History Of Fire: A Dark Faerie Tale Part 5

Ferdinand hurried back into the room with something in his grasp. "Here, give Lorell this. He'll know to trust you with anything."

He tossed Braelynn a tiny figurine. On closer inspection, it appeared to be a small crystal statue of Elvis Presley.

"You're joking, right?" I snickered.

Ferdinand shook his head. "No, I most certainly am not. Lorell loves Elvis. He's an Elvis impersonator. This crystal is from the mines of Yalil. It helps create illusions. Even humans can use it, so it's perfect for a runt-riff faery. He'll know it came from me."

"And how will he know that?"

Ferdinand gave me sarcastic smile. "Because Lorell gave it to me to hold for him. There's only one crystal from the mines of Yalil, and this is it."

Chapter Nine Mystery Girl.

Mystery Girl

July 15th, 1702 There are many creatures in this new land beyond the wards, and I do not believe I could ever meet them all. There are those which are harmless, curious and playful. Others are more like humans, inquisitive and as interested in my world as I am in theirs. And there are still others whose darkness emanates from every pore of their body and threaten everything crossing their paths. These Unseelie, as the Seelie beings call them, are demonic creatures who serve no one but themselves and chaos. I have not made it as far as the Unseelie territory, but the stories of such creatures frighten even this old man.

One advantage I have in this new world is that my magic is amplified by the power of this magical land, increasing my chances of survival should any choose to do me harm.

~Brendan "Well, that was a quaint family reunion." I limped along, one arm around Sary and the other around Braelynn. I was beyond mortification since I was barely able to walk on my own after Ferdinand's draining session. It helped that two of the most beautiful women I've ever met were doing the a.s.sisting. Still, I was going to need some recovery time if I was going to get back to my manly self. I wasn't going to count on the faery draught anymore. Not if it was going to become a lifelong dependency. I might've been immune to almost all faery magic, but I wasn't indestructible. This was one addiction I didn't need. So not worth it.

"I'm sorry, Benton. I didn't know he'd become so ... so ..." Sary stumbled over her words and looked ready to tear up again.

"Insane?" I offered.

She sighed, not laughing at my sarcasm. I suddenly felt bad I had said that. How insensitive. The guy was still her brother.

"No. He's just lost his way. He's been gone from our family and those he cared about for too long. When we fix this stuff with the broken wards of Faerie and capture this Oran guy, I'll have to figure out how to save him."

"Some people don't want to be saved, Sary."

We walked to a nearby hotel where they sat me on one of the chairs in the lobby and went to get us a room. I was surprised they had money to pay for a night at a posh place like that. I shrugged it off and felt my stomach growl. The expenditure of power had me consuming calories like crazy. I needed a recharge badly, or I'd be of no use to anyone.

The lobby was busy, even though this was a smaller hotel than some others in the middle of downtown Chicago. A sudden p.r.i.c.kle slipped up my neck, warning me I was being watched again. Surprised, I darted my eyes around the lobby, searching for the culprit.

I turned toward the gla.s.s front of the hotel and caught a girl peering in from the outside. To my surprise, it was the same girl I'd seen on the subway train. I didn't think she'd seen Sary and Braelynn, but she looked as if she was searching for someone else, even though her eyes had skirted over me for a moment. I wondered if she'd gotten a good look at me on the subway car. Maybe the glare on the gla.s.s outside made it hard to see in. I think she suspected we were there but wasn't sure. I was in no position to get up and chase her either. It made me wonder if she knew that, and this was her way of unabashedly scanning the lobby without fear of being caught.

Well, how about that?

I watched her as she stepped back, seemingly satisfied by what she saw. I couldn't be sure, but as her eyes landed back on me, they seemed to narrow. I hoped she wasn't planning on doing anything, because if she was, I was so screwed. I couldn't fight yet. h.e.l.l, I could barely walk. I hated being helpless, and my mind drifted back to the faery draught as the girl turned away and hurried down the sidewalk, rus.h.i.+ng off into the crowd.

I watched her, focusing on a lock of burgundy hair hanging out from her hoodie before the world swallowed her up. Something made me want to follow her. It was like I was compelled to, but no one was forcing me. I just needed to know what she was looking for, what she thought we were doing and why she had freaked out in the subway car. Also, how was it that it seemed she could see past our glamour?

A panicked feeling ensued as I felt for the familiar film of my glamour s.h.i.+eld, which was hiding the fiery Empyrean sword strapped to my back. a.s.sured it was intact, I let out a sigh of relief. Not only would having a flaming sword visible in the middle of a hotel lobby cause certain panic for any who saw it, the fiery wisps it emitted would surely send everyone into a horrified chaotic run from me or set some security guards on me before I could even get away. Would do me no good to sit in jail right now.

So the non-magical girl could definitely see through my glamour. How?

"Got our room key." Sary waved the plastic key card in front of my face before her smile faded and she wrinkled her face at me. "You look like c.r.a.p, Benton. Come on, let's go."

"Ah, thanks? I feel like it if that's what you want to know," I muttered and straightened up in the chair to my utter discomfort. "I need to eat. I've used up all my reserves."

Sary nodded and waved Braelynn over. "Right. I forgot how often you humans need to eat."

"You don't need to eat as often as humans?" I asked, surprised that I hadn't really noticed that.

"We're not required to eat three meals a day," Braelynn offered as she took my other arm and yanked me to my feet. "We mostly eat for pleasure, not out of a constant necessity. We must eat at least once a day, but not nearly as often as humans do."

"Umphf ... awesome. Well, we mere humans need sustenance." I pointed to the front door of the hotel. "There's a burger joint next door, and I'm starving. Let's get something. Or we can go to the room if you guys want to order room service."

They nodded and headed out the door with me in tow. If we looked strange with two women holding up a guy, no one seemed to notice. I looked at Braelynn, and she winked at me with a subtle smile when she realized why I was looking at her.

"An aversion spell, right?"

She nodded. A woman of few words. I was starting to like her more and more. People were avoiding us because she'd bespelled us to avoid attention. Smart gal.

Ten minutes later, I was stuffing the second cheeseburger I'd ordered down my throat before chasing it with an ice-cold soda. Both Braelynn and Sary had stared at their own hamburgers with curiosity before taking a few tiny nibbles. They'd ordered veggie burgers, of course. I frowned at their plates, shaking my head. Sary ate without really savoring the food, and Braelynn, made a face with every single bite. I almost choked on my own burger watching them eat human food. They obviously hated it, even though they'd been outside of Faerie for a few weeks. How they survived out here on the few things they did like was beyond me.

"What the h.e.l.l do you girls eat out here anyway? I've only seen you eat salad."

Braelynn dipped her fries into ketchup and licked off the red sauce before stuffing the fry in and grabbing another. "We buy fruits and vegetables at what you call a grocery store. They taste funny but are fresh enough for us to consume. Anything labeled organic seems to taste okay, but it depends on if it's in a box, canned or fresh. We only eat the fresh food."

"Ah, I see," I mumbled, my cheeks probably puffed out like a chipmunk as I chewed thoughtfully. At least they didn't notice my atrocious table manners. Apparently etiquette in Faerie was different than here when it came to talking with a mouth full of food. Still, I hoped I wasn't terrifying any other patrons. My hunger felt insatiable, and I couldn't eat fast enough. So that's what happened when drained by a siphon lord. I was going to need another order of burgers.

"These French fries are delectable." Braelynn stuffed three more ketchup-coated fries into her mouth. She looked as happy as she ever had, but it was hard to tell with her.

"Fries are the bomb. I could live on them."

She stared at the fries, confusion pa.s.sing over her face. "You can? I would think it wouldn't be enough nutrition for a human. Though, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to." Another fry met its end in her mouth.

I laughed, almost choking on my burger. I grabbed my soda and took a nice long draw from it. "No, I mean, yeah, if I could, I would. You can't live on just that, though. You're right when you say it wouldn't be enough nutrition. I'd be malnourished if I lived off just fries." I held up the last bite of my burger. "Hence why you eat a burger with it." I winked at her and stuffed the last bite into my mouth.

She frowned and stared down at her mostly untouched burger, lifting the bun to scrutinize the fake meat. "The burger isn't quite as savory. It tastes odd, like mulch."

"Next time ask for Angus beef, then."

She lifted an eyebrow at me.

I sighed. "Never mind. Stick to the salad, fruit and fries."

Sary ignored us as she studied a map of the world. It wasn't a map of our world, at least not as you'd see it on a regular map. No, this was a map with all the land, including all the realms of Faerie. It made the United States much larger than it appeared to humans. In fact, for a moment, I thought it was Siberia until I recognized some landmarks marked as "Human Domain."

It was nice to see how well-marked the human world was. Why not just mark it with "Wasteland," which was what Ferdinand had called it?

"Wow, that's pretty cool to see the world as it really is," I said. I continued to study it over Sary's shoulder, but she didn't seem to mind. Instead, she nodded, completely immersed in the map. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm looking at the different portals of Faerie we could take to get closer to the desert where we'll find Lorell."

"Oh," I said. I wondered how the border portals of Faerie determined how we'd end up on the other side of them. It didn't exactly say "Portal to the Mojave Desert" on it. I think the map had more magical properties than it allowed me to see, so I let her get her bearings.

"I got it!" She pointed at the map with two fingers, one on an area near Chicago, near our current location, and another one on Las Vegas. "We enter a portal here, near the southwestern side of Chicago. It should take us to the northern edge of Las Vegas, near the western mountains." She smiled, looking excited. Right then the waitress approached to refill our sodas. Sary quickly folded the map and tucked it away in her pack.

After the waitress left, I wiped my face with a napkin and looked at the two ladies with me. I felt tons better and wondered if eating was the trick to keeping my energy up, not only physical energy, but magical stores as well. Sary and Braelynn sat there either staring out the window or around at the other diners. It was obvious they didn't mingle much in the outside world. It seemed humans were fascinating creatures to them. I found it amusing to watch them back.

"Can I ask you guys something?"

They both turned back toward me and awaited my question.

"Are there humans with no magic who can see past our glamours or 'see' magic?" My thoughts went back to the redheaded girl from the subway and the hotel window.

Braelynn nodded. "Yes. They have the sight. It's rare, but there are some who possess this trait. Most die before they get too old, though."

My eyes widened. "Why?"

Sary sighed, rubbing her face and playing with her soda straw. "Because if the wrong faery spots them, they'll kill them on sight."

I gulped. "How would anyone know if a human has no magic but has the sight?"

Sary and Braelynn glanced at each other and looked back to me. My curiosity only spiked.

"These humans can see a spark or a wavering glitch in our glamour. Some say it's like we s.h.i.+ne, or glimmer. We don't actually s.h.i.+ne, but that's what the glamour looks like to these particular humans, and it's how they detect us. If a faery who doesn't want to be discovered notices a human looking at them when they don't possess any magic to be able to see them, which is easily determined by testing a person's s.h.i.+elds, they off them. No s.h.i.+elds equals no magic. They see them as a threat to their safety and usually target the human for extermination."

"Just for having the sight? That sounds a bit harsh to me."

Sary nodded. "Yes, it is. But fey are a proud race, and any threat to our safety never goes unchecked. The only ones that survive beyond youth are usually stolen as babies, s.n.a.t.c.hed soon after birth to serve faeries in the Faerie realm. There are oracles who work as bounty hunters to find such children. If a child gets past that age and grows older without detection, they'll most likely learn to stay away from the faeries they do see, to stay safe. It's just rare to find a full human with the sight."

I thought about the girl with burgundy red hair and could see why she was so afraid of us. "Would you guys do that?"

Sary looked confused. "Do what?"

"Kill a human with the sight?"

Braelynn looked down to her plate while Sary stared at me in horror.

"No. Never. I don't have a need to kill humans unless they harm me. It's mostly the banished who kill humans, or demented fey who use these humans as slaves. Most who live in Faerie do not bother with such things. The taking of young children with the sight is usually done by the Unseelie, who hunt them to return them to the Faerie world for servitude. These are the bounty hunters of the Faerie, but they don't just look for those with the sight. They track runaway faeries, faeries who've broken some sort of pact, oath breakers and escaped prisoners."

I turned to Braelynn, who was avoiding looking at me. "What about you, Braelynn? Have you ever run into a human with the sight?"

She looked up at me and nodded, looking bleak. "Yes. I knew a girl named Talla in my clan when I was younger. She was human and a good friend. She was taken from her family when she was but a toddler and brought to our clan in Faerie. Later, when we were almost matured, a bounty hunter came to our village and took her. We couldn't save her, and I never saw her again. He probably killed her."

I leaned back, paling. I wasn't sure if I liked where this conversation was going. "Oh, okay. Sorry to hear that."

Braelynn focused her saddened eyes out the window, leaning on her hands. The memories this particular conversation had awoken for her were bittersweet, I was sure. I felt bad even asking them about the humans with the sight, but at least I now knew what that girl was. I had to find her, help her get to a safe place. Maybe whenever this business with Oran was over, I could return to find her and help her out. Hopefully, I wouldn't be too late.

Chapter Ten Faery Tricks.

Faery Tricks

I knew the way through Faerie would be short this time. I just wished it wouldn't take me through Faerie at all. Wishes don't always come true, but at least it was quick. When we emerged from the border of Faerie and stepped into the arid desert near a vibrant, green park, I was sure we had gone the wrong way. Sary rea.s.sured me we were right where we were supposed to be. A furtive glance around to find a sign pointing to the Las Vegas city limits made me finally relax.

"So how do we go about finding this Lorell? What do runt-riffs look like anyway? Do they even resemble humans?" I stopped my questions when I found Sary glaring at me with her lips tight. "What?" I guess asking too many questions at once was prohibited.

"Remind you of someone?" Braelynn leaned in toward Sary and gave me a tiny smile.

"Oh, yeah. I remember the million questions Shade had when we were first travelling together. Although," Sary flashed a sarcastic smile at me, "this one is more annoying, if you can believe that."

"Oh, I believe it." They both burst out laughing, and I was left flabbergasted at what they heck they were talking about. Maybe Shade and I were more alike than I'd thought. She was my sister, after all.

"Hey, I resent that remark." I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Bested by two female faeries. Best day ever.

"You know we still like you." Sary patted my back.

"Great. I'm thrilled."

"You should be." Sary winked and pointed toward the horizon. "I've tracked Lorell downtown, so that's where we're going."

I squinted my eyes and stared across the valley to find a large building pointing out of the center of it. The city was spread out far and wide and was bustling with activity. "Near that s.p.a.ce needle-looking thing?"

Sary nodded. "Yep. Down that way, but a bit more north. Come on."

I groaned. "It's going to take us forever to get down there. Let me call a cab or something." I jogged to the edge of the sidewalk lining the park and peered down the way to find a convenience store propped right on the opposite corner. "We can ask to use their phone."

"What are you going to pay the cab with?" Sary folded her arms and gave me a questioning look.

I shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever you gave the hotel people last night for a room." Confusion made me stop and peer at her curiously. "What did you pay the hotel with anyway?"