Faerie (25 page)

Lily gave a startled shriek as the diminutive figure came hurtling along the corridor towards them, screeching like a banshee, teeth bared and stick fingers clawed into vicious talons. Sun Lin threw herself at Connor, going straight for his eyes, trying to gouge his eyes out. Connor reacted with impossible speed, grabbing Sun Lin by the throat and holding onto the thrashing form at arm’s length with inhuman strength, his fingers closed around her scrawny neck, squeezing hard. Her legs dangled in the air, flailing wildly and shrieking her rage. Lily rushed forwards and grabbed the Urisk’s legs, hanging on tightly, and between them they managed to wrestle her to the floor. Connor grabbed her arms with his other hand, pinning them, and letting go of Sun Lin’s throat, pulled back his fist and drove a punch straight to the Urisk’s bony face. The creature went limp, knocked cold by Connor’s blow; Lily could hear the bones crack as Connor’s fist hit home. Her nose was smashed, a bloody mess spread across her face, and most of her front teeth were gone. Lily didn’t feel the slightest shred of sympathy for her.

“Virginia will have heard that racket. Brace yourself for battle,” Lily said.

“You two stay behind us and if it looks too bad, then just make a run for it,” Connor said, over his shoulder, wiping the blood from his hand on the Urisk’s chiton.

There were some terrified noises of compliancy from behind.

And there in front of them was Virginia. She stormed towards them, her face a mask of rage, distorted into ugliness. Her eyes glowed red, her hair fanning around her as the power surged through her. This was the true Korrigan, the monster that kidnapped men and tortured them to death for her pleasure. She seemed to fill the passage, an overwhelming presence, vibrating with power. Her fists were bunched in a battle stance and Lily knew that this was going to be a battle to the death. Connor stood in front of Lily and the two men, protecting them.

“You treacherous ingrates,” she hissed at them, “After all I’ve done for you!”

Lily pushed her way back in front of Connor, letting her temper get the better of her common sense.

“Done for us? You think that anything you’ve done could make up for what you’ve been doing here for God knows how long?” Lily asked.

Virginia gave a vicious smile.

“I’m a Korrigan – it’s what I do.”

Lily forced out her own smile, pulling her shoulders back and letting Virginia see that she wasn’t going to be intimidated.

“Not any more it’s not.”

Virginia gave a very unpleasant laugh.

“I was going to send you back to Elphame – could have helped you get the children back and defeat the Black King. Will you throw it all away for two worthless humans?”

“They may be worthless to you,” Connor said, “But not to us.”

Virginia, seeing that they were never going to give in to her, threw a curse at Connor, terrible dark magic that crashed through the air towards him, making Lily shiver as she felt the energy pouring from it. Connor intercepted it with a bright green burst of arcane energy that deflected her curse, sending it smashing into the wall, which disintegrated in a pile of dust and rubble. Virginia was knocked backwards by the recoil, landing on her back, a disgruntled heap, cursing them and struggling to get up again. Unfortunately the injury was mainly to her dignity, and she managed to get to her feet almost instantly, smoothing, rumpled but disappointingly unharmed. Lily joined in the battle, throwing her own curse at their adversary, and she could see that Virginia was beginning to struggle now.

Connor grabbed Lily’s hand and clung onto it tightly and Lily suddenly felt a burst of power that almost knocked her from her feet. Combined, their power became tenfold, and as their magic combined Virginia began to noticeably weaken, sinking down to the ground, and this time, not getting up again.

“You fools. You’ll never get to Elphame now,” she said, her voice growing weaker with every word as Connor threw blast after blast at her. “You will never defeat the Black King. Let me live and I’ll still help you.” She recoiled as another blast hit her, giving a cry of sudden pain, clutching her chest.

“We are Tuatha Dé Danann,” Connor said, “and we don’t need your help.”

And with that, Connor threw a final curse at Virginia and she fell backwards in a silent swoon, that was almost surreally elegant. Lily made a move forwards to check that she was dead, but before she could reach her she felt the world swim around her, and for a moment she thought she was going to pass out. Blackness engulfed her, and she felt herself falling into that inky darkness.

When she regained her senses Lily found that she was standing in open woodland, wobbling, but still upright. Connor was beside her and Chris and Billy were slumped on the ground in front of them, apparently unconscious. Lily bent over them and saw that they were breathing evenly, and within moments they started to come round.

“What the hell happened?” Billy asked, trying to sit up. There was blood spotting through the open neck dress shirt he wore, where his wounds had opened up again. He gave a moan of pain, clutching his head, and tottering slightly.

“I don’t know for certain;” Connor said, kneeling down beside him, “but I think that Virginia is dead. I think that is the only reason we got out of that place ‒ as she died her domain died with her.”

Chris stared at them blank eyed; he was in deep shock, in a far worse state than his brother. They looked very much alike, both obviously chosen by Virginia for their remarkable handsomeness.

“I keep thinking that this is some kind of bad trip that I can’t wake up from,” Chris said. He was impossibly pale, almost grey, his eyes glassy, vacant. Lily wrapped a cloak of warmth around them, worried that the shock would be too much for them. It was a simple piece of magic, but she could see instantly that it was working and within a couple of minutes they had stopped shaking so badly.

“But you are awake and you’re safe. That bitch is dead and you’ll be fine in a few days.” Connor said. Lily reached into her bag, pulled out a couple of the bottles of water she’d packed, and two sugary chocolate bars. She had a feeling that it had been quite some time since they’d eaten anything.

“Eat these, you need the sugar, you’re both in shock.”

They took them gratefully and began to eat, struggling to get them down through their tortured throats. They snatched eagerly and wolfed them down, gulping down the whole bottle of water each.

“What the hell happened to us, who as that bitch?” Billy asked.

Connor and Lily sat down beside them on the grass to try and explain, although what the hell they could say to them was anyone’s guess.

“She was just a very nasty piece of work that isn’t going to be hurting anyone else,” Connor said. “And you need to get to a hospital.”

That was going to be easier said than done. They were still in Farthingale Woods miles from the nearest town or village and these two were in no fit state to walk the four or five miles to the nearest village.

“But you haven’t answered Billy’s question. What happened to us, we need to know, or we’re never going to get a minutes peace as long as we live,” Chris said, and Lily could see that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“Tell us how she picked you up first,” Lily said. “We need to understand what happened as well.”

Billy glanced at his brother as if he wasn’t sure how much he should tell them, but Chris just nodded his approval. Billy drew in a breath as if bracing himself and said:

“We were in a nightclub, just having a good night out... and she was there. She came onto us, – we were pretty pissed, and when she invited us back to her place, we didn’t say no. We got out into the car park and the next thing I knew I woke up chained to that bed.” He paled, memories flooding back to him. “The fucking things she did to us...” Lily closed her hand over his.

“I know, I can see, but it’s over now.”

Lily could see, she could see it all, and she knew that Connor could as well. They had been very drunk, but just two decent lads on a night out, looking for a bit of fun, perhaps hoping to get lucky with some Cornish lass. Instead they found this monster ‒ and Lily could see how they had been taken in by her. She was luscious, in a tight fitting dress that barely covered her, sauntering and beguiling as only the seductresses of Otherworld could be. They were lost from the moment she laid eyes on them. And what they had suffered defied imagination. Lily forced the images from her mind.

“I don’t think it’s ever going to be over for us,” Chris said, his eyes wide with shock. They were both shaking, hardly aware of where they were or what was going on.

“We’re going to need fucking therapy for years. What was that place she took us to? Was it Hell?”

He looked almost embarrassed as he asked that question, as if he still didn’t expect anyone to believe something that ridiculous. Lily could understand their scepticism – how could anyone believe what had just happened to them? She decided in the end that truth was best.

“No, but it was another reality. The creature, Virginia wasn’t human, but I think you’ve already guessed that. You aren’t stupid – you know that whatever happened to you wasn’t something you could explain away easily.”

Billy gave the tiniest laugh, humourless, vacant.

“I didn’t fall in at first, until I saw that funny stick thing. I knew that wasn’t anything human. Then Virginia did some stuff – making flames appear in her hand, and lighting candles without touching them, and I knew that some weird shit was going on.”

“Best for you if you never mention it to anyone,” Lily said.

They both laughed.

“You really think we’re ever going to tell anyone about this?” Billy said.

Connor hesitated momentarily, thoughtful.

“I could make it so that you didn’t remember any of it, that your mind is a blank from the moment you left the pub to you waking up just now. It would be gone from your memories forever.”

Chris looked at Billy and their expressions answered before they did.

“God, yes, do it,” Billy said. “I don’t want to remember. I never want to remember any of it.” There was a nod of agreement from Chris. They both looked overwhelmingly relieved. Lily could understand that, she had only seen it second hand and she would have been more than grateful for someone to wipe those images from her memory.

“Consider it done. We still have the problem of getting you to a hospital, though,” Connor said. “I suppose we could help you get there, but it’s going to be hard on you.”

“No, it’s okay,” Lily said, rummaging in her bag and pulling out her mobile phone ‒ thankfully it was almost fully charged. She rummaged and found a piece of paper and pen and wrote:

Call 999 and leave the phone on. They can track you with GPS.

“We’ll leave this note with you, because you’re going to be very disoriented,” she said, thrusting it into Billy’s hand. “You can call whoever you want with it, but the police will probably get you to the hospital quicker.”

Billy looked down at it and nodded a smile.

“They’re going to wonder what the bloody hell happened to us when they see the state we’re in. What’s the date, we were there for at least a couple of weeks, although it was hard to keep track of the days. Our families must be going crazy, wondering what’s happened to us.”

“What was the date you were abducted?” Connor asked.

“Mmmm, 12th of July,” Chris said. “I think. Something like that.”

Connor gave a soft smile.

“That’s today,” he said, the smile broadening.

The two men just stared at them blankly, mouths open slightly. Lily could feel there confusion, one impossibility piled on top of another, until it became just one impossibility too much. She tried to imagine how she would feel if she had suddenly been presented with a nightmare like this. They were handling it pretty well under the circumstances.

“No, we were there for weeks,” Billy protested.

“Virginia’s domain was... not in this reality,” Lily explained. “Little or no time passed there. I know, it’s hard to get your head around, but I promise that’s the truth. It will make it easier for you, at least a little, because it’s unlikely that your families will even have missed you.”

“This shit just gets weirder,” Billy said, shaking his head. “But I guess that’s something we should be grateful for. My mum wouldn’t have been able to cope. I’m not even sure how she’s going to cope when she sees me in this state.”

“I’m sorry that this had to happen to you,” Connor said.

Billy gave Connor a light slap on the shoulder, a real smile on his face now, warm with gratitude.

“You’ve got nothing to be sorry about. We’d both be dead now, if it wasn’t for you two. We can never thank you enough for what you’ve done, and the sad thing is we won’t remember you, will we?”

“No.” Lily said, “but your lives will be much happier for it.”

Billy stared hard at her, trapping her with his gaze. Lily suddenly realised that she and Connor had dropped their glamours and they were glowing slightly with fey light. She could see the two men gauging what they were seeing, and very unsure about how they should react to it. It was Billy who plucked up the courage to ask.  

“Who are you? I mean you can tell us, because we’re not going to remember.” He gave a nervous little laugh.