“You’ve sent messengers to the Summer Court?” Gaelyn asked. Long ago Uncle Firth had explained that Ian was still a princeling of the Summer Court. Surely Summer would help. If she was not behind this. But in the past the Summer and Winter Queens had never dealt in hiding when they declared war.
“As soon as the attack started, Firth dispatched messages to both Winter and Summer Courts. There has been no answer.” Ian gestured to a log and sat down before she could. Then he popped back up. “My apologies. I should not sit in the presence of The Elm without approval.” As formal as he sounded, for a second he let the saucy grin Gaelyn remembered so well slip across his serious face.
“Now would be a good time to tell me about this Elm business,” Hazel said, her eyes nearly blazing red with anger. Gaelyn wished Hazel would focus her anger on curing Cl’rnce and give Gaelyn time to find this Jeschen, and then find out who was attacking Elm Court and who was killing Elm Fae.
Ian nodded. She could tell he was about to say something that would only complicate things with Hazel. She tried to catch his arm and warn him not to talk about her, but he shook her off. He spit it out. “Gaelyn would not wish you told. In fact she would never have let any Dr’gon know she was Fae. Her study at Wiz-Tech was by a private agreement between the regent, her Uncle Firth, and Professor Gralph. Gaelyn is the next Elm. She was sent to Wiz-Tech to learn the Greater Dr’gon Magicks, to absorb the ethics of the Dr’gons, and for her safety. With the regent now dead, she is The Elm, Queen of the Elm Court.”
There it was. The simple truth. But Gaelyn felt like she’d just been slapped with Hazel’s renewed anger. Her Dr’gon Partner was busy pulling out that dratted scroll and staring at it. Hazel’s ears were turning scarlet. Whatever was on the scroll was just making her too angry to talk.
Gaelyn sat beside Ian. It would do no good to try and stop him from revealing more. No one in Elm, but Ian, would ignore her wishes. There had never been, and never would be, a way to stop this determined princeling. Still, she tried. “Stop. We have two deadly problems that need resolution. We need to find Jeschen to cure Cl’rnce, and we need to stop this attack on Elm. If Jeschen poisoned him, Jeschen should be able to cure Cl’rnce.” She still did not want to say that she was almost certain Jeschen was an assassin sent by either Summer or Winter. Which meant the Queens were indeed changing their tactics, hiding and sneaking instead of open attacks. “We followed Jeschen here, so first thing is to find her.” And find out how or who helped that Fae cross the planes.
Ian looked around the glade where the other Fae sat cross-legged. They were obviously guarding the perimeter, facing outward from the circle they formed. “Has anyone heard of Jeschen?” he asked. All heads shook in the negative. He shrugged.
“She’s a very short Fae who appears like a fluffy grandmother-type in human form,” Hazel said. Still the heads all shook side to side.
They hadn’t seen or sensed her, but that could be because Jeschen could take on an invisible form. Or the Elm Fae might be too busy with their own problems. Gaelyn had to help Hazel by finding Jeschen for the cure before the next attack on Elm. Gaelyn took a pair of purple crystals out of her pouch. She held them in her hand and stared muttering numbers, counting down to one. Then she asked the stones, “Where is Jeschen?” The stones jumped in her hand and rolled toward Hazel.
“Maybe it’s the herbs Jeschen tossed on us,” Hazel snapped. “Fae herbs? Maybe they’ve contaminated your stones.”
Gaelyn tried not to snarl back at Hazel’s relentless comments against Fae. “Let me think. We have to get that cure. We have to get Jeschen.” Gaelyn, keeping her senses sharp for anything that felt like an attack, stood up from the log and paced around the circle. Her thoughts whirled and mixed, first about finding Jeschen and the Fae from the tower, both of whom crossed the planes seemingly without help, and then wondering who had attacked Elm. As she went, she peered over the shoulders of the Fae guards. Outside the circle, it grew dark, but it was not night. That meant Dark Magicks were accumulating. She did not like the feel here. With Elm Fae under attack, she should lead them, but Cl’rnce could die before Elm was attacked again. Ian and his fighters had to hold. Cl’rnce had to come first. “We have to save the Primus.”
Something in the air above the line of the Fae circle wobbled like heated air over a roaring fire. As Gaelyn stared trying to sense what the disturbance was, the Fae Guard pulled bows and swords up into fighting stances. Gaelyn’s skin crawled with the sharp sting of a wind carrying an attacking enemy. As the Fae stood shoulder to shoulder eyes flashing with eagerness to fight, Hazel fired up her fire pit, her great head moving, looking around the circle.
“I don’t see anyone,” Hazel said. The careful neutral tone in her voice was typical of Hazel trying not to sound like she was skeptical of the attackers’ existence.
Gaelyn didn’t have time to dig up something to prove to Hazel the attack was real. Ian didn’t lie. And then Hazel surprised her. “But if they have attacked Gaelyn’s people, this is treachery, and we will deal with it!” She jerked her chin down once at Gaelyn. “You are going to explain all this to me soon.”
Despite the certainty that now that she was The Elm she would have to leave all she’d come to love, Gaelyn allowed a shred of hope grow that her friendship could be repaired. Before she could reassure Hazel that she would make a full explanation, Ian handed her his sword, keeping the dagger he held in his other hand. “They’re here. Now. Can you not feel them? I promise to help you with The Primus, but we need to survive this attack. If you have any of the Greater Dr’gon Magicks that can help, this would be the time to use them.” His new-leaf green eyes bored into Gaelyn’s.
She wouldn’t use Dr’gon Magick. She’d use her own. Gaelyn gripped the golden sword with both hands and plunged it into a moss patch. As she did, she howled in a voice she had never used before. She surprised herself even more than Hazel, whose eye ridges raised to the horns at the top of her head. Silkkie screeched along with her, “By the trees, by the Green, by all that is Elm, I call on thee, the ancient power of The Elm. I call thee to defend the Elm Fae, to defeat the enemy.”
A large elm tree in the center of the circle uprooted itself. Nearly knocking Hazel over, the tree stomped to the edge of the circle. The Fae parted, and the elm thundered over the meadow to the shadows surrounding the woods. All around them, more old growth trees broke from their places and did the same. Gaelyn started to feel better. She’d used Elm magick, Silkkie had helped, and nothing could stop trees.
But as the trees marched, lightning flashed out of the darkened sky and into the midst of the trees. One of the majestic elms caught fire.
Gaelyn drew the sword out of the moss, held it to the sky, and screamed, “Rain!”
This time she would use all aspects of Elm Magick. Years of learning Fae magick at her uncle’s knee and Greater Dr’gon Magicks at Wiz-Tech came together in her voice alone. Gaelyn felt the power course through her. She had succeeded in her training. She had the power and the magick over weather that only Dr’gons practiced. As rain poured over the trees, Gaelyn felt satisfaction compete with a cold pit of sadness. If she had learned all that she was sent to learn, if her uncle had died, she would have to stay in Elm and rule. And there might never be peace or friendship with Hazel again.
Fearing for the lives of the old growth trees, Gaelyn whispered a quick spell to send them back to their places, where they would mend themselves. So tall they must see for miles, she wished she could use their senses to locate the enemy, but although trees listened and were an ancient part of Elm Magick, they did not chatter.
“I’m wet. Put me down.” Silkkie squirmed.
“Shut it!” Hazel hissed at the cat. “I’ve had enough of your complaining. Unless you know where Jeschen is, shut it!”
Gaelyn was about to enter the argument when Silkkie did the unexpected. She relented.
“Okay. Shutting it.” Silkkie snorted and stopped moving. Gaelyn noticed the Jinn’s eyes were
pinned to a new break in the forest glade on the west side. Silkkie tapped Hazel until she looked in the same direction as well.
Gaelyn squelched a grin that threatened to erupt into a chuckle. Silkkie always said once you were her enemy it would never change, but she was actually helping Hazel, a Dr’gon. It seemed the years in the Dr’gon Realms had infused Silkkie with a bit of the same empathy that Uncle Firth had sent Gaelyn to learn. The little Jinn who liked to say she was the fiercest, most selfish Jinn ever … wasn’t.
Turning to look where Hazel also stared, Gaelyn felt the vibrating waves from something coming. What threat could it be?
Gaelyn turned to Silkkie to ask if she felt it too, but the petite Jinn now washed her shoulder like a normal cat. Hazel hissed to Silkkie, “What is out there?”
Silkkie snorted. “Nothing now.” And she licked her tail.
For as long as they’d been together, Gaelyn had been less powerful, less magickal than her Jinn, but Gaelyn was sure she sensed something Silkkie no longer did. Two things bothered her. How could Silkkie not feel the life forces that were still coming? Worse, Gaelyn had a very bad feeling she knew what beings attacked them. Of them all, Silkkie should sense the invaders even before Gaelyn. That she didn’t was troubling.
All around the trees had stopped moving. There was not a sound, not even a bird’s chirp.
“Is it over?” Hazel asked, practically whispering.
Ian shook his head. “I don’t think so. It’s too quiet. They’re out there. They strike so quickly even we cannot see them.” He ground his teeth. “I don’t believe in ghosts, but something that wants to be just as unseen is coming.”
Concentrating with all the power she’d learned from her Focus on Magick class, Gaelyn detected outlines that were definitely not ghosts. If she had made a list of who would assault Elm it would begin and end with the Winter and Summer Queens. In the past they had swallowed up other Courts without any challenge. Uncle Firth had warned her that they would one day go after Elm. If the Queens knew she was far away, if they had sent attackers and killed Uncle Firth … Gaelyn had run out of the time Uncle Firth had hoped she would use at Wiz-Tech to become the kindest of the Fae Queens.
Previously the Queens never attacked personally, at least not another Fae Court. Which was why Gaelyn did not sense any Fae Queens coming. But she did sense Jinn. Why didn’t Silkkie sense them? And why would they be doing Summer’s or Winter’s bidding? Jinn practically never dealt with the Fae or even came to their realms. Was it possible Summer and Winter weren’t behind the attacks after all?
If Gaelyn was right that the Jinn were here, and she was sure she was, why didn’t Silkkie know they were near? Did they know she was here?
Gaelyn tried to remember what she knew about Jinn sensing each other. She knew they were an incredibly tight, family-oriented group. Even as protective as they were of each other, they weren’t warriors and there were no stories of them forming an army before. Why attack Elm? Why hide themselves?
She wasn’t ready to say aloud that the enemy was Jinn until she figured out what game Silkkie played. “They’re out there. Something with a lot of power. Something big. There aren’t many. Maybe a dozen. I can’t see what they look like.”
Silkkie stopped washing and looked at her. “Well, it’s dark. Light it up.”
Gaelyn took two orange crystals out of her pouch and held one in each hand, then quickly brought her fists together not quite smacking them but only letting them lightly touch. A soft glow started to grow from the gems. There would be a lot of light, but it would take a few minutes.
Ian paced around the circle speaking to each of his small Fae army. All shook their heads. He came back to Gaelyn and Hazel. “I checked again. No one has seen the enemy. All we’ve seen is our own fallen.”
“Killed how?” Hazel asked.
He shook his head and shrugged. “Alive one moment and dead the next. How do we fight that?”
Mentally, Gaelyn raced through all of her classes, all she’d learned, all she’d studied. She couldn’t remember if Jinn ever killed Fae. She didn’t think so, but she didn’t know. She was certain she detected Jinn life force, but could she be wrong? Uncle Firth had been sure she’d be safe in the Dr’gon Realms, but that had turned out to be wrong. Things had changed. Things like Fae other than herself crossing into the forbidden Dr’gon Plane.
Gaelyn watched as Hazel turned around scanning the circle. Dr’gons were sometimes more sensitive than any other creature. She hoped now was one of those times.
“All I know about Fae is what we learned in class, and obviously that wasn’t much compared to what you two know,” Hazel snapped. Gaelyn winced at the accusation. Hazel knew how to hold onto anger. “You say you sense a dozen somethings?” Hazel continued. “More? If they are Fae, is that a normal sized army?”
Both Ian and Gaelyn shook their heads and said, “No.”
Hazel went on. “Okay. Where could these attackers be coming from? Could they be rebel Elm Fae? Something else?”
Gaelyn understood why Hazel asked about rebellion. Since Cl’rnce and Great and Mighty became Co-Primus, Hazel and Gaelyn had endured five different full Chamber meetings with representatives of each of the Dr’gon Nations. The two had spent hours and days soothing feelings and reassuring Dr’gon clans that the Cl’rnce they had always known as lazy and interested in nothing but practical jokes was the right Primus. No war had broken out in Albion, but it had been tense for a few months.
Laying the golden sword on the moss at her feet, Gaelyn held her palm up to Ian. “Your dagger, please.”
Gaelyn glanced at Hazel and saw her lips moving. She read her friend’s questions. Hazel, who considered all Fae the enemy thanks to that Prophecy, suspected Ian of rebelling. Hazel thought that, somehow, he’d led them into a trap. Hazel needed to look more carefully into Ian’s eyes. They were green not just from his Fae heritage, but the unique rings of the lightest shade of green around his pupils bespoke the fact that he was incapable of lying. Which made Ian perfect in Elm where Uncle Firth and Gaelyn were determined to make a Court very different from the ones ruled by the Queen’s Justice.
Without hesitation, Ian handed his dagger to Gaelyn. She laid it crossways over her sword. Her hand gripping the middle joining point, she closed her eyes. The golden sword of Elm and the dagger of a trusted general had much greater magick than any crystal. She waited, letting her now sharpened senses search again all around them. She needed to know more about this Jinn army surrounding them. Specifically, she needed to do it without the enemy sensing her as she searched them out.
“I get an impression of a different kind of power, a vengeful magick.” Vengeance? That didn’t make sense. Why would Jinn think they needed revenge on the Elm Court? She opened her eyes again. There was another way to get information about the Jinn. “Has anyone struck one of the enemy with your weapons? I can read the enemy from that. Otherwise I’m only detecting the wafts of power.” She still didn’t want to reveal that the second scan confirmed the attackers were Jinn in case hotly angry Hazel might turn on Silkkie before Gaelyn could find all the facts.
And Gaelyn could not figure out why Silkkie still showed no awareness of being surrounded by Jinn. Nor did anything in the vibrations of the enemy say they knew a Jinn was with the Elm Fae.
None of the Elm guards stepped forward with a weapon. They looked at each other, but no one spoke.
“Why are they silent?” Hazel asked. “Are Elm Fae army members mute? Or are they cowards who never fight? Surely in battle one of them actually cut an attacker.”
Ian’s eyes flared for second, but he looked to Gaelyn who shook her head to damp his anger. He breathed deeply and answered, “We believe the enemy uses sound rather than sight to locate us. So, we speak as little as possible,” Ian said. He pointed to Hazel and Gaelyn. “We’ve already spoken too much.”
Hazel sighed. “So, this enemy knows where we are.” She got up and sniffed as she paced the circle. As she passed
Gaelyn, she handed her Silkkie. “Put this somewhere. It won’t help, so stow it.”
“Who said I won’t help?” Silkkie yowled in a voice that was far too loud.
“Shut it!” Hazel’s patience, always short, was gone.
Gaelyn peered at her cat-Jinn. She said, “Use your keenest senses. You need to sense the enemy.” For a moment Silkkie looked around sniffing and cocking her ears. She shook her head and for an instant her form went blurry, but the next second Silkkie was a cat again.
She stared at Gaelyn and said, “I protect. Whether I can help figure this enemy out or not, remember I am sworn to protect you.” Silkkie hissed, and her fur stood on end.
Keeping her eyes on Silkkie, Gaelyn pulled the crystal ball out of her pouch. She laid it next to the crossed sword and dagger and slowly lowered Silkkie toward the ball. The cat yelped, and her head jerked up as she neared the sword. Her eyes were wide with surprise. But she wasn’t focused on the ball that would imprison her again. She stared around the circle. Silkkie finally realized that Jinn waited outside the circle.
Hazel whipped around to watch as Silkkie kicked and scratched at Gaelyn, obviously trying to get away. Gaelyn gripped even harder, so hard her knuckles went white. She whispered very slowly, “You know they’re out there. Do they know you’re here? Do you know why they’re here?” She wouldn’t ask Silkkie if she was still loyal to Gaelyn. The oath Silkkie had taken years ago was inviolable.
Hazel doubled back, standing close by as Gaelyn waited for Silkkie to say something. They stood, nothing happening for no more than a minute before Hazel gasped, turned, and looked out toward the woods. “Take cover!” she yelled and sucked in the deep breaths that she used to fire up her flame stomach.
Startled by Hazel’s sudden moves, Gaelyn nearly dropped Silkkie. The Jinn re-doubled her efforts to get loose. “Why are they here?” Gaelyn repeated.
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