I swung my basket merrily and hoped that, if the fairy was watching us, her attention would be on me.
“The river bank,” Glen whispered, before he hurried back to the cottage to continue his work.
Half a basket full of weeds, and several new nettle stings later, I positioned myself so that I was facing away from the cottage and could look out across the land we would have to cross.
If the fairy went into the forest behind the cottage then we could hurry out across the moor, hidden by the cottage if we walked in a straight line. From there, we could jump down onto the riverbank. The river was in a very shallow valley, and so you would not see someone crawling along the banks if you were standing watching from the cottage.
I thanked the Others that Glen was with me. Had I been alone, I would have just started running through the grass in hopes of escape. I would never have thought of hiding so close to the cottage.
The next morning the fairy provided us with another meal, which was lucky as today we planned to leave for the river bank. Our work for the day included more weeding in the garden, as well as washing and mending in the house. This would mean that the fairy wouldn’t get suspicious when I was inside, checking on our supplies. We worked anxiously all morning, Glen weeding and surveying our escape route, whilst I chopped up more of the purple vegetable.
Just as it was reaching midday, the fairy called us inside. I had to remind myself to fight her enchantment whilst making sure to stare at her in adoration. The enchantment was always strongest when we had her full attention.
“I must go into the forest today my humans,” she said, and I gave a small whine of complaint, as if I was upset about being left behind.
“I must,” she repeated, patting me on the head. “It’s dangerous in there, far too dangerous for you two.”
I wondered if she really didn’t want us hurt, or if the enchantment was simply messing with my mind. We followed as she headed for the door until she stopped us with a firm no.
“You two stay here and do your work for me. I promise to return before darkness falls.”
With a parting kiss on each of our foreheads, she was gone.
We watched from the doorway until she was a tiny dot of white in the distance, and then we watched until we were sure she wasn’t about to change her mind and come running back to the cottage. When Glen sighed in relief sometime later, I finally let myself look away. She was gone, and it would be hours before it got dark.
“Now?” I asked Glen hesitantly, almost too anxious to break the silence in case it brought her back.
Glen jumped when I spoke and then nodded, looking resolved. He pulled me close and, for the first time in what was probably weeks, possibly even months, we hugged.
Glen and I have always been close, and we had grown even closer whilst we travelled. For weeks, we had cuddled together at night for warmth and safety, and it was as if my very bones had missed this human contact.
Soon I was clutching him so tight my fingers hurt and sniffling pathetically into his shirt. It felt so good to hold him in my arms and have him hold me back. Clinging to each other felt like holding on to home, and family. His warmth thawed a part of me that I hadn’t even realised had frozen, whilst we worked away under the fairy’s enchantment.
“We can do this,” he promised, gathering our bags whilst I watched the tree line for any sign of our captor. Taking a moment to wipe away my tears.
The fairy did not return, and soon Glen and I were closing the cottage door and heading off through the long grass towards the river.
The purple flower heads turned to watch us go and I wondered if they could somehow tell her that we were leaving. They remained silent as they watched Glen and I hurry away as fast as we could.
If the fairy was to exit the forest right now, she would have a view of the cottage but not us walking away behind it. We hadn’t stolen anything from her, though our bread and cheese supplies were now hard and almost inedible we decided to simply make do with it.
Perhaps it was the lingering effects of the enchantment, but the thought of stealing from her when she hadn’t lifted a hand to hurt us made me uncomfortable. It also terrified me that perhaps she would hunt us down if we took something, rather than simply letting us go.
We kept up a quick pace as we made our way through the grass. I kept looking behind us at the trees, which grew smaller and smaller as we went. I expected to see a furious fairy chasing after us, and felt sick to my stomach with nerves which refused to be calmed even as the distance between us grew.
There was never any sign of her. She was probably deep in the trees, completely unaware that her humans were escaping. After, what was perhaps the hundredth-time, Glen grabbed my hand and stopped me from looking back.
“We can do this,” he repeated, squeezing my hand. “Just a wee while longer and we’ll be down on the riverbank where she can’t see us. We are leaving her behind, for good.”
Glen was right. Soon he was grasping my arms and helping me jump down onto the sandy bank of the river.
It was steeper than we had expected and, if Glen hunched over slightly, we could walk along the river without our heads being visible over the top. This made it easy to peer over the edge at the grassy moor behind us and the tiny cottage in the distance.
Not wanting to risk being caught so close to freedom, we walked until the sky was darkening and we were beginning to stumble and trip due to exhaustion.
When we did finally stop and peek over the top, the forest was now far away in the distance behind us and instead, we were facing the mountains of some fairy kingdom we did not know.
The map showed us that we should now be south of the town where we would find our first castle. The royal family lived there, and we hoped that we would finally find the answers we were looking for.
“Can we stop?” I begged Glen, who nodded eagerly and collapsed down onto the river bank with a sigh.
“She won’t find us now. She has no way of knowing where we went and she might not be back from her day in the forest yet.”
“She doesn’t seem to like leaving her cottage anyway. I doubt she would chase us this far,” I said and for some reason, I was sure I was right.
My worries had faded as we put distance between us and, unless I thought about it, I was finally free of the sick churning nerves I had battled all afternoon.
We had managed to escape. We were free.
10 YEARS AGO
I always thought that, if I ever did fall in love, it would be romantic and perfect. That the people would tell tales and sing songs about forever.
I never imagined that it would happen whilst I spoke to the repulsive King of Culhuinn, watching out of the corner of my eye as Lachlann and Alasdair played with a few children. I had to fight down a smile as they laughed and enjoyed themselves, glad to see them all happy for once.
The sight made me wonder if Lachlann and I would ever have a child, something I had never longed for before. I hoped that they would have his freckles if we did. I blinked the thought away. Wasting my days daydreaming about babies was pointless.
I forced my attention back to the King. The last thing I wanted was for him to become aware of my affections for one of his human servants. If only Aelwen knew what I was thinking, she would be so proud. Daydreaming about romance had been her favourite pastime as a young fairy.
“I wish I could stay with you,” Lachlann had said from where he lay beside me, earlier that morning.
“You can,” I insisted, rolling over to face him with a smile. “You could stay here safe in my castle forever and never go back to Culhuinn.”
He smiled and gently pulled me to rest against his chest, running a soothing hand through my hair.
We were silent for a while, content to listen to the early morning birds singing outside and the servants getting the castle ready for the day. I knew he was thinking over our problem and so I waited for him to speak.
After a while he sighed, “The King would ne
ver let me stay.”
“You would not be asking him. You do not need his permission,” I replied stubbornly.
“He would notice if one of his servants suddenly went missing. He may not like us, or care about us, but he does watch us.”
“He knows nothing about our relationship, we could hide you here in Norbroch and deny even knowing that you existed. Aelwen would agree and the King could not risk accusing us of lying.”
“I think he could and would accuse you,” Lachlann sounded increasingly unhappy as the conversation progressed.
“He could not,” I insisted, “Not if you left with them then found a way to return north whilst the other humans continued south.”
A plan was beginning to form in my mind as we spoke. Lachlann was silent again, he too thinking over this new possibility. I trailed my hand in leisurely circles over his torso, which was freckled and muscular from a life of challenging work outside, much like the rest of his body.
Cosy in bed together was not a bad place to plan to deceive a king. I did not feel any guilt about it. King Ferchar had proven himself to be rude, arrogant and uncaring for those he ruled. I would not feel guilty about saving someone from him. Even the Others could not blame me for that.
“Perhaps that could work. I would need to explain it to Alasdair though. He knows of my affection for you, but I don’t know what he would think about me deserting the kingdom.”
“I think he would encourage you. I have seen him watching us,” I said, and laughed when Lachlann attempted to jolt upright suddenly.
“He what?!” He demanded, sounding horrified.
“I simply mean that he has spotted us around the castle and the grounds. He seems like a clever man so I have no doubt that he will have realised the true nature of our relationship by now,” I explained, patting his chest to make him relax back down onto the bed.
“He has never mentioned it to me.” Lachlann still looked troubled.
“Just like you failed to mention it to him. He never looks angry or disgusted when he notices us. Just smiles in my direction and carries on with his work. He probably failed to speak up about it because he thinks you do not want him to know,” I explained, amused.
“I will mention it today then. See what he thinks about it.”
“Good idea, just not quite yet. I have no desire to move anytime soon.”
And with that, I wrapped my arms around him and held him tight. It would take a great deal of effort for him to move me. A fairy’s strength was much superior to that of a human, even one as muscled as Lachlann, so we lay together, content, until we could ignore our responsibilities no longer.
“So,” Aelwen said, I could practically hear her smirking so I did not bother to look up from my lunch, “How is life treating you?”
“Life is treating me well,” I said with a smile, which blossomed and grew on my face until I was grinning like a fool.
“I am so happy for you,” Aelwen exclaimed clapping her hands. “I just knew this would work out well.”
“Oh? I did not realise you were able to see into the future,” I teased gently.
“Well it seems I can,” she laughed, shuffling her seat closer to mine and lowering her voice seriously. “Have you any plans to get Lachlann to stay?”
“I have had some ideas.”
“Tell me!” She cried, forgetting her momentary seriousness as her excitement got the better of her again.
Aelwen was in love with the idea of love. She always had been and always would be. She loves freely with all her heart, which is magical. A wonderful thing to experience when you are her family, but it was like a self-imposed curse when she was younger. Falling in love with every fairy that showed her a moment of kindness.
I explained what little plans I had managed to come up with on my own. Lachlann would leave with the royals, and the other servants, when they began their journey south to Culhuinn. Then, at a currently undecided point in the journey, he would sneak away from them, perhaps in the dead of night. From there he would return to Norbroch and back into my arms. There were still many aspects of the plan which we had not yet resolved, so I let my explanation trail off.
“This is wonderful,” Aelwen said as she busied herself with pouring us each a small nettle tea to end our meal. “Clearly you need my assistance, so I will think about it today and let you know a finalised plan later.”
“I do not need your help,” I replied stubbornly before smiling, “but if you insist then I am sure I could make time to speak with you tonight.”
“Oh, thank you Queen Euna,” Aelwen cried sarcastically and with that, she downed the rest of her tea and was gone, probably away to feed our family’s newest addition, Prince Elath.
“I like your dress,” I heard the Princess Freya say from across the table.
Embarrassingly, it was not until a nudge from Aelwen roused me from my thoughts that I realised the complement was directed at me.
“Why thank you Princess, you look beautiful this evening,” I answered with a smile.
Why she was even bothering to complement me I had no idea. Perhaps her mother had insisted that she attempt to befriend us as one day she would be the ruler of Culhuinn.
“Of course she does,” interrupted the King with a barking laugh. “Just look at her father.”
His deliberate exclusion of his wife from his statement created an uncomfortable silence, which thankfully the Princess did not notice. I had to fight, with every ounce of strength I possessed, not to roll my eyes at him. Beautiful is not a word that springs to mind when thinking about King Ferchar.
I did not trust myself to do more than give a smile, which I hoped looked more genuine than it felt.
It was easier to listen to the King’s pretentious drivel, and the Queen’s empty complements and praises, now that they were starting to discuss their journey home. Negotiations regarding trade between our two kingdoms were finally nearing an end.
The previous night, Aelwen had come to me with a plan so brilliant I could not banish it from my mind. She had allowed for multiple escape attempts for Lachlann and had even managed to rope Tormod into helping us.
Aelwen struck up a conversation regarding our wulver neighbours in the west, so I allowed my mind to drift back to the plan. Already planning everything that Lachlann and I would do, once he was safely back in the castle.
PRESENT DAY
Tormod and I stood at the main doors of the castle and watched as the ambassadors from Eilean Sel, which lay across the sea to the west, rode up. A messenger had arrived the previous night and alerted us that selkies had been spotted on the western coast of Norbroch a few days prior, and were travelling towards the castle.
The selkies never sent their own messengers. They would simply arrive unannounced, if not for the messengers in the coastal town of Selport who watched out for them.
“The Others must be angry with me, why else would the selkies arrive whilst Aelwen is still down south with the wulver?” I complained as we stood there.
Tormod did not seem pleased by their arrival either, but he ignored my complaint. Whilst I had never seen him be cruel to another before, I knew that he distrusted the selkies.
Perhaps it was due to their strange accents, or more likely, it was because of their ability to transform their lower bodies whenever they wished. When they tired of walking on two legs they formed a tail, which allowed them to swim like a seal in the sea, or even lochs and deep rivers.
I had no problem with them. Though their visits were infrequent and unannounced, they were surprisingly easy guests to please.
“Queen Euna,” The female ambassador called happily, dismounting from the horse she had purchased with surprising grace for someone who spent much of their time with a tail.
The small village of Selport thrived during visits from the selkies. They swam across the sea to reach Norbroch and so never carried many belongings. This meant that once they reached land they had to pay coin for clothes, food and horses. This c
reated a small amount of trade between our kingdoms and over the years many children with striking black eyes had been born in Selport.
It originally caused panic and fear. Villagers fearing the babies were born cursed because of their unusual grey seal-like skin. Soon, they realised who the fathers of such children were and the new skin tones and black eyes were explained.
That had been during my Grandmother, Queen Kathlina’s, reign. Now there is a high population of half selkie-half fairy folk living in the north, which I will admit has been wonderful in helping our two kingdoms bond.
“We were not expecting you,” I scolded lightly, as the two ambassadors climbed the few steps to where we were standing.
They seemed to be moving as slowly as possible, just to ensure that Tormod and I were thoroughly soaked through by the rain.
“Our King and Queen wished to send news regarding the events occurring in the southern human islands,” the male selkie explained.
“Yes. Our King and Queen also wished to send gifts for the royal family of Norbroch,” the female selkie added, nodding enthusiastically.
“Let us move this discussion somewhere more comfortable,” I said, eager to get out of the rain.
My dress was now clinging, heavy and uncomfortable, to my body and chilling me to the bone as the rain pelting down outside was freezing.
Before discussions began I insisted on a small feast, the selkies never asked for much whilst they stayed here in Norbroch, but over the years I had found that food always helped.
One of the most frustrating things about selkies, was their distrust of warm cooked food. They would much rather eat a fish raw than have it cooked and served with vegetables and buttery potatoes. My appetite was fragile enough without the addition of two selkies, devouring raw fish directly across the table. From the looks they gave my soup and warm bread, I could tell they found my choices just as odd.
The Changeling's Journey Page 15