A Spy from The Void

(An excerpt from the novella A Queen's Lament written by J. Flessa circa. September 2022)

5 Weeks Before

On the border of where the winter meets the summer within Tir Dan, snow melted into the roots of the redwood trees. Several hunters from The Wild Hunt stood around the body of a decaying animal. Amongst them a changeling with soft violet eyes knelt to examine the creature.

A fae-yote. A canine megafauna made of moss and vines. Slowly rotting before them with a fist sized hole punctured in it’s chest.

“This is new,” the changeling, Xina, said as she poked at the creature with a hunting knife.

Hunter Cai, a young selkie man with slicked back hair, stepped up to kneel next to her. He reached for one of the vines that made up the fae-yote’s torso. It crumbled like the dead leaves in autumn in his hand.

“Animals die all the time,” he sighed. “This was probably a hunt that was interrupted.”

“Even then, hunts are not left to decay for this long without a scavenger finding it.”

Hunter Cai hummed. He looked to the other hunters that had joined him and The Warden of The Winter Court on their scouting trip. He gave them a knowing nod, and the hunters got to work clearing a small area in the underbrush.

“We’ll give it a proper burial,” Cai said. “Best to keep a lookout for others though, and we can notify Lady Morai when we get back.”

“Agreed,” Xina answered. She stood and scanned the area. There were no signs of a struggle. No broken branches or crushed bushes. Not even a drop of blood.

Her gaze caught something shimmering amongst the redwoods then. Like a mirage dancing in the heat of summer, she watched the faintest traces of a figure walk away.

Light on her feet, Xina tailed it from a distance leaving Cai to direct the other hunters. She willed her pact weapon into her hand; a longbow of woven roots with small wisteria blossoms materializing along the limbs.

The mirage paused. Xina froze.

It turned sluggishly. A set of blazing star-like eyes bore into her as it’s head cocked.

Xina back tracked, longbow pointed down. Don’t be a threat. Let it walk away.

The mirage watched Xina return to the group. Flickering in and out of intangibility.

The farther Xina was, the more the mirage faded into the background of the forest. She bumped into Cai, who caught her arm.

“Find something?”

“Just another lurking coyote,” Xina lied. “Probably found it’s dead companion and took it as a bad omen.”

Cai nodded.

Xina continued to watch the redwoods as the group finished burying the dead fae-yote. No sign of the mirage creature tailing them as they set on their way. Still, she continued to glance over her shoulder as the group continued on to Nixie’s Gate.

Her skin stopped crawling as the day cycle passed and moved onto the next. Then the next. And the next. Eventually a forgotten happenstance, but never one that stayed out of sight. As Xina traveled home, over the frozen lakes and the snowbound birch forest of The Frost Lands, a simple shadow passed between trees in her wake.