Page 2 of Brutal Fae King
I sit down on the stool by her bed.
“Come, Maribelle,” I say. “Have some stew. You need to recover your strength.”
She just stares into nothing, eyes constantly flowing with water.
“What’s the point?” she asks. “I’m going to die soon.”
My stomach clenches.
“Don’t talk like that!” I insist. “You’ll recover! People have recovered from the Weeping Fever before!”
“Not Mom and Dad,” Maribelle answers grimly.
A little nausea moves through me, and I swallow hard.
“No…” I murmur. “Not Mom and Dad. But you’re younger than they were. You can get better if you regain your strength.”
She still lays, staring at nothing miserably.
“Please, Mari,” I beg. “Eat something! For me…”
My sister sighs lightly and then laboriously struggles to sit up. I give her the bowl of stew, and she very slowly starts to eat it.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
As she eats, I return to the cauldron and take it off the fire. I fill a new cauldron with the water and hang it over the fire.
“Once that’s warm,” I call to Maribelle, “you can have a bath. It’ll do you good.”
She just grunts a little, eating her stew. My stomach turns, and I just turn, tending the fire.
“Can you light some lamps?” Maribelle croaks suddenly. “It’s very dark in here.”
“Certainly.”
As I do that, she adds:
“They say the light is fading from around the ice wall,” Maribelle murmurs worriedly. “Have you heard?”
“Yes, I have,” I answer. “I don’t know… we have never seen the sun here. How do we know the light is fading when it’s always dark?”
“I don’t know,” Maribelle says. “But I’m worried. I swear I can see it some days.”
“Things will be fine,” I state firmly. “It’s all going to be fine.”
I’m in the middle of lighting more candles when a noise starts sliding into the door for us. Crashing. Clashing of metal. Voices. Screaming.
“What is that?!” Maribelle croaks.
“I… don’t know,” I answer
“That is not a raid, is it?!” Maribelle says, then breaks out into a coughing fit.
“No,” I protest. “It can’t be! There hasn’t been a raid since we were children!”
We both wait. There’s more commotion outside. More screaming. Banging.
“It has to be!” Maribelle gasps. “It’s a raid!”
