Magic Underground: The Complete Collection (Magic Underground Anthologies Book 4)

by Melinda Kucsera

  That’s when Fallon tried to rush back out the door, but her mother and Celeste restrained her.

  “There’s nowhere to go,” the queen said. “If you go that way you’re going to be killed. We can’t have that. I can’t lose another member of this family. Not tonight.”

  “But what if I come back and you’re gone?” Fallon asked. “What if there’s another siege when I get back. What if I don’t even make it back? The prince has left me. Father’s dead because of me. I can’t lose you two. You’re all I have left.”

  “Well,” the queen said. “If you stay here then you’re certainly going to die and lose both of us. It’s your only chance. While you’re gone, I’ll find out why this is happening and kill whoever is after you.”

  “You don’t know who’s doing this?” Fallon asked with wide eyes. “It’s been ten years.”

  “We know who the army is,” the queen answered. “They’re from the southern lands. Sellswords who came up from past the Black River to get here. We knew they were moving again this time, but we had no way to stop them. They’re too many, too strong… but we’ll build our army for next time. And we’ll find out who’s behind their gold and make them pay dearly.”

  It was then that they heard the first screams from further down within the keep, and the ringing out of sword clashing against sword swelled up from within the stone walls.

  “Hurry now, princess,” the handmaiden urged. “There’s no time.”

  “No! No! I’d rather die than go back there and come back here after another ten years to more of this. I’m not going. I’ll stand my ground. I’ll…”

  “Your father died so that you could stay safe,” the queen stammered. “That’s all he ever wanted, was to keep you safe from danger. You, my sweet girl, were and are the most precious thing in both our lives. Ever since I first held you in my arms the day you were born. You were brighter than the afternoon sun, more loving than every grandmother in these lands, and more of a gift than even the greatest gods have ever received. I’ll not live to watch you die in cold blood in our own castle. Now pull yourself together and give me the time I need to figure out what is happening here and put an end to it before it starts again.” She took a deep breath. “We can be happy together again, but not right now, not…”

  The armored soldiers were heard running up toward her room.

  “Now, go, Fallon,” the queen said.

  “Yes,” Celeste said. “There’s no time. Do it for your mother. Go so that you may live.”

  Fallon took a solemn step toward the black obelisk with her head down. She didn’t even want to look at it. The fighting was just outside of the door to her room as she stood in front of the sharply cut obelisk that stood her height.

  “Hurry,” the queen said as one of their soldiers let out a gagging scream, and they heard the sound of metal cutting into flesh.

  Fallon reached up and put both hands on its cold sides. I really don’t want to do this. But there’s no other way. They may even kill mother. But if I do, then they’ll leave again. I pray they just leave…

  “Goodbye,” she said, looking back at the queen and Celeste holding each other.

  “Wait,” the queen said as she ran up to Fallon’s side, kissing her on the cheek one last time as the princess felt her tears on her wet cheeks. “I love you. No matter what happens, I’ll think about you every day. You’re my only daughter, and the most precious thing in my life. Take care sweetie. Be safe.”

  Fallon nodded, as the soldiers stormed into the room.

  “Hurry,” one soldier yelled. “Get her now!”

  The princess gazed into the matte, dark stone, with both hands around it once more.

  The soldiers were nearly upon her, with their eyes a raging, war-red and their swords wet with blood.

  “I love you, Mother, and I’ll think of you every second of every day… Evernochtis briten everness,” she said. That same power as the first time she used the stone roared into her arms and shoulders, causing a bright, blinding light to beam from the obelisk. And then… there was nothing.

  Chapter Two

  Her feet were swallowed up in a murky, dark-blue water that reminded her of days when she was a young girl and of all the butterflies that flew in the creeks behind the castle. A whimsical melody echoed through with the winds in the warm evening air. Fallon looked from side to side as she shivered in her damp, silken dress that was absorbing the ankle-deep water.

  Fallon rubbed her arms and shook from the chill—and the thick, sliminess of the bog.

  Why am I here again? Why? I just want to see my mother’s face again. I just want to be home. She had no idea of what direction to head in, all she knew was that her father was dead, causing a deep, aching pain in her soul, and her mother was going to be another ten years older by the time she went back. And from the last time she was in the Fae—she knew that her life wouldn’t be the same after.

  Regardless, she knew that she couldn’t stay in the dark swamp, so she walked up onto the shore with sticks that tried their best to prick through her leather shoes. She walked up the banks of the murky bog toward the best sunlight that crept through.

  My life… what has it been for… what is being alive worth for this…?

  The bright light of a fairy breezed through the dark trees, weaving their way to her. “Princess Fallon. I’m so glad you’ve returned. You’ve been gone such a long time. Such a long time indeed,” Pip the fairy said with her blue wings fluttering. “Come, come now. You’ll be so pleased at what we have in store for you. There’s so much to see here. So much that’s going to show you what life can be here. After you see Antoline again… he’s going to show you everything!”

  She grabbed the princess’ hand in her own tiny hand and pulled her forward into the wet, dark bog. The chattering of large insects filled the forest as they strode through it—weaving in and out of dark, wet trees. Many looming, bright eyes peered from the darkness, slipping between thin tree trunks as they made their way up from the water.

  I don’t want to be here. I want to be back home…

  “I’m so glad you’ve returned,” Pip said with her body glistening in the moonlight. “We need you here. You’re safe here. Please tell me what happened in your world. It’s been so long since you’ve been away.”

  Pip hadn’t seemed to age a day since she’d gone. But do fairies age anyways?

  A familiar face appeared through the brush, a long face with dark eyes like marbles, yet handsome and loving. “I’ve waited so long to see you again,” he said with a sweet voice.

  “Antoline,” she said. “I thought it would have been longer before we’d have met again.”

  “Fallon, there’s so much to see. So much to explore in our world. You’re going to be so happy here. Just like I promised Shadine.”

  “But this isn’t my world,” Fallon said, waving her arms around furiously. “This is your world. Not mine.”

  “But this is our world,” he said with a wondrous smile. “This is your safe place to rest, and the place you are to be safe. There’s so much to see. So much beauty in this world.”

  His smile was genuine, and his eyes were loving and warm—they reminded her of the prince who’d gone off in her absence. She still missed him dearly.

  “Come,” Antoline said with his hand extended. “It’s mating season for the pixies. At night, you’d think you’re witnessing the lights of the gods streaming through the sky like streaks of fire.”

  This can’t be real. I can’t be back here again. My family needs me back home. I can’t be wasting time!

  Fury welled up inside her like a burning, hot coal in the center of her chest. She lurched forward, grabbing his massive shoulders in her arms with her fingernails digging in.

  “What is going on, here?” she demanded. His kind eyes grew dim and frail.

  “I—” he stammered.

  “Why am I here? You know more than you’re telling me! The wizard Shadine told you to keep me safe here
until I can return home… what else did the old man tell you? You know what happened when I went back? Do you?”

  He shook his head with his large horns sweeping through the air.

  “They were after the castle again… they were after me! How’d they know I was going to be there at that exact day? Tell me! Tell me!”

  She thrashed her arms, sending his strong frame rushing back and forth.

  “Tell me why I’m here again! Tell me how I can get back home. My father… my father died because I was here,” she sobbed with heavy tears rolling down her cheeks. “I was here, and he died. My king is dead.”

  Her head fell onto his chest, and she cried gut-wrenching tears as he wrapped his arms around her.

  “I— I don’t know,” he said softly and kindly. “I don’t know why you had to return here. And for your father’s passing… I’m sorry. May his soul find his way to the resting place of his ancestors.”

  “There has to be a reason,” she said with her head still in his chest at Pip watched with her wings fluttering.

  “There’s more to this world than the things we see in front of our faces,” he said, and dipping his head down to whisper into her ear. “There’s no way to leave the Fae until your time is spent. Now try to enjoy your time here, and trust that your family will be safe, without you there.”

  What did he mean, ‘without me there?’

  But she knew he was right. She had to spend her ten years there before she could travel home. But that didn’t mean she was going to not try to find a way…

  Princess Fallon sighed, not taking his hand, but walking off with him out of the swamp. She had no choice but to spend another decade in that place, and what was she going to do—stand knee-deep in a wet, stinking bog?

  They crossed sand and sea to get to the place he’d told her about, and as if strolling through a vivid—yet whimsical—dream she found herself standing in the middle of a valley with two rolling hills on both sides and a great elm at its center. He grinned, eager to see her response.

  And just as if the leader of a musical quartet raised his baton and let it sway before her, the pixies lit up in wondrous colors of every shade of the rainbow. They clung to the elm making it glow under the moonless sky like a gleaming oasis in the dry desert.

  “Do you like it?” he asked in a kind voice.

  Just then the pixies shot out from the tree in a magnificent array of dazzling streaks of color in almost a sort of floral pattern.

  “It’s beautiful,” she said, brushing her blond hair back behind her ears.

  “I knew you’d like it,” Antoline said.

  That stood there a long while gazing up at the trails of glowing pixies flowing around each other.

  “What was it like?” Antoline asked, scratching the stubble on his neck. “What was it like back in your world?”

  Her heart sank as she snapped back into the moment, remembering her father’s passing. Knowing that he would never be able to wrap his arms around her again and tell her that ‘everything is going to be okay,’ because then she knew the real truth—nothing was okay.

  “I don’t know what’s real anymore,” she said, rubbing her eyes as if waking from a dream. “I don’t even know if I’ve been back or I just dreamt it.”

  Antoline listened, nodding. She looked up at him and noticed his white horns had grown since she’d last laid her eyes upon him—his auburn hair had grown too. Pip landed on her shoulder and scratched her back with her tiny hands.

  “Take time here to rest,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about anything here. Pip and I will take care of you. Nothing can harm you.”

  “They knew I was going to be back at the castle when I was,” Fallon said. “They were already there, waiting… what if that happens again? I can’t keep doing this, I can’t do this again.”

  “You mean…?” he moaned. “You don’t like it here? I can show you something else, I can show you—”

  “I didn’t mean that,” she said with her head lowered. “I just miss my home.”

  There was another long silence as the princess wept.

  Suddenly, as she raised her head, she saw that the valley was brilliantly lit in a warm, summer light. The light of the pixies had gone, and the elm at the end of the valley swayed in the breeze.

  “Well, we rather enjoy you here.” Antoline winked. “We don’t get many visitors here.”

  “Let’s go show her something else,” Pip said in a sweet voice.

  “Yes, yes!” Antoline said, standing back up. “Off we go. We’ll find something to cheer you up! The wizard would want us to while we keep you safe. We’ll get a smile back on your face, I promise!”

  Fallon rose to her feet and off they went. Along the way she saw great griffins fly overhead, three-headed snakes slither by, and even a small dragon by the name of Fallon, who was herself not as pleasant as the princess had hoped.

  Eventually, they found themselves at the top of a mighty mountain, looking down upon a sparkling sea that went on as far as she could see until it met the orange, fiery sky.

  “Where are we now?” she asked as her hair ripped behind her with the rushing mountain winds flying past.

  “At the edge of the Fae,” he said with Pip perched upon his strong shoulder. “Isn’t it exquisite?”

  Fallon took a deep breath and let the salty air fill her nostrils.

  “It’s lovely,” she said, thinking about her aging mother in her world. She thought about all of the worry her mother must have over her: struggling to find who was after her, how to defeat that evil, and worrying if Fallon was to even survive her time in the fairy world.

  “I thought you’d like it,” Antoline said. “This is one of my very favorite places to sit and ponder.”

  “Antoline,” Fallon said, inching her feet forward to the edge of the cliff. “If I were to…”

  She felt Antoline’s arms ready to reach out if need be.

  “Just stay where you are,” he said in a soothing voice. “Just relax and enjoy the view.”

  “If… If I were to leap—,” she said as a surging wind pushed her back. “Would I die?”

  His presence was a stern, ominous one then. “I can’t let you do that.” His voice was deep, with a hiss like a snake.

  “What?” she turned in surprise at the tone in his voice like she’d never heard before. At first his face was dark as if concealed in shadow but lightened with a smile once he snapped back to his charming appearance.

  “I made a promise to a powerful, knowing wizard,” he said. “I don’t break promises.”

  She looked back down the steep peak and the brittle rocks below that flowed down to the crashing waves of the sparkling sea. “I’m not going to,” she said. “I just was curious if I can die here… In the Fae, I mean.”

  “Let’s go find another adventure,” Pip said in a light-hearted voice. “What’s another thing we can show her?”

  Antoline extended his hand again for Fallon to take.

  “Please,” she said with both her arms outstretched at her sides. “Answer my question. I fear I may live an eternity in your world if every time I go back to the same war happening in my world. I wasn’t meant to live my whole life here. I have a family back there. They need me. And I need them.”

  “Can’t we be your family here?” Antoline asked, shocking Princess Fallon.

  “What?” she gasped.

  “You’ve been here for so many years with Pip and I,” he said. “Can’t we be a family too for you?” His dark eyes were gentle and kind.

  “Well, yes,” she said, not wanting to offend her protector, so named by the wizard Fallon had only met briefly when she was a young girl. “But I miss my mother, and my handmaiden. She’s my mother after all, and a mother and daughter’s bond is like no other.”

  “Yes, yes,” he said. “I understand.”

  “But please,” Fallon said. “Please answer my question.”

  He sighed with a deep exhale.

  �
�Death here is not like death in your world.”

  “What’s it like then? Explain it to me.”

  “We don’t really talk about these things here,” he said. “The Fae is a magical place where anything can happen, and usually does.”

  “What about the Centurine?” she asked. “You were startled when I came upon the cursed wizard who turned into that lake in the desert. What happens there? What happens if you dip your fingertips into the waters with the silver-haired maiden who sings her lovely tunes?”

  “A misery worse than death,” he answered. “Souls don’t leave the land of the Fae; I’ll just say that. They either go to a warm place, or a deep, deep, dark place.”

  “Isn’t that the same as my world? That’s what I’ve always been taught growing up.”

  “No.” He shook his head with his long, white horns swaying from side to side.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “None do, even here,” he said. “Now let’s not think of such morbid things. We don’t have much time left you see…”

  “How much time do I have left then?” she asked.

  “Three years, give or take,” Pip said, fluttering her wings. “We’ve got so much more to show you.”

  “Seven years?” she murmured. “I’ve been here seven years?”

  Chapter Three

  Princess Fallon lay in a hammock of silk hung between two birch trees, looking up at a bright blue sky with pillowy, white clouds as the air was warm and her skin was bathed in wonderful sunlight. She wasn’t sure how she’d gotten to the spot she was, but she was certain of one thing—she wanted to get home.

  “Isn’t this lovely?” Pip fluttered overhead with her nude body and blue, butterfly wings.

  Fallon nodded.

  “Pip, how much longer until I go back to my world?”

  “Don’t think about that now,” the fairy said. “Enjoy our time while we can.”

  “It’s been pleasurable, but—I’m just wondering…”

  It was then Antoline walked up to the hammock, startling Fallon by his great size and his horns rising high toward the sky. “Rested?” he asked in a low voice.