Legend of the Realm

by Alexandra Ott

  He’s never sounded like this before, so sad and angry all at once, and something twists inside my stomach.

  Without another word, I turn and run back to the village, leaving Ari and Lilja in the darkness behind me.

  * * *

  The sky is lighter by the time I reach Runa’s farm, and the tears on my cheeks have nearly dried.

  Her mama opens the door to their hut when I knock and is only slightly less surprised to see me than Ari’s mama was. “Runa!” she calls without asking any questions.

  Runa shrugs on her coat and follows me into the yard, yawning.

  “You have to help me,” I croak. “It’s Lilja. She’s got the plague now.”

  Runa’s eyes fly open. “I’ve kept the potion ready like you asked,” she says. “Did you get the—”

  “I haven’t found the Fairy’s Gold yet. That’s what I need your help with.”

  She frowns, studying me. “What do you mean? I can’t go into the Realm.”

  “That doesn’t matter right now. Someone has to go with me, and Ari—he’s not speaking to me at the moment. You have to help. We need the Fairy’s Gold now, before Lilja gets any sicker.”

  “But, Bryn, I’m not a Seeker! I’m not allowed!”

  I laugh, the sound hollow. “I’ve already broken every other rule, so what does it matter? Just don’t use your magic in the Realm unless I tell you it’s okay, and we should be fine.”

  “But if the other Seekers find out—”

  “Runa! This isn’t the time to play by the rules! Are you going to help me or not?”

  She hesitates, biting her lip, but something in my expression—the desperation, probably—convinces her. “Okay, okay. But if Lilja is sick, how are we getting into the Realm? Can she fly?”

  “I don’t think so, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve got a backup plan.”

  Breathlessly, we run to Dragon’s Point. Ari and Lilja are gone by the time we get there—as I suspected, he’s found a way to get her back into the Realm, though I don’t know how far she could’ve made it. I try to force the thought of her crash-landing again out of my mind and focus.

  Runa is looking around in awe. She’s never been to the top of the plateau before. “You can see the whole village from here!” she whispers, gazing at the landscape surrounding us.

  I grin. “If you think that’s something, watch this.”

  I step to the edge of the plateau and let out a whistle. Three high, clear notes echo back to us.

  For a moment I think it isn’t going to work. I don’t know how often the other Seekers used that whistle, and we haven’t had much practice, so maybe he didn’t—

  “Look!” Runa cries as a big red shape fills the horizon, flying toward us.

  Vin soars into view, and his head bobs back and forth in excitement when he spots me below. Runa and I take a few steps back as he lands, a little less gracefully than Lilja usually does, and rushes toward us.

  Runa lets out a very undignified squeal as he charges, but I use my gift to steady him, and he halts right in front of her, tail lashing back and forth eagerly.

  “Runa, this is Vin,” I say. “Vin, meet Runa.”

  Runa has seen dragons before, of course—she’s met Lilja, and she saw Gulldrik in the arena during the Seeker competition. But she still gazes in awe at Vin, and I can’t blame her. Dragons are incredible every time I see them.

  “Hi, Vin,” she says, giving him a little wave. Vin does a happy snort in response, tilting his snout toward her.

  “Come on,” I say to Runa. “He’s our ride.”

  “Um, how are we going to get up there?” she asks, gazing at his back.

  “Like this.” I scramble up first, demonstrating, and then reach down to help her up. Runa hesitates. “Come on,” I say. “You love riding horses. Think of this as a really big horse.”

  Runa gulps and reaches for my hand.

  I manage to get her settled on Vin’s back behind me. “Okay,” I say, “remember what I said about using your gift? I’m going to guide him with mine, and I don’t want him to get confused if he feels yours too. So try not to use it.”

  “Okay.” Her voice shakes, and a new thought occurs to me.

  “Runa, are you scared of heights?”

  “Um,” she says, “I don’t normally try going anywhere high, so I’m not sure?”

  Well, this should be interesting. “Okay, no problem. See that spike in front of you? Grab on to that, and hold very tight.”

  She does so, and I give Vin a tiny nudge with my gift. He’s so excited to have passengers that he jerks up immediately, and I nearly slam my forehead on his back as we lurch forward. Runa knocks into me and lets out a squeal.

  “Hold on!” I shout over the sound of Vin’s wingbeats. Within seconds, we’re airborne.

  The wind rushes in our ears as we climb higher and higher, bursting through the clouds. The Realm spreads out below us, and Runa gasps sharply in my ear.

  “Are you okay?” I call over the wind.

  “It’s incredible!” she shouts back, and I grin. I know exactly what she means.

  She hasn’t seen anything yet.

  I direct Vin to the central forests and find a safe space to land. He stumbles a bit, jostling us as his claws scrabble the earth, and Runa lets out a muffled shriek.

  “You okay?” I ask again as Vin slows to a stop and gives his leathery wings a shake.

  “Um. I think so?” Runa says, taking a deep breath. “That was amazing. And terrifying. And amazing!”

  I laugh. “Welcome to the Realm, Runa.”

  We climb down from Vin’s back, and she looks around with wide eyes. We’re in a small clearing full of wildflowers and long grass that glimmers in the pale moonlight. The edges of the forest encroach on all sides, the trees dark with shadows.

  “It looks a little more impressive during the day,” I admit, using my gift to bring light to my fingertips.

  “So how will we find the Fairy’s Gold?” Runa asks, gazing into the trees. “How big is this forest?”

  “Big,” I admit. “But Papa gave me some clues. We need to go deep into the center of the forest and find three rowan trees with intersecting branches. One of them has a pattern in the trunk like a dragon’s eye.”

  “Well, that narrows it down,” Runa says grimly. “There’s only a thousand trees in there.”

  “Probably more like a million,” I say, putting false cheer into my voice. “So we’d better get started.”

  Runa groans. “How did I let you talk me into this?”

  I set a couple of quick boundary spells around Vin, who seems perfectly content wandering the clearing and sniffing clumps of wildflowers. Then Runa and I cross the tree line, our gifts illuminating the path.

  I send my magic out wider, trying to get a feel for the flow of energy through the forest. The stronger the magic, the closer we are. “This way,” I say, leading Runa deeper into the trees.

  The forest is mostly quiet as we walk. The underbrush is dense and snags at us, so I use my gift to move the branches out of the way, forming a small dirt path. But we still stumble over tree roots and stones and uneven ground as we make our way forward in the near darkness.

  An owl hoots above us, and Runa jumps. “Bryn?” she says quietly. “What kinds of creatures live in this forest?”

  “Unicorns!” I say immediately, and she relaxes slightly. It’s technically not a lie, although I didn’t mention the fact that there are plenty of other things living in these trees too.

  We walk for what feels like hours. The landscape doesn’t change much—just tree after tree after tree—but I sense the magic around us getting stronger. The forest is brimming with it, and my gift feels stronger here, more powerful. Runa feels it too, casting the blue light of her magic out wider.

  “I don’t see any rowan trees,” she says, watching the blue light flit ahead of us.

  “We’ll just have to keep looking,” I say, trying to sound optimistic, but my heart is sinking
. We could comb this forest forever and never find it. And we don’t even know if what Papa saw was real, or if it will lead us to the Fairy’s Gold.

  And Lilja doesn’t have much time.

  “Do you feel that?” Runa asks suddenly, her eyes widening.

  “What?”

  “It’s like… I can feel a pulse. In the magic. It feels like… a heartbeat.”

  I close my eyes. There’s so much magic in the air around us that, at first, I’m not sure what she means, but then I feel it. The magic ebbs and flows, and there’s a rhythm to it—like a pulse. And the farther into the trees we walk, the stronger the pulse is.

  “We’re getting closer,” I say.

  Runa nods. “Closer to something,” she says darkly.

  The trees around us are the tallest I’ve ever seen, towering so high that the sky is barely visible between their branches. Even our gifts, which are so much stronger here, are barely bright enough to illuminate the darkness surrounding us.

  “Papa said it looks like this!” I whisper, taking a few steps forward. “We just need to find the right tree.”

  “I don’t like this, Bryn,” Runa says quietly. “It feels like… like we’re not supposed to be here.”

  A high sound breaks through the trees, and I spin toward it. “Do you hear that?”

  “It’s a bird,” Runa says. “It sounds like a lark singing.” She pauses. “Bryn, do larks usually sing at night?”

  “I don’t think so,” I say. “We must be close! Papa said he heard birdsong. We need to follow it!”

  Runa sighs but doesn’t argue. We continue stumbling through the darkened forest, following the high, clear singing. The farther we walk, the more birds join in the song, until it’s a whole chorus.

  We’re so close. I can feel it—the pulse of magic filling the air and thrumming in my veins. I’ve been in the Realm plenty of times now, but I’ve never felt magic as strong as this. If the Fairy’s Gold exists, it’s got to be here.

  “Bryn!” Runa says. “Look!”

  I follow her gaze. To our left, three rowan trees are clustered together, their branches intertwined. I race forward, and Runa stumbles after me. I cast my gift all along the trunk of the center tree, searching, searching—

  There.

  In the middle of the trunk is a circular pattern in the wood, shaped almost exactly like a dragon’s eye.

  “This is it!” I yell. “This is it!”

  “Shh,” Runa whispers. “I think we’re making it angry.”

  “Making what angry?” I ask, turning to her.

  “The forest.” Runa’s eyes are wide as she gazes around. “Bryn, I don’t think we’re supposed to be here,” she says again.

  “What are you—” I stop.

  All around us, the trees are moving.

  Magic swells in the air, and the branches of the trees rise, creaking and groaning, as if manipulated by naturalist magic. But no naturalist could control so many massive trees at once. The branches grow and twist, spreading out, almost as if they’re—

  “They’re reaching for us!” Runa yells, and this time I don’t argue.

  I’m not a defender; I can’t make a shield to protect us. But my Seeker instincts kick in. I reach for the trees with my gift, funneling it into the branches, trying to turn them away from us. The branches writhe and quiver as my magic reaches them, but they don’t stop growing. They grow faster.

  “It’s getting worse!” Runa says, and she pulls her own gift in, the blue light vanishing. “They don’t like our magic!”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” I say. “The Realm always likes natural magic…” I pause as a memory floats back to me. At the first Seeker trial, the arena had been filled with trees, and I tried to use my gift to manipulate them, only to see them rise up against me, much like this. And I remember how I got through it.

  I can’t force the trees to move with my magic. I have to coexist with them.

  The wind has picked up, and twigs blow into our faces as the nearest branches get closer and closer, reaching for us like skeletal limbs. I stop trying to move them with my gift, but I funnel more of it out, letting it fill the air with a green glow. This time, I just let it mingle with the energy of the trees, weaving in and out, making my magic a part of the forest. The branches slow their thrashing, and after a moment, they stop moving altogether, frozen at unnatural angles. A second passes, then two, then three. Nothing moves.

  Runa exhales. “You did it,” she whispers. “You—”

  The ground buckles beneath us.

  “Runa!” I yell, reaching for her hand, but the ground rolls again, and I fall backward, away from her. Everything trembles beneath me as the earth rises, and hills and dips suddenly form all around. I scramble to my feet only to be knocked down again as the shaking increases.

  “Bryn!” Runa yells, but I can’t see her around the massive hill rising between us.

  I try to repeat the same trick with my gift, sending it into the ground and letting it flow alongside the magic, but it isn’t enough. I don’t have enough magic to combat this. Runa was right—the Realm doesn’t want us here.

  But why?

  I cover my head with my hands as a tree above me cracks, its branches tumbling down, the earth still rocking beneath me. Papa was right. Humans aren’t supposed to enter the heart of the Realm. It senses our presence, and it’s fighting back.

  I close my eyes. I think about Runa, struggling against this magic where I can’t help her. I picture Lilja, her eyes gradually turning black. I picture Little Puff and the other gyrpuffs, lying still and silent; I picture Mama Icefox and her cubs, their eyes all turned to shadows; I picture the rivers and lakes of the Realm running black with the plague.

  Then I imagine the Fairy’s Gold. I don’t know what it looks like, but I picture a golden light, a warm magic that chases away the darkness of the plague and fills the Realm with healing.

  We’re so close. Please. Please.

  The shaking stops.

  I open my eyes and lift my head. Nothing moves. The trees and the earth are still.

  “Runa?” I call.

  “I’m here!” A moment later, her head pops up from behind the hill that now rises between us. “Are you okay, Bryn?”

  I stumble to my feet and check myself for injuries. “Yeah, I’m okay… I think. You?”

  “Fine,” she says. “What happened?”

  I open my mouth to reply, but suddenly a golden ball of light rises from the trees ahead. My eyes widen, and Runa spins around to look.

  “This is it,” I say, and Runa nods wordlessly.

  The golden glow fills the forest, and we step forward.

  NINETEEN

  The light is like an illusion. Every time I think we’ve almost caught up to it, suddenly it seems farther away than ever. Runa and I stumble through the thick foliage as fast as we can, the glowing light constantly illuminating the way forward.

  “How much farther?” Runa pants, swiping a strand of hair from her forehead.

  “I’m not sure,” I say, dodging a tree root. “Feels like we’ve been in here for hours.”

  We press forward, the trees getting thicker as we walk, like they’re closing in around us. The light beams steadily, always right ahead of us, just out of reach.

  My gift presses against the edges of my fingertips, but I’m barely using it. There’s so much magic everywhere that sensing it is overwhelming. I don’t know how we’ll ever be able to find the Fairy’s Gold, if it exists, when I can’t even tell apart the life sources—

  But that seems odd. “Do you feel that?” I ask Runa, tentatively releasing my gift.

  “Feel what?” she asks, slowing to a stop beside me.

  I follow the prickle of magic with my gift, trying to determine the source. There’s something strong here. Not big—not like a dragon or anything. But strong.

  “What is it?” Runa whispers. “I don’t sense anything.”

  “I think we found it,” I whisper.<
br />
  Wordlessly, I step forward, leading the way between two massive trees. On the other side, the golden light glows overhead, illuminating the forest floor.

  Directly beneath the golden light is a single flower.

  In shape, it looks a bit like a daffodil, one with particularly wide, full petals. But no daffodil could ever be this golden. It glitters even in the dim light, like someone dipped it in shimmery paint. I reach out carefully, just brushing the edge of one of its petals, and specks of gold coat my fingertip.

  “Fairy’s Gold,” Runa whispers, and I nod.

  “This is it,” I say. “It has to be. This is the cure we need.”

  “But…” Runa hesitates, studying the flower. “There’s only one. How am I supposed to make a big batch of the potion, for all the creatures, with only one flower?”

  “Wait…” I spin around, searching the area, but there aren’t any more flowers. Just one. “You can’t take it,” I say.

  “What? We came all this way—”

  “Not the whole flower,” I explain, gesturing to it. “It’s the only one. It has to be preserved. If we pluck it, who knows if another one will grow back?”

  Runa frowns, biting her lip. “So what do we do?”

  I glance down, studying the flower again. The speck of gold dust on my finger sparkles in the light. My eyes widen.

  “What if we don’t need the whole flower?” I say. “What if we just need some of the gold dust? Couldn’t you sprinkle some of this into a potion?”

  Runa leans closer to the flower, examining it. “I guess so. But I thought the legends said you aren’t supposed to take gold from these flowers? Isn’t that bad?”

  “The legends say there’s a catch,” I explain, remembering Papa’s story. “Once you remove the gold from the flower, it disappears the following dawn. Some of the stories say that fairies enchanted the gold to disappear so greedy humans wouldn’t destroy the flowers. Or maybe fairies don’t exist and it’s just the flowers’ way of preserving themselves. Anyway, the reason you’re not supposed to take the gold is because it’s worthless—by dawn. But what if we put it in the potion and give it to Lilja before then? As long as she drinks it by sunrise…”