Isle of the Faeries

When the Dust Begins to Settle

A lot of questions are answered in the next two chapters!

Breena

      The tinkling of soft piano music playing is the first thing I am aware of, the next is the smell of hay. I open my eyes and see rafters above my head. The events from last night wash over me like a bucket of cold sea water and I try to sit up, but my head swims and someone pushes me back down onto the pillows. I roll my head to the side to see Kean sitting on a chair beside the bed I am laying in.

      "Take it easy," he says, "you lost a good amount of blood and went into shock."

      "Where are we?" I ask.

      "Were in the living quarters above your barn. We've been waiting for you to wake up."

      I glance around recognizing my surroundings, "How long was I out?"

      He looks at the clock, "A few hours, it's ten in the morning."

      I try to push myself up again and succeed this time but lean heavily against the head board. He reaches back and hits the pause button on the CD player, "Looks like I owe Dunkin," he murmured, "he said the music would help bring you around."

      I don't totally understand what he means but there are too many other questions warring for space in my mind and mouth. "Is Fiona alright?" I finally ask.

      "She's upset, she's worried about you but she's physically okay," he tells me. "There's a lot more to what went on last night than what we knew going into it."

      The now familiar feeling of dread curls in my stomach, "What?"

      He ducks his head – a strangely submissive gesture for him – and I am sure I won't like what he has to say. "I suppose I'm just as guilty as everyone else when it comes to keeping things from you. Remember what Ciná said about me owing him?" I nod recalling the Sidhe's sadistic ranting, "Well he wasn't lying I do owe him a tithe," he swallows hard.

      "When my parents died I was left alone, I was ten and grief stricken and I didn't know what to do with myself. Ciná is old even for a Sidhe, he is The Fire Elemental; he was born from the first flame. With all his years he is cunning and patient and powerful and bored. That being said he finds enjoyment in watching others squirm; so when he saw me the heir to a powerful Keeper thrust into his role too soon and floundering, he pounced upon the opportunity to get me indebted to him. He acted like the friend I so desperately needed, and at the time I was naive and wasn't well educated in the ways of the Fey.

      "Meanwhile I was trying to take on my father's responsibilities and find a paying job. I finally found one at Allard's, I started out cleaning stalls at the lowest wage he could give me but it was something. I usually ended up being the last to leave because I had to sweep up the barns, tack rooms and feed rooms. One night I was walking home and ran into a nasty Fey that wanted to eliminate the Keeper line in Teelin. He had a sword and I had nothing but the two iron rods. He left me on the road a bloody mess sure that I would be dead within the hour and he was right, I was dying. But Ciná found me unconscious and took the opportunity to heal my wounds and bring me back leaving me in his debt."

      He took a deep breath and ran his shaking fingers through his hair not meeting my eye. "Looking back if I could have I would have told him to let me die. Once I realized what him saving my life meant I threw myself into research and contacted all my father's friends who were Keepers on the mainlands. I disconnected myself from anyone he could use to hurt me and when I formed a bond with Cinis I moved him to Allard's barn because the wards were better. For the last three years he has been after me about that Augisky and I have used every trick in every book along with a few of my own to avoid him. Then you came along, and somehow broke down the walls I had surrounded myself with for so long. Of course Ciná saw that and used it against me."