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Sidhe Moved Through the Faire | |
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Genre: Celtic Fantasy Publisher: Midnight Showcase Audience: Teen to Adult Availability: | ||
Excerpt from Chapter One:
“Shh…quiet! If they catch you, they’ll pull your wings off and feed you to the witches!”
“Shut your gob, you git! They don’t suffer witches. More like put us in cages and charge tuppance to see the beasties. But I’m no’ afraid.”
“You should be. Fae aren’t welcome here.”
“Mayhap they’ve never seen our like. Makes folk nervous. They’d learn better if the King would let us be seen.”
“Still your tongue, fool!” Aisling glanced over her shoulder nervously, her iridescent wings trembling at the thought of what would happen to her lack-wit of a brother if the King or one of his Court heard him talk so.
Ailill sniffed. “What’s foolish is that we have to skulk around like shadows in our own country so as no’ to be seen by the mortals. What’s the harm in learning more about them? Can’t we all just get along?”
Aisling shook her head vehemently, and hair the color of leaves in autumn cascaded about her shoulders. “They fear the Sidhe. Treat us like demons if they catch us about. We can’t just walk up to them and say hello.”
“And so we cower in the bushes,” he muttered in disgust, sweeping a hand to take in the cavern-like space under the willow they crouched beneath. “‘Tisn’t fair.”
“Maybe no’, but it’s safer.”
“I want to go down there.” Ailill pointed down the hill to the brightly colored market square. They could hear the din of lively trading going on even in their hidden bower half a league away. The smell of roasting meats and freshly baked bread wafted up to them on the breeze. “I can pretend to be one of them.”
Aisling looked at her brother’s winter-pale hair framing tilted green eyes. The tips of his ears peeked through the rough-cut thatch of hair, and his wings shimmered in the sunlight. “Only if they are blind.” She rolled her own slanted eyes.
“All I have to do is pull in my wings and keep my ears covered. Come on, it would be an adventure. Doesn’t it sound like fun to you?”
“It sounds like a damn fool thing to do, that’s what it sounds like to me.” She sniffed, and ran a grimy hand beneath her nose. “We shouldn’t have come this close.”
“I promise I’ll take care of you, Aisling. Nothing bad will happen. Please…come with me.” Ailill used the charming, wheedling tone that Aisling couldn’t resist.
She hesitated. This was the most foolish thing he had asked for yet. To go down into the center of the human town and try and pretend to be a part of it…but on the other hand, the market was a siren call tugging at her heart. The sounds. The colors. The smells. It was all so…alive!
Aisling and Ailill are faerie twins -- rare in the court of the Sidhe. But when they set off one morning for the Human Faire, they find themselves drawn to the mortal world in different ways. What sacrifices will each find they have to make when they stray beyond the hedge? Come take a journey through the world of the Sidhe!
As a companion to the book, here is further information about the fascinating world of Celtic Mythology: