he truth. Let me go, you don’t understand what will happen. My brothers-“The Lord Cleric punched her. Her head flew back and a spray of blood wet the dry mud and spattered over the leaves concealing me. Face wet with tears and whimpering, she tried to crawl toward the trees and dragged up clumps of earth with her fingernails.

“You must let me go.” The words sounded muffled, like she had a mouthful of something foul.

The Lord Cleric executed a neat half turn and stamped on her thigh. There was a sharp snap, like I’d picked up a twig and yanked on the ends until the fibers split apart and cracked open. The fairy’s leg buckled into an unnatural shape and she screamed. The sound was guttural, a direct translation of pain to sound. I slapped a hand over my mouth to smother my own shriek. Not because of the broken bone, I’d seen and heard tons of those, but because I’d caught the Lord Clerics profile and recognized the handsome face. The Lord Cleric dragged the fairy back into the centre of th