"I don't know," she answered, and choked a sob as a tear rolled down her cheek.
"Scary, huh?" a voice came from the dark and echoed off the walls. Several windows, no more than open holes, glass long gone, let in some light but it faded into blackness before it got anywhere near the floor. A metal barrel, blazing in the center of the warehouse, gave off just enough light to see shadows dance outside its perimeter. One moved toward her.
Dekram squinted and when the firelight lit half of his face, she shouted, "Detaf!"
"I figured you'd join me, sooner or later." He slurred the words.
At the other end of the warehouse, a flash of moonlight backlit two individuals for a fraction of a minute when a door opened and shut. Dekram shivered. There are more of them. I have to get out of here. At least, I know there's an escape route down there. But to where?
"Well, what'd ya know, she finally woke up," an unmistakable voice said. It was Etah.
"She's one of us, old man. Back off," Bacs said.
Dekram's mind ran rapid thoughts of the buzz, and Etah and Detaf being dragged through the portal, but still being inside the Black Shamrock. Did they get me too. How? And am I still on the other side with... Then she remembered Egar and Etah in the Oak tree and the smell of the rancid Spanish moss. That's not me over there anymore. O'mifairygodmother-
"I ain't done nothin' wrong, sonny. I just wanna know why ya'all keeps showing up." He groaned his way into a standing position. "Could be one a them child traffickin' kinda things. Maybe ya'all is escapees or somethin'," the old man mumbled as he hobbled over to a dark corner, not really waiting for a response. A few seconds later, a contented sigh followed a slosh of liquid.
Etah walked out of the shadows and Dekram bolted upright, crab-walked backwards until her back met wall, and immediately wished she would have moved a bit slower. "My head is spinning," she said, with her hands over her ears.
"It's the Nightshade." Detaf stumbled further into the light.
"Yeah," Etah said. "Elves call it Dwayberry—imps, The Devil's Cherries."
So that's what they were putting in the honey. Dekram's nostrils flared. The smell of dampness, rotting leaves; dirt and body excrement filled her lungs. "Did you know? Are you part of this?" Dekram asked Detaf. He shook his head back and forth.
"I call's the drug Naughty Man's Cherries." Bacs ignored their comunication. He smiled at both of them and added. "True dat."
"They keep me thrilled," Detaf said. "Too much knocks you out cold."
"A little makes you more... compliant." Etah smiled at Detaf.
Dekram froze. "You didn't... Egar didn't... I mean, I'm still a..." Dekram turned white, shuddered. Oh, Goddess Aine, tell me Fire didn't force himself on me.
"Don't flatter yourself, pond scum," Etah spat. "If Egar wanted you, he would've never snatched your wings for Soahc."
"They wanted us, alright," Detaf groaned his way into a sitting position, "at least part of us." Sarcastically he snickered and waved a hand behind him. "They want the other part."
As her burning eyes followed the gray walls painted with vulgar words and phrases she saw more of them; fifteen kids with no wings. Humans? She thought as she rubbed her eyes and focused on Etah and Bacs. They don't have wings either! None of them have wings! She frantically reached for hers, tried to dart up, but only tripped over her own feet and fell back against the damp wall. Mine are gone too!
"We're on the human side," Detaf said.
"Fire has our wings," Bacs said, arrogantly.
"And it's all your fault," growled Etah.
Detaf snickered sarcasm again.
The familiar hatred in Etah's voice gave Dekram a momentary feeling of comfort and forced an inappropriate smile to her lips.
"What's so funny?" Etah snapped. "If it wasn't for you and him," she pointed at Detaf, "things would've stayed the same in Wandermere, not become some bogus wonderland filled with human toys—a lifestyle trumped up to get changelings ready for their return to the human side. You two changed everything."
"What do you mean?" Dekram asked. This can't be true! Her father's words, the day they'd helped Bacs, cut anymore thoughts of denial, 'The idea was to make this generation of fairies more aware of what they would be dealing with on the other side of the portal.'
Bacs stepped forward. "We were the cream of the crop before you," he nodded at Etah, "not like the rest of the kids in Wandermere. They have no powers to speak of, couldn't do scat over here without an elder helping them. Changelings, all of them, except Layol, she's a glamoured elder, and Soahc, Mirg, Bacs and me?—we're Fire halflings, three times your age, and we got powers. Not like the elders, but still, we can...could, do things, fun things...on this side of the portal."
"The missions are a joke," Etah said. "Every changeling who went out had a glamoured elder buddy."
"Except us," Bacs said. "Like I said, we got powers—been over here before."
Etah said, "All they care about now is culling the herd—the insubordinate kids they stole from the humans and us fire halflings. Zap! And we're all gone like pesky bugs. The missions are supposed to make us feel more comfortable on the human side. Sh-yeah, right? More like make them more comfortable about sending us. No guilt. Pix that!"
"And you know why else?" Bacs asked. "Just to see if you two can cut it, check out your powers, and-"
A loud belch interrupted. "I figured it was a trafficking ring," the old man mumbled. "Them good-for-nothing sons-o'...." His words faded, snoring took their place.
Bacs shoved a thumb at Dekram, pointed a finger at Detaf, and continued. "...and keep you two from mating poorly, that's why. They want full-breeds. Because of you these streets will be filled with wandering teens trying to survive in a world they were ripped from at birth; experiments, that's all we were to them."
"They never had tolerance rules before you two. A changeling or halfling had to do something really bad to be banished." Etah spat.
"Kinda ironic we called you a half-breed, right?" Bacs said.
Detaf sighed. "Soahc and Egar are wearing our wings. Fire will be able to breed for the first time in one-thousand years with the elder's blessing."
"Did you know they were trying to get us to breed?" Dekram spit at Detaf.
"Not a clue," Detaf grunted. "All I knew was everyone—my parents, the teachers, half the students and their parents—wanted me to date you."
"Gotta laugh at their stupidity," Etah said, followed by a smirk. "And then ask yourself why your precious 'fairy godmother' would gift your people with you two and then allow us to do this?" She fanned her hand around the warehouse. "Goddess Aine let Fire snatch you both, enabled them to nab your wings, and now they're letting Fire use your bodies to breed faelings."
"Yepper, faelings that will last a whole lot more than a month or two," Bacs cracked, strutting a circle around Detaf. "Oh yeah, the gods've written off the rest of the elements. It's all about Fire now. Think about it."
"So it will all look legit," Etah said proudly. "And to make sure it happens." She looked at Bacs and then toward the other wingless kids slowly moving out of the shadows. "You two aren't going anywhere."
Lay is so not an elder. She wouldn't lie to me. My mother and father would've told me. Dekram shook all over when she remembered the one-sided phone conversation, and her mother's words, "The Elders' beliefs? No one in Wandermere has been in our situation, Redael. And all of us were nurtured as younglings to recognize our powers, Elders included. Why are they trying to make this more difficult for her?"
For us, Dekram thought, glancing at Detaf before she blurted, "How do you know all of this?" A senseless question.
"Because we were living the good fellow life before you were born, before human toys were glamoured and our whole world was so totally changed by the elders!" Etah screamed. "Aren't you listening? You and Detaf are the first full-bred fairy to live more than two months in over fifteen-hundred years. The Elders are callin' it a freakin' miracle—more like a friggin' n
ightmare!"
Chapter 15
"HOW DO WE find them on this side?" Nesohc asked, "Everything is so large. It's gonna take us forever."
"Right? I know," Layol said. "It's only overwhelming the first time."
Nesohc jerked to a stop faster than Dekram's dragonfly. "What? When were you in the human world?" He jerked small movements, wings beating invisible.
Layol swallowed hard. "Um," she stalled, eyes gazing on everything but Nesohc. "I, ah. Let me think." Whipping from small cornered animal mode to exaggerated give me a break impy, she said, "Pix me!—the other day when we all went into the portal. Now can we move on?"
Nesohc cocked a brow. "What's going on, Lay?"
"What is your problem?" Layol huffed, darted about, arms swinging, mouth mumbling Disney's name in vain.
"Spit it out," Nesohc growled.
"Look at me," Layol said, hands on her hips. "I'm fraught with worry. I'm sick with fear. Can you give me a break, here?"
"Fraught? You don't do fraught."
Layol glared at him.
Nesohc sighed, shook his head. "Come on, let's do this."
With the speed of two hummingbirds on sugar highs, Layol and Nesohc zigzagged into the woods.
"Hold up," Nesohc yelled, "there's way too much Fire coming through that portal."
"What?" Layol said, zipping back to Nesohc near the edge of the woods.
Both watched a circle of red sparkles swarm the portal and shoot straight toward them.
"Crap! They're gonna catch us!" Nesohc hissed. Layol grabbed his hand, shot straight up, and mumbled a chant he could not comprehend. He felt the crackle of magic, smelled an electrical charge in the air, and a small iridescent bubble encased them. Floating downward, the bubble wobbled and bobbed right over Fire's heads.
"They been here; glamour in da air. Feel it?" said a Fire fairy, a layer of bright red hair floating upward like winter static. "Fire needs air, but Air's gone, just like dat. Can't get a scent, yous guys?"
"They can't see us!" Nesohc whispered excitement, and under him the whole group flickered and reformed. "Fricken-fracken Impin'-cool! They're transforming right in front of us. You seeing this, Lay? They're old, and..." His nose wrinkled as he spit a laugh. "Sheesh, old fairies, all shriveled up and skinny, shouldn't go around naked. Wrinkles really take the fear out of those tattoos. Look at that skull. It looks like scrambled worms on a-"
"Shush," Layol warned, although her glamoured bubble protected them from being heard. "I need to concentrate. I can't hold this for very long. I hope they move on."
Fire's skin turned tan and leathery; they all had bright red hair, thin and wispy. Their hands and feet had four digits and were oversized for their twig like bodies. They had rounded bellies and large cloud-gray eyes on oversized heart-shaped faces, pointy ears, and lips so small and thin they were almost colorless.
Nesohc's eyes got big and round as he watched and listened.
"Nah, I can't smell scat. The older the Air the stronger the magic, ya hear?" a squat fairy with a thick neck boasted enlightenment.
"I don't hear nothin'," one said, knotty fingers cupped around a limp saggy lobe.
"Soahc got the marked one's wings. You feel me? Lil princess can't fly, can't magic nothin', either," the red haired fairy said. "We just need ta keep it simple, read me?"
"True dat," the squatty fairy said. "Earth can't hold glamour forever. We spread out, watch, don't let 'em though."
The whole group darted into the woods forming a long thin line.
"That's it—I'm killing the bitch," Layol hissed and the bubble popped.
"Oh, Luther-waiting-at-the-gates-of-Hell!" Nesohc sputtered, "You just called Soahc the B word."
"She shouldn't have taken Dek's wings," Layol growled. "And my vulgarity is important right now, why?"
"Because they heard you," Nesohc pointed over Layol's shoulder. "And they're dressed again, back to looking like lean, mean, fighting machines with pointy teeth and wicked tattoos! How is that possible?"
"Who cares? Let's move it!" Layol said.
"Catch dat?" the hefty Fire fairy said; thumbed a confirmation behind him. "They there, true dat. And 'cause ya know I'm an addict for honey and bizzos like Soahc…give me amnesia. I'm off in a haze, kush, orange bud, feel me?"
"Does anyone ever understand them?" Nesohc asked.
"I understand we need to get our wings on," Layol answered.
As the Fire fairy massed and formed a tighter swarm, Layol and Nesohc headed up and deeper into the woods.
"Bizzo?" Layol giggled over her shoulder as they darted through the trees. "Did you, at least, catch that? He called Soahc a-"
"Shut up!-Don't go all crude on me!-And stop looking back." Nesohc buzzed hectically behind Layol. "Find a hidey-hole."
"I'm lookin'," Layol said, dashing around tree trunks and over branches.
They broke from the woods into a rustic backyard, scattered with junk. Layol buzzed around a pile of un-strategically placed rubber tires where mosquito larvae laden water gathered.
"Gotta be a better place?" Nesohc grimaced. "Can you do the bubble thing again?"
"Like for maybe a minute or so." Layol's eyes were searching frantically.
"Swell!" Nesohc jerked his hands over his ears when the swarm became louder. "Now what?"
"This way!" Layol darted around an old washing machine, over a pile of bicycle bones; circled a green canoe propped on two sawhorses, a rusting can of epoxy and a ruined paintbrush propped next to a hole in the fiberglass bottom, and finally bolted after a small gray squirrel scurrying up the side of a dilapidated toolshed.
The animal paused—Layol and Nesohc almost crashed into it—and pumped its body up and down on a ledge in front of a dirt encrusted window. It shot a frantic glance at the woods. The swarm of Fire fairies burst through the trees and the squirrel chattered its way through a small hole between the window frame and the metal building, Layol and Nesohc right behind it.
"They're right outside," Layol whispered from the corner of the window ledge, the buzzing noise coming from everywhere. It ebbed and surged as the Fire fairy circled the yard and wooden shed.
Eyes on the squirrel, Nesohc hissed, "I cannot believe you decided to team up with that. What is with you and rodents?"
Eyebrows dancing, Layol pointed at the hole by the window. "I can charm him then push him back out the hole by the window."
"Are you nuts?" Nesohc inched closer to Layol. The squirrel chirped and burbled, then scurried a few feet away.
"We need to occupy Fire so we can get out of here or we're never going to find Dek," Layol said. "If they come in here, we're toast."
"You're the one that followed it," Nesohc glared at the squirrel.
"Watch me make the rodent scary."
"Right. Like a squirrel's gonna scare them away."
"Uh, huh." Layol laughed. "Watch and learn! You know who Rocky and Bullwinkle are?"
"What? That's your plan?—give the squirrel wings?" Nesohc rolled his eyes so far back he stumbled.
"I was thinking, half Rocky, half anteater with some glamoured vision issues."
"So we send the poor animal on a kamikaze mission that will only end in its demise?"
"They have Dekram. Where'd all the love go? We need to create a distraction."
"Give me a-"
Layol fanned her hands. "Shhhhh, they stopped swarming."
They huddled in front of the window—the squirrel scampered back a few feet.
"They ain't here, surefire-nuff," said the short stocky fairy, pale white body covered in tattoos. Barbed wire ran across his forehead; three teardrops down one cheek. When he lifted both hands and scratched his bald scalp, they could see a spider web etched on his elbow and the letters E W M N tattooed below the knuckles on his left hand; a diamond, spade, heart and club below the knuckles on the other hand.
"Those card symbols stand for luck," Layol whispered. "The letters characterize him as evil, wicked, mean and nasty."
/> "I'm not even gonna ask you how you know that," Nesohc said.
Layol started to answer but someone else in the Fire swarm said, "True-dat, we got some wing b'ness ta do anyways—get rid 'o da opposition–Egar wanna commence breedin'. We gotta dig us up some halfling wings."
"Yep, burn them babies, we be done—feel me?" said a Fire fairy they'd seen at the buzz; the one who looked like a Christmas elf.
"Oh, hell no, they're gonna burn fairy wings!—Probably Bacs' and Etah's." Layol squeaked. "And Bozzo's gonna have Egar's kid." She strutted up and down a shelf below the window. "For the love of Disney, it's perfect! Brilliant!"
"What are you talking about?" Nesohc asked, gaze jumping from the squirrel to the Fire fairy flying in and out of every nook and cranny in the yard.
"Well, at least, I know they can't kill Dekram or Detaf," Layol said. "We need to get out of here!"
"A-duh," Nesohc said and glared at the squirrel. The animal's face froze, teeth hanging over its' maw.
Layol sucked in a huge breath, and slowly exhaled as she said, "Egar, who looks like Detaf in Wandermere, is going to impregnate Soahc, who looks like Dekram, also residing in Wandermere, and all that Fire out there-" she took a breath and pointed at the window,"-is going to burn the wings of every fairy they've dragged through the portal and then charmed to look like Air in Wandermere. For the love of Gabriel, we have to do something!"
"Lay, you sound like one of the human's daytime soap-operas."
"Look at me, Nes. I mean really look at me."
"Again? Really, Lay? Right now?" Nesohc turned to the group in the grass under the window.
Layol shook Nesohc's shoulder. "At least, listen to me. I know what I'm talking about."
"Why do you suddenly sound like my mother?" Nesohc said, jerking free. "They're gonna burn wings out there."
"I get it. Listen! That spider web tattoo? It means that fairy has killed before and he's willing to do it again. The barbed wire tells everyone he's doing a life sentence and I'm guessing it's with Egar. He got his name because he... likes to hurt things."
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