Into the Nightfell Wood

by Kristin Bailey

  “It doesn’t have to be broken,” Elric called after her.

  She paused. He had to use his chance. She wouldn’t listen to him long. He just wasn’t sure the best way to reason with her.

  “You can change things. You are the queen’s daughter. She will listen to you.”

  She let out a choked laugh that almost sounded like a sob. “My mother? I never had a mother. I have always been alone. How do I know this queen even exists? Shadow has never seen her. If what you say is the truth, if it is real, then she never came for me.” Flame took a step deeper into the darkness as the shadows of her dress swirled over her like a cloak. She turned back, and her hair lit with red fire. “She means nothing to me!” This time stones nearer to the ground burst into flame, and threatened to spread the fire to the trees. “Only Shadow has ever been there for me.”

  “The queen still loves you,” Elric said. “Whether you love her or not.” He paused, feeling a tug near his heart. He didn’t have time to get distracted by his own feelings. He looked at Flame. “If the queen didn’t still love you, Wynn and I would not be here. She brought us here to soothe her broken heart. It has never healed since the day she lost you. You are still precious to her—so precious, she named you Estaria, after the stars.”

  She turned to him, and Shadow circled around her body. “I don’t know what those are,” she said.

  Elric took a step toward her. “They burn. In the deepest part of night, they shine. They give people hope that there is something powerful beyond this world. Even when we cannot see them. Even though we cannot touch them. We know they are always there.”

  Wynn came forward and walked past Elric. She held Mildred out and placed her in Flame’s arms. Flame fumbled a bit with the hen, surprised.

  “Come back with me?” Wynn asked. Flame gently stroked the bird in her hands. “I want you to be my sister.” Wynn reached out to pet Shadow. “We can be princesses together. I will keep Shadow safe. No one will hurt her. I promise.”

  Shadow purred as she rubbed up against Wynn with enough force that Wynn almost toppled over. Elric helped steady her.

  “If the Grendel comes,” Wynn said, “he will kill the queen. My first mother died during a storm. I don’t want that to happen again.”

  Wynn’s words were jumbled, but Elric knew what she was trying to say. She had lost one mother already. She didn’t want to lose another. They finally had a place where they belonged.

  But as he looked at Flame, Estaria, the lost princess, he saw a deep loneliness. An isolation as profound as the first star to appear in the night sky. She had never known what it meant to have a family. She only had her tigereon.

  Thunder crashed, or it could have been a part of the shield collapsing. Elric couldn’t tell. They were out of time. “I am going to return to the palace,” he said. “I’m going to fight the evil that is coming. Go back to your dark little hole in the ruins. But if you do, know you are just as ruthless as the elves, and you are just as much of a coward as the fairies. Hide in shadows, or hide under a shield. In the end, it’s all the same thing.”

  Elric turned away from her and walked back down the path as the first drops of rain fell on his face. “Come on, Wynn. It’s up to us now.” He held his hand out to his sister.

  She hesitated a moment, looking back at the lost princess, then she tucked Mildred under her arm and ran to his side. He took her hand.

  As they walked away, the roar of the tigereon shook the air as fiercely as the thunder.

  Elric chased after Hob as fast as he could. He held tight to Wynn’s hand and helped her over the rough forest path. “Lexi, you have to return to your village right away,” Elric said as he dropped back next to the elf. “You have to evacuate everyone who is left—the sick, the elderly, children. The village will not be safe. The Grendel is right on top of us.”

  Lexi slowed for a second. “Evacuate?” She looked at him, stunned. “To where? Where can we possibly go?”

  “To the palace,” Elric said through gritted teeth. “Take as many as you can straight to the palace.”

  Lexi let out a gasping laugh. “Perfect, I’m sure we’ll be welcome after our catapults attacked their shield!”

  “The only way any of us is going to survive this is if we stand together,” Elric said.

  “I don’t think that’s going to work,” Lexi said. “You can’t shed years of resentment and suspicion like taking off a hood.”

  “You’re innocent.” Elric pulled himself over a fallen tree, and helped both Wynn and Lexi up.

  “Sometimes that doesn’t matter,” Lexi said with a stern voice. Elric stopped in his tracks as she glared at him.

  “I don’t know if this is going to work,” Elric admitted. “But it’s the only chance we’ve got. It will be easier to defend everyone if we are all in the same place, and having the vulnerable nearby may stop your father’s attack long enough to make him listen. If people stay in the village, they will be caught behind an army of the Grendel’s monsters. This is our only chance. I can’t do this without you. The only way we’re going to stop this mess is if we do it together.”

  “You are going to stand on the line for me?” Lexi challenged. “When the moment comes, you will side with the elves, not the fairies?”

  “There is only one side now,” Elric answered. “We have to make everyone see that. You can count on Osmund, he will help you. If he says anything to the contrary, tell him I said he’s a fool. Go, and good luck.” He placed his hand on Lexi’s shoulder. She nodded.

  “This way, quick, quick, hurry!” Hob said as he dashed forward. “We must reach the queen!” They ran hard through the woods, only pausing when Hob led them around a trap, or onto a path for the hog-carts.

  Hob bounced only a pace or two ahead of them. Elric was afraid he was going to step on the creature’s long and whipping tail as they ran. Mildred sprinted alongside them, her head bobbing furiously as she hopped over any obstacles in their path.

  Drops of rain hit him relentlessly in the face, but it didn’t matter. Time was their enemy now. They had to hurry before there was no hope left for this world.

  They had to fight against the storm, and the mud, rocks, rivulets, roots, and branches. It was as if the forest itself was reaching out to grab them and trying to hold them back. Elric pulled Wynn up an embankment slick with dark mud. She didn’t complain as she struggled, she just fought against the branches crossing the path, and the rain slicked leaves under their feet. Elric urged her along, not knowing how far left they had to go.

  After what felt like hours of struggling down the narrow and twisted paths, they finally found the shield.

  “Release the catapults!” The call rang out louder than the storm winds. It was followed by a creaking moan, then a loud crack like a whip. Elric watched in horror as a huge carved block of stone flew toward the shield.

  It smashed against the gray wall with a sound that punched the air from his lungs. He clapped his hands over his ears as the stone tumbled down the shield and crashed into the trees to their right. Deep cracks appeared where it had hit. The fractures weren’t healing themselves. The cracks only grew, and they were already as large as the trees.

  He peered through the shield and spotted the curling oak where Zephyr said he would wait for them. “We’re not far!” he called to Wynn, who had her whole body hunched over Mildred.

  They scrambled along the edge of the shield until they reached the oak.

  “Zephyr!” Elric called. “Zeph! Where are you?”

  Elric waited, his heart in his throat. He called again, but there was no response. What if Zephyr had abandoned them? What if Osmund was right about him? It had been two days since he’d left.

  Elric watched as a swirl of dried leaves spun upward in a twisting curl of wind. The wind formed together, then solidified into the familiar form of his friend. Zephyr flew toward them. His eyes were wide and yellow with panic. He swooped through the shield and knocked Elric over as he crashed into Elric an
d Wynn. He hugged both of them at once. “You are alive! I don’t believe it.”

  He cradled Wynn’s cheeks in his hands and stared at her with tearful eyes flashing in a rainbow of colors. “Even Mildred, you are alive! Hurry. The shield is failing. We have to get you to the queen. She is nearly gone. Where’s Osmund?”

  “He’s coming soon,” Elric said. Along with an entire village of elves, but Elric didn’t mention that part. He hoped Osmund was healed enough to make it. In his heart, he knew Lexi wouldn’t leave him behind. She would hold up her end. Now he had to do his part. “Get Wynn to safety.”

  “Zeph,” Wynn said, throwing her arms around him as if the shield weren’t about to shatter at any moment. “It’s so nice to see you again.”

  He returned her hug even as he pulled her toward the shield. Elric scooped up Mildred, placed a hand on Zephyr’s shoulder, and pushed all of them through the shield. The fog passed over Elric like it was nothing, and suddenly he had to squint in the bright light of the heart of the fairy realm.

  After being in the dim of the wood, the colors under the dome were so vibrant he could see lingering shadows of them if he closed his eyes. The weight that had been like a yoke around his neck lifted, and the oppressive dreariness finally left him.

  The storm thundered outside the cracking shield, but it sounded distant, and the cold rain no longer fell on them. Elric looked back at the shield. Hob stood with his hands pressed against it, and his ears tucked back into his mop of black hair.

  “Get him and bring him through,” Elric demanded, pulling Zephyr up.

  “But that’s a darkling creature,” Zephyr protested. Mildred pecked him on the foot. “Ow!”

  “That darkling creature risked his life to save me and my sister. He belongs with us.” Hob looked behind him, his small chest heaving in fright.

  Zephyr twisted his expression into one of resigned uncertainty, but he flew through the shield and reached down for Hob. Hob jumped on his shoulder, then scrambled around and clung to the back of Zephyr’s head. “Ugh, get off!” Zeph flew back through the shield while batting at Hob. He knocked him off into the flowers.

  Hob bounced up, then scrambled to sit on top of Elric’s shoulder. “Run!” Hob squeaked as he pointed toward the cracked dome above them.

  Another large block of stone was flying toward the shield. It hit with a deafening crash and smashed through.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Elric

  THE STONE HURTLED INTO THE old oak. Broken pieces of wood and dirt sprayed into the air. Zephyr pushed a gust of wind toward the blast, and blew most of the debris away from them. “The shield has been breached. It won’t be long before it falls now.”

  Elric looked up at the gaping hole high in the shield. He could see the black clouds swirling above the trees and hear the wind howling on the other side. He turned to his sister. “Wynn, listen to me,” he said. “You have to run. Run as fast as you can to the palace. Find the queen. Heal her before the shield breaks. It’s up to you.”

  Wynn blinked at him. “And what do you do?” she asked.

  He drew his sword. “The Grendel is coming. So are the elves. Someone has to stand and fight.”

  Wynn threw her arms around him and clung tightly to his neck. He wrapped his arm around her and held on as long as he could. He could feel tears begin to sting his eyes. “No, no fighting,” she said against his shoulder.

  “Go, Wynn,” Elric said, knowing this might be the last time he would ever see his sister. He was mortal, and this was war. “I will fight to protect you. I love you. You can do this. I’m counting on you to save us. Now go.”

  She gave him a teary nod and started off through the vivid green fields, Mildred only a step behind her.

  Elric had to force himself to look away from Wynn. He wanted to watch her until he couldn’t see her anymore, just to have one more moment with her.

  A different sort of thunder rumbled through the hills to his left. An army of fearsome animals was charging over the rolling hill toward the broken shield. The fairies were coming. He had to stop them somehow. If they fought with the elves, they wouldn’t have the strength to stand against the Grendel. “Zeph, come with me!” he shouted.

  “We can’t fight!” he shouted. “We’re not warriors, Elric, we’re just kids.”

  “We’re not going to fight,” Elric called back as he ran as fast as he could into the gap of land between the approaching army and the breaking shield. “But we have to stop them.”

  “Have you lost your head completely?” Zephyr flew in front of him and hit him with a gust. It made Elric stumble enough that he stopped.

  He stared up at his friend. “You said you wanted to be a hero. Now’s your moment. Are you with me? Or not?”

  Zephyr looked up as the cracks in the shield turned into a dark web above them. “This is too big for us,” he said. “The shield is breaking.” The dome of the shield buckled, and pieces of it shattered, falling away and turning to glittering rain.

  “I have to do something!” Elric shouted as he turned to run again.

  Headmind Axis rode through the breach on an enormous boar. His army of elves rode behind him.

  Elric had to stop this. He ran straight for the gap between the elves and the fairies. Hob bounded along bravely at his heels. He didn’t see Zephyr, but a strong wind at his back pushed him faster. To his right, a snow-white stag charged with the shining points of his antlers held low and deadly. To his left, Axis rode to battle, his arrow-slinger pointed directly at Elk.

  Elric closed his eyes and ran with all his might until he slid to a stop between them. He drew his sword.

  “Halt!” he shouted, and even though he could barely draw breath from his exertion, his voice rang out over the hillside. He held his sword aloft.

  A powerful blast of wind pushed down from above him and out from where he stood. Elk skidded to a stop and shook his silver antlers. Axis pulled hard on the chain connected through the ring in his boar’s nose. The beast squealed, but came to an unsteady stop.

  Elk transformed in a flash of light and drew his broad sword as the fairy army fell into formation. The boar riders closed ranks and formed a protective line behind Axis.

  “Elric, move aside,” Master Elk commanded.

  “I am your prince!” he shouted, and the authority in his voice shocked him for a moment. Elk took a step back and lowered his sword. “I command you to stand down,” Elric continued in a slightly shakier voice.

  Axis laughed. “How convenient. It will make it all the easier to take the crystal back to where it belongs.” His orange eyes flashed in the dimming light. Thunder rolled overhead. “The fairies have used us too long.”

  Elric turned to him. “You will not fight.”

  Axis pointed the deadly weapon strapped to his arm at Elric. “Are you going to stop me?”

  “You owe Wynn the life of your son,” Elric said. He could barely speak the words through his clenching jaw. “A life debt. You swore yourself you would always protect us. Is this how you will repay her? By killing her brother?”

  “Father, no!” Lexi ran as fast as she could toward Elric, clutching a book to her chest. She turned and put herself directly in the way of his weapon. “The fairies are not our enemy,” she shouted. “And we are not theirs.”

  Elric watched as Osmund staggered toward them, supporting the thin frame of the Headmind’s son. Behind them, a long line of pig-carts carried the vulnerable elves who had been left behind.

  Lexi turned toward the fairies. “The Grendel lied to us all to drive a wedge between the fairies and the elves. He sent a creature called an illusury to make it look as if the elves had taken the queen’s baby. It is a shapeshifter, and can be controlled by fairy magic. The Grendel’s magic.” She held up the book to the illustration that she had shown them earlier.

  “It’s true,” Elric shouted to the fairies. “The same creature tricked Osmund and Wynn. It lured them both into the woods. But they survived, and so d
id the princess.” Elric stepped closer to Elk. “I have seen her. She is real. There is hope. But the Grendel is on his way with an army of monsters at his heels. He wants us to fight each other. He wants us to be weak before he comes. The only way we can save this world is if we fight as one.”

  “How can you know this for certain?” Master Elk asked.

  “Trust in me,” Elric said. “I am not mistaken. I have spoken with the princess. All the queen’s children are alive. There is a chance to save the queen. But we cannot make a stand against the Grendel without the help of the elves.”

  “They destroyed the shield,” Elk shouted. “It was our only protection.”

  “They had a right to pull it down,” Elric countered. “The crystal was a gift; the fairies have used it against them. Anger at their anger will not help us.”

  Elk considered this for a moment. His eyes changed color so quickly, Elric had a difficult time seeing one color before the next one flared. Elric wondered what thoughts were passing through the old warrior’s mind. The old fairy looked up at Axis. “I remember the days of our friendship, and the feasts in the towers of the city in the woods. I remember fighting alongside your father in days gone by. We were allies once.”

  “Father,” Lexi said, holding her book to her chest. “Did we come for revenge? Or justice?”

  Axis looked at Elk. “That depends. To what truth do the fairies hold?”

  “I choose to follow my prince,” Elk answered. “If you fight with us”—he nodded slowly—“then we will fight for you.”

  Headmind Axis slowly lowered his weapon. He rode forward on his boar, and offered Elk an open hand. The leader of the guard took it. “Then I will follow the counsel of my daughter.”

  The dark clouds gathered overhead, casting a shadow over all of them. Elk lifted his sword. “We have to hurry. The power of the queen is diminishing. She is almost gone, turned to ice. We have to get those who can’t fight to safety. To the grove over there.” He pointed to a stand of trees.