Into the Nightfell Wood

by Kristin Bailey

  The clattering noise outside seemed to shake the ground. The air filled with the creaking rumble of enormous machines rolling through the village on huge wheels. They had massive arms cocked back and held by heavy ropes. Great wagons filled with huge blocks of stone rumbled behind them. Wynn slapped her hands over her ears, but Elric pulled them down and tugged her behind the building.

  They came out near the pigpens. The pigs were agitated by the noise, stomping around and squealing. Wynn didn’t like that sound either, and the smell was even worse. She followed Lexi until they came to a shadowy alcove behind a small building.

  “Now what?” Elric asked in a hoarse whisper.

  “I don’t know,” Lexi said. “I didn’t really think we would make it this far.” She looked up.

  “We can’t go through the gate, that’s where the catapults are.” Elric looked up, but Lexi tugged on the front of his hood, forcing it back over his face. “We have to go over the wall,” he said.

  “We can’t go over the wall,” Lexi argued. “That’s the point of a wall.”

  Wynn glanced up at the wall. Cut from tall young trees, the tops of each trunk had been shaped into a spike. Wynn wasn’t good at climbing trees with branches. These trees had no branches. This would be even worse than climbing a tree. Elric looked determined as he stared at the wall. He walked forward and touched it, feeling the seam where two logs came together and looking for any place where they could get a hold.

  Wynn glanced around. She thought she heard something. She wasn’t supposed to look up, but she thought she heard the noise again coming from a tall tree on the other side of the wall. Something tapped her on the head. A small nut landed at her feet. She crept closer and peeked up from under the hem of her hood.

  Two luminous eyes stared at her from beneath a mop of black hair and two large fox ears. Hob grinned.

  “Hob!” Wynn clapped her hands over her mouth. They were being sneaky and she forgot to be quiet. Elric rushed to her side, followed by Lexi. She pointed up. Hob waved.

  “Hob saw you, yes,” he said. “I have been up here in this tree for days watching for my friends. I have been listening. I have been waiting. I have been tying vines into knots.” The tiny creature held up a tangle of vines. “Just in case.”

  “Good work, Hob. Toss them down so we can climb up.” Elric motioned to him, and he threw the vines over the wall. They cascaded like a heavy tumble of hair down to their feet.

  Hob clapped. “Hob is always prepared, yes!”

  “Shhhh.” Elric pressed his finger to his lips. “Hurry, before someone sees.” Elric grabbed the thick tangle of vines and pulled it to Wynn. “Climb as fast as you can.”

  “I can’t,” Wynn said. It was very high up.

  Elric placed a hand on her shoulder. “Yes, you can.”

  She took a deep breath and looked up. She had to try. She gripped the mass of tangled vines and pressed her feet against the wall as she climbed up. Her arms hurt. If she let go of the vines, she would fall. She couldn’t do that. She had to make it to the top. Wynn climbed and climbed. Her arms were shaking. Her teeth hurt from pressing them too tight together. Her foot slipped on the rounded wood poles. She tried to put her toes in the vines and climb up like a ladder, but the vines gave beneath her feet. She tried again to plant her feet on the wall, but her boot stuck in the crack. Slowly she inched her way up.

  “Up here.” Hob hung on to the sharpened spike of one of the cut logs and held a hand down toward her. He grabbed her wrist and guided her hand to the branch above her, then helped her foot into the gap between the two spikes. With one last push up, she pulled herself into the bendy branches of the tree.

  Now how was she going to get down? She didn’t like falling out of trees.

  “This way,” Hob said. He didn’t have trouble in the tree. But he was very small. Wynn made the branch bend. She had to hold on to branches above as she shifted her feet toward the trunk, then walk her hands along the willowy branches above her head. Hob tried to help by placing her feet on stronger branches, and pointing where she should put her hands. Elric and Lexi climbed over the wall easily and into the tree. The whole tree shook, and Wynn held on tight. Once she got near the trunk, it wasn’t as hard to climb down. There were many vines to hold on to, and Hob helped guide her. Finally her feet hit the ground.

  Elric jumped down out of the tree, followed by Lexi. Elric bent on one knee as Hob bounded over to him. “I’m so glad to see you,” he said, holding out his hand for Hob to shake. Instead Hob dipped his head down and wriggled under Elric’s hand like a snuggly cat.

  “Hob didn’t think he would see the Otherworld prince again. I am very glad. Quick, follow me. I will take you back.” He bounded forward and waved his hand. “The Grendel is at the edge of the wood. He is gathering an army under his storming clouds. He is waiting. And the elves are moving their weapons. This is bad. We must get you home.”

  “No,” Elric said. “Not yet. We have to find the princess.”

  Hob looked over at Wynn and pointed at her.

  Wynn tried not to giggle. “Not me. The princess in the ruins.”

  Lexi stepped forward and pulled Mildred from her sack and gently let her down on the ground. Mildred pecked at the old vines, then marched over to Hob. He patted her on the neck.

  Lexi lifted her small lantern and pointed the way to go. “I know the way to the old city, but I don’t know where the princess hides there. Be careful. Reapers aren’t the only dangerous things in this wood, and we have to watch for traps.”

  Together they started walking through the dark woods. Strange sounds came from the trees. Wynn couldn’t see the stars. They were covered by black clouds. The Grendel’s storm was coming closer. The forest made everything seem darker. They walked on endlessly.

  Wynn stayed quiet. She saw monsters in every shadow. Elric stayed close to Lexi, holding his glowing sword ready. Wynn followed behind him, and tried not to imagine that the branches of the trees were bony hands reaching for her.

  It was still the dark part of night when they began to climb up a hill. Wynn saw ferns along the path, and things seemed less scary. As they climbed, she spotted one of the bright mushrooms that grew near where Flame lived; even though everything looked gray in the dark, she imagined their bright red and orange tops. They couldn’t find a path, but Wynn did see the rocks that had been cut into squares poking up from the thick ferns.

  “We’re almost there,” Lexi said. “We have to be quiet. Or we’ll never find them.”

  A loud boom echoed through the woods followed by a sharp crack and a creaking, snapping sound, like ice breaking on a lake. Wynn covered her ears. She didn’t like the sound. It was too loud.

  “Those are the catapults,” Lexi whispered.

  Elric strode forward and climbed up the curling root of a tree. He craned his neck to see through the leaves, then looked at them with worry in his eyes. “Without any of us in the palace, the shield won’t have the power to withstand such an attack. It’s going to fall, and when it does, the Grendel will come. We have to hurry.”

  They climbed up the roots of the trees growing along a steep hill, but it was difficult to make their way up. The darkness didn’t help. Wynn wondered if the dawn would ever come again—it had been so long since she’d seen the sun rise. She stumbled on another rock, then noticed one that looked like a step. Then another. Elric found the steps too and ran up them until he came to a stop beneath a crumbling archway.

  Wynn knew where she was. She thought so, anyway. It did look familiar, and she smelled smoke on the breeze.

  Elric stared into the darkness. “There’s something out there. I thought I saw it move.”

  Hob lifted his pointed nose and sniffed at the air. “A big beastie is close. Don’t know what it is.”

  Shadow was big. Wynn hoped it was her. She certainly didn’t want to meet another reaper.

  “We’re never going to find the lost princess like this,” Lexi said. Everyone turned to look
at her. She clutched the strap of her sack as she lowered the lantern. “For years elves have been coming to this part of the wood for the sweet fruit that grows here, and we’ve never caught sight of more than a shadow. She knows we’re here. She’ll stay five steps ahead of us.”

  Wynn definitely remembered this part of the stair. She knew where she was, and where to go. “I can do it,” she said, walking forward on her own.

  “Not without me.” Elric grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back.

  “Flame likes me,” Wynn said, standing her ground. “Not you. She is hiding.”

  “You’ll get lost,” Elric said.

  “Mildred will come with me,” Wynn said. She looked down at her hen. The hen gave a confident cluck, then strutted forward and began hopping up the broken steps. She looked back at Wynn to see if she was following.

  “It’s too dangerous,” Elric said. “I don’t want to lose you again.”

  “I can do it.” Wynn gently pulled his hand from her shoulder. “Let me try.”

  Elric pulled her into a fierce hug, and she hugged him back. Finally he let her go.

  “I will be safe,” Wynn said. Then she climbed after her hen. “I will find Flame.”

  The stairs were very scary in the dark. She didn’t have Lexi’s light. The light from the stars was blocked by the heavy clouds. She had to feel her way up the stones one at a time, and move very slowly. When she reached the top, she looked around at the ruins of the great city. She wondered if the elves could build it again. It must have been beautiful once.

  Each doorway was dark and empty. Flame didn’t mind the dark, but Wynn did. She didn’t like it at all. Mildred clucked as she strutted ahead. Wynn followed, until they came to a familiar archway. Wynn knew this place. She’d found the chalky rock near here.

  “Flame?” she called into the shadows. There was no fire, no light at all.

  A low rumbling sound answered her.

  Something pressed against her back, a heavy push and slide of an animal’s head rubbing against her. Wynn jumped forward and spun around. She almost fell over. But there in front of her were Shadow’s enormous eyes. They blinked at her as the tigereon changed her stripes from a very dark brown to white. It looked like she’d appeared from the air.

  “You’re wearing elvish clothes.” Flame’s voice came from the darkness. Mildred clucked in greeting. “Shadow was confused by your scent. Are you friends with the elves now?”

  Wynn didn’t know how to answer that. She was friends with Lexi, but she didn’t like the elf leader very much. “They locked me in a room.”

  Flame stepped forward out of the dark shadows of her shelter. She didn’t quite look at Wynn and kept her staff carefully poised in front of her. “How did you get out?”

  “Elric found me,” Wynn said.

  Flame’s forehead crinkled, making the scars across her face stand out. “He left the shield and braved the wood to find you?”

  “He is a good brother.” Mildred came over to her and Wynn picked her up as Shadow slipped beside Flame.

  “If you have been saved, why are you here?” She placed both hands on her staff and leaned on it. Dark blue fire licked along the curls at her temples.

  “You are my friend,” Wynn said. “Come back with me.”

  Flame laughed.

  Another loud boom echoed off the stones and old towers of the ruins. The sound of shattering ice was followed by a roll of thunder as the storm drew nearer. The Grendel was coming.

  “Why would I want to live with the fairies?” Flame asked.

  “Because you are a fairy,” Wynn said.

  “A fairy?” Flame didn’t smile now. She looked very angry. “You think I’m one of those weak cowards? Can you believe this?” she asked as she turned her head toward Shadow.

  “Fairies can talk with animals,” Wynn said.

  Flame snapped her head up and scowled. It made her scars look very frightening. “I have lived thousands of days in this wood. I should know what I am.”

  Wynn blinked at her. “Fairies don’t get old.”

  Flame gripped her staff and pushed forward, but Wynn did not back down, not even when Flame’s staff hit her legs. “I am not a fairy!” she shouted. The old pillars of the archway burst into a roaring inferno of white-hot flames.

  “Fairies have magic.” Wynn backed away from the wave of heat coming off the pillars.

  They dimmed as Flame gathered control of herself. Blue flames licked up either side of the archway.

  “This can’t be true,” Flame said, her voice soft and sad. “I’m something different, like you are.”

  “I’m a fairy princess too.” Wynn reached out and touched Flame’s hand. She startled at the touch, then let out a heavy sigh and placed her own hand over Wynn’s. Wynn closed her other hand over Flame’s. “Even when I don’t want to be.”

  “If I am a fairy, then why did they abandon me in the wood? Why did they throw me out here and then never come back for me?”

  Flame sounded so sad. Wynn stepped forward and wrapped her in a hug. “The Grendel took you away.”

  Shadow suddenly crouched and hissed. Mildred let out a loud cluck and trotted down the path just as Elric came running up with his sword drawn. The tigereon leaped forward and took a swipe at Elric, who backed away from the enormous beast. Her striped tail lashed in anger.

  Wynn ran forward and circled her arms around Shadow’s neck. “No, Shadow, no. He is my brother.”

  Elric stepped forward as if he wanted to be with her, but Shadow growled at him and he backed away. “We saw the fire. Wynn, are you hurt?”

  “I am fine.” Wynn held tight to Shadow’s neck.

  “This is your brave and devoted brother, I take it?” Flame stepped into the cool blue light of the flaming pillars but didn’t look at Elric. She stared somewhere past him. “The fairy prince?”

  Elric crept forward waving his hand slowly. Flame still didn’t look at him. As he stepped in front of her, she whacked him hard with her staff.

  He shouted in pain and fell to the ground. “I’m sorry. For a moment there, I didn’t think you could see me.”

  “I can’t,” Flame said as she leaned on her staff.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Elric

  “YOU’RE BLIND.” ELRIC COULDN’T BELIEVE it, but the scars across her face, slashing over her eyes, didn’t lie. It explained so much. No wonder she didn’t try to rejoin the fairies. She couldn’t see the fairy realm, and her tigereon couldn’t cross the barrier. She would have never set foot through the shield if she had to leave her only companion behind. For her, the fairy realm must have been like a legend that her tigereon told to her at bedtime, not the place where she belonged.

  “I don’t know what ‘blind’ means,” Flame said as Lexi came forward. Shadow slinked behind Flame, curling her body around Flame’s legs. She put her head low to the ground and hissed. Her stripes shimmered between a harsh yellow shade and a vivid green. “Tell the elf to back away.”

  Lexi did so, pulling her lantern closer to her body.

  “Your eyes are damaged,” Elric said. “You can’t see things.” The reaper that captured her as a baby must have scratched her face, and cut her eyes. He wasn’t sure how fairy wounds healed, especially in a baby, but her scars were deep. The streaks cut across the her forehead, slashed her cheek and the bridge of her nose, and crossed over her lip and jaw. Instead of changing color the way most fairy eyes did, the princess’s eyes seemed fixed on dark brown.

  “I can see things,” she said as she brought her staff around and swung it dangerously close to his face. He didn’t flinch, but he felt the muscles of his cheek twitch where her staff lingered. “Light, shadows, things moving nearby.”

  “But you can’t see like us,” he argued. Lexi and Hob shared a nervous glance as the flames on the pillars erupted in hot white fire. Wynn scooped up Mildred and scrambled toward Shadow.

  “Can you see as well as her?” Flame tilted her head down toward her
tigereon. Shadow bared her long fangs at him and hissed. “She tells me what she sees. That’s all I need to know.”

  Another loud boom sounded as the catapults assaulted the shield. It could shatter at any minute. A flash of lightning illuminated the forest, and the rumble of thunder that followed made them all flinch. “We don’t have time for this,” Lexi warned from the edge of the forest. “The Grendel is coming. He will follow the storm and attack the fairy realm as soon as my father breaks through the shield.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Flame said. “I am home.” She crossed her arms, still holding her long staff ready as the sudden gusts of wind from the oncoming front stirred the billowing curls of smoke around her legs. “Come, Shadow.” She turned with her staff, and the beast rose to take its place beside her.

  “You can’t run!” Elric shouted at her. The mark on her back stood out. It took up the entire width of her shoulders, a fiery star. The mark of a warrior. “You can’t hide from this. War will tear everything good in the fairy realm and the Nightfell Wood apart. There is no safe place. The Grendel will take over everything. He will destroy everything. The only thing you can do is fight. It is your destiny.” He held out his sword to her. It was hers by right. The silver sword glowed as if it too were on fire. Elric had to squint his eyes as he offered it to her. She was the one born to fight the Grendel, not him.

  Flame scoffed and turned her head, not enough to actually face him, but that didn’t seem to matter much to her at the moment. “You want me to fight for the elves?” she said. “Creatures that ruthlessly hunted down all of Shadow’s kind?”

  Lexi cringed.

  “Or you want me to save the fairies. The ones who are so cowardly that they ordered others to hunt down and kill anything they couldn’t control with their magic—anything with the strength to defy them. Both the elves and the fairies brought this storm upon themselves. The fairies hide under their precious shield. They gladly throw the rest of the world away to rot while they live in their perfect little bubble. And the elves? They are more than willing to destroy in the name of anger and let innocent life perish because it means nothing to them. They have their books, and make their terrible weapons. Yes, the storm is coming. Why should I right it? The world is already broken.” She began to walk away. The fire on the pillars dimmed. The light in the sword slowly died in his hand.