Fever Mist (7 page)
Authors: L. K. Rigel
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Mythology & Folk Tales, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Historical, #Sword & Sorcery, #Fairy Tales, #Mythology, #Arthurian, #Metaphysical & Visionary
He lifted the full sacks from Athena’s saddle as if they weighed nothing and set them down by the cottage door. “I’ll put away your horse then take those inside for you.”
Usually I dispatch those kinds of chores with wyrds, but it was a fine thing to watch a man at work in an effort to help and please me.
We shared a simple meal of bread and cheese in the kitchen, and then I showed him all of Glimmer Cottage. On the roof, we drank wine and watched the strange mist retreat to the Severn Sea. The moon and stars took over the sky as twilight became night.
There on the roof, he touched my waist again. He pulled me close and kissed me and moved his hand over my breast, sending hot shivers through me. After watching so many others, I knew what to do.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed my tongue into his mouth, and he lifted my skirts over my hips, and then he lifted me. He pressed me against the wall and pushed his way inside me, grinding and thrusting. I believed his need was as great as mine.
Afterward, he took the blanket from the chaise and spread it on the roof’s floor.
“Wait here.”
He left the roof, and I watched him go out to the garden for more blooms, the crows screaming the whole while. He returned carrying my herb basket loaded with flowers, and his arms were full too.
He took me in his arms again and very slowly removed every bit of clothing from my body. “So lovely,” he said when I was entirely naked. He laid me down on the blanket and arranged the flowers all around me. With a sprig of lilac, he traced my skin. As the bloom lightly grazed my nipples, they hardened, and he dropped the lilac and kissed my breasts. I tingled all over, fire for him burning in my head and between my legs.
I breathed in the bloom’s fragrance while his lips and tongue explored my body, teasing and tasting every secret, sacred place.
I didn’t awake until twilight the next day—or was it the next… or the next after that? It didn’t matter. My silver knight was gone, off to fight for his god against other warriors fighting for theirs. I would never see him again, but it didn’t matter. I hadn’t loved him. I hadn’t even asked his name.
I blame the entire encounter on the fever mist.
Over the following months, I watched the silver knight in the glimmer glass. By all appearances he forgot me, and easily. He slept with many women on his road to glory. He showered two or three with flowers, but never so tenderly as he had done to me. When every spec of Kaelyn’s charm had shaken out from his tunic, I was no longer able find him in the glass.
After nine months, the high gods gave me a sweet consolation—you, the daughter Kaelyn had seen.
And I finally knew what real love was.
In the garden one day when you were a month old, you lay in your basket as I ground glamour dust beneath the yew tree. The crows were active that morning. “Glimmer Cottage! Glimmer Cottage! A child! A child! A child!”
“Stop, crows,” I begged them. “Stop saying that.”
“Elyse! Elyse! A child!”
The entire murder called out the accusation, then flew away.
With sinking dread, I knew. I could never keep you safe, not here. As long as you were with me, you were in danger. Either the hungry souls in the Oracle’s ring would overwhelm you or you’d be discovered by Idris and switched out for a changeling.
More than that, my darling girl, I didn’t
want
to keep you here. For what? My own selfish love? I was and am sorrow’s prisoner, but I would not impose such a prison on you.
In my heart, to this day, I still believe in Kaelyn. She made me feel much the way my mother had—safe, cared for, as if she believed I belong and am welcome in the world. Any life with Kaelyn would be better than one at Glimmer Cottage.
I took a leap of faith: that Kaelyn would welcome you and keep you… perhaps love you.
I dressed you in a silk gown and swaddled you in a blanket of flax linen, with soft booties to warm your tiny feet and mittens on your miraculous little hands. I left you in the Small Wood in the very spot where I’d met Kaelyn the day of the fever mist.
I then clothed you in an outer garment, the strongest of obscuration boundaries, impenetrable by animal, human, or fae. Kaelyn had the sight; I had to trust she would see you. I laid you between the roots of an ancient yew, suspecting she’d known all along that I would.
Before sealing the boundary, for the last time I kissed your sweet forehead and cheeks, breathed in your fresh new smell, and wiped away my tear that fell on your perfect skin between your furry baby eyebrows. I promised you and myself:
When you’re grown and the world has settled down and I know you’re truly safe, we’ll meet again.
With a sob, I tucked a note inside your blanket, next to your softly beating infant’s heart:
Her name is Igraine.
I named you for a woman so loved, so desired, her lover ignored the laws of men and gods to be with her. It was the only blessing I knew to give you:
Don’t be lonely, Igraine.
And as I’ve watched you grow up in the glimmer glass, I’ve known I did the right thing. You’ve had a real life. You’ve roasted hazelnuts in the Small Wood and learned spells from Kaelyn, chased geese on the island, and have been chased. You’ve learned to fly, transmogrified into a falcon, and soared in ecstasy in Velyn’s bed. You have had a life.
And that has made mine matter.
WYRD AND FAE
Fever Mist
l.k. rigel
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Speculative Romance
My Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre Retold)
Fantasy Romance
Wyrd and Fae Series
Give Me
Bride of Fae
Fever Mist
A Glimmering Girl (coming next)
Goblin Ball (coming soon)
Science Fiction Romance
Apocalypto Series
Space Junque
Spiderwork
Firebird
WYRD AND FAE BOOK THREE
Fever Mist
l.k. rigel
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