Nellie shrugged. “What I discovered while going through this forest with Lily was to keep going straight. Focus on keeping straight. It will seem like you are going in circles and everything will look the same, but you are making progress, I believe. That is what worked for me.”
They had no choice but to continue on toward the trees. They walked through the forest, passing ancient, dark oaks with sprawling branches, and the much younger, white-barked birch trees.
Nellie almost fell off her horse as Poppy suddenly stopped in her tracks. “What is it?” Nellie asked, urging Poppy to continue forward, but the horse’s legs seemed stuck in place. Cerin had also stopped and shifted uneasily from foot to foot.
“That’s odd,” Adam remarked, jumping off from Cerin. “What is it, lad?” he asked the horse. “Why are you spooked?”
“Do you think they sense something?”
Adam raised an eyebrow at Nellie. “Like a fairy?” he asked skeptically. “I don’t think…”
“Help me!”
“Did you hear that?” he whispered to Nellie, who nodded back at him, eyes wide as saucers.
“It came from my right,” Nellie told him as she slid from Poppy and made her way over to the source of the voice.
Adam followed her. “Not so fast, Nellie. What if it’s a trap of some kind?”
“I don’t think it’s anything malevolent,” she said, although she wasn’t certain why she knew that.
“Aye, I’m not a bad fairy, like my cousins from the Unseelie Court,” the voice said.
“You heard that, too, right?” Adam hissed at her.
“Shh…” Nellie put her finger to her lips and tiptoed closer to the voice as it continued.
“Well, I will admit I like to play some tricks on travelers as they go through my forest, but that is because it gets ever so borin’ in here. Not a lot of travelers come an’ go through this neck of the woods, you see. I got so excited when I heard you guys comin’ that I got ahead of myself. I tripped and fell, and this big rock—well, maybe not so big to you—rolled over my wing! It doesn’t hurt so much, but it’s verra uncomfortable. An’ itchy. There’s an itch I need to scratch but I can’t now, thanks to this rock.”
Nellie spotted the rock. The size was about twice that of her head. As she walked around it, sure enough, a small fairy lay on his back. He was a miniature man dressed in a tunic that looked to be made of leaves, with tiny green shoes to match. His hair was verdant as spring grass and his ears were pointed at the tips. A portion of his iridescent wing lay trapped underneath the rock as he looked up at her helplessly.
“Oh, hullo, bonny lass,” he said cheerfully, waving tiny fingers at her. “Are you the one who is goin’ to help me today?”
“I suppose I am,” she told the fairy. She glanced up at Adam, who had finally discovered the fairy and was staring at the creature with his mouth hanging open.
Well, do you believe in fairies now? she wondered bemusedly as she lifted the rock off the poor little thing.
The fairy rolled away from the rock once his wing was freed and stretched his limbs like he’d just woken up. Then, he took his wing with one hand and scratched it vigorously.
“Ah, that is much, much better. Thank you verra much!” he exclaimed, holding out his right hand. Without thinking, Nellie extended her own hand. Three of her fingers fit in his palm as he lowered his head and kissed the back of them. “M’lady,” he murmured.
“Nellie, stand back,” Adam warned.
“Oh, it’s quite all right,” Nellie assured him, charmed and somewhat amused by the little fairy.
“Ah, you must be the jealous lover,” the fairy said. “Worry not. I have no interest in human women. Selkie women, on the other hand…” He fanned himself with one hand. “That is a whole different matter. Have you ever seen a selkie?”
“I have not,” Nellie admitted.
“Me neither,” he said sadly. “I’ve only heard tell of their beauty. However, I don’t believe it would ever work out, as I cannot swim in the slightest.”
Nellie couldn’t help but laugh at the fairy’s lament. “Maybe you can learn someday,” she reassured him.
“Nope, cannot,” he said sullenly. “If I go underwater for a long period of time, my wings will dissipate. I would rather not sacrifice my ability to fly.”
“Indeed, that sounds terrible,” Nellie said, trying to empathize with the fairy. “Er… what are you, if it is not so rude for me to ask? I haven’t met many fairies in my life, but I know there are many types.”
“Oh, how rude of me, not you!” the fairy cried, giving them a small, polite bow. “My name is Bhreac. I am a pixie from the Seelie Court. I served as an advisor to the Fairy Queen, although the queen sent me here in this forest because she said I was too gratin’ on her ears. Do you find me gratin’?”
Adam snorted. Nellie elbowed him gently in the ribs for him to stay quiet. “Oh, that is very unfortunate for you! No, of course I don’t find you grating at all. You are, in fact, quite charming. I am Nellie, and this is Adam.”
The pixie blushed. “Oh, thank you very much,” he said earnestly. “I am in your debt, you know, since you saved my poor little life. Let me know what it is you desire an’ I will do my very best to grant it for you. Although, to be honest, my magic is not so great. Indeed, the queen said I was a… disappointment.” He lowered his head like a dejected puppy.
Nellie wasn’t quite sure she wanted a fairy to be indebted to her, friendly or not. “Just tell us if we’re heading in the right direction to Burrach Castle.”
“Burrach Castle? Brrr…” Bhreac shuddered. “There has been some dark magic brewing around that place. That is for certain.”
“What do you know about it?” Adam asked him.
“It’s Unseelie magic. Pure evil. Brrr…” He rubbed his hands up and down his arms and shook his head. “I saw the leannan sith head through the forest in that direction. She made the plants and the trees die all around her. She was beautiful, but probably not as beautiful as a selkie.”
“Did you speak to this leannan sith?,” Nellie asked. “Did you see who it was?”
“Nay,” the pixie said sheepishly. “I hid. Yes, I did. I hid like a coward. That is how I tripped an’ this rock fell on me. But I think I’m more courageous now than back then.”
Nellie gaped at him. “Back then? You mean fifteen years ago?” The pixie nodded. “You’ve been trapped here for that long?” she exclaimed. “I thought you said we scared you.”
“Aye, well…” The fairy blushed. “I didn’t want to say how long I was here. It’s a bit embarrassin’, really.”
“Well, the curse at Burrach is gone now,” Nellie told him, although his words still made her feel uneasy. “The curse is broken. It has been for a while yet.”
“I still wouldn’t go there, if I were you. But then again…” he sighed. “I’m sorry, I lied to you. I’m not very courageous. Not at all. However, you two seem to be. If I can’t persuade you to not go, then have a care. I like you two. I like all humans, but I especially like you two, you know.”
“Thank you,” Nellie said. Knowing that Bhreac forgot about her initial question, she then gently asked: “Now, would you kindly give us directions out of this forest?”
“Oh, yes, of course. Just keep headin’ that way,” he pointed in one direction with a tiny finger. “Don’t stop. Just keep walkin’, and if you do that, it’ll lead you out of the forest in no time. Just promise me one thing?”
“What’s that?” Nellie asked, although she could see Adam shake his head warningly out of the corner of her eye.
“Come back to visit me,” Bhreac said shyly, “after you are done with your duties at Burrach Castle. I would ever so love that. It gets so lonely in this forest, you know. The birds don’t like me so much. But I think that’s because I steal all of their bugs and worms to eat for myself.”
Nellie swallowed her revulsion at the thought. “Well,” she said pleasantly, her voice a bit highe
r-pitched than usual. “We’ll be on our way. Take care, Bhreac.”
Before the pixie could say another word, Adam took her by the arm and led her back to their horses. “I thought he would never shut his mouth,” he whispered to her as they rode through the forest in the direction Bhreac indicated.
“He was a talkative one and no mistake,” Nellie said, laughing. “You were very quiet, however. I figured you would’ve told him to shut his mouth after the first sentence or two.”
“I was in shock,” Adam admitted. “I still am. I didn’t think they were real. I didn’t…” he shook his head. “I don’t know what to say.”
“He saw a leannan sith head towards Burrach Castle. He was talking about when Una came to enchant my father and lay a curse on my family. Adam, it’s real. It’s all real.”
Adam didn’t respond. She wanted to press him more about Una, but knew that it perhaps wasn’t a good time.
He will come to, in time, she reasoned. I hope.
“I was surprised that he was a benevolent fairy,” Nellie remarked after walking in silence for a while. “I had assumed, based on my experience with the leannan sith, that all fairies were evil and hated humanity. I was very much wrong about that.”
“I still don’t trust the creature,” Adam said morosely. “Are you sure this is the right way out of here?”
Bhreac, however, was correct in his directions out of the forest. In the now clear landscape, Nellie and Adam shielded their eyes from the sun as they glanced about to find their bearings.
“We are in my lands now,” Nellie said. “I believe it started with the forest, but I will need to look at my father’s old map. There,” she pointed to road that was almost unidentifiable with the amount of loose stones and overgrown grass that covered it. “This road leads straight to the castle. I couldn’t see much of it when I escaped because of the snow.
“This road doesn’t lead to Dunaid,” Adam observed.
Nellie nodded. “There was never a direct road toward your castle. Perhaps my father planned to build one at some point, before… before things changed. I believe this road leads through some villages still in my father’s estate, and eventually stops at McNill’s lands,” she told him.
They continued their journey, walking past abandoned houses and farmsteads that had sat vacant for almost twenty years. Where in Scotia did these families live now? Would they ever return if a laird or lady sat in the halls of Burrach Castle yet again, this time without a curse for them to fear?
When the sun was high above their heads, warming them through their layers of clothes, they finally made it to Burrach Castle. The only traces that there had been a terrible snowstorm were some fallen trees and a fast-flowing river that trailed down the hillside, where it eventually emptied into the Firth of Lorne.
The sun caught the branches of her parent’s oak tree and turned the bark into a brilliant deep brown. Nellie’s eyes traveled down the great oak trunk to the upturned earth that entombed her parent’s bodies. Her eyes immediately filled with tears as she directed Poppy over to the tree. She stopped in front of the grave and heard Adam approach quietly behind her.
“I didn’t think this would affect me so much,” Nellie said, wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her dress.
Adam rested a hand on her shoulder. “I hope this is suitable for you. I didn’t know how you wanted their graves to be marked, so I left it up to you.”
“Worry not. This is perfect,” Nellie said to him. She dismounted her horse and walked over to the graves. Kneeling, she pressed her hands on the mound. “I’m happy they get to rest next to each other,” she said.
She then got up and tore off a branch from the oak tree. She broke the branch in half, and took a ribbon out of her hair, letting her hair fall free past her shoulders. Fastening the two pieces of wood together, she made a cross and staked it deep into the earth.
“That shall suffice for now, until I find a stone and engrave their names upon it.”
Adam dismounted Cerin and sat down next to her. Without thinking, she leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. He welcomed her into an embrace by wrapping his arm gently around her waist.
“I thought—for whatever reason—I would never see Burrach again,” she told him.
“Well, this is your castle now,” Adam remarked. “You’re free to come and go as you wish. Although, I would take care to avoid that annoyin’ pixie.”
“Aye,” Nellie agreed, laughing. “However, I have no desire to go back to living at Burrach now. I will give it to my children when they are old enough.” She looked up at Adam in mute wonder after she said this. If they were to be married, then her children would be Adam’s as well. His children would be the heirs of both Dunaid and Burrach.
Adam, however, seemed to take no notice. He was looking up at the sky and frowning. Nellie, too, looked up and noticed a cluster of ominous grey clouds that was hastily being pushed toward them by an increasingly gusty wind.
“A storm?” Nellie asked, pulling her breacan closer to her as the wind’s chill cut through her clothing. The clouds quickly obscured the sun.
“It looks like it. It’s too warm for it to be snow, but it still looks threatening.”
Just as he said that, the wind began to pick up with intensity, weaving through the trees, creating an ocean-like sound that made Nellie shiver. A few drops of water landed on her head and shoulders.
“What luck,” Nellie said dryly. She held out her hands, palms up, to catch the moisture. “Hopefully, this will be the worst of it.”
She spoke too soon. Pebble-sized hail started to fall from the sky, a few here and there, but soon, enough fell to sting her skin through her clothes. She wrapped her breacan over her head.
“Perhaps this place is still cursed,” she remarked drily.
“You can’t blame everything on the supernatural,” Adam said. “Let’s get inside.”
After making sure their horses were taken care of in the stables with enough of the food that Adam was wise enough to bring with them, they ran for cover into Burrach Castle.
Being back inside the castle was a surreal feeling for Nellie. She half-expected her mother and father to come out from behind a corner and welcome her home, like she had only been away on a short trip. However, there was not a soul in the castle save for perhaps a few rats and spiders. It was cold enough that their breath made cloud puffs in the air.
“Do you know where the firewood is kept?” Adam asked her.
Nellie pointed to a staircase leading down to the lower levels of the castle. “Down in the cellar,” she told him. “Although I am not certain you will find anything dry. We were never able to fix the leak that ruined our food supply.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
As Adam went down into the cellar, Nellie walked into the great hall, noticing first the empty beds by the fireplace. Adam must’ve buried her parents in the sheets and breacan that covered them. Not wanting Adam to worry for her, she took that moment to let her tears fall and to let all the grief she’d been holding back during her stay in Dunaid to release. She sat on her parents’ bed and sobbed into her hands as she mourned her loss, her parent’s loss, and the grief Adam and his family went through. The release was cathartic.
By the time Adam returned with a pile of wood in his arms, Nellie had recovered, but perhaps knowing that she still needed some space, he said nothing as he tended to the fire. Nellie brushed the cobwebs off a window and looked out.
“It’s getting worse,” she told Adam as the hail began to pile up like a thin layer of snow on the earth.
“It’s probably best if we stay here tonight,” Adam told her. He then cursed under his breath. “You’re right, this wood is horribly damp.”
“Here.” Nellie took a wooden chair that was leaning against the wall and dragged it over to him. “Break this apart and use it as firewood.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I have no need for it,” she insisted.
“If I need to refurnish this castle someday, then I will. But I will not freeze to death when there is perfectly good wood to use. Use as many as you’d like.”
“Verra well.” Adam went back downstairs, then came back with an ax and used it to chop the chair into pieces of wood to feed the fire. Soon enough, the fire came to life and they both huddled around it with their hands outstretched to catch the heat.
“I didn’t think to bring enough food,” Nellie said. “Just a few dried fruits and meat. I expect that since you were so prepared for the horses, you prepared enough for us?” she asked hopefully, a bit in jest.
“Unfortunately, not so much,” Adam replied. “But together, we should have enough to stave off hunger until tomorrow. Hopefully, by mornin’, this storm will blow over an’ we will head out once the sun breaks.”
They laid out their food on Nellie’s breacan and rationed it out between them. They ate in silence, staring at the flames. When they were finished, Adam fished something out of his bag and pulled out a water skin.
“Something tells me there isn’t water in there,” Nellie observed.
“How shrewd you are,” Adam gave her a wry smile. “It’s just a bit of mead to warm ourselves up a bit more.”
They passed the drink between themselves. Soon, Nellie’s body became warm and her mind less inhibited. She shifted her body around so that she could lay her head on Adam’s lap as he leaned against the side of the bed.
“You are very comfortable,” Nellie told him and giggled.
“I will take that as a compliment an’ not an indicator of any lack of muscles.”
“Oh, no,” Nellie insisted. “You are… very much muscular.” She giggled again.
“How very charmin’ of you,” Adam said, smiling. “You are ever so endearin’ when you’ve had a bit to drink. Aye, you’re endearin’ even when you don’t drink.”
“Why don’t you just say you like being around me, then?”
“Ach, fine. I do, lass. I do like bein’ around you verra much.”
“Well, I like being around you as well,” Nellie announced and giggled again.
Lady Nellie Page 14
