The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

CLAP!

Lavender Sky stepped closer and took a better look. "A Great Fairy of the Sun!" she whispered.

At the sound of her whisper, carried away by the wind until far away, the crowd kneeled.

"Who are you?" asked Lavender.

The old fairy laughed. Her rattling laughter gave the creeps to everyone.

"A shadow, only a shadow," she said. Her voice was old like a forgotten memory, hidden in a corner of the mind, becoming alive when least expecting.

The old fairy raised her gray eyes to Doruh. "Now take me home, my valiant warrior," she said. "I must rest... And tell the Guards to escort our enemies to the Blind Alley."

So their torment was not over. Ferry tried to encourage Matilda with a smile, but the smile froze on his lips. He saw his friends' worried faces. The crowd started to quiver.

"Take them to the Blind Alley," the voices shouted. "They killed our Queen. Let them spend the rest of their lives in the darkness."

There was no escape. The fairies of Tenalach were too many.

Yet, Lavender was didn't flinch. "Wait!" she said in a thundering voice. "We did not kill your Queen. We did not come here to trouble your peaceful living you've earned with so much blood and suffering. Nor to reveal the secrets of the Palace and of the whole land of Tenalach."

The old fairy stopped on her way for a moment. She looked at Lavender with a curious look. Ferry knew those eyes. He had met them before. Then, she continued her slow footslog.

"Fae Queen!" Lavender called her. "Please stop and listen!"

This time, the old fairy stopped. She didn't turn, though, staying with her back at everyone. The crowd began to fuss again. Ferry recognized Petrichor, the shepherd, the first fairy he's ever met in Tenalach. He looked bewildered, just like the rest of the Fae People.

"We did not kill your Queen," Lavender repeated. "She was in front of your eyes the whole time. She's been here ever since the dragons covered these skies with their big wings. She was here when the Great Banishment began. And she was here when the Great Banishment ended. Because she was the one to put an end to it. Isn't that true... Saraid?"

Her words sounded loud and clear in the silence that settled. Only the rustling of trees broke the heavy silence.

"But even the fairies get old and die," Lavender continued and her voice trembled. "How did it feel to see hundreds of summers passing by?" she asked Saraid who slowly turned to face the crowd. "How did it feel to see your body getting weaker and your mind amiss and not being able to do anything about it? To see your once beautiful face turning into a hideous one that everyone avoided to look at?"

"You're wrong," the old Queen said.

But Lavender continued, "That's why you had to do something. You had to use your great powers to bring back the youth and beauty you've lost. That's when you began to use people. To allure them into your world and drain the vigor out of their bodies. That's why you've created the Orb of Light. To collect their vim. To sip like from a goblet drops of their lives and strength which eventually brought back your beauty and youth. And that is why this entire land is haunted by secrets and there are those forbidden places surrounded by powerful charms that not even the fairies can break. It was the only way to stay Queen. Young, powerful, unbreakable."

Saraid laughed, the sound of her rattling laughter scattering around. It was a burst of bitter laughter.

"Do you think this was what I wanted during those dark times? Do you think that beauty and youth were in my mind back then? That they meant something to me?" She shook her head. The thin, long neck shook as if almost breaking. "My dear child, what can you possibly know about it? You lived your careless life, away from the burdens of your people. You abandoned them. You chose to leave. I stayed. I've seen my loved ones dying, one by one, when humans began to banish us. My soul mate... My daughters and sons. No one in my stirps survived. No one but me... I had to make the humans pay for their sins."