by H. L. Burke
“What do you mean save Iris?” Hedward asked. “Where is she? Is Rill with her?”
“Look out!” Jericho shouted.
A wave of cold water crashed across the room. Auric’s feet left the ground. He scrambled for a foothold, only to slam against the far wall of the chamber. His ribs groaned. The water retreated. Father picked himself off the floor a few feet away, dripping wet. On his hands and knees, Jericho coughed up water.
The sprite from earlier stood in the doorway, two smaller sprites flanking him. “Free the master. I’ll take care of the intruders!”
“Quires out!” Hedward ordered.
Auric whipped through a barrier spell just in time to block another surge of water. Beyond the barrier, the two sprites scrambled over to where Janus was trapped.
“We’re going to lose him.”
“Damnit!” Jericho tossed aside a handful of sopping papers. “I can’t use these.” He pulled out a wooden quire and scratched out a quick flare spell. It shot towards the sprites like a Roman candle. They scattered with a shriek.
“You won’t get away that easily.” The lead sprite waved his hands. Bolts of ice impacted against the magical barrier. It wavered, the strands of magical energy trembling like the filaments in a spider’s web.
“Janus! You have to tell me where they are!” Hedward scratched out a series of quick air spells, expending multiple wooden quires. The gusts of magical breeze drove the attacking sprite back to the door.
“We need a plan.” Auric turned towards Jericho … or towards the empty space where the apprentice had stood seconds before.
Jericho was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jericho sprinted down the well-lit hall, trying to shut out the sounds of magical battle continuing behind him. It had only taken a quick teleportation spell to cross the room to the far exit, and as much as he hated to leave Auric and Master Spellsmith, they’d be able to handle themselves. He had to get to Rill.
The scent of lilacs worked into his brain. She was nearby and working magic. There could be no other explanation. With Auric distracting Janus, perhaps he could find her.
His pack bounced against his shoulders, disturbingly light. The water had cost him all his paper quires as well as his homing spells, and he only had four of the wooden variety left. Much longer in that battle, and he’d have been helpless anyway.
A glint of metal flashed around a corner just ahead of him, and the floral scent heightened. Jericho paused, considering briefly that it could be a trap. Then a delicate, pointed snout of gleaming bronze poked around the corner. The fox winked at him.
“Jaspyr?” Jericho started forward. The fox’s form wavered, becoming indistinct like a reflection in a fogged mirror. No, not Jaspyr. An illusion … but was it the work of Janus or Rill? Why would Janus choose to tempt Jericho with Rill’s fox? No, making her beloved pet part of her spell was exactly what Rill would do.
The fox twitched his tail and darted down the hall. Jericho hurried after him.
The corridor ended in a lush garden, filled with twisting vines, towering trees, and vibrant flowers. Birds sang with haunting notes. He drew a deep breath. Yes, he still smelled lilacs. Jaspyr dove into the bushes then gave a plaintive yip, as if begging Jericho to follow.
Drawing his knife, Jericho cleared a path into the garden. Tendrils and vines reached for him, but he wrenched himself away and continued onward.
He emerged onto a blue-tiled path. The fake Jaspyr waited nearby, his tail twitching like a flag.
Jericho swallowed. “All right, Rill, I know you’re nearby. Where are you?” He followed the fox along the path which soon curled in on itself in a spiral. The fox followed the spiral to the center, winked at Jericho one more time, and vanished in a puff of lilac scented smoke. Jericho stepped from the path, trying to cut across it, but the smell of lilacs fled as soon as his feet hit the grass. As little sense as it made, something told him to follow the spiral of blue tiles.
When he reached the center, his stomach ached for the familiar scent. He remembered holding her, kissing her, promising to see her again. Jericho would keep that promise. There was no other option.
He stepped onto the final tile, and the floor sank beneath him. Crying out, he thrashed his arms, then landed with thunk on solid ground.
Jericho stumbled to his feet, blinking. A web of entwined purple and blue energy loomed before him. He stared at the woman trapped within it, strange to him, yet somehow familiar, something about her eyes. She blinked at him, her mouth quirking in confusion.
“Rill,” he whispered.
“Jericho?” The voice came from behind him.
Cold washed through Jericho’s veins and his breath hitched in this chest. A tiny hand touched his shoulder. He closed his eyes and swallowed.
“It is you. I wasn’t sure my spell would work. Oh, thank God you found me.”
They turned together, meeting halfway. Her eyes peered up at him, pure blue and captivating. His gaze darted about her, checking for cuts, scrapes, bruises, any sign that she was unwell or had been mistreated. Her hair was, perhaps, a bit disheveled, but other than that, she was Rill: perfect.
She extended a trembling hand towards his face. Her fingers caressed his cheek. Tremors shot through him, and before he could stop himself, his arms captured her. Jericho drew her against his chest, his face pressed into her hair, inhaling her lilac scent. He lifted her off the ground.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he whispered.
“From that embrace, I’m gathering that you are not her brother,” a voice hummed. He whirled and found the strange woman in the web staring right at him. “No, you are definitely not Auric. Trillium, dear, who is this?”
Jericho released Rill and cleared his throat. “My name is Carver, ma’am. Jericho Carver. I’m apprenticed to Rill’s father.”
The woman arched an eyebrow. “And your relationship with Rill?”
“Friend?” He resisted the urge to clear his throat again.
The woman laughed. “Oh, yes, I believe you are very friendly.”
Rill stepped forward. “Mother, this is Jerry. I told you about him, remember?”
“Oh! Jerry, Jericho, of course.” The woman’s face brightened. “I should’ve made that connection. You didn’t tell me you two were so … close.”
Rill’s cheeks reddened. “It isn’t exactly official.”
Jericho stared at the blue web of magical energy. “You’re Master Spellsmith’s wife? You really are alive.”
“For now.” Her mouth quirked into a wry smile. In spite of her ability to speak, the stillness of her body, trapped in the web, and the glow in her eyes made her seem inhuman.
He placed his hand on Rill’s shoulder and lowered his face towards her ear. “Can we free her?” he whispered. “We need to move quickly, Rill. Your father and brother have Janus occupied, but not for much longer.”
Rill flushed. “It isn’t that simple. She isn’t being held against her will, Jerry, and if she leaves that web, terrible things will happen.”
Jericho rubbed the back of his neck. “To whom?”
If the answer was Janus or any of his Fey minions, he wasn’t sure he cared all that much.
“Everyone in the mortal realm. It’s a long story.” Rill swallowed. “The thing is, the web is killing her, slowly but surely. That’s why Janus brought me here. If there isn’t someone in the web, controlling the flow of magic through the barrier, the human world will be poisoned. He thought if I took Mother’s place, it would save her.”
Jericho’s chest tightened. He turned to Iris. “Is this true? Not some lie Janus cooked up to justify her kidnapping?”
Iris’s chin dropped to her chest. “I am afraid it is true, though I would like to think I can hold on longer than my brother believes I can. I would not have Trillium take my place.”
“Trillium?” Jericho frowned.
“That’s me,” Rill explained. “I can’t let her stay, though. She’s obviously
weakening, but without someone in the web, the whole world will die, including everyone I love.”
He examined the strains of energy. “Does it have to be Rill who takes your place? Can I?”
“Are you part Fey?” Iris asked.
Jericho grimaced. “Not to my knowledge.”
“I wouldn’t want that anyway.” Rill squeezed his hand. “Jericho, I have an idea, something that might work to save my mother and the world, but I can’t quite get it right.” She stepped away from him and held her hands, palms facing each other, about a foot apart. Light swelled between them, starting as a pinprick, growing to an orb about the size of an apple.
He inhaled sharply. “How are you doing that?”
“It’s because I’m part Fey.” The tip of her pale nose reddened. “Sorry, I forgot to mention that, but apparently it’s true.”
“Your father filled me in on some of the details.” He nodded, unable to take his eyes off the swelling globe of magic floating before her.
“Yes, well, Fey use magic differently. No stylus, no quires, it responds to our will, emotion, and apparently complex hand symbols once you get past the basics. Mother’s been instructing me.”
“She’s a natural.” Iris beamed.
“I want to make a container for the Fey energy, so instead of being filtered through Mother or escaping into the mortal realms, we capture it.” She widened the span between her hands. It popped like a soap bubble, sending a shower of tingling energy over the both of them. She sighed. “The thing is, Fey energy is strong, but fickle. Hard to harness for any length of time. I think we need some old-fashioned, steady human magic to make the containment spell last. Do you have any quires?”
He winced, thinking of his dwindling supply. “How many will you need?”
“Two or three at most.”
The tension between his shoulders eased. “Oh, yeah, two or three I have.” He shrugged his pack off his shoulder and drew out his last few quires.
She grinned. “Perfect. If we can do this, we can get her out of that web before it saps any more of her life. I can bring my mother home, Jericho! Can you believe it?”
He shook his head. It definitely sounded too good to be true. Glancing around the room, he spied a doorway off to the side. “Rill, can we speak away from your mother, for just a moment?”
“Of course.” She allowed him to lead her out of the chamber. Outside another of Janus’s wild gardens bloomed, a riot of color and life.
Jericho swallowed. “I know she’s your mother, but you haven’t seen her in over a decade. Are you certain we can trust her? Janus brought you here by force, and he threw everything at myself, Auric, and Master Spellsmith when we tried to retrieve you.”
Rill’s face fell. “She’s my mother, Jerry. I can’t leave her here, possibly to die.”
“And I don’t want to, but Rill …” His throat tightened. “When I came back to Spellsmith Manor and found you gone, something in my chest—I never want to feel that again. We need to be certain we can get you home, safely.”
Her bottom lip trembled. She rested her hand against his cheek, her fingertips stroking his ear. “I understand. I’ve missed you so much. It’s been less than a day, but every moment of it, you’ve been a ghost, haunting my every thought.” Her gaze fell. “But if I don’t find a way, eventually my mother will be too weak to hold the barrier. If that happens, so many people will die, including everyone I love. I can’t be that selfish, Jericho. As much as I want to leave with you right now, I have to do this.”
“I understand.” Slipping his arms about her tiny waist, he rested his forehead on hers.
A sob shook her. “Perhaps this makes me a terrible daughter and sister, but a girl expects to leave her home one day, to say good-bye to her father and brother. The idea of never seeing Auric or Father again, it aches, but like growing pains. Never seeing you again, Jerry … that would be like dying.”
Their lips met. He lifted her from the ground, cradling her against his body. She gripped his hair, painful but in a good way, a way that made him want more. He gently squeezed her bottom lip between his teeth. She gasped, the parting of her lips giving him an opportunity. Their mouths melted into each other.
Finally he withdrew.
“We’ll get through this,” he whispered. “You have a plan. It will work. We’ll make it work: together.”
Rill smiled at him, the expression setting off fireworks in his soul. “Let’s get started.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Auric pressed his shoulders into the marble wall. Symbols covered every inch of his tablet, but he couldn’t stop long enough to smooth them over. The sprite cast shards of ice at him. He sent up a wall of flame, melting the first volley before it reached him, only to have another crash over his head into the wall before he could work a second spell. Freezing splinters pelted him like hailstones. He dropped to his knees, covering his face with his hands.
“This is my last quire!” Father called out from a few feet away. “They’ve almost got Janus free.”
Auric’s gaze darted about the room. Where had that blasted apprentice gotten to?
The glass tiles shattered, and Janus burst from the floor. He threw his hands forward as if shoving a heavy object. A cloud of scalding steam rushed across the room and enveloped Auric. Auric screamed, at first in pain as the vapor scalded his hands, then in horror. The wax of his tablet melted and ran to the floor.
He stared at his now useless tools. The empty casing of his tablet clattered to the floor.
Janus stalked towards him, a sneer on his face. Magic crackled at his fingertips as he raised his hand. Panic surged within Auric.
“Don’t!” Hedward flung himself between the Fey and his son.
Rays of light exploded from Janus’s fingers. They wrapped around both Hedward and Auric, painless but hard, like wire. Auric strained against them, futilely.
“I wasn’t going to kill him.” Janus snorted. “Really, Spellsmith? You think I’d kill my own nephew?”
“The last time we spoke, you sent a dagger flying towards my throat.” Hedward scowled.
“The last time we spoke, I’d just found out you’d bedded my sister, stealing any chance she had at a normal Fey life.” Janus’s eyes glinted. “You’re lucky it wasn’t a legion of daggers.” His chest rose and fell in a great breath. “However, I promised Iris I wouldn’t hurt you if I could help it. She’s still sentimental about your short-lived entanglement, and as I said, the boy is as much hers as yours.” He pushed back his hair. “I’ll send you home, but if you come here again, I won’t be responsible for what happens to you.”
Auric swallowed. It couldn’t be over. He couldn’t just leave Rill here. “What about my sister?”
Janus’s eyes clouded. “Unfortunately, I need her. She will be well, I promise. Unlike you, she’s unsullied by the mortal realm and can exist here comfortably. Also, she’ll be with her mother, not alone.”
Hedward’s bottom lip shook. “Please, let me see my wife. It’s been so long. I just need to see her again. If only for a moment. Janus, you can slay me afterwards if you want, but I can’t leave here without seeing Iris one more time.” His voice cracked. “I beg you.”
Janus’s mouth hardened into a firm line. “Why should I give you anything? You humans ruin everything you touch. If not for your rifts, stealing our energy, weakening the barrier, none of this would be happening. My sister wouldn’t be near death. I wouldn’t be forced to steal my niece just to save Iris. But no! You greedy fools have to leech off our magic like the parasites you are.”
Auric squared his shoulders doing his best to appear imposing in spite of the magical ropes holding his arms to his sides. “You can’t expect me to just leave without so much as speaking to my sister to verify that she’s safe.”
“I don’t see that you have much of a choice in the matter,” Janus scoffed.
“Excuse me, Master Janus.” One of the sprites floated up behind the Fey man and tapped on hi
s elbow.
“What?” Janus frowned, still focused on Hedward.
“Weren’t there three intruders?”
Janus’s mouth dropped open. He spun about, then returned his glare to Hedward. “The third man, who was he? Where did he go?”
“Just a servant.” Hedward shrugged. “Cowardly fool used his homing spell the moment things grew dangerous.”
The Fey’s eyes narrowed. “Captain Ferros, you and your sprites search the grounds from top to bottom. They sneaked in here using an invisibility spells, so this fellow might still be lurking under cover of that.”
“Of course, Master.” The sprite bowed and retreated from the room.
“If he is still here, he won’t get far,” Janus continued. “And Iris begged me to have mercy on her son and husband. She said nothing of any servants you might’ve dragged along.”
A chill cut through Auric. He had to trust Jericho knew what he was doing. After all, Jericho wouldn’t have left them if he didn’t have some sort of plan … would he?
Stepping away, Janus waved his hand as if drawing back a curtain. He went through a series of motions, too rapid for Auric to catch, and a vertical line of silver light cut through the air between himself and his prisoners. “The only good thing about the human meddling is that it has made it possible for me to open rifts as welI, no longer reliant on waiting for natural ones to form. Now I can create them whenever and wherever I choose.” The rift widened, and a grin passed over Janus’s face. “I regret promising Iris I wouldn’t hurt you. Would be gratifying to open a rift over some body of water and drop you there.” He snickered.
“Master Janus!” Ferros darted into the room, his fish-like eyes wide.
“What now?” Janus turned from his rift which snapped shut.
Auric let out a long breath. He hadn’t been eager to get pushed through, even with Janus’s assurances of his safety.
Janus tapped his toe. “There’s no way you’ve had time to search the whole palace, so you better be here to tell me that you already found and captured the servant or else you’ll be spending the rest of this month as a block of ice in my cellar.”