by Emma Hamm
Jasper didn’t want to approve of anything Malachi did, but it was harder than he wanted it to be. A glass of cool water and good armor had almost changed his mind.
He grimaced. “This will do.”
“Good.” Malachi seemed unimpressed. Or perhaps the man simply didn’t care if Jasper approved. He snapped his fingers, and the door behind them opened wide.
Three people stepped in. This time they were real soldiers and not the ridiculous, puffed up versions who had stalked past his cage and tormented the prisoners.
Jasper took stock of the newcomers. The Wisp was a thin woman with a hard look in her steel gray eyes. The Hellhound was a bulkier version of the woman whose hand he had broken, even less feminine than the last. The Dragon was the one he was most worried about. The male stood a head taller than Jasper, and his broad shoulders were covered in black scales.
“We ready?” the Dragon asked in a gruff tone.
“Yes, yes, just a few more moments,” Malachi chided him. “We still haven’t gotten to the best part. I’ve been waiting patiently to see your reaction to this, Jasper. I need you to teleport them to the maze.”
“I can’t teleport anywhere I haven’t seen before.” Jasper shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. I could end up anywhere.”
“What if you had a picture?”
“Can’t you just open a portal? You did that to steal me. Why not now?”
Malachi’s lips compressed into a thin line. “Unfortunately, portals are not available at this time.”
Jasper knew what that meant. Malachi had killed the creature capable of opening the portals, or he had drained its power beyond its ability to heal. Once pushed past its limit, any creature would eventually break.
“I can’t teleport from a photo.” Jasper said incredulously. “If I did that, I can’t tell you that everyone I’m teleporting will come out right. We could all be missing limbs.”
“I’m willing to take that risk.” Malachi’s tone was gleeful. “We’ll do it now.”
“Not me.”
“Yes you, or do you not care for your little Siren as much as I think you do?”
Jasper ground his teeth together. “The photo then.”
Malachi waved his hand again, and an aged photo dropped out of thin air onto the coffee table before him.
Jasper leaned down to peer at the dark edges of trees and snorted loudly. “A forest? That’s all you’ve got? There are billions of trees on this planet. Disregarding the fact that if I knew its species, I might limit it to a few million, there is no way any of us will survive this teleport.”
“Look closer.” Malachi’s eyes reflected madness as he grinned at Jasper. “Don’t you recognize a marker when you see one?”
All Jasper recognized was the distinct feeling of a mouse sitting in front of a cat. Perhaps it would be better to end it now and go back to his cage. There had to be other ways to find his freedom. He was suddenly regretting helping this evil man. Surely he could find another way home?
And yet, this was the only solution he had found in weeks. So, he leaned down again to scour the photo for details. There was a marker on one of the trees. Strangely shaped, it appeared to be little more than vertical lines. Yet, it was something to go on.
He memorized every tiny detail and prayed to whatever gods were listening. Surely there was some other clue to help him.
And then he saw it — the barest hint of something at the edge of the photo. It was a small depression in a tree where fire had once eaten away at the bark. The marker and the chunk taken out of the tree narrowed the chances of disappearing into the ether and never returning.
“How old is this photo?” Jasper asked.
“Somewhere around two hundred years old.”
“Damn it.”
He did the math in his head to try and puzzle what the marker and the wounded tree would look like now. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. Jasper could do this.
He thought.
“All right, this is something that I might be able to work with. You want us to go now?”
“Absolutely.” Malachi sank lower into his chair. “Be my guest.”
The three soldiers stepped forward and stood next to Jasper. He waited, but they made no further movement.
“You have to touch me to teleport with me.” He tried not to snicker when they all appeared uncomfortable.
It was disappointing knowing that he could have teleported home right then and there. He could have left the room at any point, and yet he hadn’t. A long time ago, when he and Lyra were very small, he had promised to keep her safe. A Fairy promise was forever.
Two reached out to grasp his shoulders, and the Dragon placed a threatening hand atop his head. Jasper hated it when people did that. It was the worst handhold during teleportation and made the person the most likely to be lost.
He hoped the Dragon whirled off into the great nothing of the ether. Having to deal with only two of the soldiers would make it easier on Jasper.
His slow exhalation and the soft rattle of his wings were the only things that grounded him.
“Hold on tight,” he murmured as he envisioned the forest, and all four of them disappeared.
His body felt fractured, disjointed, and awkward as sensations slowly came back to his limbs. Teleporting didn’t usually leave him in such a state. Jasper had good control over his powers, and he knew his limits.
This time, there hadn’t been a choice. His body rebelled against the strain of teleporting with so many people tagging along. He had grown weak in the dungeon and it felt as though he had been squeezed through a bottle.
He groaned as he rolled over onto his side. This was becoming far too commonplace for his liking. It seemed that more mornings than not, he was aching and semi wounded.
Coughing from nearby suggested at least a few of the others had survived. He had done something right then. Had they been dead, then he was going to teleport right back to Haven. He didn’t care if it was too soon after expending so much energy. He’d lose a limb if it meant returning with an army to save Lyra.
“Damn it.” The Hellhound moaned. “What did you do to us, twinkle toes?”
Jasper bit back an angry retort. Their master had commanded teleportation, but he hadn’t specified comfortable teleportation. They shouldn’t have taken the mission if they couldn’t handle a little distortion discomfort.
He shook his head hard to clear the fuzzy edges of his vision and glanced around. Jasper was pleased to see he had managed to put them quite close to where they needed to be. The mark was on a tree a hundred paces away, and the aged oak beside it still bore the strange scar on its trunk.
Bluebell purred in his head. “Oh,” she whispered, “we’re home.”
He hardly had time to think before she rushed forward from the corners of his mind and seized control of his body. His fingers flexed and pushed themselves into the soft moss of the forest. He inhaled the sweet smell of dirt and fallen leaves.
“Home.”
Bluebell’s voice was heart-wrenching. She was nearly sobbing in pleasure as his hands dug into the ancient forest floor. His wings rattled and shuddered stretching wide to cast multicolored shadows upon the ground as light filtered through them.
“I missed it so much,” she whispered. “I didn’t think I would ever see it again.”
Jasper gritted his teeth and struggled to wrest control back from her. “This isn’t home, Bluebell. We’re still in the same dimension.”
“This is just as good. Don’t you feel it, Jasper? The ancients call to us.”
Of course he felt it. He felt every whispered sound of falling leaves. He heard the soft sway of the trees in the gentle wind that brushed through their branches. His palms tingled with moisture from the fertile ground.
Fairies were meant to be in the forest. They were meant to glide through tumbling leaves and dance upon spring flowers. Jasper had always felt that impulsive desire to run into the wild and become one with the forest.
The trees spoke to him. They whispered of old times when they were young and this land was free of mankind. He sensed their roots stretching and burrowing ever deeper into the welcoming arms of Mother Nature.
He longed to remain here just as much as Bluebell. But he had a job to do. The promise to protect Lyra burned his mind like a brand.
“Bluebell, we can’t.”
“Please. Please just a few more minutes to feel home again.”
He wished he could give in to her. Instead, Jasper pushed her aside as gently as he could. He wrapped her soul in soft comforting memories of blooming flowers and gentle raindrops.
She settled. It would only last a short while, but Jasper wanted her to be happy for a few more moments.
The Dragon was standing. Jasper could see his booted feet a few inches from his hands. He did not want to anger these people any more than he needed to. So he clenched his fists around the moss once more, holding it as he rose.
“Are you finally done with your ridiculous homecoming?” the Dragon asked.
“Yes.”
“Good.” The man inclined his head towards the scorched tree. “Then lead the way.”
Jasper arched his brow. “Lead what way? I expected you would know where we are going.”
The Dragon jabbed a finger in the direction of the tree.
Jasper knew arguing would get him nowhere with this bunch. Even a snarky response would get him in more trouble than he was willing to deal with.
He was gritting his teeth so often they were going to be little nubs by the time he got home. His shoulders ached, tense with worry as he counted the many reasons he needed to stay focused.
Lyra. Family. Friends. His motives felt hollow.
“That’s because you’re being lied to,” Bluebell muttered angrily.
He started towards the tree and brushed aside a low hanging branch. “I don’t doubt you.”
“Why don’t you listen to me more often? I’m not a child.”
“No, you’re a thousand year old Fairy who wouldn’t know responsibility if it bit you in the ass.”
She huffed. “I wouldn’t be caught leading the blind in the middle of the forest to find a creature with no name, no face, and no past. All at the whims of a madman!”
Jasper grunted when a tree branch whipped back and struck him across the chest. “You’ve done this before, don’t try and deny it.”
“When I do it, it’s for fun.”
“What? This isn’t fun for you?”
“No! This is a foolish task that will have a bad ending.”
He chuckled. It wasn’t particularly fun to be travelling blind towards what was potentially a trap, but he hadn’t felt this alive in a very long time.
Jasper supposed he could chalk that up to being in the wilderness again. He had lost count of the years he had been away from nature. And oh what magnificent nature it was.
The trees, fed by magic, had grown as tall as skyscrapers, round as redwoods, and strong as Giants. Large bugs chirped around their roots, glowing with unnatural light.
Any other person might have been afraid in this place. The landscape had altered when the dimensions collided. But this was where Jasper was meant to be. He had missed the forest of his childhood, and this all seemed very familiar.
He stooped low to duck beneath a branch and called over his shoulder, “What am I supposed to be looking for?”
“A maze,” the Wisp called. She had shed her physical form. Only the barest outline of her body remained as she passed silently through branches and trees. “There should be a maze.”
“A maze made out of what?” he muttered. “There’s a lot of mazes around here, lady. It’s the enchanted forest.”
This place wasn’t particularly the Enchanted Forest that was always mentioned in fairytales, but it was damn well close. The trees could even uproot themselves and move to different soil if they so wished. Not to mention the great plumed birds and wild things that were leagues changed from what they had once been.
He brushed at a cobweb stuck to his armor. The air was clean here. It was fresh and cool, filtering through his lungs like a healing hand.
The sensations were nearly making him drunk. Giddy. He was fairly falling off his feet.
Jasper furrowed his brow. No, that wasn’t right at all. He shouldn’t be feeling like that. He blinked a few times to clear his vision before he saw it.
A bulbous vine slithered off a nearby tree. Bright pink petals unfurled one by one to reveal a sticky pale center. Yellow puffs of pollen drifted into the air.
“Damn it!” he shouted. “Get away from here!”
“What?” the Hellhound grunted as she snapped a branch.
“Nightshade!”
Roots pushed themselves from the softened ground and coiled around his feet. The ground suddenly mirrored the movements of waves. His arms shot out to steady himself as more roots burst from the ground to open flowers all around them.
Because he was part Fairy, the sleeping spell from the pollen wouldn’t work as quickly on him. He back peddled and used the precious moments to shout, “Run!”
They didn’t listen to him. The vines snapped out of the ground and curled around the soldiers waists and arms. Jasper beat his wings, desperately propelling himself backwards. There were too many. Vines lashed at his limbs, pulling him towards the ground.
The Hellhound gnawed at the sticky roots with elongated teeth. She howled triumphantly as she freed herself for a moment, but the sap was more potent than the pollen in the air.
Jasper stared down at the thickest root around his waist and pulled it apart with his bare hands. He made quick work of the rest to stumble away from the soft ground where the vines made their home. The soldiers were not faring as well.
Fire gushed from the Dragon’s mouth, igniting the plants which emitted a faint whining noise. This only caught the plants’ attention. He was the largest prey, and therefore, the one who would feed the plant the most.
A hand wrapped around Jasper’s arm.
“Come,” the Wisp ordered.
“The others?”
“They will figure it out. If they don’t, then they deserve their fate.”
She wore a hard expression. She was tall, thin, and her slanted eyes were rather beautiful. Her pale skin looked as though it were dusted with powder, and her dark hair made her seem more dead than alive.
She pulled at him, and he didn’t cast another glance behind him as he moved. He didn’t care if the other two lived or died. He only wanted this ordeal over with as quickly as possible.
Already, he had underestimated this forest. He didn’t plan on making that mistake again.
The Wisp urged him to move faster as they both avoided fallen branches and dangling vines. Jasper didn’t see the need to rush. He was keeping an eye out for Nightshade now, and rushing only made it more likely to stumble into yet more danger.
“What do you know that I don’t?” he shouted as they continued.
“Nothing!”
“Then why are we running?”
He could almost hear the gears turning in her head. They didn’t want to let him know too many secrets. He could understand that to some extent. However, risking all of their lives in another situation like the Nightshade would only slow them down more .
A long vine slithered as he moved past it, revealing glowing green eyes and a long tongue that flickered to taste his exhalation.
“If I know what we’re up against, I will be of more use,” Jasper said.
“I can’t say anything.” The Wisp brushed tangled webs out of her face as a spider larger than her head skittered through the branches above them. “You’re meant to know nothing.”
“That’s a little ridiculous, even you have to admit that.”
She hesitated. “This forest is not what it seems.”
Of course it wasn’t what it seemed. Nothing was as it seemed after the dimensions collided.
“One enchanted fore
st is the same as any other,” he responded, “in that no one knows what it contains and nothing inside can be trusted. You’re not telling me anything new.”
The Wisp swallowed hard. “You are correct. This forest is different than the others.”
Jasper growled through his teeth and stopped running. She immediately paused and stared at him as the sound of crashing undergrowth ceased. He crossed his arms over his wide chest and glared down at her. “I’m not moving another inch unless you tell me what is going on here.”
Her eyes darted back and forth over their surroundings. She remained completely still, listening for something. “This is no forest.”
As soon as the quiet words were spoken, the Wisp turned and ran. He was quick to follow.
“Then what is it?” he asked as he watched for movement in the shadows.
“A prison.”
He nearly stopped in his tracks again. A prison? He could believe an illusioned basement cave, but he had never heard of one that was an enchanted forest. What sort of prisoner needed such unconventional bars?
“You know what we are looking for?” he asked.
“Vaguely.”
“A person at the center of a maze?”
“Yes.”
“Good to know you have as little information as I do,” he grunted.
There was nothing to go off of here and something didn’t make sense. They were no longer attempting to collect a person. They were breaking someone out of what was likely a well deserved cage.
He didn’t like it. He didn’t like any of the half hidden truths and secrets. Puzzles had never been his strength, and he held no interest in this chess game Malachi played. He suddenly understood very clearly how much of a pawn he truly was.
Footsteps crunched through the forest. Jasper looked to his left to see the Dragon returning with a bright red welt across his cheek.
Eyes glowing with anger, the Dragon nodded, but said nothing. The Wisp barely acknowledged he had returned. Instead, she turned into a ghostly version of herself, glowing with an internal light as she drifted away through the trees.
Jasper assumed that no other information was going to be shared. Not now that the Dragon had shown back up. Still, he had more questions.
