Author's Preface
Delilah handed her candle to Clive and took the contract from between the bars. She unrolled the small, yet high-quality scroll as Clive held two candles to it.
“Is there a time limit?” Clive asked as Delilah skimmed the tiny print.
“Not at all. A day or a year or ten years,” he answered pleasantly.
“Why do you want a non-fae to go, exactly?” Clive pressed.
“Oh, just for curiosity's sake. I admit my father holds an incredible amount of wealth, so this is not beyond our limits,” he said.
“Do you know where it goes?” she asked, lowering the contract to look at Kenneth.
“We have an idea, but we do not have a workable map of the area. Your team is last to go, before we resort to more drastic measures.”
Delilah rubbed her lips in thought, mulling over all the details while Clive and Kenneth waited.
“As long as I can back out whenever I want,” she mumbled, still looking away in thought.
“Until you go into the wormhole, yes.”
“My weight in gold?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And I won’t be alone?”
“No, ma’am.”
Delilah nodded and took a deep breath. “Alright, I’ll sign. Can we leave tonight, Clive?”
Kenneth cheered, and Clive agreed. Delilah took her light source back to the desk and signed her name on the line provided while Clive released his most interesting prisoner.
She rolled the contract and handed it to the fae, who slid it back into the wooden tube.
“Are you prepared to go as you are?”
In that second, Delilah agreed with Claudia that this fae was not handsome. He was too short, rather skinny, and had a long oval face with hideous brown teeth.
“I think so, but I’ve never left Sychar. I have a bag I can carry and a weapon,” she said, watching Clive gather their jackets.
“No problem at all. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Huren and beyond,” Kenneth said. “Clive, would you mind getting my buck? He’s able to carry both of us.”
Delilah put on her jacket and left out the front door as Clive disappeared into the night. The rain had subsided considerably. She glanced at Kenneth, who dusted off his coat sleeves.
“A buck?” she asked.
“A male elk, yes. Do you have them here?” Kenneth asked with his hands behind his back. Delilah only then noticed he wore a navy coat with a loosened gray shirt over gray pants.
“We don’t, no. That’s not one of the fae castes, is it?”
“No, miss. It is roughly your height at the shoulder with large antlers. I believe you were thinking of the horse caste, which are shaped like elk in the body, but have a singular horn rather than antlers.”
Delilah simply nodded in return, and he smiled, wondering how she would respond to seeing anything outside of her quaint village.
Clive opened the door from the outside. Kenneth waved for Delilah to proceed, so she stepped out, meeting the beast face to face.
The elk stood taller than he had said, with a long face, and large enough webbed antlers that she was sure it could carry her in them. Outfitted with an ornate saddle and packed bags, it stood in the lessening rain with a hot snort directly into Kenneth’s face. He withheld the urge to slap the beast, as it might frighten Delilah in the wrong way.
He wiped it off with his sleeve and then said to Clive, “We should make haste so I can get to Huren by dawn. The set day to leave will not be for several days, so we will have time to acclimate her to Paradise. Would you mind lifting her to the saddle, sir?” Kenneth asked.
Clive would carry her to Huren if it meant she left Sychar, so he agreed. They did not make eye contact when he lifted her by the waist, swinging her onto the saddle. Kenneth mounted in front of her and thanked him. Clive checked the road before leading the elk onto it.
They walked through the edge of town, and Delilah tried to see her parents’ house through the darkness, wondering what would happen when she did not come down for breakfast. Sychar rested with the storm rolling up the mountains, and trees dropped the rain they had held onto.
At the gate, Clive moved the bell with the hook. Kenneth busied himself judging the walls as unburdened faced each other.
“Have an adventure, and then come home. I’ll be here, hopefully with a bride at my side when you’re back,” Clive said with a weak smile.
“I won’t be long,” she assured him with her own smile. “If I can, I'll write it all down and tell you about it. Good luck marrying Claudia!” she wished honestly.
“Thank you, and goodnight,” he said.
Kenneth waved and kicked the elk into action. It walked through the open gate into a boundless depth of night. Delilah turned in the saddle, watching as the gate closed. A light grew in the watchtower after a moment, yet part of her knew Clive did not watch her go.
She faced Kenneth again and wondered if it would be awkward to touch him. Instead of asking, she kept her hands in her lap, her hair behind her, and gazed out into the unknown wilderness, ignoring her mother’s screeching voice in her head that she was headed to her imminent death.
Frogs croaked, and crickets chirped around them. Tiny squeaks from bats chasing prey filled the night sky. The night almost hid the dark gray lane with tall grass drooping with wet weight on either side. Branches leaned into the road, which Kenneth and Delilah ducked under. There were no stars, unfortunately, and the moon barely showed her face from behind the blanket of clouds. Delilah looked behind herself again, but could not see Sychar for the first time.
“You should try to get some sleep,” Kenneth suggested. “We’ll be going all night at this rate. I had a nap in the jail cell, and I’m sure you will need the rest tomorrow.”
“Oh,” she whispered, her hands on her collarbones. Kenneth’s burden suggested something to him wordlessly.
“My back is quite cold, if you don’t mind keeping it warm for me? You might be comfortable enough to sleep, too.”
Delilah’s ivory hands carefully reached around him, making him grin from ear to ear. She rested on his back and stared out into the passing forest. The road took a steep decline going around a bend, and Delilah spotted a small log cabin in the distance. She tilted her head, considering it until a flash of movement in the woods caught her eye: a shadow of a nocturnal animal, or a mysteriously shaped bush, surely.
She took a deep breath, unfortunately letting her worries, questions, and predictions impede decent rest for hours. By the time the east ran crimson, and the peaks of the mountains painted gold with the early sunrise, Delilah slumped against a fae lord’s son’s back in a deep sleep.