‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’ Brent sounded shocked.
‘Me neither.’ I could picture Wilfred shaking his head. ‘All those goblins with their chests ripped open.’
‘Stop it.’ Isla’s voice cracked like a whip. ‘She saved our lives.’
Chests ripped open?
‘Are you sure she’s okay?’ A feather-light hand pressed against my forehead.
‘Her familiar would be upset if there were something wrong.’
I could feel Scruffy; a soft, warm weight on the centre of my chest.
‘But it’s been five days.’
Five days?
I felt Scruffy move. It sounded like he yawned and then scratched at his ear with his hind paw. He sniffed a couple of times and then a wet nose pressed to my cheek. He let out a little ruff and jumped off my chest.
Five days? Mum would be in a right state.
‘What’s he doing?’ It sounded like Wilfred was trying not to laugh.
‘I’m not sure,’ Wolfgang said. ‘What’s up boy?’
‘It looks like he wants you to go somewhere,’ Isla said.
‘Either that or he really likes your shirt.’ Wilfred barked out a laugh.
I could picture Scruffy tugging on Wolfgang’s shirt sleeve with his little teeth.
‘What is it boy?’ Wolfgang’s voice came from right above me.
Scruffy’s weight reappeared on my chest and he ruffed and licked me on the forehead.
Cool hands cradled my face and I felt the light tingle I associated with Wolfgang messing around in my head.
‘She’s back,’ he exclaimed.
The tingle intensified.
Help, I screeched at him.
Isadora?
Oh thank the Great Dark Sky, he could hear me.
Yes.
What happened?
Galanta trapped me. I escaped but I’ve got bonds on me.
I wasn’t sure why I didn’t mention Santanas. I knew without a doubt that if Aethan found out the truth he would forbid my returning to Trillania. To be quite truthful I wasn’t really in a hurry to, now that I knew Emerald was safe, but I also wasn’t going to tolerate him dictating what I could do.
More tingling along my arms and legs.
Ahh. I see. Quite a neat trick.
‘Wolfgang,’ Isla said. ‘Is she going to be all right?’
‘Quite all right my dear.’
Join with me. This will be easier with the two of us.
I imagined myself reaching out to take his hands in mine. Immediately I felt him there with me, inside my body.
Nicely done. See here.
He directed me to my legs where black smoke ghosted around my ankles.
We’re going to blow it away.
That simple?
If you can imagine it, it will be.
Together we blew towards the smoke ring. I imagined it pulling apart and it shifted and swirled and finally tore apart and floated away. I sighed inwardly as I stretched my toes.
‘She moved her legs.’
I heard footsteps as the others moved closer.
Now your arms.
I flexed my arms against the smoke but it held me firm.
Not like that. Wolfgang sounded amused. Blow it away.
A picture of the three little pigs popped into my head as I huffed and I puffed. As with my legs, the smoke fragmented into tiny black whiffs and floated away.
‘That was all you,’ Wolfgang said as I stretched my arms above my head.
I opened my eyes and sat up, reaching out to rub Scruffy’s head.
‘You’re alive.’ Wilfred scooped me up in a bear hug. ‘What happened?’
I pulled a face as he put me down. ‘I’m not sure.’ Even if I wanted to tell them the truth I couldn’t have, not with Isla there. The Border Guard Secrecy Spell would have prevented that.
I met Aethan’s probing stare and shrugged my shoulders. ‘I’m not,’ I lied. ‘Where’s Tiny? Is he safe?’
‘He’s fine,’ Isla said. ‘He wanted to come, but we convinced him to go back to his home. If he’d gone missing at the same time as we did, they may have worked out that he helped us.’
I was sad I hadn’t gotten to thank him but relieved he was alive and well.
‘Very brave giant, that one,’ Wolfgang said.
I clambered up off the pile of blankets I had been lying on and bent forwards, stretching out my lower back. ‘That feels good.’ It felt like I hadn’t moved for a month. ‘Where are we?’
‘All going well we will reach the night faery border tomorrow.’ Aethan sat back down and picked up his sword, inspecting its edges in the dim light of a fire. A sharpening stone lay at his feet.
‘Have you had any more trouble?’
Wilfred snorted and shook his head. ‘After what you did? I doubt there were any goblins left on this side of the river.’
What had I done? Goblins had been attacking us. There were too many for us to defeat. I had reached out towards them and then I had…
A hundred screams echoed in my head. Screams of raw pain and terror.
‘Great Dark Sky.’ I stumbled backwards, tripping over the pile of blankets.
Wolfgang reached down a hand and pulled me to my feet. ‘Perhaps we should talk,’ he said.
I followed him away from the fire and into the trees. We walked for a few minutes before he said, ‘Ahh, this will do nicely.’
We stepped out from the tree line to the bank of the river. A group of low, smooth stones lay scattered in a half circle. Wolfgang took a seat on one and I perched on the one next to him. Scruffy sniffed around the remaining ones before returning to lie at my feet.
‘How’s your leg?’ I was stalling. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have this conversation.
‘I think I may understand a little more about how your power works.’
I let out a small sigh of relief. Not the direction I thought the conversation was going to take. ‘How?’
‘You visualise what you need done and your magic makes it happen. Sometimes the results aren’t what you expected. But the end point will ultimately be what you wished for.’
I could just make out his face in the shadows of the night. ‘I don’t get it.’
‘Your magic responds to your need, not your command.’
Hmmmm. Well that sucked bigtime. What was the use of having powers if you couldn’t get them to do what you wanted?
‘But I used to try to elevate things and they would blow up.’ I had lost count of the times I had had to clean vegetable parts off my bedroom walls.
‘What were you thinking when you did it?’
I cast my mind back to the last time I had tried before I had given it up as a bad idea. The watermelon had refused to lift no matter how hard I had tried. Finally I had imagined it disappearing from where it sat. The resulting explosion had been spectacular. ‘I wanted it gone.’
‘Your skill lies in the field of battle. In violence.’
I shivered. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. ‘But I used to be able to make some spells work with my wand.’
‘Witch magic. I’m guessing that is no longer available to you since you successfully joined your witch and faery sides?’
I nodded. The only thing my wand was useful for now was communication. And if I were totally truthful, I didn’t need it for that. All my life I had thought I would use a wand, and now, even though it was virtually useless, I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.
‘There is another matter we need to talk of.’
I winced. I knew where this was heading and I so didn’t want it going there.
‘Do you remember?’ he asked.
I thought about pretending to be ignorant of what he referred to, but the screams still lingered, and I wasn’t sure I was going to get rid of that unless I talked about it.
‘A little,’ I said. ‘I remember we were grossly outnumbered, and I knew we would all die unless I did something.’
‘What
did you do?’
I took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘I killed them.’ My voice came out in a harsh whisper. ‘I killed them all.’ Tears I didn’t know had been forming slipped down my cheeks.
‘You know that was wrong child.’
I shook my head. ‘Why? How?’ We were killing them anyway.’ The tears came faster. It seemed even though my mind wasn’t there yet, some deep part of me knew what I had done was wrong.
‘You used black magic.’
His words sucked the breath right out of me. Bright dots danced in front of my vision as ice crawled over my skin.
Black magic?
‘No,’ I shook my head. ‘No, no, no.’ I gulped as tears poured down my face. I couldn’t have, I wouldn’t have. That would make me as bad as… ‘But I saved us.’ My words were weak.
‘You did. But at what cost?’
I rubbed my hands over my face and stared at the river. ‘How was what I did any different to what you did?’
‘I used my power as a weapon, like you would use your sword or your bow.’
‘You threw fire at them.’
‘I left the enemy choices. They did not have to die by my hand. They could put up a shield, or hide behind a tree. They could have run away.’ He paused for a moment while the words sunk in. ‘You didn’t. They had no chance to save themselves. You murdered them in cold blood.’
I sank to my knees in the soft grass and crawled to the side. I hadn’t eaten for five days but my body still tried to throw up. I heaved until acid burnt a path up my throat.
Black Magic. Oh Great Dark Sky. Was I evil?
‘There, there.’ Wolfgang’s hand rubbed my back. ‘All is not lost.’
I looked up at him through my tears. ‘I thought we would all die.’
‘Better that, than your performing black magic again. Once, you will get away with if you are truly contrite. But do it two or three times and your soul will be scarred. You will be unable to see the difference between good and evil.’
‘I will become evil,’ I said.
He nodded his head. ‘Just remember, there is always another way.’
I was silent for a second before asking, ‘Do the others know?’
‘I’m sure they suspect.’
I sagged in relief.
‘But only Aethan knows for sure.’
‘You told him?’ I gasped.
‘He guessed.’
I could feel myself curling up inside. I had done something despicable and dark, something evil, and Aethan knew about it. There was no way he would ever want me now.
I sniffed and wiped my face on the back of my arm.
‘Come on,’ he held a hand out to me. ‘Let’s head back to the others.’
I clasped his hand and let him pull me to my feet. We turned back towards the trees and Scruffy let out a low growl.
A line of men, totally clothed in black, stepped out from the tree line. Their faces were covered with black masks and they each held a bow and arrow, some aimed at Wolfgang and some at me.
‘You will come quietly,’ one of the men hissed, gesturing his bow back into the tree line.
‘Do as he says,’ Wolfgang whispered.
I bent and scooped up Scruffy, holding him partly to protect him, and partly for comfort. Then I grasped Wolfgang with my spare hand and headed back into the trees.
It didn’t take us long to reach the campsite. Wilfred, Brent, Aethan, Luke and Isla sat in a row. Their hands were tied behind their backs. They didn’t say anything as Wolfgang and I joined them.
I placed Scruffy at my feet as one of the black-garbed men approached us. He secured Wolfgang’s hands and then pulled my hands roughly behind my back and tied them with a rope. I was suddenly, ridiculously hungry. My stomach grumbled loudly as if in protest at my inability to feed myself.
That wasn’t the worst of it though. Faery magicians used their hands as witches and warlocks used wands. With our hands tied behind our backs Wolfgang and I were powerless.
‘Nobody talk,’ the leader hissed, ‘or I will cut out your tongue.’ He pulled a dagger out of a leg holster and waved it at us. ‘Anybody want to go first?’ When none of us answered he re-sheathed the weapon. ‘Good. It seems you learn fast. Now we walk.’
They forced us to our feet and tied a rope between us. Then they poked and prodded us like a group of cattle till we walked through the trees in single file. They did the same with the horses, linking them together so that one man could lead them all. Scruffy was tied to the last horse in the line.
We walked for hours till they let us rest, pushing us down cross-legged in a row. One of the men walked along our line, holding a water skin to our mouths. I got more water on me than in me, but I wasn’t about to complain. Not when the leader held his knife, staring at us as if wondering who he was going to gut first.
Far too soon they prodded us back to our feet. My stomach screamed for food and my legs felt weak. My head spun as I stood up and I stumbled forwards, falling to my knees.
The leader growled and reached down. Grasping my hair at the base of my neck he yanked me to my feet and then slapped me across my face. ‘You will walk,’ he hissed.
I wanted to walk, I really did. But my body had other ideas. I stumbled as I tried to remain standing. The leader raised his arm to strike me again but before he did Aethan intervened.
‘She needs food.’
The leader turned towards Aethan. His face was unreadable under the black mask, but I was guessing he was smiling as he stalked towards him. ‘You dare to speak?’ His voice was low and ominous.
‘She needs food.’ Aethan had a stubborn look on his face that I knew all too well.
Two of the other men grabbed him from behind, securing an arm each, as the leader stopped in front. ‘It speaks,’ he said, his voice caressing the sibilant sounds of the words.
He reached out and grasped Aethan’s face with a hand. His other hand held the dagger. The two men behind struggled to control Aethan as the leader squeezed his face till his tongue protruded from his mouth.
The rest of the group seized us as we fought. Two to each of us, except Wilfred, whose wild struggles required three men to control.
‘I warned you what would happen if you spoke,’ he hissed. ‘Now it seems I must cut out your tongue.’
Aethan thrashed from side-to-side as the knife got closer to his face.
‘If you treasure your eyes stay still.’
Rage took over as the knife descended towards Aethan’s face. ‘No,’ I screamed. I felt the power leave me, linked to that word by my anger and my love. It expanded like a smoke ring, bigger and bigger until it smacked into the first of the men. One-by-one they froze where they stood. The knife stopped mere millimetres from Aethan’s mouth.
For a second I thought I had frozen my friends as well, but then I realised they were all staring at me in shock. I shouldn’t have been able to do that, not without the use of my hands.
‘Come on,’ I said, pulling away from my captors.
With some inventive manoeuvring we managed to get our daggers and cut each other’s ropes. I rubbed my wrists, working the circulation back into my hands as I trotted back to untie Scruffy.
‘Here.’ Isla handed me one of the hard, dry biscuits.
I took a bite and pulled a face. ‘I see they don’t improve with age.’
She tipped her head to the side and watched me as I ate. I was relieved when she didn’t voice what she was so obviously wondering.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ I said. ‘I have no idea how long that will hold.’
‘Wait.’ Aethan walked to the man that had been going to cut off his tongue. He ripped the soft mask off his face and blew out a soft whistle. ‘Thought so,’ he said.
Wilfred went to stand beside Aethan, peering through the soft dawn light at the man’s face. ‘Night faeries,’ he said. ‘How do you want to play it?’
Dark Sky. These were the people we were meant to negotiate with on Orion’s behalf. W
e were going to be taking one of these savages home with us. No wonder Isla had been upset by the idea.
‘I say we go home and leave them here to rot.’ Isla ripped the mask off one of the men that had held her. She stared at him for a second and then slapped his cheek. The noise of her hand connecting with his flesh scared a flock of birds from a nearby stand of trees. That was going to hurt later.
Aethan let out a big sigh. ‘We’ve been through this a thousand times. We need them.’
She threw the mask onto the ground and stalked away. ‘Fine. But when this goes pear-shaped don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
With a half-smile Aethan said, ‘Is there any chance you’d let me forget that you warned me?’
Isla threw her head back and looked down her nose at him. ‘Certainly not.’
‘So we take them,’ Brent said, starting to pull the masks off the rest of them.
‘This one’s a woman,’ Luke said.
‘Well heeelllooo good looking.’ Wilfred sidled up in front of her. She had raven-black hair and almond-shaped eyes.
Isla snorted. ‘Dream on.’
‘You know just how to cut a man to the quick.’ Wilfred put his hands over his heart.
‘Yes, but that’s all I cut. She’d cut your heart out before she’d even look at you.’
We removed their masks and their weapons, tying those to the horses. Then we secured their hands behind their backs and roped them together. It was a bit like playing with life-sized dolls.
‘Right.’ Aethan rubbed his hands together. ‘Wake them up.’
Everyone stared at me. I stared right back. I didn’t know how to wake them up. I hadn’t meant to freeze them in the first place.
‘Urmmm, wake-up.’ I flicked my hands at the line of night faeries. Not surprisingly, it didn’t work.
Wilfred chuckled. ‘You always were a brilliant child.’
‘Shut up Will.’ Isla punched him on the arm.
‘You don’t know how to, do you?’ Aethan’s voice was half frustration and half mirth.
‘Of course I don’t.’ I waved my arms in the air as my voice rose. ‘I never know.’
Wolfgang sidled up next to me. ‘Would you like me to take it from here?’
‘Please.’ I stuck my tongue out at Will and turned to Wolfgang. ‘How?’
‘Just relax. I’ll do all the work.’
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