by E. Molloy
His hands tightened on hers and he pulled her in closer to him, eyes darting about the empty scene to try and find the creatures that had gotten them stuck in this. "No, listen to me. This isn't right," he begged, another laugh escaping him afterwards.
She giggled, and an instrument in the music mimicked her laughter. "I could dance all night," she said in a sing-song voice, by now having taken the leading role in choosing the steps for their dance. Daveth's feet still moved along with it, but he was no longer focused on it.
"If you dance all night, you won't have the energy to travel in the morning," he reasoned, trying to appeal to her logic, if she indeed had any left. His own smile was wavering, only barely, but he'd at least managed to contain his laughter this time.
The woman let go with one hand, reaching out as far as she could before twisting back toward him and into his arms. Both of their steps paused when she landed, and the princess whispered, "Why travel in the morning when we can dance then, too?"
Against his will, he took the lead in the dance again, and their steps continued. "Your father. We have to get you back to the palace, remember?"
"Nope," she chirped cheerfully, and swung back out again, letting go with both hands this time and releasing into a twirling spin across the damp grass in the moonlight. Her orange hair swirled around her like a ballroom gown as she spun. Daveth's feet kept moving, inching him toward the water. His eyes saw where he was going, but he immediately turned his attention back to Lillian who seemed to be slowly migrating toward the darkness of the woods. Of course, the Princess was still lost in the music, enjoying dancing by herself as much as she had with him. He tried to yell for Glop over the booming music, but at this point couldn't even hear his own voice. Whether his shouts were drowned out by the loud music, or no sound came out at all, Daveth clearly wasn't going to be getting through to anything vocally. Another high-pitched sound reached his ears from within the tunes that floated all around him, much like what he would imagine it would sound like if a fiddle could giggle.
There was no getting out of this with brute force, that much was obvious, and the option of calling for help was null. If this kept going on, Lillian would dance herself into the darkness of the woods and likely never be seen again, and Daveth would keep stepping to the beat deeper and deeper into the Lake. He had to find a way to stop this, and this time he knew he wouldn't be able to count on anyone else to save him. For all he knew, they were both already dead, or cowards who had run off. Optimism out the window, he knew there was no way anyone could sleep through this mind-penetrating music.
While his legs and face seemed to be under someone else's control, his arms had full functionality once Lillian had let go of him. Something about their relevance to partnered dancing, perhaps, but he didn't really have time to try and figure out why something was working in his favor. As his feet touched the water, Daveth bent at the waist, sweeping a leg around behind him to at least keep his dance going as he reached down to grab his sword. His hand gripped the hilt tightly, pulling it out of the dirt it had been stuck in on his way up.
Lillian was, by now, out of sight, and his time was quickly running out as he gleefully danced his way deeper and deeper into the water. Looking around frantically for any idea of what to do next, Daveth saw at the edge of the lake a collection of rocks, one large one down just at the point where water touched land. It was a long shot, but it would probably be his only one. He bent at the waist again, knees bending outward very uncomfortably. Taking advantage of his posture, the knight slammed the blade of the sword into the ground, just behind the largest rock. Holding onto the hilt with both hands for dear life, Daveth could feel his lower half trying with all of its might to carry him off to drowning. The farther his feet got, the more he stretched out.
The blade pressed against the rock that it was lodged into the ground at, and the sound of metal grinding against stone rang in his ears over the sound of the music. In fact, despite how subtle the sound actually was compared to the booming deep notes, it seemed far louder, more real.
An idea struck him, one that was likely a waste of time but the only one he had. He slowly loosened his grip on the hilt with one hand, ensuring that his other would be able to hold him in place while his legs tried to take him under. Once he was certain the grip was firm, he shoved his free hand into the water and dug his hand into the mud and muck at the shallow end of the lake. Something squirmed over his fingers and he ripped his hand out of the water, taking with him whatever he'd been gripping before. A handful of mud and small slimy green plants dripped into the murky pool, and with a cringe he rubbed the pile into his left ear until he couldn't hear from it anymore. His legs began to slow their movement as he heard a high-pitched scream from the woods. Wasting no more time, Daveth shoved his hand into the water again, repeating the process with his right ear, rubbing in the muck until he couldn't hear anything at all.
The young man's body sank into the muddy water as his legs gave up their fight against his brain, but Daveth knew there wasn't any time to celebrate his lack of celebration. He climbed to his feet, his chest covered in watery mud that ran down his entire front end. He immediately headed toward where he thought the scream in the woods had originated, knowing that anything from here on out would go unnoticed so he would have to make that last sound count. Grabbing his sword from the ground as he passed, he charged into the darkness. There was still no time or reason to bother with his shield. It was broken, useless, and, of the half-a-man he had been before, he was now only half of that.
Daveth's bare feet took him over sticks and fallen logs swiftly, but the farther he got from the lake the darker the woods became. Despite the fact that he knew he'd be losing ground by slowing down, Daveth wasn't dumb enough to charge head first into something he couldn't see. The man's run slowed the darker it became, until he found himself at a complete stop in sheer darkness. Turning to look back, he could see the dim light from where the lake was far behind him, but no sign of anyone in the forest. He thought to empty his ears, to call out and see if Lillian could hear him, on the slight off-chance that he'd broken the spell and was somehow now immune. His training had covered all different kinds of creatures and magic, but it was hard for him to classify this. Fairies were unpredictable, and that was mostly all that he knew. What little he did know about them didn't seem to apply, and he couldn't help but wonder when the books at the Order were last updated. Magical creatures had been all-but eliminated decades ago, so he assumed the studies were purely on principle at this point. That, or the remaining members of those magical races had evolved since then, and nobody would have even noticed.
Aside from using iron against them, Fairies were one of the few creatures with limitless possibilities. He remembered his conversation with Aaron, who had told him that capture was not an option. He was starting to understand why, now. How do you contain something that can change its nature at will?
This music thing was not something he knew anything about, so he reasoned it best to stay on the safe side. Instead, he patted his ears to ensure that the mud settled in there as he looked about. His eyes adjusted to the darkness slowly, just enough to see movement and nothing else, but there was none.
Suddenly, he couldn't move, but it wasn't a spell this time. A strong hand swept under his sword arm, lifting it at the elbow and grabbing him around the mouth. Another arm grabbed his other wrist and pinned it behind his back. Daveth flailed against his captor, but his strength was nowhere near whatever had him in this awkward grip. He still gripped his sword tightly, but with his right elbow pressed against his face, he couldn't do much with it. If he dropped it, he ran higher odds of hurting himself than anyone else.
Muffled sounds came from behind him, possibly his captor talking to him, but Daveth didn't have any way to respond, or at least let the brute know that he couldn't hear and could he please write it down or something. As he struggled pointlessly against his captor, gaining no ground, a raven landed on the branch in front o
f him. The bird stared, and Daveth stopped struggling. He tried to turn his head, but that didn't work, and he began to squirm again. The bird opened its mouth and closed it again, presumably saying something to him. At least that was one thing that wasn't affected by his not hearing, he thought.
Then the bird lifted off and flew into the darkness. Daveth's eyes followed the creature as it slowly put distance between them. He tried to yell after it to come back, but even without his hearing he could tell that the words had been too muffled by the giant hand over his mouth to really get a point across.
The bird landed again on a branch, and Daveth squinted in the darkness, trying to see anything that maybe it was trying to show him. It looked like it hadn't gone far, but his depth perception in the dark wasn't exactly spectacular. He saw nothing, at first, but then he noticed movement. Three shadows in the woods, one of them moving about wildly with the other two a few dozen steps behind, calmly stalking. They were too small to be as close as he'd hoped they would, but he knew he could make it there if he ran. Now if he could only break free from this vice grip.
Chapter 15
Lillian danced energetically into the darkness, her feet now bare and bleeding. Though her face was pulled up into a joyous grin that would put to shame the jesters in the royal court, she felt hopeless and trapped. Trapped in this cycle, and she couldn't remember how it had started. The sound of the music in the woods had gone from dark to horrifying, and its baritone ups and downs held an ominous tone that felt as if any moment something terrible would happen. The volume had gone up so high that it felt like it was inside of her head, and each deep note sent a pang of shock from the tip of her skull down the back of her neck. Her legs ached, her knees trembled with each graceful step, and her feet were bleeding so bad that she left a trail of red behind her on the sticks and rocks and leaves that coated the forest floor. Tears streamed from her eyes, rolling down her lifted cheeks and over her smiling lips.
Just behind her, the two fairies walked patiently. Their smiles held strong, but their brows were drawn down wickedly now, and neither of them was dancing anymore. It felt as though they were stalking her, deeper and deeper into the woods, watching her torture and prolonging it as they waited for something, though she dreaded to think of what. She couldn't cry out for help, not that she knew who could help her anyway. There was some memory of having been with someone else here, but that was really all she could recall. Each time she tried to focus on it, the music's tempo changed and her dance steps changed with it. The music and dance, the pain, and her exhaustion were all she could focus on for more than a few seconds.
No matter what Daveth did to try and wriggle out of the grasp, the shadows in the distance continued to get farther and farther away. He didn’t give up trying to escape, though, even once they were far out of his sight. The raven flew back toward him, landing on a branch in front of him, and opened its mouth again. Again, he heard nothing, but he felt the grip on him loosen. The heavy arms shoved him to the ground, and Daveth whipped around and backed up, holding his sword in front of him at the ready.
Crouched on the ground there, holding a wide finger over his bearded lips, was Ragen. He had figured it must have been the hunter holding him once the bird had appeared, but there’d been a part of him that wanted to believe the man was on his side. Daveth scowled, and the man motioned with his hand as if telling him to get down. Perhaps, under less stressful circumstances, Daveth would have done as he was told, but given that the princess had just been kidnapped while he had to stand and watch because a man that he didn't really trust in the first place had kept him from saving her, Daveth wasn't taking any more chances. In a swift move with his sword, he lunged toward the beast of a man, blade impacting with his shoulder. Ragen's lips curled back and he bared his teeth, revealing for the first time that he had several sets of sharp white canines in the front. He stumbled backward and grabbed his shoulder, golden eyes staring at his assailant in silent rage. Neither of them made another move right away.
Daveth held strong to his pose, holding his sword in front of himself, arm bent and ready to swing should the need arise. He used his free hand to start digging some of the mud out of his left ear. He couldn't free it up completely, but he knew he was regaining some sound when he heard the raven in the tree behind, crowing in protest of its friend's wound. There was no sign of the music he'd heard earlier, though, so he dug a little more out while keeping his eyes trained on Ragen.
The large man had managed to get back on a knee in front of his assailant, holding his shoulder with a very angry expression. He didn't say anything, or make any move, and Daveth wasn't really sure what to do with him now. He still wanted answers, yes, but was he supposed to kill him after that? Let him go? Turn him in somewhere?
"So, you're in on this?" Daveth demanded, taking a step toward him.
"Listen," the large man barked quietly, "If you want to save the princess, then we don't have time for this."
"I was on my way to save her when you stopped me. Why?" Daveth demanded.
"You can't fight them on your own."
"If I'm so useless, then why am I the one still on my feet?"
The man's scowl lightened a little and he chuckled, shaking his head. He still grit his teeth from the pain in his shoulder. "If I wanted you dead, kid, you'd be dead."
"Is that a threat?"
Ragen shook his head, and returned to his subject. "You think they can't see through the darkness? You're lit up like a lamp out here for creatures of the night. You're the one still on your feet 'cause you don't have the good sense to listen to me when I tell you you're gonna get yourself killed if you don’t get down. Now, I don't know what your problem with me is, but frankly this ain't the time to discuss it. So get your ass on the ground and do what I say or I'll go fix this myself."
Daveth narrowed his eyes at the man on the ground, but didn't lower himself. Good advice that it might have been, he wasn't ready to drop his guard yet. "I don't trust you," was his surprisingly simple reply, and Ragen chuckled in response.
"Well it's in your best interest to start. And that one, you can take as a threat." He stood, once again towering over Daveth. Daveth took a step back, still holding his sword ready to strike, even as Ragen made no advance to attack him. The large man still held one hand over his wounded shoulder, but he didn't seem to be bothered by the pain anymore.
"What are you?" Daveth asked warily.
"Fix first, questions later," Ragen replied as he reached into one of his pockets and pulled something out. He held his large hand out to Daveth. "Hang this from your ear," he commanded.
Daveth lowered his weapon, still held ready at his side, and took what the man offered. "My ear? Why, what is it?"
"Keeps you from hearing their music," he replied, looking over the boy. "Looks like you're going to have to get creative. Here, give me that," he moved next to Daveth.
"I had to stuff mud in my ears to accomplish that, and you had magical bells this whole time? How does it work?" Daveth asked skeptically, watching Ragen carefully as the man came along his side.
"They're not magical, they're just iron bells. As far as why it works, don't know, really. But it hasn't failed me yet. Don't move," he said, and before Daveth could ask why or protest he felt a sharp pain in his ear.
The smaller man winced, and then retracted, kicking Ragen in the stomach impulsively. Even he was surprised by his own speed in the situation, as the big man stumbled back with the familiar raged expression. Daveth snapped, "What did you do to me?"
Laughing between gritted teeth, Ragen replied, "Relax, kid, it only stings a little." He was right, it didn't hurt anymore, and Daveth put up his hand to feel the little wire pushed through one side of his ear and out the other, the bell hanging underneath.
"You could have warned me it was going to hurt," he replied, lowering his hand. He shook his head a little to test it. He couldn't really hear the tiny bell ringing. It was such a subtle sound that, even in the nearly
silent setting, it was barely noticeable.
"Thought we had an understanding. That whole trust business, remember?"
"Fine. I'm sorry. Anything else we need to stab each other with before we go?"
"We move in silence," the man replied, totally skipping past Daveth's question which he could only hope meant no. "No talking, hand signs only. Follow the raven, wait for my directions. Do not attack, under any circumstances."
"Don't attack?" Daveth argued. He opened his mouth to say more but was soon interrupted.
"I'm not dying for two strangers, and we aren't going to beat fairies. Unless your little friend decides to pitch in, we need to get her and get out of this forest as fast as possible."
"Who, Glop?" Daveth asked, wondering how the swamp rat could possibly take on fairies any easier than they could.
The man scoffed bitterly. "No, the other one."
"What other one?" he hissed as quietly as he could.
"Listen, it don't matter. Just don't attack. We get in, get the girl, get out."
"That's...not much of a plan."
Ragen sighed. "Yeah, I know. The details are a little fuzzy beyond 'keep the fairies from getting her to their nest where she will never be heard from again'. I figured I'd focus on that detail, sort out the rest after. Unless you have a better idea."
Daveth sighed, running a hand through his thick dark hair. "What do they want with her? What are they going to do? Maybe we can, I don't know, convince them to let her go?"
Ragen stared at him a moment, his expression sympathetic a moment before hardening again. He shook his head. "They're not going to do anything. She's coming with us," he replied with a toothy grin, though Daveth didn't really share his enthusiasm. "I'm wounded, thanks for that, so you're going to have to be the one that swoops her up when the time comes. Think you can handle that?"
Daveth nodded, though he didn't think that Ragen had been moving like a wounded man anymore. In fact, he seemed to have all but forgotten about the bloody gash on his shoulder, though Daveth couldn't tell in the dark how bad it actually was.