by C. J. Anaya
They were my people now, and if Zauhn wanted me to take the right tunnel then I would most certainly do it.
I quickly climbed the steps, looking out over the ledge to the Stargis below. Without thinking, I lifted my hand high in the air, allowing a burst of magic to explode from my fingertips. A golden image of the same mark I possessed on my temple floated into the air, shattering into a million pieces when it hit the crags and crevices of the stone ceiling. Golden sparks of magic rained down upon my people as their faces lit with an expression of awe that quickly turned celebratory.
I left after that, not understanding what I had just done or what kind of message that mark had sent, but realizing the birth mark on my temple was more significant than Kheelan had let on.
That also made me very nervous.
The tunnel to the right was a hell of a lot longer than the middle tunnel. Tension coiled through me, tightening my limbs as I continued to make my way through the darkness. I had to stop three different times to get my labored breathing under control. The tunnel wasn’t that small, but my claustrophobia didn’t seem to care. I’d been able to breathe my way through it on my journey to the Stargis, but I was so keyed up from Zauhn’s warning, my coping skills were all out of whack. Plus, I worried all those magical traps Kheelan had warned me about would go off at any second. Not even Chuck’s soothing nuzzles against my cheek could keep the panic at bay for long.
After about five minutes of this, I finally saw a pinprick of light far ahead of me, giving me a small glimmer of hope that whatever Zauhn had been directing me to was finally within my reach. The tunnel opened up into a cave covered in sparkling stones of varying colors. Blood red stones were embedded into the ground interspersed with crystals, creating a cobblestone effect that was a bit blinding. Everywhere I turned the colorful stones winked back at me, filling me with a sense of focus I had never been able to master.
An image opened up to me, one that filled me with so much longing and love it compelled me to action. I pulled my magic forth from my core and sent it from my fingertips with purpose, visualizing the beautiful form of a woman I knew from long ago but couldn’t remember where. After a few moments I dropped my arms and stared at the ice sculpture, marveling at the details from the fine strands of hair to the slight crows feet in the corners of her eyes.
Did I somehow produced an image of my mother, pulled from the depths of a memory lain dormant for some time?
“Dang, Chuck? What do you think of my sculpting chops? Not bad for a beginner.”
Chuck let out a soft snort that carried a hint of amusement before he made a trumpeting sound I’d never heard before and gave me a wide grin.
“I’m gonna call that high praise, Chuck.”
He flew off my shoulder and started scratching at the stones within the floor. They were definitely a curiosity.
Was this what Zauhn had wanted me to find? A room that helped me not only focus my powers, but focus my thoughts and eventually my memories as well? What if these stones gave me the power to remember who I was? What if I could better defend myself here against whoever had come for me?
It was an amazing possibility.
I stayed put, hoping Kheelan would return and find me before anyone else did.
I paced back and forth, considering my options and realizing I had none, unless I could find another way out of this room, and possibly out of the mine.
Then what? How would I find Kheelan and my father?
I stretched my neck from side to side and raised my arms to loosen the tension and strain from all the worry. I needed to take action. I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to be discovered.
That’s when I heard it, a slight scuffle in the back of the cavern brought me to attention. I moved forward straining to see if a mine sprite was actually going to make itself known. I’d wanted to see one ever since Kheelan had told me about them, but so far the elusive little creatures had stayed far away from me. As my eyes adjusted to the blindingly bright colors of the stones near the back, I realized there was a tunnel leading out of it, and from that tunnel, the scuffling noises grew closer.
I narrowed my eyebrows as the sounds turned into solid footsteps that were most definitely not created by a tiny sprite. I stepped back in alarm, searching the area for a place I could hide, but the wide open cave held zero cover. Chuck flew to my shoulder in agitation, bunching up his wings in a defensive posture, but I wasn’t about to wait around to defend anything. We were getting the heck outta there.
I turned around and sprinted for the tunnel I’d come through on the complete opposite side of the cave. A voice rose behind me just as I neared the tunnel, freezing me in my tracks.
“Crysta?”
I whipped around and moved into a defensive position Kheelan had recently taught me even though I didn’t have much with which to back it up.
The breath in my lungs stuttered and stopped as the man from every single one of my nightmares exited the tunnel and stared at me in wide-eyed astonishment. Chuck made a strangled squawk that almost sounded pleasantly surprised.
My vision narrowed to a pin-prick, seeing cold, blue eyes staring back at me as a dagger landed a blow to my midsection.
He’s here. He’s found me. What am I going to do?
I shook my head, swallowing my fear so I could remain present and figure a way out of this mess.
“Crysta?” Jareth said again in a strangled voice.
The relieved look on his face and the strange affection he held in his eyes made absolutely no sense to me. It clashed so violently with what I knew about him, that I actually stood there for a full two seconds before taking action. Okay, truthfully, it was Chuck preparing himself to launch off my shoulder that got me moving. I clamped down on him before he decided to do anything suicidal. With the other hand I shot a blast of ice through my fingertips.
Jareth seemed so surprised by my attack he barely had enough time to lift his hand and shield himself from the onslaught, which had been magnified tenfold by the millions of stones within the cavern. The ice froze against the shield he erected. My jaw dropped at the thick wall of ice I’d created.
Damn! I was such a bad a—
The ice wall cracked and then exploded, revealing a shocked and seriously pissed Jareth.
Annnnnd that was my cue to run.
“Crysta,” he shouted.
I took off through the tunnel, pumping my arms and working my legs as fast as I possibly could. Chuck chattered angrily in my ear, but I didn’t have time to reason with him about the follies of attacking one of the most powerful faeries in the realm. Chuck might be a dragon, but he was also the size of a pigeon. Our odds of winning a face-off against a prince of the Seelie Court were nil.
I let my legs fly, holding nothing back as my chest grew tight from the exertion. My nightmares of being chased by a shadow that looked exactly like Jareth fueled my fear, my panic, and my physical speed. He’d already tried to kill me once. There was no way in hell I was going to allow him to hurt me again.
Chuck made a few screeching noises of protest. I felt a sharp pull on my sleeve, nearly bringing me out of my dead run.
“Chuck, we can’t stop, you crazy reptile. We need to keep moving now.”
I couldn’t see his response, but his angry hiss confused me to no end. Did he really think the two of us should stand our ground, join forces, and overwhelm Jareth somehow?
Delusional.
Maybe this was what Zauhn had been leading me toward. Did he think I needed to face Jareth and end the guy once and for all? If so, he had seriously overestimated my magical skill set.
And so had Chuck.
Unfortunately, Jareth was much faster, stronger, and more powerful than I was. I could hear his footsteps gaining on me. There was no way I’d manage to evade him. I wasn’t fast enough. Chuck grabbed my shoulder and yanked on it again. I clamped a hand on him to hold him still as I continued to book it down the tunnel.
Oh my word, this was such a freaki
ng mess. If I’d just stayed put like I’d been told absolutely none of this would have happened. I pictured my tiny dwelling where I’d spent so many wonderful hours with Kheelan and wished with all my heart I was there right now.
No sooner had I thought it than I stumbled into the room. My momentum from running brought me crashing against a solid chest.
Kheelan grabbed my arms and shook me. His expression a mixture of worry, fear, and frustration. Chuck fluttered from my grip and made swooping dives around my head, chattering at me in a tone meant to convey some pissed off vibes.
“What the hell, Crysta? Where have you been? I’ve been crazy with worry trying to find you, and since when can you apparate?”
My heavy breathing made it hard to answer.
“Apparate?” I finally managed.
He held me tight as his brows narrowed in confusion.
“You don’t know what you just did?”
I shook my head.
“Jareth…chasing me…he’s in the tunnels.”
Kheelan’s face went pale as his hands tightened on my shoulders.
“How did he manage it? How could he have possibly broken through our spells?” He gathered me in his arms. “I’ll never let him have you.”
I buried my face in his chest and let out a strangled sob. I couldn’t stop it. I’d come this close to dying again, facing the man who had haunted me for so long. The man who wanted me dead. Kheelan kissed my tears and softly took my lips with his, giving me comfort and strength. He pulled back for a moment and lovingly brushed hair from my face.
“I’ll never let him have you,” he repeated. “Hold tight to me, Crysta. We’re getting out of here, right now.”
“My father?” I said.
“He’s exactly where we’re apparating to.”
I snatched a squawking Chuck to my chest, closed my eyes, and held my breath as Kheelan took us out of there, rescuing me from Jareth’s relentless pursuit.
“I knew there was something wrong,” Kheelan said as I gripped his hand. “I could sense your worry and fear. I even sensed an increase in your power, if you can believe it.”
We sat at a rickety wooden table in a large inn, waiting for my father to bring back plates of food that I probably wouldn’t be able to stomach, not with anxiety and fear railing against my insides. I continued my surreptitious glances around the room, fearful that someone would recognize me, all the while gripping Kheelan’s hand like he might disappear and leave me unprotected. With my other hand, I patted the small bag on the floor Chuck currently napped in. His bizarre behavior in the tunnels left me feeling a little perplexed. He’d become more and more upset the further we got from Jareth.
I didn’t know what to make of it.
I stared across the room where my father stood at a long bar ordering us all something to eat.
“Are you sure my father can hold a glamour for both him and me?” I said. “It seems like it would be way too difficult.”
Kheelan smiled in amusement.
“Your father is a very old, very powerful faerie. I assure you, Crysta, if he needed to, he could construct a glamour for every faerie within this room. You and your father are completely unrecognizable.”
I tried to let his words reassure me, but after my recent encounter with Jareth, I couldn’t help but think that every faerie in this room had been hired by him to find me.
I turned my attention to the bawdy laughs and drunken antics of several groups of Fae scattered throughout the inn. Tiny Brownies moving here and there brought trays of ale, stew, and thick slabs of bread. Other trays held fruits, nuts, cheeses, and vegetables, which looked far more appealing.
I took in the delicious smells of apple, cinnamon, and brown sugar.
A large faerie with a balding head, pot belly, and meaty fingers slammed his fist on a table across from us when one of the Brownies accidentally spilled a tray on his lap. I startled in shock when I saw the guy had one eye right in the middle of his forehead.
A cyclops? For some reason I thought such a being would be taller than this building. His companion let out a bark of laughter and slapped him on the back. This other faerie wasn’t a cyclops. I wasn’t sure what he was. It didn’t look like the thing had a head, and its eyes rested on either shoulder. At least, what passed for shoulders. The mouth and teeth were in the middle of its torso and the rest of it appeared to be put together like any regular man.
I stared at both of them in slack-jawed horror. They looked capable of eating me and using my bones to pick their teeth.
It amazed me just how thoroughly my memory had been decimated. I felt like I was seeing everyone and everything for the first time.
“You need to stop staring at that cyclops and his Anthropophagi friend,” Kheelan said. “We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, and I really don’t want to kill anyone if I don’t have to.”
I eyed Kheelan with a bit of disbelief. Sure he was all muscle and intimidation, but the two faeries sitting across from us looked like they bench-pressed mountains for exercise.
Kheelan understood my incredulous look and flashed me a cheeky grin.
“Don’t underestimate me, Crysta. My bloodline doesn’t rule the Seelie Court because we’re nice to look at.”
His words coaxed a tiny smile from me, the first one since we’d escaped the sprite mines and the faerie who wanted to kill me.
Still, my eyes wandered around the room, taking in the varied species of Fae and doing a double take when a creature with blue skin, two heads, and four muscled arms slumped down in a seat at a table just beyond Kheelan. I think the two heads would have caught my eye either way, but the red, seeping sores peppering its back were gruesome. It was hard to look away.
“What is that?” I said in a hushed voice, discreetly motioning toward the faerie behind Kheelan. He adjusted his position ever so slightly and took in the muscled brute.
“Kordovian,” he said. Then he studied the man’s back with a hint of sympathy on his face.
“I take it those sores aren’t normal?”
“No.” His eyes hardened as he turned to face me. “It’s a symptom of the poison permeating Fae magic. Your father says many of the locals are being affected by it more and more. They’re calling it griesha.”
“Griesha?” I said, not liking the word and what it signified. “What does it mean?”
“It’s a word from a very old faerie dialect tied to some myth called The Rending.”
The name of that myth buzzed around in my brain, making me think I’d heard it before, but if I had, it was one more memory eluding me.
“Griesha means to hollow out or to feel empty. Even though the sores are painful and an outward manifestation of the illness, the real problem is what is happening to someone internally. Your father says many faeries report a hollowing out of their core magic. An emptiness within them that can’t be replaced. They lose touch with their magic and the elements. Once their magic drains, and their core empties, the victim dies.”
I stared at him in horror. This was so much worse than I’d pictured. Guilt for hiding away in the mine while faeries all over the realm were suffering from an illness that was essentially leaching their magic from them settled heavy in my gut.
“What does this have to do with this myth you just mentioned? The Rending?”
This little detail felt like an important piece to the puzzle.
A loud crash and raucous laughter to our left pulled my attention away for a moment. Some creature covered in red fur patted the back of his head wet with faerie drink as his friends laughed at his predicament.
All very drunk.
I couldn’t wait to get out of this place.
“I don’t know much about The Rending,” he went on. “There is a myth that claims the Seelie and Unseelie Courts were one, though I can tell you right now the very idea of faeries from the Seelie and Unseelie Courts ever living together in harmony under one Court is about as ridiculous as the concept of me ever finding a f
emale hobgoblin attractive.” He waved his hand as if to infer that this line of discussion wasn’t relevant. “You must see now why my father must be stopped. Whatever he’s done to turn our magic against us is only getting worse with each new victim. I fear it will only be a matter of time before nobles and royalty are affected by the illness.”
I drew in a deep breath. I didn’t have a handle on any of this. Without my memories, I was in over my head here.
“What are we going to do, Kheelan? Now that Jareth knows we’ve been hiding within the Sprite Mines, where else can we go to be safe?”
“At the moment, we keep moving. We didn’t want to expose you to the rigors of our campaign until we were married and you were much more practiced with your magic, but the safest place after Jareth’s attack is here by my side.” He stroked my fingers, stopping them from their nervous and incessant tapping on the table, and smoothed them out across his palm. “Trust me to protect you, darling. You need not fear a single thing so long as you’re by my side.”
I gave him a grateful nod as he kissed my fingertips and then held my palm against his cheek. I’d be just fine as long as I stayed with Kheelan.
The thought again crossed my mind that I had grown far too dependent on him, but just as soon as the thought solidified it winked out of existence, causing me to blink in surprise and search my mind in an attempt to grab the thread of thought that eluded me.
No good.
Whatever thought had been troubling me was long gone now.
“So where do we go from here? Who will my father go to next?”
“We need support from the Saytr King. He may be a lesser ruler, but most of the races of the Unseelie Court respect and value his opinion. He’ll need to be on board with our plans if we are to convince the lesser rulers to support our campaign. Your father fears we won’t be able to convince the Saytr King to go to war if we can’t prove the outcome will be favorable.”