Into the Nightfell Wood

by Kristin Bailey

  He addressed the crowd without really looking at Elric. “What is this?” the chief of the elves asked, his words clear and in Elric’s language.

  “Headmind Axis, we found a dead reaper in one of our traps. We followed some strange tracks, and found these two wandering in the woods, heading toward the fairy realm.”

  “You said you were bringing us to help!” Elric shouted at him. “My friend is desperately ill. He was attacked by the reaper.” Elric raised his voice enough that it rang out over the crowd. “Please. He’s dying.”

  The Headmind came closer and glanced at Osmund’s wounds. “Aren’t we all?”

  “Can you help him?” Elric asked. “Or was that a lie?”

  “We can. It is in our nature to help the injured, and we also keep our promises, despite what the fairies think. You, however, are not injured. Not seriously, anyway. Whatever will we do with you?” he said, fixing Elric with a steady gaze.

  “Just help him. I am nothing to anyone,” Elric said to the elf.

  “Oh, I think you are,” he said, “my prince.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Elric

  ELRIC’S MIND RACED. LORD RAVEN’S plan had worked; the elves knew who he was. This was bad.

  Axis’s face was expressionless, and his orange eyes now seemed calculating. “Lock them in the infirmary,” he said.

  A guard scooped up Osmund’s now-limp body and carried him toward a nearby building, but Elric fought.

  “What do you want from me?” Elric shouted. He tried to make himself bigger, but he was still only a boy, and these were grown men. It was no use, they had him overpowered and surrounded. He stopped struggling and stood up straight.

  Axis glanced down at the ground, then folded his hands behind his back, creasing the elaborately embroidered edges of his heavy robes. He paced away from Elric. “I want to right a terrible wrong,” he said. “And fortune has smiled upon us. I have you now. The queen’s power will weaken, and without you there, her precious shield will lose its strength. That is when we can finally mount our attack.”

  “Why would you do such a thing? The queen is only trying to defend her people,” Elric said through gritted teeth. He felt a tightness in his chest, and he fought the stinging in his eyes.

  Axis turned to him and stared him down. “So am I,” he said.

  “No,” Elric said. “You’re a selfish betrayer.”

  The Headmind’s eyes widened as he stormed forward and grabbed Elric by the throat. Elric grasped his forearm and tried to pull away from him, but it was no use. “We betrayed no one!” he shouted.

  He let go of Elric and turned away as Elric fought to find his feet.

  “That shield is powered through the crystal that we gave the queen in friendship,” Axis said with a growl in his voice. “It has the power to defeat the Grendel, but instead of using it to rid the world of darkness, she has used it to keep her people safe while we suffer in this wood alone. The Grendel destroyed our great city, decimated our people, and does the queen care? No. When my mother, Headmind Reason, was murdered in our woods, did the fairies come to our aid? No.”

  The elf’s gaze turned piercing. “The queen put up her precious shield using the power of our crystal, and left us to suffer and die alone in these woods. She has never cared about us. That changes today. We will break the shield and take our crystal back.”

  “Reason stole the queen’s child and gave her to the enemy. The fairies saw what happened!” Elric argued.

  “What?” Axis shouted. “Why would we do such a thing? We were friends to the fairies. Besides, we found my mother dead in the woods the night before the shield appeared.”

  Elric looked at him dumbfounded. He didn’t know what to say. “How is that possible?” If what the elf said was true, the elves had nothing to do with the death of the fairy princess. And if they were innocent? But this could all be a trick. It was easy to lie. However, it wasn’t easy to fake the shock and confusion he saw on the elf leader’s face. Axis looked to Elric like an old king who was tired of war, but unable to escape a siege. And when he first met the elf, he struck Elric as the sort that never gave any hint of emotion away freely.

  “Father!” A young elf in dark robes with a necklace made of amber skittered into the room. She carried a fat black hen under her arm. “Father! You have to come and see!”

  “Not now, Lexicon,” Axis growled.

  “Mildred!” Elric shouted. She was alive! Elric pulled against the elf holding him.

  Mildred let out a mighty squawk. She looked over toward him, then immediately struggled to free herself from the elf girl’s grip. She flapped and twisted, leaving the elf girl awkwardly holding on to her legs as Mildred fought to go to him. Mildred fell forward, landing on her chest on the hard ground. The elf girl let go, then blinked up at him with big orange-yellow eyes so like the color of her necklace.

  “You’re Elric,” she said with wonder in her high-pitched voice. Then she clapped her hands over her mouth. Elric didn’t think it was possible, but her huge eyes widened even more.

  Elric’s heart jumped. Mildred was here. This girl knew his name. That could mean only one thing.

  “Wynn is here!” he shouted. “You have my sister!”

  Mildred ran to him. He pulled free of the guard’s hold and scooped up the hen. She chattered and clucked, as if she were recounting her entire journey through the woods to him. “Where is Wynn?” Elric demanded of the Headmind.

  “Lock him in the infirmary with the other one. Allow no one to speak with him,” Axis insisted.

  The elf girl took her father by the hand and pulled him forward. “Father, now is not the time. You have to come, quickly. You have to see.”

  “Lexicon, I will deal with you later,” he said. “I have urgent business to attend to.”

  “Dex is awake!” She balled her fists, and the thick sleeves of her robe fell over them. “I went to Wynn in the night and asked her to use fairy magic on him, but she said she didn’t know fairy magic, but she knew a different kind of magic and she taught it to me. She taught me to sing, so I did.”

  “Music is forbidden!” the Headmind shouted. “It gives the fairies power!”

  The elf girl balled her fists. “Well, I sat up and sang all night at Codex’s bedside, and now he is opening his eyes.”

  The girl’s words tumbled out in such a rush that Elric wasn’t entirely sure he understood. He only really caught the bit about singing. That certainly sounded like Wynn’s doing.

  The Headmind’s skin paled to a sickly green, and Elric watched as his face lit with a sudden fire. “My son? He’s awake?”

  Axis strode toward the building where they had taken Osmund. The elf girl gave Elric a look, then reached out and took his hand before pulling him forward. He dropped Mildred to the ground and the hen followed at his heels, clucking merrily.

  They entered a dim building lit by the small fires of several strange lamps. There were no windows, only a long hall filled with doors. The elf girl pulled him forward to one of the last ones. Elric turned into the doorway and the elf girl stayed close by his side. Guards followed right behind them. She scooped up Mildred.

  Elric watched as the terrifying elf leader who had given him so much grief knelt at the side of a simple bed and took up the hand of a young elf lying on it. The boy appeared to be sleeping.

  “Codex?” Axis smoothed his hand over the boy’s brow and bald head.

  The boy blinked open his eyes, bright yellow eyes that glowed in the dim light. “Father?”

  The Headmind pulled the boy into his arms and held him in a desperate embrace. The elf girl squeezed Elric’s hand as she wiped her sleeve under her nose.

  “He’s saved. You saved him.” Axis looked back at the girl.

  She shook her head. “Wynn taught me how.”

  “She comes from the fairy realm. Fairies do not change. What great gift did she demand for this magic?” the Headmind asked. “Her freedom?”

  “She
asked for nothing,” the girl said. “She said it was the right thing to do for a friend. She is still locked in her room.”

  He stood, though his fingertips remained on his son’s shoulder. “Bring the girl to me.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Wynn

  WYNN SAT ON THE BED in the corner and waited for it to be night again. Her back hurt from sitting in the corner all day, but she knew night would come soon, and then she could see her friend. She wanted to talk to Lexi. She also wanted to see Mildred again, but she knew Lexi was taking good care of her. Lexi was very nice. The rest of the elves ignored her. She was used to the fairies being busy and leaving her alone. But this was different. At least the fairies would wave or say hello. When the elves came into her room to give her some stale nuts to eat, they spoke in their language so Wynn couldn’t understand, but she knew they were talking about her.

  Wynn scratched at her bandages and wished she could take them off, but the elf who came in at dawn to treat her wounds told her not to pull on them. Headmind Axis wanted to make sure she was healthy.

  The door opened with a creak. Wynn looked up. Maybe someone was bringing her lunch. She was hungry. A grumpy-looking elf with deep wrinkles in his forehead stepped inside.

  “You are to come with me,” he said in a gruff voice.

  Wynn hugged her knees and shook her head. She didn’t want to go anywhere. She liked this room. Lexi could pop up through the floor. She didn’t want to go to a different one.

  “The Headmind has need of you.” The guard came forward and loomed over her. She looked at his thick leather shoes, then back up at the grumpy elf. The elves liked to threaten a lot. She crossed her arms and stared at him.

  “I could drag you out of this room,” he said, but he didn’t actually do it. Maybe he didn’t want to do it. Wynn just blinked at him.

  “What do I have to do—”

  “Smile?” she said. He was very grumpy. She didn’t like that he looked so scary.

  He looked at her, confused, and his brow got even more wrinkly. “What?”

  Wynn smiled at him, showing off her teeth. She wasn’t sure if he knew how to smile.

  “That’s all you want?” He looked even more confused.

  She nodded. That would make things a little better.

  He did his best to pull his lips back into a smile, but it made his eyes squinty, and his forehead more wrinkly. His nose crinkled up too. He looked funny, and it made Wynn want to laugh. That made her feel better. It would do, for a smile.

  “I like your smile,” she said, and took the elf’s hand. He closed his hand gently around hers. Wynn decided he was very grumpy, but grumpy didn’t always make someone mean. Osmund was grumpy, but Osmund was never mean.

  The elf led her out the door and down the long hall to another room. She recognized it immediately. It was the room Lexi’s brother was in. It was more crowded now.

  Axis knelt by the bed. Wynn worried that Lexi’s brother had died, but when she stepped forward, she saw that Lexi’s brother wasn’t turning invisible anymore. He looked real again, or at least she couldn’t see through him to the other side. That was wonderful. Maybe now he would get better.

  “Wynn!”

  She knew that voice. Everything in her body happened at the same time. Her heartbeat stopped and started, and she couldn’t pull a new breath in. Her mind rushed with a hundred thoughts all at once. She couldn’t control her hands. Her body shook, and she flapped her arms as she tried to say something. “El . . . Elric . . . you’re here!”

  Elric pushed forward, but a guard held him back from her. The guard who had smiled for her gripped her arm as she tried to pull it away from him.

  Elric was here. She needed to give him a hug. She slapped the guard’s hand, then twisted her arm the way that always made Elric release her when he was holding too hard. The guard let go with a surprised shout. Wynn ran forward. She didn’t care if guards were holding him. She threw her arms around Elric’s neck and held on to him as tightly as she could. She didn’t want to let go of him ever again.

  “Wynn, I can’t breathe,” he gasped. She stopped hugging him, but didn’t fully let go.

  “I . . . I don’t believe it,” she said. “You found me.”

  He had dark circles under his eyes, like he hadn’t been sleeping in a long time, but he smiled at her like she was the best thing he had ever seen. Even better than a pot of honey. “I thought I had lost you forever. Are you hurt? How long have you been a prisoner?” he asked.

  Wynn shrugged. “I’m . . . I’m well. I had a hurt, but they are fixed now. Want to go home?” She was ready to go back to the fairies.

  Axis looked at her even as she took her brother’s hand and squeezed it. Lexi put Mildred down on the floor and the hen ran to her. Wynn picked her up and hugged her. Her feathers tickled Wynn’s nose. The Headmind came forward while scratching the back of his head. “Is it true you taught this singing magic to Lexi?”

  Wynn nodded happily. Lexi was very good at singing.

  “Why?” he asked.

  She didn’t think that was a very good question. “Lexi needed help. She is my friend. Singing can help.”

  “And you wanted nothing for yourself?” he asked.

  “I already know how to sing,” she said. “I am a very good singer.”

  Elric snorted beside her and squeezed her hand. “Yes, you are, and you are very kind.”

  Elric stared up at the Headmind. Her brother looked angry. Wynn could tell. It was Elric’s quiet sort of angry, though. That was the most dangerous kind. “Kindness doesn’t seem to matter much here. After all, these are people who would keep a child from her heartbroken mother in the name of revenge.”

  Everyone in the room went very still. Even Mildred stopped clucking. Wynn stroked her and pressed closer to Elric’s side. Now that she had her brother, she didn’t want to be away from him one inch.

  The elf boy on the bed pushed himself up. Everyone in the room turned away from Elric and looked at the boy. They still didn’t seem to breathe.

  “Father?” he said in a weak voice that sounded very scratchy. “Where is Lexi? Did the reaper capture her?”

  Lexi rushed to her brother’s side. “No. I’m here,” she said. “I’m here and I’m well.” She sat on the edge of the bed, and her brother wrapped her in a tight hug. “And I saved you, with some help.” Both of them looked up at their father.

  Axis let out a heavy breath, shook his head, then turned to Elric. “You are brave, if foolish, to challenge me.”

  The Headmind looked at Wynn with his owl-like eyes. “But it seems I owe a debt, and therefore must forgive you. Thank you,” he said. “For the life of my son. You, and those who matter to you, will always have the protection of the elves, even in the dark days to come. Now it is time to let the healers do their work. Guards, lock them back in the room.”

  Lexi jumped off the bed and grabbed her father’s arm. “Father, no.”

  “I will not risk their escape. They are the most valuable thing in this entire wood. With them here, we have a chance to break the shield and take our crystal back.”

  “What?” Lexi shouted. “But that means war with the fairies!”

  The Headmind patted his daughter on the shoulder. “We have been at war a long time. Don’t worry for the humans. Humans and elves have always worked together. We will keep them safe. They can stay together. They can even keep the chicken. We will do what we can to save the gravely injured one, as is our way. Mortal lives must be protected. Now we must look forward.”

  “No!” Elric shouted as the guards grabbed him. One of them pulled his sword from his scabbard. “Give me that back. Let go of me.”

  The smiling guard grabbed Wynn’s arms. Now his teeth looked sharp, and his grin terrifying.

  Wynn didn’t resist as they led her back to her room. They tossed her inside, followed by Elric, and Mildred.

  Mildred squawked and flapped her wings in protest as she retreated to the cor
ner. Elric went back after the guards, but they closed the door in his face. They heard the rough scrape of wood as the latch fell into place.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Wynn

  “HOW ARE WE GOING TO get out of here?” Elric pounded on the door with a heavy thump, thump, thump. It wouldn’t do any good. Wynn already tried that the day before.

  Wynn sat down on the bed. “We just have to wait.”

  Elric crossed over to her, holding up his hand to shade his eyes from the slants of light shining through the boards of the wall. Wynn could tell he really didn’t want to sit. He was pacing. He wanted to break down the door, by the way he was pounding on it. He flopped beside her, then leaned in so that his shoulder touched hers. She liked that. “Why did you go into the woods, Wynn? You were safe in the gardens. I asked you to wait for me.”

  Wynn didn’t say anything for a bit. Sometimes it took her a long time, but Elric waited for her words. She was glad he gave her a chance to speak.

  “I saw Mildred,” she said. “But it wasn’t Mildred.”

  “What do you mean?” Elric asked. Mildred clucked sleepily as she settled down at the foot of the bed. She fluffed up the feathers at her belly and wriggled down over her white feet. Then her eyes drooped closed.

  “It was a snake, but it looked like Mildred first,” Wynn said. “It pretended to be sick. I tried to catch her, but she ran to the woods. It was the snake.” Wynn didn’t know how to make Elric see how desperate she was. She would have waited for him. But she was tricked.

  “I was alone in the woods. Then my Mildred came. She pecked the bad snake in the eye. I hit it with a stick. Then I ran away. I got lost.” Elric would never believe her. It sounded strange even to her.

  Elric rubbed his chin. He looked like he was thinking hard. “So, the snake was magic,” he said.

  Wynn nodded. That was exactly it. “It had one of Mildred’s feathers in its mouth.”

  “Osmund and I found the dead serpent,” Elric said. “It had spines down its back, didn’t it?” Elric had a serious expression. He was a good thinker. “The only reason I left you was because a reaper was attacking the shield. It must have been a distraction so this serpent creature could lure you into the woods.”