Page 185 of The Knucker King

Avice felt a cold, rough palm cup her cheek. “You have not only seen. You have felt and lived it.” The Spriggan Queen let out a shuddering breath. “You know.”

With a final sob, Fawen released Avice from the memory inside the Birthing Tree. The midwife shrieked as she plummeted backwards through a swirl of glossy viridian leaves.

69

Chapter 69

Trewoofe

Panic tightened Trewoofe’s chest as Avice wrenched herself free of the Spriggan Queen’s grip and fainted back onto his paw. His tail lashed as he focused on the emaciated Faerie, his dripping fangs a hairbreadth away from her.

“What did you do to my little witch?” Trewoofe hissed.

The Spriggan screeched and recoiled from his wrath. Just as he was about to crunch the Queen, Avice jolted up, grasping his thumb talon for support.

“I am alright,” she gasped. “I promise. Do not hurt her.”

Trewoofe snapped his jaws shut before turning to nuzzle her. That old fear – those sharp briars of loss – squeezed his lungs when Avice had fainted. She had only passed out for a heartbeat or two, but it was enough to set him alight with worry.

“What happened to you?” Trewoofe asked, flicking his tongue all over her.

Her dress and chemise had slipped down when she fell back, exposing a collar bone. The inked leaves had stained green. The sight made him hiss. No one had the right to change Avice’s body without her permission.

He swung his head back around to the Spriggan cowering in the cross. “You do not touch or change people without their consent.”

The Queen clenched the object she held. “I did not mean to.”

In his periphery, Trewoofe watched as Avice peeked down at the exposed shoulder, before tugging her dress back up. She beckoned him over and pressed a kiss to the tip of his muzzle.

“She should not have, but it was an accident.” Avice smiled tenderly at the Spriggan. “Queen Fawen has been through much and is trying to save her seed.” She pointed at the object pressed to her chest. “That is her is it not? That is why you hold it so close.”

“Fawen?” Trewoofe was already lost. “Who is Fawen?”

Avice slipped from his paw. He supported her back with the flat of his talon when she wobbled. Bracing herself on him, she answered his question without tearing her eyes from the trembling Spriggan.

“She is Queen Fawen of the Spriggan from the Green,” Avice explained. “I saw her memories. Shadows of the past. She showed me how she came to be here.”

“And how did she come to be here?” Trewoofe asked.

Avice told him of the dead Sidhe King, the egg that would not hatch, how few Spriggans there were, the Sprigganlings that would not fruit, and the death of the Birthing Tree with Fawen inside it.

“And now she holds her daughter seed in her hands. There are just some threads I have not quite figured out yet…”

A single silver tear ran down Trewoofe’s muzzle and splattered onto the ruined cross. “I know why she chose you. Fawen is right, you are like her.”

The Spriggan Queen nodded. “Yes, King. The witch is like me.”

Avice scrunched her face. “How so?”

“Because you both strive to do the right thing for your people and your communities,” Trewoofe told her, nuzzling into the sweep of her shoulder. “Even if it puts you in danger, even to the detriment of yourself.”

She rubbed his scales. “Then the true is the same for you. Did you not also use your body to save your Kingdom, knowing that you may not survive?”

“Yes, you are both like me.”

Apprehension seeped down Trewoofe’s spine as Fawen let out a sigh, her breath misting in the cold air before wafting into nothing. Her twiggy fingers creaked as she finally revealed what she held so closely to her chest.

A brown seed.