by Jen Pretty
“Let’s never speak of this again,” I said, setting my backpack down by the door where the stunned hunter was still standing.
When I turned around Lacy had come out of her room. She came over and stood in front of me without speaking.
“Hi, Lacy. Sorry, I can’t stay longer to catch up,” I said. She just took my hand in hers and got a faraway look on her face and then smiled. She could see the future of any person she touched, and it must have shown her what she wanted to see. I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to know. Her smile said enough, anyway. She hugged me, and I hugged her back.
“Will you take care of Marick for me, for a little while?” The mourning fox and the broken fae might be a good match. They could comfort each other.
“Of course, I would love to. Come home soon, Lex.”
She let go of my hand and walked back into her room, but the quick flash of a smile as she shut the door made me feel like maybe the years of torture she had endured at the hands of Joshua hadn’t completely broken her.
Leaving Marick behind seemed heartless when she was already losing Helena, but I didn’t want to take the little fox shifter to the witch’s land and she would be safe here until I returned.
A few minutes later the bus pulled up with Armond and the other hunters on it. I said goodbye to Marick and Evan and hugged Victor and Margot tight, then the rest of us climbed in the bus to head back to earth.
We travelled back to my city after switching from the bus to the SUVs at the portal. The line of SUVs was super conspicuous as it pulled up in front of my condo. Clive slipped into the passenger seat as soon as we stopped, but before we pulled away, I made the hunter riding with us get me a coffee from my favourite coffee shop. There should be perks to being Queen. Then our train of black vehicles was off again.
“You only need to drive out of the city to the north,” Clive told Armond who was piloting our vehicle, like usual. “It’s not too far to the entrance of the world we have built here.”
“Is it a different place? Like homeland?” I asked.
“Sort of, though it might not look anything like your homeland, your highness,” Clive replied.
Sounded mysterious.
It wasn’t long until Clive had us turn off at a dirt lane. The track was barely wide enough for the vehicle; really just two dirt tracks with lots of rocks and bumps.
We parked in an empty field at the end of the dirt lane and everyone got out. We were a large group and I prayed we didn’t have to hike too far to get to the elves land. I knew how far the walk was from the road up the mountain to the portal that led to the werewolves’ world and I wanted to get going there today. We could at least get halfway up the mountain before dark.
I wondered, as we walked, if I could use my new magic to get all of us to the portal in the blink of an eye, but thought I might end up blowing us all up. I snickered and everyone looked at me, but I just waved them off.
Finally, Clive stopped beside a large rock and pressed his hand into it like it was foam.
Right before my eyes, an entire town bloomed into being. Brilliant flowers lined the streets and ornamental trees, their tops sculpted into round balls on straight trunks, divided the lanes. The houses sparkled with glitter and the cars parked in driveways were all glossy and clean. It was a sharp contrast to the rocky terrain that had been there a moment ago.
The sky wasn’t the same either. It was painted in pinks, oranges and reds like a sunset, even though the sun still hung high in the sky, lit up like an old-fashioned lollipop.
As we moved into the city, people came out of their homes and small businesses along the main street to follow us. When we finally arrived in the center of the town, there was a large square with gardens and benches.
Clive led us up to a small stage then took my hand and helped me up the steps. He led me forward as the elves of the town gathered.
I looked back at Clive as he retreated and he winked at me. I took that was my cue and began to speak to the people.
“Hello, my name is Lex. Uhm. I’m going to kill the evil witch and I’m hoping some of you might join me. I had a vision. So, looking for volunteers, I guess.”
One by one, the people in the crowd put their fists over their hearts and bowed their heads. They were stone silent for a long minute and then one by one, they straightened.
“Ok, so, I guess, any takers, follow us out?” I questioned, looking back at Clive who just nodded.
“Good enough, then. Thanks,” I said awkwardly waving and turning back to the massive herd of people already following me around. Roman rubbed my arm and then took my hand in his.
“Your Highness, we will need but an hour to pack,” Clive said. “Would you like to take a rest in our coffee shop?”
“That sounds perfect, Clive. Thanks.”
He led me to a small café, and I ordered a latte. I thanked the woman behind the counter, but she just stared at me, open-mouthed. I was not going to get used to being queen, particularly if it interfered with my ability to get a coffee in a timely manner.
The town that the elves had made was so comfortable. I felt peace here; the ground was saturated with magic and it soaked into me like I was a sponge. It felt exactly like the werewolves’ world. It was a calm and slow magic even with people scurrying about.
Eventually, a group started to form in front of the café where I sat. Probably 20 or so men and women, all young and fit. They looked like an army, with backpacks and blanket rolls. I raised an eyebrow to Clive when he came back over with a bag as well. He wasn’t a young-looking man though I figured he was probably fitter than he let on.
“I promise I am up to the task,” Clive insisted at my doubtful look.
“I have no doubt. Is this our army then?” I asked taking a closer look at the group. I had no idea how we were going to get across the world to Italy.
“Yes, we are at your service, though we may have trouble reconciling with the unicorns. They probably won’t accept us back easily, after the way we left.”
I glanced at Puck. He nodded once, confirming the elf’s suspicions.
“Great, well, does anyone have a plan to get us all to the other side of the world?”
The elves just looked at Clive, who smiled.
“You can create portals now, Lex.” Clive said. “Perhaps now is a good time to give it a try? It’s easier to make them to a place you have already been. Making a portal to another world might be a lot to ask, but you should be able to make one to Italy, close enough to the portal we want.”
“Make a portal? What if I make it on a cliff and we all die when we go through?” I asked. It seemed like a legitimate question.
“We can tie a rope to someone and send them through first to be sure. If it makes you feel better.” He glanced at Roman. “Or send someone more durable.”
I laughed, but Roman didn’t look pleased which only made me laugh harder.
“Just picture where you want to go in your mind,” Clive continued.
I took a deep breath and imagined the door to the werewolves’ world. The rocky landscape, rough scrubby trees that gave way to some taller trees near the portal.
Slowly a small door began to shimmer in the middle of town. Its edges were not well defined yet, but the center was starting to come into view. It looked like an interior door in a modern house. All the others had looked like old house doors. Mine was glossy and white with inset panels. I thought harder about the door frame and it finally finished materializing.
A perfect door, in a flawless frame, held up by nothing and standing upright in the middle of the town. The stark white contrasted wildly with the bright colours of the sky and flowers in the gardens here, but I had made a portal to somewhere.
Well, that’s a handy trick.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Funneling through the single doorway took some time. We were a rather large army now with the hunters and elves, but once through, Armond pulled out his hand-held GPS unit and led us through the ro
cky landscape towards the door back to the werewolves’ land.
I was getting tired and finally allowed a hunter who had been begging me for an hour to carry my bag. Walking was easier without it, but I wasn’t about to start letting everyone do everything for me. I still carried my duck.
The cuteness of the duck had nothing to do with it. His random sweet chin nibbles didn’t sway me. I was carrying him on principle.
It had been a long day, though, and after stopping for a quick dinner, we finally made it to the door. I knew we wouldn’t want to be walking through the new land at night, with the threat of danger still high, so we decided to stay the night on earth, just outside the door. We would cross over in the morning.
Setting up camp went smoothly and we made a massive fire to cook on. Some of the elves and hunters went out and killed a red deer and a wild boar. Once it was on a spit, the smells were intoxicating. Maybe not as good as Margot’s stew smells, but still downright delicious.
“So, what do I need to know about the unicorns? Will they be hard to talk to?” I asked Puck as we waited for dinner to cook.
His serious expression said I probably wasn’t going to like his answer. Puck always had a smirk on his face.
“They will be pretty angry when the elves come back across the portal. You know the elves abandoned us when the witch stole the magic; left us there to rot, trapped as violent, bloodthirsty unicorns.” He was staring at Snazzy as he said it. I had felt some tension between them since the first meeting, but now I understood why.
“The elves couldn’t have stopped the witch,” Snazzy jumped in. “We had no magic and barely saved ourselves. You unicorns went running off into the wilderness, wild as this boar,” he said, turning the skewered carcass so it would cook evenly.
“You abandoned us!” Puck yelled as he stood and stormed off into the forest.
All the elves shared side glances and guilty looks. Perfect. Just what I needed when I’m trying to save the future king; a bunch of angry, vengeful unicorns that like to stab people. I shook my head and got up to go chase after Puck.
Although the area had some trees, there was enough rockiness to the ground to keep the trees from getting dense so finding Puck was easy. He was by the river that we had often refilled our water bottles from when we travelled through the portal. He was sitting on a mossy section beside a boulder, his arms resting on his knees, inspecting his hands, lost in thought.
I cleared my throat. Not wanting to startle him and get a horn through my midsection.
“I heard you coming from miles away; you stomp around like it’s your job to flatten the earth.”
Jerk.
“I was hardly miles away,” I muttered as I sat down beside him.
We sat in silence for a while, just looking out at the water. Puck was always so loud and sure of himself; it never occurred to me that he would still be hurting from his time under the control of the witch.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, leaning my head towards him.
"No," he replied shortly.
Tough guy.
"How about I talk and you can just listen. I think that you maybe did some things that you wouldn’t have ordinarily done."
He grunted like a caveman. "You don’t know anything about it."
"That’s because you never told me," I said gently, bumping his shoulder with mine. "I would remember if you had.”
We sat in silence for a while. I imagined all kinds of terrible things he could have done. I swear there was smoke coming out his ears, he was thinking so hard.
Finally, he sighed heavily and whispered, "I killed a little girl."
Oh God, it was as bad as I thought. I put my arm around him and scooted in right next to him. He set his arm across my shoulders and pulled me closer.
"I’m sorry," I muttered into his shoulder.
"When I came back to my human form, when the witch let go of us, I thought I had woken from a nightmare. The longer I am back to my old self, the more I realize those things happened. I can hear the screams of the little girl’s mother as I killed her. The little girl with braids in her hair. She couldn’t have been more than six."
I tipped my head up to look at Puck, the mighty fearless warrior who had watery eyes and a look on his face of complete devastation. I wanted to cry with him. It wasn’t fair, but I knew he needed me to be strong right now. I was done being lost and weak. It was time to act like the queen I had become.
"Of course, you would never do that. It wasn’t your fault. It was the witch’s fault. I know that doesn’t help now, but I swear to God, we will kill that witch. She will never control you again."
He hugged me tighter for a moment and then took another deep breath and wiped his eyes on his shirt.
"If we get through this, when we get through this, I want to come back here with you, Lex. I can't live in a place where I only remember killing. Generations of people feared me there and they will always fear my kind. I want to stay here, with you.
"Ok, when we get through this, we can go back home. You will love living in the city."
He smiled at that, the cocky look back on his face. "The city will love me."
I laughed and he scooped me up and transformed into a unicorn. I grabbed his mane as he reared up, making me squeal, then took off. He ran for a long time along the shore of the river. He was nearly as fast as Roman and the rush was just as good. I laughed and clung to him, warm and safe on his battle-worn back. I had never thought of Puck as a sensitive guy, but there are some things we all need help to carry. Killing a young girl was the thing that broke his back and I would fight even harder against the oppression that caused him to betray his own morals. That kind of power over another person should not exist. Magic shouldn’t be that way.
Eventually, Puck took us back to camp. It was dusk now with barely any light left to see by, but the bonfire was blazing and the smell of cooked meat filled my lungs. I had laid on Pucks back, my head on his rump, trusting him not to ditch me as he marched me right up to the fire, transforming back into a man and setting my feet back on the ground. I threw my arms around him, enjoying one last moment of closeness, then we sat down to eat with the rest of our army.
The boar was delicious and the deer had an unusual texture that filled my palate with a gamey flavour I had never experienced before.
When I had eaten my fill, I climbed into my tent and flattened out my sleeping bag. It was too hot to sleep under it tonight, but it was soft and I would sleep on it even if it was 100 degrees hotter. Roman slipped in a few minutes after I got curled up comfortably with Daisy. He slid in behind me and wrapped his arm over my stomach.
"Is Puck ok?" he whispered in my ear. His hot breath gave me chills.
I tipped my head back to look at him. "He's fine. He just did some things that he wouldn’t have done if he hadn’t been stuck as a unicorn all that time."
"Shit," Roman cursed. "I hadn't thought of that. God, I can't imagine surviving that kind of horror."
"Me either. I would rather be dead, but they were immortal and still are. We could have our hands full with angry unicorns when we cross that portal."
I turned and rested my face on Roman’s chest. "I need the unicorns, Roman. That witch is so powerful and I still have very little control of my new magic. Everything is too up in the air. "
"I know," he replied, kissing the top of my head. "We will get the unicorns on our side."
"I'll help you get them, Lex," Puck said from outside the tent flap.
I laughed. Of course, he was sleeping right in front of my door. Even with a vampire and a duck that turns into a dragon, I was never safe enough until the warrior was sleeping there.
"Thank you, Puck, goodnight."
Goodnight, Lex" he replied.
"Goodnight," Roman whispered into my hair.
Daisy rustled a bit, curling in closer to me and I fell asleep to the sounds of soft snoring. Perhaps our last peaceful night before we make our move on the evil witch.
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The next morning, we all stumbled out of our tents. I was stiff from sleeping awkwardly around a certain duck who commandeered the center of the blankets and had no interest in spending another day walking. I had some leftover meat for breakfast and a cookie, then Armond boiled some water on the fire and made real coffee while the hunters bundled up the tents and set everything by the portal. The plan was to go across and head for Kingstown to pick up some soldiers.
While Roman and Armond had been trying to get me to remember them, they had sent word to the Kingsland that we would be returning soon and would want whatever help they could spare.
We hoped the unicorns would come as soon as they felt the elves arrive like Puck had when I crossed the first time, but there was no guarantee. I knew I needed them so, if we had to, we would hunt them down too.
After breakfast, we all picked up our backpacks. Mine was suspiciously missing, but after some yelling and stomping of my foot, my pack miraculously appeared from within one of the hunter’s backpacks.
It was the same hunter who had been trying to steal it all along. Chivalrous bastard. I tossed it on my back, tightening the straps and glaring at the old fae. I noticed it was quite a bit lighter than it should have been, but at least I had it back.
We crossed in formation, the hunters going through first and then our team with the elves following.
The elves all had swords and were ready to fight for Aldridge, but we weren’t sure if there would be hostile unicorns on the other side of the portal and didn’t want them all cut down without back up.
Thankfully, the other side only revealed many of the king’s soldiers in a large sprawling camp.
We should have maybe sent a scout ahead because these soldiers were prepared to stay in their camp for quite some time. They had mules with packs of food and large barrels of water. They had prepared for anything.