Fae Nightmare

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  I clutched the bars.

  “How can I possibly give you all of that? I am no god. I am only mortal.”

  “With that magic. That magic of forgiveness that you possess.”

  “I don’t see how,” I whispered back.

  He smiled, but this smile was not evil or twisted or wicked. It was pained and vulnerable.

  “I do. And I will show you if we can live through this. But now, dearest Nightmare, you must dig deep and find a way to save your life, because my will is bound, and I cannot save you.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  When we reached the town square, I couldn’t help myself. I scanned the square for my parents. Had Sir Eckelmeyer found them? I pulled my blindfold up and down, scanning the real world and the spirit world, but I couldn’t find a trace of them. I hoped they’d escaped and that I was the only one Sir Ecklemeyer was threatening. But hope was not enough. I wanted certainty.

  The square was dominated by the Court of Twilight. Unlike the other Fae, they seemed less inclined to torture their captives and more inclined to set up a base of operations in the town. I caught a glimpse of Ghadrot leading a team of golems into town to clear away bodies and debris.

  The Balance stood to one side, flamboyantly obvious even among the Fae with his half-dark, half-light appearance. There was a line of men bound by woven roots – because chains would burn the Fae. They’d been bound to a long rope. Olen was at the end of that line, a jagged wound running down his face and defeat in his eyes. The men, I realized, were his militia. Men and boys I’d grown up with. I felt a little shudder of fear at the sight of them all defeated, their homes sacked, their families either slaughtered or out there in the woods running.

  How many innocents were still here when the Fae arrived? How many hadn’t gone with my mother? The thought ached in my chest. I’d tried to tell them. I’d tried to warn them.

  I hadn’t done nearly enough.

  And now, even if I saw my sister, I wouldn’t be able to trap her. I had landed in my own trap.

  With a burst of inspiration, I drew my sword. Maybe I could flee the cage with it. I slashed it through the air. Nothing happened.

  Again.

  Nothing.

  It seemed that the cage negated the sword. Frustrated, I jammed it back in the scabbard. I’d need to try something else if I wanted out of this cage.

  Scouvrel stepped over two bodies with wedding wreaths wound around their brows. Wedding wreaths I’d made. They were the bride and groom from the wedding a few weeks ago. Death had not parted them, after all.

  I wasn’t thinking right, I knew that. I should be crying. I should be shaking and retching and moaning. Instead, I felt hollow, as if the things I were seeing couldn’t be real. As if I was watching someone else’s life.

  I swallowed.

  Wreath. Writhe. Wraith. Wrath.

  Scouvrel was right. They were all the same. The anger. The pain. The way it tangled and wove you until there was nothing left.

  You’re not thinking straight, Allie. You’re giving up. And you can’t give up. You can’t surrender. I tried to find that flame within me again. It guttered in the winds tearing through my soul.

  I slipped my blindfold down, watching Olen as his ends tangled up like a Fae.

  A wrae.

  A wreath.

  I was going crazier by the moment. Did the insane know they were insane? Did my father know?

  Soon they would open this cage and bring me out and make me Fae by drowning me in the blood of my friends. And what was I supposed to do about it? My only ally had to fight me against his will. My former friends and family were defeated.

  I had no options.

  Or did I?

  I had the bow. But it was too small right now to harm anyone.

  Hmmm.

  And then my sister arrived.

  She was glorious and beautiful, her winged hat like golden lace across her brow, the back of it kicking up like the tail of a turkey and woven in fine gold like the beams of a rising sun behind her head. She rode a white stag with ease as it seemed to flicker in and out of existence and at her side rode her lover, holding her hand in a show of unity – the Lord Cavariel.

  “And so, the prodigal returns,” she said lightly and around her, the Fae laughed.

  The look of horror on Olen’s face was priceless. He’d thought I was dangerous. He had no idea.

  “I hear that you treated my family poorly while I was away, Olen Chanter,” she said, letting her stag trot up to where he was tied. She reached out with a long sword and lifted his chin with the tip of it. “How shall I repay you for that?”

  “I – I housed your family with my own,” he stuttered. The Knight was gone and in its place was the boy from my girlhood. His shoulders were slumped in just the same way.

  “And do you think that will save your neck?” she asked, her words a hiss.

  “Oh, lay off him, Hulanna,” I called, frustrated. “You’re hardly one to judge. You had our father nailed to a tree for your pathetic blood sacrifices.”

  “What is this?” Hulanna asked, looking from Scouvrel to The Balance.

  Scouvrel flinched.

  “The Knave has just returned from fetching your sister, Lady,” The Balance said, stepping away from where he was lounging to walk down the line of prisoners. He cuffed Olen casually in the jaw as he walked by and I flinched, only noticing that he was watching me after the fact. An eerie smile of satisfaction washed over his face. “She owes a debt to the Faewald.”

  My sister’s eyes met his in a challenge. “She is a vital part of my plans. I need her to remain alive.”

  The Balance shrugged. “She is likely to be reborn as Fae. She has the tenacity for it.”

  Beside him, Olen hissed.

  My sister frowned but she straightened so that she was even taller in the saddle, arching an eyebrow proudly. “If you are wrong about that, all this will have been for nothing. I have brought together most of the Faewald for the first time in all of known history to wage a common war. I will usher in a Golden Age. I will spill milk and honey over the Faewald and we will all dance with joy.”

  The Balance crossed his arms over his chest. “Be that as it may, Lady. My role is to see Balance and I will make it so.”

  She hissed. “Even over the common good? You would say this to your Queen?”

  His eyebrows rose. “And so, the rumors are true.”

  I expected my sister to gloat, but I was surprised when a look of worry passed over her face. What did she have to be worried about?

  Instead, Cavariel took a step forward, his charming smile growing even more beautiful as he increased the effect of his glamor.

  “Come now, dear Balance,” he said with a poisonous smile. “You did not think I married this mortal merely for her great beauty or for the heady enjoyment of her adoration.”

  “Didn’t you?” The Balance lifted an eyebrow.

  Cavariel laughed, “For long centuries the Faewald has been without a High King and Queen, but the addition of a new Court to our ranks and the conquest of the mortals shall reveal to all that we are the rightful High King and Queen of the Faewald. We are not demanding vows of fealty – yet – but we do hope that you will offer them willingly.”

  The Balance watched him for long seconds. “You know that in my role as The Balance, I may offer fealty to no one.”

  “Of course,” Cavariel said graciously.

  “But it would grant you favor in my eyes if you managed to quell the ravages to this town while I deal with this prisoner,” he said nodding to me. “While your wife may prefer revenge, I would hate to have to restore balance here with the deaths of our own.”

  Cavariel nodded and Hulanna’s face was peculiarly blank.

  “Maim or injure all you like, but do not spill more lives on the ground,” The Balance said, “Lest the Balance tip to the mortals and we four roles rise to defend them.”

  “As you say,” Cavariel said, but the smile he regarded the pr
isoners with gave me chills.

  “One moment,” my sister said seeming to steel herself for something painful. “You are still here as witness, Balance. So, judge this, for with this sacrifice, I claim the Court of Mortals. I do not take without giving in return.”

  She stood – suddenly – in her stirrups on the back of the stag and lifted her two-handed sword. Her sword came down in a swipe so fast that it caught the light of the sun as it burst through the clouds, flashing so bright that I saw nothing but white for a moment.

  There was a thump.

  And then Cavariel’s head rolled down the street and landed at Olen’s trembling feet.

  His body slumped to the ground.

  I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

  What had she just done?

  “There will be no High King of the Faewald,” Hulanna declared. “Only a High Queen.”

  “Your sacrifice is witnessed,” the Balance said. “The life of your husband for your claim to the Court of Mortals. The Balance of power is maintained, and your conquest made binding by the claim of blood and sacrifice. So let it be recorded. So let it be proclaimed through the Faewald.”

  He nodded briskly and I finally remembered to gasp.

  My sister’s hard gaze met mine.

  She’d just killed her own husband. She wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. I didn’t dare forget this. I didn’t dare think that I could win her with compassion or pity. She was Fae to the core, evil to the core, grasping for power above all else.

  “Come, Knave,” The Balance said, “Bring our prisoner to the river of blood and let us drown her soul in murder.”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  I tried to crane my neck to see what they were going to do to Olen and the others from my town. I tried to keep my eye on Hulanna, too. I felt dizzy – whether from trying to see with only one eye blindfolded or from what my sister had just done, or from what was about to happen to me, I couldn’t have said.

  I found the triumph in her eyes disturbing. She seemed less concerned over murdering her husband than I had been over defending myself from Werex. I tried to hold her gaze, but Scouvrel moved so quickly that my vision was obscured by his shoulders. He was holding me lower down now, as if I didn't matter to him.

  "How far?" he asked The Balance.

  "I saw a low dip in the ground just east of this town," The Balance said. "It was carved by the spring melt and rains." I knew the one he was speaking of. A little dip that filled with water up to my knees when the snow melted. Carter had a temporary bridge he pulled out of his shed and put over that dip in the Spring months. "It will be full enough by this time that we can enact The Glory there."

  I fought against the fear that welled up inside me. I needed a plan. Scouvrel had told me that. He couldn't help me, but I could help myself. He'd also said that they had to take me out of the cage to do this.

  So that would be step one. Get out of the cage. Would I have the chance to shoot before they took my bow and arrows? Did I have the heart to shoot Scouvrel?

  I wasn't sure.

  I could try a maiming shot, rather than a mortal one. But what if the arrow flew true with magic and took him in the heart? What if The Balance was too quick and took my bow from me?

  I eased two arrows out of my quiver and nocked one, holding the other in my draw hand. I'd have to be fast. Faster than I'd ever been before.

  I breathed deeply through my mouth, slow, controlled breaths. Fear and worry in, calm out. I focused on the bow in my hand and the feel of the arrow. And as I drew the stink of Werex in and the tormented screams of my people, I exhaled only calm, ever calm. I let the fire burn in my mind, burning up the fear and desperation, burning up the despair and turning it all into the fuel I needed to shoot two arrows quickly the moment I was free.

  The Balance walked ahead of us with an awkward gait as if he preferred his wings and was irritated that he could not fly here. But no amount of awkwardness could keep us from eventually reaching the runnel of red blood flowing from Skundton.

  The Balance stood in the blood, not concerned as it poured over his feet.

  "We must act quickly. Soon, the deaths will end, and our opportunity will be over."

  I shivered. If anything, ever, made me certain that the Fae were born of evil and nothing else, it was this right here.

  "We are each born in blood and we die in blood for the blood is where the life is. Only in the blood of sacrifice can the old life be forgotten and the new embraced."

  "Great. A lovely sentiment. Shall we add your blood to the mix?" I asked loudly, refusing to be anything but defiant in the face of this horror.

  "Remove her from the cage, Knave, and mind my words. You will not let her escape or harm me. You will not let her kill herself by any means but this one. You will not prevent me from giving her The Glory or delay this in any way or in any way show her preference over me. If she threatens to harm me, you will overpower her and detain her. Is that understood?"

  Scouvrel's lips were white as he nodded his head. His glamor had returned, but even now it flickered sometimes, showing me the emaciated, worn creature beneath it.

  “Wait!” I called, shuffling my arrows to pull the frog out of my pocket. “First, take this.”

  I shoved my hand through the bar.

  Scouvrel opened his palm and I dropped the frog into it. It became full-sized when it hit his palm and he jammed it into his pocket, his eyes going wide as they met mine. My blindfold slipped down the rest of the way. He nodded slightly as if acknowledging something, his lips pressed tightly together.

  Did he recognize what it was? Did he realize what it meant?

  “Enough delays,” the Balance said. “Do not let her try to bribe you with trinkets. And do not offer her an easy way out," The Balance said. "Shake her out of the cage onto the ground with the body of Werex."

  No! That was sure to make me lose my grip on the bow and arrows.

  Think fast, Allie.

  I scrambled to the side of the cage beside Werex so that he would fall out first. I didn't dare let go of the bow or the arrows. I tucked my chin just as Scouvrel opened the cage door and tipped it over. Werex slammed into the door. I slammed against him a moment later. He couldn't get through the gap.

  Of course. I was the one who put him in the cage. Only I could take him out of it.

  I positioned myself so I was standing on his back. Scouvrel shook the cage as The Balance cursed. Good. There was something I could still do to tangle their plans. I held onto my balance as he shook it, waiting, waiting, and when the moss floor was close, I leapt in the gap between Werex and the door, dropping to the mossy floor below.

  I landed in the moss. I didn’t have time to assess the situation. Not to note where my target was – nothing. I loosed the arrow.

  I reached for a second, but the bow was snatched from my hand and tossed aside.

  I looked up into Scouvrel’s burning eyes. The arrow was stuck into his bicep. Not his heart.

  Not his heart.

  Even as his hands snatched my arrows away, I couldn’t stop that thought from echoing through my mind.

  The arrow was supposed to find and pierce an evil heart.

  It hadn’t pierced his.

  My eyes were so wide that the air stung them.

  He was shaking his head as if he was trying to deny what he was doing as he grabbed my arm and shoved it behind my back, forcing me to move as he wanted me to.

  “Bring her here,” the Balance said imperiously. “And give me her weapons. And yours. There will be no surprises today.”

  Scouvrel maneuvered me gently, but inexorably toward The Balance, seeming to be oblivious to the arrow in his arm despite the blood dripping from it. He handed over my bow and arrows, and his sewing needle rapier. Holding me in place with just one arm as I kicked and fought, he stripped me of my sword and scabbard, dropping them before The Balance.

  The Balance smiled – a smile of ice and winter, of freezing to death without a fire.<
br />
  “You thought to steal life from us. Now we steal life from you. Join us in immortality, in joined suffering, in painful subservience.”

  “I’m not afraid of you,” I said through gritted teeth, fighting against Scouvrel. I should be terrified. I should be shaking and scared, but I wasn’t.

  I was furious.

  I’d been betrayed. I was being backed into a corner. My best efforts had all failed and that didn’t make me feel defeated or broken. It made me so angry. It made me so frustrated. I wanted to chew through leather. I wanted to rip down their tents and send them all running.

  I landed an elbow strike to Scouvrel’s ribs. His breath whooshed out, but his grip was only tighter.

  “After this,” The Balance said, you won’t be able to lie like that. “After this, your mortal life will be over.”

  No.

  I refused to accept that.

  I wouldn’t let me kill them. I would not be one of them.

  “Take her to the edge of the flow,” The Balance ordered. “Do not let her resist you.”

  Scouvrel forced me to frozen grass and wet snow, pushing me down to my knees. His lips quivered and his eyes were glassy, his glamor flickering on and off, but his arms were as strong as ever. Too strong for me to overpower. Blood dripped from his arm into the flow of blood in the ditch, but his arm never wavered.

  He pushed my head down toward the water. Something hot hit my cheek. I twisted up to look at him. Was that a tear? Maybe this reminded him too much of his childhood. I twisted the emotional knife.

  “You told me you were a betrayer, but I never thought I’d die by your hand,” I said. “Add that to all the other reasons that you deserve the hell you live in.”

  “I’ve never claimed it was otherwise,” he said tightly, but his eyes were drowning.

  “I’ll make you pay for this,” I growled.