Mark wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her up to stand. “Come, Sarah, Tai needs us. We will contact the equillis, maybe they will help us to awaken him. We still have hope.” He shot me a glare then turned and led Sarah out of the room.
“Dad, I have to go, can Ava stay here with you?”
“Mum, no!”
“Ava, please. This is all too much for a child. Yes you might be almost fully grown, but you are still only a few days old.”
“I can get us where we need to go, I can help you.”
“I can use the orbs to transport myself if there is no gateway. Can’t I, Dad?”
“No, you can’t.” He lifted the orb that brought us to the study in his house from the gateway in Sayeesies. Only a few granules of sand remained stuck to the bottom of the glass. “That used the last of it. There won’t be more until the accords are set between us and the elves.”
“See, Mum? You need me.”
“It is too dangerous.”
“I am going. If you leave me here I will just portal to find you.” She wiped her hands over her eyes to remove the last of her tears.
I turned away and tried to cast a barrier around the room, to keep her in, to keep her magic contained. But it fell seconds after the cast. My magic was getting weaker, still.
Maybe if I take back my magic from Tai? I thought, turning back to Ava. He might wake up. If he is awake, she might just stay.
“Let’s go see if we can wake up Tai.”
Her eyes widened and the corners of her lips rose. “Do you think we can?”
“I think we can try.”
My father stepped between us and hugged Ava first. “Then best be off. He sleeps in the far room on this floor.” He hugged me next and whispered into my ear, “The council are looking for you. Use Ava’s portal to get you out of here as soon as you are done seeing to Tai. Don’t let them find you.”
“Thank you.”
Ava followed me down the hall towards where Tai slept. There was no one posted outside the door and I opened it slowly to peek inside, checking for his parents. No one was inside either. No one except Tai. He laid in the middle of a large double bed. A woven white blanket tucked tightly over him. If he woke he would struggle to free himself from the bed. His mother must have done it.
We made our way towards him. He didn’t look unwell. He looked like he was sleeping soundly. His chest moved up and down in a steady rhythm and his cheeks were flushed a healthy pink.
“Mum, what are you going to do?”
“I am going to try to take it back. The cast I used to take back the power from Traflier might work.”
“Why didn’t you try it before?”
I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to tell her Jax and I left Tai to come find her. She felt bad enough.
“Let’s try now,” I offered and released her hand to lay both of mine on Tai’s arm. I only had to speak the cast in my mind. The want, the desire, was all I needed to hopefully drain the magic from him. It was my magic, after all. It should want to come back to me.
I could feel the energy inside him stir, but it would not move from his centre. I tried harder and my head spun at the exertion.
“Crap.”
“It’s not working is it?”
“No. Maybe you could try to give it back the way you gave it to him?”
Ava bounced a little on her toes, unable to hide her excitement. “Okay, but you might want to move a bit back, remember last time?”
She had forced my change last time. Would definitely be a good idea to step back a bit.
I moved to the middle of the room where, should my wings erupt again, I would not break anything or knock Ava and Tai.
“I am ready when you are.” Ava placed one hand over Tai’s stomach and held the other out towards me.
I waited for the change to take over. I waited for the power to return and for me to feel strong again. I closed my eyes and waited.
Nothing happened.
Ava had her head bowed, both her hands now clasping Tai’s hand.
“Ava, it is okay,” I said, returning to her side. “We will find another way, look here.” I grabbed the book from my bag and began scanning for the same casts I had tried on Madel. We tried them all, nothing worked. My magic sat swimming with Tai’s, refusing to leave.
“Ava, I have to go.”
“We have to. Mum, I am going. What do we need next?”
“I thought you knew what I needed?”
“I know the whole list. The funny one told me them all, I just wanted to know where next.”
“Doesn’t matter where we go next, we have to get it all to seal it. You pick.”
She clapped excitedly.
“Wait,” I said, frowning at her. “Do you know where they want to open the mouth of hell, where we need to go to seal it?”
Her eyes saddened. “No, only the items we need. But they will help us I am sure. The happy one, she will pop in and tell me where to go.”
“I guess she might, but we better not rely on that.”
The door handle clicked and my heart jumped into my throat. Ava swung her arm and a wobbly portal appeared.
“Mum, we have to go now,” she whispered to me and took my arm. My minimal magic rushed to help her stabilise the portal, and as the handle turned, we leapt through.
Wherever she took us was dark. I turned to see Mark and Sarah’s shocked faces before the portal collapsed knocking us off balance and away from each other. I fell back against a hard ribbed wall. My hands felt behind me and wrapped around one of the ridges. I felt calmer holding onto it, even if I didn’t know what it was.
The air smelled of dirt and mould.
“Ava where are we?” I asked, feeling for her in the dark with my other arm.
“Well, we needed a feather off the firebirds, so I thought we should—”
“Are we in a firebirds nest?”
“Maybe.”
I shifted my feet and the ground bellow me creaked and began to move under my weight. Thin red lines of light shone subtly through where the floor shifted.
“Ava, come towards me,” I whispered into the dark, and I waved my arm around to find her. I felt her shoulder, but as I pulled her towards me, the ground gave way. She fell, dangling from my grip above a pool of lava. The red light shone upwards, illuminating the inside of the round nest we’d portalled into.
I held onto her arm as tightly as I could and I brought my magic forwards to try to phase. My transformation wouldn’t come. Crap, no wings. I tried a cast for a shield around us and after a little quiver it stuck. Once she was encased, I pulled on the shield and her arm and I was able to hoist her back into the nest.
Don’t fail. Don’t fail! I begged my magic as I pulled her back onto fragile ground. When she was through the hole we both fell back against the curved wall, my shield keeping us slightly off its delicate surface. The ground beneath our feet was made of intertwined twigs, branches, and leaves. The nest once a sphere now looked like a dropped Christmas ornament, with a huge hole blown out of the bottom.
“What the hell, Ava? Firebirds nest in volcanoes, if you had fallen—”
“I didn’t know, I just knew I could see one here so I made the portal. Sarah and Mark were at the door.”
“Thank you, you did the right thing. It is just maybe next time make the portal on the outside of the active volcano, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Your portals are getting better.”
She blushed and cuddled into me hugging me close. I took the moment protected by my shield and in the warmth of the firebirds nest to just hold her. To hold my child in my arms, to feel her heartbeat, smell her sweet skin. Run my hand over her rainbow curls. If her father wasn’t held captive by demons and we weren’t above a bubbling pool of lava it would have been perfect.
Only problem; he was. And we were.
The squawk of the firebird returning to its nest startled us out of our moment. Ava leapt to her feet, care
ful not to stand over the hole. Though my shield would keep her suspended, it wasn’t exactly the most enticing place to stand. Plus it could fail at any moment.
“Shh, keep still. If the firebird hasn’t laid its egg yet, she might not attack.”
“If?”
“Well, you broke the nest, and the egg didn’t fall though, so I am pretty sure it hasn’t laid it yet. But...”
“But what?”
“Okay, so they don’t particularly like fairies. Let’s just say I found a few spells that called for the yolk of a firebird’s egg. If those had been frequented in the past, you can imagine they are not too happy about it.”
Ava looked disgusted. Her nose flared at the mention of killing the unborn firebird for its magical yolk.
The bird landed on top of the nest, its claws penetrating through the joins of the branches it had so carefully weaved around.
“How will it get in here? How did it even get out?” Ava whispered, looking around the ball of twigs.
“They build them from the outside, then when it is time to lay, they create an opening above and drop the egg or eggs inside. This one must not be finished. The bird is probably back with more branches to add to it.”
Sure enough, a branch shot through the top and then bent sideways before forcing its way out of the side.
“It doesn’t know we are here,” Ava said reaching up and running her hand along my shield.
The firebird flapped and squawked and pushed a stick straight down, it hit my shield and went back up.
“It does now.”
The firebird shook the nest and though protected by my shield, we were knocked towards the side of the nest. A few more smaller twigs came free and fell to the lava below.
“We don’t want to hurt you,” I called out to the flapping squawking bird, but it didn’t stop its shrieking song.
“We have to get the feather,” Ava said reaching up but pushing against my shield. “Wait until it lands on the nest again then lower your shield. I will reach through there,” she said, pointing to a small opening that had appeared with all the thrashing.
I waited and when the firebird’s claws poked through the nest again, I lowered the shield. Ava reached through the gap. The nest shook, and I smashed against the side, several branches falling away to the lava below.
“Got it,” Ava said, but then her eyes went wide. “It has me!”
My magic exploded from my hands in a brilliant orb of blue light that shot through the branches and blasted the firebird’s face. It released Ava’s hand from its pointed silver beak and shot backwards, hovering above the nest. Its wings swooped back and it dove towards us. I immediately shielded Ava and the firebird bounced off the shield. The impact broke the cast and destroyed most of the upper part of the nest in the process. Ava and I grabbed onto the sides of the nest to not fall into the lava bellow.
“Stop, we don’t want to hurt you! You had her hand, I had to make you free her.”
“You destroyed my nest and she plucked my feather. Next you will be after my egg,” the firebird grumbled as it shock off the daze caused by hitting the shield. I tried a shield cast again and it encased us once more. Ava relaxed and stood over the hole above the lava. I pulled her away instantly and glared at her. I knew what my face would have looked like, I’m pretty sure my mother had worn the same expression many times. Anger mixed with fear and shock.
Ava however reacted much better than I used to. Ava’s gaze fell to her feet, fumbling her fingers together in front of her she avoided my eyes. I would have screamed at my mother. In fact I did on many occasions. I would have yelled that I was old enough to do what I wanted or to look after myself, and to stop treating me like a child. But I was a child, and she is. Sorry mum.
I looked back to the firebird, “we didn’t mean to,” I began but saw the feather in Ava’s hand. “I mean, we didn’t mean to break your nest. The bottom was weak anyway, if you had dropped your egg in it would have fallen right through. The feather we should have asked for, but you started attacking the nest, we didn’t think you would stop to listen to why we needed it.”
“Why? Why? I don’t care why. You fey are all the same. You promise the realm and deliver only death.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what your kind has done. Your leader came to us, begged for us to sacrifice five unfertilised eggs to his cause for freedom of the fabled. Freedom of creatures like us. We did what he asked. A generation lost, and for what? To be banished to the human world where barely half a dozen volcanoes are optimal to nest in.”
“Traflier?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Where were you from? I thought firebirds were of this realm, lived in the volcanoes, nested in them.”
“Pfft, silly Fairy. Firebirds are of the red world. Your Traflier took our eggs, and used them to destroy our world, transferring the power of its core to his world.”
“For fuck’s sake, is there any fabled Traflier hasn’t had a hand in pissing off?” We hovered over the boiling lava, my shield wavering with my rage. I had to focus to keep it stable, to keep the heat from us, and protect us should the firebird attack. “Look, I get that you don’t trust us, but know this; I destroyed that evil son a bitch, and if I knew how to fix the world he took from you, I would. But I think I know where the energy of it went. We found a way for the dragons to use it to ignite their flame.”
“Dragons? You lie, there are no dragons left.”
“I assure you there are. They were as pissed as you at what Traflier had done to them.” I reached into the bag that hung at my side and pulled out the scale for the firebird to see. The firebird squinted, not quite sure if it should believe me or not. “Let us go and I will find a way to get all of you into the outer reaches and back to at least the power that was once your whole world.”
The firebird pondered my proposal.
“Well, you have the feather already, I will let you leave with it. This time. But leave now. Before I change my mind.”
Ava drew a portal out of the firebirds nest, it wobbled just as badly as it had the last time. I took her arm and my magic helped steady it. But not much. My magic was waning fast.
“Tell the others like you that Desmoree of the fey will be returning you to the power of your world. I keep my word. I will get you all there.”
“We will see, little fey, we will see.”
Ava let go of my hand and stepped through the portal and the tips of her hair shimmered as silver as the feather she clasped in her hand.
A trick of the light, I told myself, not really believing my own internal voice.
I dropped the shield to have the strength to phase into my fairy form and hovered above the broken nest. Ava’s portal remained steady, for now, and I could see her watching me from the other side. She smiled then pulled the portal over and away from the nest area. Even the firebird raised it’s eyes at the impressiveness of her abilities.
I brought the book out from the bag and turned to the page I needed. It was the cast I used to turn Ava’s bassinet into a bed. I said the words and the branches grew as if alive once more and intertwined into a beautiful braided ball.
“It isn’t your world, but it is the least I can do for you right now. I did break the one you made after all.”
The firebird landed on top of the nest I had crafted. It bounced a little, possibly testing its strength. Lowering its head to circle the nest, it pecked a little at my braided twigs. I had made it prettier than it needed to be, but a braid was strong. It wouldn’t break should some other fairy decide to portal in.
Like any other fairy would be that silly.
“This will work beautifully, and not a day too soon, I feel my young is nearing its release,” the firebird said as it squatted on top.
“Umm, I’ll be going now. I will be back after I seal the gateway to lead you to the outer reaches, to the power of your world.”
The firebird snatched open a section of the nest at the top an
d lowered itself to sit upon it.
“I know where to find you if you break your word, but I have a feeling you will not. Good luck, Desmoree.” I took that as my very large cue to leave and flew right through the portal—just in time.
My fairy form fell away and my feet splashed into a puddle that smelled like old dirty socks and dead fish.
For fuck’s sake. This smells disturbingly like the swamplands of the yowie.
16
“I WAS SO HOPING WE wouldn’t have to come here.” I held my nose between my finger and thumb.
“How else were you going to get yowie fur, Mum?”
“I don’t know but this place really stinks.”
“Put up a shield.”
“I don’t think I can, I am really tired. Can you try?”
“I don’t know, maybe. How do you do it?”
“You need to focus on encasing us in your magic, then tell it what you want it to do. There was no cast for it before I did it, so I usually just say, protect me or us or whoever I am trying to shield.”
She squinted and scrunched up her nose.
It did nothing. Maybe there are a few things I can do that she can’t do after all.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said un-pinching my nose. “Hopefully we won’t be here long. So where do you think these yowie are going to be?”
Ava shrugged then smiled and tilted her head. She giggled, staring through me, her beautiful brown eyes gleaming. She righted her head then looked right at me, a huge smile on her face.
“What?” I asked, sighing and running my hand through my hair. “Where are they?”
“They kind of aren’t here anymore.”
“What? Why? Where are they?”
“Well, turns out they hated the swamp as much as you do, it was their prison. The wall keeping them in fell after you killed Traflier.”
“So where are they now?”
Uniting The Fabled Page 20
