Bone Eaters

Castus was deep in the ancient wood, it had been a long, difficult journey, but now it was close to done. He smiled. It quickly turned to a grimace as pain shot through his face. He may never be able to see out of his left eye again, a dirty white handkerchief serving as an eye patch, wrapped roughly around his head, but as he might not live past lunch it seemed of little consequence.

At least Castus thought it was morning, and from the hunger pains he felt, probably close to lunch. It seemed oddly cruel that his last meal might have been mouldy cheese and rock-hard, stale bread, that he had to fight with to keep down. He took a sip from his water flask, almost empty, he could actually hear a stream bubbling somewhere very close by, but he didn’t trust the forest, or any of its bounty.

The young wizard took a moment to observe his surroundings. The forest wasn’t entirely unpleasant, though very little light made it through the canopy, Elms stretching for the sunlight, that Castus assumed was shining somewhere above him. Leaves, dirt, and ivy littered the ground around him. He hadn’t seen any animals since he set out in the morning, not so much as a wagtail flew between the branches, and yet he knew he was being watched. Whispers seemed to carry in the stillness, just out of reach and impossible to comprehend. Was it the trees talking, or something in their branches? The air was oppressive, and Castus had to fight to keep his thoughts clear. He sat himself on a fallen log, just for a moment. He carefully rested his staff against the log, never out of arms reach,

He was getting closer to their hive, or their nest? Whatever these unseelie fae called the forsaken place of evil they lived. Castus had seen a handful of bone-eaters kill and devour a small animal in seconds. The skin and flesh, left to decay and rot. They were interested, as the name would suggest, in the marrow. Piercing the skin and burrowing into the victim's skeleton. It was unsurprising that Castus had seen no living creatures in this part of the forest.

Castus took another mouthful of water, picked up his staff, stood and stretched. He was a young wizard, but he was brilliant. His good eye, blue and clear. His boyish handsomeness now hidden behind a thin, straggly beard and a mess of unkempt, wispy blonde hair on his head. The bones and muscles in his tall, lean frame complained loudly as he stretched. Months in the wilderness had not been kind. He pointlessly brushed off his filthy, rough tunic. The top layer of dirt did a dusty little dance and landed happily back in its place. His boots, though covered in mud, were of good make and still sound.

‘So, Castus the foolish has arrived at his doom.’ The voice seemed to come from inside his skull, high, shrill, and mocking. Castus didn’t know if only he could hear it, or the whole forest, though it made little difference, he seemed to be its only inhabitant. Castus the foolish, a nickname he had picked up as a student, his brilliance had, perhaps, not been tempered with wisdom then. And here he was, living up to his namesake again, fighting a fight no one else had been willing to.

Castus took a step, and as if that had been the signal, six tiny faeries dropped from the branches above. Their skin, grey-white, drawn tightly over their frames so they looked little more than skeletons themselves. Their large eyes, soulless and completely black. Their features pointed and sharp, with elongated ears, that ended almost higher than their heads. Their hair black, oily, and thin. Their mouths were stretched in a lipless grin, with pointed teeth clearly visible.

The faeries flew, incredibly fast, screaming unintelligibly as they dove towards Castus’ face and neck. Castus’ grip on his staff tightened, it grew warm under his touch. The ancient runes, now tattooed on his limbs, on his back, and on his chest, also grew warm, and faintly glowed. Castus the foolish, perhaps, Castus the unprepared, never.

The faeries could not break the protections the rune magic provided. They bounced off an invisible barrier. Furious, chittering manically, the bone eaters regrouped and tried the assault again, it was as futile as the first attack. Castus smirked wryly. The faeries retreated, enraged.

Castus slowly but deliberately continued walking. The ground began to rise, after climbing fairly steeply for about 10 minutes, the young wizard reached the peak of a hill and surveyed the dell below him. It looked not completely unlike every other part of the forest he had been in, but he knew he had arrived at his destination. At the bottom of the small valley was a dead tree, the yellowing white colour of old bone. No life or green could be seen anywhere on its branches. The ancient tree stood alone, nothing grew near it, a barren circle of lifelessness spread out from its long-dead roots. The fae nest looked something like a wasps nest, but huge. Papery grey-white, hanging from the tree’s limbs. Swarming around the tree were what looked like flies, or mites, at least from this distance. He knew better though. The swarm flitting in and around the branches of the tree were not insects, but bone eaters. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of them.

Castus drew on all of his resolve, and continued his journey, heading into the valley and toward the tree. As soon as he started his descent toward the tree, the swarms of faeries alighted on its branches. It reminded Castus of a classroom full of magically attuned, hyperactive youngsters settling down as a Teacher swept into a classroom.

Thousands of hungry eyes, followed him, watching him as he drew closer. The noise of their chittering now louder. Castus could not understand any of their language, but it was ugly and full of malice. A few yards from the tree, the voice returned to his head, louder, piercing, it reverberated through his skull, his temple ached.

‘You shouldn’t have come Wizard.’ The voice came from within his own head, but there was one faery, sitting atop the trunk of the dead tree, where the branches forked away from each other, Castus knew they were the one talking to him, the Queen. All the movement of the other faeries revolved around her, she seemed to control them like a conductor. While she looked directly at Castus, the eyes of the other faeries all gazed at her. Her dress looked like it grew on her, like black lichen. She wore a silver circlet on her head like a crown, the silver crafted into a vine, with smaller gemstones set into its surface.

‘I did not want to,’ Replied Castus simply. ‘You started this, and I had no choice. The villagers have always given the forest a wide birth, they accepted it was the domain of the unseelie fae.’

 It was true, a wall had been erected between the forest and the local village of Hogsmarsh, the children warned to never climb that wall. There were now the ruins of a keep in the outskirts of the forest, deserted over a hundred years ago.

‘You broke the peace.’ Uneasy as it had been, thought Castus, but decided not say that part out loud. ‘Desecrating the graves is almost forgivable, but taking a child?’ As he mentioned the child the chittering grew louder, the queens mouth pulled back further in a very unpleasant, hungry grin, her black tongue flicking through her teeth.

‘Delicious.’ Almost a whisper, it start at the back of Castus’ head and the vibrations sent a chill down his spine, landing firmly in the pit of his stomach.

‘So here I am.’ Castus spoke calmly, almost pitiably, he was revolted by these creatures. ‘I will do everything I can to stop you, and if I cannot, I will perish content, knowing I tried.’

‘Castus the foolish, you will die. I have summoned all of my fae, you cannot hope to stand against us all.’ The chittering and clicking of the faeries grew to a crescendo. Castus did not have to understand their language to know they were laughing at him.

 All of the Fae? This was better than Castus could hope for. He hadn’t expected his fortunes to turn out so well. He had assumed there would be stragglers, Bone-eaters who would escape his curse, and still pose some danger. He composed himself, he must not let the queen sense his hope.

‘We have been following you, watching.’ Continued the queen, ‘My fae report back to me. We have seen you putting up your little protection spells around the village, and around our forest, hoping to protect the humans, like a dutiful master protecting a pet. I do not know why you bother, they are so feeble, you are much more powerful than they are. You belong with us.’

Castus was only half listening, their arrogance might just be their undoing. His hand grew warm on his staff as he drew on the magic found deep in the earth.  

‘The Rune protections placed on the village, on the wall, on the edges of our forest, you know they need an anchor.’ The laughter, gently echoing around inside the wizard’s head. ‘Everything in the forest is under my dominion, no curse could hold us for long.’

‘I know this full well,’ replied Castus, ‘I have studied more ancient rune magic than even you know. I have delved into darker places than this forest, uncovering ancient tomes, long thought lost.’ Castus tried not to think about the crypts and catacombs he had spent more than year searching. ‘You know I don’t just need an anchor in the forest, but a living soul.’

Castus straightened himself to full height and raised his staff above his head. Magic whirled around him in a ball of lightning and wind. The fae, at the bidding of their mistress, began to attack, trying to pierce the protections around the wizard. Castus needed his luck to hold out just a little bit longer. His protections were anchored to the staff in his hand, but there were no protections on the staff itself. If any of the faeries realised this and directed an attack on his staff, all of his defences would be broken. But they did not. So clouded by rage they just hurled themselves directly at Castus and none could break the barrier his runes provided.

‘As long as I breathe, I curse you.’ Declared Castus. His voice raised, magically amplified against the cacophony of the bone eaters. As he spoke he moved his staff in the air, writing ancient runes. They floated in the air around him, glowing like fire.

‘You shall never eat the bones of another human again.’ The runes he had written descended on Castus, binding themselves to his heart. Comprehension dawned on the queen. A scream, full of malice, and pure rage left her lips. The sound almost unbearable. Even the other faeries stopped the attack, covering their ears, holding their heads in agony.

The curse now tied to Castus’ soul.

‘As long as I breathe.’ He repeated. The power of those words finally clear totally the Fae Queen. The young wizard allowed himself an uncharacteristic gloat. Self satisfaction evident, and with just a little spite he added, ‘The only human bones you will be able to touch, are the teeth that fall freely from the mouths of children, and even then, you will have to pay for them in gold.’ The last rune burned into his chest, and Castus fought to remain upright. He needed his protections to last long enough for him to retreat.

Fury and hatred burned in the fae queen. 

‘We live longer than you Castus,’ she spat. ‘We are immortal and our hunger is immortal. You will eventually die, and we never forget.’ The young wizard knew this, he would live as long as he could and he would never be able to leave the forest, but he had had bought the villagers at least a few generations of peace.

He did not answer her, he simply turned and left. He would head for the old Keep, he had spent some time giving it extra protections. Arthur was waiting for him there. Castus would live out his life there, and do everything he could to make that life as long as possible. Arthur had ways to prolong life, though not wholesome ones, and he had to make sure to never lose his soul completely. 

Everything the fae queen had said was true, bone eaters are immortal, and their hunger is never satiated, and nothing quite tasted as sweet as children’s bones. Bound by the curse, but unable to resist food, feeling such humiliation, hatred burning, they took the teeth of the children, and they paid. For a time there was peace.