Sunrise

Chapter Twenty-Two: Eiddileg

They gaped at the tiny king in bewilderment. Their captors shuffled nervously. One of them stammered, "But Majesty, we caught them..."

Eiddileg clapped a hand to his forehead. "Must you bother me with details? You'll ruin me! You'll be the death of me! Out! Out!"

Eilonwy grimaced as she was jostled back in the direction they'd come, but at an outraged shout of "No, not the prisoners, you idiots!", their guards released them and ran, tumbling over one another in their haste to escape their monarch's wrath. She would have laughed, had it not seemed so odd; the Folk were many things, but incompetent wasn't one of them, and when she turned back to face the little king she found him staring them down with a crafty glint in his unearthly eyes. Eiddileg bared his teeth at them in a snarl, complete with a set of canines as sharp as a weasel's. "Now, then," he growled, "out with it. What do you want? You might as well know ahead of time, you shan't have it."

Taran stepped forward and bent his knee. "Sire," he stammered, "we ask no more than safe passage through your realm. The four of us..."

"Four of you?" the king sputtered. "Am I blind? Or can't you count?"

Eilonwy started, realizing for the first time that here was no sign of Gurgi.

"One of my companions is missing," Taran stammered, after a similar surprised glance around. "I beg your servants to help us find him. Our provisions and weapons are lost..."

"That's nonsense!" Eiddileg snapped. "Don't lie to me! I can't stand it. Why did you come here?"

Eilonwy didn't know what was worse - Taran's bumbling attempts to be placative, or the stubborn bombast of their captor. "Because an Assistant Pig-Keeper led us on a wild-goose chase," she burst out irritably. "We don't even know where we are, let alone why. It's worse than rolling downhill in the dark."

Eiddileg cast her a shrewd glance, and she felt the flicker of his perception like the tingle of a spark from a wool cloak. "Oh, naturally," he sneered. "You have no idea you're in the very heart of the Kingdom of Tylwyth Teg, the Fair Folk, the Happy Family, the Little People..." His face grew darker purple with every name "...or whatever other insipid, irritated names you've put on us. Oh, no, of course not! You just happened to be passing by."

Taran looked bewildered. "We were caught in the lake. It pulled us down." 

Eiddileg paused, his frown softening into a self-satisfied smirk. "Good, eh? I've added some improvements of my own, of course."

Pompous little tyrant. She wanted to shake him. "If you're so anxious to keep visitors away," Eilonwy told him, "you should have something better—to make people stay out." 

He scowled at her, the smirk melting away. "When people get this close they're already too close. At that point, I don't want them out. I want them in." 

Fflewddur, who had been silently gazing about the cavern in awe, broke out in surprise. "But I thought the Fair Folk were all over Prydain. Not just here."

"Of course we're not just here," Eiddileg burst out. "This is the royal seat! We have tunnels and mines everywhere! But the real work—the real labor of organization—is here, right here, in this very spot—in this very throne room! On my shoulders!" His voice rose in a plaintive moan. "It's too much, I tell you, too much. But who else can you trust? If you want something done right..." He stopped suddenly, and grunted, tapping his pointed nails upon his throne as  he looked at them. "Well, that's not your affair. You're in trouble enough. It can't be overlooked." 

Eilonwy crossed her arms skeptically, infuriated at his petulance. "I don't see any work being done."

The little face contorted with rage and he leapt to his feet, but before he could say anything, the door of the throne room burst open, strange figures tumbling through it like falling stones from a landslide. All manner of odd and unearthly things came flooding around them; creatures with wings or scales, feathers and fur, defying description, accompanied by various forms of magic whose overwhelming sensations made her dizzy. The din of bickering and plaintive voices almost drowned out their king; Eiddileg's roars finally rose above it as he ordered them all out, gesticulating wildly. Whatever he did had an effect; they seemed to be pulled back out, with difficulty, by some unseen force, the door slamming behind them. The little dwarf slumped back onto his throne, panting. "No work being done!" he groaned. "You have no idea!"