The Autumn Fairy

by Brittany Fichter

  The Autumn Fairy

  Brittany Fichter

  Contents

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  Dedication

  1. Forgive Me

  2. Superstitions

  3. The Choice

  4. Wild

  5. A Fool for Thinking

  6. A Gift

  7. A Will to Rival

  8. Gambling on Dreams

  9. Put Out

  10. The Way He Looked

  11. Bargains

  12. More Than You Know

  13. Watching

  14. Willingly

  15. Back

  16. If Not for You…

  17. Hiding Something

  18. Remnants

  19. Complications

  20. Sour

  21. Not Strong Enough

  22. Another Word

  23. Someone

  24. Please

  25. He is a Man

  26. Clarisant

  27. A Thousand Voices

  28. Consequences

  29. Our Duty

  30. What He’s Become

  31. Live

  32. My Choice

  33. Promises

  34. More Ancient Blood

  35. One Boy

  36. Farewells

  37. Legends

  38. Not Ready

  39. One of Them

  40. Generous

  41. What Then

  42. Brilliance

  43. Muddled

  44. If Not Him...

  45. Risk

  46. Aedan

  47. Elixirs

  48. Wise Words

  49. None

  50. Confession

  51. That’s Why

  52. We’ll See

  53. More than Ever Before

  54. Just Let Go

  55. Toying

  56. Walls

  57. Until

  58. Good Things

  59. Just How Far

  Epilogue

  Also by Brittany Fichter

  About the Author

  Copyright

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  Details at the end of this book.

  To Grandma and Papa

  You have both been guiding stars since I can first remember, and if there was ever a love story that I should wish to write, it would be yours. Your steadfastness to one another and to your family is the love I wish to see in the world every day.

  From those early mornings up with Papa, singing “You Are My Sunshine,” and eating Frosted Mini Wheats with honey, to Rogers and Hammerstein musicals while baking Christmas cookies with Grandma, I grew up wanting to spend every spare minute with you.

  Nothing’s changed now that I’m older, except my wish that we weren’t so far apart. Having you as grandparents was nothing short of a beautiful gift of God.

  1

  Forgive Me

  “Katrin! Come see this!”

  Katy put the knife down and wiped her forehead with her wrist. “I’ve nearly finished chopping the—”

  “Forget the carrots, girl, and get outside!”

  Katy did as she was told and left her wild carrots on the table. She kept the knife in her hand, however. From the tone of Emma’s voice, she might need it. But when she grabbed her boots and stepped out of the cottage, she nearly dropped the knife.

  A cloud, nearly black and twice as tall as the mountain to their east, swirled over the far north side of the village. An eerie green light was cast over Downing, rather than the orange shade of evening that should have shone over the harbor. The wind whipped the trees in the distant forest behind them up into a frenzy, and from where they stood on the edge of their little knoll, the grassy fields that surrounded their cottage moved like choppy waves on the ocean.

  “The storm isn’t moving,” Katy whispered.

  Emma didn’t respond, but tendrils of her wispy white hair floated in the increasing wind and pointed toward the storm that seemed to swell before their eyes.

  As she often did, Katy gave thanks that they lived up on the knoll outside of Downing rather than in the village. “Do you think—” Before she could finish, blinding light cracked across the sky, followed quickly by an explosion of thunder. Then another streak of lightning followed. Then another and another. Katy and Emma stood rooted to their spots, watching. Again and again the lightning struck the ground, though what it was hitting, Katy couldn’t see.

  Finally, five minutes after the strange storm began, the clouds began to dissipate. Katy and Emma looked at each other. Emma’s wrinkled face was no longer awestruck. Instead, she looked just as suspicious as ever, if not more so.

  “They’ll blame you for this, Katrin.”

  Katy sighed as she peered down at the town. Little puffs of white smoke were rising from a house near the harbor. “It appears they already have.” She ran back inside and threw on her boots, slung her old brown bag over her shoulder, shut the trapdoor to her room, and slid the braid rug over it.

  “I just got everything cleaned up from the last time they searched the house.” Emma scowled as Katy gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and started for the door. “This is your fault, you know.”

  “It always is!” Katy called back as she darted out the door and sprinted for the trees.

  By the time she’d made it to the little ditch twenty feet behind the house, she could hear them. They came much faster than usual this time. Pushing herself against the cool soil, she listened carefully to the familiar sound of horses and men stopping at the little cottage door.

  “What do you want?” Emma called out in the distance.

  “Where is she?” Bearnard shouted back.

  “I’ll tell you the same thing I tell you every time you hounds come barking at my door. She isn’t here!”

  “That witch is responsible for the damage done by the monster of a storm, and we want to see her hanged!”

  “Witch, eh? Last month she was an olc. And the month before that—”

  “Dead is what she should be! My father made that clear, and you’ve been thumbing your nose at the governor’s law by housing her—”

  “Now just you wait, young man! You’ve no reason to think I’m hiding the little chit! I turned her out as soon as he made the order.”

  “You raised her! Now move aside. I’m going to see for myself!”

  Katy’s stomach twisted a bit when she saw the size of the party Bearnard had brought with him.

  The light was falling fast, though, and it wouldn’t be long before she had to leave the ditch. She knew from experience that they would soon let loose the dogs. So she clambered out of the ditch and looked around for a place to hide. Unfortunately, though, she’d waited too long to leave, and the dogs were barking from not far behind. So she darted to the only place left.

  The forest.

  “Dog’s got a scent here!”

  “We’re getting closer!”

  Katy ran harder, but just as she entered the wood, she tripped. Pain shot through her foot. She bit back her yelp, however, and pushed herself to her feet before climbing the nearest tree. Sitting in its branches, she clasped and unclasped her fingers in an attempt to keep her powers at bay. Even in the dark, she couldn’t risk giving away her position with a foolish slip. The others might miss it, but Bearnard never would.

  They called to one another to spread out and to mind the forest. And though she knew they wouldn’t enter, she eased herself up a few more branches. Most of her pursuers might not be willing to enter the forest, but Bearnard might. She could hear his breathing on the other side of the thick foliage, still heavy from the run.
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  “You can’t stay in there forever! There’ll be more like you in there, and they’ll be bloodthirsty as ever. Won’t even care that you’re one of their own!” When she didn’t answer, he sniffed. “Very well then. I can wait. My father wants you hanged, and I’ll see that done if it kills me!” His voice deepened. “Even if you kill me.”

  Even if she killed him. Katy clenched her fists, reopened them, and closed them again. She wanted nothing of the sort, but the dark power that roiled within her wanted nothing more. It would be so easy, like letting out the breath she was holding in now. And yet she resisted. She must resist.

  It seemed like hours that he stayed there, taunting her, inviting her to hurt him. Katy didn’t dare move from her perch on a tree’s lower branch, but she could feel the power begin to seep from her fingers, staining the bark beneath them a rotten black. Everything in her wanted to flee deeper into the wood, but she couldn’t budge an inch. The dangers there were just as great as the danger chasing her now. And so she held on to the rough branches until her fingers went numb. But eventually, after the sun had sunk completely, Bearnard’s companions tired of waiting.

  “Come along, Bearnard. We’ll find her.”

  “If she was as easy to catch as you make her seem, we wouldn’t still be searching after three weeks. She’s in here. I know it!” A dog howled. “And the dogs do, too.”

  “We can’t go in there, even if she is,” someone yelled back. “Your father would have our heads. Besides, she’s a fool if she did go in. Death worse than a noose lives in that wood, and she knows it. Come on. Let’s try farther down.”

  Katy pressed herself into the tree, praying that Bearnard would listen to the man and leave. And after another moment and more calls from the other hunters, he finally did.

  She nearly collapsed as she let the air that she’d been holding in burst from her lungs. She didn’t dare move, however, until their footsteps and shouts and torches were long gone. It was only as she began to climb out of the tree that she realized where her panicked steps had taken her.

  The ravine just outside the line of trees wasn’t wide, but it was deep enough that a grown man could stand at its lowest point and be invisible from the other side. It had seemed much deeper the first time she’d seen it. Of course, that had been long ago, back when he was still there.

  No. Katy shook her head to clear it. She wouldn’t think about that right now. She couldn’t afford to lose her focus. One misstep, and the men would be close on her trail again. So instead, she concentrated on staying low as she skirted the edges of the forest.

  “Something moved! Over there!”

  Katy darted back into the forest, dancing along the tree line, danger on both sides as man and the unknown of the wood surrounded her. Please, she prayed desperately, let me find a yellow bush. Or a brown one. Or a red one, even. The men’s boots pounded the ground behind her, and Katy briefly wondered how they ever managed to catch any game, loud as they were.

  “There you are.”

  The voice came before she saw him. Katy snapped her head around only to run right into Bearnard’s thick chest. She bounced off and fell to the ground. When she tried to roll to the side, Bearnard reached down and grabbed her ankle and held on tight.

  “That was quite tricky of you to be living off by yourself,” Bearnard said, yanking her closer.

  “You’re not supposed to be in the woods!”

  “And you’re not supposed to be alive.”

  “If Sir Christopher were here–”

  “Sir Christopher is long dead. Now it’s time you answer for your crimes.”

  “What crimes?”

  Bernard smiled. “Being olc, of course.”

  Katy pulled again, trying to free her leg, but it was of no use. His grip was like a vice. So instead, she kicked him in the knee. He let out a howl of pain and grabbed for his knee, giving her just enough time to scramble into the bushes beyond. To her relief, they were yellow.

  By this time, Bernard’s companions were approaching, their torches casting light all around them.

  “Forgive me,” she breathed as she pressed her hand against the bush. Guilt ate at her stomach as she watched the entire line of brush wither and fade from summer green to the dying shade of golden autumn, the same shade as the bush she hid behind.

  “Where is she?”

  “”Little wench kicked me and hid behind some yellow bush. Over there.”

  Shouts of alarm rose from the other side of the brush. “But they’re all yellow!”

  Katy closed her eyes and let herself sink to the ground in relief. Meanwhile, the men on the other side of the bushes were anything but relieved.

  “Cowards!” Bernard called after them as their footsteps faded into the distance. “What did you think you were pursuing? She’s an olc! They all have trickery of sorts.” But no matter how he protested, soon it was just the hunter and hunted.

  “I don’t know what you think you’re going to do,” he growled into the darkness. “You can only run for so long before someone finds you and gives you what you deserve. If you loved Sir Christopher so much, why don’t you do the honorable thing and turn yourself in before you stain his good name with anymore of your tricks?”

  Katy bit her tongue. There was a part of her, angry as it made her, that believed him. Thankfully, the part that still remembered Sir Christopher’s voice from time to time was a bit wiser. But only just. “I cannot do that,” she called back breathlessly before scurrying farther down the hedge.

  His boots clomped closer. “And why would that be?”

  But Katy was not fooled by his game. Every time he drew forward, she managed to slip a little deeper into the woods, until she was a good twenty feet away. Deeper into the trees than she’d ever been. And much deeper than she desired to be. Leaning down, she slipped her hole-riddled shoes off and threw them into her bag. Then she ran as fast as her bare feet could carry her. She heard him continue to call out taunts and jeers behind her, but he would get no answer. His games might have worked when they were children, luring her out with cruel words and accusations, but long gone were the days of empty threats. Katy knew that now that Bearnard meant every word.

  Only when the trees met the bluffs did she slow and venture out into the moonlight long enough to climb down the bluffs and stay in their shadows until she reached the edge of Downing. The village was quiet. Only a few lanterns stood aflame, making it easier for her to sneak through the darkened streets unnoticed. But her heart didn’t stop hammering until she reached the little ramshackle house not far from the pier. Glancing behind her, she made sure neither Bernard nor any of his friends had seen her, before scrambling over a crumbling little wall, tiptoeing through the garden, and giving the small glass window four quick raps.

  Two long minutes later, a silhouette of robes and disheveled gray hair opened the back door and yanked her inside.

  2

  Superstitions

  “Thank Atharo! You’re alive!” As soon as the door was shut, Firin Reaghan lifted Katy’s arms and examined them scrupulously, as though Bearnard or any of his friends would have been satisfied with injuring only her limbs, but Katy gently pulled away and collapsed onto a little stool in the corner.

  “Thank you.” She shook her head to clear it. “I didn’t know if you would hear me at this time of night.”

  “You think I could sleep through this? Who do you think sent the smoke signals?” Firin Reaghan hurried about the little room, extinguishing his many candles until there was only the weak light from the hearth to light the space. He didn’t rest, however, until the windows were covered in thick brown cloth as well, and the doors were all bolted. Katy had never noticed the doors had bolts before. She wondered if they were new.

  “What were you thinking being out after dawn?” The firin turned and folded his arms across his chest. “I thought we’d agreed you would only search at night.”

  “I wasn’t out. I was at the cottage, but that was the first plac
e they went this time.” She shook her head. “Usually they search the village first.” She looked up at the firin. “But I swear, I didn’t have anything to do with that storm.” She looked at her hands. “I don’t even know how to make storms.”

  “I never said you did. Where are your shoes?”

  Katy pulled them from the leather bag that still hung across her chest. Handing them to the priest, she smiled wanly. “You can’t possibly fix them this time.”

  Firin Reaghan made a scoffing sound as he took the worn leather and settled onto his narrow bed with a needle and cord. “That’s what you say every time. You’re far too quick to rid this world of good things.”

  Katy felt the smile fall from her face. “I had to use it today.”

  “Oh?” Firin Reaghan didn’t look up from his work.

  “Bearnard and the others followed me to the forest—”

  “Katy!” His head flew up. “You promised never to go into the—”

  “They were going to kill me.” She looked down at her dirty fingernails and feet. Her hair was grimy, too, but at least its locks were too dark to show all the dirt that must have accumulated there during her run. “Perhaps I should just have let them.”