The Faerie Path

by Frewin Jones

  “Okay,” she said. “This time we’re going to get it right.”

  But even as she took the side step again, she felt the sword hilt dissolve in her hands and heard the faint clang of it hitting the floor back in the Mortal World. Then she heard voices shouting.

  “She is gone! Did you see her? What phantasm was it?”

  “Methought it was the Princess Tania!”

  “Nay, ’twas the specter of the dead Queen!”

  “Hold fast! I shall fetch Lord Drake. This is miching mallecho; there is mischief afoot this night!”

  Tania saw one of the wardens running away along the corridor. The other gave a yell of alarm, staring at her with goggling eyes.

  “It is returned!” he shouted, brandishing his white sword. “I fear you not!” he swore. “Be you demon spirit or evil phantom, I shall strike you down!”

  Tania sidestepped as the crystal sword came slicing through the air toward her.

  She stood forlornly in the twenty-first-century gallery, her shoulders slumped in defeat. The sword lay at her feet. She stooped and picked it up again.

  “I don’t know how to do it,” she said, looking in desperation at the glimmering metal blade. “How do I get you into Faerie?”

  “Stay right where you are!”

  A startling streak of bright white light flashed around the room.

  She whirled around. A beam of electric light shone directly into her face, half blinding her. Behind the bloom of the fierce white flashlight, she saw a uniformed figure.

  “Now then, you just keep calm, miss, and we won’t have any trouble.” She heard the hissing click of an intercom. “Mike? It’s Gerry. I’m up in forty-eight. There’s a girl up here. You’d better call the police.”

  Tania lifted her arm to shield her eyes from the flashlight. “You don’t have to blind me!”

  The beam of light moved off her face and down her clothes. She saw the man’s expression change to puzzlement as he stared at her Faerie dress. Then the light shone on the sword blade and his face hardened.

  “Put that down, miss,” he ordered. “Don’t do anything silly. No one needs to get hurt.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I’m sorry—I can’t.” She backed off. She had to get away from him and work out how she was going to take the sword into Faerie.

  “Stop right there!” the guard said.

  She turned and ran.

  “Hey! Stop!”

  She clutched the sword against herself as she ran. Heavy feet thudded behind her. The wavering beam of the flashlight danced over the walls, hurling her silhouette along the floor ahead of her.

  She heard a panting voice. “Suspect is moving. Get up here, Gerry. She’s got a sword.”

  Tania ran wildly through the rooms until she came to a zigzagging flight of stairs. She hammered her way down, almost tripping on the treads, but somehow arriving safely on the lower floor. There were several exits from here. She heard the echoing thump of booted feet on the wooden stairs. The flashlight beam raked downward, catching her again.

  Gasping for breath, she pushed her way through a pair of double doors. She found herself in some kind of stone-walled vestibule. Ahead of her, glass-paneled doors led to a courtyard.

  She ran toward the doors and shouldered through them. At once a shrill alarm split the air. She stumbled out onto a square of clipped grass. A wide pool of dark water filled the middle of the courtyard.

  She knew this place. She had seen it before. But when—where?

  “Tania! This way!”

  The voice came so unexpectedly that at first Tania thought she must have imagined it.

  “Tania!”

  “Eden?”

  “Come toward the light!” Eden called again. Her voice sounded distant but very clear, and it was coming from the far side of the courtyard beyond the black pool.

  “What light?” Tania shouted. “I can’t see any light!”

  She heard the crash of the doors behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. The guard was barely ten strides away.

  She ran across the grass, skirting the pool, searching for Eden’s light.

  And then she saw it, a dim-colored glow that hung against the far wall under a cloistered passageway.

  “Quickly!” Eden urged her.

  Tania raced toward the circle of glowing light. She knew exactly where she was now, and she knew what that light was. It was the Oriole Glass, the window that led into Eden’s tower.

  She jumped a low chain-link fence and darted under the cloisters. The round window shone brilliantly in front of her now, and she could see her sister’s face through the glass panels.

  She heard the guard shouting. He was almost on her, his hand clutching at her back. His fingers grazed her shoulder.

  “Gotcha!”

  Tania gave a final despairing spurt of speed. The blazing pool of colored light filled her eyes. Moments later she was in the air, diving into the light, bathing in its warm radiance, bursting through the window without any sense of impact and without breaking the glass.

  She rolled across the floor, gasping for breath and feeling as if she had left her stomach back in the Mortal World.

  But most amazingly of all, she still had the hilt of the sword grasped in her two hands. Behind her, the bright light faded. The rainbow of colors that had striped the walls faded to gray.

  She staggered to her feet.

  Eden stood in front of the Oriole Glass, holding a lantern in her raised hand. She was still dressed in her black robe, its hood raised to cover her hair, throwing her thin face into shadow.

  “You are fortunate that I sleep but lightly,” she said. “I know not how nor why, but the Oriole Glass was aware of your peril and opened a bridge between the worlds to aid you.” She frowned. “How came you into the Mortal World?”

  Tania looked at her. “I remembered how to do it,” she said. “How to walk between the worlds. It was easy.”

  Eden raised an eyebrow. “And yet you were pursued and you could not find your way back into Faerie?”

  Tania shook her head. “That’s not true. I could get back,” she said. She lifted the sword. “But I couldn’t get this to come with me.”

  Eden shrank back from the shining metal blade.

  She gasped. “Keep that deadly thing away from me!” Tania put the sword behind her back.

  “I heard the wardens abroad in the palace,” Eden said. “They are searching for you. What have you done to incur Gabriel Drake’s wrath?”

  Where to start? There was so much to tell. Speaking rapidly, Tania poured out the whole story of Edric and Gabriel and the Amber Prison. Eden listened with an expression that grew more and more furious. Her eyes glittered fiercely.

  “That young man will betray us all!” she cursed as Tania finished her tale. “Had I known the depth of his treachery, I would never have been persuaded to give him aid!”

  Tania stared at her. “You mean you’ve been helping him?”

  “I have, but it was against my wishes,” Eden said, her face twisted in anger. “He forced me to teach him the secrets of the Mystic Arts. It was with those secrets that he was able to send his servant into the Mortal World in pursuit of you. He has grown powerful over the years, but we must do what we can to defeat him.”

  “No!” Tania said. “I don’t care about that. I have to rescue Edric.” She brought the sword around in front of her again. Eden recoiled as the blade gleamed in the lantern light.

  “That’s why I brought this,” Tania explained. “But how did it get through? I tried before, but it wouldn’t come.”

  “The Oriole Glass is bound by many enchantments. That is how the Isenmort weapon was allowed to pass into Faerie.”

  “Good,” said Tania. “Now, show me the way to the dungeons.” She hefted the sword. “I’m going to use this to smash the Amber Ball that Edric is trapped inside.”

  Eden’s eyes gleamed. “Indeed, it may well suffice. Come, I shall guide you there.”

  She
led Tania from the room, keeping well away from the sword. Tania followed the slender hooded figure through the low archway and up the narrow stairs. They came to a bleak stone corridor, then passed through a door and down an even longer staircase of raw stone that ended at another low wooden doorway.

  “Gabriel told me you’d gone mad,” Tania said as they entered a dark corridor.

  Eden smiled bleakly. “It would have suited his purposes to have you believe so,” she said. “But fear not, Tania. I have not lost my wits.” She sighed, speaking in a low voice, as if to herself. “Oft have I wished it were otherwise in the long watches of the night!”

  They were in a part of the palace that Tania did not recognize—gloomy hallways and corridors of chill, bare stone without light or windows. There was another door, barred with a length of stout oak. Tania noticed that the door had no handle. Eden paused, muttering a few words and passing her hands in a complex pattern over the door.

  It swung open silently into an ominous flickering half-light.

  They came into a bare stone corridor hung with flaming torches. The ceiling was low, just high enough for Tania to walk upright. Eden had to stoop.

  A man in black stepped out of a dark niche in the wall. He held a long pike in his hands. The sharpened crystal tip glinted.

  “Who approaches the dungeons?”

  Eden stepped up to him.

  “Do you not know me?” she demanded

  The man stared at her in confusion. “Yes, my lady.”

  “That is well,” Eden said. “Sleep now, and dream of better places than this!” She reached out and touched his forehead with her fingers. He stiffened and became still, his glassy eyes staring past her shoulder as she turned to Tania.

  “He will not awaken for many hours.”

  Tania went up to the frozen man. She waved her hand in front of his eyes. She grinned at Eden. “That’s pretty cool!” she said. “You’ll have to show me how that works some time.” She looked carefully at her. “I thought you’d stopped using your powers. I was told that you haven’t used them for a long time…not since Titania drowned.”

  Eden looked at her, and the horror and the anguish in her eyes sent shivers down Tania’s spine.

  “The Queen did not drown,” Eden said in a low voice. “Her death did not come by water, Tania. It was I who brought her to her untimely end. I killed our mother.”

  XVIII

  Tania backed away from her sister, gripping the sword tightly in both hands. She had seen how easily Eden had dealt with that guard, putting him into a frozen sleep with just the touch of her fingers. If Eden was going to try anything like that on her, she’d have to get past the sword first.

  “But I thought she drowned,” she said uneasily.

  “No, she did not drown.” Eden sighed and drew back the hood of her cloak. Tania gasped. Eden’s long, thick hair was snow white. “Do not fear me, Tania,” she begged. “I meant no harm to our mother, and I have lived five hundred years in guilt and remorse for what I did.”

  “What happened?”

  “The Queen and I spoke long with Rathina after you had disappeared,” Eden said. “You played a foolish and a dangerous game that night, Tania. We guessed that you had stepped into the Mortal World and that you could not find a pathway back.” She frowned. “You never should have attempted to walk between the worlds without seeking guidance first. Such powers are perilous indeed to the unwise and the untutored.”

  “I know that now,” Tania said. “It’s a pity no one thought to mention it at the time.”

  “Aye.” Eden sighed. “We were remiss. I should have known better. You were ever an impetuous and wayward child.”

  “Go on,” Tania urged.

  “Our mother wished to pursue you into the Mortal World. But the King had forbidden it, terrified of losing anyone else he loved. So the Queen came to me secretly, knowing me to be well-practiced in the Mystic Arts. At first I refused. But the Queen was adamant, and so I relented.” Her eyes closed tightly. “I summoned up the spirits of the Oriole Glass and constructed a charm of black amber for the Queen to wear. As long as she kept the charm about her throat, I would be able to draw her back. One last time, I begged her not to go, but she would not listen. She stepped into the light and was gone.” Eden put her hands to her face. “I heard her scream, and when the light faded, I saw that the amber stone—the protecting charm—had fallen from her throat and lay on the floor at my feet.”

  “What did you do?” Tania whispered.

  “Many times I opened the portal again in the vain hope that our mother would be able to find her way home,” she said. “But it was not to be. She is lost, indeed, and I fear that she was destroyed in her attempt to find you.” She took a shuddering breath. “I dreaded the King’s wrath, so I told the tale of a boating accident. And upon that day, when our father’s grief caused time to stop, I renounced forever my powers and all my Arts. And so it would have remained had Gabriel Drake not come crawling to my door with his velvet threats.”

  “Gabriel again!” Tania muttered. “What did he do this time?”

  “He guessed the truth about our mother’s death from my decision to abandon the Mystic Arts. I knew nothing of his dark ambitions when he came begging me to open the Oriole Glass. All I knew was that he was desperate to find you and bring you back. I thought he acted out of love, but nevertheless, I refused to aid him. Then he threatened to tell the King the truth unless I did as he bade, and so I yielded to him. Even then, I would not work for him, but I showed him how to open the Oriole Window and how to construct the protecting pendants.” She shuddered. “And then, patient as a spider, he watched and waited and brooded all the long years of our desolation until at last he found you and sent his servant through the glass to bring you back.”

  Tania let out a long, pent-up breath. “He’s power-mad, isn’t he?” she murmured. “He’ll do anything to get what he wants!” She squeezed the sword hilt in her bandaged fingers. “But he’s not going to get away with it,” she vowed. She looked at Eden. Her face was white and drawn, and she seemed worn down by the effort of confiding her agonizing, long-hidden secrets.

  “Show me where to find Edric,” Tania said. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Eden nodded and led her farther along the grim corridor until they came to a glittering door that seemed to be made of smooth black stone.

  “This is the Adamantine Gate,” Eden said. “You will find all that you seek beyond its portals.” She looked at Tania. “But it is bound about with deadly invocations; no person may enter who does not know the words of power and protection. I have never needed to open this door, but I believe I know the words.” She stepped close to the door and began to murmur under her breath.

  Tania stood back, watching her. Several minutes seemed to pass, but still the door didn’t open. Tania bit her lip. The longer this took, the more chance there was that Gabriel or his wardens would find them.

  Eden’s voice grew louder, speaking lilting words that Tania didn’t understand. She made a double-handed pushing motion toward the door. The floor quivered under Tania’s feet, but the door remained closed.

  “I fear that Gabriel Drake has placed stronger closing incantations on the door,” Eden said. “I have not worked these Arts for many years. I will need more time.”

  “I’m not sure we have more time,” Tania said, glaring at the door. “Could you get out of the way, please? I want to see what a little touch of Isenmort will do!”

  Eden stepped aside. Tania hefted the sword in both hands, lifting it over her head. She planted her feet wide apart and balanced herself for the swing. “Three, two, one, go!” she shouted. She brought the sword down on the black door. It glanced off with a ringing clang, sending shock waves up her arms and nearly throwing her off her feet.

  There was a smell like bad eggs and a spurt of oily black smoke that jetted into the air like squid ink. The door fell open.

  Eden stared into the black void with wide, horrifie
d eyes.

  “Let’s go,” Tania said, stepping over the threshold.

  Eden didn’t move.

  Tania looked back at her. “What’s wrong?”

  “It is an evil place. I cannot go inside,” Eden said. “But I will remain here and guard the entrance. I will make sure that no wardens come this way.” She looked at Tania. “But beware, there may be other guards within.” Her voice became sharp. “Go, quickly!”

  Tania nodded. “I won’t be long.” She peered into the utter blackness beyond the open doorway. “Can I borrow your lantern?”

  “Yes, indeed. Take it and fare you well.”

  Tania took the lantern from Eden’s outstretched hand.

  “Here goes,” she breathed. She held the lantern at arm’s length in her left hand, the sword clasped in her right.

  She was met with a bitterly cold draft of sour and fetid air. She did her best to ignore the smell. If a bad stink was the worst thing she encountered down here, then she’d be very lucky indeed.

  “So far so good,” she called back to Eden. There was no reply.

  She walked deeper into the dungeon. The beam from the lantern trailed over dank, dripping walls of black stone. The corridor was low, with a barrel roof that barely gave her room to walk upright.

  The passage ended in a small circular chamber with a round ceiling. Tunnels led off in several directions. Shivering with cold, she picked an exit at random.

  Then she hesitated. She had no idea how far this dungeon went beneath the palace, and she wasn’t about to let herself get lost down there. She had to make sure that she could find her way back. She would have to leave some mark. Putting the lantern on the ground, she used the point of her sword to carve a crude arrow into the stonework.

  She found herself in another passageway, broader and with a higher ceiling than the first. The walls of this tunnel were pocked with shadowy niches, shoulder-width passageways three or four yards deep. Approaching one of them, Tania saw that a great black sphere hovered motionless in the air at the far end of the niche. The sphere was coated with filth and tattered cobwebs, but as she drew closer, she made out a faint yellowish light coming from inside the ball. She stared deeper into the sphere. Under the scab of grime, she saw the inert, crouched figure of a man.