by Maggie Joan
“YOU!”
The loud, harsh voice echoing around the room made me jump. I turned to my left to see Isidora stood in the entrance to the tunnel. Her previous rainbow coloured eyes were now as black as coal. She stood with her feet slightly apart, her purple coat billowing as if a breeze were flowing through it. Her porcelain cheeks flushed red as she balled her hands into fists.
Calico stepped in front of me and faced her. “Stand down, Isidora.”
“She is wearing my dress. You know how long I’ve been looking for that.” Her voice was flat, hard, but eerily calm. “And you didn’t hand it over to me. That’s treason.”
“It’s not treason,” Calico replied. “Not when it’s for a greater cause.”
Isidora stepped forwards. Calico stood his ground.
“You helped a human?” she said, all but hissing. “And you violated my dress by letting her wear it? What kind of a Prince are you?”
Calico strode towards her, closing the gap between them in seconds. “Don’t you ever dare question my authority, Isidora. Remember why you’re who you are.”
The air seemed to almost crackle with electricity as the pair stared each other down. After several seconds, Isidora backed away, then dropped to her knees, her head bowed.
“Please forgive me, Your Royal Highness. I am not myself of late.”
Calico stared down at her, paused, then said, “You may rise. Your assistance may well be needed so you will stay here until ordered otherwise.”
Isidora nodded, still focused on the floor.
The Queens then rose from their chairs and hurried over to us. Not one of them questioned Isidora’s sudden appearance or the little stand off her and Calico had just engaged in.
Amode walked straight to me and took my hands in hers. Her skin was so soft and velvety, all I could think about was peaches. “Faye, your idea may well have solved our predicament. If this works, we will be indebted to you eternally.”
I really wanted to scream and jump up and down in excitement, but I didn’t. “What’s next?”
Amode glanced at Isidora and said, “We need to consult our mage on how to create this dust, the ingredients needed, and of course a viable timeframe.”
Isidora looked up, her eyes now a soft shade of lilac. “Whatever you need, my Queens.”
“Come,” Amode said, holding her hand out towards the now very meek mage. “We have much to discuss.”
Isidora took Amode’s hand and allowed herself to be led over to the circle. To my surprise, Amode allowed her to sit in her throne, instead standing by the side, one hand on Isidora’s shoulder as all the Queen’s spoke to her.
I turned to Calico and clapped my hands together. “I can’t believe this is happening. I really can’t thank you enough but then I guess not having to be around me anymore will be your thanks,” I said, laughing.
He smiled but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yes, I guess so.”
I looked at the horses and sighed. “I am going to miss this place though, it’s absolutely amazing, and your horses…I wish I could take Kaisa home with me.”
He chuckled and said, “Think you’d have some explaining to do about her particular talents.”
I giggled and rubbed the mare’s forehead. In that moment, I thought then that maybe staying here wouldn’t have been all that bad. I could have survived here quite happily. My gran popped into my head then and I wondered how long I’d been gone in my normal time. I remembered she mentioned the name of a fairy she met.
“Aeden,” I said, turning back to Calico. “My gran mentioned a cheeky fairy she met called Aeden. Do you happen to know him?”
“That would be my brother,” he replied, smiling. “He is older than me, considerably, and quite the rebel of the family.”
An idea popped to mind, and my cheeks flushed as I dared to ask, “Do you think he would possibly come and visit my gran before she dies? Tell her that she’s forgiven?”
Calico raised an eyebrow as surprise filtered through his eyes. “I’m not sure. I can ask. Of course, the Queens will have to agree to it.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
We stared at each other for a few seconds, neither of us having anything to say. When the heat became a little too much, I blushed and looked away. I tried my hardest to focus my mind on something other than his handsome face and my pounding heart. Well aware he was probably trying to read my thoughts, I kept thinking about my gran.
Kaisa nudged me gently in the ribs which was a pleasant surprise. I turned around and rubbed her forehead again, this time softly scratching her as well. She dropped her head and closed her eyes making my heart swell. I missed horses so much. First thing I would do when everything had been sorted would be head back to the barn, with or without Macie in tow.
“She’s going to miss you,” Calico said. “She’s never requested anyone fuss her, not even me.”
I threw my arms around her neck and hugged her tightly, planting a kiss on her soft neck. “Don’t say that,” I replied. “That’s just going to tempt me to stay.”
He laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “It might not be all that bad.”
I resumed scratching Kaisa’s forehead and tilted my head to the side as I replied, “We both know it can’t happen.” He opened his mouth to reply when movement behind him caught my eye. “They’re coming back,” I said, excitement and apprehension tumbling together inside me.
The Queens hurried over to us, Isidora following them.
Amode put her arms out and rushed towards me. “Dearest Faye, you have found the perfect solution. We cannot thank you enough.”
She enveloped me in a crushing hug, an overpowering smell of freshly cut grass invading my senses. I hugged her back, overjoyed that I seemed to have been accepted by them, even if it meant the end of our short acquaintance.
When she pulled back, her eyes were full of water. “You truly have no idea how much this means to us. If it’s not too much trouble, there is one final thing we need your help for.”
“Of course. Anything.”
Isidora stepped through the group of Queens and came to Amode’s side. “As your grandmother started this whole cycle, we need a blood relative to end it. That means you. We need you to return to the original site where her and her sisters interacted with our kind and retrieve a handful of blue flowers. There is only one kind, there will be no confusion.”
“Is that it?” I asked.
It seemed such a simple thing, I couldn’t work out why they felt they needed to ask me.
Isidora nodded.
“Well of course I will. You didn’t even need to ask.” I looked at Calico and said, “Surely there’s some doorway or something that we can use to just pop and get them?”
Calico shook his head. “After The Great Hunts started, we removed that particular doorway. Superstition you might say. We’ll have to go back through the doorway near your house and make our way to the area ourselves.”
I nodded. “That’s ok. It’s not that far anyway.”
“To close the cycle completely, we’re going to send Aeden with you,” Amode said, darting her eyes towards Calico. “He was the one who started all this with Faye’s grandmother.”
I quashed the urge to grin as I caught Calico’s eye. “That makes sense,” I said. “My gran remembers him very fondly. Do you think…” I cleared my throat “…he could be the one to pass on your forgiveness and allow her to be at peace?”
Amode raised her eyebrows. Surprise filtered through her eyes. “You’ve yet to meet Aeden, am I correct?”
I hesitated, not sure of where this was going. “Yes, that’s correct.”
A sly smirk tweaked at her lips. “I don’t see a problem with that at all.”
My mind immediately went into overdrive, wondering what the deal with Aeden was. Calico’s term of ‘quite the rebel’ sprung to mind. What did a rebel fairy look like, or do? When I thought of rebel humans, I thought of tattooed biker dudes with cigarettes and bottle
s of whiskey.
“Calico,” Amode said, her sly smirk now a knowing smile. “Would you like to summon your brother?”
Calico rolled his eyes and sighed. “If I must.” He glanced over at me. “Care for one last ride?”
I allowed myself to grin at last. “Did you really need to ask?”
Chapter 16
The dogs, up until this point, had remained sat quietly and obediently against the wall of the room, even when we went for a ride through the court gardens. Now however, Calico ordered me to bring them with us. That rather unnerved me.
Having ridden back through the tunnels, we were back in the court gardens.
As we ambled across the grass, I said, “That was easier than expected.”
Calico looked at me out of the corner of his eye and said, “This won’t be. My brother is nothing like the rest of us.”
“He can’t be that bad surely, he’s royalty?”
Calico snorted. “When you meet him, repeat that to yourself.”
“No brotherly love between you then?”
“He tarnishes everything that we stand for. Thank goodness he was born a male. If he had been female and next in line to the throne, I fear where our kingdom would be going.”
I giggled and found myself rather eager to meet this fairy. “I’m guessing he interacted with humans against your rules?”
“He allowed himself to be photographed, that was against our rules. We could interact with them because up until then, there was no proof other than the words of children that we existed. Once the photos were released, it became a different story.”
“What did you do to him? Presuming you punished him, that is?”
“Oh no,” Calico said, pulling his lips into a thin line. “My honourable brother disappeared into thin air for years, then when The Great Hunts ended, he suddenly emerged and took up residence in Cotopia.” He shook his head. “A complete disgrace to our bloodline. Only the older generations of us know he even exists. They are all forbidden to speak of him because he is such an embarrassment to our family.”
“I have to say, I’m rather curious about him. I can’t picture what such a fairy would look like.”
Calico made a grunting noise of sorts. “He is not a fairy.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He cut his wings off.”
My jaw dropped. “Himself? He cut his wings off willingly?”
Calico nodded. “A fairy without wings is just…” he shook his head “…there are no words for it.”
I burst out laughing as a memory of Macie popped to mind. It had been years ago, when we still went to the barn every weekend. Resting in one of the paddocks having lunch, a fly had landed on her cheese sandwich which mortified her. She loved cheese sandwiches more than anything.
So angry at this fly dirtying her sandwich, she’d looked at me and said, “If I pulled its wings off, it would be nothing more than a raisin, and what use is a raisin?”
Hearing Calico talk about his brother with no wings made me think of him as nothing but a raisin for some reason. I was curious now if he resembled a fly by any stretch of the imagination.
“What do you find so amusing, may I ask?” Calico asked.
I explained my sudden burst of laughter to him and then said, “Now all I’m picturing is a blob of a fairy.”
Calico grinned. “You’re not far wrong.”
“Does he have tattoos and a motorbike?”
“If he lived in your world, that is exactly what he would be like. Complete with an array of illegal weapons and dangerous dogs.”
“I’m really intrigued now. This Cotopia place, what is it, another land?”
“Not like what you’ve experienced already. It’s more of a…peculiar offshoot of our world where those who do not wish to confirm to society can choose to reside. Once they choose to live there, there is no coming back.”
I thought about this for a moment. “It’s a self-imposed prison then, basically.”
“No, not at all.”
“Yes, it is. Once they go there, they can’t come back. That’s putting boundaries up and keeping them inside it, i.e. a prison.”
“Your words should anger me,” he said, his brow furrowing together. “But they don’t. You have a valid point.”
“Why do you refuse to let them be a part of your society?”
“We have strict rules here, Faye, and we expect everyone to conform to them in order to keep life running smoothly. If certain souls don’t wish to be a part of that then they can create their own life elsewhere, away from our community.”
I could understand that. In essence it worked no differently to our judicial system—break the rules, you’re taken out of society and given restricted access to privileges and pleasurable things.
We were riding in the opposite direction to the orchard, acres of grass and stone statues ahead of us. I had my fingers in Kaisa’s silky white mane, twisting and twirling her fine hair around my fingers. It gave me something to do with all the nervous energy writhing around inside me.
“How far do we have to ride to reach this mysterious place?” I asked.
“Not far enough,” he replied, grumbling.
“Are you coming with me to pick the flowers?”
His eyes lit up then and he smiled. “Yes, of course. Someone has to put a leash on my brother anyway.”
“He can’t be that bad.”
“Again, when you meet him, repeat that to yourself.”
I giggled and leaned down, hugging Kaisa. “I’m going to miss her so much. Are you sure I can’t take her home?”
“I would happily let you take her, she clearly holds an affection for you that she has held for no other.”
“But?”
“But could you imagine what would happen if your powerful people discovered her talents and abilities? She’d be taken away and experimented on to an unbearable amount.”
I hugged her tighter and kissed her neck. “No animal deserves that.”
A warm smile beamed at me from Calico. “You have a good heart, Faye, don’t ever let that be tarnished by anything.”
“Thank you. That’s really sweet of you to say.”
Our eyes met as we smiled at one another and yet again, my heart leapt against my rib cage, banging wildly like a caged animal. I pushed my thoughts away and broke our eye contact, looking out over the landscape ahead of us.
On the horizon, I could make out a haze of some sort, like when heat rises off the sand in a desert.
“Is that it?” I asked, pointing towards it.
Calico nodded. “That’s the boundary line. Believe me, what awaits us on the other side is nothing like this. Chaos and disorder rule this area. You will be glad of your dogs, believe me.”
I glanced down to see them both trotting along between the horses, their eyes sparkling with life. I knew for a fact I couldn’t take them home with me. What their fate would be without me as their owner seemed an unknown at the moment.
“They can stay with me,” Calico said, a cheeky grin on his face.
I glared at him. “Stop doing that!”
He laughed. “It’s hard to not do something that comes so naturally.”
“Once this is all done, will that be it? I’ll never see any of you ever again?” The thought made my eyes well with water, but I blinked it away. “It’s going to be a lot to give up.”
“Honestly? I don’t know. It’s a question that should be answered though, for your own peace of mind.”
The haze of Cotopia now loomed less than thirty feet in front of us. I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Let no one touch you,” Calico said.
He moved his right hand and I wondered what he was doing until I heard the unmistakable sound of metal against metal. His sword gleamed under the light, the metal blade reflecting. I swallowed the lump in my throat. Was this really going to be that bad?
I looked at the dogs and pictured one of them moving to
my other side. One of them responded instantly, flanking my left side.
“Whatever happens, keep looking forwards. Let the horses and the dogs do their job. They know this area.”
I gulped. “So the sword is for?”
“Anyone the dogs miss.”
I struggled not to whimper.
We pushed through the haze which stretched across my face and skin like a spiders web. Kaisa immediately tensed and seemed to grow another few inches. Her steps became hard and purposeful, no longer lazy and relaxed. The dogs started growling, drool dripping from their teeth.
What I saw took my breath away. Chaos and disorder could barely describe this place. It was like stepping into an utter mess after such beauty and cleanliness.
Ramshackle buildings lined either side of a muddy, yellowed pathway. Bright neon signs and flashing lights glared at me from everywhere, all advertising various things from food and drink to clothes to various naked beings. It stretched as far as the eye could see. I couldn’t believe how many lived here, it was like a city crammed into one long street.
The sky was dark, everything covered in shadows. A rancid rotting smell stuck itself in the back of my throat to the extent I could almost taste it. Creatures of all shapes and sizes filled the place, all of their clothes stained, ripped, or torn. If this existed on earth, it would be like the slums in India crossed with a red-light district.
As soon as the first being noticed us, it was like a domino effect through the rest of the crowd. Silence fell upon the crowd like a wave rushing backwards. Heads turned, mouths stopped moving, eyes upon eyes glared at us with sinister glints.
Keep looking forwards echoed through my mind. I focused on a spot in the distance, nothing in particular, just a point above all their grimy heads that I was going to reach-alive.
“Oi oi, Dunkel, look what we got ‘ere,” said a deep voice.
“Fine young ‘ooman. Makin' me ‘ungry it is.”
The dog on my left snarled. I fought every instinct not to look. If I ignored them, I'd appear confident at least. Well, that was my theory anyway.
“There’s two o’ those ‘ere Timberwolves, Freistan,” another voice said.
I presumed he was talking about the dogs. Asking Calico questions about their species name wasn’t top priority right now though.