A Fey Harvest

by Sumida, Amy

  “Oh, I, uh,” kind? He said I was kind? Weird. “Thank you. Good luck on the romance.”

  “Thank you, Queen Vervain,” she beamed at me and I inwardly groaned because something momentous had occurred to me. If Gruach and Kanaloa hadn't started dating yet, she couldn't have been the one to let him into Faerie and since the murders hadn't been during his last visit, he either had another accomplice or was innocent.

  Chapter Twelve

  We finished our refreshments and when we left Arach wasn't lurking in the hallway. So he either didn't understand my hidden message, had taken off when he heard us coming, or had heard all of the conversation and determined his presence to be unnecessary. Whatever it was, I was glad we didn't catch him loitering.

  I walked her out to her carriage and then went looking for him. I needed to bounce these new possibilities off him. It was still possible that it was Kanaloa. We had found evidence that there was a small fey involved. A trow, a fir darrig, or a fachan. He could be in league with one of those and just started a romance with Gruach as a back up plan to get into Faerie. No, this new development didn't get him off the hook but I was pretty sure Gruach was innocent.

  “Of course, my King,” the conspiratorial voice carried around the corner to me and shocked me out of my thoughts. It sounded furtive, like a woman whispering to her lover. Her married lover.

  My stomach clenched and I called it a fool but I crept to the edge of the hallway nonetheless, sneaking a quick peep around the corner. I pulled back and held my hand to my mouth so I would start screaming. It couldn't be what I thought, Arach wouldn't cheat on me, if for no other reason than I was his only chance of ever having children.

  But he's a fire fey, that horrible self-destructive part of me whispered. He has great passions that one woman may not be able to fulfill. I should know, I had the lioness magic that forced me to find numerous men to satisfy it. What if Arach had similar urges? But he'd told me he'd waited fifteen-thousand years for me. Yet, he never said they were celibate years and it was ridiculous of me to think they were.

  I had a sudden memory of the asrai, her hair touching his arm and her voice teasing that she could never control it around the Fire King. What the fuck did that mean, anyway? I chanced one more look around the corner and blanched. It was pretty clear what she'd meant now.

  I turned and hurried back the way I'd come, my heart heavy and my eyes threatening to explode with the force of my sorrow. You'd think with five lovers, you wouldn't feel this kind of pain, that if one cheated on you, you'd have four more to console yourself with. Unfortunately for me, more men equaled the possibility of more heartache, because I loved each of my men completely, yet in different ways.

  Arach had his own place in my heart, a fiery beautiful place where lovemaking was presaged by shifting dragon scales, and laughter could spark a fire. That place had just grown colder, a sudden frost settling in because I'd just seen Arach holding another woman.

  I started to run, racing down the stairs and out of the cave that led to the Kingdom of Fire. The crunching of stones beneath my feet gave way to the feel of soft grass. I shot by a steam vent as it erupted hot air into the sky, almost a mirror to my emotions. I veered around the deep crevices, windows into the soul of my kingdom, they framed rivers of lava far beneath the surface. Heat rose from the depths and turned the mist drifting over from the Air Kingdom into steam, a perfect environment for the lush foliage of the Weeping Woods.

  It rose up before me, vibrantly green against the background of steam and red mountains. The trees were tall, though not as tall as those in the Forgetful Forest and not nearly so wide, although it appeared that they were due to the thick casing of vines that snaked all the way up their trunks. The vines sported wide, heart-shaped leaves, longer than my forearm. They dipped in the center, providing a perfect funnel for the collecting moisture. The woods were overrun with these vines as well as other strange plants, and it spread out far to the right where the mountains rose up to separate us from the Kingdom of Air.

  I pushed through the thick underbrush, batting aside vines and waxy-leafed plants that dripped continually, giving the forest its name. It was a perfect place for me, a sympathizing shelter that enveloped me like a moist cocoon. I'd thought to go to the hot springs that Arach had taken me to before but they were at the far edges of our kingdom, near the border of the Tine, and I could never go that far on foot. Yet, almost as if I summoned it, I heard the bubbling of warm water and changed course to head toward it.

  There, like a hidden sanctuary, was a large pool of simmering water. Plants with huge fan-shaped leaves crowded around its rim and the trees seemed to lean over it as if drawn to its warmth. Everything dripped even more there, almost to the point of becoming a shower, the surface of the pool was trembling with the bubbles rising from beneath and the water dripping from above.

  I pushed aside the fronds carefully and found a mossy bank to sink down onto. I was angry and tired but the earth seemed to welcome me and the trees baptized me with holy water. It was like the Fire Kingdom knew I needed comfort and had opened its arms to me. I closed my eyes and lifted my face to the soft, warm tears of the Weeping Woods, silently thanking them for giving my misery the company it needed.

  Then I looked down to the rippling surface of the pool and remembered how Arach had been when he'd taken me to the hot springs near the Tine. I saw his face again, all arrogant lines and cruel smiles. He'd changed so much since then. Or at least I thought he had.

  I laid back in the soft moss and stared up at the Faerie sky through the branches of the thick trees. Darkness had fallen during my flight and the stars were coming out in full force. A bright moon shone down on me, adding streaks of silver highlights to my misty kingdom and setting the water in the air to sparkling. My anxiety seemed silly under the moon's light and I frowned as I thought things over.

  What had I really seen? I'd seen a leanan-sidhe, Laise I think her name was, smiling up at Arach before she launched herself into his arms. The second glimpse had shown him hugging her back. Not kissing, not saying anything romantic or damning in any way, it was just a hug. I was being ridiculous. I should just get up and stop acting like such a baby.

  Why hadn't I confronted him then and there? I should have walked around that corner and demanded to know what was going on. That's what a Fire Queen would have done. Instead, I'd run away like a little girl, not wanting to know the truth in case it confirmed my suspicions. It's so much easier to hide and cry. I sat up and squared my shoulders. Then a rustling to my right caught my attention. I stared hard at the monstrous plants, their shaking leaves announcing an eminent visitor. I felt my claws form, extending from the tips of my fingers with a little shiver of magic, and the shaking leaves stilled as if the creature behind them had sensed the shift. Then a pair of fiery eyes stared out through the dripping leafage.

  A hand appeared, completely black and only visible in the shafts of moonlight that infiltrated the glade. A face came forward to follow it, framing the burning eyes which continued to stare at me intensely. It was a woman, supremely beautiful, her face like a piece of polished jet. Her eyes were huge with thick lashes lit by their glow, and her mouth was very full. Her nose was thin and long, and her entire face seemed a little elongated.

  She crept forward, another hand revealed, and then her shoulders, her hips, and finally her legs. She sat down at the edge of the pool across from me and continued to stare. She was entirely black except for those burning eyes, with long hair that fell in thick coils, like silky dreadlocks. This was not a created hairstyle though, it just seemed that her individual hairs were really thick, the width of my pinky. They shone like glass against the muted black of her skin, and she lifted a claw tipped hand to push them back over her shoulder.

  Then she spoke in the fey language.

  “I'm sorry,” I shook my head, “I don't know what you're saying.”

  “You speak a human tongue,” she gaped a little at me, showcasing sparkling white fan
gs. “You are... are you our Queen?”

  “Guilty as charged,” I shrugged. “I'm Vervain,” I waved to an open spot beside me. “Would you like to join me?”

  “Join you?” She looked at the patch of moss and then back to my face with wide eyes. “The Queen of Fire wants me to sit beside her?”

  “Oh wow,” I laughed. Sometimes I forgot about the whole Queen thing and sometimes it felt really awkward, like I was an impostor. “How about we ignore the fact that I'm the Queen of Fire for now? Come cop a squat with me.”

  “Cop a..?” She gaped again.

  “Come take a seat,” I patted the moss.

  “Oh,” she made a short, high-pitched sound that I think was a giggle. “I'd be honored.” Then she crawled over and sat next to me, extending her legs out into the water. “Thank you.”

  “Sure, no problem,” I shrugged. “What's your name?”

  “Oh,” again the strange laughter. “I am called Caitir.”

  “It's nice to meet you,” I smiled over at her. “Do you live nearby?”

  “Oh yes,” she pointed back the way she'd come. “My village is just through the woods there. I come here when I want to be alone.”

  “Ah,” I gave a grim laugh. “I'm here for the same reason. I guess this place called to us. Shall we be alone together?”

  “Alone together,” she smiled and gave me a little nod. “Yes, I'd like that.”

  We sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, the sound of water dripping and bubbling was soothing and I followed Caitir's example and pulled off my boots so I could slip my feet into the water.

  “You've done great things for us,” Caitir finally said. “Thank you for that.”

  “I have?” I gave her a dubious look.

  “The council you inspired the King to create,” she settled her bright eyes on me again. “We all feel like we have a voice now, when before we didn't. We could petition the King, of course, but it's often difficult for all of us to make the time to travel to the castle and then wait to be seen. You've given us representatives... is that the correct word?” I nodded and she continued. “We all have a faerie to speak on our behalf now and we've been encouraged to request anything we may need, to bring up issues we may have. You've changed our lives and I hope you know that.”

  I admit that I didn't know what to say immediately, quite an unusual occurrence for me. I stared at her, the weight of her words sinking into me and of all things, I thought about that Christmas movie, It's a Wonderful Life. How the guy thought he was unimportant, that the world didn't need him, until an angel showed him what life would have been like if he'd never existed. I felt like I'd just met my angel and she'd snapped me out of my melancholy to show me that I had made a difference. That there were things more important than wounded pride or heartache.

  Silly really, considering I had an angel for a lover and he had just recently shown me the good I could do for people with my love magic. He had even called me heroic and I had balked at the idea. I didn't consider anything I'd done to be heroic and I felt almost like an impostor when he'd said the word. I didn't even want to be heroic, I just wanted to live my life and let others live theirs. Well, sometimes life makes reluctant heroes out of us I guess.

  To my great horror, I started to cry. Caitir gasped, looking me over with trepidation before hesitantly putting an arm around me. I took the comfort and wrapped an arm around her waist, feeling like an idiot. Her slick hair fell around me, radiating warmth through its thick strands. I sighed, settling into it like a favorite blanket, and having the strangest urge to wrap her around me. Then I finally sniffed up my tears and wiped my face.

  “I'm so sorry,” I leaned away. “You have no idea how much that means to me right now.”

  “My Queen,” she slipped her warm hand onto my shoulder. “Why did that make you cry?”

  “I came here today because I saw something that made me doubt the King. I felt deceived and used and maybe a bit silly, especially now when I look back at how I just ran away instead of talking to him.” I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “To hear that I've helped the fire fey, made a difference, gives me a better perspective. I'm not just here to be Arach's wife, I'm here to help my people.” A shiver of magic crept through me, Faerie letting me know she approved.

  “What was that?” Caitir looked around, wide-eyed.

  “That was Faerie,” I whispered, realizing I could repay this dark angel for her kindness. “Would you like to speak with her?”

  “Speak to Faerie?” She gaped. “I'd heard the rumors but none of us believed them. Faerie hasn't spoken to us in...”

  “Millennia,” I laughed, “yes, I know but she's talking now and she'd like to speak to you.”

  “She would?”

  “If you'll listen,” I turned to her and held out my hands.

  She slowly put her hands in mine and then I called upon Faerie. I felt her happiness, it filled me like champagne, bubbly and sweet, and then the golden glow of her magic filtered through my palms and into Caitir. The fire-sidhe's eyes filled with tears, which overflowed onto her cheeks, leaving shiny black lines in their wake. She closed her eyes and spoke in the fey language, to Faerie I presume.

  Then she sighed and let go of my hands to pull me into a hug. She was so warm, her skin smooth and soft, and her heat radiated from her center like she was filled with fire. I rubbed up against it, like a cat in a warm lap. She pulled back and kissed both of my cheeks.

  “You are a treasure to the Kingdom of Fire,” she whispered. “Don't ever let the King forget that.”

  “Oh,” I sniffled and gave her a smile. “Thank you, I guess I needed someone to remind me that I was worth more than my uterus.”

  “You are worth more than all the wombs in the kingdom,” she laughed. “Thank you for giving me the gift of Faerie.”

  “Oh,” I waved a finger at her as I remembered. “You can give this gift to others. Spread it around, all you have to do is touch someone while Faerie speaks to you and they should be able to hear her too.”

  “Truly?”

  “Yep, we want everyone to be able to connect with Faerie again. So be sure everyone knows how to pass it along. It was supposed to get passed along already but I guess it hasn't made it to your village yet.”

  “Faerie speaks to us again,” Caitir beamed at me. “I can't wait to tell the others.”

  “Well go on then,” I gave her a little push and she got to her feet with a grin.

  “It was an honor to meet you, Queen Vervain.”

  “Right back atcha,” I laughed. She turned away but I called out. “Caitir?” When she turned back to face me I asked, “Maybe I could come back sometime and meet the rest of your village?”

  “I'd be happy to see you again,” she smiled and it was soft, the smile of new friendship. “My village is just to the right at the beginning of the Weeping Woods. You'll always be welcome.”

  “Thanks,” I waved, “I'll see you later then. Oh and if you make it up to the castle sometime, I'd love to see you, just tell anyone you meet that Queen Vervain asked for you to visit and they'll find me for you.”

  “I will. I've never been to the castle before and I admit, I'd like to see it,” she beamed a toothy grin. “May blood flow and fire burn for you, my Queen.”

  “May blood flow and fire burn for you too, Caitir.”

  The way back was much longer than I'd thought. Evidently, I'd run quite a ways in my haste to be an idiotic chickenshit. I groaned as I shoved foliage out of the way and worked up a bit of a sweat on my way home. I was already dripping from the woods so I actually didn't know what was sweat and what was water but it all just felt kind of miserable now that I'd left the tree-line.

  When I saw the outline of Castle Aithinne against the night sky, I felt a surge of panic. It seemed to claw at the air like a dragon, lifting its face in defiance of my opinion on fidelity. It was spotted with light shining through its numerous windows and when I stared too long, they turned into eye
s, burning with accusation.

  I swallowed hard and called myself a fool again before tromping inside. I remembered what Caitir had said, that I was a treasure and I needed to make sure Arach remembered that. He always called me A Thaisce, his treasure, so maybe he did remember. I was being so stupid, I just needed to go find Arach and-

  There he was, coming down the hallway with that woman beside him. They started a little when they saw me(out of guilt?) and Laise gave me a swift nod before excusing herself and making a hasty retreat. I glowered after her.

  “What was that about?” I finally found the nerve to ask.

  “What?” Arach looked baffled.

  “You and her,” I gestured after the woman. “What were you talking about?”

  His face filled with alarm for just a second before it was smothered in a smooth look of assurance.

  “We were talking about the visit to the Water Kingdom,” he shrugged. “She was asking about a water-sidhe she's been feeding from but we didn't see him there.”

  “Is that all?”

  “What else could there be?”

  “I don't know,” I pushed aside my hurt and told myself not to act upon it until I was certain. I wouldn't mention the hug, that would only tip him off and if there was something going on, I wanted to catch him in it so I could be sure. “I guess nothing.”

  My heart hurt from the need for subterfuge. What happened to being honest with each other, huh Vervain? I told myself to shut up, that finding out the truth was more important and from the way Arach had just stumbled about his explanation, it didn't look like I'd get it from him. He'd just make up a plausible excuse and I'd be forced to believe him or call him a god damned liar.

  And I happened to know a few gods who could help me with the damning part if he really was lying to me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Darkness is coming.

  “Okay, that's enough. You give me one-liners about the Darkness for over a month and then all of a sudden this is what you say to me? Just that it's coming?” I stood up off the rock I was sitting on. “I appreciate that you want me to stop these murders and that you want to be helpful but please stop with the cryptic bullshit!”