“What is it?” I asked, taking her off my shoulder and holding her in front of me in my hands.
“Can you try to return us now?” she asked, her sweet childish voice strained on the brink of tears.
I didn’t know if I could, but a deal was a deal and Ava was found and safe. I placed Madel down on the end of the bed and called forwards my magic. First, I tried to pull the power from Shulun and send it to Madel. But the sky would not yield.
I then tried to draw its magic into me so I could transfer it to Madel, but again it wouldn’t work.
Frustrated, Madel kicked her legs and threw herself back onto the bed.
“A tantrum won’t help you, I am trying.”
“You said if I helped you—”
“I know what I said. I thought I could return it, but it is its own entity now. It has been completely separated from you all. But I can try something else.”
I tried to channel it again, but this time I brought down a fibre of the sky. A link like my grandmother once had. When the link joined to Madel’s light, she vibrated, bouncing from foot to foot. Then in a breath her entire body swelled to the size of a small child, maybe a five year old.
She squealed before shrinking back to her tiny sprite size.
I looked for the link, it was still there.
“Try again.”
Her eyes squinted and she pursed her lips. Then just as her expression fell the vibration of the light happened again and she grew again.
Still child size, bugga.
“Oh Des it is fantastic.” She said twirling on her tippy toes, and her sheer golden skirt held in a pinch at either side billowed out as she turned.
“You like it then? I mean it isn’t what you had but it kind of worked.”
“It is better than what we had before. Now I can be bigger and the sky can still sparkle. Thank you again.”
Madel took a few turns at shifting between the sizes, each time faster than the last, but also each time not growing more than the five year old stature. So, the link from Shulun to Madel worked, at least in part.
It didn’t restore her completely, but she now no longer talked like a school girl, and was able to shift between sprite size and regular Halfling size at will.
I think the idea of being the same size as the fey children she enjoyed playing with was one of the biggest drives for the return of their magic. So giving that back to her seemed to be enough.
“Now change the others too,” Madel ordered.
“No, I’ll do it when I get back.”
“No, do it now! They will see me and be jealous and want it too. Do it before you go, what if you die?”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. If you are worried about them being jealous, don’t change in front of them until I get back and can help them too. But I am going. They will have to wait.”
Madel flitted away after my final refusal to link the other hytersprites.
“Don’t die, Desmoree,” was her final request before she disappeared, presumably to return to play with the children she so dearly enjoyed.
We couldn’t stay for long, now Ava was safe I had to find the rest of the items so that when I figured out how to open the gateway to the darkness to get Jax out, I would be able to close it and seal it again.
I was afraid too, that if my father knew of my plan to free Jax, he would find a way to keep me here. Not that he wouldn’t want to save Jax, but he would not approve of opening the mouth of hell to do it.
I didn’t care, I would get him out. I would save Jax.
A pile of my clothes sat folded on the chair by the wardrobe door. Maylea you are a gem. I pulled off yet another pair of pants to fall victim to my travels and a clunk drew my attention. My old apartment key sat on the floor between my feet. I picked it up, the familiar metal a comfort in my hand. I pulled on a new pair of dark blue jeans, slid the key into the back pocket once more and followed with a black singlet top. Let’s see how you fair with what’s to come.
“Mum,” Ava asked sweetly, and I spun to look at her.
“Yes?”
She didn’t just change her shoes, which were now my pale blue glitter flats. But she changed her clothes too. She wore a pair of light denim skinny jeans and a black singlet top. It was a good idea. The dress she had worn was now stained and torn from her adventure into the human world.
I’ve only worn that dress once, I thought before realising I could probably repair it later. “Are you more comfortable now?”
She nodded. “Do you think I could see Tai before we go?”
“I don’t know if that is a good idea.”
She dropped her head.
“Ava, your grandparents are probably with him and they might not like us visiting. Let him rest, recover. I am sure he will awaken soon.”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that,” I said, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her into a tight hug. She smelled so good, like new shoe smell.
“I do. I gave him too much. There is too much of your magic in him,.”
I released her, holding her out at arm’s length. “Maybe I can take it back then and wake him up, but we only have two days left to find the rest of the items. I should be going. I will help Tai when I get back.”
“Are you going to try to save Jax?”
“You could call him Dad you know, and…” I didn’t know how much to tell her. “I don’t know.”
“Mum, you can’t! He made me promise.”
“No, you’re right. I can’t open the portal to save him without letting the demons out too. I will get the items and I will seal the portal.”
“So what will happen to—”
“Ava, please don’t.” I covered my eyes with my hands to try to stay the tears. “I have to seal the portal.”
“I know, they said you have to. I just feel terrible. He wouldn’t have been taken if I didn’t run away and try to get the things myself.”
“Don’t think of it like that. You can’t. Your father would do anything for you, and for me.” And I will do anything for him. “Ava, I think maybe you should stay here.”
“What? Why?”
“You are only a three day old, you shouldn’t be dealing with all of this. Even if you were not born an infant—” I stopped when Ava tilted her head to the side in that familiar way. She giggled, a mimic of the giggle of the seer I was certain she was speaking with.
“I am going,” Ava said, righting her head and speaking matter of factly.
“Oh, you are, are you?”
“Yes.”
“And what makes you think you can tell me what you are going to be doing?”
She smiled, raised her arm and swung it counter clockwise until the portal appeared. It wavered slightly and she winced before it steadied. It was a drain on her magic, I could tell, but she was keeping it open. Through it I saw mountains. Their jagged red peaks ascending high into the clouds.
“Why would I want to go there?”
She grinned from ear to ear. “Because it is where we will find one of the dragon dens.”
“How do you know where to find them? Ava, the coven could be trying to send you there, to somewhere dangerous.”
“No, it is the other one. The one who laughs. She kept me safe. She said we need to help the dragons then the dragons will help us.”
“I really wish I could talk to her too. I would tell her to keep my three day old daughter out of this.”
The portal began to waver again.
“I will go through without you and find them myself. Do you want your three day old daughter meeting dragons alone?”
“Fine,” I conceded. “But you stay back and out of trouble. The first sign of danger, you promise you will portal out, leave me if you have to.”
She nodded, took my hand and we stepped through together. I felt stronger with her hand in mine. Her magic pulsing through her hand against my own.
The moment we stepped into dragon territory I phased into my fe
y form. Ava did the same, her wings were bigger than mine and shone brightly in the rising light. I again saw a glimmer of the red veins of the banshee palace and began to wonder what the hell it could mean.
“Where are the dragons?” Ava asked as we rose slowly up into the sky.
“They haven’t been seen for centuries, your father will be pissed he missed seeing dragons. He studied them in school. He even had a few carved figures of them he was going to give you when you were older. But hey, you were born older, so I suppose you will get them sooner rather than later.”
Ava smiled at the thought, but then her eyes saddened as did mine as I thought about where he was. Trapped by the logaras, taken into the darkness. He sacrificed himself for me again. He sacrificed himself for his daughter, his family.
Bloody stubborn man.
“Why are they hiding all the way up here?” Ava asked, breaking the silence and my concentration.
“Umm, humans used to hunt them. Their existence had been spelled down to myths and legends, much like the other fabled creatures. The dragons are a hard species to grow numbers. They lay eggs, but they need to maintain a dragon fire beneath the egg for several months or the young wont develop and be able to break free into the world.”
“What happens then?”
“They die.”
“That is horrible, why can’t something help them? Can we make a fire hot enough that won’t go out?”
“No, only a dragon’s fire can be used. The parents take turns keeping the fire burning beneath their egg.”
“So where will they be?”
“The den will be in the heart of the mountain. It will be impossible to get to from the ground, so we will have to fly up to the top of the mountain, find the entrance, and descend into it.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“It won’t be,” I said, taking her hands in mine and looking at her with what I hoped was a stern motherly stare. “Ava, when we descend, they will have a great advantage. They are immune to their own fire. Dragons don’t burn. We do. If they think we are a threat, they could incinerate us on our way down.”
“So not fun then?”
“No, not fun, but remember your promise, portal out if you have to.”
“I promise.”
Ava tilted her head. Nodded, “Okay, let’s go.”
We soared higher together, holding hands for a while before separating to create arcs and falls in the air, twisting around each other, racing on the breeze.
I was faster, but Ava was much more graceful. Her feathered wings allowed her to float on the air currents, whereas mine flapped behind me in willowy gusts.
When we neared the top of the mountain we hovered for a moment above the opening to the den.
Squinting, I thought I could see something through the darkness. After a moment, when nothing revealed itself, I shook it off as paranoia.
“Remember,” I said, looking at Ava her rainbow curls sweeping behind her on the wind.
She nodded.
We began our controlled fall into the dragon’s den.
It was surprisingly easy to see once we were inside the entrance. From outside the tunnel looked pitch black, but now we were within it, the brown and red of the carved rock was easy to see.
Bands of scorch marks ran circles around the entire tunnel, and created a dizzying effect as we descended.
I looked straight down to try to steady my head. A small pin of light formed below me.
A single red dot.
Then, it grew larger.
“Ava, get out!” I called as I looked up and felt the heat rise beneath me. But she didn’t get out. She dropped past me, a flurry of rainbow curls hurling by.
I reached for her.
I missed.
She turned to a dive, swung her arm out, and opened a portal the radius of the tunnel.
The fire roared and vibrated as it passed through the portal to wherever she was sending it. I hated to think of whatever place was now decimated by dragon’s fire, but thankful we were spared from becoming crispy fey.
“I can feel it failing, Mum. Help!” Ava cried. I flew over and took her other hand in mine, trying to push my magic into her. It didn’t want to go; in fact, I could barely feel it at all. My power used to burn brightly, now it barely warmed my belly. I pushed harder and sent it to the portal. Ava locked gaze with me and smiled. It was working.
When the roar of the fire diminished, Ava released the portal.
The air gushed past us, flinging us deeper into the tunnel. We used our wings to slow the fall, but had to be careful not to touch the sides of the cavern. The walls glowed red from the burning heat of the dragon’s fire. Ava remained at the ready for if they blasted us again.
“Where did you send the fire?” I asked her as we hovered half way into the den.
“A fiery place, somewhere dark, somewhere dead. They said you have been there before.”
“I know the place.” I remembered the lake of fire I had visited beyond the Danzor mountains, where I had cast my first spell and awakened the magic inside me.
“Do you think they will try to burn us again?”
“Only one way to find out.” I said and we continued down.
When we approached the bottom of the tunnel, I attempted to throw a shield around our feet to protect us from the searing hot stone floor. It wavered a little then seemed to stick. I prayed it held as specks of glowing red peppered the floor. The sky was a single dot above us. We were in the heart of the mountain.
“We are not here to harm you,” I called into the open space to my left, my voice echoing down the vast tunnel with no reply.
“Which way do we go?” Ava asked, stepping towards the opening on our right. Several tunnels led from the main area we had entered, all of them glowing with the same red hot stones.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t really sure that there were even any dragons left, to tell you the truth. Jax said they couldn’t confirm their extinction though, because no one wanted to come looking for them. Well, no one but Jax. As a child, he was never allowed to go looking, and by the time he was old enough to make his own choices he too believed the rumours. Not that he could have survived the entry. Thanks for that by the way.”
Ava smiled and I saw her father in her expression, but then she tilted her head and her eyes went wide with fear.
“Ava, what is it? What are they saying?”
“They want to know why we haven’t opened the portal yet, they say they will kill him.”
“Can you talk to them, Ava?”
“Yes. No. Sometimes it is like they can hear me but they don’t always answer me.”
“Tell them if they kill him, I will have no reason to open it. I will seal it over and they will be trapped there for eternity, not even able to slip through the cracks the coven creates.”
Ava’s eyes bore through me, jittering side to side as the fear grew. But then her face relaxed.
“I think they heard me,” she said, reaching up past my arms to tuck a blue curl behind her ear. “But you said we were sealing it.”
I let go of her shoulders and ran the back of my fingers down the side of her face. She leaned into my hand again like she had done before. Her eyes fell closed and happiness returned to her face.
“I will seal the portal, Ava, but I will also tell them what they want to hear in the hope I can find a way to not seal him in too.”
The tunnel behind us growled.
“What was that?” Ava asked as her eyes shot open again and I moved to stand between her and the direction it came from.
“We are not here to hurt you, we need your help. The fate of all our worlds depends on it,” I said into the darkness. The red glow finally beginning to fade.
The ground shook as a thump echoed up the tunnel. It was followed by another thump and another. Then the front foot appeared. Exactly as the drawings depicted. Five bird like claws spread out like fingers, at each end a glistening dark green talon dug into the dirt
.
Growling again the dragon lurched forwards.
“Why have you come here?” The deep voice reverberated around us.
“We need your help.”
“Why would we help you, fey child, when your kind did nothing to help us?”
“Not another one…come on, how are fairies always the bad guys? What happened this time?”
“When the humans came for us, the fey did nothing. We sort protection in the fey realm and were denied. We were left to defend ourselves, to tunnel into the depths of mountains and remain hidden to stave off extinction.”
“I cannot change the past.”
“No, but you seek our help despite it?”
Ava stepped around me. I reached out and placed a hand on her arm to hold her back but she gave me a cheeky grin and pulled free.
“Ahh, you are new little one,” the dragon said, lowing his head to meet Ava’s eye. I tensed and brought my magic forwards ready to defend her if needed.
“They have taken my father. His sacrifice will be for nothing if they overtake this world,” Ava said, with an maturity far greater than her three days.
“What are you?” The dragon’s slit eyes squinted deeper as he tried to decipher her origin.
“She is my daughter,” I answered, stepping closer.
“Ahh, but she is so much more than that,” he said, sniffing at her wings. “You are something new.”
“I am made of more.”
Ava reached out and the dragon didn’t back away. Instead he moved closer, allowing her hand to run down the glistening scales on the bridge of his nose.
“We need your help to seal the darkness,” Ava spoke softly, looking him in his large gleaming eye.
A new growl came from behind us and I turned to see glowing yellow eyes.
How the hell did it sneak up on me? The thing weighs a tonne!
“Why are they still alive, Drendor?” The new arrival hissed as it rose up behind me. “The fey doomed our kind, why would you even speak with theirs?”
“This other one is different…she’s not all fey, Evetta.”
“A mutt then. Kill it and be done with them, your fire is needed below.”
“Touch her and die,” I said, rising up and bringing my magic out to balls of blue light around my hands. The new arrival sniffed at me. Don’t falter, stay strong.
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 38