The Iron Locket (The Risen King)

by Samantha Warren

  Her grandfather shrugged. "Strangely enough, that has never been an issue in this line. Maybe Titania has a hand in that, though how, I couldn't begin to guess. All I do know is that every family since The First in her direct line of descendents has had a daughter, at least one, and that daughter is always the first born. And only once in that entire time has it had to go to the second daughter after the death of the first through a tragic accident. None of the first daughters has ever been stillborn or fallen ill as children."

  "It really is quite remarkable, if you think about it." Maureen's soft voice held a sharp edge of sadness and regret.

  Aiofe looked up from the locket, meeting her eyes. "My mother..." Her voice cracked and she couldn't finish her thought.

  Maureen smiled weakly. "Your mother would have received the locket and then she would have given it to you in due time. It breaks my heart that she is not here to give it to you herself, but that cannot be helped."

  Aiofe cleared her throat, wiping at her eyes to brush away the unshed tears that were forming there. She stared at the image until a thought worked its way onto her tongue. She looked up, narrowing her eyes at her grandmother. “That means... You're a hunter?”

  Maureen was quiet for a moment, her words coming softly and carefully when she finally spoke. Her smile was sad and forced. "Not anymore, but yes, I was. That's how I met your grandfather. We both came from families of hunters, introduced at a meeting. A few years after your mother was born, though, I couldn't bring myself to risk leaving her orphaned. So he hunted with his brother until Caena was old enough to go with him."

  Aiofe shook her head, absently rubbing her thumb across the engraved image on the locket as she tried to sort all the new information being thrown her way. "So, you were a hunter..."

  "Aye." Her grandfather spoke up as he patted his wife's hand fondly. "She was the best. Faeries feared her and even other hunters called on her for assistance. All you had to do was say the name Maureen O'Carney and everyone would know who she was. Still do." He winked at Aiofe. "That respect all the hunters give you at meetings and such? I know you thought it was because of me, but it's not. Oh, sure, I'm a fair hunter myself, but your grandmother is the real hunter royalty in this family. You being her granddaughter, they all look to you to carry on her legacy. You have big shoes to fill, kid."

  Aiofe lapsed into silence and stared at the locket, unsure how to respond to these new, weighty expectations that had been placed upon her so suddenly.

  "Well," said Maureen, clapping her hands together gently. "I think we've had enough history lesson for one day and the corned beef is getting cold. Time to eat."

  Aiofe tossed a warm smile at her grandmother, thanking her silently for saving her from having to answer to anything just yet. With careful hands, she hooked the clasp of the chain around her neck. The locket nestled snugly just below the little dip in her neck, as if it were made just for her. As she bit into the flavorful meat her grandfather plopped onto her plate, she couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was.

  *~*~*

  “Gran, can I talk to you?”

  Maureen turned from the sink holding the plate she was washing. “Sure, sweetie. Come help me dry.”

  Aiofe stepped up to the counter and grabbed a towel. They worked in silence for awhile as Aiofe dried the dishes and Maureen washed.

  “I'm sorry I've been such a brat lately.” Aiofe's apology was soft.

  Maureen gave her a small smile and patted her on the back. “It's alright, dear. We all have our moments of weakness.”

  “Yeah, but...” Aiofe shrugged and set the towel on the counter. “I don't know why I'm so angry all the time. It's like... It's like these feelings aren't mine. I mean, yeah, I'm annoyed that I'm stuck here all the time, that I only see David every couple months. How am I supposed to build a relationship and make my own family when I don't even get to see him?"

  Maureen nodded as she washed the corned beef pot, but said nothing.

  "But most of the time, I get so mad for no reason at all. It just makes no sense. I'll just be sitting there and I get these flashes of intense anger. It's overwhelming. Sometimes there will even be images. Weird images. Sometimes they're of my mother. There is a blond man with her. I know I've never seen him before, but it feels like I should know him." Aiofe sagged against the counter. "See, I told you it makes no sense."

  Maureen took the towel from Aiofe's hands and wiped the water and suds off her fingers. “Come here,” she said as she reached for her granddaughter. “I know it's tough. I was the same way before I met your grandfather.”

  “But you were only twenty. I'm twenty-four.”

  Her grandmother stroked her hair. “You have plenty of time, my dear. Plenty of time. Just be patient. Someday you'll meet your Prince Charming. Before I knew Alo, I was all over the place. All I wanted to do was hunt and I did some really irrational things. But the moment I met him, it was love at first sight. He drew out a strength and calmness in me that I didn't know existed.” She leaned over and kissed Aiofe on the cheek. “Now let's get these dishes finished and go watch some TV.”

  *~*~*

  THIRTEEN

  *~*~*

  Thunder rumbled through Aiofe's dreams, breaking into the sweet moment she shared with a faceless knight. She turned away from the blond-haired man, glancing behind her into the blackness that surrounded them as the intensity of the storm picked up. The thunder boomed, going from a gentle roar into a fierce pounding.

  "Aiofe, wake up! We have to go."

  The red-headed faery hunter opened her eyes and blinked into the darkness of her bedroom. She was sleeping on her side and she could see a bright swath of light streaming under the door from the hall. The pounding continued until she rolled herself out of bed and stumbled to the door.

  "What?" she grumbled as she threw it open, shielding her eyes with one hand.

  Her grandfather was standing on the other side, fully dressed in his hunting gear and holding a bow. He thrust it toward her. "Take this. And get dressed quickly. An emerald sprite was spotted two towns over. We need to get moving if we want to find it."

  Aiofe groaned and snatched the bow, letting her arm drop with the weight of it. "It'll take us an hour to get there. The sprite will be long gone by then." She closed her eyes and sighed as she propped herself against the door frame, letting her head settle against the wood.

  "Aiofe, come on." Aloysius shook his granddaughter's shoulder gently but firmly. "David is tracking it, but he can't handle it on his own. Martin is out of town and he needs our help. Hurry up."

  Her grandfather's voice held an edge to it as he commanded her to get dressed. With an sleepy glare, Aiofe slammed the door in his face. Stalking to the dresser, she tossed the bow on the bed as she walked by. Dressing quickly, she pull on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. After yanking socks onto her bare feet, she snatched an elastic band from the top of the dresser and pulled her hair back into a sloppy bun. A glint of metal caught her eye, the locket her grandparents had given her recently. She picked it up, examining the exquisite detail before hooking it around her neck and tucking it into her shirt. She glanced quickly into the mirror. David would see her like this, without makeup, a tired mess. Growling, she grabbed the bow off the bed and threw the door open.

  The hallway was empty and she could hear muffled voices coming from the kitchen. Clomping down the stairs, she found her grandparents talking near the door. Her grandmother was fussing about, filling two thermoses with steaming coffee and packing a small cooler with quick breakfast items. Aiofe ignored the look her grandfather gave her and headed into the mud room. After slipping on her leather jacket, she plopped herself on the bench and pulled on her boots. They were still caked with dirt and she stomped her feet, leaving a crumbled mess of dried mud on the floor. Aiofe stared at it. Her grandmother would have to clean it up later. For the briefest of moments, guilt threatened to overtake her and she looked for the broom, but her grandfather entered, saving her the
trouble.

  "Ready?" He was carrying a thermos of coffee and had the cooler draped over his shoulder. A bowie knife was sheathed at his hip, along with a pistol. He was wearing a leather harness that was filled with extra ammo and other items they might need.

  Opening a cabinet behind her, Aiofe pulled out a quiver full of arrows. Each arrow was tipped with iron. She slung it over her shoulder and reached for a belt. Attached to the belt was another bowie knife, as well as a handgun and two pouches filled with bullets. She strapped it on and turned around.

  Picking up the bow that she had set on the bench, she nodded. "Ready."

  Her grandmother stood in the door, fidgeting nervously as she always did before they went out on a hunt. She held the other thermos out to Aiofe. "Here you go, dear. There are some apples and breakfast bars in the cooler." The older woman leaned in as Aiofe took the coffee and pulled her into an embrace. "Be careful, darling," she whispered into Aiofe's ear.

  "I will." Aiofe gave her grandmother a half hug, using the hand holding the coffee to pat her awkwardly on the back. She held a new respect for the woman, knowing now that she wasn't just a homemaker, but she had done her time in the field. Aiofe tossed her a sleepy smile and followed her grandfather out to the truck.

  Dawn was just beginning to creep over the tops of the trees and she shivered a bit in the chilly autumn air, wishing she had grabbed her jacket. She climbed in beside him and set the bow on the appropriate hook on the window behind her. Two other weapons hung there: a loaded shotgun and an enchanted sword that had been given to his grandfather by the council of hunters. She fought back a smirk as she remembered the time the police officer had pulled him over and questioned his right to carry the weapons in plain view. After a heated argument and a call to the police chief, the officer was left on the side of the road babbling an apology as her grandfather pulled away, cursing him vehemently for not respecting his elders.

  "Everything alright?"

  His eyes were locked on the road, mindful of the nightlife that would be prowling around in the early hours of the morning, but he had always had a keen sense of others emotions.

  "Yeah, just tired."

  "Get some sleep. I'll wake you when we're close."

  Aiofe nodded and set her thermos in the holder on the dashboard. Resting her head against the window, she watched the pavement blur by, her eyes growing to mere slits until the road disappeared altogether.

  *~*~*

  "Aiofe, we're here."

  Aiofe groaned as she pushed herself away from the window. Her head was filled with cobwebs, her eyes were filled with sand, and her mouth felt like someone had stuffed a bag of cotton balls into it. They were parked in a wooded area at the end of a dirt road. David's bright red pickup truck sat beside them. Grabbing the thermos of lukewarm coffee, she watched her grandfather out of her peripheral vision as he clicked open the cooler.

  "Apple?" He held the shiny red fruit up for her to see.

  She swallowed a mouthful of caffeine and reached for the apple. "I'm not Snow White, am I?" His horrible attempt at a cackle had her grinning around a mouthful of juicy white flesh. Ever since she had seen Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as a child, she had been wary of apples. As the years went on and she learned more about faeries, her distrust of the fruit grew. Now she would only eat apples picked from their own small orchard behind the house. Anything else wasn't safe, as far as she was concerned.

  Aiofe set down the thermos of coffee and slapped the sun visor down. She groaned inwardly as she appraised her appearance, doing her best to fix her hair and wipe the sleep from her eyes.

  "I'm sure he's going to look much worse than you after tracking the sprite all night." Aloysius stood outside the truck, pulling items from the pack on the seat and stuffing them into various pockets. His eyes glittered in the morning sun and wrinkles grew deeper at the corners as he smiled.

  Aiofe shot her grandfather a glare, but it held no animosity. She had liked David for years now and the old man knew it. He would have been thrilled to see his granddaughter hitched to someone of David's quality, but so far, things had not quite worked out as Aiofe had hoped. Still, she thought as she hopped out of the truck and pulled the bow off the window, any little bit of time she could spend with him, even hunting, was a step in the right direction.

  "All set?" Her grandfather walked around to her side of the truck, bristling with weaponry that would make any soldier jealous.

  Aiofe slid the quiver of arrows over her shoulder along with a small pack filled with other items. "Yep. Let's go hunting."

  With a curt nod, her grandfather set off into the woods with Aiofe right on his heels. Pulling a cell phone from his pocket, Aloysius pressed a few buttons before turning his attention to the ground. It wasn't difficult to spot David's trail at this point. The path was well worn and easy to follow. A short way down the trail, though, he had veered off into the woods, ducking through some bushes and around trees. The old man stopped at the spot where David left the trail and checked the phone again. It buzzed immediately and he pressed a button.

  "North by northwest," he said, checking the compass on his watch. "Let's go." Stooping under a low hanging branch, he stepped into the woods, following David's trail.

  Aiofe kept her body turned partially sideways as she followed her grandfather. Her eyes darted through the trees, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Her vision felt magnified somehow, each leaf clearer than before, the greens were greener and the browns were browner. Her eyes were wide open now and she could almost feel them reaching out to the world around her. Every sound assaulted her eardrums and she longed to press her hands against them. Her skin prickled and her hunter's instinct was on high alert. In a strange revelation that made her snort, she realized she could actually sense the residual magic that the faery had left behind.

  Pulling the locket from its hiding place, she raised her eyebrows at it questioningly. When it didn't respond, she mentally kicked herself for being stupid enough to think it would answer her questions and shoved it back under her shirt.

  Her grandfather paused at a downed tree to check the phone again. He tapped a few buttons and waited. When it didn't respond, he frowned and glared at the ground. Aiofe followed suit. Her magnified vision easily picked up David's tracks.

  "That way," she said, pointing to the west.

  Aloysius raised a bushy white eyebrow at her, but said nothing. Trusting his granddaughter's instincts, he turned west, following the path she indicated. Shortly, the trail met up with a thin stream. It followed along the edge and here and there Aiofe could see David's footprints interspersed with the smaller duck-like tracks of the emerald sprite. She had never seen an emerald sprite before, but she had seen a sapphire sprite that she had helped her grandfather track back in her early teens. They were odd little creatures, with tufts of hair that reminded her of dandelions in the fall just before they lost all their seeds. They were short, not much taller than a swan, with wiry limbs and webbed feet. Their fingers were long and splayed, the digits spaced evenly around circular hands.

  Aiofe leaned down to pluck a wispy tendril of green hair from a footprint. Based on the nearly invisible indentations, she surmised that this sprite was very young, not yet considered an adult in the world of the faeries. She was examining the flowery piece of hair when she heard a shout. Her grandfather, just a few steps ahead of her, heard it too and veered off in the direction of the yelling. They tore through the trees, Aiofe still amazed at how agile her grandfather could be at his age when his adrenalin kicked in. She normally had trouble keeping up with him, but this time, she found herself matching his pace.

  When they reached a small clearing, her grandfather stopped beside a tree, his head twitching slightly as his eyes darted around, looking for signs of the other hunter. "There," he said, his hand briefly pointing to the right. Aiofe followed him cautiously around the edge of the woods. She held her bow at the ready, already nocked with an arrow. She could see the body lying o
n the ground beneath some shrubs and her heart contracted in her chest. She willed herself not to look at it, not to think about it. She focused on tracking the faery that was responsible instead. When they reached the bushes, her grandfather knelt down beside David. Blood pooled underneath the younger man, matting his dark hair to his forehead.

  "He's alive."

  Aiofe felt a weight rise off her and she found she could breathe again. David groaned and his eyes fluttered open.

  "The sprite..." He tried to sit up but fell back to the ground with a grunt.

  "Don't you worry about that. We'll get it. Which way did it go?"

  David's arm raised out of the dirt slightly, pointing in the direction they had been running. Aiofe focused her eyes on the far side of the clearing, scanning each tree rapidly. At first, all she could see were the muted greens and browns of the forest. Nothing unusual. Then there was a brief flicker, like the sun catching a green trout in a stream. It was gone in a flash, but she knew what it was.

  "I got it," she cried as she took off at a run across the clearing. She could hear her grandfather shout behind her, but she had caught the scent and ignored him. As she neared the other side, she saw the little sprite crouched beside a tree behind some bushes. The bright green tuft of hair on its head stood out at all angles, swaying in a nearly nonexistent breeze. Its little body was bare and genderless, as was the case with all sprites. They were vehemently against clothing, something Aiofe never understood. When their eyes met, the little creature started, surprised to have been found so easily. She was nearly upon it when it moved.

  "You!" Its voice was high and shrill, painful to her hypersensitive ears. It pointed an accusing finger at her before it took off through the trees.

  "Aiofe, stop. Wait!" Her grandfather was just behind her, and she glanced back. He grabbed her arm gently. "Be careful. Sprites are small, but they're as fierce as a wolf when cornered."