An Original Short Story By Jan Foster
I know my destined love will come for me. I’ve sensed his faceless presence in my lonely se’er visions. I didn’t foresee my journey to this moment involved being ship-wrecked, then captured. Visions are unreliable and I should know better than to trust them entirely. But, this moment has fuelled my fantasies and filled my witchy senses for years, long before I was even trapped here in the Beneath. My powers are useless for escaping such a hole, but in my heart, I know my brave knight will charge to my side, kind and strong, bursting with the best of humanity, to rescue me from the darkness.
Having screamed for hours, when the door crashes open, I have only the strength to raise my head and peer at the flickering lamplight. This is the moment we will meet. I swallow, heart pounding as the familiar image of the door opening to my love flashes before my eyes, and then is made real.
“C’mon. Hurry up, Nemis!”
My heartbeat falters. It’s Joshua, my fae friend. And he sounds like he’s swallowed a turnip.
He is definitely not The One.
From the moment we met, he’s been steadfast in his devotion to his kidnapped wife. They are as fated to be with each other as the moon is to the earth. She is the reason I navigated us for weeks to this wondrous island of Naturae, so that he may find his true fae love.
Joshua is not my destined one. He cannot be. Cross-creature relationships are ill-fated.
My heart sinks further, for I do not wish this terrifying adventure to ever be repeated. Yet it must, for my foresight is never wrong and I do want to meet my true love.
I scramble to my feet and stagger towards the light. Another presence lurks behind Joshua in the tunnels, but I ignore them and fling my arms around my friend. As I squeeze him, he winces.
“Sorry.”
“Ish alright,” he says, his swollen lips slurring his words. “Jus’ a toof and a few ribs.”
Before I can question him about being tortured, the ground beneath our feet shakes. Chunks of earth rattle down, splattering dust upon us. The lamp hisses as it dies.
“This way, witch!” The man in the shadows speaks and I realise he is also a fae. He grabs my hand and I hear the rustle of his wings flutter behind his back. “Quick as you can,” he says, in an imperious tone and pivots into the air.
I cannot fly, so I stumble after him, head down in his back draft. My long dreadlocks slap my back with every step.
The ground shaking beneath my feet vibrates with the anger of the gods as they spit their displeasure ever closer to my heels. With their night-sight and wings, my fae companions would be faster if they left me in the tunnels. I am the impediment to our escape, but driven by fear, I keep running.
Blinded by wind and dirt, I lose my footing in my long skirts and stumble. From behind, Joshua hauls me up from the earth. Another firm hand grasps my arm, the touch sending a jolt of adrenaline through my body. As I’m hoisted between them, up into the air, my legs flail. The rush of wind whistles past my ears; every inch of my body feels weightless and vulnerable, suspended in this precarious moment.
A deep rumble swells from behind us. Huge wings beat even faster; their back-draft pushing tears from my screwed-shut eyes. I have no choice but to trust them.
The air suddenly clears of dust, and I smell trees – fir and the sweet blossom of cherry and blackthorn. The scent reminds me of springtime when these trees are in bloom and I gather wild garlic that grows at their roots to disguise the bitter taste of my remedies. My eyelids fly open; we are hovering – myself dangling – above the forest canopy.
“Take me down!” I cry, my arms straining from being hauled and held.
Joshua swings me into the arms of his companion.
“Not yet,” the other fae says, so I raise my head to look at him.
There’s a reassuring glimmer in his eyes that eases me, a bold firmness in the set of his swarthy stubbled chin which reminds me of a Spanish priest I once knew. Dark-haired, with a red cape flowing gracefully between his wings…
I have seen this fae before!
He stood by cowardly, behind a tree trunk, and let Joshua and I be manhandled down the tunnels to our prison holes.
“You were watching us all along, yet you did nothing!”
His steadiness against my wriggling holds my panic in check. He inclines his head. “For everything, there is a time.”
Only minutes ago, I thought I was going to meet The One. How stupid of me! And now, I’m captured again, mid-air, dallying with this riddler!
When the whiteness of his smile stretches across his face, the heat of frustration rises on my neck. As it flushes into my cheeks, he chuckles.
I grit my teeth and look away, past the city in the treetops and across the flat, wooded landscape, to beyond where the sea meets the shore. Then I remember.
“Joshua! The stones! You must go now to the circle, to Aioffe.”
His lips press together and he nods at me. His eyes flick to the other fae. “Sorry.”
As my friend flies away to find his destiny, the popinjay fae adjusts my body in his arms so I am held like a babe as he swoops around, delaying. But why?
My usual habitat, the ground, seems awfully far below, so I crook my arm around his neck and cling to his shoulders. “Why didn’t you do anything earlier, in the clearing? If you had, Joshua wouldn’t have been beaten up.”
My anger at him has not dissipated despite his rescue, but I refrain from beating at his chest. Fire my voice as I order, “Put me down, right now!”
We descend slightly, then he says, “Sometimes, it is better to wait for fate to intervene.”
A snapping crack and then a whoosh precedes a cloud of dust puffing up through branches, enveloping us in grey. I cough and glance down through the fug. One of the immense trees has fallen across the clearing, completely covering the opening in the earth to the tunnels we had just escaped from.
I crane my neck to survey the citadel below and gasp. My blood freezes as, to my eyes and ears only, the ground ripples. The roofs of the treehouse dwellings linked by rope bridges crack, then crumple. I am powerless to stop trunks toppling, halt the bodies tumbling, screaming as they fall, to be impaled on broken branches and shafts.
I shudder, blinking, and then the rooflines are straight again.
But the early leaves on the branches quiver a warning of what will come. My heart thumps as I push away the icy chill of my vision.
“If anyone is down there, we must warn them,” I say, my voice still wavering but sure. “I can hear the heart of the forest, breaking.”
His arms stiffen around me and his jaw sets. He gazes into my eyes. “I believe in you.”
Then, he blinks and we plummet. Both of us shouting, “Get out, get out! Fly!”
Faces peek out from the ramshackle structures, white with fear, but we urge and beckon the fae out to safety. There are fewer of them here than I imagined, considering the number of treehouses, and for that I am thankful.
Just as the air is peppered with a flock of drably clothed, small-winged fae, the earth rumbles again, deep and ominous. My vision begins to unfold; cracking branches echo like thunder as one after another tree is uprooted by the quaking soil, accompanied by shrieks and sobs of the devastated community.
I cannot watch; I have already seen what will be, so I bury my face into the chest of my hovering ride as I pray we have done enough.
Through the cries and screams, I am kept safe by this stranger. Held up from harm’s way, shuddering but close in his arms as the citadel crumbles. I splay my hand over his heart as gratitude and sorrow wash over me. Homes can be rebuilt, but people’s lives are harder to replace.
An eerie silence replaces the noise of destruction. I exhale, turn my head and peer down, expecting the worst.
The swarm of fae have already dropped to the ground. As they hug each other and then pick through the debris for their possessions, I watch for a moment; there are no tears. No life has been lost after all.
My companion catches my glance as I turn to look at him. He has sea-green eyes like my own, reflecting the relief I feel. With his help, my terrifying vision did not realise. Yet, my foresight is never completely wrong…
There is only he and I, high above the trees. My skin tingles, but not from a chill.
A witch and a fae, two species who should never cross paths, and yet, here we are. Bound by disaster, saved by each other.
I could accept that The One is a fae, but what a peacock! With his finely stitched jacket, expensive cape, and linen shirt still whiter than white even after the dust has settled, I could not appear more his opposite in my simple gown, grubby with saltwater and dirt.
Yet, I hear his steady heartbeat and it beats in time with mine.
He is, even underneath the frills, so different from me. Not at all what I’d imagined a saviour to be. He leans over to kiss my forehead and, at the brush of his lips, I know he has truly rescued me.
Without knowing me, he trusted without question in my foresight. Even Joshua wants details before interpretation of my visions, but this fae did not hesitate to believe in me.
He protected and held me through the terrors of my visions and beyond, when they threatened disaster. For once, I was not alone.
Although I do not know his name, his gentle smile is for me only.
“Ambassador Spenser,” he says, as if he heard my thoughts. “I know you, Nemis. I have been waiting for this moment all of my life too.”
High above the land, far away from everything familiar, my heart calms. I am home in his arms.
© Copyright Jan Foster 2024
A Note by the Author: This short story is set in the middle of Disrupting Destiny, Book 1 of the historical fantasy Naturae Series. Nemis and Spenser are side characters throughout the series, which spans the Tudor age and features real historical events as viewed by magical beings. For more information about the series and other short stories, please visit www.escapeintoatale.com/naturaeseries
