The Faery Vow

Chapter 4

There was a flash of light as Kheelan opened the door and we were no longer in the cemetery but in some sort of maze. My first thought was it was like a maze from a horror movie, the walls were made of thistles, sharp prickles pointing out. The purple flowers were faded, almost lilac in colour instead of the deep purple they should have been.

The sky was overcast, light barely breaking through the blanket of clouds. Everything seemed dull and plain.

Nothing like what I had imagined or read about.

Kheelan walked ahead, turning a corner and I ran to keep up with him.

"Don't touch the walls," he explained. "They are quite sharp and make sure you stick close to me. It's easy to get lost in here if you don't know the way."

"I thought Faerie would be brighter than this." I said, slightly disappointed.

"This isn't really Faerie,' he said calmly, taking large strides. "It's more like the in-between of worlds. There are many different gateways, not all of them lead to your world, however."

"How many worlds are there?"

"More than you can imagine."

We fell into silence and I tried to remember what way he was going but every turn looked the same and four turns later I was completely lost. Every now and then, out the corner of my eye I would see something down another path but we were moving too quickly for me to take a closer look.

The one time I did get to look, I saw a large troll walking down another path, dragging his large club behind him, large elongated teeth reaching up to his eyes. He moved out of sight and I moved a bit quicker after that.

We remained in silence for some time so I decided to put the time to good use.

"So,' I said coolly, jogging lightly behind him. "Who is the girl?"

Kheelan stumbled. "You mean the lady I love?"

"That's the one."

"Her name is Sorcha." He said her name with such tenderness, I found myself wishing someone would say my name like that. "She is a lady in my mother's court as I have explained to you. She is not a higher class fae, her father who lives in the Faylinn mountains exchanged her to my mother for greener lands."

I gasped in shock. "He didn't? That's awful!"

Kheelan nodded. "She's been with us for many years now and you must understand that this is normal occurrence in Faerie. She is liked by many of the fae at court, but because she is not of the higher class, my mother won't accept her as a possible bride. The only way to overcome that is like I told you yesterday; I must convince the Queen that we are truly in love."

"Okay,' I said still uncertain this plan would work. "Do you know much about Sorcha? Like her interests, her favourite colour, that sort of thing?"

My questions were met with silence. Leaning around, I took in Kheelan's blank look of horror.

"You have no idea do you?" I surmised.

He nodded stiffly and I resisted the urge to slap him.

I sighed in frustration. "Well I guess if I'm going to be spending time with these women, I'll do some snooping and find out for you. If you're going to be wooing this woman then you at least need to know the basics."

Kheelan looked at me in surprise. "You would do that for me?"

"Sure,' I shrugged, "The quicker I help you two fall in love, the quicker I get my father back and I get to go home."