HALIA'S POV
It had been only me and Phi. Until Feyn had appeared.
All of a sudden I had wished we were still back in the alley, where we were children with no prospect of a future, where it was only the present that counted, where Phi and I were inseparable.
A gulf was now separating us . . . a chasm, filled with a boy.
I shouldn't dislike him so much, I tried to tell myself. I should be happy for Phi. It's not like she and I could be together...
Be together, what a ludicrous idea.
Two girl fairies cannot be together. The Elders always said that nature needed a male and a female component to everything. Even flowers, with their stamens and pistil components.
But the Elders had been wrong before. They thought a fairy couldn't be sick, yet I had been. I had been the first fairy to ever be sick. Could I also be the first girl fairy to like another girl?
Or maybe I am mistaken and I don't like Phi this way. How could I be sure if this had never happened to me before?
Finally, she had said goodbye to Feyn and flown us back to our lives. It was going to be me and her again.
We did not speak on our way back to the settlement. I did not dare to interrupt the silence.
And the closer we got to the land, the stronger I felt the change.
Something is definitely going on. Danger.
*
We arrived back at nightfall to absolute chaos. Humans in leather body-protectors, shirts of mail, leather helmets, and carrying weapons were sweeping through the community, searching. For what, I had no idea.
"Who are these creatures?" I whispered to Phi.
The laminaks were scurrying to build a new and large fortress, one of unusual shape. It had a circular rampart with gates in the four points of the compass, streets that divided the place of the castle into four equal parts, and in these four parts were houses.
"Has the king gone mad?" Phi said. "Why would he have another castle built?"
"I don't think it's the king's doing," I said. "It looks like if the laminaks are working against their will."
We walked around the site. Everyone was running about, yelling. Chaos. We tried to find someone we knew to ask them what was happening. We met Mrs. Merrow. She let out a yelp of surprise upon seeing us.
"Quickly!" she said. "This way. Follow me."
She led us to her nest at the bottom of the great tree. She glanced around hastily before closing the heavy wooden door behind her, as if to see if anyone had seen us get in.
"What's happening?" I asked.
She grabbed my shoulders. "Where were you?" she said. "You were gone for days!"
"For days?" Phi asked. "We were in the woods for merely a few hours."
"Of course," she said, slowing her breathing. "How could I forget? When a king leaves his land, time goes by differently. Faster or slower. It obeys no rules."
"King Siegfried left!" I said, stating the obvious. That's what the oracle meant. A king shall run.
Tears formed in Mrs. Merrow's eyes. "Yes," she said. "He did."
"Who are these humans patrolling the streets outside?"
They also were not the humans we shared a ship with during our crossing here, yet they were clearly not native to this land. They looked as if they had come from a northern region of the Old World, with their light-colored hair and attire.
"Wait, where did the king go?" Phi asked.
"Oh, my poor girls," Mrs. Merrow said. She went to her fireplace and woke up Will.
The will-o'-the-wisp's flames flickered when he saw us. "Oh, no! I want no part of this!" he said before rushing out the door and slamming it behind him.
I looked at Phi and Mrs. Merrow. "What theâ"
"You might have been better to not have come back," Mrs. Merrow said. "Horrible things happened. We were attacked by the Evil King, and his troops." She broke into tears. "If my husband and I would have known, we would have never suggested you to come here. In a way, this is all our fault."
None of this made sense yet. "Who are these people?" I asked again, hands on my hips. Someone was going to give me a straight answer.
Phi extended her hand and helped Mrs. Merrow start a fire in the pit where Will no longer stood.
"Tea?" Mrs. Merrow asked after a while. "Some stories are better told with some tea. Please sit."
Although she was trying to be pleasant, it was clear the merrow woman was trying to calm herself down. She was breathing heavily.
Phi and I sat at the small table that adorned the room. There were screams outside, shouts of pain and fear. I started to be afraid, too.
After a few moments of silence, the beautiful blonde-haired fairy turned to us, made an attempt to smile, and poured us some of the warm beverage.
"Who is this Evil King?" Phi asked, her eyes narrowing, staring straight at Mrs. Merrow.
Mrs. Merrow took a deep breath. "His name is Wotan. Like us, he comes from the Old World. His thirst for power is legendary. It had been centuries since we last heard of him. We all thought he was dead. We now know he isn't. He has been living here. Since before we came."
Wotan. I vaguely remembered his name from one of Grannie's stories. He was a long time enemy of our king. He had wanted to acquire a magic ring that granted domination over the world, the Ring of Nibelung, but Siegfried had managed to return it to its rightful owners and have it destroyed.
"I don't understand," I said. "Why did the king desert us?"
The merrow woman broke into tears. I almost felt bad for asking.
"He went in exile," she managed to say between sobs. "Shortly after the Evil King arrived, Banshee began to scream, announcing a death."
Phi rolled her eyes. I knew she had little patience for the shrill Banshee when she started her wailing.
"The king supposed it was a premonition of his death. And to avoid putting the rest of us more in danger than we already were, he left."
"He left?" Phi cried. "The coward!"
I gave her a sharp look.
Mr. Merrow pushed open the nest door and nodded before going to sit on a chair by the fire. There, he lit up a pipe and started to smoke. Guess we weren't going to get any answers from him.
"It was necessary for the king to leave," Mrs. Merrow continued, "because, being absent, the Evil King cannot kill him and absorb his powers."
"And in the meantime, we're left to the Evil King's mercy?" Phi said again, beginning to pace around the room.
"I'm afraid so," said Mr. Merrow. He rose from the chair with his pipe still in his right hand. "But there is something else you must know. One way for the Evil King to get a hold of our king's powers and control his kingdom is by killing him." He paused to exhale smoke from his red nose. "There is also another way."
Phi waved her hand and lifted her eyebrows. "Yes, yes, and what way is that?" Phi asked.
I tried to ignore his green teeth as he spoke again.
"The Evil King could also gain control over us by marrying Siegfried's only heir," he said.
"But the king has no heir . . . ," I said, glancing at Phi, who shrugged.
"I am afraid he does," said Mr. Merrow. "Phi is his daughter." He pointed at the young bird fairy with the tip of his pipe.
Phi's mouth dropped open, and I could only imagine all the thoughts that ran through her head. The way the king had always given her more attention, cut her more slack.
"That's why I said you might have been better not to have come back," Mrs. Merrow said, looking into Phi's eyes. "The Evil King knows you are the heir and has been waiting for your return."
"He wants to marry you," Mr. Merrow added.
Phi turned the most interesting shade of green.
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