“Son, you look the death. You come inside now and have some water.”
That actually sounded pretty wonderful to him in that moment, but he was too worried whether constables and agents of the Council were on his trail. He couldn’t go home or, heaven forbid, back to school. No, his father knew so little of him that he would never think to go to the airfield.
Gavin pushed up with the help of the kindly shopkeeper. He moved forward until….
“Look out!” someone screamed from the village square near the giant cannon station. Gavin looked at the old man, whose face had turned gaunt and sunken.
“What—”
“Faeries!” the shopkeep cut him off. “Go, son, right now. We have to get inside!” The old man grabbed Gavin’s elbow to tug him back to the shop where he must work. Gavin took a few tentative, struggling steps before he jerked away.
He couldn’t fathom why faeries had come to London after so long, unless… the one his father captured…. For all he knew, these faeries were as aware of the vision about him as the poor faerie his father had murdered, and were there to kill him in retaliation. His heart thudded in his chest.
“I have to go!” he shouted at the old man, whose face strained against his desire to get to safety and that of trying to protect a young person.
“Stupid gearhead! Suit yourself,” he finally said, giving in to self-preservation.
Faeries screeched overhead. They flapped their black leather-clad wings against the crowds of afternoon shoppers, their swords finding screams. Gavin turned to see a small faerie plunge a dagger deep into a woman’s chest. Its fiendish grin terrified Gavin to his core. He was doomed. What could a short, skinny boy hope to achieve against all of this?
He ran.
Gavin dodged wings and falling people who had been knocked into his path. He knew he should help them get to safety, but he couldn’t stop. Arrows slammed into the wall near his head, and blood already started to spray as people were hit. He quickly pulled his brass goggles up from his neck to cover his eyes. He chastised himself for not doing so earlier when his own sweat blinded him. He wouldn’t be caught in this mess if he hadn’t needed to stop to see.
A sword clattered to the ground near his boots. He bent to collect it for defense, but when he leaned over, he was struck in the back and knocked forward to his knees. His long hair flapped into his face as he turned sideways to find out what had hit him. After he saw it, he wished he hadn’t looked.
A tall male faerie, his armor splattered with blood, stood over Gavin’s legs. His sword dangled at his side. “Hello, youngling,” the thing bellowed. Its voice sounded like the caw of a black crow. It sent shivers up Gavin’s spine.
Gavin turned and scurried away as fast as he could. He slammed into the brick wall of a haberdashery and looked around for something to fight with. There, implanted in the masonry, an arrow shaft still vibrated from its flight. The faerie’s pounding footsteps sounded closer behind him. He jerked on the arrow, to no avail. It was stuck deeper than he could free. If this were a myth….
“Ha-ha. Come here, whelp!” the faerie shouted. He snatched handfuls of Gavin’s vest and pulled him face-to-face. Gavin hadn’t been able to release the arrow from the wall until the added strength of the faerie helped yank it free. Gavin stabbed down as hard as his little frame could, finding a gap in the armor around the throat. The faerie’s face turned from anger to shock in disbelief as he released Gavin and stumbled backward, flailing at his neck with one arm, the single arrow protruding.
Boom! The explosion from the town square was so loud it staggered him backward, and he tripped over a body, falling on his bum. The cannon had been fired down a narrow side street at something Gavin could not see. His ears rang with the buzzing reverberations as he clamored to pick up the sword and run away from the square.
He needed to get to the airfield.
Vengeance Named Faerie
“YOU THERE. Where is everyone going to in such a hurry?” Drake, a bright blond-haired faerie asked a weapon-laden dwarf faerie as he ran by. Even at the young age of seventeen, he commanded respect of faeries scores older. The response was a toothy grin and one word. War. Drake knew, as consultant to the faerie queen, he had to get to the palace quickly to discern what was happening.
The castle buzzed with hundreds of faeries who flitted back and forth. Some ran while some, who had them, used their wings. Each carried weapons, swords, javelins, or knives. Drake grimaced. It did not look good. The castle itself seemed to vibrate with the excitement, which Drake knew could be true, as it could sense emotions of such magnitude. It stood towering over the rowan trees of the forest on the edge of Emain Ablach, the Land of Great Promise. It also held many secrets.
It had been some time since faeries took up arms. The last time, Drake lost too much. He swore to do everything in his power as an advisor to avoid war at all costs. Not everyone shared his beliefs, though, especially his brother Kailen. That was what worried him.
Kailen paced in front of the world maps spread across the remains of a centuries-old tree. His long black hair swayed back and forth with each step. Black armor gleamed across his chest, and the patterns swirled as he moved. Kailen, tall even by faerie standards, knew well how to control his frame. Pale blue eyes, which Drake had come to know as contemplative and dangerous, drifted from the jagged edges of his sword hilt and found their way to Drake’s as he approached. Kailen frowned.
“Stop right there,” Kailen exclaimed, and all of the warriors hovering around him stopped. All save Drake, who rounded on Kailen.
“Tell me what’s happened.”
“Our people have been killed, used as pawns in a never-ending battle, and it will stop!” Kailen said. The faeries in the room cheered in unison. Drake looked about the room, and his face contorted in worry.
“Who has been killed? How did it happen?” Drake asked, trying to keep a level head and cause a halt to the escalating feelings of impending war and doom.
“Does it matter which faerie it was, brother? It will be the last.” More cheers. “The British Council thinks they can capture, torture, and kill us to gain our magick secrets. They pretend to abhor magick and forbade we go to their fetid, poisoned lands. We have agreed. Who wants to choke on foul smoke all day? Now a councilman himself dares kill one of our kin.”
Drake leaned against the treetop table, which held maps of war plans. On the detailed view of the congested city streets, London had a dagger stuck through its center. He could not believe they were going to war again. In the name of one fallen faerie as well. Not that one faerie was meaningless, but he struggled to wrap his brain around it. In the morning everything had been peaceful. He had planned to teach lessons in herbs and healing to the younger children. He had to do something.
“Kailen, can we not send an emissary to seek a meeting with their Council? Can we not determine the true nature of the crime and punish the one or few responsible?”
“Do you need to see the charred, twisted corpse to know what we must do, brother?” Kailen spit the word brother as if it were a taunt. They had been in a battle with one another since their first days remembered. Drake always needed to win, and their parents never left them alone because of it. Kailen, two years older, provoked Drake, acting as though his position in their family was threatened.
“They burned him to death?” Drake paused to let that horrid fact sink in. “We still cannot go to war over this. By whose order is this done?”
“Mine.”
Kailen and Drake turned to look upon the beautiful faerie woman bedecked in sculpted leather armor and black feathers that came to a Phoenix on her chest. Her long, black, silken hair was pulled back under a fiery red crown in the shape of swooping feathers. Queen Titania in war gear.
“My queen,” Kailen said, quickly dropping to one knee, as did everyone in the room except Drake. He slowly lowered his head as expected but felt kneeling was too far for him to go.
“Mother, we must not hasten to wa
r with Britain again. The peace has been too impermanent. Had I been summoned to provide counsel, I would have advised you, as I offer now. I volunteer to go as emissary.”
“Don’t be a coward, brother,” Kailen spat. He stepped forward and grabbed Drake by the arm. Titania raised her hand and waved him away.
“Dear Drake, I thought fighting with this one had made you strong. I’ve seen you nearly best your brother in single combat. Is it that you are afraid to do battle with those trying to kill you?” she taunted, but Kailen was the one to bristle at her words.
“He never came close to defeating me, Mother,” Kailen protested.
“It is not fear that stays my hand and guides my tongue,” Drake said before quickly adding, “my queen,” in hopes a show of respect would be useful. “It is that, were we to go to war again with such a powerful foe, many would perish. A meeting may bring justice without loss.”
“It has been decided, my young son. We can no longer talk with these men of inventions and infernal devices. Faerie has already begun the attack. You’ll go now to join the fray,” she said, the words spat from her mouth like broken glass. “Take up your bow that you have proven yourself with in the field of contests and sling your arrows for Emain Ablach.”
“Mother, we must go to King Oberon and ask him—”
“Enough!” The queen’s blue eyes were aglow in anger, her gaze piercing and dangerous. Her two guards moved forward, ready to strike. “Oberon? I rule Faerie, boy. He cannot be bothered to make decisions. Oberon has not cared for the trappings of daily life for years.” Drake backed away slightly, knowing he would not win.
“This is why I was not summoned. Kailen gave the answer you sought instead.” Drake hung his head. “So we will be pawns to the Brotherhood, then.”
“I am no pawn,” Kailen shouted.
“It is death, then, for countless,” Drake resigned.
“You want to save lives? Brave words. Grab your bow and arrow. Travel to Mag Mell with the troops to the portals. They are leaving now. Save as many of them as you might in glorious battle,” Titania challenged. “Kailen, go with him and see your truculent brother makes us proud.”
“Yes, my queen,” Kailen answered. Titania stared at Drake, boring a hole in the top of his head. Drake sensed it and looked up. He knew he was beaten.
“Yes, my queen.”
The Mouse and the Lion’s Paw
LANDA PUT her hand across Wish’s chest to stop him while she peered around the corner of a small building on the edge of the airfield. Marble Arch Airfield was a military base for the British naval command. The Serpentine River snaked through the field, cutting Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park in twain. Serpentine wasn’t much of a river in that it was actually a long winding pond. It was large enough for the fleet to land on and house docks and shipbuilding stations. Marble Arch also had the strategic advantage of being far away from shipping lanes that cluttered the Thames, making it highly secluded and defensible.
Wish grinned, looking down at the hand on his body. He seemed to be entertaining the idea that the girl he’d made so many mistakes with might finally like him back. At least that’s what he told himself each time she looked at him.
“I like that, but I think we’re a tad busy, what with the killer faeries attacking London and all,” he said.
“Good grief, you buffoon. I would never—”
“Would you mind?” Lucas interrupted. “We are on the run here, dangerous killers literally flying around, a Council’s agent no doubt on his way to capture us again, and Gavin….” Lucas drifted off, his face a mask of anguish.
“Oh, cry for your poofter later, ponce,” Wish jeered at him, earning him an ear cuff from Landa. “Come off it, love,” Wish said.
“This is exactly why Landa will never like you, Aloysius. You are a mean, pig-headed—” Lucas’s chastising words were caught off when Wish grabbed him by the coat lapels.
“Enough,” Landa said through gritted teeth. “Both of you. We need a plan to get across this field to those buildings across the way. The guards are pretty busy, but it would be preferable to do so without getting killed by faeries in the process.”
Wish gave a final shove and released Lucas’s coat. Landa opened the side catch of her gun and checked the steam-propelled rounds. She counted them to make sure their end caps were secure in case she needed to fire them. She gulped slowly down an overly dried throat, terrified of what was to come.
“Landa?” Lucas croaked.
“Yes.”
“Would you… er… happen to have… if it isn’t too much trouble, that is… another gun in that bag of yours?”
Wish perked up and leaned in to hear her answer.
“I’m afraid I have only the one steam cannon.” They both looked crestfallen. She opened her bag and pulled out a long knife. Wish and Lucas both smiled at the discovery. “But I do have a couple of things we can use. I use these to strip tubing and cut difficult netting, but they should be sharp enough. And here’s a big wrench.”
“Give that to me.” Wish brushed past Lucas to grab the knife handle. He swung it back and forth a few times and flipped it end over end and hand to hand before he added, “It’s a nicely balanced blade.”
“It figures you like knives, but I don’t really want to know why you are so good with that thing,” Lucas said nervously.
Wish snickered. “Fencing and sword play of all kinds, my lad. Long swords, short swords, knives, and many more. Good with them all. But you can have the wrench.”
Lucas hefted the wrench, popped it back and forth from hand to hand a few times, and twirled it like Wish had done. The wrench fumbled awkwardly from his hand and clanged loudly against the ground before he could scoop it back up.
“Are you trying to get us killed?” Wish whispered.
“Sorry, sorry.” Lucas held the wrench close to his chest. His breath heaved out of control.
“Stick close to me, Lucas,” Landa said.
“I don’t know if I… if I can kill someone.”
“That wrench will do the job just fine,” Landa answered.
“That’s not what I meant,” Lucas said. He looked away from them toward the airfield.
KAILEN AND Drake appeared in a cloud of mist and smoke, followed by a regiment of faerie soldiers. Kailen’s black locks flowed in the winds of the airfield. Drake looked electric in his battle armor, his red eyes shining through the haze. His face betrayed hesitation and distaste.
“Smell it, brother,” Kailen exclaimed with joy, or what passed for joy in his life. “The scent of human fear. These ants are meant to fear us.”
“You’re sick. I know you, dear brother. You couldn’t wait for a reason,” Drake said as he ventured away from the main group with a small detachment of soldiers.
“And you’re weak. Try not to get yourself killed, little brother. Mother would be so disappointed.”
“Your concern moves me,” Drake snapped back.
“Remember the mission. We will secure this military base against the troops they are to surely send and control their flight status. Once the ants are grounded, as they should be, only faeries will fly.”
“I know the mission,” Drake chided before he disappeared around the corner of a building.
LANDA, LUCAS, and Wish hugged the wall of a building that skirted the outer edge of the airfield until they slipped inside. Landa shook from fear, but she did her best to portray control. She knew Lucas, and probably Wish, needed her to be in control. She held her finger to her mouth.
“Shhh.” They both crouched down as if standing at full height made too much noise. She motioned for them to follow her across the hangar.
As they made their way by a deflated steam airship and its cabin cruiser, an explosion ripped open the giant doors. British soldiers poured into the space, followed by screaming faeries toting spears.
“I guess there’s no need to hush now,” Wish exclaimed. “Stand behind me.”
Landa waved her gun in his
face to remind him she did not need protecting.
“Um, hey, look,” Lucas interrupted. A large faerie warrior had found them, wings unfurled wide, which provided just the right amount of menace.
“Come meet your death, children,” the faerie taunted.
Landa’s steam cannon hovered in the air between them. The beast in front of her roared in laughter. She heard it over the din of bullets that flew and the swords that clashed all around them.
“A scared female? You hide behind a little girl in a ridiculous hat?” the giant faerie said, sarcasm dripping from his tongue.
“Shoot, Landa, shoot,” Wish shouted.
She stood unmoving, wondering if she really needed to kill someone. “I… everyone step back or I will fire!”
Another faerie turned away from his own fight. He walked toward their terrified group. His long black hair bounced behind him as he strode across the battlefield that raged all around them. He did not have wings, as some faeries did. He was menacing enough without them.
“What do you wait for, warrior?” the second faerie asked.
“Lord Kailen?”
“Kill the whelps and rejoin the battle,” Kailen commanded. The warrior obeyed and stepped forward to attack.
Boom! Landa blasted a shot with her hand cannon toward the group of faeries. Kailen dodged but one behind him was not so lucky and took the hit in the shoulder, falling back. The other faeries charged.
“Aiieeeiee!” Lucas shrieked the loudest scream he could muster as his personal battle cry. He threw his wrench at the attackers while Landa was trying to aim once more. His eyes were closed when he loosed his weapon, which caused his aim to go astray. The edge of the metal tool clanged against the back of Landa’s steam cannon mechanism. The force of the blow made her stumble forward, and her finger clicked the trigger too soon.
Absolute Heart Page 11