Free Faerie Tale by Nicola Rhodes Page A

capitulated.  But it was too high a price to pay.  The old Denny would have scoffed at this idea, being a pragmatist of the first order.  How could there be too high a price for your life ?  But now he understood. She had given him a glimpse into her world – the world inside her head – and it was empty, like her.  A mere glamour, no substance.  No human could live like that.  It would be like being dead with the unfortunate drawback that you would be alive to suffer it. 
    Of course, he would escape if he possibly could, that was different.  But she had taken the Athame – it was standing in a lump of rock not more than a few feet from him.  A particularly ingenious bit of cruelty in which she had taken immense delight.  He could see it but not reach it and, frankly, even if he could have, he was not sure he would have the strength to remove it now anyway.  Of course, the Athame itself would give him the strength, but he was not able to realise that now. He could barely think straight.
     His mind was slipping; he was finding it increasingly difficult to think about anything but the pain. 
    ‘Iron,’ he thought vaguely. ‘Iron to bind.’  Well he had no iron, but something was nagging at him something else in the same context but different.  ‘Iron to bind … and … and …’
    Iron was how you killed Faeries, but he could not kill them.  Even if he had had iron he was in no condition to … it was something else … not to kill.  Something that you would not think of as a weapon.  Not to kill but … they were afraid of iron, and they liked … something they liked?  That did not make sense. Denny was aware that he was becoming incoherent – Faeries tend to have this effect.  He tried to focus his mind.  ‘Iron to bind and …’
    His train of thought was interrupted by a crash.  He heard screaming.  Despite his agony, he grinned.  Tamar.
    Of course, it was too late for him, he could not last much longer and anyway she would have him killed rather than let Tamar have him.  But Tamar would not have thought of that.  She always went at everything like a mad bull at a gate.  Consequences were something that happened to other people in Tamar’s private universe.
    Still, he would be avenged at least.  Tamar would never let it go.  She never let anything go. 
    She came in. ‘I’ll see you dead first,’ she told him. 
    Denny nodded. 
    She turned to a contingent of faeries that had followed her in.  ‘Kill him,’ she ordered.  ‘Quickly,’ she added.  ‘No fun, just do it and then meet us at the stones. 
    ‘At least we can do that ,’ she muttered to herself. 
    She turned to Denny.  ‘I wanted it to be you ,’ she said.  ‘But I will find another. Fool, I could have given you everything and your rejection will not change the outcome.’
    And she swept out of the room.
    ‘Blah blah blah!’ thought Denny.
    ‘Make it quick boys,’ he said as the Faeries closed in. ‘You heard the lady.’  He closed his eyes and an explosion took place in his cerebrum.  Of course , he had had a weapon against the Sidhe all along.  Only he had not seen it as a weapon.  Because Faeries loved it, loved it so much that it made them dippy.  ‘Iron to bind and music to maze.’
    He hummed a few experimental opening bars.
    The effect was electric. The Faeries were fascinated. They stopped and stared at him with their mouths open.  He charged up the beat and began to sing.  And Denny could really sing.  The Faeries began to dance.  He felt like the pied piper. 
    * * *
    ‘What’s that?’ said Tamar as they ran down a deserted corridor.
    Stiles listened.  ‘Sounds like “Come on Eileen”.’
    Tamar smiled.  ‘Denny.’
    ‘But why would he be singing?’
    ‘ I don’t know, maybe it’s a signal, maybe he heard us coming.  Where’s it coming from?’
    Stiles looked around wildly, as if that would help, and noticed something else.
    ‘Where the hell is