‘Spare?’ I shouted. ‘She—’
Meteor moved closer to me. I felt him take my hand and squeeze.
‘Zaria? What do you know of the indigo bottle?’ The magistria’s black wings expanded, making a sharp outline against the blue of the gate.
‘I know Lily Morganite has it, and—’ I stopped again, clinging to Meteor’s hand.
Pebbly black eyes peered at me. A few days ago, the magistria would have threatened me with iron shackles if I had refused to answer her. But all she said now was, ‘Keeping secrets can be dangerous, child.’
Child. It seemed that whenever powerful fairies or genies wanted something from me, they forgot my name and used the word child.
Zircon spoke up. ‘You have not told us why you wanted to see the king and queen.’
‘You haven’t told us why your passwords won’t open the gate,’ Meteor answered, dropping my hand to draw his wand.
The magistria heaved a gusty sigh. ‘It is a mystery, young Zircon. And without the king and queen, the council does not have the strength to save Feyland.’
Meteor’s father glided closer to her and whispered something.
Nodding pompously, the magistria spoke directly to Leona. ‘Dire times call for dire measures. Leona Bloodstone, perhaps your high-level magic would be of help here.’
Leona already had her wand out, but she kicked at the sand and took a moment to answer. ‘You’re asking me to break into the sapphire stronghold?’
Zircon rested his palm against the polished stone of the gate. ‘We have tried everything.’
Before Leona could say more, Meteor raised a hand. ‘Something’s wrong.’ He aimed his wand at the magistria and his father. ‘You’ve both studied the lore of Anshield Island.’
Magistria Lodestone held onto her ruby. ‘Of course.’
‘Then you know that no amount of fey magic can open the sapphire gate from the outside. No amount. Even if Leona used Level Two Hundred, her magic would still be fey.’
‘What?’ I blurted, and heard my question echoed by Andalonus and Leona. ‘Why didn’t you tell us this before? How will we get in?’
Meteor glanced at me and clamped his lips. Of course, that meant everyone else decided to stare at me.
‘Zaria?’ Magistria Lodestone asked greedily. ‘Can you open the gate?’
Meteor grabbed my hand again and pulled me out of earshot of the others. ‘Troll magic,’ he said, his mouth very close to my ear. ‘Your troll wish could easily open the gate.’
‘I don’t want to use it here! And I don’t trust the magistria or—’
‘I don’t trust them either, Zaria. But it’s true they need to tell the king and queen about what’s happening in Feyland. And we need to get in too.’
‘Then I’ll use a Feynere spell to open the gate.’
His eyes reflected the sand’s harsh sparkle. ‘A Feynere is still fey.’
Blast Meteor! Why did he read so many scrolls? And why had the trolls told me about their ‘one wish’ while he was listening? Who would know better than Meteor that troll magic was nothing like fey magic?
Blast the trolls too! Had they foreseen this? When they said the wish must be from my heart, had they known I would be caught this way, with the future of Feyland weighing on my wings? They had extorted a promise from me to deliver the aevia ray to Feyland’s rulers. Now, to keep that promise I would need their ‘one wish’.
A wish of my heart. What was more important, finding my family or saving Feyland? I felt as if two trolls stood beside me, pulling my wings in different directions.
One side held memories of my family as it used to be. And although I had driven most of those memories away when I thought they were dead, a few remained. I thought of my mother brewing tea and serving it with gentle haste before she flew to the Golden Station; of my father fixing our family clock with a flick of his wand; of my brother Jett telling me that although prisms would split light into beauty, crystal watches split Feyland into ugliness.
It didn’t seem possible that I could want anything more than I wanted them home again.
But on the other side, I remembered Feyland as it used to be. I thought of growing up in Galena with my friends, playing leaping genie on the soft sands, viewing the glittering roofs from above as we learned to fly. We had never needed to spare a thought for our safety there. And now, with the gateway spells broken, that safety had fled. I brought to mind the shining scopes that fey folk had used for millennia to watch over their human godchildren on Earth. If the scopes were never repaired and the portals stayed closed, the connection between our world and the human world would end.
If I didn’t open the gate, didn’t give the rightful rulers the aevia ray, how much longer would it be before Feyland disappeared like coloured smoke? The outcome will determine whether fey magic will endure or sink into nothingness – or so the King of the Trolls had said.
I felt as if someone had thrown burning handfuls of sand in my eyes. ‘You’re right,’ I whispered to Meteor.
Very gently, he wiped my tears with his thumbs. ‘Zaria, I …’
From the moment the King of the Trolls had ordered me to take the aevia ray to Anshield Island, Meteor must have guessed my ‘one wish’ would go to Feyland. I knew he wanted me to say I didn’t begrudge the way he had kept the truth about the gate from me. But I couldn’t.
We flew back to the others in silence.
‘Well?’ asked the magistria.
‘I carry troll magic,’ I told her slowly. ‘I can open the gate.’
‘Troll magic!’ she exclaimed. ‘My dear child.’
‘I am not your child.’
‘Well, my dear, it’s just—’
‘And I am not your dear! So if you want me to do this, get back from the gate. I don’t want you breathing down my wings.’
The magistria looked as if she’d like to grind me under her heel, but I didn’t care. I clearly remembered the troll telling me that the one wish must be a wish of your heart – and as long as the magistria was anywhere near, my heart would not be able to feel anything but anger and disgust.
Councillor Zircon whispered to her again, his hand on her arm as he steered her away, down the sand towards the lakeshore. Taking bitter satisfaction in her fury, I waved them further on until they hovered at the water’s edge.
Then my friends gathered close and waited quietly until I was ready.
I spoke. ‘I wish this sapphire gate to open.’
I should have been more careful. I should have laid out who could enter the gate and who could not. I should have remembered all the warnings about troll magic.
If I had, I would have said something different. I wouldn’t have made one of the biggest mistakes of my life.
Chapter Forty-one
HUMANS WHO POSSESS ENOUGH MAGIC SOMETIMES FIND THEIR WAY INTO FEYLAND THROUGH UNGUARDED PORTALS. WHEN THEY DO, THEY CARRY TALES TO EARTH, TALES OF UNIMAGINABLE RICHES. THEY SPEAK OF THE CITIES OF GOLD, THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH, THE SHANGRI-LA. THOSE WHO GET A GLIMPSE OF FEYLAND WILL SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES TRYING TO FIND IT AGAIN UNLESS PLACED UNDER A FORGETTING SPELL.
Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland
THE GATE SWUNG open.
Just beyond was a field of flowers holding every variety of blossom I had ever seen as well as some that were new to me. A thousand shades of colour swayed under the great sky. A long way off, the distant spires of a sapphire palace caught the light, reflecting it back as if offering a splendid promise.
But there were no fairies or genies on guard at the gate, no one tending the flowers. The king and queen must be very confident in their defences. What if I had been someone else, someone who wanted them overthrown?
As if my fears had taken form, I heard a laugh just behind me, a familiar laugh that stung my ears like icy water. A cloying scent fogged over me. Lilies.
Slowly I revolved and let my feet touch the ground. At that moment, I didn’t trust my wings to hold me aloft. My friends turned with me, wands out
. Even Andalonus drew his simple Level 4 wand.
Magistria Lodestone hovered in front of us, pleased and smiling. I looked past her but saw no one else.
‘Magistria?’ I said. ‘Did you hear …?’
‘Thank you, Zaria,’ she said.
As the scent of lilies intensified, the magistria’s face blurred like a painting smeared with oil. Her eyes were different. No longer chips of obsidian, they changed to gloating pearls. Black wings became white. Chalky skin pinkened.
Lily Morganite. A satiny gown draped her in a colour she favoured: shell pink. Opalescent jewels studded her saffron hair.
I fell, kneeling in the sand at her feet before Meteor pulled me up.
Lily glided past us through the gate, then turned and flew out again, smiling. ‘How good of you to give me what I wanted most, Zaria,’ she said.
I leaned against Meteor. How easily I had done as Lily wished! How could I have missed her desire to invade this place? She and Zircon had played me for a fool. Perfectly.
Zircon! Where was he? I looked for him but saw only the beach and the empty water. What was his part in all this? He had told his son how to find the stronghold, and well he knew that Meteor and I were friends. But he couldn’t have known that I held a wish from the trolls.
Confusion and anger pushed against each other in my heart, and my Feynere magic flickered. Sliding my hand in my pocket, I touched my wand. Usually it brought a feeling of strength, but now it only kept me from collapsing again.
‘Better yet, you’ve brought me a gift,’ Lily said. ‘Aevia ray.’
‘No.’ My wings felt like dead leaves, their margins dragging the ground.
‘I could not have done it without you.’ Lily raised her wand delicately. ‘At first, I followed you in case you needed help when you robbed the humans.’
You couldn’t. I was invisible.
‘You are not the only one, Zaria, who can use humans for information,’ she continued. ‘All I needed was to locate the comet dust and wait – for you.’
I had acted as fast as I could to stay ahead of her. But Lily, a beautiful fairy with decades of experience using humans, had been ahead of me all along. Watching.
I remembered the coffee bean that had spooked Laz in his portal room. Had Lily been there after all?
Had there ever been a time when she might have seen me with Sam? What if she knew who he was, where he lived?
‘I never doubted you, Zaria. But waiting at this gate took longer than I would have liked,’ Lily said sweetly. ‘So, I am ready for my gift. Now.’
How had she known I would come to Anshield carrying aevia ray? I considered Laz but dismissed him; he hated ‘the Morganite’ for double-crossing him. Was Lily working with the trolls, then? I would never have come here, never have opened the gate for her, if it hadn’t been for my promise to the King of the Trolls and his gift of the one wish. Had they plotted together to bring me to this moment?
However it had come about, there was nothing to be gained from staying here another instant. It was time for me and my friends to transport away.
Gripping my wand in one hand and Meteor’s arm in the other, I nodded to Leona, who had no trouble understanding what I meant. She nodded back and touched Andalonus’s shoulder.
‘Before you go,’ Lily said. ‘I have something to show you.’
We paused as she lifted her wand and infused the smoky quartz rod. Turning her back, she waved at the shore. ‘Chantmentum pellex,’ she cried.
The reversal spell.
A row of fairies and genies appeared, hovering above the sand. I vaguely recognized some of them from the attack on my home.
Behind them, more appeared, and some of these I had seen almost every day of my life: fey folk from Galena who had endured gremlins ransacking their homes, and then begged me for refuge.
Refuge I had refused.
Wave after wave, row upon row of fairies and genies showed themselves as Lily’s spells of invisibility dropped away. In moments, she revealed an army streaming towards us. I couldn’t count them all.
Nor could I count how much radia she must have used to hide so many.
‘Now!’ she called, dipping her wand.
Her followers didn’t shout as they rushed, didn’t scream or roar. But the sound of their wings beating and robes swishing took over the sky. My friends and I barely had time to dodge as Lily’s army drove past us through the gate to the sapphire stronghold. They never looked aside.
When the last one had crossed the gateway and joined the swarm heading towards the palace, Lily turned to me. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘They will open the way for me.’
Feynere magic simmered beneath my skin. I should dash through the gate, chase down that army, stop them, let my powers trample them into the field of flowers. They would never take orders from Lily Morganite again.
Meteor’s fingers dug into my side. ‘Don’t listen,’ he said, low and soothing.
I fastened myself desperately to his voice. No, no, I told my magic. Lily is goading me. Remember what happened among the trolls.
‘I will command their return,’ Lily was saying. ‘But only for the aevia ray.’
‘Never.’ I tried hard to give strength to the small word but it sounded weak and afraid.
‘Then allow me to provide another inducement.’ Lily swished her wand again. ‘Revelum nos.’ The reveal spell.
Five wingspans away, two burly genies appeared. I recognized one as the fellow with granite-grey skin who had sneered at me back in Galena. The other had yellow skin dotted with black. Propped between them was another genie, shorter and smaller, with reddish-gold hair.
No, not a genie. A human.
Sam.
Chapter Forty-two
IN THE ONGOING CONNECTION BETWEEN THE WORLDS OF TIRFEYNE AND EARTH, HUMANS AND FEY FOLK ARE ESPECIALLY CLOSE. IT IS A TERRIBLE BREACH OF THAT CONNECTION FOR A MEMBER OF THE FEY TO KILL A HUMAN BEING. EQUALLY HEINOUS IS FOR A HUMAN TO MURDER A FAIRY OR GENIE.
Orville Gold, genie historian of Feyland
SAM! HIS MOUTH moved without making a sound. Gag spell? Either that, or he was too overcome to speak. The grey genie had something pressed against his temple, something I had seen before: the laser gun I had buried on Earth.
‘This human means something to you.’ Lily gave me an acrid smile.
I fluttered towards Sam, my wings beating raggedly.
‘Chantmentum pellex,’ I said softly to release him from any gag spell, and sent magic into the wand still in my pocket.
He squinted hard at me. ‘Those eyes,’ he said, his voice cracking. ‘You look like a lot like that girl I met named Zaria – only you have wings and …’
I wanted to touch him, comfort him, but I simply hovered, and didn’t answer.
‘I’m dreaming, aren’t I?’ he asked. ‘But I don’t remember falling asleep.’ He tried to lift his hand, but the genies on either side of him pinned his arms to his sides. ‘What the …?’ he said, and then stared round wildly, while I watched in helpless fear.
Lily floated close to us, her heavy scent strangling. ‘Aevia ray, Zaria, or say a last goodbye to this pitiful human.’
Sam nodded to himself. ‘Definitely dreaming.’
Pouring power into my hidden wand, I spoke aloud a spell using ordinary words: ‘The gun is useless.’
‘Wrong,’ Lily answered, pointing to the grey genie. ‘Calcite tested it.’
How had he tested it? Had he hurt someone? If only I had destroyed the gun sooner.
‘I know your affection for this human.’ She touched Sam’s forehead with a graceful finger, and he flinched and shut his eyes.
How had she found him? There were so few times when I could have been seen in the scopes with Sam, each lasting only seconds.
What could I do for him now? Even if I struck a bargain for his freedom, Lily would remember where he lived and who he was. Unless I can get past her protection spells. Again, I felt the wild Feynere magic flaring.
Leon
a drifted forward with Andalonus, watchful and waiting. Please, Leona. Please. Take this human boy away from here. Take him to safety.
My fairy friend gave me a sad smile – and then vanished with Andalonus.
Lily sniffed triumphantly. ‘One by one, Zaria, your friends desert you.’
But the grey genie yelled as he smacked into his fellow captor.
Sam too was gone.
Leona had understood me! She had understood, and transported Sam and Andalonus beyond the reach of Lily Morganite.
Lily’s glossy white wings rippled, while the rest of her stiffened. ‘Leona Bloodstone, wasting radia on a human?’ For a moment she seemed unable to take it in. Had we, at last, done something she hadn’t foreseen?
Then she wrenched the gun from Calcite’s hand, aimed at Meteor and pulled the trigger. I heard a popping click. No deadly red beam, no harm to Meteor.
Lily flung the weapon on the ground. I expected her to rage at Calcite and toss an enchantment over him to show her fury. She didn’t. Instead, she drifted even closer to me. ‘Human weapons are unreliable,’ she said. ‘But fey enchantments are something to be counted on.’
We had to get away and deliver the aevia ray to the king and queen. I would use a Feynere spell to find them, and transport myself and Meteor to wherever they were.
‘Yes,’ Lily was saying. ‘Unlike human weapons, fey enchantments never change. The glacier spell, for example.’
I froze.
‘It cannot be undone except by the the one who casts it,’ Lily said, and then waved her wand. ‘Revelum nos.’
In the shadow of the great sapphire wall behind her, two pallets appeared, long and narrow slabs of granite resting in the sand. On one lay a genie, on the other a fairy.
My wings snapped open and I flew so fast I would have slammed into the granite if Meteor hadn’t grabbed me back at the last moment.
‘Don’t!’ he yelled, yanking on my wings. ‘Don’t let the glacier cloth touch you.’
I reeled, but Meteor didn’t let go – he forced me to the ground a wingspan from the pallets. I trembled in his grasp, staring at my father and mother.
Their faces and the tips of my mother’s golden-yellow wings were the only parts of their bodies not covered. Everything else was wrapped in something that looked as if it had been woven from threads of ice.
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