by Maggie Joan
Amode, Calico’s mom, stepped forwards. Her hands were clasped in front of her and she showed not a flicker of emotion on her face.
“We will help the human,” Amode said. “The fact the dress shows her true colours is the mitigating factor here. However, there are conditions.”
Joy exploded inside me. They were going to help me and give my gran a peaceful death. This was beyond fantastic news. Squashing down the feeling to scream in excitement, I hastily said, “Whatever the conditions are, I’ll agree to them.”
Amode glanced at me and gave a small flicker of a sympathy tinged smile. “You may retract that statement once you have heard our conditions.”
I shook my head. “Not a chance.”
Blodwin muttered something under her breath, her pink dress flushing a hot pink colour. I ignored her and waited for Amode to continue.
“We have three conditions. Number one, you will remove the dress.”
I nodded. “Of course. It’s a gorgeous dress but it isn’t mine.”
Amode nodded. “Number two, you will go into our community, escorted of course, and allow our kind to speak with you and change their mind about humans. We will allow you to remain in the dress for the duration of this.”
That made my heart jump, but I nodded in agreement. Would I end up in stocks with rotten fruit and vegetables being thrown at me?
“And the third is somewhat more of a commitment,” she said, her sapphire blue eyes flickering with hesitation.
I licked my lips and said, “Go on.”
“You will remain in our world for the rest of your natural life.”
Chapter 14
Flabbergasted didn’t even come close to my thoughts at their peculiar request. Stay here, forever? So stunned, I couldn’t even form a sentence in my mind, let alone one to speak.
Several seconds ticked by, the silence in the vast room becoming more and more unbearable.
Blodwin smirked, folded her arms over her chest, and said, “See? They’re all about themselves, utterly selfish.”
Her sneer ridden words jump started something in my brain and I couldn’t hold back any longer. “I don’t think you quite understand the magnitude of what you’re asking. Considering you hate my kind so much it doesn’t even make sense to me why you’d want to keep me here longer than necessary anyway.”
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of what you’re asking,” she said, narrowing her eyes at me. “You’re asking us to put our entire existence in peril because of you, one human.”
“But once you’ve revealed yourselves, that’s it, it’s done. I don’t see why you have to keep me here.”
As Blodwin opened her mouth to reply, Amode held a hand up to shush her. “I can’t explain our reasons fully, Faye, but these are the conditions that need to be met. No negotiations.”
I sighed. “Can I at least have some time to think about it?”
“Of course,” she said, stepping back.
They all stood there, staring at me, and I then realised they expected me to think about it in front of them, right now.
“I meant out of here somewhere. I can’t make a decision like this with you all stood staring at me.”
Amode flickered her eyes to Calico who gave the briefest of nods in return. Izar knelt, allowing Calico to swiftly remount him. Glancing at me as Izar rose, Calico smiled and said, “Follow me.”
We turned and headed back into the tunnel. I began to worry we were going back under water. With Calico’s motto of ‘everything eats everything’ singing through my mind, I feared what other strange creatures would be lurking in the depths that could eat even invisible horses.
I recognised the path we’d come out of, that led back to the sea, as it came up on our left. Just as I readied myself to say I really didn’t want to go back in the sea, Calico chuckled and led us straight past it.
“We’re going to the court gardens,” he said, a big grin on his face.
I pressed my lips together and frowned, then asked, “And you couldn’t have told me that sooner?”
“Your anxiety of the sea is somewhat amusing.”
“For you,” I replied, trying to calm my racing heart. “If staying here means putting up with you, I might just go back home.”
He flashed me a dazzling smile and said, “We both know you don’t mean that.”
My cheeks flared red and I scowled at him. “Stay out of my head. That’s not playing fair.”
“Whoever said we play fair?”
My hands itched for something to throw at him but of course, I had nothing. I held my tongue for the remainder of the ride through the tunnels. When a gust of fresh cool air hit me, I sucked in a deep breath and knew we were about to emerge outside.
We turned a left-hand corner and once again, bright daylight almost blinded me. Lush green grass sprawled out before us. A brilliant blue cloudless sky once again amazed me as the source of this amazing daylight failed to show itself.
Their lack of sun soon left my thoughts when I took in the court gardens. Perfectly trimmed evergreen hedges, acres of trees with hundreds of colourful fruit hanging from the branches, exquisitely carved stone ornaments of various creatures and people, it really was a sight to behold.
“This is stunning,” I breathed, twisting my head from side to side to take it all in. I pointed to a tree with a mix of purple and red fruit hanging from it, twisted into odd rectangular shapes. “What are they?”
“They are our finest delicacies. The red ones are Wamples and are likened to your understanding of truffles. The purple ones are Rambutans and are similar in taste to a very sweet meringue. Unlike your ‘sweets’ though, these actually provide great health benefits to us.”
Truffles and meringue? My mouth watered, making my stomach grumble loudly. “Can I try some?”
Calico raised his eyebrows. “Fresh from the source?”
“Is that not allowed?”
“We usually have it matured for several days to lessen the potency of the hit.”
I frowned. “The hit? You make it sound like a drug.”
He laughed. “That’s because it is. Hence why it’s a delicacy, we only consume it when we really need to. I would imagine it would be the equivalent to you humans being exceptionally drunk.”
Memories of my eighteenth birthday party sprung to mind. My parents had said I could have a few drinks and some friends over. That turned into half the school showing up and me annihilating two bottles of wine and half a bottle of vodka. It had not been a pretty situation the next morning when my parents returned.
“I think I'll give it a miss then,” I said, slightly disappointed. “Don’t need to be getting drunk in a strange world where everything wants to eat me.”
Calico grinned and led us straight towards the trees anyway. The amount of them equalled more than an orchard, it was more like a forest. The trees were the only thing in this world, so far, that I could be familiar with. They looked exactly like I would expect a normal tree to look like.
“May I ask what you are thinking about the current situation?”
I sighed. “I don’t know, I honestly don’t. What I really don’t understand is why, when you hate humans so much, why you’d want to keep me here. It defies all logic.”
Calico pursed his lips and turned his head away from me. My heart jumped. I knew in that instant that there was something, one reason or another, why they wanted me here. They just weren’t telling me.
“Calico?”
He turned back to face me, his sapphire eyes a startling contrast against the reds, purples, and green surrounding us. “There is a reason why they want you here.”
I held my breath, waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t. After minutes ticked by, I realised he wasn’t going to freely give it. We were deep into the forest now, a sugary sweet scent filling the air which I presumed came from the trees.
“Are you going to tell me why?” I asked.
“It’s not that simple, Faye. It's
a secret that only the royal families know and if I tell you, I'm betraying my family and my kind by doing so.”
My heart dropped and a mixture of dread and fear churned around in my stomach. “Is it something bad? Are they planning to sacrifice me or something?”
Images of ancient Mayans and their infamous bloodletting rituals swarmed my mind, coating me in a cold sweat.
Calico burst out laughing. “My goodness, no, nothing of the sort.” When he stopped laughing, he let out a long breath and then said, “If I don’t tell you but you figure it out yourself, then I'm still keeping my family secret and also helping you.”
I raised an eyebrow and said, “Does this mean I've progressed to a boil?”
He grinned. “I think so.”
I giggled and fist pumped the air. “Now that is an achievement.”
After a few seconds, he said, “Have you ever wondered why, despite the fact we dislike humans so much, we still care for your children, helping them sleep at night?”
I mulled over his words. “Perhaps on a fleeting thought a few times, yes, but I've not ever sat and given it serious thought.”
“Well, I think now is the time you should do so.”
I chewed on my bottom lip as I tried to fit the jigsaw pieces together. “Fairies dislike humans but still help the children sleep, aided by Tristan.”
Calico nodded.
Saying Tristan’s name felt strange, almost as if he’d been lost in my thoughts as to why exactly I was here in the first place. I hoped he was safe and Dad hadn’t done anything stupid.
“The fairies focus is therefore human children,” I said, looking at Calico for clarification.
“Exactly. The question is why.”
My mind was spinning, racing at a million miles an hour to try and grasp hold of a plausible and viable justification for it but I couldn’t form anything coherent in my mind.
“Think of your gran,” Calico said. “When she was a child. What did she believe in?”
The penny dropped. “Fairies!” I yelled.
“Shush,” Calico said, putting his index finger against his lips.
“You help human children because they believe in you,” I said, almost tripping over my own words as they tumbled out of my mouth. “But how could this benefit you in a way to disregard your hatred for our species?”
Calico unfolded his wings. The rose gold shimmer from them hypnotised me in an instant. They were so beautiful and elegant. The pattern intricately woven into them reminded me of delicate lace. I wanted to touch them but at the same time I didn’t because they looked so fragile. He flapped them a few times, a haze of light pink and white dust forming a mist around him.
“Fairy dust,” I said, sucking in a deep breath. “It’s so magical.”
He nodded. “It is magical. Remember we can do things that humans can’t.”
All of this cryptic information circled in my head. Magic. Fairies. Children. Belief. I went over and over it in my mind until it finally all slotted together.
I gasped. “You need children to believe in you to give you your magic?”
A dazzling grin broke out on Calico’s handsome face. “I knew you’d get it.”
“But how does that tie into the royal families wanting me?”
“Our magic can only be given by those with a pure heart, the heart of—”
“A true believer,” I said, widening my eyes at the realisation. “The fact I’m not a child makes my belief in you, what, more potent or something?”
He shrugged his shoulders and replied, “In essence, yes. It would enable us to close off our world completely to the humans.”
I almost fell off Kaisa at his stark admission. “But then our children would never sleep well again. Without your dust and Tristan, that would be it.”
He pressed his lips together. “With all due respect, that’s not our problem. This is the point The Great Hunts have pushed us to. We used to love interacting with children and playing with them, but we’ve now come to the realisation that eventually, they will grow up into adults who will only seek to destroy us for our magic. It’s a risk we can’t afford to take again.”
“But I’m not going to live forever. In your world, at the rate time accelerates, I’ll barely be alive for a few months.”
A sly smile twitched at his lips. “That’s where you’re wrong. You would still live by your human timescale, giving us hundreds of years of magic. Plus, if you married a fairy, you would lengthen your lifespan immensely.”
My jaw dropped. Words failed me. Was this the grand plan of the Queens? To eventually marry me off to one of their own and extend my life to provide them with an endless supply of magic? I didn’t know what to say or do.
We rode on in silence for a long time, the horses meandering through gaps in the trees. I racked my brain for a way out, but I couldn’t see one. My options were limited to doing as the fairies wanted and keeping Gran and Dad happy or going back home a failure. Either way the children were going to lose out.
“Are you ok?” Calico said, his voice quiet and unsure.
“Not really,” I replied, sighing. I bit back a wave of frustrated tears. “I’m stuck with a horrible decision that pleases hardly anybody. Isn’t there another option?”
“If you think you can provide one that ensures everyone’s safety and happiness, then please, suggest it by all means. They cannot consider what they haven’t been given an option of.”
I thought of all the Queen’s then, and how vastly different they were. “They are varied personalities, aren’t they?”
Calico chuckled. “They are, yes, but to rule a world this big, many different perspectives are needed to keep it running smoothly, or as smoothly as possible.”
I lost myself in my own thoughts, trying to figure out a viable option that may please everyone. The real problem seemed to be children turning into adults and then betraying the magic that they once possessed of being innocent.
“I think I’ve got something,” I said, frowning as I tried to think of a way to make it happen. “You said the problem is when the children turn into adults, yes?”
Calico nodded. “Their lust for money and greed overcomes their innocence to believe in such magical things as us or they just want to exploit us for their own gain.”
“What if there was a way to make adults forget that they ever saw fairies in their younger years?”
His brow creased together as his eyes wandered off into the distance. My heart raced inside my chests as I realised he may in fact be considering my suggestion.
“The question would be how to do that,” he said, scratching his head. “Not only would we have to consider at what age children are no longer trustworthy, but we’d have to think of a way to make them forget and then a method to deliver it.”
My brain kicked into auto pilot, spluttering out the answer before I’d even fully considered it myself. “Tristan.”
Calico’s eyes widened, then he started laughing. “You, my dear dear friend, are a remarkable woman. I’d marry you right now if I could.”
My cheeks immediately burst into a thousand degree heat as my heart thumped against my rib cage, jumping for joy.
“Let’s go back to the Queens and put this proposal forwards. You may have just saved us all.”
Chapter 15
We rode back through the tunnels at a rate of knots, the horse’s hooves clattering against the stones. We sounded like a marching band stampeding through the narrow passages.
“What is the meaning of this?” Blodwin yelled, her face flushed red and her arms folded across her chest. “Calico, you know better tha—”
“Mother,” he said, leaping from Izar’s back. “Faye has come up with an excellent idea. One that saves us all and keeps everyone satisfied.”
Amode rushed forwards, her eyes sparkling in anticipation. “Go on,” she said, looking up at me.
“I know why you want to keep me here,” I said. A collective gasp and narrowed eyes homed
in on Calico. I raised my hand and said, “He told me nothing freely. I made guesses and asked him questions to which he could answer yes or no.” The Queens relaxed slightly. “The problem here seems to be fear of children turning into adults, adults that will then come seeking you and your magic for their own greed. If they are stripped of their memories of you, then you can still interact with children, thereby aiding your magic, aiding our children, and having no fear of the repercussions once they grow up.”
“Go on,” said Nyra, the yellow Queen. “How is this going to happen exactly?”
“Tristan,” I said, trying to contain a grin from spreading across my face. “Create something, a dust of some sort, that activates on children once they reach a certain age. Sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. Whatever age you consider them no longer innocent enough to keep you a secret.”
Silence. After several seconds, the silence became so profound, it almost had its own echo in the huge room. The Queens all looked at one another with various expressions.
Jessamine, the gold Queen, quietly said, “We shall retire to discuss this.”
As the Queens made their way to their circle of thrones, Calico looked up at me and grinned. I couldn’t help but grin wildly in return, fighting back the urge to hug him tightly. We might have just done it. We may have found a viable solution that could potentially mend the wedge between fairies and humans.
Unable to resist any longer, I jumped down from Kaisa and ran to Calico, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Thank you so much,” I said.
He hesitated for a couple of seconds, then hugged me back. “We haven’t been told yet what their decision is.”
I stepped back and tilted my head to one side. “They have an option here not to have a human living in their world. What do you think they’re going to decide?”
His eyes softened slightly and flickered to the side for the briefest of seconds. Then he smiled and said, “I see your point.”