by H. D. Gordon
Arrol smirked. “You’ve got some major trust issues, Sun Warrior.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, if someone asked you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?”
The Fae chuckled and shook his head, making his silver hair ripple where it hung over his bare shoulders. His black tattooed wings sprung free from his back and flicked in the air. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll go first.”
And then he leapt into the air and was falling with only minor resistance from his wings. What seemed like hundreds of people leaned their heads over the cliff with me to watch as he hit the water. I expected to hear a splash, or at least see one, but he colors just seemed to opened their mouths and swallow Arrol whole. For not the first time, I seriously wished that all of these people with me didn’t think of me as their leader. I would have to go first.
I swallowed hard and took a half-step forward so that the tips of my toes were hanging out over the edge. My heart was thundering like an angry ocean in my chest.
Do it. Do it. Do it! Or let me do it for you, Warrior. I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to fly.
“You really are a fearless bastard, aren’t you?”
My Monster’s laugh was loud and cold in my head. Well, actually, yes. Now that you’ve mentioned it, yes I am.
I shut my eyes, then forced myself to open then, and just before I could leap over, a hand found mine. I looked up at Kayden and gave him a smile that I hoped would convey my gratitude. He would not let me jump alone. I was not particularly surprised by this.
When a hand gripped mine on my other side, I was surprised. I turned my head and was Tommy gave me a smirk. Then Gavin took Tommy’s hand, and Patterson took Gavin’s. Victoria took Kayden’s other hand, and Simon held hers. And Mark, and Malcolm.
We stood there, an army standing behind us, linked together like a human chain. And we jumped.
The fall had felt exactly as you would think a fall would feel. Stomach shooting up and settling between my earlobes. Hair and cloak lifting off my shoulders and fluttering above me like dark flags in the wind. Eyes watering and squeezing shut as the air rubbed them unkindly. Teeth clenched together to hold back a scream.
When we hit the water, only seconds, but seeming like hours after our feet had left the ledge, I sucked in a hard breath and held it, expecting to be enveloped in water and the fear that came with that feeling filled me up. But the ocean felt nothing like an ocean at all. It was more like falling into a cloud, soft and not entirely unpleasant, if not for my stomach still being in my throat. I waited then for impact.
But Arrol had been right about this, too. The impact was so gentle that it could hardly be called impact at all. My feet met an earth that was also as soft as a cloud, and no jolt of pain shot up through my ankles or legs. It was as though I had jumped through a portal that was kind and easy on travelers. And, really, I supposed I had.
Arrol was the first thing I saw in this new world, and the look in his silver eyes conveyed his thoughts: I told you so.
“Step out of the way,” he said, gesturing me and my group forward.
We released our holds on each other and stepped forward, and I would have come to a stop and stared around in wonder if Arrol hadn’t said, “Quickly, now. You wouldn’t want any of your comrades landing on your head.”
I don’t know, Warrior. That would be kind of funny.
“Yes. You would think that.”
I moved over to where Arrol was standing. As I walked, my head was all but rolling around on my shoulders as I craned it this way and that, trying to take in all that was around me. The forest, like the ocean, was unlike any forest I had ever seen. The trees were tall and thick and multicolored, their branches and trees reminding me of the tufts of cotton candy that you could buy back in the human world in circuses and fairs, but somehow, not that way at all. The ground was a rich blue, soft dirt and sprouting flowers and grass, all blue, only different shades. The air seemed to have a slight shimmer to it, as though the passing of so many Fae had left sprinkles of fairy dust floating in the air there the way that dust mites will in a shaft of light. And, yes, the light was different here, too.
Softer, somehow, the way that twilight can sometimes be in the tropics. All sorts of sounds that were unfamiliar to me filled my ears; tinkling of bells, flutter of strange wings, movements of creatures that I no doubt had no idea even existed. There was a light pink fog blanketing the ground, and it shuddered away from me to reveal the blue beneath with every step I took. When I inhaled deeply, I could smell it. It smelled sharply sweet, too sweet, almost like burning sugar, but not quite, and I had to begin breathing through my mouth because it was starting to make my stomach turn.
It seemed that the possibilities of the unknown were endless. It was funny to me that even though I had been proven wrong every step of the way, every time I unveiled another mystery of this world, I believed that mystery would be it, that this journey couldn’t possibly get any stranger, any more other. Standing in the Fae Forest right then, I knew that there was an unimaginable amount that I didn’t know, would never know, not even if I got to live an epically long life, which, I knew I wouldn’t.
For several long moments, no one else dropped down between the cotton candy trees, and I was worried that the army had changed its mind, and would not be following us on this insane mission. But as I stood there, the first of them arrived in a group of ten, hands locked together the way that my groups had been. And soon, the whole of us were standing in the Fae Forest. I was glad when the same neck-rolling, eye-popping looks of wonder filled their faces. I hated being the only one who was always being surprised and taken off guard.
“We must move quickly now,” Arrol said, cutting a path through the pink fog and knowing that I would follow. “Stay close to me, and if someone sees you, pay them no mind. Just keep moving.”
I didn’t hesitate to do as he directed, or miss the uneasiness in Arrol’s voice. This place was beautiful in its otherness, extraordinary even, but it was so much so that I felt utterly out of place here. Glancing around at the people who were following me, I saw that I was not alone in this. We all felt out of place here.
And why shouldn’t we? We were sanctioned trespassers through a land that our kind had no foot in, no claim to, and probably had not, if ever, for over a thousand years. Not only that, but who knew how the Fae here felt about Vampires and Wolves? I had only Arrol for example, and the Fae back at the Outlands had all agreed to live peacefully, so they didn’t count. This was a whole new cookie altogether, and I felt uneasy about taking a bite. It could be poison.
Are you sure we should trust this Fae, Warrior? What reason has he to help you in the ways that he has? What makes you think that we’re not walking straight into a trap?
“Well, that’s a shitload of questions that I’d rather not contemplate right now, thank you.”
I think you better contemplate them at some point. Watch him closer, Warrior. Pay attention and see. The Fae is hiding it well, but the tension in the muscles of his back and the darting of his eyes is giving him away. Arrol has either betrayed you, or neglected to tell you something rather important. He’s too nervous.
“Too late to do anything about it now then, huh? Just shut up already. If he has betrayed me, I’ll cut his heart out.”
Oh, Warrior. I love to hear you say such sweet things.
I gritted my teeth and shot Kayden a glance that told him to stay back for a moment while I caught up with Arrol, who was moving like a very cautious bat out of hell, weaving through the trees and fog just a pace too quickly. My Monster was right. Now that I was paying attention, I saw that Arrol was nervous. Too nervous. I hated it when my Monster was right.
“Arrol,” I said, my voice pitched low. Under the concealment of my black cloak, my hand reached back and retrieved my Gladius from where it was tucked into the back of my pants. I gripped it tightly, but left the blade sheathed for now.
Arrol turned his head and met my eyes for a
moment, but kept moving at his hurried pace.
I took a deep breath, and leaned in so that only he would hear me—hopefully, it was always difficult to have a private conversation with so many Wolf and Vampire ears present. “Is there something you want to tell me?” I asked.
His silver eyes met mine once more, and held them just long enough for me to see that the answer was yes. His voice was even softer than mine when he spoke, so much so that even though I was right beside him and had my super-hearing, I had to strain to hear his words. “Would that I could, Warrior,” he said. “But I can tell you two things. First, I’m sorry, and second, choose a high number.”
I was a breath away from asking him what the hell that was supposed to mean, when the sword in my hand tingled.
And without me having said a word or given a command, my Monster stepped into the forefront of my being and took control.
And saved our life.
Alexa
For the second time, Warrior. But who’s counting?
I spun around fast, the magnets that held together the front of my long coat snapping apart and my left hand catching the arrow in out of the air just inches from home plate. My left eye twitched and a crooked smile pulled up one side of my mouth. In my head, my Monster’s laugh trilled cold and gleeful, and my fist tightened and snapped the arrow in its grasp as though it were nothing more than a stick of cracker. For several breaths, nothing but silence filled the Forest; no beat of wings or pulse or heart.
My head whipped toward Arrol, who was looking down at his feet, silver hair falling forward to shield some of his face. The blade of my sword had slid out at some point already, and it gleamed silver in the soft light of this world. I could feel my Monster’s intentions in my right hand that held it. It was going to slide the tip through Arrol’s heart, but I stepped forward and seized control of myself, shoving my darkness back where it belonged, and waited.
The laughter came from nowhere and everywhere at once. It was a sweet sound, like a child’s merriment, and it seemed to float through the colorful trees and carry on the pink fog that danced over the ground. I focused hard on my hearing, my teeth clenching together as I tried to pinpoint the source of the sound. My comrades were struck still and silent, willing to let me decide how to handle this, and that was why I had waited. Maybe this wasn’t so much an ambush as it was a test. After all, no second arrow had been fired.
I heard it then, just the slightest of rustling in the branches of a tree twenty yards ahead of me, and my eyes snapped to it in time to see her drop out of the cotton leaves and land lithely on ground, where the pink fog parted like a manipulated sea. I said nothing as she approached, and knew at once who she was without having to ask.
The Fae Queen.
She was as other as the land over which she ruled, with wings that were feathered and dark blue at the top that faded down to a deep black. Her skin was a swirling, changing pattern of soft pastels, ears pointed and long. She regarded me with eyes shaped like a Siamese cat’s and spaced too far apart on her head. A smile pulled up the edges of her wide, pink mouth, and white teeth that were sharp and long gleamed behind it. She wore a gown made of a material that was like the trees in this land, fluffy and almost cloud-like, and it fell to her bare feet, sweeping away the pink fog like the breeze at the shore. We she came to a stop, it was less than a foot in front of me, and I had to crane my neck back to look up at her. She had to be at least as tall as Kayden, which was over six feet.
“You are fast,” she said, in a voice that was like music in a song that did not appeal to me.
I said nothing.
Her hands came together in front of her, long pointed nails clicking together as she stared down at me. “How pleased I am to meet a Sun Warrior,” she said. “I thought the last of you had died long before my time. Oh, manners, manners! Where are my manners? I am Queen Tristell. This is my land that you stand on, and I am pleased that you’ve come.”
I found my voice finally, and held up the broken arrow that was still in my left hand. “Yes,” I said, “Quite a welcoming.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Arrol stiffen beside me, and I wondered for a moment which side he would fight on if this came down to that, but decided at once that it didn’t really matter. In front of me, the Fae Queen’s smile did not falter. “Well,” she said, “you must know that you cannot just pass through this land without some sort of display of worth. What kind of example would I be setting if I allowed that? I have a kingdom to rule, you know. I must maintain the respect of my people.”
“Okay,” I said, instead of get to the damn point already.
“Okay!” she said, and clapped her hands like a child receiving a coveted birthday present. “Let us begin then, Sun Warrior! Let us begin! You have a choice. What do you choose? A test of the mind, or a test of the body?”
“Uh, body, I guess.”
More gleeful clapping. “Wonderful! Wonderful! Tell me then, who among you is your greatest fighter? Who will be the one to prove your worth?”
That’s us, Warrior! That’s us! Oooo pick me pick me pick me!
“Alright, already, shut up. You sound as stupid as she does. Who else would I pick?”
“That’d be me,” I said, getting a hard look from Kayden that told me he would much rather I let him fight this battle for me. I had no doubt that he could do it, but there were over two thousand people watching who had followed me here and named me their leader, and I was not the type of leader that sent my men into battle for me. Like the Fae Queen, I also had an example to set. I could handle this.
I hoped.
The Fae Queen took to her wings, shooting up into the air and flying around in a circle, clapping her hands and brandishing that terrible smile. “Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!” she sang, and lighted on the branch of a nearby tree. Her feet hooked into it like talons, and she crouched down and regarded me seriously for the first time since I’d seen her. “Then choose a number, Sun Warrior. How many can you handle at one time? How many of my best fighters do you think you can dispatch all by yourself?”
I thought for a moment, understanding now what Arrol had meant when he’d told me to choose a high number. The answer that fell out of my mouth probably qualified for the stupidest thing I’ve ever said. And that’s saying something.
“As many as you can stand to lose, your Majesty.”
Uh, shit, Warrior. Even I wouldn’t have said that.
I expected for this to make her angry, even cringed a little inside as my Monster expressed its reservations, but instead, that childlike laughter rang from the Fae Queen’s mouth and now she was bouncing on her haunches with her joy, making her perch swish and sway and shed leaves that drifted down like painted dandelion seeds. Clap! Clap! Clap! “Oh! I’ll choose, then! I will choose! How wonderful and exciting! What shall it be? What shall it be? Hmm…Oh! I got it! I got it! Thirty will do! Thirty is good number! A great number! Don’t you agree, Sun Warrior? Will you accept the test? Will you stand against thirty of my own and prove your worth and secure passage through my land for your people?”
Like I had a choice. My mouth had gotten me into a lot of trouble in my day, but this bit took the cake. “Yes, your Majesty,” I said. “If you are prepared to watch thirty of them die.”
The tree branch swayed and bounced. “So brave! So brave! Let us begin! I cannot wait a moment longer! Step out into the clearing, Sun Warrior! I simply cannot wait a moment longer!”
I slid the cloak off of my shoulders and handed it to Kayden, who was looking at me like he wanted to choke me. I gave him a sheepish smile that I hoped didn’t give up my nerves. I could do this. It would be the stupidest ending in the world for me to die right now, just when I was so close to reaching the King. I could do this. I had to. And if I kept telling myself that, maybe it would be true.
Thirty is a huge number, Warrior.
“No shit. I hope you’re hungry.”
Oh, I’m starved.
A smile pul
led up my lips, and I knew that it belonged to my Monster, which was just fine with me. I was going to need its help. I walked out into the large clearing in the trees that the Fae Queen had indicated, my Gladius clutched tightly in my hand, tingling cool with its knowledge that danger was afoot. When I made it to the center of the clearing, my opponents began drifting down from the trees on all sides of me, puffs of pink clouds scattering away from their bare feet. I could feel the eyes of my comrades weighing on me, and shut them out of my mind. It was time to focus on the task at hand, time to do what I did best. It was time to kill.
My Monster’s voice was filled with hungry anticipation in my head. Let’s add some ornaments to our silver vine, Warrior. Let’s add thirty of them.
“Right. What’s thirty more deaths on my hands? Nothing. I’m pretty sure I’m going to hell as it is.”
Get your mind right, Warrior.
I sighed and stepped back to let the darkness in me take control, and was immediately filled with the same sense of anticipation that carried on my Monster’s words. Red seemed to ring my vision, and I pushed my tongue out over my lips, wetting them the way a fat man will when a large steak is placed in front of him. I was going to enjoy this. It would fill my belly up and make my headache go away and I would feel better. Much better. All I had to do was not die. And kill. Same shit, different day.
The first of them moved in without word or warning, charging forward with harsh flicks of their wings, muscles bulging as they raised their swords and came at me from every side. They were all men, all thirty of them, and as big in size as my biggest Warrior, and I saw what my advantage would be here. They were incredibly quick for their size, but they would not be quick enough.
My blade danced and arched and swept through the air. The first swing went straight through the midsections of two Fae as easily as an eraser will swipe chalk from a blackboard. Sprays of scarlet sprung out into the open air, and landed warm and wet on my hands, my shirt, my face. The smell of their sweet blood intoxicated me to the point of euphoria. I moved then on pure instinct and need, the feel of their lives leaving them capturing me totally.
