The Crown

Chapter 2

"Can I help you?" She called out as they approached. She spotted Seanan, a childhood friend of hers who had quickly risen in the ranks, amongst the group of 5 seelie officials. He avoided eye contact with her. The group disregarded her completely, shoving past and making their way to their trees. She watched, alarmed, as they forced their way into the trees, kicking out anyone already in them. Warily, the rest of her division joined her next to the supplies pile.
    "What's happening?" Oisin whispered to her.
    "I haven't the faintest idea." she responded.
    She stood there observing the worrying sight with the rest of her team. She looked over at Bran and he, not surprisingly, seemed very shocked and worried.
    "Maeve" she heard a voice hiss from beside her. "Maeve" it said again.
    She turned to her left to see Seanan cloaked in darkness by the shadow of the tree that he stood under. Maeve looked around quickly to see if anyone was watching and quietly made her way over to him.
    "What do you want?" she sneered.
    "Shh not so loud." he whispered back.
    "What, don't want your new friends to know that you associate with a lowly trainee? I saw how you pretended I didn't exist earlier. What are you doing here anyway?"
    "Listen." he snapped. "They can't know that I know you or I'll be taken off this assignment. Do you know anything about smuggling going on in this camp?"
    She scowled at him, taken aback. "Of course I don't. Are you daft? I've been working extremely hard for decades to be a Seelie fighter, something you wouldn't understand because the position was basically handed to you, why would I sabotage all that when I am finally so close to getting there by getting involved in smuggling?"
    "Alright, alright. Don't be jumping down my throat. We were sent here to search the camp because there were reports of smuggling. I don't know what we are looking for though. Just that we'd know when we saw it. Now go back before anyone sees us."
    Shaking her head, annoyed, she walked back to her division. She was still thinking about how infuriating Seanan was when an arrow whizzed by, nicking her ear and burying itself into the back of one of the officials. He cried out and his body slumped down with a thud. Her hand shot up to the top of my ear where it came to a small point and her fingers came away warm with blood. She wiped them off on her tunic and instinctively grabbed her dagger that she had strapped to her thigh.
    "Put it down, sweetheart." She heard a soft murmur in her ear that was very much at contrast with the sharp knife that was now being held to her throat. She slowly sheathed her dagger and the Aos Si that the voice and dagger belonged to wrapped his arm around her waist and arms, firmly holding her in place and preventing her from moving.
    "Alright, everyone." a new voice said from behind a tree ahead of her. Everyone's heads swivelled to see who it was. Except for Maeve, as that would have proven to be quite detrimental seeing as there was still a dagger quite rudely pressed to her throat. A rustle came from the leaves hanging low by the tree that seemed also to have produced the new voice and she followed the sound with her eyes. A tall and thin Aos Si with a bird's nest for hair and sunken eyes emerged from the foliage. "So I've decided that we will be taking control of this camp now." he slurred. Maeve struggled to hold back laughter. He was absolutely plastered!
    "Drunken fool. You'll be arrested for this folly!" one of the Seelie officials shouted.
"But you see, I don't think I will be. And don't you worry. I may be a drunken Clurichaun, but I find the ale gives me more clarity of thought rather than the opposite." he responded in a cheerful tone.
The seelie official glared at him and motioned for the rest of the officials to move forward.
    "Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn't do that if I were you." the drunk chuckled, wagging his finger in front of his face. From all around them, about twenty Aos Si emerged from the trees, effectively surrounding them. In unison, the attackers raised their hands in front of them and with a few swift movements, everyone apart from the attackers were frozen with the only movable part of their bodies being their eyes. Maeve looked around frantically for some sort of answer as to what she should do but no answers were revealed. The drunken Aos Si stumbled over to everyone in Maeve's division and all of the officials one by one, casting at them as he hummed, making them float over to the center of the camp where they collapsed to the floor. He then swayed over to Maeve and crouched down so that his face was inches from hers.
    "Why hello there." he crooned and she was hit with the strong scent of ale on his breath as she tried to avoid eye contact. Her captor removed his dagger from her throat but kept his arm in place. The drunk reached out and delicately pushed her chin up so that she was forced to look at him. "Hmm." he hummed as he studied her pensively. A grin appeared on his face as he removed his finger from her chin and brought it up to hover in front of her nose. "Tap" he announced cheerfully as he tapped the tip of her nose and she collapsed into her captor. The drunk then walked away with a skip in his step towards the other attackers and the soft spoken, dagger wielding Aos Si scooped Maeve up in his arms and laid her none too gently next to the rest of her division. A grunt escaped her throat as her head hit the ground painfully and he looked at her apologetically leaving her bewildered. Why on earth was he apologetic now? He just had a dagger at her throat! Bastard. She heard chanting but was unable to see anything but her division to her left, the trees to her right, and the sky above her in her current position so she just lied frustrated with her eyes on the sky until all of a sudden it was not the same sky anymore. Alarmed, she moved to look to her side and discovered that she was no longer frozen. She jumped to my feet and searched around in fury for the attackers. She spotted one of them and marched over. A couple of metres away, however, She slammed right into an invisible obstacle. She lifted her hand to her nose in shock to find it broken. She let out a growl and snapped it back into place. The eyes of the Aos Si in front of her widened and he walked gracefully towards her.
    "Are you alright?" he asked, his voice laced with worry.She recognized the voice as her previous captor..
    "What do you think?" She sneered back at him. "Where in the name of Dagda are we?"
    "Well you are in your camp but your camp is in Far darrig."
    "Talking to the girl, Feidhelm?" the drunk greeted the captor as he walked towards them.
    "Yes, Cillian. She's quite angry and rash at the moment." he responded.
    Maeve attempted to discreetly cast a simple attacker spell but the drunk saw the movement and tutted quietly.
    "That won't work while you're in there. We've cleaned the air in your camp of magic so no casting for you." he said. She screamed in frustration, banging forcefully on the invisible barrier and began to pace aggressively.