Chapter 33: Insidious Poison

Note: Thanks to B0b and WRC 264 for beta reading this!

Sven Falk

Scáthnamhaid barked as he burst out of the brush and into the cleared field along the south side of the Forest of Lhes, disturbing an owl into hooting. All day, the new feyhound had ranged ahead of us, sniffing even though he didn’t have a nose, his tail wagging. He flushed out more than enough rabbits to provide a hearty meal for tonight’s dinner. Twilight approached.

I was glad it was almost sunset, almost time to camp, because I was dead tired. Two days trudging through the forest did not agree with me. It didn’t agree with anyone. My sister yawned, looking almost dead as she stumbled out of the forest leading her horse. She looked even more tired than I felt. I glanced to the west, towards Az.

Unease rippled through my stomach. I didn’t want to return to Az. I had so many happy memories of our parents, of poor Katriana. Did they tear down the burned ruins of our house? Had something new been built there in the last year? Had they erased any trace that the Falk family once lived in the scholarly city?

How much would it hurt seeing all those places that once brought me joy before Prince Meinard perverted them with his lust for his daughter?

Despite that dread gripping my guts, an eagerness also seized me. Az meant comfort. A proper bed for Kora to sleep in. A chance to rest and recover from the long weeks of travel we’d had since leaving to track down the faerie. Three more days traveling on the road, staying in village inns, and we’d arrive.

It would be nice.

“I don’t see Ava, Master,” Zanyia said.

I blinked. How could I forget about the princess? “She should be around here somewhere.”

The last two days I’d been in constant contact with Ava through her alabaster statue. I looked around and spotted a hill that overlooked the highway which ran along the southern edge of the forest. It connected Echur with Az. She should be somewhere along it. Hopefully, if Aingeal led us true through the woods, Ava wasn’t far away.

I mounted my horse. I hadn’t bothered to name the farm nag. He lacked the majesty of Night. I wonder what ever happened to my stallion. Did he still wander the Forest of Lhes? Had a farmer found him and yoked him to a plow? Or had Prince Meinard’s soldiers found him and claimed him for their own?

None of those options pleased me.

“I’ll be back,” I said. “Hopefully, with the princess.”

“Okay,” my sister said, her shoulders sagging. She yawned.

Nathalie and Zanyia joined her.

“Perhaps we should set up camp,” Ealaín said. “I think we could all use a rest. I did not realize trudging through a forest could be so wearying.”

I didn’t either. I didn’t feel exhaustion this badly before we went to Faerie. But fatigue could build and build in a person. I shook it off and galloped my horse to the rise. He, at least, seemed in good spirits. Probably glad to stretch his legs and really move instead of creeping through the uneven ground and dense foliage of the woods.

I gained the top of the hill and pulled out her statue after dismounting. I stroked up and down the figures naked body, feeling the breasts. It came to life, shuddering and shivering. She looked around as I sat her on the hill.

“You’re out!” she said in delight as she grew. “That’s wonderful, Sven.”

“Now we just have to see if you’re anywhere near here,” I said as she grew taller and taller, her alabaster form swelling. Aingeal’s enchantment worked as promised. Though I still missed Ava’s rose quartz proxy. The way that figure’s crystals caught the light was so stirring.

But the alabaster was nice. I smiled at my betrothed’s petite body, her breasts firm mounds that shuddered as she reached her full height. She let out a groan as she stretched, her pure-white flesh painted in orange highlights by the setting sun.

“Let’s see,” she said, turning around and gazing at the road “I think we’re close to you.” Her statue went still for a moment. Then it animated again. “We should be around that bend, I hope.” She pointed up the road. “Looks like we’re ahead of you.”

I stared in that direction. The road bowed out to the south then turned back north to go around a thrusting bulge of the green forest. I trembled in excitement. Ava took my hand, her grip smooth and yet though made of stone, felt like real flesh, warm and soft. She rose on her tiptoes, trembling and...

“There I am!” she gasped as two figures rode around the road’s bend, one slumped over her mare, strawberry-blonde hair spilling down over the shoulders of her blue riding cloak. The other figure held the reins, a blonde, Zeutchian lass.

“Oh, my, your bedmaid is quite the buxom girl,” I said as the pair rode forward.

“I thought you’d appreciate her assets,” Ava said. “Let’s go say hi to me.” Then she giggled before her body shrunk again.

I picked her up, put her proxy away, and rode down the hill as the real Ava straightened in her saddle, now inhabiting her real body. She spurred her mount forward, pulling away from the bedmaid, her strawberry-blonde hair flying behind her.

“Ava!” Kora shouted.

“Wow,” I head Zanyia yowl. “She looks so pretty in the flesh. I didn’t know her hair was such an exciting color.”

I rode past my family, racing toward my betrothed. Though I had just talked to her, I felt like I hadn’t seen her, well, in a year. She had such a beaming smile on her face that lead me on. We reined up our horses before we collided.