A Veil of Truth and Trickery by Analeigh Ford

Chapter Eighteen

I might not have gottena straight answer out of Caldamir, but the question broke the uneasy silence that had stretched out for far too long. The princes’ banter made the hours pass quicker after that, until the sun had started to set directly in front of our eyes.

The same magical quality of the Midsommar night wasn’t there, but a glimmer of it still remained. It was crazy to me how quickly I’d grown used to the magic of the forest, how soon it became so normal that it faded into just another forest to me. Compared to those we had back home, this place was a wonderland. The trees still towered over us like great monsters guarding the tightly winding path. Birds in brilliant colors flitted overhead. The stream bubbled in its narrow confines.

There was an undeniable hope in the air, and more than anything, that was what disturbed me. All throughout the day, I’d caught all three men sneaking glances at me from time to time. I couldn’t see Caldamir’s face, but I could feel the way his breaths caught, the way his heartbeat quickened … even the way his cock grew excited, swelling against my lower back every so often until he’d managed to get himself back under control.

With Armene, it was different. Guilt was the first expression to cross his face each time I caught him looking at me. Guilt for taking me. Then guilt for the fact that it didn’t change the color that rose to his cheeks. An anticipation. If it wasn’t my life they planned to exchange for their magic, I’d understand.

Tethys too, had his own complicated look when I caught him staring.

Most of the time, Tethys’ face remained the same—as if he was thinking of a secret he just remembered, something he had no intention of telling anybody. It was the look of someone dangling something invisible in front of you, something only he knows of … and yet he knows you’d kill to be let in on too.

This time, I was in on the secret. We both were.

But once I caught him looking, his face peering over at me from between two trees that had separated us in the curving path, it was a far more pensive look that’d taken over.

It was gone as soon as it came, flickering away the moment he realized he’d been caught. In that moment, however brief, I missed the curve of the smirk on his lips. Tethys’ face was made for mirth, not the conflicted, almost sad look I’d caught him sending my way.

If it weren’t for Caldamir’s body supporting mine, I would have long since needed to stop for the night by the time we actually did. By the time Caldamir called for us to halt again, this time to make camp, I’d given up trying not to lean on him and had practically already fallen asleep against the solid wall of his chest.

It was for that reason that I didn’t hear the first sound, the first sign that something was amiss. I was jostled out of my half-dream state with the unceremonious disappearance of the support behind my back as Caldamir dropped to his feet and started unloading the bags.

I didn’t miss the second sign, however. While the fae were busy unloading their packs, I’d taken to lazily scanning the surrounding forest. Everything about Avarath felt like I was looking the wrong way into a mirror. It was eerily similar to my world, but everything was off somehow. It was more than the appearance, it was the scent, the feel, the very tingle of the air.

I could only imagine this world before the glamour had drawn back.

It was as I was watching that I saw it—a shadow flickering through the trees. It was at the very end of my line of sight, just far enough to make me wonder if I’d seen it at all, or if I’d imagined it.

I didn’t imagine the sound, though. Nor did I imagine the cracking of branches coming from the same direction a moment later, or the way the birds alit, their discontented squawking ringing through the forest.

“Caldamir …”

He was at my side in an instant.

“What is it?”

The concern on his face was almost charming, right up until my hand lifted to point into the forest.

“Something’s following us.”

All three fae—Caldamir, Armene, and Tethys—sprang into immediate action.

While Armene and Tethys drew their weapons, Caldamir pulled me down from Rynn’s back and instructed me to stay down. The three horses moved in to huddle around me, their massive sides like great living walls.

Caldamir grabbed a longsword and went to stand alongside Armene’s hammer and Tethys’ double blades. The rustling came again, a little closer this time—but from the opposite direction. No sooner had the boys whirled to face it, however, then something else made a noise, this time to their left. Then the right.

Each time it drew closer, moving faster than any one of them could turn to face it.

“Protect Delph,” Caldamir ordered, and all three of them moved to surround the horses, backs facing in toward the center. “It sounds like a fiend … maybe more than one.”

A fiend.I’d been told stories of the creatures back in Alderia. They were the nightmares of the nightmare realm, creatures of supernatural strength, size, and intelligence hell-bent on destruction. They’d ridden with fae on their first arrival to our lands, trumpeted the warring courts with flashing teeth and claws that could rip a human to shreds in a single swipe.

But like the fae, fiends had long since fallen into myth. Before the high fae stopped arriving, the fiends had long since stopped crossing between worlds.

I crouched down to peer out from between the horses’ legs, but the underbrush was too thick to see what the fae were looking at beyond. All I could see was their tensed shoulders rising, their hands gripping their weapons, and then—with the growing sound of something crashing ever closer—everything suddenly dropping back down to their sides as a familiar voice rung out from between the trees.

“Did you miss me?”

It was Nyx.

“I nearly shit myself for that?” Rynn muttered, low enough that the Woodland prince didn’t seem to hear—but he did hear the giggle I had to stifle between my fingers.

Tethys’ mare flared her nostrils and let out a short sigh. “Almost? I actually did.”

“Shut up,” I hissed at them, already struggling to straighten back up to my feet. “You’re going to get me in trouble.”

“You mean more than you already are?”

It was the first time I’d heard Armene’s stallion speak. He looked at me with doleful eyes as he took a graceful step forward, clearing a path for me to break out of their formation. He had a solemn look about him, much like his owner.

Once again, the Woodland prince struck me dumb with his beauty.

Nyx was standing at the edge of the path, a broad, child-like smile spread across his face. He stood, arms wide, as the last of the princes lowered their weapons. He carried with him the glow of sunlight in his hair and on his skin, even when the sun was barely visible above the horizon.

The other fae, especially Caldamir, didn’t match his excitement.

“We could have killed you,” Caldamir said.

“With those toys? Here, in my forest?” Nyx’s eyes shone as he pointed back over his shoulder toward another fae emerging through the woods. “Maybe you could have, if you had my bow.”

“A bow he made me carry, mind you.”

I was taken aback by the voice. I’d thought the massive fae emerging behind him was a male at first, given the towering, broad stature—but upon further inspection, I was wrong. It was also apparent she was not a Woodland Fae, not from the heavy armor she wore and the hardened look in her eyes. She didn’t look like she spent the majority of her days lounging about in the treetops and her nights rolling around in their roots.

She looked like Caldamir. She looked like a warrior.

She towered above all the other fae, intimidating right up until the moment she locked eyes with Caldamir. She dropped down to one knee then, head bowing as the many weapons strapped to her back made enough noise to draw any creatures or fae that might have been lurking in the forest straight to us.

“My prince.”

An odd expression crossed Caldamir’s face. “Tallulah. I didn’t call for you.”

She straightened up, face shining at his recognition. “You didn’t need to. I’ve come to escort you back to the Mountain Court. Your people need you.”

Caldamir chewed on the inside of his cheek. “We’re already headed that way.”

“Are you?” She didn’t mean to sound facetious I realized, as her head swiveled around the forest—only for her steely gaze to settle on me.

“What’s that?”

Caldamir let out a sigh. He held out a hand toward me, palm open.

“This is Delphine. She’ll be traveling with us back to court.”

Tallulah’s eyes were narrowed at him when she looked back. “What’s wrong with her? She doesn’t look like she’s going to make it back to court.”

“And as you’ve probably guessed,” he said to me, ignoring Tallulah entirely, “this is my personal guard.”

“Yes, that’s right. The guard who’s supposed to stay with you, not be left twiddling her thumbs as you go off to—where was it this time?”

No one answered her right away, so she turned back to me. “Where was it he got you?”

“Alderia.”

Her eyes practically bugged out of her skull. When she whirled back on Caldamir and the others, even Nyx’s grin dimmed a little, especially when her gaze finally settled on him.

“You sent him to the human realm? And for what? Do you have any idea what could’ve happened?”

Her hand tightened on the strap holding up the many weapons attached to her.

“Do I need to remind you who you’re speaking to?” Caldamir asked.

“I’m very well aware of who the selfish man-children in front of me are,” she snapped back. All four of them shrunk a little in their boots. “You all have a duty to your kingdoms. You’re the ones who need reminders of who you are.” She finally turned back to Caldamir, her body sinking noisily and less gracefully than I’d expect of a fae, back down to one knee.

“I will follow you to the ends of the earth, my lord. I am your sworn protector. But you have to let me protect you.”

“If you want to protect me,” Caldamir said, “then you should protect Delph.” He stepped back as all eyes turned back to me. “She’s the one who holds our future now.”

Tallulah’s face screwed up. “Surely not. A puny human like her?”

“These are trying times.”

She looked me over again, the doubt only deepening on her face. “I’ll say.”

“Still, not nearly as trying as it will be if the magic keeps draining away. You think we have trouble holding power now? Just imagine.”

“I imagine it every day,” Tallulah said, solemnly. “I imagine it each time I put on my armor, each time I remember when once a single swipe of my blade would cut a fae in half.”

She looked down at the weapon in her hand, as if for a moment she was considering hurling it off between the trees. “Now it takes three.”

I swallowed, hard.

“Well, now,” Nyx called out, his feet shifting uncomfortably beneath him as if he’d not been the center of attention for too long, “if we’re all quite certain we’re on the same side …  mightn’t we want to get moving?”

“Actually,” Caldamir said, shooting the Woodland Fae a look of annoyance. “We were just settling down for the night.”

“Settling down? But … but you’ve hardly gotten started.”

For a moment, the other three princes stared at him in confusion, until suddenly Tethys let out a frustrated sigh. He’d climbed up to the bottom branches of one of the trees, his gaze turned steadily behind him.

“It’s the Woodland Court. We never left it.”

True to his word, when I looked between the trees carefully now, I could make it out too. It was faint, hidden in the dense leaves of the forest, but it was there—the great wall of trees surrounding Nyx’s court.

My head started to spin. We’d left the court behind hours ago. A whole day. I’d been sure of it.

We should’ve been miles and miles away from the court, not barely outside it.

But then, there were signs. The brook, most notably. I should have noticed something was awry when it had narrowed back down to a bare stream trickling alongside us.

Caldamir swore and Armene covered the top part of his face with one hand, as if shading himself from the discouraging sight. Nyx was the only one among us who looked completely unfazed.

“See? What would you do without me? Now hurry up. We wouldn’t want to waste an entire day.”

“Spoken like someone who didn’t spend that whole day traipsing in one, gigantic circle,” Tethys said through clenched teeth.

“You’re right. I was far more productive than that.”

Nyx stuck a couple fingers between his lips, and out of the forest behind him came two horses and a mule. All three were saddled and hanging with bags of fresh fruits so ripe, I swore I could smell them from where I stood.

Too bad I was still resigned to eating little more than stale bread brought from the human realm.

The horses were for Nyx and Tallulah, but the mule, it seemed was saddled for me. I’d grown so used to riding behind Caldamir that I was almost disappointed to discover I’d be riding on my own from here on out.

The last thing I was going to do was let onto this fact, however.

“Come on now,” I said, reaching forward to touch the mules’ bristly nose, hoping he didn’t sense my secret disappointment. “What should I call you?”

“That one’s dumb,” Tallulah said, interrupting me as she hoisted herself up onto the back of her own mare. The horse let out a disgruntled sound and tilted its head back to nuzzle at the shape of the many weapons still strapped across the guard’s back.

“Oh, shut up,” she hissed at the horse, but still promptly pulled two massive maces off her back and shoved them into my arms.

I caught one, but the other fell to the ground, nearly crushing my foot in the process.

Not that I could have caught it. The first was already bowing me under the weight.

“Careful with that,” Tallulah said. “Those are made of the finest metals the Mountain Court can forge. I’ve known fae able to cleave stone with it, to say nothing of what it can do to one of us.”

Tallulah saw the startled look on my face, I know she saw, but she just tugged on her horse’s reins and trotted forward to discuss battle plans with an ever-more-annoyed Caldamir.

I struggled to get the first mace into the mule’s saddlebags, but the second one was absolutely hopeless. Every time I managed to get the mace up off the ground, already a feat in and of itself, the mule stepped forward at the last minute so that instead of dropping into the second saddlebag, it thudded to the ground gradually closer to my toes each time.

It was Nyx who finally dropped from his saddle as he passed in the procession, soundless and with the grace of a gentle breeze, to pick the mace up and slip it in successfully—all while holding the mule firmly in place. It looked no more difficult than if he had stopped to pick up a leaf.

Our eyes met for a moment, before he climbed up into his own saddle. A pink blush rose in his cheeks, and with a shy flutter of lashes far too long for any man to have the right to be in possession of, he nudged his horse forward to rejoin Caldamir and Tallulah still arguing about plans up ahead.

“This stupid forest,” Caldamir was saying. “It turned us around. Made us waste an entire day.”

Nyx had nearly made it to their sides, but Caldamir’s comment left him distracted a moment.

“And you said all the magic was gone.” Nyx stopped, one hand reaching out to rest lovingly on the trunk of a young sapling. “But my forest still holds on.”

The tree rustled at his touch, but what he didn’t see was that the moment he let go and rode forward, the tree slumped a little. A few leaves browned and fell from the top, drifting down in slow, sad circles to the ground.

“How he manages to lead a court is beyond me,” Armene said as he rode up behind me. Tethys lingered still a few paces behind.

Unless I was mistaken, he was watching me.

For all his talk of Caldamir being the jealous one, too.

I’d just managed to settle into the mule’s worn saddle myself, but it still took another couple moments to get the thing to start moving. He ignored my gentle nudges until I was forced to go less gently, only for the creature to nearly throw me off when he finally lurched into motion.

Armene was kind enough not to comment on my rough riding. He pulled back up to my side, the horse and mule barely fitting side by side on the path.

Now that Tallulah had settled in at Caldamir’s side, a new question begged to be answered.

“I thought I’d heard her wrong before, but is it true, then? You can actually kill a fae with a sword?”

Armene cast me a sidelong glance. “If you had the right one. But even our weapons would be useless in your hands. It takes a great deal of skill—not to mention strength—to kill a fae. Right weapon or not.”

“Are you trying to insinuate something?”

“Not at all,” Armene said. “Just giving you a little friendly advice. Here, if you want to be useful, take this. It’ll be a far more productive tool in your hands.”

With that, he tossed me a flint. “And before you ask, no … trying to burn a fae to death isn’t going to work very well, either.”

I wrinkled up my nose at him, not that he saw it, and asked another question that’d been hounding me ever since we left the Woodland Court. “Where’s your demon, Waylan? Wasn’t he supposed to join us?”

Armene pressed his lips together. “Probably went on ahead to Caldamir’s court.” He sucked on his cheeks for a moment, his voice dropping to a grumble. “Use a single wrong word with that demon, a single word,and he takes advantage of it every time.”

I was the last one to complain. It was that very thing that had given me the ability to slip back to the pool. It gave me the ability to make a deal—and with it, regain the possibility of getting out of Avarath.

However slim that possibility was.