Curse of the Fae King

by Delia E Castel

  The blood…

  I blinked. Had that carried in the wind, or did I imagine it? I rested my head on King Drayce’s shoulder, but not even his heat and strong embrace could ease the cold fear plaguing my senses.

  Eventually, we reached the edge of the forest, where grasses as tall as trees swayed in the breeze. Amidst them sat an array of flower heads, ranging from brown, spiked oddities, to wispy, white fluff.

  The ring pulsed again and grew heavy, which I interpreted as a sign that we were close to the pool. Beneath us lay a patch of scorched earth ten times the size of our tiny cottage. A pile of charred bricks stood in the middle of the patch, as though it was the last of an ancient ruin.

  I directed Enbarr to land at the edge of the clearing, and the skeletal mount’s hoofs landed on blackened earth. He folded his wings with a happy snort, and I glanced down at the ring. I wasn’t sure how, but it seemed to urge me to walk through the tall grass at one end of the clearing.

  We dismounted, and King Drayce placed a hand on my shoulder. “You must approach the pool alone.”

  “Why?” I snapped.

  He turned his head, Adam’s apple bobbing beneath his scales. “I cannot bear to look upon my reflection.”

  “Oh, no.” I grabbed his thick forearm with both hands and pulled hard. “There will be no repeat of the Keeper catastrophe. You got me into this mess and sitting back because you don’t like what’s reflected in the water isn’t going to happen! I need you there to drag me out of that pool in case it’s hungry to drown another maiden.”

  He didn’t resist or flinch at my scolding, but he also didn’t look at me when he asked, “What truth do you think it will share?”

  A pang of guilt lanced my heart, radiating pain through my chest, and hitting the back of my throat. I swallowed hard and gazed down into the scorched earth.

  There were things Father would never tell me about that Samhain night, like how he had hidden and how he had aged. I was sure the pool would display the villagers’ massacre. Since it was a faerie pool, it might also show me the grieving families of all the faeries I’d slain over the years.

  King Drayce lifted my chin with his fingers, and I starred up into slitted, green eyes that seemed to stare into my soul. They made me wonder if his strange powers included mind-reading.

  “The pool could tell me many things,” I said through clenched teeth. Whatever it showed me, I wouldn’t throw myself into its depths out of guilt. Father depended on me, and I ached to return him to the human world and to put him on that ship alive and unhurt. “But I don’t want you looking over my shoulder.”

  King Drayce gave me a sharp nod.

  The ring led me through a thicket of oversized bulrushes, which caressed my arms through the cloak. The scent of algae made my nostrils twitch. We continued through to another clearing containing a pristine pool that reflected the azure sky. About twenty feet in diameter, it seemed calm and too shallow to drown a person, but since the cartographer ring was pulsing hard, it had to be Ecne’s Pool.

  I knelt on dry stalks of grass as thick as my thumb lining the pool’s bank, cringing at how they cracked under my weight.

  King Drayce stood three feet away with his back to the bulrushes. “Make your request.”

  I stared into the clear water. “Please give me the Blood of Dana.”

  Its surface rippled and showed me an image of a long-haired man stumbling after a ball of light in the forest. It was night-time, and he wore the kind of clothing I’d only seen in ancient etchings of druids, who existed a millennium ago. The light darted behind trees, racing ahead, so the man had to run to catch up with it. Whenever he gave up, the wretched light made itself visible, arousing his curiosity anew.

  My lip curled at the intelligence behind the light. It was something that still affected travelers and drunkards to this day.

  Will-o’-the-wisp.

  Even those who didn’t believe in faeries knew not to follow these things, as they could lead a person to their death. From the gourd in the man’s hand, he had to be inebriated. This particular wisp led the man toward a patch of glowing mist. As he caught up with the specter, the iridescent light illuminated his carrot-colored hair.

  I leaned forward, straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of his features. Was this our ancestor?

  The druid tripped over a root, cutting his knee. He dabbed the bloody wound with his sleeve before pulling himself upright and continuing through the mist. When he reached the other side, he glanced down to find a hand gripping his wrist.

  Nausea crawled up my throat, and I turned to King Drayce. “You told me the Fomorians had been banished!”

  He stepped forward and glanced over my shoulder, his scaled face expressionless. “Not all Fomorians were pure-blooded, and some escaped their banishment.”

  By the time I turned around, the druid had pulled a blonde woman out from the mist. She was naked, but more importantly, I recognized the shocked face of the druid. He was about forty years old, but his features were unmistakable.

  My breath caught. “Is that—”

  “Your Father has been Queen Melusina’s captive for a millennium.”

  My heart pulsed, my throat dried, but I forced myself to watch the next part of the vision. The queen stood in front of Father’s cage, cupping her swollen belly and congratulating him on becoming a father.

  I clapped my hands over my mouth and squeezed my eyes shut. So, this was the terrible truth. I had suspected she would use her captives in that manner, but a thousand years? It was too much to fathom.

  A large hand landed on my shoulder. “You must watch the rest.”

  The next scene showed Father embracing a small, black-haired boy of about ten. I couldn’t see his face, but Father walked away from the child to steal a baby from the queen’s boudoir. He dashed through the shadows, past fallen faeries, before escaping on a capall with the slumbering baby strapped to his chest. Moonlight caught the tiny tufts of hair, making them glow like freshly cut carrots. My gaze traveled down to the corner of a leather book, poking out from the horse’s saddlebag.

  My stomach dropped, and I jerked my head away, staring into the tall reeds. It was the leather tome I studied every day and had taught me about faeries, plants, and healing.

  I couldn’t look at King Drayce. I couldn’t look into that pool. I couldn’t withstand confirmation of the baby’s identity. My throat spasmed, and tears clouded my vision. Through clenched teeth, I asked, “Did you know this truth?”

  “There was a geas,” he murmured. “It tied our tongues about the subject of your mother. I couldn’t tell you anything about your parentage until you saw it for yourself.”

  Surely the vision would end? The water shimmered to an image of the queen in the throne room surrounded by mist. On a wooden altar sat a chalice, a sword, and an open book. The mist closed in on her, caressing her arms and hair, as though they were friends.

  She poured a goblet of blood onto a sword. Then she read an incantation from the leather book and sliced through the mist. Blackness poured out from the rift, followed by the misshapen head of a one-eyed giant. With its mighty talons, the beast ripped the mist open, releasing dozens of monsters more frightening than the Keeper of All Things. They raced around the palace, feasting upon the queen’s human servants.

  I clutched my stomach with one hand and clapped the other over my mouth.

  Blood splattered everywhere. It splattered on the grinning giant, on the queen, and on Father and King Drayce, who bowed at her feet. There was no sign of me anywhere.

  “Why?” The word gasped out of my lungs like a howling wind.

  “The magic of the Fomorians is encased in the mist. Queen Melusina cannot survive in this world without taking brutal, harsh methods. When she releases her brethren, she will be free to live a life without pain.”

  Cold horror filled my lungs and froze my breath. The bargain I had made with the queen would free the Fomorians and unleash creatures worse than the fae. “What have
I done?”

  Panic swelled in my chest, expanding until it squeezed all the breath from my lungs.

  What. Had. I. Done?

  My quest would undo the sacrifice of all those people and doom everyone to enslavement, followed by the worst kind of deaths. Tears rolled down my cheeks, falling into the pool, and sending ripples through the scene of carnage. In all my determination to rescue Father, I’d accepted King Drayce’s glib explanation of Queen Melusina’s purpose for the items.

  Handing over the Blood of Dana would bring the mortal world one step toward that horror. Withholding it would result in Father’s death. I shook my head. Queen Melusina would likely keep him alive to endure centuries of torture.

  A sob escaped my throat. I couldn’t leave Father to suffer, but I couldn’t sacrifice the world to keep him safe.

  The pool rippled again, revealing an image of me sitting on a gold throne, surrounded by four handsome faeries.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  King Drayce knelt at my side. He pointed at the first male, a faerie whose skin shone like polished mahogany. Rope-like strands of hair hung down his muscled chest. “That is Prince Calor of the Summer Court.”

  The next male’s hair was as black as crows’ feathers, his skin a pale beige with hooded eyes. “Prince Verus of the Spring Court.”

  I nodded, waiting for him to explain why I was sitting with all these royals.

  The third male had bronze skin and hair that shone like spun gold. “Prince Folium of the Autumn Court.”

  And the last male was as pale as me but with blue hair and eyes the color of frost. I turned to King Drayce. “I suppose this one’s from the Winter Court?”

  He nodded. “That is Prince Nix.”

  “Why am I—”

  His eyes bulged. “The blood is coming!”

  The water receded into the earth, leaving a puddle of blood. King Drayce knelt forward, holding the cup I had used to draw out venom from his wound. He scooped up as much blood as it could hold, seeming to forget that it was tainted by the Keeper’s poison.

  I couldn’t wait to hear his explanation of the vision.

  Chapter 12

  I gazed at the cup of blood glistening in King Drayce’s hand, trying to unravel the tangle of questions and emotions writhing through my mind. Father had stolen me away as a baby. What had the Keeper of All Things said? I wasn’t like any of the others. I was special, and that my hair signified something. At the time, I had been more concerned with obtaining the blood and leaving his lair, but I should have asked what he had meant.

  The sun hid behind a cloud, casting us in shadow and softening the harsh ridges of his scales. I gazed down at the bank of Ecne’s pool, which had now filled with clear water. Everything made sense. Why I could see faeries, why the faeries I killed had called Father a thief, and why the queen had sent me after her items instead of striking me dead in her throne room.

  I was no ordinary mortal.

  Nausea trailed up my throat, its ascent slow and undulating. That thing was my mother. My hands clapped over my mouth. I would never acknowledge Queen Melusina as anything but the creature that had kept Father captive.

  I turned my glare to the king, who stared back with such intensity, I had to grit my teeth. “At least I know why you brought me back to the palace. You’re helping the queen to release the Fomorians.”

  He scowled. “Did you not see the last part of the vision?”

  My cheeks heated with prickly, irritated heat. “Forgive me. I’m still reeling from the family reunion, so my observational skills aren’t at their best. It’s not every day one discovers their father’s a thousand-year-old druid, made to sire children for the Queen of the Faeries!”

  He growled low in his throat. “That usurper is no queen, but a Fomorian of diluted blood!”

  I snatched my gaze away and forced myself to stand, despite my churning stomach. Could I also be one of those monsters? “What do you want from me?”

  “The last vision of you on that throne. You were surrounded by the princes of each Court of the Living.”

  “Living?” I gazed into his slitted eyes.

  “Help me stop your mother from releasing the Fomorians. Take your rightful place on the throne.”

  I shook my head and pushed my way through the thicket of rustling bull reeds. The machinations of a Faerie Queen were not my concern. In a few days, I would find the items and leave this monster-ridden island with a young and healthy Father. He could have a chance for a happy life. Maybe even a wife, and I would be free to pursue my dreams to become a healer.

  “Neara.”

  “No!” I threw up my arms. “I don’t want to listen.”

  He let out a frustrated grunt but didn’t follow right away. I assumed he was too busy retrieving the cup of blood he didn’t intend to give to the queen. Moments later, his footsteps cracked on the dried grass behind me.

  “You cannot run from your responsibilities,” he said.

  I clenched my jaw and stalked through the tall, green rushes, letting them brush over my face as I passed. How dare he drag me into this mess and demand that I usurp a Queen? Father had suffered enough for the two of us, and I hadn’t asked for any of this!

  As I reached the clearing, he said, “Samhain.”

  The words were like a flame to a pit of grease, igniting an inferno of rage that spread through my veins. It powered my limbs in such a rush, my hands shook.

  I spun on my heels, fists balled, and rushed at him. “Don’t you dare bring up that night!”

  He stared down at me, eyes blazing with green fire. “Those bodies she had the Sluagh pile up in your village will be nothing compared to when she unleashes the Fomorians. Every human on this island will become cattle. Cattle to breed, cattle to torture, cattle to devour!”

  Memories of blood pooling under the villagers, staining the soil slick and black, doused the flames of my anger. I’d always known the faeries had slaughtered the villagers because they’d been searching for me. But now I knew it wasn’t because they wished to punish me for having seen them. It was because the queen was seeking her stolen daughter.

  If I didn’t stop the queen from releasing the Fomorians, the resulting carnage would also be my fault. Guilt wrapped around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs. My shoulders drew up, elbows tucked into my sides, and I bowed my head.

  Every breath hurt, the pain as fresh as it had been the dawn after Samhain, when I had returned to find the villagers slain and Father prematurely aged.

  My posture sagged, and the next words came out in a sigh. “Tell me what I have to do.”

  “The pool has broken one of the geas she has placed on her secrets, so I can explain her plans.”

  Enbarr let out a trumpeting screech.

  King Drayce took my elbow. “Captain Stipe is close. Let us find another location to discuss this.”

  I followed him to the skeletal horse and let him help me onto his back. The weight of my new responsibility and challenge pulled at my gut, and neither King Drayce’s warm body nor his strong arms provided any comfort.

  We rode over the expanse of tall grasses, toward a forest of mighty trees, whose flat tops and leafy branches spread out like green parasols. Round, green fruit adorned their branches, catching the morning sunlight and glowing like emeralds.

  Enbarr dove between two large trees, plunging us into a darkened forest. Nothing grew beneath the canopy, and broken twigs and branches lined its floor. The fallen fruit rested amidst the litter, catching minuscule streams of light. He galloped between the massive trunks, silent as a breeze, hoofs never touching the ground.

  I turned to King Drayce, studying his reptilian features. In my vision, the queen’s fingers had been covered in scales, yet she seemed the vision of perfection in her throne room. “Are we related?”

  He paused for several heartbeats. “No.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “She married my father, the King of the Otherworld. If she
hadn’t devoured his essence and left him a dried husk, I might have been your step-brother.”

  After witnessing how he could manipulate the dead, I did not doubt his claims of being the son of the god of death. Enbarr stopped at a tree with a low branch that curved to the ground.

  My heart thundered so hard that its reverberations reached my bones. Whatever he would share had the power to change me forever. Bile rose to the back of my throat, black and bleak and bitter. My days of working toward a life with Father in Hibernia were over. I could no longer be the young woman who hated the fae, because it was in my blood.

  “What do you know of the realms?” He helped me off Enbarr’s back.

  My throat had dried, its membranes stuck together like hardened wood pulp. I shook my head.

  “Thousands of years ago, there were three: one for the gods, one for the living, and one for the dead.”

  I nodded, resting my hand on Enbarr’s saddlebag for balance.

  “The Fomorians ruled over the faeries and humans in the realm of the living, but when they were banished, the living realm split into three. One for the mortals, one for the faeries, and the other is the mist which now encases the Fomorians.”

  My pulse throbbed, and I rubbed my temples, trying to make sense of how so many beings could exist on one island.

  King Drayce placed his hand on my shoulder. “The vision showed your father pulling the queen out of the mist.”

  “Could he do that because he was a druid?”

  “I believe so, but Queen Melusina has never divulged what was special about Ailill.”

  “But he’s a human?”

  “Yes. the queen tried to use Ailill to extract other Fomorians from the mist, but he was only able to free those with lesser blood, like the Oilliphéist.”

  I shuddered at the memory of the Keeper of All Things. “How can I be anything like these creatures? I don’t have any claws or special powers.”