Faery Forged

by Donna Joy Usher

  I stared at him. ‘The egg?’

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Is it the chicken?’

  ‘I don’t know. I’ve just always wondered.’

  I burst out laughing. That was one of the things I loved about Will, his ability to always keep his sense of humour. He was a good man to have in a bad situation.

  ‘They’re trying to wake me,’ he said.

  I hugged the big man. ‘We’ll come and get you,’ I promised. ‘Nobody gets to eat my Willy.’

  He chuckled. ‘You do know how bad that sounds, right?’

  ‘Yep. Trying not to think about it.’

  Still chuckling, he faded from view.

  I thought about going back to my body and using the dream-catcher, but then I thought of Emerald. I closed my eyes and appeared in her cave. The signs of Aethan and my scuffle were still evident in the sand. She hadn’t been back since then. Her bulk would have erased the marks.

  I flickered from site-to-site, searching for her, but she wasn’t there. Finally I went to the beach where I had last called her. The moonlight danced on the breaking waves. Sitting on a rock I stared into the distance, willing her to join me.

  Isadora. A breath on the wind.

  I looked over my shoulder, studying the tumbled boulders. Something moved in the depths of the shadows.

  ‘Emerald?’ I stood and walked towards it. Halfway there a prickle ran down my spine. Two bright lights shone from the shadow.

  I took a step back, and then another as the lights brightened.

  Isadora. A breeze blew towards me and curled around my body.

  I took another step back and the shadow oozed from boulder-to-boulder, the lights glowing eerily. The wind increased its speed, whirling around me.

  Isadora. My name was a hiss.

  The shadow emerged from the last boulder, and flowed towards me, growing taller and taller. The glowing eyes pierced mine and the wind plucked at my clothes.

  And then it was flying, speeding towards me. The wind slapped my face.

  Isadora.

  I screamed and threw my arms up as I willed myself back to my body.

  5

  On The Shoulders Of Giants

  I woke with a start as Aethan shook my shoulder.

  ‘You okay?’ He peered into my eyes.

  I concentrated on wiping the look of terror off my face. ‘Sure.’ I coughed and sat up.

  What had that thing been?

  Isla looked like a kitten curled up in a ball. I stood up and pulled her blanket back across her and then beckoned for him to follow me.

  ‘Did you get anything else?’ he asked.

  I nodded and filled him in on what Wilfred had told me.

  ‘So the city’s walled,’ he said when I’d finished.

  ‘Sounds like it.’

  He shook his head in frustration. ‘How on earth are we going to get in?’

  ‘Hey.’ I put a hand on his arm. ‘We’ll find a way.’

  He stared into my eyes for a few moments, his frustration etched onto his face. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘We’ll find a way.’

  I smiled. ‘Get some sleep.’

  ‘Is he still there?’

  ‘He’s gone.’

  Aethan started to walk towards his blanket but then he stopped and turned back to me. ‘Isadora,’ he said, ‘they tell me that I knew you, that I’ve lost my memories of you.’

  I tried to nod casually. I wasn’t sure if I pulled it off or not. ‘Nasty spell, that one,’ I said.

  ‘Were we…?’ He moved his hand between us. ‘Were we more than this?’

  Well just rip my heart out and jump up and down on it.

  I longed to tell him the truth. I ached to take him in my arms and kiss him till he felt it. But I couldn’t do that. Apart from the fact it could destroy his real memories of me, to put that sort of pressure on him wouldn’t be fair at all. He had to discover me again by himself, or not at all. And I had to let him. So I shook my head, pasted a smile on my face and said, ‘We were good friends.’

  ‘Just friends?’

  ‘Yup.’ If I nodded any harder it was possible my head might fall off.

  ‘Oh. So if I were to….’ He broke eye contact and stopped. ‘Never mind.’ Shrugging, he turned away from me.

  I reached out a hand and touched his shoulder. ‘If you were to what?’

  ‘Nah.’ He waved a hand at me. ‘I’m just tired.’ He turned and walked away. ‘Night Isadora,’ he said over his shoulder.

  I clenched my teeth together to stop myself from yelling, ‘Izzy. You used to call me Izzy.’ Instead I found an area I could watch the camp from. We had enough to worry about without my emotionally confounding him.

  The rest of the night passed uneventfully. I woke the others when the sun started to rise and after a quick meal, saddled Lily ready to go.

  The one thing Aethan and I hadn’t worked out was how we were going to tell Isla that we knew where the others were. We couldn’t mention Trillania. Would it be enough just to tell her that we knew and to leave it at that?

  I bit back a laugh. This was Isla we were talking about. There was no way she would let us get away with that.

  The ground started to tremble as we moved out of the campsite.

  ‘Here we go again,’ Isla said, climbing down from her saddle.

  We led the horses back into the shelter of the trees.

  ‘Izzy. Isla.’ Tiny shouted. ‘Where are you?’

  Did he think he was playing hide-and-seek with us?

  Aethan stepped from the trees and held onto a trunk to steady himself as the tremors increased. ‘Tiny,’ he hollered. ‘Over here.’

  Worried about falling trees, we moved back into the open and concentrated on staying upright. I could see the silhouette of the huge giant coming towards us.

  At the sight of us, his mouth broke into a huge grin, displaying his crooked teeth in all their glory. ‘I find,’ he said.

  Isla sighed. ‘You win.’

  He shook his head. ‘No, no. Tiny found friends.’

  Did he mean what I thought he meant? ‘Our friends?’ I clarified.

  His grin intensified. ‘Over there.’ He pointed north. ‘Nasty men have caught them.’

  Isla looked over at Aethan and me. ‘Does he mean goblins?’

  If we hadn’t spoken to Wilfred last night I would have assumed that as well. We were so used to thinking of giants as just that, that we hadn’t realised they saw themselves as men and women.

  ‘Men like you, but nasty,’ I said.

  He nodded, one of his eyes on me and the other pointing towards the sky. ‘Must come quick. Tonight nasty men eat friends.’

  Isla let out a yelp and leapt back into her saddle. ‘What are we waiting for?’ she said, turning her horse toward the town.

  ‘A plan,’ Aethan said. ‘Tiny, can you get us to them?’

  Tiny cocked his head to the side and stared into the distance. He reached a finger up and scratched the side of his nose. Just when I thought he hadn’t understood the question he said, ‘Can get you into town, but nasty men get suspicious if they see Tiny creeping around. You rescue friends and Tiny get you out. ’

  ‘Good enough.’ Aethan flashed him a smile.

  We mounted again but it was impossible to ride the horses with Tiny walking. We risked one of them breaking a leg if we tried.

  ‘Tiny find more.’ He pointed at Adare. ‘Where nasty men caught friends.’

  All we’d done that day was walk a few extra miles. Tiny had located the others and found their horses. He had us beat hands down at hide-and-seek.

  ‘Is it on the way? I asked.

  He nodded his head.

  ‘Can you lead us there?’ Aethan said.

  If the shit hit the fan during the escape we were going to need all the horses we could get.

  In answer, Tiny turned and started walking. We let him get far enough ahead that we could safely ride and then followed.

  The others
hadn’t camped that far away from us and it only took us fifteen minutes to get to the horses. A little stream ran nearby and we took the time to water and feed them, before staking all of them so that they could get to the stream if they needed. Long, soft grass grew plentiful in the area. They could spend the day resting and grazing.

  I could feel the day ticking away and we still weren’t much closer to the others. Tiny took his satchel off his back and placed it on the ground.

  ‘Tiny take you in bag,’ he said.

  I looked at the others. If we were wrong, if Tiny weren’t to be trusted, it would be seven faeries and one small dog the giants would be eating tonight. But we didn’t have any other options; we were running out of time.

  ‘Come on,’ I said, climbing into the bag with Scruffy.

  Isla and Aethan followed me, none of us talking, but I’m sure we were all thinking the same thing.

  Even with the top left undone, it was dark in the bag. Tiny lifted us carefully into the air and swung the bag over his shoulder. I let out a little squeal as the momentum forced us into the side of the satchel.

  ‘Sorry,’ Tiny said. But it sounded like he was amused.

  A partially eaten loaf of bread was standing on one side of the bag. We wrestled it to the bottom to use as a bench seat, and the ride got more comfortable.

  ‘Hungry?’ Isla ripped a chunk off the side of the loaf and handed it to me.

  After days of hard biscuits and beef jerky the bread tasted like heaven.

  ‘Got any cheese?’ Aethan asked, propping his feet up on a jar.

  Isla snorted but ignored him. I looked at her in the dim light. It wasn’t like her to not rise to a bait from Aethan.

  ‘We’ll get there in time,’ I said, squeezing her hand.

  ‘Oh, I know we will.’ Her body language belied her words. ‘I hope Wolfgang is okay.’

  I stopped myself from mentioning his broken leg. There was no way I could have known about that. And besides, I didn’t think it was really Wolfgang that had that line etched between her perfect brows.

  The satchel swayed gently in time with Tiny’s steps and I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. Scruffy nestled onto my lap and I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the fabric of the bag.

  ‘Halt, who goes there?’ The giant’s voice woke me from my nap with a start.

  I gasped and sat upright. Aethan touched my arm and put a finger to his lips. For a glorious slice of time I had been suspended between reality and dreams. I felt like I had slept for hours.

  ‘My name is Tiny.’

  The other giant snorted. ‘And what brings you to town… Tiny?’ He said the name with enough scorn to make me want to pop out the top of the bag and teach him some manners. From the way Isla’s hand twitched towards her sword I was guessing she was thinking the same thing.

  ‘The festival,’ Tiny said.

  ‘Why don’t you look me in the eye when you talk to me boy?’

  A few other giants sniggered at the reference to Tiny’s wandering eyes.

  It felt like Tiny shifted from foot-to-foot and I silently willed him to stand his ground. ‘I come to the festival,’ he said, a stubborn tone to his voice.

  ‘What’s going on up there?’ Another voice called from behind.

  Oh great. We were causing a queue at the front gate to the town. We had giants in front and behind us. The knowledge caused sweat to gather on my brow.

  ‘I go to the festival.’ From the vibrations coming through the bag, I assumed Tiny was jiggling up-and-down on the spot.

  ‘Oh for goodness sake Derek, let him in,’ the voice behind us insisted.

  ‘Yeah,’ another voice, even further back called.

  ‘Fine, Tiny.’ More sniggers followed this, making me wish we had spent more time working on his name. ‘Go through.’

  The bag settled back into a gentle sway as Tiny recommenced his journey. As soon as he cleared the gate we were baffled with noise. Giants shouting their wares, others haggling over prices, and still more chatting in the streets.

  Giants everywhere.

  When we had come up with this ride-into-town-and-save-our-friends plan my mind had shied away from the reality of the situation. Well, reality had just shown up dressed in a psychedelic clown suit and carrying a placard that said, ‘Here I am.’

  How on earth were we to save them?

  Tiny walked for a few minutes till we could hear animals bleating and mooing. Then he swung the satchel off his shoulder and slung it onto the ground. I let out an ‘ooophff’ as we were tossed off our edible seat and thrown across the bag. I landed in a heap, meshed into Aethan’s body, my legs and arms entangled with his. His musky scent enveloped me as my face pressed into his chest.

  ‘How much for the cow?’ Tiny asked.

  ‘What do you want with a cow?’

  ‘I like milk.’

  Seriously? He was buying a cow? Had he forgotten about our mission?

  The store holder burst out laughing. ‘This here is a bull,’ he said. ‘You’ll not be getting any milk from him. But I have a fine dairy cow over here in this other pen.’ His voice faded as he led Tiny away.

  Isla poked her head out the top of the bag. ‘Quick,’ she said. ‘Before they come back.’

  She scampered out the top of the bag with Scruffy on her heels and Aethan and I disentangled ourselves with an awkward ‘excuse me’ and ‘so sorry’ and followed her. I tried not to think about the feel of his body wrapped around mine. That was not going to help at all.

  Tiny had slung his bag behind the back wall of a pen, giving us full cover as we emerged.

  I stared open-mouthed at the enormous animals. For some reason I had been expecting human-sized ones.

  ‘Which way?’ Isla asked.

  The animal market stretched off into the distance in front of us. ‘That way,’ I said, praying I was right.

  We crept along the back of the pen and stopped at the far end for a group of giants to pass. A quick glance backwards showed the stall keeper demonstrating how to milk the cow. We dashed across the path between that stall and the next, and then crept along behind it.

  I’m more of a fighter than a creeper and the suspense wound me into a tight ball of nerves. The sweat that had formed before was now trickling down my face. All we needed was some giant to look in our direction at the wrong time, when we were exposed dashing from hiding spot to hiding spot, and it would be game over for all of us.

  Not only would two thirds of the royal heirs be destroyed in a giant’s cook pot, but the probability of the goblins winning the night faeries to their side would dramatically increase. The safety of the world depended on this mission and that added a whole heap more pressure to an already stressful situation.

  We were about to make another dash across a street when Scruffy let out a low growl. I put a hand on Aethan’s arm to stop him and a few seconds later a child appeared right where we would have been. ‘They’ll never find us here,’ he called back over his shoulder.

  We just had enough time to dive behind some hay bales before the speaker and another child appeared behind the stall. I peered between two bales as the boys made themselves comfortable on the other side. A lollipop stick protruded from between the leader’s lips.

  ‘I heard Mum telling Mrs Layton that the guard had caught faeries outside the city,’ Lollipop said.

  ‘No way.’ The other youth pulled his own lolly out of his pocket and pulled off the wrapper. He tossed it over his shoulder and it floated down to land on my head. Lolly residue stuck the paper to my hair.

  ‘Ahuh,’ Lollipop continued. ‘Said there were fifty of them.’

  ‘That’s way cool.’

  I managed to get the wrapper off, but lolly goop stretched between the paper and my head. It finally released its grip on the wrapper, preferring instead to stick to my hair.

  Lollipop took his sweet out of his mouth and examined it. ‘You’ve never seen a faery, have you?’

  ‘You haven�
��t neither.’

  ‘Yes I have.’

  ‘No you haven’t.’

  ‘Have too.’

  ‘You’re a dirty stinking liar.’

  ‘Am not.’ Lollipop shoved his companion and for one awful second I thought he was going to roll into our hiding place.

  He regained his balance and shoved back. ‘Are too. My Mum said lying runs in your family.’

  ‘You take that back.’ Lollipop balled up his fist.

  ‘If you boys are going to fight back there you can piss off to another stall.’ Heavy footsteps bounced us, as the store owner rounded the end of the building.

  ‘Sorry Master Hammon,’ both boys said in meek voices.

  For a few moments all that could be heard was the sucking noises. Then lollipop boy said, ‘Do you want to see one?’

  His companion pulled his sweet out of his mouth. ‘What, now?’

  ‘Ahuh.’ The look on Lollipop’s face embodied the spirit of naughty children everywhere. ‘Mum said they put them in the church crypts.’

  I looked over at Aethan and Isla, unable to believe our luck.

  ‘The crypts are dark.’

  Go on, I willed them. Lead us to the church.

  ‘Scaredy-cat.’

  ‘Am not.’

  ‘Are too.’

  ‘Boys!’ Master Hammon’s voice blasted from the other side of the stall.

  ‘Prove it.’ Lollipop stood up and started walking up the street in the direction we had been going.

  We dived back out to behind the stall and scuttled along our hidden alley as we tried to keep up with glimpses of the boys. The problem was not only that their legs were three times as high as us, but that we had to maintain a look out as we ran. We ducked and dived, hiding behind animals and stalls and hay bales as we made our way after them, but they got further and further ahead.

  ‘They’re getting away,’ Isla muttered.

  Just before we lost total sight of them, they darted to the right, down an alley. When we got to the start of the alley we saw them turning right at the end. There was no shelter down the alley. We were going to have to run it with nowhere to hide.

  ‘No guts no glory,’ Aethan said.

  We sprinted down the alley, the mouldy walls of the buildings towering ominously on either side of us. The gloom and dampness amplified the feeling of doom. My nerves wound tighter and tighter, my breathing coming heavier than it should have from the exertion of the run. Nowhere to turn, nowhere to hide.