Escaping Neverland

by Lynn Wahl

  When I was finished, I set the sketch book aside and ate. I was just finishing up my bread and cheese sandwich and thanking God that the fae had heard of cheese and had some, when Bumblebee walked up. I handed Lavender the last piece of my food and smiled at the fae. He sat across from me and with a few sticks from the woodpile, started a fire between us. The fae had put some sort of spell up around the clearing to hide the light, and I was grateful for it. The fire kept the mosquitoes away. And the jungle was just creepy at night in the dark.

  “Cashraina asked me to tell you William’s story before we rescue your friend. Do you wish to hear it?” Bumblebee’s voice was soft, much kinder than the other fae I’d encountered so far, with the exception of Cashraina.

  I nodded, but before he could begin, I shrugged, a little sheepish. “Um…what’s your name? Because I think of you as Bumblebee and it’s a little weird, because there’s this fictional character back in my world from a movie, but it’s a yellow and black machine that’s also a car sometimes…so it’s just weird.”

  The fae blinked at me and then frowned. “You may call me Etain.”

  I nodded and pointed at myself. “Paige.”

  Etain didn’t respond, but launched right into his story. “William came to us with his brother many years ago, in the Year of the Purple Moon.”

  I was about to ask what the Year of the Purple moon meant but Etain shot me a frustrated look, so I kept my mouth shut and motioned for him to continue.

  “William and his brother were the first humans to come to the island. They were not like those children you see over there who were brought over later by the Captain or by William himself. William and his brother were brought here by the Queen.”

  I shook my head. “Um…so the Queen kidnapped them?”

  Etain narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “The Queen rescued them. She would occasionally look through the waters at your world and on one occasion, saw William and his brother. She saw them being punished by their father and made to work in the fields. They were dirty and underfed. The Queen, unable to have any other children beyond her first, as is often the case with our people, decided to adopt them. She created the first of the gates between this world and yours, stepped through, and brought William and his brother back with her.”

  I wanted to interrupt again but stayed quiet. It sounded like William and his brother were just regular kids, not abused, maybe just a little hungry. I wondered if the Queen thought of the boys’ parents and how much it would hurt to lose their children.

  “At first, William and his brother were very happy here. They had the best of everything: clothes, food, toys, free rein of the island. They were treated as royalty, the sons of the Queen. She loved them as if they were her own. Then, seventy years later, the boys started to get restless. They weren’t getting any older, you see, and began to be unhappy. They had forgotten their previous life and the hardships that waited in the human world and begged to return. The Queen, unable to deny them anything, created another gate to send them back to your world. She sent them with as many jewels as they could carry and spells of protection to keep them from harm.”

  I shook my head, thinking of what sort of chaos two spoiled seven year olds with a seventy year old’s wisdom and pockets full of cash could cause.

  Etain nodded. “Yes. It did not end well. We didn’t hear from the boys for another ten years. William came back through one of the gates alone. He was quiet and sullen. He wouldn’t say what had happened to his brother or why his brother hadn’t returned. William could not be happy with the palace any longer and chose to go off into the jungle by himself. Another ten years passed before we felt the gates being used again. But this time, it was more than one person, and they were adults. When the gate was used again and again and again, the Queen sent scouts to investigate. They came back with iron wounds and died very quickly.”

  I frowned. “You haven’t mentioned the name of William’s brother, the one that didn’t come back.”

  Etain frowned. “His name was James. Patience. When the scouts died, the Queen sent for William. She asked him to fly over the stranger’s encampment and report to her who and what they were. He did, and when he returned, he had a wound on his face and was in a terrible temper. He told us that his brother had returned, now a grown man. He had landed to talk with him and they’d gotten in a fight. His brother had attacked him when William had suggested he return to Earth with all the men he’d brought and all the iron weapons and equipment.”

  “William’s brother, James, is the Captain.” I sat there, shocked, and darted a look over at William. I winced as I caught his eye, realizing he’d been staring over at us for several minutes now. His face was rigid with anger and pain.

  “Yes. The boy we raised for seventy years betrayed us for the wealth and power his ability gave him. As a boy he used his powers with cruelty, forcing even the fae to follow his commands. We should have done something about him sooner, but by time he returned, it was too late. Even William cannot best him. The Captain is stronger and bigger. He can command obedience with a simple word. If we do not stop him soon, there will be nothing of the island left to save.”

  “Okay, but what about the story on Earth about this island and William?”

  Etain shrugged. “One of the men that came over with the Captain saw the island and left. He made up most of what he wrote. About the only thing he got right was William’s ability to fly.”

  Etain didn’t stick around to hear my reaction to the story. He just got up and went back to the fire with the other fae. I shot one last quick look over at William, but he’d stopped staring at me and was sharpening his sword instead.

  I felt sorry for him, sorry for the life he’d had and the human life that had been taken from him. I sighed. It was easier when I didn’t understand why William was such a jerk. Now when we went to rescue Jake, I couldn’t sic a spider on William if he tried to kill Jake and just be done with it. With a deep sigh, I sank down into the bedding the fae had given me and tried to go to sleep. I’d have to worry about that tomorrow.

  Sixteen: Paige

  If I thought the march through the jungle the day before was hard, I was definitely wrong. I’d never been so tired in my whole life. This was worse even than the march with William to the power station. A few quick glances to the side showed me that the fae weren’t having any trouble at all. I wondered if they were even able to sweat. It’d sort of mar their perfect image and all, so I thought not. Then again, they also didn’t seem to be getting wet from the constant rain.

  Stormy followed behind me, stopping now and then to nibble on a few plants. I was relieved to see her eating. The thought of bringing a creature to life only to watch it starve to death made me feel a little sick to my stomach. I hadn’t thought about that part of creating a living creature at all, and I felt sort of bad about it.

  The sun was out and high in the sky, shining through the broad leaves of the tree and sparkling in the dripping rain water when we finally stopped. Etain came up to stand beside me and put his finger to his lips. He pointed out through the leaves, and I had to stifle a gasp. We’d come right up behind some sort of village of wooden shacks and cobbled streets, and it was full of people.

  I watched, a little confused, as a bunch of guys scurried back and forth between a wagon and a building before I realized they were unloading weapons. I didn’t know what kind of guns they were, but they were a flat black with long pointy barrels and a thick stock. They looked like the same guns I’d seen all the soldiers carrying on television back home. I paled.

  The fae were deathly allergic to iron. Apparently, even steel was enough to cause the reaction. If the Captain was using some sort of steel bullet in those guns, the fae wouldn’t stand a chance, even without Jake’s steel monsters. I looked at Etain and could see the fear in his eyes at the sight of the weapons.

  “Those are guns,” I whispered.

  He nodded. “It’s not the first time the Captain’s brought in
such weapons. We managed to destroy the last batch, but this delivery looks much bigger.”

  “How does he bring so much through the gates?”

  Etain made a small gesture towards the men. “With every delivery, he brings in more and more humans. This village used to only be a few dwellings.”

  I looked out, wondering what the Captain was promising these men to convince them to come to a place with no running water, television, fast food, or modern medicine. It was probably money. I couldn’t think of anything else that would work.

  I thought back to the warehouse. The Captain had paid Gregor for Jake with a small leather bag. I wondered what was in it.

  “Do you know what the Captain is paying for all of this with?” I asked.

  Etain looked at me, confused, and I gestured towards the guns.

  “That stuff takes money. There’s no way he’s just waltzing in and walking out with crates and crates of weapons. He’s got to be trading something for them.”

  Etain’s eyes lit up a little with recognition and then darkened. “He trades in fairy dust. The dust is the main reason he came back to the island after he left. William told the Queen that away from this island, the Captain’s powers are not as strong. He figured out it was the dust and has been capturing the little ones ever since.”

  Lavender, who’d been sitting on my shoulder in silence, whimpered and huddled closer to my shoulder. I put up a finger, trying to be gentle, and stroked her wings. Stormy nudged my back, as if she too sensed the little Queen’s sorrow.

  “We have to stop him,” I said. The words surprised Etain, and it was another one of those moments where I wished I could just rewind and take it back. What did I mean by “we?” I asked myself. You’re not here to fight, remember? You’re here to get Jake back and go home, away from all this craziness.

  But I couldn’t. I couldn’t just let the Captain take advantage of the fae and the little fairies. He couldn’t be allowed just to pop into Earth whenever he wanted and snatch children like some sort of living nightmare. And even worse, he couldn’t be allowed to supply fairy dust to the corrupt men he had to be dealing with. If the fairy dust gave supernatural, special abilities to evil people, who knew what they could get away with? The Governor was surely using the fairy dust for something bad. There wasn’t any other way around it. The people the Captain had bought the guns from certainly couldn’t be nice people. I wondered if this was how the spell worked, making me see the fae’s side of the fight, trying to make me feel bad for them so I’d kill my friend.

  I sighed. It was a mess. And Jake and I were right in the middle of it. It made me want to go dig a hole like one of the spiders and just hide until it was all over.

  “Where’s the ship?” I asked.

  Etain nodded his head towards the village. “A road leads down to the harbor from here. The ship is anchored out where the water is deeper.”

  “How do we get Jake back?” I knew whatever plan they had would involve William, but I didn’t know the details.

  Etain pulled me back away from the edge of the tree line towards the camp the fae were setting up. I stared at the gathering in astonishment and pulled Etain to a stop.

  “We can’t camp here,” I said. “The men from the village will find us.”

  Etain smiled, the expression strange on his striped face. “As long as we don’t have a fire and remain quiet, they won’t find us. The Queen has provided us with her strongest concealment spells, and the men don’t venture into the jungle at night.”

  “That’s pretty cool,” I said. “I could have used some of those back home in my algebra class,” I joked.

  When he gave me a blank stare, I shrugged. “Never mind.”

  I sat down out of the way as the fae bustled about, setting up bed rolls and handing out supplies for lunch. I guessed that we had to wait until dark to try to rescue Jake, so I sat down and finished up the drawings of the spiders I’d started the night before. I finished everything but the last final part of the eyes, stopping when the tingling started. When I’d finished them, I drew a smaller version of the pink and black spiders, no bigger than a dime. Nervous, I sketched in the eyes, focusing as hard as I could on intelligence, obedience, and smallness. I didn’t know if it was even possible to change the mental nature of something, but it was worth a shot.

  The spider formed right above the drawing, its legs pulling up off the page. When it was fully formed, it just sat there. Finally, still anxious about being bitten, I reached out and poked it with my pencil. It still didn’t move.

  “Um…go over to Stormy,” I said. I pointed at the horse. The spider moved so quickly it looked like it teleported over there. My involuntarily squeak brought Nuada over to where I was sitting. The spider scurried out of the way to avoid getting stepped on, which answered another question I had.

  “Come back over here,” I said. I held my hand out on the ground, trying not to grimace at the idea of holding a spider, and let it crawl into my palm.

  Nuada stared, eyes unreadable, at my creation. I looked at it too. It looked just like the spiders I’d seen the other day at the river, but much, much smaller. It was actually pretty with its black fur and vibrant pink spots.

  “You’ve made a spider,” Nuada said.

  “Um…yeah,” I said. “Isn’t it cute?”

  Nuada blinked, once slow, and then looked back the spider. “Is its venom the same as its larger counterparts?”

  I shrugged. I had no idea. I figured if it looked like one of the ones in the jungle, then my magic would sort of fill in the rest, but I suppose I needed to test it. I sighed. Holding the spider up to my face, I closed my eyes.

  “Okay, um, little dude. I need you to bite my finger. As gently as you can,” I added, afraid it would just chomp down. Then again, I wasn’t sure if there was any other way a spider could bite, so I just sat there and waited.

  When the sting came it was mild and my eyes slid open. The spider was sitting back in my palm again and a small little red spot was growing at the base of my middle finger. The sting faded quickly, as did the feeling in my middle finger. I put the spider back on my sketchpad and wiggled my fingers. I’d lost all sensation in my entire hand.

  I looked at Nuada. “Are the bigger spiders’ venom just as potent?”

  Nuada nodded. “They go for the torso, as close to the heart as possible to spread the venom the farthest. If you’re bitten in the foot, you usually just lose the use of your leg for awhile. Still, it’s enough to slow you down so they can bite you again.”

  I stared at my little spider, now afraid to make even bigger ones. But, if I was going in with William to rescue Jake, I needed something to protect me.

  Nuada leaned over my sketchbook, and before I could stop him, brushed the spider aside and began flipping back through. He skipped right past the picture of Stormy and settled on the one of the Queen.

  “Do you know what happens if the picture is destroyed?”

  I shook my head, not really wanting to find out. Nuada glanced at me and then picked the sketchbook back up. He swung it to the last page, tore it out, and ripped it apart.

  “Hey,” I said. He’d torn right through the picture of the tiny spider. I looked around for the creature a bit frantically, but when I saw it, it was scurrying for the jungle. It didn’t pause to bite anyone, thank God, but it was clear it wasn’t under my control anymore.

  I swallowed hard. I was lucky Nuada had taken it into his own hands to test my magic. It wouldn’t end well if the bigger spiders’ pictures got torn up when there wasn’t anywhere to get away from them.

  I looked back at the sound of another page being torn from the book. Nuada had taken the picture of the Queen’s face and folding it carefully, slipped it into his vest.

  “You do not need this anymore. It’s not safe for you to have it.” He stood up and walked away.

  I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. The fae were the most stuck up people I’d ever met. I put my sketchbook back in the
leather bag Cashraina had given me to carry my things and ate my meal. I watched William and his group as I did, noting how close Jasmine and Pyro sat to him, and how Jasmine seemed to cater to his every whim. It was annoying. William was insufferable, but they treated him like he was royalty.

  When William stood up and went to sit with the fae, I listened, and hearing Jake’s name, got up and went over too.

  Nuada glared at me. “Your help is not needed, Healer.”

  I glanced at Etain, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Actually, it is. I’m going with William.”

  William frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “I won’t carry you.”

  I smiled. It was a mean smile, sure, but it was a smile. “That’s fine. I have my own ride.” I pointed over my shoulder at Stormy, who was being petted by one of the smaller kids, her eyes closed in sleepy, horse bliss.

  William stared at Stormy and back at me, and my smile widened. “If you try to keep me here, I’ll just follow on my own.”

  “Not if we tie you up,” Nuada said. His eyes told me that he wasn’t joking, and my smile faded away.

  “You will not tie me up,” I said. Casting around for some sort of bargaining chip, I finished. “If you do, I won’t heal anyone else with iron wounds.”

  I watched him think about and then turn back to William with a shrug. “I cannot bargain away the health of my people, William. We’ll have to work her into the plan.”

  William, still glaring at me, shook his head. “If she goes, I’m not going.”

  With a quick, unreadable glance at me, Nuada shook his head. “No, William. You promised you’d help her and so you shall.”

  At the reminder of his promise, William’s eyes sank away and he stared sullenly at the ground. “Fine,” he said, looking back up. “But if we see the Captain, he’s mine. You’ll stay away.”