30
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My idea was stupid but it worked.
The two armies all gathered within the grass nearest to the walkway, while the marcaich gathered near the rocks closest. Just as the tide began to sink, the rocks that we would need to sprint across became more and more visible, my plan was enacted.
The black-panthers of the marcaich were dismounted and sent across the walkway, pausing at various intervals. And when Queen Tonn called forth a thick mist of sea cloud that engulfed the entirety of the walkway, the panthers resumed a normal, natural size.
Which meant that as the fog dissipated, and the tide dropped to the lowest it would become, the walkway had a dozen black-panthers spread across it.
Needless to say, the humans panicked. Some were so struck with fear that they simply sprinted into the water, refusing to dare the trek back across the walkway out of fear of the next panther along it.
Within seconds the long spread of the path was empty, and one of the cats let out a quiet call that signalled the beginning of our movements.
Small groups at a time broke out into an all-out run, wasting no time as their small flecks of bodies moved across the path.
Those with wings; the pegasus’ and the hoverflies and the birds, all took to the air with as many as they could carry on them, settling across the sea in Marazion just as the first group made it across.
It took two hours to get everyone across, and it was right about that time that some wildlife officer rolled up with half of a plan to get the panthers to ‘safety’, whatever that meant.
Which, for us, signalled the next wave of dense sea fog, and the disappearance of the cats to a size meant for pixies.
By the time everyone was across the walkway, no one was ready for the next, and longest, part of the journey. So we moved off of the roadway, collecting as a large unit within the longest blades of grass, and allowed our bodies the chance to rest.
That was when King Nevan and his host arrived.
They floated down from the heavens as if they lived there — which in a way, they did — and settled amongst our ranks like they had been there the whole time.
They sat with the others, picking at various items meant for lunch, and shared a laugh with the pixies of the other kingdoms.
Their mounts, mostly birds and the odd insect, all nestled themselves into the cool blanket of grass and set their sights on a long snooze before they would be needed again. As did our own animals, save for Urram and Gliocas that never left our sides.
“Isn’t that strange for you all?” I asked Niamh and Shea, who were sitting cross-legged behind me.
Niamh had a large fruit in her hands, the skin all chewed to shreds and the juice within looking a little less fresh than I would have hoped.
Shea had an entire backpack filled with just apples.
She was on her third one by the time I joined them.
“Isn’t what strange?” Shea asked, her mouth occupied with half of an apple that she devoured within seconds. I couldn’t help but frown at her strange obsession with the fruit.
“Three kingdoms existing side-by-side and yet the world has not cracked open and killed us all.”
They both rolled their eyes at me as they looked out at the sight.
Pixies of the woods, the seas, and the skies all in one gathering for a reason not involving drink and dance, but a common cause.
It was hard, seeing that, to not feel an ounce of understanding for the Rachainn, for what they had wished of Saoghal when they were still a part of it.
As if Urram knew what I was thinking, he pinched at my earlobe and earned a swat in his direction which he ducked under.
“Look, Olivia, it’s not like we —”
Niamh was cut off by the shrill call of another horn and the appearance of rows upon rows of bodies that sank into the horizon before us.
There was no doubt who rode towards us. The sun haloed each of them as if it was their personal weapon that they tucked behind them. Hair of gold and the faintest green, pinks and purples and reds of flowers, light brown of the dirt beneath us.
Cluaineach had arrived.
Diarmuid pulled his snickering fox to a stop just before Raegan and Killian, sliding down from its side and beginning a conversation with the two of them that I couldn’t hear.
Which would have bothered me, if I hadn’t seen Rory and Aisling emerge seconds later, looking as out of place in a meadow as possible for two pixies born to it.
“Rory! Aisling!”
Their heads whipped in my direction and that look of confusion evaporated and made way for joy, instead.
When they finally arrived at our sides, they offered small smiles to Shea and Niamh before turning to me. “I didn’t think we’d see you here.”
“Me neither,” I admitted just as I tried to readjust Urram on my shoulder. He squealed and made to pinch my finger, instead.
I caught Niamh glancing at Rory, her face flushing with a rosy-hue as he noticed her and smiled.
“Go on, Olivia. Tell them what you were just telling us,” Shea growled, earning her a flipped brow.
“What?” Aisling asked, looking between the two of us with a shred of concern.
“Nothing. Nothing! I was just pointing out the fact that the only way we’re going to be able to defeat the Rachainn is by coming together as one, which is what they ultimately want.”
“You’re sympathising with the Rachainn, aren’t you?” Aisling gasped and Rory motioned for her to keep it down.
“No. All I’m saying, all I’ve been trying to say is that for someone like me, who hasn’t grown up in this world, some of your… rules seem strange. And while I don’t agree with their methods for demanding change, I can sort-of understand the desire for a change.”
They looked at me like I had six heads or rabies.
I waved them off. “Forget about it.”
~
I couldn’t eat. Everyone had food on the way to their mouths, water in little canteens tipped into the air, and I couldn’t fathom the idea of eating.
My stomach hadn’t stopped spinning since we left Choilltean, and every time our group grew in size it would take everything in me not to throw up on the grassy hills of Cluaineach.
Instead, I resorted to sitting several feet away from my friends, listening to the small conversation made between all the pixies around me.
A group sitting just behind me were discussing battle strategies, the one behind them were glittering some nonsense about Prince Raegan having a hidden consort, and the group beside them started to contribute saying that Prince Tadgh was going to duel Raegan for this secret pixie’s hand in marriage. It was utter shit.
But my friends had their own discussion.
They decided to indulge Aisling and Rory, entertaining them with conversation as if they didn’t hate one another on a level that I would truly never understand.
Rory had asked Niamh what she thought of his home — Cluaineach — to which she had to admit she’d never been within the kingdom.
Which spurred the conversation into her hidden truth that she was forced to present everyone with — she really wanted to travel Saoghal, one day.
To that, Shea did what Shea did best and ruined the mood by telling her no place would ever be as magnificent as Choilltean. The conversation died not long after.
Which was when Raegan appeared in front of me, his boots swallowing my sight as he frowned down his nose at me.
“Making friends I see.” He wanted to grin, but nothing made it through as he judged the distance between myself and my friends.
Urram hopped down from my shoulder, his beak scraping along the ground as he worked at grinding it against some stones. Gliocas hovered over from where he had been perched on Raegan, joining his companion in a quiet screaming match.
“Do you need something, Raegan?”
Whatever glistening of humour he had in his eyes faded away as his frown furthered across his face. “You’re regressing.”
I knew he was right, in a way. It’s funny how you never truly understand what that feeling is in your chest until someone that knows you points it out.
Then it makes sense, all of a sudden. It makes sense why the air feels denser, why each breath feels more difficult to make, why you can’t summon a genuine smile to save your life.
But I hated that he was right. I hated that not only was it that obvious, but that it was Raegan who noticed when no one else had.
“So you don’t need anything? Great, can you please move, you're blocking the sun.”
He wasn’t, of course. If anything, Raegan was the sun. It partnered with him like rainbows partnered with glass, spreading rays of brilliance across the earth.
In an attempt to be funny or further my budding disdain, he threw his hands up and pretended to retreat.
I watched his back as he strode away from me, right up until he paused at Killian’s side and no longer was capable of holding my interest. Content to rot beneath the one thing that was supposed to illuminate my life, I looked back across the horizon and plucked at the small roots of grass beneath me.
Until Killian arrived, seconds later. Wordlessly, he dropped down next to me, crossing his legs over one another and letting out a sigh that must’ve been as old as he was.
“Killian, what–”
“Shush—” he lifted a finger to his lips, winking at me, “—listen.”
There was nothing to listen to. The chatter of the pixies behind me had become more of a buzz than a distinct noise, and the faint chitter of creatures as they rolled and dozed across the meadow was decreasing by the second.
Like I had felt for so many years, I simply did not have the energy to explain that to him.
“Do you hear it?”
“All I hear is you,” I snarled, but immediately regretted it.
Killian had been nothing but kind to me, he didn’t deserve to earn the brunt end of the fouling of my soul.
“Just because Raegan sent you over here, doesn’t mean you need to try and do whatever you’re trying to do. I just want to be alone, Killian.”
When he didn’t immediately respond, it confirmed my suspicions and I rolled my eyes at the Prince, whose back was still to me and wouldn’t have seen any way.
Killian spread his arms to either side as he tipped his head back. “This is Saoghal, Olivia.”
Pretending to glance around, I feigned surprise. “Oh, that’s where we are.”
But Killian wore his inner joy like a shield and my words just simply bounced off of it. “We are pixies. We belong here.”
“Is there a point that you’re trying to make?”
He dropped his strange grand motion and looked at me, finally. It was hard not to crack under that gaze, under the vibrance that somehow lived in those dark green eyes.
“We’ll protect it, to our dying breath. And we’ll enter Mag Mell with honour and glory, for we protected our kin.”
I glared at him.
“That’s what you can hear. What we can all hear. It’s not like the quiet before the storm, it’s the last breath before drowning. It’s silent and serene, it’s acceptance and bravery, and it’s all consuming.”
“What are you talking about?”
He cracked his infamous grin at me and I felt some light shine down on my face. “I don’t want you to sit here and feel sorrow, to mourn lives that are not yet lost. Look around at them all, do you see a single one with a frown on their face?”
Not at all. They were all torn apart with wild smiles, heads tipped back and throats bobbing as they laughed, meals being shared or thrown, all existing within the light air around us like they weren’t about to go to war in the coming days.
Killian's hand grazed mine as I looked around, bringing my focus back to him and only him.
“It is not easy, Olivia, to choose to see the good when everything feels the opposite. You have to want it.”
Something in me crumbled. I felt the dust of it tumble down my body, dissipating to smoke within my bones and setting my legs to jelly as I looked at him.
I leaned closer, letting our shoulders graze as I set my head against his shoulder. “How can there be good in anything that comes out of such violence?”
His chin dropped to the top of my head. “I am thankful that you have lived a life that allows you to see it so simply.”
“You’re saying I’ve been too sheltered?”
“No,” he chuckled, his chest beating with the rhythm, “just that for someone who claims to have spent so much time in the dark, you seem to be untouched by it. Your heart remains true and strong and pure, and for that I am thankful.”
I didn’t have the energy to explain to him that I was not untouched by the blackness of my own mind, by the little black dog who seemed content at nipping at my heels for the rest of my life.
So I just released a deep sigh and fell heavier against Killian, allowing him to be the pillar of strength that I knew he was.
“I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand you all,” I whispered.
“And I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” he muttered back.