by Nina Smith
Hippy blinked. “Well, I suppose so.”
“Then trust that this is necessary, and that I am grateful.” He put his lips on hers.
It wasn’t like a kiss at all. It hurt in ways she couldn’t describe. Her blood slowed. Her fingertips and her feet grew icy cold. Her skull ached. Dark, brittle fingers clutched her ribcage from the inside and squeezed.
Hippy struggled against Pierus’s grip. When he wouldn’t let go she balled a fist and punched him in the chest with her free hand, which broke his hold. She scrambled away. She felt as though she’d run a marathon after that small exertion. She panted. Her head pounded. She staggered to Poppy and got behind her. “What did he do?” Her voice came out in little more than a whisper.
Poppy’s hands moved. Her pack opened. She aimed her gun at Pierus. “Yeah. What the hell did you just do to her?”
Pierus got to his feet in one fluid motion. “This is getting tiresome, Poppy,” he said. “Put that thing away. I didn’t hurt her. At least not much.”
“You know this whole thing just got a little too weird for me,” Poppy said. “Hippy let’s go.” She backed away, pushing Hippy with her.
Hippy burst into sudden, uncontrollable tears.
“Hippy-” Pierus held a hand out. “Hippy come back. Just let me explain.”
“I really don’t think she wants to.” Poppy backed them up past the line of pillars. “But we’d both like to know exactly what you just did to her. In plain language.”
“I used ancient magic to push back the vampires,” Pierus said. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to summon that power, it left me drained to the point of death. If more come, we would be lost. I needed energy from someone who had plenty to give.”
“It didn’t occur to you to explain this to her before you just sucked it out of her?” Poppy’s fury made her voice shake.
Hippy gulped and tried to swallow her sobs. All she managed was a hiccup. The stones looked like a really comfortable bed.
“There was no time!” Pierus stalked their retreat, both hands reached toward Hippy. “I’m sorry it went so badly. Hippy, look at me. It had to be you. It had to be someone as close to me as you.”
Hippy peered around Poppy’s shoulder at the urgency of his plea and hiccupped again. “Why?”
“Because only love can replenish like that.”
“Love?” Hippy took a step away from Poppy.
“Seriously, you’re not buying this?” Poppy said.
“I tried not to,” Pierus said. “A muse and a fairy, it’s unheard of, but from the first moment I saw you, so much like Pandora, yet so much more–I’m sorry I scared you.”
Hippy took a step towards him. “Do you mean it?”
“I love you, Hippy Ishtar.”
“Oh for Pete’s sake. Somebody get me a bucket!” Poppy exclaimed.
Hippy took another step towards him. “Then don’t ever do that again.”
“Come to me.” Pierus held out his hand. “Thanks to you, I am restored. I can make you better now.”
“Don’t do it Hippy,” Poppy said.
Hippy took another hesitant step toward him.
Pierus smiled. His whole face softened. “Do not be afraid, my love.”
“Definitely going to throw up.” Poppy made a disgusted noise, put away her gun and turned to walk away, but before she’d gone two steps, a slim metal arrow whistled past her head. She yelled and threw herself to the ground.
A second arrow sliced open the sleeve of Pierus’s coat. A third barrelled toward his chest.
Hippy yelled a warning and Pierus jumped out of the way. A cloaked shape clattered into the Parthenon with a sound like a galloping horse, seized Hippy around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.
“Pierus!” she screamed, but her captor had already thundered down the steps and into the trees beyond. She hammered on his back with her fists, but Pierus had left her with little energy to do anything more.
In the thick of the darkness under the trees, her captor dropped her on the ground. Hippy tried to jump to her feet and run, but a second cloaked figure pinned her there with something sharp and heavy. A hoof. It was a hoof, these really were forest people from Shadow that had been following them everywhere. She’d never met one before, only heard about them, terrible stories about what happened to fairy children who wandered too far into the forest. Fluffy Ducky would save her. Where was Fluffy Ducky? Her hand went to her belt, but the pouch was empty.
Footsteps crashed through the undergrowth. Pierus called her name in a voice edged with fury.
Hippy screamed again, but the sound was cut off by a third figure who clapped a hand over her mouth.
“Do it,” said the one pinning her to the ground. “There’s no time to explain.”
“Sweet dreams,” said the Freakin Fairy in her ear. Then he removed his hand and clapped a rag over her mouth.
Hippy took a deep breath to scream again. An acrid smell assailed her nostrils and burning fumes hit her lungs. The voices disappeared and she fell into darkness.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Gaslight flickered over Pierus’s face and gave his skin a bluish tinge. His grey eyes sparked.
Hippy reached up to touch his face. She felt overwhelmingly happy, even though she had no idea at all how he came to be kneeling over her. He loved her. The muse king was in love with her, the least of the Bloody Fairies.
Pierus’s lips curved in a thin smile. “I told you this was a bad idea.”
“What was a bad idea?” Hippy turned her head to the side and discovered her hair was loose. It covered the ground around her head like a great creeping shadow. His hands pinned it to the stone.
“What were we supposed to do, just let him use her up?”
“What are you talking about?” Hippy tried to move, but she was quite stuck.
Pierus leaned down closer. His lips drew back and a set of fangs gleamed in the gaslight. Then it wasn’t Pierus at all, it was Rustam Badora. Blood dribbled from an empty eye socket. “Wake her up,” he said.
The bleeding one-eyed vampire face got closer and closer. Hippy tried to scream, but no sound came out. She couldn’t move a single limb. She needed her spider.
A bucket load of ice cold water hit her in the face. Badora vanished. Hippy sat bolt upright, but it was still pitch black. “Where’s my Fluffy Ducky?” she yelled.
Silence. The mattress beneath her was hard and lumpy. Rough blankets scratched her legs. Water soaked into her hair and dripped down her back. She turned her head this way and that, trying to see anything at all. It took her a minute to realise there was a piece of heavy cloth tied around her eyes. It made her skin itch. She raised her hands to remove it.
A female voice cut through the darkness. “Not so fast there, Fairy.”
Hippy’s hands froze in midair. She knew that voice. That was the woman in the hood she’d met in the alley after chasing the Freakin Fairy. Wait. She’d been in the Parthenon with Pierus and Poppy, and then–and then–
Hippy let out a long, tense breath. She’d been kidnapped by forest people. She remembered now. The sound of hooves clattering over stone. The flash of terror. She’d never be seen alive again. Pierus would find her bones up a tree. She’d be fed to a bearfly by dusk. “You people so much as touch me and I’ll be playing kick with the dust of your corpses before you can say feet,” she said.
“Charming,” the woman replied. “Remind me whose idea it was to kidnap the fairy?”
“Mine,” rang out the cheerful voice of the Freakin Fairy. “I think. No. Wait. Hey if that was my idea, what was I thinking? I can’t stand Bloody Fairies!”
“Quiet, both of you. As for you, we took the precaution of removing your fairy dust.”
Ah. The man in the cloak. Hippy turned her head towards his voice. “You’d better let me go,” she said. “Pierus will be looking for me.”
“No doubt.” The click of hooves moved toward her. “I promise you we are not going to harm you, Fairy.
But I must ask you to give your word you will extend us the same courtesy.”
“Huh?”
“He said be good and you won’t get hurt,” the Freakin Fairy said.
The forest man sighed. His voice was right over her head. “That was not quite the intent, but close enough.”
Fingers on the side of her head peeled the blindfold away. She squeezed her eyes shut against the bright light. When her vision adjusted, she looked up into the face of the first forest person she’d ever seen up close. He had short dark hair, a v-shaped goatee, sharp cheekbones and eyebrows that came to points at the top, making him look permanently sceptical. The cloak and hood had gone. He wore black pants and a blue collared shirt, clothes he must have obtained here in Dream. The pants were almost long enough to cover the hooves. Hippy tried not to stare.
The man smiled and his whole face suddenly looked really quite friendly. “I apologise if we frightened you.”
“I wasn’t frightened.” Hippy raised herself to a crouching position and glanced around. They were in a small room lit by a bare electric bulb. The Freakin Fairy skulked by a sink and the forest woman lounged against the opposite wall, arms folded. Her face was all pointy like the man, but her hair was long and straight and tied neatly at the back.
The forest man’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “Of course you weren’t.” He stuck his hand out. “I’m Fitz Falls. That’s my sister Ana, and your fellow fairy over there is called Clockwork Silver.”
“That’s a stupid name for a fairy.”
“Yeah?” Clockwork made a face at her. “Bet yours isn’t any better.”
Hippy tossed her hair. “I’m Hippy Ishtar. It’s a much better name.”
Clockwork grinned. “Hey, I’ve heard about you. Aren’t you the Ishtar who got dropped on her head as a kid?”
Hippy dodged past Fitz and leaped for Clockwork, but before she could get anywhere Fitz grabbed her by the back of the dress, lifted her in the air and dumped her bodily back on the bed. An impatient tic developed near his right eye. “I said be good and you won’t get hurt.”
Hippy scowled.
“Why don’t you just let them have it out?” Ana said. “They’re going to sooner or later, they can’t help themselves.”
“Because that’s not how we conduct ourselves!” Fitz’s voice lashed through the room, silencing everyone. “Fighting amongst ourselves achieves nothing. Now Hippy.” He turned on her so suddenly Hippy scuttled back against the wall. “I promise you it is not our intent to harm you in any way. Believe it or not, we are your friends.”
“Yeah? Well Rustam Badora promised not to harm me until I returned to Shadow, but he still tried to kill me the first chance he got. Why should I trust you?”
“We are not vampires, for starters.” Fitz’s voice returned to its former calm tones. He hesitated. “How did you get away from Badora, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I stuck my knife in his eye.” Hippy mimed the action and made a popping noise.
Ana winced. Clockwork looked mildly impressed.
Hippy looked from one to the other and folded her arms. “What do you want with me? I want to go back. Fluffy Ducky is missing.”
“There are more important things at stake than your duck,” Fitz said. Then he blinked. “Wait. What’s a fairy doing with a duck?”
“He’s not a duck, he’s a spider.” Hippy spread her hands out. “He’s this big. And he’s all alone in a strange place with nobody to feed him, unless he’s chasing the vamps, and sooner or later he’ll run out of them.”
“You have a vamp-eating spider?” Clockwork gave an envious sigh.
Hippy’s lower lip trembled. “How would you feel if you were just a little face-sized spider all alone in a strange place with nobody to take care of you?”
“I’m sorry Hippy,” Fitz said. “We can’t go back for your spider. It’s simply impossible. In fact we’ve stayed in one place too long already, the muse king could have traced us by now.”
Ana snorted. “Who’d have thought we’d be the ones doing the running? No wait, I forgot. You stole his fairy.” She pushed herself off the wall and began gathering bits of clothing up from around the room.
Hippy jumped to her feet. “Pierus is coming here?”
“Doubtless,” Fitz said. “But don’t get your hopes up, we’ll be long gone. Come on.”
“No.” Hippy sat down, folded her arms and glared. “I’ll wait for him. He might have rescued Fluffy Ducky.”
Fitz sighed. “Move.”
Hippy glared harder.
“Please move?”
“Oh for Shadow’s sake,” Ana said. “I hate fairies. I really do.” She slung a bag over her shoulder, strode across the room, grabbed Hippy by the ear and pulled.
Hippy yelped and got to her feet. “Ow! Ow, ow, ow!”
Ana propelled her across the room. Clockwork opened the door, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear. Fitz followed.
They went along a dingy hall, clattered down a staircase and stopped in front of a door that had rude words scratched into it before Ana let go of Hippy’s ear. “Now, Fairy,” she said. “We’re going to walk nice and quietly outside. You can either behave or be carried by the ankles.”
Hippy took a second to figure out what Ana was talking about. Then she scowled. “Fine. I’ll behave.”
Ana’s hand landed on her right shoulder. Fitz gripped her left. Clockwork opened the door and they walked out into a hotel lobby as dingy as the room and stairs had been.
The room had a reception desk, a few plastic potted plants and a scratched up table and chairs in it. A group of men sitting around the table playing cards stared at the group passing by. Hippy stared back. Fitz and Ana whisked her past too fast to be able see much else.
Hippy twirled a lock of hair between her fingers. She kept twirling, working her way back and forth until she found a bead. She yanked and it came loose. Then, very slowly, she dropped her hand to her side. When they pushed out through the swinging doors she dropped it on the footpath. She mentally apologised to Pierus that there was not much more of a trail she could leave. She checked up and down the road. It was a busy afternoon. Cars whizzed by at their usual startling rate and pedestrians crowded the footpaths. Hardly anyone appeared to take any notice of them. She calculated her odds. She was fast. The forest people would never keep up, but Clockwork had managed to stay ahead of her last time they met. She needed a distraction to get a lead on him.
“Hey.” Hippy pointed up at a building across the road. “That’s really shiny.”
“What’s shiny?” Clockwork craned his neck to look.
Hippy kicked Fitz in the shin, elbowed Ana and bolted down the street.
This was more like it. The wind in her hair, the stench of petrol in her lungs, crowds of gaping humans blurring past. Galloping footsteps pounded the pavement behind her. She pushed her way through a knot of pedestrians at a crossing, dodged a chip vendor and leaped a bicycle abandoned on the footpath. Cars tooted at her when she raced across the road in front of them. The hoof beats faded.
Hippy couldn’t get the grin off her face. Pierus would be so proud of her, escaping his enemies. When she found him. If she found him. She slowed. Wait. How the hell was she supposed to find him? Maybe she should ask someone directions back to the Acropolis and look for Fluffy Ducky first. Maybe he’d find her there.
A dazzling sparkle in a shop window caught her eye. Hippy stopped, entirely mesmerised. Behind the glass, rings, necklaces, bracelets and a tiara made entirely of glittering cut diamonds were laid out on mirrored shelves. A million points of light sparkled like stars in the night sky. She laid a hand flat against the window and pressed her nose to the glass. They were so very, very, shiny. Who even cared about some old Apple of Chaos when there were things this sparkly to look at?
Another form joined her at the window. “Fitz planned for this,” he said. “It was a good plan. You stopped just where he said you would.”
“Huh
?” Hippy tore her gaze away from the shiny things.
Clockwork grinned at her.
She pouted. “How did you catch up?”
He leaned forward. “I’m faster.”
Behind them a car horn tooted. Clockwork grabbed Hippy’s waist and shoved her into Ana, who lifted her bodily into the back of a rusty old van. It was all done so fast she didn’t even have time to kick anyone.
Clockwork and Ana followed her in and closed the doors. The car moved into the traffic.
“I thought I told you to behave,” Ana said.
Hippy, who was still trying to recover from her undignified face-first sprawl, folded her arms, sat up and kicked the inside wall. “Yeah, but you never said how I should behave.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
They’d been driving for hours. At least it felt like hours. Hippy didn’t normally deal well with enforced inactivity for two minutes, let alone the space of time it took to drive a long, long way. Athens had dwindled and faded from cluttered suburbs to scattered farmhouses some time ago. She had no idea how Pierus and Poppy were supposed to find her now.
Poor Fluffy Ducky, all alone. She gave a despondent sigh. Through the window she could see vineyards and farmland rolling by. Every so often the van hit a pothole and everyone bounced. If she’d had her fairy dust she could have made a hole in the wall and jumped out.
Clockwork had been clicking his tongue for the last ten minutes non-stop. It was driving her mad. She scowled at him.
He grinned and clicked louder.
“Shut up Clockwork,” Ana said. “I’m trying to concentrate.” She returned to scribbling in a big notebook.
The grin dropped from his face. Clockwork stopped clicking. He tilted his head to one side, crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue.
Hippy smothered a giggle. She couldn’t help herself. She scrunched up her nose and cheeks and bared her teeth.
Clockwork gave a muffled snort. He peeled his eyelids back and squashed his face in.
Hippy swallowed a giggle, choked momentarily and hiccupped. The sound came out like a squeaking hinge.
