Lessoc Fountain - a fairy-creature tale

Ch. 19 Under the Hill

The hall was silent as midnight in the chalet, when her breathing rasping in her ears was the only sound.

Great fairies stared down at her in their midst, cold and unmoving as the ice on the streams in December. And Cocot was trapped. They numbered two hundred, she estimated, perhaps more. Her eyes darted for an escape. But they created a wall of fine clothing overgrown with the wilderness itself—leaves and flowers intertwined with silver and gold, vines and twigs adorned hair and silk.

"What is this that disturbs our joyful gathering?" asked a tired voice from the far end of the hall.

The crowd of fairies parted, revealing a withered and aged fairy who propped himself upright on the armrest of his black, larch throne, and who did not seem joyful in the least. He must have been the king; he had a simple silver crown on his brow. His eyes narrowed on Cocot, trying to focus, and he coughed when he leaned forward.

"Come," he whispered, beckoning with a stick thin finger.

From either side of Cocot, came the hiss of metal. Guards forced their way through the dancers, their swords drawn. Another guard, fiercer and taller than the others, and wearing leather and silver armor advanced on her down the aisle that the fairies made.

Cocot gulped; half a dozen sword points were at her throat. Her legs trembled and a deathly chill rose from the floor through her feet to her chest. Her mother had spoken of great fairies who stood taller than the men in town and had pointy, upswept ears, but she had never told her about their faces made of hard planes and sharp angles, eyes like shards of crystal and the cruel disdain in their expressions.

The tallest guard raised his weapon a fraction higher, menacing Cocot and she sensed her own worthlessness in his action. He could run her through with the point of his sword and think nothing of it. She blinked, holding her tears and questions in check.

"Take this creature," he ordered the other guards.

"Captain, you overstep your boundaries," a voice called—a lady's voice of honey and salt.

"The festivities may continue. I will discover how she came to be in our hall, as my duty demands," he answered, not taking his gaze from Cocot. "I am perfectly well within my boundaries."

"Her presence in the middle of the hall begs the question of how perfectly well you perform your duty," replied the lady.

The captain tightened his grip on the sword handle and for a split second, Cocot was afraid he would strike.

"Captain Thraidox, the king has...summoned this creature. Your duty now is to bring her," the lady called.

The captain stepped aside. Next to the king was a woman fairy, bent in half and whispering in his ear.

The king nodded. The woman bowed deeply and then stood straight and tall to show a young fairy-lady face, sleek brown hair twisted in a knot and a crown of field flowers.

"Majesty," the captain said, "allow me to escort this intruder from the hall for questioning. She must answer why she has broken custom and come uninvited in your presence."

The lady stepped forward. "You call her an intruder and yet no one stopped her at our gate. You say she has broken custom and yet she comes before us humbly, head covered and feet bare. You would question her, but I believe the king wishes to do so himself. Majesty?"

"His majesty is ill-advised in matters of his safety by his nurse," the captain snapped.

The great fairies in the hall began to whisper and gasp, agitation stirring them as the music had earlier.