Chapter 8
“I don’t want to die for you,” Amar shouted.
“Then don’t follow,” she shouted back at him without even looking over her shoulder back at him. “Leave me alone. You, too, Kriss. Stop following me. The last thing I need is the blood of my two friends on my hands, too.”
“Maxine,” Kriss shouted, practically running to keep up with her wide gait, “I wish you would calm down. Look, this isn’t the sort of place that you just want to barrel through. We really need to be more cautious than this.”
I don’t give a damn, she thought. She was so angry that she didn’t even want to be bothered with the notion of magic and all of its myriad of possibilities.
She felt Amar grab her arm roughly from behind trying to jerk her to a stop. Instead she used the inertia of her sudden stop to whirl around swinging out at him. He dropped his pole and caught her fist in his hand, but instead of making it stop, he let her punch follow through, redirecting it around. She gasped as he managed to get her whirled back around facing in the other direction, wrapping her left arm around her body and then grabbing her in a bear hug, locking her arms in place. She gasped at the maneuver and the feel of him pressing down hard on her from behind bending her forward so that she had no way to budge. She picked up her foot and tried to stamp it down on his but he backed up too quickly and her foot hit only dirt.
“Don’t make me wrestle you to the ground,” he snarled in her ear, breathing heavily from the exertion of pinning her.
“Let me go, Amar!” she screamed.
“No,” he said, fighting with her when she increased her struggles again. “I’m not going to let you just do this to yourself. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
“What do you care?” she demanded angrily.
“I don’t, but I know what I saw that night in Ailis City. You stopped that demon, Maxine, and did things no one else should be able to do. People like my aunt Alain need to be stopped. I know you’re scared and desperate for answers, but getting yourself killed isn’t going to help, either. People will still die because you weren’t there to save them. When you figure out your magic Alain and all of those other people are not going to have any control over you. You’re going to protect people. Now stop and calm down.”
She stopped struggling, breathing heavily, exhaustion starting to set in. “I’m still going to the Fairy Kingdom,” she said after a moment, refusing to give up.
“That’s fine, but running in foolishly is only going to get you killed. It’s also getting dark out. Let’s make camp and we’ll start first thing tomorrow. You’ll be more level headed then, too.”
She swallowed wanting desperately to protest some more, but relaxed her body, conceding, and Amar finally let her go. He bent down and picked up his pole, running a hand through his hair to push back the locks that had fallen into his eyes. “Damn you’re the most stubborn girl I’ve ever dealt with,” he said, turning around and walking away giving Kriss some quick commands, the two boys falling into the now-familiar habit of making camp.
Maxine took first watch, the norm that was set by Amar remarking that the first watch was easiest with less of a chance of anything happening. She climbed up into the nearest tree and watched the two boys as they slept. So far resting had done nothing to resolve her feelings. She still felt filled with anger and so much doubt. What Amar had said earlier was probably the first nicest thing he had ever said to her, but she didn’t even feel that she deserved those sorts of words being said about her. Her? Protect people? Not when she was in danger of killing them.
She turned her head and caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. She looked up and over at it her eyes settling on a soft blue light in the distance, somewhere far off in the thickest part of some overgrowth not far away. Wondering what it might be, she slid down out of her tree, and quietly headed in the direction of the light, trying not to disturb the two boys.
She pushed through the woods, the forest not as hard to see at night as she had thought that it might be. There was strange glowing fungi everywhere growing on trees, and even the giant toadstools she was coming across seemed to glow with an ethereal light. The Threads from the Thread rings around these objects hummed with a soothing song.
The blue light was farther off than she thought as she continued to chase after it. She had only traveled several minutes into the woods, thinking each time that she was almost there. She really should go back towards Amar and Kriss. Amar would yell at her if he thought that she had just gone running off. They weren’t that far into the Fairy Woods – only an hour’s worth of travel – but it was still ‘far enough to be weary’ according to the Warlock. Kriss had only rolled his eyes at Amar and told him to trust him, reminding them all again that he was born in such an enchanted forest himself. They were fine, he insisted.
When she slipped on a patch of thick undergrowth, entangling her cloak up in a patch of thorns she decided finally to give up on the strange blue light. Who knew where it was coming from, she thought angrily. This was ridiculous. Freeing herself from the thorns she turned around and started back for the camp – but froze evenbefore taking her third step.
Her eyes widened as she looked around desperately, fear filling the pit of her stomach. She had no idea where she was. She might not know as much about the forest as Kriss, but she was from the desert and considered herself as skilled as any other tracker. As she had walkedthrough the forest she had kept a careful eye for familiar sightings and landmarks. She saw none of those now. She was not where she had just come through – she was sure of it.
For the first time she looked down and noticed something strange on the forest floor. She bent down and ran her hand over the leaves on the forest floor, uncovering a strange network of white Threads. She closed her eyes and stared down at the floor through that window in the back of her mind. Without the obstructions from the real world she could see every single Thread in the air for miles away – and the forest floor was covered with a thick entanglement of white Threads.
She gaped at it trying to make sense of it when she heard the soft call of her name somewhere in the far distance. She recognized Kriss’s voice shouting, but it didn’t make sense. He sounded miles away.
Oh Elementals! She gasped in her mind.
She had foolishly wandered into an enchantment. She collapsed to her knees panicking, jamming her eyes shut and covering her ears, her heart racing in her chest. No, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. Why hadn’t she just stayed put?
Getting herself calmed down she stood back up, her body still trembling. She could now hear Amar’s voice in the distance. Licking her lips she drew in a deep breath and called out their names. Pulling her courage together she took a step in their direction, but now that she knew the web was there she could hear it humming and pulsing. As soon as she touched her foot down she knew she was not going to be here but somewhere else.
Now Kriss and Amar sounded like they were on the other side of her. “Help me!” she screamed, her panic getting the best of her again.
She looked upwards and got an ingenious idea. Reaching up, keeping her feet off of the earth, she grabbed the closest hanging branch and began pulling herself up hand over hand into the tree. She had almost made it into the boughs of the tree when the limb that she had been climbing snapped. She fell with a scream, hitting her head on the earth. She sat up and looked around. This time she was much farther away on the edge of a steep cliff.
She got to her feet brushing herself off and took another step, but this time instead of the traveling spell, she stepped into a bed of pearl white lilies that were glowing in the moonlight. She froze at the feeling of magic, tiny white Threads, seeped into her skin and dissolved. Oh stars! Just when she didn’t think it could get any worse. She quickly stumbled back away from the edge of the cliff, putting a lot of space in between her and the flowers. Fortunately there did not seem to be any sign of the strange network of Threads that had misdirected her so badly.
Whatever the flowers had done, she didn’t feel any different. She stumbled through the forest, carefully analyzing every step she took and shouting Kriss’s and Amar’s names. And then her vision suddenly doubled. She shook her head and the world swam in front of her eyes for a while before she was able to pull things back into focus again. Had it done something to her eyes? No… this felt more like it was in her head.
Blinking and trying to force herself together, she stumbled forward, trying to walk again. She had to find a way back to Kriss and Amar, she thought. She walked barely able to keep herself together, a strange sort of exhaustion starting to overcome her. She could feel her energy being sapped with every step, every footfall feeling heavier. Her mind was slowly clouding over, too, and the double vision had returned. She felt as if she could sleep for about a thousand years. But something inside of her told her this was not a very good place to sleep. She had to find her friends. She had to find the fairies.She had to find Elemental Remus.
The world began to spin around her. Around and around… she could no longer make sense of anything. Up was down and down was up. The sky was the ground and she was standing amongst the stars. She lost where she was going when her foot suddenly slipped and she felt herself suddenly growing weightless, feeling as if she were falling.
Was she falling? What was she… falling from?
Thoughts of broken wings, burning shoulder blades, and white feathers floating through the air filled her mind. Somewhere in the distance for just a moment she thought she heard the sound of wings flapping in the air. She closed her eyes and let that sound flood through her senses and lost her mind to it.
***
She woke up to the sound of even breathing, surrounded by a fluffy blanket in a bed that was deep and comfortable. Shifting slightly she felt the breath on her cheeks, so close and peaceful. For a moment she wondered if maybe it was Brother and pulled a little closer, but something wasn’t quite right. Brother smelled like cinnamon. This person smelled like fresh earth, like when she was digging through the mud in the morning searching for worms for fish bait.
She opened her eyes, batting them to clear them and took a look at the person beside her. She jerked and froze at the sight of Amar, her heart suddenly racing. What the hell was she doing in bed with a boy – with Amar?! Swallowing she edged back away from him staring at him and trying to comprehend the situation. In all honesty sleeping-Amar didn’t appear to be as cold as awake-Amar. His face that was normally pulled back in hate and disgust was relaxed and peaceful. He looked pathetically normal, like one of the boys at the orphanage she had slept on the floor with because there was no money for beds. She would even go so far to admit that he actually looked kinda cute and that thought only made this situation even more awkward.
Wondering how much success she might have slipping out of the bed without waking him he groaned and shifted, stretching and yawning. Her heart started to beat even faster. No no no, stay asleep! She swallowed and was about to sit up when his eyes opened and met hers. Instantly his eyes went wide as saucers and he jerked back violently. With a shout he toppled over the edge of the bed, crashing to the floor, getting tangled in the blanket and pulling it off with him.
“Amar!” she gasped, leaning over the bed and checking on him.
He fought with the blanket to untangle himself. “What the hell was I doing in the same bed as you?” he demanded.
So much for him being peaceful or cute, she thought. “How should I know?” she retorted.
“I’m here, too,” Kriss said behind her. “Looks like we were all dumped into the same bed. You missed your chance, Maxine. You shoulda smothered him with a pillow.”
She turned and gave him a dirty look. “Not helping,” she growled at him. “Where are we and what happened? The last thing I remember… I think was falling.”
Amar finally got up to his feet and gave Kriss a dark look. “We wandered into some flowers that cast a sleep spell on us. Good job on that keeping-us-safe part, sprite. I thought we were dead for sure that time.” He then turned to her, his blue eyes filled with anger.“Damn you,” he shouted at her.
Waves of guilt swept through her. She had no response for that. She had almost gotten them all killed. They would have died for her. More people that she had hurt. There really must something very very wrong with her she thought miserably. Was whatever it was starting to get out of control? She really needed to get in touch with Elemental Remus, she thought, the urgency pressing down on her.
“We’re in D’yalia,” Kriss shouted suddenly. “We’re in the Fairy Kingdom!”
Maxine looked around in awe as she took in her surroundings for the first time. They were in a room with huge beds set up lining the walls as if it were some sort of communal sleeping area. The walls glowed with a bluish white light and the floors were a deep blue traced with veins of green as if the floor was organic in some way. In vases were the same sort of flora that she had seen in the forest, including the strange glowing fungi that gleamed with a bright yellow light. There were two high arched doorways on either side of the room that spanned the whole wall. There were no doors, just strange flowing white tendrils of moss that streamed close to the floor, sparkling in the light that seemed to emanate from the walls themselves.
As the three of them stared around themselves the moss was pushed back by a long slender hand and a woman stepped slowly into the room. Bright-colored, three-inch humans fluttered around her on tiny waspish wings. The woman was easily six feet tall, dressed in a skin tight gray gown that was unadorned. Sitting atop her pale white hair was a glistening crown that looked like gnarled branches twisted together to form a ring.
As soon as Kriss spun around and laid eyes on her he dropped down into a deep bow dropping his head. “Queen Maeve,” he gasped. “This is an honor.”
Maeve’s eyes slipped from away the sprite taking Amar in next, but neither boy held her interest, as she seemed to be searching. As soon as her eyes fell on Maxine, though, the queen’s gray eyes seemed to light up and a wide smile cross her face. “Lord Drakkar,” she said breathlessly, bowing deeply.
Maxine felt herself grow pale. The queen of the fairies was bowing to her?! She licked her lips nervously and hurriedly slipped out of the bed. “Ummm,” she said hesitantly. “S-sorry, my name is Maxine Alciard,” she introduced herself clumsily.
“You need not introduce yourself to me, Lord Drakkar,” she said with a small shake of her head. “I knew you very well. It is honor to receive you once again. As before my home is yours as it will always be.”