by Gavin Green
*
"Everyone, stop," Renard commanded. He stood within the curving, packed-earth tunnel that within a handful of strides would lead them to the Verden realm. In his diminutive form, the armored sprite was of the same general height as the low-borne gnome couple that inhabited the passage. "You two," he pointed at the gnomes ahead of him, who had turned back at his order but kept their eyes down, "What were your names again?"
"I am Baird, good master sprite," said the male, "and this is me mate, Brynn."
Renard regarded the humble gnome, who had apparently just reached maturity because of his youthful appearance and short tawny beard. His mate was likewise meek with her head hung low, putting more of the bun of her honey-blonde hair on display. They were subservient enough, but that didn't mean he cared for them. "You may carry on, but wait just beyond the portal."
"Yes, sir," they both mumbled before scuttling up the tunnel and out of sight.
The sprite then turned to his small party behind him. "Uther," he said with a frown to his Fair fae comrade, " stop your sulking already, especially in front of the low-borne. We have to endure our diminutive forms for only a few more steps. As I've said twice before, your gifts aren't affected by your size - not that you need them here."
The caramel-skinned fae tossed his long milky white hair over his shoulders in annoyance. "I do not sulk, Renard. It's just that being forced to fit into this tiny hovel makes me feel puny."
"If justification will ease your nerves," the tall troll Valka commented as she looked down at Uther, "you are puny. However, I personally do not think of this expanded passage as a hovel. Those gnomes have shaped a fine subterranean dwelling from it."
"Which reminds me, Valka," Renard spoke again with his hands on his hips, "do us all the favor and stop being so proper and sensitive. You do not apologize for intruding on gnomes - this is a neutral passage and, last I checked, they serve us. And while we're taking a moment for discussion, I suspect you almost sided with the dragon when we paid her toll for use of this passage."
"By toll," Valka retorted, "you mean Tobias."
Renard sighed. "If you had known of the agreed price at the beginning of our journey, the rest of us would have never heard the end of it. That means Tobias wouldn't have been so willing to be part of the party. By the elements, you complained about his fate more than he did."
"His fate was being knocked senseless and callously sacrificed as a meal," she snarled.
"And?"
"There was no honor in it. You dented the back of his head with your club and handed him over!"
"Well of course I did," he responded with a grin, yet still with an inflection in his voice that implied he was speaking to a fool. "Did you expect that twit of a dryad to have the honor of a naïve troll and bravely hop into the dragon's mouth? Perhaps spouting poetry about bravery and sacrifice while offering himself up? Save your judgments, Valka - I merely simplified the situation. So, if you have the willpower, please refrain from any further complaints on the matter. And Perrine!" he barked suddenly at the party's scout, a robe-swathed bauchan female. "Stop pilfering anything that will fit into your pouches!"
From under her deep hood, Perrine's long, pointed nose twitched. After a tense pause, her long, thin fingers slowly slipped into one of her robe pockets and pulled out a hand-crafted flute that had just found its way there. She calmly commented in a high, grating voice, "I remember no such rules where I must abstain from liberating any bauble that interests me, Renard." She twirled the flute with her dexterous gray fingers, admiring it with large cat's eyes that shone from within the shadows of her heavy hood. "Your objection is noted." The small bauchan then slipped the instrument back into her pocket.
Renard rolled his eyes , exasperated. Without another word, he turned and took the last number of steps of the neutral passage. Uther, Valka, and Perrine followed after him. One by one, they all stepped through the stone-framed portal and into a sunny Verden afternoon. Almost immediately, each of the fae began to assume their normal proportions, but none as fast as Uther. Simultaneous with their emergence and re-expansion to their natural sizes, all of them heard a female voice utter, "…Oh shit. Oh shit!"
The fae party turned in the direction of the voice and saw an attractive woman with large, dark eyes staring at them from a short distance away. Next to her was a striking male of imposing size and brawn, but his light eyes darted about with wary confusion.
Renard glanced over to the gnome couple and was satisfied to see them off to one side, huddled next to each other next to a thick post of the rustic wooden fencing. All of the fae scouting party slowly stepped over a rotted fence board that had long ago given way, scanning their surroundings. Mostly, though, they kept keen eyes on the humans.
"You two," Renard said to the nervous gnomes, "who are these humans? And how is it that the maiden is aware of our arrival?"
"We don't know them, good sir sprite," Baird answered.
"Come now, I'll have none of that. I know that lies are easy to tell in this realm, so do not practice that liberty with me. That one," Renard pointed at Kate, who was whispering to Brody, "can see us. How have you made this so?" He knew by their auras that the gnomes were truthful in their ignorance of the humans. But unexpected company - one of which whom was 'aware' - made the sprite ill-tempered and edgy. To fae like Renard, low-borne were acceptable targets to relieve any sort of tension.
"Rather than persecute hapless gnomes," Perrine hissed at him, "perhaps you should direct your attention to where it belongs." She pointed a long gray finger at Brody and Kate. "I have already learned the given names of these humans from their surface thoughts. Check your list of names, for I sense the Lore about them both."
As Renard leered at the small bauchan scout, he reached into a pouch on his hip to retrieve the scroll of names that Cadell had given him. At the same time, Uther impulsively began walking toward the human couple.
"What are you doing?" Valka asked him as he passed her.
Pausing, the Fair fae looked back to her and replied, "On the list or not, the woman has an ability to sense us. They'll both need fogging in any event. And who knows, she might fetch a fine price from those willing to barter for her back at the camp. As for the male, what a servant he'd make." With a smile that held no humor, he turned and resumed his course.
"Uther, you reckless fool," she growled, taking a stride toward him. "We don't -" But her words were too late. The impetuous fae continued forward, allowing his form to be seen by mundane eyes as he walked.
*
"What, Kate? What's going on?" Brody whispered, alarmed.
"Four more fae just emerged," she answered quietly with a trembling voice, "and by the size of their nimbuses, three of them just... enlarged."
"Enlarged? How enlarged are we talkin' about?"
Kate huddled closer to him. "I'm guessing one is about my height, another might be average for a man, and the third is at least your height. The two little ones I first saw are off to the side, still afraid. The one my size is a mix of nervous and irritated, and the big one is curious and cautious. The last of the four, the short one, has no good intent… but not overly dark colors. The closest one, though - the one of a normal man's height - he wants to have some fun, though only the kind that bad people would want."
Brody moved a half step in front of her and gazed out at the mound. Keeping his eyes forward, he leaned his head in Kate's direction and asked, "Okay, so what are they doing?"
"I can only see their nimbuses, love," she whispered up to him, "not what they look like. Unless they reveal themselves, we can't hear their words, either. But, as Liadan told us, fae would have to let themselves be seen to say or... do anything... to a human. So far, I suspect they're having a discussion with each other by the way their colors fluctuate."
"Okay," he said with a deep sigh, "if one of the dark ones comes, you run back to the -"
"No, I'm not leaving you," she whispered emphatically.
"Th
en at least get behind a boulder and do your blending trick. I know how to use my stone gift a lot better since the fight with Devlin, so I'll be okay. But otherwise, should we just say something first, or do you wanna... "
Thirty paces away, a figure began to take shape as if stepping out from a dense fog. It was walking toward them as its form hastily solidified.
"...Well, fuck it, never mind."
Straight, milky white hair that hung to his elbows dominated his not-quite-human features of the now fully-visible figure. The advancing fae wore a dark leather vest, with matching loose trousers tucked into archaic mid-calf boots. His bare arms - a smooth caramel color - matched the rest of his slender, athletic build. He looked to be of average height; Brody remembered Kate's words of their descriptions and correlating colors - this one was bad news. The smile on that long, alien face reminded Brody of his uncles' dark grins when they'd first shown up at his cottage.
Facing the approaching fae and stepping fully in front of Kate, Brody whispered to her, "Darlin', I love ya. Now run."
#####
Author's note: The fictional village of Ballaghadaere (pronounced Bala-dare) is closely based on Ballaghaderreen (pronounced by many as Bala-hadreen), a quaint little town in northern County Roscommon, Ireland. Lough Gaell (pronounced Gail) is actually Lough Gara, a lake near Ballaghaderreen. Names of locations have been changed for the hell of it; this is fiction, after all. Also, I didn't want to take the chance of stepping on any Irish toes, which I'm told is very bad luck.
Eire of Defiance, the fifth and final book of the Eire series, is set to be released whenever I finish it.