Test of Fae

by S L Mason

  Hand-to-hand combat is about repetition, muscle memorization, and reacting without thinking. I’m not there. I’m never going to be there, not in three days. I don’t understand why their magic doesn’t work like that or maybe it does.

  “So, you’re saying I’ll be given enchanted weapons and armor or whatever it is that I need. Why can’t you enchant me?” I cross my arms, blowing hair out of my face.

  “I can’t enchant you. It’s one of the rules of Fae. We cannot enchant each other.” He shakes his head. He knows I don’t understand the rules. I know he’s frustrated. I’m frustrated. But it strikes me they can’t enchant each other. That doesn’t mean they can’t enchant themselves.

  “What if I enchanted myself? Can I do that?”

  He stops walking away from me and pivots until his violet eyes land on me, a half-smile on his face. “Now you’re not thinking like a human. I’ve beaten on you for three days hoping you would come up with an answer. These challenges aren’t about who’s the fastest or the strongest. They’ll be about who’s the smartest, who thinks the quickest. These challenges are all problem-solving, the Fae are extremely smart. We love tactics, to manipulate and play. It’s a game. This is what we do. Once you understand that and the moment you stop thinking about the world like a human, that’s the moment you will succeed.” He stares me down with his conviction. “All the rest of the contenders will still be thinking as a human. It will be their downfall. I knew you’d figure it out for yourself. Now you want me to keep beating on you, or would you prefer to learn something that might actually help you?”

  I blow air through my nose and huff. I’m not a toddler. I shouldn’t be throwing a fit, but I’m a little-pissed off. He’d spent three days beating on me so I could figure this out for myself? He could’ve told me or given some kind of clue. But in the back of my mind, I know he already had. Deston said to stop thinking like a human, and I came down here and did just that. Guess I really did deserve to be beaten on for three days. I uncross my arms and let them fall limply to my side.

  “All right, teach me how to enchant anything.” I huff.

  Janice bends down and picks up a rock. “If you want to enchant something, you first must understand what you want it to do. Learn what it does and then bend it to your will. You know magic is about intent, and it’s also about manipulating the waves. I repeat the songs I’ve heard. I know I can make the stone float with a specific song.” He holds up the stone and smiles with one eyebrow cocked. “ ‘Chickie bird, sitting on a wall, one named Peter, one named Paul, fly away, Peter, fly away, Paul.’ If you want it to come.” He removes his hand, and the stone floats in the air. He touches it with the tip of his finger, and it floats away. It doesn’t exactly fly, but I get the drift. He made it float, and he can push it around. He pushes it toward me.

  I thrust my hand up to stop it, but it singes me. I move out of the way. “You could at least warn me that the damn thing was gonna burn me. Why is it trial by fire with you?” I demand.

  He blows air out through his nose. “I thought you would’ve learned by now from your encounter with the Puca’s belt. Enchanted items, not enchanted by you or for you, will burn.” His brows draw down into sharp check marks on his forehead.

  “Okay, I get it. If I enchant something for myself, no one else will be able to pick it up and use it. It’ll burn them. But if I enchant it for someone else or anyone else, it doesn’t matter who touches it?” I ask.

  “Exactly. ‘Now come back, Peter, come back, Paul.’ ” The stone comes back to him, floating. He grabs it out of the air and whistles a sweet C. He tosses the stone to the ground. “Keep in mind, you can also enchant items so they work like a trap. It’s inert until someone touches it or picks it up, but then you whistle a specific tone and awaken the item, causing the enchantment to harm them in some fashion.”

  My jaw sets as I grit my teeth. “Is that what they did in the maze to the plants? Is that how they made the ivy attack us? It was inert until someone touched it?” I see Janice is irritated with my anger over the traps in the maze.

  “You must accept this is the way Fae is. It’s not fair. I’m sure on the surface you have heard humans say life is not fair. If you are human, life will absolutely not be ‘fair,’ because you aren’t. Somehow, you’ve made yourself a member of the Fae. You are fair folk. Life will be different for you.” Janice’s explanation sounds great and stupid.

  I know life isn’t fair. It doesn’t mean I don’t want it to be.

  He continues, “Life is not fair. It isn’t, and it won’t be. You must accept that and move on. Stop obsessing over the past. Focus on the future. You only need to do one thing—win. Winning will resolve all the issues that anger you. Let your anger go, and simply focus on winning.”

  I don’t like his answers or anything he says for the most part. He’s right. Maybe obsessing over the past is a waste of my time. Understanding my new life is the quickest, best way to get what I want. “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll do my best to keep my obsessions with past wrongs to myself. And you do your best to make it sound less like you guys are fucking assholes. Deal?” I reply with a tight smile.

  He crosses his arms. “Your deal sounds ambiguous at best, but if we’re going to both put forth an effort, I will happily do my part.” Acquiescent, yes.

  I have to try this enchanting bit although I think the nursery rhyme he uses is rather cheesy. I can’t think of a better rhyme. The nursery rhymes Fae use creep me out. I remember a Lenny Kravitz song my mom played a lot. I can’t remember the words. Instead, I hum the tune. The rock rises in the air and floats nearby. I push it away, and it comes back. I think this magic thing is easier for me than him. “Why is it I can use any song I want and make the same thing happen, but you use the same old stuff?” I inquire.

  He looks around and grabs me by my bicep. “I think we’re done training for now. Let’s go for a walk.” He forcefully grips my arm and drags me. His fingers aren’t digging in, but it still pains me. My shoulder is sore. Nervous wakes come off his body. I see his emotions, and my eyes dart around the courtyard. Every Fae creature here has its own wake. It reminds me of those psychics you see on television talking about people’s auras. Is this what they meant? Can they see magic? Is an aura part of the magic that naturally surrounds us?

  Where Janice grips my upper arm, I see my own wake—a white even glow. It doesn’t have a shape or a color to it. I’m silver. Where it meets his hand, his dark purple glow becomes a light lavender. It fades away the longer he touches me, and the more my silvery glow overtakes his.

  Soon enough, we walk out of the courtyard proper, and he leads me across the stone drawbridge. We stand in front of the castle with the moat between Deston’s court and us.

  He turns on me and begins talking. “Don’t ever tell anyone you can make up your own rhymes. Our people use the same rhymes over and over. Let everyone think you’re using the same rhymes they are. Don’t tell anyone ever that you can make something new.” He looks frightened. His entire wake changes to an almost black purple, deep like the void of space. It’s thick with fear.

  I touch my hand to his chest and watch the silvery white light of my own magic push the black away.

  He closes his eyes and tilts his head back. “Sarah, you must stop. You cannot meddle with the emotions of others.” He says through tight lips.

  I snatch my hand back. “What do you mean? I’m not meddling with your emotions. I can see you’re afraid. I’m not, so I tried to make you less afraid, or I don’t know. I was watching my emotions melt with yours. I wasn’t meddling or trying to manipulate you. I’m not like the Fae. I don’t think you’re a plaything.” My voice hardens.

  “You can see my emotions?” His eyes open wide in fascination.

  “Yeah, can’t you? Can’t all Fae?” I don’t like new abilities. I was just getting used to what I had become before I enchanted the stupid stone. The stone is probably still floating there. I hadn’t returned it to its inert state. I
whistle it to me and strip the magic from it, then toss it on the ground. “I’m not trying to manipulate you. I won’t tell anybody that I can use my own rhymes and songs.” I wave my arms around.

  The place where I touched him on his chest remains white, and the black filters away to purple. I think it’s his natural state of being.

  His eyes pierce into mine and then down at my mouth. My mouth dries, and I lick my lips. I’d only done that maneuver once before when one of the boys I liked was going to kiss me, or at least I thought he was.

  The boy had kissed me, and it was terrible. I get the distinct impression Janice wants to kiss me. I lean forward. My heart speeds up as he puts his hand on the side of my face. I tilt my head back, and as I close my eyes, he leans in.

  “So, this is how you train, Sarah?” Nick demands.

  My eyes fly open, and I step back. Standing off to the side is Nick with his arms crossed, lips pinched, and eyes hard.

  “No, this isn’t how I train. I don’t. I don’t. You know, Nick, it’s really none of your business what I do. We have an agreement. As long as I fulfill my end of the bargain, what I do with my own time is my own business,” I sputter at him. “And you should stop sneaking around. What are you spying on me stalker, creeper.” I put some space between Janice and me.

  Nick lets out a dry laugh. It sounds like a cough “Yes, lying is not usually your thing. Frankly, I don’t give a shit if you kiss the purple-eyed freak. You do whatever you want with him after we get my sister. Let’s get Nikki, and we leave or I leave with Nikki. You can do whatever works. You become more like them every day, and all I’m doing is sitting around waiting for something to happen.” He shouts.

  I feel guilty about that. I should’ve had Nick join us in training sessions. I’m not sure they would’ve let him train, but I should’ve at least tried. “Well, you don’t have to worry about doing nothing. Tomorrow’s a big, big day. I’m going to compete, probably against your sister and a bunch of other girls. At that point, we should be able to figure out who has her and then maybe we can actually get some movement forward and you can get the fuck out of Fae. Okay?” I turn to say something to Janice, but he’s no longer standing there. I look around, and it’s just Nick and I. I hadn’t even heard him leave.

  Did he want to kiss me or was it me messing with his emotions? I shake my head. I don’t have time for these kinds of distractions.

  But the memory brings euphoria. I think he was going to kiss me. I wanted it. Those violet eyes looking at me with so much desire, I liked it. My eyes turn away from the stone edifice of the castle only to land back on Nick. His color waves are bright orange and laced with reds. He’s angry and deep in the heart of his aura as it leaves his skin there’s a thin line of gray. Why would he be gray? Gray always makes me think of storms and sadness, but we all have something to morn. I push that thought to the side, a subject for another time.

  “Let’s go! I need to rest and eat. You probably need to eat too. Tomorrow a big day.” I shake the depressing thoughts away.

  “Just promise me whatever happens in the competition, you won’t kill my sister.” Nick’s voice is thick with emotion.

  “I already said I wouldn’t. I promised I’d help you get your sister. I wasn’t lying, and I won’t go back on my word. I’ll figure out how to send you back to the surface.” I leave the life and death choice out of it.

  “You won’t choke like last time?” he whispers.

  I shake my head. The lump forms in my throat again. I don’t want to talk about it. I know how to send him back without me. That’s all that matters. “Just promise me if we find Arty tomorrow, you’ll take him with you no matter what. Don’t let him stay. Knock him out and carry his ass into a mushroom round.” I reply.

  Nick raises an eyebrow but nods in agreement.

  I implore him, “I don’t care what you have to do. You can’t let him stay. Take him home and tell him my parents found the room. He’ll know where to go look.”

  We both walk back in silence into the safety of the castle walls. All I have to do now is choke down a meal and find a way to sleep tonight.

  CHAPTER 26

  Sleep eludes me. Tossing and turning is the only thing I do. My room is comfortable. The bed is like sleeping on a cloud. It doesn’t matter which way I turn or how I close my eyes, I can’t get the fear out of my mind. There’s only one thing certain to happen tomorrow—more people will die. Light brightens the window, pushing back the dark purples of the night. Lavender enters my room, bustling about and twittering. I don’t hear anything she says. I simply stumble out of bed and into the bathroom to splash water on my face. I wait for Lavender to dress me in whatever it is they deem appropriate for killing.

  “Did you sleep, my lady?” she inquires in her sing-song voice.

  I shake my head. What’s the point of lying? Anyone who looks at my eyes can tell I hadn’t slept a wink. The skin underneath my eyes is hauling around a fifteen-piece set of Louis Vuitton luggage. I force a half-smile onto my face. “I know you’re gonna be nice, Lavender; that’s how you are. Honestly, I really don’t want small talk or chitchat. My day’s gonna suck, and I really don’t want to think about it, but…” I leave the thank you to hang in the air.

  She doesn’t reply, only nodding her head and setting to work. She turns my hair into some magical coif of perfection. Who wants to go kill other humans unless they’re perfectly dressed and looking appropriately snazzy?

  “What kind of ridiculous get up are they putting me in today?” I query.

  She produces a partial smile and holds up a black leather bodice crossed in back with a leather spaulder attached to one shoulder. It looks like something right out of the movie, Gladiator. ‘We, who are about to die, salute you.’

  “Is that it or do I get to wear something else with that? Maybe something underneath it? Maybe some britches?” I inquire.

  She snickers, and really I hadn’t decided to make her laugh. I was being sarcastic because that’s how I like to deal with everything.

  “No, my lady. Of course, they would send you in more than just a bodice. However, it’s not just a bodice. Whatever you may think it’s been made of or how it looks, I can assure you Deston enchanted it himself. All your clothing is enchanted. Deston made an allowance for me to touch it. But anyone else lays a hand on you, it will burn them to the core.” She smiles brightly.

  Great. What if I need help?

  “So, it’s hand-to-hand combat?” I’m hoping I heard her wrong. The last thing in the world I want to do is fight.

  “I don’t know. If anyone or anything in Fae touches you, they’ll be burned. Having enchanted clothing is important. There are many creatures here that will happily kill you for a quick and easy meal. Many more people who would happily trick you so they could kill you just because it would be fun.” She carries the conversation in a singsong tone.

  “But not you, right, Lavender?” I snicker.

  She puts on her sweet, cotton candy smile. The one she seems to always have for me as her ears tilt up at the sides. “You know I would never do anything to hurt you. I’m vassal tied to you.” It’s a matter of fact reply.

  “No vassal has ever cheated or stabbed their liege lord in the back or anything like that?” I reply in a droll tone. Humans swear loyalty all the time but go back on their word.

  “You have the free will to leave your liege. But if you’re vassal tied to someone, it is impossible for you to work against them.” Lavender always imparts the most interesting information at the most opportune times.

  Sometimes I wonder if it’s by design. She isn’t stupid. Yet she’s perfectly happy to impart an important piece of information at the most opportune time.

  Therein lies the answer of why Deston desperately wants me to swear allegiance to him. He knows I can’t work against him. By telling him I don’t want to, I’d kept my free will.

  I pat Lavender on the cheek. She holds up a black, peasant style shirt and a pair of black l
eather britches. Everything has buckles and straps of all kinds. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be comfortable. “Do I get any weapons?”

  She slips the shirt over my head and shakes her head. “I can’t give weapons. I’m not in charge of those sorts of things. However, if you’d like a hairpin, I could supply you one of those. I can leave it in your hair.” My mouth pinches to the side with my barely repressed smile.

  “Sure, I’ll be the contender who stabs someone to death with a hairpin.”

  Lavender’s eyes go wide. There’s no mirth in her face. “My lady, you must take this seriously. Many a Fae have died from a hairpin stab, or they simply touched it, or someone grazed it across their skin. If you wish, I will hide twenty all over your hair. Then you can use them to stop anything you wish. It’s not a toy. It’s a tool, a tool that can very well save your life.” The solemnity of her words strikes me.

  Well, okay.

  “As long as they don’t stab me in the head or hurt me in any way, you can hide as many hairpins on my head as you want,” I reply. “If it’s a tool that I can use to save myself, you damn well better believe I’d like as many as I can get.”

  She smiles tightly and lowers her eyes. She knows something. I can tell she’s holding back, but I don’t have time to try to niggle it out of her. She gives me a drink of something resembling coffee along with a potion bottle labeled ‘Drink Me’.

  “There are no restrictions on this challenge today. I’m giving you something every Fae of the lower staff receives in the afternoon, a pick-me-up. In case you’re tired and you need to keep working, I saved mine from yesterday for you. It’ll give you energy, keep you going and alert. I didn’t want you to go into battle alone.” Her words touch me. She really cares, or is she like Deston and just wants me to win?