“Don’t move,” Traflier said to it, willing it to understand. “You will need to do something for me, but first, are there more of you?”
“Yes,” the beast replied, and a sinister sneer crept across Traflier’s face.
“Where?”
“In the water, in the woods. In the caves behind the back lands.”
“Let’s go, you will show me where they are. Now!” The beast’s eyes glazed over with the final command and it methodically led Traflier around the lake towards the woods.
***
SCREAMS ERUPTED FROM the fey manning stalls. The beasts leapt over buildings, ploughed through fences and galloped towards the podium. The elders quickly threw every cast they could think of at the creatures descending on them. Their gleaming teeth snapping with every step they took towards them.
Elder Maves died first. A beast biting down on his head and ripped it from his shoulders in one sickening crunch. Elder Harak was next, his arms ripped from his torso and his face slashed by claws to the sounds of screaming fey. The beasts’ converged on the podium and tore through the elders, Pontors last to succumb. A beast slowly stepped towards where he rattled off cast after cast all to no avail.
“Stop,” he screamed at the creature stalking towards him, over the bits and blood of the other elders. “Please!”
The beast lowered its head in an almost bow then lunged and bit into Pontors’ neck. Blood spurted from the wound but he didn’t die immediately. The beast dropped him to the ground. The animal’s gaze remained locked with Pontors until the last of his blood had trickled from his wounds and the life left his eyes.
The beasts slashed at the fleeing fey, screams of pain and terror echoed on the air. Traflier ran through the crowd and sent a spark of black lightning towards a beast about to slash at a cowering fey woman. The beast retreated.
“Run, now, get to the pool of light, the others too. I will send them away.”
“But they killed the elders!”
“I know, go, now!”
She nodded and ran, screaming at the others to follow her to the pool of light. Traflier ran towards the podium and the horde of beasts. When he arrived, he looked around for other fey still in the area. There was none, they had all fled. Only the bodies of the elders and the beasts remained.
“That will be all,” he said to the horde of beasts, and their eyes became clear. They howled into the air as they frantically looked around at the destruction they had caused. They looked at Traflier, eyes wide, mouths open.
“Go on, be off with you now.” Traflier ordered, and the beasts all howled again and then ran off towards the back lands.
Traflier stepped up the bloodied stairs of the podium and over to the body of Elder Pontors. “Now let me show you what it really means to lead.”
“What happened, why are only the elders dead? They only attacked the elders, why?” A young man said from behind him.
Traflier spun and saw Marcus’s son crawling out from under an overturned stall. His eyes sunk a little at the edges and Traflier knew he suspected he played part in the attack. Without a second thought Traflier drew the boy’s power and magic into him. Pulled it until all of the colour inside the boy now swam inside him. The boy didn’t die. His life remained, but all magic had been removed from the depths of his being and transferred to Traflier. The boy was essentially, human.
You love the humans so much? Traflier thought, taking a step closer to the trembling boy. You can die as one. Then he blasted the boy with a bolt of lightning that ripped through his body like a blade and left him in two pieces on the ground.
Traflier smiled at the power now inside him, now a part of him. Humans don’t deserve our world. We are better, stronger, a higher species. No more inclusion. We will no longer share our world with them. To join with a human will be the worst of crimes against the fey, and any born from this corruption will never again hold power. I can now see to that.
“I will take it all.”
BOOK 3
Ava swirled her arm around and the portal to the outer reaches opened with barely a quiver in the integrity of the gateway.
“You’re really getting the hang of this,” I said, and she blushed a perfect rosy pink. I turned to face the firebirds behind us. “You are all welcome to live in the outer reaches. The heat from the lake of fire will nurture your young without the risk of falling into a pool of lava.”
The birds fluttered their wings in anticipation, and the smallest of them, a light grey, fuzzy chick, no bigger than a basketball, hopped around its mother’s feet, chirping.
“When you’re ready, you can make your way through.”
“Mum,” Ava began, and I spun, fearing something was wrong with the portal. But it was as large and strong as any she had ever created.
“What’s up?”
“Well, the firebirds live in nests, right?”
I nodded raising a nervous brow.
“Well, the trees in the outer reaches aren’t exactly big enough for one nest, let alone a whole species of firebirds.”
They might be smaller in number now, but given time there will be thousands of them.
She was right, but I had thought of that already, and I pulled from my back pocket a small vial and a scrap of rolled parchment.
“I have a spell to fix that, and you are going to help me cast it.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really, Mum, we are going to do a cast together?”
Since returning, I hadn’t let Ava out of my sight. But I also wouldn’t let her cast any magic either. Except for the portalling, and I only let her do that because I sucked at it. She had no idea what she was capable of, and neither did I.
I found a cast that increased the growth of a millennial tree to its full size in a matter of minutes. According to the texts, millennial trees grew to mountainous heights, the trunks hollowed as it grew higher, but no strength was lost. The branches would be thick, and would reach out twice the height of the tree. I hoped the alteration I made to the cast would work in creating a dark barked version, that could withstand the heat and environment of the outer reaches. Dark barking was what happened to plants in the outer reaches. They grew a black coating over the surface like a heatproof layer.
“May we enter now, fairy queen?” one of the firebirds asked as it stepped towards the portal.
“I keep telling you, I’m not a queen.”
“You lead the fey, yes?”
“There is a council, I am on the council. They… we lead the fey.”
The bird’s gazed between Ava and I then settled on the portal. “I no longer care. Can we go?”
I laughed. “Go ahead. The sooner, the better.”
He took a few steps then stretched his wings out. The silver feathers rustling as he pumped his wings to lift from the ground. He soared through the portal and into the sky of the outer reaches.
The other birds all followed the first through. Most chose to fly, but the mothers with young walked past slowly, all the while trying to herd the young ones in the right direction. They flitted around their parents’ legs, chirping and bouncing on their toes, trying to flap their fuzzy feathered wings in failed attempts to fly.
After the last of the birds were in the outer reaches, Ava and I followed them. The heat billowing off the lake of fire felt stronger now the firebirds had returned to the power stolen from their red world.
“Mum, can we do the cast?” Ava asked, clapping excitedly beside me.
“First we have to find where to do it,” I said, walking along the edge of the lake. I needed somewhere the dark barked plants already grew, a solid tree already taken root would be best.
“What about over there?” Ava pointed to a large stump on the far-right side of the lake.
“That might work,” I said, holding out the paper to Ava. “Take this, I’ll handle the vial. After I sprinkle this around the stump, we will need to say the cast. You might want to change too; our magic is strongest whenever we are in our fey form.”
/>
Ava smiled wide as she closed her eyes. Raising her chin a little, she transforming into her incredible fey form, complete with glistening angelic feathered wings. She spun in a circle, raising her wings high into the sky and as she turned I caught a glimpse of the red veins I had seen during our visit to the banshee’s kingdom.
She has so much magic inside her. How can someone so little, hold so much?
“Mum, are you ready?”
I shook my head clear of worries and joined my daughter in fairy form. My glistening white wings billowed behind me in the warm wind that swept around us.
I smirked, biting my lip, and then pumped my wings to send me high into the sky of the outer reaches.
“No fair, you got a head start,” Ava called as she flew after me. For a few days now, we had been racing every chance we got. I was still faster, but not by much.
I landed heavy footed, beside the stump she had pointed out, and she landed far more gracefully a moment later.
“You will be faster than me soon enough.”
“Maybe, but Mum, I think you are getting faster too.”
She was lying, I gave it two weeks and she would by flying circles around me.
“Okay, so let’s look at this tree.”
“Do you think it will work? I mean it looks dead.”
“Everything in the outer reaches looks dead, but it’s extremely alive. I think it will work, there is enough space between it and the lake to create a large enough tree for the firebirds. Are you ready?”
Ava held up the paper in her hand and nodded. I sprinkled the vial around the base, the flakes of silver in it caught the light from the lake of fire and mirrored it back at me. With the vial empty, I joined Ava beside the stump and we recited the words of the cast.
“Kal ergo sil o, kal ergo is heo,” Ava and I said together. Roughly translated, it calls for the tree to grow tall, grow strong. The ground rumbled. Ava and I repeated the cast.
The tree began to shake. Ava and I repeated the cast again. New shoots sprung from the top of the stump as the base of the trunk began to swell outwards. We stepped back a few paces, but that wasn’t far enough. The tree kept growing.
“Um, Mum is it supposed to grow this fast?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never cast this spell before,” I said, turning to look at Ava. “What is that on your wings?”
The edges of Ava’s feathers glistened as if dipped in liquid silver.
“I don’t know, but they feel kind of funny too, like they are pulling me closer to the tree.”
“Let’s get more distance, you might just be too close to the magic.” I kept my tone even, trying not to freak her out. I really had no fricken clue what was happening with her wings but getting distance between us and the still growing tree was not a bad idea. We lifted up into the sky and watched from above as the tree continued to grow. It rose up towards us, higher and higher.
“Kal ergo fila!” Ava called as her wings fanned outward.
“Ava, what are you doing?”
She didn’t look at me, she was watching the tree as it spread its branches across the space beneath us.
Her wings folded in front of her to create a gust of air towards the tree. But it wasn’t just air. The silver on the tips of her wings released and rained down on the branches.
I rushed through the air to her side, placing my hands on her arms. “Ava, are you okay, what happened?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, shaking her head and bringing her left hand up to rub her temple. “We called the cast out, didn’t we?” As she lowered her hand from her head, we looked down between us to the tree. It had stopped growing. But more importantly, the silver Ava’s wings had rained down over the otherwise bare branches had formed thousands of glistening silver leaves.
“Ava, how did you do that?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Ava, you did a cast to make those leaves. The leaves were never a part of the cast. Leaves don’t survive out here.”
She began to descend and I quickly moved to follow her. “Ava, it’s okay. I mean it’s better than okay. The leaves are beautiful.”
She slipped through the tree top and landed on a top branch, reaching out her delicate fingers she ran the tips over a large silver leaf. “Did I really do this?”
I landed beside her, then wobbled and spun my arms around at my sides. Ava grabbed me, helping me to steady myself.
“Mum, you’re a total clutz.”
“Thank you, Ava, I’m well aware.”
She continued to stroke the leaves and I held on to a branch for stability. The power coming from the tree now was immense. The firebirds began to rustle the leaves as they made their way into the tree’s canopy to create their nests. To take over their new home.
“Ava, did you read that cast somewhere maybe?”
“No, I’m not allowed to read the scrolls yet. I’m learning and they say I’m learning really fast, but I’m still in freshling class.”
“Maybe in my book then?” I don’t remember anything like it though.
Ava shook her head. “I don’t know how I did it, Mum.”
“It’s okay, Ava. We will figure it all out. Come on, now they have their tree we can go home. Besides I have a meeting to attend.”
“Oh, will grandpa be there? Can I come?”
“Yes, and no.”
“But, Mum…” Ava whined, trying her best attempt at puppy dog eyes.
“Still no. Seriously that will never work on me. Come on, time to go.”
“Fine.”
“Do not give me sass or I won’t let you go with your grandfather to Elfland next time.”
Her eyes lit up. “Really? I can go to the Elf Kingdom?”
I pulled her in for a hug and lost my balance, sending us falling together towards the ground. She laughed and spun her wings to fling her out from the branches and back up into the sky. I twisted my wings around me like a cocoon, then, a moment before hitting the ground, they branched out, swept up, and lowered me onto my feet.
Ava landed beside me, the smile still etched on her face.
“Come on, Mum, let’s go home.” She swung her arm and opened a portal to the kitchen in Landown. I could make out Maylea’s back as she fiddled with something on the stove.
“She is not going to like this,” I whispered to Ava as I took her hand and we both stepped through.
Maylea spun the second we stepped foot on the tile, an eyebrow raised and a knife in her hand.
Crap, she felt us coming. The portals were pretty much silent, but they gave off a slight buzz around them, and if you knew what to feel for, you could sense when one was about to open.
“What have I said about magic in my kitchen, Desmoree?”
“It was Ava,” I explained, phasing back to my regular form.
Maylea raised the knife and widened her eyes.
“Okay, so I could have stopped her, but…”
“No buts, Desmoree. You are the parent. Be the parent.”
Ava released my hand and moved towards a stool under the counter, mouthing a sorry as she sat. Maylea turned to busy herself in the fridge.
A spark appeared in front of me. Crap. Someone is sending a flame note, Maylea isn’t going to like this, either.
I reached up and as soon as the green flame appeared creating the parchment, I snatched it from the air. Maylea turned and eyed me with a crooked brow.
“What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” I said, feeling the warmth of the flame note as it sat against the palm of my hand. “Maylea, what are you making?”
“We still do not have enough potion to protect everyone, I’m making more.”
“Really, we still don’t have enough?” I took in the scattering of ingredients on the far side of the counter.
“I have several others helping to build up the supply, obviously all without the key ingredient, but we can add that at the last moment if need be. Don’t you have a meeting to get to?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes. I still don’t get why I have to run everything by them anyway. It’s my fur, I’ll use it however I want.”
Maylea frowned at me and Ava sat happily stuffing her face with a bowl of elder berries Maylea somehow always had at the ready for her visits. “You were given that fur to seal the mouth of hell and you didn’t use it all. Now the council wants to make sure it will be used wisely. You created the council of the Feydom remember?”
I liked that she was using the term Feydom. I hated the division of the species of fey, calling it a Feydom made it feel more united. It didn’t help anyone to keep trying to force a divide. “Maybe, but I’m using one bit before I go.”
“Desmoree!”
“What? They don’t know how many pieces I have left and besides, Jax deserves his magic back.”
She took a calming breath and smiled. “My Jax is special, with or without his magic, but yes. I do agree he deserves it after all he has been through.”
I grinned, satisfied with my small victory. Kissing Ava on the cheek, I rushed out of the room before Maylea changed her mind and tried to talk me out of it.
I unfolded the flame note in the hallway. It was an update from the teams hunting the demons I accidently let loose in the human realm. By all reports, they were doing well. The elves had joined each team and had been sharing weapons and casts, their glamour cast was working, and together they had slayed seventy nine demons without being seen once. There were more reports of larger ones slipping away but overall, the elves were helping get this under control.
I folded the note back up and slipped it into my pocket before heading to my room to find Jax.
He was flicking through scrolls in our room when I walked in, but he dropped everything when he saw me. He rushed over and lifted me by the waist, spinning me in a circle.
“Wow, someone is happy.”
“I really am, Des,” he said slowing my spin to a stop. He leaned in and kissed me. It took every ounce of power I had to stop the kiss before it led to more.
“And what has made you so happy this morning?”
“The scrolls, Des. The magic has leached from them, revealing their truth. And the truth of them is so much brighter than before.”
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 53