In The Land Of Fae

Chapter Four

Aisling

It had been two days since I had come into the cavern and a good portion of the men were in a better condition.

The men had begun bantering more cheerfully as the time passed. It would be rude to even compare them to the initial men I had met. A few men on the team had even begun to joke with me.

Taryn seemed to be the main instigator and clearly the person in the group that managed everyone. Within the few nights I shared the cave with The Cursed,  Taryn had been the story teller. He'd told stories that even interested Captain Caspian.

I doubt anyone noticed though.

Their leader stalked the cavern and paced the space too silently for most of us to notice. I watched him in my spare time. Although Captain Caspian looked to be disengaged with the crowd of men, he hovered around his knights with a silent intrusion.

The ones still wounded would get checked on by him. He would feed them water and patted their shoulders when they complained about their injuries.

If Taryn was the father, then Caspian was the doting mother.

When I thought of that, I nearly wet my armor thinking of Caspian nursing babes with his scary stare and hypnotic eyes. I decided to keep my thoughts to myself this time out of fear of being made fun of by the group again

The sickest of the men was someone they called,  Al. He had been injured in the weather and had begun showing signs of a severe fever immediately thereafter. 

I had only visited him briefly but now that the more severe injuries were dealt with, I planned on helping the unconscious man. His skin was a sickly green and I did not know if that had always been that way or a part of his curse.

Under my breath, I mumbled a quick incantation before my hand lit up a warm light. I focused the energy towards his head.

A cold hand grabbed my wrist. Between my fingers, I could see Al's eyes dart rapidly around us. Before I had the chance to move back, his other hand clutched my neck. Al stood from his makeshift cot like a raging bull. My feet lifted from the floor  as I tried to struggle against him.

I had no intention of severely harming a sick man and it was against Queen Orla's wishes.

The cave wasn't huge it was more narrow than it was wide. The only thing that would help me now was to get the attention of someone near me. My feet worked at the knot that held my metal shoe covering.

Little stars danced in my sight as I hoped the knot untied. As soon as the stars appeared, I had begun to lose feeling of the knot and anything else on my body.

Without warning, I went flying across the room and not because my wings had lifted me. Al tossed me while thrashing against his friends.
Healthier men of the group grabbed at him and pulled him away.

For a man who was passed out, most of the time I knew him, he looked like the strongest one there.

I moved a bit in the dirt and immediately felt a wave of dizziness and pain. A whimper left my mouth and I stayed in the spot where I had landed.

An arm propped me up on the cold ground. My breath regained its normal flow as I mentally analyzed the pain. My wings took the brunt of it. I moved my hand to the base of my back to the place where my wing met my spine. A new wave of pain shot through me and I knew the damage was bad.

In a swift moment, Caspian appeared. He moved so quickly that the only color I could see was his black cloak. He landed the punch to Al's gut so quick and accurate that the man immediately slumped in the arms of the other men.

Al spit out bile as he was carried away.

Caspian turned to me. The ripped cloak spun around in the air behind him. "Are you okay?" His face appeared with his normal amount of displeasure but his eyes whirled with thousands of fires behind them.

I nodded and bit my lip.

I knew that any damage to a faerie's wings was more threatening than many injuries , but in the next day or so, we would be out of the cave and closer to a place that could heal me.