by Alison Pensy
“I think you will make allowances for these visitors, my Lord,” the Gatekeeper said as he stepped into the room and moved to one side, leaving Faen and Faedra standing in the entrance.
Draconis narrowed his eyes as his gaze fell on the Custodian. “You again,” he hissed then moved his gaze to Faen. “Are you collecting fae, Custodian?” he asked sarcastically. Even through her fear his comment made her bristle a little and she squared her shoulders at him.
“You are trying my patience, Custodian?” he said waving a nonchalant claw in the air. “You cannot possibly have found the egg in such a short time and I told you I will not loan you the emerald staff without it.” He turned his back to them effectively brushing them off.
Faedra could feel her temper rising. How dare he brush her off so quickly. She grabbed the egg out of her backpack and held it out.
“If I wasn’t so desperate to find my dad, I’d smash this bloody thing all over the floor!”
Her hands were shaking with anger and it was all she could do to hold the egg without dropping it. Faen put a steadying hand on her forearm and gave her a look of warning. It wasn’t a good idea to be rude to a dragon, especially the head honcho dragon. She ignored his look, continuing to hold the egg out over the cold flagstone floor.
Draconis turned sharply, took one look at the egg and moved toward her so fast Faedra could hardly track his movements before his face was just inches from hers.
“You found it,” Draconis’ shocked whisper was so close to Faedra she could feel his warm breath on her face. His demeanor changed. When she looked into the dragon’s eyes, they were much softer. The hard lines on his face softened, too. To Faedra’s utter astonishment a tear welled in the deadly creature’s eye and slid down his face, leaving a silvery shimmer along his jet-black scales on its descent.
“I never thought I would see the day that my child was returned to me.”
Draconis held out his upturned claw. A tingle of anticipation hung in the air.
Faedra’s heart melted when she saw the obvious love that Draconis showed toward the egg still held in her hands. She placed the egg carefully in the palm of the dragon’s claw, which was softer than she imagined it would be. The egg nestled securely within its father’s grasp as Draconis closed his claw around it.
“Thank you,” he whispered again. “You will become a legend in our realm.”
Faedra smiled. She didn’t care about being a legend anywhere, all she cared about at that moment was getting her hands on the emerald staff and finding her dad alive and unharmed. As if Draconis could read her mind, he turned, placed the egg on a sumptuous red velvet cushion that sat on his dais and moved over to an ornately carved wooden closet. He turned the handle and opened it. The inside was lined with thick forest green velvet, and nestled within its walls was the emerald staff.
Draconis reached in, took hold of the staff, and carried it toward the Custodian in both hands, as though he was carrying a prized sword and was about to knight her with it.
“If I may have it back when you have completed your quest,” he said as he handed her the staff with a bow of his head.
Faedra sucked in a breath as the wood from the staff touched the skin of her outstretched palms.
She could feel the palpable energy from the staff running through her fingers and up into her arms. It was intricately decorated just like its sister the ruby staff, but with gems of sparkling emeralds emblazoned down its length. Mesmerized by its beauty, it took her a few seconds to comprehend that she was now holding the only hope she had of finding her dad alive.
Snapping herself back to the here and now, she looked up at Draconis. Now it was her turn to have watery eyes. “Thank you, I will return it, I promise.”
“I have no doubt that you will.” He turned and moved towards the egg, stopped and looked back. “I hope you find your father.”
She gave him a weak smile in response.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Faedra and Faen still stood in the doorway of the great hall where Draconis was now cooing over his egg, completely ignoring anything else around him.
“Do you know how it works?” Faedra asked Faen.
“Just think of where you want to go and it will take you. Make sure you wait until I have my hands on it before you do or you will leave me behind.”
“I think we should pick up Etyran on the way, don’t you? He will come in handy if we need to disappear or if we need an extra pair of hands in a fight.”
Faen gave a curt nod. “I agree. Let us go find him.”
They stacked their hands up the shaft of the emerald staff and even though she only needed to think the destination, she wasn’t taking any chances and spoke aloud. “Take us to Etyran.”
Tiny green laser lights shot out from each of the emeralds and encircled them.
“Oh, my God, this is it,” Faedra said as she watched the tiny green lights dance around her and felt a lurch in her gut similar to when she’d ridden the Nemesis roller coaster at a theme park years ago. A split second later, they were no longer standing on the cold flagstone floor at the entrance to a cavernous ornate hall, but, instead, were standing on a patch of dirt surrounded by gnarly brush. They looked around and then their eyes were drawn downwards to see Etyran lying on the ground in front of them. He was looking through an opening in the brush with a pair of very modern binoculars. Faedra thought it odd to see him with a pair of binoculars and figured he’d smuggled them into Azran from his exiled home in the World of Men.
“Hi,” Faedra said, her voice slicing through the eerie silence.
Etyran flung his head up in surprise and got his hair tangled in the brush above him then promptly disappeared from view.
Faedra reached out her foot and tapped his leg where she knew he would still be lying invisible on the ground.
“It’s just us,” she said, amusement making the sides of her mouth curl.
Etyran showed himself again, he was trying fruitlessly to free his hair from the brambles he’d got caught in so he could turn over to see them.
“In the name of Kernunnos, are you trying to give a man a heart attack?” He grouched, unable to look at them until he could free himself.
Faedra let go of the emerald staff leaving it in Faen’s capable hands, kneeled down next to Etyran, and proceeded to untangle his golden brown locks from the thorny brush.
After a few moments Faedra managed to detach most of the Lightbender’s hair from the brambles, enough that he could now sit up and see his two friends. He gave Faedra a warm smile.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”
“Look what we got,” Faedra said, directing him with gleeful eyes to what Faen was holding.
“Well, I never, you found the egg.”
Faedra responded with a smug smile as she freed the last tangle of hair from the brush and helped the exiled Guardian to his feet.
Etyran brushed the dirt off his clothes then brushed his hands together, sending plumes of dust to swirl around them. “So, what are you doing here?”
“We stopped on the way to see if you’ll come with us. We may need another pair of hands and your ability might come in handy. We don’t know what we’ll find when get wherever it is we’re going.”
“Are you kidding me? Of course, I’ll come. You know me, always up for a bit of a ruckus.” Etyran said showing his immaculate smile. Faen smiled at his old friend and rolled his eyes. One thing was certain, if trouble didn’t find his friend, Etyran went looking for it.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Faedra said as she put her hands on the emerald staff Faen was already holding and waited until Etyran had his hands firmly gripped around it too.
She gave her Guardian a hopeful smile and breathed in deeply to steady her nerves. It didn’t work.
“Take us to the ruby staff.”
The tiny green laser lights encircled them again and Faedra felt the now familiar lurch in her gut.
I’m coming, Dad.
Faedra’s eyes widened as troops of guards came charging past them and turned the corner up ahead, met by guards who were coming from the opposite end of the corridor. Then they marched through a doorway and disappeared out of sight.
“What are we doing here?” Faedra asked.
Faen shrugged his shoulders.
“I can’t be here.” Etyran exclaimed before turning tail to leave in the opposite direction of the guards. Faedra grabbed his arm and was about to do some serious begging when a familiar voice echoed down the hall.
“Vivianna, you must reconsider. Why are you doing this?”
“Just give me the book, Father.”
“You know I cannot do that. Even if I wanted to, I do not have access to it.”
“You are the king, do you really expect me to believe you cannot access the Book of Anohs?”
Faedra’s blood froze and she grabbed Etyran’s arm even tighter as pieces of the puzzle started falling into place.
“I somehow think he has bigger fish to fry right now,” she said, pleading with her eyes for him not to leave them. “Do that invisible thing, he won’t see you and it’ll give us an advantage.”
Etyran gave her a considering glance and nodded before he disappeared from view. Faedra still had hold of his arm as another group of guards came charging past them and they all backed against the wall to avoid being trampled. Once the guards had passed, the three turned and ran along behind them into the castle’s great hall in Azran. What they saw next prompted Faen to pull Faedra back out of sight behind one of the enormous stone pillars that held up the roof.
Faen and Etyran stood either side of her and wouldn’t let her go any further.
The hall was now full of soldiers, surrounding four people who stood in the middle. One of which, was her father, the kidnapped one.
The king was pleading with his daughter to let Henry go and Vivianna was standing hands-on-hips with a very defiant look on her face. Faedra’s heart skipped as she saw her dad being held hostage with a knife to his throat. His captor was a tall, strikingly handsome man with jet-black hair and dark olive skin. He wore an immaculate black tailored suit and looked like he’d just walked off the cover of GQ magazine. He definitely didn’t fit the image of a kidnapper. Her dad looked terrified but from this distance, she could not see any evidence that he’d been harmed.
“Savu.” Faen and Etyran hissed together.
“What? Where?’ Faedra asked looking first at her Guardian then at the thin air Etyran was occupying. “I thought Savu was a dragon.”
“He is,” they whispered together.
“I don’t see any dragons.”
“Dragons can take human form, if they so desire,” Faen explained. “Savu is the one holding your dad.”
Faedra looked back at the man who was holding her dad and could feel her anger start to roil.
“Let me go,” she said to Faen and Etyran.
“Faedra, you cannot go in there, we need to think of a plan first,” Faen replied.
“He’s right, luv. You can’t just go in there energy balls a’blazin’. You don’t have any idea how powerful Savu is. He could transform you to ash in seconds,” Etyran continued.
Fury was boiling within her now. She couldn’t bare to look at her dad being held at knifepoint, any longer. Her energy was building, and within a few seconds, both the men restraining her let go with an audible yelp of pain.
She stepped out from behind the pillar and strode forward, the rage boiling within her blocking out all reason. The only thing she could think of was rescuing her dad.
“Faedra, I beg you do not do this,” Faen pleaded. He was walking backwards in front of her, knowing full well that he couldn’t physically restrain her lest he get electrocuted in the process. “You do not have the power to defeat Savu, none of us do.”
Faedra looked straight through her Guardian, as if he weren’t even there. The expression in her eyes scaring even him. When he realized there was nothing he could do to stop her, he stepped aside.
“Let my dad go!” Faedra yelled as she neared the gathered group in the center of the great hall.
Some of the guards parted to let her through when they looked round to see her storming towards them with a look of thunder on her face. A picture of her must have been circulated amongst the troops now, as they all seemed to recognize her, unlike her encounter with a couple of them a few days before.
The gathered group in the center fell silent and turned to look at her. She could sense Faen and Etyran flanking either side of her and that made her just a little more confident. She may look like the coming of World War III on the outside but on the inside she was quaking like a leaf caught on a stiff autumn breeze.
She noticed the hair on the guard’s heads closest to her rising with the static electricity she was generating. The guards took a couple of steps back from her on either side, looking more uncomfortable with her than with what was transpiring in the middle of the hall. Controlling her energy was going to be her next concern. She couldn’t care less if she blew away Vivianna and Savu, but to hurt her dad, or any of her friends in the process, was unthinkable.
“You’re early,” Vivianna’s silken voice cut through the silence like a knife. “I wasn’t quite ready for you yet. How did you find us?”
“Looks like my poor excuse for a brother helped them,” Savu hissed with contempt as he cast his eyes over the emerald staff Faen was holding.
“Well, no matter, it is not going to affect our plans.” Vivianna gave Savu a smug look before returning her gaze to Faedra.
“I said, let my dad go,” Faedra repeated, the lack of control over her energy causing an audible crackle in the air around her.
Vivianna held out her hand, palm up and wiggled her fingers. “The amulet first.” Her voice was so sickly sweet it made Faedra want to gag.
“Not going to happen.”
Vivianna raised her eyebrows and gave a little devil-may-care shrug. “Well, in that case, I guess daddy has to die.”
“If you kill my father you’ll lose your only bargaining chip. I can’t see you doing that, somehow.” Faedra’s stomach was hardly able to keep its contents down. She was so sick with fear hoping her double bluff would work. It was taking every ounce of strength she possessed to keep her exterior calm and cool; inside she felt like a volatile time bomb with only a few seconds left on the clock. Savu pushed the knife harder against Henry’s neck causing her dad to go up on his tiptoes to evade the blade from slicing his skin. Faedra took a step forward ready to create merry hell in the hall when she saw the subtle look Vivianna gave Savu and he loosened his hold a fraction. Henry relaxed the tiniest bit in response, and the stalemate was allowed to continue for a while longer.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
The tension in the great hall was rising. Vivianna started to pace back and forth in front of her hostage and her father, chin resting between thumb and forefinger calculating her next move. Faedra didn’t take her eyes off her dad, who looked back at her with question and confusion in his eyes. She could hardly blame him, he didn’t belong in this world, had no idea of its existence until a few days ago. Heck, she’d only been introduced to it a few months ago and was still having a hard time getting to grips with it.
The tense standoff between her and Vivianna was not good and she knew it wouldn’t last for long. Vivianna was sure to make a decision about her next move very soon and Faedra wanted to be ready. Although, at this point, Faedra had her doubts that Vivianna was the one pulling the strings anymore. She stopped looking at her dad after giving him her best ‘it’ll be all right, Dad’ look, and turned her attention to her adversary who was still pacing back and forth. In that instant, she wished her power allowed her to read other people’s thoughts.
She was distracted by a “psst” noise coming fro
m somewhere behind her. Her eyebrows pinched together as she looked around and noticed Faen had turned his head to look, too, but they couldn’t immediately see anyone else in the hall.
“Psst.” The noise was a little more insistent this time. Faedra scanned the hall and caught a glimpse of black and white hair and half of a very pale face peeking out from behind one of the massive stone pillars towards the back of the hall.
“Jocelyn?” she mouthed.
The young fairy crept out from behind the pillar chewing on her lower lip as she tiptoed towards her brother and Faedra, eyeing the goings on in the center of the hall with caution.
“What are you doing here?” Faen and Faedra whispered together, trying not to bring attention to their newest member to the standoff.
“When I woke up in the graveyard, I came straight here to see if I could find you,” she explained to Faedra. “I had a feeling you would be coming here, but when I arrived, they told me you had already been and gone. I went back to your house but it was obvious no one had been there for a while, so I made my way back here thinking you would show up at some time. When I got here, this is what I walked in on. I overheard them talking about some plan they have to rule the seven realms together by getting their hands on the book and the amulet.”
“Sorry about knocking you out,” Faedra said, heat rising in her cheeks as she flicked her gaze between her friend and her father.
“Do not worry. I understand why you did it.” Jocelyn gave her a warm smile.
“Jocelyn, it’s too dangerous for you to be in here. This is not your battle,” Faedra said.
“I am not leaving you, and if those two are trying to rule over Azran, it is my battle. This is my home, too.”
Faedra couldn’t help but smile at her friend who was ever the courageous little fairy.
“Well, you need to stay behind us then. I have a feeling this is going to get nasty,” Faen told his sister.
