Page 44 of Beyond the Faerie Gate

If I had to guess, the shy, skittish one belongs to my púca, and the blood must belong to the redcap.

Remembering the former in chains makes me want to go to him first, but now that I’m touching his bond, I can tell he’s farther away than the redcap. As much as I wish otherwise, I’m hardly in any state to launch a rescue mission. I’m wearing imaginary clothes, for goodness’ sake.

Now that I’m focusing, I can feel the Fomorian drawing closer to me with every breath. His determination adds urgency to my steps as I say a silent apology to my púca and take my first step towards the redcap.

I’ll free you,I promise, just hold on. I’ve got to save myself first.

Mab and Titania hover around me as I start moving, twitching my wings as I go.

“Is flying easier than walking?” I ask, hopefully.

“Is swimming?” Mab replies. “They’re just different methods of travelling. Your back muscles ache after a long flight, just like your legs would after a long walk.”

“But there are fewer predators in the sky,” Titania mutters.

Biting my tongue, because I don’t want to know what she means by that, I try again to lift my wings.

I walk for hours, until my feet are numb and bleeding, following that inner sense of my redcap Guard until darkness falls over the world.

It’s been a while since I left the forest. Once the trees disappeared, the landscape became consumed by rolling hills and empty meadows. Wherever Danu left me, it was so far from civilisation that I still haven’t come across so much as a farm. Or a road.

I collapse against a boulder, groaning at the ache in my limbs. I haven’t done this much exercise in—well, ever.

“We can’t stop here,” Maeve warns.

I called her back and apologised an hour into my walk when the guilt got too much for me. Since then, she’s been quiet, but watchful, her usual humour dampened by caution.

“Too close to the river,” Mab agrees. “Remember, the Fomorians have the advantage in water.”

My head flops back onto the rock, and I sigh. “What river? And why do they get to have the advantage in water?”

“When Elfhame and the Courts were founded, Danu split the land with her power, dividing the territory with four rivers,” Titania explains. “They encircle the capital and provide natural, indisputable boundaries between the courts. It’s also why one of the Goddess’s names is Our Lady of Rivers.”

“The Fomorians are raiders,” Maeve adds. “They use their longships to cross the sea and patrol the rivers. Each ship can have a crew of over a dozen, and they usually sail in threes.”

“Great.” So I have to cross a river that could be swarming with Fomorian boats.

At least I can use the water to get clean. I’d rather not die plastered in dirt.

This would be so much easier if I could just fly. I flutter the wings on my back, putting as much power into it as I can.

All I manage to do is topple myself over and pull a muscle.

“Fine. I guess I keep going then,” I growl, massaging the twinge away.

“Eat these before you go,” Mab, who’s been staring at the ground the whole time, points to a cluster of yellow mushrooms growing at the base of my boulder. “Pixiecaps. They’re good raw, and they’ll fill you up fast.”

She’s been pointing out food and water sources all day, and I love her for it. While she might be the quietest of my companions, her level head has kept me sane.

The truth is, I’m not that hungry. “Why is it, wherever I go, I can find food and water?” I ask, bending to pick them anyway. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful, but doesn’t it seem a little strange?”

Titania shakes her head. “Faerie is linked to you. It wants the Nicnevin to survive and it will provide for you… within reason. Did you not notice how you’ve not seen a single predator this entire time? Or how none of the plants have been poisonous? There are fungi native to this region with spores so lethal they’d drop a bear in seconds. But you’ve not encountered any of them.”

“If it could provide a horse, that would be really helpful,” I mutter, taking and mouthful of the nutty-flavoured pixiecap as I stare at the horizon, trying to will myself to start walking once more. “Actually, maybe not. My last riding experience was awful.”

Mercifully, the river is shallow, barely ankle deep at most points. When Mab flies up high and returns with the welcome news that there are no ships nearby, I stumble to the water and wade in. Regardless of what Titania says about Faerie providing for me, I still scoop handfuls of it to my mouth in case it’s the last drink I have for a while.

Then I wash my blister and mud-covered feet, wincing as the cold water sluices across the open wounds before sighing in relief as the icy chill numbs the pain.

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