“Thank you. We can go pretty much anywhere, us sprites, but the Elf Kingdom is more protected now, even we can’t get in.”
“I know, and that’s why it’s the safest place for the Feydom creatures right now.”
“Thank you, Desmoree. Good luck,” she said and ran off to gather the others like her.
Is she smaller? Could the light of Shulun fading be affecting her change?
I didn’t wait to watch them go through. I trusted Madel, and with a tracker of her own, she would ensure they were safe to leave before breaking the orb.
“We have more to see. Des, let’s split up and meet back at home in an hour,” Jax said, leaning in to kiss me.
“Be careful, Jax. And be quick. I’ll go see the unicorns, they are the furthest from us. You know these woods, so here, take more orbs,” I said, pouring some of my stash into his bag. I kept three. The equillis only just returned to the Feydom, so convincing them was going to be tough, plus they were at the furthest most edge of the Feydom so getting there would take a while. Jax kissed my cheek and took off through the trees. I phased and flew into the sky, headed for the equillis.
Glancing behind me, I saw a few sparkles of orange light form in the distance. The evacuation had begun. Soon all of the Feydom would be somewhere safe and we would have time to figure out a way to defeat him.
You think you can? The fey have already paid with their magic, now their realm. What will you cost them next?
I was so lost in my own thoughts I nearly missed the equillis. Landing on the edge of their grazing grounds, I watched a few of them trot around, stopping to eat a little then.
“I wish to speak to your queen,” I said, walking towards them. Two of them stopped eating and raised their heads to look at me. Then they looked back at the others and as they stopped what they were doing.
They all started to gallop away.
“Come back, please? It’s important!” I called as I took off after them through the trees that lined their grazing grounds. My wings fluttered behind me as I ran, when suddenly I was yanked backwards as my wing caught on a branch. I cried out as the shooting pain ran down my wing to my spine.
“Mother f—”
“Desmoree, are you okay?” the queen’s voice asked in my mind.
“My wing got caught, I’ll be fine,” I said aloud, looking around for her. Then through the trees I saw her, the dazzling gold crown atop her head, sparkling in the light like a homing beacon.
“Would you like some help?” she asked, her voice as soft and angelic as always.
“That would be great thanks,” I said, bringing myself up to stand and turning the torn section of wing around to hold in my hand.
The king appeared beside me.
“Where did you come from?” I asked, jumping back.
He didn’t answer me, he leaned forwards and dropped a single tear onto my wing. The tear ran to where my wing was torn and I breathed a sigh of relief as it healed and the pain dispersed.
“Why have you come, has there been another attack?”
“We are evacuating the Feydom. All Feydom creatures are welcome in the Elf Kingdom until the threat has passed.”
“The elf King has offered the equillis refuge too?”
“He has. King Blake is not like the kings before him. He’s a friend of the fey and a friend of all magical creatures. His barrier will protect everyone from Traflier.”
“If you wish us to leave, we shall not object.”
“Really?”
“Desmoree, you have proved yourself to the equillis time and time again. If you say this is what is best for the Feydom, we will take our leave to the Elf Kingdom as requested. How do we get there?”
“You break this,” I said, holding out one of the orbs. “The king will open a doorway for you.”
The queen nodded to her king and he took the orb from me into his mouth.
“It will take us a moment to gather the herd. We are waiting on the birth of a foal as we speak, the first since we were returned to our lands. Will you be coming with us?”
“Not yet. I want to be sure everyone is out first. I’ll come as soon as I’ve checked the Feydom for stragglers.”
“Very well. Good luck Desmoree. We shall see you in the Elf Kingdom soon.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” I said, then took off into the sky to head back to Baldea. As I flew towards home, more and more orange glows rose and fell with the opening of doorways. I pushed my magic out and looked for others. There was little left of magic in the lands. Most must have evacuated already. I flew over my father’s house. There was no trace there, so moved on to the other houses of Baldea. Everyone was gone. When I rose above the forest the sprites were in, I saw the doorway close after accepting the last sprite through.
A bright orange glow grew by the Danzor mountains. The firebirds must have accepted the evacuation and were headed out too. The rest of the Feydom felt empty. There was the magic of the sky, the pink pool of light, and the magical properties of the plants and trees that we couldn’t possibly expect to evacuate. But all the creatures appeared to be gone.
A burst of magic in the direction of Sayeesies caught my attention and I headed towards it. Why is there still a fey in Sayeesies? Could they have been left behind?
I landed just outside the square and phased back to my regular form to better navigate the corridors.
I followed the draw of magic towards the gateway. The magic was bright, light. Could it be the Nazieth still holding the barrier?
I slowly stepped out towards the gateway, and a young male fey I didn’t recognize stood there, looking around, His eyes landed on me. “Where is everyone?” he asked. I frowned, drawing back my shield from around the Feydom and enclosing myself.
‘Who are you?”
“My name is Demi. I was stuck in the human realm. I tried to get through but something was blocking the gateways. What’s going on?”
“You were in the human realm?”
“I was hunting demons with the elves. We were attacked, and the rest of my team were killed. I escaped, but when the gateway in my area wouldn’t open I made my way to another, then another. Finally one worked, but then I get here and there is no one here. What is going on? Where are my familiar fey?”
“We have evacuated everyone from the Feydom. Who exactly is your familiar fey?” I asked, bringing my magic to the very tips of my fingers.
“My father, Thomas, and my aunt, June. I believe she sits on your council.”
He is June’s nephew?
“Where did you evacuate to?” he continued, taking a step closer. “Not to the human realm? That place is still crawling with demons, and the humans are getting harder to keep in the dark about all this.”
“No, the elves have offered refuge.”
“The elves?”
“Yes, now come on. You are the last, we can go through together.”
“To the Elf Kingdom? How?”
“With this,” I said, holding up a pink orb. Demi’s lips spread into a wide smile and with a flick of his hand, the orb flew from my grasp and into his.
“Thank you, Desmoree, for your help. I was wondering how in the fey I was going to get to them all now. But you have handed me the key to the Elf Kingdom.”
“Traflier?”
“In the flesh, albeit younger than I had intended, it shall do nicely, I think.”
He shot a burst of black lightning towards me and behind it ran a thread of rainbow light. My shield took the hit, wavered, then disintegrated.
I blasted one shot with all the magic I could manage, but I didn’t aim for him. I aimed for the orb in his hand. It exploded in a burst of white light. Then I ran.
I weaved through the streets and when I made it out to the clearing I phased and took to the sky. A soft orange glow in the distance near the equillis grounds drew my attention.
“How are they not out yet?”
I looked behind me and pulled up, hovering just past the border be
tween Sayeesies and Baldea. The ground in Sayeesies was dying. The buildings cracked and shook as he drew the energy out of them. I spun and headed for the equillis.
I had one orb left.
I was going to make sure they all got out. The blackening land followed me as I flew faster across the sky of Baldea. The darkness chasing me towards the only creatures left in the Feydom still vulnerable to his power.
I landed beside the herd of unicorns, stomping and bucking around each other.
“What’s going on? You have to go!”
“We were waiting for the foal to be born, the door closed before we could make it,” the queen’s voice rang in my ears and I turned to see her trotting towards me. The herd settled and parted, allowing the queen through.
“He’s here, you have to go now.”
“We have no orb.”
“I have another, look here,” I said and held up the small round glass ball. I dropped it to the ground and stomped on it, breaking the pink mist free. Almost immediately the doorway opened. “You have to go. He’s coming and he’s sucking the land dry on his way.”
The queen tilted her head towards the herd and they moved into two lines behind her and I. The foal fumbling on his feet towards the back with his mother.
“Where’s it’s horn?” I asked the queen as I watched the foal tuck under his mother’s front legs. He looked just like any other horse. That was if a horse had feathers for a mane.
“Our horn comes with maturity. Only when an equillis is of age will the horn begin to grow.”
“Sorry, I just never noticed any of you guys without horns.”
“As you wouldn’t have. This is not just the first foal to be born back in our lands, but the first foal to be born in two decades.”
“The door is opening, you have to get them through as fast as they can go,” I said, looking back over my shoulder as the rumble of the dying lands grew stronger. “Now!”
The door opened and bright green grass sat on the other side. The queen stepped aside and directed her herd through. They moved quickly, trotting in two at a time, but then the ground beneath us shook and an enormous crack snaked its way towards the doorway to the Elf Kingdom.
“Watch out!” I yelled. The queen stumbled backwards as the mother sprang forwards, nudging her foal towards the doorway to safety. The crack reached it first and the foal disappeared within it.
I lunged forwards and without thinking locked eyes with the baby equillis. The second I did, my shield reached out and wrapped around him. He hovered in the air enclosed in the yellow bubble of magic. I brought him up, my hands digging into the grass under the strain. For a little thing, he was quite heavy. The mother reached her head over the crack and when the foal was almost to the top, I released the shield from the foal’s upper half and she latched onto his mane with her mouth, helping me lift him over the edge.
The ground shook again and the mother stumbled backwards. Jax appeared through the doorway, he grabbed for the unicorn and pulled her and her son into the safety of the Elf Kingdom.
The second they were through, the ground turned black and the crack extended under the door, severing the connection to the Elf Kingdom and the door began to close.
Jax called through the doorway as it wavered. “The pink lake, we left an orb at the pink lake.” The door disappeared.
The queen and I were on our own.
I rose up over the crack and the queen ran towards the backlands, but the crack kept growing and the land continued to blacken the further it went.
The queen bolted towards a canyon and I followed by air. I saw the dead end before she did, but it was too late to warn her. The crack kept coming. The queen was trapped. I tried to encase her in a shield and lift her but my power wasn’t enough.
I can’t think. How do I help her?
The crack echoed as it grew closer. She brayed and kicked at the rock wall behind her as I tried to lift her with my shield. It still did nothing. The crack widened and the walls of the cavern began to crumble into the dark, deep crevice.
Then it stopped. Barely a length from her, the crack just stopped.
I landed beside the queen on the edge of the crevice.
“What happened?”
“It’s him. He’s sucking the magic from the whole realm.”
“Then why did it stop?” the queen asked, and I rose again turning in the sky to try to see. In the distance I caught sight of the slightest glimmer of pink.
“The pink lake. We used the potion to protect its power. It looks like Traflier’s trying to get it.”
“What do we do?”
“We get to the lake. Jax and I left an orb there. We get that orb, we get out of here,” I said, lowering to stand beside her. “But we will have to be careful. He will still be there trying to steal the creature’s magic.”
The queen nodded and we headed around the crack towards the pink lake. When we neared, the wind swept ash towards us in cloudy wafts. The ground thickened with the remnants of dead leaves and plants. Drained of all their energy, even the trees were sunken in at the trunks and striped of foliage. We stayed behind the blackened trees as we made our way closer. The sounds of something cracking and then large splashing noises stopped us.
“What is he doing?”
“Let’s get closer,” I said, phasing out of my fey form to better navigate concealed. The queen was massive, but she stepped around the trees like waltzing on clouds.
“You’re good at sneaking,” I whispered to her.
“We equillis have had much practice in hiding, remember?”
I did remember. I would never forget the wrongs Traflier had done to secure his position of power amongst the fey. I still hadn’t made it right with all the creatures he hurt.
I crouched down, the edges of the pink water coming into sight. Moving slowly around a blackened tree, I saw him across the far right side of the pool. He was breaking off branches of a dead tree and throwing them into the pool. The water churned and threw the pieces back. I stifled a laugh, throwing my hand over my mouth at the sight of it.
“Desmoree, how will we get your orb without him seeing us?”
“I don’t know, it’s on the other side of the water. Maybe if I fly past really fast I can scoop it up?”
“Or I could gallop past? Scoop the orb up in my mouth? I can run faster than you can fly.”
“I doubt that.”
“Believe me Desmoree, I’m faster than I look.”
Another loud splash. He was using magic to lift boulders above the water and drop them in. The water churned, but couldn’t throw them back, instead rolling them up out of the pool.
“If one of those rocks roll over the orb, the king will open the doorway here and Traflier will get through. We can’t let that happen.”
“Then we get the orb together.”
“But how?”
“Look,” the queen said, and I peeked around the tree at Traflier. He was rising from the ground and hovering above the water. He drew it towards him as if he was trying to draw the power out. The water bubbled and churned but stayed covering the pink creatures within the pool. “I don’t think he’s going after the pool, but something in it, hiding under the water.”
“There are creatures in the pool. The pink isn’t the rocks, it’s something else.”
“You know already, how? They don’t reveal themselves to anyone.”
“Jax showed me. They look like they are using the water to keep him from them, maybe they can help us too.”
“What do you mean?”
“There is a cast to communicate with beings, creatures. It will work to talk to them, but I’m not sure if I can do it from so far away. Do you think you could try, I mean you already communicate telepathically?”
“It’s worth a shot. Do the cast, I’ll ask for their help and then you climb on my back. I’ll get you to the edge of the pool, so you can grab the orb.”
I nodded then concentrated my magic. Focusing on the cast to com
municate, I called for the magic to cast it on the queen and the beings in the lake. As my cast went out across the water, Traflier stiffened and quickly darted his head around. I ducked behind the tree, the queen bowing her head. The soot that wafted in the air had coated her, taking her from a white to almost black. Ducking her head made her body look like a boulder, not the hind end of a unicorn.
“I know you’re out there,” Traflier called, not really focusing on one spot, he still looked around wildly as he spoke. “You think you can keep this lake’s magic from me. You might have hidden the fey, but this lake can’t be taken to the Elf Kingdom.”
He floated back to the edge of the water and landed just past the edge on the wet soil. “I’ll take this magic, the water can’t stop me if I’m under it too.”
Then he took a step forward. It bubbled, but he didn’t stop. He took another step. The water churned around him, but he kept going. Another step and his expression changed. His brow furrowed as he tilted his head towards his feet. He tried to lift his right leg, but it only rose a little from the bubbling water before it fell back down.
“He’s stuck, we have to go now,” I said to the queen, who leaned forwards so I could climb onto her back. She galloped through the trees towards the other side of the pool. Her silent steps meant we were right in front of him before he saw us. I clutched her feathery mane in my left hand as she dashed past the water’s edge and I leaned to reach into the water.
“No!” Traflier called as he lifted his hands, black balls sizzled at his fingertips. I looked away. I scanned the water, looking for the orb. I waited for the blast to hit us, but the sound of sizzling water erupted, just as my hand latched onto the glass sphere. I pulled myself up by the queens mane and looked back at Traflier, but I only saw a wall of pink water.
The creatures had risen and brought the water with them to shield me from his blast. The queen didn’t slow down. She bolted around the water and headed towards Sayeesies. She ran past the crumbling buildings and once through the debris she pulled up beside what was left of the gateway. The onyx had turned a milky grey and the rock wall surrounding it continued to crack.
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 73
