by Kailin Gow
“It's too late,” Delano said. “What has been set in motion will come to pass. One cannot unleash a magic as deep, as dark, as fatal as this and simply put it back, like you would return a jam-jar to the kitchen shelf!”
I stood aghast. “How could you be so stupid,” I cried. “So idiotic? How could you call upon these Hordes if you couldn't control them? You're a selfish bastard, but you're not stupid or suicidal. Did you just want to destroy Feyland if you couldn't have it for yourself?”
“My dear Breena,” said Delano. “You must be mistaken. If I could do anything for my dear little fiance, I would – you know I wouldn't deny a pretty little thing like you anything at all, if you'd only come home with me...”
“Delano!”
“But your heart belongs to another, so that will never be. And of course – even if I wanted to, I couldn't. You see, I didn't summon them.” He looked over at Shasta, who had managed to fell five more of Delano's men. He seemed to mourn them little. “Only a fairy can summon the Dark Hordes. The pixies don't have that kind of magic.”
“Then who...”
Before I could finish my sentence, a shadow swooped down over the land. At first I looked up, expecting to see a dragon darkening the sky. But this shadow was bigger than that, more insidious. It wasn't a shadow at all. It spread over the distant mountains like a spill of ink, but I recognized them from the chilled feeling in my bones.
It was the Dead, come to join the Hordes.
“Delano, I'm not kidding – call them off!”
“It wasn't me who summoned them,” said Delano. “It's too late now, Breena. For you. For me. For all of us. Once the Dead begin to walk this earth, it's only a matter of time before we join them. Looks like my number is up at last! And to think,” his expression was grim. “We could have been so very...very happy together.”
Chapter 15
I could feel the fear within all of us. Not only within my own chest, my own spirit, but within all of us here in Feyland. My magic connected with the magic of my soldiers, and I could sense their pain. They too could see the horde of the Dead that was coming towards us, a shadow that sucked out all life, all warmth, from its past. A shivering chill passed through all of us. Did they recognize any of the Dead, I wondered, as my eyes scanned the horizon for my Summer soldiers? Did they see their fallen comrades, their family, their friends – now fighting against them, overwhelmed by the power of darkness that had taken hold?
I could see Redleaf. She was floating at the head of the Dead, her eyes cold, her expression implacable. This was not the flawed, tormented woman I had met in the land of the Dead, the woman who had managed to elicit sympathy from me even after all her crimes. No, this woman had clearly been possessed by the dark forces of the Hordes; she was no longer a fairy at all, but a demon with a fairy's face. I could see in her eyes nothing but rage, nothing but hatred. Everything else had been drained out of her – leaving her desiccated, withered, alone.
“We have to do something!” I turned to Delano. “How can you be so cold about this?”
“You think I like it, little girl?” He jeered at me. “But I am resigned. I cannot send them back. The magic it requires is far more than the paltry magic I possess – the dregs of magic you fairies have supplied me with!” He almost spat. “Why is it my responsibility? Why do you blame me? It was one of your own that summoned them – one far closer to you than you might think. And it is to her that I ascribe my destruction as well as yours. It is by her hand that my men are falling, too.”
He turned his gaze to Shasta, who was riding forth to meet the Hordes, her sword raised high, her face full of fear. All at once I comprehended his meaning.
“You don't mean...”
He said nothing.
“Not Shasta!”
He grimaced. “When your Midnight Knight, your Red Wolf – when their armies drove the Dark Hordes into the Gorge so many thousands of years ago, they placed a spell on the gorge. None of those Hordes could claw their way out of the grave. But a spell cast by fey requires fey to break it. I may have...contributed advice. Guidance, even. But I was not the one who cast it.”
“So you were behind this!”
Delano gripped my wrist. “Now is not the time for remonstrations, Breena. Now is the time for action. I did what I had to do – to save my kingdom, a kingdom you, my dear little girl, are occupying illegally – and would you have done any less?”
“We would never...”
“That little chit of a girl was one of your own, your Highness. And I saw in her an opportunity. She could bear the dangers of bringing the Dark Hordes back – she could take that magic upon herself. And I would watch gladly as the Hordes destroyed you all, Summer and Winter. And then I could march into the ruins and take Skirnismal back for myself.” He used the ancient Pixie name for Feyland – the name from when it was Pixies that ruled it – and it made my skin crawl. “And perhaps there will be one or two pixies who survive, from all of this. Or not! Even death is better than submitting to fairies for another thousand years.”
Yet his voice trembled. I saw in Delano's yellow-green eyes, his pained expression, that his brave stoicism was an act. He was scanning the sky, too; he was counting how many lay dead before him. Not just fairies, not just those he hated, but pixies – men he had trained, men who had served him.
“Nobody has the magic to send them back,” said Delano. “Not Winter, not Summer, not Pixies. They are more powerful than they were thousands of years ago. Their absence has only strengthened them.”
From a distance, I could see a whole host of pixies running towards us. They were no longer using their swords, I realized – they completely ignored Shasta, who was still riding towards the Hordes. Their quarrel was no longer with us.
“Your Highness!” One of the pixies was out of breath, panting with exhaustion. He turned to Delano. “The Hordes – they're too strong. They're tired of fighting only Fey – they've turned on us, too. Already half a thousand are fallen.”
“It is so.” Delano gave a tiny, almost imperceptible, bow of his head.
“We cannot withstand them – not them and the fairies, too.”
We were interrupted by a scream of rage. We turned to see the source. There was Redleaf, her ember-colored sword glowing brightly, approaching Shasta.
“Little girl!” Her voice was terrible – a high-pitched strangle of the throat.
Shasta slashed with her sword, but it pierced through air alone. Redleaf remained intact.
“Not here, little girl,” said Redleaf. “The Dead cannot die again in the land of the living. And you know as well as I do why I live in filth beyond the mountains, instead of in splendor here.”
“It's your own fault!” Shasta cried. “You were going to kill him – you were going to kill Rodney! You deserved everything you got...”
“Shasta, get away!” I cried. My mind flashed back to what Delano had said of her. But it couldn't be true – it couldn't! It must have been one of Delano's lies. Why would Shasta – Shasta of all people – do something so monumentally stupid, so monumentally wicked?
“Shasta!” It was another voice – Rodney's! He was riding towards us, his sister Rose – her hair flaming as red as his – clinging to his waist. “Dismount!” Rose scurried towards me, something carried in her skirts. Rodney rode towards where Shasta stood, trying in vain to slash at Redleaf.
“I will have my revenge,” Redleaf laughed. She was no longer my ally, I knew. Not here. Evil had taken over. “You wait. You see!” A ball of fire emerged from her fingertips, scorching the earth just inches from Shasta's mount. “That will be your fate, too, my pretty. But not yet. I want to seek out everyone you love, first. Everything you care for. I want to see you suffer. And then, my sweet, I'll burn you up, just like this!”
She sent another fireball from her fingers, one that hit a cluster of Winter fairies just south of us. Flames burned all around them, and they could no sooner scream than they were transformed into nothingnes
s. Only bone, cinders, and ash.
“No!” Shasta clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Just wait, little girl!” And with a cackle, Redleaf flew off, her fingers shooting flame.
“Shasta!”
“Rodney!” She turned to him, her face wet with tears. “Rodney, it's all my fault!”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Shasta, we have to get you out of here. We need to regroup, find a strategy.”
She was weeping louder than ever now. Rodney led her back towards us. We didn't have much time, I knew. The Winter and Summer fairies – now fighting the Dark Hordes, and working together – were holding off our attackers, but it wouldn't be long before more of them broke through, before we were all in danger.
Rose tugged at my armor. “Your Highness,” she said. “I've prepared more potion, just like you wanted.”
“Potion?”
“She's managed it!” Rodney said, forcing a smile onto his face – a smile ill-placed amid the grime and blood. He dropped his voice to a whisper so that Delano, a few paces off, directing a regiment of pixies, could not hear. “The potion has glamoured half of our numbers into Pixies. If they can pretend to be us – we can pretend to be one of them. We can smell each other out, we fairies, but the pixies can't tell. And so we've been able to fight them without being fought ourselves – nobody can see who is killing whom in the Fray. And we have a few knights glamoured as pixies in the castle itself – sending word to Delano that they've captured the outer buildings of the palace. So Delano hasn't sent reinforcements within the palace walls – he thinks he's already captured them!”
“Good work!” I smiled back, as painful as it was. Even if we were all going to die, I thought, at least we wouldn't die without a fight.
“We were able to send some of our men in disguise to the Winter camps to negotiate a deal – Winter and Summer are allies, now. It was easy, once we got through to the Winter Queen. She knew as well as we did that her deal with the pixies was a mistake, that they couldn't be trusted.”
“So Winter and Summer have made that peace at last.” It was a bitter realization. After all we'd worked for, we had peace between Winter and Summer – a peace that was to be our last stand against an even greater danger.
We looked back over the horizon. The Dark Hordes were almost upon us.
“At least we went down together,” I whispered.
Chapter 16
All was chaos. I had flown up to the castle tower, dodging dragons and banshees as I went, to stand in what had become the only safe vantage point from which to view the carnage. I felt a sudden, lightning-sharp pain as I flew over the castle walls, entering the tower from the roof.
My father ran to me. “I forgot to tell you about the spell,” he said. “It's a strong protection spell – too strong. Meant to ward off non-Summer fairies. If you weren't Summer, you'd be dust right now.” He ran to me, wrapping his arms around me. “Breena, you need to let me get you out of here. You need to let me take you home – to your mother. This isn't your fight. And we're not going to win it. Not unless...” He sighed. “The Midnight Knight. All we can do now is hope, and wait, and pray.”
“Then I'll hope, and pray, and wait with you, father,” I said. “I'm not leaving. Even if it means dying here. It is my fight now.”
He put his arm around me. “Look,” he said.
We looked out over the battlefield. The sight sickened me. I could see the wolves snarling and leaping onto their prey, their gaping jaws sinking into the limbs of banshees and giants. I could hear the banshee cries, deafening, mingling with the screams of the living and the groans of the dying. I could see the hills dotted with flames, as the Dead shot fireballs from their fingers. The pixies – so numerous at the start of the battle – were but a fraction of what they had been. The Dark Hordes had turned their attention on them, and their red blood joined the streams of silver. I could see the Midnight Knight in the midst of the danger, his banner raised high, his sword raised higher. He was slashing and cutting, slicing and stabbing – felling pixies and creatures of the Hordes alike. My heart started pounding faster. How long did he have, I wondered? How long before he was felled – before the myth of the Midnight Knight died with him?
Please, I whispered, willing my voices to hear me – the Summer Queens of old. Please don't let him die.
I spotted Logan, too – tawny in Wolf form, attacking dragons with Cary at his side. I could see all of them – allowing my magic to help me make them out amid the myriad of nebulous, broken forms – Shasta and Rodney, hand in hand, riding forth to make another stand against the Hordes. Barnaby, yelping softly as he felled members of his own kind – other Minotaurs. Pan and Jeremy were fighting too, attempting to bring down a giant.
And even little Rose – she was on the battlefield, with a bow and arrow, her mouth determined as she fired flaming arrows into the crowd.
“She insisted,” said my father. “She wouldn't leave the castle, either.”
“We have to put a stop to this,” I said. “There's only one thing we can do.”
I let my wings expand once more.
“I need to go back out,” I said. “To the pixies.”
My father nodded. “There's a group of banshees by the West gate that need attacking.” His wings spread out behind him, crimson and gold, resplendent in the sunlight.
He took my hand. “Let's fly out together?”
I squeezed tighter. “Yes, dad.”
A man I had barely known – a man who had been a mystery for so much of my life. And now here we were – ready to die together: die for the sake of this strange and beautiful place whose love we shared.
“I'm proud of you, Breena.” We lifted off into the air, the pain of the protection spell hitting us once again.
“I'm proud of you too, dad.”
His lips crinkled into a smile. “That's all I've ever wanted.”
I flew back towards Delano, who was surrounded by a circle of pixie archers. They lifted their arrows towards me, ready to fire.
“Call them off,” I cried to Delano. “I come in peace.”
He gave a curt nod and the pixies lowered their arrows.
“I've come to make you an offer,” I said as I landed.
“You'll marry me?” His voice was dry and hard. “How sweet.”
“Don't be an idiot,” I said. “You're losing men – just as we are. Men you know. Men you care for. This isn't the time for anger. This isn't the time for hatred.”
He turned to me. “What do you want?”
“An alliance, Delano. The pixies and the fairies – side by side. We can't fight off the Dark Hordes alone, and neither can you. Do you really want this for your people – complete destruction?”
“Better that than submission!” Delano spat. “I know your fairy ways. You'll enslave us – exile us to the northern mountains, to those barren swamp-lands where we eke out a living while you fatten yourselves on riches – no! Better we all die than that.”
“It won't be like that, Delano,” I pleaded. “Feyland will be different. We've all sworn an oath – under the banner of the Midnight Knight. We're not fighting for Summer or Winter, or even for our own kind. We're fighting for this land. This land we all love. Home to all of us.”
“To you, perhaps.”
“I swear to you, Delano. If we survive this – pixies will participate as fully as fairies do. No more exile. We'll welcome you – let you live among us. As our equals. Our friends.”
Delano looked at me darkly. “Why should I trust you?”
“Because I know you care for this land, too. I know its magic sustains you. And I know that you consider Skirnismal your home.”
Delano looked at me with surprise. The pixie name for this territory was never heard on Fey lips.
“Hark!” A pixie gave a great shout as an enormous Minotaur charged towards us – its skeleton visible beneath its flesh. A Dead Minotaur.
“Let us have the girl!” A booming voice echoed in th
e Minotaur's throat. “She is anathema to our kind!”
The pixies scattered, giving the Minotaur a clear path to me. It charged faster and faster, its sharp horns pointed directly at me. I raised my shield, bracing for impact.
A bright green light shot forth from Delano's fingers, surrounding the Minotaur.
It reared up in pain as an emerald box formed around the Minotaur, encasing him in what looked like green amber.
“That should hold him for a while,” Delano said. “Until we can figure out how to kill the thing.”
“What was that?” I turned to Delano
He did not smile. “That, my dear Breena, is an alliance.”
Chapter 17
Suddenly, a great cold whipped through us, accompanied by a shadow.
“What's going on?” I turned to Delano.
“Look!” He pointed upwards. I gasped at what I saw. The two suns of Feyland – normally so bright – had begun to shrink and dim, their light slowly vanishing. Frost began to appear on the surface of the earth – not the clean, fresh snow of the Winter Kingdom, but a cold black ice. Everyone started shivering – even the Winter Fey, accustomed to cold, started to yelp and shout in fear.
“It's the Dark Hordes,” said Delano. “I knew it was said that their magic could blot out the suns – but I never realized...”
“Blot out the sun?”
And then they were gone – both of them – and all of Feyland was plunged into darkness. Instinctively, the fey began creating what magic lamps they could – tiny piles of warmth within this great, expansive frost. But as Delano and I looked at each other, we knew they wouldn't last long. It was taking enough magical energy to keep these lights from burning out – there was no way these soldiers could create light and fight off the hordes at the same time.
I closed my eyes, trying to connect my magic with that of all the Fey, communicating with Winter and Summer alike. Retreat, I said. Back to the Summer Palace. At least there we could huddle in shared light and warmth – there we could light a flame as we decided what to do next. My heart was pounding with terror. I had not expected this – this darkness, this fear. How could we stand a chance of fighting off the Hordes.
