by Liam Reese
He hoped that would throw Captio off. The thin man approached him and put his hands on Croenin’s shoulders.
“Would you like to hear about my first mission? Like yours it was more dangerous than the usual initiation.” He sat, leaning against a tree, and Croenin did the same. “Jovius took me out into the field, just the two of us. He wasn’t master yet, he was a scout, relaying and trading in information. I was to be his backup, which put a heavy burden on my shoulders from the outset. Yet, he trusted me. Of course, I had trained in combat for longer than you have, though seeing you on that first day, I don’t think that meant much. You’re a fast learner.”
“Did Jovius teach you how to use a sword too?”
“No, one of the other brothers did. Though, he’s passed on now.” Captio was quiet for a moment. “But, my first mission was to deliver a message to a small Faero Ursi outpost in the north, at the border between Toque Staetym and Uqolelle. There had been a supposed Aes Sidhe sighting in the northern region, and we were sent in to gather more information.”
“An Aes Sidhe sighting?”
“Yes, some still pass back and forth between the worlds. Why do you think parents still warn their children not to step into fairy rings or stray too far from villages? It’s why most travelers refuse to make journeys alone.” He glanced at Croenin, an eyebrow raised in admonition. “As it turns out, this wasn’t just a simple sighting, as the brothers had made it seem. This was a settlement being tormented.”
“What do you mean?” Croenin sat up, eyes widening.
“The villagers were hallucinating, seeing little brown sprites ransacking their things. Some starved to death because they saw all food as being infested with maggots. One disemboweled himself to make the whispers in the shadows stop.” He frowned.
“I thought the Aes Sidhe couldn’t do anything to villages. Isn’t their magic stopped by the oryn in the walls?”
“Unlike us, those in Uqolelle never inhabited the Aes Sidhe villages. They see them as cursed and remain nomadic. They set up settlements for a few weeks and then move on. It’s what kept them alive while the Aes Sidhe ruled, though what almost wiped them out when the war came.”
“So, what did you do?”
“We hunted down the Aes Sidhe causing it.”
Croenin gasped. He hadn’t heard of anyone killing one of the magic beings since the war. He stared at Captio, who seemed lost in his memories.
“How?” was all he could ask in amazement.
“We knew by the strength of the illusions that it had to be close by. Jovius guessed correctly that it was in the settlement itself.”
“But no one noticed?”
“Sometimes, in the old days, Aes Sidhe would disguise themselves as humans, tormenting villages and settlements for months or even years before action was taken. But, they tend to have a weakness when transforming into humans. Oddly, they never get it quite right for all their mastery of illusion. There’s always one feature that is off in some way.”
“So, you examined everyone for something strange.”
“Exactly. It was I who found the perpetrator, a young boy of around four years of age, absolutely doted on by his mother and grandmother. But even they, who saw him every day, did not seem to notice that one of his ears was crooked, leaning back too far compared to the other. If they did notice they likely wrote it off as a birth defect, but as soon as I told him he’d been found out, that we knew he was a changeling, he started to transform, trying to grow to his real height, limbs stretching. I killed him with my own sword before he could.” He patted the oryn handle with a gloved hand. “Jovius told me to tell no one, and now I that I am telling you, I must ask you to do the same when we return to the keep.”
“What happened to the real child?”
“No one knows. Either taken to the Unknown where the Aes Sidhe now reside or killed and left for animals to eat.”
Croenin shuddered. “But why don’t you want anyone to know you killed an Aes Sidhe? Shouldn’t the brothers know they’re still out there?”
“I’d have a mutiny on my hands if all brothers knew they might have to face an Aes Sidhe. All are terrified by the legends, and the rest are only tasked with mundane menaces. Only a select few know the danger and my story. That is why they were chosen for this mission. When I heard that Gallys and Eudys were controlling their people in this strange way, I knew it was magic and related to the Aes Sidhe. I just didn’t know how until Fausta told us.”
Croenin nodded slowly. Captio knew more about the Aes Sidhe than he had suspected. He wished he could tell Captio about the secret mission he had been given, ask him for his thoughts on what Croenin should do. But he needed Captio to trust him if he were to get to Ayne, and he kept silent. He stood as Captio did the same, stretching and waking up the others. Night had fallen swiftly, and it was much harder to see in the darkness all around them. Croenin looked around in the quickly dimming light. The only illumination came from a nearly-full moon, which was still low in the sky and obscured by the thick blanket of treetops.
“No torches, then?” Carus had asked, but Captio shook his head no.
“If anyone is watching, they’d see them as soon as we left the forest.”
“And the horses?” Saed asked, giving his own a pat on the nose.
“I arranged for the stable-boy from the inn to follow later and care for them while we are gone. Since we are close to the path, he shouldn’t have too much trouble finding them. He knows he’ll be paid handsomely.” Carus responded.
“It seems that we are ready. Croenin, Aulys, you can go ahead and change. Remain hidden at the edge of the village until we come for you.”
With that, Captio, Saed, and Carus left to hunt for guards whose clothes they could use.
“We’ll wait here for a bit and then follow,” Aulys told him. “Let’s give them some time so that should they be spotted and captured we can serve as backup.”
Croenin hadn’t thought of that. He trusted in Captio’s abilities, but Aulys was right in being prepared to step in. So they sat in the clearing, until the moon was directly overhead. Captio had gathered as much information as he could from his inside source. What happened to that brother? Croenin asked himself. Surely Captio would have included him in the plan. Or was the brother to remain as a spy, and Captio didn’t want to involve him in case they aroused suspicion? He didn’t have much time to think on this as Aulys, now dressed as a peasant, beckoned him to follow silently.
They crept toward the village, whose oryn and stone wall glinted in the moonlight. It reminded Croenin of his own village, and he was surprised by the sudden pang of homesickness that shot through his heart. He quickly stuffed the feeling down and focused on Aulys’ dark form moving swiftly in front of him. Between the forest and the village lay a large swath of moorland, with nothing to hide them. They were forced to move quickly, as lingering too long would give any guards patrolling the village a greater chance at spotting them. Croenin wasn’t sure how long it took them to cross the flat land, but it felt like an eternity as he held his breath, waiting for a guard to raise a cry of alarm.
That didn’t happen, though, and they made it to the village wall in peace, Aulys grinning as they crouched low to avoid being seen.
“Not bad,” he whispered from beside Croenin. “I’ll go over the wall first, then you.”
Croenin nodded and watched as the brother hoisted himself up and over the stone and oryn wall before doing the same. Once on the other side, Croenin frowned. The village looked nearly identical to his, and he had a strong feeling of deja-vu as he followed Aulys down the main path and past the village center. The only difference between this village and his, he realized, was the huge stone castle looming over the other side. His visions didn’t do it justice, and his mouth dropped open as he took in the sheer enormity of the large stone building.
When the Aes Sidhe king built his castles, he used the stones most plentiful in each region to do so. Toque Staetym had an abundance of ob
sidian, and the black stones reflected the white light of the moon in an eerie but awe-inspiring way. The turrets that rose up from the large, domed center of the castle reached higher than any building Croenin had ever seen, and stretched upward into the sky as if trying to touch the moon itself. He saw no light coming from within, and the castle looked as if it were carved from the blackness of the night sky. It would have been invisible in the darkness, had the moon’s light not reflected off it.
“C’mon boy, we can’t stay here all night.” Aulys whispered, shaking him out of his stupor.
Croenin blinked rapidly and followed, pausing every so often to hide behind cottages as guards passed. Captio had been right. Gallys wasn’t taking any chances in ensuring no one did anything he didn’t approve of. No wonder he looked so tired, Croenin thought, thinking back to his vision. He’s probably paranoid about the villagers trying to overthrow him. He and Aulys waited, before making a dash to the gates that lay on the opposite end of the village, between them and the castle. These and the wall attached were fashioned out of silver in a filigree pattern and were no doubt left over from the Aes Sidhe that had inhabited it. On the point of one of the loops of the gate’s pattern was a slip of parchment. Croenin plucked it off the point. All clear. Head to back of palace, wooden door with two horizontal lines. Knock softly, He read silently, nodding at Aulys. Captio and the others worked much quicker than he’d expected.
Scaling the fence was difficult, especially without drawing attention to themselves, but they managed it. Croenin feared falling or impaling himself on one of the sharp points at the top of the gate, but with Aulys’ help, he made it over unscathed. They crept around to the back of the castle, hiding themselves on the side of the dark wall as they saw shadows of guards patrolling the outside. Croenin did not breathe as two men in black capes passed them, walking in unison, swords strapped to their waists. When the guards’ footsteps had faded away, Croenin and Aulys moved once more, taking care to silence their footsteps as much as possible. At the back of the palace was the door, just as the note described it. Croenin glanced back at Aulys, who nodded, and he knocked in the pattern he used with Captio, three soft raps, a pause, then one more. The door opened slowly, and Croenin and Aulys stepped into the darkness inside, only to feel rough hands grab them and cloth thrown over their heads.
5
Croenin couldn’t see. All he could see was blackness due to the cloth over his head, and his arms were pinned behind his back by an inhumanely strong grip. He was being dragged, and his feet barely touched the ground as his toes slid along a stone floor. His flail was taken from him, and he had no way of fighting off whoever had a hold on him. Where he was being taken, he didn’t know, and he assumed Aulys was experiencing the same treatment. He heard nothing but the heavy breathing of whoever was holding him and the sound of his boots trailing along the stones. He tried to turn his head, but when he did, another hand came to grip the back of his neck, keeping it down and front-facing. He tried pushing his head upward, tried yanking his arms out of the deathly tight grip, but to no avail. He let himself be dragged for a while, before trying once more to free himself, thinking that he might catch his captor off guard. He didn’t, and earned a blow to the back of the head for his efforts.
He was then pushed forward, falling roughly on the hard floor. His cheekbone collided with a stone, and he groaned. What is happening? He asked himself. Where are Captio and the others? His questions were soon answered when the cloth was abruptly ripped from over his head, and he saw his brothers standing beside a large stone seat, glassy-eyed. He stared in confusion, looking around to see Aulys brought in by a guard and roughly thrown to the ground next to him. The cloth over his head was removed, and he looked at Croenin, frowning.
“Well,” a rasping voice came from behind them. “It seems that I have visitors. It only seemed appropriate to welcome them properly.”
Croenin whipped his head around as Gallys entered the room, walking between him and Aulys as he made his way to his throne. He sat heavily, exhaustion apparent in his pale face. The bony man leaned forward, wide eyes staring at Croenin.
“I’ve never seen anything quite like you before!” he crowed. “Golden hair is quite a rarity these days.” He pointed to the tapestry at the far wall of the room, a scene of Aes Sidhe sitting in a meadow and playing instruments. Two of the Aes Sidhe had hair like Croenin’s, light and curling. “They used to dye it that color, you know. They were so jealous of those fair-haired humans born with it. Killed them by the droves out of envy, you know.” He laughed, a choking, gasping sound. “They were such capricious creatures. Much like me.” He grinned, eyes glinting with madness.
Croenin said nothing. He knew that he should be afraid. This man thought himself a king, thought himself at the level of the Aes Sidhe in power. But, Croenin thought to himself, he’s just an insane man playing dress-up. He wondered if the man had lost his wits before using the sícharys, the circlet, that sat upon his head, or if the item had made him this way. He was right, in a way. This would-be king was most likely just as unpredictable as the Aes Sidhe. Croenin glanced at Captio and his brothers who, like the other guards of this castle, were obviously under Gallys’ influence.
“What do you want from us?”
It was Aulys who spoke up, chest heaving with anger. He knew the danger that came with entering this place, but couldn’t control himself at seeing the master and his brothers in such a state. Gallys merely laughed, standing shakily and walking toward Aulys. Aulys tried to stand, but the gaunt man was too quick, lunging toward him and laying his hand on the brother’s head, grinning madly. Aulys tried to shake him off, but Croenin saw his mouth drop open and his eyes glaze over. Gallys laughed to himself and took his place on the throne once more.
“Now, you and I can talk without being interrupted. You seem like a much better conversationalist than your friends. Much more level-headed.” He leaned forward his smile stretching his thin cheeks. “What do you want from me?”
“What do you mean?” Croenin’s frown deepened.
“I mean, why are you here? Faero Ursi wouldn’t just break into a castle without reason. What is your aim?”
Croenin glanced at the brothers around him, letting his eyes fall on Captio last. A plan had entered his head suddenly, but it would require him to tell the truth. He wondered if the brothers could hear him, and in the end, he decided to ask.
“Of course not,” came the reply. “Their minds are mine, and mine alone. I saw into them to get what I needed and made them completely blank for me to put whatever I want into them, or see through them. My guards are my eyes. How do you think I knew you were coming? You were smart not to use torches to navigate, but there’s no hiding on the moor in the moonlight. So tell me, why are you here?”
Croenin took a deep breath and knew that there was no turning back. Just as he was about to speak, to tell Gallys that he was the savior of the Age of Oryn, that mankind would fall without him, and finish with a lie about how he needed the sícharae to save the realm, everything went black. Croenin blinked rapidly, finding himself in a forest clearing, moon shining bright overhead. At the center of the clearing stood Ayne, face red with anger.
“You idiot,” she hissed. “He would have had you killed on the spot if you went through with that hare-brained plan.”
“Then why did you stop me?” Croenin asked, scowling. “Wouldn’t that have just made things easier for you?”
“Perhaps,” she mused. “But that would be no fun. If you are to die, I want to be the one who will kill you, directly, with no intermediaries.”
Croenin rolled his eyes. “Then what should I do?”
“Lie through your teeth, tell him you heard of his power from your own small village, infiltrated the Faero Ursi to get safe passage to his castle, and want to serve at his side.”
“Even if he believed that, why would he want me?”
“Because you have power others don’t.”
Croenin cocked h
is head, staring at his sister in disbelief. “You want me to reveal myself? Are you crazy?”
“Your brothers can’t hear you. He said as much.”
“How do you know he won’t kill me on the spot? He might see me as competition.”
“I’ve been watching him for a while, brother. His desire for power far outweighs his fear of the unknown.” Ayne started pacing around him. “Why do you think he’s killing himself with that circlet?”
“He’s dying?’
“Oh yes. Not anytime soon, of course, but his life has been shortened tremendously.”
“And you know this how?”
“Open your eyes, Croenin, and maybe you can see what I see.” She walked toward him, placing a hand on his chest. “Make your choice. You don’t have much time.”
With that, the forest faded around him, and he was in Gallys’ castle once more, kneeling on the stone floor. He stared up at Gallys, who was still leaning forward, staring at him with his large, black eyes.
“Well, boy, why are you here? I haven’t got all night?” Gallys ran a hand over his pale face. “Spit it out.”
Croenin repeated exactly what Ayne told him that he should say, but Gallys merely laughed. He silently cursed Ayne for putting him in this position, but he didn’t expect what happened next.
“Prove it.”
Croenin was taken aback. “What?”
“Prove you have these ‘powers’ and I’ll let you live.” Gallys leaned back on his stone seat, crossing his arms. “I’ll even consider having you by my side as I rule Toque Staetym.”
Croenin’s mind raced. Then he had an idea. It was risky, and he risked Gallys’ anger, but it would be proof. He took a deep breath and met the intense, dark gaze.
“There is a box underneath this castle that holds two items that belonged to the Aes Sidhe. A silver ring and a silver brooch.”
Croenin watched as Gallys’ pale face lost even more color, and the left side of his face twitched in anger.
“H-How could you possibly—”