Ben Enigma and the Faery Princess

A banished faery was surely the loneliest creature in existence. Princess Cettia, daughter of King Alcedo, now had to find her way in the land of the mortals. Her banishment had not been the wish of the king, for her poor father lay in a faery coma, and showed no signs of emerging from it. Her faery stepmother, Queen Corvusa, who had partly given over the running of the faery kingdom to her son, Garruluso, had forced her into exile. She had even falsely titled him Prince Garruluso, going totally against the rules of the Royal Faery Constitution, but no one dared argue with the might and wrath of Queen Corvusa and her vile son.

Together, they accused Cettia of trying to bring about her own father's demise by ordering The Olgdha, an ancient faery empowered with infinite knowledge of faery herbs, to poison him. The Faery Parliament believed the claim and sent royal guards to kill the Olgdha, but the old faery, alerted by her son, Apuso, fled and went into hiding. Before Cettia had a chance to flee Queen Corvusa's second son, Laruso, escorted her from her land. It had been a harrowing experience and it did not end when they both emerged from the old burial mound that linked their world with the human world.

Laruso sniggered as he glanced around. "This is a dull world in comparison with ours. Ah, correction, not ours, mine. You are banished and shall never return to the faery realm."

"You are wrong to do this to me," Cettia said, giving a defiant toss of her head.

He stepped closer and fingered Cettia's blonde, tumbling locks. "You have too much arrogance. Show some humility to a prince of the faery realm."

She stamped her foot. "You are no prince! Just because your evil mother says you are, it does not make it so." She gave a gasp as the male faery drew his dagger. The gasp turned into a shriek of dismay when he lifted the dagger and cut off her long, blonde hair, level with her ears. Laruso merely laughed when her hair tumbled to the ground, but he had still not finished with her. His fist slammed into her back, seriously bruising the area where her wings emerged.

"Try flying now, banished faery."

Sobbing, she looked over her shoulder at her tattered wings. They were wings that only faeries could see, for human eyes had not the ability to detect them. Neither was the touch of a human sensitive enough to feel them. "How could you be so cruel?"

Statue with a Heart

"What do ye want, Lord Royce? Another love spell?"

His upper lip curled in disdain. "Nay, ugly bitch, your spells do not work. You are a charlatan."

"Think what ye like, mighty lord of Hilenfort Castle, for it matters not to me." She picked a couple of leaves from an ivy plant attached to a beech tree, and popped them in a pouch. "Be gone then, if ye have no business with me."

"Do you dare to tell me to be gone?" he hissed, jabbing his finger at her chest. "I am lord of this demesne, and you dwell in my forest."

The witch's nostrils flared, her dark eyes boring him. Muttering a string of curses, she jabbed him back, hitting him on the belly. "Careful how ye treat a witch, ye damned arrogant lord."

He flicked her hand aside. "Bah, you are no witch. You make potions and lotions from my plants, and you sell them to gullible folk, many of whom live and work in my castle. Udella, I doubt any of your concoctions work."

"So, who saved ye when ye had an affliction of the chest?" Udella asked.

"I have always had a strong constitution. I would have survived without you shoving vile liquids down my throat, and chanting meaningless rhymes over me."

"Your mother would not agree with you. She values me."

"She is gullible like the rest. You are just a stupid, ugly bitch who pretends to be a witch."

Udella took a step back so she could gain a good view of Royce's face. "Ye might be a handsome knight, who wins all the tourneys, but I consider ye to be a vain, arrogant lad."

"This lad has lived thirty summers, witch."

"Then ye should have gained more manners along the way. Bah, mayhap 'tis not all your fault. Your loving mother spoiled ye. She always let ye have your way. She turned a blind eye when ye went off shagging wenches. 'Twas a different castle wench every night for ye made no secret of it, and the wenches love to talk. Of course, there's no shortage of willing wenches who want to throw themselves at the handsome lord."

Royce folded his arms, covering the eagle of his coat of arms, so finely embroidered into his surcoat. "I only truly wanted one woman, Udella."

"Aye, ye wanted the Lady Desiree, that Norman beauty who arrived here six months ago."

"Aye, I did, and that is why I asked you to cast a powerful love spell. It did not work though, did it? She spurns me at my every attempt to get to know her."

"Ye are so ruddy impatient. Love spells do not always happen overnight. Give the woman time, and she will soon be swooning at your lordly feet."

"Nay, I have waited long enough. She has made it plain she dislikes me, although I know not why that is that case. No woman has ever rejected my advances."

"By the saints, ye be a conceited man, and a damned impatient one with it!"

"Aye, so you just said."

"The spell will work. I told ye that love spells take time. Other spells are more instant."

"Like what?"

She gave him a hard look. Her eyes narrowed. "I could come up with a spell right now that would make the very clothes fall from your body and leave ye standing naked in this forest."

He snorted. "You could not! Besides, what use is a spell such as that?"

"It would teach ye a lesson. It would humble ye."

The Search for Yuala

Detective Inspector Eva Valens filled a glass with water and handed it to the man she was questioning. "Now, I shall start again."

The man took the glass and held it up to the light. "Don't suppose you have any brandy?"

She tapped her pen on the desk.
"No, I do not."

"That's a shame. I like brandy, and it has been a very long day."

She pursed her lips. "This is an interview room in a police station, not a bar in a public house. Let me remind you that you were arrested this morning by security police at Cardiff airport. You arrived there on a plane, which flew out of Edinburgh airport. Shall I also remind you what we have issue with?"

"No."

"You had no plane ticket and no form of identification."

He sipped the water and stretched his long legs under the table.

"You got onto the plane without a boarding pass."

He put down the glass and folded his arms. "You don't look like a police inspector. You look too young."

"I will ignore that remark."

"I thought you would."

"The plane you boarded is fitted with surveillance cameras. Every person who boarded that plane was captured on film, and I mean every single person. You are not on that film. Do you want to tell me how you got on board?"

"In the usual way. Through the door."

She got up and walked around the table. "No, you did not go in through the door. If you had, you would be on the tape, and you are not. We have checked and double checked."

"I move fast. Maybe the cameras blinked and missed me."

"Eyes blink, camera's do not. Why won't you cooperate with me?"

He sighed. "Isn't this about the point where the cop offers the suspect a cigarette?"

"Smoking is not allowed in this building."

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. I don't smoke anyway."

She gave him a withering look. "Do you enjoy wasting my time?" He suddenly got up and stared directly into her face. He was seething.

"Inspector, you are wasting my time. I don't want to be here. I could be doing other things. I could have gone to my daughter's nativity play."

"Don't tell me, she was Mary?"

"No, she was the donkey."