Friday’s Flash—Tiramar and the Druid

From urban fantasy, we move to fantasy – and from pixies and unicorns to vengeful druids and their swamp creatures. This story forms the March 1 in 366 Days of Flash Fiction, and is one of the longer pieces in that collection.

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Tiramar and Druid

Helovak lived in the swamps of Jevnovar, working with the lizard people to preserve the swampland, as vile as it was. Some call Jevnovar The Reeking Swamp, but no wise man did that where Helovak the Druid could hear them. The swamp might be vile, but Helovak’s temper was worse. He was known for keeping a grudge. He even had a list.

A merchant had once called him a ‘hopped up lizard jockey’, and not one of that company’s caravans made it through, or past, Jevnovar from that time on. Helovak’s list was difficult to be crossed off from. Rumours said it was written in blood on the skin of a dark frog. The truth might have been less colourful.

The merchant’s fate was not unique. Anyone who violated the swamp’s sanctity had their names recorded. Any found hiring such miscreants ended up on the list, as well. Sometimes, names were given to Helovak. He wasn’t particular about their source.

His lizardine network was spread throughout the fen, and they dominated all others who dared dwell there. Tiramar fell afoul of it in the second week of Awakening, when the flowers slept late in nascent buds.

Lady Tiramar Velessen has taken hevalla blooms for her wedding, the whispers said, and Helovak added her name to the list.

In the third week of Awakening, when she was preparing to attend yet another ball organised by her matchmaking mother, Tiramar Velessen vanished from her quarters. Later, she would say only that she had smelled a wondrous perfume, and then the world had gone dark around her.

She woke to the sound of mosquitoes and the scent of stagnant water. Her bed was the sodden ground. Her clothing was gone, and shadows were descending around her.

“Mother?” she called, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “Selene?”

Her mouth curved into a perfect ‘O’ of surprise when she realised where she was. Her first shriek of alarm rang through the swamp when she saw what was emerging from the straggling willows around the water’s edge. Picking up a fallen branch, Tiramar held it before her.

“Stay back,” she commanded, but the pale spider only hissed, approaching more cautiously, now it saw its prey was armed.

Tiramar settled into a swordsman’s crouch—it wasn’t for nothing that she spent an hour each day, drilling with her bodyguards. The raiders had been bad of late, and she was determined not to be helpless, if an attempt was made to take her. She decided on a two-handed strike to the side of the creature’s head, and shifted her body to prepare it.

The spider noted the change in her stance, and hesitated.

“Stay back,” Tiramar ordered, and it made a chattering sound, its mandibles clattering.

Tiramar tightened her grip, hoping it was the only one, hoping it guarded its territory from the rest. Still, the chittering sounded puzzled, and it was an improvement on the hiss.

“I don’t know why I’m here,” Tiramar said. “I will go as soon as I can find my way.”

The spider gathered itself, and then suddenly stilled.

“You don’t know why you’re here?” The deep voice sounded cynical and disbelieving. “You are the Lady Tiramar Velessen, are you not?”

“I am,” Tiramar said, repositioning her feet so she could see both the newcomer as well as the crouching arachnid.

She saw a dwarf dressed in carefully crafted armour and leggings. The top of his head came to her chest. His staff was as long as she was tall. He gave her no more time to study him.

“And you have taken hevalla blooms for your wedding, have you not?”

Tiramar’s mouth dropped open, and the dwarf’s face twisted.

“I thought so,” he said, starting to turn away.

Tiramar found her voice.

“I am not getting married!” The words came out more harshly than she’d meant. “And I prefer purple to pink.”

The dwarf stopped.

“You’re not getting married.”

The spider chittered, again, and the dwarf raised a hand, signalling it to be still.

“No. I sent my last suitor away, four months ago.”

“And were you polite?”

Tiramar felt warmth colouring her cheeks, and tightened her hands on the branch.

“I’m afraid not. He was very insistent we should wed, but his family… he came from pirate stock and did not want to repent. I would not have my children raised to that.”

Pirates. Helovak thought back. He’d encountered pirates a scant two months before. The cold season had driven them into the Jevnovar’s waterways seeking cover, and they had repaid the swamp’s hospitality by using the fen pixies for target practice, and trying to cut down a dryad’s tree when she’d refused them. He’d learned Tiramar’s name from their captain.

“Barakal,” he said, and she raised the branch, her eyes darkening with murderous intent.

“Take one step closer, and I will take your bearded head from your shoulders.”

Her threat amused him, and he brushed aside the unintended insult.

“You’re forgetting whose swamp you are in.”

From the sudden pallor of her face, she’d heard the stories. The branch bobbed uncertainly. The pale spider advanced, but Helovak barked a command that sent it scuttling back to its home beneath the willows. Once it was gone, the druid refocused on Tiramar.

“I… I’m sorry,” she said. “I did not mean to trespass.”

“And if you truly like purple, then you do not want the hevalla.”

“Not for my wedding, no,” she said, her face flushing.

“But you planned to take some?”

Now, she paled.

“By the stars, no!” Helovak saw her horror at the thought. “But I had yet to think of something I could offer before asking such a boon.”

“And did you?”

She ducked her head, and the branch lowered a foot, although not enough to cease being a threat.

“I found a colony of melekat in the Silver Stream. I wondered…” She let the words trail away, but Helovak unslung his cloak and held it out to her.

“Perhaps, we should talk,” he said.

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You can find the first two flash fiction collections at the links below, until the covers are updated. The third collection will be released later this year.

books2read.com/u/bap506

books2read.com/u/3J21B3