by Heath Pfaff
It was Shawl's turn to frown. "I'm a mage, Kassa. I live in a world of magical wonder. You can hardly hold it against me for suspecting some form of dark magic as the culprit."
"Having your mind controlled by the island isn't dark enough magic?" Kassa added with a grin.
Shawl smiled despite himself. "If it's really something so simple I might actually be able to get off this damned island. I mean, it's a nice place to live for a while, but I miss the rest of the world. Do you know that I've ..."
Haley lost track of the conversation as something beyond the window caught her eye as it moved quickly towards the cabin. The sun was halfway over the horizon, and the mists were starting to burn off, but they were still thick enough that the apprentice assassin couldn't make out the exact shape of what she'd seen. It had seemed small but humanoid, shorter than a grown person. Was it a child in the mists?
A moment later two much larger figures came hulking out of the woods, and these two were easy enough to make out. Each one stood nearly twice as tall as Haley did. They were massive and hulking forms that looked like humanoid giants incased in armor made form impossibly large bugs. The first was jet black with four sets of bulbous red eyes protruding from its oddly shaped head. It had wings that looked like dragon fly wings, but they were dark, barely translucent, and they looked both fragile and powerful at once. The second creature was a brownish green color with only two sets of eyes. It was larger than the first, but had smaller wings and a second set of arms protruding from midway down its torso. These other arms were smaller, but they had more articulate looking hands at their ends.
"Bug things!" Haley shouted to the others, which broke up their conversation quickly. "Bug things, I think they’re fae enforcers." She shouted again. Kassa and Shawl pushed at each other to get closer to the window. A loud, solid knock sounded at the front door of the cabin and their struggled for a viewing position faltered.
"Oh no." Shawl said quietly.
"Shit." Kassa's curse felt more appropriate to Haley. The knock sounded again.
Chapter 3
Hungry Like A Wolf
There was no third round of knocking. The front door collapsed inward, folding like paper as one of the massive enforcers beyond pushed its way through the opening and ripped the door frame out in the process. The creature walked into the relatively small space, destroying anything that might stand in its way. Behind it a smaller creature darted into the cabin, moving in fast spurts of energy. Its movement reminded Haley of a hummingbird, but the creature looked somewhat like a small human. Its skin was a pale blue and its hands only had three fingers, but it had two arms, two legs, and a relatively humanoid face. The creature was naked and clearly female. She had intensely purple hair, the color one might see on an exotic wild flower. The strands seemed to drift on an ethereal breeze, almost as though she was swimming through the air. Her eyes were the same intense shade of bright purple, but they had no pupil so it was impossible to judge exactly in which direction she was looking at any given moment. She had wings like the enforcers, but they were small and the same shade as her skin. Her eyes were large and round, but her nose was little more than a slight bump and her lips were thin almost to the point of nonexistence. When she opened her mouth a soft churring sound slipped free, rippling out from between her long and needle-like teeth. It wasn't a threatening sound, really, but the teeth immediately put Haley on edge. Those were clearly teeth meant for biting.
Kassa stepped in front of Haley, her hands reaching uselessly for the two knives that would have been on Xan's belt, but had never been on hers. Haley grabbed for the hilt of her axe, but Shawl was quietly clicking his tongue and gesturing with one hand for the others to not draw weapons.
"It's a queen. Don't draw weapons, and don't make any hostile movements or we'll be fighting those enforcers. Believe me, we won't survive that." Shawl whispered quickly and quietly. Kassa let her hands fall in response, but Haley couldn't make herself pull her hand from the neck of her axe. She hadn't released the clasp on its holster yet, but neither was she willing to let it go. Every nerve in her body told her to attack, to strike fast and hard, and to get away as quickly as possible.
The queen moved slowly through the room and stopped in front of Shawl for a moment. Her purple eyes reflected his face back at him as he looked down upon her. She lifted a cautious hand up towards the old man's neck, stretching her legs to do so. Haley tensed. If the queen attacked Shawl, she wasn't just going to stand by and let it happen. She was angry with Shawl for keeping secrets about Xan, but the old man had been nice to her, and he didn't mean any harm. Her hand tightened on the cool hilt of her black axe. A wave of confidence flooded through her, calming the nervous butterflies in her stomach and steeling her nerve for whatever might come next. The axe always did that. It seemed to know when she needed to be calm, and it gave her that steady edge. It was easy to take comfort in that sensation. Too easy. Haley still remembered Xandrith's warning about the dark nature of the bonesteel weapons. It was hard to believe that something that felt so right could be dangerous, but she always kept his warning close to heart.
One of the fae queen's long and strangely articulate fingers reached up and forward to touch Shawl's neck before she drew her hand away quickly as though burned. A low chirr slipped from between her lips and was immediately echoed by the two enforcers. The sound was strangely unsettling, but it ended not long after it began, and then the queen was moving through the room again. It wasn't a large space, so she reached Kassa in a few darting steps. She stopped before the woman as she had before Shawl.
"Don't move. Just let her do what she wants. She isn't hostile at the moment and it would be better for us to keep matters that way." The old mage said quietly and calmly. Haley could hear the tension behind his voice. He was worried. If Shawl was worried, there was good reason to be nervous. The old man was almost too laid back for his own good. While the queen stood in front of Kassa, Haley took a moment to look at the enforcer that had crammed its way into Shawl's home. She'd heard about the enforcers from Xan, but she'd never actually seen one in person. It was a terrifying monster, the kind of horror that a little kid might imagine was lurking in the shadows of their room at night. The part of Haley that was still a child wanted to scream and cry, and the part of her that Xan had trained to fight wanted to scream and hit it repeatedly with her axe. Doing neither of those things was an active exercise of will.
The queen’s inspection of Kassa seemed to take far longer than its inspection of Johndin. It didn't reach out to touch her as it had the mage, but it seemed to be considering her very carefully, as though by merely by looking at her it was seeing some aspect of the woman's character that the fae creature was judging. After a moment that seemed to stretch on forever, it moved away from Kassa and flitted across the room towards Haley. It moved through a combination of walking and a thrumming beat of its wings so that its cloven feet barely touched the ground. She suddenly found herself overcome with nervous energy. She was trying to hold still, but she could feel every twitch and tick in her body. It was as though her muscles were shaking beneath her skin. She struggled not to fidget as the strange purple gaze fell on her. Haley could make out a strong floral smell coming from the queen, like the crushed pedals of a rose. It was almost overpowering.
Through the haze of that sickly sweet smell Haley found her eyes drawn to the deep purple spheres of the queen's gaze. The color that she had taken to be solid was actually a slowly swirling whirlpool of different glistening shades of purple and pink. There was an intense light at the center of her eyes that seemed to slowly pulse. It was hypnotic and inviting. The queen reached forward with her three fingered hand and Haley flinched away. This caused the queen to freeze in place for a second and her enforcer to shift closer to her. It hulked over both the tiny queen and Haley. The girl took a deep breath and steadied herself before the queen’s hand moved forward again, reaching for the burnt side of Haley's face.
Haley didn't let anyone
touch her burns. Her instinct to fight flared up inside of her, but the look of terror in the eyes of Johndin and Kassa held her in check. If she let her anger rule her, they would all die and it would be her fault. The queen's blue tinged fingers touched her cheek gently. They were surprisingly warm, almost hot. Her purple eyes seemed to churn even more quickly for a moment, and then she drew her hand away and stepped back towards her enforcer.
"Cruelty marks the face of humanity. Their sleeping brothers wake for war, and we must away, to the north." The queen spoke, her words clear and perfectly formed, though confusing and nonsensical. Her voice was musical and bright like a young woman singing a song, but there was an inhuman trill to the way she spoke that made it clear she was mimicking the sound, but using an entirely different method of vocalization to do so.
The three companions looked from one to the other, each trying to see if the other knew what was being conveyed by the queen. The returned looks of confusion made it clear that they were all equally unclear as to the nature of the message. The queen cocked her head to one side looking at the three humans as though she expected something. She opened her mouth and let lose a quiet churring sound, almost like a sigh.
"Dreaming has ended, the messenger must sleep in the land of his choosing. The sister and the shadow's shadow will go into the north to chase the darkness and bring it light. Without light there is only chaos and madness. We must away." The queen gestured towards the door. "We must away."
"I think she wants us to follow her." Shawl said, though Haley had hardly needed the old mage's translation to figure that out. The gesturing for the door seemed clear enough.
"Where is she going to take us?" Haley asked, not sure if she was ready to follow this strange creature anywhere. "I don't think I want to walk out there into that mist."
"I'm not sure we have much of a choice. With two enforcers, the queen can pretty much make sure we do anything she wants us to. We're lucky she didn't just rip us from this cabin and leave. For the fae this is a very civil turn of communication. They even sent someone who could speak our language. Very uncommon." Shawl seemed less on edge than Haley felt and Kassa looked.
"Should we really be questioning her orders right in front of her?" Kassa asked, frowning.
"She can hear us, and she knows our words, but I'm sure she has a difficult time following the lines of our communication. Just like her words seemed nonsensical to us, the way we formulate our thoughts is also confusing to her. Humans and fae do not reason in the same fashion." Shawl said with a shrug.
The little queen stamped her little cloven foot. She gestured for the door again. "We must away. The glimmer sets with dawn and the doorways of the stars will sleep until the churning world weeps our lost cousins up from whence they've broiled with hate, with sword and steel, with war. We must away."
"I get that she wants us to go with her, into the mist, but what did the rest of that mean?" Haley asked, still not ready to follow the strange little creature.
"I'm not sure, but it doesn't bode well. Her words are wrapped in meaning, thick with threads of knowledge. My divining skill can see the connections, but I'd need time to understand it." Shawl shrugged helplessly.
The queen darted forward and took Haley's hand, the one that she'd had clutching her weapon. Haley was startled by just how fast the little woman could move when she wanted to. To the assassin's apprentice she had been nothing more than a blur. The queen pulled on her arm with a surprising amount of strength. "We must away." She said again.
Haley wasn't exactly sure why, but she let herself be drawn forward towards the door. There was a desperate and hidden urgency to the way the queen was acting. She didn't show it outwardly, but Haley was suddenly caught up in the idea that an event of great importance was unfolding. She'd taken the first three steps before she was even fully aware she was doing it.
"Haley!" Kassa called, coming forward to grab her other hand. "We shouldn't…"
"No," Shawl interrupted. "We should. We need to go."
Kassa looked back and forth between Haley and the old man as though trying to decide what had come over them. She gave a hesitant sigh and fell in at the younger woman's side. "I think this is a bad idea."
Haley gave a half smile to the older woman. "I know this is a bad idea. It feels like following Xan all over again." The three of them fell in behind the queen and began to follow her out the door, but she stopped just before they crossed the threshold. She let go of Haley's hand and darted in front of Johndin. She reached a hand up and pushed against his chest.
"The messenger must sleep in the land of his choosing." She said, and pushed him again, more softly this time.
Haley watched the exchange in confusion. "What does that mean?"
Kassa frowned, her dissatisfaction with the turns events were taking seeming to deepen.
Shawl sighed. "I think it's obvious. I'm not coming along."
The queen gave a single nod. "When the world weeps war upon its children, the messenger must speak to the wind before the night. He sleeps in the land of his choosing." She touched Shawl once more, as though this should all make sense to everyone. "He sleeps in the land of his choosing."
"I don't know what's going on, but we can't just leave you here. What about my training? I still have a lot to learn, and you know so much. We still need you." Haley was suddenly angry at the whole situation. "We won't go without you. We don't even know where they want to take us! I'm not leaving anyone behind."
The old mage just shook his head. "This is important. Whatever the fae queen wants from you, it's necessary. I don't know where her knowledge comes from, but her words are heavy with some kind of incite that I can't fathom. You need to go on, and I need to stay here. Apparently I still have work to do before ... Well, before whatever it is that is going to happen, happens." Before anyone could say anything else, Johndin held up a hand. "One moment."
He turned and trudged quickly back into his room. He came out only a moment later carrying something wrapped in blanket. "I procured these items in case we ever needed to travel north into the plague lands. They're masks that were made by the mages during the original plague. Unlike the traditional plague masks, these will be comfortable, will allow you to eat and drink while wearing them, and they won't interfere with your normal senses. These are very, very special. They cost a fortune to obtain, but I want you two to have them."
The queen churred loudly. "We must away." She said, and this time there was a very clear impatience in the tone of her voice.
Kassa took the parcel with the masks in it. "I don't know about any of this."
"That's why it's so much fun, dear." Shawl said with a half-smile. "When this is all over, be sure to come back and tell me your story."
The older woman hesitated for a moment before she spoke. "We will." Kassa nodded. "I promise."
Haley felt a sense of foreboding. She was overcome by a doubt that she would ever see the old mage again. Everything was happening so fast, and she felt like she didn't have control of the situation at all. The loss of control aggravated her. "I don't want to leave you here." She snapped ineffectively. She was aware of just how childish those words sounded as she said them, but in that moment she didn't care. Generally she would be angry with herself for acting like a little kid, but she was too concerned for Johndin to care. She'd been the one to try and force the others to do something and now that something was happening she was terrified.
"I'll be fine, Haley. Go with Kassa now, and I'll see you again when this is all over." Johndin said with a warm, reassuring smile.
Haley clenched her fists until her knuckles went white. "Alright. Fine, when this is over. Goodbye, Johndin." She forced herself to acquiesce to the situation. Events were out of her hands and the only thing she could do to try and remain in some semblance of control was to allow herself to willingly be swept up. She turned her back on the old mage and fell in behind the queen who was already heading out the door. She didn't allow herself even one look
back for she feared she might cry and seem like even more of a child.
Haley followed the fae queen through the wrecked entry way and into the mists beyond. Every hair on the back of her neck stood up as she entered the glimmer mist. Johndin's story was still fresh in her mind. Kassa was close at her back, but that did little to shake the fear she felt as she followed the little and decidedly alien woman into the unknown. The two enforcers didn't follow. They stayed with Shawl as their queen and her newly acquired companions walked off into the fading mist.
"We must away." The fae woman said softly.
***
Johndin Shawl sat down at the table feeling as though he had leaden weights tied around his shoulders. He'd known he wouldn't be able to go with the women when it was time for them to leave, but he hadn't imagined he would have to watch them walk off into the mists. It had taken an immense exercise of will not to scream and yell for them not to walk into the glimmer. With the queen they will be fine, he forced himself to repeat in his mind. This was meant to happen. The two enforcers had stayed with him, standing watch over his hut, and he was only too aware of exactly why. Johndin hadn't been completely honest with Kassa and Haley. Certainly some of the queen's words had been confusing, but others had been only too clear to the divining abilities of the old mage. The connecting strands of knowledge were clear for him to see, even if the others had been confused. Johndin knew what was coming, and he knew what he had to do with his remaining time. He'd already prepared his supplies.
He set to work immediately on crafting the messages that he would send out via bird. He'd send a message to anyone that might listen. That was, after all, to be his task in this unraveling drama. He was the messenger that would deliver humanity's final warning. Would his words be heeded? It really didn't matter. He had nothing else left to do. He would send the message to all of his contacts, and to the Order of Mages as well. He'd send birds to the spy networks, and to those who bred birds for sending messages. From there birds could be dispatched all over the world. Hopefully someone would listen. Perhaps some defense could be managed. He finished the first message and scanned over it to make sure it was written exactly right. He would need to make many more, so he had to be certain that it was concise, poignant, and dire.