“Speaking of those women, Tristan revealed to me that Desdemona used the ring to make Prince Gregory’s soldiers attack Christabel’s carriage. The ring allows her to have total control over every creature in the forest even when she isn’t there. She wanted to start a war between Oloredian and Kalnoreth,” Angelina said.
“So that’s why the soldiers attacked me?” Christabel gasped.
“Yes,” Angelina replied.
Tareth, still angry about having lost his journal, decided to go back to Ethermoor City to get to work on subjugating the people of Ethermoor to his control. He could not do it through dominance, control, and coercion, oh no. That wouldn’t work. He knew that joblessness and a lack of education were keeping the peasants poor and starving.
No, it was much easier to control people with money. He could just conjure it up for people now with Tristan’s powers. Businesses that were previously struggling would prosper, thus being able to hire more people. Schools would be able to provide better education for the students, and money would be no object in medical research. Making people prosperous would make them more likely to turn a blind eye to the atrocities happening around them. Atrocities such as him killing the sorcerers.
Giving them the delusion they were free was the most ingenious idea he’d ever had. The people would believe they were free while being completely dependent on him.
Willow and her friends talked all day about fairy magic, sorcery, and all the different kinds of fairies and magical creatures that used to live in Ethermoor. After the sunset that evening, Zara led them out of the cave and through the forest. “Now, when we jump into the ring, we should hold hands to ensure that we all get to the same place in Faemoor. I know how to get to The Station,” Zara said.
Angelina asked, “What’s ‘The Station’?”
T”he Station is where the rings in the fairy world are that lead to the permanent and dying mushroom rings in the other worlds. That is where we go to get to the other rings.”
“Tell me, is there a ring that can lead to Ethermoor City?”.
“We will have to see once we get to The Station. There are lists of all open rings in the seven magical realms.”
Willow sure did not want to risk getting Tareth’s attention again, and she knew it would take weeks to travel back to Ethermoor City on foot.
By that time, night had fallen. Willow looked forward to traveling to the fairy world for the first time. “I hooked bottles of fairy dust to your horses’ reins so that they can travel through the rings too,” Zara said. They all grabbed the reins of their horses and followed her through the forest.
Off in the distance, Willow saw a faint blue light glowing through the trees. As they walked closer, she could see that the light was coming from a spot on the ground. Several fairies were singing and dancing around it. “Is that where the ring is?” Willow asked.
Zara smiled and said, “That’s where the ring is. We would have taken you inside of it as soon as we found you, but morning broke and the magic doesn’t work in the daytime.” They approached the ring, and the other fairies scattered away at the sight of the strangers.
Willow wanted to meet them, but she knew they needed to get back to Ethermoor City. Willow, Zara, Cristabel, Angelina, and Riordan stood on the edge of the ring and held hands. Willow held her breath in anticipation for her first attempt at ring jumping.
Starfire and Jinx Lightning whinnied, and the other two horses tried to back away from the ring. Starfire whinnied and shook her mane.
“Now, on the count of three, jump. One, two . . . three!” Zara shouted. When she said three, all of them leaped off the ground. They felt a strong force pulling them into the ring, and their horses were pulled in along with them.
Willow landed on the ground with a force that nearly knocked the wind out of her. The horses all shrieked in fright as they hit the ground. Willow looked around and saw that she was lying in the middle of the greenest forest she had ever seen. The grass was so soft that one could sleep in it as a bed, and the scents of flowers wafted through her nostrils. She saw a strange ethereal glow illuminating the forest. Willow wondered if it was ever nighttime there.
“Where are we?” Christabel asked.
“This is the Tangorian Forest. We call it The Terminal because it is the forest in Faemoor that connects all the fairy rings in all the worlds that have magic.” Willow looked up and saw hundreds of tiny lights floating through the treetops.
“The rings are this way,” Zara said. The others followed her through the forest. As they approached the rings, Willow could see thousands of fairies floating and walking through the forest in the same direction that they were going.
They walked until they came to the place in the forest where the rings were. Willow was thunderstruck by the thousands of fairies crowding around the seven rings that led to the magical realms. Massive trees circled each ring. Words that glowed brightly were written on the trunks of them. As Willow looked at the trunks, she noticed that some words appeared on the trunks, and others disappeared.
Zara flew up to the top of one of the trunks and then returned to them. She said, “The ring that leads to Ethermoor City is still active.” Willow felt a wave of relief wash over her.
“Are those the names of the places where the rings are active?” Angelina asked, pointing at one of the trees with the lighted words on it.
“Yes, they are,” Zara replied.
S”o how do the rings from the other worlds to here work?” Riordan asked.
“The rings in the other worlds lead to this forest, just like the one we jumped through. These are the rings that lead out of Faemoor to the rings in the other worlds. A mortal can’t go to the Dead Realms. It is illegal, and fairy dust is not able to take you there.”
They approached the edge of the Ethermoorian realm ring. “Now, just say the name of the place you want to go, and if there is an open ring there, a light will appear in the ring. Jump into the ring, and it will take you there.
“Okay,” Willow said with audible uncertainty in her voice.
“Watch me. I will tell you how to do it.” Zara shouted, “Ethermoor City!” A strange wormhole with swirling red clouds appeared in the center of the ring. Zara stepped into the ring and jumped into the wormhole as if it were nothing to her. It closed up.
Willow decided to be brave and said, “Ethermoor City!” The wormhole opened up again in the same spot. “Come on, Starfire, let’s jump in!” she said. Starfire followed her into the ring. Willow jumped into the wormhole, and Starfire followed.
There was a flash of light. Willow saw that she, Starfire, and Zara were standing beside a small pile of dirt in the middle of an alleyway. Willow saw a tiny circle of mushrooms in the dirt that was only about five inches in diameter. The mushrooms were only about an inch tall and half an inch wide. Willow saw a wormhole open up in the center of the ring.
“Watch out!” Zara shouted. Willow was knocked into a trash bin by a heavy force hitting her. “You need to stand out of the way of the portal!” Zara said as she reached down and helped Willow to her feet.
Willow looked up and saw Riordan and his horse standing in the spot that she had been standing in. Riordan stepped out of the way of the wormhole. Angelina came through the wormhole next, followed by Christabel.
Willow asked, “How is it possible that we all traveled through that tiny ring there?” She pointed to the ring of mushrooms. Zara smiled and said, “Oh, size does not matter when traveling through the fairy rings. If a part of your body enters a ring, even if it is just a tiny piece of your skin, you automatically can travel through it.”
Willow remembered the stories that Tareth hated fairies. “Do you know how to hide your wings?” Willow asked Zara.
“I do, but I cannot stay in this world since this is the last day for the Ethermoor City ring. I must go now and leave you three. Dawn will be breaking at any moment.”
They bade goodbye, and Zara went through the ring. Willow noticed something st
range about the city as they were walking through the street. Signs that read “We’re hiring!” “JOBS,” and “Help Wanted” hung in the windows of shops. There were also people talking to the homeless on the street and handing them bags. Willow saw them picking up trash and smiling. She walked up to a man handing out the bags and asked, “What is going on here?”
The man replied, “Last night, the city council voted to hire the homeless to help clean up the street.”
Under normal circumstances, Willow would have been thrilled that the needy people were able to work now, but she had an odd feeling that there was something very off about it. They picked up newspapers from newsstands as they walked through the street. “JOBS! UNEMPLOYMENT RATE LOWEST IN 50 YEARS” and “ECONOMY HAS BEST DAY IN 200 YEARS!” were the headlines.
“Let’s go to my grandparents’ house while we formulate a plan to get into the castle,” Riordan said.
They walked until they arrived at Marian’s house. They knocked on the door. Marian opened the door and smiled.
“You are all just in time for breakfast!” she said. They walked inside.
Riordan asked, “Do you mind if I put these papers on the table? We are trying to figure out what happened in this city during the time we were gone.”
After breakfast, they all sat in the living room, eager to find out what the newspaper articles said. Riordan poured the firepants soot on the headlines. Little sparks flew up from the places that the soot hit the paper, but nothing happened. “That’s strange. That’s very rare,” Riordan mumbled. He furrowed his brow.
“What do you mean?” Angelina asked.
“It means that there is a truth caused by something dishonest,” Riordan said.
“Meaning?” Willow asked.
“Meaning that while yes, there are more jobs and people are happier, there is something dishonest lurking beneath the surface. Something that is not immediately apparent,” Riordan said.
“How can happiness be caused by something dishonest?” Willow asked.
Angelina said, “Sometimes when people are more fortunate, they do not notice evil things happening because it is not affecting them. They don’t notice the evil.”
Riordan asked, “What do you mean?”
“It happened in my world all the time. When people have money and a job, people are less likely to be unhappy with their leaders and are not as likely to question their leadership. It is the best tool that Tareth could use to conquer the country. And now that he has Tristan’s abilities, who knows what he can do!”
“Keeping people paid and healthy is one surefire way to stop a rebellion. That . . . and not allowing newspapers to tell the truth,” Christabel said.
Riordan remembered that was what Banderon had commanded the newspapers to do when he started suspecting that the Faeblood Wraiths were murdering people. “I can’t tell you how many times Banderon threatened us if we told the truth about the Faeblood Wraiths. The government told us to say that the people died of natural causes, and the police did whatever they could to silence the people who saw them.”
Willow pondered what Tareth could be planning that he needed to keep people happy on such a massive scale. And how would they convince the townspeople that he was evil if he was helping them so much?
Chapter Eleven
Willow read through the papers to see if there was anything unusual about the news. She picked up one sitting in a shelf in Marian’s living room and read it. Most of the news in it was good, except for one article on page A3 that was about bandits attacking a merchant in the Azodar Forest. Or at least, the news stories that were in the paper were probably the ones that Tareth wanted people to read, and those stories were good.
Willow wondered how they should proceed. “So, how are we going to go about invading the castle?”
Angelina said, “Have you even remotely thought about what it takes to rule a country? We’re just going to . . . go and conquer a leader without a plan for what is going to happen afterward?”
“Aren’t you the one who lives in a world where people choose their leaders?”
“Well, yes, but that takes a lot of knowledge and effort to do! My mom’s election campaigns in America take a lot of money to run!”
Christabel asked, “What’s an election campaign?”
“In my country, we choose our leaders. Our leader is called a president, and people cast their votes for them.”
“You pick your ruler?” Christabel asked, wide-eyed.
“Yes. Almost everyone who is a government official in my country is elected by the people. My mother is a state representative for the district that the city of Boston is in.”
“Well, I can help you rule. After all, I have been somewhat involved in government my whole life,” Christabel said.
A thought occurred to Willow. She turned to the article about the merchant getting attacked. “Riordan, pour your firepants soot on this article,” she said. Riordan opened his can of firepants soot and poured its contents on the paper. The letters began moving around on the paper and rearranged themselves.
The headline now read: “Princess Christabel Arthuria of Kalnoreth Missing.”
The article now read:
“At precisely 9:00 a.m. Tharielsday morning, Princess Christabel Arthuria’s carriage was traveling down the Centrarius Way outside Hallowdorn in Kalnoreth. Princess Hannah Arthuria saw the bodies of slain bodyguards lying around Christabel’s carriage, alongside Oloredian soldiers. Princess Christabel was not at the scene of the carnage. She is thought to have been kidnapped.”
“That’s horrendous!” Christabel gasped. Her face turned white with fear when Willow finished reading the article aloud to her.
Boy, it sure looks like I am going to be in Ethermoor for a while, Angelina thought. She couldn’t leave her new friends when they were in so much trouble.
“What is Tharielsday?” Angelina asked.
“A name for one of the days of the week. Tharielsday was two days ago, and this is Ristiansday,” Willow said.
“I have an idea for how we can get into the castle,” Christabel said.
“What is it?” Angelina asked.
“Tareth and the others did not see me with you when they broke into the inn. I was thinking that I could walk into the castle while causing the least amount of suspicion. The servants will surely let you in if they see you with me!” Christabel said.
“Ha, ha, ha . . . Remember that he wants me dead,” Willow said sarcastically.
“Me too, but he may not be likely to kill me directly because it might be too politically dangerous for him to do so. Plus, I’m sure that people are looking for me,” Christabel said.
“Why don’t Willow and I go into the castle by ourselves like we did before? I turned into a firefly and she turned into a cloud. No one will see us go in,” Angelina said.
Christabel’s face suddenly turned red. She turned to Angelina and snapped, “He and Desdemona tried to kill me to start a war between Kalnoreth and Oloredian, remember? I want to face him and show him that Desdemona didn’t succeed!”
Riordan said, “I have an idea for how we can get in there.” He pulled out the bottle of dust that he had used to turn Willow and Angelina into butterflies. “This dust turns people into butterflies for an hour. We can use it to get inside the castle.”
“Yes, but we will be stuck being butterflies for an hour. We can’t just change back when we need to. I’m going to need to be in my human form when I perform my trick,” Angelina replied.
“Oh, right,” Riordan mumbled as he put the bottle of dust back in his bag.
Willow flipped through the journal.
“There’s a description of how to remove a sorcerer’s power and use it temporarily. According to the journal, the liquid that he used to detect fairy magic can take an essence of their magic out of a hair. It can be used to sort of ‘borrow’ a person’s magical abilities. You have to drink one teaspoon of the stuff for every hour that you want to use their magic,
” Willow said. She turned to Angelina and asked, “What kinds of animals can you transform into?”
Angelina replied, “Well, I’ve only transformed into a bird, a firefly, and a wolf.”
“We can use Angelina’s powers to transform ourselves into parrots and disguise ourselves as Christabel’s pets.”
“How do we know the stuff isn’t going to kill us?” Riordan asked.
“What is it made out of?” Christabel asked.
“We haven’t figured it out yet at the library. We think it came from another world since the ingredients are unknown,” Riordan replied.
“Can I see a bottle of it?” Angelina asked.
Riordan pulled out a bottle from his bag and handed it to her.
She pulled the cap off and smelled the potion inside. Suddenly, the names of different flowers popped into her mind. She wondered if her powers could determine the name of plant ingredients in a mixture. “Merign, penanor, hanvogar, and jananor are the ingredients. The mixture is perfectly safe to drink,” she said.
“How do you know that?” Riordan asked.
“Those names came to my mind when I smelled it. It was as if my magic was giving me a message.”
“Those are the names of flowers that only exist in Faemoor,” Riordan said.
“How did he get the fairy dust to go there?” Christabel asked.
“Who knows.”
“Who shall we test first?” Christabel asked.
“I guess we can test out my abilities first,” Willow said.
“Can you pull out a piece of your hair, please?” Riordan asked Willow. She pulled on one of her curls, broke off a strand of hair, and handed it to Riordan. He dipped her hair in the bottle, and the bottle glowed brightly. He walked into the kitchen and returned with a teaspoon.
He gave the bottle to Angelina, and she poured herself a teaspoon of the liquid. All of a sudden, she felt electricity pumping through her veins. Her hair stood up all over her head. The others laughed at the sight. It went back down as her body absorbed Willow’s magic.
The Night Sorceresses Page 22