The Erlking paced the cobblestone of his bedchambers, the cold beneath his feet as cold as his heart. It had been well over two years and his battle was finely over. Nereus's guard had pushed the half fae from their burning cities and into the Bad Lands. Although he would be lying if he said the satisfaction would have been greater had there been thousands of heads hung on poles instead of the meager two hundred and four lining the north battlement wall of his castle for his viewing pleasure, and all full bloods to see. Yet, the view has diminished, even for him as the two hundred and four were now nothing more than scull and bone covered with scraps of clothes that once held the flesh the crows had long ago feasted on. But still, this was Nereus's respite, his reward. That, and the knowledge that any fae that had ventured into the dense and dark woods of the Bad Lands had never returned.
Three months ago Nereus had ordered all full blooded fae to relocate on the grounds around his castle. From the wooden platforms in the map room and in his private study adjoining his bedchambers. The Erlking was able to watch the development of his people building new cities. With his band on magicked sunlight, only allowing moonlight and lanterns, outside the new cities, the relocation was rapidly coming to completion.
The mark on his cheek throbbed with his thoughts, a painful reminder of the reason to press on to a new Faery Lands of pure fae, and end to the tainted filth in his realm.
Nereus climbed the wooden stairs and walked from arrowslit to arrowlist, viewing progress of his people. The platform under his feet creaked. "At least I've driven them to the Bad Lands!" he screamed. "But hear me!" he shouted at the guard training new recruits far below. "If any survive, I will shove a pole up their arses and out their mouths, then hang them in the graveyard of the tainted with the others, a constant waring to keep our lands clean."
The imprint in his cheek brought him to his knees with a scream of pain. "Damn you, Calastair! I am not finished with you! May the gods of the damned curse you."
Calastair's words the day he cursed Nereus pierced the Erlking's mind. The angel had said, "You don't understand holy fire do you? It only burns those with wickedness in their souls, and the more there is, the hotter it burns. That wound will never go away either, no magic can heal it, and no glamour can hide it. No matter what you do or what form you take, everyone will be able to see the glow of holy fire on your cheek. And it will continue to burn till you repent and cleanse your soul."
"Ugh! Ahhh!" the Erlking screamed, body doubled over, hands crushing his temples and ears as the last words rung loud in the throbbing pain between his palms. The Watcher's last words were, "Something tells me though, you'll be stuck with that mark for a long, long time."
Nereus climbed to his feet and staggered down the wooden stairs to the cobblestones below and shook a fist at the moonlit clouds outside the arrowslit on the wall now above him. "He isn't an angel! He isn't a fae! He's a halfblooded monstrosity! How dare you let him curse me!"
Although he'd not seen or heard from the Watcher in over two years, it was said an image of his face still haunted the Erlking. "Smooth skin, fair, not a blemish on his face, and deep green eyes under flaming red hair. UGH! I hate the atrocity! Someday! Someday I will destroy him!"
Nereus cringed under the pain that could have been much worse had he actually committed the threats he screamed into the night. Each time he ordered the demise of another half breed encampment it was almost unbearable and even more so when he remembered how the slightest thought of cruelty used to bring him such joy.
There was a knock at the door and Nereus swiftly pulled a mask he had commissioned a tailor to design especially for him to cover the Watcher's curse. It was black leather and worn over half his head and under his chin leaving eye and ear holes. The day it was delivered, Nereus had the fae put it on him in his bathing room in front of the only mirror in the castle. "It is a beautiful piece of work," he had said, and then ordered the fae's death. His last words to the faery, a father of three, had been, "Thank you for your service, but you to intimately surveyed my weakness. Your death will be swift."
There was another knock on his bedchamber door, louder and more aggressive.
The Erlking ran his hands over the mask to be sure it was carefully placed. Another knock on the door and Nereus growled. "Enter you fool before I have your head for the rude disturbance!" He bent at the waist and laid a hand over his eye.
His Regent, Fairl Downs, stepped meekly into the chamber and bowed. "Your Highness, Efrian is here to see you. Shall I send him in?"
"No!" Nereus answered. "Send him to the map room and tell him I will join him shortly."
"As you say." Fairl bowed and backed his way out of the room.
Since the day his longtime head guardsmen, Ozil, turned on him the day the Watcher had marked him, Nereus had a hard time allowing himself to trust anyone. But Efrian had slowly proved himself as wicked as he used to be, and the Erlking used him wisely. He had promised Efrian the honor of killing Ozil. The traitor was in a darkest and well-hidden cell below the castle.
"Maybe I will make a visit to Queen Reka today," Nereus said followed by his dreadful chortle. "I need a soothing distraction."
Reka was definitely not his queen. In fact, she wasn't a queen at all. Reka was the beautiful fae imprisoned in a beehive by the portal that let the Watcher into his realm. They had a history, he and is queen bee. And over the last two years, her new punishment was no visitors. She had only his magicked wasp drones that now guarded every portal coming into his realm as well as her hive.
Nereus's left his chambers, his manic whistle heard down the halls of his castle as his bare feet slapped their way to the map room. The habitants of the castle had long since been used to his manic actions. If he wasn't screaming profanities, he was whistling or singing frenziedly about the castle at all hours of the day and night.
***
Miles away, weeks after the fire at Copper Groves' destruction, a small caravan of fae circled wagons on the dusty and dry grounds of the Bad Lands. They had pilfered them from abandoned or destroyed villages. It had taken Magic to get the small home type wagons over the fence and into the Bad Lands. It was then difficult to keep the animals pulling them safe while navigating in thick woods full of creatures in desperate need of sustenance to survive. Magic attracted them. It was a dismal land where darkness and tension dwelled. Food options were minimal and water tainted. Rampart, accompanied by others, went back over the magicked fence daily to search for supplies. The distance needed to rummage and get back to distribute with success would someday run out. There were still clans of full bloods, supporters of the Erlking, scattered about the lands. It was a risky endeavor.
The small circle of eight trailers stopped and the dust began to settle. With the death of so many half fae already, those still fighting to survive out of Fairy Lands took to foot, and kept on the move for fear of being spotted.
Coralina, a full-blooded air fae jumped down from one of trailers and ordered they keep magicked light and fire at a minimum while hiding the animals pulling the trailers.
Coralina was tall, slender, with beautiful blue eyes and a strong and aggressive nature. She was the Erlking's illegitimate daughter, and next in line for the throne, as much his nemesis as he was hers. The difference between the two was Coralina's love for her people. All fae, not just full blooded. She had been the first leader in the revolution, but now shared that billing with Rampart, a half breed, for the last two years. He was strongminded but a good fighter having been part of the Erlking's guard years ago. The relationship between the two was fire and ice but equally dutiful. Coralina was good at giving the annoyance he often showed toward her right back at him, frequently.
Rampart rode out of the woods on a black hell hound he called Dusk, equally as annoying as the rider to Coralina because the animal could speak, and not only when spoken to.
As the animal slid to a stop inches from Coralina's leather clad feet, Rampart slid off, smiled, and handed her a huge sack. "Turnips," he said, "so play nice with Dusk. He sniffed them out, and he's hungry as well."
"That I am," Dusk said in a throaty voice. "It's meat I want, so be nice like my master suggests. I do bite. But, I promise to leave the winged creatures alone if you give me a little smile, and a scratch behind the ear, Coralina."
"Forget the smile, and I'd just as soon skin you and eat you than scratch your mangy fur, mutt," Coralina said. "You'll eat what we eat, turnips. Remember that when you're sniffing for dinner next time."
The hell hound shook from maw to tail, shedding a mixture of dust, hair, and saliva. "Yeah, no," the animal said. "I don't do turnips. It's dog eat dog in these woods. And here I am, protecting your ass, and what do I get? Turnips. I'll try real hard not to eat one of the fleshy animals in your caravan."
"You do and like I said, you'll be dinner tomorrow night," Coralina said while the corner of her lip went from menacing to a slight upward curve.
With a snort, Dusk turned to Rampart. "We passed a dirty pond close by. I'm going to bathe and quench my thirst before everything goes bloody around here." The hound raised his brow in Coralina's direction and off it went, kicking up dry earth in its path.
"Tell me again why you gave that hell of a hound a voice," Coralina asked as she spit and dusted dirt off her clothing. "He'd be enough of a pain without it."
"He's loyal, and a good weapon," Rampart said. "You are half of the problem. If you left him alone—"
"I've had enough!" Coralina said.
"I too, but not with my hell hound," Rampart said, his eyes dark and weary. "The capture of Ozil haunts me. I can't live like this. Since the Copper Grove fires all we've done is forage, hide, and try to survive in this horrid place."
Coralina's chest rose and fell. "I'd say that's quite an accomplishment since we're still alive in the Bad lands."
"It's not enough!" Rampart said and gripped the handle of his weapon tucked in a leather scabbard. "There are hundreds of us. It's time to group, train, and plan an attack that will bring Nereus to his knees. I'm tired of watching broken hearted and disappointed families try to search for a new life. There will be no new life here, only death for all of us. It's time for war, Cora! You need to take your rightful place on the throne. They deserve that."
Rampart was the only person Coralina allowed to use her mother's nickname for her. It had felt too committed, too involved and personal at first, but when he wouldn't quit, she stopped trying. She told herself she had to choose her battles but soon became fond of this one when Rampart only used her full name in uncontrollable disputes. She looked forward to those times as well. "We've tried this for two years, and you know how all of our attempts have gone."
"No, we've only made half-assed attempts that lead us here. It's time to claim our realm, not defend it." Rampart huffed his frustration, nostril's flaring. "They have never worked to find the powers they possess as half breeds."
"That's because most of our people are working class, not fighters."
"Yes, I admit, Ozil taught me well," Rampart said, his eyes moving to the ground below his boots. "All I'm saying is it's possible. And the alternative is death, many deaths, and the certainty is distinction." He looked up. Coralina's gaze was facing off in the distance toward the Castle.
"Look at me," Rampart softly said. "Do you want to spend the rest of your life here in a place that wreaks of death, and magic isn't a tool or weapon, but a beacon to the wretched creatures that now survive by hunting a much easier pray. Us?"
Rampart moved his gaze in the direction of Coralina's stubborn eyes. His silver hair fell around his face as he tilted it downward in defeat. His chest was bare, feet too. He fidgeted with the long leather of his scabbard tied around the waist of his leather trousers. His wings lay on his back, as silver as his hair.
By the sudden glint in Coralina's eyes, she had noticed every movement the Erlking's banished guardsmen made. She placed her hand on Rampart's shoulder.
Rampart turned his head, eyes glassy, but jaw set. "Will this ever end? If you won't agree, I will at the very least, try to save Ozil and together we will attempt to kill Nereus for you and the others."
Coralina replaced sadness with a challenging smile. "I hate when you're right. Let's wait on the rescue of Ozil. The untapped powers of the half breeds could be what saves him, and us."
"We'll begin with those we have here." Rampart's eyes glistened with a hope Coralina hadn't seen in months. "We'll place them in groups of likeness, air, wind, fire, earth, and the pure of fae that crossbred among other fae clans. I'll send Dusk to round up the others. It may take months to get us all together and trained properly, but we will survive."
"Oh, Dusk is going to love that," Coralina said.
"Is that all you have to say?" Rampart asked.
Neither held back a much-needed grin.