Chapter 9
DAVID
“No, I’m not from England.” She sounded dead when she spoke. Like all the hope had been drained out of her. She didn’t continue. I knew she was just trying to figure out how to start, but I doubted we had a lot of time.
“You have to tell us everything.” I prodded, “Now.”
With a deep breath, she explained, “There is another world that connects to the human world by gates, the fae realm.”
She paused to let that sink in. Judging from Eric’s response, it didn’t. “Fae? Like fairies, tiny girls with wings? Mom, we stopped believing in bedtime stories a long time ago.”
“We don’t have wings,” Mom scoffed. “I’m sure you’ve both noticed the strange colors of people’s eyes?” We nodded, still skeptical. “It’s because we’re fae and our eye color denotes what element we can control. I can control earth, so they put us up here where I can’t reach it. Blue controls water, red controls fire, yellow controls air. Anyway, that’s not the point.” She paused again before murmuring, “I thought I left this all behind.”
She looked far away for a moment. I hesitated, but we needed her to come back. I said, “Well, we’re here now. Can you tell us where here is?”
It did the trick and she continued explaining, “Right, so this is the fae realm. There are gates between here and the human world. I had no idea that there was one in Yosemite, but there is one in England and a few others that I know of scattered around the world. All of the ones I know of are in rural areas, usually wooded.”
And a popular campsite in the rural, forested Yosemite would be the perfect place to hide and still get enough human traffic to be useful to these fairies. “So…you weren’t really afraid of mountain lions. You thought there could be one there.”
“I only knew for certain of the ones controlled by my people. The one we stumbled through isn’t one of them.” She was trembling, on the verge of hysterics. I scooted over to her. I couldn’t put an arm around her with my wrists bound so closely, so I just leaned into her and she did the same. “I’m so sorry, boys. I’m so sorry.”
“What’s going to happen to us?” Eric said in a daze. Mom let out a sob at his question. I was almost to the point of crying too, but the sound of people approaching silenced us.
The guards from earlier came around the curve, followed by a man in gaudy attire that matched the castle’s medieval style. He wore a cape that may or may not have been stained with blood; you wouldn’t be able to tell since the colors would match perfectly. The rest of his clothing was in deep jewel tones. The ensemble was topped with a gem-encrusted crown. This was clearly the king. Looking into his fiery, merciless red eyes, the same color as those of the men who’d burned us, I knew he would hurt us as horribly as everything had implied.
All three of us sucked in a breath as he took us in. Unexpectedly, so did he.
“What do we have here?” he said. “The UnSeelie princess has returned?” Eric and I both spun our heads to Mom. The guards were even shocked. Princess? “A little lost it seems,” he continued.
Mom stood so she was eye level with him. In an even, unbending voice, fit for the title he’d given her, she commanded, “Let these humans go. You may have me, but not them.”
He chuckled at her request. “Oh, no, but I want you all. Letting anyone go would be not be enjoyable at all. And you will do nothing because, as I’m sure you realize, up here you are very far from your precious earth. Now, I have a show to attend, but I will be back. Farewell, Princess.”
He turned around to look at the cell across from ours, which the guards had just opened. They grabbed hold of what I had thought was a pile of discarded clothes but was actually an emaciated man. Incredibly, he was not dead yet despite the obvious starvation. He muttered something unintelligible as they dragged him out of the cell and back through the hall. The heavy door slammed on their way out and the noise rang in the few seconds of silence before we were demanding more answers from Mom.
“Now you’re royalty?” I started.
“Please tell me you don’t rule over these nutjobs,” Eric chimed in.
“Tell the whole story this time.”
“Yeah, that was a pretty big detail.”
Mom sank back down to the floor and waited for us to shut up. Heaving a sigh, she told us, “I am the daughter of the King and Queen of the UnSeelie. But these aren’t my people. These are the Seelie. I have no power over them.” She slouched over, looking completely defeated. After she had a moment to gather herself, she said, “But I swear, I will find a way to get you two out of here.”
That didn’t do much for me. It seemed I was fresh out of hope. I didn’t really want to talk anymore, but Eric wasn’t done.
“But I thought the UnSeelie were the evil ones? That’s how it goes in all the folktales,” he said. I remembered that too, but the evidence was right in front of us. The Seelie were not our friends. Maybe all the fairies were evil besides Mom.
“Humans don’t understand,” she sighed. “The Seelie seem nice and charming when they’re trying to get the humans to follow them. Didn’t Boden seem nice? The humans never see danger until they’re already as good as dead.”
“What’s the difference then?” he asked.
“The UnSeelie don’t like humans either, but they don’t try to bring them here. They just want to be left alone. If a human causes trouble with an UnSeelie, the human will be killed right away.”
“So the UnSeelie got a reputation for being cold-blooded killers,” I said.
Mom nodded. “And the Seelie are sweet as candy.”
I didn’t care if Eric still didn’t get it. I wanted to get off this subject immediately. “How’d you end up in L.A.?” I asked.
“When I was young, I took an interest in humans — not in hurting them — just curiosity. I wanted to know what they were like and if they were really as bad as everyone told me. But the UnSeelie are supposed to be completely apathetic toward humans. I would have gotten in trouble for it eventually, so I ran away. I went through one of their gates to the human world. I ended up in England. I moved to the U.S. at the first chance I got in case anyone managed to follow me.”
“And then you met Dad,” I stated, figuring we probably knew the gist of it from there.
She paused. “And then I met Dad,” she confirmed.
“Did he know?”
“No. I never told anyone. I thought it would be too dangerous. And part of me wanted to forget. I wanted to belong in the human world. I rarely used my power, and I avoided talking or even thinking about this place.”
I sat back to absorb it all. Fairies were real. That thought alone was enough to send me reeling. They had powers over the elements. At least that proved I hadn’t been hallucinating. But shit…I couldn’t figure out a way that a human could go up against them. I couldn’t make walls of fire or the ground rise up in front of them. They’d beat me every time. I wished I could gamble for our freedom in a bake-off. I could win that.
That’s when it hit me that I would never go home again. A wave of homesickness rolled over me, making me nauseous. I’d never bake again, never sleep in my bed again, never see my friends again. I would miss Sid’s party. My hand jerked to my pocket and pulled out the paper that had been folded inside. I still had the flyer. It was crumpled and smudged, but it hadn’t gotten lost through this ordeal, not yet. I studied it through the watery haze my tears had created and wished that we hadn’t gotten lost either.
Mom noticed and tried to comfort me the same way I had her. Down below, the voices of the townspeople rose.
“We’re so stupid,” I choked out. “We should’ve listened to you and not gone on that stupid trail.” I was crying in earnest now, my tears pouring as hard as the rain from earlier.
“It’s ok,” she assured me. We all knew it was empty though. “I should’ve seen the signs and made us turn back.”
“How bad is it going to be?” Eric asked. Mom didn’t respond, but that w
as answer enough.
“Bad, Eric,” I spat at him. The last thing I wanted to hear was Mom’s stories of what the Seelie did to their human prisoners. I couldn’t understand why he did. “It’s going to be bad. Why do you want to know the specifics?”
“I just want to know what we’re in for,” he replied defensively.
“Why? It won’t help us,” I countered. It’s not like I could do anything to change it, and I didn’t think it was possible to prepare mentally. “I don’t want to think about this anymore.” I pulled my knees in and buried my face in my arms.
“David’s right,” Mom said before we could argue more. “I don’t know how long it will be before they come back, but let’s use the time we have to take a break from this. Why don’t you two try to get some sleep? I know you’re tired.”
She was right. We had both been running on nothing more than terror-induced adrenaline for hours. With identical sighs, Eric and I slid down the wall as far as the chains allowed. Trying to find a comfortable slouching position — not that there was one — I tried to also push all thoughts of this place away.
That was incredibly difficult when the screaming started. I realized it must’ve been the man whom the guards had retrieved. It was a scream of the worst, purest pain. I couldn’t imagine what they could be doing to elicit a sound like that from a person who had looked to be already half dead. I didn’t want to imagine it. And of course, the laughs and cheers of the townspeople rang right along with the man’s pain.
Eric tried singing to block the noise, this whole world, out and I tried to let his voice do the same for me. After a while, as the man’s screams tapered off to whimpers and finally nothing, we nearly succeeded. All I was left with was the image of the raven haired girl moving through the trees. I decided this thought could stay. I somehow found sleep with her words ‘I will come back for you’ drifting through my mind.
I woke to the sound of metal clanging against metal. My head shot up and I saw two new guards running their swords along the cell bars. The events of the day all came back to me at the sight of them. I curled back up, wanting to re-enter what had been a surprisingly peaceful sleep full of sweet bread and cakes and the girl. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to force myself back to sleep. It didn’t work and only seemed to encourage the guards. They laughed hysterically at me. Mom shook me softly to get me to sit up and save what little dignity I had left. I doubt it worked. I rubbed my hands down my face. Water must have dripped onto me while I was asleep because my cheek felt wet. I’m sure I looked like I’d been crying as I wiped it off. The guards’ snickering confirmed it.
“Is it time?” I said quietly to Mom.
One of the guards answered instead. “So eager. We’re just supposed to watch you for now, but we could start the fun early if that’s what you want.” Terror must have showed in my face because he and his partner laughed even harder. I turned my body fully so that I had my back to them.
Eric looked like he had slept, but Mom had dark circles under her eyes. She obviously hadn’t found any rest here.
“Mom, maybe you should try to get some sleep now. I know they’re annoying,” I indicated the guards, “but you should rest too.”
“No, no, I can’t.”
“It’s okay. I’ll stay up,” I told her. She shook her head frantically. “Did we miss something when we were out?” Maybe the King came back to rub it in some more while Eric and I were asleep. He seemed like the kind of arrogant jackass that would do that.
“No, David, I just can’t.” I put my hand over hers to stop her trembling. “If I close my eyes, I’m going to see you getting hurt. I don’t want to picture it,” she whispered. I nodded. As much as I hated seeing her so exhausted, I couldn’t blame her for being afraid of nightmares right now. I had thought I would have one, and I felt lucky that I managed not to. Hers would probably be worse too, since she knew specifics.
“Well,” Eric broke in, “if we aren’t going to sleep anymore, then anyone have a plan yet?” I looked to see if the guards had heard that, but it seemed they’d lost interest in us. They were arguing about something, paying no attention to us.
“It’s very simple,” Mom stated. “When they take us out and we get to the bottom, I will distract them and you two will run like hell. Go through the village door and into the forest and don’t look back.”
“You expect us to leave you?” That wasn’t happening. I’d never leave anyone, especially her, here with these people.
“You will. I will get away if I can, but you two have to.” Eric and I both started to protest, but the guards quieted and glanced over at us, effectively cutting us off. When they lost interest again, Mom continued before we could. “You will have to find your way back to the gate. The forest is dangerous but I think the one we came through is the closest and it was a fairly straight shot.”
“Mom, this is ridiculous,” Eric said. “We are not leaving you here. Plus, we can’t get through the village, let alone the forest on our own.”
“He’s right. We have to all go together.”
She was already shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see another way. I promise I will come if I can but I am going to give you the best chance I can no matter what I have to do.”
We went silent again when the guards stopped their arguing. They weren’t looking at us though. There was a commotion outside the hall, where the stairway was. They went to check it out, and we heard the door slam shut behind them.
As the noise in the stairway continued, I asked, “Do you think the King is coming?” Eric let out a string of curses that on any normal day would get him grounded, but Mom didn’t even seem to notice. She was staring in the direction of the door even though we couldn’t see it from around the bend.
The noise reached a climax when it sounded like all of the bats that had been sleeping in the rafters took off at once. We could hear their loud screeches and beating of their wings. The yelps of the guards could also be heard as they tried to shield themselves, I presume. One of them yelled for help but a few seconds later there was a faraway thump, followed by a squeal and a second thump.
“Holy shit, did they fall all the way down?” Eric asked.
Mom nodded, eyes wide, mouth agape. “They’re dead.” So simply stated. That scared me a little, but a bigger part of me was just relieved they were gone.
“But how? Who would kill them?”
I knew the answer to his last question a minute later. It hadn’t been the King on his way to taunt us or chauffeur us to our deaths at all. The door to the hall let out the softest sound as it opened and closed. A shadow in the hall came closer and the girl with dark hair and shining yellow eyes followed a moment later.
She held a set of keys in her hand. She had come back for us.