Careless Wishes

by Amy Sumida

  “It's our honor to help,” I answered for all of us. “So I made the correct assumption? Anu wants me to find the Cintamani?”

  “Yes, and perhaps more than that, but I will abide by his wishes and let you discover it for yourself.”

  I grimaced at her.

  She laughed. “You are on the right path, as the animals so clearly showed you.”

  “They're fleeing the disturbance,” I whispered. “They felt the surge.”

  “Yes, he has started to use the Cintamani and it has affected the region. You will feel it too when you return to my brother's world, but the humans...” She shook her head sadly. “They will not know the Earth is falling apart until it crumbles beneath their feet.”

  “It's had an effect already?” I asked. “How many wishes has he made?”

  “I don't know, but all it takes is one careless wish to upset the balance,” she said. “Go now, and hurry. There are more to be saved. Send them to me, Seren.” Her eyes filled with tears and her voice broke, “I can hear them crying. Help them.”

  “Who?” I asked urgently.

  But Danu was already gone, her voice echoing around me. The sight of the tears on her cheeks would haunt me for far longer than her plea.

  “Move!” Raza roared. “Get on the road now! Our goddess has given us a command! We will not fail her!”

  The fairies lurched into action and got us moving once more. Within minutes, we arrived at the Delhi rath. The door was wide open and through it came a pitiful sound, one that raised the hairs on my arms.

  “What is that?” Conri whispered, his eyes widening.

  I didn't take time to ponder it, just ran into the rath.

  I came out in a massive yard, overflowing with tropical plants. One man stood within a clearing before the rath, his arms hanging loose and his expression both strained and horrified. He stared around himself at a loss. He stared at... elephants.

  I gaped at the enormous beasts that surrounded the Twilight Sidhe who I assumed was the Rath Lord. They lifted their trunks to shriek and stomped on the ground, making a tremendous racket. The Rath Lord spotted me and his expression fell into one of relief.

  “Princess Seren!” He cried. “I don't know what to do. The animals came—a whole Zoo's worth. More even. They ran into the rath; the doors opened for them. But the elephants...” his voice caught. “They're too big. They can't fit but they won't leave. I've tried speaking with them but they're too distraught to listen, and I can't get anything but sadness and fear from them. They keep crying.”

  As he spoke one of the elephants bleated a sound of sorrow so profound that tears sprang to my eyes. A young elephant stood beside her, leaning against his mother's legs. The calf could have made it through the rath but he wouldn't leave his mother. She tried to push her baby forward but it only came back, trumpeting in confusion.

  All Fairies can speak to animals so when the Rath Lord said he had tried speaking to them, he was being both literal and serious. It's easier with Fey animals, who are more responsive, but the animals of Earth can understand us. We just have to focus more to sense their replies. These animals, however, were past the point of conversation. They were terrified and all they could think about was getting to safety. Getting their children to safety.

  My men and guards came through the rath and we stared at the beasts in sorrow and utter impotence. There was only one thing I could think of to do—I prayed.

  “Anu, help me. You made the first rath on your journey here. Can't you widen this one for these poor creatures? Your sister offers them sanctuary. Please, help them.”

  I felt warmth on my shoulders as if a pair of hands laid there and calm filled my heart. Anu didn't appear, but I suddenly had the knowledge I needed. He had made the first rath, then the Fey built the others, but they had made them to replicate his, and his rath had been large. It was only when the war with the humans started that the Fey decided to reduce the size of the rath doorways. But they couldn't constrict the passage itself, only the entrances.

  I turned to the rath and called upon my beags—all of them. I called on Earth to move, Air to blow, Water to flow, and Fire to burn. I forced them into the frame that held the rath door—the frame that was much too small for these majestic creatures to pass through. And I put all of my emotions into the beags as well. I roared as the magic poured through me and pushed harder. Light bathed my extended arms; the stars in my eyes were glowing. Then the rath began to shake.

  Raza's arm pressed against mine as he took up a position beside me. His stare fixed on the rath and one deadly hand extended toward it. Tiernan came up on my left, then Killian and Daxon went shoulder-to-shoulder with Tiernan and Raza. Behind us, our knights lined up as well. With a unified intent, we attacked the rath our ancestors had built.

  The sound of a group of fairies straining became one long moan. The entire world seemed to shake and stone began to crumble, but the elephants didn't cower or run; they stood as silent witnesses to our endeavor. Stone cracked like lightning as sweat ran down my back. A ring of fissures appeared around the passage, then suddenly separated. Chunks of stone shot into the rath along with the rath's door, blasting all the way through and out the other side, where it took another ring of stone and door with it.

  I gasped and let go of my magic as I stared down the widened, unimpeded rath.

  As soon as the way was open, the elephants trumpeted, this time in triumph, and paraded through the opening. There had to be at least thirty of them, more than a herd. Our ranks broke as we jumped out of their way. I stood alongside the line of marching elephants with my men, holding their hands and watching the exodus with a satisfied smile on my face.

  “Thank you!” the Rath Lord exclaimed as he rushed over to us. “Thank you, Your Highnesses and Majesties! The elephants, they are on the verge of extinction here; their habitats are being destroyed. They are forced into cities where they aren't safe. They, out of all the animals who passed through today, are the most in need of sanctuary. Thank you so much for helping them reach our goddess.”

  “It was our goddess who bid us help them, but you're very welcome,” I said, my voice rough from roaring. “And it's not the humans who have driven them to flee; it was one of us.”

  The Rath Lord gaped at me. “Does this have something to do with your father scrying me to ask about blond Sidhe men?”

  “Yes. Earth in jeopardy, Lord...”

  “Avi.” He bowed. “I am Avi, Lord of the Delhi Rath, Your Highness.”

  “Nice to meet you, Avi. I'm sorry about the doors. Your job just got more difficult.”

  “Excuse my language, Princess, but fuck the doors. I would have left them open for the animals anyway.”

  “You're my kind of guy, Avi.” Killian declared as he cast an arm around the other man's shoulders. “Now, you're gonna have a bunch of hunters showing up here soon.”

  “What? Hunters? Why?” Avi asked as Killian led him away.

  “Don't worry. You'll be fine,” Kill assured him.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “I must be out of practice,” I said to Raza as we watched Killian organize the hunters who had arrived just minutes after us.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I used all of my beags,” I said as if it were obvious. “And I still needed help from all of you to widen the doorway for the elephants.”

  “Seren, that is the original size of the rath's opening.” Raza pointed back toward the rath—which animals were still venturing into sporadically. “Fairies reduced the opening many years after the rath had been built. A group much larger than ours had to combine their magic to form the new stone. They forged it to withstand human armies and all of their war machines. Catapults, battering rams, what have you; the rath would have held against them all. What we just did was akin to blasting down the gates of Castle Seelie. You are not out of practice, mo shíorghrá. Judging by the effect your magic alone had on the rath, I'd venture to say that you've grown even more powerful.�
�

  “Oh,” I whispered.

  Tiernan, standing on my right, chuckled. “Oh, indeed. You are most definitely not out of practice, little star. I'm honored to have been a part of what was no doubt a momentous piece of magic.”

  “Momentous,” I murmured. “Yeah. But I'd like to know why it was necessary. What exactly is sending the animals of India stampeding for sanctuary? What has the thief done?”

  “We've got a lead on that,” Killian said as he joined us. “One of the hunters just told me that he's had reports of a sudden surge of magic in the city.”

  “Where in the city?” Daxon asked.

  “The Lalbagh Slum,” Killian said grimly.

  “Magic in a slum?” I asked as my belly revolted. “Oh, Goddess no.”

  “He's preying on the poor,” Raza said scornfully, then cursed.

  If there was one thing my dragon hated, it was the powerful preying on the weak.

  “Why would he need to?” Tiernan asked in bafflement. “If he could wish for anything, why involve the Untouchables?”

  “Tiernan,” I chided, “they don't use the caste system in India anymore. It was made illegal back in the Forties.”

  “Seren, I'm not being elitist, the caste system may have been publicly abolished but it's still practiced here and the people living in slums would be considered outcast.”

  “That's true, but we don't have to add to that cruelty by using that awful word.” I paused as something horrible occurred to me. “They wouldn't be missed. They're outcasts; that's why he's targeting them. We need to get there right now!”

  “The hunters have brought vans to transport us.” Killian gestured behind him. “They're waiting on us.”

  “Those of you who attended us before will do so again,” Tiernan ordered the knights, all of whom had come through the rath to help. “The rest of you return to Twilight and make camp.”

  With one last nod at Lord Avi—and a quick shift into a more human appearance for Raza—my husbands, our selected knights, and I headed to the line of vehicles parked on the long driveway in front of Avi's home. Avi didn't own the magnificent structure—which had all of the exotic charm I expected of an Indian home—or the large piece of land it stood upon. All of that was the property of the Fairy Council. But it was his until he left his post and it looked as if he loved his home. It was well cared for and had all the signs of being well lived in too.

  India has some of the most amazing architecture and if you have the money, you can live like a prince, or raja, as it were. The middle to upper classes in India enjoy a life of ease in a beautiful, if crowded, country. However, their easy lives depended on people in the lowest classes and those people lived in conditions far worse than the homeless in America. Appalling conditions that would horrify most people. Now, as if their lives weren't bad enough, this bastard was targeting them.

  On the way to the epicenter of the magical surge, the Hunter who'd presented Killian with the report—an Unseelie Sidhe named Gareth—filled us in on a few details about this particular slum.

  “There are several slums in Delhi,” Gareth said as he sailed the slim van through the crowded city streets. “The Lalbagh Slum is the largest of them. Over three hundred thousand people live on about three hundred acres of land but most of it is covered in filth—garbage and human waste. There are no toilets, electricity, or running water. The homes, if you can call them that, are crumbling and cramped. Your Majesties need to prepare yourselves. The smell will be... significant.”

  “This son of a bitch is a fucking monster,” Daxon muttered. “I'm going to gut him and hang his entrails on my gate.”

  Even Conri, who could be a little sensitive about the B-word, didn't dispute the insult. He just sat grimly on the back bench beside Torquil, his eyes flashing fire and his fists clenching. His lumberjack shoulders were hunched; he was as eager for action as the rest of us.

  “Fuck, what if he's testing the Cintamani?” Daxon asked.

  “Testing it?” I asked.

  “If this man isn't after our thrones, he may be after their equivalent on Earth,” Tiernan explained for Dax. His stare was fixed out the window on the bustle of Delhi. “I know if I wanted to rule this world, I would test the power of my chosen weapon before I implemented my plans. I'd want to know what it was capable of first.”

  “Ladli said it couldn't kill or alter free will,” I reminded them.

  “But she also said that death could result from a fulfilled wish,” Daxon pointed out. “You don't have to directly kill anyone to prove that you're powerful. If the thief wants to show humans that he's someone they should follow—someone they should obey—there are many ways for him to do so. And even though he can't wish someone dead, it doesn't mean he can't wish them to be hurt so badly that they start wishing for their own death. Fey magic can be tricky, especially when you try to rein it in, and we Fairies have learned to be tricky in return. There's always a way to circumvent a rule.”

  We silently digested that bit of wisdom for a few minutes.

  “What if he's building an army?” I asked in sudden horror. “Gareth, you said there are over three hundred thousand people in Lalbagh?”

  “Yes, Your Majesty.”

  “That's an army,” Raza said dryly.

  “One act of power could win those people over,” Tiernan said in epiphany. “Especially if he promised them a better life in exchange for their allegiance.”

  “Fuck,” Daxon summed it up.

  “What in all the realms is this?” Gareth cut into our conversation.

  “What?” Killian peered out the window. “I don't see anything.”

  “That.” Gareth waved his hand at the wealthy residential neighborhood we were passing through.

  The homes had the bright look of freshly washed stone, the gardens around them flourished with life, and the laughter of children rose over the sounds of the street. Traffic thinned and slowed. People in the moving vehicles gaped out of their windows as if they were driving past a car wreck, all of them looking as shocked as Gareth was. I narrowed my eyes at the homes, searching for some reason that they might incite such reactions, but couldn't find anything wrong with them. They were perfect—too perfect.

  “Is this the slum?” I asked suspiciously.

  “It was,” Gareth said as he pulled over and parked at the curb.

  The other vans parked behind us and hunters started emerging with our knights. The hunters stared around themselves in amazed fascination while our knights made a beeline for us. My husbands and I got out more warily, our eyes scanning the picturesque scene for a blond man amid a sea of swarthy people.

  “Be on guard,” Killian said to everyone. “Spread out and search the area; you know who we're looking for. Radio in if you see anyone fitting his description. And take pictures of this shit.” Killian waved a hand at the clean sidewalk as a little boy ran past looking just as clean. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Killian,” I chided as I waved at the kid. “Language.”

  He gave me a flabbergasted look.

  “Yeah, okay. Sorry. Mommy mode,” I muttered.

  We broke into groups and spread out to search the lovely neighborhood that had very recently been a slum. The filth was gone and no trace of hovels remained. A park stood amid it all and families strode through it, some of them weeping in joy and some laughing, but all of them smiled as if they'd suddenly been transported to paradise. Which I suppose they had.

  “This park used to be a dumping ground for garbage and human waste,” Gareth said as we strolled down a pristine path through healthy trees and thick plant life. “Even with all the refuse, it was the only place the children had to play.” He stopped and pressed a hand over his eyes, trying to compose himself. “This is... it's...”

  “Miraculous,” Raza said with narrowed eyes. “Why would he do this?”

  “Oh, sweet Danu,” I whispered and swallowed roughly.

  “What is it?” Daxon asked.

  “This
isn't the work of a man who wants to rule the world.” I waved my arms out at everything. “This is the act of a humanitarian. This is kindness. He wants to help people.”

  “So, why did the animals flee?” Gareth asked.

  “Because suffering is necessary,” Raza said grimly. “Balance is integral to destiny. This was too much good. Too much of an improvement for too many humans too quickly. It tipped the scales.”