Page 7 of A Thief Among Fae

“They don’t.” I don’t tell her that I have no idea what this is. The flowers are blood-red, their golden pistils glowing like bursts of sunlight. We pass stone pillars engraved with runes, topped with chipped sculptures of a pointy-eared female. I examine them only long enough to deduce it’s Danu, the goddess the fae used to worship.

My stomach drops. This is the Hollowlands. It’s said to be neither above nor below our realm, but within the pockets and folds, as if space and time are fabrics it can burrow into. We’ve stepped through one of their doorways.

Even with no fae in sight, my heart pounds. The old fireside tales of fae stealing humans away echo through my mind like a warning. They covet rarity: beauty, talent, and power. Once they desire something, nothing will dissuade them. How many humans did fae drag through this very doorway before the war? Did they kick and scream, or were they enthralled into obedience by a fae’s capricious whimsy?

I shudder.

I step through the collapsed entryway of what might’ve been a home. A human skeleton is slumped against the wall, a corroded dagger between its ribs. Beside it, a thumb-sized quartz statuette of Danu gleams in the wet dirt. I’ve never found a relic like this before. Not coins, jewelry, or a household trinket, but something unique. Something that could have historic value. To the right buyer, it could be worth an ox and a plow. Maybe I should sell it to the college in Mythos.

I levitate it into my pack and take the dagger, too. Free blades are hard to come by, damaged or not.

“What did you find?” Evie asks.

“Nothing.” I don’t want her to see the skeleton. “Do you remember any stories about fae cities?” She likes folktales more than I do. “Do they usually live in caverns?”

“Many unseelie fae do,” she says. The implication of my question sinks in as she looks around. She pales. “If this is the Hollowlands, we should leave. Now, Cynthia!”

“Your Gift needs time to recover,” I point out. “And there’s no one here.”

She hesitantly follows me as I walk a little farther, exploring. All I find is junk. There are at least a dozen iron swords, shoddily forged and too rusted to smelt. In the shadows sits another impaled skeleton. Avedor must’ve waged a battle here, but why aren’t there any fae remains?

“Let’s go back.”

“Back home?” Evie’s face lights up.

“No, back to the other stairs.” I can’t leave yet. Even though I’ve found enough treasure to replace the coins the thief pickpocketed, it’s not enough to make a difference for our family.

She sighs and reluctantly follows me back to the tunnel, using her magic to push the water aside once again. “You’ve got to hurry. That gave me a break, but I can’t hold the water back forever.”

“Don’t worry, I will.”

The room down the other fork in the tunnel looks more promising. Worn engravings arch over the entrance. “All who enter, be warned,” I tell Evie, pointing up at it. “That rune there, I think it represents mallacht, some sort of ancient curse.”

Evie shudders. “You can read that? Maybe we should listen to it.”

“It’s just an older form of Avedoran.” I shrug, looking about the chamber before us for other runes or traps. “Remember when I asked to spend my seventeenth birthday in the Mythos Library? I studied it there.”

Her quiet laugh makes me smile. “Yeah. Mom joked you’d been swapped with a changeling. You despise reading.”

I roll my eyes. “I read when it could save my life. Come on, and don’t step on that flagstone there. It’s booby-trapped.” I point to the slightly raised stone as we cross under the threshold.

Stone slabs seal the alcoves set into the chamber walls, and two enchanted candelabras flank a chest in the center. Their infinite flames cast strange shadows.

Now it’s time for my Gift. We wait in the doorway as I lift the chest’s creaky lid with my magic. Nothing happens. No spear springs out from inside the chest. No rigged arrows fly from the walls. Nothing.

Even as I approach it, I expect an axe to swing down from narrow crevices in the ceiling. But the room is eerily still.

My throat clenches as I peer inside the chest. This is what I’ve been looking for—treasure that will help me add to Evie’s dowry. Then she’d have her pick of any man in the neighboring villages, maybe even a merchant in Mythos. She’s so kind, gentle, and beautiful. She deserves someone who would love her unconditionally.

The raw gemstones, silver ingot, and bronze helmet are a tantalizing cache. But the real beauty is a silver bracelet with a lapis lazuli cabochon the size of a dove egg. I snatch it like it might vanish if I hesitate. This bracelet alone might be enough to get our family by for a year without my help in the fields.

Once I join the adventurers’ guild, I can take on paid quests and make a real income, one that would help us survive through another blight or famine.

I stuff my pack, but the ingot and helmet weigh it down until the seams threaten to burst, and the helmet is too small for my head. “Shit,” I mutter. Frustration coils inside me, but I force it out with a sigh. No problem. I can carry the helmet out.

A low growl echoes through the chamber, like a warning cry from a feral beast. The sound vibrates the floor.

“Stay behind me.” I retreat toward Evie without taking my gaze off the alcoves.