Once I had relieved myself, my thirst and hunger and aching body took over the controls. Now that I had stopped and relaxed a moment, I felt like all my energy had drained away, and it took a lot of effort to stand up again.
“Guess you guys must continually experience thirst and hunger living in a place like this,” I said. Once I thought about that, I found myself kind of sorry for them.
“It's a wonder you haven't tried to leave this place before. But I suppose if you knew a way out you'd have done that a long time ago,” I wasn't expecting a response, and they gave none.
“I guess I better watch my back then.” I turned to resume my shuffling. They stretched their thin, bony legs, readying themselves to follow.
“You know, I'm going to be moving for a while yet, so if you're tired, just stay behind to rest. I won't mind.” I said, every now and then stealing a glimpse at the creatures, but they kept a respective distance and they never responded or interfered. In the end, I found myself telling them the story of my life.
“That man back there? I hated him. Not the short one, the other one, the tall one. He used me in the worst possible way a woman can be used, you know? Anyway, I don't know if he deserved to die that way, but I'm glad he's no longer an issue.” I fell quiet for a moment, wondering what that told about my persona. I sighed.
“I think I'll just sit to rest for a while and hope I'd be safe from those sharp teeth of yours. Guess it's better than to fall comatose on top of one of you little creatures. We already know the end to that story,” I finished and sat down, leaning against a dead tree. Its bark was cracked and rough, digging into my back through my thin blouse… it felt like heaven to me. The leader of the creatures stopped and crouched ten feet away, and the remainder followed suit. I had the sense they all welcomed the reprieve. Did one of them sigh in relief? I searched their little round faces, but they all carried the same expressions, or lack thereof.
Was I just hallucinating? Like those dehydrated, thirsty people who think they see an oasis in the middle of a desert.
I was certainly thirsty enough for the part, and the land could be counted as a desert—sans the sand, of course.
And that's when I realized I could see them all clearly. In fact, I'd been seeing them clearly for a while now. I looked around in wonder, and I could also see the land, the hard-cracked soil, the occasional dead tree and branches here and there for as far as my vision could reach.
And it was very disappointing to realize my suspicion was true.
As far as I could see, there was nothing there but the occasional dead tree, cracked soil, me and my troop of vicious, carnivore followers.
I looked up at the sky for the source of the light, perhaps a mini sun.
There was none. The sky was still as black as sin. I looked at the planets, and they were still as far as they had been before. Could my vision have adjusted that much to the dark? Nah, I didn't think so, especially since I could see as far on the horizon where land met sky.
How long had I been able to see the land?
I had been moving for a long time with my eyes glued to the ground to keep myself from stumbling on a rock or dead branch, so it was hard to tell. Time had no meaning in a place where the sun didn't rise or set.
Had it gotten warmer? What? Daytime in the land of death?
I was still cold, but no longer freezing. Either I was getting used to it, or my limbs had numbed enough to stop feeling the bite of the chill. The lack of wind also helped.
Weren't those the symptoms of hypothermia?
I was too tired to figure things out, too tired to even think basic thoughts.
Too tired to care.
I leaned my head back and was about to close my eyes when a melodious voice from behind me said, “He is grateful. He's waiting to grant you a favor.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
I jumped up with a reserve of energy I didn't know I had and spun around.
A woman sat on a branch behind me. A woman I was damn sure hadn't been there when I had arrived. Even my befuddled mind would have registered someone like her.
She was just as out of place on that land as I was.
She stood slowly, the branch she sat upon miraculously not cracking with her weight. It hadn't even bent a little.
The first thing I registered about her was her height. She was taller than my six feet by a few inches.
The second thing was her glow. Like the planets, she seemed to be glowing from within. Her long red hair glowed lustrously down her back in soft waves. Her green eyes and alabaster skin shone as well.
She wore a green medieval dress with layers of teal-green taffeta and a small brooch of gold and emerald at the heart-shaped neckline of the gown. She wore no make-up, but her luscious lips glowed with an intense red the color of her hair, and her cheeks had a natural pinkish hue to them.
She was barefoot.
She was perfect.
Her aura… it was a bright, shining silver. What the hell had a shining silver aura?
And there I was, thinking myself an aura reader, my inner voice sneered.
“Who are you?” I squeaked through a parched throat.
“My name is Leon Ora Maiche. You may call me Lee,” she spoke regally, grandly.
I only stared at her—stupefied.
Where the hell did she come from? But instead of phrasing the question out loud, all I could do was stare—gawk was more like it.
With her eyes twinkling, as if she knew the effect she was causing—which of course she did—she inclined her head behind me. “They are grateful to you. They are waiting to grant you a favor.”
I looked behind me, because my brain had suddenly gone blank. “What? Why?”
“You fed them. They are grateful. Ask them for something,” she ordered, clasping her hands together in excitement.
I glanced at the creatures once and back at her. “I've been talking for hours. I don't think they understand me.”
Lee looked amused. “I heard. I have been watching and listening ever since you appeared with the other mortal. He deserved what he got.” She added the latter with a guileless smile.
“I didn't see you,” was all I could say.
“Of course not,” she scoffed. “You only see me now because I wish it so.”
Something in the way she announced that had suspicion arising. “Wait, are you the reason I can see clearly now?”
She inclined her head, her eyes twinkling. “I reckoned you needed the aid.”
I stared at her for a moment more. It was a sign of how weary and tired I was that I had no idea what to make of her… or ask what should have been my priority questions. Say like, where did she come from, how to get out of there, and of course, where the hell was “there”?
“If you have been watching all along, why appear now? Why not show yourself before?” Why not help?
She rolled her shoulders in a shrug, the movement a fluid one. “I suspect you could use the company. Besides, I can't stay forever and am profoundly curious of what you shall make of your favor.”
I glanced at the creatures again. They crouched and waited. “I thought they wanted a free meal.”
Lee chuckled. “They owe you a favor. They do not attack those who grant them something. Ask them. I want to know.”
“They can't attack me?”
“Not until they exhaust the favor.” After that I was fair game, the meaning under her words said.
“Why? I mean, why do you want to know?”
“I have been bored. The mortal that brought you had no permission to cross-drag you with him, therefore some disturbances happened to the Leeway. I was sent to coordinate and supervise the punishment of the mortal.” The gleam in her eyes had me wondering if Dr. Michael Dean had been better off with the creatures. She bowed her head in a regal gesture as some sort of acknowledgement, “But you took care of that problem, and I found it intriguing so I followed. Now ask for something.” Her last words were definitely an order rather
than a request.
The little creatures stayed were they were, watching us. I looked back and forth between them and shook my head. “I don't think they understand what I'm saying or else they'd have answered me. Like I said, I have been talking to them for hours, and they never gave any indication they understood me.”
She straightened like a queen and motioned patiently behind me. “The Low Land inhabitants speak the language of those they're bound to. In this case that means you.”
The Low Land inhabitants. Bound to me. “They can grant me anything?” I asked.
“Ask them.”
I turned to the creature's leader, and his ears flickered back attentively, like that of a feline.
So creepy.
“Can you get me out of here? Back to my world?”
Behind me, Lee laughed merrily and clapped twice. “No, my child. They cannot grant what they do not know.”
I sighed. “Then they're useless to me.”
“Ah, one who possesses negative energy… and such a young child. I've seen many as you before. I will help you choose, for I have not the eternity free. Duty awaits me.” She placed a finger over her lip and mimicked someone deep in thought, before she clicked her index and thumb fingers together. “Power. Ask for power,” she suggested excitedly.
I shook my head.
She pouted for a second before clicking her fingers again. “Knowledge of the archaic. Wisdom beyond your betters. Surely you would want one of them.”
I shook again.
“You are no fun. No wonder the mortal wanted to get rid of you,” she muttered under her breath, but I was sure she knew I could hear her loud and clear.
“Ah, you are young. You will want security in the mortal world. That means gold. Ask for riches.”
Again I shook my head. “What good will they do me here?” I gestured with my hands around the land.
Lee's head snapped back, like a cobra ready to strike. The amused twinkle in her eyes were replaced by a gleam of speculation. They sharpened and focused on every inch of me, studying me from head to bottom and back again. “You are her. You are Fosch's child, the one who had been promised.”
I felt my stomach quiver and fall, and millions of goosebumps explode all over my body at her words. This woman knew who I was. This woman knew who my father was.
“What makes you think so?” I didn't think a direct lie to this woman would be wise.
A smile appeared on her face. There was no warmth in it, but it seemed genuine nonetheless. As if cold expressions were her norm.
“Any Dhiultadh has enough knowledge to travel between the worlds. It is born with them, like the knowledge of a child to suckle when first born. You are one of them and yet you do not know. That means only one thing. You are a mixed breed, and there are only two mixed breeds in existence. I know one of them, and it is not you. That makes you the offspring of Fosch and the mortal woman.”
I stared at her, my heart beating triple hard and fast. All my aches and needs seemed to have lost their edge at the knife-sharp fear eating at my gut. This woman was not a friend.
Lee tsked in sympathy at my fear. Her eyes remained glued to mine, and the predatory gleam gained a certain quality, as if it had intensified somehow. “It is tragic what happened to your father. He was a good person. A foolish one, but good nonetheless. It is a quality rarely found among his kind, and that trait was what distinguished him, made him a prominent, well known Dhiultadh.”
I didn't say anything.
“Don't be afraid. Your father owed nothing to me. I can see the curiosity inside you. Go ahead, I will grant you one boon. An honest answer for one question of yours, as a token for dealing with the mortal in my stead.”
Information. Knowledge about my roots. I thought hard about it. I had many questions, but I wanted to ask the one that would be the most informative. Later on, when I look back, I'd be able to see my mistake, recognize the manipulation in play. Or at the very least, think about a better question. But at that moment, there was only one thing playing over and over in my head.
“You said I was the promised one. What does that mean?”
Lee's eyes flashed, and I braced myself. I could tell she was very pleased, satisfied in fact with my choice.
She smiled secretively, a lazy curve of luscious lips, a cat about to feast on a yummy prey, then leaned back on the tree—which was not supposed to have held. She fussed, adjusting the hem of her dress, dusted off some imaginary lint off her sleeve. When she glanced up at me again, her face was devoid of any expression, perfectly composed.
In my experience, there are only two kind of people that take a few moments to compose their expressions before telling a story: the liar, because obviously he or she doesn't want you to realize they're lying, and the emotionally attached, because he or she doesn't want you to know how much that story affects them. Both of which—in my opinion—should be, and most times are, accomplished actors.
“It is a very important question that you ask,” Lee began. “Your father, many, many years ago, made a bargain with a royal fee, who is also a Sidhe lord, a very powerful and old one. It is not common knowledge what the bargain entailed, not to anyone, not even to Queen Titania, only that in exchange for Fosch's granted wish, he was to produce an offspring with a common mortal and present it to the Sidhe. Yes, that would be you,” Lee said at the widening of my eyes. “However, Fosch had no intention of fulfilling his side of the bargain. For many years to come, he refrained himself from approaching any human mortal, no matter how seductive or appealing. Once confronted with that fact, he only excused himself for not having yet met the perfect vessel to carry on his seed.
“When the Sidhe lord realized he had been tricked, he vowed not to let a Dhiultadh make a fool of him. He influenced the most beautiful and seductive of mortals and sent them as gifts for Fosch. But Fosch remained ever watchful and careful, and, for a very long time, the fee royal and the Dhiultadh danced their deceptive dance with care and manipulation and cunning. Until the mortal woman.
'It has been speculated she had been influenced by the Sidhe lord from the beginning, but Oberon has denied sending this particular mortal to Fosch. When it was time for Fosch to pay his price, he claimed the woman had been no common mortal when they had met, had not been human when she had conceived; Even accused Oberon of foul deeds, of taking the woman's essence to make of her a human.”
“Did he?”
Lee straightened, her eyes flashing with insult. “He did not. It is a dark power to commit a preternatural to lose what essentially makes him other. The Sidhe, no matter Seelie or Unseelie, do not trifle with it.”
“But wouldn't my father have known that?”
“Yes. But Fosch, your father, seemed not to have his faculties straight, going as far as to claim this mortal woman as his mate.”
“Was she?”
“I cannot tell such. A bond, to be recognizable by others, has to be firm and in place. If Fosch had a mating bond, it did not show.” She waited for my next question, and when I couldn't think of one, she continued, “When Oberon arrived to collect the prize, the vessel was just a common mortal, therefore the bargain held. However, when Fosch was asked to conclude the bargain, Fosch refused, prompting the Sidhe lord to demand retribution. The High Council of the Dhiultadh was brought forth, along with the Sidhe royalty. Thus a court was held where Fosch, when given a last chance, again refused to deliver, giving up his existence in exchange for that of the child.” Lee sighed. “It was a very long and tedious procedure, and a very abrupt and fatal punishment.”
“A punishment that was made to look like a bear attack?” Or was that another lie?
Lee tilted her head to the side. “Death by the jubada claws. It is the punishment worthy of cowards.”
My gut clenched, raw from the hunger and wasps dancing in it.
“It was said that one of the Dhiultadh raised you, in honor of your father's sacrifice.” She gave me a speculative look and said, “She did you n
o favor hiding the truth from you.”
I shook my head. “A mortal raised me.”
Lee nodded toward the creatures. “Now, dear child, ask them for the favor. I cannot stay forever.”
“You know the way out,” I stated. It wasn't a question, but she inclined her head in an affirmative gesture nonetheless.
“Can you get me out? Back to my world?”
“I can, but I owe you nothing.”
“I killed Dr. Michael Dean for you.” But even as I said it, I realized my mistake. I recalled the gleam in her eyes when I had asked my question.
She had known exactly who I was from the beginning. Didn't all rejects possess the ability to travel around the worlds? I had been dragged here, I had been going around in search of a way out, and wasn't my first question to the creature about a way out of here?
Yep, she had known who I was from the beginning, but she had wanted me to exhaust my favor with something trivial.
But why? I had a feeling I'd be finding out soon.
“Yes, and I gave you information in exchange,” she replied coolly.
Then I remembered something. “I thought guardians are the ones supposed to take care of those path things. You know, that's why they're called guardians, aren't they?” I asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
“Indeed, they are. But the Leeway was disturbed, and someone had to make sure no damage occurred. As for Alaisdair, I only coordinate and supervise that the intruder receives the appropriate and necessary punishment. We cannot let Alaisdair run loose without supervision.”
A shudder ran through me. I had no idea if it was from the cold, the inhuman gleam in her eyes, or if it was due to my body's demand to refuel.
I had to get out of there, and fast. Otherwise, I'd be too weak for it to matter. The adrenaline boost I had gained when she had first appeared was rapidly waning away.
“How about a favor?” I asked impulsively—foolishly.
Oh, how I would regret these words—I was sure about that—but nothing else came to mind and, to regret it, I still had to live.
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