by Rhavensfyre
“You’ve had plenty to eat already today, my friend.” She laughed, well aware of how much of the lush grass he had stuffed himself with while she was otherwise occupied. Unable to help herself, she found her eye drawn to the stones again.
She couldn’t explain it, but she felt an intense connection to them after having listened to so many of her grandmother’s stories about the faerie hills and great stone circles dotting the countryside back in Ireland and England. She hurriedly divided her food in half and ran back to the circle, but then pulled up short before walking through the stone entranceway. She stood there and wondered again if it was truly a good idea to enter, then admonished herself for her superstitious fears.
“Get yourself together, Ro. I can’t believe you’re afraid of a little superstitious nonsense.” She snorted, then laughed at her own words. “If I didn’t believe in that nonsense, why am I leaving food for the faeries?” she asked, nervously rubbing one damp palm on her breeches. “At least try to be consistent, Ro.”
Her pulse quickened in anticipation, expecting something to happen when she entered the circle. She was halfway disappointed when it didn’t.
Once inside, she walked briskly to the center stone and gingerly set the fruit and cheese down. Long and low and shaped like a church alter, it seemed like the right place to leave an offering to the fairies. As an afterthought, she added Perseus’s forfeited apple, then lost her nerve and turned to leave. Stumbling in her haste, she flailed her arms out, reaching for anything to keep from falling. Her hand landed solidly on the surface of the flat stone. This time there was no mistaking the hum and sensation of movement beneath her palm.
Ro snatched her hand away and retreated, running back to the safety of Perseus. A prickling sensation, similar to a static charge, clung to her right hand. She rubbed at it briskly, trying to get feeling back into numb digits that somehow also felt icy hot. What she had sensed when she touched the stone was too much like a heartbeat, slow and heavy like the stone it emanated from, but a heartbeat nonetheless.
Perseus crowded beneath the shade of the large oak tree she had tied him to, calmly waiting for her return. Rohanna smiled at the intelligent gelding. The heat of the day beat down upon her shoulders, hot and sticky feeling. Between the shade and the bubbling creek running along its edge, the small hill was cool and inviting and she eagerly rejoined her pony.
She slid down the rough bark and crossed her legs beneath her. The creek chattered across smooth-worn rocks as it flowed past her. Wildflowers welcomed a small army of bees that moved heavily in the air covered its banks. Their faint hum was a welcome noise, simply because it was so mundane. As long as her back was to the circle, Ro could identify the smells and sounds around her without wondering if they were real. She closed her eyes, breathing in the fragrant air, letting it calm her as it relaxed her muscles and settled in her bones. Without intending to, she fell asleep and tumbled into a dream while Perseus stood guard above her.
***
Rohanna peered into the darkness and shook with excitement. The hidden latch she found in the back of her closet opened a small door, revealing a space between her closet and the wall behind her room. It was dim and dusty, but she couldn't resist the urge to explore. She was small and easily fit through the door, and once inside, the small space was high enough for her to stand up in.
She took a few tentative steps before looking behind her. The open door was the only light illuminating the area, which seemed to continue much farther than she could see. If she kept going, she would walk into darkness. She was brave for an eight-year-old, but not that brave. Besides, if she left the door open, she risked Belinda finding it. This was her discovery, and she wasn't about to lose it to her stepmother. She would need to find a flashlight if she wanted to explore further.
Rohanna whimpered and shifted beneath the oak tree. Perseus snuffled her hair and nickered softly. She quieted down and fell back down the rabbit hole of her dream.
It took her three weeks to find a flashlight and another week before she had the chance to explore again. It was hard, knowing the place was there and not having anyone to share her secret with—but the waiting—that was the worst thing of all. Ro’s barely contained patience was well rewarded when she finally absconded with a flashlight. That very night she went exploring, waiting until everyone thought she was asleep before sneaking out of her bed and carefully closing the small door behind her to hide the light.
The passageway led down a flight of stairs and past her father’s study. Once she knew that, there was nothing that could keep her visiting, night after night, whenever it was safe for her to do so. An ornate wood and brass vent along the back wall of the room let her sit, unobserved, while her father took an evening brandy or read in the quiet, book-lined room. Hiding there, breathing in the familiar scent of her father’s cigars, Rohanna would lay her head against the cool brass grate and wish that things were different.
Finding the hidden passageway was a Godsend. She rarely saw her dad during the day anymore. Dinners were awkward and mostly silent, with Belinda listening to everything they said with a critical ear, and Ro expected to go to her room soon after that. These late night adventures were a forbidden necessity. They let her feel like she had some control over her life. It was something that Belinda didn’t know about and couldn’t forbid her from doing. She had to be careful to not fall asleep. It wouldn’t do to have Belinda check in on her and find her missing from her room.
Then, in that strange way you can dream about a dream inside a dream, Rohanna tumbled into a nightmare and cried out in her sleep.
Rohanna crept out of her bed and into the passageway. It had been a couple of weeks since the last time she felt safe making the trip. The comforting smell of cigar smoke greeted her in the dark passageway, the sweet smoky scent of good tobacco gaining strength as Rohanna approached her vantage point.
She hadn't expected to find Belinda there, standing in her father’s sanctuary. She faced the fireplace, her profile lit by the bright flames of a healthy fire. She wore a thick robe wrapped around her as if she was cold despite the heat of the flames. Rohanna touched her cheek. Even behind the grate, she could feel the heat.
Her father sat in a chair near the fire, but she couldn’t see his face; only the back of his head was visible over the high backed chair. His still lit cigar lay forgotten in its tray. Rohanna could see the long tail of ash sagging beneath a smoky trail that circled lazily towards the ceiling.
Belinda was talking. Her voice was low but urgent, and despite Rohanna’s best efforts, she couldn’t make out the woman’s words. Belinda spoke for a while, her father listening but not speaking. The longer she spoke, the more upset Rohanna became. She didn’t know why Belinda was in her father’s study and she didn’t like it. The study had always been the one place that was solely his, off-limits to the rest of the family. Sanctuary. She was only eight years old, but she knew the word had special meaning. Belinda shouldn’t be there.
Anger boiled up inside her, bringing the hot taste of bile into her throat. It burned her, even as her budding hatred burned inside her. It was Belinda’s fault she barely saw her father anymore, and now she intruded even here.
Belinda turned from the fire and faced her father. Rohanna fell back and hid behind the wall, sure the woman would see her eyes peering out from behind the ornate grate, then freaked out when her heart pounded so loudly in her ears, she was sure the woman would pick up on that drum like noise as well. Her jaw dropped when she heard Belinda dismiss her father in the same tone she used with the servants. Anger flamed across her cheeks at the woman’s audacity.
“You may go now,” Belinda said, her imperious voice dripping with malice. How could he not hear it?
Rohanna had a temper, but she held it along with her breath and waited for him to respond. He would never tolerate anyone talking to him like that! Rohanna anticipated a showdown as she watched her father slowly stand up. As his full height rose from the deep chair to t
ower over his wife, Rohanna’s shock turned to horror at the sight of her father’s face. Craggy lines, usually quick to form themselves into an easy smile or stern frown, lay slack and grey against normally sun-reddened skin. He appeared pale, almost ashen, and Rohanna’s heart quickened in fear at the thought that her father might be sick. His warm brown eyes were flat and dull and did not seem to see the room around him. He moved slowly, his body jerking awkwardly as if it didn’t belong to him.
Rohanna’s heart thumped painfully against her chest. Every instinct told her to yell—to scream out to her father in warning. There was no doubt that Belinda was a threat to her father’s life. Rohanna strained her field of vision to follow his passage to the door, willing him to speak. But to her dismay, the only sound in the room was the creak of the door hinges as he left the room and the pops and crackles from the logs in the fire.
Rohanna turned her attention back to Belinda. She watched grey eyes grow cold and hard, as dangerous and deceptive as black ice on pavement. Belinda’s pupils dilated swiftly, the darkness eating away the grey like a black hole eating a star. Her face seemed to come alight then with some secret thought, obsidian eyes glinting harshly against the firelight. Her stepmother smiled then, a smile that chilled Rohanna to the bone and sent another wave of metallic fear through her.
It wasn’t that the smile didn’t reach Belinda’s eyes—it did—but her smile wasn’t one of joy or happiness. It was a baring of teeth more suited to a feral creature, a smile that made Rohanna shiver. Belinda was a creature out of a nightmare, a demon clothed in human form. The shadows cast behind Belinda danced madly in time with the flames like a host of tortured souls. Clasping her hand over her mouth to muffle her ragged breathing, Rohanna slid carefully out of her secret hiding place, praying that the slight sounds her bare feet made against the cold wood would be unheard.
Rohanna slipped back into her bed and lay as still as possible, willing her body to relax into a semblance of sleep. She strained to hear past the nightly creaks and groans of the house, her heart pounding at the thought of footstep in the hall, of Belinda opening the door to her room.
Despite her best efforts to remain vigilant, exhaustion took her small body where her mind could not. Sleep overtook her—the nightmares found within that darkness a pale comparison to her waking world.
***
Ro woke with a start, her heart pounding until the memory of the day came back to her. Perseus stood close by, practically hovering above her, his eyes and ears remaining alert to their surroundings. Nickering happily, he seemed relieved that Ro was awake and able to protect both of them.
“Poor thing, it must have been hard work, standing guard for so long,” she crooned, patting him on the nose and scratching his favorite itchy spot. His usual comic response didn’t appear; instead of making a face, he swung his head around to stare at the stones behind them. Following his gaze, Ro noted the shadows starting to gather beneath the stones.
“I know, Pers’. They make me nervous as well, but don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you.”
Ro sighed. She hadn’t meant to fall asleep and now it was well into the afternoon. Visiting her grandmother wasn’t going to happen now.
Rethinking her earlier generosity, she figured the faeries wouldn’t mind if she gave Perseus back his apple. He deserved it for being such a good boy. Walking back to the circle, however, only revealed that her shared lunch was no longer on the flat stone. Every crumb was gone. Must have been squirrels, she thought, squinting against the afternoon sun. Except there was something there; she just couldn’t quite see what it was. She placed a cautious hand on the upright stone beside her, remembering the odd sensation from earlier. Nothing. The stone felt rough and warm from the sun, but it was just plain stone.
Relieved, Rohanna strode back inside the stone circle and kneeled down in front of the flat stone sitting in the center. There was something there. She picked it up and cradled the small item in the palm of her hand. Running her finger along the smooth edges, she traced what looked like a crude stone cross. It had a slight green-black tint, as if it had taken some of the color of the moss carpeting the ground beneath her. Ro grinned and closed her hand around the small stone cross.
The food being gone could have been accounted for by squirrels or other animals, but this? Wait till my dad sees this. A real life Faerie stone! Animals couldn’t have left this behind. It was proof that there really were faeries, just as her grandma had told her.
CHAPTER FOUR
Rohanna kept Perseus to a trot on the way back, giving him his head and trusting his nose to find the way home. The ground-eating trot, while easy on the gelding, was not as easy on Ro. The bouncing gait required a lot of work from her already tired muscles, but she didn’t dare show up at the stables with him blowing hard and covered in sweat.
Oddly enough, it was just a simple matter of turning down one trail to another and suddenly they were back on familiar territory.
“We’re back on track, Perseus. Now let’s get home before someone notices how late we are,” Rohanna said as they passed by an old wooden gate she knew by sight but had no other purpose. It was rusted shut and didn’t connect to any fence on the property, but because of the sharp, thorn-like nest of barbed wire wrapped around it, Rohanna always marked it in passing. She might ride like the devil on a moonlit night, but barbed wire and horses were a bad mix she was careful to avoid.
Rohanna didn’t question why she was lost one moment and on a familiar track the next, she was too happy to worry about it and already focused on the next obstacle. Perseus would need to be untacked and washed down before she could even get to the house—and she was still running late. She threw caution to the wind and clucked Perseus into a cantor. It was easier to hide a sweaty horse than her absence.
Her plan worked, at least the part where she made it back unnoticed and had Perseus safely tucked into his stall. Unfortunately, Belinda found her before she could ditch her riding clothes.
“And just where have you been?” Belinda drawled. Her crossed arms and tapping fingernails didn’t make Ro step back, but the cold gleam in her eye did.
“I, uh…” she stuttered, then caught sight of her saving grace driving a beat up old pickup truck towards them and ran for it. “Hey, Dad!”
Belinda narrowed her eyes and glared at her. Ro tried not to grin, but it was hard not to. It was almost worth being yelled at to see Belinda painfully swallow whatever it was she was going to say next. She looked like she swallowed a bug, pursing her lips together into a razor thin line as she tried to rein in her considerable temper. Ro watched as the mask fell back into place with a silent click. Like closing the lid on a box, Belinda’s face remade itself into something pleasant and practically motherly.
By the time her dad turned off the noisy engine and joined them, Belinda had regained her composure. She smiled at her husband sweetly, one hand clasped lightly to her neck and the other wrapped tightly against her elbow. She no longer seemed angry, but conveyed the perfect “worried parent” posture any child would recognize.
She wished her father would see the other side of Belinda, the one she kept hidden away when he was around. He has, a small voice whispered inside Rohanna’s head. He has? Confused now, Rohanna’s eyebrows knitted together. He couldn’t have, or he would have done something. Ro believed that with all her heart. Her dad would not let Belinda bully her so, not if he knew about it. What am I not remembering?
Belinda tilted her head the slightest bit and her father dutifully kissed her cheek before absently reaching down and ruffling Ro’s hair.
“How’s my two favorite people?” he boomed. Always larger than life…even his voice got carried away with his enthusiasm for life.
Ro felt foggy headed, like the time she had the flu and couldn’t hardly hear from being so stuffed up. The more she tried to focus on the memory that nagged at the corners of her mind the further it ran from her, as elusive as the owls she could always hear calling to each
other at dusk but never saw. Her smile slid from her face. The sun suddenly seemed too bright, sending a sharp pain across her forehead and making her shield her eyes against the painful light.
“Well, to be perfectly honest...”
Grandmother always said the first story heard was the first story believed. Ro shook her head free of the cobwebs clouding her mind and butted in before Belinda could finish what she was saying.
“Everything’s great, Dad. Belinda let me go riding today since it was my birthday. I was just thanking her for all my gifts.” Ro beamed up at her dad, avoiding Belinda’s glare. There, see if she’ll call me a liar to his face!
“Well, that’s great. I’m proud of you, girl. I saw you riding when you came in. I don’t think any of our trainers are even close to you in skill.” John tousled Rohanna’s long blonde hair affectionately.
Belinda’s frown deepened.
“You don’t look happy, dear. Is there something I need to know?” John asked.
“I was worried, John. She was out so long, and all by herself. She could have gotten hurt or…?” She left the sentence hanging, as if she was unwilling to say aloud what kind of trouble Ro could have gotten in. Her hands were clasped tightly to the front of her dress, practically wringing themselves in worry.
Ro watched her stepmother’s act in fascination. She knew it was an act; there was no real concern for her there. Belinda might convince her father that it was concern creating such a white-knuckled response, but Ro knew it was barely contained anger.
“I’m sorry, Belinda. I am sure that Ro will be more careful next time so as not to upset you.”
“I was fine!” Ro started in heatedly, forgetting herself for a moment and too angry to care. Ro stepped between her father and his wife, ready to start a fight. Her grin widened until she was practically baring her teeth at Belinda, daring her to do something in front of her father.