Solitary Fae (Humans vs Fae Book 2)

by Charlotte Royalin

  I had wondered if the faerie had even heard him, with the creeping silence that came, before he finally began to speak. "And just why would that be?"

  Stepping forward, I did my best to give a small haphazard curtsey, "To help with Vethari's plans; to help use me to have the humans from encroaching further into your lands. I thought maybe I could do something a bit more. Learning more about your people could help."

  He began walking forward.

  I turned my eyes down as I spoke. Something about this whole place unnerved me. "Maybe I could even help to teach the humans about your kind, so that they may learn to not be afraid."

  The pacing stopped.

  Looking up, he was almost close enough to reach out an arm and come into contact. "And why shouldn't you be afraid?" He seemed almost insulted. "Was the kelpie not something to be fearful of?"

  So, it was him after all that had helped me. My shoulders tensed, I kept looking at his forehead or sides of his face, his chin, rather than directly into those cold eyes, "Not all your… kind are like that. Inherently evil."

  "And how would you know such a thing?" His voice echoed melodically, and I began to start feeling at ease. The same strange sense of calm flowing over me like when I first encountered him as an elk within the woods.

  "My mother taught me about the faeries. Or stories about them. She knew that not all are evil."

  He took a noticeably sharp breath at my statement, and I wasn't sure if I had done something to insult their kind. I chewed on my bottom lip, not sure if I should continue, or pause for him to reply. "Your mother." Faariin said simply. Rolun looked between the both of us before clearing his throat, "So Faariin, what do you think? Should she be given the absolute privilege of even learning about us?" He was so over the top lately.

  Faariin's head turned toward the satyr, releasing the breath he was holding. Thinking. "If the human wishes it, I don't see why not." He waved his hand, turning away from us now as if all interest in his new arrivals had vanished, "To the bookkeeper. And if she truly wishes to learn about us, and our ways," he began, slowly striding off toward a separate hall rather than the one he had approached us in, "Methinks she will want to participate in The Passage."

  Rolun's tail puffed up at this, "A-Are you sure, Faariin?" He took a moment to glance at me, "If a human participated within The Passage and something went wrong, I-I'm not sure how that would harm—" A hand raised was all it took for the bleating boy to pause, taking a gulp.

  "Maybe that should be her test. If she does not participate correctly, then she can sit in her hole under the tree until Vethari passes her over to the humans."

  Rolun seemed to hesitate, before he shouted, "But The Passage is in a fortnight! There is no way she could learn remotely enough to join in!"

  The pale fae before us didn't even seem to be disgruntled by the younger male's outburst, instead he just continued wherever he was heading within the keep, not giving us a single word in retort. His mind obviously made up. Rolun sighed heavily, his shoulders drooping before trotting ahead to the most forward hall. I followed, confused by the whole exchange.

  11

  It was almost an awkward walk toward what I could only assume to be the library. Rolun was unusually quiet, his head tilted downward as if thinking hard on what Faariin had said. It was nerve-wracking, but I did my best to ignore it. The library was a little bleak, the wood like on the door in the way on seemed to have been water damaged, splintering, and with the wood warped. There were several bookshelves around the tiny room, though it wasn't much like the library I had imagined. Something much larger, with a showing of magnificence was what I was expecting.

  A little marble table was set in the center of the room and sitting right in the center of said table was a curious-looking thing. It was like a short man, maybe about the height of my knee if he was standing. He had a wrinkled face, heavy brows, and moustache of greys and whites covering the majority of his face. His clothing looked like a rucksack used for potatoes and patchwork shoes.

  "Ahem! Hob?" Rolun announced, tapping his left hoof to the ground with several clacks to garner his attention.

  The old thing looked up from the book he was reading. He seemed to grumble as he looked up, and around, then finally looking toward Rolun, he leaned over to the side of the table, looking up and trying to peer through the hair of his extremely bushy brows. "Ahhhh, the young satyr. My, my, how you have grown!" he chuckled, and Rolun smiled in response before speaking.

  "You've a visitor! A human one at that. This is Miss Penelope."

  The faerie, I could only assume whose name was Hob, slowly turned toward me, his face scrunching up as if trying to take a better look at me. I managed to give him a small wave and smile in return. "A human, how interesting. It's been nearly a millennia since I've seen one of your kind." His kind voice was shaky, but still humble.

  "She's here to learn more about the fae. An ambassador to the human lands if I'd ever seen one!" Rolun nodded, mostly to himself fully knowing well that Hob couldn’t see much. The faerie reached up to his chin, scratching his bushy beard. "Interesting."

  "Faariin has also requested her to participate in The Passage, and—"

  Hob began to cough furiously as if he had been choking. His movement much quicker as he rose to stand up, "Has that boy lost his mind! How can a human learn all the parts? Come here, child, come here." Hob waved me to come closer, and I did so. He was nice, so I didn't feel as hesitant as I assumed I would be. "We must begin preparation immediately." He shooed Rolun away, completely ignoring him. Rolun rolled his eyes, but departed the room, leaving myself alone with the old faerie. "May I ask, without being rude, what type of fae are you?" I asked as he pulled me around the table that he now stood on.

  "I'm what you would call a brownie," he replied.

  Pointing to the bookshelf to the west side of the wall, he turned his finger in a circle in front of him, and out came a dusty tome, dancing across the air and toward the table. Quite a wondrous thing, I watched it as it landed upon the table. The book fell upon a few dozen pages in, and the brownie blew off the collected dust and cobwebs that crusted the outside of the pages. "Here, my dear. Here is where we shall start with The Passage. Such a task set before you, I'm not even sure how a human could learn enough to participate, but maybe there's a loophole we can find for you, yes?"

  "I can only hope so," I replied to him.

  If I didn't succeed in whatever this ritual was, it didn't matter much. I'd just be stuck inside for a while, at least I wouldn't be facing death.

  I hoped.

  The words on the pages were runic, something I could not read at all as Hob began quickly scanning up and down the page. The ink that had been used seemed nearly wet—glistening, as if recently written. The pristine nature of the writing leading me to believe it was magical in essence as the book itself was tattered.

  Without hesitation the small brownie pushed the book over toward me, as his hand called forth another book to land before him, once again flipping it through to a precise chapter of runes I could not understand. Symbols I had never seen before, not even in books of the faeries I'd seen at home—or at least none that I could recall.

  After simply observing, and obviously not reading, the annoyed faerie looked up at me, his eyes still obscured by eyebrows and cleared his throat. A long bony finger reaching forward to tap a section of the reading material. "Get to reading, girl! If we're to figure a way out for you, then it'll take the both of us to pore through these." I looked up toward him with a half frown, arching a brow at him. "And I am to read these words, how?"

  He seemed ruffled by at the question, simply shifting himself around toward the opposite end of the smallish library, waving a left hand to retrieve a small, glass container filled with oddly shaped rocks. Floating them toward us before placing it on the table before me. "There, that should help!" He nodded to himself before continuing with his own reading. I made a face as I carefully fit my first three fingers into t
he small opening of the glass container, pulling forth an oblong triangular shaped rock with a large hole in it. These seemed to be prevalent for the fae.

  I remembered what the rock was, having Vethari place one to my eye to see the kelpie for more than the horse I had thought it was with my human eyes. Bringing it to my face, resting just above my cheekbone and peering through the hole at the book, I let out a gasp.

  Hob chuckled to himself, though not looking up, from what I could tell, from his reading. "You may keep that hag stone if you wish."

  A hag stone, then. I'd need one to navigate through this world, it seemed.

  My thoughts homed in to the writing which made the script almost float slightly above the page. The lines written across the manuscript transforming into a language I could now understand. The common language of humans. I could see now the words across the book, which seemed more like a compiled list of rules than entertaining literature.

  Once placed upon the fire, those closest to the deceased shall raise their arms to the sky.

  The sacred words shall be sung, and the soul of the fae will fly.

  A sacrifice given, only shed by a High One's blood.

  Willingly given, so anger flowering in the departed will disbud.

  I blinked, looking up toward the brownie as I lowered the hag stone from my sight. "So, this Passage, I can only assume is. A burial? A funeral?"

  "Indeed, so. The poor dryad, Faariin was in a tizzy when he found out the humans killed him. They can be such vultures." He hummed softly to himself, his fingers flipping through several pages.

  It was true. And I had felt the same sentiment when I saw what was happening to the creature at the gallows. It was heart-breaking, and I couldn't believe in the revelry that my fellow townsfolk participated in. Enjoyed.

  I winced at the thought, pulling up the stone to my eye again and looking through the pages of the book once more, attempting to find any semblance of some minor role I could participate in within the Passage.

  12

  A familiar whack to my right arm had me biting my lip so I wouldn't bite her head off. Calidi clicked her tongue at me in disappointment. "You need to learn how to focus, child." She strolled around to my left side, just an arm’s length away. "Nock!" she shouted as her arm went down in the air, signaling to me.

  Sucking in an inhale of breath, I reached behind me to my quiver, pulling out yet another arrow and nocking it quickly. This time I could see her nod in my peripheral. "Aim." If nothing else, my speed at drawing the bow and setting it into stance to fire had improved rapidly. "Fire," she stated. Her head tilted up to watch as I released the arrow. It flew closer to the center this time, but still unable to hit the rather large red circle in the center.

  "Better. But not good enough!" she shouted. She whacked my shoulder blade to make me stand straighter. Ke flew overhead to inspect the arrow I just shot, giving it a few hard yanks before it released. She fluttered around wide, to make sure to get out of my line of aim to return the arrow to the quiver. I grumbled, following the motion once more at Calidi's commands. Draw the arrow. Nock the arrow. Fire the arrow.

  Rolun was here, watching for the first time, apparently taking time to prepare for his own rite of passage to become a full-fledged fawn, whatever that was supposed to be. I had only returned to Faariin's home to see Hob once and had yet to study of the fae. All my time consumed with learning of The Passage and what I could do to see myself victorious through it. If one could say it was victory to succeed in a burial ceremony. Vethari still made sure to make me focus on martial practices when I wasn't reading.

  Once again, the thought of him had my head spinning for some reason. I should hate his guts. He kidnapped me. Dragged me here and forced me to live in his hovel of a home. His reasons were good enough. He hadn't lied about his intentions. Couldn't lie, and I could understand them easily enough. I was the key to help him attain good standing of fae amongst our city, and to stop our people from encroaching on their land.

  "Fire, damn it!" Calidi shouted, for the second time I realized, and I opened my eyes wide as I released the arrow, not even taking aim as it arched completely over the target and out of sight. She huffed, and I winced, expecting a strike from her stick, but found a hot-to-the-touch hand placed onto my shoulder. I allowed myself to turn, gazing at her with a forced smile. "Sorry."

  She gave me a hard look, staring right into my eyes, "You are too distracted lately. What is your problem? Calidi can see your thoughts are elsewhere." I allowed my shoulders to fall slack, the bow now at my side as I turned my head down in disappointment with myself. "You're right. I'm finding it hard to focus."

  Her head cocked to the side, "And why would this be, hmm?"

  Rolun was eating from a loaf of bread smothered in some type of jam, chuckling aloud as he called out to the fire nymph, "Because she has more base thoughts on her mind. Of Vethariiiiii," he taunted.

  Calidi smirked, removing her hand as a brow cocked upward, "Interesting."

  My lips pursed together, my hands tightening into a fist, one around the bow. Head snapping toward Rolun, "You shut your goat mouth!" I shouted in embarrassment. Ke fluttered overhead, giggling as Rolun snorted in laughter. Surprisingly not choking on the food he was still chewing. My teeth gritted, but it was the truth. Vethari permeated most of my thoughts these days.

  A slap on the back brought my attention back toward the fletcher, her smile broad. "It seems he left a mark on the human lass, yes? Unseelie can be unscrupulous in their affairs of the heart." I made a face, searching her own for any mistrust, though I couldn’t find any. She seemed only to be bluntly honest. "Calidi, what about the Unseelie? What can you tell me about them?"

  The laughter from Rolun ceased, though Ke continued with her giggling overhead. I swatted at her to begone, but she only flew higher. Calidi paused. Clockwork working in her brain as she seemed to pine over something. The grin once more returning to her face as she took a step back. "You hit the center of the target, and I will tell you some things about them. Something about Vethari." Her brows waggled, and I had to keep myself from rolling my eyes.

  "If she hits the center target, I'll help you make her arrows for a full day!" Rolun cackled. His hoofed feet swung in delight on the bale of hay he was sitting upon. Ke finally shut her mouth and landing on top of his head. Sitting cross-legged in his mess of long brown hair and holding onto his horns for purchase.

  My grip tightened upon my bow. I'd make him eat his words.

  The days passed quickly. Faster than I had anticipated. One week, then a second. I had spent every waking hour that was not with Calidi, here in the library with Hob. I read as much as I could, and when my eyes began to strain I'd move onto something else, before turning back to the poetry of rules that I'd been given to study. Faariin never bothered us, and Vethari was unusually distant. He hadn't even asked about me taking part in The Passage. He probably didn't care.

  I had been through nearly to the end of the book, barely finding anything of worth. Hob, through several hours of pouring through tomes along with me, and much faster, jumped up with his book in his hand. It was nearly the size of his entire upper body. He seemed excited, so he must have found something of importance.

  "This is interesting!" he announced to himself, pulling me from my own thoughts as I looked over to the passage he was pointing out.

  If there be a human so bold, pray forgiveness for their kind.

  Bespeak the truth of your sorrow, or forever lose your mind.

  I shook my head, scrunching my brows as I slammed the hag stone onto the table. Hob jumped as he turned toward me, "What was that for?"

  I placed my fingers on the words I had read, "Lose my mind? Are you serious?"

  Hob tsked at me, clicking his tongue as he swiped his fingers up, closing the book. "Only if you lie. A human who truly feels grievance for the death of a fae is a rare find indeed." For a moment, the funny little man turned serious as he reached out to place his withered fingers on my
hand that still clutched the stone, "And if you could somehow muster the emotions to come through clearly, it is enough that you have participated in the Passage and not messed up many millennia of faerie tradition!"

  His nose pointed to the air as his fingers danced, sending all the books piled along the table in the center of the room dancing to their respective places on the bookshelves. "Or you could simply not participate and stay locked away from these books until you are returned home."

  Of course, that wasn't an option. "I'll think on it." I turned my gaze upward, through one of the many holes that led to the outside. The sky was darkening, the moon shining bright, and flecks of stars were slowly starting to appear in the darkening purple of twilight. There seemed to be almost no time left to read today.

  "Well if you choose to, the fae here will at least be able to see you in a new light. Might make things a little easier during your stay," he suggested. Which was true enough. And although I know I did feel sorrow for how the fae was killed, would I feel any different if it was killed in a more honorable manner? Or if it was simply locked away within a dungeon for the rest of its immortal life? Could I honestly say that I was nothing but sorrowful?

  A knock at the entry of the room brought me from my thoughts, both Hob and I turning around to spy Rolun with a bundle within his arms. "It is almost time for the Passage." He nodded solemnly toward both of us, extending the small package in his arms up to me. I gathered it in. "It's traditional, for all participating. You are still participating, right?"

  My lips pinched together, eyes turning back toward Hob. He and Rolun both seemed to peer at me in anticipation. Hopefulness.

  I exhaled a breath I hadn't even known I'd been holding.

  "Fine."

  13

  Full darkness encompassed the sky as what seemed to be nearly all the fae within the small village were standing around, waiting for something to happen. We were all around the extremely large flaming pit in the center of the great oaks. Where Faariin's seat as a council leader was carved not far away but remained empty at this moment in time.