A Kingdom of Lies (Realm of Fey #2)

CHAPTER 13

Finstock, among many things, was a silent place. Even with the stone-cold rooms full of humans there wasn’t a sound. It made falling asleep surrounded by enemies an easy feat. Althea, Gyah and I had managed to sleep in the same room as it became apparent that no one was coming to separate us.

At the arrival of dawn the next day, the serenity ended.

When the screams began, it shattered the illusion of being alone. The sound clawed into my consciousness and dragged me, unwillingly, from the dreamless state I’d found myself in.

It was Gyah who woke first, urging us all awake with her sudden shout of dismay. “Do you hear that?”

I rubbed sleep from my eyes, glancing at Althea who did the same. Colour had returned to her skin, the apples of her cheeks flushed red once again.

“I thought I was dreaming it.” Althea pushed herself to a sitting position with less effort than the night before.

Gyah raced to the glassless window and was about to speak until her eyes settled upon something that caused her distress. She clapped a hand over her mouth, stifling the swear that clawed out of her.

I joined her side in an instant, shoulder to shoulder, as my eyes fixed upon the cause of commotion.

Fey. There were three of them, carted within a wheeled cage, surrounded by the stern-faced cultists. And they were screaming, begging to be freed.

Gyah slammed a palm into the wall, almost cracking stone. “This cannot be happening.”

“What?” Althea called over, voice strained and pleading. She couldn’t stand from the bed to see what was happening outside. If she had, iron cuff or not, I imagined an inferno would’ve devoured the world.

“They have fey captives outside,” I explained, unable to take my eyes off the three horror-stricken, tear-streaked faces of the prisoners. The fey wailed like cats, each clinging onto one another as though they tried to keep afloat within stormy seas.

But that wasn’t what sickened me to the core.

“They are…” My voice broke, unable to finish as bile raced up the back of my throat. I had to swallow it down, otherwise the little food we’d been given would’ve been wasted.

“Robin.” Althea’s tone was commanding. “They are what?”

It was Gyah who answered, her voice a simmering growl.

“Children.” Gyah’s palm became a fist as she punched the wall. Bone cracked against stone and her knuckles came back torn and bloodied. “They have children.”

I’d been unable to put it into words, as though the cuff around my neck had tightened to a point that speaking was impossible. I was choking on the reality of what I witnessed. Three children, no more than seven years of age, were being carted towards a camp of crazed, hateful cultists.

“We have to do something,” Althea growled, half from anger and the rest from pain as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. She sat on the edge, wild red hair hanging on either side of her shoulders as she fought to calm her breathing. “I refuse to sit in this room and listen to whatever end awaits them within this hellscape. Robin, help me up.”

I didn’t need to be told twice. Moving to Althea’s side, I allowed her arm to wrap around my shoulders so I could hoist her up. She trembled at my side yet held firm. Her strength was fuelled by the growing volume of the young feys’ haunting cries as their cart grew closer. “Let me see them.”

“I don’t know what we can do, Althea,” I petitioned, voice shaking as violently as my body.

“Take me to the window, Robin.” Althea glowered.

Gyah was practically leaning out of it when we got to her side, face pressed between the narrow slit as she began screaming. “Touch them and I will bathe in your blood, you pathetic bastards.”

Not a single Hunter turned to look at Gyah as they ran through the courtyard towards Finstock’s entrance.

Althea’s hand rested upon Gyah’s shoulder. Her touch seemed to snap Gyah back out of the throes of anger that’d overwhelmed her. As if shocked, she turned to face Althea, eyes red and cheeks wet from the flow of persistent tears. “Children, Althea. They are going to hurt them.”

“Not if they have magic.” Althea closed her eyes, lips pulling into a thin line. Gyah hung her head, chin to chest, as her own quiet cries became sobs.

“If they did,” I said, speaking the obvious, “they’d already be on route to Lockinge.”

There was no arguing my point. If the fey had been brought here, unharmed, it was because they didn’t have magic. That’s when I saw the bulking shape of a man walking across the courtyard with slow steps. Across his shoulder was an axe, almost the same size as him.

These children would never make it out of Finstock, not with breath in their lungs.

“We need distract them,” Althea said, conviction dripping from her tongue. “There is no other option.”

Gyah began thrashing against the window, slamming fists into the crumbling brink wall beside it. Althea was screaming, waving desperate hands outside. I got to collecting empty bowls of gruel we’d been given to eat yesterday. I hoisted them over my shoulder, throwing them out and upon the Hunters below.

It was working – somewhat.

All I could think about was how I’d devour the entire castle in an ice-born storm if I had my magic.

Another figure caught my attention beyond the window, just as I was about to throw the last plate down on the Hunters. I recognised him instantly. Duncan. He ran, legs pounding across the ground as he moved past the excited Hunters who had gathered for the arrival; even from our view I could see that something was wrong. Then his own shouts drowned out that of the children.

“Calm yourself down, the lot of you!” Duncan’s deep voice thundered through the courtyard, echoing up the grey, stone walls towards our perch in the chamber room. With long strides he was out onto the worn path that led to the fortress. As he passed the large Hunter with the axe, he barrelled through him, pushing him to the side and knocking the weapon onto the floor.

“Is that?” Althea muttered.

“Duncan,” I confirmed, narrowing my gaze to watch as he unsheathed his sword, the black metal glinting as he raised it towards the Hunter who led the fey into Finstock’s courtyard. We could no longer hear him from the distance, but his movements were dramatic and frantic. He swung his sword wide, pointing it at each and every Hunter as he berated them.

“They are all distracted,” Gyah said, eyes widening as the desperate idea came to mind. “Now is the time to get out whilst we can.”

Althea’s weight was taken from my side as Gyah took over, half dragging her towards the locked door.

“We need to think about this. If we get out this door, there is a wall of Hunters to get through before we get to the children. Althea can hardly stand, and we have no weapons or power.”

“It is worth a try,” Gyah countered. “It has to be.”

I carried on watching the scene unfold beyond the window as Gyah and Althea smashed the few pieces of aged furniture into the door. Perhaps I should’ve helped, but there was something about Duncan and his reaction that captured my interest.

A horror that mirrored my own.

Duncan then cocked back a fist and cracked it into the face of the Hunter he was shouting at.

“They’re fighting,” I snapped, fingers gripping the stone ledge as I watched Duncan take another Hunter by the scruff of the neck. In a single breath, Duncan had snapped his arm back and smashed the hilt of his sword into the side of his skull. The Hunter went down, falling to the ground like a sack of useless shit. Blood leaked from a wound, bone gleaming beneath the crimson stream as he cried in pain.

“We do not need a running commentary, Robin,” Gyah snapped, smashing the splintered leg of a chair into the door. “Get over here now and help us break this door down.”

“No… I – I don’t think they need our help.” I couldn’t explain it, but Duncan was violently displeased with whatever was happening outside. If only I could hear him. “Duncan is doing something.”

What was he doing? Fighting his own people. Waving his sword around, the point aimed at each Hunter who’d just been celebrating the arrival of the three fey children.

“Althea. Gyah,” I shouted, finally drawing their full attention. “Duncan… he is fighting the Hunter. His own…” I could hardly make sense of what I saw, let alone put it into words. “Just come and see.”

Perhaps it was realisation that they weren’t going to break free from the room, or the fact that a Hunter was fighting against his own people, that had them clambering back to my side.

The atmosphere of the fortress had changed. The giddy, hungry excitement of the Hunters who watched the arrival of the fey became a sombre mood as Duncan stormed back towards the fortress. He held his sword at his side, face pinched with pure fury. Then, for a moment, he looked up to our window and caught my stare. I stepped back, stopped by Gyah, who watched over my shoulder.

Duncan turned back to his Hunters again, this time close enough that we could hear him.

“Have I not warned you simple fuckers enough? Children! No children are to be brought to my camp. Not now. Not ever .” Hunters parted out of Duncan’s way as though he was a wave of boiling water ready to devour anything in his path. “Look at you all. Salivating like desperate dogs. Don’t give me a reason to put each and every one of you down.”

“It’s sustenance for Duwar!” I couldn’t see who had shouted, but the comment drained the blood from my face, and Duncan’s.

He stopped dead in his tracks, fists clenched at his sides as he pondered the words that had silenced the entire crowd. Behind him the caged fey had already begun to move towards the fortress, guided by two large horses. But the children no longer cried; from fear, or confusion, I wasn’t sure.

“Sustenance?” If it was not for the silent, tense gathering who watched for Duncan’s reaction, I may have missed his reply. “If that is what you wish to provide our God then offer yourself up. In fact, allow me to spill your life in his name. Bitter as your blood may be, Duwar would find your sacrifice most satisfying… as would I.”

A deep growl vibrated beneath Duncan’s threat. I half expected him to snap his teeth. Perhaps even grow horns or fangs as he clearly caged a beast within him.

“Are you lost for words now?” Duncan turned to the crowd. He waited, as we all did, for someone brave enough to shout or comment. But the fortress and the bastards it housed were deathly quiet. “That is what I thought, you fucking cowards. Prepare me a horse. Now. I’ll return these children back to Wychwood, since I can hardly trust a single one of you to scrub your own teeth let alone follow a simple command.” His voice dropped, and what I noticed was his whisper was far more threatening than his shout. “The next time you bring a bounty here, make sure it has age on its bones. Or face the consequences.”

I couldn’t formulate a single sound as I watched Duncan clamber onto the back of a midnight horse that was efficiently provided to him with haste. Nor could Althea or Gyah. Duncan dug heels into the horse’s side and galloped to meet the cage which had already begun pivoting back in the direction it had come.

“I can’t believe what I am watching,” Althea finally shattered the surreal atmosphere as the party rode off into the distance. “Too many times I have heard stories of Hunters maiming children. Never have I heard – let alone seen – this. Duncan just saved them.”

“Blood stains Duncan’s hands, no matter his views on the age of his victims,” Gyah said, simmering as she watched Duncan fade into the distance.

“I know, but he is different. I don’t trust him for that very reason, but I recognise his contrast to the other Hunters.” Althea gestured to the bed with her spare arm, the other wrapped around Gyah’s shoulders for support. “Before I fall, I suggest you get me back to that bed.”

“But we were going to get out.”

Althea silenced Gyah with a smile. “Until that Hunter returns, I don’t wish to leave this room. He, as reluctant as I am to admit it, is the only thing keeping us safe. I suggest we keep rather quiet until he arrives back. Now is not the time to draw attention. Especially not with a fortress full of very pissed off, disappointed Hunters.”

I nodded, fighting the urge to look back out in the distance to see where Duncan had gotten to. There was something different about him. And like Althea suggested, I should not trust him.

But why did I feel as though I could?

* * *

“You saved them.”

The door hadn’t even shut behind Duncan before the words tumbled out of my mouth. It was late into the night when the bobbing flame signalled his arrival in the distance. Althea and Gyah, in their attempts to ignore the sickening hunger that had settled over us, slept. Whereas I couldn’t. So, I busied myself looking out of the window and felt the spark of sudden thrill as I watched Duncan return.

I had a feeling he’d come for us the moment he returned. I couldn’t explain it, but I knew it long before the lock clicked, and the brass knob of the door turned to reveal him on the other side.

Perhaps Duncan didn’t trust his own people not to take his absence as an opportunity to attack, to treat us cruelly, especially since we’d heard them sporadically throughout the day whispering hateful ideas on the other side of the door. Although, despite the terrible things they’d uttered, the door was untouched.

Gyah woke abruptly, eyes wide and frantic as she watched the Hunter enter without invitation. I raised a hand at her, standing between Duncan and the bed in which Gyah had been awkwardly sleeping over with her head in her arms as I said, “It is fine, Gyah.”

“I didn’t save them,” Duncan replied matter-of-factly, dark forest eyes looking me up and down with distaste. “I simply postponed the inevitable. Gave them a few more years until the Hunters are welcome to chase them down like wolves. I don’t allow youth into these walls.”

“For a moment, I thought you might have morals.”

Duncan smiled from ear to ear. “Believe me, Eldrae. Give it a few more years and I’d enjoy hunting those fey down.”

“Monster.”

“Says the one who can shift their form into a beast.”

Gyah smiled back at him, more threatening than even Duncan could muster. “You speak such things to me as though I will not sip the blood from your veins and use your frayed skin to wipe my mouth clean.”

“Now, now, Gyah.” Althea blinked sleep from her eyes, wincing as she woke. “That is no way to thank our host.”

Duncan ignored the comments and slander, looking bored and tired. He clearly didn’t view us as a threat, entering the room alone with not a single weapon visible on his person. “Talking about being a host, I thought you would like something to eat.”

“What we would like is to be let free,” Gyah muttered.

“That’s not a want you all share though, is it?” Duncan replied blandly, looking at me as though to prove a point. “Since your freedom is not on the table, food will be brought to you shortly.”

“How generous.” Gyah rolled her eyes, teeth still gritted together. “You came all this way to say that?”

“I came all this way to make sure you all still lived,” Duncan said. “You know nothing of the limits of my generosity. Don’t give me an excuse to make those limits clear. In all of Finstock’s history you’re the most comfortable prisoners who’ve ever stayed here. But if you’d prefer different treatment than these comforts and offerings of food, then please say the word. I’ll hand over your care to any other Hunters beyond this room. Believe me, many would be honoured.”

“The food,” I added quickly, preventing Althea or Gyah from speaking first. “We happily accept your offer. Thank you.”

My thanks were strained, and Duncan noticed.

“ You, ” he spat, “will eat with me.”

His words snatched the breath from my lungs. “Pardon?”

Duncan ignored me and my confusion, hardly even paying me any attention as he spoke to Althea and Gyah again. “I thought you’d like to know that we leave tomorrow. Finstock and its occupants are unhappy with my actions today and those loyal to me and my views are few and far between. Healed or not, we move on.”

With that Duncan turned on his heel, stomping back towards the door without another word.

I looked to Gyah whose expression was thunderous, and then Althea whose face was unreadable, the visage of a future Queen able to hide her true feelings behind a mask, a mask I had not yet perfected.

“But Althea is not ready to leave,” Gyah snapped as Duncan reached for the door. There was no denying the pleading in her tone.

Gyah didn’t notice it, but Althea spared her a stare with wide, glistening eyes. She then squeezed Gyah’s hand with lips pursed in silent thought.

“It was not an opportunity to argue,” Duncan replied, not bothering to turn and face Gyah, who clearly was irked by his lack of respect or care. “Rest and enjoy the food that will come to you. I cannot promise another stop before we reach Lockinge. And where we are going, the concept of a meal for your kind is a rarity. Now you, Robin, follow me. I have more questions about why a fey would want to turn against his own.”

My reply came thundering out of me. “I do not wish for that–”

“No?” Duncan huffed a forced laugh, turning the side of his face to flash the grin upon it. “Have you changed your mind, because if you have it’s a little too late.”

There was nothing I could say back to that. I caught Gyah’s line of sight, her teeth gritted as she subtly nodded at me. Although she didn’t speak, I knew the message she was trying to convey.

I needed to distract Duncan. If he wanted us to leave tomorrow, we needed to hold off in hopes that Queen Lyra had sent people after us. It was the only way of getting them away from here – getting us away from here.

“What’s on the menu?” I asked, chin lifted as I took careful steps to follow Duncan.

“Something delicious no doubt.”

My stomach rumbled at the comment, noticed by Duncan, who smirked to himself.

“You must be really pressed for company if you’d rather break bread with the very kind you hate?”

Duncan paused, so suddenly I almost crashed into his back. “Hate, yes. But I admit, Robin. The idea of your motivations is as intriguing as I find you.”