by D P Rowell
“What are you picturing?” Ace said.
“My—” Trilo breathed his words. “My—my people. My family. Mom and Dad, they—they.” The white fire appeared again as a pea sized flame and rolled along the surface of Trilo’s palm. “They were taken from me by the council!” the flame left again.
“Try not to think of that yet,” Ace said. “Remember the times when you last saw your family.” Ace quieted his tone and mimicked Trilo’s concentration. The scarred fae's eyes moved around under his eyelids; the rest of his face, composed. The flame of the elyr appeared once more as the size of a pea on his palm. “Open your eyes.”
Trilo did and looked at the flame in his palm. His face grew elated right away and he started laughing hysterically. Pretty soon the flame left again. “That was awesome! How’d you do that?”
“I didn’t do that,” Ace said. “You did. And if you’d learn to control your emotions a little more, you’d be able to do much more.”
“Sorry,” Trilo said as he slowed his breathing, “I just got really excited.”
Ace squinted. “If you’re so excited about this, how did you end up joining the Indies and removing your tattoos?”
Trilo’s face went dark. “I was lied to.”
“Elaborate.”
“I never practiced the elyr as a kid because Breen taught us it was a ‘way of life,’ and not a weapon; and I was taught that the elyr was of the council when I joined the Indies. They told me I had to forget everything I knew about being a fae. I did right away because nothing mattered to me more than getting back at the council for what they did to me. Not even my tattoos.”
“Ah . . .” Ace said, “there lies the explanation of your small flame.” He paused before speaking longer. Lecturing a fae on the ways of the elyr seemed hypocritical in more ways than one. The idea itself of a human instructing a fae was strange enough, but Ace himself had many struggles and only just received his light back from having it taken by his own misuse. Who was he to teach?
“Yeah?” Trilo said with anxious eyes, “What’s the explanation?”
Ace sighed. Trilo didn’t seem bothered by it and an extra elyrian going into Breen couldn’t hurt. He coughed and continued. “You’re conflicted between revenge and justice. While we can sometimes be the messengers, if you will, we are not the enforcers of these things. Both vengeance and justice belong to the Light. Something I’ve had to learn very recently, Trilo, is that the elyr doesn’t come from my own ability, or anything I can do.” Ace sparked a great flame at his right hand and held it before the fae. “It comes from me recognizing and accepting what’s already there, living inside me. Your hatred, your need for revenge, is holding back the Light that's already there.” Trilo’s face went rigid. Ace could see the fae had a hard time accepting the news of how the elyr works. “It’s a little difficult in your circumstance. It seems the same circumstance that prompts you to do good also stirs up emotional strife in—woah!”
The ship hit an air current and rocked in the sky. He and Trilo tumbled for a moment and gathered themselves again.
“So,” Trilo continued, “I need to find another prompting.”
“No, no,” Ace said, “I’ve already told you, you need to let go of your hatred.”
“But I don’t hate the council. I just want them to get what they deserve.”
“No, Trilo, you want to give them what they deserve. I can tell by the look on your face when you talk about them.”
Trilo gritted his teeth and slouched back. “Easy for you to say, you don’t know what the council did to me.”
“Actually, he kinda does,” said a voice from beside them. They turned to find Cameron standing at the edge of the aisle before the lounge area, folding his arms and eyeing the fae. “Our mother was killed by a member of the council. To make things worse, the one who killed her was also a member of our family.”
Trilo stared at Cameron for a moment oddly, then looked at Ace. “And . . . you forgave them?”
Cameron sat down next to them and gently slapped Trilo’s arm. “Who do you think he’s been risking his life trying to save this entire time?”
The fae’s face dropped with astonishment. He turned back to Ace and leaned his neck in. “They killed your mother and you’re trying to save them?”
“Well, I don’t—" Ace went to say, but Cameron butted in.
“Yeah, Trilo. I’d listen to him if I were you. I can tell you, growing up with him I would’ve never expected him to forgive the Peppercorns. But he did. So, trust me . . .” Cameron leaned close and patted the fae’s shoulder. “if he can do it, you can too.” He moved to the bathroom on the other side of the lounge.
“Okay,” Trilo said with an exhale. He closed his eyes and held his hands out, palms to the ceiling. Nothing happened for several moments. Then, two pale flames shot up from Trilo's palms. Quite a contest to the child-sized light from before. Ace took notice of Trilo’s concentration this time around. His face shook, and tears gently spilled from his closed eyes, but he remained steady and in control. This time, he wasn't freaking out out about the—
“Woah! Hey, look at that! Woo!” Trilo had opened his eyes. “Do you see this right now, Ace?”
Ace sighed at Trilo’s childlike joy. Eventually Ace returned the favor as well, and for the first time in a long while, they enjoyed a moment of laughter together. Another elyrian had joined the Israh.
The craft clanked and groaned as they made their descent to the ocean. Cameron gripped the armrest next to Ace tightly, his fingers a bright yellow. The craft slowed as they reached the sea. It rattled when the hover pads kicked in beneath it, but soon the craft’s wings retracted, and they steadily pulled ashore. Ace only caught a glimpse of the beach and a few palms folding over the cream-colored sand out the window.
“Guess we shouldn’t expect a warm welcome,” Trilo said from across the aisle.
Tharuach came from the cockpit and opened the door to allow everyone else out, “No. He said, “we shouldn’t. I’ve landed as far from the Capital as possible while being reasonably close to travel there, but most of the island is populated and someone probably heard us flying in. We need to get off quickly and find a place to hide in the forest before someone sees us. Remember, it’s possible Rio is already here. We could be in for a lot of trouble.”
“Pfft,” Trilo said, “we’re the Israh.” He snapped a pale flame at the tip of his finger and held it before Tharuach. “You see this, yet?”
The tall fae didn’t look amused. “Just get off the hovercraft.” He touched his hand to the plate and the door lifted. They hopped off and marveled at the island of Breen. Ace felt the urge to stay and observe but Tharuach urged them along rightly so. No faes had come to the beach, so they hadn’t been seen yet.
The cream sand beneath them felt like a cloud, and it led to a forest of thick and monstrous trees ahead. The forest ran upward into a range of great hills miles away. Palm trees reached heights of a hundred feet or more, where thin green leaves sprouted, other trees like Ace hadn't seen before, reached fifty to eighty feet tall. They had swollen bodies. Their leaves grew like large, yellow umbrellas, and the way the sunlight fell on them made it appear as if they were laminated or covered in glass. Shrubs of varying colors, and flowers in perfect bloom, sat atop the island floor; all wrapped in weeds with an oddly beautiful appearance. Along the roof of the forest, rays of a dim white light beamed upward where they found spaces between the trees and leaves. Amid the flowers, weeds and swollen trees, crystals housing a white glow scattered about the Land of Faes. Some grew straight off the trees, others grew from the ground, and others sprung like powerful, elyrian needles from the surface of the great rocks and hills of Breen.
The nature of the forest and its beauty puzzled Ace. It resembled New Eathelyn without waterfalls, but the air did not stick, and the heat seemed mild. Yet another thing puzzled him more. In Dorneg, south and across the ocean, the sky kept gloomy, and the air damp and cold. Here, the sun shone bright
and the temperature remained perfect. Had Aunt Kaitlyn’s spell not affected Breen as it had Dorneg? Ace dismissed this concern as the four companions rushed into the forest and Tharuach led them behind a large pile of boulders just beneath one of the swollen trees.
“Hide here . . . quietly,” Tharuach said.
“But there’s no one around,” Ace said.
“Yeah, no one—” Cameron stopped speaking when voices rose audible on the beach. They looked out to the beach, peering around the boulders they hid behind. Faes clothed in mostly gold and some silver rushed to their hovercraft abandoned on the shore. Five guards in a knight-like, golden armor, holding spears with crystal tips, flew down to shore on silver and golden feathered taebans. The mighty beasts roared and smacked against the dirt, then flapped their wings and wiggled their necks as if to shake something off after landing.
“Wait . . .” Trilo said. He turned toward Tharuach. “Faes have taebans in Gathara. Why didn’t we just take one of those?”
“Taebans can only fly a limited distance before requiring rest and water. Overseas is far too long a journey for a taeban,” Tharuach replied.
“Alright, let’s focus,” Cameron said, “We’re here and they know we’re here. What now?”
Ace turned to Tharuach. “Any idea where they’d be keeping the Emerson Stone?”
The male fae nodded. “I think I know where it is.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
The Crystal City
Tharuach swiftly guided them through the cream-colored sandy trails of the fae forest. As they ran through the forest, Ace delighted in the crisp air brushing through his air and grazing his skin. No bugs bit him in this forest, no death beasts chased him. Only a few dragonflies zipped by with glowing white wings.
Most of the roads were vacant, but the tall fae warned them of the many towns outside the Fae Capital they’d be sneaking by. The guards and citizens who checked out their hovercraft on the beach had come from Munlaleh, the beach town, roughly four hours by foot to Unth Illiaroch, the Capital of Breen. They reached an uphill trail and stopped at a small pile of charcoal-colored boulders on the edge.
Before Tharuach spoke, Ace noticed the hum of townspeople on the other side of the boulders. “Munlaleh is just over this ledge here,” the fae said.
“Okay, so we better get moving then,” Cameron said, “What’re we st-
opping for?”
“We’re gonna need some transportation,” Tharuach said.
“What?” Cameron said, “Why didn’t you just fly straight into the city we need to get to?”
“Two reasons,” Tharuach said, “the first is the entire island is a giant forest with no runways, so there’s nowhere to land. The second is we would’ve attracted too much attention flying directly into the capital. We’ll be faster and more inconspicuous on breggards.”
“On what?” Cameron said.
Tharuach gestured with his hand and peered over the boulders. The others joined in. A small village lay below them, at the bottom of a small canyon. It looked like a circle maze from their view, lit by the forest crystals. Homes and merchant stands of cloth, wood, and rough stone wound along the edges of the city. It had several rings of streets, circles within circles, with one large tent in the middle atop a small bump of a hill. Faes of different kinds of robes hustled about the village. The women wore gold and silver skirts and tops over linen wrappings. Most men wore golden and silver, but many wore varying colors; cloth pants and torsos, some sleeveless and some with sleeves as far as their elbows. Children ran about merrily, the women gathered in the gardens surrounding the city, and the men brought game of fish and land beasts hung over their necks and shoulders.
“There,” Tharuach whispered as he pointed. A small barn with fields behind it, extending beyond their vision, lay at the edge of the village. Three fae men rode on beasts with dark gray fur. They resembled a canine from neck to tail, but their feet were hooves like a deer. Their ears grew backwards and floated over well-defined shoulder blades. Their long, thin snouts and peaceful eyes reminded Ace of a fox. Large, gray, hooved foxes. “Those are breggards,” Tharuach said.
“Hold up,” Cameron said. “You want us to somehow sneak into this city and steal one of those things?”
“Four,” Tharuach said, “one for each of us. Well, I guess we could get by with two. It would be more difficult, but it could be done.”
“Why not a taeban?” Ace said.
“It takes skill to ride a taeban, young elyrian. It’s not something I have the time to teach you; besides, two humans and a scarred fae on taebans above Breen? We’d surely pass by other faes in the air and raise suspicions. On breggards, we can pass by swiftly by unnoticed. The roads are less populated than the sky in Breen.”
“Breggard or taeban doesn’t matter,” Cameron said. “I thought we didn’t have any time.”
“Precisely why we need to get faster transportation.”
“Well how much time will it take us to get into the city unnoticed? And what if we get caught? I don’t like this idea one bit.”
“The time we lose here will be more than made up for with breggards taking us there. And if we take four hours to walk to Unth Illiaroch, we will definitely get caught. By Rio. Besides, I’m less likely to be noticed in the city and—”
“I don’t like this one bit . . .” Cameron said.
Cameron went on explaining more of how he thought it such a bad idea. Ace sat silently and watched the debate, having trouble choosing a side himself. Both sides made sense and they needed—
“Guys!” Ace said. Each of them stopped and looked at him. “Where’s Trilo?”
They looked around and noticed the fae had disappeared. They slowly rose to their feet and looked into the forest.
“I didn’t see him wander off,” Cameron said, “Where could he’ve gone to?”
“Who, me?” Trilo said. Everyone turned around to find the fae walking up the hill with three . . . three breggards? He walked them confidently, leading them by the reins in his hand.
“What the . . .” Cameron said.
Trilo chuckled. “You guys were so busy arguing you didn’t notice these guys tied to the hitching rail at the bottom of the hill.” The fae walked up, handed one of the reins to Tharuach and stepped back. “Now,” he said, “which two of us is gonna share?”
Since Trilo had the least experience riding, and Tharuach had the most, they were paired together on the same breggard. The large foxes ran like bullets through the crystal forest. Their fur grew in clumps thick enough to grab onto for support. Good thing, too, otherwise Ace might have fallen off. They must have been traveling at forty miles an hour. Moments occurred where the breggards leapt over boulders and branches littered in the road; or they ran under a thick branch and the companions had to duck and bury their faces in the breggard’s mane to avoid getting smacked. Ace grew fearful a few times during the travel, not having been used to riding such quick beasts. But he got the hang of it soon enough.
The forest only became more beautiful the further they traveled. As they traveled up and down the hills on the edge of the small mountains, villages and towns of varying sizes lay under and above them on either side of the road. The towns became more frequent and closer together, and more faes zipped by them on other breggards. Moving at the speed they were, it enabled them to pass by without much danger of being noticed as outsiders. Ace delighted in having the quick beasts to travel by once he became aware of how much more difficult it would’ve been to sneak by as they passed by the heavier populated towns. But as they traveled along, even dressed as they were, the residents and townspeople paid them no mind, as they would any other fae traveling on breggards through the crystal forest. He glanced up when taebans soared overhead. Tharuach had been right to suggest breggards rather than the flying beasts, hundreds populated the sky.
Anxiousness stirred within him the closer they got. Everything he’d been trying to accomplish since giving the stone to Rio suddenly b
ecame a possibility. Kareena, Sebastian, and Father were here in Breen, needing to be rescued. The Emerson Stone waited for him in a cave, where he could take it back. Aunt Kaitlyn may be there, and he could get one step closer to finding his cousins. But, most of all, the drake himself might be there. The dark warlock who stole Ace’s life from him. He gripped tighter on the breggard’s mane as the image of the drake came to mind. But he loosened his grip when another thought occurred.
“Vengeance and justice belong to the Light,” he remembered his words to Trilo. He calmed himself and stayed focused on the mission. Getting the stone back was most important. But, if he and the drake should face one another, he knew Emery would come through for him. Despite everyone telling him he wasn’t ready. They were right of course. He wasn’t ready.
But Emery is.
Tharuach took an unexpected turn off road and uphill; the other breggards followed. The tall fae slowed his mount and the others followed his lead. When they came to a grove of colorful shrubs and crystals, Tharuach and Trilo leapt off their breggard and The Halder brothers followed. He released the animals into the forest.
“Aren’t we going to need those?” Ace said.
Tharuach shook his head, “Breggards always return to the nearest population when released. They need water and food. If we leave them tied up here, they will be unfit to travel by the time we get back. We’re gonna have to get out of here some other way.”
“But we need to get there first,” Cameron said.
Tharuach smirked. “We are.” Before anyone could contest him, he stepped inside the grove of colorful shrubbery. Ace, Cameron, and Trilo shrugged at each other. One by one, they followed the tall fae’s lead into the shrub. The leaves should’ve been prickly, or the branches should’ve scratched, but Ace felt nothing but the soft touch of life on his skin as he squeezed through the bushes.
