by LJ Rivers
“Your personal guarantee? Is that what you told the Baker brothers when you allowed the youngest to stay? That you would personally guarantee to keep their secret from the rest of the townspeople as long as they followed your every whim and command?”
“That is simply not true.”
I ignored him and instead turned my palms outwards and let two globes of fire ignite. “Well, the Baker brothers made the fatal mistake of forgetting who their prisoners’ friend was. As if their fire—your fire—could hurt my friends.” The words tasted bitter in my mouth, but I had to give them the whole package. I let the globes ascend and expanded them at the same time, forming a thirty-foot wide flaming arch over us. I laughed, although not as impressively as the reeve had. “As if their fire could ever threaten the heiress of the Avalonian throne.” If I raised my voice any more, I would be screaming. I was addressing the Mags behind the reeve more than him. “As your princess, I will grant you the chance to turn away now, return to your homes and let my friends be. This town has tried, and failed miserably, to kill them once. I will not allow you to try again.”
To highlight my point, I called on my telekinesis power. The road was lined with large guard stones, ten feet apart. I pulled four of them from the ground and let them hover above the Mags.
The Satyr glanced, uninterested, at my display. “Let’s not turn this into something we’ll all regret, you most of all. I simply cannot allow your Donnal friends to leave while we are all still here. I appeal to your sense of reason, Princess. This will not end well if you defy the wishes of this town.”
A white wolf, flanked by her two pack-members, stalked across the yard, heads low to the ground and ears pointing forward. Jen displayed her fangs in a sneer and stopped by my side.
“I see,” the Satyr said, nodding slowly. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
One of Brendan’s mantras when we were training with our foils was the classic “Attack is the best defence.” There was no point waiting for the reeve and his mob to make the first move.
I flicked my wrists downward, slamming the burning arch into the ground. It exploded on impact, throwing several of the Mags backwards. The black bear roared when his fur caught fire and threw himself to the ground, rolling around to quell the flames.
The Hopkins wolves had moved further to the side and charged at me. I cast a force field around the smaller of them, Osian, leaving him clawing and biting at the inside of it. Rhod altered his course and avoided the second force field by a hair. Before I could launch another, his paws slammed on my chest, throwing me several feet backwards. I braced for the impact, but it never came. Instead, I found myself inside a force field, hovering inches above the ground. Rhod’s four-inch fangs hacked at the near invisible barrier, snarling and barking at me.
I glanced behind him, where my grandfather stood with his palms pointed at me, holding the force field.
“Look out!” I shouted, but it was too late. A lighting bolt hit his right leg. He buckled and fell to the ground, flames engulfing his trousers. He screamed in pain, and the force field that so far had stopped Rhod Hopkins from ripping my aorta from my neck, vanished.
I held my arm in front of me as if it would stop his powerful bite.
An immense, brown shadow flew over me, and the weight of the silver-grey wolf disappeared faster than the force field had. Rhys, in his grizzly form, held the wolf in his paws and hurled him into a stack of unused fence posts. Rhod whimpered and got back on his feet. He didn’t attack, however, but instead ran behind the stable.
I stood and yelled at Brendan. “He’s trying to get to—”
The air escaped my lungs in a gasp, and I skidded across the yard. Tiny pebbles and rocks tore into the flesh on my hip and thigh, as well as into my palms. Blood poured from dozens of cuts. I tried to get back to my feet, but was too dizzy. The clatter of hoofs came closer and stopped right in front of me.
“This ends now!” the Satyr bellowed. “Stop resisting or die.”
Something grabbed hold of my ankle. At first, I thought it might be one of the other Mags, but then the all too familiar jolt of electricity sent spasms through my muscles. The Satyr held a leash of sorts, the end of which was looped around my foot.
He fell on all fours, bending his head so his giant horns scraped the dirt. He was only a couple of feet away from skewering me. I raised my hand, but my force field wouldn’t react. My powers were gone, cut off by the electricity this town didn’t allow.
“No!” Charlie screamed in the distance. “Get off me.”
I turned. Two men had grabbed her and were dragging her across the yard. Brendan had jumped off the patio and was waving a metal rod at a silver-grey wolf with a white tail tip. Next to it stood an old Sorcerer, throwing fireballs at my boyfriend. The burning orbs bounced off a force field. The field seemed to shrink and was only inches from Brendan’s body.
“Give up, Ruby,” the goat-like man whispered. “You can’t win this.”
From the corner of my eye, I could see the silhouette of my grandfather slapping at his burning leg with his bare hands. Rhys stood a bit further down the yard with a wolf and two lynxes hanging by their teeth on his arms and shoulder. He tried to shake them off, but a fourth Mag came at him. The Fae looked at least ninety years old, but still managed to envelop the grizzly’s head in a force field, which he shrank to stop the bear from breathing. Rhys got hold of one of the lynxes. As he sank to his knees, the bear ripped the cat in two as if it were a paper cut-out of a lynx. The Fae let go of the force field, gawking at the sight. Rhys gasped for air, while the other wolf and lynx gnawed at him.
I had to give up. Without my powers, I couldn’t save my friends. If the Satyr kept his word, Charlie and Brendan would only be taken prisoners. As if to remind me of my defeat, the Satyr sent another shock through me.
Pain is acceptable. Quitting is not.
Another one of Brendan’s mantras echoed in my head. And along with it, the image of Mum, as she was paralysed by the electric collar, atop the London Eye.
I closed my eyes and reached for the deepest depths of my magic core. It was there, my magic, responding weakly to my calling. Thin strands reached out to me, throwing themselves like ropes to a drowning man. I tried to grab hold of them, latching on to one single thread of magic.
And then the light came.
Whiter and brighter than the sun itself, it flashed over the Morgana farm with such force that it made a roaring sound like a hurricane. Although I had my eyes closed, I could see through the pink veils of my eyelids. The Satyr held his hands up to shield himself from the whiteness.
I latched on. A thread of my magic pierced through my skin. I used it to push a tiny force field around my leg, underneath the electric leash. As I expanded the field, the leash burst, and I was free.
Below the patio, Brendan lay sprawled on top of the Sorcerer who had tried to burn him. The white-tailed wolf was running in a circle, eyes closed, with its tail between its legs.
The light went out, and though it was still morning and the sun was up, it immediately felt dark as the night. I knew it would only last for a few seconds. I crawled over to my grandfather and placed my hand on his burning leg. He was unconscious. I pushed my healing into him for a second or two.
“I’m all right,” he rasped. “Go help your friend.”
I got back to my feet and looked for Charlie. The two Mags that had dragged her away lay on the road, both exactly one head shorter than when I had seen them seconds earlier. Jen and Erica were hobbling towards the house, blood dripping from their mouths, and with Charlie safely between them.
Brendan was back on his feet as well, and used the metal rod—it looked like an oven poker—as a makeshift foil. The Sorcerer had no chance. Just as I thought Brendan was about to impale the Mag’s heart, he switched his grip on the iron bar and smashed it in his opponent’s head. The Sorcerer fell limp to the ground.
The Satyr was back on his hoofs and had regained his sight. He look
ed from side to side before fixing his stare on me. I moved towards him, slowly. He lowered his head again, his horns pointing at me. That was what I had hoped he would do.
I figured one fencepost would be enough, but just to be on the safe side, I hit him with two. He copied the Sorcerer’s move and dropped straight to the ground.
An engine rumbled behind me. Rhys had shifted back and screeched the Land Rover to a halt in front of the patio. He said something to Brendan, who nodded and jumped up the three steps. Together, they lifted my grandmother on board, wheelchair and all. Mari also climbed in.
“We’re leaving,” I shouted to my grandfather, who was now holding off a wolf in a force field. It was Osian, who had escaped the field I had captured him in, but could no longer hold when the Satyr had electrocuted me.
Llewellyn nodded. “I’ll jump on when you pass me.”
Jen and her pack were chasing the remaining Mags down the road.
“It’s not over,” shouted Rhys. “They’ll come back with more.”
He rolled the car over the yard, careful not to run over the reeve. I couldn’t help but admire the humanity of the gesture, even if I wanted to kill the Satyr myself. But he was knocked out, and the Fae in me wouldn’t allow me to take his life.
I jumped onto the side step on the passenger side and gripped the mirror. A ball of orange fur climbed up my leg and jumped into the cabin. Kit sat on top of Charlie’s backpack in her lap and looked up at me with an almost human-like gaze.
Rhys slowed down when we reached my grandfather.
“Back off, or I will disintegrate you,” I yelled at the Mag that tried to attack him.
The man nodded reluctantly and stepped aside. “You’ll all die later anyway,” he said in a hiss.
He was most likely right.
I looked inside the cabin, where Charlie and Mari sat next to Rhys. They were all in danger. After generations in Perllanafal, the Morganas would no longer be safe here, and though I might be able to escape with my friends back to England, my grandparents were a different matter. Even if we managed to get away, they would hate the modern world. There was really only one choice. “Take us to your boat, Rhys. We have to get to the island.”
My grandfather hopped in the back, where Brendan sat and held onto Lili’s wheelchair, Bailey curled up in her lap. Llewellyn grabbed onto it, too, smiling at his wife.
“So, you had some light left in you?”
“Some,” she whispered. “But I think it’s all gone now.” Her voice trailed off, and her head slumped to the side.
“Lili?” Llewellyn cried. “Lili Helene? Don’t leave me now!”
Chapter Twenty-Five
As the car rolled slowly in between the small boat houses by the harbour, I was still holding my hands on my grandmother’s chest. I had tried to push some of my healing into her, but I already knew it wouldn’t save her. I could feel her pulse, a mere hint of it, but it was there. My grandfather was holding her hands, the same hands that had shone the white light over the Morgana farm and saved us all from being killed by the reeve’s mob.
The core of a Fae. The reason for her magic. To save lives.
We hadn’t met any of the townspeople on our way, which was partly because the harbour itself was outside the main streets, and partly because Rhys had driven off the road and over a few fields to stay out of sight. I had no illusions that we would keep clear of them all. Besides, it wouldn’t be too long until the Satyr and his remaining Mags were back on our tails. And, as Rhys had said, they would bring more.
An army of Mags.
Brendan jumped off the platform and reached for the wheelchair.
“I got it,” I said, and used my magic to float it gently down off the car.
“You can cut the engine now,” Llewellyn said and knocked on the driver’s door.
“This is where we say goodbye, hen ffrind,” replied Rhys.
“What?” My mouth fell open.
Charlie had gone out through the passenger door, and Mari closed it behind her. She rolled down the window. “We can’t go with you. If you open the porth, which I’m sure you will, we have to go with you. And … I can’t do that.”
“Ebrill,” I said.
“If we leave, we will never see her again. If we stay, they will kill us. So we run.”
“You can’t,” Charlie said. “Commander Travers—”
I put my hand on Charlie’s arm. “He can find them later.” I looked at Rhys. “When you can, get in touch with Mag-Ops in London, and ask for Commander Travers, OK?”
“Ifanc Donnal,” Rhys said. “I promise we will contact your boss.”
Charlie smiled and nodded. “I know you will.”
I reached in and gave Mari a hug. “I hope you find your daughter. Go to Chester first. Ask for the way to the sanctuary. Tabitha is there. She and Hugo might be able to help find Ebrill.”
“Thank you, Ruby. And good luck.”
A big hand, the size of a ham, patted mine. “Go do what you are meant to do,” Rhys said.
I swallowed. “I will try.”
"You will do.” He winked. "You will do, my princess. My queen!”
He steered the old Land Rover back between the boat houses and onto the road. No point in hiding from the townspeople now. The car gained speed, which in its case meant about thirty miles per hour, and was soon gone over the hills behind the Morgana farm.
Brendan and Charlie had helped Llew get Lili and her wheelchair down to Rhys’ boat. Behind the houses, across a field, three wolves were approaching fast. The sheep bleated and scattered as their most mortal enemies ran past them.
In the distance, the top of the stable was all I could see of the Morgana farm. Beyond it lay the rest of the peninsula, the road to Pwllheli, North Wales and all of the “outside” the townspeople feared so much. Behind me, where the boat was pointing, lay the island where we would either find a way to Avalon or wait until the same townspeople came to kill us.
The odds were stacked against us, but as Jen, Erica, and Jack came leaping between the boathouses and jumped into the boat, I felt a stronger pull towards the island than the “outside”. My flat in London and my house in Chester, none of them seemed as important as the cave on Bardsey Island. It was an insane plan, a dream, but it felt right.
As the boat started gliding away from the harbour, I stared at the small town of Perllanafal. The first settlement of the first Magicals that escaped from Avalon. Would I ever see it again? Would I ever see the birthplace of my mum again?
The stable was still visible. As were the growing number of black dots moving down towards the town.
Brendan stepped up beside me and put his arm around me. “We got a head start, but I don’t know if it will be enough.”
“How’s Lili?” I asked. I would have gone below deck to sit with her, but couldn’t quite pull away from the view.
“Better. She’s awake.”
“She saved us.” I sniffled. “I have to try to save her.”
Brendan hugged me closer. “It’s in her blood. Your blood.”
We stood there for a couple of minutes, watching the black dots that were most likely the start of our demise move closer to the town centre.
“They still have to alert the rest of whatever mob they feel necessary to catch us,” I said. “And who knows, maybe Rhys had the fastest boat in Perllanafal?”
Brendan looked at me, then at the glacially slow movement of the water outside the boat’s railing, then back at me again.
“What? It could be,” I said, shrugging.
My gaze locked on a wooden sign on the side of the steering cabin. A tear rolled down my cheek as I read the name of the boat. “Ebrill”. I sent a silent prayer to my grandmother, Lady Nimue, hoping beyond hope that the Wogans would find their daughter.
“Lili’s magic is returning, along with some colour in her cheeks,” said my grandfather as he came out of the cabin. “Gave us a bit of a scare.”
My shoulders dropped an inch.
“She really did. I thought—”
“There they come,” Charlie said, pointing at the shore. “Not the Satyr and his Mags. Look up the road.”
My heart skipped a beat. Blue lights flooded the horizon. The sound hadn’t reached us yet, as the boat’s diesel engine was too loud. But the wonderful sight of the police cars was just as perfect in silent mode, I thought.
Charlie held her sat-phone up. “Wait thirty seconds, and you’ll see something cool.”
I furrowed my brows. “What do you mean?”
“Duh! I said wait, didn’t I?”
Twenty seconds later, a flapping sound mixed with the steady rhythm of the old diesel engine.
“Are you kidding?” Brendan chuckled.
Charlie grinned. “I said he’d bring an army, didn’t I?”
From the east, across the bay Rhys had called Ffos Penfras, four dragonflies shot through the sky.
“The Valkyries!” My jaw dropped as the four helicopters approached the ancient town of the first Magicals on Earth.
Charlie tilted her head at me. “The what?”
“The song that plays when the choppers come over the trees in Apocalypse Now.”
“Oh, right. Of course you had to connect this to a film.” She smiled and put the phone back to her ear. “I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t reveal my location at the moment. I know, but you’ll just have to forgive me. Hargraves out.” She hit a button to cut the call. “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
Then she threw the sat-phone overboard.
“Are you crazy?” I shouted.
“If Travers knows where we’re headed, he will have no choice but to follow. It’s in his blood, to use a popular term.”