by K.N. Lee
“WHERE IS MY EGG?!” Inejor howled. I leaned to the right, turning my head as far as I could to glance around the pedestal.
Inejor rounded on the Horrid Witch.
“You stole my egg! You filthy cheat!”
The Horrid Witch placed her hands on her hips. “How could I have possibly taken the egg when you’ve been looking at me this whole time?”
Inejor fumed. From where I hid, I could see his shoulders rising and falling with barely contained rage. He took a menacing step toward the Horrid Witch. She took a step back, looking anxious for just a fraction of a moment — just long enough for Inejor to get suspicious.
“You aren’t the Witch,” he growled.
“Don’t be daft.”
“You aren’t the Witch!” Inejor raised his hands and blasted magic at the Witch. She flew backward, right into the antlers of a charging summon.
The room filled with gasps of alarm. Kadria screamed.
Inejor moved out of the way, revealing the Horrid Witch, stabbed straight through by the antlers of the summon behind her. Her back arched in a vain attempt to avoid the antlers that had sliced right through her body. I clapped a hand over my mouth in horror.
The Witch shifted awkwardly, changing only pieces of her body at a time like some horrible child’s plaything, all mismatched and unidentifiable.
“A shifter!” Inejor said. “You stole my egg! Disgusting refuse of the Woods.”
The summon jerked its head, tossing the body of the shapeshifter onto the floor. The shifter landed on its face, having settled on a final form.
Tor.
I couldn’t watch anymore. I looked away, my breath shaking. I placed my hands on the warm egg, hoping to absorb some comfort from it. What a horrible world this poor child would be born into.
The shifter had followed me, knowing there was no hope of convincing me to stay. It followed me anyway. It sacrificed its life to help me save Goodboy’s egg. I blinked tears out of my eyes. I couldn’t cry right now. I had to focus. I had to move before Inejor found me here and killed me, too.
I heard a sound like shattering glass.
“WHERE IS MY EGG?” Inejor howled.
“I—I don’t have it,” Ariana stammered.
“Mama!”
I chanced a peek around the pedestal. Inejor held Ariana by the throat, lifting her off the ground. Kadria tugged on Inejor’s clothes, shrieking for her mother. The summons closed in on the guards, who had gathered together in a tight circle.
What could I do? I knew the summons’ weakness, but I had no weapon. I had the egg, but I didn’t know what to do with it now. Everyone was going to die.
Just like the shapeshifter.
“Bravery is having a fight bigger than yourself,” the shapeshifter had said.
I knew what I had to do.
I stood up, holding the glowing egg aloft.
“Stop!” I said.
Inejor dropped Ariana and rounded on me, kicking Kadria out of the way. Kadria scrambled into her mother’s arms as Inejor stalked toward me, his hands glowing.
“Wait,” I said. “Come any closer, and I’ll drop it.”
Inejor froze. “What?”
“I will drop this egg, and you’ll never get a wish.”
Inejor held up a hand at his side. His summons, who had been crawling toward me, froze as well. One of them still had blood all over its antlers. The shapeshifter’s blood.
“Speak,” Inejor said. “I’m listening.”
19
What does it mean to be brave? It isn’t about rushing recklessly into danger. It’s about knowing the risks and realizing that there is something greater worth fighting for. I finally understood.
“You’re going to let them all go and take me instead,” I said.
“You? You want to be my apprentice?” Inejor laughed. “What a pitiful request!”
“I’m not requesting,” I said. “I’m demanding. You let Ariana, Kadria, and all of the guards go, or I break this egg, and you never get your wish.”
“You don’t have it in you. You’re too soft.”
“Then use the wish to change me. Isn’t that what you were planning to do with Ariana, anyway?” I raised the egg higher. “This isn’t open for discussion.”
“Wait, wait, wait!”
But there was no time to wait.
The egg trembled in my hands. Golden light streamed from within, so bright it was blinding. The egg was hatching!
“Give me the egg! Give it to me now!”
A wish. I could have anything in the world. I could wish Inejor away. I could wish to have incredible power, enough power to defeat him, to ensure he never hurt any of us again.
“Summons! Kill her!”
I could wish Kadria to safety. I could wish us all out of the Forsaken Woods.
Beyond the glare of the egg’s light, I saw dark figures rushing toward me. Maybe this was how it would end, just before I got to make a wish. Maybe I would die like this.
With a shriek of fury, Goodboy tackled Inejor off his feet. She had finally cut herself loose from her binds, and she was after blood. She screeched with a mother’s ferocity as she raked her talons across his face. The summons turned on her. Six to one. She didn’t stand a chance. The guards leapt into the fray, but none of them had weapons.
I could wish that the Forsaken Woods didn’t exist. I could wish we had never been attacked, never been lost.
Goodboy planted herself between me and the summons, protecting her child. Someone — I guessed by his sheer size that it was Tor — had pinned Inejor in Goodboy’s place. I heard Kadria screaming and crying over the sound of chaos.
I could wish that none of this ever happened.
But then ... I never would have met Goodboy or learned that I could survive in the Forsaken Woods. I never would have understood what it was like to be brave, to meet my fears and overcome them. I never would have met the shapeshifter who sacrificed itself to save me. To save this egg. To save Kadria.
The shapeshifter had tricked me, lied to me, tried to lead me astray and turn me into whatever it was. It tried to make me forget. And yet…
Yet I knew if I wished all of this away, I would lose a part of myself with it.
Because some of it had to have been real, right? The hours we spent talking, sharing stories, laughing together. The times we rescued each other. Not all of it could be a lie. Once upon a time, the shapeshifter used to be somebody. It didn’t remember its life before it changed, but it must have come from somewhere. There must have been a before. I so badly wanted to believe that there was humanity in there still.
It had come back, after all. It had fought for us. And now it lay broken and bleeding on the ground. Maybe it would finally have peace when it died. Maybe it wouldn’t feel so alone anymore.
The golden light from the egg completely obscured my vision as it cracked open in my hands. I felt a rush as if I had just leapt off a cliff. My heart hammered, and my fingers tingled. I lost my breath. I had to close my eyes because the light was so bright.
I didn’t have time to choose a wish. Wishing was never about strategy, anyway. It was about what I truly wanted, and even if I didn’t realize it, the egg did.
I wish that the shapeshifter was restored to whoever it was before it got lost.
The energy rushed out of me. In a stream of golden light, the magic swirled around the shapeshifter’s pale, still form. It lifted the Tor imposter from the ground and then streamed into his mouth. It glowed brilliantly, suspended in midair. Then the energy vanished, and the shapeshifter fell to the earth.
It was a woman.
She knelt on her hands and knees, staring at the ground as if in shock. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Inejor no longer struggled to escape Tor’s grasp. Even his summons were still.
Trembling, the woman climbed weakly to her knees. She looked up at m
e.
And took my breath away.
I knew this woman. I knew her face. Her eyes. Even the clothing she wore was achingly familiar. It was the last outfit I had ever seen her wear: a red blouse with a black leather riding coat. Gray riding britches and a thick belt hung with myriad supplies and oddities, perfect for adventuring. Her ash blonde hair hung loosely around her shoulders, despite her best efforts to keep it out of her face. She had the faintest hint of gray hairs streaked throughout. She called them “fairy streaks.” This was exactly the way I pictured her when I closed my eyes.
She was the last person I expected to find and exactly the person I hadn’t known I had been looking for all along.
“Mother,” I whispered.
My story, as it turns out, was all about mothers and daughters finding each other.
20
Shauna Delaroe stared at her hands as if she had never seen them before. Were her memories still gone? There were no marks on her body, no sign that the summon had gored her. But perhaps the forest still held onto part of her.
But when she looked up at me, her face broke into a smile of recognition.
“Hannah?” she asked, uncertain.
Despite her mistake, my face split into a proud grin. My mother thought I looked like Hannah. That just felt right, somehow.
“No,” I said. “It’s Avery.”
“My little Avery! You’ve grown.”
Amid the broken shells of the egg, I held a perfectly white, slightly sticky baby gryphon. It looked up at me with big, gold eyes and trilled.
Inejor found his wits and blasted Tor off his chest. He scrambled to his feet, launching curses. “You … you … you used the wish on her? You could have wished for anything. Anything in the world! You used it on a pathetic shapeshifter! I’m going to kill you!”
Inejor launched toward me, murder in his too-bright eyes. A slightly bloodied Goodboy inserted herself between us, raising her wings high and growling low in her throat. But she didn’t need to attack him. Inejor didn’t get far before a cord of silver light wrapped around his throat and stopped him in his tracks.
The other end of the silver cord was held by my mother.
“I don’t know who you are,” she said, “but I can smell a warlock a day’s ride away. No filthy warlock is going to put his hands on my daughter and live to tell about it. Do you understand me?”
Inejor gurgled and choked. His summons leapt at my mother. She waved her free hand and silver sparks of light shot in all directions. The summons that didn’t dodge out of the way were instantly reduced to a shower of sparkling dust. My mother yanked on the cord, dragging Inejor a step backward.
“Perhaps I haven’t made myself clear,” she said.
Inejor waved his arm. The chord snapped.
“This isn’t over!” Inejor’s voice was even more grating as he gasped for air. “I will find her, Ariana. Someday the child will be mine! You cannot keep her safe from me!”
Before my mother could catch him with a second cord, Inejor and his summons were gone.
The baby gryphon nuzzled into my chest. I could feel it nudging my mind, trying to identify me. Wondering if I was its mother. I turned the gryphon toward Goodboy.
“That’s your mother,” I said.
The baby gryphon trilled with joy as its mother approached and nuzzled it.
“Avery?” I looked up at my mother. My beautiful mother. Alive and lost all along.
“You’re magic,” I said.
My mother nodded. “Do you remember the story I used to tell you when you were just a little girl? The one about the fairy? Your father rescued her, and in return, she promised him seven precious daughters.”
“I remember. It’s my favorite story.”
My mother smiled. “It’s not just a story. I am the fairy.”
From the top of Inejor’s lair, Goodboy was finally able to get above the trees. She carried us out of the forest two by two. When we were safely on the road outside of the Forsaken Woods, Goodboy loaded the guard who had lost a hand onto her back. He was joined by the lightest guard in the troop. They flew on ahead, back in the direction of Silverleaf, where the injured guard would be able to get medical attention. The rest of us had a day’s walk. The baby gryphon, a girl Kadria promptly named Mine, scampered around our feet, testing her legs. When she tired, I lifted her into my arms. She curled against my chest and purred like a kitten.
When we arrived at the gates of Silverleaf, my siblings and Goodboy were waiting for us. I could see Elias, standing on his toes and squinting toward us, searching for his wife and child. He must have come home as soon as he realized Ariana was missing.
I handed Mine over to Tor, who was particularly fond of the little gryphon. With my hands free, I broke into a run, throwing myself into Hannah’s arms.
“Avery! I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“We thought you were dead!” Lucy shrieked as she and Bailey squished themselves into our hug.
“I never should have run away.”
“I shouldn’t have held on so tightly.”
“Thank you for everything you did for me. I love you. You know that, right?”
“Yes, I know.” Hannah pulled back and smiled tenderly at me. She had our mother’s smile.
Speaking of which…
“You’re all so grown now,” my mother said from behind me.
Hannah looked up. Her mouth fell open.
“M-mother?” It was Alistair who spoke first, his voice trembling with disbelief.
My mother shifted her weight anxiously. She held out her arms, blinking back tears. “Ali-bear,” she said.
“Mama!” My brother scooped her into his arms and swung her around. As soon as her feet were back on the ground, she found herself in the middle of a huge group hug. She did have seven daughters and two sons, after all.
Three guards were killed in the initial conflict with Inejor. The survivors were sent to the infirmary, even Tor, who insisted he was fine, despite the fact that he had a summon’s antler embedded in his arm.
Goodboy, covered in bruises and scratches, agreed to stay until her daughter was strong enough to fly the long distance back to their home in the northern mountains. We converted an old shed into a makeshift nest for her, as far away from the horses as possible. Apparently, gryphons eat horses, though Goodboy promised not to — as long as someone was willing to watch Mine while she hunted. Mine had several fans who were more than happy to stay with her while her mother searched for food.
My sister Hallie, the artist of the family, helped me draw pictures of what Inejor looked like. He sent the pictures to all the cities in the kingdom, warning all to stay away from the warlock.
“How can you protect her from him when you don’t even know where he is or when he’ll attack?” I asked.
Ariana watched Kadria chase Mine around the floor. The corridor rang with her happy laughter and the gryphon’s excited cheeps.
“I don’t know,” Ariana said. “There is so much darkness in the world. But I can’t let that control her life. The pull of her magic will always be a part of her. She was…” Ariana swallowed, “...bred that way. I will just have to be honest with her, teach her all that I can, and pray that she makes the right decision. Our magic isn’t like your mother’s. Hers is a special part of who she is. Ours was never meant to be. There is no way to use our power without hurting others. I only hope that Kadria will love and value those around her as much as she does now. That’s the best that I can do for her.”
My mother joined us. She had spent the last several days in various meetings with Hannah and Alistair. When she wasn’t in meetings, she made sure to sit down with each of us individually. Bailey and Lucy had no memory of her; they had been too young when she went missing.
She sat next to me on the bench and gazed nostalgically at all the trinkets from her past adventures, lovingly preserved and proudly displayed all these years.
I swung my feet, gloriously bare after days stuffed inside too-large boots. “I used to spend hours in this hall, just staring at these, imagining all of your adventures.”
“They’re not over yet.” My mother sat up straighter. “I’m leaving.”
“What?! But you just got here!”
“Your father is still out there somewhere. Dead or alive, I have to know what became of him. I will scour the world until I find him. Or his remains. I can’t live without knowing.”
I hugged myself. “I understand,” I said.
But why did she have to leave so soon? I barely knew her. There was so much we hadn’t talked about yet. So much I could learn from her.
What if she never came back?
My mother fiddled with the lace on her blouse. “It’s a dangerous journey I have ahead of me. But…” she cleared her throat. Was she nervous? “Avery, would you like to come with me?”
“Really?”
“You don’t have to if you would rather stay here. But with your Fae Speaking gift, I thought it would be—”
“Yes! Yes, of course I want to come! I want to help you find Father. We’ll do it together.”
My mother smiled up at me. My beautiful mother.
“That’s my girl,” she said. “Let’s go have an adventure.”
~The End~
About the Author
Leslie Colleen “L.C.” Ireland is an elementary school arts specialist by day and an author by night. She writes young adult and middle grade fantasy novels and plays for kids. She lives in Ogden, UT with her husband and cat, Mystique. L.C. absolutely loves to hear from readers, so if you have any feedback or just want to say hello, drop her an email at [email protected]!
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