Chapter 9 – Prove Me Wrong
As much as he usually enjoyed quiet nights, the Bog King had spent this one chewing on his cheeks. And dozing between meals, due to a growing lack of sleep.
He wished he was in better shape. Something was bound to happen, what with the commotion probably going on on the other side of the border, and with the apparent agitation of his own people.
The sun was raising slowly over the unseen horizon, turning the inside of the castle into an orange, musky atmosphere. That was his signal that the night was over and that nobody would be expecting him to stick around anymore. His mother was still in bed, and his two acolytes had run off to the centre of the Forest (as he'd understood it) before dawn.
Normally, he would have gone to the summit to find his quarters and read until he passed out, only to awake when the cracks in the wall would get completely dark… but that didn't sound like a reasonable thing he ought to be doing. Instead of over-analyzing everything in the silence of his room, he decided to inspect the borders one last time, and rest midway, at the Old Maple Tree.
If the fairies were to cross this way again, they were most likely to do it in the very early morning, though he wasn't sure why. It was just most statistically probable.
And he'd been unable to contain his anxieties these past few days, especially since the incident, two days before. No use in trying to fight it.
He took a blind path through the upper leaves, avoiding the mushrooms' line of sight. His whole face was heavy with fatigue, but he refused to give in. While he felt a general uneasiness in the air about, chances were the next day would be just as uneventful anyway, meaning he could doze it off on his throne later.
(This time, he had to remember that even if the mushrooms did tell his mother where he'd been, he didn't have to explain himself to her.)
After absently patrolling, he crouched down on the edge of the hole in the Maple Tree, standing on the tip of his feet. There was not a single dragonfly on the pine. (Huh… That didn't happen often.) He slumped on his knees, completely furling his wings behind. In the distance, a bird chipped–good thing they didn't visit much.
His eye suddenly caught something moving in the foliage of a few trees ahead of him. A tall silhouette cut through them, swinging a shiny object around itself.
The creature got closer and the leaves parted in its path, revealing … yes, the fairy woman, sure enough. What the hell was she doing there?
As much as he was shocked to see her and would have very much preferred if she had shown up another day, he had to make her notice him right away. He stood, so she did, looking down in his direction, freezing momentarily. He motioned for her to be quiet and pointed to the ground, toward the mushrooms. Her eyes followed his finger blankly. His meaning probably escaped her because she positioned herself to dash. Immediately, he raised both his hands to stop her, muttering, "no, no!" and fortunately, she listened.
He pointed upward, to the foliage, and flew there himself. To his relief, she followed silently.
The closer they got, the angrier he could see she was. Perspiring and panting from whatever exhausting exercise she had just performed, a deep frown contracting her whole face, she wasted no time in throwing herself toward him, weapon brandished. "How very fortunate that I'd find you here!" she finally said between her teeth, coming to a halt. "You and I have a lot to settle!"
The gravity of her tone was taking him aback, but he smirked and decided to go with the flow. "Well, if you insist. Where to begin?"
She readied her stance. "First, how about I wipe that smirk off your face? Then, we'll talk seriously!"
His staff was gnawed once, twice, in a manner much more violent than what he remembered from last time, and she showed no interest in continuing the banter.
"I'll be honest—." He dodged a swing to his chest. "I don't really—." He blocked her blow to his head with just the right angle. "Understand why you came back."
Finally, she paused.
"I mean, it's not a secret here. You fairies are having an … internal crisis, shall we say."
She narrowed her eyes. "Well, isn't that quite the observation skill, your Majesty!"
It was Bog's turn to pause. "Your ma— Wait, what?" He was almost hit on a shoulder, but he managed to block it with both hands and dodge a kick to the stomach.
"That's right, mister. I know who you are."
He found himself backing off through the dance of their weapons. He wanted to take the offensive, but she made no openings.
"And I have no idea how you heard about what happened to us," she continued, "but I'm here to make you pay!"
So she had come to assassinate him? That explained how intensely she was trying to win. He puffed a laugh. "Make me pay? Make me pay for what, exactly?"
"For what you decided to do with the information!"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb with me! As much as I want to kill you right now, it turns out you haven't killed any of us, so I have no reason to." She put a hand on her blade and used it to force his weapon against his own chest. He held her gaze, her large wings pushing them backwards with every flutter, and waited for her to finish her monologue. "So instead, I'm going to warn you. You may be stronger than a lot of people in my kingdom, and I may be unable to defend them all against you—but you're not stronger than me. I'll always come looking for you if I find the need to, and if you spit on us one more time, I will never let you rest, for as long as I am alive. Am I making myself understood or do I have to carve it into your shell?"
He used his feet to steady himself on a branch. "Intimidation, eh?" His smirk grew just a little bit larger. "Okay, not a bad tactic, but it could be better, and I still have no idea what you're talking about." He used her strength against her to switch places so that she was the one whose back would hit a tree. "So, are you going to fight me until one of us passes out? Or are you going to flee around the middle, like last time?"
She slipped to the side and tried to kick his back. He saw it coming and brushed it away with an arm. "Last time wasn't fair! But now, it is."
"I wish it was," he muttered. Really, a surprise duel was great, but his body was begging him for sleep. He ignored the thought and reinstalled his mask of confidence. "That's not the impression that I get from looking at you. I'd expect you to come in much better shape; you look like you're rushing this."
She used her wings to spin around him, avoiding blow after blow. "Even an immediate reaction is not fast enough to punish the disdain you feel toward my people!"
He deployed the whole length of his staff with both arms to reach her, but she took advantage of his unnatural stance and pointed her sword toward his collar, the handle near her shoulders, making him freeze. "So?" she taunted, panting.
(Damn him and damn everything. He had to stop using that move; obviously, it wasn't any good on her. How many times would it take him to learn his lesson?)
"Changed our mind yet, your Grace?"
He focused on her face, so close to his and contorted by fury. "Go ahead," he told her softly. "Kill me. But if you do, you'll have a real war on your hands, and it will be your fault. Believe me, it'll be complete chaos over here." He paused; she didn't reply. "Is that what you want?"
She struggled against her words. "No." She drew a bit more assurance into her expression. "And I'm sure you don't want that either. Which is why I'm here: to hear you say you're going to leave us alone, and to remind you that if you don't, you'll have serious problems with me!"
"Aw, come on! What are those threats for?"
"What, oh what could they possibly be for?!"
"We are already leaving you alone! It sounds to me like you're making a mistake!"
She remained stunned for a long moment. Their faces relaxed gradually.
"Wait. It was youwho ordered them to do the pillage, was it not?"
The confused staring continued for a short second, but he gave her a hard push with his elbow. Forced to back away, she rubbed her arm with an affronted expression.
"You're wasting both our time. You're accusing me of something I have nothing to do with."
"What? No, you are… you are responsible for your people's actions!"
"I would, if only my people had done anything to you!"
"Then guess what, mister hermit king! We've been attacked!"
"What? Who the hell attacked you?"
"Well, goblins! Who else?!"
It was his turn to freeze, having to consciously remember to keep buzzing to stay in the air. "Are you… absolutely sure they were goblins?"
She turned her head and sighed. "Yes. There were fifty, maybe sixty of them. We were outnumbered, there was nothing we could do."
Bog turned his head around as well and planted a palm to his face. "You've got to be kidding me."
She regained a straighter position instead of rubbing her brand-new battle bruise. "Why? What's going on?"
He threw his free hand in a wide, annoyed motion, and rolled his eyes. "I told them. I told them not to go. Somebody must have pushed them to do it anyway."
"You mean… they disobeyed you?"
"They probably didn't think I'd notice."
They floated awkwardly in the air, unsure and uncomfortable. Suddenly, her expression snapped back into something fierce and she raised her sword again. "And how do I know you're not saying that just to mess with me?"
He held both hands in front of himself, staff in a vertical, non-threatening position, his face completely open and honest. "I swear! They asked me to lead them to your side. I said no, I told them not to go. I tried to give them a reason not to go."
She didn't move nor did her expression soften. In fact, she looked unimpressed. "A reason. What kind of reason?"
"Err—"
"Obviously it wasn't good enough."
"I don't usually have problems with them."
"Well, now you do." The tip of her sword got a little closer. "So, what are you going to do about it?"
He went back to a scorn as well and grabbed his staff with his other hand. "First, I'm going to make you lower your weapon. You're making an unnecessary threat and I don't like it."
A wicked smile light up her face. "So you're asking me to trust you."
That expression of challenge suited her absolutely, but right now, he wished he could have avoided it. He was getting way too dizzy for another fight. "You don't have to trust me to accept a truce."
"I beg to differ."
He smirked back. "So be it. In all cases, I don't want you to think I'm going to surrender to your flimsy excuse of a threat."
"But you do feel threatened, otherwise you wouldn't mind!"
They clashed again, to his dismay. "You know, I still have no idea why you think we feel disdainful toward you."
"Really?" She did a spinning attack that caught him slightly off-guard. "How about stealing not only our food, but also our farming tools, in a moment of weakness and suffering?" She continued after following with two more blows. "Contributing to making our own people turn against us?" Her expression became sour. "You have completely broken us! Let me ask you: what are we supposed to do now?!"
Bog's glare lost a bit of its ferocity as well.
She didn't give him the chance to respond, however. "But we will keep resisting, no matter what. The fairies and the elves will stay united. And once this is all over, we'll come out stronger, and never again will we let anyone step on us like that! Not as long as I am q—" She choked on her own words, but came charging back, sword high. "Not as long as I live!"
Her blade almost hit his fingers, and his bafflement made him drop his staff.
She stared at the falling weapon, then at him, with an incredulous expression.
He sighed, one hand to his side, one covering his eyes, and summoned his courage. "Well, here goes… You fairies are diurnal, I think?"
She hesitated. "Err… Yes?" There was a brief silence. "You mean, you're… you're not?"
He let the hand on his face fall as well and rotated his neck slightly to make his bones pop. "No."
He braced himself for mockery, or for a loud declaration of victory, but none came. Instead, a short "Oh…" escaped her lips. She seemed unable to find a more articulate answer to throw at him.
"Look," he started, "I'll go see them right away and get to the bottom of this. Meet me at the Old Maple Tree tomorrow. Same hour. And we can think of a plan. Is that good?"
She sheathed her sword. "The Old Maple Tree?"
"That tree, over there," he pointed behind him.
Her eyes darted around nervously. "But… shouldn't you, err… discuss that with the royal family? I mean, the fairies?"
Bog shrugged. "Well, they probably hate me and or fear me, and they have every reason to." He knew just what to respond to the one who had almost betrayed herself by saying, 'as long as I am queen.' "Are you telling me you have no influence whatsoever over them?"
Her face turned an interesting shade of pink. "Me? I… I'm just…"
Bog shook his hand to cut her off. "It's okay. You don't have to tell me who you are. I'm not surprised you guessed who I was; I don't… blend in with the crowd very easily. Anyway, do I understand there's no way we could restrain both our people, without me and the Fairy King meeting? I don't think that would end well."
"Why not?"
"You see, there's an act that I have to keep in front of the goblins when it comes to you, the fairies. I'm supposed to be hostile to you. Also, I may be their king, but I'm not their ruler. They come to me for protection, to bring order, and this territory is theoretically mine… but in general, they govern themselves. Me telling them to put it back where they found it is not going to work. In fact, it's going to work against me, because they believe you are dangerous and cruel."
She laughed quietly. "No way… Can you believe my people say the same thing about yours?"
They shared a painful smile.
"So, you understand that I won't be able to place myself on your side if I want some form of obedience from them. But I will work with you to find a solution, if you accept."
"Yes, I understand. Of course." It was her turn to sigh. Her shoulders slumped. "I doubt there's any way to convince them to give up what they took from us, though… Unless you have an idea?"
"It's not too late to think of something. So, tomorrow, at the Maple Tree?"
"Yes… Okay."
She turned to leave, but added quickly: "I hope you get a good night's—err, I mean… a good day's sleep."
"Thank you. Will you be able to find your way back?"
"Yes, I think."
She flapped away through the leaves, in a slightly inaccurate direction.
The king was making circles in his library, fuming, while Roland stood stiffly next to the disordered books on the desk.
"At least none were found inside the castle," the old man grumbled. "It doesn't look like they took anything from us either."
"They wouldn't have dared. Bunch of cowards."
He turned his head sharply toward the young general. "And what was that you were telling the elves? Four days to full recovery? Where in the kingdom did you hear that?"
"I was only trying to buy us time, Sire. It shouldn't take the doctors too long to cure it, right?"
"We don't know that, Roland! You should've asked them yourself before giving the elves a number."
"But… what about the Miracle Eraser? If we remove the powder, then everything should go back to normal. No?"
"We don't know if that'll work either. Only the doctors know, they are the ones who will decide the proper treatment. We can't speculate as long as we don't hear from them. Now, we have to do something about those four days…"
"Don't worry, your Majesty, I actually have a backup plan in case an insufficient number of soldiers are healed."
"You mean, if they heal at all," the king hissed. "What's your plan?"
"We'll temporarily disguise other fairies as guards. Put them in armour, so the elves can't see their faces or see that they are smaller. And force those whose wings are not too damaged to come forward and pretend they're fine. At least, that'll make the elves obey us again, we'll have food, and we'll be able to focus on their actual recovery. According to my calculations, that should buy us two weeks in total."
"I don't think we can disguise fairies. The elves will notice the wing colours aren't the same, they're not blind."
"Who said different colours meant false soldiers? We'll simply tell them we washed off the powder, and now they're fine—emphasis on the fact that they used to be sick, to show we're making progress."
"But then we have to pretend that the Miracle Eraser is the cure. What if it's not? What's our excuse for not healing faster if that's all it takes?"
"Tell them we don't have enough of it, that it takes time to make more."
"It would not be unlike them to suggest they help us make it. What do we do with all that stuff, in the case that it does no good to the soldiers? And how do we explain that we're still not seeing more of them get out of the infirmary?"
"First, of course, we refuse their help. We remind them what their role is. And if they insist, we blame the Eraser's inefficiency on the bad quality of their work."
"That'll create even more tension… The situation is already delicate as it is." The king sat heavily at his desk and sighed. "And my little girl, who's headed off to the Dark Forest all alone… If only we could send a search party for her…"
"Yeah, I don't think we can afford to send soldiers away right now. With no one around, it'll make me look super bad."
"I hope she hasn't met the Bog King…"
"I'm sure she can barely draw the courage to venture past the border by herself. Or at least not very far. No doubt she's fine."
"But if she's captured, she's in great danger. Or if she falls into a trap and stays there and starves…"
"That's not going to happen. She's a fast flyer, and goblins can't fly."
"Maybe, but the Bog King can."
"What? Isn't he a goblin as well?"
"No, he's not. And you saw the way his army exited the village today: on dragonflies. They're resourceful, and dangerous."
"Your Majesty, I'm sure they're not that dangerous. The only danger I can imagine is if they fall in love with her. Yeah, that'd be way too likely. She's a feisty beast…"
"You don't understand. If they find her, she's in danger of being eaten."
"What? Eaten?Those abominations eat fairy meat?"
"They crave it. They believe by eating fairies, they can become fairies themselves—or should I say, turn back into fairies."
"Ah, that's disgusting! Wait, turn back?"
"It is said that a long time ago, they used to be fairies. Today's inhabitants of the Dark Forest would be descendants of the criminals the ancient Fairy Kingdom exiled there."
Roland chuckled. "Well, if they actually believe beautiful creatures like us could be related to the monsters they are… And the Bog King, he eats fairy meat, too?"
"I don't know how he feels about that. But he's been brainwashing his people about us for a long time, especially since the Sugar Plum Fairy paid him a visit and he imprisoned her. I don't know what he'll do with Marianne… but if he gets his claws on her, oh…" He held his head between his hands. "And there's nothing I can do for her…"
Roland drew a steady breath. "You know, there's actually another way that we could save the princess and rally the elves to us."
"There is? And… without playing with the soldiers' health?"
"Yes. We could totally make the elves our army! What do you think?"
"An army of elves? Where will we get our food from, then?"
"We'll take it where it is."
The king dropped his hands to his desk very slowly. "What do you mean?"
"We take everyone: elves, brownies, fairies, turtles, frogs… We arm them properly, and we raid the Dark Forest. Pillage them the way they did us, and rescue Marianne at the same time. They won't be expecting it if we go fast, and the elves are so angry right now that they're still easy to convince. Also, while we're at it, we can take a little of their food, see how those goblins like dining at an empty table!"
The oldest fairy sat back into his chair. "That's the only solution, isn't it? If we don't keep the elves busy as soon as possible, who knows what they'll do."
"Exactly. They might organize a coup."
"And we need to distract the goblins too, to make sure they don't do anything to my daughter."
"Yeah, we can't have that. By tonight, Marianne will be back in my arms… and yours, of course. You have my word, your Majesty!"
"Alright. Gather the elves and the others; I'll gather the fairies. We're leaving at sundown."
Roland bowed deeply to his king, a large smile stretched across his face.
