Bartered to the Fae Lord

by Rylee Winters

  As the fight continued, Callum pushed forward, manoeuvring Varian away from Elise until he was able to position himself in front, shielding her behind his back. Grabbing a sword from one of the hollow armored displays nearby, he swung at Varian, disarming him.

  Varian seemed unperturbed, and copying Callum’s strategy, he grabbed a sword of his own from another display.

  “Run!” Callum shouted to Elise over his shoulder, growling as he thrust his sword towards Varian and they began to parry. They seemed evenly matched, both men highly skilled swordsmen. “Get out of here!”

  Elise looked on in horror, and for a moment it was as if time stopped. She stood still, unable to move, her heart in her throat as she saw Varian’s sword swing in an arc towards Callum, slicing his upper arm through his white shirt sleeve.

  Blood sluiced down from the long gash, and without thinking, she took a step forward, intending to rush to his aid, but Callum pre-empted her response. “No!” he shouted at her. “Stay away! Run for help, I’ll be okay!”

  Ignoring the deep wound on his arm, he blocked Varian’s next sword thrust.

  His words, instilled with authority and command, made Elise halt mid-step. Despite feeling a strong urge to protest and act in the contrary, the remaining part of her brain, although sluggish, was fortunately still working sufficiently for her to realize this was not the time to argue.

  “Okay! I’m going to fetch help! Just wait for me to return—I’ll be right back!” she shouted in reply over the heavy clashing of metal as Callum’s and Varian’s swords met each other stroke for stroke in a heated battle for domination.

  Worry creased her brow, but Elise forced herself to turn away from the fight. She picked her feet up and scurried down the corridor, looking for anyone who could assist her.

  Not even ten minutes into her search, she heard the garrison erupt into a racket of noise: weapons clashed against each other both inside and outside the keep, and there were several loud shouts of surprise accompanied by the sound of numerous heavy footsteps.

  We’re under attack! She blanched in terror as fear and panic stole her entire ability to think and her mind blanked.

  No! No! No! Callum’s life is depending on you! She scolded herself, spurring herself back into action.

  Shaking her head, she freed the terrifying thoughts gripping her mind, preventing her from being able to think and act clearly. Hiking up the skirt of her dress, she continued to run onwards, down the corridor, her eyes searching frantically about for any allies.

  There was no one in sight. The clash of swords in the background continued to grow, and Elise’s heart thudded faster as she worried anxiously over how Callum was doing against Lord Varian, hoping he’d managed to escape—or even better, win the fight.

  “Psst! Lady Elise!” someone whispered from somewhere behind her, stopping her in her tracks. Spinning around, she found herself looking at nothing but thin air.

  “Hello? Whose there?” she whispered back, trying to keep her voice low in case there were any enemies nearby who’d be able to hear her.

  “It’s me!” The voice replied and Elise could swear it was coming from behind the stone wall. A movement caught the corner of her eye and she looked down as the soft sound of stone grating on stone met her ears. The stone wall seemed to be moving!

  At first Elise thought it was a trick of her eyes, but the wall continued to shift, a section of it opening out like a secret door, and a moment later, Gideon’s familiar head poked out through the small opening.

  “Hurry! In here, my Lady!” He gestured urgently at her.

  Too surprised to muster a word of response, Elise simply nodded her head and dropped to her knees in a crouch, crawling through the hole at the bottom section of the wall. Gideon backed away inside the dimly lit passage behind the wall to give her room to enter.

  When he was certain she was safely inside, he pressed three of the stones in a particular order on the wall close to the door, and the stone soon moved back into place, closing the hole that was there just a moment ago.

  “Where is this, Gideon? And what are you doing here?” Elise asked, staring around at the narrow tunnel they were in. The ceiling was much higher inside the passage, and she scrambled to her feet, dusting the dirt off her dress, and found there was enough space for her to stand up comfortably.

  She noticed along the sides of the walls sconces had been built into the stone at intervals, holding torches of light which burned a dim ghostly blue. She was pretty certain they weren’t lit by real fire but by some kind of magic, like the lanterns used throughout the garrison.

  “We’re in one of the secret passageways inside the garrison walls,” Gideon replied, wiping one side of his cheek with the back of his dirt-streaked hand. “This is one of the hidden doorways I found while I was exploring the place.”

  Elise glanced down at the small boy, and noted the dark smudges on his face. It seemed he’d been crawling around the dusty passageway for a while.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” she asked him, and watched with disappointment when he shook his head.

  “Only that a whole lot of intruders broke in suddenly and have overtaken the garrison. Come on, follow me. We need to move deeper into the keep so no can hear or find us.”

  “You know where you’re going?” Elise asked, surprised and impressed by Gideon’s resourcefulness.

  “Yes. I know a safe place where we can hole up for a while. On the way there, we need to keep quite…in case anyone hears us through these walls.”

  Elise nodded her head. Gideon had a point. She didn’t want any of the attackers to find them. They needed to evade being captured so she could call for help!

  Callum was still out there, and she had no idea what state he was in right now. The slash he’d received from Varian’s sword wasn’t minor, but she also had no idea how deep it was. He needed medical attention—stat. In case it was serious and caused irreparable harm.

  Shuffling quietly along behind Gideon, Elise allowed him to lead the way. He guided her through the winding passageway, past twists and turns and intersecting tunnels. Most of the time, the space was tight and they were only able to move in single file, but there were a few occasions where the passage widened out and you could fit two people side by side.

  All the while, the both of them remained quiet, talking only when necessary and in low, hushed voices. It felt they were descending downwards, with Elise feeling the land dipping the further they continued along their journey.

  She estimated about twenty-minutes had passed by the time they reached their destination. Gideon looked at the solid stone wall in front of them with a satisfied grin.

  Elise saw nothing but a dead end.

  “Gideon…” her voice sounded troubled as she frowned.

  He turned his head upon hearing his name and quickly glanced her way. “It’s okay. Trust me,” he said, wriggling his fingers excitedly in front of him, like he was warming them up like a maestro before a concert.

  He approached the wall, stopping right in front of it, and stared at the stones quietly. Then, without warning, he began to tap parts of the wall in a flurry of movements in what seemed to Elise to be a random pattern of sorts, but which she was sure was a particular series of code. Then stopping, he stretched up on his tippy-toes to grab the closest torch hanging off the wall, and pulled on it.

  A moment later, he pushed against the stones, and a large section of the wall swung out, pivoting at the center like a revolving door. Gideon looked back over his shoulder and motioned for her to come through. Then he swiftly disappeared into the room on the other side.

  Taking in a deep breath, Elise followed him and found herself stepping into a dark cellar. As with the passageway, there were magic torches that lit the inside of the room, but with a much brighter and more intense bluish light.

  “Are you sure we’re safe here?” Elise asked Gideon, eyeing the wooden door on the other side of the room.

  “Yes, this is an
old cellar. It doesn’t get used anymore and on the other side of that door is another passageway that leads to a trap door that opens up into an old broom cupboard. The trapdoor’s bolted shut from the inside,” Gideon said, reassuring her as he pushed closed the stone door and it locked back into place. It was now imperceptible that there was a hidden door in the stone.

  Elise spotted a few old sacks of grains heaped in a small pile near one corner of the room and collapsed down on them, all her energy immediately evaporating from her limbs.

  Gideon took a seat on an old wooden crate not too far from her, and brought his knees up to his chest, tucking his chin behind them. He directed his gaze towards Elise’s motionless figure, hoping she was coming up with a plan of what they should do, and waited quietly for her to speak.

  But as the seconds ticked by, the silence dragged on, until finally, unable to hold it in any longer, Gideon’s dam of silence burst and he blurted out his questions. “What are we going to do?” he asked Elise anxiously. “Are you thinking of a plan?”

  Slumped on the sacks, Elise twisted her head around to eye Gideon, who was leaning forward eagerly on his crate, waiting to hear her response.

  She really had no idea, and was just as frightened and unsure about the current situation as the young boy was. But she was the adult here, so she had to pull herself together…

  Pushing out a long sigh, she sat up and crossed her legs, propping her elbows up on them so she could rest her chin in her hands.

  “I think Lord Varian’s been conspiring to attack the garrison…” Elise conjectured, speaking slowly as she organized her thoughts. “I don’t know if he’s been working with anyone inside, but we need to be wary that there may be a spy or multiple spies involved.”

  Gideon nodded, following along. “But why would Lord Varian want to attack us? He’s on the King’s council and one of this kingdom’s most powerful advisors.”

  “I suspect he might be trying to overthrow the current king. For power, or money, or something else—I don’t know. But he is definitely not on our side, which means he is an enemy of the King.”

  Elise pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling loudly. “Seriously though, of all the things that could go wrong…” she muttered darkly, still finding it hard to believe the shitstorm she’d been caught up in.

  “Then what should we do? He’s got the whole garrison surrounded from what I could see, and most of the guards have been captured or incapacitated.” Gideon bit his trembling lower lip. Elise could sense this whole thing might be all too much for the young boy to handle.

  “Come here,” she said, gesturing him over to her with a hand. Gideon scrambled off his seat and scuffled over to Elise, who took hold of him with wide open arms. “Hush. It’s all going to be alright,” she told him, patting his back as she squeezed him firmly in a hug. Gideon rubbed the tears wetting his eyes and sniffled. “We’ll come up with something to fix this all.”

  “But there’s so many of them!” he wailed miserably. “And there’s only two of us.”

  “Then, we’ll just have to use stealth and surprise to beat them,” Elise said firmly, imbuing her voice with a confidence she did not feel.

  “I think first we need to work out what the current situation inside and outside the keep is. If we can work out where they are holding Callum, Aiden and Cassius plus the rest of the recruits and instructors, we might be able to figure out a way to get them out.”

  Inside her arms, she felt Gideon give her a small nod. He was no longer crying, which was a good sign. They both needed to remain calm and level headed if they were going to get out of this alive.

  “Gideon, I’m going to need you to do something for me—and it’s going to require you to be brave,” Elise said, pausing to pull in a breath. “Do you think you could do that for me?”

  She was reluctant to ask the young boy to do this…but under the circumstances she had little choice.

  “Do you think you could travel around some of the secret passages and spy and listen in on what’s happening around the garrison? Maybe you’ll be able to find out where they’re keeping everyone, or what their plans are.” If anyone’s still alive… she thought and immediately chastised herself. Of course they had to be alive—Callum, Aiden, Cassius and the others were seasoned soldiers, there’s no way they’d let themselves be killed so easily!

  She gritted her teeth, steeling her own nerves. She couldn’t give up so easily either. Callum and Gideon, at least, were counting on her! She frowned, a thought niggling at her mind. Was Melody alright? Her heart dropped as she thought what they might do to her if she’d been captured. They needed to act quickly before it was too late—time was of the essence!

  “I know it sounds scary,” she continued in a soft voice, sensing Gideon’s body freeze up inside her arms. “But if you’re quiet and careful, they won’t be able to discover that you’re moving behind the walls. I would go with you, but I’ll be much more clumsier and slower since I don’t know these hidden passages as well as you do.”

  Gideon exhaled and shuddered, and Elise gave him a moment to let him process her words and her request, patiently waiting for him to decide. If he refused, then she would go out into the passages herself and try to find out what was going on. It wasn’t the best strategy, but she’d be left with no other choice.

  Finally, she felt Gideon shift and pull away from her. He stood upright in front of her, his eyes flickering over to meet her gaze for a second before flitting down to the ground. He pulled in a shaky breath. “Okay. I’ll do it,” he said.

  Relief flooded over Elise, but she kept her expression neutral, not wanting to put pressure on the boy. “Are you sure?” she asked, offering the child one final way out.

  He nodded. “Yes, I’m sure. I can do this, and we need the information. Lord Callum and the rest of the people at the garrison have been extremely kind to me and I owe them to at least try.”

  Elise held back the urge to cry and grab Gideon in a tight bear hug as she felt tears prick the back of her eyes. She was so proud of him!

  She managed to settle herself back down, so she could give him further instructions. “Now, I don’t want you to travel too far or stay out in the tunnels too long. Half an hour and you come straight back—okay?”

  “Okay,” Gideon promised, and Elise leaned forward and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead, before releasing him and letting him cross over to the wall where the hidden door was.

  He glanced back one final time at her, before activating the stones with a series of taps. The door appeared again, and in flash he disappeared into the passageway and the door closed behind him.

  ❖ ❖ ❖

  Elise paced back and forth, concern etching her face, her brow creased in a deep furrow. She estimated Gideon had been gone for almost an hour now and she was starting to worry. What if he’d been discovered and gotten captured by Lord Varian or one of his men?

  “No—” Elise shook her head. “Let’s not go down that road until we have to…” she muttered, pushing the possibility straight out of her mind. Allowing herself to jump to bad conclusions right now was not going to help anyone.

  Suddenly, there was a sound of footsteps coming from the hidden passage behind the wall. Her head snapped up and she froze, her mouth going dry. The noise sounded like there was more than one person. Perhaps one of their enemies had found out about the secret passageway and was on the other side!

  For a moment, her heart stopped and icy terror gripped her heart as she watched the stone wall shift and swing open.

  “Gideon—!” she cried out in a flood of relief as the boy’s small figure stepped through. She stopped abruptly, eyes widening as a larger, looming figure followed him in from behind. “Cassius!” She almost cried with joy as she uttered the Captain’s familiar name. “Where? How?” she spluttered as she hastily made her way over to them, glancing from the Captain’s face to Gideon’s.