The WishKeeper (The Paragonia Chronicles)

by Timm, Maximilian

  “Yes, I used to hide there when you two would bring wishes to the statue,” Shea returned.

  “Ellie, we’ll fly you to that edge, but you need to grapple us up from there. We cannot assist in any way after that point or he’ll know.”

  She nodded and clutched the rising trepidation inside her. She had no idea how she would do such a thing without at least grimacing, but the Captain didn’t know pain. She was going to have to do the same.

  “When you present me to him, during the exchange, you’ll fire a wrangling spell at the wish. Shea, you’ll need to free Thane and the Makers, but you have to wait until after your mom fires first. Like you said, Erebus can’t see you. He needs to think we came alone.”

  Shea nodded and straightened her skirt. Just the sound of Thane’s name made her heart beat a little faster. There were too many reasons why it fluttered, but she did her best to calm the incessant feeling that she missed him and was excited to see him again. She didn’t understand the feeling as it pumped through her veins, but she thought it must have been some form of love. Trying to hide it from her parents, she looked over her shoulders, wondering if her wings were glowing as her parents’ did before. They weren’t shining and, surprised, Shea was a little disappointed.

  They readied themselves for launch and put Elanor’s arms over their shoulders. Rising up along the side of the mountain, Elanor looked at her daughter.

  “Thane, huh?” she smiled as only a knowing mother can. Shea couldn’t help but blush. It was the only answer she could come up with.

  42

  The Death Wish

  A Death Wish is not always a wish for someone to die. That’s far too short-sighted and the Keepers learned early on that every Maker is capable of a negative wish. A wish of hatred, vindictiveness, jealousy or any type of unkind act toward or for another Maker is the basic construct of a Death Wish. There is an innate irony within any Death Wish as it is technically a selfless wish, at least in that it is a wish for someone else to fail, or lose or, yes, even die. While it may, at the surface, be selfless, the major difference between a Death Wish and a True Love Wish is the unattached selflessness. When a Maker casts a Death Wish, it is inherent that they gain something from the negative wish even though it is made for someone else. A True Love Wish, therefore, carries the quality of detachment and in no way does the Maker intend to gain anything - even a returned measure of love - upon the wish’s fulfillment.

  As Avery approached the dark corner of the forgotten realm of Paragonia’s woods, the light of the Wishing Pool cut weak streams of light through the scrawny trees. It was on purpose that the Keepers hid the Death Wishes within a cave so close to Exclamation Point. Before Erebus’ treachery, the light of The Pool and the power it held over the land helped keep the wishes calm and obedient. Like a tranquilizer, The Pool sedated the powerful wishes otherwise the Keepers would not have been able to control them. Removing a Death Wish from the cave was always done in secret, never publicly reported and done with a full force of armed Sentinels ready to support the WishKeeper’s retrieval.

  Standing in front of the hidden cave, Avery studied the jumbled mess of rocks, boulders and outcropping of vines and vegetation. The entrance to the cave was small enough only for a fairy to enter and exit, and therefore very nearly impossible to see with the naked eye unless you knew where to look. Nothing more than a rocky bulge at the top of the mountain, very little upkeep had been done on the cave over the years, and yet Avery knew it all too well.

  Since the destruction of the True Love Wish, Avery would wake in the middle of the night and unconsciously remove herself from her soft, feather bed and go to The Cave. The first time it happened, she woke from the dreaming flight and suddenly found herself standing in front of it, terrified and speechless. She could control it at first, but as the years progressed, a darkness clouded her mind more and more. By the time Grayson and Miranda had made their second True Love Wish and Shea was crossing over in an attempt to retrieve it, she had lost count as to how many Death Wishes she’d retrieved for her WishingKing. A wave of panic would engulf her every time she thought of it while awake. To think her body was somewhere else at night without her knowing, taking the wish to The Other Side and blindly handing it over to Erebus. How many times had she done it? How much power had she unwittingly given her deceitful king over the years?

  Staring at the small hole just beneath an overhang of moss, and above a sharp granite rock shaped like a pointed finger, Avery was aware of everything. Usually she was here unconscious, sightless and thoughtless, but this time she was fully aware of everything she’d done and everything she was about to do. Somehow the curse had dug so deep within her little heart that the pure Avery she once knew wasn’t just pushed away, but instead converted, changed. No longer was she resisting the curse, but instead, embracing it. The hatred curdled inside of her. She could taste the deep determination to have what she wanted. To no longer be a pawn in her WishingKing’s game. It was time to end it. All of it. It was time to bring death into the light. Time to bring an end to her pain. Floating toward the small entrance, she ducked her head and entered.

  Pitch black, not an inch of space in front of her could be seen. A constant, low buzzing hummed through the cave as if she’d entered a sleeping hornets’ nest. As she floated into the darkness and set her feet lightly upon the stone floor, the cave buzzed with a resonant wave. The wishes knew someone had entered and they expectantly awaited retrieval.

  A snap from the end of her wand sizzled and Avery held it up, using the soft blue light to illuminate her surroundings. Every inch of the wet, shimmering cave walls were covered with Death Wishes. They weren’t in any kind of casing or jar, but clinging to the walls like bats, fluttering and buzzing a natural hum. Though Avery’s wand cast its light around her, the cavern ran so deep within the mountain, the light of the wand was unable to span the full size of it. Even larger than the Nursery’s main hall, the Death Wish Cave had an endlessness about it.

  A Death Wish buzzed toward Avery and zipped past her ear, leaving a thin, red scratch across her cheek. Another wish spun around her head and scraped across her forehead. Blood lightly trickled over her brow, and yet Avery didn’t move. One by one, the Death Wishes swooped and bombarded the little black-haired fairy and swarmed her. The humming buzz of the wishes was deafening as they swirled around her. Thousands swallowed up the light of her wand and consumed her.

  BLAST! A force of purple fog protruded out from the center of the swarming wishes and pushed back the onslaught. Avery stood at the center of the force with her wand held high above her head, gripping it with both hands. The wishes slowed and moved into a synchronized swarm, zooming around her in a perfect circle. Thousands upon thousands of Death Wishes suddenly controlled.

  Gripping tight to her wand, the purple spell still emanating from the end of it, she slowly lowered it and held it firm in both hands. Her face and arms were slashed with hundreds of scrapes and scratches, blood painting her skin a thick painless red, and yet a slow smile curled beneath her pitch black eyes. Her WishingKing was about to receive something quite unexpected. An equal.

  43

  The Pain Of A Wish

  Cringing, Elanor was holding back with every ounce of remaining energy not to cry out as Beren and Shea set her on the ledge beneath of The Point’s cliff. Nauseous, Elanor knelt and leaned her palms on the cold wet rock. The black dust was now falling from her shoulders with every breath she took, and Shea was near panic.

  “She can’t even stand up, Dad. How is she going to grapple you up to The Point? And without your help?” she said. Beren was pacing and well aware of the situation. He stopped and knelt at his wife’s side.

  “Ellie? Do you have one more in you? I know it hurts…” he stopped as Elanor sat back and gripped Beren’s shoulder. Pulling herself up off the ground, she held back the need to gasp through the pain and kept as straight a face as possible. Her eyes were drooped, bag-lined and creased. Her complexion was cold
, nearly bloodless, but she stood and pulled the hood up and over her head.

  “Just get over the edge of the cliff, Mom,” Shea said. “Once you’re in front of Erebus, all you have to do is wait for him to address you and make the exchange.”

  Elanor smiled at Shea from under the hood. Elanor knew it wouldn’t be so easy, but she loved her daughter for trying to calm her. A strange juxtaposition, she thought. Her daughter was giving her advice and comforting her. Removing her wand from her sheath and holding Beren’s in the other, she gripped the handcuffing spell, looked at her husband and nodded.

  “Let’s go then,” Beren said. With that, Elanor took a deep breath and fired a grappling spell at the edge of the cliff above. It clung tight to the rock, and Elanor pulled.

  It felt as if her body was ripping in two. The spell pulled her up to the cliff, but Beren’s weight, dangling at her side, despite his slight support with an occasional flutter of his wings, hurt so badly her vision blurred. She was passing out from the instant pain, but the cliff’s edge was drawing closer and closer. If she could just hold on. If she could just resist the pain for one moment longer.

  Shea watched her crippled mom struggle with the grappling spell. Even though Elanor didn’t think she was grunting or making a sound, Shea’s eyes poured with tears as she listened to her mom crying through the pain. She didn’t know what to do. Once again she felt helpless.

  The fog suddenly swirled along the edge of the cliff, darker than it had been and swifter than if moved by a simple breeze.

  “I was beginning to think you would never show, my Elanor,” Erebus’ voice rang out across The Point and Shea ducked along the wall of her ledge, desperate not to be seen. Fear spiraled through her at the sound of the WishingKing’s voice. “No,” she thought. “He didn’t see me. He couldn’t have. He didn’t see.” She squinted her eyes tight, praying silent pleas that she wasn’t seen. She was their only hope to keep this mission alive.

  The fog released from the edge of the cliff and swirled back up toward The Pool. Incredibly, Shea was thankful for Erebus. He guided his Captain to the edge, not questioning the situation and not peering over to see her hiding there. “We have a shot. Hold on, Mom. Just hold on. Goren and Foster, where are you?”

  As Elanor was placed along the grass of The Point, Erebus moved back and stood at the center of The Pool. To her right, she saw Miranda and Grayson standing, tied up, exhausted, and petrified. Her hood fell over her eyes enough so that Miranda couldn’t make eye contact, but even if she had, the blackness in her eyes would be obvious enough to keep up the ruse in which they were attempting. Thane turned toward Beren and Elanor, his face scarred and hopeless, and it was all she could do to hold back the hiccups of tears. Finally, Erebus motioned for his Captain to approach, and though Elanor was still conscious and not completely consumed, the curse that raged within her was still strong enough to make her obey. She felt her legs step toward The Pool, and her arm tug on Beren’s handcuffs. She looked behind her and avoided her husband’s eyes. She knew she wouldn’t be able to withstand the emotion if they connected.

  They walked to base of the marble pool. Elanor looked up at her master and waited for her orders. In Erebus’ palm was the motionless, tired little wish of true love and Elanor knew she had to focus on its retrieval and nothing else. She had to focus.

  “Thank you, Ellie, for being here. I wouldn’t want you to miss this. Then again, I suppose you can’t miss this since you are such an integral part of my process.” With a slight move of his foggy hand, Thane was forced back, thrown suddenly to the edge of the cliff. The explosion of Erebus’ spell knocked Thane unconscious, and his head dangled over the edge. One more roll and he would have toppled over. If his eyes had been open, he would have seen Shea below him covering her mouth to avoid a high-pitched scream.

  Shea sped up to him, holding his face, and staying out of sight. She clung to the edge of the cliff and peered gently over, watching Erebus stand above The Pool.

  Wrapping tendrils around Elanor and Beren, Erebus grabbed and threw them along the marble ridge, placing them in Thane’s spot. Falling onto the hard marble stone, Elanor couldn’t hold back the thrust of pain as it jabbed directly at her broken ribs. She cried out and let go of Beren’s handcuffs.

  Erebus didn’t flinch. He watched his Captain writhing and listened to Elanor’s cries. He watched without surprise as Beren huddled over her, whispering support in her ears.

  “WishMakers, I would like you to see something. Please, feel free to look. Go ahead,” Erebus said, asking Grayson and Miranda to watch.

  They were, of course, already watching. Their faces pained with horror as Beren clutched his dying wife.

  “Please! She’s obviously in pain!” yelled, Miranda. She couldn’t help herself.

  “Pain?” Erebus taunted. “Pain is exactly why I intend for you to watch this. To see just what pain really is.”

  The shadow king whirled around Grayson and Miranda, surrounding them with his thick black cloak. Bringing his face mere inches from Miranda, he placed his shadowy arm around her shoulders and motioned toward Beren and Elanor.

  “WishMaker, Miranda Anderson. Pain, my dearest, is clinging to the notion that you may remember a forgotten thing. Pain is holding out for one impossibility among a million impossibilities. Believing that something lost will miraculously be found again simply by sitting idly by and waiting for it to return.”

  He glided over to Grayson and leaned in. Grayson recoiled, pulling his face away, attempting to stave off the shower of dusty fog cascading from Erebus as he stared, inches away.

  “WishMaker Grayson Brady knows all about pain. Don’t you, kind sir? The pain of wishing and wishing and never seeing such a thing come true. Casting your hopeful intentions across The Other Side only to be left waiting. Waiting for the familiar pain of failure to tingle up and down your helpless spine. The tingles of justification - proving correct your scared little belief that wishes don’t actually come true.”

  Erebus pulled away from the WishMakers and floated, once again, above The Pool. Still cupping the True Love Wish in his palm, he continued. “You all know pain because wishing is foolish. A wish is nothing more than the lazy attempt by the blindly faithful to acquire what it is that you want. It is foolish to believe in a wish, just as it is foolish to believe that I care whether or not Elanor Willowind is in pain.” He darted a hateful look at Miranda and opened his palm. The True Love Wish was lying there. Its little chest was heaving with final breaths, and a furrowed bent of his brow made it obvious it had little time remaining.

  Shea stared over the edge, wide-eyed and desperate. Erebus knew her mom wasn’t The Captain and he knew they were only faking. Some kind of Plan B was needed, but there was no sign of Goren and Foster, and she technically didn’t have a Plan B. She grasped Thane’s unconscious face and held it again, lightly slapping his cheeks. “Wake up, you idiot. Please wake up. Please,” she begged as tears welled. Thane didn’t move.

  44

  Pieces

  Feeling something dripping on his nose, Goren opened his eyes. Blood was rhythmically falling from his ear, across his face and dropping into a puddle below the tip of his nose. Pulling his face off the glass-strewn floor of the Nursery’s main hall, he painfully picked the shards out of his skin. To his right, his friend Foster was lying there, unconscious, but still breathing. He nudged him once, but nothing.

  “Foster,” he called out. “Foster, wake up.” He nudged him again and an audible groan slipped through Foster’s lips. Foster, too, was bleeding, but primarily from the pieces of glass stuck to his forehead.

  Gathering himself, Goren stood and brushed the debris off. His back rippled in pain as he bent over and helped Foster stand.

  “Avery. Why would she…” Foster said as he stood up straight. “It was her, wasn’t it?”

  “It was definitely her, but we don’t have time to figure out why. What did she say again? About the wishes?”

  Foster pi
cked another shard of glass out of his forehead, grimacing. “Something about the wishes. She didn’t need them. I can’t remember. Damn!” he said, frustrated as he pulled out another shard that dug into his cheek.

  “Right. She didn’t need these wishes,” Goren confirmed.

  “He didn’t need these wishes. That’s what she said,” Foster corrected him. At first it didn’t hit them as to what it meant, but as the slow realization came to them, they quickly looked each other.

  “He? These wishes?” Goren quickly breathed.

  With a flash, they grabbed their wands and flew out of the barn, knowing just what their friend was retrieving for him.

  45

  The Point Of A Kiss

  “But enough of my preaching,” Erebus said, mocking. The wind picked up across Exclamation Point, and the fog billowed over the edge of the cliff like a black waterfall. It cleared the skies over The Point just enough to reveal dark storm clouds hanging low over the valley mountains. “We have only one final piece of this little WishPuzzle to complete, and she should be arriving shortly.”

  Shea listened as she gave up on trying to wake Thane. She? Shea didn’t understand, but she also didn’t understand why it was taking Goren, Foster and Avery so damn long. She needed to do something, but she couldn’t just jump out and dual with Erebus. Suddenly a groan rattled out of Thane.

  “Thane!” Shea whispered. She kept slapping him. “Thane, wake up. It’s me, Shea! Wake up!”

  He pulled his face away from her swatting palm and pushed her hand away. “Stop. Please stop hitting me.”

  “Don’t move. Don’t move!” Shea said, grabbing his face and squeezing his cheeks.