Faery Revenge

by Donna Joy Usher

  ‘And keeping secrets.’

  ‘Pot, kettle, black.’ Turos pointed a finger at me. ‘I nearly died of fright when you blasted that boy out of the way.’ He shook his head as he muttered, ‘Luckily no one else seemed to have noticed.’

  ‘It’s okay Arthur, I’m here,’ Isla murmured. Her fingertips stayed glued to the shell as she rolled over. The little shadow mimicked her movement.

  I smiled as I turned back to Turos. ‘Is that normal?’

  He put his hands on his hips and glared at me. ‘Stop changing the subject.’

  ‘Oh fine.’ I let out a huff. ‘I have a tenuous hold on some magical powers. Sometimes they do what I want them to.’

  ‘Is that why you don’t use it much?’

  ‘I spent most of my life without it,’ I said. ‘So I guess that’s part of it. But mostly it’s because when I do use it, things tend to blow up.’ I remembered my conversation with Deidre from the night before. She had said they had found a magic maker to help them. ‘None of you have any magic?’ I didn’t mean for it to sound as incredulous as it did. Even though I hadn’t had access to my own powers till just under a year ago, I had been immersed in a magical world my whole life.

  He shook his head. ‘Our bond with the dragons is the closest thing to magic that we’ve got.’

  ‘But…’ I shook my head. ‘When I punched you.’

  ‘Oh this?’ He laughed and waved a hand at his nose. ‘Good use of herbs.’

  ‘No, not that. Your warriors. They moved so swiftly.’

  ‘Oh that. No magic there. I could teach you how to do that.’

  ‘You could?’ My mind started to race. If I could take that sort of technique home with me then maybe this trip wasn’t a total waste. Our chances against the goblins would dramatically improve if we could move that swiftly. I put my hand on his arm. ‘Will you?’

  ‘Sure.’ He shrugged. ‘Got nothing else I need to be doing. We can start right now.’

  I heard a dragon roar from the other side of the cavern.

  Turos tilted his head so that an ear was facing in that direction. ‘Sounds like another egg on its way.’

  The sound of dragon’s wings, came to me over the next roar. I looked up to see the sky-blue dragon winging its way towards us. A single rider sat on its neck, his eyes fixed on Turos.

  The dragon fluttered his wings backwards, bringing himself to a soft landing about ten metres from where we were sitting. The rider didn’t dismount, instead beckoning to Turos with one hand while holding out a piece of paper with the other.

  ‘Maybe not right now,’ Turos muttered as he hopped up. He strode towards the rider, took the message from him and opened it. I watched as his eyes scanned down the page. He folded it back up and looked back toward me.

  ‘I have to go talk to father. I’ll return with food.’

  He looked over to where Lance lay with his snout pressed up against Emerald’s, shook his head and then walked back to the other dragon. He leapt lightly onto the dragon’s front thigh and scrambled up till he was sitting behind the other rider. Within seconds they were winging their way back across the cavern.

  ‘Is it just me,’ Isla mumbled, ‘or is it hot in here?’

  ‘It’s hot.’ I reached out for a water bottle and handed it to her, helping her sit up so she could drink it.

  She took it with her free hand and tipped the contents into her mouth and then over her head. ‘That feels good.’ She dropped the bottle and raked her hand through her hair.

  ‘How long are you going to hang onto the egg?’

  ‘As long as it takes.’ She stared at the egg with a gooey look on her face. ‘Can you believe he chose me?’

  ‘I can believe it. The Dragon Masters weren’t too happy.’

  ‘You think they’ll try to take him off me?’ Worry marred her voice.

  ‘I think it’s a bit of a done deal,’ I said. ‘Bonding is for life.’

  We were silent for a few moments while we contemplated the real meaning of my words.

  ‘They’re not going to let me leave, are they?’ she finally whispered.

  ‘They have to.’ My voice held more conviction than I felt.

  We were alone, in another world. If they decided we weren’t going home then there was nothing we could do about it.

  We sat like that, our silence joining us, until Turos returned with food.

  ***

  ‘I don’t see how this is anything to do with making me move faster.’ I opened my eyes and stared at Turos.

  ‘It has everything to do with it.’

  I narrowed my eyes, searching for a hint of a smile on his face. There was none.

  ‘Just do as he says, Izzy.’ Isla sat with her back against the egg, her head resting against its long sweeping curve.

  I could see Arthur’s shadow as his fluttering wings spun him round-and-round. Watching him made me dizzy. Although in the last few days the loops had become slower as he grew within the confines of his shell. Turos advised us that it wouldn’t be too much longer until he hatched.

  ‘Fine.’ I let out a huff and closed my eyes, sneaking one open again immediately to check out Turos’s face. He still wasn’t smiling.

  ‘Take a deep breath in,’ he intoned, ‘and clear your mind of everything.’

  I took a breath, filling up my lungs until I could feel them swelling inside me.

  ‘Remove all your thoughts. One-by-one. Examine them and then discard them.’

  I thought about Mum and Sabby and how annoyed they would be. It had been a week since we had left with Lance and Turos. Then I took that thought, along with the emotions it evoked, and I pushed it from my mind.

  I thought about Scruffy lying on his back against Emerald, his loud snores echoing in the cavern.

  ‘You hear nothing, see nothing, smell nothing.’

  I opened my eyes. ‘How am I meant to clear my head of all sound with you yabbering at me continuously?’

  This time a small smile did curl up the corners of his mouth, but his ice-blue eyes remained serious. ‘Stop arguing and do it.’

  I let out a huff and closed my eyes again, noting though, that he’d stopped talking. For now. Turos never stopped talking for long.

  I sifted through my mind. Mum and Radismus. Grams and Lionel. The frustration over trying to get the government to realise the imminent danger we were in. Those things were easy to neutralise. But there were far too many other things in my head. Things too painful to examine. Things I didn’t want to put aside.

  ‘Now put your hands behind your back and open your eyes.’ Turos kept his voice low.

  When I complied, his clenched fist was in front of my face. I kept my hands where they were until his opened. The small stone housed within tumbled towards the ground. I snapped my hands round as fast as I could, just catching it before it landed. It was a small improvement on my last effort in which I hadn’t caught it at all.

  ‘You do it,’ I said.

  I held my hand in front of his face while he closed his eyes, waiting for him to open them again before letting go of the stone. His hand moved so fast I hardly even saw it. One moment it was behind his back, the next in front of his face, holding the stone.

  ‘Impressive,’ Isla said. It was the first time we had practised in front of her. While she had remained in the cavern with Emerald and Arthur, I had come and gone as cabin fever set in.

  ‘I still don’t see how it works.’ I could feel my lower lip pushing out into a pout.

  ‘Thoughts cause friction in our actions. If they are there at the forefront of our mind, they take up time and energy.’

  ‘But, I’m not aware of them.’

  ‘It makes no difference. Your subconscious brain is a fickle thing. It flicks between thoughts and reality like a butterfly as it analyses everything you are doing, comparing it to the past and present. Those hidden emotions affect your actions. Clear them away and there is nothing stopping you, nothing slowing you. You are focused and of purpose an
d unstoppable.’

  He knows what he is talking about. Emerald’s mind held a tinge of amusement. At least one of us was enjoying this.

  Isla sat up straighter. She stretched her head to one side and then the other, pushing her arms above her head. ‘I feel so cramped,’ she said. ‘Like I need to stretch or something.’

  ‘Well you have been sitting in the one spot for a week.’ She had only left Arthur’s side for toilet breaks, and even they had been speedy.

  She shook her head. ‘Not like that. Like….’

  A crackling noise stopped her from finishing her sentence.

  ‘Oh.’ Her eyes went round and she spun toward the egg. Small cracks had appeared on the surface nearest her.

  It’s time. Emerald removed her tail and turned so that she was facing the egg. She pressed her snout gently against the side and snorted. He is so eager to be out.

  I could see the little dragon, the tips of his wings pushing out on the egg as he strained to break the shell.

  ‘Come on Arthur.’ Isla stood and placed both her palms against it. ‘You can do it.’

  With his wings still pressed against either side, he wedged his back and feet up onto opposite sides of the egg. His whole body strained as he threw his little head backwards with the effort of pushing.

  ‘Ahhhhh, Isla,’ I said.

  ‘Shhhh. He’s almost here.’

  ‘You may want to step back a little.’

  The words were just out of my mouth when, with a cracking snap, the shell shattered. A wave of fluid poured out of the egg and all over Isla. Arthur rode the wave like a professional surfer, bowling into Isla and carrying her to the ground.

  When the liquid cleared, Isla lay flat on her back. Arthur sat on her chest, his brilliant, orange scales sparkling in the light of the lava. He blinked his eyes, shook his head, and then leant forward and pressed his snout to her face.

  ‘Oh Arthur.’ Isla let out a laugh and then wrapped her arms around him, still managing, even though she was covered in dragon embryotic fluid, to look beautiful.

  Emerald and Lance crowded in on either side as Emerald’s triumphant voice echoed in my head. He’s perfect. He’s beautiful.

  ‘Is that a common colour?’ I asked Turos. None of the dragons I had seen had even come close to Arthur’s colouring.

  He shook his head, his mouth partly open as he stared at the little dragon. ‘He’s magnificent,’ he finally said. ‘I’ve never seen anything like him.’

  And even though I was overjoyed at Arthur’s safe arrival, a tiny fear crept into the front of my mind.

  If Arthur was such a rarity, there was no way they were going to let him go. And since there was no way I was leaving here without Isla, and no way she was leaving without him, that meant only one thing.

  Things were going to get ugly.

  5

  Stranger Danger

  ‘He seems to be growing much faster than the others. I mean, I know he started off much bigger, but the gap seems to be widening.’

  As I spoke, Arthur jumped onto another hatchling with a fierce growl and wrestled him to the ground. The two of them rolled around for a second, but Arthur emerged from the tussle on top. He wrapped his jaws around his opponent’s throat and pinned him to the ground. In no way was it a fair fight. Arthur may have been several weeks the younger, but he was easily twice as big.

  I could feel smug satisfaction emanating from Emerald, and Isla had a look on her face that was even more puke-worthy. It wasn’t that I didn’t share their adoration of Arthur, but having it constantly mentally imposed on me by Emerald was beginning to be a strain.

  I looked over at Turos. He had a look on his face that I suspected might mimic mine. Pride tinged with a hint of boredom. I mean there was only so long I could watch Arthur play before cabin fever broke out again. Call me a bad Aunt if you will, it’s just the way it was.

  Arthur gave the little dragon one more little shake and then sat up. The magnificence of his orange scales was offset by his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth and for a second I was reminded of old Raymond, the Eynsford Village idiot. Emerald let out a loud huff and I banished that thought from my mind.

  ‘Want to get out of here?’ I jumped as Turos whispered in my ear.

  ‘Who’s going to take us?’

  Lance was lazing beside Emerald, his tail entwined with hers. I doubted very much he would be impressed if we asked him to get us out of there while the offspring of his loins was playing so magnificently.

  ‘There’s another way. We can go on foot.’

  I didn’t ask how long it would take us. I didn’t really care. I was hot and tired and in need of some fresh air, and I could tell by the way Scruffy was staring up at me with pleading eyes that he was too. ‘Lead away,’ I said.

  Turos led us to the edge of the cavern and then along the wall for what must have been half of its length before we came across an opening in the stone. I peered into the hole, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the lack of light. They didn’t.

  ‘Do you think you could…you know?’ Turos flourished his hand through the air.

  ‘Cave in the cavern? Blow up the tunnel?’ I tilted my head to the side and gave him my most whimsical smile.

  ‘Forget I mentioned it,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way. Hold onto the back of my shirt.’

  I bent and scooped Scruffy up, holding him close to my body. He wiggled around in my arm and, as I grabbed onto the back of Turos’s shirt, let out a loud wavering fart.

  Turos looked over his shoulder at me. ‘Was…that…you?’

  I let out a giggle. ‘It was Scruffy. He needs more exercise.’

  ‘Convenient,’ he said. ‘Blame it on the dog.’ He waved a hand in front of his face. ‘Let’s get going.’

  We plunged into a column of darkness. The floor felt smooth under foot, and I was guessing by how easily we moved down the tunnel that the walls were as well.

  ‘What is this?’ I asked.

  ‘It’s a lava tube.’

  My laugh was cut short as I stumbled in the dark. When I had regained my footing I said, ‘Is that your special name for it?’

  He snorted. ‘A lava tube is created by a river of fast flowing lava.’ He stopped walking and I heard him sniff a few times.

  ‘It wasn’t me,’ I said.

  He laughed. ‘I’m looking for the exit.’ He shuffled forward another few steps and sniffed another couple of times.

  ‘What are you trying to smell?’

  ‘The ocean.’ He repeated the procedure another couple of times before he said, ‘Ahh, there it is.’ He took a sharp right turn and started to move again, but this time his steps were faster.

  ‘Hey,’ I said as my foot caught another lump of rock. ‘Blind back here.’

  ‘Your senses don’t seem to be very good for a faery.’

  ‘I’m part witch.’

  I felt him move as if nodding his head. ‘That explains the farting dog.’

  ‘He’s not always that bad. I think it’s all the gas from the volcano affecting him.’

  ‘I think he produced most of it.’

  ‘Don’t you listen to him boy,’ I said.

  The inky blackness of the tunnel started to lighten ahead of us and suddenly I could make out Turos’s outline. It took another five minutes till we made it to the end of the lava tube. We paused on the lip, staring out not into the valley, as I had expected, but over the vast blue of the ocean. A broken path started at the edge of the rock and meandered off down the slope of the mountain.

  ‘It’s steep in parts,’ Turos said, ‘but there’s a beach down there.’

  ‘We can swim? In the ocean?’ I had swum in the ocean only a couple of times before and both had been at beaches made of pebbles, not sand, where you’d had to walk out forever just to get the water to reach to your knees. This water promised to be different.

  ‘Of course. If you’re game.’

  I had been living in a virtual
sauna for the last week. Even though we had taken sponge baths and changed our clothes, I felt like sweat encrusted my body and clothes. I didn’t care what it was that Turos was eluding to, I was going for a swim.

  ‘Come on boy,’ I said putting Scruffy down. ‘Last one in’s a rotten egg.’

  We didn’t so much race down the mountain as carefully clamber. Occasionally the path disappeared altogether and we were left to navigate our way through loose boulders as we looked for the start of it again.

  I caught a glimpse of snowy white sands and increased my pace, trotting down the path ahead of Turos. I could already imagine the feel of the sea closing over me, its cool waters washing away a week of sweat, grime and frustration.

  The ground around us began to change. Rock giving way to soil, and grasses to shrubs and then trees. I lost sight of the beach as we plunged down through a stand of palm trees.

  Scruffy ran ahead, sniffing at the palms, his tongue hanging out in a happy dog grin. He disappeared into the trees ahead of us, letting out the occasional happy bark.

  By the time we made it to the beach, he was already sopping wet and rolling in the powdery sand.

  I stopped and pulled my boots off, leaving them on a rock at the edge of the beach. After a moment of contemplation I pulled my trousers off and left them there as well. My shirt hung half way down my thighs and would cover enough to protect my modesty.

  I turned to see Turos pulling his shirt off over his head. His olive skin rippled in the sun and his muscles flexed as he scrubbed his large hands through his spiky, white hair.

  I peeled my eyes away from his chest and stomach. It wouldn’t do to let him catch me perving at him. But then he unbuttoned his trousers and I found myself blushing and fleeing towards the water, needing to cool off for a totally different reason than before.

  I plunged into the crystalline water, its blue-green depths embracing me with cool arms. It felt as good as, if not better than, I had imagined. A few kicks and some quick strokes and I left the shore behind, swimming out till the sandy floor was no longer within my reach. I undid my braid and slid back under the water, watching my hair floating like a million tiny tentacles around my head. A bright fish flashed in front of me, its orange and blue stripes glinting in the sun.