by B. J. Smash
“On the advice of Cora, Clover then took the scarf to Izadora who, in turn, told her that the only way to null the spell was to tie it to the tree for five years. And so she did.
“Meanwhile, Silvie, who was still kinda crazy from the spell, persuaded Ainsley to leave the Unseelie and start a life on their own. That’s when the Unseelie stepped up and killed them off. Cora had nothing to do with it. She only provided the potion. She didn’t know why or the outcome.
“Now, do you see how magic can be manipulated and frightfully dangerous at time?”
“That’s an understatement.”
“Anyway, in the end, Silvie is the one that died.”
He turned and gently kicked Solstice in the flanks. The horse kicked up dirt in his wake and sped on. He jumped over an extensive limb and landed in a stream. The water soaked our lower halves.
“Why don’t you talk to her yourself? They are right up ahead.”
Aunt Cora held Peppers in her lap. The white and black Cavalier King Charles spaniel had been retrieved by King Alanir himself, when he returned Rodinand and the Unseelie to their homeland. He had demanded the dog as payment to Aunt Cora for a job well done. She had jumped for joy when she finally had that little dog, who hadn’t aged a day, back in her arms. At first he had rolled over and pawed at the air as if trying to say, “It wasn’t my fault. I was taken!” His big, brown eyes were opened so wide, you could see the white part, and he had waited for her approval. When she’d picked him up, his back end waggled so hard, his tail continually wacked one side of his body and then the other. Peppers was finally going home.
Now, Aunt Cora sat on the horse she had stolen back in Merribay, with Peppers. Minimus rode his donkey alongside her. They laughed and tee-heed back and forth. There was definitely some romance afoot. I couldn’t help but wonder, had Aggie’s red-knotted love rope worked after all?
Drumm slowed Solstice, and when we reached their side, I asked if I could talk to my aunt alone.
“Certainly.” He had a permanent smile when he looked my way. He turned his adoring eyes to Cora and said, “I’ll see you at the boat, dear.” And he was off, slowly, toward the boat. He remained just out of earshot, but to be honest, even if he heard us, he wouldn’t care. I imagine he was so in love with my aunt that he would only hear what he wanted to, anyway.
Drumm prepared to jump from the horse, but I bid him to stay.
I explained to my aunt how I could see visions at certain trees, and how they appeared as movies. This intrigued her. Until I told her what I had seen.
Her face fell and she hugged Peppers, who had been sleeping on his back like a baby, close to her body.
“I see. Well, all I can tell you is the truth. It was my fault that Silvie went mad. It had been my spell that set her off in the first place. You see now, why I don’t like to dapple in magic? It can be ultimately costly at times.”
“It wasn’t your fault.” I defended her actions. “If you ask me, I’d say Magella had a hand in the tragedy.”
“Yes. That is true. And Ian has forgiven me. Ian and I discussed this back at the palace, and actually he said he never blamed me to begin with. He and I used to be great pals in high school—the best of friends. Well, I was in high school; he had always been tutored. He’s so brilliant, he always needed advanced teachings. But we performed magic together, walked in the woods together. Almost dated. But no, that wasn’t us.” Her gaze lifted and she was in a different time now, remembering things that had been. Good times gone by.
I was surprised to learn this about Ian and Cora. Really surprised. I was certain that was why he had sent her flowers back home in Merribay, to try and mend things.
“I loved him. As a best friend,” she said.
I could relate to that easily, as I thought of Lucian.
“And all that happened, I can only blame myself. He lost the use of his legs. His sister was murdered.”
“But, Aunt Cora!” I raised my voice. “You didn’t know that the spell would turn out the way it did. You didn’t even know why she wanted the spell. And you didn’t know her heart’s desire would be to try and kill off Aunt Clover.”
She sniffed. “Yes. That’s what I’ve been told.” She continued on with a sigh. “And poor Clover. She never liked magic to begin with, and I convinced her to learn some. And then she became obsessed with using magic, when magic didn’t need to be used.” She thought for a moment and then busted out laughing. “But there was one time we—” She paused and wiped the smile from her face, and watched me out of the corner of my eye to gauge my reaction. “Oh…never mind that. That story is for another day.”
“I’m sure it is,” I said, knowing that by the sounds of it they’d been doing something that they probably shouldn’t have been doing. I shuddered for some reason, a chill gyrating through my body. I had a gut feeling that someday I’d know her story, whether I wanted to or not.
We arrived at the shore to find everyone aboard Magella’s boat. The McCallisters were seated around the deck benches drinking the whisky from the flasks that Trent had filled before leaving Merribay. Ian’s thirty-year-old whisky. Their reasoning was that if they had to be in Magella’s company again, they needed something to numb the senses. That would do the trick. Aunt Cora and Minimus would tag along, to act as a buffer between the said enemies.
They had been discussing Zinnia’s penance for betrayal—and the stealing of the book of spells from Magella’s houseboat to begin with.
The penance for Zinnia came as no surprise. Magella made it known to everyone and brought it to my attention that the agreement for her helping us had had a price. She wanted Zinnia to work for her. To pay her dues.
In the end, her punishment was that she had to live on Magella’s houseboat for a year, working for her, running errands, cleaning with no help from magic. “I can’t be a maid,” Zinnia fussed. That just egged Magella on.
“I was thinking about keeping a coup of pigeons on board. That’ll have to be cleaned daily. Oh, and you can catch and clean the fish. Let’s see, I’ll need some horse manure for the garden I’ll be growing on my deck—you’ll have to fetch that.”
Minimus had just led the horse and donkey on the deck of the boat. He interjected, “By the time we get to Hy Brasil, you’ll have your horse manure right here.”
This caused some laughter to break out on deck.
Magella, ignoring his comment, said, “All aboard.”
I brought the subject back and asked if Zinnia could at least visit with my father. With my pleas, it was agreed that Zinnia would have one weekend a month to visit him.
Finally, knowing there was no way out of this punishment, Zinnia took the deal. The other option was to live inside a tree for a year—which might have been the better offer, if you asked me.
“It does seem a fitting punishment, don’t you agree, Izzy?” Izaill said haughtily. He stood on the opposite side of me, next to Izadora, who sat on her narrow tree limb. Her butt sagged over the edge, and she scowled. “I can think of no better punishment than to have to live with Magella for a year.”
And so it was agreed.
My sister sulked and cried, whimpered and whined, but no one cared. She’d earned this purgatory. Still, I cringed when Magella tied a black string around her wrist. I knew this had to be some sort of shackle to bind her to the boat.
Drumm and I prepared to leave. Taking one last look at the boat, I noticed my sister had changed seats. She sat next to Lucian, actually, almost in his lap, trying to gain his attention. He occasionally would scoot down for some elbow room, only to find her up close again.
We made eye contact, Lucian and I, and he shook his head in defeat and shrugged his shoulders. It was going to be a long ride for poor Lucian. My heart went out to him.
When they reached the bay of Hy Brasil, Magella and Zinnia would continue on to Merribay. The McCallisters would pay Maximus a visit, and I so wished that I could tag along, but Father needed me. From there they would fly home via helicopter. Aunt Cor
a would visit with Minimus for a time, and who knows where that would lead, but I had a great feeling about it.
I did know one thing: I would need to talk to Maximus soon, about the visions I had seen while in the ring of death with Izdora, Izaill, and Magella. I’d seen things that I couldn’t comprehend, and something told me he’d be the one I needed to talk to.
Momentarily the ground shook with fury, and we all knew that somewhere, Izaill had departed. Izadora shouted out to me, “Time to go!”
Drumm and I said our good-byes and see-ya-laters to everyone on board, and then he leaned down and whispered something in Solstice’s ear. The Elven horse sunk his feet into the earth and took off with mighty strength. We headed up to higher ground and along the edge of the forest at breakneck speed, Solstice’s hooves thundering over the ground. We were going as fast as a car when his feet left the earth behind, and we flew out over the cliff and into the clouds.
This time I had no fear, and as I held tightly to Drumm’s body, I knew that everything was going to work out fine. Better than fine.
Maximus would be able to extract the poison inside Lucian. Wouldn’t he? But what if he couldn’t?
An eagle flew by our side, and a screech of victory echoed throughout the land. And as I watched her fly ahead of us, I vowed to never forget. To never forget that with the good comes the bad. But that good will always prevail.
Chapter Forty-Three
When we touched ground in Merribay, a great relief washed over me. Not stopping, we made our way to Gran’s at full speed. Izadora, in eagle form, followed us. She must want to be certain that my father was well taken care of.
I had to admit, my back hurt from the long ride. I had never had this problem before, but I was surely glad when my feet hit the solid ground and Gran’s big, yellow Victorian house stood before us.
Drumm slid down from Solstice and immediately went for the hose and a bucket. As he filled the bucket for Solstice to drink from, I meandered toward the house. I couldn’t be happier to be home, but I had to admit that Gran’s house looked like a pauper’s house compared to the glorious buildings that I had seen in the land of the Elven.
Before I reached the entryway, a commotion could be heard behind the house. Alarmed, I followed the loud voices and walked briskly around the side of the house, through the tall grass, and toward the wood line. Drumm was instantly beside me.
“What the heck is going on?”
I shrugged my shoulders but felt a tad bit panicked when I heard Gran yell, “You have got to come down from there, John Basil!”
Making our way through the prickly shrubs and into the forest, we found Gran, Grandfather, and Aunt Clover standing next to a tree. Gran held tightly to a broom, and Grandfather held even tighter to a shotgun. Aunt Clover was a mess, her hands flailing in the air as she spoke.
“John Basil. Get some sense, will you?”
They totally blocked my view, but I knew somewhere behind them my father was present.
Izadora had just arrived and sat perched in a tree close by. She transformed immediately to human form. Smoothing down her robes, she then held onto a branch for support. Squinting her eyes, she said, “Well, now I’ve seen it all.”
Quickly I stepped around the three concerned family members to find my father hanging upside down on a tree limb. His hooked legs were the only thing holding him up. He wore a three-piece suit and held an unlit pipe in his hands. I assume that it wasn’t lit for the fact that he was upside down and no tobacco would remain in the pipe. His hair was pure gray, and he looked as old as my grandfather. He had the purple scarf tied around his neck and tucked into his vest.
“Ivy! Thank God you are here!” Gran was overwhelmed with relief. She rubbed her neck and let out a long sigh.
“He’s been acting awful strange these past few days. We’ve had to take turns staying awake to keep a watch on him. He ain’t right in the head, at the moment,” Grandfather explained.
When Father noticed me, he said, “Ivy! It’s you! You have returned!”
Drumm stood next to me, scratching his head—something he did when he was nervous. His eyes met mine and opened up wide, as if to imply that this was quite a whacky situation.
“Um…Father? What are you doing hanging upside down in that tree?” I asked.
“Why, you ask? Well, I was following the little man. He was going to show me where my funeral was being held. I decided to climb the tree and get into this position to relieve the pain in my head.”
“I see. The little man, you say?” Surely my father had become delusional. His symptoms were worse than I expected. He made no sense, and now he was seeing a little man.
“He’s talking about a leprechaun. We think we saw him. He may be real,” Grandfather stated, with no enthusiasm whatsoever. He continued to hold onto the shotgun, and it appeared to me that he had plans to shoot this little man, or rather, protect himself.
My eyes flew to Gran. She intended to whack the little man with her broom, if she so encountered him.
I nodded as though I understood. “What do you mean, Father, when you say that he was leading you to your funeral?” I looked around me, scanning the forest. I could see no “little man” and was thankful for that.
Gran rolled her eyes and sighed again. Aunt Clover twirled her pointer finger around while pointing it at her head. “Off his rocker,” she whispered. The gesture was probably uncalled for, but they had been watching after him the whole time I was gone, and I had to imagine they were exhausted.
“My funeral!” my father yelled. “It’s out here somewhere!” His face was beet red from hanging upside down, but he held his pipe with one hand and chewed on the end of it, and went about ignoring us.
“John Basil,” Izadora piped in, “you will listen to me now. Understand?”
My father tried to bend up at the waist to view Izadora, but his abs apparently weren’t strong enough and he fell back down, still chewing on the end of his pipe. “Hmmmph,” he said.
“Drumm, get John Basil down,” Izadora said.
When Drumm walked over to Father, he folded his arms and said, “My angel has arrived.”
It took me a moment to understand what he meant. “No, Father. That is Drumm.” I glanced toward Drumm; he did have the facial attributes of an angel. Perfect features, perfect hair.
“Oh. Then he is your angel. I see.” He bit his pipe and screwed up his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I can’t come down. My head hurts.”
“Father,” I said firmly, “I have some medicine for you. You need to come down.”
Drumm stepped closer, and Father squirmed. “NO.”
Izadora, losing patience, let out a long, windy sigh. “Must I always use magic? After the long flight, I’m a bit tired.” She held out her staff and said something under her breath. I thought it might be a spell, until I heard a certain cuss word and realized she was just getting a bit steamed.
When the staff was pointed directly at my father, a warm, white glow surrounded him, and he was picked up. He was brought up over the branch and then set down to the earth, right upon his stubborn feet.
I reached into my bag and hauled out the vial of golden liquid that Maximus had given me. The cure from one of the fountain of youths. It felt warm in my hand.
I crept closer to Father; after all, I didn’t want him to sprint off into the forest and fall down and break a leg. But he stood there, his back slightly hunched, as he was now an old man. It disturbed me to see him this way, and I told myself to take no notice; he wouldn’t be like this for much longer.
Surprisingly, he let me approach him.
“Father…drink this.”
“I don’t want to drink anything.” He pouted.
At this point, Aunt Clover was occasionally stepping back and forth, one foot to the other, clearly nervous. Gran watched on, and Grandfather leaned in.
I held the vial up, and the golden contents shimmered enticingly.
“Oh. It’s pretty,” my father sai
d.
“Drink the contents from that vial, John Basil,” Izadora commanded. “You will not only feel better, but if you drink it, you will be guaranteed two hundred years of pure health.”
Everyone, including Drumm, gasped.
“Well, that’s a deal,” Aunt Clover mumbled, as though she might be a bit jealous.
“And,” continued Izadora, “you will be able to enter and leave fairyland whenever you want, with no ill effects.”
As Izadora’s last words dawned on my father (it took a minute or so), and he realized what she had just said, he replied with, “I’ll take it.”
“First,” Izadora called out, “remove that scarf! Hand it to Clover, and she will bury it in the earth.”
“I am NOT about to touch that scarf ever again,” Aunt Clover informed us.
“Oh yes you are. You dig a shallow hole behind the tree and bury it there. It must stay there until the new moon. Only then will the magic it holds become null and void. And since it is your scarf, you shall bury it.” She paused and then said below her breath, “Apparently, I had been wrong about hanging it on the yew. And it is a rare day that I am ever wrong. Anyway, hanging it did not diminish the spell, and so it must be buried in the earth.”
“Oh fine,” Aunt Clover said. She walked over and untied the scarf from around my father’s neck. He apparently wasn’t about to do it. I don’t think he understood what was going on, but he let her take the scarf. She made a puckered face and walked behind the tree, knelt down, and dug a hole with a rock. She continued to watch us while she dug.
“Now,” Izadora said, “John Basil, drink the golden liquid.”
He held out a shaky hand to take the vial from me. I did not want to risk him spilling it, and so I gently pushed his hand down and put the vial up to his dry lips. “Drink.”
He slowly took in the liquid. Not a sound could be heard throughout the whole forest. For even the birds and squirrels were probably watching this drama.
After he swallowed the last drop, he licked his lips and said, “Tastes like honey and something else. Saltwater taffy?”