Océane dropped the candlestick and slid down the wall, gasping for breath. Her chest heaved, her lungs locked down tight as her throat closed, refusing to let any oxygen pass into her fear-frozen body. “Can’t ... breathe ...” she rasped to Aleish, who rushed to the tray and poured some water into a glass. She then took a small vial from a bag slung across her chest and put a few drops in the glass. Holding it to Océane’s lips she helped her to take a sip.
“It will help to calm you,” she explained.
Océane sipped at the water as her chest relaxed with tiny gasps and released the cage around her lungs until her breathing returned to normal. Aleish reached down and got her to her feet, slipping one arm around her waist and helping her over to a small table and chairs which sat beside the large glass doors. Once Océane was settled, she opened the doors and a cool breeze blew into the room, fluttering the voile that covered the glass and caressing Océane’s overheated skin with a gentle touch.
Aleish looked down at her. She was shaking almost as much as Océane, clearly appalled by Laen’s behaviour. She passed Océane the glass of water and then stood before her, as though she was not the only one who had been taken from familiar surroundings and slung down in unknown territory. She wrung her hands together, her eyes troubled and full of concern. “I am so very sorry; I have never seen my brother behave like this before. He is ... an honourable man.”
Océane choked on the water and gave a bitter laugh with just a touch of hysteria. “Yeah, honourable, that’s the word. Kidnapping me, beating me repeatedly over the head, oh and threatening to kill me or-or worse. He’s a real gent!” She slammed the glass down on the delicate, carved wood table beside her, splashing water over the sides onto the polished surface.
Aleish shook her head and looked like she was trying not to cry. “I know I cannot defend his behaviour but ... He does have reasons to hate your kind. Good reasons.”
“My kind?” Océane looked at her with suspicion as that cold, crawling feeling returned to her stomach. As much as she had wanted answers, there was a part of her that really wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“Your kind,” Aleish repeated. “Humankind.”
Océane swallowed, knowing that the answer to this would change everything she had believed. “Then what are you if you’re not … human?”
“We are the Fae.”
Although she had pretty much come to this conclusion on her own, it was nonetheless shocking to hear it said out loud. She tried to behave normally, to hide any reaction even though there was a part of her that really wanted to succumb to a good bout of hysteria and screaming. Instead she picked up the water with a hand that shook like she had aged a century in the past few seconds and took another sip. She wondered if Aleish was doing the same as she concentrated on the contents of the bag she was carrying and started arranging small glass pots and clean cloths on the table.
“Let me look at your head please.” From Aleish’s tone Océane knew she was not the only one holding onto normality with her fingertips.
Océane sat at the table and Aleish tended all of her bruises carefully, working with cool, gentle hands, cleaning away any dirt and adding a soothing balm. The calming scent of herbs drifted around her, easing the tension in her shoulders and allowing her to think with a little more clarity.
“Where exactly am I?” she asked after Aleish had finished her work.
“You are in the Fae Lands, on my brother's estate, at the farthest reaches of our father's Kingdom. Please keep still for a moment.” She placed her hands gently on Océane’s head and stood over her with her eyes closed.
Océane frowned. It was the strangest sensation. It felt like ... she was touching her, inside her head.
Aleish smiled. “No broken bones, no internal bruising or bleeding.” She carried on silently as Océane wondered at the possibility of being able to diagnose internal damage in such a way. The sensation carried on until it suddenly changed. It was no longer investigating her wounds; it was investigating ... her thoughts.
“No!” Océane slapped Aleish’s hands away. Aleish gasped and stepped back.
“I ... I am so sorry, truly, that was unforgivable. It is just that my brother is so sure that you are a, well, a wicked creature, but I cannot believe him.”
“So you thought you’d just take a tour of my brain and find out for yourself!” Océane glared at her, astounded that she could just help herself to her most private thoughts.
Aleish sat on the bed and looked genuinely appalled at what she’d done. “Yes.” She nodded and spread her hands out in her lap. “It was not my intention but ... your thoughts are so open and I just thought I would take a look. I thought you would not know.”
“And? What was your conclusion?”
“That I am right, and my brother is wrong.”
Océane sighed. Well maybe it had been worth the intrusion. “And you’ll tell him that?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And then you’ll take me home?”
Aleish got up, not meeting her eyes, and picked up the tray of food she had brought. “Here, you must be famished, please eat something. We will go and sit out on the terrace and get some air.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I know. I ... I do not think I will be able to convince him. I will try, I promise. I will do everything in my power but my brother is a stubborn man and his hatred of humankind is deeply ingrained. It is no easy thing you ask, but then you know that, you know why he hates you so much.”
“What?” Océane exclaimed. “I don’t know any such thing!”
Aleish frowned, the gesture wrinkling her delicate nose. “But you wrote about it in your book, he showed me. In the first chapter you tell about why the gates between worlds were closed, and how our father betrayed our mother with a human woman.”
Océane stared at her in astonishment. “What are you talking about? I just made that up ... I made it up! It’s just a story, are you telling me it’s actually true?”
She nodded. “It’s true.”
Océane gasped. “Shit. This is like something out of a film; I keep thinking I’m going to wake up.”
“It is no dream.”
“No, it’s a fucking nightmare!” She saw Aleish flinch at the obscenity and sighed. “Sorry, I’m a little upset.” She was quite impressed that she’d said that with no trace of sarcasm but Aleish smiled all the same.
“Just a little?”
Océane huffed and rolled her eyes. “No, actually. Actually I’m a lot upset and I’m thinking seriously about having a nervous breakdown, if I can just summon the energy.” She leaned her head in her hands, elbows on the table. Her head felt much better since Aleish's care but she was still exhausted.
Aleish had put the tray down again and come to sit beside her. She leaned over, placing her hand on her arm. “If you want my brother to believe you, you are going to have to help me convince him, and to do that you need to be in control. You have to stay calm and reason with him. He is by no means stupid, far from it, but he is very stubborn; you will have to use your wits, and your charm.”
Océane snorted. “My what?”
Aleish smiled and got up, taking the tray of food out through the glass doors onto a stone terrace. “Your charm,” she said over her shoulder.
Océane stepped out and was momentarily speechless at the view laid out in front of her. “I don’t have any charm,” she muttered as she watched a vast red sun drowning under the edge of a molten landscape. Every curve of the valley had been painted in shades of gold and copper and bronze, as though the whole scene had been eternally preserved with precious metals.
Aleish chuckled and gestured for Océane to sit down at the table where she had placed the tray. “Of course you do, you just need to find it. Now please have something to eat.”
Océane sat, feeling more miserable than she ever had in her life despite the glorious vista before her and thought that she would never be able to eat. The smallest morsel of food would likely stick in her throat and choke her to death and maybe that would be for the best. Then she looked at the tray and her stomach made an audible complaint. She smiled ruefully at Aleish.
“Well, maybe I could eat something.”
There were wonderful moist sandwiches made with a dusty black bread which looked odd but tasted divine. To her relief the filling was nothing more bizarre than chicken salad with some kind of mayonnaise and herbs, and then to follow, a bowl of fruits, none of which she could name but all were utterly delicious. She watched curiously as Aleish bit into a large black apple, the red juices staining her fingers but Aleish warned her away.
“I think you would not like the side effects,” she said with a smile. “Some things that are quite harmless for us are not tolerated by your kind. The reverse is equally true.”
Océane shrugged and had no problem with clearing the other delicacies on offer. To her dismay she soon discovered she had devoured the entire tray and far from choking to death, she had swallowed every bite with relish.