Beyond the Veil

Out of the Pan and Into the Pantry

The last thing she wanted was sympathy. Well, that wasn't quite true. She'd give anything for Mama's fussing and Papa's reassuring hugs, but she couldn't afford to show that she needed anything here. Last night proved that to her if nothing else.

As if her bloodied and battered feet weren't enough to keep her from trying to run again, for a while anyway, that man had locked heavy cuffs around her wrists and a loose metal collar around her neck. They were lined with a soft cloth where they met her skin. But one word from that man, and the cloth shrank to let the metal touch her. She didn't know what it was, but it burned. She'd begged him to stop. She cried out for her mama and pleaded to go home, but the man just shrunk the cloth more every time.

It went on well past screaming her voice raw and crying herself out. She'd eventually collapsed onto her side, too tired to move and filled with a fuzzy sense her whole body burned with pain yet numbed to it at the same time. Mab had been too exhausted to even focus her eyes before everything went black and blessedly numb.

Sympathy was the last thing she wanted, but fate had other ideas. Mab woke in a room that looked like the female servant's barracks but not, surrounded by short women and other girls who looked like Fae at first glance. Yet, they weren't. Their ears were really round and didn't seem to work very well. Their eyes and skin were unnaturally dull, and they had only the barest hints of magic about them. Whatever they were, they scared her.

Guessing by the looks they tried to hide from her, she thought she might scare them too despite being a little girl. Still, they seemed awfully pained by her tattered feet and blistered wrists and neck.

The heavy, metal door at the end of the dormitory swung open, startling the others. The strange women and girls scattered as they rushed to stand at the foot of their beds before the dormitory "mother" entered for the morning inspection.

Mab was surprised it was a stern-looking Fae woman who entered. From what she'd learned while living in this awful castle, the servant dorms were divided by species with "dorm mothers" or "fathers" of the same species overseeing each. Why was this one different?

"Byrne," the Fae woman said, catching the attention of one of the older not-Fae. "See the others get their breakfast and assignments for the day. I'll see to your patient until you return."

Byrne cast a worried glance in Mab's direction but nodded and obeyed. The not-Fae filed out of the room with Byrne following behind. One of the younger ones seemed reluctant to leave, wringing her hands and glancing Mab's way until the old woman shooed her from the room.

Their apprehension fueled her own as Mab was left under the scrutiny of the Fae woman watching her with sharp, amber eyes.

"I'm Madame Foxglove," she said. "King Oberon placed you under my direction until further notice."

"Yes, Madame Foxglove," Mab answered.

The woman raised one slender eyebrow before sniffing primly. "While you are my charge, you are no different than the humans you live with, and as such, you speak to no Fae unless directed to do so."

Mab's breath caught in her throat, and it felt like her heart was trying to smash its way out of her chest to run away. The not-Fae women and girls she saw were humans! There were that many of the monsters her Mama's stories told her about living in the castle, and now she had to live in the same room as them. Be pitied by them!

How horrible must she look that humans of all creatures pitied her?

Tears once again stung Mab's eyes, and she struggled to gasp in enough air as the realization of just how bad her situation was began to sink in.