by Kailin Gow
“Over there!” a strong deep voice shouted. “They must have landed deep in the Wickedly Woods.”
A horn sounded along with the barking of dogs.
“If I’m not mistaken, that sounded like a hunt,” Scarlet said. “A very English hunt. Are you sure we’re in the Land of the Fae and not in someone’s English country estate?”
Tavian looked over at Cruces and back at Scarlet. “How should I explain this to you?”
“Go ahead, Tavian, what is so different about the Land of the Fae as opposed to where we came from…the human realm?”
“The fae are advanced beings with the advantage of having magic along with an ethereal beauty,” Cruces said.
Looking at Tavian, Scarlet said, “Yes, such beauty…”
“Like the human world, they have their civilizations thus their kingdoms and politics,” Cruces continued. “They act very much like us, yet some say the noble ones are the most arrogant supernatural beings around.”
“Worse than arrogant vampire lords?” Scarlet teased.
Cruces smiled. “You find that attractive though, Scarlet, don’t you? You love how arrogant I was when you first met me.”
Scarlet blushed. “I have to admit, it was attractive and sexy. It made me angry at you at times, but also kept me interested.”
Tavian interrupted and said, “We should run. I could feel the ground shake from the sheer size of the hunt coming our way.”
Cruces and Tavian turned to run when Scarlet stopped them. “I know this sounds ludicrous, but we should stay and get captured.”
“What?” the Vampire and Fae said together.
“I had a vision just now that Gordon might well be in that Hunt,” Scarlet said.
“If you’re wrong…” Cruces said, “We should be prepared to fight. Not that I am doubting you, my sweet Scarlet, but just in case…”
Scarlet’s eyes were looking beyond him and into the distance as her mouth dropped. “I don’t believe this,” she said. “Not in a million years.”
“Scarlet?” a British male voice shouted from afar.
Scarlet was running towards the incoming horde of horses, hunters, and dogs.
“Scarlet,” Tavian shouted. “Stop!”
“It could be some kind of glamour,” Cruces shouted. “In any case, if you run towards them now, you’ll get trampled.”
“But I know that voice,” Scarlet said unable to stop running towards that voice as though her life depended on it. She could hear her two men talking, but her legs were taking her further away from them and closer to the horde.
“She could have fallen under a spell,” Tavian said to Cruces. “But how? And who?”
“No time for talk,” Cruces said. “Scarlet’s in trouble.”
Chapter 5
Scarlet’s legs finally stopped running as she stood in an open pathway in the woods. She was waiting for the hunters to find her.
They were now in sight. Gleaming silver in the near distance.
“Scarlet!” Again that familiar voice.
Now she could see a tall figure in silver leading the hunt. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Did they landed in Medieval times England when there were knights, ladies, lords, princes, princesses, and evil wizards?
Now she could actually see their faces, which meant she only had a few minutes before they would be upon her, trampling her. She realized they were not going to stop as she thought. She turned around, ready to run and jump out of the way when a large black object swooped down and lifted her into the sky and dropped her onto the ground in the woods.
Scarlet blinked. Was she dreaming?
In front of her was a girl about her age, wearing all black, including black tight pants, boots, and black raven wings. Her black hair with a streaks of blues and reds was straight and cut straight across at chin level. Her green eyes were lined heavily in black kohl, like Tavian’s eyes.
“Are you stupid?” she scowled at Scarlet. “Do you have a death wish?”
“No,” Scarlet said. “I don’t, and I am not stupid.”
“Then why were you standing there just waiting for them to run you over? What was that about?”
Scarlet was trying to understand this raven girl’s local talk when she realized this girl was not from the medieval times like the rest of the hunting party. She was dressed differently.
“Can’t you see she’s in shock, Kat?” a beautiful girl with long blonde hair and wearing a red hooded cloak over her white pirate blouse and leather pants, said. She was the same age as Kat. Her blue eyes surveyed Scarlet. “From the looks of it, she came from elsewhere, certainly not a native of Anachronia.”
“Is she part of the game, Gem?” Kat asked.
“If she’s in Anachronia, she is…or she will be,” Gem said.
Kat took off her raven wings, which were made of lightweight metal, to reveal her arms. She stretched her back and arms saying, “Those wings worked this time. I flew for a distance and was able to sweep down to pick her up just in time. With a little tweaking, the wings would come in handy.”
Gem smiled, “I’ll work on getting those wings lighter, too. At least they worked, but I know they can be killer on your back for more than a few minutes.”
Kat grinned, “Imagine being able to sell those…everyone would buy it. Everyone would be able to fly like a bird, if only for a few minutes. You could make billions. We’d have a corporation. We’d have shares offered on Wall Street. I’d move to New York as your business partner…”
At the words “New York”, Scarlet’s ears perked up. Through her visions before, she saw Cecilia in a place called New York. “Excuse me,” she said, “do you know New York?”
Kat and Gem turned to look at Scarlet. “I’m from there,” Gem said. “Are you?” she looked hopeful.
Kat asked, “Did you get invited to play the game like we did? Is that why you’re dressed differently than everyone here? You look like someone from the Victorian times.”
Scarlet smiled. “I just entered this world so I am not familiar with it.”
Kat and Gem exchanged looks, “Oh, that’s why you seemed so confused and daze standing there on the road,” Kat said. “You probably didn’t think you would be entering a world where there would be knights and warriors galloping around.”
Gem laughed, “Especially when the only time you’ve seen an armor was in the Smithsonian or at the Tower of London Museum.”
“You know London?” Scarlet asked.
“First time visiting due to winning the contest with an all-expense paid trip to England to play the next level in the Wordwick Games,” Kat said.
Gem smiled. “My parents and I have been to England quite often. From New York, flying there isn’t very long. About a few hours.”
“Flying there?” Scarlet asked. “Like with a ring?”
“No, on an airplane,” Gem said, looking at Scarlet curiously. “You know what that is, don’t you?”
“You are human, aren’t you?” Kat asked. “From the human world and not this one? You’re not Anachronian?”
Scarlet said, “I’m human from the human world. What is an Anachronian?”
“You’re in Anachronia,” Gem said. “It’s one of thousands of worlds we could visit through Mr. Henry Words’ pods.”
“Is this the Land of the Fae?” Scarlet asked.
Kat answered, “Well, yes, there are fae here in Anachronia. In this world, there is a Land of the Fae, and they are at war with each other at the moment.”
“It could get dangerous if you are caught up in the battles…” Gem started.
“You two are not from here,” Scarlet said. “You mentioned a game brought you here?”
“Mr. Henry Word invented a game called the Wordwick Games, and we are the champions of that game so we won an all-expense trip to England to visit Wordwick Castle, Mr. Word, and to be the first to play the next level, which is Anachronia,” Gem explained. “There are five of us here as gamers, and the winner gets crowned Ruler
of Anachronia.”
Scarlet shook her head. “How did you get here?”
“Mr. Word has pods that transports us here. We sleep in it and wake up to find ourselves here or any world we are trying to go to. It’s all programmed in,” Gem said.
“This is part of a game?” Scarlet asked.
“To us, it is,” Gem said. “But it is all very real.”
“Where are you from?” Scarlet asked.
“I’m from New York,” Gem said. “Present day.”
“I’m from Manchester,” Kat said. “Present day. “The rest of the gamers are Sparks from Texas, Rio from East Los Angeles California, and Jack from Alaska. Where are you from? And how did you get here?”
Scarlet had the feeling their “Present day” was different from hers. “I’m originally from London, but spent my entire life traveling from place to place such as China, India, Japan, and most recently Egypt. But currently, the place I came from was London. My present day is the year 1895.”
Gem and Kat’s eyes widened. “You’re actually from the Victorian era?” Gem asked smiling. “I love that time period, especially since England made so much progress at the time, and had a strong female ruler in charge.”
Scarlet relaxed and smiled. They didn’t react to the news she was from another time period so badly. “What year are you from?”
They turned to her and said, “The year 2020.”
Scarlet gasped. They were from her future. They were from the year Cecilia had vanished to and from New York, where she was at…which meant… “Have you seen or met anyone else from the past,” she asked, “A pretty brunette a little older than me. A handsome blonde young man carrying a walking stick?”
“As a matter of fact,” Gem said, “we have.”
Chapter 6
Tavian
Anachronia
“How could you just stand there while Scarlet ran ahead of us?” Tavian snarled at the Vampire.
He knew he should not have trusted the trip to the Land of the Fae to the arrogant vampire who seemed to have manipulated Scarlet into one dangerous case after another.
So far in all his experience, he had found vampires to be untrustworthy. This one in particular had manipulated Scarlet into thinking she was working on a case with Sherlock Holmes when it was really a ruse for him to use her to locate his ring. He used the search for Cecilia to get his ring back, not because he truly cared for Cecilia, although he led her to believe he did. At one time, Cecilia was heads over heels in love with Lord Darthmoor until he betrayed her. Would he do the same to his beloved Scarlet?
Tavian seethed with anger as he looked at the too handsome, too charming lady killer vampire who didn’t answer him back. He wanted to punch the vampire for what he did to Cecilia, although Darthmoor claimed it was Cecilia who betrayed him, had stolen his ring.
“No time for talk, Fae, we act now. Run!”
The vampire was now running towards Scarlet.
Tavian pushed off with his powerful legs and had caught up to the vampire, heading towards the large horde of horses, dogs, and some kind of royal party. From the outside, it looked like two supernatural men going up against an army. Rather than two men trying to rescue their lady love from being trampled.
Ahead of them, Scarlet had stopped running and just stood there, like a deer. What was she thinking?
Before he could reach her using telepathy, one of the fae magic he had mastered, a large raven swoop down from the sky, lifted Scarlet, and flew off with her.
Leaving the vampire and himself still running at full speed towards the hunting party horde poised for full collision. At their speed, there would be many casualties. “Pull back, Fae,” Darthmoor shouted. “Jump out of their way. Preserve yourself!”
“Whoa!” the leader of the horde shouted. “Pull out of the way! Pull up!”
Tavian was running so fast he could not stop. He had used some of the fae magic of gliding to help him build momentum, and now it would be too late to stop. He was set to plough through the horde like a bull ramming through spectators at the running of the bulls.
A large force slammed into Tavian from his left, sending him flying into the woods just in time before impact. He turned to see what had hit him and was surprised to see Darthmoor slammed against him to his left.
The force was so large, Tavian smashed against trees, breaking off branches as they went until they finally landed. For a moment, both men were still.
Tavian finally spoke. “Could you at least find a less destructive way to push me out of the way? Not complaining since you saved me, but…”
“I didn’t know I had that much strength,” Darthmoor said. “Out here, in this world, my vampire powers seem to have strengthened.”
“My fae magic did, too,” Tavian said. “I used the magic to glide combined with my running to run faster. I didn’t expect to go up to the speed I did and didn’t know how to control it.”
“I figured as much, Fae,” Darthmoor said.
“Why?” Tavian asked. “Why did you save me?”
Darthmoor shrugged. “Because Scarlet loves you. She trusts you, too…even through all the lies you must have told her.” He was immediately at Tavian’s throat, his fingernails had grown into claws which he had position to slice through his neck clear through.
“What are you doing?” Tavian asked.
“When did you leave the Order?” Darthmoor asked. “It seemed you never did.”
Tavian was quiet for a moment.
Darthmoor’s claws around his neck tightened. “Is it true you are still a member of the Order?”
“You were one of its founding members yourself. And your brother Rothschild was the Order’s leader for a long while,” Tavian finally said.
“But I left the Order,” Darthmoor said. “They were not too please with my choice. As far as Rothschild, he died protecting Scarlet from the Order. I believe he had truly changed. But you…what is your story? Why are you still part of the Order, yet you lied to Scarlet that you had left?”
Tavian could not answer the vampire. He could not reveal his purpose for infiltrating the Order yet. Not as the only fae that he knew of, besides Cecilia, who had.
The only answer he could give Darthmoor was a truthful one, but not fully. “I have the same goal as you, Vampire,” Tavian said. “To protect Scarlet.”
“You joined the Order before you knew of Scarlet,” Darthmoor said. “After you met Scarlet, you were still a member. You did not leave. Why?”
“To destroy the Order,” Tavian finally said. “I did not leave so I can see each and every one of the members destroyed.”
Darthmoor’s face leaned in. “Why, Fae?”
“Because they destroyed my entire village. Our gypsy village in Romania. A massacre. Even children were ripped apart. If not killed, the survivors were caged, starved to death or turned into other vampires. Cecilia and I grew up with these human gypsies, not knowing she and I were fae. Had we known earlier, we would have prevented the massacre. Especially of the deaths of our human siblings. We were merely children ourselves.”
Darthmoor sighed before he pulled away from Tavian. “That was why I left the Order.”
“Is it true, you were once an immortal?” Tavian asked.
“How did you know?” Darthmoor asked.
“When Aphrodite visited your home in London, she mentioned your past,” Tavian said.
“How did you go from being an immortal to becoming a vampire?”
Darthmoor brushed himself off and said, “I did something Zeus did not like and was punished by becoming a human child, growing up amongst humans in the early days of humankind. Then one day, the Vampire King snatched me and turned me, raising me as his own son and heir to the vampire kingdom. Cruel fate isn’t it, Fae? How I was once an immortal only to become what I am today. But now, we must find Scarlet. We’ve wasted enough time already.”
“Do you know where she is?” Tavian asked.
“My mark on her tells me she is c
lose by,” Darthmoor said. “But she is on the move, and she is not alone.”
Chapter 7
Scarlet
“You mentioned your blonde handsome friend’s name is Gordon?” Gem asked. “He definitely came to Anachronia. “We’ll take you to him.”
“He’s still here?” Scarlet asked.
“Yes, close by…at the Palace,” Gem said.
“What palace is that?” Scarlet asked. “Is it in the Land of the Fae?”