A Debt Owed

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Melody stared at the twenty-two charms attached to the links of the bracelet. Her mum never took it off. The charms had been a gift from her own mother, every birthday until she’d died. Everything all became frighteningly real. “There’s an Elon in your books.”

Sherry nodded.

“You can’t make me go with him. If everything in your books is real, you can’t make me go with him. I won’t survive.” Her voice broke on the last word.

Sherry slipped the bracelet over Melody’s wrist and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m sorry. I was young and desperate. Don’t you do anything so stupid. I didn’t know what they were like, but you do. You’ve read all my books. Several times.”

“I can’t go.” She’d rather face a room full of spiders. Well, maybe not quite that many.

“Get dressed. Quickly. We need to pack some food for you to take. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.” Sherry let her go and strode across the room to fling the door open before striding down the hallway.

Melody grabbed jeans and a t-shirt, pulling them on before slipping her feet into a pair of sneakers. She crept towards her doorway, looking for the spider. It was gone. She ran after her mum, not wanting to be left alone in an area where a spider was hiding. “Did you hear me before? I can’t go.”

Sherry had turned on the kitchen light and was rummaging in the pantry. “Bring your backpack over here.”

“Mum.” She moved to stand beside her mum and watched as food was jammed inside the bag. Crackers, trail mix, chocolate bars, a packet of sweet biscuits, muesli bars, dried fruit, three tins of spaghetti and two one-litre bottles of water. The bag looked lumpy and strained at the seams.

“I’m sorry I don’t have more to give you. I know it won’t last long, but whatever you do, don’t eat their food without taking the right precautions.”

“Are you listening to me, Mum? I can’t go with him.”

“You don’t have a choice. We don’t have a choice. This way you have a chance of surviving and getting away. Fight him on it and he might never let you go. The Fae like a challenge.” She reached out to rest a hand against Melody’s cheek. “I didn’t want this part of my life to ever touch yours. I did everything possible to keep you from meeting Elon. You should have been asleep. It’s well after midnight and you’ve got an early morning. I’d thought it was safe to call him so we could continue to work on our latest story.”

“It was too hot. I got up for a drink. And then there was a spider-”

Sherry covered her mouth again, glancing over her shoulder. “No, don’t even speak of them. Never, ever show the Fae any fear. They’ll use it against you. Never give them an advantage.”

She drew away from her mum, alternating between accepting it was real and not believing a single word. “What about dad? What are you going to tell him?”

“I have no idea. He’ll probably call the police.” Sherry took her hand. “Come on. Before Elon comes looking for us.”

She wanted to argue, but let her mum lead her back to the study, her mind full of the stories she’d grown up on. If even half of them were real, she didn’t stand a chance. She even forgot the spider that had disappeared until they stepped into the study. A glance around showed it wasn’t in here. At least not anywhere she could see.

Elon rose to his feet. “Are you ready now?”

“Yes,” Sherry said.

At the same time, Melody shook her head.

“Didn’t your mother explain? You have no choice in this,” Elon said. “The bargain has been made.”

“No, I mean yes, she did explain, but that’s not what this is about.” Still clutching the bulging backpack, she strode to the desk. “I have to leave my dad a note. Well, actually both my parents.”

“Why would you need to leave your mother a note when she’s standing right here?” Elon asked.

Melody didn’t bother to explain. Instead she wrote a note to her parents telling them that going to year twelve was a waste of time when she didn’t even know what she wanted to do with her life, other than travel. She didn’t need to finish school to do that. She’d be in touch down the track. Behind her she heard her mum start to cry and she rose to her feet to wrap an arm around her. “I couldn’t let him blame you or call the police.”

“You believe me?”

How could she not? Her mum had given her the only possession she still had from her childhood. She drew back, staring at her mum’s tearstained face. “Yes.” The only other time she’d seen her mum cry was when she’d spoken of returning home twenty years ago to find smoke and flames billowing from her family home, as firemen tried to put it out. She hadn’t realised straight away that her mother had died in the fire, not until one of the neighbours had broken the news to her. “I’ll see you on the seventh of December.”

“Their time doesn’t run the same as ours.”

“I know.”

Elon stepped forward and grabbed Melody’s arm. “This is all very touching, but also extremely tedious.” He looked towards Sherry. “Don’t bother calling me to finish the story until after this bargain has ended.” He turned to Melody. “Time to go.” He drew a crumpled leaf from his pocket and tossed it on the ground. Still holding onto her arm, he stepped forward onto the leaf, drawing her with him.

The world shimmered around her, reforming to become a forest clearing, a white horse tethered nearby. It was early morning and as much as Melody wanted to draw away from Elon, she was worried he might leave her here in the middle of nowhere. Other than trees, shrubs and the horse, there was nothing else in sight.

Elon strode towards the horse, pulling her with him. “Can you ride?”

She shook her head.

Elon smiled. “This is going to be fascinating. I give you a week before you’re so caught in my world you’ll never have a chance to return to your own.”

“What has riding got to do with anything?”

“That’s the main form of transport here.”

She wanted to disagree with him. Not being able to ride wouldn’t stop her from surviving. She’d walk if necessary. Instead of arguing, she thought of her mum’s stories. She had to be smart if she wanted to return home. “What do you bet that I’ll last more than a week?”

“You have nothing to bet in return.”

She raised her arm so the charms dangled from the bracelet. “One of these. What do you offer in return?”

Elon’s gaze remained on her arm for a moment before he met hers. “What did you want?”

“Riding lessons. I want to learn how to ride.”

He laughed, throwing his head back. When he eventually stopped, he stared at her, a smile remaining. “Seven days of my time.”

She nodded, taking the hand he offered her, smelling the scent of old rainforests again. She could do this. There was no way that she wanted to spend the rest of her life here. The Fae didn’t think very much of humans. Remembering her first thought had been that she wouldn’t survive, the second that she didn’t stand a chance, she pushed those thoughts from her. Somehow she had to figure it out so she did. If Elon thought it was important for her to be able to ride, then she needed to learn. When he let go of her hand and stared at her, she remained silent, worried she’d say something that would get her caught up in this world and unable to leave it.

Eventually Elon turned away and gathered the reins of the horse, swinging into the saddle. He held out a hand to her and when she took it, seated her behind him. Still clutching her backpack, she held onto Elon as he rode through the forest.

She hoped he knew where he was going because everything looked the same to her. When they came out of the forest to see open meadows leading towards a castle, set in landscaped gardens, she guessed he must have known the way. As much as she wanted to ask him more about the castle, she didn’t dare say a word. Her mum’s stories were full of humans, and even Fae, tricked into making promises they’d rather not keep. When Elon helped her dismount at the front of the castle, she fleetingly wondered if her mum would write this into a story. She guessed that would only be possible if she escaped.

Elon handed the reins of his horse to a human, who came forward with gaze lowered. “Put him in the stable.” He barely spared Melody a glance. “Don’t get lost.” He strode towards the open castle doors and inside.

Melody struggled to keep up. The last thing she wanted to do was get lost. The only person she could trust not to harm her was Elon, but there was no one she could trust to protect her. Somehow she’d have to manage that on her own. It was a struggle to keep up with Elon’s long stride. She barely had time to take notice of her surroundings.

They passed other tall, slim, pale skinned people, some with their hair drawn back from their faces so she could see the slight point to the tips of their ears. There were humans amongst them. Mostly servants, some dressed up and treated like ornaments, one even on a leash held by an elaborately dressed woman. They travelled down corridors, twisting and turning through the building until they stepped into a crowded room.

Melody heard snippets of conversations as they made their way through the well-dressed crowd. “What can you expect? His mother was dark Fae.” A man nodded knowingly. They moved on before Melody could find out who they were speaking about. The next full sentence she heard was, “He won’t last much longer. It’s been three days already.” A man replied, “He should have known better than to mess with the arachnid people.”

The word arachnid made her shudder and she looked over her shoulder at the two men who were speaking, wondering if they spoke of the same person as the last couple. When she looked forward again, it was in time to reach the front of the crowd. She came to a stumbling stop, her gaze drawn to the woman talking to the crowned man sitting on a throne, an empty one to the right of him. The woman reminded her of a centaur. Where a centaur had the lower half of a horse, the woman was part arachnid. Her eight hairy legs were topped by the upper body of a woman with dusky coloured skin, thick black hair piled atop her head, and a bodice that looked like it was made from spider’s web.

If the sight of the woman hadn’t frozen her to the spot, Melody would have run from the throne room. As it was, she couldn’t take her gaze from the woman and it took several minutes for the angry words she yelled at the king, to make sense.

“Enough, Dione.” The king rose to his feet.

Melody struggled to think of his name. Why hadn’t her mum written about the spider woman? If she had, there was no way she’d have entered the castle.

“I want him. He killed one of mine. I deserve to have him.” Dione pointed to the left of the throne.

Melody glanced in that direction, then looked again. A young man stood in the corner, unable to leave it because of the chain on his leg. He looked to be shorter than Elon, about six foot, and had long dark hair and a more muscular build. He was still fairly slim, but not to the point that Elon and the rest of the fair haired Fae were. His arms were crossed over his bare chest and he wore only fitted trousers, his feet also bare. His expression was neutral, but he couldn’t keep the anger from his brown eyes. A sheathed sword lay on the floor out of his reach.

“Brynn tells a different story,” the king said.

“He lies,” Dione snarled.

The king walked closer to Brynn, stopping near the sword. “Do you lie? Did you kill Dione’s man for sport?”

“He attacked a human in the forest,” Brynn said.

“The human came onto my lands.” Dione pointed at Brynn. “You lie. You killed my knight for sport.” She turned to the king. “I demand him for my own. His life in payment for the one he stole.”

A tall woman joined them. A jewelled crown nestled in her long fair hair that was piled upon her head to show her pointed ears. She took a sip from the goblet she held and smiled at Dione. “You aren’t still harping over this matter, are you? He’s being punished for taking up arms against your knight. Surely you can lay the matter to rest now.”

Seeing the two rulers together, Melody remembered their names. Queen Eolande and King Rhodri. But she’d never heard of Brynn. How many others hadn’t her mum written about? Was that her choice or had it been because Elon hadn’t mentioned them? She’d thought she’d have an advantage from all she’d read. She was beginning to think she didn’t. That there was far too much she didn’t know about the Fae.

“Wouldn’t you avenge the death of one of your knights?” Dione demanded.

Eolande moved closer to Brynn. “Do you feel punished?”

“I’ve done nothing wrong, Your Majesty,” Brynn said.

“Are you trying to tell me you’re happy with being left chained without food or drink?” Eolande moved even closer, stopping so that the toes of her shoes almost touched the sword.

“No, Your Majesty.”

“Are you saying you would like a drink?” She held out her goblet. “Are you thirsty, Brynn?”

He didn’t speak, only held Eolande’s gaze.

She laughed. “Maybe you’ll stay out of what doesn’t concern you in the future.” She placed her goblet on the floor, near the sword. “Humans aren’t worth your trouble.” She turned away from him and stepped close to Rhodri, holding out her hand. “Ride with me this morning?”

Rhodri took her hand, walking with her from the throne room. The Fae followed, including Dione. Melody stared after them, unable to bring herself to follow as she watched Dione walk from the room, the movement of the eight legs sending a shiver through her.