The Court of Outcasts

by Allison Rose

  “Then I will have tried at least.” Kelty turned from him. I have no time for this.

  She pushed out of the door to her tree. Lark was waiting as she did every dawn now.

  “There are reports of a human who glows like a faerie around the school,” Kelty addressed her immediately. “Watch the youths as they enter and leave the building. Report back.”

  Lark pouted. “All day?”

  Kelty nodded sternly. “All day.”

  She turned away from Lark to give Rowan a glance. His expression was unreadable. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Lark giving him a pleading look, like a youth asking the other parent to overturn an order. Kelty threw her adviser another stern look. Then, not knowing what else to do, she opened her wings and vaulted up through the branches, flying in the direction of the Throne Wood.

  An eerie feeling settled over her as she landed. The trees, bushes, plants of all kinds were uneasy. She felt it through the soles of her feet. Carefully, she sent her magic into the ground to prod, searching among the root network for the source of the disturbance. She was reminded of a similar encounter with Derek, the first she had had with a human in this world. A human who was destroying trees with dark magic and fire—a deadly combination.

  Before she got very far, she sensed Fable’s presence behind her. Reluctantly, she pulled her magic from the land to focus on her spirit shield. Then she turned on her heel to face him as he approached on foot.

  “I want another lesson,” she said, trying a new approach.

  He cocked his head at her. “You still refuse to sit in it,” he said contemplatively, looking at her before his eyes drifted to the throne.

  Kelty hissed internally. “The throne does not make the ruler,” she quoted something her mother, who was always walking or flying among the Night subjects, taught her. “Now show me how to use spirit as you do.”

  Fable gave her a small nod, the corner of his mouth quirking up. “So eager to learn—or to find out where your human is?”

  Kelty didn’t dignify this with a reply, trying to quiet her mind. She was guessing that tackling this head-on as she had been was exactly what Fable was prepared for, but if she avoided the topic, maybe she could discern the information when he was least expecting it.

  “Look this time.” Fable pointed one longer finger to his head.

  “Why do you think I have the ability to do that?” It was one of the more disconcerting aspects of spirit, the ability to look into another’s mind and glimpse their memories. And one very few faeries possessed.

  Moon and stars, what kinds of dark things would I find in his mind? She worked to keep the horror off her face.

  “You do not even know what you are capable of,” was his answer.

  Kelty couldn’t help a shudder, before she squared her shoulders and demanded, “How?”

  “Simply cultivate a desire to know about my past. Then look.”

  Immediately Kelty thought of Nola. It gave her the courage to delve into Fable’s mind—or try to. Her first few attempts were met with nothing but his curious and slightly mocking expression.

  He sighed. “I suppose I will have to show you.”

  Without warning, his magic invaded her mind, a scene playing before her eyes, slightly blurred as if she was looking through a fog.

  The Glorious stood before her, easily recognizable by the eye-shaped ovals on her wings and the Telk stones worn about her body on cords. She was standing in a room occupied by wooden-framed couches, chairs, places for lounging. Her chambers, perhaps. Normally, a combination of fear, anger, and revulsion flooded Kelty at the sight of the Day ruler, but an infatuation threatened to overwhelm her. She wanted nothing more than to please The Glorious.

  What? Kelty was at least able to think, though her thoughts were sluggish, despite her out-of-control feelings. What is he doing to me?

  The Glorious smiled, but there was some cruelty in it. “You have not been able to silence her.” There was disapproval in her sharp gaze.

  Shame swept through Kelty, so terrible she almost sank to her knees. Her mouth moved, and Fable’s voice came out of it. “She continues to find her way back to the youngling, my Glorious.”

  Things clicked into place inside Kelty’s mind. This is his memory. He has forced it upon me somehow. She frantically tried to think of ways to disengage herself.

  “No.” A thread of exasperation weaved its way into The Glorious’s voice. “I thought if her memories were removed, she would be able to stay in Court. But I cannot risk her resistance becoming more of a problem. If even you cannot take her sense of motherhood away, she will have to be banished.”

  Kelty-Fable nodded, sense of embarrassment and shame deepening. Who is she speaking of? The corners of her vision started to fade, and despite this being Fable’s mind, Kelty fought to stay, calling upon her own spirit power. I need to know what they are talking about. Information is power. She threaded her own power into Fable’s vision memory.

  Show me, she urged silently.

  Another scene came alive with startling clarity. A blue faerie of the Day sat in a lush garden, cradling something in her arms. As Kelty-Fable drew closer, she could see it was a faerie youngling swaddled in blankets.

  “On order of The Glorious, you are banished,” Kelty-Fable spoke. The faerie turned with an expression of shock as she clutched her youngling closer. With a jolt Kelty recognized her. She was younger, healthier, but she had the same thinness to her, sharp cheekbones.

  Sayra.

  The Glorious entered Kelty’s field of vision. She must’ve been beside Fable as he approached. “You will not resist,” she said in a lofty, firm voice. Then she took the youngling from Sayra’s arms.

  Sayra shook, her face a mask of horror, and tears fell from her eyes. Her mouth opened in a soundless gasp.

  Something like compassion flowed through Fable-Kelty as he reached out with his magic and snuffed out the glimpses of the youngling in Sayra’s mind. As her eyes went blank, he gripped her arm, palmed a Telk stone from the folds of his garment, and brought her to the human world.

  Kelty willed the vision to end, but she remained as Fable. Leaving Sayra to the tears she had no idea why she shed, he returned to the Day Court. The Glorious had handed the youngling off to another and sat on her throne. She turned a pleased look on Kelty-Fable.

  “Our future is secure.”

  A sick pleasure warmed Kelty-Fable.

  No, no! End this. Kelty struggled to call her magic back.

  The Glorious stood and walked toward Kelty-Fable.

  Kelty finally broke free, stumbling from the force. She stared at the empty throne, taking a moment to ground herself. Fable was nowhere to be seen. She closed her eyes and gave an angry cry. A few drops of rain fell on her head and arms.

  He knew I would be tempted to go further, to remain in the memory while he carried on with—whatever he did. I was here for the better part of the day. But did I actually get anything useful?

  She didn’t have the answer to that question, despair seeping into her as she thought of what Nola could be going through while Kelty struggled to find her.

  The familiar warmth grew in her core that meant Rowan approached.

  No. I do not want him to see me like this.

  But she straightened and opened her eyes anyway.

  Rowan dropped down beside her moments later. He opened his mouth as if to speak, forehead creased in concern, but then glanced around them. “This place feels wrong, different.”

  Kelty sighed, tired beyond measure. “Yes. I do not know why.”

  Rowan looked back at her, expression still guarded as it had been lately, but also softer as he announced, “The ones who search for Nola have ventured past the barrier in the wood.”

  The Court of Outcasts. They do not yet have the respect for humans. There is no telling what they might do—especially if a certain two humans with the sight are there.

  Without answering, Kelty shook the rain water off her wings
before she took to the sky. Rowan followed, soaring above her so as to block most of the rain. She let him do it, though a part of her was irked.

  They reached the woods as the sun was halfway between its peak and the horizon. The human searchers called out Nola’s name. They were indeed past the barrier, struggling to walk through the wilder parts of Kelty’s territory, continuing on despite the rain.

  Why do they think calling her name will help? She is not hiding, waiting for the call of her name to return home.

  Rowan landed next to her, and together they lithely stepped from branch to branch. The continued calls of the humans set her teeth on edge.

  They came upon Lark on the edge of the area humans were not supposed to cross, besides those that occasionally ventured back to take care of the wood, as Nola put it. The faerie was echoing strange animal calls back at the humans.

  “Lark,” Kelty scolded. “Leave them be.”

  “They are invading your land,” Lark protested.

  Kelty waved one hand wearily. “They are only looking for lost family. They will leave when they don’t find her.”

  Lark’s eyes narrowed. “That human girl you have befriended.”

  Kelty startled. “What do you know of her?”

  “Only that,” Lark answered breezily.

  “What of the school?” Kelty demanded.

  “All quiet.” Lark gave her a mocking bow of her head.

  Kelty’s frustration mounted. I’ll have to deal with her later, though. First we get these humans out.

  Rowan was on the same train of thought. “Maybe if the rain worsens, they will want to leave.”

  Sayra was the first name that came to Kelty’s mind. No, she is unstable and might cause casualty. Anthem then.

  “Find Anthem and tell him to increase the winds until the humans leave,” she ordered Lark.

  The faerie nodded and sped off, leaving Kelty once more alone with Rowan. She avoided his gaze and was glad when she caught a glimpse of a gray figure beneath them.

  “I need to speak with Dane. Can you find Sayra and make sure she isn’t drowning humans or something equally horrible?”

  Rowan nodded stiffly and left.

  Kelty drifted down to where Dane knelt in the soil. He said nothing. Neither did she.

  She did it almost by accident. As she looked at Dane, wishing to understand, for the solution to present itself so she could be rid of it and move on, she saw one of Dane’s memories. And in it was Nola. She was looking out of a high window of a building made of stone wearing a shirt that was clearly too big for her.

  Kelty immediately opened her mouth to demand answers and then checked herself. He is the most sensitive.

  She pondered what to say, heart pounding, and then she realized something. The place, the memory, had a different feeling to it.

  It is not the human world.

  “Does Fable allow you to travel to Faerie?” she asked Dane. It was the perfect question. She could pass it off like she only wanted to get home, a safe enough topic, and something, Kelty realized with a pang, that had been in the back of her mind for way too long.

  “Yes,” Dane said in his deep voice without looking up from where he knelt in the dirt. Kelty’s heart rate increased in excitement, definitely glad it was him she glimpsed the memory from. He was the most direct of the outcasts, despite being silent most of the time.

  “Where do you go? Home?” she prodded.

  He flinched slightly, and Kelty cringed inwardly. Of course he can’t go home. None of us can.

  “I meant, where do you spend your time?” she corrected.

  “It is not anyone’s home,” he said vaguely.

  Kelty’s heart sank.

  But then he continued. “But Fable thinks it may be the future.”

  “Will you tell me where it is?” Kelty pressed.

  Dane’s expression grew stormy. “No. Take your questions to Fable.”

  Kelty cursed internally. She was bone tired, angry, and on the verge of tears. She reached up to grab a low-hanging branch and climbed up the tree before Dane could see her frustration boil over.

  After a rest, she vowed, I will find out where this place is that Fable has Nola. And what he is doing in the Throne Wood.

  I need more of a plan. And this time I will need to involve Rowan.

  If he will allow me to.

  Chapter 23

  As another day passed, it became clear to Nola that Allora was toying with them. She issued another few ‘tests’ of the humans’ capabilities to withstand Faerie, but did nothing more. Nola fumed through each test, clenching her fists. Briar kept giving her warning looks. She wanted to step in and help like she did with Cameron, but Briar told her she would only be putting herself in danger.

  But what if I do it when Allora isn’t looking? Nola wondered after one such demonstration. She was sick of doing nothing, sick of waiting for Fable to show up. Humans were suffering. And she might just have the power to stop it.

  If I could just get through to Lauren, even Cameron, maybe I could convince them to leave.

  It was worth a shot.

  Fueled by anger, when the humans had been sent up to their rooms to rest, Nola marched from their room, a confused Briar following, and knocked on Lauren’s door.

  “Nola,” Briar said in a warning voice.

  She ignored him as she knocked again on Lauren’s door. Her friend opened it with a sleepy look, curly hair a bit messy, as if she didn’t have a need to tame it, and brightened slightly when she saw Nola.

  “Hi Lauren,” Nola greeted her. “I was just wondering how you truly like it here.” Not caring what the answer was, Nola then focused on her friend’s mind, the halo of magic around it. As Lauren smiled and spoke of how happy she was, Nola thought of the recognition her friend displayed and willed it to grow, willed her to remember. She concentrated on the light in Lauren’s head and willed it to loosen, to release its control over her friend.

  “You don’t want to be controlled,” Nola said. “You own your life and your actions. We are going to get the others and leave this place.”

  “Nola,” Briar said again in an exasperated voice, looking over either shoulder for Allora or Fable.

  “Okay.” Lauren nodded and gave Nola a bright smile.

  Briar’s head whipped back around in surprise. Despite this being her plan, Nola was a bit taken aback. “You will come?”

  “Yeah,” Lauren said as if that were a silly question. “I should really be getting home. You should, too. Aren’t your parents still being super strict?”

  Nola looked at Briar. He shrugged a shoulder, looking as astonished as she felt. She wished to prod Lauren about this decision further, but knew this was not the time.

  “This may be our chance,” Briar urged her. “Hurry.”

  Nola hurried to Cameron’s door. He opened it, a pleased expression coming over his face when he saw Nola, though the look in his eyes was still far away.

  “We need to go, Cameron,” Nola tried a more direct route while working her influence over the magic surrounding his mind.

  Lauren jumped in to help. “We have been away a while.”

  Nola shot her an appreciative glance. It was then she noticed her friend’s mind was still glowing faintly, though this was centered in the middle of her mind.

  So I didn’t get all of it. Oh, well, Kelty can fix them when we get out of here.

  “Okay.” Cameron shrugged and stepped out into the hall. The halo on his mind was gone as well.

  “Do you even know what it is you’re doing?” Briar asked, looking at Nola in wonder as she rushed to the door next to Cameron’s.

  “Not really,” she said testily. “You could be helping.”

  “Fine. I will attempt to bring the others to you.” He hurried off down the hall.

  Nola knocked twice on another door and then entered, where she found Emily sitting on the floor, knees tucked up to her chest.

  She rushed to the girl. “Hey—”
<
br />   The door swung shut. Nola whipped around at the noise, then looked back just as quickly.

  Her eyes locked with a pair of golden ones. Nola visibly started but just managed to swallow her scream as she gave Fable a wary look.

  Today. He had to show up today. What does he know?

  He was draped over a chair that hadn’t been there earlier, long legs crossed. There was a calm about his countenance that screamed danger.

  “See the day,” he greeted her calmly.

  Nola knew this was a traditional greeting of Faerie, but she didn’t feel as if she could respond in kind, especially to the faerie in front of her. She concentrated on her breath for a moment, afraid to speak, to say something that might set him off.

  The corner of his lips quirked up. “You have broken my bond on the humans.”

  If I scream, will Briar come in enough time to save me? Her heart pounded until she was sure he could hear it.

  “Kelty is very fond of you,” Fable said abruptly with a slight tilt of his head of messy white hair.

  Okay. That’s quite the topic change…but this could be good. Nola nodded once. Kelty likes me. The ruler of the Court of Outcasts likes me. He can’t screw with my mind, right?

  “You do not wish to be here.” He abruptly changed topics again. He also leaned forward slightly. Nola found the urge to lean away from him.

  What do I say? The truth?

  Fable saved her from having to answer. “The sun illuminates all,” he said with a tinge of satisfaction. His odd golden eyes, like that of a predator, focused in on her forehead. “You are at war within.”

  Nola blinked. What? What do I even say to that?

  Luckily, he continued again. “Such a shame.”

  She felt it then, like icy fingers in her head. Terror spread down into her body. Her mind screamed at her to run, but she remained frozen. When she thought about what it might feel like to have a faerie mess with your head, she imagined it would be like watching a movie behind her eyes, seeing her memories as he rifled through them. It was nothing like that. She only saw his eyes and felt the cold of her body. She could do nothing.