Kingsbane

Chapter 25

     Voices, shrill and chiming like bells, sounded all around him, rousing him from the groggy sleep he'd fallen into to. Grumbling, he swatted a bug from his face, only to be rewarded by sharp, stinging bite. He sat up quickly, and instantly regretted it. His head spun wildly and lights danced before his eyes, or- wait - were they lights?
    "What the-" He murmured as a small, delicate woman-like creature fluttered before his face. The creature appeared to be covered with tiny scales that shimmered green and blue and her wings, like a dragonflies, glowed with a dim, white light, reminiscent of moon shine. It's hair, was not hair at all, but more like slicked back flower petals and it's feet and legs were adorned with leaflets. "Whoa."
    "What the whoa!" It trilled, clapping little three-fingered hands and watching, waiting, sigh big black eyes that nearly took up it's entire face.
    "Uh, Sverre?" He reached over and shook his companion without taking his eyes off the tiny lizard-plant-woman.
    "Uhhhhh, Sverre!" It laughed, doing a acrobatic little spin in the air. "Uhhh, Sverre!"
    "You probably don't know English do you?" He sighed, holding out his hand, enthralled by her. She giggled and fell into his palm almost dramatically.
    "Uhhhhhh, Sverre!" She repeated, rolling onto her stomach and wrapping her arms around his thumb. He smiled and tried to hold his hand steady so he wouldn't frighten her away.
    Suddenly, another appeared, and then another and another until he was covered in little plant beings. They all seemed to like him very well as wherever they latched on they snuggled into as if he were a soft pillow. Soon he could not even move without jostling three of four out of their cozy positions.
    They rolled about in his hair and whispered little chimes into his ears. They pulled at his clothing and chattered among themselves. They'd untied his shoe laces and picked at the dried blood on his skin. A few were even having some odd little dance-off on his knee.
    "Sverre, wake up." He muttered, becoming a little uncertain that their doting was a good thing. "Hey."
    "Hey! Wake up!" They chorused, continuing on with their bizarre merrymaking.
    "Can you understand me?" He inquired, gently raising the palm in which his first little visitor still sat. So far everyone he'd met in Faery had spoken to him in English. "My name is Grayson. What are you?"
    "Gray's son!" She chirped, twiddling her thumbs and looking thoughtful. Slowly, she began to speak, as if she was unused to doing so. "You are lost. We can send you in the right way."
    "Do you know where Avalbane lives? Can you bring her to me?"
    They all stopped what they were doing and looked up at him. The one on his palm shook her head sadly. "No, no, too far from our patch. We can not go too far or we will wither."
    "Patch?"
    The creature pointed across the clearing at a bare patch of dirt. "That is home. That is where we drink sunshine."
    "So, wait, you're flowers?"
    "Silly boy." She shook her head. "We birth the seeds that make the flowers. We give life to beauty."
    Gray tried to clear his mind of the disturbing images that had suddenly popped into his head. He did not want to know, or think about seed birthing. Instead, he decided to change the course of the conversation.
    "We need help from Avalbane. Is there some way to send her a message?"
    "Walk to her, we can tell you how."
    "I'm sick and can't travel far, and neither can my friend. We need her to come to us."
    "Are you still unwell? Have we not eased you?" She glared down at the other creatures and barked a command. They all immediately went back to nuzzling and snuggling him.
    "Uhm." He did feel better. Being so enchanted by them, he had forgotten all about his illness and had not noticed it fade. "Can you help Sverre, too?"
    "No!" She slapped his thumb. "He is Unseelie. He can not be saved until he is cleansed."
    "Well, how do I cleanse him?"
    "Only Father Faery can wash away his dishonor."
    "But he's going to die."
    "And when he does, shove him back into that hole in the mountain. Or he will rot our soil with his stink."
    "If you can't help him, then don't help me either." He snapped, finally shooing them off of him. "I don't think I like Faery. At least in my world you didn't have to be perfect to get a little medical attention."
    They fluttered around him chiming and squeaking indignantly at him before buzzing off and disappearing into the trees. Maybe he should have been more patient, then he could have possibly made some headway into the Avalbane situation, but he'd never liked snooty bitches. Obviously his aversion to snobbery also included that of plant bitches, as well.
    With a sigh, he knelt before the fire and prodded and poked until he managed to uncover a few still hot embers. He spent a few minutes rebuilding the flames thankful that at least he was not feeling as poorly as he had when he'd fallen asleep. It almost made him feel guilty for shouting at the little plant women. Even though they'd spoken harshly about     Sverre, it seemed that most of Faery was in agreement with them. Had what Sverre done, truly been that bad?
    After he'd brought the fire to a satisfactory height, he turned and shook his companion gently. "Hey." Sverre didn't respond. Gray's heart skipped a beat. The skin on the other man's are was so cold that condensation had formed where he hand had touched.     "Dammit."
    Trying to remain calm, he drug the man closer to the newly born blaze. "Stupid Faery. Stupid crazy magic." He grumbled, pressing his middle and forefinger to Sverre's wrist. When he didn't find it there, he tried at his throat. He couldn't find it. "Hey?" He slapped the man's face around a little. "You better not be dead."
    His eyes fluttered open for a moment, but that was good enough for Grayson at that point. Relaxing a little, he rested his palm on Sverre's chest and waited for an intake of breath. It came, but so far apart from one another that it would not be hard to assume the man had died. He didn't doubt that his friend would be dead any time now.
    Sverre lay there, furious, but unable to move, too weak to vent his frustration. Since when had he become the damsel in distress? He'd have liked to simply die then and there, to avoid further humiliation, but the memory of his brother's desperation wouldn't let him out of it's clutches. It was as though Siva's passion for the brat had him caught in web, hanging between life and death until he'd completed his task. He was certain that if his body gave out before then, his soul would surely remain, trapped by the need to have his brother happy.
    Love was such a bitch. All of it. Every single kind. A pain in the ass.
    If he could just move, maybe he could do something, draw a map or give directions, but he was too cold. The poison had disabled his body's ability to warm itself and he'd probably go into shock soon. Then it'd be all over.
    "Don't take this the wrong way..." Grayson sighed abruptly from beside him. "But I'm not letting you die without trying everything I've got first."
    That didn't sound good. He tried to open his eyes but couldn't persuade his lids to obey. He couldn't even grimace as he was jerked from the ground and brought roughly into Grayson lap. Oh. No. No. No. No. Was Grayson- cuddling him?
    As much as he disliked it, the warmth helped and as he had no control of his limbs, he couldn't struggle. "I just can't stop thinking about how upset Siva will be if he loses you. If I lost Sarah- shit. I guess it's bad to be grateful it's me and not her that's dying, but I'd miss that little shit like crazy."
    Sverre wanted to insist Grayson go without him, wanted to make him leave him behind, but he couldn't even hold his own head up. It rested on the boy's shoulder instead, as useless as the rest of him. The situation was simply out of his control. Grayson was on his own and that didn't make him feel very hopeful. But then, the kid had surprised him before.
    "Alright. We have to get you to your sister." Gray whispered, knowing if he didn't do something soon, Sverre'd be dead. "We can't wait until sun up."
    Of course, Sverre offered no protest or advice. Gray looked around him, hoping to find something he could utilize. When an idea stuck him, he laid Sverre down as near the fire as he could without singing his eyebrows and then walked over to the patch the little plant-woman had shown him.
    "Hello?" He called softly, kicking a little of the dirt with the toe of his sneaker.
    "What do you think you're doing!?" A little woman screeched, appearing from the bushes nearby. She landed near his shoe and began to kick and push at it. "Do not step on our patch!"
    "Sorry." He pulled his foot away so abruptly that she fell on her face. "Sorry, again."
    "Go away!" She whimpered, brushing dirt from her petals. "Brute."
    "Hey, I said I was sorry. I really need your help."
    Fluttering her wings in annoyance, she folded her tiny arms and looked up at him. "You have insulted Faery. Why should we help?"
    "That man over there is King Siva's brother. I need to get him to his sister. If he dies, Siva will be devastated and you don't want your King to be devastated, do you?"
    "We don't owe anything to that selfish King. He abandoned us for centuries to frolic among humans. He is not worthy of his title. We answer only to Father Faery and the Queen."
    Grayson took a deep breath. "Alright, fine. That man-" He threw his him thumb over his shoulder in Sverre's direction. "Is the Queen's true love. If he dies, she'll be upset. Is that what you want?"
    "That man is the General Sverre?" Her black eyes widened. "He is the Queen's most precious? The tales are true?"
    "Uh, yeah."
    Whistling, she rose into the air, her wings glowing brightly. Others appeared from various trees and bushes from all around. Together they fluttered and buzzed above him, chattering and squeaking at one another. They all seemed surprised and a few even went zooming over to where Sverre lay to have a look for themselves.
    When the excitement seemed to calm down, the lady he'd been speaking with before came to perch on his shoulder. "We will do what we can to aid our precious Queen. She is the mother of all things. When she is unhappy, the world withers. How can we aid you?"
    "Can you heal Sverre?"
    "We do not have that right. Only Fath-"
    "Yeah, yeah Father Faery blah, blah, okay then just take me to Avalbane."
    "You do not listen, Gray's son." She snapped. "If I go too far from my home I will die."
    "What if I just scoop some dirt into my bag. Would you be able to come with us then?"
    "I will try, for the sake of Faery."
    "Cool." Grayson muttered, removing his water from his belt. This seemed as good a time as any to use it. Here was no way he was going to be able to carry Sverre out of here without it. "Do you have a name?"
    "Of course I have a name." She snorted, taking a seat atop his head. "That's water smells odd."
    "Faery gave it to me." He shrugged, casting the empty pouch aside and dumping the contents of the satchel out so that he could stuff it with soil. "What can I call you?"
    "Paivankalkara." She sighed, laying down and tangling herself in his hair. "Pai is fine since your silly human tongue will have trouble with the whole thing."
    "Yeah, thanks."

    Siva writhed on the bed behind her. She'd had to tie him to the headboard in order to keep him from jumping her. The drug was causing a maddening need that she simply couldn't bring herself to sate. It was hard to watch him suffer, and even harder to endure the sexual things he was spewing at her, but she couldn't blame him or be offended.
    "Siofra, just untie my hand. Just one hand." He begged in a hot pant. "Please. I'm dying."
    If she had any honor in her, she'd be over there in bed with him, subjecting herself to whatever he wanted, awaiting to gladly accept his seed. Alas, her sense of duty had run like hell as soon as the time had come. It made her skin crawl to think about. She'd never even kissed him. Sverre's lips had been the last to touch hers, and even after so many years, her soul raged at the thought of tasting another.
    "Siofra, I'm going to die if you don't get over here and let me bend you over!" He roared, arching his back and letting out a feral growl. "The least you could do is suck me off!"
    "I'm sorry." She breathed, looking over at him. He was so insane with want that he could not even spare the focus to keep his Glamour up. His red and purple scars were vivid in the moonlight, shimmering with sweat.
    "Kill me." He snarled, "I don't want to live. I don't want to take another breath."
    "Be quiet. Or I'll gag you."
    "Feed me a hot coal, spear me through the heart. If you're not going to fuck me, kill me. I don care which."
    "Siva-"
    "Faery's going to wither either way, so just do it. Do something!"
    "Give it a few more days." She breathed, looking longingly out at Unseelie. "If Faery hasn't intervened by then, I'll carry your child."
    "What are you talking about? All this time we knew this had to happen. Faery's not going to so a damn thing. God, just fuck me you dumb bitch before I lose my mind! I can't take it. I can't."
    "In the morning, your sense will return, and you'll agree with me. I've seen things I don't understand. Until I comprehend their meaning I can not go through with this."
    "I know you hate to look at me. I know I'm fucking hideous, but I'll make you forget the way I look. I'll roll you over, you won't have to see my face. I can make you forget him, Siofra. Easy. You'll wake the kingdom with-" He paused, seeming to hear his own words and become appalled. "If there is an ounce of mercy in you, you'll knock me out." He murmured. "At the very least, you owe me that much."
    "Alright." Rising, she crossed the room and, careful to avoid his hands, she leaned over him. "Sleep." She whispered, passing her palm over his eyes and stealing his consciousness.