“I was teasing you, Ryker.”
“Oh, I see,” he said. A sly smile bloomed on his face. “Your payback will come in due time.”
Melia handed him his clothes and dagger.
“Go for it,” I challenged. I glanced over the treetops at the looming castle and changed my tune.
“Would you mind waiting for payback until this is over?”
“Phaedra’s fortress frightens you?”
“Well, duh! There’s a ginormous wall around it, not to mention a moat that’s probably got alligators in it.”
Ryker rubbed his chin. “No alligators, but the moat most certainly contains hinkey punks, who delight in leading unsuspecting folk into their waters.”
“Hinkey punks?”
Ryker made a face. “Nasty little creatures. You needn’t worry, though. Uncle Davie will have 353
eaten them by now.”
I shuddered. “Better he eats hinkey punks than me!”
Melia patted my arm. “I had a little talk with the kelpie. He promised not to eat you.”
“Well, gee, I feel all better now.”
Ryker gave me a disapproving look. “Sarcastic wit does not become a princess.”
I started to answer, but rolled my eyes instead. Why waste my breath? “Okay, what’s next?”
Melia said, “We’ll wait here for the pixie report. They should be here any minute. Then, we’ll know who and what we’re dealing with.”
“So Uncle Davie and the sprites are in the moat?” I asked.
Ryker said. “Uncle Davie is dealing with the hinkey punks. The sprites will lure the guards close to the water.”
“I wondered what the sprites would be doing.”
“Pookie uses her voice to call the guards in, one by one. Meg snares them with her whip and flips them into the water. Splash! Another snack for Uncle Davie.”
Grudgingly, my respect for the sprites and water horse began to grow. “What happens when he gets full?”
Melia laughed. “He’s never full.”
Ryker said, “After the pixies check in, I’ll approach the castle and ask them to lower the drawbridge. Once Phaedra finds out I’m bringing Melia to her, she’ll be most anxious to comply.”
“What about me?”
“You will accompany us.”
“How will you explain my presence?”
Ryker winked. “Wait and see.”
“Tell me!”
Ryker turned away and squinted at the sky. “Incoming pixies.” Maddie and Ari landed on his outstretched hand.
Pixie dust flew as Maddie shook her translucent green wings and saluted smartly. “Reporting in, sir.”
The pixie dust tickled my nose and I sneezed violently, blowing the pixies off Ryker’s hand. They tumbled through the air, wings fluttering in an effort to regain their equilibrium. Maddie recovered first. She darted back to Ryker and hid behind his ear. Tiny hands and two brown eyes appeared as she clamped onto the top of his ear and peered cautiously in my direction. Ari, with an angry buzz, zipped over and hovered in front of my face, taking care to stay above my nose. She folded her arms across her chest and glared. “Watch it! You almost blew my dang wings off.”
“Sorry.” I tried not to laugh at the pixie’s outrage. Having spoken her piece, Ari hitched up her panties and flew to Ryker’s shoulder.
Maddie climbed on top of Ryker’s ear and clapped her hands for attention. “There are many odd folk in Phaedra’s castle. Still celebrating Lammas, it seems.”
Melia said. “We were hoping that would be the case. Security will be lax during their revels.”
“What is Lammas?” I said.
“Lammas is one of our harvest festivals. The other two are Mabon and Samhain. I believe you call yours Samhain, All Hallows Eve. Lammas marks the end of summer and the coming of autumn. As the sun’s strength weakens, the power of the moon goddess grows, which will work to our advantage.”
“What exactly goes on during these revels?”
Once again, Ryker flashed his wicked smile. “Pleasures of the flesh.”
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“Oh.”
Ryker glanced over at Melia. “She blushes quite prettily, does she not, my queen?”
Melia nodded in agreement.
“Okay, you got me. We’re even now,” I said. “So, what’s the next step?”
“I approach the gatehouse. You and Melia stay concealed in the trees.”
Pixie led, we found a well worn path that wound through the trees. We passed by a bubbling pool the color of molten gold. Hummingbirds darted from trumpet shaped flowers and hovered in a shaft of sunlight over the glistening water. At least, I thought they were hummingbirds. A painfully shrill squee of delight proved me wrong.
Maddie’s wings were vibrating at warp speed. She grabbed Ari’s hand. “Aunt Frilly, Uncle Treacle, Cousin Philomena! It’s Maddie and Ari!”
After an extensive period of shrieking, chattering, hugging and zipping through the air in joyful loop to loops, the pixie reunion showed no signs of winding down. Finally, Ryker said, “Time to go, girls.”
After another round of hugs, Maddie flew down the path ahead of us. Ari screamed, “Maddie, Maddie, no!”
“Ari, what’s wrong?”
I held out a finger and she darted over to me. Tears streaked her chubby little face. Her lower lip quivered. “Ari stay with you.” She covered her face with her cape and peeked over the edge, one dark curl plastered to her cheek by tears. “Bad faeries in the castle. They pull wings off pixies and eat them. Ari is scared.”
I gasped in horror. A swell of righteous anger banished my own sympathetic tears. I lifted the little pixie close to my lips and whispered, “Don’t you worry. Not gonna happen on my watch.”
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Chapter Twenty Six
With a pixie in my pouch, I stood behind a giant cedar with Melia and watched as Ryker strode across the large clearing leading to the moat. The castle was constructed on a great mound of earth. It loomed darkly sinister, casting its shadow far beyond its two protective stone walls. I’d spotted the outer wall from the sky. The taller interior wall was crenellated. Melia explained, in whispers, that the U
shaped openings along the top of the inner wall were called crenels, and their purpose was to provide an opening for the guards to peer through.
“Look,” she said. “They weren’t there a few seconds ago.”
Dark forms filled six of the crenels. Man, beast or faery? I couldn’t tell from so far away. Alarmed, I said, “What about Ryker? Please tell me they won’t shoot him.”
“Without Phaedra’s say-so, the guards dare not harm one of her favorites.”
“And, if she says so?”
“She will not, granddaughter. Not when he tells her of my presence.”
Melia spoke the words with calm confidence. She had changed dramatically since first we’d met. No longer the pale creature with bones as fragile as a bird’s, she fairly vibrated with health and vitality. If Ryker was right—and I had no reason to doubt him—she’d been restored by our adventure. Her skin glowed green as grass. With her headdress of antlers and proud posture, she looked every inch the queen.
“Hawk! Hawk approaches!” The cry rang from the top of the inner wall and was picked up by dozens of voices. With a hideous squeak, the drawbridge began to lower across the moat. Even from a hundred yards away, I could smell the stagnant water that stank of mold and slime. I wondered how Meg and Pookie could stand it. We watched Ryker start across the drawbridge. A raspy voice called out, “Halt!”
Two by two, six squat creatures, each carrying a spear, marched to the center of the drawbridge and stopped. I rubbed my eyes and squinted through the bright sunlight, not sure what I was seeing. I whispered to Melia, “What are those things?”
“Toadlings,” she replied. “Phaedra uses them as guards because they have no aversion to jumping into the foul water after their prey. I once saw a toadling unspool its tongue and slurp up a full-sized fee lion.
” She shuddered. “Obnoxious creatures.”
Toadlings and fee lions? Clearly, I had much to learn about the Unseelie Court. The top of the toadlings’ heads came to Ryker’s waist. Nevertheless, they quickly formed a cordon around him, and marched him through the arched entryway in the stone guard house. When he disappeared from sight, my anxiety level ratcheted up another notch. Ari’s little head popped out of the pouch. With a ferocious frown, she said, “Don’t like toadlings. Don’t like fee lions.”
Melia laughed. “What do you like, little one?”
She sank slowly out of view. We could barely hear her tiny muffled voice. “I like it in here.”
Melia whispered, “Poor little mite. A year ago, she and her sister lost their mother, father and siblings, all forty six of them, to a bilious blurker.”
I stared at her, aghast. “A what?”
“Horrible creature. ”
“He ate them?”
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Melia nodded. “I found Maddie and Ari hiding in a honeysuckle bush, heartbroken and sobbing. They’ve been with me ever since.”
I patted the pouch. “No wonder she’s so scared.”
“But enough about the pixies. We must get you ready. You cannot go into Phaedra’s court looking like that.”
In addition to the moonstone and pouch, I was wearing what I wore most every day in the real world: jeans, a pink Fighting Peahens tee shirt and sneakers. Nothing fancy, but clean. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”
“As the Princess Avalon, you have a certain image to uphold.”
I narrowed my eyes at Melia. “These will have to do. I didn’t bring a change of clothes.”
Melia covered her mouth and giggled. “Silly girl, have you not heard of glamour?”
“Well, yeah, but I don’t know how to create the spell.”
“But, I do.” She walked around me, examining me from every angle. “Hmm, what shall I dress you in?”
Ari popped out of the pouch. “Purple cape like Ari’s.”
“No capes,” I said, firmly, even though I hated to disappoint the pixie. “We might have to make a run for it. Since I can’t fly, I don’t need for a cape.”
Melia stroked her chin and thought a while longer. “I’ve got it.”
With gentle hands, she stroked the trunk of a giant cedar tree and spoke to it in her forest faery tongue. The tree began to vibrate. Tiny green branches rained down on us. Melia gathered them up, patted the tree and murmured her thanks. She examined each of the tree’s offerings, discarding all but one. The rejects floated upward to become part of the tree again.
Melia rolled the small cedar sprig between her palms, rotating it faster and faster. Gradually, the flat, green needles blurred and lost color. When Melia opened her hand, she held a silver ball.
“Close your eyes and do not move until I tell you,” she ordered, stepping close. With my eyes tightly shut, I reached out with my other senses. I felt a warm puff of air as Melia passed the silver ball around my body, smelled the clean, pungent scent of cedar and heard a highpitched hum as the ball spun in her palm. I felt something settle onto the top of my head. After several minutes, she said, “I guess that will do. Open your eyes.” She tossed the silver ball skyward and it vanished into the cedar’s branches. “How do you like your new clothes?”
For the record, I don’t mind dressing up for Halloween. Looking silly one night a year is fine with me. Since my grandmother was a forest faery, I expected to end up with something green and leafy, but probably gossamer and gorgeous.
When I checked out the outfit Melia had conjured up, I totally understood why my friends were always complaining about the clothes their grandmothers gave them for Christmas. Oh, man. Put me in the middle of an apple orchard and I would disappear completely. My formfitting, apple-dotted green and brown tunic was sleeveless and ended a few inches above the knees. The hideous pattern did not end there. It was glamoured onto my arms and legs like a tattoo. Panicky, I felt my cheeks. “Are there apples on my face?”
Ari peeked out of the pouch, which was now also camouflaged to match my outfit. She studied me solemnly, “No. But your face is green. A purple cape would be better.”
“You’re right.” I snatched off the headdress Melia had given me: a silver crown decorated with clusters of apples. The moonstone was my only apple-free accessory. I tucked it inside my tunic. Melia looked me up and down. “I used the apple theme throughout.”
“I noticed.”
“Avalon means ‘apples,’ you know.”
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“So you say.”
Melia glared at me. “You said you did not want to wear a dress, so I did not give you one. You look beautiful in this alternate. Just remember, you‘re a princess. Stand tall. Walk proud.”
My mouth dropped open. “My mother says that.”
Melia grinned. “Where do you think she learned it?”
An hour later, we finally got the call to enter the castle. We got an up-close view of the toadlings. Short and squat, they looked like they’d been put together by a committee who couldn’t agree on the final product. Ugly brown toad heads with bulging eyes sat atop a human torso with short legs and humongous webbed feet. Their prehensile arms had claw-like hands in which they held wicked sharp spears. They smelled of stagnant water and mildew. Yuck! I tried not to look at them as they marched us across the drawbridge.
I glanced down at the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of Uncle Davie and the sprites. What I saw made my heart leap in my chest. The water began churning violently.
A small hand shot out of the water, fingers outstretched in a silent plea for help. Seconds later, the hand vanished, as if something vile had pulled it beneath the water.
“Hey, toad guys, stop!” I yelled.
The head honcho toadling turned and said with a raspy croak, “Keep marching.”
“No!” I slammed on the brakes. “Somebody fell in the moat.”
I tried to dart between two of the guards. One of them hissed and poked me with the butt of his spear. The other one gave me a push with his claw. Melia turned and gave me a warning glance. Shocked and shaking with fury, I had no choice but to keep going. Before we stepped off the bridge, I risked a quick peek over my shoulder.
A pool of red was spreading across the dark waters of the moat. I bit back a scream and prayed the victim wasn’t Meg or Pookie. The toadlings marched us through the guardhouse and up the hill that led to the interior wall. As we drew closer to the castle, my apprehension grew. Black toadstools and smelly, cabbage-like flowers dotted the ground along with clumps of sickly yellow grass. I felt a crawly feeling behind me and whipped my head around. A pale blob of a creature with a single wispy horn sprouting from his forehead peeked out from behind a toadstool, tracking our progress with glowing yellow eyes. One sharp fang protruded from his slit of a mouth.
I caught up with Melia and whispered, “What’s that thing behind us?”
After a quick glance, Melia said, “Blurker.”
I checked the pouch to make sure Ari was tucked safely inside before whispering, “As in ‘the pixie-eating blurker?’”
Melia nodded without further explanation. Consequently, I had no idea if there was a single blurker responsible for wiping out Ari’s family or a whole butt load of them.
Truthfully, I was a little ticked off at Melia and Ryker.
I hissed at Melia’s back. “Why didn’t you tell me this place is so gross?”
She turned her head slightly. “You wouldn’t have come.” I had to bite my lip to keep from saying something disrespectful to my grandmother.
The toadlings marched us through a gate in the interior wall, across a cobblestone courtyard to a long flight of stone stairs leading downward. The steep stone stairway was so narrow we had to form a single-file line. It had no hand railing, and the stones beneath our feet were slippery. One misstep and we’d all go down like dominos.
The thought of landing on one of the repulsive toadlings was enou
gh to make me tread carefully.
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When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we stood before double wooden doors. One of the guards croaked out a command, and the doors swung open, releasing a cacophony of strange sounds and a rush of musty-smelling air. For the smell factor alone, the Unseelie Court topped my list of Places To Never Go Again.
The toadling escorted us through the doors. I tried not to scream as the doors slammed shut behind us. We stood in the center aisle of a high-ceilinged, cavernous room filled with long wooden tables and benches. Dozens of flickering torches bathed the room in dim, yellow light. Waving roots with grasping fingers dangled from the ceiling. It was then I realized we were beneath a giant mound of earth. Subterranean. I shivered again. Moss crawled over the walls. The benches overflowed with an assortment of fae creatures, some who looked human, others who appeared to be the result of science experiments gone horribly wrong. All of them were staring at us in eerie silence. Fighting the panic welling up in my chest, I sucked in air and stepped close to Melia. She took my hand and squeezed. “Courage, Avalon, courage,”
she murmured.
Courage was hard to come by, especially with the denizens of the castle creeping closer to get a better look at us, no doubt sizing us up for the cooking pot.
“Fee lions behind you,” Melia hissed.
I swiveled my head just in time to see a pair of cat-like creatures crouched and ready to spring. No larger than a foot high, they had the wings of a bat, the speckled limbs of a toad and broad faces with beady black eyes. When I stared them down, they snarled and snapped their sharp yellow teeth.
“Jitter! Jabber!” A woman’s voice called out. “Behave yourselves.”
Reluctantly, I tore my gaze away from the dark faeries, hoping lack of eye contact wouldn’t encourage them to draw closer. At the front of the room, a woman, dressed in a blood-red gown, stood upon a raised platform. Ryker was on her left, a young woman with light-brown hair to her right.
“Melia.” The woman’s voice was high-pitched, yet strident. “Come to me at once. You’d best bring your granddaughter with you, in case Jitter and Jabber require a snack.” She laughed heartily at her own joke. Personally, I saw nothing funny in the remark.
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