The ground beneath them seemed to be sloping gradually up, but they didn’t pop out into the open. Izzy’s palms and knees burned from the scratchy gravel underneath. Her breath started to get panicky and fast. Just when she thought she couldn’t go any farther, the darkness grew one shade lighter.
“You guys! I think I see something!” Izzy scooted along faster. “Yes, there’s an opening up here!”
“Slow down.” Selden’s voice sounded small and faraway at the back of the line. “There could be Unglers waiting there when we come out.”
By this point, Izzy had become so claustrophobic that all she wanted was to see the sky again. After a few minutes, they all huddled up top, dripping wet, scratched, and filthy. They stood in a wide clearing of rocky ground padded with clumps of moss.
In the center of the clearing stood a boulder the size of a garden shed. A tree with deep folds of blackened bark grew out of the top. It had the thick trunk of an old tree but was short and stunted, with low, drooping branches. The tree’s roots spilled over the top of the boulder and cascaded down the sides. In some places, they grew right through the stone itself.
Izzy’s pulse drummed in her ears as she pulled the clues out of her pocket. She smoothed the page out on her thigh and read the second to last stanza:
A tree for the fairy
Children so merry.
A stone for the wary
Men of the loam.
“What’s a loam?” asked Hen, circling the boulder.
“Good, rich brown soil,” said Lug. “Farming soil. I think the words mean the tree is for the fairies, the stone is for humans. That’s what they symbolize.”
Hen nodded. “Like those stone towers me and Izzy build. You stack a leaf and then a rock, one after the other.”
“It’s a very old symbol,” said Marian, running her fingers along the tree’s roots. “Leaf for Faerie, stone for Earth.”
“This is it,” said Izzy. “This has to be the hiding place.”
They walked around and around the strange boulder, searching for crevices or anything buried under the rock. But the stone was seamless, and they found nothing hidden among the tree’s roots.
Lug laid his cheek against the stone and knocked on it with his big fist. “I could be wrong, but I think there’s a good chance this boulder is hollow inside.”
“There must be a way in,” said Selden. “Izzy, what does the rest of the poem say?”
“It says to knock thrice with a feather.”
“You mean twice,” said Hen smugly.
“No, I meant thrice,” said Izzy. “It means three times.”
“But knock what?” asked Ollie. “The rock? Or the tree?”
“I don’t know,” said Izzy. “It’s definitely not very clear. And there’s one more line that’s missing. The last word should rhyme with ‘loam,’ but it could be anything. Roam, dome…” She turned to Marian. “Are you ready? We need that last line.”
Marian unfolded the paper with the heart spell written on it. “I don’t have all the words memorized. I tried, but I keep getting them mixed up.” She sighed, and her voice trembled with frustration. “I’m no good at this, Izzy. I can’t do what you’re asking me.”
Izzy reached for Marian’s hand. “If our places were switched, you wouldn’t let me give up. You just need a little more time, that’s all.”
A small shadow passed over them as Dree fluttered down into the clearing and landed at their feet.
She Changed back to herself. “Thank goodness I found you!” she said breathlessly. “When you disappeared under the waterfall like that, I didn’t know what happened to you. I’ve been flying all over the place looking!”
“We crawled through a cave!” said Hen, hugging Dree around the waist.
“Did you see where the Unglers went?” asked Selden.
Dree swept one arm in a wide circle. “They split up and spread out. They must know we’re around here somewhere, because they have the area surrounded. And I saw something else. On the City Road, south of here. Three horses.”
Everyone drew closer together.
“Their riders are driving them fast enough to kill them,” continued Dree. “Whoever it is, they’re in a hurry and coming this way.”
“It has to be Rine,” said Selden. He looked at Izzy and shook his head. “That’s it. We’re beaten and we have to face it.”
Izzy looked at the gnarled tree sadly. “We were so close.”
“How close?” asked Dree.
Izzy quickly explained to her what they’d found and how if Marian could just get a little more time, they would have the last clue in the puzzle.
Dree bit the corner off her thumbnail and spat it at her feet. She looked up at Marian. “What if we could hold Rine off long enough to give you the time you need?”
Selden tilted his head and stared at Dree down the bridge of his nose. “What do you mean hold him off?”
Dree folded her arms and looked sideways at Marian. “We’ve got a little secret. Something that gives us a big advantage over Rine. Something he’ll never see coming.”
Everyone looked at Marian for confirmation. She huffed and nodded. “He won’t expect it, that’s for sure.”
“If we do everything right, we can stall him long enough to give Marian the time she needs to work the spell,” said Dree. She grinned. “If we do it really, really right, we might actually mess him up for good.”
Selden gaped at her. “Hold on, you want to fight the witches now? You sure Marian didn’t cast a personality reversal spell on you?”
She elbowed him hard in the arm. “Oh, come on. Don’t be such a baby. When am I ever going to try to convince you to do something this crazy again?”
“All right,” said Selden, throwing his hands up. “Tell us your plan.”
Dree held her arms out to gather them closer. She smiled slyly. “All right, everyone. Listen up.”
24
Smoke and Mirrors
The Edgewood was silent when the witches walked into the clearing, as if the trees were holding their breath, waiting for the strangers to pass.
Rine came first, his eyes bright and watchful under the locks of dark hair that fell across his forehead. Hyan followed, her black braids tied back in a thick ponytail. Delin lagged behind, looking skittish. The two junior witches had managed to escape from the Fillifut after all, though it must have been quite a struggle. Izzy noticed they both had scratches on their faces and forearms.
The witches had left their horses tethered near the City Road. Rine had traded his robes for simple gray clothes. The three of them would have looked like an ordinary group of friends out for a hike in the woods had it not been for their companion lurching into the clearing behind them.
One Ungler, its bagging skin slick with sweat, came to stand at Rine’s side, snuffling the ground at his feet. Rine reached out and petted the beast’s neck. The sight of it made Izzy sick, but she held very still, trying to breathe shallowly. She crouched with her friends on top of the boulder, hiding between the tree’s thick roots. From their vantage point, they could stay hidden behind the tree’s low-swooping branches and still see down into the clearing.
Ollie knelt beside Izzy, breathing fast. He was nervous. Ten woodland animals—two chipmunks, three chickadees, a pair of rabbits, two larks, and a rock squirrel—sat around him. They held unnaturally still, watching his face, waiting for their cue.
Selden crouched on the other side of Olligan. Izzy caught his eye and nodded at poor Ollie. What they were asking him to do was both crucial to their plan and extremely dangerous.
Selden nodded at her and squeezed Ollie’s shoulder. “You’re going to do great,” he whispered. “Just stick to what we talked about.”
The witches were quiet, watching and listening. Suddenly, the Ungler in the clearing jerked its snout up
and began wheezing excitedly.
“This is the place,” said Rine to the witches behind him. “They’re close by.”
“Ollie, it’s time,” said Selden. “Now!”
Ollie sprang to his feet and stood on top of the tree roots. His animal friends leaped up to stand and flutter beside him.
“Look, the Changelings!” shouted Hyan, pointing to the top of the boulder.
Ollie looked down at the animals, his mouth hanging open. “Oh no, they’ve seen us!” he cried, a little overdramatic in Izzy’s mind, but it was good enough. “We’ve got to run! Come on, guys!”
Ollie Changed into a squirrel and bounded down the side of the boulder into the forest. All the animals scurried and flew after him through the trees.
“Go,” Rine commanded the Ungler at his side. “Bring them back alive if you can.”
The Ungler vaulted across the clearing and tore through the woods after Ollie and the other animals.
Izzy crossed her toes inside her boots. Moments earlier, Lug had tramped through the forest, leaving a winding trail of his scent. The plan was for Ollie and his friends to follow that same trail for a hundred yards. Then Ollie would duck off the trail and hide, while the animals continued crashing and fluttering through the woods. If their plan worked, the Ungler would follow the false trail, away from the clearing.
Hyan started to run after the Ungler, but Rine held her back. He stood very still, sweeping his eyes warily over the clearing. Izzy’s palms began to sweat. He looked suspicious.
Izzy glanced at Marian, who sat leaning against the tree’s stout trunk, eyes shut while she murmured to herself. Marian’s eyelids were papery and crinkled, squeezed tight in concentration. Izzy could tell the old woman still needed more time.
Izzy’s heart pounded. Once they moved to the next phase of their plan, they wouldn’t be able to turn back.
She looked at Hen and Lug, who crouched nearby. Hen gave her an emphatic thumbs-up. She took out a handful of cylinder-shaped fireworks from her backpack and handed two to Selden, two to Lug. With a soft click of her lighter, she lit the twine that spiraled out from the brown paper that covered each one.
Selden and Lug slowly rose onto their knees and chucked the fireworks down into the clearing. The cylinders thudded and rolled across the forest floor, coming to a stop at the witches’ feet. They immediately began to fizz, emitting thick plumes of red, green, and purple smoke.
Hyan backed away as the smoke drifted up toward her. “What kind of sorcery is this?”
The witches, unaccustomed to the wares on offer at Bob’s Fireworks Bonanza, had never seen a Swirly Smoker before.
“Everyone be ready,” said Rine, raising his hands.
The colored smoke hung low in the clearing, obscuring the ground completely. Lug and Selden took advantage of the witches’ confusion to lob six more fireworks down from the boulder.
Delin turned in a slow circle, watching the smoke. Suddenly, his body jerked forward. His hands slammed together, like he was clapping. “What—what’s happening?” he cried, trying to yank his hands away from some unseen force holding them down.
Izzy smiled as she watched him struggle.
This was Dree’s secret.
Back at Netherbee Hall, Dree had asked Marian to perform the reverse invisibility spell on her to make her look solid. Marian had tried many times, but no matter what she did, Dree remained her translucent self. In the process, the two of them discovered that although Marian’s spell couldn’t make Dree visible, it could work in the opposite direction.
Marian had made Dree into a proper ghost.
Down in the clearing, an invisible Dree had cinched an invisible cord around Delin’s wrists. Before he knew what was happening, she had tied his ankles as well. With a shove from behind, Delin toppled to the ground, vanishing beneath the fog of colored smoke.
“Help me!” he cried. “He—” Delin gave a muffled yelp, then went silent.
“Delin!” shouted Hyan, searching the smoke. “Where are you?”
Delin popped back onto his feet. “I’m here,” he said, waving his free hands. “I’m perfectly all right!”
If it hadn’t been so smoky, the other witches might have noticed that Delin’s pale neck had sprouted thick brown hairs and he had the faintest coloration of a stripe across his face. Lug wasn’t the best at doing Likenesses, but the smoke helped disguise his mistakes.
Izzy turned back to Marian. “Marian, are you ready?” she whispered. “I don’t want to rush you, but we’re running out of time!”
Marian opened her eyes and checked her spell one more time. “All right, I think I’m ready.” She scooted closer to Izzy and held her hands up, palms out. The old woman’s fingers shook as if she had tremors. She swallowed and took a deep breath.
Back in the clearing, Hyan screamed and sank to her knees. One hand waved overhead, barely visible above the smoke. She staggered up to her feet, the other hand drawn behind her back. Dree must have let one wrist loose.
“Rine! Something has me!” Hyan shouted, struggling. She grasped with her free hand at the air, swatting and pulling on the cord at her wrist. She tripped and fell down into the smoke.
Rine lifted his hands high, and shadows streamed out of the woods, looping around his fingers like ribbons of black mercury. He worked the shadows into two blades with sharp, jagged edges. He tossed one knife to Delin. “Help her up!”
Lug, in Delin’s Likeness, caught the blade and bent down over Hyan. A muffled, confused struggle took place under the smoke cloud.
Then Hyan and Delin stood up together. Hyan whirled around, hands free. She backed up to Rine, breathing hard.
“Rine, something’s here in the smoke,” she said. “Some sort of ghost or spirit. We have to get out of here! We’re no match for this thing!”
A cry came from the forest floor, and a figure staggered up out of the smoke. It was another Hyan. This version had both hands tied behind her back, and she worked to spit out the invisible gag that had been shoved in her mouth. “That’s not me!” she shouted. “This is all a trick!”
Rine’s eyes grew wide. He turned his head back and forth between the bound Hyan and the one standing beside him. The version closest to him smiled a cunning, wolfish grin.
Selden Changed into a wolf. He lunged at Rine, dragging him to the ground before he could draw his blade back.
A flicker of heat in Izzy’s chest startled her, and she turned back to face Marian. The old woman’s hands held steady now. Izzy felt a pull at her ribs, as if a thread connected her to Marian’s fingers. She shut her eyes and clamped her teeth together, bracing herself for the final part of the spell.
A painful cry rang out from the clearing. Izzy opened her eyes. “That was Selden!”
Marian stopped her spell, and they both turned to look.
Selden had Changed back to himself. He stood in front of Rine, who held his dagger out in front of him. They both looked bewildered. Izzy was confused too, unsure why Selden had cried out. He stood out of range of Rine’s blade and didn’t look hurt at all.
Then Selden held out his arms and staggered back under an invisible weight. “She rushed in front of me!” he cried. “I didn’t even see her!”
Lug gasped. “Oh no, no, no!”
Selden cradled his arms and sank down slowly. And then Izzy knew what had happened.
Rine had stabbed Dree.
25
The King’s Key
“Dree!” cried Izzy.
Before Marian or Hen could stop her, Izzy climbed down from the boulder and rushed across the clearing toward Selden.
Rine held out his hand at her. “You stay right there.”
Izzy halted. She stood still while Rine released the real Hyan and Delin from their binds. The smoke from Hen’s fireworks had thinned and risen, filling the woods with a hazy c
olor. Izzy coughed, her eyes watering.
Through the lifting fog, she saw Selden kneeling on the ground. He leaned over and whispered, “Just hold on, Dree. Hold on, all right?”
Izzy couldn’t see Dree at all. She was still invisible. Lug crouched close by, his furry cheeks stained dark with tears.
Izzy turned to Rine. “Please. Don’t hurt them. It’s me you want.”
Rine pushed a dark lock of hair out of his face. “That’s very noble of you, but I don’t need to choose.”
“You don’t get it,” said Izzy. “Their hearts won’t help you. Mine’s the only one you need.”
Rine tilted his head. His green eyes looked dull behind the screen of hazy air. “What do you mean?”
Izzy shut her fists tight. It was over. What had they been thinking? That they could beat Rine without Peter? That they were going to somehow save Earth and Faerie all by themselves? Izzy had been foolish and reckless, and now one of her best friends was going to die for it.
“Why do you think we were in the Norlorns?” she said bitterly. “We went there to ask the Fen Whelps a question—a question about me.” Izzy pointed to her chest. “They told us everything. They said that your friend, Sasha, discovered how to find the King’s Key. He took the clue and hid it in my heart, then asked Peter to take me to Earth, where you couldn’t get to it.”
A pained look flickered across Rine’s face. “Don’t you even speak Sasha’s name,” he hissed. “You know nothing about him.”
“I know he was treated cruelly,” said Izzy. “And I know you got revenge for him.”
“I was in Lake Umbra too,” piped up Hen. “The Fen Whelps told us all about you. The boy with the crutch hid a piece of paper in Izzy when she was a baby. He did it just before he got sick and—”
“Enough!” shouted Rine. “Sasha and I were searching for the Key together. We were planning to use it to return to Earth. If he knew where to find it, he would have told me.”
In a Dark Land Page 20