“I need to get the unicorn out of there,” Adren said. “But this idiot spell could act out at any moment, and if Iraem notices me, she’ll try to manipulate the unicorn and I don’t want to have to deal with that.”
“You’re doing that thing again. The one where you tell me things. Why are you telling me things?”
Adren glared. “Less questioning. More helping.”
“You might find a barrier useful,” said Denyeh.
Both Nadin and Adren jumped at her voice. She was crouched behind a stall, scrutinizing Loram.
“Why are you there?”
“There are fairies invading and a commotion in the marketplace. Where else would I be?”
Adren gestured at the entire rest of the town.
“Nadin!” yelled Loram. Iraem, illusion shed, had almost got back to her feet. The unicorn danced back from her, panic rising.
“Me?”
“What do you have in your pockets?”
He pulled out some more items Loram had had on her cart. She nodded, and a purple blast shot from Nadin’s hand at Iraem.
“Nadin!” cried Adren.
“It wasn’t me!” he said.
Iraem raised a hand. The blast parted, covering the stalls behind her in sparks. It didn’t hit the unicorn, but it had come close, and Adren couldn’t seem to quiet the unicorn with her own emotions.
“You may want to know,” said Denyeh as Loram lunged at Iraem, “that that fairy just sent a message to the others. They’ll be here soon. I can make a barrier that will keep us safe as we get out of here.”
“You called the soldiers on us,” said Adren. “How do I know you really want to help?” Would it be possible for her to sneak up to the unicorn without being caught up in Loram’s and Iraem’s fight?
“Did you not hear a word I just said? The other fairies are coming. All of them. The only way you’ll be safe from them if they get here before you can leave is with my help.”
“She’s right, Adren,” said Nadin. “None of the fairies could get past her barrier at the prison.”
Adren took stock. A panicking unicorn, two angry fairies, Nadin, and herself. And all of them except one fairy needed to escape in the barrier. Even if Denyeh called the soldiers again later, they would be up against a formidable force. Adren liked those odds.
“We’ll need everyone here in the barrier except the one that called the other fairies. Can you do that?”
Denyeh looked startled. “I can make one big enough, but I’ll have to start it around the fairy or else she won’t be able to get in. Then the rest of us will have to get inside.”
Adren nodded. Only a little longer, she tried to communicate to the unicorn. Stay put for just a little longer.
Iraem had fallen again, but Loram kept her distance this time and yelled at her instead. Illusion stopped Adren from being able to hear it so, as Denyeh started her enchantment, Adren leaned over to Nadin.
“What’s she saying?” she asked in a low tone.
“She’s mad at Iraem for something.” He paused. “It’s all that funny talk. I’m having a hard time following.”
“That ‘funny talk’ is the dialect of magical creatures. What’s she saying?”
“Sorry.” Nadin flushed. “Uh…” He scrunched his face together. “Iraem bared Loram’s back to someone. Is that a metaphor? Oh. Oh. Adren, Iraem’s the reason why the hand was in the prison. She made it so the soldiers caught Loram when it was empty. Because she was jealous of Loram? Something about kidnapping someone. Ugh, and Iraem’s just laughing at her.”
Adren was going to have to make sure Nadin learned some of the dialect when they got to her home. He couldn’t expect to travel with her and get along when he had this hard of a time relaying it back to her. That said, she didn’t know whether Iraem baring Loram’s back was a metaphor, either. She’d heard it before a few times from the fairies she’d grown up with, but they’d never explained what it meant.
“Kidnapping who?” asked Denyeh.
Nadin frowned. “She’s not saying. And I think the barrier’s up. Something happened, but I lost it. Loram stopped yelling, at any rate.”
“Is it?” Adren asked. Denyeh nodded and followed Nadin to Loram while Adren went to get the unicorn. It spotted her at once and went to her, laying its head over her shoulder as it trembled. She hummed in its ear, alert to any movement on Iraem’s part, but there was none. The unicorn walked with her to the others, where Denyeh and Loram stared at each other like two cats having a territorial dispute. Adren rolled her eyes. They didn’t have time for this.
“We’re leaving. Now,” was all she said as she ushered them all away from Iraem. Nadin seemed relieved by this and went at once. Loram and Denyeh resisted, but the stirring of mist where Iraem lay convinced them. As they went, Iraem stood, her cheek dark with what would become an impressive bruise the next day. She could do nothing to stop them from leaving and it only took a glance for Adren to tell that she knew it.
Good.
Chapter Eleven
The other fairies noticed them all in their barrier soon enough and followed, testing it. Unlike the barrier at the prison, this one didn’t let in any of their magic, but that didn’t stop them from surrounding it with their illusions. Weird, deformed creatures filled the streets before them, hissing, roaring, swooping down from shifting rooftops. The metal of the streetlamps glowed with sickly colours. Behind them, buildings shimmered like the air on a hot day, while the mist became a white ocean complete with waves and filled with sea creatures of all kinds.
Loram, unimpressed, led the group through these while Adren soothed the unicorn, and they were soon at Denyeh’s house. Once they were inside, Denyeh put up a new barrier around her property, and a few fairies remained outside it to lurk.
Inside the house, they settled on the most sensible course of action first: food. And sleep. Nadin and Adren especially needed the latter. Even though it was the middle of the day, the amount they had gone through had drained them both. Denyeh, despite her clear distrust of Loram, made sure they all had what they needed. While Loram removed the rest of the spell from Adren, Nadin helped Denyeh prep the bed he was to sleep in.
“How did you know the fairy had sent a message?” Nadin asked.
“I have the Sight,” Denyeh said with a shrug. “Not much, but enough to give me a good intuition about things, especially when magic’s involved.”
“So it’s real?”
Denyeh fluffed a pillow and gave him a funny look. “Of course it’s real. Did someone tell you otherwise?”
“Loram said she wasn’t convinced it was. Well, not all of it. Only if someone’s part fairy and can see magic, I guess.”
“That’s because fairies think they’re the centre of everything,” Denyeh said with a snort. “Grab that end of the sheet and pull it over. Yes, like that. Remember what I told you about the saint?”
“The one who lost the gauntlets?”
She nodded. “According to the story, the reason the saint was tricked by the demon was because the water was a source of great power. The demon claimed that the removal of the gauntlets before drinking it would allow some of that power to go to the saint’s family and keep them safe from harm.”
“Who would want to harm the family of a saint?” The sheet had become twisted and, no matter what he did, Nadin couldn’t get it undone.
“The thought never crossed the saint’s mind. One who wore gauntlets that give invulnerability only does so because they are afraid of harm, whether real or imagined. So the saint removed them and drank.” Denyeh shooed Nadin away from the bed and straightened out the sheet.
“But the water didn’t give the saint’s family power, did it? The demon had to have been lying.”
“That’s the funny thing—it wasn’t. According to the story, some of that water’s power did go to the saint’s family, who lived here in this town. That’s where they say the Sight comes from. It certainly does pop up more in some families than others.�
�� Sheet in place, Denyeh threw the pillow to Nadin and picked up a blanket.
“Do you think that’s where it comes from?” Nadin fussed with the exact position of the pillow.
“It’s as good an explanation as any. The fairies could be right, of course, and it could be that it’s from bits of fairy blood still hanging around in the families here. But no one really knows, and it’s not as if we know enough about the saints to say for certain one didn’t send power down from a pool on the way to heaven. Stop that.” Taking the pillow from him, Denyeh stared Nadin down until he backed off and picked up the blanket.
“I suppose.”
“Now, see, if you’d said you had the Sight, then I’d know it was from your fairy blood.”
“You’ve got it wrong—” He stopped as Denyeh threw the pillow in place and put her hands on her hips.
“Why do you think I called the soldiers on you? I have a warning signal set up to tell me if there’s a fairy in the market, and another for if that fairy is at my stall. I thought for certain that you would use your magic to hide or confuse the soldiers and then escape, but you didn’t. So I supposed you must be part human.”
“You mean the soldiers didn’t think I was a Breimic spy?” Nadin meekly spread the blanket over the bed.
“No, they did. It was the only way they’d listen to me—they don’t want to deal with the fairies. Plus, you did start acting strange when I mentioned the planned war with Breim, and the fairies here do sometimes have visitors from Breim. You can hear it in their accents.” With crisp, efficient movements, Denyeh straightened out the blanket to her specifications.
“So then why did you—?”
“Later.” Denyeh laughed and indicated the bed. “You need to sleep. Thank you for your help and, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I misjudged you. Seeing what you did today, it’s clear you’re not what I thought you were.”
Nadin nodded and she left. He sat on the bed for a while, staring into space, before he lay down, adjusted the pillow, and went to sleep.
As soon as Denyeh and Nadin were out of earshot, Adren began asking Loram all the questions she’d been storing up ever since the whole mess began, starting with:
“What’s so important about that saintsall wooden hand?”
“An you wish me to give the secrets of my mound, I shall not say them. Know that before you essay to learn from me. Also know that your magic changed the spell greatly and removing it such that you are at ease requires much of my attention.” To Adren’s surprise, although such statements should carry a threat behind them, she found none. Instead she heard only Loram’s firm tone and tasted the sweetness of honeysuckle. So she decided to respond in kind.
“I only planned on passing through this town on the way home, and now I’ve antagonized an entire fairy mound to the point of them mounting an invasion. It’s clear that I’ve both entered and then stirred up the hornet’s nest and I need to know how to keep from being stung any more.”
Loram sighed. “That wooden hand, called the Demonic Vessel, is an old, old fairy relic. As Nadin likely told you, it may contain magic, and the monarchs give use of it to a fairy as a sign of trust. I had it, and lost it through foolishness when captured and imprisoned by the humans. It was, at the time, depleted of magic, but now that it has magic in it again, we must needs take it back. We know not how it may do what it does, and we fear what humans may do if they learn the secret of it. Thus, all in the mound who the monarchs trusted came to take back what is ours.”
“Was Iraem the reason you lost it in the first place?”
A muscle in Adren’s leg spasmed as the spell thread which Loram had been removing knotted up inside.
“Nadin told me as much as he could of what you said to her while she lay on the ground.”
“Aye, she caused the whole thing. She goaded me into using the magic too quickly and then left me vulnerable.”
Encouraged by this, Adren continued with the train of thought she’d developed on the way to Denyeh’s house. “And so, when Nadin convinced you to help him, you agreed because of Iraem, not him?”
Loram gave Adren a funny look. “Aye,” she said slowly.
Of course, that left out why Iraem had left Loram in such a situation, but Adren liked how well the explanation fit. Loram and Iraem had had friction in the mound, after all, and Iraem’s actions towards Adren made more sense as a fairy who went too far with some of her decisions. Which was still wrong, especially in the way Iraem seemed to have done it, but forgivable. Adren still wasn’t about to go learn anything from Iraem, but she could let go of the unpleasantness she’d had in her stomach about their encounters.
The last spell thread quivered as it began to dissolve. It wriggled away from Loram’s magic, almost as if it had a life of its own. Adren’s magic tried to fling it out, but it slipped to the side, contorting in Adren’s mind, near where the full spell had caused Adren’s memory to go berserk. She held her breath as it inched closer to that place, hoping that, by doing so, nothing would go wrong.
“Keep still,” muttered Loram.
The thread did not keep still. But it did disappear, even if after flicking that part of Adren’s mind. Along with her sigh of relief, she gave a prayer of thanks.
“That was an unpleasant spell.”
“It was only meant to keep you still while letting you think you still ran. How it broke apart like this, I cannot say, but from its shape it seems your magic made it something it was not. Unpleasant as it was meant to be, whatever you experienced was not its intended effect.” Loram frowned. “If I knew how to place your magic, I would be able to say more.”
“You don’t recognize it?”
“I cannot recognize it. There is something broken in it, and so its true nature is hidden from me. It bothers me, and has since I first saw you. Do you not know what it is?”
“No. I know not, though I dearly wish I did.”
“What of the unicorn?”
Iraem’s reaction to the unicorn flooded Adren’s mind. “What of it?”
“The magic in it is also… broken. I would use another word, but I cannot think of one to describe what I see.”
Adren shivered. She wanted to talk to Loram about it, Loram who could see and who would know what might be the cure for the unicorn’s condition. And yet, the hair on the back of her neck rose with just the thought of telling Loram that the unicorn was insane. A knot formed in her throat and she wanted to reach out to the unicorn for comfort, but it had nodded off and its emotions had become fuzzy.
“Iraem didn’t believe it was a unicorn when she saw it.”
“An I had not seen it heal, I would still believe the same. And yet I doubt.”
“Why?”
Loram sighed. “Adren, may I be frank with you? It is clear you care about the unicorn, so I will speak no more on this an you wish it.”
A chill curled under Adren’s ribcage. “What’s wrong?”
“I do not know an the unicorn’s magic is such because another has twisted it or an it has always had this affliction. Either way, I fear what might happen should someone try to make that magic whole. It may be a unicorn and nothing more, but it may also cast that off as a disguise to reveal something… horrible. I know not what. The cure you seek is for the unicorn, is it not?”
Eyes hot with unshed tears, Adren kept silent. She couldn’t be hearing this. It couldn’t be true.
“Please, Adren, I beg you: do not try to heal it. It is better that it stays as it is.”
Sweetness spread over Adren’s tongue. No, no, no! She tried to fight it down, attribute it to something innocuous. But her truth sense would not be denied. Loram believed her plea with all her heart. She stood.
“I need to rest,” she told Loram. “Thank you for removing the spell.”
And she fled the room, fighting herself all the way. Denyeh, who she met on the way, started to say something but, with one look at Adren’s face, stopped and let her by. Heat rose in Adren’s cheeks as she
imagined what Denyeh might have seen. Gods in hell, next Nadin would come in and ask her what was wrong. This was why Adren preferred to solve problems on her own; people, human or not, were too saintsall nosy for their own good. Too willing to give advice she didn’t want or need. As she lay back on the bed, she tried to distance herself from what was happening inside. It took a long time before she was finally able to sleep.
A man sat by the fire and, though she knew he wasn’t blind, Adren wondered if he could see her. As she watched him, the fire melted away and it might have been the same man who now stood before her. His clothes were no longer black, which could have been enough except he reminded her of the first man. The face would have told her, but she could not see his face, just as she had not seen a face by the fire.
Regardless, this standing man held a sword in one hand. He raised it, and though she could not see his face, she knew it was contorted in rage. Adren leapt forward to stop him, only for him to swing the sword down at her and for the burning pain in her forehead to start all over again. She stared at him, her whole body shaking, her thoughts disjointed. No matter how long she tried, she couldn’t put together the pieces. It was as if she brought them together only for them to push each other away the moment they touched. But it was all she had, and so she kept trying to bring them together and they refused to fit over and over again.
Her forehead ached. Adren noticed this in a decreasingly detached way. It ached more than she had thought it ever could. Her disbelief at the whole situation, her scrambling to understand, only grew as that ache continued. And, beneath it, growing even faster, was an emotion she had never felt before and which terrified her. Its rising accelerated with each breath she took, pulling everything in her into its gaping jaws. A tightness had begun in her chest; a knot formed in her stomach. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t think. She couldn’t believe.
Who had done this to her?
And why?
Icy fingers curled around her heart, spread outward through her veins. Breathing had become difficult. Who could have done this?
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