon and Zoe knew them and could make sure Harry and Arwen knew the faces.
The henchmen managed to keep their distance and disappear before any of Shauna Faun could come close enough for an attack. It appeared they wanted to take the members of Simon’s coven by surprise; otherwise, they wouldn’t engage in a fight.
The final night Shauna Faun brought their gear near the porthole and glamoured it so the Humans wouldn’t see it. They waited together, anxious to be away on their own territory. The ship would come into port in the dark and when the Humans awoke in the morning, they’d see they were docked safely and be on their way. The Faeries would be long gone by then.
As the ship came to port, the coven took their gear and started out the port hole.
The first two out were grabbed. Simon saw them jerk out of sight, and handed his things off to Zoe. He signaled for Harry to do the same.
“Leave from the other side of the ship,” he told the others as he went out the porthole. Harry followed closely.
Arwen and Kele were struggling, but the attackers had them from behind and were attempting to bind them. Simon wore the stake Thorin had given him on his belt. He reached and brought it out, holding it sword-like at Kele’s attacker. He held the point against Balthazar’s throat.
“Let him go or you’ll be broken to dust,” Simon commanded.
“You won’t. You’re a weak lot of players.”
He edged the point slightly into the skin. Balthazar hesitated. He had Kele against the ship. If he moved, Kele might go free.
Kele used the hesitation to push his feet against the ship, forcing his body against Balthazar, pushing him. Balthazar twisted to try to regain his advantage, and impaled his neck on the stake. There was a pop and the Vampyre fell to dust in the harbor.
Simon turned his attention to Glowdyn, who had Arwen. Harry had already fashioned a noose out of his belt. He held Glowdyn like one holding a dog on a leash. Still, the fool would not release Arwen. Seeing Simon and Kele coming toward him, he knew he had no chance.
“Go ahead, kill me. I’ll break her neck before you make your stab.”
“Oh, no,” Simon said. I’ll not stab you. That would be better than you deserve.”
Harry pulled the noose tighter, and Kele grabbed Arwen. Only as he did so did he see the dagger Glowdyn held. It was, he saw, silver. Glowdyn slashed Arwen’s shoulder as he was pulled away. She fell against Kele, unable to help herself as her blood flowed freely. He flitted off with her, leaving Simon and Harry to deal with the rogue.
Harry saw the blood and angrily jerked the noose tighter. It wouldn’t kill the Vampyre, but it would cause him pain.
“Who else are there besides you and Balthazar?” Simon demanded, wrenching the knife from Glowdyn’s hand.
“None.”
“Artemis isn’t with you?”
“If he were you’d all be dead! He couldn’t leave his kingdom this long.”
“And he sent only two to capture twelve?”
“Kill. We were all he had with him. We thought to find you in Thorin’s camp.”
“Why would you think we were with him?”
“Artemis suspected you’d try to avoid him.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t.”
Despite the tightness of the noose, he managed a laugh.
“Right,” Simon said, nodding his head toward the mast.
“No – please.”
“Would you rather we sent you back to Artemis?”
His eyes showed terror, but there was also calculation in them. He wanted the chance to escape.
Harry and Simon brought him to the main sail mast and secured him to the rope.
“You can’t do this. Kill me now. Don’t leave me like this!”
“Sorry,” Simon replied, “even if I were to take pity, Arwen is Harry’s mate. She’ll be scarred forever because of the silver knife. You didn’t need to carry out Artemis’s mission. You could’ve asked us for clemency.”
“You’d betray me to Artemis.”
“If we were that sort, would we have avoided him in the first place? You could’ve had a life. You only needed to ask. You’ve chosen this.”
Simon and Harry flitted away. They had to get to ground before sunrise. Zoe waited for them on the shore.
“How is Arwen?” Harry asked.
“She’s being tended. Come. I’ll take you to the others.”
Not far off from the harbor was a field. They had found a rabbit hole near some bushes. It appeared to be abandoned. All the same, they glamoured one section of it and made basic arrangements for the day. Harry went to Arwen where she rested.
“She’ll heal,” Fiona said, “but she’ll be weak for a day or two. Come, find your resting places,” she said and went off to her own. Harry stayed with Arwen, and the others rested where they could.
As the sun rose, there was a scream that came from the ship. No Human would have heard it, but surrounding insects went silent in the din. Then a tiny puff of smoke came off the rope as the Vampyre met his end in the harsh glare of the morning sun, no more than a fuzzy seedling flying off the ship, the evaporation of dew off the mast lines: a moment and it was gone.
26
The next evening they made a makeshift stretcher for Arwen, and four of the Faeries carried her toward their home while the others went off to feed. Harry was among those who went to feed, and he returned with a goblet of blood he’d collected for Arwen. Once she drank, she looked immediately better, and the wound finished its healing. She would have a scar forever, but it could be hidden easily by clothes.
Four others took their turn with the stretcher while the first four went off to feed. By th
e time they returned, Arwen insisted she was well enough to fly on her own.
“Flynn, you’re of the Mercifuls. Is she well enough?” Harry asked.
“I’m not a doctor.”
“But you know more of it than we do.”
He examined the wound. “It looks healed. If she feels up to it she should try.”
Arwen smiled at him, and they went on their way, all of them anxious to be home.
An hour before dawn they reached the cave. Although it had been sealed against intruders, Simon and Aranck made a thorough search of it before the others went inside. Once everything was declared secure, the others wandered about inside like new home buyers, looking at everything as if it were new. Then they took themselves to their lairs. Flynn and Caelen shared a lair.
Life for the Vampyres quickly returned to normal. Weary from nearly a year of touring as well as avoiding Artemis, they worked on writing new music and planning for Flynn and Caelen’s joining ceremony, which would occur at winter solstice.
Flynn thought of the wedding and lamented the fact that his family – his light Faery family – could not attend. When he thought of how delighted he was to be part of Shauna Faun, and how wonderful Caelen was, his disappointment was only momentary.
The weeks seemed to fly by from Samhain to solstice with clothes fittings for the couple and music rehearsals for all. This year Shauna Faun was giving a concert on solstice after the fires were relit, so the light Faery community was as excited as the dark.
On solstice the dark Faeries arose and hunted. Then they dressed the couple in their new finery, royal blue trews and jacket over a white shirt for Flynn, with new black leather shoes and white hose, and a pink and cream handkerchief-hem dress with cream satin shoes for Caelen. Then they went to the dip in the land near the grove where the light Faery were gathered, the same place Simon had turned Flynn.
Simon didn’t arrive with the others, and only Harry and Zoe knew where he’d gone. They kept their own counsel. Simon went to see Flynn’s family who were all gathered in the grove for the solstice celebration, just as he’d found them a year earlier. He approached and Mr. Whitethorn saw him.
“Simon! I had heard your band was gone.”
Dark Faery II: The Mercifuls (DarkFaery Book 2) Page 12
