I had plenty of time, as far as I was concerned. I imagined Traflier was worried that if I got back into my human world, complete with coffee and shoe shops, I would not return, no matter how many scrolls foretold it. I did miss home, and God I missed coffee, but I wanted to be here, I wanted to learn about who my mother really was, plus I would have to figure out the whole doorway in /out thing to go myself.
Maybe I could get Moyeth to show me how, or take me through himself. He’d known how to get us in. If I go back for my shoes and camera, I should get my iPod too.
I looked at the music player that sat on a small table against the wall. With no electricity as such in Sayeesies, items could be spelled to draw energy from Shulun. The music player broadcasted a soft song intuitively when it sensed I wanted to listen.
I picked up one of the books Grace had brought me that sat on my bedside table. Mostly poetry. My favorite contained an inscription: To Giovanya, With love always, Mother.
Sitting between the back two pages, I had found a photograph of my mother and me. Though I was barely five in the picture, I remembered when it had been taken.
I remembered that day. My mother had walked me three blocks to the iron gates of a private park. Never believing anyone could own nature, she opened the gate, and we went inside. She sat on a carved stone bench and watched me play for hours. One of the other mums had a camera; she took our photo and spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with my mother. Both her and her daughter Elizabeth eventually became regular visitors to our house. My childhood friends had consisted mostly of Elizabeth and Ben. Ben had lived with his father in the house next door to ours. My mother went to see them one night, I remembered, rushing out of the house in the middle of dinner. The next day, they’d been gone. I never saw them again.
I asked her once why they had to leave and what she had said, but like every other time I had questions she didn’t want to answer, she took me to the kitchen to bake something sweet and tasty. I would either forget the question completely, or not care about the answer anymore.
Bet she spelled me. I wonder if Traflier taught her.
I spent the next few days exploring Sayeesies and talking with Moyeth and Jax. I continually asked Moyeth about his life—a subject he did not open up freely about.
“Des, you especially must try to learn more about the way Sayeesies works,” he had said, ignoring my questions all together.
I must admit, I had not ventured out a lot during my time in Sayeesies; everything reminded me of my mother. Mostly because, the one time I did go out alone, I found myself lost within the cobbled streets for three hours before Jax found me.
Jax had become exceptionally good at knowing when I needed help. I would have never actually asked him for his help, or anyone else for that matter. He came into my room one night to wake me; apparently, I was calling out for help in my sleep. I didn’t remember calling out, or the dream itself, and I was thankful for that. The dreams I’d been having were too gruesome to want to keep in my mind.
“Des are you listening to me?” Moyeth had gotten extremely good at telling when I had zoned out. “I have set up a lunch with you and Phoneas. She will meet you at twelve today, so don’t be late.”
“I was going to…” I stopped, realizing he said Phoneas. Phoneas was his wife, and if I had to learn more about Sayeesies, I was glad it was going to be from her. I was certain she would be open to telling me more about Moyeth too.
“Okay,” I said.
His eyes darted to me in disbelief, probably because I was agreeing with him for once. Moyeth had become somewhat of a mystery and not in the oh so sexy way. He’d somehow managed to avoid or deflect any questions I asked about his life, his family, and even his wife, so him setting up a lunch had my interest peaked.
#
I got to the café early, not wanting to make a bad impression, and I was nervous as hell. I’d had girlfriends in the past, but guys were always easier to get along with. I found women too hard a species to understand-hell, I didn’t even understand myself.
I sat sipping a blue fruity drink that tingled and fizzed on its way down while I waited. When she stepped around the corner, I squealed at the sight of her. Each step closer she took, the clearer they became: she was wearing last year’s pale pink suede Jimmy Choo’s.
“Oh my God, where did you get those fabulous shoes?” I asked before we had even made any formal introductions.
“Moyeth brings me a pair every time he visits the human world.” She twisted to look down at them and turned one leg to point the toe, showing them off beautifully. “Don’t you just love them?”
“How many times has he visited?” I asked, not looking away from them.
“Forty-seven, forty-eight if you count today. He is there now.”
“He is? Dammit I wanted him to take me.”
“Take you? You can’t leave, not yet.”
“No,” I said, sitting back into the chair. “I wanted him to take me to get my pretty pretty shoes.”
“Ahh, maybe next time,” she said, taking the seat opposite me and removing her glasses.
I gasped in horror. Her eyes were the color of the bluest sky.
My dream!
She had the eyes of the woman from my dream—the woman who was always devoured by the beast.
Lots of people have blue eyes, idiot. Look, you’ve scared her.
“Sorry.” I gestured as I relaxed back into my chair. “Your eyes, they are amazing, I have never seen eyes so blue.” I hoped this would be enough to ease her mind. It appeared to be.
The conversation flowed easily between us. We bonded over our love of fine footwear, and she promised I could borrow any of hers any time I liked. By the time we were finished eating, I had a vast knowledge of Sayeesies’ inner workings and a greater understanding of Moyeth.
Found abandoned on the gates of Sayeesies when he was an infant, he never knew his parents. It was probably why he didn’t want to talk about it when I asked.
“The first Nazieth discovered him lying wrapped in a blanket on their return from a scout mission,” said Phoneas, her eyes shining.
“Why would anyone leave a baby at the edge of a forest? They had to know it was the entrance to Sayeesies.”
She sat, forward lowering her voice. “They brought him to Traflier. Your grandmother fell in love with him and told Traflier she would raise him alongside your mother, who was around five I think.”
“So he grew up with my mum.”
“Your mum spent a lot of time educating and playing with him. To everyone’s surprise, she taught him to fly. He hovered by the age of six, and by age ten, he could fly higher than most children the same age.”
“So he had to be a Stalisies. Only Stalisies can fly.”
“Traflier decided he must have been the child of Stalisies parents who feared for his life in the human world. Which would explain how they had known exactly where to leave him.”
“So he never found them?”
“He tried to look for his parents a few times, but with only the blanket he was wrapped in and a pocket watch to go on, his search didn’t turn up much.”
I relaxed back into my chair as her voice sang on the breeze. I blinked and I could see her energy—it was a brilliant green, but there was something else too, I could make out a pale blue peeking up from beneath the tabletop.
The energy was completely different to her own, its density and color stood out. Well what I could see of it. When I blinked again, it disappeared.
She’s pregnant, I realized without knowing how the idea had come to be. But I knew it was true. I must have been smiling suspiciously; she grabbed my hand and begged me to tell her what I had seen.
“I’m not sure what I saw. How do you know I was seeing something anyway?”
“I am a receiving Fey, so the seers share some of their visions with me, that is how Moyeth knew they wished to see you. They shared a vision of you coming through the gates of Sayeesies with Moyeth and Jax, in
it you could see all the colors of the energy of the Fey couldn’t you?”
“I could, but Moyeth couldn’t see it.”
“Not every Fey’s magic is the same, plus, you are special. Please look again, I have been feeling off, but I couldn’t be sure. Please.”
“It’s not something I can usually turn on and off at will.”
She smiled then stood up to give me a better view. Some people in the café turned to look our way. I tried to ignore them and concentrated on Phoneas. I blinked, but nothing. I blinked again, trying to focus even harder.
Come on, give me something.
Still, nothing. I took a deep breath and sat back in my chair, accepting defeat. Then it happened again. I had closed my eyes to blink naturally. The unstrained action must have been exactly what I had needed. There was definitely another energy inside of her, it swirled in a circular motion around her abdomen splaying up slightly every now and then, but content in being there, not reaching out in any way like how Phoneas and Moyeth’s energy had that day in the square.
I think it’s a girl.
I smiled again and Phoneas shrieked with glee, not caring how many of the others around us looked at her with annoyance.
“Sit down before we have everyone staring at us,” I said tapping my fingers by her cup. She perched on the edge of her seat, jittery with excitement.
“I can’t be sure what I saw was real,” I told her, not truly trusting my own eyes or the power I apparently had.
“I know it’s real. Moyeth trusts in what you will do, so I trust in it too.”
“That is either really sweet or really stupid, I don’t know which yet.”
“Just go with sweet.” She smiled and her eyes lit up with joy.
“Alright I’ll go with that then.”
She squinted at the glistening sky. “I have to go, but can we do this again soon?”
“Anytime,” I said as she stood to leave. I watched her as she almost skipped with glee down the cobbled street. Turning to wave at me, she then danced down the path that led to the gates of Sayeesies.
Probably going to tell Moyeth. I should actually go and get my belongings soon too.
When Phoneas was out of view, the dream of the beast devouring the blue-eyed woman popped into my mind.
No! It’s not her The hair is wrong. She is shorter. Yes, easily a foot shorter. It’s not her.
I left the café to explore more of Sayeesies. I wanted to find some of the ingredients I had read about in the book—even though I had no intention of completing any of the spells, it gave me something to do and, I figured, it was always better to be prepared.
While I was out searching for Mayrid water, I saw I had walked almost the entire distance to the Sayeesies and Baldea border. It took forever to get back to my room, probably because I was so focused on not getting lost, whereas before I had been too intrigued by the beauty of Sayeesies to notice time move at all. I returned completely exhausted, kicking off my shoes I slumped onto my bed. As my mind drifted into sleep, the music player started its song.
A knock at my door woke me. I couldn’t be sure how long I had been asleep, and my mind felt fuzzy, the song of the music player still tinkling in my head. Before I could even sit up in bed, the knock came again, this time more urgently.
I jumped up and opened the door quickly, surprised to see Moyeth.
He side-stepped me and walked to the dresser, placing a black box down on top of it. He stood there for a moment, still as a statue. Closing the door slowly, I moved to stand beside him. After several minutes of silence, he opened the box, the lid creaking. Inside, a knife—long, curved, and black—shone as the light glinted off its paper-thin blade.
Moyeth then removed a gold and black gun. It was more like a small cannon than a handgun. He spun its enormous barrel out, filling it slowly with the bullets he took from individual pockets inside the lid of the box. Each one could easily take out an elephant. Spinning the barrel closed, he placed it in front of me on the dresser. He took the knife from the box and placed it beside the elephant cannon.
I peeked over his shoulder as he pulled on a small black ribbon, protruding from the bottom side-seam of the box, to reveal another compartment and a silver envelope.
“These belong to you now,” he said. He handed me the envelope and turned to sit on the bed behind me.
Hesitantly, I opened the envelope. I recognized the handwriting strait away; it was a letter from my mother.
To my dear Moyeth,
You are the only Stalisies I fear to leave. You are my friend, my guiding light, my brother. I only hope that one day you can forgive me for what I must do now. You have had so much loss in your life; it pains me to think I might be adding to your hurt. My daughter needs me now. She will need to be raised away from here, safe in the human world.
I am going to call her Desmoree. Do you remember our walk? The one by the mountains of Danzor, where you spotted a crack in the wall? Inside it, you found the most beautiful purple posies. You decided to call them Morees. So, it is after you I am naming my daughter. Des, for your sine, because I hope my daughter will be strong and brave like you have been all of your life, and Moree for your posies, which thrived without help from the light or the warmth of Shulun.
You and I will always be connected, my dear Moyeth. I leave with you Sacorasies and my blade so you will always be protected. Thankfully, I have not had to use them often, but they have kept me safe all these years.
I need you to know Max will not remember me. He does so at my asking, but I need you to remember-this is selfish of me, I fear, but necessary-for if my daughter should ever need help, I am hoping you will be there to guide her as you have done me.
Keep safe, my dear Moyeth. Be strong, and please never forget I love you, all the way to the sky, the moon, and the stars and back, forever and ever.
Yours,
G
My hands were shaking. I turned to look at Moyeth, but he was gone.
I took off out my door, running around the streets searching for him, finally returning to my room after who knows how long, unsuccessful. The elephant cannon-Sacorasies-remained unmoved on my dresser. As I picked it up, I spotted the mountains of Danzor out of the corner of my eye.
Wincing, I tore out the pages in the spell book requiring ingredients from the outer reaches, grabbed my bag, threw in Sacorasies and the blade, and took off towards Danzor.
As I walked to Danzor, I read and re-read the spells I had ripped from the book, hoping what I had learned about The Outer Reaches was an exaggerated telling.
It didn’t say a lot, but it did emphasize that it was a place of darkness, cold, and death. No one went there, and if anyone had, they either did not return to tell their tale or were too afraid to do so. However, I knew the person who wrote those spells for me had been there, and they believed I could venture there and return with what I needed.
I put the torn pages from the book into my pocket and zipped it up; I didn’t want to risk losing them.
I reached the crack in the wall of the Danzor Mountains and instantly could see the Morees my mother had spoken of in her letter to Moyeth. I picked one, placed it under the strap of my top, and took my first steps into the crack in the wall.
Unnerved by the red glow illuminating the way, I pressed on through the crevices of the mountains of Danzor.
I crawled through a tunnel of rock, my bag scraping against its jagged roof.
Why are you doing this?
Something crawled across my hand and I jolted, smacking my head on the rock.
“Fucking hell!”
My face felt wet and I scurried the final few feet, flopping forward through to the next cavern. Ripping a strip from the bottom of my shirt, I wiped my face.
Blood.
I pressed the scrap to the throbbing gash on my head before feeling for its edges.
It wasn’t big.
Pressure would be enough to stop the blood. I pressed my back against a smooth section
of rock and tilted my head so I could use the wall to keep pressure and free my hands. Wiping them on my pants, I surveyed the cavity. Others I had passed through had only two openings, the way I came and the way I needed to go. This time, I had two choices. The first opening across the way was a large archway, directly across from the tunnel I had come from. The other was a much smaller hole, barely big enough to crawl through.
Bet I have to go that way.
The cavern, lit by a vein of red stone running through its low ceiling, sent my mind racing back to the morgue and the confined dark box. Sweat beaded from my forehead and I found it harder and harder to breath.
“Calm down, Des,” I said to myself, trying to prevent the panic attack from emerging. “You’re safe, the room is large, the walls are not closing in on you. There is light, you can see it’s not the morgue. You’re fine. Just breathe!”
I picked a vein of red and focused on it, following its path through the rock. Pins and needles tickled the soles of my feet.
“Probably should have told someone where I was headed.” They would have just tried to stop you.
I lifted my head from the rock slowly and removed the rag. The blood had stopped and my hair stuck to my face in clumps where the blood had dried. Picking up the bag, I pulled out the pages and stuffed them safely in my back pocket before heading for the larger opening.
Able to walk freely through the large corridor, I easily avoided protruding spikes from the ceiling and creepy crawlies on the ground. I stopped to observe a caterpillar three times the length of a normal one. Its many legs moved in time to have it cross my path rather quickly. Turning a corner, the corridor ahead shone in pink light, the red veins muted by an opening in the roof that was bathed in white light.
I wish I had my camera. I am definitely getting my belongings from storage.
The floor, speckled with green, reminded me of something I had seen on one of the spell book’s pages. Pulling the pages from my pocket, I scanned the ingredients.
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 9