Dream King by Elise Knight

19

All my stress about standing out like a sore thumb melted away. The town square was filled with people of all shapes and sizes going about their business. They all looked human, or at least humanesque. Some were tall, some shorter than me. A lot had a similar skin tone to normal humans, though it was hard to tell in the low light. Some were pale blue, though they could just be so white that their skin appeared blue. Others had Aethelu’s same grey skin tone. But they were all beautiful. It was like accidentally walking into a beauty pageant dressing room.

Thanks to Aethelu’s dress I was still wearing, I stepped out into the square, safe in the knowledge that, though I didn’t look like all of them, I wouldn’t stand out as obviously human.

The buildings that surrounded the square were old-world, almost like a live museum or a movie set. The cobbled square was alive with the hustle and bustle of what appeared to be market day. Stalls dotted the place, selling everything from live animals to food. My eyes widened. Exotic food, the likes of which I’d never seen before. One stall sold delicious-looking pastries, the other, bizarre fruits and vegetables. None, as far as I could see, sold weapons of any kind. The fear that had been dogging me for hours dropped away as the new sights and smells captured me. If it wasn’t for the situation I was in, I could almost feel happy here. Maybe it was just the stark contrast to the forest that made me feel so.

A young woman with long hair and blue pointed ears peeking through accosted me, brandishing a leafy vegetable of some kind. “Want to buy some weedroot?”

Her voice matched her lip movement, but another voice hovered beneath it—talking in a language I didn’t understand. It took me a few moments to realize this woman was a polyglot, too, though she wasn’t as skilled as Aethelu, since I could still hear her original voice below the English.

I daren’t speak back, knowing that if I could hear her original language, she’d almost certainly hear mine. I didn’t think English was a common language around here, despite Dream speaking it. He knew it from the millions of dreams he’d been in.

I shook my head, hoping the gesture was universal enough to understand. She cocked her head at me for a moment, then moved away into the crowd. I blew out a shaky breath.

I could feel the eyes of the people on me as I walked through the square. Not everyone, but enough people staring at me a beat too long was enough to tell me that I wasn’t as incognito as I’d hoped. My dress was dirty. Perhaps that was it. My bloody and bandaged legs were hidden beneath the length of material, so that wasn’t the reason. I ignored the crawling sensation, hoping I was overthinking it and carried on my search of the market for anything that could be classified as a weapon.

In the far corner, a band played an upbeat tune. It was a far cry from the dimness of the low light and seemed as out of place as a pop band at a funeral.

My stomach jumped as I passed the cart full of baked goods. Different types of breads and cakes rested in symmetrical rows, and though I’d never seen anything like any of them before, the smell coming from the cart was delicious.

The urge to reach out my hand and take one was overwhelming, but the suspicious look the stall owner was giving me was enough to still my movement. I wasn’t a thief, anyway. I never had been. Even when I couldn’t afford to eat back home, I rode it out until my next paycheck and survived on ramen noodles.

“I don’t recall ever seeing you around here before?”

I jumped as a middle-aged woman confronted me. Her skin was similar to that of Aethelu, but unlike Aethelu, the chalky white appearance overlaid a pale blue. On some of the other people I’d seen in town, this skin tone looked beautiful, but the wrinkles and liver spots on this woman only made her look old and drawn. Despite the casual comment, there was a mean look about her. Long blue straggly hair covered her shoulders, and a grey shawl hid just beneath it.

I couldn’t speak. Saying anything would call me out as a foreigner immediately. This woman might not guess I was from the real world, but she’d know I wasn’t from around here. I shook my head as I thought on my feet. My only option was to run, but to where? Back to the forest? I was no safer there than here.

“Cat got your tongue?” she drawled, her pale blue lips cracked as she extended a grim smile.

My mind ran at a hundred miles an hour as I thought about all I’d learned since arriving here. Aethelu hadn’t known I was from the real world when I’d first spoken to her. She’d asked if I was from the Dream Court, the Nightmare Court, or the Dark Court. Neither of them sounded like places where people were to be messed with.

“I’m from the Dark Court,” I announced, straightening my spine and fixing her with an imperious look. Her eyes widened, and she took a step backward as though I was made of lightning. She visibly shrunk before my eyes, and the scary old woman became a wreck right in front of me.

I was just about to hotfoot it away when a thickly-built young man clamped his hand on the woman’s shoulder. “She’s not from the Dark Court, mother. Look at her. No one from the Dark Court would dress like that.”

“But what if she is?” the woman replied to her son, who was twice her size and twice as intimidating. Luckily, or unluckily as the case may be, having men try to intimidate me was something I was used to.

“Look at her hair.”

My hair? My only play here was to keep bluffing like my life depended on it. Because it did.“I do not lie. Can you not hear it in my voice? The language I speak? Now be out of my way, peasant.” Oh, that felt good. Over the top maybe, but good, nonetheless. Better than calling him a bitch like I wanted to.

I knew he would be able to hear my real voice in English underneath the strange translation over the top.

But the burly man didn’t budge. “No one around these parts has heard the language of the Dark Court for years, which is suspicious in itself, but you are too short for the people of the Dark Court. You might have the hair, but you most certainly don’t have the clothes. The Queen would not allow her subjects out of the Dark Court. She hasn’t for scores of years, but if she did, she wouldn’t let them dress like that.” He looked me up and down, making me feel uncomfortable in Aethelu’s beige dress.

What was it they meant about my hair? This place was totally screwy, although when I looked around, no one had hair the same color as mine. There was every shade of brown, from light, to almost black. Lots of blue, but no silver blonde.

“You don’t have to believe me. What business is it of yours where I’m from anyway?” I made to shove past him, but the woman caught my arm. “No, you don’t, Lassie. There’s something strange about you. If you are not from the Dark Court, then where are you from? I think the elders would like to see you.”

I tried to yank my arm away, but her grip was too strong. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

“Get off of me!”

By now, we were surrounded. Half the people in the marketplace had come to watch the spectacle. So much for being inconspicuous. I couldn’t have done worse if I’d tied a billboard to my front reading ‘Look at Me’ and rang a bell.

The woman’s son grabbed my other arm, and though his fist was a whole lot meatier than his mother’s, it was no more or less tight.

“Get the fuck off of me!” Being nice hadn’t helped my cause. Maybe shouting would.

The villagers began to jeer, reminding me of TV shows and movies about medieval times in Britain. I half expected a man on a white horse and armor to come to save me, but the only man I knew that wore armor was Dream, and he was the one I was here to buy weapons to kill. I’d never needed a man before, and I was sure as shit not going to wait around for one to rescue me now. I was going to rescue myself as I always had. I kicked out at the old woman’s shins, sending her to the ground in pain. Her son’s grasp weakened just enough for me to tear my arm away from him. Without looking back, I dashed through the crowd and to an archway between two shops, banging my elbow on the wall as I passed through.

The archway led to another street. Small houses and more stalls lined the busy dirt road. What was this? Market day? So many people were out and about that I had to weave my way through them, dodging the strange folk. A quick look over my shoulder was enough to let me know just what deep shit I was in. A whole pack of villagers was chasing after me. All that was missing was the pitchforks.

I was so busy looking backward that I didn’t notice the arm out to grab me until it was too late.