Fairy War

Chapter 6

"I will have to discuss this with my brother," Nareena said, cutting off Naarin's attempt at protestation before he could utter a single word. "They are his soldiers, so I cannot dispatch them on a mission without first ensuring he is comfortable doing so."

As Finarae bowed and stood up, the Queen turned to face me. "I mean no offence to you or your friends, Clint, but this is a matter we must discuss alone. Naarin will come and find you once we've decided on our next move."

As everyone but Naarin, Nareena, and Nightshade left the chamber, we made our way back to the central courtyard, and as the others looked for food I walked over to where Nikkela was treating one of the sentinel's wounds. There was little more than a grunt of acknowledgement from the soldier, while Nikkela pretended she hadn't noticed me. This pretence lasted only for a few seconds.

"I should thank you," Nikkela said, finishing off the bandage she was wrapping. "You are, at least in part, responsible for my mother and I finding each other again."

"I did nothing," I said, sitting down as the soldier got up and walked away. "It was Naarin who lectured her about speaking to you; I just sat there and listened to their argument. I haven't ever done anything impressive in my entire life," I added, shrugging, "I don't know why your people think I could be even remotely special."

"That is precisely why you and your friends are what we need," Nikkela said, sitting next to me. "You humans think of heroism as involving spectacular acts of violence or people fighting purely for their own selfish ends. That is not heroic, and it's certainly not courageous. Real heroes care about doing the right thing, however big a risk it means taking. They care about other people ahead of themselves." She looked at me, clearly upset though she was trying to smile. "I may never have met her, but if I could find a way to bring your own mother back, I would. We all would."

"I know," I replied, looking at the floor. "I suspect Naarin would lead a party himself to at least discover what her ultimate fate was, but I just can't ask him to do that. He has more than enough to worry about as things are, and I should be helping you, not thinking of myself."

"If more humans were like you, Clint, this world would be a much happier place," Nikkela said, gently putting an arm around me and hugging me briefly. "Do you want to know what my mother said to me?"

"Shouldn't you tell Naarin first?" I asked, immediately worrying that I'd sounded like I'd snapped at her. "Not that I'm not interested, but I know you and Naarin are close."

"You're right," she replied, "but there's part of this you should know first. Have you ever seen this symbol before?" She pulled a medallion out of her cloak and I leaned forwards to get a closer look. It bore a picture of a wolf, on whose back was perched a huge eagle.

"My mum had a similar picture by her bed," I replied, studying it. "I only saw it a handful of times because she rarely let me in her room. What are you trying to tell me?"

"It's my family crest, Clint," Nikkela replied. "I'm not sure how this came about, but your mother is Desha'yi's sister, which makes us-"

"Cousins!" I said, shocked. "But... how? Is your mother sure?"

Nikkela nodded. "As it turns out, the story I was told of what happened the day my father died was only partially true," she replied. "The picnic was merely the cover my parents used to flee the Shadow Glade; they were going to warn your parents that your mother's life may be in danger from the forces of darkness. Unfortunately, said forces found them before we could flee, leaving my mother with an impossible choice: as they knew she'd survived the attack, whether she came back for me or carried on to your mother, either way she was going to put someone she cared about in mortal danger. Thus she made the difficult decision to go underground and wait until she felt the time was right to return to the outside world."