Fey Born

by R. Garland Gray

  Cadman stepped closer to the net. “Do you wonder why you and the water fey could not sense Valor, Great Guardian?”

  “I am sure you will tell me,” Keegan replied, shifting subtly.

  Cadman rocked back on his heels, secure in his own genius and skill. “So simple, if you but think of it. Do you know?” he prompted self-righteously. “Valor was born here.” He pointed to the trees of white bark in the corner. “See the largest white tree over there, the one bowing in everlasting sorrow? That is where the sorceress did her dark conjuring. She cut down a perfect branch and so created her own misbegotten fate.”

  Lana looked at the grouping of trees in the northern corner. So this is where Valor was born, she thought. The tree’s tangled branches seemed to flow one into the other, cascading down an incline of notched rocks.

  Cadman continued with his explanation. “For tempting the sorceress with their beauty, the Gods and Goddesses sent the sacred hollow of white bark trees into the below, away from the world of light, temptation, and bad intention.”

  “It is unfair,” Lana objected softly, feeling regret for the trees, and twinges of anger at such an unjust punishment. The trees belonged in highland meadows beneath a pristine blue sky, not here in shade and grayness because of a sorceress’s wrongful choice.

  “True enough, but then the fey are not known for their fairness. Now, shall we talk of you, Great Guardian?” Cadman gave a wave of dismissal to the trees. “You still wear the sword and scabbard down your back, I see. Do you think that inconsequential mortal blade can slash magical webs conjured from bog and fire?” He laughed throatily, hands on his hips. “How does it feel to be powerless? How does it feel to be held at another’s whim?”

  “What makes you think I am powerless, Master Spriggan?”

  “Keegan,” Lana said loudly, calling her guardian mate’s attention to her. “Valor is in the cage in the high pool near the waterfall.”

  “Shut up, Lana,” Cadman sneered, moving back to her and raising a hand as if to strike her.

  A growl of warning vibrated in the air.

  It lingered there, fierce and primal, a menace of echo and silence.

  Lana saw a momentary flash of alarm cross her captor’s features, then he dropped his hand and faced her guardian mate once again.

  “Doona worry, Great Guardian,” he said in quick recovery. “I will not mar that lovely flesh.” He snickered to himself. “Well, mayhap a wee bit in bed play.” He tilted his head, waiting for a response to his taunting words. “You watch me with that unblinking stare, Great Guardian.” Cadman held up his arms and turned, as if showing off a new tunic to a friend. “Wonder what I am?” He placed his hands on his hips once more and puffed out his thin chest.

  “I know what you are,” Keegan said with soft threat.

  “You do? Tell me then.”

  “Besides being an abomination, an idiot.”

  “Cadman is a half-blood,” Lana said quickly, giving her guardian as much information as she thought he would need.

  “I can see that,” her beloved said.

  “His spriggan father raped his mother.”

  Cadman struck her full in the face with the back of his hand. “He dinna rape my mother. I told you that.”

  Holding her stinging cheek, Lana glared at Cadman. Her captor was completely unaware of the rage emanating from the powerful guardian he thought he had dominion over.

  “He serves Lord Bress,” Lana continued in defiance.

  “Does he now?” Keegan replied, his mouth edged with cruelty. Lean muscles shifted again, preparing.

  “True, a fey king to replace a blemished one. Nuada does not deserve to rule the fey realm,” Cadman said, turning back to Keegan.

  Lana felt a shifting in the air, a wave of relentless and overwhelming power. She stared at Keegan. She could not believe Cadman did not note it, and quickly added, “Cadman plans on betraying Lord Bress and keeping Valor and the fey throne for himself.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” Her guardian mate was not looking at her. His full attention remained on the strutting Cadman.

  “True again, my lovely, but I suspect the great and magnificent guardian has figured all that out himself.”

  “Aye, he has,” Keegan interjected and then winked out, materializing beside Valor’s cage in the water.

  “How did he…?” Cadman said in stunned surprise, and then barked, “Stop him!” He jumped up and down. “KILL HIM! He must not take the magical sword!” The half-blood spriggan began to rant in a fit of temper. “Kill him, Kill him…”

  Instantly, the six faeries standing near the waterfall dove into the pool after Keegan, their wings tight against their backs.

  Lana scrambled to her feet.

  “See, Lana,” Cadman pointed in confident glee, “the guardian cares not for you and seeks only to rescue Valor. You are nothing to him. Nothing.”

  Using all her remaining strength, Lana hauled back and punched him in the face with her bound fists. Taken by surprise, he fell down on his back. Both hands covering his bloody nose, he moaned loudly, rolling back and forth in pain.

  Having lost her balance, Lana had fallen back too, landing on her hip. As she tried to scramble once again to her feet, bloody fingers dug into her forearm.

  Cadman sneered at her. “Foolish female!” He brought them both to their feet. “Your guardian may have survived the previous attacks, but my faeries will end it here. Valor shall be mine as you shall be mine.”

  “Never!” she rasped. And then the dormant strength that had risen to the surface once before came to her aid again.

  The erratic beat of her heart steadied.

  The strain of each breath eased.

  The weakness in her limbs turned to strength and certainty.

  Fighting his grip, she sunk her teeth into his right hand. He let out a blood-curdling howl and released her. Lana hauled back again, her fists connecting with his pointy chin. He stumbled back and she dashed away, running around the serrated edge of the smaller pool. Her health had somehow magically been restored. She did not know how long the strength would remain with her, but she intended to make the most of it. The men who kept guard at the one entrance-way had cowardly abandoned their posts when the guardian arrived. Good, there were less of Lord Bress’s followers to fight, she thought.

  She could see Valor’s partially submerged cage hanging in the spray of the waterfall, surrounded by the whiteness of the mist. ,

  In the center of the pool, a fearsome battle raged below the surface between the six faeries and one guardian. The water undulated into a frenzied whirlpool.

  She could not see Keegan.

  She could not see the faeries who sought her guardian mate’s death.

  But she could reach Valor.

  With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw Cadman had staggered to his feet, and then a deluge of water blinded her. Lana tripped and fell to her knees, drenched in an icy chill of wetness.

  A geyser of water shot upward and Keegan burst from the black waters with four faeries in pursuit. Two floated to the surface, dead.

  Pushing wet hair out of her eyes, she scrambled quickly to her feet. Squeezing between two small boulders, she hurried through the twisted tangle of white bark trees. All the while, she tried unsuccessfully to free her hands from the fey bindings. The waterfall was only a few strides ahead.

  Above her, Keegan was locked in a fierce battle with the four angry faeries. A sudden ear-piercing screech and a faery with a bleeding face dropped, his body tangling with the rope that held Valor’s cage.

  Lana stopped short.

  Furious and blinded by blood, the faery cut the rope with his dagger. In the next instant, Keegan’s sword pierced the creature’s side. The faery died instantly, tumbling limply into the pool.

  Lana looked back to Valor’s cage.

  She stared aghast at the empty space. “Valor!” she cried out in a panic.

  The cage and Valor plummeted beneath the surface of
the waters.

  In that one denning moment, her world slowed to a stop.

  It was up to her now.

  No choice but one.

  Her face lifted.

  From across the pool, she met her guardian mate’s unhappy gaze.

  Lana gave him her most bright and reassuring smile. I will always love you, she thought despondently, even if you canna love me.

  “Nay, Lana!” her guardian mate called out explosively, trying to reach her, but his three remaining attackers would not let him.

  Her lashes swept low.

  She stepped closer to the swirling waters.

  “It is all right, Keegan,” she whispered, knowing he would win the battle. She felt confident of that. Only she could save Valor.

  She blinked, staring into the white mist.

  She was terrified.

  Yet, Valor needed her, valued her as no one ever had, except mayhap for Keegan.

  The memories of her uneventful life faded away, leaving only the sounds of the spray and waterfall.

  Taking a deep breath, she dove into the mist, hands outstretched and bound in front of her.

  Wet, bone-chilling waters engulfed her in crystal clear darkness.

  She forced her eyes to remain open, descending rapidly in the fey waters, her mortal body heavy there.

  There was an amber shimmering down below. Valor.

  If only she could hold her breath long enough to reach the cage.

  It seemed to take forever. She kicked out with her feet, propelling her forward.

  Her bound hands reached outward.

  Her mind called to the sword spirit. “Valor!”

  “Here,” came the musical female reply.

  Heart pounding, lungs bursting, Lana reached the cage. Pushing her hands between sturdy branches, her fingers wrapped around spiral-cut bone and grabbed the hilt of the enchanted sword.

  ———

  “Kill him!” Cadman screamed in maddened rage, foaming at the mouth. “KILL HIM NOW!”

  Keegan caught a glimpse of the spriggan abomination before the three remaining faeries renewed their attack. The abomination ran back and forth along the opposite side of the pool’s crystal shore, locked in a spriggan frenzy, yanking on his hair, and waving his arms about. It was a common response for a spriggan overcome with frustration, as he knew well.

  “Lana,” the thing kept calling. “Doona touch the sword.”

  Land. Fury surged in his blood; he had been unable to prevent this day. In the deepest reaches of his fey heart, he knew what he lost. Lana, he thought, my beloved.

  The realization of what he felt for her came as an excruciating awakening. With renewed strength, he clawed the face of one of his attackers and grabbed a dagger out of the faery’s right hand. At least it was not a Darkshade dagger. The remaining and unhurt attackers backed away, giving him the advantage, and he launched himself at the larger one who was unprepared for the abruptness of the attack. Keegan thrust the dagger into the creature’s cold heart, killing him instantly. Two left. Wings tucked close, he whirled to his right and slashed at the chests of the others, cutting through muscles.

  The two remaining faeries were hurt, bleeding profusely, their pain turning them vicious and careless. They rushed him, as he knew they would, expecting him to launch into the air. Instead, he ducked low, wings held tight to his back, coming up behind them. They swiveled too late, and he slashed their necks on one final move.

  Falling to their knees, they stared at him in shock, their wings crinkling. White blood pumping out of their wounds, they died snarling at him.

  Keegan looked across the pool. It had taken him a short time to eliminate his attackers. They were no match for a guardian driven by revenge and lethal calm. In the blink of an eye, he crossed the distance over the waters, catching the spriggan thing by surprise.

  “Save her!” Cadman screamed at him wearing a mortal’s face. “Doona you care? The sword will take her.”

  Save her, echoed inside him, a litany of pain and horrific yearning. Save her. Every fiber of his being wanted to jump in the waters and wrench her free from the sword spirit.

  But he could not.

  Could not!

  He was forced to make a choice, saving the dark enchanted sword of the fey, or his heart’s desire. Lana made that choice for him.

  “Save her, guardian!” Cadman screamed at him.

  The spriggan’s cry brought him back from the brink. Keegan refocused on the abomination.

  “You are going to let the sword take her!”

  Aye, he thought miserably. The thing backed away from him. “Valor will not let her die, Cadman.”

  “Fool, doona you know what will happen to her?” The abomination pulled out a Darkshade dagger from beneath his tunic.

  “I know,” Keegan said, and dropped his own dagger. He wanted to feel this one’s death in his hands.

  The spriggan’s lips curved, thinking he could win.

  Behind him, Keegan heard the feminine rush of breath and the ominous silvery sound of a blade being pulled from the waters to the shore. He knew to the depths of his fey spirit what awaited behind him.

  The abomination lunged at him, aiming the mystical dagger at his heart, but he was no match for the swiftness of a guardian. Keegan shackled Cadman’s wrist and locked his other hand around a thin neck.

  “Let me go!”

  Keegan struggled not to give in to his fury, his need to snap Cadman’s neck. He needed to know Bress’s plans of attack.

  “Let go of the dagger.” He squeezed down onto the bony wrist until he heard a crack of bone. The spriggan thing cried out in pain and dropped the dagger.

  “Stop!” Cadman choked, trying to save himself. “I will tell you all.”

  Keegan kicked the mystical dagger into the pool. “Where is Bress?”

  “Bress arrives soon. I know his plans for attack,” Cadman rasped.

  “How soon?” Keegan asked.

  “Days, mayhap hours. I am not sure.”

  “Where does he land?”

  The spriggan abomination shook his head. “I am dizzy. Release me and give me a moment to think. I will tell you all I know.”

  Keegan set Cadman back on his feet.

  The abomination stepped back, rubbing his bruised neck. “I dinna mean to kill the water faery, you know. She attacked me and I had to defend myself.”

  For that you will die, Keegan promised silently. The small faery had been a healer of life, not a destroyer of life.

  “You can have Valor. I’ll take the other one.”

  Keegan could see confidence growing in the thing before him. “What other one?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

  “I dinna really want Lana,” Cadman dared to cajole. “She is pretty but really much too sickly for my seed to take root. I will take the other sword host for my mate.”

  The brazen insinuation of the abomination sickened him. The thought of Cadman mating with Lana drove him over the edge. Reaching out, Keegan snapped the spriggan thing’s neck, killing him instantly.

  “For MacLir,” he whispered, and tossed the limp body into the pool. “Let the waters take their vengeance.”

  It was over.

  He closed his eyes and exhaled, his heart locked in a tangle of wretchedness.

  Slowly and with infinite desolation, he turned around, unwilling to look.

  Dropping down to one knee, he offered his respect. He did not even know how to deal with the feelings tearing his insides apart, constant waves of longing and despair.

  He bowed his head in forced reverence.

  Eyes cracking open, he stared at the ground.

  He placed a fisted hand across his chest, battling the tightness there.

  In a ragged whisper, he said, “Valor, I honor thee.”

  CHAPTER 16

  “KEEGAN.” A SOFT AND FAMILIAR voice called his name.

  He lifted his head.

  She was incredibly beautiful, kneeling in unsurpassed radiance be
side the glimmering form of the enchanted sword. His bride was fey now, a magical being of allure and secrets wearing a sea green gown.

  Blond tresses fell about lovely bare shoulders. She inhaled quietly, the gentle swell of her breasts rising and falling above the bodice without strain.

  The silver dragonfly cuffs shone on her upper arms, a gift from MacLir. They were a mark of the water fey’s approval. They made his heart ache for what he lost, but never truly held.

  The delicate fragrance of heather reached out to caress his lungs, a fey scent of longing wounding his blood.

  “Are you injured?” she asked.

  He shook his head.

  “I am glad, Keegan. Valor has allowed me this moment to speak with you.” She gestured behind her. “Valor asks that you care for her beloved host. She is gravely weak.”

  Keegan looked to the unconscious woman lying behind Lana. She had blond hair too, but of a shorter length.

  “Her name is Glenna, Keegan. She is the sorceress’s first granddaughter. I ask that you watch over her for me. She has been in the water too long and needs much rest.”

  Unsure of his voice, he nodded that he would take care of her.

  “Valor tells me I am the last descendant of the sorceress’s second granddaughter, Erin.”

  “Rianon?” he asked, referring to her older sister.

  Lana shook her head. “It seems Rianon and I share the bloodline of my mother only. We have different fathers.” She bowed her head slightly. “My father and sister must never know, Keegan.”

  “I will not tell them, Lana.”

  Melancholy shadowed her features. “Tell them I died of my weak heart and you buried me under an ancient rowan. That will give ease to their sorrow.”

  “I will tell them.”

  She tilted her head questioningly. “You wish to ask me something?”

  He did. “Does your heart still give you pain?” He needed to know.

  Her right palm moved to rest above her heart. “Nay, Keegan. Doona concern yourself. Valor has seen to it.”