Crossing Paths

The portal we needed to get to was in the main hall of this strange and terrifying place. The three of us would have to walk for approximately fifteen minutes through hallways and corridors that could be filled with any number of Fae guardsmen. After getting to the portal, we had to hope that it would be open and unguarded. If not, we had no plan on what we would do.

I was dressed in Dolly’s cloak again.

Gerritt, having taken his belt back once I stopped floating, was in his guardsman uniform and would be carrying me. The idea was that I am the princess and I’ve fallen ill from fear and homesickness.

Dolly would follow along with us, using her magic to hide herself or get us through any situations that might arise.

“Remember, if things go badly, both of you run. Get away however you can. Hide and I will come find you both,” Gerritt said.

I didn’t agree. I remained quiet and looked Gerritt straight in the eye as I thought, loudly, ‘If things go badly, I will take over, guard boy.’

Gerritt sighed and shook his head.

“Are we ready to go?” Dolly asked.

I stiffened as Gerritt lifted me into his arms.

“Yes,” he responded.

I lay my head on Gerritt’s shoulder, feeling awkward and uncomfortable being so close to this Fae.

‘Don’t think about your attraction,’ Gerritt thought to me.

‘Suck it, Fae!’ I thought back.

He laughed softly, and I rolled my eyes.

Dolly, who had been watching us with a look of irritation, said, “Let’s go!”

The guards at Dolly’s door were easy enough. They nodded at Gerritt as we left the room and that was it.

Halfway down the first hall, Matron Flora, the plump little healer, hurried towards us.

“Oh dear, is she alright? What happened?” she asked, reaching for the cloak.

Gerritt stepped back and whispered, “Please, she is asleep. She has had a fearful time and wishes only to see her family.”

“Of course, of course. Please send the king and queen my love.”

Dolly whispered, “She must be busy. She is much more persistent when she’s not busy.”

The next hallway was clear.

“Here we go,” Gerritt said.

I realized we must have made it to the main hall. I heard hushed voices, footsteps, and an odd buzzing sound occasionally broken by a sound like thick liquid bubbling.

‘Stay still. The king is here.’ Gerritt thought to me.

His pulse had suddenly increased. He was afraid.

I wished I could see what was happening.

I felt Gerritt lower and rise again, as if he had bowed.

“What is the meaning of this, guard?” a loud voice demanded.

Gerritt responded, “The princess, my cousin, is not feeling well. She is fearful and wished to see her family, immediately.”

“I am sorry, but that is not possible,” the voice said, as if that were the end of it.

“It is her right as diplomatic ambassador of Oceania, as well as daughter of the King of Oceania, to move freely between realms. Do you deny her these rights?” Gerritt asked, sounding steady despite his pounding heartbeat.

There were mumbles of disapproval from the other Fae in the room.

I didn’t hear any weapons being drawn, but I did hear a heartbeat approaching slowly from behind.

‘Got it,’ Gerritt thought back to me when I alerted him.

“Are you meaning to ambush two members of the royal family?” Gerritt said as he turned and drew his sword with one hand, his other setting me on my feet.

I wobbled and moaned softly, trying to seem weak as I clung to Gerritt, but I could hear other swords being drawn and one guardsman had quietly slipped out, more than likely to get more guardsmen.

Then, the bubbly sound I had heard earlier was starting again.

“Who was that? Someone has used the portal.” I heard someone ask, quietly.

Most of the Fae in the room seemed to have gone silent for a few seconds, but Gerritt was pulling me along as he backed up, and then the sound of swords being unsheathed filled the room.

Gerritt told me to run, but instead, I threw back my hood and roared like a wild animal who just realized it was free.

“By the gods, Melissa, what are you thinking?” Gerritt whispered.

I ignored him because he was no threat to me. The threat was the guards rushing towards us from all directions, heartbeats fast and strong.

“Which portal is Earth?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. I only know Oceania, there,” Gerritt said, pointing at a glowing circle of what looked like floating, colored water.

A group of guardsmen rushed into the room and came towards me, swords and spears raised.

I snarled and they halted, pushing back the Fae spectators who were unlucky enough to get caught in the hall with me.

“Melissa, will you be slaughtering everyone here today in order to escape? I don’t think so.” a voice said from the crowd behind the guards.

A Fae man, shorter than me, stepped forward, seemingly unafraid of my potential to devour him. He was wearing the most ridiculous crown on his head, that seemed too heavy and made his head wobble when he talked.

“There are more of you, guards. Sieze her!” he shouted.

I laughed, because there was no way I was going back into that dark room with the burning lights. That meant, these guards would have to die, and I had a feeling I would enjoy it immensely after what they had put me through.

I crouched and snarled as the guards surrounded Gerritt and me.

“How many will you sacrifice to keep me here and torture me?” I shouted to the Fae, who I was assuming was the king.

He shouted, “Sieze her!”

But before the guards could make a move, there was a splash of color from the Oceania portal.

Suddenly, guards in the same uniform as Gerrit came pouring through and pushed back the guards trying to attack us. One by one they emerged from the portal, a dozen in total. They held their tridents on the group of watching Fae and stood their ground.

Dolly came through the portal next with a man much older than her and a woman with the same long, green hair.

Beside me, Gerritt dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

I crossed my arms over my chest and waited for the next round of this shit storm.

The king stepped out of the crowd and pushed past his own guardsmen, only to be stopped by the new guards.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded to know.

The older man with Dolly stared angrily at the king.

“Do you know who I am, dirt Fae?” he asked the king.

The king, who looked very offended at being called ‘dirt Fae’, huffed and shifted from foot to foot. His guardsmen looked to him for instructions and the surrounding Fae began to mumble amongst themselves.

I paid them no mind. I was focused on this new threesome, making the family connection easily.

“Silence!” the new guy, Dolly’s father, shouted.

Everyone fell silent immediately.

‘The king and queen of Oceania,’ Gerritt thought to me through the annoying connection.

‘No shit, Sherlock,’ I thought back, with a snippy tone.

“I am King Marlin of Oceania,” he said, and all of the spectators suddenly dropped to one knee, as Gerritt had.

I did not.

Nor did the ‘dirt Fae’ king. He stood gaping at King Marlin.

“You would know who I was if you bothered to join Council Meetings, King of dirt Fae,” King Marlin said, not bothering to look him in the face.

Dolly stepped forward and spoke, “You all know me. Have I not been honest and kind? Do you not trust me?”

No response.

“Rise, nephew.” King Marlin said, holding a scaled hand out to Gerritt.

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Gerritt said, standing and taking a place at the King’s side, then winking at me.

I heard him say in my mind, ’The cavalry is here, love.”

‘Don’t call me love, dirt Fae,’ I thought back, with a snicker.

He chuckled out loud causing more than a few concerned glances to be cast in his direction.

Dolly continued, “I have watched as the healers and learners tried to glean knowledge from this creature,” she indicated me, then added, “this friend. She is my friend.”

Dolly’s mother was clearly not pleased to hear her daughter call a vampire a ‘friend’. Her face scrunched and she looked at me with disgust.

Without turning to look at her, Dolly said, “I know my mother does not agree with this fact, or understand it, but it is a fact.”

I nodded politely at the queen, not feeling the need to piss off a potential ally, and she forced a smile.

“This vampire came to us not of her own choice. Nor did she choose to have Prince Almin perform atrocious experiments on her that have now altered her future, her life,” Dolly continued.

‘What is she doing?’ I thought to Gerritt.

He winked but didn’t respond otherwise.

“She is now one of us, as well as being a vampire,” she stated.

I heard a few people gasp and watched more than a few mouths drop open. Of course, all eyes turned to me, including Dolly’s.

“Speak to them, Melissa. They need to know you’re not the creature you have been made to look like,” she said.

I sighed, because I knew that if I had a chance to make a connection like this, I really needed to do it right. I could hear Gideon in my mind, talking about our family name and respect and the future of vampires.

I looked to King Marlin and bowed my head.

“I am not your king, dear, you needn’t bow to me,” he said, matter of factly.

“You are my friend’s father, and a great King, both things which deserve my respect,” I said to him, then I smiled and turned to the other Fae in the room, “It’s true. I didn’t come here to harm anyone. I didn’t even want to come here. I went to a gathering place in my world with my father, Gideon Preydor, and Almin drugged me and brought me here.”

“Preydor? Did you say Gideon Preydor?” The queen said, looking at me with sudden interest.

I nodded, “Yes, Your Highness. We were at The Outpost when I met the prince.”

The queen laughed softly and smiled warmly at me, “I am familiar with your father, young vampire. He would not create or tolerate a monster. My daughter is correct. This king,” she pointed at the now angry, Fae king, “is the monster. He has allowed atrocities to occur in the name of keeping his twisted son’s proclivities a secret.”

King Marlin looked as if this was a regular occurrence, his wife suddenly making this kind of statement.

Dolly had turned and watched her mother as if in awe, grinning.

“That’s what I was about to say,” I said, but I don’t believe anyone heard me.

The Fae king stepped through the guards, ignoring the huge, pointed tips of the tridents that were inches from his face.

“Are you finished?” he said, looking up at King Marlin, because he had a good two feet on this little Fae king.

“I believe you may have the floor, King Dirt,” King Marlin said, chuckling.

“I am King Erth, named for the very world you reside on, you pompous porpoise-humping fish!” he said angrily, shaking his finger.

King Marlin and the queen laughed loudly.

“Your insults mean nothing to me,” King Marlin said when his laughter had settled down, “State your case or go to the council on our words alone.”

King Erth looked around and every face was expectantly watching him.

“I’ll go to the council, willingly, but I admit no wrongdoing,” he said.

“I will go to the council, as well, because my father has made me complicit in his wrongdoing.” a voice came from behind the crowd.

King Erth shouted, “Silence, boy!”

Prince Oskar emerged from the crowd and dropped to one knee before King Marlin.

“You are a wise young Fae,” the queen said to him.

“All that remains, is that Prince Almin be turned over as quietly,” Gerritt said.

Prince Oskar looked up at him and said, “You are unaware? My brother escaped our dungeons weeks ago. We cannot turn him over because we do not know where he is.”

“Great!” I said loudly, startling a few of the Fae guards, “That’s really convenient.”

“Indeed, it is,” King Marlin agreed.

“I believe the council will require you both to remain in stasis until this matter is settled,” the queen said, casually.

“Stasis?” Prince Oskar said, looking horrified.

‘What is stasis?’ I thought to Gerritt.

He looked uncomfortable when the response came in my mind, ‘Like sleep, but with other, horrible moments of torture.’

That’s what they had done to me.

“I think stasis is something they need to experience, having been a victim of it myself at their hands,” I said to the crowd.

There was silence, again. Every face was staring at me, except for King Erth.

“What?” I asked, looking from face to face.

“A vampire cannot be put in stasis. It requires manipulation of the soul,” the queen stated, “Your soul is not yours, so it cannot be manipulated without approval from your sire. I can certainly attest to the fact that Gideon Preydor would never allow it.”

“I told you, Mother. Prince Almin has done something awful. He has made her a Blood Fae,” Dolly said, sounding annoyed.

“Preposterous!” King Erth said, angrily, “My son is insane. A madman with control over his indulgences. He fails at every experiment he tries. This one was no different.”

“She is not a vampire. She is something more,” Gerritt said, looking at me with something like admiration.

‘Stop it!’ I thought to him, which only made him smile.

“Dolly, I mean Princess Dolphina, said the healers were performing tests. Can we talk to them?” I asked, directing the question to both King Marlin and his wife, the queen.

“Of course, we can,” the queen said, moving to stand by me, “Call forth these healers.”

The onlooking Fae all mumbled words of agreement, whispering their various theories to each other.

“The healers were executed,” King Erth said, eyes on the floor, voice barely audible.

I heard a lot of gasps, and more than one person broke into tears and ran out of the room.

“When?” Gerritt asked, looking pale.

Prince Oskar answered, “This very day, at dawn. They were each decapitated for treason, for allowing the vampire to escape.”

“No!” Dolly said, tears forming in her solid blue eyes.

I knew what she was thinking. She and Gerritt had broken me out of that dark room, not the healers. The healers were innocent and had been murdered for what Gerritt and Dolly had done for me.

“I am deeply, deeply sorry for this,” Dolly said, going to her knees, “Their blood is on my hands.”

One guard stepped up to Dolly and knelt beside her, placing a hand on her back. It was Henson.

“You are not responsible for the horrors these Fae have committed, Princess. Rise. You do not belong on your knees.”

It was corny and naive of him, but she smiled brightly and gazed at him as if seeing him for the first time. She offered him her hand and he stood and helped her to her feet, before going back to his place in the formation.

I looked up at the queen to see she was looking thoughtfully at Henson.

That poor guy was in for it.

“I will remain here with some of my men. The people of this realm will need a new king and I will see to it that he is concerned with ruling fairly and wisely,” King Marlin said, “Queen Finna will return to Oceania with my daughter and her friend,” he smiled at me.

’I don’t swim well,” I said.

Dolly and Gerritt laughed.

“You will be fine, dear,” the queen said, placing an arm on my shoulder.

“Oceania it is then,” I said as we all moved toward the portal.