Chapter 8
KORMAC
My dad used to pray to the three gods every day. Drunk on ale or not, and he was a serious mess most nights after too much ale, he’d always kneel before the handmade shrine in our hut, forcing me to join him and pray for better days.
As much as I didn’t believe in the gods, because I’d seen too much shit to have faith, I found myself whispering a prayer in the dark anyway. Bad habit. And, strangely, it made me feel better. The words might be empty, but they were calming more than the meditation.
Thanks, Dad… One of the few things I had to thank him for.
At least he was still alive.
Ten days after giving birth to me, my mum had vanished. Dad woke up and found her gone. Not watching me sleep in my crib as she liked to do, not fixing porridge for breakfast.
As Dad told it, the rain came down heavy that morning.
He wasn’t feeling too good—probably badly hungover.
When he’d found her gone, he’d run into the village, into the woods surrounding our hut.
Soaked to the bone, freezing, not giving ten tons of hellpiss about the dangers.
Desperate to find the love of his life, the mother of his only son.
She’d never been found.
Some folk said she’d been taken by some insane human or fae who had eaten her in the woods.
Most of us living in the northern territories of Autumn were always hungry, food not as bountiful as the rest of our country since we’d been pushed up there.
We hunted anything that could be cooked up on a stove or eaten without sickness.
It’d driven many Fomorians, humans, and other fae creatures to do some bad shit when the hunger got really bad.
The price of freedom, my dad would say. The consequence of holding the north against Lord Dach, who wanted the Sidhe to take us all, for there to be no unseelie court anymore. Fucking Gentry. They loved to flit between the sides.
I hated fae politics. Humans didn’t have any say in where they ended up, born to whatever masters their parents had. Unless you were a free human, like me, who believed in the rebellion and in a republic, not under royal tyranny.
Damn them and their grip on the world.
Things could be better for humans. Actual freedom, not being slaves, even getting a chance at having some land. A more fair and balanced existence. So said Lasair, Fomorian and leader of the rebellion. A true queen. One day she’d put the world right.
Whatever happened to Mum, she was gone, and Dad never let anyone forget it. Couldn’t blame the man’s heartbreak, but he didn’t make things easy when he drank his sorrows.
I loved him, though, and he tried his best for me, even if he wasn’t really that present. I looked after him more than he did for me. But I didn’t hold that against him. I’d always fight for him and the village and the memory of Leanna, the rest of the people we’d lost.
The phlegmy man slept. Nosily, snoring away as if he’d enjoyed a huge meal and plenty of ale.
Hellpissing fool!
I tried to sleep. Impossible on a hard floor with only your arm as a pillow. Happy thoughts didn’t work because there weren’t any strong enough to act as a shitting lullaby.
“Hello?”
I lifted my head. A voice? The other cell next to mine?
“Hello?” I responded.
Nothing.
I put it down to my—
“Hello there, lad.” The voice belonged to a woman.
I sat up. “What happened to the man in there?”
“Put down like most prisoners.”
“What do you want?”
“To talk.”
I didn’t move, staring at the darkness beyond the bars. “I don’t.”
“Why not? It is so lonely down here. I’m tired of that vile man beside you. Please, lad.”
If she kept on like that, she’d make herself a new enemy. “We shouldn’t be talking. The guards might come.”
“You’re afraid of the guards?” she questioned.
“No.”
“Then why are you saying that?”
Annoying. “What do you want to talk about?”
She took a while to answer. I heard her moving closer to the bars, her breaths drawn out. Creepy.
“Have you ever considered seeking the lands of our own people?” she asked.
I hadn’t expected that. “These are my lands,” I replied.
“Your motherlands.”
“Why would I?”
“There might be a better life for you there. Don’t all humans consider these things?”
“Not in my part of the world.” That was the truth. I’d never heard anyone talk about the human realm in the far-off east.
“I see,” she said.
“Why?”
“I’m simply wondering.”
“The east is dangerous and closed.”
“There is danger everywhere.”
She was testing my patience now. “Get to the point.”
“There is no point. I was only asking a question. Curious.”
“You’re not human?”
“No, lad. I’m not.”
“Would you…” I hesitated. Why was I falling into this trap? “Would you go east if you were human?”
“Probably not, if I’m honest. I’m not a lover of the water as it is, and I’m sure the Sidhe have many eyes on the waves of Sunrise Ocean.”
A light growl escaped me. “Fuckers.”
“I wonder if a human has ever returned to their motherlands after arriving here.”
“You seem to want me to try.”
“You’re mistaken, lad.”
“Right. Then why are you telling me this?”
She took a moment to answer. “I wanted to get an idea of what lay in your heart.”
“My heart’s none of your business.”
“True. I apologize for any intrusion.”
Ah, did it matter? “Don’t worry. What else are you going to do in here but ask questions?”
“A good point.”
“No,” I said, “I wouldn’t want to go east. There’s nothing there but mystery.”
“You don’t enjoy mystery?”
“I want a quiet life.”
“Hard to come by for a human in Faerie.”
What did she want? “This life is all I know.”
“Of course. Your home as much as any other creature.”
“It is. I’ve got no reason to leave.”
“Rebels live dangerous lives.”
“I believe in change,” I countered.
“I see. The end of Sidhe rule. See Lasair take the Faerie Throne.”
“Yes.”
“Change…”
“We need change.”
“Change…” She fell silent. I didn’t hear her breathing anymore.
“Hello?”
Nothing but silence. I didn’t dare move toward the bars to get a closer look. You never knew what might fly out of the dark. I spent the next hours, or at least it felt like it, watching the darkness she’d spoken from. Confused out of my mind by the conversation.
I really had to up my escape plan ideas.