Chapter Forty-Two: Captives of the Sun King
There are many reasons not to cross the fae, but physical hardiness is not one of them. On average, we're slighter and less robust than humans, though not remarkably so, and my frame was best described as 'lithe, with just enough curve'. At least that's how Calivar has described me. I mention this because, while we fae are feared opponents and justifiably so, it is not because we're capable of incredible feats of resilience the way some humans are. When I got clipped by a .303 bullet, I tumbled down into the muck.
It might have been a gravely serious wound, but I was wearing one of my chiffonet gowns beneath my top - a gossamer mesh capable of stopping bullets… albeit not very well when worn loose and flush against the skin. The bullet only tore the fabric - it didn't even make it through, but the fabric deformed in an instant, puncturing the skin and fracturing my shoulder before bouncing back off. I didn't know this at the time, because the force of the shot spun me around and, already winded and scarcely aware that I'd been courting the verge of exhaustion, I collapsed into the mud and passed out.
"Shh… shh shh… don't let them know you're awake," Meliswe whispered.
I suppose I'd been stirring. My chiffonet had been removed and I lay supine in a little cot. Through my almost-closed eyes, I could see two… no, three guards in the room with us. Whoever it was wanted the princess under heavy guard. But the guards were apparently bored and a bit inattentive, because they didn't notice Meliswe take my hand. She began to tap upon my palm - I'd told her about Morse code, and I guess she must've memorized the codex I'd written out.
"We've been captured by the bastard king. They're letting me take care of you because their medics are poor," she tapped.
Fortunately, I knew the code well, myself. Ben had once made a hobby of telegraphy, and we'd telegraphed his cousin back and forth with his cousin in Lincoln. That had lasted about two years, until he'd got a proper telephone, but I remembered the code well enough.
"Where are we? Aru-Khazi?"
Meliswe managed a slight nod. "I think so. We traveled for about a day and a half. You were awake on and off, but I mostly gave you pain medicines until I could get you some proper medicines. How does your shoulder feel?"
Meliswe had positioned herself to block the guards' view of me, so I was able to give it a little experimental wiggle. A little sore, but it didn't feel broken. Fae healing techniques were nothing to sneeze at - any Earth doctor would kill for the ability to heal fractures in two days flat. It turns out the secret is a few herbs and a good feel for magic.
"Is she awake? She looks like she's moving…" one of the guards said - a human in British infantry getup.
"She's awake, but just barely," Meliswe said. "She'll need a few hours before she's conversant."
"I'll inform King Nargillis."
"So it is Nargillis," I tapped. We'd all basically assumed it was my brother's friend, though this was the first positive proof I'd heard. Honestly, though, that didn’t help us much - Nargillis had been away from the fae realms for decades, and nobody had any idea what years in the jungle wilds had done to him.
Meliswe helped me up to a sit. "Do you want some broth? It'll get your strength up?"
I grimaced - it was probably fae medicinal broth, which was not appetizing. But it would get my strength up. I nodded and waited for her to fetch me a bowl of the stuff. The two remaining guards, also Earth men, took me in with some emotion between uncertainty and extreme interest - Meliswe and I were probably the most beautiful women they'd ever seen in person, and I was half-naked on account of my medical treatments. When she returned with a warm and teaming bowl, pungent with medicinal compounds, I took it and tapped upon her wrist.
"How well-guarded am I?"
"Very well. Inner guards, outer guards, and hallway guards. Each of us have about five people on us at all times."
I sighed. "The life of a VIP, I suppose."
The broth did get my strength up, though I pretended to be a little groggier and more in pain than I actually felt to finagle a little more time with my wife.
The room was very nice, though it had obviously gone to ruin at some point. It reminded me of a Roman palace, all sleek marble and snow-white plaster with columns as big as great tree trunks. It had been restored, with a fresh fresco of a vibrant riverlands upon the wall and gold trim on the wall paneling. It was an interior room with no door but the one currently guarded and no obvious exit point beyond that. Oh well - I suppose I wasn't lucky enough to have utterly incompetent captors.
The room had been restored, but signs of its ancient past were obvious to see. There were still the telltale signs of greenery tinting some of the stone, and a few mighty vines had even pierced right through the solid walls. They'd been sawed off, sanded over, and plastered, but I could still see the corded cross-sections of vines the width of my arm embedded in some of the walls. When I finished my broth, Meliswe declared that I needed two more hours of sleep and, despite her protestations, she was led from the room.
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"Good luck with the bastard king," she tapped.
"I'm going to escape, and then I'll come find you," I replied. That was probably the pain medication talking, because the 'Sun King' looked to be serious about security. Meliswe kissed my forehead and then my lips, and then the guards got fed up and took her back to her own cell.
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Nargillis, the 'Sun King', was not a patient man, and so he called for me as soon as he was assured of my general health. He gifted me with a green gown with lace and sequins - I had many finer dresses in my wardrobe back in fae, but this was about as fine as clothing got out in the Outer Realms.
My guards led me from my room and out along a great balcony overlooking Aru-Khazi. My room had been one of those carved out of the top of a great ziggurat hundreds of feet high - as large as the Great Pyramid at Giza if I had to hazard a guess. From that spot, I could see the whole city sprawled below. It was a military camp and a frontier town built amid the crumbled splendor of a fallen empire.
That may be an unfair characterization, for Nargillis had occupied the city for decades now, had cleared the jungle for hundreds of yards around and rehabilitated the great monuments and temples of the city. Beyond that were a few more recent buildings of reclaimed stone or jungle wood, enough to supply a bare civil infrastructure before the new denizens had arrived in their thousands. Tents and cabins in neat rows. Training fields. And large wooden longhouses for use as command centers and recreation areas for the troops. I can't help but think that Nargillis meant for me to see all of this and be impressed… but, in that moment, I just wished I'd had my spellsword so I could rain destruction down on the bastards. But, alas, my current powers were impressive but not nearly enough to take on an army.
We crossed a great wooden bridge, perhaps three hundred yards long and connecting the ziggurat's great balcony with the top of a huge temple of almost equal size, a great blocky structure fashioned from pure dark granite. It loomed among the squat and hasty buildings of Aru-Khazi like a dark visage - its desolate eyes were the temple windows, their braziers lit and glowing an eerie orange against the dark of the stone. As I passed through the great brass doors, I felt as if I was walking into the maw of a great and horrible beast.
"At last, Princess Laeanna… most beautiful among the fae, it is said, and I can believe it," came a voice from within, deep and smooth.
As my eyes adjusted to the light, I gasped at what I saw. "N-Nargillis?" The man was huge - Calivar was quite big for a fae, perhaps six-foot-two if you went by Earth measurements. Nargillis was at least half a foot taller than that and, while he didn't have the same well-built brawn, he was long of limb yet slim with rangy muscle, the way some fae men are. He'd filed his teeth to points and fashioned his coppery, tight-coiled hair into the shape of a sun.
"You may call me the Sun King… and, in time, you will show me the proper respect, as I have showed you respect to your station…"
"Of course… King Nargillis," I said, and I managed the sort of curtsy I might offer a fae king. Mind you, the man was not a king in my mind, but it was in my best interests to humor him until I understood the situation I found myself in.
"A good start, to be sure," he said. "Please… sit." After I did, he took his own seat, a massive gold and bronze throne with shafts of brighter gold radiating out… the man liked his sun motif. "I don't know if you recall, Laeanna, but we met once upon a time. You were very young, no more than eight or nine, and my father brought me to the Vernal court. And do you know what he said?"
"I'm afraid I don't, your majesty…"
"He said - keep an eye on that girl, because she'll be queen before you're king." He chuckled. "And, of course you wouldn't remember that, because you're an Earth man trapped in that beautiful body. And, alas, here you are in Alfheim, not a queen, and here I am, the king of Aru-Khazi… yet you might be queen soon enough. And I will prove it, Laeanna. I will afford you the honor of a queen."
"That's very kind," I said. And, in my mind, I tried to tamp down the feeling of terror that the man induced. Narillis wasn't at all what I'd expected… he came across as intelligent, assured, and more than a bit unhinged. And, as if to prove my impression, he nodded and said:
"It is kind." He clapped twice and a functionary popped his head in. "Fetch the captain and the rifleman…"
I suppose Nargillis was keeping the men in their units, because all of the men who came in were British - a captain and a corporal, both looking very nervous, with a few others milling about out beyond the doorway. The captain and the corporal both saluted sharply and bowed - apparently, both were expected.
"Captain, I thought there were two who shot at the princess?" Nargillis asked.
The captain nodded hastily. "Yes, sire… this is the man who struck the princess… the other missed."
Nargillis approached the man, looming over him by nearly a foot, and snorted. "I said 'bring the men who shot at the princes' and not 'bring the man who actually shot the princess'."
"Of course, sire… I'll get the other."
A moment later, another very frightened-looking British corporal shuffled in, his eyes bugging out when he spotted me and his whole posture going stiff when he spotted the massive fae that was Nargillis. The bastard king approached me and pressed something metallic and a bit heavy in my hand… a revolver pistol. I reflexively checked the barrel and found two bullets. If I wanted to, I could shoot Nargillis right now and end this whole thing… or maybe the pistol wouldn't even fire. Maybe it was all just a test.
"What would you have me do with this?" I asked.
His brassy eyes regarded me curiously. "Whatever you feel appropriate."
I felt it appropriate to shoot Nargillis twice in his unhinged brain, but that's not what I did. That gun wasn't the deadliest thing in the room - my magic was a lot deadlier, and Nargillis almost certainly had defenses against either. If I got very lucky, I might kill him… and if I did, I had to pray that he had no lieutenants waiting to pick up the slack and willing to slaughter fae nobles. And if I only injured him, the lives of myself and my friends would surely be lost. With a sigh, I handed the pistol back to Nargillis.
"I will not shoot a man for following orders…"
"My orders were to capture you, Laeanna, not to shoot you…" Nargillis hefted the gun in his big hand. "We're only lucky these two were a worse shot - you could be sitting pretty in Elysheim right now, no good to me or any other living fae."
In rapid succession, he shot both men through the eye. The shots came so quickly and unexpectedly I yelped. He holstered the gun and pivoted to face the captain, smiling affably as if he hadn't just murdered two men in cold blood.
"Select two new men from the recruit pool, whomever you'd like… and make sure they follow orders. Next time, I might load three bullets instead of two…"
The captain bowed so low his forehead nearly scraped the floor. "Your majesty is just and merciful…"
"I know," Nargillis said, the hint of a smile playing across pursed lips. "Now leave us. I have a meeting with the fae royals to attend to."