Beyond the Veil

The Darkening Night

The echo of shuffling footsteps rasped through the halls providing a counterpoint to the guards' heavy footfalls. The sound wore at Mab's already frayed nerves and sent unpleasant shivers down her spine, making her shudder as much as her still throbbing feet, and she hoped it was as awful a sound for the guards as it was to her. Yet, as much as the sound of her own footsteps bothered her, she couldn't walk with her normal gait. She was too tired after her desperate run, too hopeless.
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The guards called off the barghests before they could do more than snarl at her, so she surmised the man at least did not want her dead. She took a small measure of comfort from the fact, but she doubted she'd have another chance to try and run for a very long time if ever.

The guards led her around another corner and stopped before a door a few feet down the next corridor. The one who'd caught her by the back of her dress earlier knocked on the heavy wooden door. A voice called for them to enter, and Mab's body trembled in recognition of the distinctive tenor.

The guard entered, and Mab stumbled as one of the others pushed her forward into the dim room.

"We retrieved her, Your Majesty," the guard said with a bow toward the man. "She used a pointer to navigate the tunnels."

"Is that so?" the man asked.

Mab could not tell if his tone was mocking or impressed, and she curled in on herself as he turned his attention toward her. He appraised her with an expression she couldn't read, yet it made her uneasy and mad at the same time. She latched onto the anger and used it to smash down the fear. She'd been afraid since the man drug her away from home, and what good had it done? Maybe she needed to be angry instead. Mad felt stronger, safer. Her trembling subsided, and she straightened to her full height.

Unfortunately, she still only came up to the guard's hip.

The man chuckled and told the guard to leave. "Have someone retrieve her in the morning."

"Yes, King Oberon," the guard said with another bow and left.

Mab flinched as the door closed behind him, leaving her trapped alone with the man referred to as king. He leaned back in his chair behind the pristine desk, watching her with an odd mix of pity and amusement.

"Still so stubborn, my sweet?" he asked.

Mab didn't say anything. She glared at this old man she hated with every fiber of her being. Her feet burned and felt chilled to the bone at the same time where they throbbed against the stone floor.

"Did you enjoy your game?"

Anger flared again. She'd thought she was going to be eaten up, and he called it a game!

"I grow tired of this, Titana," he said when she refused to answer again, and his amusement hardened into a scowl.

"My name is Mab, not Titana."

Oberon sighed. "A new life cannot hide you from me, my dear," he said. "Or do you expect me to believe one truly as young as you might appear could call forth such a solid spell?"

"I want to go home to Mama and Papa," said Mab, ignoring his confusing question.

"Must you insist on this?" Oberon asked with an annoyed twist to the words. "Did you learn nothing from the changeling?"

Confused, Mab said nothing.

He watched her with a frown. It deepened as the moments drug on.

"So be it," he said, pulling open one of the desk drawers. He pulled something free of it.

The clank of metal against metal rang in the room, and Mab's breathing grew uneven. She turned to bolt as she caught a glimpse of cuffs in his hand, but she didn't make it far before her body froze, trapped in hardened air. She saw Oberon approach from the corner of her eye.

A cuff closed around one wrist, and she struggled against nothing.

Oberon knelt in front of her and held up a collar where she could see it. "This time, you will learn.