I spot a large, old tree and run toward it. Moving quickly, I climb it. A quick flick of magic removes the gore. A few more movements and my trail disappears too. I am tired now and lean against the tree trunk, resting a bit.
I hear Kenric calling me, but I stay silent. “Víl?? Where are you? Víl??”
Why is he shouting? He should be quiet, or he might attract unwanted attention. That’s a youngling mistake.
He calls out for me again. “Víl?? Are you here?”
He is not quiet.
I must teach him to be silent. “Here. Hush before something comes.”
He makes more noise than a bull moose in rut, crashing through everything. I can track him with my eyes closed, literally. At least he’s not yelling anymore. Instead, he’s leaving a trail I’ll be able to follow next week. I am tempted to run to draw anything that has heard him away from him, but I fear that he would try to follow. That would only mean one of the things would find him first. He makes his way to the tree, turning in a full circle to look for me. He never looks up, another youngling mistake. The things we hunt may well drop on you from above.
I make a call like a dusk fox, and he finally looks up and sees me in the tree. “Are you hurt?”
I make a gesture to shush him.
He looks around warily. “Is something here?”
I shake my head. “We spilled a lot of blood and innards. Something might come for a meal.”
Nodding, he offers me his hand and some cake. “None of those things are here, Víl?. They cannot cross the ocean. These are just ordinary bandits. Now come here and let me make sure you’re not hurt.”
I look around, and nothing seems out of place. I can’t smell anything. I can hear that the men on the road are a bit restless.
Slowly, cautiously, I climb down. He spins me around, checking for injuries. When he finds that I’m not hurt, he wraps me in a bone-crushing hug. “Can you get out of your armor the same way?”
I nod.
“Can you do that now?”
Sighing, I send it away, and my flouncy, frilly dress returns with all its layers and ribbons. He scoops me up and sits on a fallen log, rocking me gently and crooning to me for a bit, and then feeds me cake. I relax a bit and start to shift back.
Once I’m shifted most of the way back, Kenric laughs softly. “You beat the mounted riders to get to them. We were worried when you took off into the forest.”
I shrug. “An archer was hiding in the trees.”
Kenric looks at me curiously. “Why did you do that?”
I shrug again. “You aren’t dressed for fighting.” I tap on his breast plate. “I can tell you threw on a few bits of armor to go face them. Your cuirass is crooked. Your gorget isn’t latched. You don’t even have a gambeson. You make so much noise coming through the forest, I thought at first you were a bear or a moose. You don’t look up. Calling out like that is beyond foolish. You call your death when you do that. Use a bird call or animal call instead. You need to be protected until I can teach you.”
The rich, happy sound of Kenric’s laughter rolls out, “You, my pint-sized wife, are perhaps the only one I can think of who might say such a thing to me.”
I shake my finger at him, “You left a trail through these woods that I could follow this time next week.”
I close my eyes and inhale deeply. “You stepped in mud, horse shit, grass, burdock, knight’s tansy, ginque, and practically rolled in a poison berry bush. That was all before you got tangled up in the dragonberry bramble. I was running at full speed, in my armor, and still making less noise. I left less of a trail, too.”
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Kenric nods and sighs. “I see your point. We have a small problem. The way you tore through those bandits… It was a bit brutal, even by our standards. There were only three of the bandits left when you sprinted off into the woods. The men are all terrified of you now. Can your magic do anything to fix that?”
I nod. “That should be easy enough. It’s a simple glamour to replace a single memory. I need to be able to touch them.”
Kenric chuckles. “Why don’t you let me carry you back to the carriage? Then you can thank them for saving us from the bandits. I have a few coins you can use. That’s customary here.”
I bury my face in the smell of the Old Forest and nod. Kenric hefts me and starts walking back to the carriage. We get back in the carriage, and the scent of fear emanating from the men is overwhelming.
I almost shift back, but Kenric whispers to me. “Once you glamour them, they won’t be afraid of you anymore. Just hang on for a bit.”
I struggle for a bit and then manage to hold off shifting. He pops me into the seat of the carriage and opens a hidden panel, pulling out a sack of coins.
He hands me the bag of coins. “One for each of them.”
I nod and begin to prepare the spell that I will need, the new memory to replace the old one. It must be detailed and accurate enough that none of them question it too much for it to hold. Kenric pretends to console me a bit while I do this. I look at him and nod. He steps back and announces to them that he wishes to thank them for protecting us. The first man steps up, and he reeks of fear. I swallow hard and place the coin in his hand. I wrap his hand around the coin, and my spell takes hold, replacing the events with my crafted memory.
His fear vanishes, and he mumbles his thanks as he steps back. This is a kindness to them, allowing them to shed their fear. This might be easier than I think, if their fear goes away that quickly. The next one comes, and I repeat the process. Once all the fighting men are done, the wagon drivers follow. The fear smell has dissipated quite a bit, but the drovers and our carriage driver are even more terrified than the fighting men were. I take a deep breath and dive in. These men get a different kind of coin, but I still thank them, one at a time.
Each one becomes instantly less afraid. Last is the dour old Sergeant who gives me a grim smile. I catch a tiny head shake from Kenric, so I hold back on the spell and give him a coin without the memory.
The Sergeant takes his coin, flips it into the air, before stowing it in his belt pouch. “I would rather be with you than against you, Lady.”
I nod, accepting his statement.
Kenric claps him on the shoulder. “Why don’t you ride with us for a bit in the carriage? I think my Lady would find it comforting.”
The Sergeant bows to Kenric. “As you will, Lord Kenric.”
The Sergeant whistles, and his horse comes trotting up and gets tied to the back of the carriage. Kenric gets in and sits next to me. The carriage dips a bit when the Sergeant climbs in. He is large, for a human. A sharp rap on the roof and the carriage sets off, followed by the caravan wagons.
Once we’re underway and there’s plenty of noise to cover a quiet conversation, the Sergeant looks at me. “Let’s talk about what really just happened.”
I sniff, and the Sergeant isn’t afraid of me.
I relax slightly and explain the whole thing, including the memory that I crafted to replace the reality of what happened.
When my story comes to an end, the Sergeant gives me a long look. “I have seen such before, in men who have been in battle. Many things can set them off. We will do our best to keep the smell of blood and fear away from you. I know you said you’d see to his safety, but… Let’s say that wasn’t quite what I expected.”
I shrug and nod. “Unless you’ve been in battle with a Fey before, or hunted with a Fey before, I doubt many humans ever see one of us like that. Well, ones that live to tell about it, anyway.”
The Sergeant is curious, so I explain. “We hunt for food like that. I can run down a deer or elk. Moose are a bit more challenging due to their size. It’s also used when Fey hunt each other.”
This startles the Sergeant. “You hunt each other?”
I nod. “Like any group of apex predators, we vie for dominance among our own kind. That can turn violent. Rarely, it goes so far as to shift into hunter mode and battle each other with tooth and claw, but it has been known to happen.”
Kenric laughs, “That’s why the king was so frightened when he made you ask permission to leave.”
I nod. “We no longer follow the Old Ways. Under those rules, I would have challenged him for his right to rule. That was as close as I could get to such a challenge. Everything in me was screaming for me to issue the challenge. I think I bit myself to keep the words behind my teeth. To treat me like that and then demand a show of respect was too much. He should have just let me leave. I think he knew that he’d pushed me a bit too far, that time.”
Kenric looks thoughtful. “Do you think you could take him? We were told that his magic is quite strong.”
I snort. “He knows that I could. My gift is strong, and I’ve had more practice using it in a fight. Many of my duels were against men who could have taken the king, possessing just as much magic and being better with a sword. Our king relies on others to protect him. His protectors can’t help him if he’s challenged. I don’t understand why another member of the royal family hasn’t assassinated him. His actions reflect badly on them.”
I see something brewing in Kenric’s mind, so I warn him. “Don’t get ideas about meddling with the Fey court. We might squabble among ourselves, but we’ll unite and turn on an outsider quicker than you can blink.”
Kenric looks a bit skeptical, so I explain. “It was under the old king, Myanthar. The last time a human kingdom really challenged us, Myanthar dealt with it. He pretended to be their friend and ally. Myanthar cast a spell on their palace to prevent anything from harming their king. Then Myanthar let the other human kingdoms know about it. They fought war upon war to see who would control that palace, each king wanting to hold it for themselves. They were so consumed with each other that none of them realized it was Myanthar’s doing. He sat back, never even risking a single Fey while that whole kingdom burned. Someone finally got smart and destroyed that palace, but it took generations of humans before they had peace again. That’s how Fey deal with human kingdoms that make themselves into a threat. Myanthar was Ellisar’s uncle.”
- Did you see that reveal coming—or did it blindside you?
- How do you think this changes the game?