“The original fey?”
“Yes, the one first gifted with magics, able to call on the angels for favours and change the world around them. Do you not know of the firsts?”
“We know of the Stail, is this who you speak of?”
“Ah, yes I do believe so.”
“So, you think I am like the Stail?’
He shook his head a little. “Not exactly, but you are powerful.”
Traflier thought back to that day again, not just to the opening of the gateway, back to being stuck inside the stables, commanding the horse to open the door and having it obey him. Did it do what I asked because I asked, or did I make it do it with my command? I was only a child. But I did open the gateway. “What do you now about conversing with other realm creatures. Is that something a cast can be used for?”
“Not a favour of the angels, but a power it is, yes. Many fey could speak with fabled beings.”
“No, not Fabled. Creatures, like a lower creature, a pet, even?”
“I am not sure, we don’t watch all the time so it may have occurred, but not often enough to draw our attention. Why do you ask?”
Traflier looked away to where his daughter played. “No reason, it is silly really, a memory of something more dream than fact I am sure.”
“I really am impressed with all you have accomplished, Traflier. You have mastered each and every cast.”
“I have been able to alter them too.”
Mortimer frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Here, I will show you.”
Traflier knelt down and placed his hand over the grass. “The cast you showed me, how to give it some of my power to make it stronger. Well, I reversed it.”
“You did what?” Mortimer asked as he watched in disbelief as Traflier removed his hand and revealed the blackened dirt below. He had taken all the life from the grass immediately below his hand.
“What have you done?”
“I thought you would be impressed. I altered an existing cast into something new. I created a cast.”
“What you have done is turn a magic of light into something dark.”
“No, not dark. It is still light. It is just different now.”
“No, it is not just different Traflier. You have perverted the magics. You have gone against everything the angels, the Stail, the fey believe in.”
“I thought you would be excited.”
“I can’t be a part of this anymore. I shouldn’t have come.”
“Wait, it isn’t bad. Imagine what we could do for the fey with this much power. What we could do for all the fabled.”
“I don’t know how you changed it, but it isn’t light. I will not help you anymore. I am sorry. Goodbye.” And he left. Mortimer disappeared.
Traflier looked over to where he could see the blonde curls of his daughter’s hair bounce through the tall grass, she remained unaware of Mortimer even up to this last day. His presence only seen by Traflier himself.
Is it really so bad? I mean, it is only grass. He tried to shake off the guilty feeling, but it wanted to cling like tree sap to his skin, and made him feel itchy all over.
“Grace, let’s go find your mother.”
Grace dashed from the flowers and to him in only a moment, always excited to collect her mother from her duties with the ill, tired, and old.
On their return home, Grace reminded her parents of the deal to spend a day in the human realm with them. Annabella was initially surprised by Traflier’s promise to Grace. She knew how nervous the human world made him. Though he had gotten better over the years and they visited regularly, never for more than an hour or two, always to low populated areas, and certainly not for an entire day.
“I have tomorrow off sage duty, so we could go then if you like?” Annabella suggested, picking up her daughter and spinning her around once before bringing her in for a tight hug.
“Oh yes please, Mummy. Daddy, can we go tomorrow?”
“Absolutely. Now I think it is time for bed.”
Grace yawned and Traflier picked her up and carried her down to her room. Laying her down in her bed she whispered, “I love you, Daddy.”
“I love you more,” he whispered back and kissed her on the forehead.
***
“ARE YOU SURE YOU want to go for a whole day?” Annabella asked Traflier as she packed some berries into the picnic basket. “I am sure she wouldn’t mind if we split it over a few days. We could go to the beach this morning, the park tomorrow, and then the following evening see the sunset and the stars.”
Traflier shook his head. “I promised her a day, and I will not deny her a promise. I need a break from all of this anyway. Don’t you?”
She smiled sweetly at him, the corners of her blue eyes showing the lines of a happy life. “Very well, I’ll finish this if you want to grab a blanket for the picnic and maybe a few scrolls to read at the beach. I found a few old scrolls the other day and placed them by your desk. Did you see?”
“No, I haven’t been in there in days, I’ll grab them now. Where did you say you found them?” He walked down the hallway to his study.
She called down to him, “I went looking for that healing cast again, those scrolls were squashed behind others in various sections. Just like our beach one had been until we found it. I have searched for missing scrolls in at least half of the library by now, and still so many tubes to look through.”
“And you haven’t had to be rescued even once,” Traflier joked.
“I made a claw thing that I can shove up the tubes and grip a scroll if there is one, so I don’t have to shove my arm up at all smart arse.”
Traflier held three scrolls under one arm and a blanket held in the other as he returned to the kitchen. Annabella placed a lidded jug of berry juice into the basket then took the blanket from him and used it to cover all of the items, tucking the edges in so that the blanket wouldn’t slip away.
“We will leave this with the gate guard and collect it before heading to the park. We won’t need it this morning, don’t you think?” Traflier asked her.
“Sounds good to me.”
“Grace, are you ready for a day of adventure?”
“All ready,” she sang out as she leapt through the doorway and into her father’s arms. He dropped the scrolls and lifted her high into the air.
“Today is all for you, my Grace. Maybe today we will see some dolphins?”
“Oh, do you think we will, Daddy?”
“Only one way to find out, come on. Let’s go to the beach.”
The beach glistened in perfect white as the crisp blue waters rushed and crashed against the sand in clouds of white water. Grace dashed towards it, immediately reaching beneath to collect shells. Traflier and Annabella took a seat on a grass mat they had woven over the years and left for their visits.
“We should really share this place with the other fey, it is too good a secret to keep, right?”
Traflier shook his head. “This can be for her, and any other children we have.”
“Oh, so we are having more, are we?” Annabella giggled beside him.
“I was thinking it was maybe a good time to extend our family?”
“I was hoping you would ask me soon. I have been wanting to talk to you about it for a while now. Seeing all the babies being born with the other sages, it just makes me want another baby even more.”
“How long do we have before the gateway will open again for us to return and then head to the park?”
“We have two hours here, I figured that was long enough. The sun will be quite hot by then according to human weather predictions, and the park has enough tree cover to keep it cooler.”
“Not that Grace will spend any time off of that carousel. We should try to bring one to the Feydom, or create one there. Couldn’t you just see it? We could have datherin and dragons and even a firebird for the children to ride around and around.”
“Hmm, maybe ask your father and the other elders to commission
one?”
“Or I can wait until my amazing husband is an elder in a few weeks and have him request one be built?”
“If I am accepted.”
“Pfft, you are the most powerful fey since there have been fey, T, you must know that? Plus with my father stepping down, surely he will hold some sway with who takes his place.”
“Anna, it scares me sometimes, the things I can do.”
“T, don’t be afraid, it is who you are. I see your power, your light. I always have. Trust me, there is nothing about what you can do that you need to fear.”
He nodded, and they leant back on the mat propped up by their hands they watched the waves and Grace splashing and playing in them.
Traflier tried to enjoy the break from magic but his last meeting with Mortimer still had him rattled and he replayed it over and over again in his mind. Was it really that bad? After a while he turned to Annabella beside him and asked, “I told you about the angel I met, didn’t I?”
“Yes, Mortimer, wasn’t it? I must meet him one day. Why is it you ask?”
“Well, I don’t know if that will be possible now.”
“Why?”
“I showed him how I changed one of his casts and he didn’t like what I had done. He said it went against what the fey are. Like it was bad.”
She shifted on the mat to face Traflier directly. Taking his hands in hers she said, “He doesn’t know your heart, T. You would do anything for the fey, for your family. He will come back. He will see you for who you really are. What did you do anyway?”
“I borrowed the energy from some grass in the outlands.”
“Is that it?”
He nodded but didn’t look at her, he stared out at the sea that crashed against the sand with a new ferocity.
“Did you give it back?”
“Give what back?”
“The energy you borrowed. Did you give it back?”
“No. it was only a small handprint of grass, it will grow over eventually from the grass around it.”
She offered a slight smile and then joined him in watching the waves crash in quicker succession. The sky overhead began to darken as storm clouds rolled in from the horizon.
“Grace, come here.” Annabella called. “Traflier, how long until the gate opens?”
“Another half an hour at least.”
“The storm will be here before then. What do we do? There is nothing here and we can’t open the gateway from this side.”
Grace reached her mother’s side and seeing the fear in her face instinctively clutched to her father’s leg. “Daddy, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, Grace, there is a bit of rain coming and Mummy doesn’t want to get her pretty hair wet.”
Annabella took his cue and giggled along with her daughter. “How about we try to find a cluster of trees to protect Mummy’s hair for a bit?”
Grace nodded and smiled up at them both. They moved through the palm trees, none of them would offer much protection from the rain, but it was the waves Traflier was worried about. A big enough storm could bury the small island under the sea itself. They had no choice, they had to hunker down and wait for the gateway to open. He looked at the watch he brought for visits. Twenty-seven minutes.
The wind began to whip at their skin, picking up the sand and sending it in swirls around them. “Let’s get the mat and see if we can create something to keep the wind out,” Annabella suggested as she moved to head to where the mat sat half buried by the moving sand. She gripped the edge and began to pull, but a large amount of it was buried under the weight of the sand and she struggled to pull it free.
“Look out!” Traflier called just as a huge wave crashed over top of Annabella. He ran to her as she tumbled into the water. It began to suck back out into the blue expanse.
“Anna!” He called as he leapt into the cold raging sea. Beneath the surface, he gripped hold of her arm and pulled with all his strength. They breached the top only to be belted with another wave sending them both back under the salty water.
When they surfaced again, they were both exhausted, Annabella’s head lobbed to the side a little as she struggled against the water. A piercing cry caught their attention and both their eyes widened as they saw their daughter standing in the wind on the crashing shores of the sea. With strength, they didn’t know they had, they swam. They fought against the waves moving back out and used the momentum of those storming forwards to help return to shore. With one final burst of help from the ocean, they rolled into the white sand. Traflier picked up Grace with one arm, still holding Annabella with the other, and pulled them both away from the water’s edge.
He went back for the mat, not once taking his eyes from the sea and its constant threat. When he dropped down beside Annabella and Grace he threw the mat over them both and then crawled under to join them in the reprieve from the winds and belting sand. Through the cracks of the mat they watched the waves continue to grow stronger. Bigger. Faster. Lightning burst in the clouds above and then a mighty bang exploded beside them. Annabella and Grace screamed. Traflier looked out from the mat to where a palm tree stood alight in fire. The rain that came down now struggled to douse the flames.
“We are okay, it was just lightning. It will hit the trees, they are higher, we are safe. Grace, we are safe. The gateway will open soon and we can go home.”
“Will it be storming at the park?” Grace asked from under her mother’s arm.
“You still want to go to the park?”
“Yes, I don’t want today to end with the scary storm. Can we still go, Daddy?”
Traflier looked at Annabella, her hair was in matted clumps and her face red from exertion but she looked otherwise okay.
“We will have Mummy checked out first, okay?”
“Okay.”
They watched the waves grow closer as the minutes ticked by. A huge wave crashed, then crept towards them, the edges of it wetting the sand by their feet. Traflier looked at the watch as the second hand ticked down on the last minute.
The gateway opened.
They threw the mat off, and he helped both to stand against the whipping winds. He watched the waves crashing against the portal and waited for a break in their assault.
“On three, run for the gateway and don’t look back, okay?” he told Annabella as he picked Grace up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Hold on tight, my little Gracie.”
“I will, Daddy.”
“Okay. One … Two … Three!”
They ran for the gateway, Annabella hitting the wall first and relief washed over him knowing she was safe on the other side. He was a step from it when the wave hit them and tossed them sideways, tumbling together in the white-water. Traflier held onto Grace with all his strength, but as they tumbled beneath the wave, he felt her moving away, his arms weakening.
Desperate, he reached out for more power and felt it come. Through the gateway he called it. It rushed to him and he suddenly found himself standing against the raging water unmoved by its momentum. Grace clutching his neck with all her might, her little fingers dug deep into his skin. He was giving her power too. Giving her the strength to hold onto him against the raging sea. He could feel her heavy breathing as he walked in strong steady steps towards the gateway. Another wave crashed into him but it slipped around him as if he were a wall. He pulled more from the gateway and used it to quicken his pace against the raging water and then he stepped through to the other side. The second they were through, the gateway closed. Anna rushed to them.
“They wanted to close it, T, they wanted to leave you there,” Annabella cried into his neck as she held them both close. But her words didn’t register. Traflier was too busy looking at the dark patch on the edge of a mountain in the back lands. The place he had pulled all that power from, and he smiled.
They were each given the clear from the sages. Annabella needed a little boost of energy, but Traflier and Grace were both perfectly fine after the ordeal. Grace even a little excited, sh
e beamed with delight as she told the sages about the wild seas of the human realm and gave each one a small shell from her pocket, which had survived the event as well.
“Daddy, can we still go to the park?”
“I am not sure your mother is up to it, maybe we should…”
“No, I am fine,” Annabella interrupted stepping out from one of the rooms to join them by the sage’s desk. “Just needed a little pick me up. I don’t know how you two look so energized after all that?”
“Please, Daddy?” Grace pleaded and as it was with all of her requests, he obliged. “Okay, But I get the biggest pastry sweet puff.”
Grace scrunched up her nose and shook her head. “Nuh ah, no fair, you always get the biggest one.”
“Okay, we can split it?”
“Deal.”
They made their way home to change into dry clothes before heading back to the gateway for their picnic in the park.
“What time will it be there now?” Annabella asked as she collected the basket from the gate guard’s station.
“Still light for an hour more at least, plenty of time to ride the carousel a bazillion times.”
“Daddy, a bazillion is not a real number,” Grace teased.
“Sure it is,” he replied, scooping her up and stepping through the portal and out of the wall of vines that had become the other side.
“It still amazes me what this world can do to our magic. Pity the wards are all up, or it would have been amazing to practice here, really test what can be done,” Annabella said.
“It was,” Traflier replied and Annabella’s smile faded. She had forgotten for the moment that Traflier had practiced in the human world, he had lived there off and on for years, and it was his mother’s death that brought about the wards.
“Sorry, T,” she offered, but he was already smiling back at her.
“No, Anna, it is okay. I am glad we can come here now. The world seems a much better place than when I was young. Maybe it is true what they say, maybe humans are a kind species now, a gentle, caring, and loving one. Or at least the ones that have come through to live with us seem to be, right?”
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 51
