Page 10 of The Howling
“One of Gloriana’s?” Lilburn points to my chair. “It is. She makes sure I get the occasional treat. And now you’re here…” She cuts another slice and puts it on a plate which has roses painted around the rim. “We get chocolate cake!”
A china cup of tea is shoved into my free hand, and I balance it carefully on the arm of the chair.
Chocolate is a commodity not widely used in the Yeavering. Of course the Faerie have their lavish feasts, all made with magic, but it’s down to witches like Gloriana to feed the rest of us.
I don’t think Faerie need to eat at all, so it’s all for show. They also don’t need to poop. Don’t ask me how I know.
I bite into the cake. It’s perfect, not too rich, and I allow the flavour of the chocolate to melt in my mouth.
“Reminds me of home,” I say without thinking.
“Beyond the veil?” Lilburn asks.
I nod, but I don’t say anything more. Kaitlyn and I promised each other we wouldn’t speak of home. I know there’s trauma in her tale of how she ended up here, and I respect her privacy.
My tale of how a thirty-four-year-old woman ended up losing everything is more mundane. Not just the lottery, but I trusted the wrong man. My stepfather, who insisted we could make a go of a tattoo shop.
“With your talent and my business know how, we’ll be coining it in no time.”
Yeah, turns out, with my good credit rating, he was able to rack up debts in my name and then bugger off without a word, leaving me to face the music and a mountain of red bills I couldn’t pay.
Which is most likely the reason I lost the lottery. Those who thought I owed them money had enough influence to pull the strings which would have resulted in me forfeiting everything I owned and being handed over to the Faerie.
Or, for all I know, this was my stepfather’s plan all along. The lines etched into my mother’s face as she stood at the barrier, watching me being taken through the portal to the Yeavering, said everything without her saying a word.
I will never be her. I will never sacrifice all I hold dear forlove.
I’m not that stupid or naive. Not now I’ve seen what it does firsthand. If it means I end up a spinster, then I intend to end up like Gloriana, whom no one wants to fuck with, even the Redcaps.
“Beyond the veil,” I repeat and lift my teacup to her as a mock toast.
Lilburn laughs. “I enjoyed playing tricks on humans.”
“You’ve been?” I gasp.
My understanding was the only creatures able to cross between the Yeavering and our world were the Faerie. Apparently, I was wrong.
“How quickly you humans forget.” Lilburn sighs. “Maybe one day I’ll go again. It was fun, for the most part.”
“Did…inhabitants…of the Yeavering go through the veil often?” I ask, still stunned.
“Before the Faerie decided they wanted a piece of the land beyond the veil, after they’d messed up this place,” Lilburn grumbles. “We passed through as often as we wanted. Although, for some of us, some of the…darker creatures, they weren’t so welcome.”
“You mean like the Barghest?”
“Reavely? Yes, his kind used to pass through the veil, but he won’t have ever done so.”
“Why not?”
“Like so many in the Yeavering, he was sent to fight for the Faerie in the Night Lands, against the Reivers. He wasn’t given the opportunity to go beyond the veil like his ancestors did.”
I know the Faerie are warlike. They conquer and take, that much is obvious to anyone with eyes.
“I didn’t know there was a war in the Yeavering.”
Lilburn shrugs. “Where there are Faerie, there will be conflict,” she says, cutting herself another piece of cake. “And the war in the Night Lands will never be over, not while there’s a struggle for power and a reason for the Faerie, like Queen Mab to want the fight.”
I’ve heard of the queen, her name usually whispered by those inhabitants of the Yeavering, not in awe, but in fear. But Lilburn doesn’t seem to care. Presumably banking on the queen not wanting to visit a dungeon.
