Faerie's Champion Read online

  Faerie’s Champion

  The Risen Queen - Book 5

  M H Johnson

  Copyright © 2018 by M H Johnson

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and events are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Epilogue

  Thank You

  1

  Jess had surrendered herself to her dream entirely, and at last felt at peace. Free of all care and worry, utterly connected to all the living things around her. No one could judge or condemn her here. At last, she felt safe. Jess could feel the roots of her being sinking deep into the nurturing bosom of Calenbry soil, could sense her many fingers reaching wide to catch the life-giving rays of the morning sun that gently nurtured her, filling her with hope and warmth.

  In her dream, at least, she was at peace with her family once more.

  Sad as it was that they could never seem to understand her, she found quiet arboreal comfort in being able to protect them at least, to shelter them in safety and comfort. Her walls were ones no foe could breach, resonating as they did with the combined resiliency of all the ancient woodlands that had once stood so tall and proud upon these lands. Forests that in time she would see cover all of Dawn in their gentle embrace once more. Her larders she filled with an endless variety of nuts that various intertwined parts of her were able to bring forth in such abundance, her outermost branches heavy with a rich harvest of succulent apples and pears that were ready to fall into the expectant hands of any hungry denizen approaching her childhood home.

  Even now, she could feel the pristine waters of a sacred spring long hidden from the gaze of men trickling forth once more between selected roots, pooling into a cistern fit to nurture all her inhabitants, should times of hardship come.

  No foe would be able to breach her living walls by force, nor scale them serpentine, lest desiring a thousand piercing stabs by thorns as sharp as razors, and resilient as steel. Jess felt green and pure as only a tree could understand, a deep and abiding contentment welling up through her. To be free at last from a mad life of trials and hardship, endless misunderstandings and heartbreaking folly, struggling fruitlessly to appease those who would crush her under the weight of endless demands and expectations.

  Here, at last, she could be content. For days, weeks, or millennia. It hardly mattered when you were a tree brought to sentience, whatever your shape, resonating with the ancient magics of life itself.

  She rustled a moment in sunny reflection as a new day began to dawn, recalling on some level anxious chippings and sensations of worry and uncertainty that had plagued her beloved inhabitants the day before with two guests, in whose scent and aura she had sensed no malice, yet the distress their visit had caused had made Jess reconsider, to wonder how it would be to wrap the pair in thorny vines and pull them deep amongst her roots, till they ceased their violent struggles and slowly, over time, became a part of her, nurturing the soil in which she thrived.

  Yet there had been no need for such drastic steps, as her beloved familiar had assured her. And indeed, her family seemed of lighter spirits when those odd visitors had left, their chirping brighter, as if a brooding storm had at last passed. And as they rested easier, so did Jess, no longer clinging so hard to her awareness, letting herself gently drift off, soothed to a gentle doze by the rustling of her branches, caressed by the gentlest of breezes.

  And then she felt the poking. It was very annoying. It didn't hurt, but it did bother. She silently whimpered, having no corporeal body any longer, quite happy being a tree of sorts, though she distinctly heard a very human sounding moan. Interesting. Perhaps she did still have a body, after all. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more certain she became. Gentle leaves from viny growths caressed a very warm, very human form lying supine upon a living bed of wood. Capillary roots fed the body a soothing trickle of water, taking nourishment as well from the sugars gently fed to it, but the body had needs that were still being imperfectly met. She had a sense, however, that with time, symbiosis would be reached; the body happily encased and embraced by the great house that surrounded and protected it.

  But now that she was alert to it, felt its gentle breath rustle probing leaves and twigs, and feeling curious sharp tingles in turn, she began to be confused as to whether she was the tree hosting the body, or the body communing with the tree.

  She moaned, feeling increasingly disoriented, grimacing as her head began to throb with the slightest of headaches. One trembling hand reached out to rub her forehead, and there it was. She was the girl communing with the tree, and not the tree hosting the girl.

  Slowly, Jess opened her eyes, yawning, the headache and confusion soon dissipating back into the gentle fog of a half-remembered dream, and stretched.

  Her first awareness, besides the pleasure of a deep yawn, was that her familiar had just sprung off her chest. The second was that she really, really had to use the chamber pot, and the third was that she was covered in leafy vines and branches, and some seemed to be stuck to her.

  “Be careful pulling those free, my mistress. They are sort of attached to you, at the moment.”

  "Twilight, what happened?" Jess asked, suppressing another yawn, even as she ever so gently plucked the roots from her skin. They left small red welts but otherwise she seemed unharmed, for all that they were a bit itchy. She did note that the roots gently pulled free seemed to be oozing droplets of what a curious tongue determined was a sugary sap of sorts. "And why are these roots in me? It's almost like they were feeding me."

  Twilight grinned. “They were.”

  Frowning, Jessica rubbed her eyes after gently pulling free the last of the roots. “Heavens above, Twilight, some of these were actually probing between my legs!”

  “I think their eventual goal was to relieve your bladder,” her familiar counseled.

  "Okay but... icky. No thank you." Still the slightest bit dizzy, Jessica stumbled from her leafy bed of foliage and made quick use of her cleverly des
igned and sealed chamber pot. For all that she trained as hard as any man, she had long ago figured out that her sense of smell was much more acute, and appreciated her quarters smelling as fresh as any girls, for all that she didn't mind the tang of iron in the air, as well. "Much better," she sighed happily, some moments later. "Okay, my beloved familiar, perhaps you can tell me why my bed suddenly decided hooking its root system to me was a good idea?" She gave her bed a faintly reproving stare. It almost looked embarrassed. As embarrassed as a bed could be, in any case. Given that it was an oak bed, it did a fair job of it too.

  Twilight raised an eyebrow, looking vaguely professorial and just a touch reproving, which suddenly made Jessica feel as embarrassed as her bed. She knew that look all too well, from more than one professor who had caught Jessica blatantly copying from Malek's history analysis, or mathematical equations, or treatises in economics. Economics, by the gods. The very thought made her shudder. As embarrassing as it was to admit aloud, she held no illusions about her academic prowess relative to nobles of a more scholarly bent, and was utterly certain that she would have been sent home long ago, had she not been one of Eloquin's favored proteges, who took to battlefield tactics and strategy as naturally as breathing.

  “It's not my fault! He's really good at studying, and Eloquin always says to make use of your companion's strengths,” Jess mumbled, still half asleep.

  Twilight grinned. “Fond memories of our school days? Missing our Hound, are we?”

  "Maybe," Jess conceded. "I miss the whole Circle of Midnight, actually." Her gaze turned momentarily wistful, before focusing on her familiar once more. "And why do you always refer to Malek as my hound? He doesn't like the term, I've noticed, and he only turned to a massive wolf glowing with eldritch runes but once, according to the bardic tales, right?"

  Twilight forbore to answer the question. "In any case, my dear Jessica, it was not the bed that decided to bind itself to you in sudden impulse. It's just an oak bed after all, and they are really not that clever, whatever they may think." Twilight cocked an eye at the embarrassed looking oak bed that was rustling its leafy bedding quite innocently, despite the lack of a breeze.

  Twilight turned his gaze full on a still sleepy Jess.

  “It was you, Jess. You were, to be frank, feeling a bit worn down by your mother's constant criticizing, and so decided to take a break from it all, becoming a tree for a couple of days. And an impressive tree you were too, I might add," her familiar nodded approvingly. "But really, dear Jess, you were born a human, and I think the powers that be have the quaint expectation that you will maintain that form for the remainder of your years, and not arbitrarily decide to become a tree, midway through life's journey. It would confuse the natural order of things quite horribly, considering who you are, I'm afraid."

  Jess blinked, absently running a hand through her hair, frowning absently at its rich, fiery hue, vaguely certain it had once been identical to her mother's flaxen locks that shimmered so like gold with the setting sun. Jess grimaced, afraid that she was still more than half-asleep. Ah yes. Venturing into the deepest pits of Shadow, the darkest of nightmares lurking within the Dreamrealms, had changed her. And in more ways than simply gifting her with hair the color of flame.

  She focused her wavering attention upon her cat. “You are saying it was me? I became a tree?”

  Her familiar gave an enigmatic shrug. "It would be more accurate to say that you became the manor in its entirety, synergized all the various arboreal elements, and brought them back to a measure of sentience and life. Indeed, the house has never been more stable. It is positively blossoming with vitality."

  Jess gazed at her cat. “Blossoming.”

  "Oh yes," Twilight grinned. "In fact, if you look out the window, you can see some ridiculously lush looking apples, just begging to be plucked."

  Jess blinked. “You are saying the manor is... sprouting?”

  "In full bloom. Bowers hanging heavy with fruit. Apparently, seasons mean little when you are at the helm, my dear Jess. In fact, the manor entire has become, for all intents and purposes, a grove of conjoined trees living in complete symbiosis. You have nut trees fruiting in the pantry, as well as apple and pear branches hanging rich and ready for the plucking all about the outer walls. Or perhaps outer trunk would be a better term, at this point."

  Jess tilted her head. "So what you are saying is that after mom crushed my spirit to dust, and I decided there was no point in leaving my quarters, I just retreated into sleep and dreamed I was a tree so vividly that I actually became the house, and brought it back to life? And now it is a colony of very fecund trees?"

  Her cat's grin was positively mischievous. “Precisely.”

  Jess groaned. “I have no doubt Mother will be happier with me than ever.”

  Twilight pinned her with his sapphire gaze. “I think it's time we quit hiding, and girded ourselves for battle once more.”

  Jess grimaced, shuddering with sudden memory as she became fully awake. "Oh gods, Twilight. I can't deal with Mother's impatient glare any further than I have already. I'm all too aware that she's never been satisfied with the woman I've grown up to become, and now with the tides of fate having knocked our family into dangerous currents, she's using it as an excuse to hammer me into a shape more to her liking, and the whole process makes me want to scream!"

  “Yes, and you got back at her, turning the house entire into a blossoming orchard,” Twilight noted. “Come, Jess. It's time for us to call off the siege, and negotiate our terms of surrender.”

  Jess emitted a forlorn sigh, her familiar butting his head against her palm, soothing her with the distraction of his rich warm fur, a balm easing the bitter call of duty that even her familiar insisted she face.

  “Come, Jess. It won't be so bad as it was before, I can almost guarantee it. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe I smell your mother's crepes.” Twilight nodded solemnly. “Yes, my dear mistress, I am quite certain that this is a most propitious morning to negotiate terms.”

  Ambivalence aside, her rumbling belly was making it quite clear to Jess that breakfast was most definitely in order, and a civil truce was not something to be looked askance at, particularly if butter and fruit preserves were involved. Fresh honey from their beehives would almost guarantee an amicable encounter, Jess decided, resolutely girding herself for battle in the most comfortable of her mother's handpicked dresses that she could find. Dresses that had all curiously transformed from their original colors to various hues of green. Jess nodded in satisfaction at her much-improved wardrobe, choosing a particularly vibrant forest green outfit that sparkled as if interwoven with dewdrops and emeralds.

  Jess peered out the doorway, strangely relieved to find the corridor clear of people as she cautiously headed toward the dining area. She had already known it was empty, of course. The roots had happily told her so. Her house was a very content grove of trees, she noted with a bemused smile, her profound connection to the building giving her a rough sense of the mammals making their way through its corridors, many striding about importantly on two feet, others scurrying about far more tentatively on four. Rats, mice, and now squirrels. It would be effortless to use her newfound talent to win approval with the houndsman and her mother if she were to lead his ratters to all the various hiding spaces favored by scurrying creatures within her grove. Yet she was also vaguely aware of the hungry peeps and cries of babes awaiting their foraging mothers.

  Jess gazed forlornly at the floorboards. How strange it was that she had been so well conditioned to endure and even embrace all the horrors of the battlefield as one of General Eloquin's elite Squires of War, yet the thought of leaving innocent rodent pups to starve and die, wailing for a mother that would never return, filled her with a curious sense of melancholy. Even as her hands were red with the blood of so many foes and fools who had dared to cross her, their final screams forever but a nightmare away.

  “Ow, Twilight! Why did you poke me?” Jess glared at her f
amiliar riding comfortably upon her shoulder.

  “You're brooding. Deep contemplation of the tragic ironies that make up this mortal existence is not going to get us any closer to crepes, or get you out of facing your mother.”

  Jess sighed. “You just have to read my mind, don’t you? Truly, Twilight, you can be very irritating sometimes.”

  Her familiar licked her ear, butting her check with his forehead. Jess gave in and scratched him under his chin, earning her a purr. “I didn’t read your mind, Jess. I just know you. Come, my mistress. There is naught to fear. The past is just that. Now let's put it behind us, and go eat.”

  Jess sighed and girded herself, proceeding regally in silken slippered feet to the dining hall, knowing what she would face, regretting only that she could not face it in a full suit of mithril mail.

  Her belly roiled with tension even as she forced herself to keep calm and entered the eating room in one swift motion. A quick glance showed her family entire quietly eating some extremely enticing looking crepes, the fine clink of silverware and crystal goblets halted as her family turned their heads to gaze upon her simultaneously.

  Her heart lurched. Jess had to fight the wild urge to bolt madly for the hills.

  Her father broke the tension with a gentle smile. “Jessica. So good of you to join us! And a lovely dress we are wearing this morning, I see. Please, have a seat. 'Tis a fine morning for crepes, is it not?”