Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4)

by Melinda Kucsera

  Liri turned to Jessa, pulling her close. She spoke in her ear. “They won’t take you. Get to Hollow Hill and tell the others who guard the trolls not to emerge. Tell Simith not to follow us.”

  “But what about you? What about everyone here?” Desperation pinched Jessa’s voice. She watched the other pixies lining up with quiet sobs and helpless eyes. Gray-haired elders and young ones with diminutive wings wept from the sidelines.

  “There’s nothing to be done. If we resist, they will only return in force. Once they have our true names…” Her grip tightened. “Get to Hollow Hill. Help me save what few we can, and tell Simith,” her voice faltered, “tell my son I’m sorry. Tell him we loved him still.”

  She pushed Jessa from her and headed toward the line of pixies. Jessa backed away, fearful the fairies would stop her from leaving, but none of them paid any mind to a solitary pooka. She didn’t turn her back on them until she rounded the corner of a cottage.

  Then she ran.

  Chapter Three

  Simith tackled Flix as soon as they were out of earshot from the fairies. He went down with a shout, crashing to the ground under Simith’s weight. Flix went for the dagger at his belt. Simith got to it first, hurling it away. He clapped a palm over Flix’s mouth when he drew breath to bellow for aid. The boy bit him.

  Simith grabbed a fistful of his hair, and said, “Flix Foxglove Fel, I release you from all fairy commands.”

  His body sagged beneath him. Flix unclenched his jaw from his hand, and to Simith’s shock, burst into tears.

  “Forgive me, sir,” he said. “I knew it was you, but I couldn’t stop.”

  “Hush, Flix. I know.”

  “I couldn’t help you when you were captured. They made me betray everyone’s true names to the Helms—”

  “That’s not your fault.” He moved off the boy to help him sit up.

  “Thank all the winds you remembered my name from when they said it in the tent.” Tears slipped down Flix’s cheeks. “I tried to resist. I swear I did.”

  Simith put a hand on his shoulder. “Be still, now. You are not to blame for the treachery of others. The fairies have deceived us far longer than anyone could’ve imagined.”

  He ran an arm across his face. “What do you mean?”

  Simith lowered his head. He didn’t relish revealing the terrible truth, but Flix had to know. They all did.

  As Simith explained, the color drained from Flix’s face and he wobbled as though he’d been struck in the head. Simith could relate to that feeling.

  “The trolls never attacked us?” Flix covered his eyes with a hand. “Then we have wronged them horribly. Worse, we’ll be responsible for the destruction of their entire race.”

  “The trolls are not without strength, and I have made allies among them.” Allies might have been too strong a word for it, but at least the beginning of an alliance. “We will find a way to defeat the fairies.”

  “You don’t understand. The triad came to Drifthorn in search of you, but that’s not their ultimate goal. They’re planning a battle, one that will finish the war.”

  Simith frowned. “But the troll army has pulled back to its border.”

  “That’s why the fairies have come to pixie lands. They’re gathering every able body for the vanguard. They’re going to commit the legion to a frontal attack with enough numbers to break the trolls’ line and drive straight into the Twilight Grotto.”

  Ice ran through his veins. “But the death toll,” he breathed. “The casualties will be monstrous.”

  Flix nodded, eyes bleak. “They know. The vanguard will be obliterated, but so will the troll army.”

  Simith lungs wouldn’t draw air. He stood. Touched his brow. The afternoon sun shone down in an empty blue sky. Flix’s words sank in.

  He spun back. “Who are they recruiting? Any who wished to volunteer has already done so.”

  “They’re pressing into service everyone capable of fighting.” Flix got unsteadily to his feet. “No one has a choice anymore.”

  A legion of pixies compelled to murder. Simith’s heart lurched in terror. He’d left his mother back there with them. Flix grabbed him just as he was about to take to the air.

  “You can’t go back there, sir! They’re gathering true names by threatening families. If they see you, they’ll just send your own kin to hunt you down. Don’t do that to them.” He clutched at his arm. “You know what that servitude is like.”

  Simith’s feet settled back to the earth. He did know, though he felt just as powerless now as when they’d usurped his will. He could think of no strategy to free them from this horror.

  “Where are they gathering the legion to receive these…recruits?” His mouth twisted over the word. “Do you know when this assault is planned?”

  “They’re keeping their forces against the Jaded Grove’s tree line to protect their flank. It’ll take today to gather the drafted, maybe another to arm them all and march on troll territory.” He wiped at his eyes again. “Tomorrow night it’ll begin, and only the winds know what will become of us all then.”

  Simith’s throat tightened, but he forced reassurance onto his face. “Courage, Flix. If we despair, they’ve already won.”

  The rasping breath of someone sprinting up the hill reached his ears. Simith snatched up the discarded dagger from the ground. At his side, Flix drew his sword, but the figure that crested the hilltop was no fairy.

  “What’s a pooka doing here?” Flix murmured.

  Simith rushed to meet Jessa, casting a glance behind her, but he saw no one else. Her terrified expression cinched a vice around his chest.

  “What’s happened? Are you hurt?” Even the glamour didn’t hide the paleness of her face.

  She leaned on the arm he offered her, winded. “I’m fine, but the others…the fairies are conscripting everyone.” She met his eyes. “Your mother said to send you to Hollow Hill and tell any others from your hamlet to hide until the fairies are gone. She said—”

  Jessa broke off seeing Flix. She sucked in a breath, edging back.

  “It’s all right,” Simith told her. “He’s a friend.”

  “But the fairies were controlling him.”

  “They have his true name, yes, but so do I.” He brushed the fading glamour from her face, reminding himself not let his touch linger on her skin like before. It took him by surprise how increasingly strong that desire had become.

  Flix sheathed his sword, curiosity in his gaze. “She’s not a pooka. Not a fairy or a pixie either…”

  “Jessa is from a land far away,” Simith said in a tone that discouraged further questions. “Flix, you must return before the triad questions your delay.”

  “I’ll say I found nothing, which is conveniently true.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But, sir, since you have my true name, I ask that you command me to hide your whereabouts and all we’ve discussed. I can’t bear to betray you again.”

  It turned Simith’s stomach to consider laying compulsions on Flix. Such things were not done among their people. It was a violation, though he understood the necessity in this situation.

  When he finished, diligent in his wording and cautious not to infer any punishments should the fairies force the information out of him, Flix surprised him by breathing out a sigh of relief.

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Don’t thank me, Flix. By rights, I should never have known your true name.”

  “Even still, this will protect me better than the best of shields.”

  Jessa, whose dark eyes had watched the process with interest, asked, “Is this something you could do with others?” She fidgeted with her hands when they both gazed back at her with some offense. “I only mean, if the pixies exchanged true names with each other, they could countermand the fairies’ orders, couldn’t they? At least until the fairies realized what they were doing. Still, it might delay their plans.”

  “That’s…” A grin split Flix’s young face. “That’s an amazing idea.�
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  Jessa’s eyes brightened. “What do you think? Could it work?”

  The simple genius of it was breathtaking. It wouldn’t work over a sustained time—there were too many in the legion to remember all the names and the fairies could reassert control at any time—but would it delay them? Yes, indeed.

  He’d admired her bravery since they met, but something about her unfailing determination to help him made her luminous to his eyes.

  A flicker of hesitation entered her gaze. “Is there something I’m missing? I don’t know all the rules about true names.”

  He tore his eyes away from her. “Hasten your return, Flix. As discreetly as you can, spread the word to everyone, but caution them against using each other’s names until the critical moment. Buy us as much time as possible to come up with a plan.”

  “I will. And I’ll tell them who our true enemy has been since the beginning.” He clasped Simith’s arm. “We’ll stagger them as much as we can.”

  When Simith and Jessa entered Hollow Hill, it surprised him to find his father standing toward the back, deep in conference with King Drokeh and his general. They spoke too quietly for him to hear what they discussed, but he could guess at the topic.

  His father’s fellow archers distributed what food had already been brought in, and a pair of troll guards stood to either side of the entrance. They didn’t entirely relax their postures when they recognized him, their glowing gazes full of resentment, but neither did they level a sword at him. Progress, he supposed.

  “I’m going to check on Katie and Relle,” Jessa said at his side.

  “I will join you after I speak to my father.” Though how he would tell him that his mother had been taken for the war, he didn’t know.

  Jessa followed his gaze to where his father stood. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  Yes. “No.”

  “Simith.” She touched his hand. “You don’t have to pretend with me.”

  “I don’t—I’m not nervous.”

  She cocked a brow at him. “Sorry, which one of us brought up being nervous?”

  “I…” He couldn’t help but smile. “Sneaky pooka.” He squeezed her hand and released it. “I appreciate your intent, but this I must do on my own.”

  “Okay.” She turned away. Turned back. “Try to tell him what happened all at once. Don’t let him interrupt you with twenty questions like he always does. It throws you off, and then he thinks you’re hiding something.”

  With that, she headed toward the wagon. Simith watched her go, struck once more by how much they’d learned of each other from their memory-dreams. Perhaps it should’ve unnerved him. Instead, it lightened his heart to have someone who’d seen how he grew up, what he’d lost and what he’d done. After Rim’s death, he’d never expected to find that again.

  “Simith.” His father’s voice sliced through his reverie. It held no softness. He approached with King Drokeh and General Seshi. Simith wondered when they’d noticed he’d arrived.

  He didn’t wait for them to reach him, striding forward to meet them halfway. “I would greet you, Father, but it did not go so well last time.”

  That was childish, and he regretted saying it immediately.

  His father’s gaze cooled. “We separated you from the trolls so they could speak freely without the threat of your presence nearby.”

  The threat of his presence.

  “You thought I coerced them here? That would be quite a feat with two dozen of them, even for my skill with a blade.”

  “We thought it better not to underestimate that…skill.”

  When Simith didn’t reply, his father continued. “I have learned of the fairies’ deception that brought our people into this wretched war. King Drokeh and I have reached an accord, one that I intend to spread across the hamlets.”

  “There will be an armistice between our peoples,” Drokeh said, and Simith respected the troll king all the more for the celebratory glint in his lamplight eyes. “As Master Avenoth put it: we need fight each other no longer.”

  A smile touched his mouth. So, they hadn’t needed him at all for the peace talks he’d risked himself to arrange. Simith didn’t mind, truly. He’d hardly dared hope such a thing could be accomplished. With his reputation, he’d have been a source of disharmony more than cooperation.

  His gladness faded. His efforts to arrange this moment meant little when they were all on the cusp of destruction.

  “There is more to discuss,” General Seshi was saying, “including reparations and finding a way to withdraw those still in the fairies’ service—”

  “Something has happened.” Simith lifted a hand. “The fairies’ tactics have changed.”

  When he finished explaining, Seshi swore viciously, and any sign of celebration in Drokeh’s eyes drowned in his fury.

  “And your mother?” His father eyes darted to the entrance.

  “She was among those taken.”

  “Your pardon,” Drokeh inserted before Simith’s father could speak. “I must arrange for word to be sent to my people.”

  “It’s still mid-afternoon,” Simith said. “How will a message reach them in the daylight?”

  “We have our ways when the need is great,” Drokeh said, already moving toward the wagon with General Seshi quietly speaking in his ear as they walked.

  His father headed toward the entrance, signaling to his archers. Simith followed.

  “If you mean to attack the fairy caravan—” he began, but his father cut him off.

  “We fly to the other hamlets. We must try to give them some warning so they can evade this draft.”

  “I will join you.”

  “No.” He punched the word, and it echoed across the open space. Heads turned in their direction. He lowered his voice, though it held no less venom for it. “Why did you return? Every time you are here, disaster follows.”

  Outrage rose in Simith’s chest, smothering the pain of the accusation. “I did not cause this.”

  “Didn’t you? Did not the tales of your triumph and glory on the battlefield persuade others to hand over their true names to the fairies? Now look what has become of us.”

  “I was deceived by them as much as the rest.”

  “It matters not. Without saying a word, you became their greatest recruiter. You were so skilled at killing, it became an artform in their eyes rather than the abomination it was.”

  Simith took a step forward, his rage so acute his hands shook. “You will not cast blame upon me for the choices of others. I have lived in sorrow for what we lost just as surely as you have.”

  “You made a plague of your pain.” Turning away, he stalked toward the entrance. “The grief you suffered and this peace you engineered absolves you of nothing.”

  His words split Simith’s anger apart. Numbness followed, spreading beneath his skin and down his legs like immobilizing poison.

  “Father.” Simith’s voice emerged as if from underwater. “When will you forgive me for the monster I became?”

  A tremor moved across his father’s shoulders, but he didn’t look back. His reply was so soft, Simith almost didn’t hear him.

  “When I forgive myself for letting it happen.”

  Chapter Four

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Inside the wagon, Katie had crushed Jessa into a hug as soon as she climbed in and still hadn’t released her.

  “I swear I’m all right.” Jessa patted her friend’s shoulder and tried to pull back. Katie only squeezed harder. There was desperation in her grip, as if she needed something to hold onto before she unraveled. “How’s Relle doing?”

  Relle lay quietly toward the wagon’s rear, covered in blankets and shadows. The only sound was that of her wheezing breath.

  Katie let Jessa go at last, flicking a tear irritably off her cheek. “She’s sleeping a lot. The wagon’s iron is starting to cause new symptoms, but it’s also slowed the curse’s progression.” Her smile was a pale imitation of her u
sual jubilant grins. “Good thing your pixie thought of putting her in here, or the worst would’ve happened already.” She shot a look toward one opening. “He came back with you, right? They hauled the two of you off together, but wouldn’t say where.”

  “He’s out there talking to his dad right now. I’m not sure why they took us away in the first place.”

  “It sounded like they worried the trolls wouldn’t be honest about their situation here if Simith was nearby.”

  Jessa caught on after another moment. She sighed. “He’s not the boogeyman.”

  Katie’s brows lifted. “That reputation of his wasn’t made in a vacuum, Jessa.”

  “Believe me, I know. I’ve seen it.”

  “Well, from what I overheard, the trolls were never behind any of the attacks on the pixies in the first place.”

  Jessa started. “What?”

  “A twist, huh? Turns out, the fairies created the whole setup so the pixies would join their side in the war.” She puffed out a disgruntled breath. “To think I used to love fairy mythology. When we get back, I’m trashing all those figurines hanging in my kitchen.”

  “Who,” Jessa pressed a palm to her forehead, reeling, “who did you hear this from?”

  She gestured toward the opening. “King Troll and that dark-haired pixie who knocked everyone out had a chat together. Voices carry in an open space.”

  Jessa thought of the sadness in Simith’s gaze when he’d bandaged her arm, the way his voice quaked when he’d apologized for all the harm he’d done. He must’ve already discovered the truth. She wished he would’ve told her, though she understood he might have been too ashamed. What could she have said anyway? The truth should hurt for him. He deserved that pain. A misunderstanding didn’t wipe away the many wrongs he’d inflicted, but it did matter that he felt it so keenly. The very existence of his remorse meant he hadn’t fully lost himself. What mattered now was what he did with the truth.

  He probably wouldn’t believe that, despite their unique connection to each other’s memories. She thought of what he’d said earlier regarding hers.