"For Faldon."
"Selfish, arrogant bastard!" She ground the words through her teeth, wishing she could hurt the feyquin. While part of her liked him as a man, she wanted to hate him for who he really was.
The man shoved her aside. "Go then. See how far you get on foot."
Was he serious? After all this, he would let her go? She didn't care. Selina smoothed her hair and stood, her chin in the air. She brushed the dirt from her clothes and marched away.
After a few steps, she looked back, but the man sat on the ground where she left him. She continued a ways in the moonlit night, but he didn't follow.
Alone in a strange land, Selina followed the road. The light breeze rustled through the leaves of the trees around her. At one point, she thought she heard steps and looked back but saw no one. Part of her wished he would step out from the darkness, to calm her fears of the unknown. Nevertheless, she continued.
After a while, she winced from the blisters on her feet not fully healed. She had only rested a day from her last long walk, no thanks to Faldon and his gang. If she saw him again, she'd slap both cheeks this time, man or beast.
She soon found a place to sit near one of the trees and took it. The next day would be a long one, and she had no doubts the man followed her. He followed her every step since Breach's Pass, so she didn't expect him to stop then.
She didn't want this. She only wanted to heal the king before she died. Tired and frustrated beyond reason, she closed her eyes to shut out the world.
Selina pulled her cloak around her and curled up in the crook of the tree's protruding roots. With some reluctance from her empty stomach, sleep came.
* * *
Selina awoke to a soft tickle on her cheek.
She brushed it away, but it returned. "Go away."
"Wake up," a feminine voice whispered.
She opened her eyes to a moonlit night. A silvery feyquin stood out from the darkness. Selina blinked, uncertain whether she was dreaming.
"I came to help you escape Faldon."
"How? Why?" Selina rubbed the crust from her eyes and stretched. Her body ached from sleeping in the awkward position. She groaned and stood up with twinges of pain throughout her back. "Who are you?"
"A friend."
"I thought feyquin disliked humans." She stretched out most of the kinks.
"Most of us do. But I would rather oppose Faldon." The feyquin jerked her head up, her blue eyes shimmering in the moonlight and her silvery coat taking on an ethereal glow. The beauty stunned Selina. "Hurry! He's near. If you wish to escape him, follow me."
The feyquin took a few steps away, and looked back. "Hurry!"
Selina checked the shadows around her—no sign of Faldon, but that meant nothing—and made her way to the feyquin, who led her into a cluster of trees. The last thing she wanted was for Faldon to cause trouble. "What do I call you?" she whispered.
"I am Relia. Enough talk. He'll hear us. Hurry now. Follow me."
Selina hesitated a few steps into the trees, uncertain about going off the road. She didn't know the land of Vastorn. Getting lost was not an option she wanted to consider.
However, if Relia would help her reach the Ivory Palace, she wouldn't argue.
Selina continued after the silvery figure. This seemed almost too easy. A voice of caution whispered through her mind, but she pushed it aside with the desire to escape Faldon.
Inside the forest, a wave of dizziness passed over her. Selina blinked. When she looked up, the feyquin waited a few steps ahead. She forced her feet to continue, and her head cleared. The trees grew vibrant with hues from green to almost a transparent pink the further off the road they traveled, welcoming her despite the dark of night. Selina gazed at the surreal beauty sparkling by moonlight. She had never imagined such a place hidden there.
"What is this?"
"No questions. Come. We're almost there."
"Almost where?"
"This way."
Selina followed, afraid of being left in the forest. She stumbled on a thick root protruding from the ground but caught herself with a low branch. In that moment, a shudder passed through her, seizing her breath and chilling her heart.
The beauty melted away, replaced by ugly, twisted trees, dark and foreboding. The air closed in around her, humid and stale. She stopped and tried to see through the sudden gloom. Silence surrounded her, except for the feyquin's steps ahead. This couldn't be real.
Faldon would never find her, and she wouldn't find her way out without help.
The silvery feyquin merged into the darkness, but the thump of her steps remained.
"Faldon comes. You must hurry."
Selina shivered, but not from the cold. Nothing looked familiar. "Where are we?"
No one answered.
"Hello?" Selina backed against a cold trunk, alert to the stifling silence. Her heart pounded in her ears. "Relia?"
"I am here." The voice took on a taunting tone. "We are all here."
"Who are you?"
"My sisters and I."
Selina searched through the darkness, but little moonlight pierced it. Only faint outlines showed her where the trees stood. Her mouth went dry. "Wh—Where are you?"
"Here."
She jerked to the right. Something moved in the darkness.
"Where?" she asked.
A creature stepped into a clearing before her, a shadow in the wan moonlight. It resembled the feyquin in structure, but nothing else. Rather, this beast was skeletal, some sort of scaly hide over its bones, eyes sunken into black pits.
She gulped and pressed her eyes shut. It couldn't be real!
When she looked, three of the skeletal creatures stood before her, but she heard the thump of steps to the side. The warnings of the feyquin raced through her mind. "Night mares!" She had to escape, but they surrounded her.
"They told you."
Now she knew why they led her away from the feyquin. Faldon might have stopped them.
"What do you want?"
"You."
"M—Me? Why?"
"You're strong. Your life will feed us for many nights."
"No. No, I won't." She gasped and took a step to the left, but the outline of another stopped her. She wouldn't get far.
"Selina!"
The faint voice lifted her with hope.
"Here!"
Hurry!
"Where? Keep talking!"
"Surrounded by awful beasts. I'm here! Hurry! I don't know—"
A hiss by the one she guessed was Relia interrupted. "Faldon!"
"He will be too late," another said. "Hurry, take her!"
"Hurry!" Selina called. "They're going to kill me!"
A blazing light burst from the darkness behind the tree, and she covered her eyes with her arm. The tramping of hooves and confusion expressed by the night mares gave her the chance she needed. She slipped around the tree with her eyes down and followed the source of the light. It filled her with warmth and strength.
"This way!"
At the dimming of the light, she dropped her arm. With his free hand, the man motioned for her to join him. From his other shone the light.
"What did you—"
"No time." He grabbed her hand. "This way." He closed his other hand, casting them into a black thicker than catacombs beneath the temple with the lanterns out. She had no choice but to let him lead her, but she was glad to do it.
"How can you see? How did you make light—"
"I can. That's enough for now. Hurry. If we don't reach the edge of their domain before sunrise, we'll be trapped in the Land of Shadows."
He didn't have to tell her again. Selina held tight to his hand and he held tight to hers. The security of his grip filled her with confidence. He guided her between trees without stumbling or running into them.
They reached the edge of the dismal forest as the sky lightened. Fresh air filled her lungs. Selina smiled, ready to rest, but the man pulled her forward.
"Keep moving. We're not out yet."
"We're not?"
"It's an illusion." He waved his hand and the trees surrounded them again, though sparser and faintly lit. Dawn arrived.
Selina ran on, afraid to let go of his hand, though he showed no inclination to release his grip. Maybe she was wrong about him.
They stepped out of the trees as the sky brightened to a light sapphire.
The sky continued to lighten in the east as they moved beyond the trees. When she thought her chest would explode from breathing hard, the man stopped and loosened his grip.
Selina squeezed his hand while catching her breath. He hesitated, bedraggled black and gray hair in his face. She had never seen him in any light in that form.
"Thank you," she said.
He stared in silence, but she caught the flash of his cheek.
"You're welcome?" she prompted.
He nodded and took a step away, but she held on. "Where are you going? Stay with me...I—I'm sorry I misjudged you." She let go of his hand in shock of what she said. A new warmth spread up through her.
His lips twitched with uncertainty, until he turned to the east and dropped his shoulders. "It's too late."
"Too late?"
"Too late for me."
"Why?"
He stepped away from her as the sun crested over the horizon. The moment it touched him, his body stretched and grew. Clothes tore off.
He groaned, a pitiable sound that made her wince in sympathy with the transformation.
Not long after she apologized to the man, a gray feyquin stallion stood before her, familiar in every detail.
"That
was
you. I thought—I suspected, but I never saw."
He stood before her, his head low, though the fire of his pride burned in his dark eyes. "Now you know. Such is the curse I bear. A more grievous crime could not be committed on one of my kind, but the curse of Sorvin fay Renald."
"How is becoming a man a curse? Why couldn't you tell me?"
His ears pinned flat and he reared up so his hooves rocked the ground when he landed. She jumped back. "It is! I lost everything, or weren't you listening to Dewel? Humans betrayed feyquin long ago, but I tried to end the hatred and fear. What thanks did I get? Betrayal!
"To be the enemy is the worst insult! No mares will have me like this; I'm no longer worthy as a leader if I cannot fulfill my duties to the herd. I'm not me when I'm a man."
She stood in silence, unsure what to say when his reasons made sense. Faldon stood facing her, the fire fading from his eyes.
The faint thunder of hoofbeats broke the awkward silence. Three feyquin came into view over a nearby hill.