by Holly Hook
I couldn't say no so I grabbed the pot. It was heavier than I thought. I dipped it into the stinking water, wondering how I ever touched this stuff before. Now that I had put distance between me and Alric, the fear of everything else had returned.
Brie set up a cone of sticks and got the pot in the middle. Stilt got up, holding the dead bird in one hand. He grinned. "Here," he said, tossing the bird at me.
I jumped and screamed and backed away. The dead bird lay on the ground, its head smashed and bloody. All my hunger vanished. Sickness replaced it.
"Stilt!" Brie shouted. "I'm sorry," she told me, picking up the chicken. "He's not himself right now."
"Wrong," Stilt said. "I am myself. You know that. This is my original nature."
Stilt's fingernails were long and his nose even seemed longer, too. His eyes had taken on a scary shade of storm gray. The elf I had met before we walked into the woods had disappeared. He was changing at a scary pace, even faster than Mother had.
"This darkness might be stronger than I thought," Brie said. "He didn't get this bad this fast even when we were prisoners in the dark region." Fear made her eyes glisten. "Alric's growing stronger."
The trail didn't lay too far off. I was just about to leave. I'd have to find someone who wasn't Stilt and if Brie wanted to come with me, that was fine. The elf was scaring me. If we didn't get away from him, things would only get worse.
"Thinking of leaving?" Stilt asked. He moved to stand between me and the trail.
"No," I blurted.
Brie faced me. "It's a long story," she said. "We need to get the food ready. Can you pull the feathers out of that chicken? Did the witch who kept you in the tower ever have you do that?"
"No," I said. I wanted nothing more than to be away from there, but I couldn't go. This girl and I needed to meet this Mary woman if she could help me figure out where the desert was and where to find Henry again. I had nothing else to go on. "Wait. How do you know so much about me?"
"Your story is famous." Brie's tone told me she had no time to explain. "Mary will show it to you when we get there. If we get there." She put the pot on top of the pyramid of sticks and the water sloshed inside. "Please. Just pull the feathers from that chicken."
I went to work, holding down my nausea. "My mother isn't a witch," I said, even though I knew that might be true. My arms trembled as I yanked the feathers out. The bird was dead, at least. The more I worked, the more it looked like one of those pieces of meat that Mother brought home sometimes and cooked in the pot. We were about to do the same thing here.
I missed her.
At last, I had removed the feathers from the chicken and Brie had a fire going underneath the pot. Steam had risen from the pot and I was tempted to walk over there and put my open mouth over it. Even the water in the dank pond looked good. I had to wet my lips. Get my throat to stop feeling like paper. I never wanted to feel like this again.
And meanwhile, Stilt stood there and did nothing to help. Brie didn't even ask him. He eyed the naked chicken I held with hunger in his eyes. He was ready to eat, but not ready to lend a hand.
I hoped we could get him to a lighter area and soon.
Brie dropped the chicken into the water and we waited.
And waited, in silence.
Time passed, and the hunger turned to pain. A headache was exploding between my ears and no one dared move as if trying to conserve energy. I sat on the dead grass, breathing slow, trying to make all the discomfort go away.
This must be what death in the desert was like.
Where Mother had told Alric she would send me.
After some time, Brie stopped the fire by kicking dirt onto it and Stilt drew to the pot, looking in. "Done," he said, plunging his hand into the pot.
"Stilt!" Brie shouted, reaching for him.
He reached up and pushed her away. Brie kept her balance and caught herself on the trunk of a huge tree. She sagged with hurt, much like Mother had.
Anger surged through me. I stood up, not caring about anything else. "Leave her alone," I said to Stilt. "She made this food, and this is how you treat her?"
Water splashed as Stilt foraged for the chicken inside. His face turned wild. Ravenous. He drew his hand out of the scalding water and glared at me. "Mere mortals won't speak to me that way. If I say this chicken is mine, it's mine. I'm the one who caught it."
"And I plucked the feathers and Brie cooked it," I said. "I'd never treat--"
The words died in my throat.
I'd just treated Mother this way after she had taken care of me for so many years.
"Stilt. Listen," Brie pleaded. "You'll feel better if you let us all eat and we get you to a lighter area. You know you will. Set the chicken back and we'll split it up. Then we can leave. We only have to walk a few more hours before we leave this kingdom. I'm sure the other kingdoms are still fine."
"It was your idea to come here," Stilt told her. "We didn't have to look for the other stories. You wanted to help Mary find them all. You should have known it's hopeless to fight against Alric and the darkness. Soon all of Fable will be like this."
"There have been victories," Brie said. "Mary said something about a couple who reversed the darkness in their kingdom only a few weeks ago, so it can happen here, too. We need to help Rae find this Henry and once they're together, things will go back to normal here."
"Forget it, Brie. Our story didn't end the way it should have, remember? Why should the others have to?"
"Ours was different. We were already in the dark region. It made no difference whether it ended the normal way. These stories out here need help." Brie was raising her voice now. Her eyes watered. The tension in the air grew thick. "You need help."
"You're only doing this because of what we did. Of how we made things worse." Stilt smiled again. He was enjoying Brie's pain.
"Stop it. Please," I said. "Let's eat and drink and get out of here. We will not accomplish anything by arguing amongst ourselves when Alric could draw closer any second." I turned and waved at the trees.
And stopped.
A bright flash of green met my eyes. On the ground, where I had been sitting for over an hour, was a patch of fresh, living grass.
Brie saw it at the same time. She drew closer and stopped at my side, mouth falling open. She faced me. "Rae—was this here before?"
"No," I said. "It was dead." This was just like the light spot I had left this morning. I felt as if I had been going through the land, leaving teardrops of life behind me.
Which meant that Alric could track us.
"Rae, I think there's something going on here," Brie said. "Things just don't pop back to life in these dark areas. Did you do something to the grass?"
"I sat on it," I said. Heat rushed to my face. I didn't understand why. "That's all."
Brie took my arm and stared at it. "You have magic," she said. "I can feel it. It feels the way Stilt's does when he's not in a dark area like this."
Stilt was biting into the chicken behind her. Panic exploded. He would eat it all and leave us nothing. We would die out here.
But Brie didn't notice. "Maybe you can heal," she said. "Mary says if some powerful dark beings—like Alric—stand in one place too long, a new dark spot forms. You might be the opposite, Rae. That means we need to get you away from Alric as fast as we can. It could even have something to do with your hair and why it's so long."
"I..." I stammered. "I heard my mother saying I have some kind of magic, but I don't know where it came from or why my hair is so much longer than everyone else's. Before I climbed down from my tower, I thought this was normal." I held up my hair. I was a strange person out here in this world and I didn't like that.
"No one cares about your hair," Stilt said, chewing and letting food fall from his mouth. "Though if you give it over, I will let you have a few bites of this chicken. It looks like gold and might be worth something."
"I can't just give you my hair." I couldn't imagine life without it. Mother
needed it. If I gave it up, and she had nothing to braid when I found her again, she'd stay dark forever.
Brie held up a hand. "Do you hear?"
Stilt dropped the chicken back into the water and listened.
Cawing.
Lots and lots of cawing in the distance.
"Ravens," Stilt and Brie said together.
I had never heard so much bird noise in my life. The cawing got louder as if they were coming this way. There must be thousands of them. An army.
Brie's eyes got huge. "We need to hide. Alric might have sent them to look for you. Birds are not a good way to die. They'll take your eyes out."
Terror exploded as Brie grabbed the pot and ran under the thickest tree. I followed her. She left it against the trunk and gathered the sticks in one swoop and threw them into the woods. The cawing got louder and louder, almost like thunder. The leaves overhead were thick enough to hide us.
Stilt scowled. He remained in the clearing. "That was my food. I should tell them you're here. They're not after me."
"Stilt!" Brie's eyes opened wide in panic. "You wouldn't."
"I can't believe I ever helped you," Stilt said. "I should have left you to King Henrik."
Brie grabbed his arm and yanked him under the tree. I pressed against the trunk. The thick leaves formed a roof over our heads. Would the ravens notice the tiny spot of life in the clearing? If Alric could talk to birds, he might have told them to look for something like that.
I held my breath.
The cawing grew louder. They were on the march. I'd never heard so many birds in my life.
Stilt stood there next to us. He wrenched his arm from Brie's grip.
And smiled.
"Please, Stilt," she said. "You will regret this later. This is what Alric wants you to do. He wants you to be like this. Do you want to make that guy happy after what he put us through?"
"He's winning," Stilt said. "You can see that."
And he took a step towards the clearing. Brie reached for him but he swatted her hand away.
The cawing reached a peak as the flock spread out overhead. The flapping of wings sounded just like a roar. They weren't high off the ground. I couldn't see them through the leaves, but a single black feather rained to the ground in the clearing and the sky darkened. There must be thousands of ravens out there.
Stilt took another step.
An idea popped into my head. I grabbed my braid and held it out like a rope. Brie and I reached for Stilt but I got to him first. I took my braid and wrapped it around his neck from behind, pulling him back. Brie seized his arm. Stilt reached up for my braid, but I found the strength to pull him back and the elf crashed right into me. We all crashed into the tree trunk as the thunder of the birds continued overhead, masking the sound.
Stilt kept a grip on my braid. He struggled for breath. I couldn't let him go. Brie mouthed something at me, but it was lost. The elf pulled against me, trying to pull away. His leather hat hit me in the face. My scalp tingled and turned warm, the same as it did when Mother braided it.
Black feathers rained down.
Please, I thought. This had to work. We were all going to die if it didn't.
Brie pulled at my arm, trying to get me to stop, but whatever she was screaming was drowned out by the ravens. At last, Stilt gave up struggling and slumped against me. I had to work to breathe.
And at last, the army of birds grew fainter and fainter. They had passed over us, leaving dozens of black feathers on the dead grass of the clearing.
"Let go of him," Brie said. "He can't breathe. Please. Let him go."
Her grip was painful on my arm. I loosened my braid and Stilt slumped forward, catching his breath. He grabbed at his neck with one hand and let the other splay out on the ground.
I couldn't peel myself away from the tree trunk. Everything that had just happened seemed like a nightmare and I hadn't yet woken. An awful feeling filled me, like I should get punished for this. It wasn't real, and I was somewhere else. I had done something bad to Stilt.
But then the elf stood.
He turned and faced us.
"Stilt?" Brie asked.
He looked better than ever now. His eyes had gone to a beautiful blue, and they were even brighter than they'd been when I first met him back in the village. The elf's skin had an inner glow even more vibrant than before. His fingernails had returned to their normal length and his face was a lot less pointed.
He looked friendly.
The ravens grew even fainter. They hadn't spotted us. I took a breath.
"I feel better," he said. He faced me, mouth falling open. "You did something with that hair. I feel better. The darkness has gone away."
I dropped my braid. It went toppling to the ground.
"I..." I managed. "This is what I do for my mother so she feels better, so I thought it might help you, too."
Stilt smiled. There was no evil in it now. "You strangle your mother regularly?"
"No. I let her braid my hair."
Brie let out a sigh of relief. "Stilt," she said, taking his arm and wrapping him up in hers. "You're back. You're back." She touched her lips to his, and I flinched. I'd seen nothing like that before. For a split second, I wondered how it would feel to do that with Henry.
He was still out there.
What if the ravens had already found him—or would find him soon? He'd stand no chance if he was blind.
Stilt and Brie remained in each other's arms for a long time. Did friends always touch each other like that?
And I fell to my knees again.
All the strength had left me. Spots bloomed in my vision like glowing flowers. Like the magical rampion growing in that dark spot so many nights ago before my life crumbled.
I fell to the ground.
"Rae!" Brie shouted, but it was a thousand leagues away.
I let the darkness take me.
Chapter Ten
"How are you feeling?" Brie asked.
I took another bite of the chicken. After I had passed out, Stilt and Brie had propped me against the tree and let me drink some water from the pot. It was cooling now, which made it tolerable. It had a funny, almost bitter taste to it, but Brie had insisted that after the boiling it wouldn't kill us.
"Better," I said. "I think healing Stilt might have drained me too far."
Brie held up the pot, and I took another drink. Stilt paced around behind her, munching on his own piece of chicken. He'd taken a tiny piece, I noticed, and he faced the ground as he walked. He felt terrible about what he had almost done. It was there in his eyes.
I wondered what Brie and Stilt had said to each other while I was here, waking up. What friends did when this kind of thing happened.
My ears still rang a little from my passing out and I took another bite of chicken. I would live. I had put off eating for way too long, but at least the ravens hadn't come back. We would have to watch out for them until we got out of this kingdom.
"Thanks," Brie said. "Thanks for making Stilt better. He can't control himself when the darkness gets to him. All elves are like that. Put them in the lighter areas, and they're fine. But in the dark areas, the worst of them comes out. I think we need to keep you with us until we get out of here. You might need to heal him a couple more times before we get out of here. That's why you need to eat. That, and I don't want to see you drop dead."
Brie smiled. I smiled back. I liked her. Now that Stilt wasn't dark, I even liked him.
Maybe the world was more of a mixture of good and evil. I had to find the good parts.
"I agree," I said. I was glad I had these two with me. Three people were better than one out here. I wouldn't have known how to find food for myself.
And I could do something useful. The thought of it felt good.
Could I help people out here?
Help fight back this darkness?
It was no wonder Alric had sent so many ravens to search for me. I wondered if Mother was still trying to stop him and if he
had done something to her to get her out of the way. He was the worst person I'd seen out here, even worse than the darkened Stilt.
I finished the chicken, not caring about the mess I made. Stilt ate his meager portion and tossed a bone down in the tall grass. "This will attract rats," he said. "Let's be out of here before they show up."
Brie helped me to stand. "Are you feeling all right?" she asked.
"Yes."
"Able to walk?"
"Yes. I think." Strength was returning to my limbs even though the chicken had made me feel more hungry than I was before. I hoped that my stomach would settle. We might not have time to stop again for food and water before we got out of this kingdom—however large it was.
I didn't even know how big my kingdom was.
Mother hadn't told me a lot of things.
We made our way back to the trail and walked.
The landscape didn't improve at all as we walked. Brie and Stilt seemed to be right that the border to the next kingdom was still distant. I was glad to see that this forest had more of the thick, dark trees than the dead ones. They offered better cover. I thought of all those black feathers left back at the clearing and how low and numerous those birds must have been. They might circle back around.
"Do you know anything about rampion?" I asked.
Brie faced me. "Rampion? I don't even know what that is."
Stilt nodded. His inner glow seemed a bit fainter now as if the surrounding darkness had gone to work on him again. Brie was right he would need at least another healing. I had more strength now. It might not be as much of a problem.
I'd survived all of Mother's.
"It's a vegetable," Stilt said. "In Fable, it's rare. It's full of light magic and sometimes grows from where falling stars land. At least, that's what Queen Nori of the Star Kingdom says. She and Mary are good friends and they've done a lot of talking ever since Mary got here from the other world. Mary knows so much about our stories that even the royalty here consults her. She came to Fable with a book in hand, a book that Alric wants to take from her."