Chapter 8
My parents hadn’t been too surprised to see me back. I’m sure they’d known I wouldn’t make it in the guard. But they were surprised that Tova wasn’t with me. I told them she was happy there and that she deserved to stay, since she was easily the best in our class—even better than Niklas in my opinion. They seemed to find that hard to believe, but that was nothing new. No one in the village had ever given Tova the credit she deserved for her ferocity. That included her own parents whom I thankfully did not have to explain the situation to; I convinced my mother to do it for me by telling her it’d be great gossip.
The day after being discharged, I was back at the shop with Harold. He had accepted me back, though I didn’t know why. He didn’t seem to want me there. I was betting my father had bribed him.
Either way, my days were long and boring again, and I didn’t have Tova to brighten my nights. I was getting antsy, and I missed Tova. I started making any excuse I could to walk by the guard compound even though I never saw her from there.
One day, I was passing by and noticed a girl burrow underground at the corner of the compound. She wasn’t Seelie was she? I knew first-hand how ironically bad the underground security was there despite protection being the guard’s function.
I burrowed as fast as I could and made my way over there. I was hoping she’d been stupid enough to leave a tunnel that I could follow. I collapsed mine as I went along so no one would know I’d been there. Unfortunately, that included me. I searched all around for a trace of the girl, but I couldn’t be sure I was in exactly the right place, and I couldn’t tell where I’d already checked.
I guessed she hadn’t left a tunnel though. I thought about where she would have gone from here. There was a blockade around the whole compound, but since it doubled as an escape tunnel, it had outs at various places. She was most likely to enter the buildings from one of those.
I tunneled straight until I hit the blockade, then I had no choice but to pick a direction and hope that was the same way she went as I ran along the side. I didn’t even know if I’d catch up to her before she made the jump, but if she was careful enough not to leave a tunnel, maybe she’d be extra careful not to be seen when she came above ground, which meant she’d have to do a lot of waiting around for the coast to be clear.
I was not even halfway to the nearest opening by my estimates when I hit open air followed quickly by a body. With identical ‘oomphs,’ me and the girl fell to our tunnel floor.
She recovered first. “What are you doing here? Who are you?”
Didn’t seem like the typical Seelie question, but I didn’t let go of my suspicion just yet. “I could ask the same of you.”
“You haven’t figured that out?”
“Should I have?” Although now that I could see her up close, she did look vaguely familiar. “Wait, Theresa?”
She made what I thought was an affirmative sound.
“What are you doing tunnelling around?” I knew her—well, knew of her. Her parents were Lord and Lady Serafim, very high class, wouldn’t be caught dead getting dirty like this.
“I’m an earth fairy. I happen to like being in my element,” she said snootily. I could tell that wasn’t it though.
“So why here? There are safer places with less possible repercussions for security violations.”
“Look, if you don’t tell anyone I was here, then I’ll help you sneak in to do whatever it is you’re doing.”
“Oh, well, I—” I stopped myself from continuing. Yes, initially I’d only been following her because I wanted to make sure she wasn’t Seelie, but a new idea came to mind. Clearly, she’d done this before. She knew how to get in and out with ease. She could show me, and I could see Tova. I could talk to her, and maybe we could mend our friendship. “Deal.”
Theresa took us to a place in the blockade that she said was weak. “Reach out with your element. Earth will feel it.”
I tried but I didn’t succeed. I had fairly tight control over my element, but I had never had the kind of relationship with it that a few people had where it felt like the element had its own sentience. It didn’t matter though. When I shrugged, Theresa didn’t press it. She put her hand over the weak area and focused her power. The stone of the blockade crumbled away, allowing us in. On the inside, the rest of the walls were cracked as well, so when she closed the hole back up, it didn’t look out of place at all. We went down the tunnel a short way, and she did the same thing to let us out.
“We’re in the compound now. Be on your way,” she said.
I wanted to roll my eyes at her dismissal, but refrained. You don’t do that to someone of her status.
We went our separate ways, and I headed for the barracks. She’d either be there or at the dining hall. When I arrived and poked my head through the ground, I was surprised to see Theresa there. I must have been right behind her, unbeknownst to both of us, the whole way. She tapped lightly on a window, and a moment later, one of the recruits from my former class emerged. I hadn’t gotten to know him at all. He was in the middle of the pack, so I hadn’t paid him any mind. The two of them kissed quickly and dropped back into Theresa’s tunnel. Interesting.
I shook my head and refocused on my task. No one was around on this side of the building, so I pulled myself up and took a look inside the barracks. Tova was there. She was sitting on her bunk by herself. I couldn’t see her face to tell if she was sad, but I couldn’t think of another reason she’d be sitting alone.
I moved to a closer window and tapped it like Theresa had. It got her attention, and Erwin’s, whom I hadn’t noticed before. Tova silenced him with a few muffled words I couldn’t understand. He backed away from her fearfully. He had a history of saying too much. I hoped he would be too scared to say anything about this to anyone else.
Tova climbed out the window and crouched so we couldn’t be seen from inside anymore. “What are you doing here? You were discharged.”
“I know. I just wanted to see you.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? I miss talking to you. Do I need more reason?” Of course I did. Her look said just that.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then she said, “Randolph, you can’t do this again.”
I nodded solemnly. “So we really aren’t best friends anymore.”
She clarified, “No, we aren’t friends at all anymore.”
It was the first time either of us had said it out loud. I was surprised with how sad I was to hear it even though I’d known for quite some time.
Sounds of chatter came from the other side of the building. “That’s Niklas. I have to go,” Tova said. She climbed back through the window and shut me out.
I tunneled away to I wasn’t sure where. I wasn’t paying enough attention. When I eventually came back up, I was in the field behind the compound. I could see the copse of trees in the distance. I sat down to sort my thoughts out.
I felt consumed by my thoughts, however they were evidently not enough to keep me from getting distracted. I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. It came from the trees. I squinted for a better look, but I was too far to pick out anything out of the ordinary.
I was getting to my feet when a blur of movement shot across the field. It was a black mass heading straight for the barracks. It had better not be what I thought it was. I jumped underground and rushed to the barracks. I hoped I’d beat it there.
I burst out of the ground just in time for the animal to trample me. I knocked me down and kept going for a moment, but then it stopped when it realized what it had hit. The red eyes of a hungry hellhound appraised me. Deciding I would do for its next meal, it abandoned the barracks and came straight for me.
I launched myself to the side, narrowly avoiding its snapping jaws. It stumbled at the edge of my hole but caught itself before falling in. I scrambled to my feet and sprinted away.
I had gotten away from a kelpie, but I had no idea how to save myself from a hellhound
. The kelpie had been far away and not focused on me. This hellhound was on my tail and gaining. Think, think, think.
I was running past the weapons building when I changed course. I went around and threw myself through the door. I went to slam it closed, but the hellhound’s nose poked through. I rammed it again and again in the hopes that it would either get out of the way or that I’d manage to injure it.
“Is that a hellhound?” a voice said from behind me.
I turned my head slightly to find three men standing there. They looked to be cleaning the weapons. “A little help, please?” I said.
One of them came over to help me keep the door from flying open and letting in our doom, while the other two grabbed the largest swords in the room. They took position on either side of the door. The man helping me said, “On the count of three, take your weight off the door. The hound will charge in, and they’ll slice it.”
“Are you sure that will work?” Hellhounds were large, muscular animals. You’d have to hit the exact right place if you wanted to kill it with one blow. And if you missed, it could do a lot of damage between blows one and two.
“We’ve done this before,” the man assured me. I wasn’t sure if I believed him, but he was already counting. “One, two, three.”
He jumped to the wall, pulling the door and me with him. The hellhound barrelled into the room, and the swords came down on its back and neck. Just as I’d thought, it wasn’t enough. The hellhound was still up and running, snapping at the two men, with no fear of their blades.
I tried to help. Unfortunately, the floor got in the way of my attempts to manipulate the earth underneath. I broke several of the floorboards, but the hellhound always had ample time to get away before my roots had the chance to wrap around its legs.
Swords kept clanging, and soon we had all joined in. We were attempting to surround the hound when the door opened. I watched from the corner of my eye as several fairies streamed in. They shouted warnings to each other about the hound. I recognized Tova and Philip’s voices along with more of our classmates who must have been in the barracks while the hound was on its way. They grabbed weapons off the wall and joined us.
Now the hellhound was nervous. This was too many fae for it to handle on its own. We cornered it. It lashed out at our weapons, but it didn’t do any good. Finally, someone struck. The sword came down on the hound’s neck and sliced all the way through.
We let out a collective sigh of relief as the hound’s head rolled. But then the foul smell of its blood made us all gag. We filed outside.
“Alright, everyone, don’t leave yet,” called Philip. We all gathered around him. “Good job killing it before it could hurt anyone. But how did it get here in the first place?” He met everyone’s eyes, but most of them only shrugged. When he got to me, he quickly hid his surprise, and allowed me to melt into the group. I wasn’t supposed to be here. I felt grateful that Philip wasn’t suspicious of me.
“No one saw it?” he asked. He flicked his eyes at me, and I gave the smallest shake of my head. It had come from the copse of trees, but I had no idea how it’d gotten there without notice. The field stretched on in all directions from there. Most large animals didn’t risk the lack of cover. “Oh well,” Philip continued, “whoever’s idea it was to lure it into the weapon’s building, good thinking. I doubt that was its original destination.”
“It was probably just lost and wandered in there,” said Niklas. When did he get here? I was sure he hadn’t been part of the group fighting the hellhound. He was standing off to the side of the group, but trying to inch closer. He’d just arrived, but wanted everyone to think he’d been here the whole time. Why?
After a minute, Philip responded, “Sure. Alright, back to your barracks everyone.”
I slipped away into the darkness and out of the compound. I’d be back though.
***