Bird Song (62 page)

“How?” I asked before she disappeared once again, fading into the greenery around her.

“It’s written in stone…” her voice sang, the sound disappearing into the rustle of leaves.

“Was that it?
 
Was that what I have to be afraid of?” I asked, turning around to face Robert.
 
“Robert?”
 
He wasn’t there.

“Robert?” I called out, spinning around in place, my head whipping back and forth, looking for any sign of him amongst the greenery.
 
“Where are you?”

“He’s watching you.”

I turned around upon hearing the gravelly voice behind me.

“Uh-uh-uh, not over there either,” the voice taunted, this time to my left.

I spun around, my heart starting to pick up speed.
 
“Who are you?” I asked softly.

“Why don’t you guess, and then I’ll tell you whether or not you’re right?”

I shook my head.
 
“This isn’t a fairy tale and you’re not
Rumplestiltskin
.”

I heard a low rumble coming from directly behind me and I slowly turned around, my fear intensifying by what I saw.
 
A pair of eyes with scarlet rimmed, phosphorescent-jade irises stared out at me from the dark canopy.
 

They were deeply set in a face that should have been human but had lost its way somewhere, instead pulled down, long and narrow like that of a horse, but with a vaguely human nose and distorted mouth.
 
That mouth, the lips grayish with cracks of deep black edging around them opened in a sick smile, baring horribly gray teeth that looked like they had been deliberately filed down to points.

“You’re right about that for they never write about my kind in your fairy tales.
 
I’m too real.”

Something inside of me, something that I would later wish would have just shut up, forced me to stand up straighter, pushing my shoulders back and raising my chin—I stared at the creature defiantly as it approached me.
 
“You’re not original enough to read about,” I said snidely as I took in its entire figure.

Though its head was like a horse, its body was more human-like, with a muscular torso that extended into two hairy arms with claw-like hands at each end.
 
It wore a dark cloth over the majority of its lower half with only its large, club shaped feet peeking through, the toenails curling upwards, almost like some macabre form of living, elfin shoes.

“Interesting?
 
I’m not
interesting
?”
 
As if to prove me wrong, it began to shake, its body vibrating so rapidly it gave off a slight hum.
 
I forced my feet to stay glued to the ground beneath me, unwilling to run away and leave my back exposed to whatever it was.

The smell of burning hair began to mix with the scent of the forest around me and I wrinkled my nose, slowly raising my hand to cover my face in a poor attempt to block the pungent smell from turning my empty stomach.
 
The humming grew louder, transforming into a high-pitched whine before it simply stopped.

“Am I interesting now?” it said in a familiar voice and I screamed.

The once muscular arms were now lithe and graceful, the claws transformed into feminine hands that gently pushed its dark hair from its face.
 
The cloth, though still draped over its body, did nothing to hide the womanly curves beneath it, the dainty feet peeking from beneath the hem completely belying what they had been just moments before.

“You’re not-” I gasped, looking into the eyes that had changed from jade to a deep brown with a faint, nearly imperceptible crimson ring surrounding it.
 
“You’re not my mom,” I whispered.

“No, I’m not, but I can see her in your face, I can see that she lives in your dreams, and that as frightened as you are, you’re slightly grateful to me for showing you a pleasant image before you die.”

I watched, horrified as the creature drew closer to me, but I remained rooted to the ground, determined not to show him the fear that threatened to send me bolting into the dark forest behind me.
 
A dark fog began to surround us and I shuddered with relief as the creature stopped his approach, instead staring with curious eyes as the smoke began to swirl around me, thickening, deepening until an arm was pushing me backwards and Robert stood between the two of us.

“Hello,
N’Uriel
,” the creature said in a perverted version of my mother’s voice, contempt dripping from every syllable.

“You overstep your bounds,
Erlking
,” Robert bit out.

Erlking
laughed, a feminine laugh that brought tears to my eyes, it was so beautifully familiar and yet so frighteningly different.
 
“You left her here for the sole purpose of frightening her.
 
I have done my part and now I want payment.
 
I haven’t eaten human flesh in over a century,
N’Uriel
.
 
I have behaved, I have followed your rules—let me have her; you owe me this much!”

Robert growled a warning, his arm pushing me behind him, his feet firmly planted to the ground, bracing for something—I did not know what.
 
“I owe you nothing—she is not yours.”

“She is not yours either, or have you forgotten the laws?”

Robert shook his head.
 
“I have forgotten nothing, but you obviously have.
 
You threatened a wing-bringer,
Erlking
.
 
You know what the punishment for that is.”

Erlking’s
eyes changed color, the brown quickly being swallowed up by the dark red rings as it began to shake with rage.
 
“You did this deliberately!
 
You used her as bait to get me to-”
 
It roared in unrestrained anger and charged, its hair and cloak blending into a frighteningly familiar halo of black hatred.

Everything that followed happened with blinding speed, and yet I didn’t miss anything.
 
A hand pulled me backwards as Robert flew forward, crashing into the figure that still looked so much like my mother I fought several times to keep from screaming out not to hurt her, the sound of the impact reminding me of an egg falling onto the floor.
 
I struggled against the restraints that held me back, the sudden fear for Robert’s life replacing every other emotion in me as the sound of scraping and crunching assailed my ears.

Suddenly, a high-pitched keening replaced all other sounds and I screamed Robert’s name, needing him to hear me above everything else.
 
The fight was over before I had gotten the last syllable out of my mouth, before I’d even managed a single blink.
 

Robert straightened while the black cloaked figure crumpled to the ground, more liquid than man.
 
I felt the binding around my chest loosen and I flew forward, rushing to Robert without any thought save him.
 
He turned around and welcomed me into the cocoon of his arms, the strength in them doing everything to reassure me that he was okay.

“
Shh
,” he whispered into my hair.
 
“I’m okay.
 
It’s alright.
 
I was never in any danger, Grace.
 
He never even touched me.”

I didn’t believe him—I began to examine him with my hands and eyes, rapidly moving them around his body, looking for any signs of injury or damage and seeing that nothing on him was even out of place—it was as if the entire scene that took place before me hadn’t even happened.
 
The only hint that alluded to anything having taken place was the odor of decayed foliage on his jacket.
 
And…

I peeked around him, needing to see that whatever it was that had attacked him wouldn’t do so again.
 
I felt myself choke as the eyes of my mother stared out at me, her mouth moving slowly.

“Don’t listen, Grace,” Robert warned, but it was too late.

“He killed me, Grace.
 
He killed me again, just like he’s going to kill you,” my mother’s voice said as it slowly faded.

I shook my head and looked away, not wanting to see or hear any more.

“
Bala
-get rid of the body,” another voice ordered.

My head picked up, and I stared in shock as Lark approached me, her hair flowing around her face wildly, her glow a fiery red.
 
“You’re here!”

“Of course I’m here—if I weren’t you’d probably be missing a limb right about now, you stupid, reckless human!”

Her tone was as course as her words, but her face told a different story and I rushed to hug her, not realizing just how much I had missed seeing it.
 
“Thank you,” I whispered to no one in particular.
 
“Thank you.”

Sighing, she wrapped her arms around me, returning my embrace, albeit a bit stiffly.
 
“I don’t understand your kind.
 
I insult you and you hug me.”

I laughed, not caring how many insults she threw at me, just grateful that she was here and that she was alright.

“She’s not alright.
 
She shouldn’t even be here,” Robert said, glowering, picking the words out of my thoughts like a snowflake out of the air.

“And you shouldn’t have tried to pull that stupid stunt of yours,” she countered, motioning towards the slowly disappearing body of
Erlking
, who was sinking into a pile of dead leaves and branches, the earth swallowing him whole right before our eyes.
 
“Honestly, Robert, an
Erlking
?
 
You think that frightening Grace into agreeing to turn is the best route?
 
She could have been killed!”

“
An
Erlking
?” I questioned.
 
“I thought his name
was
Erlking
.”

“We don’t call them anything but what they are—
Erlkings
, shape-shifting creatures who feed on people,” Robert informed me.
 
“Another one of Miki’s children; they can take on the shape of anything, any person, but unlike the typical shape-shifters that live freely in society, their natural form is grotesque and deformed, a result of their…diet.”

I looked at him in horror.
 
“You left me alone with him in here, just like he said…as bait.”

He nodded.
 
“Yes, but you were never alone, Grace.
 
I was always here—he even told you that I was watching.”

Lark clucked in disapproval.
 
“That was irresponsible of you, Robert…but there’s no time to discuss this now—we have company.”

Robert and I turned around to face whoever it was that was approaching, each of us silently promising to deal with what just happened as soon as possible.

“Grace!
 
I came looking for you when you didn’t come back and then I heard you scream—Robert, what happened—Lark…”

Graham’s jacket was covered in dirt and bits of leaves as he approached us, ducking out of the way of a branch that I knew had not been there just minutes ago.
 
“Whoa-” he shouted as he slipped on something, landing on his backside with a squish.

I rushed over to help him, hoping that whatever it was that
Bala
had done to the body of the
Erlking
wouldn’t be discovered anytime soon.
 
I began to laugh as I realized that in his haste to find me, Graham had forgotten to remove the napkin he had tucked into his pants.

“Great.
 
I’m lying here in the mud, looking like an idiot while you stand there laughing,” he muttered, yanking the cloth from out of his waistband.

Robert moved in front of me and offered Graham a hand, which he gladly accepted.
 
“Thanks,” he said, eyeing me.
 
“You know, no offense, but this is a really terrible place for a family reunion.
 
Why are you in here anyway?
 
And why were you screaming?”

“I saw a…bug,” I improvised quickly when I saw the struggle in Lark and Robert’s eyes as they fought the urge to reveal the truth.

“A bug.
 
You screamed because of a bug.” Graham said suspiciously.
 

“It was a big bug,” I replied stubbornly.
 
“Huge.
 
You would have freaked out if you had seen it, too.
 
Where’s Stacy?
 
I find it hard to believe that you’d come here without her wanting to join you.”

“Oh, she had to go to the restroom.
 
She said she’d come and find us when she was done.
 
Hi, Lark.”

I turned around to look at her reaction to Graham’s greeting.
 
It was the first time he had spoken to her since before she left, the first time she had seen him since she’d overheard the words he had written down, his heart drenching several sheets of paper, line by line.

“Hello, Graham,” she said shyly.