Faery: A Tale of Dreams - Ch 5

         Eirnin reached the hill that was the entrance to the Unseelie Court. He looked around before slipping through an invisible door.

         A few minutes later, a passing human looked at the knoll and saw nothing but soil and grass. He felt a strong aversion to the hill and quickly strode by.

         Eirnin had to push his way through the throngs of faeries filling the court. A bone-woman sat at a table surrounded by fae. She threw runes in the air. Eirnin watched them clatter back to the table. One of the watching wraiths looked at her fortune and fainted.

         Further in he almost ran over two faeries holding down a struggling hamadryad. Her wasted body put up little fight and the roots protruding from her feet looked withered and frail. Obviously, her tree had been cut down. The fae found delight in her last moments of life. They poked and prodded her and had probably done much worse that he wasn’t around to see. Thin trails of green blood ran down her cheek. Then one’s black, leathery wings enfolded her, cutting off her screams, and when the wings were withdrawn, the hamadryad was no more.

         He shuddered and continued to make his way to the queen. He made slow progress, buffeted this way and that by the reveling fae. His ears filled with the sounds of laughter, screams and entrancing music. Finally, he could see the foot of the golden dais. He kept his eyes locked on it and continued. He almost didn’t notice the selkie that stepped in his path.

         “Excuse me,” he said as he glanced up.

         She didn’t move. The corners of her mouth tilted up.

         “Excuse me,” he repeated. “I must see the queen.”

         “I must see you,” she replied in a voice that reminded him of lapping waves. The smell of ice-cold saltwater filled his nostrils.

         “Pardon?”

         She reached for his hand and, without taking her luminous blue eyes from his face, pricked his finger with one long nail. A drop of blood plopped into her hand and then became a shining green stone.

         “A gift for you, general,” she murmured.

         Eirnin was wary. “Nothing is free in Faery. What is your price?”

         “I already took it. A drop of blood.”

         “What does the stone do?”

         “When it is needed, you will know,” she said.

         Damn faeries and their riddles, he thought.

         “We shall see each other again,” she said before gliding away. The soft layer of down on her skin sparkled, reflecting the light in the court. He watched silver hair ripple like the sea as she walked away.

         He shook his head and walked the few steps left to Nineveh.

         He bowed low. “My queen.”

         She flashed a predatory smile and beckoned him with one long, white finger. “You may stand. What news do you bring me?”

         “I found the human. I – I was unable to take Aedan. However, I saved her life and I have cautioned her against trusting that filth. I am to go back to the mortal’s home tonight.”

         “How is your health?”

         “The iron in her home weakened me, but I spent most of my time outside. I can hide it well enough.”

         “Good. She must not think you weak. You must be her strength and shelter. I can send more opportunities to prove yourself to her. How was the hawk?”

         “It frightened her and I scared it away.”

         “Good, good,” she repeated. She lunged forward then and grabbed his face, squishing his cheeks together. “And you will kill Aedan. I don’t want to see you again until you have his corpse and the human’s cooperation in tow.”

         “Understood, your majesty,” he said, trying his best to look humble.

         “Dismissed,” Nineveh said.

         He turned and made his way once more through the Unseelie Court. He passed the table with the bone-woman again and stopped to look. This time no fae flocked around her table.

         “Scare them all away?” he asked, laughing, as he continued to make his exit.

         With lightning speed the bone-woman stood next to him and gripped his arm. “You would kill us all,” she whispered.

“Let go of me,” he said. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. A gauzy shawl hung from her wiry frame. Her ribs and hipbones poked through the thin fabric.

“Your enemy will be your downfall and the human your failure. You will die, Eirnin. You will die by iron and lies.” Then she released him and smiled as she glided back to her empty table.

         Eirnin stared with fearful eyes before sprinting from the court.

*    *    *

         The evening sky cast a soft pink glow over Bambi’s porch as she shut the door behind her. She needed a break from research. Faeries frightened her. After reading about what they had done through the centuries and could still do – she needed some fresh air. How did Disney ever get Tinkerbell from those stories? She sighed and stepped off the porch.

         They lived on the outskirts of the city, so the jaunt to the forest didn’t take long. She thought it may be foolish to go back to that place, but she didn’t care. I’ve been walking that trail for years. I’m not going to stop just because of some stupid faeries. She paused outside the trees, wrestling with herself. Just one step, she thought, just one and then the hardest part is over. She leaned against an old tree that seemed caught halfway between a stump and a tree trunk. She dropped down, knees pulled up, and rested her face in her hands.

         A noise from inside the tree caught her attention. Inside the tree? She stood up and placed her hands on the bark. She thought she must have imagined it, but she inspected the tree anyway and ran her fingers over the wood, feeling the coarseness of it. She knocked on the wood. It sounded hollow. Then she sprang back as a door opened from the side of the tree.

         “Hurry up and get in here!” a shrill voice said.

         “What?”

         A gnarled brown arm reached out and dragged Bambi inside.

         She was plopped into a chair and the hidden door slammed shut. A tiny creature with long legs and dragonfly wings flew around Bambi’s face and got tangled in her hair. She freaked and began batting at the thing, trying to wrench it away from her scalp.

         “Stop it, stop it! Yer gonna hurt her!” yelled the tree-woman that had pulled her in.

         Bambi paused and took a breath. Then she gently wrapped her fingers around the little body and disentangled it from her head. She held out her hand and examined the tiny faery. It looked delicate, being no longer than her arm and having wings criss-crossed with spider web veins. It began to chatter angrily at her and then flew away to land on the tree-woman’s shoulder. Silver and gold dust fell behind her.

         Now that’s more like Tinkerbell, Bambi thought.

         “Sheesh,” the bigger faery said. “Talk about freakin’ out over some little bugger like you, Spindlelegs.” She cooed at the bug-like faery. The woman had a thick Irish accent and it took Bambi a moment to adjust to her voice.

         Bambi perched on the edge of the chair and tapped her feet against the floor. “What do you want? Somebody needs to start talking because I am so tired of all you crazy faeries not giving anyone any freaking answers!”

         The faery called Spindlelegs flew to Bambi’s shoulder this time and began to braid her hair, quickly turning her now-frizzy hair into a beautiful golden plait that traveled down the side of her neck. She sang a quiet tune in a strange language. It was - surprisingly - very relaxing.

         “My name is Sybrant,” the tree-woman said. The branches and leaves that made her fingers brushed together as she bustled around the kitchen and Bambi heard a gentle tinkle of the gold discs that adorned her hair. “I am too old to be talked to that way, wee one. Hear me on that, now.”

         “Well, when you kidnap people, do you expect them to be nice?”

         Sybrant’s eyebrows rose, almost disappearing into her bark-colored hair. “Kidnap? Why, dear, I haven’t kidnapped no one! I’m only borrowing ye.”

         “Borrowing?”

         “Well, yes. If it’s answers ye want, it’s answers ye will get. That’s why yer here after all.”

         Bambi closed her eyes and sighed. “Why is it that faeries seem to confuse me - even when they’re explaining?”

         The woman laughed, a pleasant sound, like wind sighing through tree branches. “Don’t ye know anything’ about the Good People?” Her face turned serious then. “And don’t call me a bloody faery!”

         “But that’s what you are, isn’t it!”

         “That’s a mortal name. Some of the younger ones are okay with being degraded so - but I accept nothin’ less than respect. We are the Good People. I like that name.”

         While the quirky ‘Good Person’ talked, she fiddled with strange decanters and vials on the counter. She ground various herbs with a mortar and pestle and then mixed them with a dark brown liquid. Every time Bambi began a question, the tree-woman shushed her and went back to work.

         Eventually she turned around and handed Bambi a small bottle of what appeared to be lotion.

         “Put that on,” she said, “It will give ye answers. It will let ye see.”

         “Put it on?” Bambi repeated.

         “Yes, child! Just put it on. I give ye my oath that I mean ye no harm. It is what must be done.”

         “What’s going to happen?”

         “It will give you faery sight. I think you should know what yer dealing with. Ye must also be sure to cover every inch of skin. Leave no part untouched or the magic will fall short.”

         “Okay. So, do I go then?”

         “No. Put it on now, so I can be sure ye do it right. Ye get no mistakes. I can’t make another.”

         Bambi was wary. “How do I know I can trust you?”

         “Ye can’t - but ye should. I gave ye my vow and the Good People can’t lie, dear.”

         “Well - I don’t know.”

         “Do ye want to be unarmed? We can glamour. What ye see isn’t what ye get. Don’t ye want to be sure of those around ye?”

         “Well, yeah, but -”

         “But, nothin’! Just do it. Please.” Sybrant’s eyes pleaded with her.

         “Fine. Turn around? Please?”

         The woman gave her privacy and Bambi stripped. She began to apply the concoction to her body. It was strange. It looked like an oil, but felt and spread like a lotion or cream. Every place it touched tingled with electricity. She began to feel weird - not bad, but definitely wrong, as though something fundamental in her was changing.

         She used every last drop in the bottle. Her skin seemed tanner afterwards and her body thrummed with energy. She felt strong - more alive than she’d been in years. Her eyesight sharpened. This must be how birds see, she thought. The colors around her began to come into focus, became sharper, clearer, more vibrant. She looked at Sybrant and gasped. The tree-woman was different. Where before the most distinguishing feature on the faery were the branches and leaves for fingers, she now paid more attention to her hair. The gold discs were actually insects, woven into branches, leaves and vines. Shaped like moths and glimmering like fireflies, they were like nothing Bambi had ever seen in the mortal world. Hooved feet peeked from under her gypsy-style dress and huge hazel eyes with no pupils took up most of her face.

         “Do ye see?” asked Sybrant.

         “Yes,” Bambi whispered.

         “Hear me again, child. No one can know of yer Sight or of the other changes ye will experience - except Aedan. He’s safe.”

         “Safe? He tried to kill me!”

         She waved her hands in a dismissive gesture. “Trifle, that. It wasn’t personal.”

         “How do you know Aedan?”

         “Why, he’s my son!”

         “But you’re a tree and he’s a - a - a vampire type thing.” She stumbled over the words. Her head spun. She felt weightless and tripped over her hooves. Hooves? She looked down and saw only her battered tennis shoes. That shit must be getting to me. Powerful stuff.

         Sybrant laughed again. Bambi hadn’t appreciated the beauty of it before. Old and weathered though she was, her laugh held young and vibrant beauty. Bambi thought of the forest, of running through the trees with wind in her fur. Fur? Okay, this is getting ridiculous. What did she put in that stuff?

         “What do ye think changelings are for, wee one? We rarely breed. Aedan is my son only in name. He is adopted. No one knows where he came from, but I took him in when he was a youngin’.”

         “I need to sit.” She rested in the chair, arching her back against the oak wood.

         “’Tis normal to feel a bit strange after. Ye will need to find somewhere else to stay soon. Put yer trust in Aedan. He won’t hurt ye - and stay away from Eirnin,” she said with a stern look.

         “Why does everyone say that? Eirnin saved my life from Aedan - you know, the one you’re telling me to trust?”

         “Eirnin has his own motives for what he does. We don’t know what they are yet, but I can promise ye - it’s not yer welfare he’s thinking of.”

         “Okay. I’ll think about it. I’ll have to hear Eirnin’s side of it, though.”

         “Whatever ye do, please be careful. For some reason, yer important to the Otherworld which makes ye important to Aedan and to me.”

         “I’ll be careful - and I promise I won’t tell him about the lotion thingy.”

         “Also - remember - whatever changes happen from here on, they’re necessary. They might save your life, Bambi Ackart.”

         With that mysterious closing statement, Sybrant ushered Bambi from the tree. Spindlelegs followed and curled up on top of her head.

         “Your thing is following me,” she said.

         “Pixie. Spindlelegs is a pixie,” the tree-woman said, “And she’s not mine. She just likes me. She goes where she wants.”

         Then Bambi was unceremoniously shoved outside into the cold. She didn’t feel cold, though. Quite the contrary - she shed her jacket and headed home. She avoided looking at the now-foreboding forest and stared instead at her feet - yes, still feet - as they moved, one in front of the other, leading her home.