Mina was starving.
The food they gave her barely kept her on her feet. They all waited for her to eat the apple, which she refused every time a small fey called Oosel brought it to her. She suspected that if she tried, something bad would happen. Something irreversible, something that would make not only her but also Tiyan suffer. She still didn’t know what they wanted from Tiyan, but they were desperate to force him here, using her as bait. And that gave her a little hope that they would not kill her. And not do something really terrible to her.
More terrible than being hungry. Worse than the nights in this place.
Nights. The first one she spent in the Fae palace, almost unconscious, but the second one is etched in her mind forever. The first two were just as terrible, but the second one, when she suspected nothing, was the worst.
For every night she was torn from her sleep to dance in the empty halls, to pass through the ghastly, lonely corridors filled with wind and nothingness. They seemed to have been made just for her, to make her legs tremble and her mind whirl in a vicious jig.
The Hall of Mirrors, where her reflections tore at her robes, laughed at her, their eyes empty and white.
The chamber where the walls pulsed with veins, reaching for her with horrible tendrils of flesh, ready to devour her.
Many rooms, many corridors, filled with horrible things, and wind, so much wind, gusts dancing in her hair, making her look like a water nymph, with tangles spreading in all directions, wild, untamed and touched by pure magic.
And it was no dream. Her feet were always covered with dirt when she woke up in the morning. Oosel came with the sunburned apple and asked if she liked their hospitality. Mina was always left alone, afraid, but not any closer to eating the fruit.
She remembered the nursery rhyme.
She remembered the blood dripping from the apple as Lorian squeezed it with his blackened claws.
She always wondered why they even bothered to ask her to eat it. They had all the power they needed to make her do it. Some unpleasant thoughts came to her, some that promised an even worse fate if she finally gave in and took the apple.
On the tenth night something changed. She was no longer alone. The distorted faces were looking at her, smiling at her, inviting her to join them in that strangely seductive place behind the curtains. Again, cat eyes, but so much death in them, and so much forbidden beauty… she woke up in her room – her prison – with her chest heaving, fear engulfing her, a promise of something that would change her perception… and shatter her free will.
Oosel came in with a good portion of meat, vegetables and bread, and Mina didn’t know whether to throw herself at it, as hungry as she was, or to watch the little Fae as she prepared it for her.
“You really want to feed me?” Mina finally said, not liking Oosel’s gaze, which passed over her with a certain amount of curiosity and badly suppressed malicious enjoyment.
“Oh, why does she even ask?” smiled Oosel, her tiny teeth showing. “She can’t be so thin… so hungry. It speaks ill of Lord Lorian and the way he treats his guests.”
You didn’t care so far, Mina thought.
But she was still cautious. Who knew what else they might try to stuff her with without her even knowing what she was putting in her mouth. But she was exhausted, tired… she knew that one day she would eat whatever they gave her, as Lorian said. She preferred that to apples, which were a much more obvious threat.
She sat on her bed and Oosel – kindly – offered her the meat with bread.
Mina stuck a small fork into the meat – nothing happened. No eyes popped out of the plate. No blood even. It might have been very raw, barely cooked, but she had eaten almost rotten animals before. Nothing was too raw for her. She took the bite and, looking carefully at Oosel, bit into it.
The feeling of eating meat, normal meat, would be enough to make her cry with joy. But this… it was better, so much better than anything she had ever eaten. Ever. It tasted like dancing in the hay at midday in summer. Like a Midsummer’s Eve celebration, with the whole family and a blazing fire in the fireplace. It was good, and it washed her with memories she never had.
“Oh, the human girl likes the nhihdira meat,” Oosel laughed. “Good, yes? Hunger doesn’t torture her anymore?”
Mina choked a little and took another mouthful as she drank water from the cup. If she were to die now, she would die full.
Don’t even think about it. It’s the first step to falling to your knees.
Oosel looked at her like a scarecrow in the fields of the Vennklan valley, with her wild hair, her sharp teeth and her empty eyes, indifferent as the force of nature. Mina slowed down.
It was so unreal, so frightening, that she almost lost all sense of right and wrong. She would hide in the corner of the room if it would help, but it wouldn’t. She felt that in this world, if you act like a prey, they will prey on you. If you show yourself to be vulnerable, they will feed on your fear and desperation. This reality numbed her. No need to hide if you can’t hide.
And questions can hurt, but they can also help. She preferred knowing to oblivion.
“Why did you give me so much food?” she wanted to know. “Am I to be sacrificed and do you need me fat?”
“Oh, but then why should we starve her?” grinned Oosel bluntly. “She’s going to the ball, of course! Must look better than a thin leaf in the cruel winter. She must look beautiful. A star that has fallen from the sky to grace us with her radiance.”
Mina immediately thought of the eyeball dress. Oosel, as if to confirm her fears, patted her cheek and grinned so broadly that her lips parted unnaturally. Mina was past the point of being scared, but this scared her. It really did.
“We will dress her like a beautiful lady and give her into the good hands of Lord Lorian. He will show her everything. From up to bottom.”
Mina swallowed, and she almost heard the meat pass down her throat, a last morsel, heavy and hard. She did not even ask if she could go. She knew that nothing depended on her here. And the way Oosel painted her made her scream inside.
“Why are you doing this?” she dared to ask. “Why do you want me to eat the apples and keep me here and… as if nothing had happened, you ask me to go to the ball?”
“Sweet child…” Oosel looked like a cat who had discovered a very frightened and very exposed mouse. “Would you rather be kept in a dungeon?”
“No, of course not, but…”
“Wonderful!” Oosel beamed with genuine joy and clapped her hands. “The ball will bring out her inner charm. Why sit here, lonely, when she can enjoy herself?”
Mina already knew she would not be enjoying herself. But she was sure the Fae would.
Oh, they will.
From up to bottom.