by Brandi Bell
“Where are we going first?” I ask.
“We’re heading into Winter soon, I thought we should stop before it got cold,” he replies.
“How long before we get to the Winter Kingdom?” Seamus asks.
“Around the time Ruby will be returning, I imagine,” Antoine answers.
Antoine walks up to the pooka hauling the supplies and finds a bag with various fruits and vegetables in it. Not the tastiest meal, but it’ll fill us up. We eat in silence, then mount back up and continue on.
“What can we expect in the Winter Kingdom?” Elias questions Antoine.
“The closer we get, the less alive things will look, and the colder it will feel,” he explains. “We have to avoid the snowy area. A cursed woman lives there, and she spreads her curse to all who enter.”
“Say what?” Grady exclaims.
Antoine rolls his eyes and sighs. “Once we pass her area we’ll be on the way to the castle to deliver the first letter to the king. He is a cruel man, and torture is his favorite past time.”
“Why are we visiting him again?” I ask.
“To find out which Winter fae can cause your dad’s curse, and to deliver this letter,” he explains in an annoyed tone. “We should be relatively safe with the queen’s protection.”
“So we’re going into the territory of a sadistic madman, but a letter from a queen of another kingdom is supposed to keep us safe?” Elias asks sarcastically.
“Fae are immortal, so wars between kingdoms can get really bad, really fast. They try to avoid them, so yes, a letter from my queen will be enough,” Antoine snaps at him.
“Well fuck, we don’t have a clue what the rules in this world are,” Elias growls back.
“Ok children, let’s play nice. We have a long journey ahead of us,” Seamus chimes in.
“I want to know more,” I say.
“So the ruling class of fae in every kingdom but Autumn are the Sidhe,” Antoine explains. “They are the basic depiction humans have of fairies, only full size.”
“Do they have pretty butterfly wings?” I ask him.
“Yes, my dear, some do, but don’t say that around any of them. Wings are a point of pride in the Sidhe,” he tells me.
“Do they have them out all the time?” I wonder aloud.
“No, they don’t, and don’t you dare ask to see them! That’s like asking to see someone’s penis,” Antoine exclaims.
My face turns bright red and I quit asking questions. I can’t get the picture of Elias swinging his hips around out of my head. My face becomes even redder.
“What you thinkin’ about Jade?” Elias grins at me.
“Shut up!” I yell at him, my face possibly even redder.
Three sets of eyes glare at him. I feel a vibration underneath me, and realize my pooka is growling at Elias.
“It’s ok boy, he’s just teasing,” I say while stroking his neck.
Elias sulks, while the other three men laugh at him. I’m surprised my pooka wants to protect me already.
“Should we give our pookas names?” I ask Antoine. My pooka acts happy at the prospect.
“It would probably please them, since they did choose each of us,” he replies.
“Hmmm, what about Buster?” I ask the pooka. He grunts and drops his head. “Ok, not Buster. Let’s see, what’s a good name for a handsome pooka like you. How about Zeus?”
He raises his head and prances. “Zeus it is,” I say giggling.
“How about the rest of you?” I ask.
“I’ll wait until we get to know each other better,” Antoine says.
The other guys murmur an agreement, not wanting to name their pookas yet. The landscape is changing, the leaves are turning brown and falling off of the trees, the air is getting colder. I believe we’re getting close to the Winter Kingdom.
“Let’s take a break from riding. It’s getting close to the time Ruby has been switching and I don’t think it would be a good idea for them to switch while on the pooka,” Seamus suggests.
“I agree,” Antoine says.
I stop, climb off of Zeus, and stretch my legs. I walk around trying to loosen up the sore muscles in my thighs. I notice Grady and Elias doing the same. I giggle, they look funny, then I realize I look equally as silly.I open my mouth to say something about it, and everything goes dark.
Chapter 24
Ruby
I'm standing in the middle of a chilly field with dead looking trees. Looks like we have made some decent progress while Jade was awake.
"What's the plan?" I ask.
"We are on our way to the Winter Castle to deliver the letter to the king and find out if any of their fae could be the culprit," Antoine says easily.
"Anything I need to know that I missed?" I question.
"The pooka's name is Zeus and he chose Jade. Hopefully he’ll still be ok with you riding him," Seamus answers.
"Well, this could get interesting," I reply.
"We need to keep moving," Antoine tells us. "We only stopped so you wouldn't change while riding."
"That was a good thing," I tell him.
I walk up to Zeus and hold my hand out, scared the beast will bite me. He huffs once, then ignores me. I take it as a sign that he will tolerate me. Elias helps me get on his back, then mounts his own pooka.
We start riding, the further we get, the colder it becomes. Zeus begins to grow longer hair to compensate.
"Did anyone think to pack warmer clothes?" I ask, shivering.
"Let's stop and check the packs," Antoine answers.
"So no one thought of this sooner, even though you knew you were going to winter," I bitch at them.
"Ruby, can it. We're all kinda preoccupied right now," Grady snaps at me.
"Don't talk to her like that," Elias growls at Grady.
"Stop bickering like children," Seamus chastises everyone.
Antoine finds coats and passes them out. We continue on. Soon we come to the edge of a snowy field that stretches as far as the eye can see. I start to go towards the snow.
"No! You cannot touch the snow!" Antoine yells.
"What's the big deal?" I ask, turning away from the snow.
"There is a cursed woman in that land, who curses everyone who steps foot in the snow. I forgot we told Jade and not you," he explains.
"Ugh, I hate this sharing a body thing so much," I groan.
We stay on the path next to the snow, but give it a wide berth. The sun sets and the moon glowing off of the white snow gives us plenty of light.
"It's an eerie beauty don't you think?" Elias asks.
"Yeah, like everything is still and peaceful, but death is on the horizon," I reply.
"That's a very good description of the kingdom,'" Antoine tells me.
We ride a bit and Elias, who apparently has an amazing sense of time, suggests we stop for Jade to come back.
I get off of Zeus and everything goes black.
Chapter 25
Elias
It's so strange watching them switch back and forth. I wish I could prevent it from happening, but it wouldn't be fair to Jade either.
"Hi, Jade," I say with a fake smile.
"Hi, guys," she says shyly.
I wonder if she feels guilty about being awake most of the time we are here. She would be the sister who would, Ruby wouldn't give two thoughts about Jade.
"Let's get moving, this is not a good place to linger," Antoine commands.
We mount our pookas and continue. My beautiful girl needs a name, I've been thinking about it ever since Jade named hers. I think for a while and come up with what I think is the perfect name.
"I think your name should be Harley," I tell her.
She lifts her head up and starts prancing. She likes my first choice of names, which makes me smile. Jade was right, it's best they have a name.
Chapter 26
Seamus
All this riding is tedious. I'm not used to working for what I want. Usually I can pay someone
else to do it for me. It's worth it for my Jade though, I would do anything for her. That's a strange feeling, I've always been very selfish.
"When do you think we'll arrive at the castle?" I ask Antoine.
"Within the hour, old friend," he responds.
"Very well, do we need a plan?" I question him.
"We only need to stay together, and try not to anger anyone," he replies.
We continue riding in silence after that.
Chapter 27
Jade
We crest a hill and and I see the castle in the distance. It's beautiful in an eerie way. It's all sharp angles and hard edges, the stones are all white with shades of blues. A shiver goes down my spine at the thought of entering it.
"Why is something so beautiful so scary?" I wonder aloud.
"Because you have good intuition, my dear," Antoine responds.
We continue on the path to the castle, my stomach churns worse the closer we get. I dread going in, although I know it's imperative to check every kingdom.
"Are we going to see fae people tortured?" I ask Antoine.
"Most likely, but you must act indifferent towards it," he replies.
My heart starts racing at the thought of witnessing torture. I know Ruby's gone through it, but I've never experienced it. I don't know if I can act indifferent or not, and that scares me.
We arrive at the front of the castle, there are strange looking fae, really short, ugly green skin, long claws, wearing red hats. They approach us to take the pookas. I'm nervous, but Antoine hands his over without a thought.
"My dear, these are redcaps, they are here to take care of unsaddling the pookas," Antoine tells me.
Sure enough, they begin removing the saddles from the pookas, then the pookas start changing into dogs. My jaw dropped. I know Antoine said they could transform, but seeing it happen is another thing. Zeus is the size and color of a Great Dane, like Marmaduke.
"Hey boy, are you coming with me?" I asked him. He barked at me in response, which made me giggle.
"Pookas stick close to the people they choose, we won't be able to keep them from following us. They are also very protective," Antoine explains.
I'm thankful to have Zeus with me, almost like a security blanket. The pack pooka is the only one who doesn't bother changing into a dog, the rest follow us into the castle. I follow Antoine, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves. Zeus puts his head under my hand, which instantly calms me.
The large entry was abandoned. Our footsteps echo loudly, like someone banging on a drum. We come to a doorway at the end of the hall, where a redcap is standing.
"I have business with the king, and a letter from Queen Thessilia to hand deliver," Antoine tells him.
The redcap takes off to check with the king, I assume. We are left standing alone in the hallway.
"Do we know this king’s name?" I ask.
"Yes, but I'll not speak it until we leave," Antoine replies.
The redcap returns and motions for us to follow him. Antoine takes the lead, with the rest of us following, including our huge pooka dogs. The redcap glances over his shoulder at our group every few steps, like we make him nervous.
We go up a staircase that opens on a balcony high above a dining hall to where the king is. There's a white haired man dressed in red, with very pointy ears. Next to him on his right is a young looking woman with long black hair, wearing a black dress.
The man with white hair stands up, although he only looks to be in his mid twenties, like everyone else we have met here, his eyes look old. A shiver runs down my spine, as Zeus steps in front of me and gives a low growl. The king glances down, a look of shock passes his face, before he quickly schools his features.
"I've never seen so many claimed pookas in one place. You've a letter for me?" he says.
"Yes, Your Highness, here it is," Antoine responds.
The king grabs the letter from him and starts reading it. Emotions flash across his face, so fast that if I wasn't watching so intently I would have missed them.
"Where are my manners, have a seat, feast with us," he says when he finishes reading.
We take seats as he directed. I'm sitting next to the girl in black.
She turns to me and says, "Hi, my name is Akashka. I hope you don't witness anything, too alarming..."
"Oh, hi, I'm Jade. I'm sure we will be fine with anything," I say with a fake smile.
“I’m sure you’ll need to be,” she replies with a sad smile.
My gut tells me there’s more than meets the eye with this woman. I push the thought down, as my chair starts to tip over. Zeus is pushing his way under my feet, but there isn’t room. Seamus catches the back of the chair before I fall on the ground.
"Wouldn't want you on the ground, lass," Seamus tells me with a grin.
"Thank you for catching me," I say, smiling back.
"You might want to keep your attention on the table," Akashka whispers to me, "Just not in front of the king."
"Why?" I whisper back.
"You'll see," she sighs, sadly.
Fae wrapped in thick leather begin dragging out giant metal crosses. There are four of them when they finish. I can't tear my eyes away from them, although I know I don't want to watch what is about to happen.
"They are made out of iron, and we cannot handle the touch of iron. It makes us weak and sick. It can even kill us if we are exposed for long enough," she explains, "Have you met a dullahan?"
"Yes, in the Autumn Kingdom," I answer.
"That's all I can tell you, I'm sorry this is how you meet our people," she tells me.
I look back at the crosses, and the leather clad fae are leading out four different creatures. The first one looks like a deformed cross between a human and a redcap. He was uncomfortable to look at. The second fae looks a lot like the Sidhe, except for his eyes. There's just something different I can't place about them. The third one they bring out is a dullahan, now it makes sense why Akashka asked me if I've seen one before. The final fae is a smaller version of the Sidhe, but nowhere near as beautiful.
The leather clad fae slowly raise the four onto the metal frames by iron chains attached to their wrists and arms. I can see the grimaces on their faces from here, except for the dullahan, his face was missing. I turn to ask Akashka what happened to his head, but she slightly shook her head no.
It didn't take long to find out what happened to his head, one of the fae brings it up to place in front of the king. I try really hard to school my face into a neutral expression, but it's almost impossible. I'm horrified that the king wants his head at the table where we eat. Then again torture is his idea of dinner entertainment.
Our food arrives. I look at the plate, it's vegan, the same as the Autumn Kingdom. I sigh in relief, then start eating, trying to block out the sounds of whips, tearing flesh, and screams. Seamus squeezes my knee under the table, and Zeus rests his head on my lap. I'm not hiding my emotions nearly as well as I should be.
"What's wrong child, do you not care for my choice of entertainment?" the king asks me.
"It's not something I’m accustomed to seeing," I answer, not wanting to lie or offend him.
"Ah, she is learning to play the game already. Did you know the fae cannot lie?" he asks me.
"No, I didn't know that, but it doesn't mean you can't twist the truth to hide it," I reply, then kick myself for being so blunt.
"Very true child, you may survive this world yet," he answers.
Akashka's eyes are wide, like she can't believe that conversation happened in front of her.
"You're very lucky, I've never seen my father allow anyone to speak to him in that manner," she whispers to me.
"I didn't mean to, it just slipped out," I whisper back.
"Stop whispering girls, and enjoy the show," the king commands.
I raise my eyes to look in front of me, and try to look past the group of fae being tortured. Suddenly the dullahan head lets out an ear splitting roar. I jump, not expecting
the sound so close to me.
The king lets out a loud roar of laughter. "It's ok child, his head can't hurt you."
"It just startled me is all, your highness," I answer diplomatically.
"Enough entertainment," the king commands.
A redcap comes and takes the dullahan head away, while the leather clad fae take the victims off of the iron torture devices.
"Now that we have eaten, and have been entertained, let's get down to business," the king says to us. "I understand you are looking for a fae that cursed your father."
I nod my head, too afraid to speak.
"I have three hags in my kingdom capable of such, they are being summoned to the castle. I see why Thessilia said we should all help you," he tells me. "I think she is right, the prophecy is coming true."
"What prophecy your highness?" I ask.
"Never mind that, I will question the hags and send word to you if I find your culprit. You can continue on to Spring now," he says.
I stand to leave and Akashka grabs my hand, "It was nice to meet you Jade."
I pull my hand away and feel something, so I cup my hand around it. Zeus stands by my side, and we make our way out of the castle again. The redcaps are waiting to resaddle our pookas.
"Ok, Zeus, I love your dog form, but it would really be helpful if I can ride you again," I tell my pooka.
He transforms into his beautiful horse form again, then bumps me with his nose.
"Thank you," I say.
I look around and the pookas are ready, and everyone is in a saddle but me. I quickly climb in my saddle and we are off.
"What's our next stop?" I ask Antoine.
"We're going into Spring next, but we'll have to camp out one night before arriving," he answers.
"I think I prefer that idea to trying to stay in the castle," I tell them.
"I do too, lass. Those fae creep me out," Seamus admits.
That comment makes me remember what Akashka passed me. I take it out and look at it.