by A E M
“Our fight is not with you.” Zorach called out. “Step aside.”
“Oh, but it is.” Gulla stepped forward. “And even if it wasn’t, I have unfinished business with one of your companions.” She bared her teeth. Death and rot accosted the air. “Have you spoken with your sister recently?”
“You know the answer to that.” Lodestar answered.
Gulla grinned. “Have you warned them of what I am?”
Lodestar smiled. “I have. I warned them of your power and strength, but they seemed unimpressed.”
Gulla growled and snarled. More wolverines joined her from inside the walls.
“Your numbers are small.” Gulla cocked her head to the side. “You have no weavers. Why, you are nothing more than a sad medley of magani. Fauns have no real power and they make up most of your group.”
“I’d wager that my children are as fast and as strong as you and your pack.” Faunus countered.
Gulla narrowed her eyes. “My boss is one of your children. I am aware of how fast your Fauns are, but I am also aware of how vicious my pack is.” She licked her lips. “Are you?”
Charlotte noticed Alcott take a few steps back and glance behind them. Gulla noticed it, too. “Do you hope for reinforcements, dwarf? Have you sent word to the Maguard? When do you expect them? A week from now?” She laughed a monstrous laugh.
“Where is your boss?” Alcott asked her. “Why does he not fight his own fight?”
“Oh, enough of this.” Gulla laughed. “Attack them!” The wolverines leapt forward and the battle began.
Charlotte gripped her quarterstaff and breathed slowly, waiting for the attack to reach her on the back lines. The wolverines leapt and bit and snarled their way through the front line of Fauns, who attacked with daggers and swords. The wolverines and Fauns were both fast, but the Fauns were falling faster. Only a couple of wolverines went down. She gripped her quarterstaff and double-checked the knife at her waist.
Charlotte watched as Fauna ran through the wolverines, headed straight for Gulla, who watched calmly. Fauna raised her arms. A gun was in each hand. Gulla smiled. Two wolverines leapt at Fauna and bit down on her arms. She screamed as they bit down and dragged her in front of Gulla, who stepped out from the archway to meet them. Charlotte held her breath. Faunus ran past Gulla through the archway.
Charlotte watched in agony as Gulla pulled Fauna up, bared her dagger like teeth, and tore into the woman’s throat. Blood shot out of Fauna and sprayed across the ground. Gulla dropped the woman, wiped her mouth, and grinned a bloody grin.
Ebby flew in circle around the battle and scorched the wolverines from above. Every now and then Charlotte could hear bits of conversation from Ebby, mainly snippets of wishing she were already an adult dragon. The wolverines made their way to Charlotte and Lodestar, who worked together. Across from them, Zorach took his blade to wolverine necks. Beau attacked with bow and arrow from the sky. Alcott had disappeared. Evangeline fought her way toward Gulla. Charlotte wanted to yell out at her. What was Evangeline thinking? Didn’t she see what happened to Fauna? And what was Faunus thinking leaving his wife like that? He could have attacked Gulla from behind.
Charlotte focused back on her fight. She hadn’t been this flighty during the last battle. Why was she unfocused now? She attacked the wolverines anew, and made sure the Lodestar was protected. She focused on her weapon and the enemy. Swing. Protect. Swing. Connect. How many would they have to kill? How long would this battle last? She glanced over at Evangeline. She was nearly at Gulla now.
“Evangeline, no!” Charlotte yelled. But the swirling wind and snow carried her warning, her cry away.
Charlotte looked up at Lodestar. “Evangeline!” She cried out.
Lodestar looked up. “Foolish woman-girl!” She cried out, but she didn’t move.
“Save her!” Charlotte begged.
“This is battle!” Lodestar killed a wolverine and knocked another away.
“Save her!” Charlotte insisted.
“No.”
Charlotte ran. She shoved and battled her way through the wolverines. Evangeline was there now. A glow surrounded her, and she was fighting Gulla. Charlotte ran faster. Her feet pounded against the ground and it sounded like her feet were many feet. She wondered if there was a giant nearby. She stood still. It wasn’t a giant. It was the sound of many feet! The Maguard had made it!
She smiled briefly, but then screamed as she felt the bite of a wolverine on her leg. She swung around to connect her quarterstaff with the wolverine and sent it flying. The pain seared through her leg, but she pushed it aside. She did not want to be attacked again because she wasn’t paying attention to the battle around her. The Maguard were soon upon them. They rushed past her, filling in the spaces. They weren’t as fast as the Fauns or the wolverines, but they were deadlier. They moved as one, and soon all Charlotte could see was a sea of uniforms. She continued to push through to Evangeline. She spied Lodestar and Zorach nearing, as well. The wolverines’ howls filled the air.
Gulla yelled at Lodestar over the battle. “You will see me again, old enemy.” Gulla clapped her hands over her head, and she and the bodies of her pack, dead or alive, all vanished. Charlotte broke through the front lines of the Maguard. Evangeline lay on the ground where Gulla had been only a moment before. Lodestar knelt down beside her.
“She is alive.” Lodestar picked the elf up and carried her away.
Charlotte fell to her knees. The snowstorm had stopped. The sun shone. The snow-covered ground was littered with Faun bodies. The stench of Gulla remained in the air.
21
The Garden Of Glass
“I’ve had enough of your behavior.” Isaac paced in front of her, hands behind his back.
Audrey sat on his desk, legs crossed, eyes furious. “You can’t catch magic, Charlotte.”
Ebby sat in the chair next to her, but she was silent.
“You will leave for college. I want you to spend a few years in the dane world.
It’s best you get used to the reality of your future.”
Charlotte stood. “You promised that I could stay here and learn!”
“Actions have consequences.” Isaac said. “Now go.”
The sun reflected off of the deep snow. Charlotte put her hand over her eyebrows and looked over the battlefield. The stench wasn’t new this time, but it still wrung her stomach. How many Fauns had they lost? How many Fauns were left? All Charlotte saw were the pressed uniforms of the Maguard. Uniforms stacked bodies. Uniforms marched into the stronghold. Uniforms talked to other uniforms. Charlotte’s heart beat furiously. Was her part done? Would the Maguard march in and take down this Oscar with no further battles? She scanned the crowd of uniforms for familiar faces, but she didn’t see any of the rest of the original group. She wrapped her injured leg and then started for the entrance to the stronghold. Fauna’s still body lay near it. Why hadn’t it been moved yet? Charlotte bent down and closed the faun’s eyes. She put her hands under her arms and pulled her away before she slipped through the archway in between groups of marching Maguard.
She took in a sharp breath of air and rubbed her arms as she stepped inside the stronghold. Inside the walls was an enormous garden made completely of ice. There were trees, bushes, and flowers of ice along etched pathways of ice. Some of he bushes were taller than a man. Benches, ice sculptures, and frozen water fountains decorated the corners of the pathways. Charlotte saw some of her team then. She could see Zorach and Lodestar’s human halves inside the middle of the garden where the bushes formed a maze. She saw the tips of Beau’s wings, too. She couldn’t see the Maguard unless they were out in the open.
She walked around the wall behind two of the Maguard. She rubbed her hands together. No snow fell. No clouds covered the sky. But it was freezing inside. It was a different cold than it was outside of the walls. Charlotte knelt down to look at the icy rose bushes. They were perfect. She traced the flat side of a petal. She swiped her finger away and hit the
edge of the rose. Her finger split open. Blood poured out. She pulled her first aid kit out and wrapped the finger up.
Charlotte shivered, but not from the cold. A few feet away, blood spilled out from the wall. She stood and looked around. The two Maguard she had been following were already gone. She tightened her grip around her quarterstaff. “I need help over here!” She called out. “I’m by the east wall near the north wall. There’s blood coming from the wall.” She pressed her hand against the wall and fell through.
She landed on the bloody ice on her hands and knees. Inches away, Faunus lay dead. His own sword ran through his body; his hands still grasped the hilt. Charlotte stood and looked around. She was in a smaller garden that surrounded a little cottage. The paths were smaller here. Bushes lined the outside of the garden, which was in a square shape. The rest of the garden was separated into flower boxes. There were many types of flowers in this garden. Charlotte didn’t even know what most of them were called, but they were all made of ice. She gripped her bandaged finger and looked back at the cottage. Next to it was a large tree with orbs hanging from the barren branches. Her heart went still. It reminded her of the tree at home. She crossed to the tree and stepped onto the bench below the tree. She reached up into the tree and stretched, but she couldn’t reach the lowest orb.
“Charlotte, my dear. We meet again.” A perfect figure in suit and tie stepped out from the cottage.
“Philip?” Charlotte blinked and stepped down from the bench, but then her momentary surprise vanished. He had been working for whoever attacked them. She shouldn’t have been shocked to see him here.
He smiled and took a couple of steps toward her. “Philip, also known as Oscar to those who knew me in my younger days.”
“Oscar?” He wasn’t working for somebody; he was somebody. She stepped away from him. “But you don’t look like a Faun at all.”
He put a foot on the bench and smiled his perfect smile. “My master helped me change through magical surgery. You see, he found me and raised me. With the power he has attained, he has given me a way to put my unfortunate lineage behind me and create a new world with him.”
Charlotte shook her head. “Your master.” She took a few steps to the side. Yes, he was in charge. Here. He was one Arx in charge of one stronghold. But he also had a master. Now it was finally clicking for her.
“You say it like it’s a bad thing.” He chuckled. “But that’s because you are a still very much a human. You all have done away with apprenticeships and masters. Your need for independence has robbed you in a way, I think.”
“In the way that I’m not stupid enough to follow your master’s evil plot?”
“Tsk. Tsk. You say that without the knowledge of who he is or what he has planned.”
Charlotte shook her head and threw out her arms. “I don’t need to know! Kidnapping people is wrong! Killing people is wrong!” She looked over at Faunus. “How could you kill your father? Do you know that Gulla killed your mother just now?”
Philip snorted and rolled his eyes. His voice lost its perfect tone. “How could my father and mother leave me to die as an infant? Do you know that when I came into being they simply ran off into the woods? If my master had not found me, I might not have made it. I have devoted my life to saving my brothers and sisters from their neglect.” He reached behind a bench and brought out a large rod. “It’s nothing you would understand. You wanted for nothing as a child. You grew up in a castle, of all things.”
Charlotte gripped her quarterstaff. “Your father was a jerk to me. But he also stood up and fought and was brave when the time came to do what was right.”
“The right thing to do was to take care of me!” Philip shouted.
“You’re right.”
“My master was the one who did the right thing by rescuing me and raising me.”
Charlotte sighed. She couldn’t argue with that. “You attack my home and my parents, and yet you expect me to believe that your master is a good person?”
Philip took a few steps toward her; a smile crept across his face. “Tell me, are you parents good people?”
“Yes, they are good people!” Charlotte shouted. “What do you know of this master and his intentions?”
“But do you know for sure about your parents like I do about my master?” Philip asked softly. “Do they tell you everything?” He tilted his head to the side. “Or do they, like my parents, create something, and then leave?” He laughed when she stumbled backward. “They created something new, something magical. And then they leave you to deal with the consequences of their actions. You still don’t know what the Weaver Council will say about you, even if you didn’t get your father’s abilities.”
Charlotte’s heart froze in fear.
“And there may not be a Magani Council, but once they hear about you that may change.” He snorted. “They may even destroy you.”
“No.” Charlotte whispered. “They wouldn’t do that.”
“And you don’t even have the slightest idea about the fairies yet. Do you really think they will let you live?”
“They did!”
Philip tapped the rod in his palm. “We shall see. You know, I find you quite interesting.” He smiled. “I think my master will find you interesting, too. If you prove worthy, he may even have room in his plan for one more Arx and one more Stronghold.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Even if you aren’t a dane-weaver after all.” He chuckled and slipped out of this jacket. “I was supposed to collect all three of you, you know. The master was curious to know if the princess dane-weaver would see the worth in his plan. He wanted to know what you would do to keep your memories.”
“I’m not a princess.” Charlotte said. “And I’m capable of making my own plans.”
“Well, aren’t you precious?” Philip sniffed the air. “And I take back the princess bit. You reek.” He paced slowly back and forth in front of her.
Charlotte looked back at the wall. Hadn’t they heard her cry out? Why hadn’t somebody found them yet?
“Oh, I heard you call out. They won’t get it in without a weaver, and you didn’t bring one with you, did you?”
Charlotte steadied her legs. “How did I get in, then?”
Philip smiled. “Why does magic have to be spread out the way it is? Shouldn’t it be available to everyone? Why should the dane-weavers have to have their memories wiped when they could simple buy their own magic? Shouldn’t the danes have access to it if they wanted? What about the hobs? Shouldn’t they have magic?”
Charlotte lowered her weapon. “Can that be done?”
Philip nodded. “That’s how I have magic.”
“Show me.”
“Come, then,” he dropped his rod on the ground. “Lower your weapon and accompany me to the tree.”
Charlotte paused and looked him in the eyes.
“Oh, come, come.” Philip laughed. “I won’t hurt you right now; you have my word.”
Charlotte lowered her quarterstaff and sat down next to him on the bench. Philip extended his arm up and whispered something. One orb drifted down from the branches and settled into his palm. Inside was a miniature mermaid. “One of your guests we kidnapped, I believe.”
“What have you done?” Charlotte looked at the dozens of orbs hanging from the tree.
“It is only a small part of my master’s collection: the part he allows me access to. He is such a generous man. Instead of hogging all the power he has allowed eight of us to share in his plan. We guard each of his gardens, and in return we may use the orbs for our own pleasure.”
Charlotte stood up. “This is wrong, oh, this is so wrong. How can you even believe that this is right?”
Philip shook his head at her. “I must admit that I thought you would be curious and even interested in what the master has to offer. Isn’t this everything you have always wanted? You could be a great weaver! You could find your parents. You could marry whomever you want, or not at all. Be sensible!”
Charlotte
shook her head at him. “I could never do it at the expense of somebody else’s life, no.”
Philip frowned and stood, but then he smiled graciously. “Perhaps you will rethink your position in the future. You still have much to learn about this world.”
“Well, well, what do we have here?” Charlotte felt the blow to her side and the slam of her body against the icy floor.
“Is it time to leave, my darling?” Philip asked smugly.
“Almost.” Raven glared down at Charlotte. “We must make sure Beau has a reason to stay on the ground so that we may escape. Otherwise it might be very difficult.”
“That’s easy enough. But first help me take her pack off so that we can move the master’s collection.”
“Gladly.”
“Be quick about it, and don’t touch her skin.” He warned.
Raven kneed Charlotte in the back and pulled her arms behind her. Philip pressed her head into the ground with one hand and helped Raven wrestled the bag off of Charlotte with the other hand.
“I don’t know what we would have done without you, Charlotte. Not only do you provide us a means to transport the collection, but you also serve as a way to ensure we escape!”
Raven unzipped the bag and held it open. Philip whistled a tune and the orbs gently floated down from the tree and landed in her bag.
Charlotte squirmed under Raven. “Give me my pack back. Escape with your lives, but leave the innocent lives behind.”
“Oh, honestly, don’t embarrass yourself.” Raven laughed.
“Between my flight and Philip’s magic, you stand no chance!”
Charlotte rolled, pulled her knife out, and plunged it between Raven’s wings at the top of her back. She pulled the knife down.
Raven screamed and then went quiet. Blood poured between them.
Philip hesitated, then fell to his knees and placed his hand on Raven’s back.
Charlotte ran for her quarterstaff. She stood and turned and his rod met her shoulder and she fell against the bench. He struck her again and again until she finally managed to turn and meet his strikes with her quarterstaff.