“Saraid has decided she needs to prove my inability to control my powers.” Katy stiffly pushed herself into a sitting position. When she rolled over and saw the lady’s clean shoes and the neat hem of her gown, shame filled her even more, the knowledge of what she must look, and even worse, smell like. And that by now, without a doubt, Lady Muirin and the rest of the castle would know exactly what she was.
Katy kept her eyes on the ground. “I’m afraid they’re right. In fact, you probably shouldn’t even be here. It’s too dangerous.” I am too dangerous.
Instead of a reply, Katy heard the smash of glass. Immediately, the draw to destroy the crystalline object was gone. Unfortunately, the pull was immediately moved to the next delicate thing in the room.
Lady Muirin.
“There now,” Lady Muirin said, dusting her hands off, her face rather smug. “Is that better?”
Katy nodded, but couldn’t help adding, “That was Saraid’s.”
“Even better! But tell me now, what’s all this talk about Antony and Saraid being right?”
Katy studied her hands. Dirt was beneath each fingernail, and her palms felt as though they were coated with a layer of grime that no amount of scrubbing could ever remove. “As much as I’m glad to see you, I—”
“Before you go on, I brought you these. Dress and talk at the same time.” Lady Muirin thrust a folded pile of clothes through the bars, as well as a damp cloth that smelled nicer than anything Katy had ever inhaled. Then she turned her back. “Go on.”
Katy sighed in frustration, but did as she was told. Perhaps clean clothes would help her feel more human. What she wouldn’t do to feel more human.
“Are you going to tell me what this ugly little glass thing was doing here?”
“Antony and Saraid believe it would just be better if Peter...” Katy tried to finish, but as she struggled to tie the ribbon that cinched up the back of her dress, tears filled her eyes. “They’re working to convince the king of the danger I present to the castle.” They hadn’t said as much outright, but Saraid’s continual attempts at coaxing her power from its hiding place was proof enough.
“I see.” Lady Muirin’s voice was quiet as she turned to look at Katy once more. It was also dangerous. “And you agree with them.”
“I’ve hurt Peter before. I don’t want to do it again.” Katy paused. “To be honest, as much as I treasure your company, I don’t believe it would be wise for you to remain here. Not as I get closer to my birthday.”
“I am well aware of the date. But I came here to speak with you, and I don’t intend to go until I’m done.”
“Lady Muirin!” Katy cried. “I have less than four weeks left before my manifestation! You do not realize what danger you put your child in by bringing him here!” Even as she spoke, the power within her began to thicken once more despite the open door and missing guard. Katy closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath through her nose.
“There you go again!” Lady Muirin grabbed Katy’s shoulders through the bars. “No wonder Peter was angry with you. Always letting others get their way in the end.” She scoffed.
Katy ducked out of the woman’s grasp and took a few steps back. Her head pounded as Peter’s anger from the night of the ball flashed through her mind. She shook it in an attempt to concentrate. “You’ve never seen magic. You weren’t even there for the ball. You don’t know—”
“You think you’re unworthy, don’t you?”
Katy froze, though her temples still throbbed with unspent energy. “Unworthy of what?”
“Affection!” Lady Muirin let out a humorless laugh. “Since you’ve arrived, you have rebuffed or been forced to take every gift that’s been given you. You hide your true self whenever you’re around others. Even around Peter, you retreat!” She put her hands on her hips. “The girl Peter described to me for the last eight years was strong and persistent and daring! She longed for friends and she was confident—”
With each word, the pressure within Katy built. She needed to get rid of Lady Muirin. And soon.
“Perhaps I was that girl!” Katy exploded. “But that girl is gone!”
Lady Muirin froze at Katy’s outburst, but Katy only continued. “You have no idea what kind of darkness sits within me!” She pressed a palm above her heart. Her hand burned against her chest, but she didn’t care. “Saraid and Antony are right to be afraid! The king is right to be afraid!” She turned with a jerk and ran over to the wall, where she placed her hands against its cool, damp surface in an effort to cool them. Her power swirled within the room like her own typhoon of retribution. And no matter how much she prayed silently, Atharo did not take it away.
Lady Muirin shook her head. “You doubt Peter, but you need to believe in him! He has given up everything to help you, and you’re doing everything in your power to throw that chance away!”
“I do not doubt him! I doubt myself!”
“Peter may make foolish choices in women, Katy, but he is no fool. And if he believes there is something good in you—”
“Peter is stuck in the past! He sees what he wishes to and not what is before him.” Katy hung her head. “He’ll never see me for who I have become, and if I don’t stop him, he will kill himself trying to save the little girl he once knew.”
“Surely you don’t think so little of him as to assume that!”
Instead of responding, Katy closed her eyes and kept them that way until she could breathe evenly again. When her head was clear enough, she turned to face the beautiful woman. “You and Peter are good!” Katy said, holding her hands out helplessly. “You treat everyone with love, and you don’t know what it means to have the desire...the need to destroy!”
“Surely you’re being dramatic.”
“I wish I was!”
“Katy, this is nonsense—”
Katy knew she would regret it. Lady Muirin was the first woman that had looked her way and not seemed to think twice about it. But the more the lady argued, the more the panic filled Katy’s lungs, and the harder it was to breathe. Her skin crawled with the itch to push her power out and into the world. She needed to feel objects wither. As much as she hated herself for it, she needed to feel them die.
Well, if Lady Muirin wouldn’t believe her, Katy would just have to prove it, if for no one’s sake but the baby’s. Closing her eyes, she pressed her fingers out, and with her mind’s eye, she found the broken pieces of crystal still lying on the floor. Katy flexed her fingers. And when she did, the room was filled with the sound of grinding glass.
Lady Muirin shrieked and threw her arms over her face, stumbling back as crystal powder flew out in every direction. Eventually, the dust settled and Muirin finally peeked back out at the room again, slowly putting down her arms. But when she did, Katy could finally see understanding dawn on her face.
“I’m sorry. Truly,” Katy whispered, holding up her hands and shrugging helplessly. “I tried to tell you...But—”
“My lady?” The guard was at the door, his hand already extended toward Lady Muirin. “Are you well?”
Lady Muirin, who had pressed herself against the opposing cell’s bars, straightened slowly, but her breath remained ragged. Finally, she nodded. “I...I’m ready to go now.” She took the guard’s hand gratefully and let him lead her through the door, the crystal’s dust crackling under her shoes as she walked unsteadily out.
Katy collapsed on the floor of her cell once again. Before she could let the tears fall, however, steps pounded down the stairs.
“What was that?” Antony was standing on the threshold, his body blocking most of the dim torchlight that managed to make its way into the room. “What did you do?”
Katy only glared at him.
He strode forward and dug at his belt, producing a ring with several large keys. “See Lady Muirin to her chamber,” he called over his shoulder as he began to try out the keys in Katy’s lock. “Then go to the king and inform him that the olc will need to be transferred to a more secure holdi
ng chamber until we can locate the prince and have him return home.”
Katy, who had remained crumpled on the floor, gave a start. “You want me in a more secluded setting?” Once again, her hands flamed. In just a few seconds, it felt as though she hadn’t released any power at all, and it was all still boiling inside her the way it had been before Lady Muirin arrived.
“We can’t have you at the center of the palace foundations. What will happen if you bring down the palace?”
Katy’s head began to swim. “I need…” She gasped for air. “You can’t trap me like this. It will only make things worse!”
“And I’m supposed to believe you?”
“My power is heightened when I’m confined!” She pressed her back into the cool wall once more as the door to her cell clicked open. “I will be more dangerous whether I want to be or not!”
“Let me tell you something, little olc.” Antony grabbed her by the arm and yanked her up to his face. His breath reeked of ale. “Say what you want. I know exactly how to deal with your kind.”
“And what is that supposed to mean?” In spite of her fear, Katy couldn’t help the flame of irritation at the man’s incredible willfulness.
“I’m going to tell you what I told the prince,” he said as he began to drag her toward the door. “Only, I’m going to tell you the entire story. You see, just before your prince arrived here as a boy, I was a young man myself, and I married the love of my life.” They began their ascent up the winding stairs.
Katy tried to make herself as heavy as possible, but the knight was unbelievably strong, even with only one arm.
“I married the love of my life when she was a girl, beautiful, charming, and sweet. Much like you. But weeks before she turned twenty and one,” he said, opening another door at the top of the stairs, “my wife revealed what she truly was. Like you, she had slipped through humanity’s cracks and had managed to stay hidden.” He turned and glowered down at Katy through red, shiny eyes, pausing before dragging her into one of the castle’s main halls. “But a week before her birthday, she became lost to me completely.” He paused.
Katy held her breath. Morbid curiosity ate at her as she stared up at him.
He didn’t blink as they locked eyes. “She tried to kill the king.”
Katy’s words fled her. “What…what did you do?”
He chortled. Even his laugh was slightly slurred. “I killed her.”
Before she knew what she was doing, Katy had reached up and pressed her hands into his breastplate. He gave out a yelp and fell backward, loosing his grip just long enough for her to yank her arm free. He grabbed for her as she darted away, but he missed, and Katy took off as fast as she could.
A small voice in her head wondered what she was running for. Hadn’t she agreed to this? Allowing them to take her life to spare others if she couldn’t be saved? From the day she’d discovered what an olc was, Katy had known it would one day be her turn to sacrifice herself so others might not be harmed by her power.
Yet her feet continued to move. She was stiff after sitting in the dungeon for three weeks, and not nearly as fast as she was accustomed to being. Nevertheless, as she heard Antony behind her, shouting for her capture, she flew through halls and up and down stairs, until she realized she was heading for the stables. For as much as she wanted to be done with the darkness inside her, she realized that she wasn’t ready to be done with the life either.
Bursting through the stable door, she dashed straight for the horse she’d ridden while out with Peter. She didn’t stop to bridle the animal or throw on any sort of saddle, just clambered up the stall wall onto his back and gave him his head.
They bolted from the stable like a streak of lightning. She could hear guards and soldiers behind her, so she pressed the little horse harder. Within minutes, however, she could feel the animal beginning to sweat profusely. He wouldn’t last long if she kept him at that speed. Frantically, she looked around for shelter as she sped through the city toward the entrance. The large red gate was already beginning to close by the time she approached it, confused villagers watching from the safety of their shops and homes. But Katy was not about to be thwarted by the guards and their orders. So she pressed herself down against the horse’s neck.
“We’re almost there,” she whispered. Gathering her strength, she focused on the hinges of the gigantic gate.
As the guards in charge of the gates scrambled to find the reason why their gate had stopped moving, she darted between them and galloped out onto the moor.
The sound of hoofbeats followed her, as did Antony’s shouts. Katy raced straight toward the forest in hopes of losing some of her pursuers to their fear and superstition. But the closer Antony’s voice rang out, the harder Katy found it to breathe. She could feel the power beginning to build again along with her panic. It doubled when she glanced over her shoulder to find Antony aiming a crossbow right at her.
She wanted to sob. Peter had tried. She had tried. And she prayed he would one day know that. But the time for waiting was gone.
Yanking the little whistle from her stocking, Katy lifted it to her lips. Out came a clear, sharp whistle.
39
One of Them
“We’re getting closer,” Domnhall said in a half-whisper. “I recognize those red vine trees over there.” He squinted. “Although they were much more alive last time I saw them.”
“Those were red?” Benjamin asked.
“I can only guess this entire wood was more alive the last time you saw it,” Briant muttered. “Sire, did Katrin mention anything about why the forest is dying from the inside out?”
Peter shook his head. “She knows as much about this as we do.” As he spoke the words, though, uneasiness sprang up within him. According to the waterfall, Katy had come back alone. And while he was loath to believe she would hide anything from him, he couldn’t bring himself to be sure. Although, it wasn’t as though he didn’t deserve it. He’d kept much from her over the years as well. Far too much.
And as they always did now, his thoughts turned again to that last night with Katy and the perplexing words she’d uttered on the roof. And even more unsettling were the feelings that had risen up inside him when she had. The sudden desire to catch her hand and pull her back to him. The urge to take her face in his hands and wipe away its sorrow until she had no more.
He shook his head to clear it. How has everything become so muddled? he thought to Atharo. She’s supposed to be the one person with whom life is uncomplicated.
He moved his horse closer to Domnhall’s. “Fall back,” he called over his shoulder. As the others slowed their pace, he turned to the older knight. “I sense you don’t particularly wish to share this story. But I’m afraid you will have to if we have any chance of surviving this next venture.” He’d seen the fear in the older knight’s eyes when he’d first mentioned their destination, and in hopes of putting him at ease, had first required that Domnhall merely find the lost village for them. But in the days they’d been traveling since then, Domnhall hadn’t uttered a word about their destination, and now they were nearly out of time.
The sudden deadness in Domnhall’s eyes and the lines in his face somehow made him look much older than when they’d begun their journey. And yet, it was another full minute before he met Peter’s gaze and nodded. “Aye, Your Highness. It is time.” He glanced back at the others. “It’s kind of you to offer privacy, but they’ll all need to hear it as well, if any of us are to survive.”
Peter turned to the rest of his men and gave them a nod. Once they were all close enough to hear him above the clip-clop of their horses, the older knight slowly began to speak.
“Your father had just taken charge of our ranks, sire, much in the way you’ve done so now. He’d even just taken his vows as crown prince as well. We were out that day looking for signs of new olcs that had begun making trouble in the forest. They’d been spotted several times by a number of villagers in the outer villages. We eventual
ly learned that these were the olcs that later...” He glanced at Peter and cleared his throat.
“The ones that killed my mother?” Peter asked.
“Aye.” Dom sighed. “This was back when all of this,” he waved his hand at the brown, crumbling canopy that surrounded them, “was part of the moor. The edge of the forest as it had stood for hundreds of years was about a hundred yards that way.”
Peter studied the forest in the direction he pointed, trying to imagine how large the moor must have been.
“Anyhow, we’d gotten word that the village of Calmarid was losing its homes at the edge of the wood. The rapid growth of the trees had only just begun, and we were trying to find a reason.”
“We still are,” Briant muttered.
“When we came and spoke with the town’s governor, he was oddly cryptic. He wouldn’t respond to any of your father’s questions with more than one or two words at a time. Your father finally became vexed with him and threatened to remove him from his position and take him back to the castle, where he might reconsider his answers.” Domnhall tugged at his graying beard in quick, agitated jerks with the hand not holding the reins. “He ordered us to begin helping the citizens pack their belongings. We would take them to a village farther out and help them find places until we knew what was happening with the forest. But when we told the villagers of the plan, no one moved. They were all as stoic as their governor.” His voice dropped. “Except for one boy.”
A shrieking squeak echoed through the trees. They searched the brown, brittle branches above, but Peter saw nothing.
“There!” Benjamin called out in a low voice.
Peter turned just in time to see a shadow pass over to their right. It disappeared almost immediately, but he had seen it just long enough for the hair on the back of his neck to stand up.
“What was that?” Tomas turned his horse in a circle.
Carey didn’t answer. He only pulled out his crossbow and fitted one of its arrows.
The Autumn Fairy (The Autumn Fairy Trilogy Book 1) Page 27