36. Consulted

Three days had passed since we interrogated Liam then spoke with Maeve. I'm sure my fae-mom had a lot to think about, but it was a little disconcerting that we'd heard nothing at all since then. So we passed the time with our now-familiar routine. We took daily walks around the castle, and spent most of our time reading. We took our meals in our room, or in the study.

Me and Kelly were in our little suite just finishing lunch, when there was a knock at our door. Having someone knock during our meal was unusual, the servants typically left plenty of time after dropping off food, before they came back to collect the dishes.

Kelly and I looked at each other then I called towards the door, "Yes? Come in?"

Captain Siobhan entered, then frowned "My apologies Lady Tegan, miss Kelly. I did not realize I was interrupting your meal."

"It's ok," I replied. "We were just about done. What's up?"

The captain replied, "The prisoner has requested an audience with you, Lady Tegan. Lady Maeve has approved the request, but it is entirely your choice if you wish to see...him or not."

Siobhan was still having trouble with Liam's pronouns. I wondered if there weren't that many trans fae, or if it just wasn't that well understood here. Whatever the answer, it did seem like Siobhan had trouble remembering Liam was a man, regardless what his body currently looked like.

It made me wonder what the fae thought about other LGBTQ stuff, and what they thought of Kelly and I being in a relationship. I hoped it wasn't a problem, but either way neither of us planned on staying here any longer than necessary.

I put all that aside for now and asked Kelly, "I don't mind seeing him. Do you want to come?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I'm curious to see what he wants."

With that, the three of us left our room and the captain led the way. Rather than heading down to the cellar, we went upwards into a tower.

Siobhan explained, "Lady Maeve had the prisoner moved. For now, Liam is being considered a dangerous and untrustworthy guest rather than an imprisoned traitor." She added after a moment, "She...He is still kept under lock and key, and guarded at all times, but the difference is Liam is now in a furnished room rather than a dungeon cell."

"Ok, that sounds good." I didn't know what else to say, but I assumed it meant Maeve was still seriously considering my suggestion.

We went up several levels into a tower, till we arrived at a landing with one sturdy door and two armed guards. The guards bowed, then one of them unlocked the door and Siobhan led me and Kelly inside. The captain took up position just inside the door, as our guard I suppose. Not that I expected Liam to attack us, and not that he'd be able to do much damage if he did.

The room was similar to the room we'd first woken up in, but smaller and the furnishings weren't as fancy. It was still better than most hotel rooms I'd seen back home, and it was infinitely better than a dungeon cell.

There was a queen-sized poster bed against one wall, a fireplace on the opposite wall. A tall narrow window on the wall across from the door, and beneath the window was a table and chair. A small wardrobe stood in the corner. There weren't any tapestries on the walls, but the floors were covered in rugs. Bars across the window and the fact that the door locked on the outside were the main indications that it was still a cell and not a guest room.

Liam was sitting at the table when we entered. There were no shackles, no chains. The iron ring was still around his neck, that was the only indication of his status as a prisoner. He looked like he'd had the opportunity to bathe, and he now wore clean new clothes, which were sized to fit his temporarily-smaller body. The clothes were in a men's style, or perhaps they were meant for boys. He wore a pair of black trousers and a white shirt, and had black shoes on his feet.

Despite the clothes being a masculine cut, they still revealed what few curves his skinny figure currently had. His hair was still long, but had been pulled back and tied into a simple ponytail, probably to keep it out of the way.

He stood up and bowed slightly, then said "Lady Tegan, miss Kelly, thank you for agreeing to speak with me."

Kelly and I exchanged a glance. He no longer sounded shocked or stunned, but he was certainly acting polite and formal.

"Captain Siobhan said you wanted to talk. What did you want?" I asked him.

Liam sighed, "The guards won't tell me anything, I was hoping you'd explain what was going on. I've been moved into this room, they've supplied me with clothes..." He blushed as he gestured to the wardrobe "They stocked it with both boys and girls styles, and allowed me to pick whichever I wanted to wear. And they've been feeding me proper meals rather than the scraps I was getting in the dungeon."

He sighed again and asked, "Will you tell me why they're treating me differently? What's going to happen to me? Is it because I..." He frowned and blushed again, "Because I look like a delicate fragile girl now, instead of my normal self?"

I stepped back to Siobhan and whispered, "Is it ok if I tell him the truth?"

The captain nodded slightly and whispered back, "Lady Maeve hasn't given any instructions to keep things from the prisoner. Of course, nothing has been decided yet, as far as I am aware."

I thanked her then told Liam, "I've asked Maeve to consider releasing you. It's my hope that we'll be able to restore Connor, to break the curse on him. After Connor is back, then I'll lift my magic from you, and if all goes well, you'll be free to go and be with Eileen. Until then, it seemed suitable to show you better treatment for the time being."

Liam blinked, then stared at me and Kelly. "Why would Lady Maeve agree to that?"

Kelly replied, "Tegan and I will do our best to convince her. If she can restore Connor, I think Maeve will owe her a debt. I think she might agree to it."

I added, "Everyone involved has suffered enough already. You and Eileen have been kept apart over a hundred years. You've spent two decades a prisoner. Connor and Maeve and I have all had to deal with what's happened to us over the past twenty-two years. I think that's enough pain all around."

"We hope nobody wants to start a war over this," Kelly said. "If everyone can agree to just let things go, wouldn't that be best for all?"

Liam frowned as he thought it over, then finally asked "It's all contingent on you restoring Connor?"

"Yes," I nodded. "Once his curse is broken and he's back here, then I'll lift my spell on you, and we'll start working towards a truce with Eileen."

After a few quiet moments, Liam said nervously "And if you can't restore Connor, or worse, if he kills you, then I'm stuck like this forever."

"Pretty much," I replied. "So if there's anything else you want to tell us, anything you've withheld or any corrections you'd like to make, now's the time to speak up."

He slowly shook his head "I've told you everything I know about the curse. Everything Eileen told me about it."

None of us had much more to say after that. Either the information he'd given us was correct, or it wasn't.

The guards outside locked the door again after the three of us left.

As we were heading back down the tower, I asked Siobhan "What can you tell us about Connor's condition? All we know is he's been changed into an 'untameable beast' and that he's violent."

The captain replied, "We'll speak in your chambers." She apparently didn't want to discuss it while we were out in the open.

Once back in our room, Kelly and I sat at the table and Siobhan stood before us.

First she told us, "The creature that stalks the western forest is referred to as 'the beast'. We do not call it Lord Connor."

Then she explained, "The beast is a vargur. I don't believe they exist on Earth. Perhaps in the past but no longer. A vargur is similar to a wolf, but much larger, more vicious, and more dangerous. They are thought to be semi-intelligent, as they are usually very good at avoiding and escaping traps. They prey on any large warm-blooded mammal, but their favourite meal is fae. They'll also take horses, deer, and similar large animals."

She continued, "Imagine a wolf the size of a small horse. Their teeth can pierce armour, they can bite clean through a man's arm or leg. They're strong enough to smash through most anything made of wood. On uneven ground such as in a forest, they can outrun a horse. They can leap a few times their own height. When the curse happened, we could not contain him. He smashed through every door, bit through every rope, and broke every chain we tried to use. In the end, all we could do was clear a path and chase him out of the castle with fire and bows."

Kelly and I listened quietly to all this, it was impressive and more than a little scary.

After a few moments I asked, "Did anyone try to enspell him? Like a sleep spell or something maybe?"

"Perhaps with your talent, you might be able to do that Lady Tegan," Siobhan replied. "None of us were able to enspell him the night of the curse. We did try, several of us. Including myself, your mother, and a half dozen others. All for naught, none of us were able to affect him with magic."

I sighed, "Ok. Thank you captain."

She bowed slightly then exited.

"So what do we do now?" Kelly asked.

I shrugged, "Back to the study. With any luck there'll be a book or two that will have information about vargurs."

It took some searching, but after an hour or so we managed to find a book that contained some information about vargurs, along with a few other unpleasant beasts.

While I settled down to start reading that, Kelly found herself a couple books on healing magic. We'd already learned there was a healer among the castle staff, she was skilled in healing magic as well as mundane healing methods. Still, Kelly decided it would be an important thing to learn.

The book I'd found turned out not to contain a great deal of information, but what it did have sounded useful, maybe even helpful.

I learned that vargurs were naturally resistant to magic, which made them very difficult to enspell. The book didn't say it was impossible though. Still, it sounded like magic wouldn't be our best choice.

I also learned that vargurs hunted at night because their eyes were sensitive to sunlight, and other bright light sources. They had good night-vision, but overall their eyesight was quite poor. They were all but blind in the daytime, and bright light dazzled them. It explained why Siobhan and the other soldiers were able to chase the beast out of the castle with torches.

Finally, I read that their sense of smell was at least as good as that of dogs, perhaps even better. That was how vargurs stalked and hunted their prey, by scent. Their hearing was said to be pretty good too, and probably helped them hunt.

It was nearly dinner-time when I finally set down the book, as I sighed deeply.

"Bad news?" Kelly asked, looking at me with a worried expression.

I shrugged, "Not awful news... I knew this wasn't going to be easy. And I'm definitely not going to be able to do this on my own. I'm sure it can be done, it's just a matter of figuring out how."

She asked, "Even if you can somehow catch him, or just get him where you want him, how will you reverse the curse? I mean, without letting him just take a big bite out of you."

I replied, "I was thinking of using an animal as bait, like a pig or deer or something? Maybe use some of my clothes so its got my scent on it, since vargurs like to hunt fae. Then I'd have to have some of my blood there so he'd taste that when attacking the animal. That shouldn't be too hard, I could just cut my arm and bleed into a cup or something, and dump it on the animal."

"Sounds easy?" Kelly said, in a hopeful tone.

I sighed, "Probably not. I'm sure there's a lot that could go wrong. I'll have to talk with captain Siobhan again, and my fae-mom too I guess. Like, maybe there's someone around here who's actually got some experience with vargurs and knows how to deal with them? Or at least, someone who knows the woods and how to hunt and track and stuff like that."

Kelly smiled slightly, "A huntsman. Maybe Maeve has a huntsman on staff."

I raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that a fairy-tale thing?"

"Some fairy-tales are true," she replied.

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