The Sun Sídhe

2 - Suicidal Stallion

The aes sídhe—my kind—weren't as prevalent as we once were. Our numbers had dwindled, and from what I'd heard most preferred to dwell in the otherworld, Natír: our supposed ancestral home, although I hadn't bothered to visit. Nor did I know how to.

Despite that, I'd seen other sídhe before. One in particular would sneak into Tirlagh during festivals, get drunk, and play practical jokes on whichever poor souls didn't have the sense to avoid him. I'd been called to chase him off once or twice. I could vividly remember watching his squat frame, filled out with food and ale, stumbling vaguely northwards. Fool. That had only been last season.

So it wasn't the fact that the woman standing before me was a sídhe that bothered me. It was the look on her face, the strange aura of her power. There was something... unruly about it. Unnatural, even. I narrowed my eyes, keeping track of the water sliding across her arms. "Answer me. Who are you, and what are you doing in Tirlagh?"

The woman lifted her chin, a haughty look sharpening her fine features. It made her appear regal, distant, and extremely punchable. Her fingers traced the air at her side; fine, glittering beads of water floated behind each sharpened nail. "I am Niamh."

That wasn't a helpful answer. I opened my mouth to tell her as much, but before I could, cold agony tore through my thigh. I staggered; something wrenched my leg, and the pain tripled. Jerking my gaze down, I realised that a trail of ice had crawled from the woman's feet to my own. A large shard of it had shot upwards, impaling my leg.

I hissed a curse and looked back up at Niamh. She was already moving, another blade of ice forming beneath her slim fingers. I twisted, but not fast enough. Her makeshift dagger swept across my chest, easily cutting through the thick wool of my shawl to my skin. A burning line followed its path. For frozen water, that thing was sharp.

The miss gave me a few precious moments to react. I wrenched at my connection to the midmorning sun; flames roared to life around my hands in a surge of heat and light. The ice piercing my leg began to melt, but it was too slow—something was reinforcing it. Niamh's power, probably.

I clenched my teeth and gathered my strength to tear myself off of the thing. Pain seared through my leg as the ice cut through a good third of my thigh. Now freed, I gracefully fell onto my ass and scrambled backwards. Distant, tinny shouts rang in my ears. The townspeople. Right. Hopefully, they had the sense to run.

Niamh flinched backwards at the heat of my fire. I swung my arm in a clumsy arc, flinging a wave of flame at her chest. She shifted to glide out of its path, all smooth precision and focus. She made it look easy. Fluid.

Then she was above me, her skirt fluttering as she gave my leg a sharp kick. All semblance of breath left me; the pain was so sharp, so sudden, it clouded my vision. Niamh's figure shifted, and I glimpsed something flash in her hands. The dagger. She was going to plunge it through my heart.

Adrenaline was an amazing thing—it surged through me, clearing my eyes. I grasped her wrists, forcing her to halt with the blade mere breaths from my chest. Heat pulsed through my veins, burning the very air around me. I felt her skin blister beneath my fingers, but something resisted. A thin layer of water and ice had spread over her forearms, a delicate sheet that refused to break. Her frozen blade didn't melt, either. A strange pressure mounted in my chest as our powers collided; I was trapped between her and the ground, straining to keep her from piercing my heart. I bared my teeth, pushing as much of my energy as I could into my arms.

Annoyingly enough, I could have defeated her. I should have. She was extremely strong, yes—physically and otherwise—but I was stronger. I could feel it. But not right then. I'd wasted a great deal of energy on Orin, and even more had rushed from my body alongside the blood puddling beneath my leg. Each breath came sticky, far too quick and far too shallow. I was tired, and I was bleeding out. My arms began to shake.