Meteor paused. "No one asked me to spy. I believed you had enchanted me, and I came here on my own because I wanted to get you back. I knew this was your favorite place," he said remorsefully. "Then when you and Leona started talking, I thought the best revenge would be to eavesdrop and hear your secrets." He hung his head. "Please forgive me. I wasn't myself."
"Of course, I forgive you. If you hadn't eavesdropped, you would still be under a layered enchantment." I tried to smile at him, but deep uneasiness gripped my heart. "How did they catch Leona?"
"A snare in the Gateway of Galena."
I asked myself why Leona would have tried to go through the gateway, when she was supposed to meet me at the Zinnia Portal.
"Her wand shrieked loud enough to wake all Feyland until it was locked in an iron box," Meteor continued. "I
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heard that it's being guarded by gnomes, somewhere in Oberon City."
"And Leona?"
Meteor stared at his hands. "Layered sleep spell, I believe. After they caught her, they carted her off to the Iron Lands."
"The Leprechaun Colony?" I couldn't bear to think of Leona, separated from her wand and shut away in a place where magic was useless.
"Zaria, as soon as she wakes up, they'll make her tell them everything she knows. Everything!"
"No," I said. "Leona would never tell them anything without a compulsion spell, and spells have no power in the Iron Lands." My wings trembled. "I wonder why they would take her there?"
Meteor's voice was full of sadness. "Leona has powerful friends." He gave me a quick bow. "Maybe they were making sure no one could help her by using magic. And she has so much natural magic of her own, just being in the Iron Lands could take the heart right out of her."
I wouldn't think about that. I couldn't. If I did, I would pull my wings around my head and do nothing but cry.
"We were going to seal the portal," I said. "She was so afraid it would be found. She was going to ask her mother how to do it." I stared at the lumpy sandstone boulder a few wingspans away among the shadowy zinnias.
"You can still seal it," Meteor said. "I know how it's done."
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When Meteor had heard the news of Leona's capture, he had gone to Doreen Bloodstone. He persuaded her to tell him all about the portal in Galena: where it was and how to seal it. But sealing it would take Level 75. As a Level 50 genie, Meteor wasn't capable. It would have to be me.
"How much radia?" I asked.
"A thousand."
One degree of Yellow. Less than I would have guessed. "Tell me what to do," I said.
To my surprise, Meteor reached into his genie robes and produced a tall bottle of indigo-colored glass. Starlight reflected eerily off its surface.
"What's that?"
"Water from the Azurite Springs in the heart of Troll Country," he said. "Mixed with honey made by bees on Earth."
Troll Country? I didn't like the sound of that.
"It's an elixir," said Meteor. "Doreen gave it to me. The portal can't be sealed without it."
"But what do I do with it?" I hefted the bottle. It felt peculiar--as if it were much bigger than its actual dimensions.
He held up a crystal goblet. "You drink a cup, and pour a cup on the portal."
I almost dropped the bottle. "Drink? Why would I drink?"
"I don't know why. I only know the spell won't work unless you do."
I eyed the indigo bottle suspiciously. "What will it do to me?"
"Troll magic affects everyone differently."
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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
FORTUNATELY FOR FEY FOLK, TROLLS MOST OFTEN KEEP THEIR MAGIC TO THEMSELVES. BUT EVERY NOW AND THEN, TROLL MAGIC ENTERS FEYLAND.
TROLL MAGIC, LIKE TROLLS THEMSELVES, IS DANgerously UNPREDICTABLE. EVIDENTLY, TROLLS CAN
EASILY ADAPT THEIR SPELLS TO CLING TO OBJECTS. THEIR MAGIC ALSO HAS AN AFFINITY FOR LIQUID, MAKING IT WELL SUITED TO ENCHANTMENTS THAT ARE DISSOLVED INTO BEVERAGES.
SOMETIMES THE EFFECTS OF TROLL MAGIC ARE FLEETING, SOMETIMES THEY ARE LASTING, BUT ALWAYS THE EFFECTS OF TROLL MAGIC ARE POWERFUL.
--Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland
I didn't want any part of drinking something from Troll Country. Their magic was too different from that of fey folk. I had no confidence that my new spell of protection would apply to harmful troll enchantments.
"I hope sealing this portal is worth doing," I said. "I'd rather go after Leona and try to get her out."
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"Out of the Iron Lands?" Meteor lifted his white eyebrows. "You'd have better luck rescuing her from a tribe of trolls. Without your magic, what could you do?"
My voice rose. "You want her to rot in the Leprechaun Colony?"
"No." He put out a hand. "Give me the bottle. I'll open it, you'll seal the portal, and once it's closed, nothing can be proven against Doreen Bloodstone. We'll be helping Leona that way."
"Fine." I handed him the indigo botde. 'I'll do it for Leona."
When Meteor opened the bottle, the lid exploded into little pieces. He staggered back. The elixir overflowed, fizzing into tiny bubbles that ran down the sides of the bottle.
Meteor regained his balance and poured foamy elixir into the goblet.
"What if it turns me into a trog?" I asked.
"I'll watch you," Meteor said. "I'll stay with you until the effects wear off."
I took the full goblet from his hand. "Don't let me do anything troggish." 1 won t.
I raised it to my lips. The elixir fizzed down my throat, making me cough. I stood waiting a few moments to see what would happen. At first I didn't notice anything, but then I felt a sensation in my feet, as if something heavy had been pumped into them. They seemed to weigh twice as much as usual, while my head felt like a large soap bubble,
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ready to float away. It was a very unpleasant feeling, and yet I wanted to laugh.
"Zaria?" Meteor sounded so solemn! "Hold out the goblet, so I can fill it again."
I did.
"Pour it on the boulder, then speak the spell," he told me. "Chantmentum sealerum resvera."
I felt clumsy. It took more effort than it should have to hold the full goblet in one hand and my wand in the other. As I tried to keep them steady, Meteor reached out and took back the goblet.
"Wait," he said. "We should go through to the other side of the portal. If we seal it from this side, you'll be stuck.
"Stuck?" I said, and giggled uncomfortably. My feet felt even heavier.
"There are no other portals in Galena, and the Gateway is enchanted with snares," he went on. "They were looking for Leona, which means they're also looking for you. You said you want to try to rescue Leona, but you can't do it from Galena."
He was right. I didn't want to test my protection spell on the Gateway. Who knew what devious enchantments the Council or the Radia Guard might have laid down?
For no reason at all, I snickered. It must have been the troll magic.
Slipping the bottle of elixir into a pocket of his robe, Meteor grabbed my hand. I found it hilarious that his palm
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was bigger than my whole hand. Not only that, but the careful way he moved looked completely ridiculous. He was only trying to keep from spilling the open bottle inside his robe or the full goblet in his other hand, but to me it all seemed funny.
I was laughing out loud when he pulled me through the portal.
Something hit my wrist, knocking my wand out of my hand. I stumbled, spinning sideways, as an object struck my wing. Unable to gain my balance, I fell awkwardly on the ground of Earth.
"Ooph," I cried, spitting out a dry stalk of grass.
A squat shape hurtled at me, slamming me between the eyes. Whatever it was, it was squishy and bounced away again as if alive.
"No," I gasped. "Meteor, it's--"
A toad.
This time the toad flung itself right at my mouth, slamming into my lips. Ugh! I tried to grab its leg b
ut it leaped out of reach. It snatched my stylus from the ground with its mouth before hopping away in the moonlight.
"Catch it!" I wailed, scrambling to get up. "Meteor, that toad has my wand." I reeled forward and then tripped. My wings caught me, but not very well. I flew crookedly, my feet not quite leaving the ground. Blast that troll elixir! It wouldn't let me fly.
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Meteor turned in circles, holding up the full goblet, looking for a safe place to set it down.
"Oberon's Crown, Meteor. Get the toad!"
He hesitated. I swooped toward him clumsily. I planned to hold the goblet for him, but I bumped into him instead, and knocked the brimming goblet from his hand. Though we both tried to catch it, it fell, spilling the elixir.
"Sorry!" I cried. "But that toad's a human in disguise. A human with a grudge."
"You turned a human into a toad?"
"It wasn't me. He got into a fight with Leona."
Meteor drew his wand. "Leona?"
He was scowling so hard, his eyebrows overlapped at the bridge of his nose. The sight was too much for me, and I lost myself in laughter. I tried to stop, tried to follow the path of the toad as it hopped below us toward the grove of trees-covering quite a bit of ground very fast--but I couldn't help myself. Spluttering and gasping, it was all I could do not to fall over.
Throwing me a pitying look, Meteor rushed after the toad, leaving me to catch my breath and settle my wings. The bright moon showed his flight, but the toad, with my wand, seemed to have vanished.
Meteor floated back and forth over the tussocks of grass and the hollows in the hillside. I flapped toward him, still unable to get off the ground.
"We'll never find him without magic," I called.
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"The quickest way would be to release him from Leona's spell," Meteor answered. He pointed his wand at the ground. "Chantmentum pellex," he said.
Jason Court appeared in the grass, crouching with my wand in his mouth. Jumping up, he held the wand in both hands as if he would snap it in two.
"I know what this is!" he shouted. "You called it a wand."
How small and fragile the stylus looked in his hands. I wasn't laughing anymore.
"Obliv trau," Meteor said.
Jason fell, sound asleep.
I flapped over to him, fell at his side, and pried my wand from his grasp. It was a little slimy; I wiped it on my gown.
Staggering up, I rapped Meteor's head. "Verita sil nos mertos elemen." He disappeared and I repeated the invisibility on myself.
"Thank you," Meteor said. "I forgot it would be easy to spy on us with scopes, now that we're on Earth."
That's when I realized this was Meteor's first trip through a portal!
"How do you like Earth?" I swept my arm in a gesture meant to be grand, before remembering he couldn't see me.
"I would probably like it better if I weren't chasing down toads and watching over fairies full of troll magic." I thought I heard a chuckle in his voice.
Jason Court chose that moment to groan in his sleep. "What'll we do with him?" I asked.
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"A forgetting spell," Meteor said. "That way he can wake up and remember nothing of us--or of Leona."
For a moment, I was tempted to turn Jason back into a toad. It didn't seem fair to let him completely forget. He was such a horrible human--exactly the type Beryl was always warning me about. In only a few days, he had stolen two fey wands and badly injured Leona and her mother. Who knew what other nefarious schemes he was plotting?
"You know I'm right," Meteor said.
"Yes," I answered grudgingly. It was true that a forgetting spell would solve the problem of Jason. "I'll do it," I said. "I know everything that he needs to forget. Tell me the spell."
"Obleth nor vis elemen. Level Thirty. Focus on removing every memory of Leona or you or me."
Or the portal, I thought.
"Obleth what?"
He repeated it twice.
My wand didn't cooperate when I infused it; the seam of light wavered and danced. I hoped the troll magic in the elixir would wear off soon. At last I succeeded in holding the infusion steady. Pointing at Jason, I spoke the forgetting spell and focused on every memory connected to me--or Leona, Doreen, Meteor, the portal, wands, wings, exploding houses...
Jason's body relaxed and his face grew peaceful.
I pointed my wand at him again. "Transera nos," I said, visualizing his backyard. The night was only slightly chilly; he would be all right. "I sent him home," I told Meteor. I saw
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no reason to let Jason wake up on this beautiful quiet land. I didn't want him to remember this place even existed.
"Let's go seal the portal," Meteor said, and I heard him swish past me on his powerful magic feet.
With Meteor out of earshot, I decided to take the opportunity to perform another spell--this time to keep others from touching my wand. In the past hour, it had been seized by a genie and a toad! So much for the wonderful protection I had cast earlier that evening.
I concentrated carefully as I infused again. "No one and nothing but myself may touch this wand unless I allow it," I said. "Ad eternum."
There! That should do it. Now I could seal the portal.
I tried to get aloft but couldn't. And what I saw next surprised me so much that my wings gave out completely.
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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
HUMANS WHO POSSESS ENOUGH MAGIC TO TRAVEL through portals sometimes find their way into Feyland. When they do, they carry tales to Earth, tales of unimaginable riches. They speak of the Cities of Gold, the Fountain of Youth, the Shangri-la. Those who get a glimpse of Feyland will spend the rest of their lives trying to find it again unless placed under a forgetting spell.
--Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland
Someone was walking through the wild grass toward the sandstone boulder--a human someone with a quick stride and a head of unruly curls. Moonlight darkened his hair, but I knew him anyway.
Sam.
He could be here at this hour of night for only one purpose: to see me. Our conversation about his father had been interrupted. He must have questions.
But the timing was all wrong. I was about to do an important spell to seal the portal. And Meteor was here.
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Meteor must not find out about my friendship with a human! He'd never understand.
Desperate to catch up to Sam, I moved in hopping leaps, more like a toad than a fairy. Sam stopped when he got to the boulder, and I reached it seconds later. As he stood there contemplating the rock leading to another world, he didn't know he was being watched, not only by me but also by a tall dark-faced genie with white eyebrows.
"Zaria?" Sam said. "Are you here?"
Trolls and pixies, did he have to use my name in front of Meteor? Should I answer him or wait for him to go away?
Then Sam put his hand into the boulder.
"Wow," he murmured. "Wow." He stepped through the portal!
I darted after him only to smack into Meteor. We had both dived for the portal at the same instant. When we crashed into each other, we fell through the portal into Feyland. I heard the glug of liquid running out of a bottle, and Meteor's startled yell.
Just then our invisibility ran out. I saw Meteor jump up. He brought out the elixir bottle, fizzing and dripping. He shook the bottle gently, and a feeble sloshing sound reached my ears. The bottle was almost empty.
Dragging myself upright, I confronted Meteor's frown.
"That human knew your name," he said quietly.
I had no answer to give.
Peering anxiously ahead, I could see Sam's outline on the
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rock overlooking Galena Falls. My wings opened up and carried me over to him, but not very gracefully. My toes still scraped along the ground.
As I stood beside him, Sam turned slowly to look at me, and then turned back to stare over the waterfall. Starlight splashed down the falls and gl
immered on the gemstones lining the pool below.
"I dreamed my dad had amnesia but you gave him back his memory," he said. "What a dream. And I'm still in it."
"You're not dreaming. It's true, all of it." He looked so sad that I stepped close to him and put my arms around him. "Your father's alive. You'll see him again."
When Sam hugged me back, I lost my balance and slipped off the rock.
My wings unfurled, but they didn't slow us down very much. Arms wrapped around each other, surrounded by the soft roar of the falls, Sam and I plunged through the spray.
When we hit the water, Sam let go of me. My wings kept me afloat but he sank beneath the surface.
Only for a moment. Then his head burst out of the pool. He laughed aloud, spinning in the water, stirring a circle of spray. I laughed, too, our laughter mingling like mist.
Sam started swimming toward the sloping sand with long strokes. He waded out, then looked around with a dazzled expression. My dripping wings slowed me, and my feet felt
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like boulders, but I made it to the bank and struggled up beside him.
"We have to get you back to Earth," I said. "Now."
"Back to Earth." He sounded awed.
"This way. Follow me."
His shoes squelched as I led him along the path made for children too young to fly. Shallow steps were carved into the rock; it should have been an easy climb but I kept tripping.
Sam didn't miss a single step. A couple of times, he caught me when I was about to fall.
"Here's the way home," I whispered when we got to the portal.
Sam's wet hair clung to his head. His eyes shone.
I heard a rush of air, and Meteor wedged himself between us. He shoved Sam through the portal.
"Meteor!"
"No time, Zaree." He gestured upward.
Dazed, I saw a cloud of moving lights in the sky. Fey searchlights, roaming purposefully I wasted no time drawing my wand.
I cast invisibility on Meteor first, and then myself an instant later. We hurried through the portal. Sam stood a few paces away, staring at the boulder.
"Obliv trau," said Meteor, and Sam sank to the ground, fast asleep.
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"Send him home, Zaria," Meteor ordered. "Whatever he means to you, he cannot stay here now."
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