Of Werewolves and Curses by Emma Hamm
Chapter 12
She staggered out of the boat and landed feet first in the clear, salty water. Gone were the raging waves and the cloudy sky overhead. This island was an oasis of beauty, peace, and lovely bird song. A small slope led up to the grassy area of the island that disappeared into a forest of lush trees and a brightly colored rainforest.
It was very similar to being on the mainland in the Summer Court. No sharks. No crabs. Nothing to deter anyone who had made it to the island.
Eldridge hit the sand beside her, tilting his head back and breathing in the clean, fresh air.
Poor Arrow wasn’t doing well at all. He shambled on all fours toward the sand, threw up one last time, then buried his face in the cool water. A few bubbles erupted from his nose before he finally lifted his face with a gasping breath. “I can’t do that ever again.”
“I hate to break it to you, my friend, but we have to go back that way.” Eldridge flopped his arms at his sides and chuckled. “There are no portals on the isles. We’ll be back on that boat in no time.”
Arrow groaned, then dramatically laid down in the sand. He rolled onto his back, legs splayed in all directions, and then crossed his paws over his heart. “Then I will die here.”
The dramatic goblin dog was exactly the relief she needed. Freya bent over, put her hands on her knees, and burst out laughing.
They had made it. They had traveled across that terrible ocean with all those sharks who had wanted to swallow them up. And they’d succeeded in getting to this damned island. Now, there better be a worthwhile secret that the Summer Lord was keeping from them or she was going to start breaking things.
When she caught her breath, Freya straightened and eyed the mysterious land. Where was the secret? What did she need to find that would be the thing the Summer Lord wanted to keep from them?
In one of the cliff edges she noticed there was a strange carving. The smoothed stone was a little too far for her to guess what it was. Squinting, she pointed over to the strange sight in the cliff. “What do you suppose that is?”
Eldridge looked the way she was pointing. He let out a little scoff. “Well. Would you look at that?”
“I can’t,” Arrow called out from his spot in the sand. “I’m dying.”
“You are not,” Freya scolded. “Eldridge, what are you seeing that I’m not?”
“I’m quite certain that’s a house.” He shaded his eyes from the sun, peering toward the strange carvings, but his eyes blurred. He stared as though he was looking into memories. “I had forgotten the Summer Court used to live in rooms like that. There were thousands of elves that lived all throughout the cliff faces, like pearls living inside clams. Why didn’t I remember before now?”
She suspected it had something to do with magic. Why wouldn’t it? Their entire lives had been molded, shaped by the ephemeral strangeness of powers that were beyond their control. At least, sometimes. Unless one was the Goblin King, and then most magic was at his fingertips.
Shaking her head, she pushed for a little more information, wondering if he’d even remember such things. “Was there some kind of curse put on those who lived within the Summer Court?”
He shrugged. “I have no idea. But I’m curious to find out if there’s someone within those walls who knows the answer.”
Freya was just as curious. If the Summer Lord was hiding someone like that from the court, then he had a bigger secret than she imagined. What else had his powers hidden? Perhaps they were very close to what the forest wanted them to discover.
“Let’s head into the house, then,” she said with a bright smile. “One step forward, and an impressive one at that. Don’t you think?”
Eldridge nodded, but his attention was still far from her reach. He walked across the sand toward the home like he was wandering through a dream. His eyes unfocused, his hair blowing in the wind. Sweat still glistened on his bare chest. Eldridge looked like some silver god of the sea who had strode out of the waves.
She would have followed him to the ends of the earth if he asked her to. And that terrified Freya to the very core.
They walked through the sands to the small home hidden in the side of the cliff. Or at least, Freya had thought it would be small until she saw how many small crevices opened up and disappeared into the stone. It seemed like there were hundreds of openings large enough for a grown man and woman to walk side by side through. The white stone cliff became a seashell with swirling secrets.
Eldridge peered into the first cave and braced an arm over his head on the stone. “I never thought to see a place like this again. Now that I can remember what happened when I was a child, the Summer Lord before Leo got rid of all these. He said they were dangerous.”
“Why?”
He shrugged. “They aren’t. No one could ever give a real reason for any danger. I suspect that the Summer Lord didn’t like how easy it was for people to hide in them.”
“Ominous,” she muttered.
“It was.” He stepped into the cave and disappeared from sight.
She didn’t know if she should follow him or stay here. What if there were more crabs waiting for them? And this time there wouldn’t be the added help of a spell keeping the creatures at bay.
Eldridge popped his head back into sight, glaring at her. “Are you coming or not? We have to see if there’s anything in here for us to find.”
Right. Of course they did. She wasn’t supposed to be afraid when they’d just seen monstrous beasts from the depths of the sea that shouldn’t exist.
Rolling her eyes, Freya walked through the small doorway and waited for her eyes to adjust. It didn’t take very long, namely because the tunnel through the cliffs was very short. It took her ten steps and she was back in the sunlight.
Gleaming white rooms filled with light that spilled from holes in their roofs. Everything here had been painted with scenes from the ocean. Some murals were bright blue rolling waves, others were yellow like the sun. The room opened up to several others, creating a home out of carved spaces. She hadn’t expected the inside of a cave to be so... welcoming.
Eldridge walked over to one of the small windows that looked into the other bright rooms and put his elbow on the edge. “Now I remember. So many elves used to live here, you know. So many.”
“And they all left because one selfish man didn’t want them here anymore.” Freya shook her head. “That’s a damned shame. I know many people who would be honored to live here. It’s so beautiful.”
Though there was a lived in nature to this home that felt strange. If the elves weren’t supposed to be here anymore, then why did it feel like the cups were too clean? The silverware had been laid out on the table as if someone was going to eat. And, strangely enough, it smelled like cinnamon.
Freya watched the area behind Eldridge, a small cozy room, and swore she saw the shadow of a person pass by. It stood to reason that they weren’t alone, but she didn’t know why anyone would hide. Unless they were afraid of the Summer Lord. Which, now that she thought about it, was entirely possible.
Strange, but not unexpected.
“Do you think this room is connected to others?” she asked, walking toward the other room and searching for the owner of the shadow. There was no one in the next space, but that didn’t deter her. Freya knew in her gut there was someone to find.
“They all connect, yes.” Eldridge looked around them. “Ah, there it is.”
He touched his hand to a small glass knob on the wall that blended into the blue mural of the sea. The simple action very quickly opened a door she hadn’t noticed that was perfectly painted into the blue coloring.
“Ah.” Freya smiled and strode toward it. “So is this another room they would have used?”
“This would be their neighbor’s home.” He seemed to enjoy talking about the oddities of this place. “The elves aren’t much for privacy, if you haven’t guessed."
She’d assumed. Their homes were connected to the other families they lived near. She’d never wanted to be that close to the other people in her village. Freya was certain that would have driven her insane.
“Huh,” she said, stepping into the other home. “How many homes do you think there are?”
Eldridge walked past her into the kitchen of this new home. This one was decorated with tiny daisies painted on the white walls. The oven was an ancient carved place in the wall, and now sunlight spilled through the chimney. He touched a hand to the carved name over the oven’s opening. “Hundreds. More families than in the Summer Court now. There aren’t as many elves as there used to be.”
And what a horrible thing to think. All because one man had been so stubborn that he didn’t want his elves to live here when they could live on the mainland with him. That sounded like her image of the Summer Lord. Including the current one.
Yet again, she saw a shadow streak by the white-washed wall. If there was a person here, then where were they hiding?
Maybe the person feared approaching such a large group. Freya had never been overly intimidated by one of the elves, so she couldn’t imagine they were in any significant danger. Unlike the pixies, these were not a warring people. They were kind and shy, hiding their faces from the world because they worried about what would happen if they chose a face that someone else didn’t like. The elves were not intimidating.
They were afraid, Freya realized. The elves were terrified of their Summer Lord, and that was why they wouldn’t talk to her or her companions.
The last Summer Lord had taken them all from their homes, forced them to live where they didn’t want. They had gone to the mainland when they were creatures of the sea.
Maybe the elves who currently lived on the mainland didn’t remember their life here, just as Eldridge had forgotten. But she was sure they remembered deep in their soul their love of this place. And that they missed it more than they realized.
“Do you mind if I peek in this room?” she asked Eldridge. “I want to cover as much ground as we can.”
“Do you think that wise?” Arrow sat down on her foot and stared up at her with disappointment. “Splitting up has only caused us trouble in the past.”
“Splitting up saved us in the mines of the Spring Court, I’ll remind you.” She couldn’t risk Arrow ruining her plan when the elf likely wanted someone to be alone so they could talk. “Why don’t you go with Eldridge if you’re so worried about being left behind?”
“He’s right.” Eldridge frowned, and she worried he’d already seen through her words. “If we split up in a place like this, we might never find each other again.”
“We’ll only go into a few rooms and then come right back here. Every room looks like it’s painted differently, so I can’t imagine they would be easy to forget.” Freya flipped her hair over her shoulder and tried very hard to look like she knew what she was doing. “Besides, this is a ghost town in the wall of a cliff. There’s no way anyone lives here. The Summer Lord made sure of it.”
Eldridge hesitated, but eventually gave in. He grumbled something about headstrong women, but then scooped Arrow up under his arm. “Fine. I’ll take the frightened dog. But don’t go too far, and if anything happens—”
“I’ll yell.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “You stay out of trouble too. I won’t be there to save you this time.”
“Ha. Ha. Very funny.” He motioned that he was watching her before rounding the corner and heading into the next room on his side.
Perfect. Now her plan could work.
Freya darted into the next room and pitched her voice low. “I know you’ve been watching us. I saw your shadow a few times. It must be very scary to have three strangers walk onto your island after being on your own for so long.”
There was no way to know if anyone was listening to her talk, but Freya was certain someone was watching her. The hairs on her arms were standing straight up.
She walked into the next room that looked like a bedroom. This one was painted with tiny elves dancing on every wall. The artist had spent many hours painstakingly perfecting each and every face. Even the dresses the elves wore swirled around them, appearing almost to move on their own even though they were painted.
Freya could stay in this room forever, but she had to find out who was in this abandoned place.
A gemstone had been stuck into the wall, held aloft by a painted elf who stood above the rest. She could only assume that was the button to get into the next room. Without thinking, she reached out and thumbed the small gemstone.
Well oiled and silent, the door to the next room swung open and revealed a garden waiting for Freya. The ground was covered in moss and tiny rivers that flowed to the center where a small pool held countless colorful fish. But Freya’s eyes weren’t on the greenery, the fish, or even the rivers that sloshed over her ankles. No, she was staring at the young woman crouched in the corner, staring at Freya with horror in her eyes.
She was beautiful with skin a deep umber. Her eyes were dark as midnight and glistened with unnatural light. Her hair was braided tight to her skull, individual strands standing out amongst the rest and nearly reaching her waist in length. Her clothing was old, outdated but still lovely, clinging to her strong, lean form.
But what shocked Freya the most was that this woman, this elf with her lovely pointed ears, had a face. She wasn’t wearing a mask, but instead, she had a real face.
Just like the Summer Lord.
Freya stopped in the middle of the room and hunkered down on her haunches. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The woman’s eyes only got wider. Clearly, she didn’t believe Freya at all.
“Really, I’m not. I only came here to get some answers to questions that I cannot even begin to understand.” Freya knew she was pushing this woman too fast and too far. But she had to try. “May I sit? I won’t come any closer.”
The woman shook her head, and Freya decided to take that as the other, not minding if she sat. The other option wasn’t acceptable.
Obviously the woman didn’t trust her at all. Her eyes flicked to a blank spot in the wall that could be a hidden door. Freya had to distract this stranger, or at least entertain her long enough to win her trust.
Shifting, she sat down onto the wet floor, crossed her legs, and sank her fingers into the watery moss. “Now. Let me tell you a story about a mortal woman who fell in love with the Goblin King. That’ll help us get to know each other. What do you say?”
Fear was pushed aside by curiosity, and the woman relaxed against the wall. Freya took that as her opportunity, and so she began to tell her own story with all its strange and magnificent events.
