Toby
“With everything going on I didn’t get in too much trouble for dressing you up and taking you to the meeting,” Lizzi said as she steadied herself in a crook of an apple tree.
There were many trees, mostly fruit trees in long rows behind the tall, half-demolished, half-rebuilt, stone castle building. Toby and Craig stood under her as they took full baskets of apples from her.
“And the good thing now is that until then, you’re both my helpers.” She jumped from the limb and landed in front of them with a smile.
“Helpers?” Craig questioned. “What’s the long term plans?”
Lizzi turned and went to another tree and began to climb it. “There are none right now—at least not any plans Merlin has made or even Elijah.”
Lizzi was fast at picking and began to reach for an apple just barely out of her reach. Her fingers flicked at it just skidding across its skin. Toby was going to help her when suddenly she slipped hitting the side of the branch and would’ve hit the ground if Toby wouldn’t have caught her. Lizzi was light in his arms as he helped her upright.
“Are you alright?” He asked looking into her usually playful eyes now almost disoriented.
“Yes, quite fine,” she quickly said brushing her shirt off. “Thank you. I think we have enough apples to keep a hundred Fae busy.”
Lizzi picked up a basket and tromped through the row of apple trees. Toby and Craig exchanged glances.
“So what are we now, house boys?” Craig kicked at the basket that sat under the tree. “I want to go home Toby. I don’t know about you, but Lyssa or no Lyssa, I want to go home.”
Toby looked at Craig who leaned against the apple tree and bit into the apple he had in his hand. His eyebrows rose at the sweet taste of it. Toby wanted to go home too, and at the same time, he wanted to stay. Something inside of him felt comfortable here, almost like home. He thought of Lyssa. He couldn’t leave here without her, and at the moment he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to leave the Fae world yet. He turned to Craig who had finished the apple and threw the core over his shoulder.
Toby was going to tell him that they needed to stay—for Lyssa’s sake when Lizzi’s voice came behind him.
“What would you be going home to?” Toby turned to see Lizzi with a fresh scrape on her chin just beginning to let blood surface. “I’ve seen many things Craig and sometimes things open up and opportunities come to you and it’s up to you to grasp on or let them brush by.”
“How do you know what my life is? You don’t even know me.” Craig stepped in front of Lizzi who was nearly as tall as he was. Craig folded his arms across his chest as their eyes mingled in silence.
Lizzi didn’t back down and straightened her posture. “I saw you, both of you in my visions. I knew Toby was a Changeling long before Zoey found out.” Her eyes now fixed on Craig’s. “I had glimpses of your home…your mother…”
“Alright, stop!” Craig said as he stomped past her and kicked the next basket full of apples with his foot causing them to fall over.
Toby started to go after him when Lizzi stopped him. “No, let him go. He needs his space and he’ll come to his own conclusion.”
“He’s my friend,” Toby said as he stepped past Lizzi. She caught him by the arm.
“There is something you must know. I had a vision this morning.” Her eyes gazed into his.
Toby looked at the empty path that Craig had gone down, and then back at Lizzi.
“He has to find something on his own. You can’t always guide him,” Lizzi said in a sympathetic tone.
Lizzi took Toby through a pathless trail through the woods behind the Rebel’s castle. Soon they were standing among several stone pillars that circled into a spiral. The grey stones were about waist height and weathered with faded markings inscribed on them that looked to be hundreds of years old. Trees loomed around them some with long needles and some with gold-colored leaves that fell gracefully to the ground. Lizzi led the way and then stopped standing in the center of the stone pillar maze.
“What is this place?” Toby asked looking around.
“It’s an oracle,” Lizzi replied as Toby shook his head. “A place where one can see themselves as they are. This one is sacred in not so much prediction but in the way you are headed now and the past, since the past effects the future. Like I have said before, Toby, I can see things. Some come true and some don’t. I want you to have a taste of it for yourself.”
Lizzi grabbed his hand gently and then suddenly from inside of her shirt sleeve a small dagger slipped out cutting his palm until blood surfaced.
“What did you do that for?” Toby yelled holding his hand as Lizzi didn’t reply and turned his bleeding hand over letting the blood drop to the ground.
Tiny droplets soaked into the ground making small beads of black dots. Toby felt lightheaded, like he was as thin as paper. The trees began to curl around him encircling into a golden canopy. He looked towards Lizzi to find a golden haired woman smiling back at him instead. Her hair was in perfect waves and framed her pale skin. Her eyes were like crystals, changing with the light in brilliant colors.
“Toby Winslett, you come to me by ways of a seering Fae. She wants you to see for yourself that you are not just a Changeling.” Her words were soft and voice sweet like perfume.
“Who are you?” Toby asked.
“I am the one to show you things that no one knows.” She held her arm out to the side that was draped in long, flowing, white material.
Toby looked back at her. Her eyes where focused on the white fabric that started to shadow and show shapes. Toby watched as he could see a woman at first sitting with a baby. It was his mother who was much younger holding her baby lovingly as another figure came to her. He was tall and broad dressed in a long cape. He was angered at the woman and she held the baby tight as the man tried to get it from her. The struggle ended, and she fled through a bright light. The figures faded, and Toby wanted to know more as the woman let her arm down and touched Toby by the chin gently until her eyes met his.
“Your roots do not lie where you think, Toby Winslett. You have ties here though the dusts of time will not let you know any more as they have been scattered. I can tell you that you are half Etherling and half Fae—a very strong Fae that is gaining power.”
“What am I to do?” Toby asked feeling depleted.
“That is something I can’t say. It is up to you if you wish to follow the path that has opened before you.”
Suddenly, the trees receded along with the woman before him. Lizzi now stood in front of him with her hands embedded into his arms shaking him to his senses.
“Stop, Lizzi, I’m back,” Toby said standing in darkness. “Why is it so dark?”
“You’ve been in a trance for hours!” Her voice was coarse like she had been yelling at him for all of those hours. “We’ve got to go or I will be in real trouble.”
Lizzi led him through the forest quickly and into the kitchen where it was bustling with activity. Lizzi then led him down a corridor and into a dimly lit room filled with books upon books. A slender catwalk ringed around the room that had one large window on the outside wall and two large tables with small glowing balls set in holders. You couldn’t even see the walls as they were covered by many books.
“I take it this is the library,” Toby said as Lizzi shut the door behind her and pushed him to the back of the room just under the window.
“Yes,” Lizzi said, standing in front of him. “Now what did you find out?”
Toby shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. There was this woman with blonde hair...”
“She was a Fate. Go on past that. What did her cape reveal?” Toby was surprised that Lizzi knew about the cape.
“I have done this before, I know protocol,” Lizzi said evidently reading his expression.
“I saw my mom and a man trying to get me from her and then she ran into this white light.
The woman…she told me that my mother was an Etherling and my father was a powerful Fae.”
“That’s it,” Lizzi said.
“That’s it.” Toby looked down at Lizzi.
She looked away and rubbed her chin as her eyes darted around the room. She then flinched and pulled her hand away from her chin. It had specks of blood on it.
“Here.” Toby laughed at her as he took the cloths from her hand and blotted up the blood until it stopped.
She looked up at him with her clear blue eyes that reminded him of a distant summer day when he was a kid enjoying a carefree summer vacation.
“What’s the matter? Did my chin fall off?” Lizzi asked taking Toby out of his trance.
“No, it’s just a superficial scratch, and it stopped bleeding.”
Lizzi smiled up at him and then turned. “We’ve better get going or you won’t be the innocent bystander, but an accomplice.”
The dining hall was filled with voices and the smells of many different spices. Toby looked around for Craig, but couldn’t see him. Lizzi led him through the many tables until they reached an empty one in the back.
“Where is everyone?” Lizzi looked around the room.
“Come on Lizzi. Take your play thing there and go up to Merlin’s quarters,” Wes said getting up from the opposite table that was filled with many girls. “He is having trouble trying to locate the Ethrleing girl.”
“Lyssa.” Toby cut in front of Lizzi only to be caught by the arm by Wes.
“Not that way lover boy.” Wes jerked him back and pointed in the other direction as the girls at the table all began to giggle.
Toby walked behind Wes and Lizzi as Lizzi occasionally glanced back at Toby and half smiled.
“Am I in trouble?” She asked in a low voice.
“No, not exactly,” Wes replied.
They walked very quickly and at a constant speed around the corners and up the stairs.
“What do you mean not exactly, Wes?” Lizzi asked as they stopped in front of a door.
Wes opened the door with a smile and a slight bow towards Lizzi. “I’ll let you find out.”
Inside the dim room were Zoey, Elijah, Merlin and two other Faes Toby saw before.
“Lizzi!” Merlin turned around and came up to her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to…” Lizzi sounded like a pleading child.
“Stop, Lizzi I need your skills to help us find Lyssa. She is with a Drake—an agreement I had made a long time ago with a Seeress Drake that if the Everspell should ever come their way to let us have it. I have lost track of her suddenly right before we were going.”
Toby looked around to see if Craig was there, but they were the only ones in the room. He wondered where he was when suddenly, Lizzi turned and looked at him with her blue eyes casted over with worry.
“Take Toby out of the room when I do it,” Lizzi said in a low voice.
Toby felt everyone’s eyes on him. Merlin motioned for the two Faes he didn’t know, to take him out. One smiled at him with a devilish smile and the other only looked agitated. Toby wanted to ask Lizzi why she didn’t want him there. She never looked back, and stood still with her back to him as the door went shut behind him.
Toby leaned against the wall as the dark haired Fae went to look around the corner, and the other, who Toby recognized from the forest, paced the floor with a distant look to him.
“Your name is Eli, isn’t it?” Toby asked as he stopped suddenly taken off guard.
“Yes,” he replied, and continued pacing.
“You’re not going to get a conversation out of him my young Etherling.” The dark-haired Fae slid against the wall until he was shoulder to shoulder with Toby. “By the way my name is Deravon and you can have a conversation with me.”
“Deravon stop it. Not everything can be made light of,” Eli said, still pacing, stopped to look Deravon in the eye before he continued.
“Don’t pay attention to him. He spoils everything.” Deravon said with a snort from Eli before he went over to the window.
“See,” Deravon whispered as Toby couldn’t help but to smile.
People of Fae Page 23