by E. D. Baker
“I’m ready if you are,” said Aislin.
It took them only a few minutes to reach the tower. Tomas tried the door and found it unlocked.
“I don’t like this,” said Aislin. “Why would she leave the door unlocked?”
“Maybe she’s forgetful,” Tomas told her. “Or maybe she assumes that no one would bother a powerful fairy’s belongings.”
“Or maybe she’s inside waiting for someone to come in, like a spider waiting for a fly,” said Aislin.
“Or there’s that,” said Tomas. “Don’t worry, she won’t hurt us. She’s in my great-uncle’s castle and she couldn’t get away with it.”
“I doubt she’d care about that,” Aislin said as she followed Tomas into the first-floor room. “I don’t think she’s the kind of fairy to let much get in her way.”
They started looking for Poppy, calling her name as they went from floor to floor and room to room. They were on the third floor when Aislin noticed a map spread open on a table. The map showed all of Morain, with a mark on the Galiman River. Another map lay rolled into a tube beside it. When Tomas unrolled it, they found that it was a map of Scarmander.
Aislin spread out a third map. She gasped when she saw that it was a very, very old map of the land between the mountains. “I wonder where she got this,” she murmured.
“Got what?” asked Tomas, coming over to look.
Aislin let it roll up again. “Just an old map,” she said.
“Here’s another one,” said Tomas. “It’s in a tube.”
Aislin leaned closer as he pulled the end off the tube. A gray mist washed out, enveloping them. Moments later, they lay on the floor, unconscious.
When she woke up, Aislin couldn’t see a thing. Everything was black, and it took her a moment to realize that she was somewhere with absolutely no light. Because she was half pedrasi, she could see in very little light, but she was as blind as anyone else in the complete dark. The air was cold, too, and the surface under her felt like stone. Reaching out with her mind, she discovered that she was underground with stone all around her. Her pedrasi abilities enabled her to see where the stone was and where it wasn’t even when she couldn’t see with her eyes. She could actually tell lots of things—what kind of rock it was, how deep it went, and where passages cut through it.
Aislin turned her head when she heard the trickle of water dripping slowly down the wall behind her. Casting around with her mind again, she located the tiniest fracture that allowed the water to escape. Apparently, the rock was filled with tiny fault lines.
Aislin sat up. She was mad at herself for not having contacted her relatives the night before. Putting things off was rarely a good idea. Lying around now wasn’t going to help either. “Hello! Is anyone there?” she called.
Poppy’s voice sounded small and far away. “I’m over here! I was looking around the tower and I heard Aghamonda coming, so I got small and hid. She found me anyway and froze me so I couldn’t move. The next thing I knew, she’d stuck me in a jar! I’ve tried and tried, but I can’t open it. I think she used some special magic to keep me in.”
“Are you all right?” Aislin called back.
“Would you be all right if you were in a jar?” the fairy said, sounding grumpy. “I’m not hurt, if that’s what you mean.”
“Where are we?” asked Aislin.
“In the dungeon under her tower. She caught me before I’d barely started snooping and brought me down here. I must have been here for days and days.”
“How long have I been here?” Aislin asked her.
“A couple of hours,” said the fairy.
“Then you haven’t been here all that long. Is Tomas here?”
“He’s in the cell next to yours. He’s still asleep.”
A tiny speck of light pierced the dark. Suddenly Aislin could see. “Shh! There’s a light. Someone’s coming.”
It was Aghamonda, carrying a torch as she came toward them down a tunnel. Aislin hurriedly looked around. The stone walls had distinctive striations in them and looked rough and unfinished. Other cells lined the walls of an open space; Tomas was in the one next to Aislin’s, lying on his side. The space itself was empty except for an old wooden table. A glass jar rested on the table. When Aislin noticed something move inside the jar, she knew she’d found Poppy.
Aghamonda came closer and saw Aislin standing in her cell. “You’re awake, I see. I wondered how long you’d be out. I’ve been trying some new magic and I wasn’t sure how well it would work. It should prove useful against Tyburr’s troops.”
Aghamonda glanced at Tomas who was just beginning to stir. Turning to the table, she picked up Poppy’s jar and shook it. After a particularly hard shake, Poppy cried out. Aghamonda laughed and set the jar back on the table.
“I’m leaving now,” she announced. “It’s time I used a little magic to help Ozwalt in the war. The Duke of Isely and his troops set out in the middle of the night. He thinks he’s in charge, but he’s about to learn just how little control he really has. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. It could be a few hours, or a few days, or I might forget that you’re down here entirely. No one knows you’re here. No one will hear you call for help. You’ll never be able to get out on your own. Goodbye! Have fun!”
Aghamonda took the torch when she left. The darkness seemed even more complete with the torch gone.
“Don’t worry, Aislin,” Tomas called from the next cell. “I’ll figure something out!”
Aislin wasn’t about to wait for someone else to help her. Closing her eyes, she centered herself and read the rock. Her magic allowed her to feel where it was strongest and weakest. She could feel the cracks and the fissures and how much pressure each could withstand. Reaching deep into the rock, she pulled strength from it, then touched the rock near the door and sent the power back into the fracture lines, a touch here, a little more there, breaking the rock a bit at a time.
At the sound of grating and cracking rock, Tomas cried out. Aislin was careful, though, shoring it up here, strengthening it there, so that the cracks didn’t run too far or go where she didn’t want them. She didn’t open her eyes again until the door to her cell fell to the ground with a crash.
“What just happened?” Tomas cried. “Aislin, are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she replied as she stepped over the door, feeling her way out of the cell with her mind and her hands. Getting herself out in the dark was one thing, but she didn’t want to frighten Tomas.
“Poppy, could you please flutter your wings?” Aislin asked her friend.
“I’m still in a jar, you know. I can’t go anywhere,” said the fairy.
“I don’t need you to go anywhere. I just need some light.”
“Oh, right!” Poppy exclaimed. A moment later a speck of light appeared in the jar as the fairy fluttered her wings. The faster she moved them, the brighter the light became. It grew until the jar seemed to be filled with it.
“Aislin, how did you get out?” Tomas asked when he saw her standing by the table.
“I told you that I’m half pedrasi, remember?” she replied. “Fairies get all the attention, but you’d be surprised what pedrasi can do.”
“You did that yourself?” he asked, astonishment plain on his face when he saw the cell door lying on the ground.
“Yes,” she replied, “and I’m not finished yet.”
Poppy’s wings faltered as Aislin began to untie the string that held a scrap of leather on top. When the way was clear, the little fairy zipped out of the jar and flew around her friend three times. By then Aislin was already on her way to Tomas’s cell.
“Stand back,” she told him. Once he had moved to the back of the cell, she set her hand beside the door, closed her eyes, and “felt” for tiny cracks in the rock. His door fell off even faster than her own.
“You did that?” he said, his eyes wide. “That was amazing! How did you do it?”
“I can’t do a lot of things that a fairy can do, but
I can do all that a pedrasi can, plus a few things that I think are all my own,” said Aislin. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Like Aghamonda said, there’s no telling when she’ll be back.”
With Poppy flying ahead to light the way, they were soon climbing the stairs to the next level. The fairy turned big again when Aislin opened the door letting the sunlight in.
“I need to find out if my father actually left,” Tomas told them. “I don’t think we can believe anything that Aghamonda says, but if he’s gone, I want to find out where he’s headed.”
A trumpet sounded high and clear; Aislin looked puzzled as she said, “That’s not possible.”
“Is that the manticore?” asked Tomas. “He sounds a lot better now.”
Aislin shook her head. “That’s no manticore! Those are my grandfather’s warriors announcing that he’s here. The fairy king has come to Scarmander! How did he know where to find me?”
“I called an eagle and sent her with a message before I went to search Aghamonda’s tower,” said Poppy. “I know you wanted to wait, but I thought we’d already waited long enough!”
Chapter 20
Aislin and Poppy raced out of the tower and through the castle, barely noting that it seemed emptier than usual. Aghamonda had been right about one thing—the troops had already gone. The people that were left were running around, shouting about barring the doors, but the princess tore past them with Poppy on her heels. Aislin was breathless when she finally reached the hall that led to the courtyard.
“Open that door!” she ordered the men trying to lift the heavy wooden bar in place. “That’s not your enemy out there. That’s my grandfather!”
Some of the men turned to her, bewildered, but the rest continued to struggle with the bar. Aislin pushed past them. Drawing strength from the stone floor, she flipped the bar on its end with one touch. People gasped as she flung the door open and started toward the steps.
Her fairy grandfather was there, dressed in shining white. The light reflecting off his armor and that of the knights accompanying him was nearly blinding. Aislin paused on the top step and squinted. Her father was there as well.
Aislin cried out and ran down the steps as her father and grandfather dismounted. Her father reached her first and picked her up. “Are you all right?” he asked. “We were so worried about you, especially after that falcon brought the message mentioning King Tyburr’s plans. I was lucky to be at the castle when Poppy’s eagle arrived with her message. I think that lucky charm you gave me did its job.”
“I’m fine,” Aislin said as her father set her down. “But—”
Her fairy grandfather pulled her into his arms and squeezed her so tightly that Aislin squeaked. “Here’s our girl!” he said. “We rode all the way here at a gallop. The message didn’t tell us much. What’s going on?”
“There’s a fairy named Aghamonda,” she said as soon as she could breathe again. “She’s gone off to help King Ozwalt’s army.”
“What?” roared King Darinar.
“She’s playing two human armies against each other,” Aislin told him. “Aghamonda is the one who sent word to King Tyburr about the pass into Eliasind.”
“Where is she now?” asked King Darinar.
“I can answer that,” Tomas said from the top of the stairs. “My father was taking his army to Galiman River crossing. My great-uncle just told me the whole thing.”
“This is my friend Tomas,” said Aislin. “His father is the Duke of Isely, and his great-uncle is King Ozwalt. Tomas was helping me find out what we could about Aghamonda when she knocked us out and locked us in cells.”
“I see,” said King Darinar. “What else can you tell us about this fairy?”
“She trapped her sister in an amber necklace,” Tomas told him. “But we don’t know why.”
“They were both left behind when the fairies moved away,” said Aislin. “From what I’ve learned, her sister, Baibre, hid in the forest, but Aghamonda kept in touch with humans because she wanted to influence their affairs. I can show you the tower where she keeps her things if that would help.”
“It might,” said the fairy king.
“I’m going to the rooms to change my clothes,” Poppy whispered to Aislin. “I smell like whatever dead thing Aghamonda kept in that jar last.”
Poppy was running off when the fairy king turned to survey the courtyard. “I can tell a powerful fairy was here. I can feel her magic. We go this way, if I’m not mistaken.”
Aislin’s grandfather took the lead, heading directly toward the tower. The humans who hadn’t run off to hide watched wide-eyed as fairy royalty strode through the Great Hall. Even without the sunlight playing on their armor, it glowed with a light of its own. The fairies didn’t seem to notice a woman faint as they passed by.
Aislin followed them into the tower, then showed them the way to the table where the maps were still laid out. Both men looked angry when they saw the map of the land between the mountains. When Aislin caught a glimpse of her rumpled reflection in a mirror, she turned to the two fairy royals and said, “Do you mind if I get cleaned up while you look around?”
“Go ahead, child,” said her grandfather. “But we won’t be long.”
Aislin hurried from the tower and ran straight to her chambers. She was so happy to see members of her family! Now that they were here, they could take care of Aghamonda and she could go home and everything would be all right again. She was nearly humming with happiness when she opened the door to her rooms and ran in, only to find Poppy looking distraught.
“What’s wrong?” she asked her friend.
“I can’t find Twinket!” the fairy told her. “She’s not in the corner where she’s been sitting and I’ve looked everywhere. I called and called, but she doesn’t answer! Oh, Aislin, what could have happened to her?”
Aislin’s heart skipped a beat. Twinket was missing? But Twinket was always there when she needed her. The little doll was as much a constant in Aislin’s life as the sun and the moon. The only time they’d been apart for more than a few hours was when King Tyburr had sent Aislin away in the carriage, but even then she was certain Poppy was looking after her. Sure, what happened with the trolls had been terrible, but she’d known Poppy could fix the doll once they got her back. Twinket had never been missing before! While Poppy was Aislin’s best friend, Twinket was more than that. It was like part of Aislin was gone.
Suddenly all the fear and hurt and sorrow that had been building up inside Aislin since the day King Tyburr took her from her home was more than she could bear. She could feel her heart racing and a lump forming in her throat. Tears pricked her eyes and she had trouble catching her breath.
Her father burst into the room, looking around frantically. “What’s wrong?” he asked when he saw Aislin’s face. “Your mother gave me your mood stone. Look at it!”
The stone was a cloudy gray—a color it had never been before.
“Twinket is gone,” Poppy told him.
“Was she over here?” Aislin’s grandfather asked, pointing to the corner of the room.
Aislin nodded. “That’s where she spent the last day or so.”
King Darinar bent down to examine the corner more closely. “Aghamonda left a magic trail from her tower to these rooms. The feeling is strongest here. She’s probably the one who took your doll.”
Aislin turned to the door. “Let’s go find that fairy!”
“Don’t you want to get cleaned up first?” asked her father.
“I don’t want to do anything except go after Aghamonda,” Aislin replied. “Nothing else matters now.”
It was the first time Aislin had ridden a fairy horse. After the first few minutes of panic while she raced across the countryside, she decided that it had to be one of the most glorious things she’d ever experienced. It was no wonder that fairies loved the horses and talked about them all the time. She probably would too, now. It was unfortunate that Poppy’s normally pink cheeks were ashen and that she c
lung to her horse as if it was about to buck her off at any moment. The fairy girl had never ridden a horse before, let alone a high-tempered fairy steed.
Aislin had convinced her father that it was only right to let Tomas come along, after all she had been through with the human boy. When Tomas heard that he could go with them, he couldn’t stop smiling. He was thrilled to do anything with the fairies, and even more thrilled to get to ride one of their horses.
Although the wind was whistling around them, Aislin found it surprisingly easy to hold a conversation. “I told your grandfather what my great-uncle said about the weapons Aghamonda plans to use,” Tomas told her. “Your grandfather thinks it sounds as if Aghamonda has found some of the old magic. He didn’t look at all happy.”
“I bet he didn’t,” Aislin replied. Aghamonda was doing exactly what the fairy king and queen had tried so hard to prevent. Unhappy was an understatement; her grandfather was probably furious.
They sped over farmland, through forests, and along a riverbank until they reached an area where the river ran wide and shallow through a sandy bed. Armies faced each other across the river where Aghamonda was already using her magic. As Aislin’s party rode up, the fairy was waving her arms over the water, raising a mist that was so thick it was impossible to see through.
“Masks!” the fairy told the Scarmander troops, and they all slipped on small masks that covered their mouths and noses. When she pointed at the far side, the Duke of Isely led his troops across.
“I’ve seen enough. It’s time to stop this,” said King Darinar, and urged his horse toward Aghamonda.
“Stay here,” King Carrigan told Aislin before following his father.
Poppy slipped off her horse’s back, her legs shaking beneath her. She groaned in relief and led the horse to a nearby copse of trees while Aislin and Tomas watched what was happening on the river. As the Scarmander army reached the mist, the soldiers in front walked through it with their weapons raised as if there was nothing there. “The Morain army can’t see them coming,” Tomas said, urging his horse closer to Aislin’s.