Fairy Thief (17 page)

“
Ouch!”

“
What’s
in
here?”

“
I heard you the first time! Don’t you know what
ignoring
is? Be quiet!”

“
What’s in here?”

Orji thought his eyes would pop out of his head. He spun sharply and halted all at once to stare at her. She was unbelievable! Wouldn’t she shut up even to save her own soul?!

“
What’s in here?” Saffron held his eyes and asked quietly this time. She didn’t know why she was pestering him this way. What did it matter
what
was in here? Whatever it was, it couldn’t hurt her, not really. The trees could scratch out her eyes, tear her limbs, vampires could suck her jugular, werewolves could eviscerate her, a swamp thing could smother her, every little fairy and goblin in the world could bite at her ankles — what did it matter? Tai and Wo would simply carry out what was left of her and teach her how to imagine it back.

A quick pang of shame shot through her. Orji. Orji wasn’t a soul — his flesh could be ripped to pieces. He
could
die
.
She grimaced.
Well, he knows this forest. This is his land. He chose to come in here; he knows the potential consequences.

Orji couldn’t look at her when he finally answered. “They say soul-stealers live in here.”

Up went Saffron’s hands, flailing above her head. “Of course,” she snapped. She felt hysteria crawl up her throat with tickly legs.

“
Come on,” Orji whispered, “we’ve got a ways to go….just keep quiet.”

Wo and Tai looked at each other. Instantly, they transformed into small balls of light. They looked around, they felt with their senses. There was no one in here, no one they could talk to. They had never experienced this in a forest before. Never had they experienced this feeling of doom, hostility, and concentrated hate.

The trees were outraged at the audacity of the trespassers. They recognized the essence of the one — he belonged to
her —
but they had given only
her
permission to pass, not him.

Saffron, Orji, Tai, and Wo walked on for hours.

Saffron obsessed over the fact that if something were to chase them, they would never be able to run out of these haunted woods — they were so, so far in now. How much time had passed in the Earthrealm? Her parents and Markis’ parents must be searching for them by now. And what was Tai talking about — it had already been ‘three days.’ He was just being an ass. Wasn’t he? And when did she start referring to her home as “The Earthrealm?”

Sometimes, as they passed certain trees, its razor-sharp leaves would flutter, as if a sudden breeze came to lift them. But this couldn’t be, since none of the other trees fluttered. Saffron wondered at this phenomenon, but kept her head low, and her eyes averted. She had been silent for a while now.

Wo and Tai realized what the trees were doing — they were shaking with rage. Wo and Tai had never known a hostile tree; it was very unnerving to them.

Suddenly, Saffron heard a scuffle behind one of the trees, just to her right. Her eyes widened as she locked them on the area where the noise had come from. The others were unaware that she had stopped to stare; they were all walking a few feet in front of her. Tai and Wo were busy communicating with each other in silence, and Orji was focused on their journey, the path to get the hell out.

Saffron saw the shadow of….something. It began to move out from behind a tree. Impossibly, her eyes widened some more and her breathing became shallow. The shadow grew as whatever it was slowly made its way around the base of the immense tree towards her. It moved, ever so slightly, into a beam of errant moonlight and now Saffron could finally see what it was.

A man — a hairy, beastly, hunched man with yellow eyes and yellow teeth.

Saffron screamed, spun on her heels, and ran. Orji caught her hand as she sprinted by him, and inadvertently, she got yanked back and fell flat on her rear. She scrambled up immediately and grabbed his shirt. “It’s
over there!
Just behind that tree!”

Orji still gripped her wrist, and his fingers tightened, like a vise, as he scanned the area she had pointed out. He didn’t see anything. He looked harder, his eyes penetrating the shadows, searching hard, hoping to see nothing. “What did it look like?” he whispered, still keeping an eye on the area.

“
A hairy man. A really ug-” Saffron caught herself just before she said ‘ugly.’ If it was debating on whether to kill them, it didn’t need to be insulted. “A hairy man —yellow eyes, yellow teeth.”

Wo swung his head around, his eyes revealing the tiniest bit of alarm.
Kelpie
? He asked his brother without saying a word.

How the hell are we supposed to know?
Tai’s voice rang in Wo’s head,
nobody will talk to us!
Tai wasn’t taking this insult lightly at all.

All at once, there was a crashing from behind the tree they were studying. They all heard the noise this time, and instead of running, they remained rooted to the ground where they stood, petrified with fear.

Saffron nerves started to pop. “Oh shit. Oh, my God — Ohmigod!” She realized she had feet, and although they weighed a thousand pounds each, she forced herself to move them.

Suddenly, a flash of white came bounding out from behind the tree. It galloped towards them, to the middle of the open expanse in which they stood.

Saffron was ready to run now, and would have, if the thing — a beautiful white stallion — had not walked right up to her and put its nose to her hand. He nuzzled her gently. Saffron felt her fear drain away. She tilted her head to the side and reached to rub his thick, muscular neck. “Ooooh,” she crooned. The stallion bowed down before her, one foot outstretched, encouraging her to mount him. Saffron’s lips were in a frozen ‘O’ of surprise and pleasure. She moved to get on the horse.

“
Saffron!” Tai hissed. The horse swung his head sharply and glared at Tai in warning, steam drifting from his flared, velvety nostrils. The warning was from one magical creature to another — the consequences of disobeying the beast Tai could only guess at — but he didn’t want Saffron harmed, so he backed down.

The beast’s eyes turned from melting chocolate to yellow flame.

“
Don’t do it…” Tai muttered under his breath. He knew better than to say any more than this.

They, all of them, had already been defeated. She was on the horse’s back. It appeared she hadn’t heard Tai at all when she turned at the waist to face him. She smiled angelically. “It’ll be okay, Tai, don’t worry.” She was mesmerized by the horse’s beauty — its powerful body, the intelligence in its soft golden eyes. Saffron gripped his girth with her long legs. Beneath her, with raw, animal force, the horse galloped all at once into the thickness of the trees. They were swallowed by the shadows.

The horse ran faster. They shot past trees and brush, and through the different depths of blackness. Saffron felt the wind on her face, heard a howling in her ears. She looked up to the sky and saw the full moon pouring down on her from between the tops of the trees. She screamed like a wild thing, as if she were a creature of the Darkrealm herself, her vocal chords exploding with a frenzied strength.

Wo, Tai, and Orji still stood where they had been left. The hairs on the back of Orji’s neck stood on end as he heard Saffron’s voice fading on the wind. There was something carnal about her howl. He shifted uncomfortably. “What
was
that?” He rubbed his face vigorously, dragged his hair back off his forehead, where it stayed plastered by sweat. He shook himself, trying to rid himself of the trance that the stallion had somehow caused.

Tai frowned intensely. “Kelpie.”

“
Well, where is it taking your Earthrealm girl?”

Wo walked away as he answered, in the direction in which Saffron had disappeared. “He’s going back to his river. That’s where they hang out, and that’s where he’ll take her.”

Tai looked at Orji. “She did see a man, like she said she did. Sometimes Kelpies show themselves as hairy men and sometimes,” he looked at Wo’s retreating back, “sometimes they take the form of a young horse.” He sniffed the air. “There has to be a stream or river around here somewhere, he wouldn’t have strayed too far from that. We’ll have to track them ourselves, I can’t ask the trees.”

Orji snorted. “So that’s your great fairy magic, huh?” He waved his arms around and yelled, “Ask the trees! Ask the trees! Where’s all your power now, boys?”

Wo shrugged. “We all need somebody to lean on.”

“
Ahhhk!” Orji punted the sizable, dried-out branch lying by his foot ten feet across the clearing. He nodded as if he ran into this sort of thing all the time. He grimaced as a thought ran through his mind — something about Saffron. He thought of her cry of wicked pleasure. “What’s he going to ah,
do
with her when he gets her back to his place?”

Tai shook his head at Orji and motioned for him to follow. They caught up with Wo and climbed awkwardly through scraggly brush and over the slimy roots of trees. After a while Tai said flatly, “He’s going to try and drown her.”

***

The horse ran to the edge of a large, sluggish river. Saffron was smiling vacantly —absently running her fingers through his coarse mane, and luxuriating in the feel of the stiff hair between her fingers. She screamed again, so filled with dark pleasure, that she forgot all space and time — even herself. All she knew was the feeling of raw power beneath her, and the blanket of black that cocooned her.

The hairs of the horse’s mane began to twine around her hands. Round and round her fingers. As if it was alive, it wound and clung about her wrists, binding her closely to the stallion’s neck.

Suddenly, Saffron’s feeling of sweet oblivion lifted and dissipated. She realized she was riding a horse — bareback! She had never been on a horse. She and her mother kept a farm, with alpacas — and you don’t ride alpacas. Or cats. She only had alpacas and cats. She struggled hard to remember if, in fact, there may have been other animals —but she couldn’t remember. Still, she was almost positive she had never ridden a horse. And this horse — this was not a horse she knew. Her scalp tingled, her hair stood on end, and fear came rushing coldly into her belly.

The horse threw its head back and whinnied, almost screeching, at sensing her fear. Then, suddenly, he took off in a full gallop towards the river.

“
Wha…?” Saffron saw the river coming for her — felt the might of the galloping horse beneath her. Aghast, she finally realized the horse’s intention. She started to scream. She only had time to scream twice before she was dragged beneath the cold, murky water.

Orji, Wo, and Tai heard the screams. They were very near the river now, as Wo and Tai had long since grabbed Orji by the armpits and were flying him along. He was a big man, muscular, not terribly tall, but nowhere near short. The twins struggled visibly with his weight. They worried about the kelpie. There were worse things than death. They found the river, dropped Orji like he was a pile of large limbs, and rushed towards the black water. They saw the hoof prints pounded deeply in the soft dirt of the riverbank. They looked hard into the black liquid as the wind picked up and marsh grasses whipped their unfeeling skin. The sky was a strange green-black here, pricked with the intermittent flashes of fireflies.

Deep down in the water, Saffron panicked. She could hear nothing but her own struggle — muffled in the pitch-black liquid around her. She held her breath and pulled frantically, trying to free her hands. The more she struggled with the bindings, the more they grew and slithered and tightened. The horse was repeatedly jumping off the riverbed and slowly landing on the muck. Over and over again. Saffron felt his girth and power as he forced his way up, then drifted down, and forced his way up again. She felt her eyes pop from her sockets as she held her breath. And then, she couldn’t do it — she just couldn’t hold her breath any longer. She pulled hard at her hairy restraints — each time with less strength and less effort. She stopped throwing her head from side to side and looked down. Shock jolted through her body. There, just below the horse’s dancing feet, were bones — bones and skulls.

The horse came down again. His hoof drove easily through one of the skulls — cracked it like an egg shell. He picked his foot up and kicked off the clinging remains.

In horror, her mouth popped open of its own accord, and her last breath came rushing out. Water came rushing back in, filling her mouth, her nose, her chest. She tasted copper. She was afraid to die. Still, she expected to die now. She ceased her struggle and waited. She looked around. Everything was blurred. There was water in her nose, her mouth, her lungs. She felt the water move over her body as the horse did his slow jumps up and down. Nothing.