by Vanessa Skye
The Talentless fae glances around the room then locks his gaze with mine, clearly unsure what to say.
“Speak!” the king orders.
“It is a lie, my king! I would never steal or try to escape.”
“Then why is this fae accusing you?” I ask.
“He is selling the weapons! I witnessed it myself. He sold all he had, and when the king rearmed his farm, he sold that as well.”
“That-that’s an evil lie!” The forest fae takes one step toward the kneeling Talentless.
“Sold it to whom?” I ask.
“Bands of marauding Talentless. He is the one arming them!”
I study his face for a moment. “Why? What does he get out of arming his own enemy?”
The forest fae puffs up again, ready for another go. “I wouldn’t. I—”
“Silence!” Nuadha bellows before focusing on the Talentless once more. “Answer.”
“He loses all he earns on the dice, Sire. Every penny. His need for the game is now greater than what he earns. He owes a considerable amount of coin to many fae. I was on my way to report this to you when he attacked me and tried to make me the scapegoat for his crimes.”
The forest fae’s face looks like a cartoon—all color drains out of his cheeks then they flush bright red again—but he remains quiet with his lips squeezed together.
Nuadha glances at Aiden. “Thoughts, General? Does this faeling have a point?”
“They both make grave allegations.” Aiden rises. “The facts in this matter are simple. We have rearmed this man once already, at considerable expense, and now he seeks more. However, his love of the dice is widely known across the city. I have played him myself, and he has little talent for it. And if he is innocent, why attempt mind control during questioning?”
“Where is the weaponry?” Nuadha asks the forest fae.
I slink toward my chair.
Nuadha whips his head around. “I didn’t say you could sit!”
I bite the inside of my cheek but remain standing.
Nuadha slowly turns, snapping his gaze away from mine at the last second, and faces the fae. “Answer my question.”
He frowns. “G-gone, Sire…”
“But you said you caught this Talentless stealing your weapons. If you caught him, then you must still have them? Which is it? Did you catch him in the foul act, or are the weapons gone?”
“I-I…uh…” The fae looks desperately around the room as if the answers are sitting somewhere within the walls.
Nuadha stands and points. “Search his pockets.”
Aiden seizes the forest fae, empties his pockets of several carved wooden cubes with strange symbols on all sides, and hands the dice to Nuadha.
The king bounces them in his hand a couple of times before dropping them on the table and looking up. “Banish them both.” He looks at me with a small smile. “Happy now?”
The fae scream as Nuadha rips the veil open himself.
Aiden’s men seize the two sentenced fae, and the Talentless fae is thrown through Nuadha’s void first.
Nuadha stalks toward the remaining fae and makes a strange gesture then he, too, is forced through. The entire horrifying process takes no more than a few seconds.
The tear disappears, and all is quiet in the hall once again.
I stare of Nuadha with wide eyes. “You banished Talentless after he proved he didn’t do anything wrong? You ass—”
“Silence!” Nuadha shouts. “You will not speak again unless I specifically give you permission, or you, too, will be on the receiving end of a death sentence.”
I grind my teeth in frustration but remain silent.
He sits back down, and I do the same.
“Back to the matters at hand. Aiden?”
Aiden joins us at the table and clears his throat. “Sire…I’m afraid I am not the bearer of happy tidings.”
Nuadha shifts and waves impatiently. “Get on with it, General. Your hedging bores me.”
Aiden nods once. “The reports you received were accurate. It seems the raids on fae communities are growing more frequent…and more violent.”
“Explain.”
Two Talentless women enter the room, and all conversation ceases as they place a tankard in front of each of us as well as some oatcake. No one even acknowledges their presence.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice loud in the quiet room.
The women look startled and make a hasty retreat.
Nuadha glowers at me.
I pick up the tankard and sniff—Beer, for breakfast. Ooh-kay—then take a small sip and grimace. It’s dreadful.
However, the others don’t seem to agree as they all take hearty slugs.
The oatcake is sweet and cinnamon-y, and I happily munch on it instead.
“During our travels, my men and I came across three routed fae communities. In all three cases, the villages were burnt to the ground. Other isolated fae communities report attacks by small bands of Talentless, which they were able to repel.”
“Of the routed communities, there was nothing left?” Nuadha asks.
Aiden shakes his head. “Nothing.”
“How could the Talentless achieve such a thing? This is most troubling.”
Nuadha scowls, and with expressions just as troubled, the other men and women around the table agree.
“It seems the goal of the raids is not simply to rob fae of food and weapons. This season, the Talentless seem determined to kill as many fae as possible. In fact, we came across the body of one of your most talented music fae, Aife. She was robbed of her weapons and her throat slit.”
Nuadha frowns and leans forward. “Aife is dead?”
Aiden nods sadly and gestures toward Baird and me. “We ensured she was not left to scavengers.”
Sorrow crosses the king’s face, but the venom in his next question quickly covers it. “The Talentless?”
Irrational jealously spears through me, and I wonder what Aife meant to him.
“According to the fae we encountered, that is the case,” Aiden says quietly.
“Robbing to support your family is one thing, but murdering fae in cold blood? Coupled with the information that fae, themselves, are selling weapons is poor news indeed.” Nuadha sighs. “I do not know why the Talentless have suddenly decided to band together and destroy whole fae villages, but if they think it will go unpunished, they are mistaken.”
Murmurs and nods of agreement ripple around the table from what seems to be fae representatives of every kind judging by the horns, gills, vines, mud, wings, and scales present.
I raise my hand.
Nuadha frowns then glances at Baird. “What is she doing?” he asks.
Baird stifles a smile. “Forgive her, Sire. This is how a young one from her, uh, community asks to speak in the presence of a superior.”
I realize Baird and Nuadha have made it a point not to mention my time in this other world in front of others, and I wonder why.
Nuadha sighs and waves a dismissive hand. “Speak, child.”
“What evidence do you have that it’s Talentless destroying these communities?” I ask.
“What?”
“What proof do you have that Talentless are carrying out the raids? Aiden just said three communities have been totally destroyed with no survivors left behind. So how do you know it’s Talentless?”
“Proof?” Nuadha looks incredulous. “The fae involved in the successful defense of their communities say so. I need no further verification.”
“But perhaps it isn’t?”
“Of course, it is. Who else would it be?”
“How do you tell a talentless and an ordinary fae apart?” I ask him, but Aiden answers my question instead.
“By sight only. You cannot always tell, that much is true. But—”
“Exactly!” I say as I stand. “Baird told me that fae often skirmish with each other, and part of your job as king is to quash those conflicts before they get out of hand. Is that no
t true?”
Nuadha growls and scrubs a hand over his face. “Of course it is true, child!”
“So why are Talentless being blamed for all the raids?”
He narrows his eyes. “Are you saying Aiden is lying?”
“Of course not! I saw Aife dead with my own eyes, but I didn’t see who did it, and neither did he.”
“’Tis true, Sire,” Aiden says with a nod. “The faeling makes a valid point.”
“In fact, since I have been in Ti—here, I have seen these so called talentless treated like slaves and bullied terribly. You just banished one even though he was innocent! What right does anyone have to treat a fellow fae this way? Your beloved Aife,” I practically spit the name out of my mouth, “nearly killed an innocent serving girl for sport the night before she died. I had to stop her.”
Nuadha bangs the table with a fist, causing planks to buckle and knocking over several tankards of ale. “You speak of things you do not understand.” He stands. “You are a most quarrelsome child!”
“I am not a child!” I yell, gripping the edges of the table and leaning forward. “And I understand better than you think. I know what it’s like to be bullied —“ I take a deep breath. “You haven’t answered my question. What right do you have to treat fellow fae this way?”
“Enough!” he roars. “Sit!” He points to my chair.
I sit down reluctantly and fold my arms.
“You just admitted Aife had some trouble with a Talentless, yes?” he asks.
I shrug then nod, just once.
“And she is murdered the next day? Clearly, her death was in retaliation for her treatment of the Talentless. What more evidence do you need?”
“That’s not what happened!”
“How do you know?”
I open my mouth then snap it closed and flop back in my seat.
The king’s beautiful face is cold. “You berate me for making assumptions when you do no better yourself.” He stares until I look away. “You will say no more on this matter unless asked, faeling. You are unfamiliar with the intricacies.” Nuadha turns toward Aiden. “This news is troubling and requires further investigation. I will accompany you on your next journey to the outlying communities, General, and see for myself.”
Aiden bows. “Of course, Sire.”
Nuadha points at a fae taking notes with a quill on a long scroll. “Let it be known, from this moment, no Talentless may carry arms on pain of banishment. And spread the word—any fae caught selling weapons to the Talentless will be put to death.” Nuadha sits once more. “This information in addition to the problem with birthrates—”
“What is the problem with birthrate, if I may ask?” Baird asks.
“Of course. I forget you have been absent these past two decades,” Nuadha replies. “The previous standard had the Talentless born at a rate of one per one thousand fae births. But in the past twenty years, this rate increased tenfold.
Baird gasps and Nuadha nods gravely.
“Now, the Talentless number one in one hundred births and that number is steadily increasing.” He gestures toward the others seated at the table. “We fear the magic is fading from Tír na nÓg. It could be linked with Danu’s disappearance, but we are unsure.”
They all nod and murmur agreement.
“At the current rate, the Talentless population increase could be a threat to all fae. Especially if they are indeed responsible for the growing violence across our lands.” Nuadha glares, daring me to argue.
I purse my lips but say nothing.
“Which leads us to our next problem…you and your questionable parentage and abundance of magic.”
I squirm in my seat as everyone’s focus turns to me.
“You are my most trusted advisors and representatives of your respective fae peoples, so when I say this information can never go beyond this room, then I trust it will stay with us.” The threat in Nuadha’s voice is apparent.
Each fae nods.
Aiden glances at me, smiles, and winks.
“This faeling,” Nuadha says, nodding in my direction, “was entrusted to Baird for her own protection eighteen years ago by none other than Estrild.”
Quiet gasps surge around the table.
“But we have not heard anything of Estrild for more than a century!” a horned female says. “Does she know of Danu?”
“I do not know,” Nuadha murmurs. “But I mean to find out.”
Chatter breaks out as the fae speculate where Estrild might be now.
“Sadly…” Nuadha says, raising his voice to be heard above the noise. He needn’t bother, for the second he speaks everyone falls silent. “Sadly, Baird claims Estrild died of injuries sustained in some unknown struggle shortly after she gave him the child. The witch is long since buried and can no longer assist us in our search for Danu.”
The information is met with nothing but stunned silence, and the king sighs.
“Estrild begged Baird to protect the child, saying she is vital to the future of Tír na nÓg—”
I find it interesting, although not all that surprising, that he doesn’t mention why I am so vital to his gathered warlords.
“—and she bid him to hide this fae called Alys in the human world. To raise her as a human so she might be kept safe from those who would harm her.”
That got their attention. Fae stare, slack-jawed, and a few sitting closest to me shuffle their chairs away as if they might somehow catch human.
“As you saw yesterday, her power is considerable. Most interestingly, she has the ability to perform this powerful magic in the human world, which should be impossible.”
The table explodes as fae shout over each other.
“This faeling is an aberration!”
“What does this mean?”
“Estrild was insane! We cannot listen to her.”
“If there is magic, is it possible the banished can return to Tír na nÓg?” one asks, looking over his shoulder in fear.
“Are the Returned coming for us?”
“Can magic now be done on the human world by any who possess fae blood?”
“Is the human world stealing our magic?”
“Where is Danu?”
The questions and accusations continue, and fae look as though they expect to be overrun by horrible magic-wielding super humans at any moment.
“Enough!” Nuadha eventually shouts over the growing noise. “We do not, as yet, have the answers to those questions. But does anyone here have any rational thoughts?”
Baird stands. “I do not believe any other fae can do the kind of powerful magic on Earth that Alys can do.”
“Explain.”
“All attempts on her life were committed by fae using humans or human weapons. There was no direct magical assault. I also had no use of magic at her level on Earth. I think it is limited to Alys alone.”
Nuadha nods. “I agree. I do not think we need fear an imminent invasion of the Returned.”
The fae don’t look appeased and continue shooting worried glances my way.
“And what of the humans, Baird? It has been a long time since we had a report from Earth.”
“Earth is much the same as you might expect, my king. Ongoing conflict remains a constant. Many wars are being fought over many continents, mostly over whose god is the correct deity to worship.”
“How many are their numbers?” a scaled fae asks.
“Billions.”
“Billions?”
Fae gape at each other.
Baird nods. “Secrecy and concealment from humans must remain a top priority. We cannot fight such numbers.”
“I agree, friend Baird,” Nuadha says. “Our next mystery is this child’s parentage.”
I am getting annoyed with his constant inference—or just flat out saying—that I am a child as well as his refusal to involve me in the conversation.
“Could she be Estrild’s child?” an earth fae, by the looks of him, asks.
Baird shakes hi
s head. “I have considered this possibility. Although Estrild showed severe wounds, they appeared to be from battle, not childbirth, and she gave me goat’s milk to feed the child. Moreover, she was old. I heard she had given birth to a child—a daughter—but that was many millennia ago. Therefore, it is my opinion Alys was entrusted to Estrild to maintain her ongoing safety. When that was no longer possible, she begged for my help.”
“Why you?” another fae asks.
“I do not know if she selected me specifically or if I was simply the only fae she happened across. She knew my name, even though we had never met,” Baird replies. “But she was a powerful witch.”
“Did she reveal the parents of this child?”
“She did not. But I suspect Alys is only half-fae.”
“Half?” One of the forest men points at me like I’m an exhibit at the zoo. “And yet she has such power?”
“I do not understand either, but Estrild was most adamant she be protected,” Baird says.
“So you say. Such power has no place on Tír na nÓg!” the earth fae yells.
“The child is no threat,” Nuadha says, waving a hand.
“How can you say that?” The man jumps out of his seat, obviously ready to argue. “She is immune to your sword. She is a threat to us all!”
Nuadha goes ominously still, and the earth fae glances around the room as though he might find his words and shove them back into his stupid mouth.
“Are you questioning me?” the king asks with a raised eyebrow.
“N-no! Of course not. I-I simply meant…perhaps she should be…detained until her p-parentage can be properly established.”
“If I was going to detain her, it would be for ongoing impertinence, not because I’m concerned some skinny little faeling poses any threat to myself or this land,” Nuadha says with a glare. “The faeling will remain under my protection. So long as she cares for Danu’s unicorn, she is not to be harmed. Am I making myself clear?”
He levels a piercing gaze at each of the fae until they nod and look away.
“And I wish to see the evidence of these Talentless raids for myself. I will take Aiden, Baird, a contingent of men, and this girl, to investigate. While on the journey, we might find someone else who saw Estrild, sheltered her, or heard of her at the time of this faeling’s birth. And since I cannot leave the city unprotected, I entrust you, as war council members, will keep things running smoothly in my absence. We leave at first light tomorrow.”