“You have the crystal?” He blinked.
“Is this the Auracite?” She held it up.
Danithar’s eyes widened as if he gazed upon his stolen child returned. He cradled it in both hands, seeming near to tears with joy. “Yes!”
“Now will you stop trying to kill the faeries?” She folded her arms. And acting like a spoiled little boy?
anithar cradled the Auracite crystal in his hands, smiling. Emma stared, hands on her hips, foot tapping. Impatience grew each time her toes touched grass. She’d found the source of his anger. He would have to stop his mad effort to kill the poor faeries. Soon, she would go home.
“Well?” asked Emma.
“Hmm? What?” He looked up as if startled.
“Were you even listening?” She paused, forcing herself not to sound too petulant. “The faeries did not take your crystal. They were trying to be nice to you and cleaned your house. I don’t think they understood that crystal belongs with your magical supplies, so they put it with the rocks.”
He made a face like she’d spilled cold soup in his lap. “It was… with the stones?”
Emma nodded. “In with all the other white rocks, at the bottom of the bin.”
He sighed. “I have been so angry and confused. This place… it does things to a human mind.”
“Please stop trying to hurt the faeries. They only wanted to be nice to you.” She let her arms fall limp at her sides. “I would like to go home. If you promise not to hurt the faeries, I can go home to my family.”
“Of course, girl. Of course.” He nodded and tucked the Auracite into a pouch on his belt. “I shall recall all of the creatures I had summoned to attack them.”
Danithar took a step back, closed his eyes, and held his arms out to the sides. “Va druthan il arben lor.” His voice echoed, deeper than normal and magically loud. The air tingled with arcane power. Lavender orbs of energy swelled from his outstretched hands. Rapid-fire threads of pink lightning shot into the sky, mostly heading to the east. One tiny bolt of lightning struck Mawr in the nose.
And he evaporated in a cloud of pink mist.
Neema’s shriek came from nowhere, followed by a soft plop in the grass.
Emma gawked at the dissipating cloud. “Mawr! No! What did you do?”
“Oh, that huge bear?” Danithar glanced over his shoulder. “He was one of the creatures I created to… harm the faeries.”
“No!” Emma sank to her knees, sobbing. “You killed him! You killed Mawr.”
Kes ran over and slid to sit beside her, wrapping her in a hug.
Emma bawled, heartbroken. Every kind thing Mawr had said replayed in her mind. Images of his warm fur, the gentle sway of his tireless walk, and his selfless desire to help her weighed heavy upon her heart. “He was my friend!” She sobbed. “Why did you kill him?”
“Child,” said Danithar in a soft, soothing tone. He took a knee and put a hand on her shoulder.
She cringed away. “You killed him!”
“That bear wasn’t real. He was merely a conjuration. Magical energy, nothing more.”
“You’re wrong!” shouted Emma, glaring at him despite tears she couldn’t stop. “He was real! I could talk to him, but I couldn’t talk to those stupid foxes. He was kind, and strong, and patient, and he did so much to help me… It’s not fair! He didn’t deserve to die!” She bowed her head and sobbed into her hands again.
Danithar exhaled. “Ahh. Emma… Those foxes were lesser conjurations. They exist to fulfill a task. When the task is done, they return to the nothingness I created them from. The bear was a greater spell. It remains like a real creature until dismissed or destroyed.”
“Don’t call Mawr an ‘it!’” shouted Emma. She succumbed to a fit of bawling, clinging to Kes. Eventually, hard tears gave way to sporadic sniffles and mournful staring at the grass where her friend had been. “You didn’t have to kill him!”
“I’m sorry, child. The bear wasn’t real. I didn’t kill him, any more than a spell that ceases function is a life ending.”
Emma pulled her face out of the crook of Kes’s neck, glaring at Danithar in disbelief. Tears dripped from her chin. “But he was my friend. He was real to me.”
Danithar reeled from her expression, his eyes downcast with guilt. His eyebrows drew close, his eyes shifted side to side as he nibbled on his lip. Emma looked again at the spot where Mawr had been only moments ago, and surrendered to deep fits of crying. If not for Kes holding her, she would’ve flopped face down in the grass.
The conjurer, a mere blurry cloud of burgundy to Emma’s teary eyes, glided off to the side. Soon after, a clonk came from the house door.
Neema landed on her shoulder, appeared from invisibility, and hugged the side of Emma’s head. “Real was he, magic but too. Must to have be for safe faeries are. Together tied magic.”
Emma wanted to leap into Da’s arms and cry. That she couldn’t made her weep harder.
Kes patted her back, murmuring comforting sounds.
“Go time is home now.” Neema’s eyes held sadness, but she smiled. “See family soon. Want see, yes?”
Emma nodded. “It’s not right. Mawr didn’t deserve to die.”
Neema shook her head. “No. Not alive ever was.”
“I don’t believe you.” Emma wiped her face. “He was alive. He had feelings.”
mma cried, mourning the loss of her friend. Kes rubbed her back while Neema tried without success to cheer her up. Not even the thought of going home pulled her to her feet. She kept seeing Mawr curled up in the grass, patiently waiting for her to ask him for a ride yet again. Her friend, protector, and companion had not deserved to die. Guilt stabbed deep, little different from if she had been responsible for his death.
Danithar emerged from the house a few minutes later. He strode past her to the spot where the bear had been, crouched, and raked his fingers over the grass. Emma calmed enough to watch him, wiping her face on the back of her arm. He grasped at the ground once again, this time smiling at whatever sat in his hand. She wiped at her cheeks again, annoyed at herself that she couldn’t stop crying.
“What are you doing?” asked Emma past her sniffles.
Danithar walked closer, holding his left hand palm up, staring into it. “Mawr you say?”
Emma’s face scrunched up with sorrow. “Yes.”
The conjurer plucked the bottle she’d brought the lifewater in from his belt, and shook it over his hand until a few drops fell. A faint fizzling noise came from his palm.
Emma stood, but couldn’t see into his hand. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve been working out some calculations.”
Danithar took the Auracite crystal from his pouch, pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, and aimed it into his hand. “Us vondar ma dorann. Cha-ahn mor’sekh inar.” A thin beam of light shone from the crystal into his palm. Seconds later, bright amethyst energy appeared on the ground in front of his boots. It swelled up into an orb the size of a man’s head, and split into four smaller spheres, which crept apart in straight paths.
Emma backed up, as did Kes. Awestruck to silence, she gawked, the last few tears still sliding down her face.
The creeping orbs stopped two paces from Danithar and shifted to rotate in a circle, burning a glowing violet ring into the ground.
Danithar chanted, “Ourin ves mahr dorann,” four times.
In a flash, mystic sigils and strange patterns appeared within the circle around Danithar. He rubbed his thumb over the Auracite crystal, which glowed blinding white.
“Indranor sil an.”
A snap like a lightning strike slammed the air and sent Emma to her knees, hands clamped over her ears. A bear-shaped mass of violet energy appeared, lingered a second, and darkened into Mawr―or at least a bear of similar size.
Danithar seemed tired, but held his body rigid as if fighting against some intangible effort. “Child,” he wheezed. “You did something. You must have done something to him to give him awaren
ess. Do it again if you wish him back.”
Emma’s heart swelled with joy. She leapt to her feet and darted to the edge of the circle. The bear sat motionless, like a fine-detailed statue. She reached to touch him, but her fingertips burned as soon as they crossed the circle. With a gasp, she pulled back.
Danithar grimaced from the effort it took to contain the magical forces swirling around. “Be quick.”
“Strixian…” Emma widened her stance and held her hands out at the bear. “Great Strixian, please grant Mawr the wisdom to know he is Mawr.” Her memory leapt back to when she had first scrambled up a tree to get away from him, replaying the moment her magic had taken the fury from his eyes, leaving him confused. She gathered up all her sorrow at missing her friend, wrapping it into the desire for him to live. “Please heal my friend.”
A tug of energy pulled from her being and she swayed to her knees from exhaustion.
Tiny changes, a tilt in the eye, thickening of the cheek fur, a subtle adjustment to the shape of the mouth, gradually made the ordinary bear’s face once again into a being she had come to regard as the dearest of friends.
Mawr blinked and shook his massive head side to side.
Danithar’s eyebrows rose. “Va duril.”
A great bang echoed into the forest, scattering an explosion of birds in every imaginable color to wing. Both lightning panthers poked their heads out from the branches, wide-eyed, ears back. The glowing energy circle vanished. Danithar slouched with relief. He hastily dropped the Auracite into his pouch and waved his hand to cool it.
“Mawr?” asked Emma.
“Are we to walk again?” asked the bear, in a familiar scratchy, resonant voice. “I am rested and ready.”
“Mawr!” Emma burst into joyful tears and flung herself into a hug, barely able to get her arms quarter of the way around his neck.
“I feel as if I have missed something of importance,” said the bear.
Kes laughed.
Once she collected her emotions, Emma pulled away from Mawr and looked up at Danithar. “Thank you for bringing him back.”
Danithar smiled a weary smile. “I almost feel sorry for your father. Surely, no man could suffer the weight of guilt while those sweet blue eyes beg for anything.”
Emma hugged Mawr again, crying and giggling at the same time.
He gestured at the bear. “This bear is as real as a bear can be. Between the enchanted water you brought, the power stored within the Auracite, and whatever it is you did to give him a sentient mind… he is not tied to my essence as a conjuration. This bear is no longer merely a coalescence of magical energy, but a true creature.”
“A coa-what?” Emma blinked.
“Coalescence,” said Danithar. “Umm. A gathering… or collection.”
“Oh.” Emma nodded.
“What did he say?” asked Mawr. “I am confused.”
Danithar glanced at him. “What did he say?”
Emma grinned. “He doesn’t understand what happened.” She hugged Mawr again. “The magic that made you angry is gone forever.”
Mawr nodded. “That is good indeed. Are we to walk?”
“I don’t know.” She looked at Neema. “What do we do now?”
“Walk Elder Grove to.” She beamed. “Return home Emma.”
Emma faced Danithar and offered a hand. “Thank you. Can I tell Queen Nymira that you won’t hurt them?”
“Yes, child.” Danithar stooped forward, seeming out of breath. “You mean to wander off again? I dare not permit it. Many dangers lie in wait among these woods.”
“I’ve been back and forth twice. My friends will protect me.” She kept her hand out. “I must return to my family. Why don’t you come too? This place is not for humans.” She cringed inside as soon as she asked it, remembering Nymira telling her he couldn’t leave.
He took her hand and shook it. “I shall be no threat to the faeries, but alas I cannot return to our world. I have been here for too many years, and I shall surely fall to dust on the other side. The enchanted water has bound me even more to this place.” He chuckled. “Fear not. I have become rather enamored with the birds.”
“Yes, you have.” Emma grinned. “Farewell, Danithar.”
Kes leaned to the side and covered his mouth with one hand. A beautiful whistling trill came from the forest nearby, making Danithar whirl around and gasp with delight.
Emma stifled a snicker.
Finding no bird, the mage held out a finger toward Neema. She landed upon it, standing. “Please convey my deepest apologies to your queen.”
“You should offer them treats,” said Emma. “A gesture of apology. They are fond of Faeberry cakes and mead.”
Danithar made a face as if obligated to do something unpleasant, but nodded. “Perhaps that is wise. So I shall.”
Emma climbed upon the bear’s back, taken by tears of joy yet again. “Thank you for being such a wonderful friend, Mawr.”
“I am glad to have met you as well,” said the bear.
Kes waved at the conjurer and sprang up behind Emma.
Neema took her post standing on Mawr’s nose, and pointed. “That home way.”
xcitement at going home made the three-day trek back to the Elder Grove feel like three months. Kes spent the first day telling her a story of when his parents and he followed a group of forest bandits. He described with great glee how inept and clumsy the humans were, how they always fell into streams or broke the perches they built in the trees to watch the road for travelers to ambush. He grinned each time he described the thieves’ misfortune, giving Emma the idea one or both of his parents had cursed the bandits with bad luck.
Each night, his father would take their wine while his mother made herself look human and went into their camp to distract the men. Kes raided their food supplies, and later they would eat and drink, while listening to the confused humans try to guess why their stuff kept disappearing.
Emma laughed, and told him of her own experience with thieves.
When they reached the bridge, Neema took care to ferry them across one by one while her magic made them light. The following day, Emma huddled at the center of Mawr’s back while he swam the murk of Darbolg. Finally free of the stink in her hair, she didn’t want so much as a single toe to come in contact with the awful grey water.
Emma couldn’t sleep on the night of the second day. Tomorrow, they would reach the Elder Grove, and after a brief meeting with the queen, she would be home again. In an instant, she went from staring at the stars to draped across Mawr’s back, groggy, gazing over brown fur at passing trees.
“You magicked me to sleep, didn’t you?” mumbled Emma.
“Sleeping no without help.” Neema kissed the side of her head. “Needing much sleep, Neema helped so.”
“Thanks,” said Emma, her voice as dead as her body felt. “I think you used too much magic.”
Kes lifted her into a sitting position and held her up.
She laughed. After about twenty minutes, the magic faded, allowing her body to wake. A little less than half a day later, the Elder Grove came into view. Mawr walked, tireless as ever, and brought her up to the gate. Emma slid to the ground and ran inside, scurrying around the crystalline fountain. She rushed over to kneel before the queen, grinning.
Nymira looked up with a warm smile. “From the amount of time you have been gone, and the happiness radiating from you, I trust your tidings are good?”
“Yes, Queen Nymira.” Emma nodded. “The water from the temple made Danithar young again, and he isn’t quite so nutters. He still didn’t believe me, and was going to build a giant metal man to hurt you all.”
The Silverbell Faeries emitted a collective gasp.
Nymira raised one eyebrow.
“I remembered what you said, that the faeries wanted to be nice to him and cleaned his house. I found the Auracite in a drawer with common stones. He expected it to be with magical reagents, but I think the faeries mistook it for a rock and put it with
other rocks.”
Nymira buried her face in her hand. “The man is a fool.”
“I showed him the crystal, and he is sorry. He promised not to attack you again, and is going to put out treats as an apology.”
The faeries erupted in cheers. Fifty or sixty tiny bodies flitted over to hug her at once in a cacophony of bell tones, except for Nymira and her guards, who remained regal and composed. Emma giggled and cringed at the tickling flutter of wings.
“You have done far more than I ever expected from a human child.” Nymira glided up to eye level. “I grant you my favor, Emma. You have returned our Neema to us, and you have safeguarded the lives of all my faerie kin. For as long as you remain our friend, you have our loyalty.”
The faeries erupted in cheers.
Emma smiled. “Thank you.”
Music, flutes, and the singing of tiny voices filled the forest. Faeries came from everywhere, dancing and zipping around. They tugged at Emma’s hands, and she soon found herself dancing as a celebration took over the Elder Grove. Kes leapt in, adding his flute to the chorus while jumping and twirling about.
She frolicked, laughing along with the revelry, but gazed every so often into the woods toward the faerie circle. While she wanted to go home, she did not dare refuse the Silverbells’ gratitude. One hour stretched into the next, and before she knew it, she collapsed upon a carpeting of thick mossy undergrowth, too tired to stand.
Faeries brought her cakes and water, continuing to dance upon her as they sang her name and cheered. Emma ate a bit, and drank. Bright colors trailed from their wings, glowing lines against a dark green forest. Dizziness swam in her head. The music blurred into the tiny voices, the sound twisting as if she drowned in it. In an instant, all became quiet.
She sat up fast, looking around. A deep, restful silence filled The Elder Grove, broken only by the soft chirps of distant birds or trills of other creatures in the woods. Faeries draped here and there over branches, spires, and open ground. Some hung half out of windows, others dangled from vines or floated in the fountain. An unconscious faerie man slid off the top of her head and landed in the grass beside her, not even waking when he struck the ground.
Emma and the Silverbell Faeries Page 23