Read Online A Fey Harvest by Amy Sumida - Free Book Online Page A

he sighed and shook his head. “How can you have lived here this long and not know phookas can be dogs or horses?”
    “ Wait, what?” I was aghast. “You're telling me those are fey out there? Neala isn't pulling us, is she?”
    “ Of course not,” he scoffed, “she's got the babes to look after. Her husband is though.”
    “ What?”
    “ It's one of their jobs,” he laughed at me. “They don't mind. In fact I'm told they view it as an honor. Only four are chosen at a time after all. They have the stamina of regular horses when they're in that form, and this gives them some exercise.”
    “ I just feel odd being lugged around by my friends,” I grimaced.
    “ I understand but, A Thaisce, they're not just friends, they're your subjects. Didn't the Romans do something similar with humans? They'd have men carry other men about in big chairs. I'd think that was much worse than this, at least horses find the job comfortable.”
    “ Alright, alright, I concede your point.”
    “ Good,” he smirked, “cause I'd hate to have to walk everywhere just because you didn't want phookas pulling us.”
    “ We could have just stayed home,” I made a face at him.
    “ You're the one who didn't want to visit Air,” he reminded me again.
    “ I have a bad feeling about the Air kingdom,” I frowned, “plus I'm afraid of heights.”
    “ You're a dragon-sidhe,” he gaped at me, “you cannot be afraid of heights. It's not possible.”
    “ Not when I'm a dragon, no,” I shrugged, “but I was only able to shift that once because Faerie shifted me. I'll probably never fly again, therefore heights still scare me.”
    “ Preposterous,” he declared, sounding oddly British for a second.
    “ There's the falls,” I said as the sound of rushing water filled the carriage.
    Castle Deuraich stood at the top of a cliff which served as a sort of boundary/dam for the Kingdom of Water. It was more of a basin really, since the cliff rose up all around the kingdom, holding the massive ocean like a bowl of seafood chowder. Probably not the best analogy.
    The bowl was super full though and was constantly spilling over, in the form of a massive waterfall that flowed through the center of the castle itself before taking the plunge over the cliff. It fell into a large pool at the base of the cliffs which actually fed an underground river that spanned the entire realm, going directly beneath the Castle of Eight and the Kingdom of Fire. It surfaced at the end of our kingdom, where it became a body of water we called the Tine. Each kingdom was bordered by all elements, so at the end of the Water Kingdom was a giant volcano which connected to our magma moat by an underground river, at the end of the Earth Kingdom was a wall of mist, and the Air Kingdom ended in mountains.
    The Water Kingdom didn't just have the one waterfall either. There were waterfalls on either side of the kingdom as well, going over the cliffs that bordered Earth and Air. The waterfall in Earth went straight through the crystal valley, which I'd seen already, but the one that fell into Air became mist, with the help of the heat of our kingdom. It was a great example of how the kingdoms were separate yet intimately connected, depending upon each other for their existence.
    I was told that the water changed from salt to fresh as soon as it passed the borders of the Water Kingdom. Not possible, you say? Ah, well, welcome to Faerie. I watched the massive amount of water tumble down the cliffs and wondered how the ocean remained so full. It was probably magic but I decided to ask Arach anyway.
    “ What do you mean, how does it stay full?” Arach cocked his head at me.
    “ How does it lose that much water and remain at the same level,” I gestured to the waterfall. “I know, I know, it's magic.”
    “ Yes and no,” he shrugged. “I thought I told you about the underground river connecting Water to Fire.”
    “ Yeah but that's even more confusing. Shouldn't the Tine be