by Linda Jordan
When he woke, he saw that branches had grown from Adaire’s arms. The thick wood was reaching through the steel walls, forcing the metal to crumble and break. Dylan could smell damp earth and the overwhelming scent of fresh leaves.
He sat watching, his mouth open. Adaire’s power was astonishing. He’d forgotten what it was like to be around other Fae.
All around the hole vines came through from the other side, roots growing into the metal, damaging it and enlarging the hole. One of the cold iron bars was already broken.
There was also banging going on, but the noise was masked, just as he had masked the sound of the water and Adaire was hiding the noise of breaking metal. Dylan could both hear it because he was Fae, and not hear it at the same time.
It must be a stone Fae.
He shivered at the effort it must cost them to ignore the pain the cruel cold iron was inflicting on all of them.
Egan was still working on the other wall, flaming it and trying to melt it down. Skye was making wind and fanning his flames.
Adaire withdrew her energy from the wall and came to sit down. Her body returned to normal, the tree branches disappeared. Through the hole in the wall flowed the two water spirits. Then the earth spirits came through, having to shift into vines in order to make it through the hole.
When they were all in the same cell, the newcomers collapsed on the floor along with Adaire, returning to what must be their original forms.
There was another female dryad. With greenish skin, long flowing hair and she looked young. Maybe only a couple thousand years. Three at tops.
The male Fae was a stone spirit. Gray and angular with short cropped hair.
The two water spirits were both women. One was very young, perhaps younger than the dryads. She had turquoise skin and long grasslike hair. The undine looked like she belonged in a lake, blissfully floating gently on a gentle current.
The other was ancient. She was one of the old ones. And powerful, more than everyone else in the cell put together. She was of the ocean. Sea green skin on a squishy looking body, which he knew was covering up massively strong muscles. Her hair looked like a sea creature, long tentacles of an anemone perhaps.
Skye came over, trying to help them, one by one. Sharing her energy to support them.
After a time Egan stopped as well. Drained of energy. He came to lie down and rest. They all fell into deep sleep.
Chapter 13 ~ Egan
Egan woke to the sound of rushing water and the smell of salt. The three water Fae were working on the wall he’d been burning. With three of them, they must have recovered more quickly. The earth spirits were all sleeping, as was Skye.
Water rushed out of the Faes’ hands, ran down the wall to the floor, then was sucked up by their webbed feet and recycled. Not a drop was lost.
He felt weak and cold. But lying on the floor wasn’t helping him warm up. He huddled close to the others on the floor for warmth and sat watching the water spirits.
One was young for a Fae, an undine, perhaps a thousand years old.
The other water Fae, the elders, her power felt boundless. Not many of them had stayed in the world. Most elders had retreated into Faerie, unwilling to change their lives. Especially to help humans. Why hadn’t this one stayed safely in Faerie?
The two new earth spirits, a male and female, were probably around three thousand years old. About the same as Dylan, Skye, Adaire and Egan.
When he’d warmed himself, Egan went and looked through the hole into the empty cell. He could see the walls were weakened on three other sides. He sent his consciousness into that weakness, seeking life on the other side of the walls. There was nothing there.
Then he realized that the older water spirit had absorbed all of the spirits which had left their bodies. That was one of the reasons why she was so powerful. She’d even had the skill to absorb and transmute fire and air, where the younger Fae in the cell with her hadn’t.
He shivered.
She would be a fearsome enemy.
The earth spirits recovered. Skye was still out, having shared so much of her energy.
Egan went back to sit with her, keeping her warm.
Adaire and the other two earth Fae went to the wall and the water spirits moved away and huddled together, helping each other refresh.
Egan watched Adaire do what she’d done before. She moved sections of the wall which were almost microscopic. Her work would be almost invisible, except that he could see daylight streaming through in the places she’d moved. The other two earth spirits watched and then joined in.
Eventually, the hole was large enough for a hand to fit through.
All of a sudden they stopped.
Egan heard the yelling of coarse voices.
The elder water spirit rushed over to the wall and Egan watched a sheen of glamour pass over it, making the hole disappear.
Skye woke and stood, wobbling from grogginess. She rushed over to help the elder, who looked very weak still.
An awful smell wafted through the hole. The smell of sweat, shit and a thousand unwashed bodies. Egan pinched his nose, willing himself not to breathe it in.
The voices still carried on.
“Hey, look what we caught,” said one.
A cow bellowed loudly.
“Nice,” said a deep, rough voice, which boomed through the cell. “Gut it before you put it over the fire.”
“Naw, that’ll spoil it.”
“Balor is your King,” said a woman, snarling.
“It’s been so long since we’ve been together, I’d almost forgotten,” said the first voice.
“Well, what will it take to make you remember?” said the deep voice.
“I’ll gut the cow. I saw Elatha and Dela coming up the hill. They’ll be here soon,” said the first man.
The voices grew fainter as if moving off into the distance.
The elder slumped to the ground, shivering. Her face was filled with fear.
“What is it?” asked Egan.
“Fomorians. We’ve been captured by Fomorians. They were…dead.”
The undine asked, “What is a Fomorian?”
“The old gods. Primeval spirits of the elements. They’ve got more raw power than you’ll ever see in your life. They control the winds, the sea, the rain, movement of the earth, volcanos, plagues, famine, drought, everything. What we can do is nothing compared to them,” said the elder.
“Then there’s no hope?” said the dryad.
“We have to escape and soon,” said the stone spirit.
“They’ll roast the cow, feast and probably sleep. If we’ve broken through by then, perhaps we can pass by them,” said the elder.
They took turns working on the wall and keeping their work hidden should any of the Fomorians pass by again.
Finally, they’d enlarged the hole enough so that they could pass through. All of them rested until the Fomorians went to sleep, except the stone spirit, Pearce. He used his glamour to cover the hole, making it look invisible from the outside.
Chapter 14 ~ Skye
Skye woke from a dream of flying over mountain ranges. They were tall, the snow brightly lit the rising sun. Almost blinding. The dazzling snow was a peach color from the sunrise.
She came back to this world in the cell. Pearce stood over her, touching her arm to wake her quietly.
The cell was dark and smelly from too many bodies. The water spirits smelled the worst. They needed to be in water occasionally or they became stagnant. The elder had the most power and she really stank.
Skye stood, dazed. She walked over to the hole and began using her glamour to hide it while Pearce woke the others. The hole was big enough to slip their flexible bodies through, but it didn’t do much for air circulation.
As an air spirit, she was especially sensitive to smells and lack of fresh air.
Skye wove a spell making the wall seamless. The hole disappeared, no sound from the inside reached out.
She heard no voices o
utside the cell, only an occasional snore. But the sleeper wasn’t close. She could smell the incoming air. It was fresher than that of the cell, but still it was partly trapped, stale air. They must be inside a building of some sort.
She could smell the Formorians’ unwashed bodies. Her nose told her they were inside a building, but there were air leaks. The sweet fragrance of lilacs drifted in from somewhere outside the building. And the sea. She could smell that too.
Skye took her mind through the hole and searched. There was nothing alive close by, other than several Fomorians. It was almost dawn. She could hear robins and blackbirds singing, frogs calling outside.
There were nine large iron cells. Her consciousness hovered above them now. On the other side, she saw seven huge bodies lying around sleeping. One was slumped against a building support post.
The Fomorians were giants. The old tales she’d heard as a child had always downplayed their size and intelligence. They were gods, but not as crafty as the Fae, who had overthrown them.
History was written by the winners.
And yet here they were, still alive and killing Fae. So they hadn’t perished like all the old stories claimed.
Skye saw an opening in the building not far from the hole in their cell. She hovered around, looking for any other Fomorians still awake, but saw none. So sure of themselves, they’d left no guard.
She returned to her body in the cold iron cell.
Everyone was awake and up.
Skye whispered to them where to go.
The plan was for all of them to return to Faerie. To take the news back. Perhaps then a rescue party could be mounted to see if any Fae survived in the other cells.
They’d decided to travel in their own bodies. It would be faster than taking human form again. Even if, as it seemed, they could be tracked by the Fomorians more easily.
Skye was the first out. She became pure air leaking out through the hole, before returning to her own form.
She put her glamour over the others as they left the cell.
The two dryads became vines, their tendrils slithering through the opening and hitting the concrete floor in front of the cell. Then the back part of the vines followed through the hole and Adaire and Glenna reformed into their Fae bodies, greenish, tall and strong.
The water spirits poured through the opening, flowing out, one at a time. Then each pool reformed as Dylan, Meredith and Lynette in their squishy looking, strong bodies.
Egan became a salamander who climbed up the wall, through the hole and down, before returning to himself.
Pearce, the stone Fae became lean and thin, then turned into molten lava, pouring out the whole before solidifying into himself again.
They ran across the aisle between the cells and the wall of the building, hugged the wall down to the opening and slid out. She too slipped out.
They all moved towards the cover of some nearby tall glossy bushes.
“The sea is that direction,” said Meredith, the elder, pointing her webbed finger. “It’s not far.”
“Faerie lies that way,” said Glenna, the female earth spirit from the other cell. She pointed in the opposite direction.
Egan asked, “Should we split up or stay together?”
Pearce said, “We need to find out where we are. How close are we to Faerie?”
Skye said, “We need to keep moving. We don’t know when they’ll wake. And they’re giants. They’ll cover a lot of ground.”
“I think we should split up,” said Dylan. “We water spirits will slow all of you down. We need to cleanse ourselves. We can probably swim faster to Faerie than we could walk. Even if it’s the long way around.”
Meredith nodded.
Lynette, the young water spirit shrugged her shoulders.
Adaire said, “I don’t know.”
Glenna said, “It makes no difference to me as long as we go now.”
Egan said, “Okay, water spirits go. We’ll meet you in Faerie. Whoever gets there first, sends help for the other group. And to see if there’s any living Fae we’ve left behind.”
Dylan nodded.
Skye watched as Dylan, Meredith and Lynette moved off in the direction of the sea. Their webbed feet must have made it difficult to run. Their gaits were uneven as they travelled through the long grass.
Egan, Glenna, Adaire and Pearce scrambled through the brush up a rise, trying to get as far as they could quickly, from the old building that had contained their prison.
Skye said, “I’m flying until dawn. That will help me get my strength back and help us decide which way to go.”
She slid into the air, curving upwards. Above the tops of trees, scattering the dawn singing birds. The light was just barely skimming the horizon.
Down below she could see abandoned factories and farms. She couldn’t tell where they were. There was a smallish town and rural countryside. But no large cities anywhere nearby. She swooped down and sat, invisible, in a tree near a street for a few minutes and looked at license plates between the blinding headlights. She saw New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. There could have been others, but a big dog wandering by began to bark at her. Skye sped away.
She reveled in the feel of the cool air sliding past her body. How long had she been held prisoner?
Drawing strength from the use of her body, she flew over the treetops and back out into the countryside over where her friends were passing through a pasture that stank of fresh cow manure. The reddish brown and white cows stood and stared at the Fae, looking slightly confused as they chewed the new green grass.
There was still no sign of the giants when dawn came and she set down just ahead of the other Fae.
They were walking through an area with a few tall trees and a lot of shrubs and tall grasses. It was wildish, as far away from people as they could get. Two deer grazing the underbrush stood and stared at them. Some sweet smelling shrub was blooming. Skye didn’t know any of the plants in this part of the world.
“Where are we?” asked Egan, as they continued walking.
“I’m not sure. Somewhere in the Northeast. I saw license plates for New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The Atlantic’s off in the distance. It must cut closer in farther south, where the water spirits went.”
“So, how do we cross the water?” asked Glenna.
“I’ve lived as a human for six years,” said Egan. “The Fomorians didn’t catch me. Dylan had the same experience. We were caught when we weren’t wearing human bodies. I think that masks our identity enough that they can’t find or catch us.”
Adaire said, “Same with me. I was caught when I was in my real form. I think Egan’s right. We need to become humans again.”
“That’ll sap our strength. We can travel faster if we’re Fae,” said Pearce.
“Yes, but we’ll be safer,” said Skye.
“So, how do we cross?” asked Glenna, again.
“Boat?” asked Adaire.
“Plane,” said Skye.
Egan said, “We need to buy passports and ID from someone. We’ll need money.”
“Passports and ID for five people,” said Pearce.
“I can steal money,” said Skye.
“Enough to buy us ID’s, passports and airfare?” asked Pearce.
“I don’t know it I can stand being up in a plane,” said Glenna.
“It’ll be shorter than a boat ride,” said Adaire. “We need to get to Faerie as soon as possible. They’ve got to be told what’s happening.”
“We’ll be right beside you,” said Pearce.
Glenna nodded, her green face pale in the rising sun.
Egan said, “We should take cover soon. We don’t want to be seen by humans or to have to use glamour to disguise ourselves. I think all of us are too weak.”
Skye felt invigorated by flying, better than she had since being captured. But she needed to rest, needed food. She was still weak.
“Where?” asked Pearce. “The trees haven’t leafed out yet. I
t’s far too bare here.
They kept walking for a couple hours before they came to an abandoned house with peeling white paint. It sat surrounded by tall evergreen hedges. The barn and several outbuildings had long since fallen down into piles of rotting lumber.
It was on the outskirts of a small town. Several homes in the area were abandoned, many with for sale signs. This one looked more private because of the hedge.
The house was maybe ten years old, the windows boarded up with warped plywood. They broke in through a back door. It looked like they were the first ones to do so. The house was empty of furniture. There was no water or electricity. The builders hadn’t even finished the kitchen or bath.
They sat on the off white living room carpet in the bare white room.
Skye hated the chemical smell of the carpet, but it was the best they could do.
After they’d rested, they each began the long, slow process of creating a human shell to live inside of.
Skye sat by the boarded up window. Someone hadn’t done a great job measuring the wood. It didn’t cover the window completely so fresh air flowed in through the broken glass.
She took strength from the air and used it in her work, creating cells, a skeleton, tendons, muscles, capillaries, veins, nerves and all the other things that allowed her to make a functioning human body to live within.
Folding in her wings, she formed the human body around her own, making it so that she could slip out when necessary.
Several hundred years ago, when she’d first learned this type of magic, no one, not even in Faerie had known about cells and the inner workings of human bodies. But Skye found the more she learned, the better the body would function for her. That was one of the things that had led her to study the human body and massage therapy to begin with.
The body she chose to create was strong and muscular. Fast and lean. She would need those things if the Fomorians caught up with them.
She was counting on that not happening.
But Meredith had been terrified of the giants. Said she’d been alive during that long, long war. She knew what they were capable of.
But she didn’t have time to tell the others the long story, not before they split up. She said getting back to Faerie was more important.