by Jenna Grey
“I’m afraid… as well...” Connor said, “but we are… together.”
He slipped his hand into hers and gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze, and the walked together, hand in hand.
The walk should have been a pleasant one – it was a lovely summer’s day, bright with sunshine, blue skies and just the hint of a breeze. In other circumstances she would have liked nothing better than to be walking hand in hand with Connor through these country lanes, just enjoying one another’s company. Instead, dark thoughts filled her head, making her feel sick and nerve jangled. All she could see in her mind’s eye were Liam and Sarah, huddled together and cowering in the Black King’s presence, terrified. Despite Connor’s reassurance, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing to them. Terrible images flashed into her mind of what had happened to her, and the thought of that monster touching Liam or Sarah made her stomach knot and her bladder weaken.
“Stop it!” Connor said, holding the tops of her arms just a little too tightly and giving her a little shake. “Do not... think those.. things. They are safe for now.”
“I’m sorry. I told Kieran off for doing the same thing.”
And she forced her mind to other things, even though it broke her heart to do it.
They reached the edge of Farthingale woods at just after seven according to Connor’s Spiderman watch, and there were still a good few hours of daylight left. The blue skies had dulled, though, a sudden promise of rain which seemed to have come from nowhere, clouds had begun to form and Lily eyed them with suspicion.
“Is it my imagination or do those clouds look just a little bit unnatural? Blue skies one minute and clouds the next – something really doesn’t feel right about this.”
“Is not right. Is... djinn.” Connor said, gazing up at the ominous sky. As they watched, the clouds grew thicker, more menacing, forming a great shroud that seemed to cover the whole world. The sunlight landscape suddenly became that dull yellow colour that comes as a prelude to a thunderstorm, and within minutes everything lay in semi-darkness.
“This is so not good,” Lily said. “It was bad enough going into those woods in sunlight, but like this...”
“We will be... okay. Trust me,” he said, more urgently, but Lily caught his thoughts, and could see that he was as scared as she was.
“I want to, I really do, just try to make your thoughts lie a bit better,” she said and managed a smile that matched the clouds.
Before them was a murky landscape of heavy trees and deep shadows as the great twisted trees merged together to form a great canopy that blotted out what little light there was left. These old trees had been there for hundreds of years, and seen the comings and going of both men and fey. When these trees had first taken root, the countryside around had been filled with peasant farmers, serfs and feudal estates owned by the local warlords. Most of these trees were saplings when the English Civil War was still raging, some of them might even have been there when William the Conqueror had claimed the land as his... could there even be trees here that had seen the Romans trudging across the English landscape? She wouldn’t have been at all surprised.
They both moved towards the darkness with trepidation, clutching one another’s hands, hearts thumping wildly. Despite Connor’s bravado, his heart was pounding every bit as much as hers was. Lily pulled the most powerful torch she had from her hold all, and flipped the switch. It barely made a dent in the darkness, stretching just a couple of feet in front of them and providing them with little comfort. Between the trees Lily could see nothing but darkness, and she knew what was hidden within it. As they moved into it, Lily pressed just a little closer to Connor, and as their bodies touched she felt him shiver. It was cold in here where the sunlight never reached, even on the brightest and sunniest days, but she knew that it wasn’t the cold that made him tremble.
“Lions and tigers and bears, oh my,” Lily whispered, raking the torch around and realising that it was pathetically useless against the overwhelming darkness that closed in around them.
“What?” Connor asked.
Lily rolled her eyes.
“Wizard of Oz, you know...”
He smiled then.
“I am... Scarecrow. I have no... brain,” he said, and gave a little laugh. It sounded so out of place here in this oppressive place.
“There’s nothing wrong with your brain, it’s the rest of you that’s messed up,” Lily said, and giggled. They both started laughing and it seemed to relieve the tension somehow.
They stayed close together as they passed beneath the ancient oaks, listening for the comforting sounds of animals, lurking in the undergrowth. There was nothing but silence, as if whatever small creatures there were hidden here could sense that something dreadful lurked in the shadows and they cowered in its presence. Lily, on tenterhooks, looked into every dark corner and shadow, expecting an attack at any minute.
“He’s here, isn’t he? I can sense him somehow,” Lily said. “And so can the animals. They’re all hiding.”
“I think... so.” He stopped in his tracks, thoughtful. “We need more light.”
Connor lifted his palm and Lily watched, entranced, as a small ball of white light appeared in it, floating just above his hand. He gently tossed it into the air, and it hovered in front of them, bathing them in a cool white light and illuminating the area around them in silver.
“Cool,” Lily said. “You must show me how to do that, sometime.”
“It takes much... energy. I cannot do for long time.”
Now that they could walk in the comforting bubble of white light, Lily felt so much better – not good, but better. It cast a wonderful silvery light over them, illuminating the area for a good ten feet around – at least giving them a chance to see anything coming at them. Now she could put the torch away, Lily pulled out the taser, and clutched it to her, ready for any attack.
“What if we don’t reach Virginia by nightfall?” Lily asked. “I don’t want to be out here in the dark.”
“Is okay... if we could... not reach by night... then she w...w... would tell us to start earlier.”
That made sense she supposed, but the thought of being out in these woods in the dark was still not a prospect she relished much. Lily clicked on the iPad and looked down at the map.
“Shit. I think we’re just about to hit the boggy bit of the map. I really need a trip through the Dead Marshes right now. Where’s Golem when you need him?” she asked. She saw the blank look on Connor’s face and said, “Never mind.”
Despite the prospect of what was to come, Lily breathed a sigh of utter relief as they came out from under the last of the trees, and then drew her breath in again when she saw what was in front of them. A low mist hung over the entire landscape, stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction, and hidden beneath its nebulous vapour were deep pockets of marsh, scrubby grass and puddles of dark water that could be deep enough to drown a man. Here and there the mist was deeper, the height of a man, even higher, and so intense that she couldn’t see through it. Spindly trees spiked the sky here and there, like dead men’s fingers, and between the dark pools and scrappy banks of marsh grass and weeds, small rocky outcrops littered the landscape.
“That is not good,” Connor said.
“Can’t we go another way?” Lily asked, looking down into the dark pool of water at her feet. Her own reflection stared back at her, wan and very afraid.
Connor shook his head.
“We will... not get there by night... if we go around.”
He was right of course. If they went around it then they would definitely get caught out when night fell. This was the only way through.
They began wading through the dreadful quagmire, the mud sucking at their feet, trying to find the patches of tufty coarse grass that were the most solid. Connor went first, testing each step carefully, putting his weight down and pressing down hard before he stepped on it. The fey were very sure and light footed – but the ground beneath
them seemed determined to thwart them at every step. Connor held her arm, steadying her, stopping her from stumbling a few times, and almost stumbling himself. The cloying mud was making her legs ache so much she could hardly keep them under her, they began to shake and when she finally lost her trainer to the mud's insidious mire, she sat down on a grassy bank and began to cry.
“I can’t do this. We’re probably just wandering round and round in circles getting lost, and we’re still going to be stuck out here at nightfall.”
She extricated her trainer from the mud and poured the water out of it, clutching the soggy mess in her lap, and mewling her misery.
“It is not much... further,” he said, squatting down beside her.
“Oh, stop being so bloody optimistic!” she snapped. Then she saw his face and relented. “Sorry, I just need to rest for a minute, that’s all.”
She looked up then, and peered into the misty darkness. Tiny pinpoints of light had popped into their field of view, darting in and out of the mist. For a moment Lily couldn’t work out what they were, then she realised – they were will o’ the wisps. Tiny little balls of light that hovered in the air, like fireflies.
“Hinkypunks,” Connor said, laughing his pleasure. “They... want us... to follow them.”
Lily smiled as well, as the tiny figures weaved and bobbed in front of them, a strange little buzzing sound emanating from them.
“But aren’t they supposed to lure unwary travellers to their deaths? The last thing we want to do is follow them.”
Connor reached out his hand and one of the tiny creatures landed on it. Lily could see its minuscule form quite clearly, a delicate little creature that looked like a cross between and insect and a human, its fragile wings beating so fast that they were just a blur of speed.
“We are fey. Fey do not... betray their own kind,” Connor said. “They only lure... bad people to their death.”
He was right of course – apart from the djinn and the sluagh, the dark fey that hated everyone but their own kind, the fey would not betray one of their own.
They watched as the tiny wisps of light hovered in front of them, teasing them forwards. Lily put her trainer back on, and watched as they hovered over a grassy bank, beckoning her on. It bobbed and weaved in the air just in front of her face, and was definitely having fun.
“We have nothing to lose, do we?” Lily said, “We’re totally lost. Just be careful, ay?”
They began following their guides through the bog, treading cautiously, but soon finding that the tiny creatures were leading them on the right path. It wasn’t easy, but they seemed to be able to find their way through on the safest paths until they finally found themselves standing on dry land again. The will o’ the wisps had congregated together now into an almost solid ball of light, hovering just a few feet in front of them and it was so bright it was hurting Lily’s eyes.
“Thank you,” Lily said as she took the final step. “We are in your debt.”
For one of the fey to declare that they were in someone’s debt meant far more than it did to any human. If the will o’ the wisps ever needed help, Lily or Connor were obliged to provide it. The ball of light moved up into the air, and suddenly exploded into a hundred tiny forms again, shooting off in all directions.
“We would never have made it without them,” Lily said. “We really are in their debt.”
“If the Black King wins... then they will suffer too... they understand.”
“I wish I did,” Lily said.
And so they carried on, following the map, too weary to talk now, just putting one foot in front of the other and hoping that they would get wherever they were going soon. Lily was so exhausted that every muscle, every bone in her body was screaming out at her to rest. She felt as if there was a great weight pressing down on her shoulders, trying to drive her into the earth, and when she looked at Connor she could see he was close to the end of his endurance as well. They were both soaking wet, covered in mud, hungry, thirsty and thoroughly miserable.
They were back in scrubby woodland again now, but nothing like as thick as Farthingale Woods. The trees were dotted in clumps, with a small clearing between, and although the sky overhead was still that terrible deathly grey bank of heavy cloud, Connor’s light was enough to see them through it without too many problems.
Lily suddenly felt a strange tingle running through her body.
“I think that we’re close,” she said.
Connor nodded.
When Lily turned around, she could feel the sensation rising and falling as she moved, as if she had an inbuilt Geiger counter. When she turned in one direction the tingling became either hotter or colder, sensing the arcane power in the air. She realised that she was acting as a human – or rather fey – dowsing rod. All they needed to do was to move towards the brightest field of energy and it would lead them straight to Virginia.
“We need to look for an ash tree that has an even number of branches on either side,” she said.
There were lots of ash trees around, but they all looked quite normal to her – and then Connor gave a little cry and pointed. There in front of them, in a clearing, stood a solitary ash tree, and its branches were exactly even on either side of it.
“We need to cut a branch, but I don’t think I can reach,” Lily said. Connor crouched down and said:
“Get on my... shoulders.”
Lily, a little dubious, slipped her legs over Connor’s shoulders and found herself being boosted upwards. She gave a little scream as he wobbled, but found that she could reached the lowest branches if she stretched. She snapped off a branch a little longer than they needed and Connor dropped her back down to the ground.
“It’s hard to believe that a little thing like this can cure you, but Virginia seems to think it will work – who are we to argue?”
Beyond the ash tree was one of the low burial mounds that littered the area, neolithic remains that had been there so long they had become part of the landscape. Lily had read somewhere that there were over forty thousand of them dotted around the British Isles and many of them were entrances to the Otherworld. The problem was that these were sometimes guarded by the dead, ancient warriors who were placed there as a penance to watch over these mystical entrances until their debt was paid. Tolkien had known his folklore, that’s for sure. She was fairly certain that they wouldn’t encounter that problem at least; the Korrigan might just have mentioned if she had a demented Celtic warrior guarding her front door.
To find the entrance to a fairy mound you were supposedly meant to walk nine times around it, but as the Korrigan hadn’t mentioned that either, she suspected that might have been redundant as well.
“The entrance has to be here somewhere,” Lily said, moving around and trying to pick up the strongest waves of arcane power.
Connor ignored her and walked away from her, moving closer to the bank of grass, and following along it, holding his hand up as if he were searching for something. Of course – he could see Otherworld, to him it was as real as this one.
“Here,” he said.
He had come to a small rocky outcrop set into the green bank side, and he laid his hand on it. Then gave a nod.
Lily came up and laid her hand over his and she could feel a great wash of sensation pour over her that nearly knocked her from her feet. She felt Connor’s arm around her as she toppled and he grabbed her hand and held it pressed against the stone, supporting almost her full weight. The rock seemed to dissolve from under their fingers and Lily found herself staring into the eerie darkness of the cave.
“Why does that not look good?” Lily asked.
Connor raised his hand, palm upwards and the small ball of bright white light appeared there just as it had before. Lily stared at it and raised an eyebrow.
“How comes you can do that and I can’t? That little trick would have saved me a hell of a lot of misery over the last few days.”
Connor just gave her a benign smile and shrugged.
>
“Sorry.”
Lily slipped her hand into his and let him lead her through the darkness, his other hand, holding the precious light held high so that they could see where they were going, Lily clutching the taser as if it were a semi automatic machine gun. The tunnel was nothing but a rocky cave that seemed to stretch some way into the distance and the light didn’t reach the end of it, which Lily didn’t find very reassuring.
“I hope she hasn’t got a bloody guard dog,” Lily murmured. Then just ahead of them she could see the door.
It was an ordinary looking old oak door, mellow with age, a large bronze ring set in it to open it. Lily had no doubt that it was protected by the strongest magic, to keep unwanted intruders out.
“What do we do now?” Lily asked, eyeing the door suspiciously.
Connor simply pulled his hand out of hers, lifted the knocker and rapped on it hard.
“Now why didn’t I think of that?” she asked, giving the tiniest of smiles. There was nothing for a moment and then the door swung open, leading into more darkness. She tossed a glance at Connor and said, “Are you going first, or shall I?”
Neither of them went first. From the tunnel came a willowy form, emerging from the darkness, luminous and beautiful. She was dressed in a wine coloured velvet dress, heavy with bead-work, that fitted close to her shapely figure, cut low, accenting her sensuality. She greeted them with a smile, holding out her hands in greeting.
“I knew you would find me. Come, come in, and welcome to my home,” she said, her voice as warm as her words.
She turned and walked back into the darkness and they followed her through another short passageway to find themselves in the hall that Lily had seen in her dream, a beautiful arbour of sorts, not a room exactly, because there were walls on only three sides, the other side opening out into a spacious garden, full of the most exotic plants and blossoming trees. Lily tried to look past the boundary of the high stone wall that marked the perimeter of the garden to see what was beyond, but the ivy covered wall blocked anything that might lie beyond from sight. All she could see was the golden sky above it, the colour of pale butter. There were no clouds, just an endless expanse of unbroken sky. A delicious golden light bathed the whole scene in a warm glow, and Lily drank in the wonderful smell of Otherworld. It was nothing like the foetid odour in the world of men, polluted by smoke and chemicals, even in the most remote parts of the countryside. The air here smelt alive, vibrant and energising. It wasn’t quite home, but it was close enough.