Page 1 of The Howling
WYNTER
“You shouldn’t have run, human.” The skull-faced Redcap increases his grip around my arm in such a way I know it will leave a bruise. “Lord Guyzance doesn’t take kindly to losing his servants.”
Which is an understatement of epic proportions, and he knows it.
Some way distant, I see another cohort of the Faerie Lord’s Redcap guards dragging away a large, dark form. Looks like someone else fell afoul of them, not just me.
“Could you just take me back to the kitchens?” I say as sweetly as I can muster. “Not tell the Lord? I was getting some fresh air.”
The Redcap reveals some yellowing, pointed teeth. These creatures don’t think for themselves. They do what they are told, but it was worth attempting to appeal to any good nature they might have.
Which is zero.
“Come on.” He shakes me roughly. “You escaped, human. You have to pay the price.”
A second Redcap grabs my other arm and twists it up my back in an unnecessary move. It makes me cry out in pain, and I’m sure I hear an answering growl.
But then it could be anything here in the Yeavering, the monstrous Faerie realm no one knew about until the plague came and wiped out half of the human population.
The Faerie offered us a cure…in return for flesh. And humans obliged. They started a so called lottery to determine who would be sent to the Yeavering and who could stay behind.
So, here I am, a lottery loser, a skivvy for a Faerie Lord and now failed escapee.
Lord Guyzance won’t kill me, of course. He won’t do anything so crude. He’ll be inventive, and I will regret ever coming to his attention.
With my arm screaming in pain, I’m marched back to Moranik and the fortress Guyzance calls his. As I pass through the large wooden doors, the wooden hinges squeaking closed behind me, a feeling of finality makes my bones tired.
Here in the Yeavering, I belong to the Faerie. All choice is gone, even my choice over life and death. I will live as long as they desire me to. An immortality no one would ask for, not if they had any sense. Not if they had to do all the stuff I have to do.
I’m filthy from the chase and capture, something which will also displease Lord Guyzance, and something the Redcaps are not going to let me do anything to rectify.
My skirts flap wetly around my ankles, and my bodice feels like it’s full to the brim with the ditchwater I fell into as I’m pulled through the castle, all pretty honeyed sandstone which belies the horrors within.
Until I’m shoved through a doorway and onto my knees in front of my Faerie Lord.
“This one tried to escape, Lord,” the Redcap holding me fires out. “We brought it back for your mercy.”
I risk a brief glance up at Lord Guyzance, earning myself a clout on the side of the head.
He’s stood at a nearby window, looking out at the river valley below. Immaculate in the complicated folded clothing all Faerie prefer, he gives me a brief disgusted glance.
Of course the Faerie could do everything with their magic, if they wanted to. But they don’t. They like to have creatures under their control. They crave power, and power is nothing if you’re not repressing something.
As for their desire for humans, the reason they insisted our governments gave them some in return for saving us all from the virus which killed so many? I know why they want them, and I’ve been lucky to avoid that fate so far.
At least being as dirty as I am means I won’t be taken to the Lord’s bedchamber any time soon. It’s going to be the only good thing to come of this.
“Escape?” Lord Guyzance queries. “And why would she attempt such a thing?”
“Ungrateful, Lord,” the Redcap says unhelpfully.
I have to dig deep for this one, to push past my appearance and get out of this without being turned into a frog for the next twenty years.
“I thought I saw the mushrooms you enjoy, Lord,” I say as brightly as I can. “Out in the fields. I was gathering them when I heard something which frightened me.” I am lying so hard I can taste it. “So, I ran.”
My neck is gripped from the rear, and I’m dragged up so the Faerie Lord can see me.
“You were doing something for me, which ended in you running?” He’s very close, the cloying scent of decay all Faerie have and the scent they use to disguise it invading my senses and making my head spin.
