He inclined his head toward me, and the ground beneath me shifted. I stumbled backward, losing my balance and crashing to the forest floor. The little elf leapt onto my forehead and looked down at me.
“Sorry?” I offered, as he tapped one foot on my forehead.
The creature smirked and waved one of his tiny hands as if to say, “don’t worry, it happens all the time.”
“Boppy accepts your sorry,” he squealed and before I could do anything at all, he shoved something bright purple into my mouth. The taste of burned eggs and overly-sweet fruit punch exploded across my tongue as I rolled over onto my hands and knees trying desperately to spit out the gunk he’d shoved into my mouth.
As the elf bounced around next to me cackling, my stomach lurched and blinding pain rippled across my body in throbbing pulses. Nausea swelled up inside me, and I shut my eyes in an effort to overcome the sudden disorientation enveloping me.
“What did you do?” I growled, my eyes still shut as I gripped the earth for stability.
“I made you small!” the elf cried gleefully. “Like me!”
“What do you mean I’m small?” I cried, my eyes flying open in sudden panic. He was right. I was no bigger than he was, and even worse, the jungle around me seemed huge and malevolent.
“You were much too big before. Too, too big and that can’t be.” He grinned at me, lips spread wide over huge blue teeth.
“You made me a foot tall,” I said, glaring at the creature and narrowing my eyes. I was dangerously close to throttling him, and I was pretty sure that wouldn’t end with me returning to my normal size. “Change me back. Now.”
“Yep, yep! Boppy sure did make you small, just like the girl in the prophecy!” Boppy squealed and pulled out a very badly drawn picture book and waved it in front of me. The cover looked like a kindergartener tried to draw a stick figure with a bunch of broken crayons. “That’s you!” He pointed at the picture. “I’ve found the chosen one.”
I snatched the book from him. The Prophecy of the one who will kill the no good, great big, very bad thing. Below the title was a smiley face with tufts of purple hair. There was no way that was me, and even if it was, there was no way I was going to try and kill a “no good, great big, very bad thing.” I wasn’t sure what that was exactly, but I was really sure it wouldn’t be fun and exciting.
“Seriously?” I asked, raising one eyebrow and poking the page. “You think this is me?”
“Well…” the elf said absently kicking the floor. “I’m not a good drawer like the Eldest. We have to make our own copies. Mine is not as good as the Eldest’s.” His eyes got as wide as saucers and as deep as a sapphire ocean. “Boppy must take you to see the Eldest! We cannot delay.”
To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about visiting another elf, let alone one called the Eldest. Still, it didn’t seem like Boppy was going to change me back anytime soon. I might as well get on with the whole meeting the Eldest thing. Maybe he’d be more likely to change me back.
“Okay,” I said, and the moment the words left my mouth, Boppy grabbed my arm.
His three-fingered hand clamped down on my skin like a vice, and he pulled me forward. The force of it nearly threw me from my feet, and I struggled to regain my balance. My foot caught on a gnarled branch, and my arm nearly ripped itself out of its socket as I tumbled to the ground.
“Hold up!” I squawked as the elf started dragging me along the root-hewn ground. Boppy turned, and his eyes darted from me to the ground and back to me again.
“Why are you lying down? This is no time for a rest. No, no time at all. We have to get back before the Eldest leaves on his mission!”
“Sorry,” I muttered, getting to my feet. “I’m just not as fast as you are, Boppy. I have tiny legs.”
“Then climb on my back and ride Boppy like a pony.”
I shut my eyes for a long time and tried to suppress a grin. When I opened them, Boppy was kneeling down in front of me with his well-muscled back exposed. He gestured at me to climb aboard, and against my better judgment, I complied.
The heat of his body radiated through me as my nearly-naked flesh pressed against his muscular back. He grabbed my legs under each arm and glanced back at me grinning as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
“You’re light as a feather! We’ll be there in no time,” he squealed and took off like a bolt of lightning. The scenery around me changed into a blur.
“You really know how to say just the right things,” I whispered more to myself than to him. I shouldn’t be doing this. Lillim Callina did not accept piggy back rides from blue, shirtless elves while wearing only her bra and panties. Still, part of me was enjoying the feel of him this close to me. It was a little odd because it reminded me of horseback riding, and I wasn’t sure it was supposed to remind me of that.
Still, the thing that really bugged me about this particular situation was not my elf-back riding. It was Kishi. What happened to her after she came out of the lake? Was she looking for me, or, worse yet, should I be looking for her instead of riding around on the back of a half-naked elf?
We stopped so suddenly that I very nearly lost my grip and went tumbling to the ground. The only thing that kept me from falling onto the pulsating purple earth beneath Boppy’s feet were his hands on my thighs.
“We’re here,” Boppy said.
He stood on a ramp that led up to a temple that looked like it was carved from an immense sapphire. I swallowed and resisted the urge to steal it. I mean it looked giant now that I was a foot tall… but if I was big again that basketball-sized sapphire could buy a lot of enchiladas. I sighed and banished the thought. I wasn’t going to steal from Boppy. Probably.
Stubby blue shrubs with glistening leaves poked up all around us, lining the pathway itself. Other than those shrubs, which dotted the landscape for miles and miles, I didn’t see anything discernable. Not that it mattered anyway. Every time I moved it seemed like I was transported into a completely different part of Fairy. I really hoped Kishi was okay because I had no idea where I was or how I was going to find her.
Boppy’s hands rubbing my thighs brought me back to reality, and I moved to disengage myself from him. He held on for a second before releasing me. I dropped to the ground beside him, slightly irked that, in my newly shrunken form, he was over a head taller than me.
“I don’t want you touching me like that again,” I growled.
Boppy smiled as though he hadn’t heard me and pointed at the temple. “That is where we live. That is where the Eldest will be. We must hurry before it is too late.”
“Too late for what?”
“Too late to save your friend from being eaten by the Breaker.”
A tremor somersaulted down my spine. Kishi had been captured by a Breaker? What the hell was a Breaker? Whatever it was, I didn’t think it was some weird elvish term for ice-cream and cake.
“That seems bad,” I said grabbing Boppy’s face and making him look at me, which was difficult because he kept hopping from foot to foot. “What’s a Breaker?”
“A monster that the prophesized one is supposed to destroy on her quest to bring balance to Fairy.”
4
Kishi climbed onto an underground island, water cascading down her nearly-naked body as she took a step onto the bank. Torchlight illuminated the immense cavern, making shadows dance along the walls like a macabre procession. The grey-green sand beneath her feet sloped upward as she made her way forward. Pale, white bones littered the ground around her as though some creature had flung them away following its meal.
Her left hand trailed along the head of an axe-blade tattooed in startling relief on her left thigh as her eyes flitted to and fro. A shiver ran down her spine when she reached the top of the hill, and a small sound escaped her lips. She clamped her right hand over her mouth to muffle it.
Lying atop a massive pile of bones and decaying flesh was a creature which looked like a ridiculously large porcupine. One large blue-black eye
stared at her. Kishi took a step backward away from the creature, and its eye followed her movement. It moved, a tremor running along the length of its body as it stretched its enormous bulk and opened its mouth. A long, purple tongue snaked out of a maw bigger than a garbage can. Millions of needle-like teeth glinted in the torchlight as the creature roared.
The sound shook the cavern, and Kishi took off running back down the hill. Her chest heaved with the effort as booming footsteps echoed behind her. She dove back into the water as the porcupine thrashed into the surf behind her.
Kishi’s left hand went down to her thigh and closed over the flesh where the handle of the axe was painted on her skin. Pain flashed across her face as she tore her hand outward in a burst of green light. The axe gleamed brilliantly in her hand, its emerald blade slashing through the water as she turned.
The giant porcupine darted forward, clamping its razor sharp jaws down around her entire left arm, shoulder and all. Kishi screamed a mouthful of bubbles. Her eyes widened as she grabbed onto the creature’s mouth with her other hand and tried to wrench herself free.
Her skin began to burn with green energy as the water turned crimson. Her eyes glowed like emerald stars as the creature’s teeth raked the skin from her arm. The dagger drawn on her wrist slid down into her hand. The bronze blade was large and imposing in her hand as she drove it into the creature’s snout. The monster thrashed its head violently side to side, ripping through her flesh.
Kishi screamed again. The creature reared back, planting its massive legs in the silty lake bottom and flung her backward. Kishi flew out of the water and landed hard on the ground inside the cave. She rolled over to her side, blood gushing down her arm in torrents as she pulled herself to her feet.
She grabbed onto her left shoulder, trying desperately to staunch the bleeding. Blood ran through her fingers even as she shoved emerald energy into the wound. She shut her eyes in pain as the light flared like star fire. It wasn’t the best Dioscuri field healing I’d ever seen, but it seemed to do the job since the bleeding stopped. Even still, I was betting she’d used a lot of magic to do that trick, and I doubted she’d be able to do it again. Hopefully, she wouldn’t have to.
The monster burst out of the water, the hilt of the dagger stuck up outward through the top of its weasel-like jaws. Small cuts marred the area around the wound. It was like the beast had pawed at the weapon and, consequently, torn itself to shreds.
Kishi readied the axe in front of her, the blade glowing with soft green light. She backpedaled, her toes sinking into the soft dirt beneath her feet as blood dripped from her left arm, leaving a crimson trail in her wake. Her back touched the stone behind her and a shriek escaped her.
The creature’s tongue burst from its mouth, and Kishi threw her axe up to block. The thick, purple tongue slammed into the flat metal of the blade. Her arm strained, shaking with the effort as the thing tried to yank her forward. The axe slipped from her hand, and the tongue snapped back into its mouth with a wet thud.
Kishi smiled, a strange grin stretching her lips wide as she reached back with her right hand and grabbed onto the hilt of an enormous javelin that went from the center of her neck down to the heel of her right foot. She launched herself forward, tearing the ebony weapon from her flesh in an explosion of black light.
The porcupine dove toward her, and she dropped into a roll, coming up beneath the creature and ramming her weapon upward into its unguarded torso. Blood spewed from the wound as its massive bulk fell downward onto the javelin. The creature’s eyes opened wide and blood gushed forth as its tongue fell listlessly out of its mouth. The tip of the blade blasted through its back as Kishi released her hold on it and whirled around, grabbing her dagger by the hilt and tore it from the monster’s jaw in an explosion of blood and thicker bits.
Her eyes were empty as she almost casually brought the dagger’s blade down on the creature’s tongue, severing the vile muscle in a spray of blood. The beast shrieked as Kishi grabbed hold of the tip of her javelin and tore it sideways out of the already gaping wound that had been inflicted. It fell twitching to the side as she pressed the weapon back into her flesh, the bloody image imprinting itself on her skin.
Once all of her tattoos were back in place, she turned and dove into the water. She pulled herself onto the shore, coughing and sputtering. Eight bright green bows with arrows like bolts of lightning, all knocked and ready to fire, stared back at her. The dark elves holding the weapons all wore black uniforms with green capes and sashes. The bows bobbed menacingly in front of her. Their skin was as black as pitch, and they were all seven or eight feet tall. Even though they all appeared slender, and waif-like, I was betting they were stronger than they appeared.
“We have reason to believe that you have attacked and killed one of our Queen’s creatures. What do you have to say for yourself?” The lead dark elf stepped forward, a curious smile stretching across his face. His sea-green eyes sparkled with amusement as he ran a hand through his blond hair. It fell to the middle of his back in a golden wave, swishing as he took another step toward her, one hand dropping casually toward the hilt of his sword.
“Um… sorry?” Kishi offered with a shrug of her shoulders, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she ventured toward them out of the lake, water cascading off her body in glistening rivulets.
“So you admit it?” the leader asked, sweeping his hair aside to reveal one pointy ear with a silver ring in the top and a gold ring in the lobe. “You admit to killing the creature that dwells beneath this lake?” he added, leaning his ear toward her.
“Assuming you mean the giant weasel that just tried to eat me? Uh… yeah,” Kishi said. The words had scarcely left her mouth when she dropped to her hands and knees in the water.
A bolt of green energy cleaved through the space her head occupied only moments before, and the leader glanced back over his shoulder at one of the other elves. He shook his head minutely before turning back toward Kishi.
“Hold up your hands and don’t move. You’re coming with us, Dioscuri!” he commanded, pulling a gleaming, curved sword free of his scabbard and pointing it at her. “Do not try to resist!”
A horde of uniformed dark elves, some with bright green bows, others with various types of projectile weapons, from javelins and darts to even slingshots rushed toward her from the huts and bushes. Evidently, there were more of them. Many more of them.
“Oh, and stop watching us,” the dark elf said, turning to look straight at me and grinning like he could somehow see me. Surely that wasn’t possible since I was watching him via magic…
The scene I was watching in the glowing orange crystal exploded into static like a steam pipe rupturing and filling my vision with fog.
“Damn it!” I snarled, looking up as plumes of noxious smoke poured off the crystal. “Who are those people and where have they taken Kishi?” I wasn’t sure if they were going to hurt her or not, but either way I had to help her. I’d brought her with me and that made me responsible. Besides, if she did wind up getting hurt, once I got back to Lot, there would be no end to the paperwork.
“Those are the Queen’s men. Very, very bad,” the Eldest said with a shake of his head. He was taller than the other blue elves, standing almost eighteen whole inches. His bright blue eyes shimmered beneath a mop of curly blue hair. He wore nothing save a thin, flower-print skirt that swished as he walked around.
“The Queen? Queen of what? How do I find her?” I asked, the urge to save Kishi growing stronger by the second.
When he didn’t immediately respond, I turned back to the orange crystal and tried to will it show me more. Grey smoke curled and fell back against itself inside its jagged edges, and I resisted the urge to hurl it at the Eldest. Boppy had taken me to meet the Eldest, and at my request, I was brought to the viewing room.
A giant orange crystal jutted from the ground beneath our feet like a living thing. As I watched, the crystal melted back into the pulsating floor, color washing out f
rom its perch in a wave. I turned back to The Eldest. “Well?” I asked.
“The Queen of the Hot and Bright,” he said, and his voice was clipped, almost hurried as he hopped back and forth from foot to foot in that same way Boppy did. Like he was both nervous and had too much energy.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “That really doesn’t give me much information,” I replied. I hadn’t ever heard of a Queen of The Hot and Bright before and, even though it didn’t sound like someone I wanted to meet, I was relatively sure it should have been in one of the many classes I’d taken on Fairy. Had it been one of the essay questions I skipped because we only needed to answer two out of five for the final? I really hoped not, if it had, I was going to be pissed at my past self for not studying harder.
Still, I was relatively sure I’d have remembered the title. So why hadn’t I heard of it before?
The Eldest glanced back and forth around the room, as though trying to make sure nothing was listening in. He leaned very close to me, so close that I could feel his cool breath on my ear as he spoke. “She’s the Queen of the Sidhe.”
The light around us seemed to flicker, glowing a little brighter for the span of a moment. I swallowed and felt a chill run down my spine despite the warm air in the room.
“So those people who captured Kishi are Sidhe?” I asked.
Terror flashed across the Eldest’s eyes. Without a word he reached out and clamped his hand over my mouth. “You cannot speak of them, cannot call them by what they are or she may awaken,” he cautioned.
“Who may awaken?” I mumbled into his hand.
“The Queen,” he replied, the words slipping out from beneath his teeth in a hiss. He put one finger to his mouth and watched me, beady eyes boring a hole into my face until I nodded. He released me, which was good because his hand tasted like salt and mildew.
The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3 Page 42