books 1 - 3

by Ella J. Smyth

  She knew that Florice and the wolf had both been imprisoned on the queen’s orders, but she hoped that maybe, just maybe, she might be able to convince the ruler of Faerie to be merciful. Adi ignored her dread at the price that she might have to pay for it.

  32

  By the time Adi arrived back at the large hall, she was nearly running, driven by her ever-growing fear for the safety of her two friends. Her rush came to a sudden stop when she saw the two faerie warriors who had dragged the wolf to his cell standing next to the queen.

  Her expression was triumphant, and again Adi had the ominous feeling that she was being played. The queen now had three aces up her sleeve against her. Honi was out there somewhere, Florice was half-dead in a cell, and the wolf didn’t look like he might last much longer.

  Swallowing down her misgivings, Adi slowed to a walk and approached the throne with her head held high. The queen hadn’t made her bow before, so Adi was not going to start now.

  As she moved closer, the queen stood up and said, “Well, Adi, I hear you have been back to my dungeon.” So she was right. This had all been set up to put pressure on her to submit.

  Out loud, she replied, “I have. I’m disgusted to see how you treat your subjects. If you want me to trust you, to work with you, this is not the way to go about it. If this is how you treat your own people, how would you treat me?” And to put emphasis on her words, she glared at the queen.

  The creature threw her head back and laughed. “You’re very funny, Adi. I’m glad I didn’t kill you last time.” Then her face turned icy. “Let me explain, child. I will do whatever it takes to make the two realms, and thereby my subjects, safe. My job, my only job, is to ensure the integrity, the balance of the human and the spirit animal worlds. Where you are now, Emain Ablach, is a representation, a different aspect of the spirit world. Look around you.”

  Adi did as she was told. Slowly, the hall had begun to fill with more courtiers, but also with people dressed in guard attire and even gardeners’ aprons. As if following an unspoken command, more and more faeries were gathering in the hall around their ruler.

  The queen continued, “Do you see a single spirit animal in this room?”

  Adi looked again, and she suddenly realized what had bothered her since she’d first arrived here. There were no spirit animals. In fact, there were no animals other than what would be expected—birds, insects, but nothing apparently attached to any of the faeries.

  “You see, Adi, because we are practically immortal, we have no need for spirit animals. That gives us the unique ability to travel between both worlds freely. Because of your actions, you nearly destroyed this balance, and that is why I was so keen on destroying you.”

  The queen stepped down from her dais and lifted Adi’s chin up with her index and middle finger.

  “Of course, when you nearly defeated me,” she purred, “it became personal. I haven’t felt such anger in a very long time, and I suppose I should thank you. Immortality can become tedious.”

  The queen turned to her assembled subjects, and her voice rose louder to make sure that everybody heard her.

  “Your friend Florice was sent by me to fulfill his duty. I don’t know why, nor do I care, but he failed me. Worse, he betrayed me when he let you go against my direct orders. For that, he has to pay. I have not decided yet whether I will kill him, but I will make sure that he’ll suffer so much pain in the foreseeable future that he will never do it again. As for the animal you found, did he not look familiar to you?”

  A cold shiver run down Adi’s back. She took a deep breath and fought down the rising panic. The effort left her dizzy, and she straightened her back even more to avoid showing weakness. She looked the queen squarely in the eyes and shook her head.

  “As I said, I am the Guardian in charge of the balance between the worlds. As such, my power extends over anybody who enters my realm, as well as the spirit animals. Honi has disappointed me greatly. When he refused to work with me, I assumed it was because he was powerful enough to withstand me. It turned out, he wasn’t. It was easy to send him into his spirit animal’s body.”

  Adi swallowed. It couldn’t be. Oh my God, was she saying what Adi thought she was saying? Without thinking, she blurted out, “Are you saying that that wolf is Honi?”

  The queen laughed again. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Then she waited for a reaction.

  Adi’s mind was reeling. This was something like out of a fairy tale. People being turned into animals. That was why the wolf had looked so familiar. Because he was familiar. She had looked into Ho’neo’s blue, blue eyes and seen Honi looking back at her.

  She had to get him out of there. The seriousness of the situation crashed over her, and she slumped. She barely managed to keep herself standing. With tired eyes, she looked at the queen and said, “You win. How can I get him back?”

  The queen finally let go of her chin, satisfied that she had scored a major victory. She turned her back to Adi and paced in front of her throne. While Adi waited, the queen considered her request.

  “I should kill him for the trouble you’ve caused me, Adi. But I will be merciful. Tomorrow at noon, I will ask you to pick your wolf, and if you can, I will turn him back. In return, you will consider my request.”

  She whirled back to Adi so suddenly that she jumped. “I am, however, sick of being thwarted by you. So let’s add some… spice to your challenge. If you’re too weak, if your talent deserts you and you can’t pick your lover, then your life is forfeit, and he will remain a wolf until the end of his days. Do you understand me?”

  Adi felt like she’d turned into a bobblehead. She nodded like a crazy person, relieved to be given a chance to get Honi back, but equally terrified by yet another threat to her life. When the queen dismissed her, she was escorted back to her room. She couldn’t make any sense out of the queen’s behavior.

  Why did she insist on tormenting Adi when she’d already agreed to do whatever the faerie ruler wanted? Or was this still about their first encounter, when Adi had beaten her? Would the queen try to rig the challenge for revenge, or was she playing a longer game? Adi’s head was reeling.

  33

  After hours of worrying, Adi had finally fallen into a restless sleep. When she opened her eyes again, she was on her back, her whole body swallowed up by the most comfortable mattress she’d ever lain on.

  Still, her joints were aching and her muscles so tight that the soreness had woken her. She was on the edge of an anxiety attack, and for a second, she couldn’t remember why. Then the memories came rushing back, and she tensed even more.

  Today was the day she’d either get Honi back, or… the alternative was too horrible to think about. She remembered what the queen had said to her. She’d been too exhausted last night to consider what those words meant—a challenge, a test. She doubted it would be a pleasant experience, and knowing the queen, she would have found some way to rig it.

  Adi could only hope that the ruler wanted to demonstrate her mercy to her subjects rather than her superiority. Better a public humiliation than a public execution, she thought glumly.

  It was still early in the morning. When Adi finally rolled out of bed and looked outside the window, the sun had barely cleared the horizon, infusing the fairy-tale landscape with that particular glow of a spring morning.

  The scents of flowers drifting up from below should have been idyllic. Tears pricked the back of her eyes. If she failed today, who would miss her? Would the man whose life was so inseparably intertwined with her remember her fondly while he spent the rest of his days as an animal? Or would he curse the day he’d met her?

  Adi crossed her arms over her chest, holding herself together as best as she could. Beyond the courtyard garden, on a green field maybe a mile away, there were people gathering.

  When she turned away from the window and looked for her clothes, she found that her simple garments had disappeared and been replaced with richly decorated silks. She picked up a ti
ght jade-green tunic, embroidered along the edges with white blossoms.

  The shirt was beautiful, and when Adi slipped it over her head, it caressed her body in the most sensual way. Any other time, she would have loved wearing something like this, playing dress-up in fairyland. But not today. The only reason this had been given to her today was to turn the challenge into even more of an occasion. Weren’t virgin sacrifices adorned in beautiful clothes? She didn’t feel particularly virginal without a bra.

  The tunic was long enough to cover her thighs halfway to her knees. There was no jacket, pants, or shoes. Just as she crouched down, looking whether her sandals might have ended up under her bed, the door opened without warning. Adi quickly jumped to her feet, not knowing what to expect.

  Three girls entered the room, dressed much like herself in silk garments of various jewel tones. Their hair was artfully piled up on their heads, held in position with filigree, bone and wooden combs. They looked like teenagers but were likely to be much, much older. Faeries aged differently, she had learned.

  The three creatures didn’t say a word but smiled at her as they took her hand. Adi had no choice but to follow along as they pulled her out of the room and marched quickly towards their destination. Very soon, Adi lost all sense of direction as the girls took her to a part of the castle she hadn’t been in before.

  When they entered another room, Adi stopped. One of the faeries turned around and frowned, being brought up so suddenly, but then grinned at Adi’s amazed expression.

  In front of her was a bathtub cut into the floor, lined with polished stone. Adi stepped closer and felt the heat rise from the water inside the tub. When the girls gestured at her to take her clothes off, she was glad that there were only the four of them. Still, she wasn’t comfortable dressing and undressing in front of strangers, and she shook her head.

  The tallest of the faeries tugged on the hem of Adi’s shirt. Her eyes showed confusion and impatience, and when Adi brushed her hands off and continued shaking her head, the faerie’s mouth turned down in displeasure.

  They hadn’t spoken a single word, and she wasn’t sure if maybe they didn’t speak her language, or if they were mute. After Florice’s and Honi’s treatment, she wouldn’t have been surprised if the queen had taken the gift of speech from her servants. That’s something the vindictive bitch would do. She shuddered at the thought.

  Adi still had her arms crossed in front of her chest. Before the tug-of-war could deteriorate into a scuffle, she sat down on a chair, so that no amount of tugging was getting the shirt off her. She felt extremely vulnerable, with no underwear, no bra, in front of these three gorgeous creatures.

  When the faeries gave up, throwing her dirty glances, both irritated and helpless, Adi cowered in her seat like a scared child. Eventually, she calmed down and considered her position. She did feel a little sticky, and this morning, she’d caught a whiff of herself. Really, there didn’t seem to be much point in resisting a bath.

  Having made her decision, she uncurled and stood up. If she had to face the entire court out on the field, she might as well be clean. She tried to convey that to the three girls, waving at them with her hands and explaining that she would take a bath if they left.

  Eventually, the message sunk in, and soon Adi was alone in the bathroom. Quickly, she pulled the tunic over her head and placed it neatly on the chair. Then she tested the water with a toe. The temperature was perfect, and with a sigh, Adi slipped into the soothing dark green liquid. Hmmm, what a lovely jasmine scent. She leaned her head back and inhaled deeply, relaxing for the first time in days.

  She must have nodded off when she felt movement on her arms. Her head shot up and her eyes opened, only to look at the grinning face of one of the girls, who had returned so quietly that Adi had never heard them come in.

  She protested, trying to push their hands away, but it was no use. The three girls had joined her in the giant tub and began to wash her thoroughly. Their hands gently wiped sponges over her skin, from her neck down to her fingers, from her collarbones over her breasts to her stomach.

  Eventually she gave up and stretched out again, too relaxed to fight any longer. She closed her eyes and imagined that she was at home, receiving a professional massage. The touches didn’t seem quite so intrusive when she considered them in that context.

  Pretty soon, however, the intimacy of the movements broke into her daydream. The girls concentrated more and more not on cleaning her, but on arousing her. Their touches lingered longer and longer on her breasts and between her legs. Before Adi could even react, her body did it for her, her nipples tightening and spine bowing.

  Her legs spread of their own accord, and the sponges were replaced by fingertips, circling and pinching until Adi was gasping for breath. The last bit of fight drained out of her, and she opened her legs wider, her pelvis tilted up.

  As if they had waited for that signal, the three faeries withdrew suddenly, leaving Adi feeling ridiculous. Her eyes flew open again, her body primed and ready for release, but suddenly she was all alone in the big bathtub. The servant girls were laughing at her from the edge of the tub, and blushing furiously, Adi realized that this whole exercise had been set up to humiliate her.

  She just about had enough. Adi scooted her whole body downwards and submerged her head, until only her hair bobbed on top of the surface of the water like so much seaweed. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest, and she sulked for all of forty seconds before the need for air drove her back out of the water.

  Only one of the girls was still standing there, giggling as she held up the biggest, fluffiest towel Adi had ever seen. There was something so good-natured about the faerie’s teasing that Adi couldn’t hold a grudge against her. Surely she’d only followed the queen’s orders, so if anybody was to blame, it was the queen. Again.

  Adi lifted herself out of the deep bath with regret, still slightly turned on, but not able to do anything about it, especially in front of the girl. She allowed herself to be wrapped into the towel and her hair covered with a smaller cloth. Within a few minutes, she was dressed and had been given thin leather sandals. Her hair was brushed, although it still hung wet and limp over her shoulders.

  The faerie girl’s face tensed up, and Adi knew that they were running out of time. Soon, there were rhythmic steps in the hallway announcing the arrival of armed men who streamed two by two into the bathroom. This was it, time to face the music.

  Adi gulped but had no choice but to follow them. She drew herself up to her full height, which was still two feet shorter than the smallest of the guards, and flanked on both sides, she walked towards the challenge.

  And she walked and walked. Looking out of the window earlier, she’d estimated that the field was about a mile away, and that proved to be right. It took what she guessed was a full fifteen minutes to get there. By the time they finally arrived, her feet were sore, given that all she wore were those silly leather sandals that barely protected her feet from the gravel on the path.

  She was torn between her excitement at seeing Honi again and the fear, bordering on panic, that she might lose everything. She still didn’t trust the queen, even though she’d not been mistreated this time around. Not yet.

  The memories of the days spent in the cell were still with her, and she couldn’t look at the ruler of Faerie without remembering the despair she’d felt in the total darkness. This creature had all the power, and even though Adi had managed to withstand her full onslaught twice now, she wasn’t hundreds of years old like some of the faeries. She felt like a child in front of them.

  As they reached the edge of the meadow, the guards fell away, and Adi continued on by herself. She couldn’t help but look around and notice how incredibly beautiful nature was in this realm. She’d noticed before that flowers and bushes and trees seemed to be in full bloom, never mind that they were seasonal in the human world. She saw the same thing here.

  There were daffodils in shades of deepest, richest yellow, righ
t next to white, humble snowdrops huddling under late-blooming roses. The grass underneath her feet was soft and as lush as a fluffy carpet. Adi looked up into a clear blue sky, feeling the gentle scented breeze on her skin, wondering if this was the last day that she would see the beauties of the world around her. She had no idea what would happen to her if she died today.

  In the human world, if a person died, their spirit animal would go back to the spirit world, and it was anybody’s guess if they were reborn as another person or if they moved on to another realm yet undiscovered.

  Adi didn’t have a spirit animal—a fact she’d always been curious about, but not even the shaman John had been able to shed light on why that was. So if she died here, today, there was a high chance that she would just disappear without a trace. It wasn’t until she felt cold on her face that she noticed a tear trickling down her cheek. She lifted a finger to wipe it away when her wrist was grabbed by a cold hand.

  Adi looked up, and in front of her was the creature called the faerie queen, the snow queen, Spider Woman. Adi knew she had many names. She also knew the creature wasn’t human, but was somehow instrumental to the balance and safety of the human and the spirit worlds. Her inhumanity was in evidence while her white strange eyes bored into Adi’s.

  “You are right to cry, human child. You face a challenge today that you have no chance of winning.”

  Adi swallowed hard, then lifted her chin. “What are you saying? That I have no chance to win the challenge because you’ve rigged it? That’s hardly fair, Queen,” she said, infusing as much derision as she could into the title.

  The queen’s eyes narrowed as she regarded Adi like a bug. “No. This is a challenge that many have undergone, yet very, very few have bested. You study fairy tales, don’t you, Adi?”

  Adi nodded. “I wouldn’t call it ‘studying fairy tales,’ but yes, I read anthropology, which includes the study of myths and legends.”