22. Chapter Twenty-Two
William
William wasn’t excited to hear what the group had to say concerning their interaction with The One Who Waits. Nicholas explained, including the less than pleasant agreement struck. Charmaine and Henry shared expressions of terror and concern, while Evera remained as nonchalant as ever.
“This was always an adventure that would end in death if we failed anyway,” Evera said. “Nothing has changed.”
Henry settled a hand under his chin. “She isn’t wrong. We knew the risks when starting this and there is no point worrying when we can’t turn back.”
More reasons he didn’t want Henry to tag along. The thought must have been written on his face, because Henry offered a lopsided smile.
William clenched and unclenched his hands. “Now that we agreed to help an eldritch entity, how are we meant to go about this?”
Nicholas and Evera shared knowing looks. Evera sat Charmaine down when he approached. He needed to check on her. They traveled away from the shimmer, so hopefully she would recover soon.
“The One Who Waits said Faerie has changed. Is there a way for us to determine in what ways? The patients are likely to be where this source of change is,” said Henry.
William tested Charmaine’s temperature. She was burning up, but not the worst he had felt.
He had medicine in his pack. The least he could do was ease her fever, if that was all it was.
He called upon the Sight, inspecting the strings coalescing within her.
None were torn or frayed, merely burning brighter from her fever.
He began the preparations while the group continued their discussion.
Evera grimaced. “If anyone potentially has answers, it’s them .”
Nicholas waved his hands in the air. “No, we are not going to them. They’re revolting and vicious little gremlins.”
“But well traveled gremlins.”
“Do you care to share with the rest of the group? What are these vicious little gremlins?” Charmaine asked. Her words weren’t slurred, and she took the offered medicine easily enough. She gagged, but when he gave her water, she drank that too.
“Red caps,” Evera answered.
“Revolting and vicious, indeed.” Henry shook his head. “Aren’t they the creatures that kill anything in their path and bathe in their blood?”
“Bathe?” Charmaine coughed.
He expected nothing less of Faerie. They had been there for a few hours and faced multiple attacks on their life. Red caps would be another addition to the pile, but at least they’d be easier to handle.
“They don’t kill everything,” Evera countered, then pursed her lips. “They kill most things, but they can be bargained with. Red caps don’t call any land home for long, so if anyone knows of strange happenings, it’s them. They’re easily trackable with the bloody mess they leave.”
Nicholas pouted. “The mess is the problem. The last time I saw them, I was cleaning blood off me from crevices I didn’t know I had.”
Evera stuck out her tongue. “That was an image I could have gone through the rest of my life without.”
“Is there any chance we can rest for the day before searching for them?” William suggested, earning wide-eyed looks from the group. “Charmaine shouldn’t be traveling. She’s sick and needs rest.”
“We don’t have time to rest. Should our parents,” Evera gestured between herself and Nicholas, “learn we’re here, with humans, they will stick their nose in our business and that won’t end well for any of us. We must reach the bottom of this. Fast.”
“Charmaine shouldn’t be traveling all day.
Is there a place I can stay with her?” He hated suggesting it, being left behind when this was his mission, but Charmaine could get worse if they didn’t give her what she needed.
He refused to lose her here, of all places.
They survived Fearworn. They would survive Faerie, no matter what.
“Absolutely not. We shouldn’t separate,” Nicholas replied, his eyes having become more violet, and yet, he spoke calmly, or William convinced himself that the fae was. “Evera and I will take turns carrying her.”
Evera agreed easier than expected. William didn’t know if this was their best plan of action, but he certainly didn’t know of any better option. Once again in a foreign land, he was left to the devices and decisions of others. He may as well have put on his military uniform and marched along.
Nicholas offered to carry Charmaine first. William and Henry eased her onto Nicholas’ back, where she went limp, but he carried her as if she weighed nothing.
Evera led the group, claiming that following the red cap’s scent would be easy enough, whatever smelled bloodiest. He was grateful he didn’t have the sense to pick up on that.
They traversed the wilds of Faerie, hills of lush greenery, floating rivers, trees too thick for the entire group to wrap around.
Foreign flowers blossomed, their petals larger than a grown man’s torso and fangs hidden within leaking nectar.
Creatures frolicked through the branches, their silhouettes an arrangement of shapes and sizes.
They bickered and laughed or dared to sit out trinkets, glass orbs, golden spoons, torn books, and sparkling wind chimes as if they thought the mortals would fall for the trap.
Evera warned them from time to time to avoid a mushroom ring, one so large that the mushrooms were as big as a coach, or treading over roots that would have smothered them from a touch.
Henry muttered to himself while taking pages upon pages of notes.
Regularly, William grabbed his brother to prevent him from lagging after getting lost in a notebook.
If Faerie weren’t deadly, he would find the dazzling lights flickering through the forest beautiful.
“Pixies,” Nicholas explained. “They enjoy gouging out one’s eyes.”
He snorted. “How pleasant.”
Henry wrote about what he saw, drawing a thing here or there, too. William didn’t know his brother could draw. None of it was too detailed, but enough of a sketch to get an idea of what he had seen.
“You’re quite good,” he said.
“My teachers insisted I learn so we could catalogue anything we saw in the field,” Henry explained. “I hated it at first, but now I find drawing rather soothing.”
Evera led them to a river where Nicholas set Charmaine down. He and Henry stayed with her while the fae picked rocks along the riverside.
“What are you doing now?” Henry asked.
“Finding us a ride,” Evera replied.
“Is that a good idea considering what happened at the last river?”
“Sirens aren’t the only ones in the water.” Evera had a dozen smooth rocks in her palm.
Nicholas found the same. They skipped the pebbles across the water so perfectly the rocks landed on the other side.
Then the river went black. The tide strengthened, pushing against the edge, and finally a steed broke forth.
Black as the rapids, the stallion with seaweed as a mane and obsidian scales along its hide sputtered at Evera and Nicholas.
They replied with peculiar spitting noises that had William and Henry staring at one another.
Another steed lurched from the depths, and the two settled near the edge. Evera mounted one and Nicholas shouted, “Come. They will take us to the red caps.”
“In exchange for?” William asked skeptically.
“Evera and I agreed to return in a month to clean their teeth. It’s hard to clean your teeth without thumbs.”
“Fascinating,” Henry muttered, scribbled more, then clutched Charmaine. “She will ride with me and Evera.”
“I should stay with her,” William argued.
“Nonsense. We can manage.” Henry moved toward Evera, where they carefully situated Charmaine behind her. Henry kept his arms on either side of Charmaine while clutching Evera’s waist. He nodded behind him. “You sit with Nicholas.”
There was enough room for another with them. The steeds were larger than any he had seen, but Nicholas waited. He wanted to ride with Nicholas, but he felt odd to do so with Henry around. He already knew where William’s interests lied, however, Nicholas was an entirely other matter.
“Go on,” said Henry, waving behind him.
Nicholas smiled when he slid behind him and took his waist.
“Hold on,” said Nicholas. “They won’t move too quickly, but the ride can get rough.”
Evera shouted, and the horses sped off. Nicholas laughed as the wind whipped through their hair. William clung to him, feeling he could slip at any moment. The horse was wet, and the water rushed against the tip of his boots, but they didn’t tumble into the rapids below.
The world around them bled together in brilliant colors, making him wonder how fast they were going.
As Nicholas described, the ride was rough with a lot of bumping and the horses bucking their heads, nearly hitting Nicholas in the face, but the fae found it enjoyable based on his wide smile.
He admired the expression, how the little fuchsia in Nicholas’ eyes flared.
He looked more like himself, felt like himself.
The horses came to an abrupt stop. They survived the ride. The horses meandered to the edge of the water, where they departed. Nicholas and Evera made the weird spitting sounds before the horses vanished beneath the black water that swirled into a brilliant blue.
“That was incredible!” Henry shouted.
Evera had Charmaine on her back. She looked better, her eyes open and taking things in, but she kept silent and eventually rested her chin on Evera’s shoulder.
“The red caps are near. Maybe an hour’s walk,” said Evera.
“Let’s get this over with.” Nicholas took the lead.
They arrived in another forest, though one of a slightly perturbed nature, with trees a deep red and their leaves orange as flames.
In fact, from a distance, the tree tops resembled a fire swaying in the afternoon breeze.
The soil had an orange tint to it, the grass more yellow like wheat fields, and the limbs caught among one another, creating an interconnected web above their heads.