Chapter Four #4
“Yes, they’re demonic, I said softly, interrupting them again.
It seemed to me to be clear about what this was, though I couldn’t have said how I knew.
They looked at me in surprise. “It was one of the ogres, a female, living alone. The village men were led by this young farmer here. He set a fire in the cave, hoping to smoke the ogre out or to burn her alive. They rained in fire-tipped arrows to start the blaze, and to try to kill them, because they were afraid of her. They thought there must have been another exit, because she never came out, though they kept the fires burning all night. The next morning, they explored the inside of the cave and found only small, charred bodies—too badly burned to be recognizable, but they figured out that they were only children. Her children. The men left the bodies there in the cave and returned home. Except the young farmer took along some souvenirs. He took some of her children’s bones as trophies.
“For a short time, the attacks stopped and the villagers thought they had destroyed her, the one that had been killing their livestock. But then the attacks started up again—only this time, the ogre came to kill children, not livestock. She wanted revenge.”
Tadgh looked shocked and gasped. “This is a horrible story. Where is it coming from?”
“I’m saying what happened.” My voice remained low and steady, despite the horror around us.
“But how do you know?’
I ignored him and kept talking. “She came in the night to the farmhouse,” I told them, feeling like I was in a dream watching it play out.
“And she tore down the door, leaping inside to snatch the children from their beds. As their parents watched, she ripped them apart. She wanted the parents to see. She sucked the blood of their babies until they were empty husks and bit their bodies off in chunks and swallowed some of the pieces whole. She left the parents alive and howling their pain and grief, so they’d suffer—it was only the children she wanted.
She’s truly wicked and feeds off their pain,” I said quietly, feeling drained. “Make no mistake. She isn’t done yet.”
The Faery lord raised his eyes to meet mine. “How do you know this?”
“I-I don’t know. But I do.”
Tadgh finally broke the silence by making a scoffing sound. “I think it’s fairly obvious, though, isn’t it?” he asked, though he’d said differently only minutes before. Ignoring what I’d said, he gave us his version of what I’d said.
“I think the first attacks were by the female ogre, who was living on her own for some reason in the caves. The fact that she first only took livestock for food and that she had children with her indicates that she was living there. But after the villagers killed her children in that cave, she left through the portal and went somewhere else for some reason. Maybe she needed to hunt. Now she’s come back for vengeance, and she’s killing the village children. ”
“Yes,” I said.
Tadgh replied. “She’s taking from the villagers what they took from her. But it’s monstrous.”
“It is, yes,” Braden said. “But no more so than what the villagers did to her and her children. These mortals have no choice but to surrender. To bury their dead and abandon their farms. Leave this cursed place, because she’ll keep coming and never stop.
There’s nothing else to be done here. They have to go. ”
There was such a strange silence that I looked up and blinked a few times. I felt as if I’d been asleep and dreaming. Had I called these people ‘mortals,’ like I wasn’t one too? I was so tired I didn’t know what I was saying.
Fionn turned and made a whistling sound so that his men would come to him. “He’s right. We’re leaving,’ he told Tadgh. “There’s nothing more to be done here.”
“But we should go after her—follow her to her lair,” Tadgh protested.
Lord Fionn shook his head. “No. If she doesn’t hide her tracks, then there’s a reason for it. She’s setting a trap for anyone who follows. You’d do well to leave her alone.”
“How do you two know so much about these ogres?” Tadgh asked suspiciously, his hand straying down to the axe in his belt.
Fionn gave him a contemptuous look that made him slide his hand away again.
“Ogres are demonic in nature, like Braden said, and they killed my father. This one will kill you and your men too, if you give it half a chance. Forget this place. Tell these people to leave and go yourself if you know what’s good for you. There’s nothing but death left here.”
Tadgh bristled at his words. His voice was gruff as he answered. “Something like this has to be avenged. We’ll do as you say and wait to confer about it again before we decide for sure what to do. You should stay and help us. On second thought, I’ll even split the reward with you.”
The Lord shrugged. “No. This is not my fight. We’re leaving this place.”
I was happy to get away from this scene of blood and death and followed him willingly, but I was surprised that he gave up so easily.
And despite what I’d said before, I wondered if it was the right thing to do.
To leave these poor farmers in such a terrible plight.
Should we try to help? He’d told them to leave but where could they go?
This was their home and the only place they knew.
Lord Fionn must have known what I was thinking, as he always seemed to be able to do, because he said, “We can’t stay here.
I have far too much to do at home. And if any of them stay here, they’ll be killed to the last man, woman and child.
Perhaps some of them will take our advice and escape with their lives.
Anywhere is better than here, and there’s nothing more that can be done in this place.
Ogres have a long memory and this she-devil, as they called her, will keep coming until she’s dead or they all are. Whichever comes first.”
“But maybe you and Tadgh together could kill her.”
“Ogres are tribal. She belongs to a tribe of ogres, who would be eager to avenge her death, even if she’s choosing not to live with them at the moment. Believe me, there’s nothing to do but leave this cursed place.”
I shrugged and knew I might as well save my breath.
As we mounted and rode away, I looked back over my shoulder and found Tadgh watching me.
When I noticed his regard, he looked away, but not before I had seen the naked lust in his eyes as he seemed to be watching my hips swaying gently in the saddle.
I wasn’t used to men, or Faeries certainly, paying me any kind of notice, and my face flamed with embarrassment.
The Faery lord noticed the way he did everything. “Your glamour is falling away as we near the portal. Tadgh noticed. I noticed it earlier myself.”
“What? No, that can’t be. My grandmother made up that crazy story.”
“No, she didn’t. It will fall away completely soon after we go through the portal.” He gave me a sideways look. “And later we’re going to discuss how you know the demonic script, and how you knew that young father stole the ogre children’s bones.”
I had nothing to say to that, because I barely knew what he was talking about. The whole thing was already fading from my memory, and I’d been in a kind of daze the whole time we were at the little farmhouse.
I kept quiet and wished I had some way to prove him wrong. Fionn spoke briefly to the village head man, and we left that cursed place. We found the cave containing the portal without too much difficulty a short time later, about halfway up the side of the curved cliff of Malham Cove.