Without saying a word, Julian nodded toward the sea. I tried to search for whatever he might be trying to show me, but spotted nothing at first, until I noticed the sparkles, a thin veil of them. They formed a ribbon, almost like a road, a sign leading the way.
We’d followed the magic signs before, sort of, and they had led us to good things. They had even brought Julian to me, the very first time, to the Rose Castle. That’s how we were here.
“We’ll could take a leap of faith,” Julian said, and judging by the tone, he was concluding some long, thought process. I was afraid to ask what his visions were, as mine were bad enough.
“We could,” I only agreed out loud. “Let’s come back for the strawberries once we’re done and eat our hearts out. It’ll be a huge strawberry party.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Julian found his upbeat attitude and smile back on again. I could always hear his smiles in his voice, even though, as birds, we were not the best to show our excitement in our expressions. “Shall we, my princess?”
“Let’s do it.”
“Ladies first.”
I heard that: the rascal smile, the mirth in his voice. But he was only teasing me, because he was the one who took the first running steps and hit the winds.
Seeing it, I stretched and gathered air underneath my wings and followed. Julian sped up ahead, making somersaults and twirls in the air, as if just for fun. His flying was always so effortless it was a pleasure to watch. My goodness, I’d never imagined I’d run into someone so much fun to be with, someone with whom I could be at ease like this. I could be my terribly imperfect self. I didn’t have to keep up appearances. I didn’t have to behave or act like a princess. And I hoped he felt the same. I was glad it was Julian beside me, if we had to head over to the dark reaches of the ocean.
Chapter 15
As we left the farthest-reaching peninsula, it was easy to spot the rows and rows of pitch-black boats lined up along the shoreline: the demon army. Their hundreds and hundreds of boats. The tar smell carried over all the way to where we flew.
Then the breezes caught us properly, and I only focused on the fresh sea air and my working muscles.
Eight-foot tall, inky waves rolled underneath in heaps, topped with white foam. The uniform blanket of clouds above made for peaceful but somewhat worrisome flying.
I desperately hoped there was no storm in store for us, because I was having a hard enough time as it was, looking at the churning water and working the strong currents.
Not Julian, though, clearly. Julian was in his element.
Of course, as he was a swallow, he had no trouble braving winds and would have been fine keeping this pace up for hundreds of miles. Not so much little old me, a smaller bird with a rounder form and shorter wings.
But he was incredibly patient with me. When he noticed he had inadvertently added speed again, he slowed down and lead the way in a fashion that directed the air currents in my favor and helped me along. His wings were like sharp scimitars, effortlessly plowing the wind away, making an elevated airway for me.
I felt like a princess. In a good way. In the perfect way.
I spotted a blue feather in the air and quickly—hovering and fluttering in place—checked my wings for any dropped plumage. As I raised my left wing high up and tried to hold it still for a second, I hit an air current the wrong way and began spiralling to the side, so I had to quickly correct my posture. Oh, how I felt clumsy on my wings compared to Julian. But no, I couldn’t see anything the matter with my wings. At least there were no gaps between my wing feathers that I could see. In a baffling flurry of thoughts, I couldn’t decide whether it was okay to drop one’s feathers, all in all? Apparently dropping feathers was fine? I’d feel that, though, wouldn’t I, if it happened? No? It might have been a stray feather simply floating on the winds, but maybe this was just one of those things: sometimes old feathers fell and new ones grew? The feather did look like one of mine, but if I’d just dropped it, I hadn’t felt it.
Well, there it was, and now this silly, lone feather was caught up on a wind current and danced in the air, as if going on an adventure by itself. After watching it for a few seconds, all tense and focused, something in the air seemed to try to cheer me up, and I broke up chuckling with a cooing gurgle. It was hilarious! I couldn’t even put my finger on this issue—why was this so funny—but it just was. There it was, my feather, wandering off like it had finally had enough! As in, thanks, I’ll be off now, it’s been great, but all good things come to an end, I’m done…!
Maybe I was tired from our long trip over the ocean, but something about it was hilarious to me. I felt some of the stress of the last days leaving me. Grateful for the distraction, after a long, uneventful and strenuous flight, I took my time to watch, flapping vigorously to stay put—not unlike a hummingbird, I thought— and followed the feather with my gaze for as long as I could see.
And then I had to open my beak.
Just there, at the very turning point, where I barely could see the feather and, a second later, couldn’t make out its form any longer, something happened: at the moment when I couldn’t parse the feather’s shape anymore, I could see a magnificent spark of magic. Oh, it was fabulously pure. Clear, glimmering, raw magic, the sweetest and loveliest I’d ever even imagined magic to be. It seemed to promise protection, safety, and comfort. It seemed to say, rest assured, no matter what may come, you’ll handle it, you’ll survive, and you’ll flourish.
How I could read all this into the spark, I don’t know, and perhaps my little bird-brain had gone momentarily mad with the extortion, but all that resonated with me as if I simply knew. It was as if someone had taken a bad thing, long ago, and promised me better things to come instead.
I tried to follow the feather with my gaze a moment longer, but I lost that, too. It was too far to see no matter how I squinted.
I wondered about the feather in silence for several minutes, not wanting to even take it up with Julian.
Chapter 16
Fae Island glowed brilliant, peeking out from the emerald, see-through waves in the sun. Everything around it was slightly tinted with green, and that had to be because of the Jewel: the protective aura. The Jewel glinted in the center of the island, perched high up on top of a thin marble tower.
I ached all over, but it didn’t matter. We’d made it, and it hadn’t even taken us as long as we’d feared. Butterflies in my stomach, I didn’t know what to expect of the landing, though.
Julian dove towards a large sycamore tree. As I caught a great gust of wind that transported me nicely forward, I spotted some movement down in the brushwood. I chirped sharply to get Julian’s attention.
It was a young fae woman who had translucent wings much thinner than mine or Julian’s, but long enough to reach to her toes like the train of an evening gown. She carried round, golden globes that might have been some sort of baskets carved of the shells of exotic fruit, I imagined.
My mind immediately jumped to food. I hoped they had some edible fruit here. The flight over the ocean had left us famished and worn out. But now, perhaps there were more important matters to focus on, here.
I dove down and made a fly-by to catch her attention, accidentally making her long, green hair toss in the air. She reacted with a shriek that instantly turned into a calming-down giggle, as I passed her.
“I thought you were a bat!” she shrieked, and I was quite confused. Somehow, I didn’t see why that would be a problem. I’d seen bats. Not that I was exactly good friends with any bats, but that was mostly because they always seemed so busy whistling and scooting about, I didn’t want to bother them. Still, I saw them around and they’d seemed nice. So, Fae didn’t like bats…Did they like birds? The fae girl leaned in, clearly to take a better look at me. She had to see something peculiar in me, the look was so studious. Then, slowly, she turned to look up and sought out Julian from the sky, too.
“Oh, my…Oh, my.” Then she stood up and gave a quick curtsy. “
Heavens bless me. Prince, Princess.”
Chapter 17
“Excuse me…?” I said, though meanwhile, without even thinking, I returned the curtsy, in a way that a bird can. It seemed like the proper thing to do. After all, one curtsied to respectable older people and people of stature, and even cousins and aunts…Probably?
The Fae girl’s expressions changed to one of compassion and pity. “I’m so sorry, was I mistaken? You would be?”
“Aurora the Blue Bird and Julian the Swallow. We’re hoping to meet with the Fae Empress. It’s important. Could you please tell us where to find the flying castle?”
“Wow, I’m sorry to say, you could be heading for trouble. It’s in that direction,” she said waving to the side. “But it’s a dangerous journey. I’m not sure I’d advise you to go.”
“Dangerous how?”
“Oh, every possible way. It’s meant to be, you understand…”
“But you must have visitors calling from time to time? How do they get to the castle?”
“Oh, Fae visitors, yes. If you’re referred or expected, then it’s all right. I’m taking the Fae Empress doesn’t expect you, since she hasn’t arranged a committee to accompany you?”
“No,” I admitted, hanging my head.
Julian gently kicked me on the toe and whispered, “Ask her!”
“What?” I whispered back.
“Maybe she could accompany us and be the one who’s referring us?” Julian muttered.
“I can hear you,” the Fae girl laughed, “but I’m sorry, I can’t go with you. I’m not sure it works that way, and anyway, I can’t go now, at least not until the evening. I’m in a hurry. I was only walking through here because this is a great shortcut.”
But the evening would be too late because we wouldn’t be able to fly back over the ocean in time before Julian’s vanishing…
“You’re Fae, right?” I clarified. With her nod, I pulled a breath. “So, we know King John of Tairaland is planning to attack here with a demon army. A swarm of demon boats will be here soon. We need to tell the Queen.”
“Really…?” The girl’s face did not quite convince me that she took me seriously.
“He’s already found out there’s a witch with a Fae heart on the run in the human lands, and he’s determined to harvest her powers. If he gets those, and gives them to demons, you know the mix can be bad? I believe he’ll come here with a hedge witch to lead the mission and a hundred-strong demon army. S0 we need to tell the Queen quick.” I saw the shock on her face, and let that take a moment to simmer. “So you see, we must speak to the Fae Queen?”
“A witch to lead the army, though? Why…?”
The Fae had to be so accustomed to their safety that she couldn’t decide what to think.
The underbrush rustled. A group of people appeared from the woods — swords and spears first. Fae. Fae guards. There was a dozen of them, and they surrounded us with their weapons, though as we were so small, the weapons seemed ridiculous to me. Two jumped to the air on their enormous transparent wings, waving their spears.
“Careful,” the Fae girl scolded them, and from the guards’ faces, I got that they weren’t going to downright hunt us, but they did gather around and forced us down from the air.
“There’s an intruder alert, so we’re just doing our job,” one of the guards said quietly. “You! Humans, enchanted birds, or whatever you are, you need to follow us.”
“No, there’s going to—"
The guard flicked his hand up, and my beak clenched shut. I couldn’t open it to speak anymore. From the look on Julian’s face, apparently, he couldn’t either.
“Listen,” the Fae girl tried, but the same guard, a stern-looking young man, silenced her quick with a sharp look and waved her off.
“We have work to do. There’s a threat to be aware of,” he said. “Scoot off, now.”
The girl looked to the other guards, but she got shunning looks, so she muttered ‘sorry’ toward me and turned to go.
We were led to a courtyard of a marble building that seemed to act as a warehouse of some kind, or perhaps training grounds for their army. I stretched my neck looking up. From here, it was easy to see the castle proper floating above, tethered to the ground with a long, golden chain. And highest up, looming above the castle, on top of the highest tower, the Jewel spewed its soothing light, and the green rays seemed to gently fall upon us and the courtyard and all the lands.
It was frustrating to know that Victor could very well be climbing up there any moment — and perhaps already was, if he’d been faster — and we couldn’t even tell the guards. Now, this went perfectly…
“They can’t keep us here,” Julian said. He could talk. Oh! The guards had lifted the curse, when they’d left us here to wait. Julian seemed so worried; I took a step closer. Of course, it was a given, we wanted out, but—
“I’ll switch out any moment,” Julian added with a clenched beak, and only then I got what he meant. He was worried over doing one of his vanishing acts?
“Don’t worry. Then you come back…or don’t, even…You’ve already done so much. I can still stay and do this. Just please come back when you can…”
“No, you don’t understand. I have this gut feeling that if I switch out somewhere outside the reach of the sparkles—the magic sparkles floating from the rose castle—then I might not be able to come back. At all.”
“Why…? Why would you think that?”
“I just know.”
On top of everything else, Julian worried about this? The island was so far out to the sea that it was a long shot that we’d make it there and back within one of Julian’s visits, so he should have thought of this before we left! Maybe he had.
Or had Julian thought he’d rocket back to mainland once we were done?
Then enormous alarms or sirens wailed out, startling us, and the door opened. One guard poked his head inside, taking a look at us, eyes worried.
What was going on?
Unexpectedly, the guard grimaced and clutched his arm, sinking to his knees. Something had hit him from the side. An arrow. An arrow stuck out of his shoulder, and he was frantically scraping for a hold of the wall to stay on his knees and not slump down.
I met Julian’s eyes, and it was as if we knew from each other’s faces what the other was thinking. We jumped up simultaneously and spread our wings, heading out the door. I felt sorry for the guard, but there as nothing we could do.
In the corridor, two guards were down, possibly killed, or just wounded, by the arrows that had hit them. I looked up and wondered if someone wasn’t shooting the arrows from above. The castle and more specifically Jewel tower was towering right above…We didn’t need to talk about it; we began making our way up.
When we got high enough to make out the tower sharper against the pale sky, I spotted the figure climbing the tower wall. A tiny, dark speck. But with my bird eyes I could clearly make out his form. It was a man, climbing with rough, big moves, giant leaps. A human man. And I was sure it was Victor.
Chapter 18
I nodded for Julin to follow, but he simply dashed in front, and I hurried after him.
Victor growled when he saw us.
“Don’t you come close, you flying rats! This here’s delicate stuff! And it’s a long way down. I’ll make pie of you, yet…”
Just for that, I darted at him and pecked at his arm, then somersaulted in the air to get back away from him and better onto my wings.
“Ach,” Victor grunted and freed one hand to take a swing at me. He did have a bow tied to his backpack, and veils of arrows. It didn’t take a genius to connect the dots. Victor had been ruthlessly shooting down at the guards.
Below us, the yard was filling with Fae. Soldiers. Many rose to their wings. But Victor was so close to the Jewel…They might not make it in time. How had Victor managed to sneak in and get to the tower? With the aid of that Fae heart magic Father and Rachel had talked about?
Julian went for a
hit from the other side. Victor had no time to notice and avoid it. I dashed from my direction again. We danced and danced around Victor, stopping him entirely from climbing another inch.
The Fae were closing in. Victor hurried to reach another hold higher up.
Back and forth, Julian and I threw the ball to each other, for the other to attack from a new direction. And then Victor made a fateful error and tried to grab a hold that slipped his fingers.
He jerked in the air, hands swaying, but there was no stopping the motion anymore, and he hurtled down through the air towards the sand floor of the yard below. It was horrible, and I couldn’t look, but he deserved this, and if we hadn’t stopped him, he would have gotten to the Jewel…
A group of guards flocked to where he was about to fall. Swarms of Fae guards shot down head first to plummet after him.
Down in the yard, they spread out a square, white blanket, brilliantly shining in the sunlight, and ran to stretch it from each corner. Just in time before Victor hit it. He bounced high in the air and dove back into it again.
The Fae guards collected him from the folds of the blanket and surrounded him with spears, but Julian and I fled.
Chapter 19
We stood under masses of leaves, ferns, and all sorts of foliage, looking up at what we could see of the sky.
Nobody would find us here, for sure…
“This should be a good spot for you to rest,” Julian said. And he kept saying: for you.
You must rest. You need rest. You need to get some sleep.
And he wasn’t planning to ‘risk falling asleep’ himself. He had gotten this idea into his head that it was dangerous. It worried Julian for to no end that he might ‘switch out’ while we were on the island. He imagined he might not know how to find his way back home, to wherever he disappeared when he could not be with me.
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