Lessoc Fountain - a fairy-creature tale

Ch. 36 Betrayal

Soufflé, too, had betrayed Cocot to the witch. Changed fairies surrounded her.

"Stay back!" she yelled, swinging the raspberry brambles in an arc. A thin ray from the moon hit the field, and she lunged forward, holding the brambles out, to catch the light if she could.

One of the fairies yanked her back, arm around her waist. Hissing, he ripped the brambles from her hands and tossed them to the forest floor. She fell to one knee, trapped in a circle of changed fairy guards.

"So young, so small, so foolish," Captain Thraidox said, and tied her hands behind her back. The rope cut into her wrists. "How did you escape our notice? I promised your death if you returned to the hall, I will ask the witch to give you to me when she is done with you."

He hauled her roughly to her feet. "Take her to the fountain, and fetch the Witch Queen."

He grimaced as he spoke, his face contorting in pain. When he turned to lead the way, one foot dragged, causing him to curve off in the other direction.

The five other guards, in fact, swayed and walked in zig-zags. They were pulled about in different directions by a clumsy puppet master. Her song of puppets turning three times and taking their leave came to mind, and she almost laughed aloud. She was captured by evil wind-up soldiers, by mindless dolls with swords, by the husks of living creatures whose hearts had been emptied and then refilled with hate.

When Cocot collapsed, her legs refusing to carry her, the fairy guards dragged her on, their hands under her arms. They dropped her on the cobblestones, next to the fountain. Soufflé was nowhere to be seen. Her raspberry brambles were gone—her last hope.

She looked at the dark village houses so she would not see the captain's ashen skin, the scratches and cuts on his face or the cruel turn of his lips. The other fairy guards sighed and snicked their tongues in anticipation, crowding around her.

"Back!" Captain Thraidox snarled, threatening them with his knife.

"She comes," said one.

"We will kill her this time and then drain the girl creature!" said another.

"Yes, yes! And then to other halls where our cousins dance and feast. We will feast as well!"

"We'll kill them slowly, to listen to them scream!"

"Slowly...."

"Quiet, she comes," said the captain.

The witch strode through the barley field, an entourage of hobbled fairies spread out behind her. Fairy guards appeared in the main street leading to the fountain.

"She comes," whispered a voice.

Cocot stared at her knees. She couldn't stop shaking.

"Coquelicot!" Her mother's voice called her, but when the girl looked up, the witch stood in front of her. Wenslar was to her right and the hooded, bent fairy creature that had been in Bulle on the Market day was to her left. "Her hands," the witch ordered.

Someone cut the rope from Cocot's hands.

"Coquelicot," the witch continued, "you know what I will ask you, you know what I want."

"I don't have the other bottles my mother collected. I'm sure she destroyed them."

"And the fountain?"

"The fountain," whispered the dozen fairies.

The bent creature stumbled forward, her thin white hair falling in her face and a crown of dead, miniature daisies hung at her brow. "I must have more, little wretch! I am fading." Bent fingers reached for Cocot.