The Faery Queen's Daughter
Page 13
When he finally lifted his gaze to the riders, forcing himself to face them, his throat tightened. These were the creatures that controlled the terrifying beasts.
At first glance, the Huntsmen seemed like wraiths, some were covered by armor that absorbed the light, but as he looked steadily at them, he saw others with strange drawings on their skin, and others with sinewy muscles--honed, no doubt, by hefting the ferocious weapons they gripped.
They were all things of terror.
As Jack looked in their faces, he saw nothing: no emotion, no desire, nothing. If they'd looked angry or excited, anything, it would've been more comforting than that sheer emptiness in their expressions. It was like looking into an endless abyss.
If he weren't frozen by the fear crawling over his flesh, he'd run, run until his breath failed him. But he couldn't move.
He stared, mute, as they flowed toward him.
But--moments from trampling Ivy and him--the Hunt stopped. The Huntsmen stared down at him. The hounds and steeds stood as if frozen, only their strange eyes moved, tracking from Ivy to him and back again.
A Huntsman urged his steed forward, ahead of the rest. He stared from behind a mask of black spirals ending in curved metal tusks. It covered almost all of his face, exposing only the mouth and eyes. The Huntsman wasn't as tall as the others, seeming slight in form, but the others waited.
What horror hides behind that mask?
"Are you the mortal then?" The Huntsman spoke in a voice that was little more than a dry whisper. "The one that came unwelcome into the realm."
Jack nodded. He wanted to speak, but his lips wouldn't part.
Ivy's fingers dug into his hand, not crushing it, but far more fiercely than was comfortable.
"Shall we take you above-ground?" The Huntsman's horse moved forward more several paces.
No one else moved.
"No." Jack lifted his chin, trying to look into those empty eyes and failing. He repeated, "No. I stand with Ivy."
Ivy squeezed his hand tighter.
"If the Faery Queen orders, if her will is invoked, we have to do her biding. Come while we can take you above-ground and leave you there still breathing." The Huntsmen smiled in what may have been intended as a comforting look.
It wasn't.
Then, the masked hunter held out a hand, as Ivy had once done, and urged, "Come."
Jack shook his head again. "I can't. I gave my word." He looked at Ivy, silent beside him. "Her mother is ill. I promised to help."
The Huntsman lowered his hand.
"If the Faery Queen orders it, there's no mercy. We cannot disobey our queen." In that moment, the Huntsman looked almost pained, eyes widening, hand clenching the horse's dark mane. "If you come now . . ."
"I'm sorry." Jack didn't know why he was apologizing to this stranger. He tried a smile, but it felt more like a grimace. "Unless you stop me, I have to try . . . I don't want to make you do something you don't want to, but I have to try to help Ivy's mother."
"Princess." The Huntsman turned to Ivy, aiming that cold gaze at her. "You saved him once. Why would you do this?"
Ivy kept her firm grip on his hand. She shivered. She swallowed hard.
Finally, she said, "She is my mother. This is my home."
Before the Huntsman could reply, Jack added, in a slightly stronger voice, "It is my choice."
The Huntsman did not speak. None of them did. The animals stayed in their posture of barely contained movement, like a painting of a storm: it looks still, but somehow when you look closer, the stillness seems a trick.
Finally, the Huntsman nodded. "We have no order to stop you. Not yet." Through the mask, the hunter looked at Jack as if there were more to say more, then looked away to another rider in the front of the Hunt.
The second rider shook his head.
The Huntsman turned back to them.
"May you succeed before we are summoned, Jack Merry." The Huntsman nodded curtly to Ivy. "Princess. Go to your companions, and be swift. We will ride out until we are summoned. Perhaps it will allow you a few extra moments with our queen and the other one."
Then without any visible gesture or command, the terrifying steed joined the others and they were gone, taking away the disquieting energy they carried with them.
#
Ivy stared down the hallway, empty now. They'd faced the Hunt and were unscathed. Never had she heard of such a thing.
Jack turned to her. "What just happened?"
"That, Jack Merry, is a question I cannot answer." She shook her head. "On my vow, I have no idea. I’ve never thought they could be kind."
"He seemed almost helpful." Jack flexed the hand she'd just released.
Small bruises were already forming on his knuckles where she'd gripped him too tightly.
"I've wounded you!" Ivy said.
"Come on." Jack took her hand in his again, briefly, to tug her forward; then, he released it. "I'm fine."
After several deep breaths, she nodded, and they rounded the corner. The Ellyllon and Bollynoggins all sitting on the floor, looking dazed. With them were the Glaistigs.
"The Hunt." The Bog Mother stared up at them--a bemused smile on her face. "You faced the Hunt, and you're not dead."
"No," Jack said, sounding surer now. "We did not face them. We only spoke to them. If they wanted to harm us or take us from here, we'd be done."
Ilanya winked at Jack. "Pretty astute for a mortal."
The Glaistigs all stomped and grinned. Their hooves clattered against the obsidian tile that led to the queen’s throne room. They seemed eager and utterly unfazed by the Hunt's appearance.
But the Ellyllon and Bollynoggins looked awed, as if something astounding had happened.
And it had. No one spoke to the Hunt.
At least, Ivy had never heard of such a thing. She smiled at the Bog Mother. "Perhaps the Hunt realizes what we all realize--Jack can heal my mother."
No one argued; nor did they agree.
"Let's not waste the time they gave us," she added. "You stay behind us when we enter the chamber."
"We'll do our best to help you, Princess," Ilanya said, "but if the danger grows too great, we will take Jack Merry away from you if needs be. We have other bonds we must uphold. If the Hunt is called to end the mortal's life, we must act. Matriarch Sezja will see him home should such be necessary. "
"You'll stand against the Hunt?" Ivy stared at the throng of Glaistigs behind her. What Ilanya proposed was impossible. "No one stands against them."
"They may slaughter us all, but it'll be a fight worth seeing. It's been ages since we joined a truly bloody battle. The Red-Caps get all the fun these days." Ilanya licked her lips. Then, she winked. "Although, no one in the realm can do what we can, so in the midst of battle, if your mortal vanishes, it is not cause to worry . . . We will see him to Sezja's care . . . unless we are reduced to spatter on the floor."
Ilanya hadn't lost her cheerful expression as she added this last bit, nor had the Glaistigs and the Bollynoggins behind her.
"Open the door," the Bog Mother said softly. "She already knows we're here."
Ivy tried to shake away the awful thoughts crowding her mind: blood on the Faery Queen's floor, the tiny fey against the Hunt, the terrors that would follow. She swallowed hard. "Are you ready, Jack Merry?"
He nodded.
So, she opened the door to her mother's chamber and with the Bollynoggins and Glaistigs in tow, Ivy led Jack forward to meet her mother.
#
After all the obstacles in their path, Jack had expected the Faery Queen herself to be the height of nightmares. She wasn't.
She was a ghoulish woman, so painfully thin that her bones appeared close to breaking through her greyish-blue skin. The fur edged cloak draped over her shoulders and the crown of opalescent stones atop her head seemed to weigh her down, as if to shackle her to her plush throne. She didn't look like a thing of terror, pity perhaps, but not terror.
The room around her,
however, invited fear. It was vast, fading to shadowed reaches, like peering into a great tunnel, no end in sight. What hid in those dark depths he didn't know, nor--in that moment--did he want to. It was not a room of comfort. The floor was cut of the same dark rock that was on the outside of the palace, slick and shining as if it were wet. Luminous white pillars rested at odd intervals in the room, supporting a star-scattered ceiling. He knew they weren't real stars, but the illusion was amazing.
"Mother." Looking graceful even in her tattered tunic, Ivy curtseyed.
Having never met royalty--other than Ivy--Jack had no idea how to greet a faery queen, so he knelt and bowed his head. Behind him, he heard the Glaistigs and Bollynoggins moving with rustles and clatters, and Jack suspected that they, too, bowed before the Faery Queen.
"You've broken the geas." The Faery Queen's voice hissed like a breeze escaping through a jagged hole. Obviously, she wasn't interested in wasting time on pleasantries.
"I have." Ivy stood. She held her hands loosely at her side, fingers not touching the silver hilt of her sword, but awfully close to it. "He can heal things, Mother. He could help you, help the realm."
Trusting that Ivy would warn him if he needed to act, Jack stayed kneeling while she spoke. He watched the haggard Faery Queen as she sat on the dais. She didn't look well enough to hurt them, but he supposed she had folk that would do that for her.
"I need no mortal's help." The Faery Queen coughed into a shimmering white cloth. When she pulled it away from her lips, blood stained it. "Ada helps me. She re-makes the fields so they are rife with promise, keeps the waters pure. Surely, you've seen them as you dragged this"--she lifted a bony hand, pointed at Jack --"through my realm."
Diaphanous layers of cobwebs behind the throne parted as Ada stepped forward. "I can assure you that they have, my queen." She took her mother's hand in hers and pressed a kiss to it. "Word has come that Ivy's mortal has changed the waters, undoubtedly without regards to the Royal Vision."
She sneered at them over the Faery Queen's head.
"Is this true, Ivy?" the Faery Queen's voice echoed through the chamber, far louder than it had been a moment ago, far louder than any voice could possibly be.
Jack stood and stepped forward to stand by Ivy. "The waters were filled with sludge. The creatures were gasping for air, suffering."
"Lies!" The queen’s voice echoed like they were in the ravine, reverberating until Jack's head throbbed. "You dare come before me and tell lies?"
She started coughing again and closed her eyes. Her head drooped.
After one last sneer at them, Ada knelt beside the Faery Queen. "Give me your hand, Mother. I'll deal with them and return the waters to their former state, to what I envision for the folk. You need to rest."
And then Jack understood: Just as Ivy had been helping him when he told a tale to change things, so too had Ada helped the Faery Queen. As he turned to say something to Ivy, he saw the telltale signs of her anger and knew she'd had the same revelation.
"Mother!" Ivy raced to the Faery Queen's side, stumbling at the edge of the dais. "No. The waters were diseased. The folk are suffering. You must believe me. You must listen."
With an awful sound, Ada smacked Ivy, knocking her to the ground and planting a foot on Ivy's throat. "No, Sister. I believe you need to listen."
She clutched the Faery Queen's hands and mumbled something Jack couldn't hear.
The Faery Queen looked as if she'd fallen asleep.
Ada twisted her foot on Ivy's throat. "I believe I have some guests waiting to meet you, sister."
Before Jack had moved even two steps, Ada closed her eyes and the chamber doors slammed open. With a roll of cold terror, the Hunt entered the room.
As he glanced behind him, he saw the Glaistigs step between the Hunt and the rest of the chamber, shoulders back and weapons drawn.
"Take them," Ada snarled to the Hunt. Her face was a horrible thing as she glared down at Ivy and added, "Trample them, eat them, keep them alive for torment. Whatever. Just take them out of here."
As one, the Glaistigs' spread out to face the Hunt.
Bollynoggins nocked their arrows.
But the ugliness did not began: the Huntsmen bowed their heads.
The one who'd spoken to Jack and Ivy in the hallway dismounted. He stepped forward so he was chest to chest with Ilanya.
Ilanya did not back up.
"My queen?" The Huntsman leaned to the side and asked in that hollow whispering voice, "Is this what you would ask of us?"
The Faery Queen's head was slumped forward, her eyes staring blindly, her thin chest expanding as she drew in rasping breaths.
Jack caught Ivy's gaze, and then he glanced at the insensible Faery Queen.
Ivy looked at the Faery Queen.
And Jack whispered, "As the princess looked at her mother, the Faery Queen woke and remembered all that happened. She remembered and understood the truth in what Ivy had said."
He opened his eyes briefly and saw the Faery Queen stir, saw her looking around her chamber.
Ada did not notice.
Closing his eyes, he added, "As Princess Ivy looked at her mother, the Faery Queen saw both of her daughters truly. She saw them and heard their words. The Faery Queen heard the truth. With each heartbeat, she grew stronger, healthier."
Jack stumbled and fell to the floor. He wanted to help Ivy. He wanted to give her the strength to send Ada flying, but that would have to wait.
"The Faery Queen felt her strength flooding back,” he said in as strong a voice as he could muster. “She felt . . ."
"What is he doing?" Ada's voice echoed as the Faery Queen had had earlier.
“She felt well again.” Jack opened his eyes and saw the Faery Queen watching Ada. Though she had not moved, the Faery Queen was clearly alert now.
"We obey the Faery Queen. You are not our queen." Despite the objection in his words, the Huntsmen drew a pair of cruel looking blades.
Ilanya gripped the Huntsman's wrists.
Huntsmen and Glaistigs copied the deadly movements, raising their own blades and cudgels, spears and fists. The Bog Mother lifted an arm, and the Bollynoggins all drew back their arrows.
"We ask again if this is what the Faery Queen commands." The Huntsman's voice slithered through the room, an almost touchable terror. "She is the Faery Queen's daughter. To harm one's child . . . it is not a thing that should ever be done."
"I make the decisions here," Ada snapped. She scowled at the Huntsmen. "Do I have to do it myself now? I gave you a command. With the Faery Queen's will in my blood and through my flesh, I command you to take them. Now."
Blades fell; arrows shot through the chamber.
"Actually, I make the decisions, Ada, or have you forgotten that?" The Faery Queen pulled her hands from Ada's grasp and said, "Stop."
The sounds of metal upon metal and the grunts of pain stopped.
Jack glanced back briefly. A few moments would've been all the longer the battle would've lasted. The Glaistigs had wounded a couple Huntsmen, and arrows jutted from the flesh of a few hounds, but in all the Hunt looked unscathed.
The Bollynoggins were strewn about the chamber like discarded dolls, limbs at odd angles.
Jonquil was already tending wounded Bollynoggins, though the Glaistigs looked far worse. One had a gash on her leg that made it impossible to stand. She was on her knees, a blade in each hand, still ready to battle. Others--including Ilanya, though she still stood--had injuries which made her wound seem minor.
Jack bit his cheek to keep the sounds of horror inside and turned his gaze back to the dais. If the battle resumes, we'll all die.
With obvious effort the Faery Queen straightened herself in the throne and looked at her eldest daughter. "I believe you have some questions to answer."
Then the clear-minded, angry queen looked over the room. "Until I say otherwise, you will all stand down."
The Hunt and the Glaistigs bowed their heads to the Faery Queen and lo
wered their weapons.
Chapter 16: In which the truth is revealed at least
Ilanya leaned down. Blood poured down her flank and a bone poked through the skin on her arm, but she was grinning. "Come now, Jack Merry. We've promised to try to keep you safe here."
She scooped him up with her uninjured arm and steadied him on his feet. Then-- half-carrying, half-supporting him--she led him to the center of the Bollynoggins and the Ellyllon who'd stood with him and Ivy.
Beyond them were the Glaistigs.
Ilanya's injuries weren't the worst of them. In those brief moments of battles, the Glaistigs stood like a wall between the Hunt and the tiny fey. A few of the savage cuts the Glaistigs faced could've killed the much tinier Ellyllon and Bollynoggins.
Jack realized that he was surrounded by armed creatures. He was protected, but Ivy was alone with Ada and the Faery Queen. The three stood on the dais.
"You need to help Ivy," he told the creatures all around him.
Trying to steady himself, Jack braced his feet as he'd seen Ivy do when she fought. It helped a little. He tried to shove Ilanya toward them. "Go on."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, mortal. Shoving me?" Ilanya shook her finger at him, grinning all the while. "Once we'd have drowned a mortal for that kind of rudeness."
He blinked several times, fighting an exhaustion stronger than before. He could see Ivy still on the floor under Ada's foot. Her hair looked like strands of fire snaking across the dark tile, but she still hadn't curled her hand around the hilt of her sword. She looked helpless.
Fine. I'll help her.
He closed his eyes and said, "Ivy looked her sister and . . ."
Ilanya clamped a hand over his mouth and murmured, "Patience."
#
Gingerly, Ivy swallowed. Her throat burned. She turned her head to see the others.
This is when having a real plan would've been good.
With the exception of the terror of the Hunt and the unpredictability of the Glaistigs, Ivy thought things seemed calm. Her strange army looked passably safe. Slowly, she turned her head so she could see her mother.