by Blair Drake
Dylan tossed out a fireball, but when he threw the air, it missed its target. “Shit.” He gathered up another mound of air and threw again. He missed again. “Dammit.”
Riata bolted to the window, tossing a wave of water at the fireball Dylan had made. “Whew, that was close.”
“What would have happened?” Dylan asked.
“You would have burned up the city of Craydusk. Your fireball would have taken on more fuel as it flew through the air, and when it landed, it would have scorched the entire downtown.” He said it as if he was teaching a class, not as though it would have ruined lives and killed people.
“I need to work on my aim,” Dylan said.
“Didn’t you play baseball or football in school? Or even lacrosse?”
Dylan didn’t want to admit he sucked at sports, so he said, “No time. I want to be a doctor. Science classes require a lot of homework, but I did run track.”
Woli looked at him as if she knew he was lying, and gave him a sad smile. “I’m really athletic and not just my flying. I could throw a fireball and blow it out without missing. But I’m not gifted like a mage.”
Dylan patted her between her wings. “You have other skills.”
“Yeah, I can fly full-sized or tiny,” Woli moped.
“Not true. Go over to the shelf. That shelf has several magic dusts. Pick your choice, and we’ll show Dylan your talents.” Riata pointed to the top shelf.
Woli flew up to the top shelf and hovered for a very long time. She turned to look at the king. “You have so many to choose from. I can’t decide.”
“Purple, like your hair,” Dylan suggested.
Woli flew back to them with a jar of lavender-colored dust. Dylan expected it to sparkle, but it was a dull lavender, like flowers that were ground into powder.
Woli handed the jar to Riata.
He held his hand up. “No, this is on you. Show Dylan what you can do with lavender dust.”
Woli opened the jar, put her hand inside, and pulled out a tiny pinch of dust. She walked over to the table with the dirty glassware and stirring rods, and sprinkled the miniscule amount of dust over the surface. “Dance,” was all she said.
Dylan’s eyes went wide. Each piece from the counter paired with another piece ,and they danced a waltz around the counter. It was an elegant, choreographed movement, as if in a ballroom. He smiled.
“I did it,” Woli’s wings fluttered as she put the lid back on the jar. “I’ll put this back now.”
“Woli, you’re a lippy, just like me,” Dylan laughed.
She shook her head. “But I’m not. I can only move inanimate objects. Sometimes I can manipulate creatures, if I have the right mix of dust.”
“Go pick the dusts you need. There are leather pouches up there, too. Get what you think you’ll need. And as for your question about what the elements can do to save us: the very nature of the elements can make ice, light, darkness, and influence nature. You saw the trees.”
“So the darkness invading Craydusk is elemental magic?” Dylan asked.
“It may very well be. That’s not necessarily a good thing.” Riata watched as the waltz wound down and the utensils lay back down on the table.
Woli got busy, opening and examining each of the jars of dust. “Okay, I get it now. You can freeze the darkness, then melt it away with fire. As the water drips, the air can blow it from the territory in pieces rather than whole. And from there, the darkness must regather itself to regroup and encroach again.” Woli stretched the leather pouches and poured dust into them as she spoke.
“You’re pretty smart for such a young pixy,” Riata said. “There’s a bit more to it, but those are the basics.”
“If your realm wasn’t in danger, would you help us?” Dylan still didn’t trust the king.
He shrugged. “Probably not. I don’t like your kind. And your father, nice as he is, makes me want to spit fire.”
“Why? You acted like he was your friend before,” Dylan said.
“He has the woman I love,” Riata said matter-of-factly.
“That will never change. And I should warn you, I have a little brother. He’ll be here in a few years, but I may come with him so you don’t imprison him.”
Riata’s hands rounded into fists. “Here’s the deal. You help me dissipate the darkness, and I’ll help you get home. But I never want to see another Streetman as long as I live, and if we defeat the darkness, that will be a very long time.”
“I’ll do what I can, but like Henry said, I need that book.”
“There’s so much here,” Woli chirped. She was in her element.
Dylan tore his attention from Woli and looked at Riata. “You told Woli there is more. What else is there? I knew it all sounded too simple.”
“It really is that simple, but using elemental energy is draining. It’s harder on a mage than any other type of magic. Just look outside. Do you think one mage could freeze, melt, and then blow that darkness away all by himself?”
“Or herself,” Woli added.
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried this stuff for real. If it’s so draining, why am I not tired from all we’ve practiced? I should be comatose by now.”
Riata laughed. Dylan liked his laugh, and he liked that he wasn’t such a horrible ogre after all. Well, for the most part.
“What’s so funny?” He didn’t like being laughed at, even if Riata sounded so happy.
“This is child’s play. When we go at the real thing, the darkness will fight back. Darkness can bring thunder so loud it will pierce your eardrums, and lightning capable of burning up a forest.”
“Burn a forest? We have to inform the trolls,” Dylan said.
“Don’t worry about the trolls. Jervis works both sides. You can be sure Gaanne wanted to go to the forest first so she could warn Jervis and the other trolls. They will get word throughout the territory for everyone to stay inside. The only ones not in danger are those in the underground.”
The underground. Dylan thought about his book for the first time in hours. But the pin told him to work the darkness; the grimoire could wait. So he believed the pin, or talisman, or whatever it was supposed to be. He knew it had his best interests in mind because Hettie gave it to him. She would never purposely put her kids in danger. She loved her students.
“We haven’t made ice yet,” Dylan said.
“Ice is the easiest. It’s melting the ice that takes so much energy.”
They spent more time at the window. This time, Dylan made ice, then melted it with fire. As the raindrops fell from the suspended ice, he used his left hand to blow the drops into dried particles. Riata was right, making ice was fun and easy, but he needed to work the fire harder to get it to melt the ice.
“I think I’m ready,” Woli said from behind them.
“What’s your plan in all of this?” Dylan asked.
“She’s our backup. Her dust can intercept the lightning and put out fires we won’t have time or energy to think about.” Riata smiled at the pixy like a proud father.
“But she’s so tiny. She could be hurt,” Dylan protested.
Again, Riata laughed at him. This was getting old.
“She’s stronger than you.” To Woli, he said, “Show him.”
Woli frowned at him.
“Dylan, pick Woli up.”
Pfffft, that was easy. She couldn’t weight a hundred pounds. He walked over, stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle.
“Be careful of my wings.”
Dylan shifted until he wasn’t smashing her wings, though they fluttered in his face and made him need to sneeze. He lifted, only she didn’t come off the ground. He heaved and was barely able to lift her a few inches, so he put her back down immediately.
“Damn, Woli, do you eat rocks for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?” He tried to cover his embarrassment.
“Now, Woli, you lift Dylan.”
They switched places, and luckily, she didn’t have to worry about Dylan
having wings. She put one arm under his legs at the knee, and the other, she wrapped under his armpits. She didn’t even need to heave him up. She lifted gently, as if lifting a butterfly. Then she walked around the room, swinging him like a mom playing with her child.
“Okay, show-off, that’s enough. Put him down.”
Dylan’s pale skin turned bright red. He was such a wimp. How embarrassing to be lifted like a feather when he could barely get her off the ground.
Woli danced around the room, so proud of herself.
“I think Woli can handle herself just fine.”
“This ain’t my first rodeo,” she said with a weird accent. “I’ve fought the darkness before. But it was a different kind of darkness.”
“Really?” Dylan didn’t believe her.
“We are a magical realm, Dylan. We have more encounters with evil than your realm. You are a magician in a non-magical realm. No one performs magic in public where you live. I bet no one even talks about magic. Here it is the norm.”
“My parents didn’t even tell me about the magic in me. Now that it’s been awakened, I realize it was always there. I also now know I have a lot to learn.”
Woli giggled. “When you get home, your education will be so different than when you left, and everyone will know you are a special being.” She blushed.
Dylan almost told her she was pretty stinkin’ special, too, but his ears were already burning from his earlier embarrassment.
“It’s time. We need to meet with the queen and her minions to work out our plan of attack, to find out where this darkness is coming from and see if it’s the same darkness enveloping Gray Cliffs. We need to dress for the occasion.” Riata walked out of the room.
Woli and Dylan looked at each other like, “Should we follow him?”
They were in his house; it’s not like they had a choice.
Chapter 17
As weird and stressful as this quest was so far, getting ready for the battle against the dark was the weirdest of all. Riata’s soldiers placed a dozen or so different military uniforms in front of each of them. The cats even helped them dress and undress. Pumba called in a house servant to help Woli while she changed clothes in the bathroom.
When it was all said and done, Woli wore a long-sleeved dress and leggings made of what looked like chainmail.
“Is that chainmail?” Dylan felt bad for Woli, chainmail was heavy.
“It’s like chainmail, only fire resistant, and not as heavy.” Riata wore similar armor.
Woli twirled so they would see her wings, which had a copper hue. “Even my wings are protected.”
Dylan smiled. She had no fear going into this venture. He wished he felt the same. And as soon as he was dressed in what looked like a suit of armor, but felt like the suit he wore to funerals, he had to pee. He knew it was nerves because he already peed twice while they were trying on the armor.
“It’s your body getting ready for battle,” Riata said. “I hope you never get the chance to get used to it.”
“Are you used to it?” Dylan asked.
“I was at one time, but it’s been more than a century since I last fought off a force of evil this strong.”
Dylan felt a tingle in his spine and pain in his legs. He’d felt this before: when he had to make a speech in speech class, and when he asked Annie to the freshman dance. He didn’t win either of those battles. If he couldn’t even do that, how would he fight off the darkness?
“Strong, huh?” Dylan wanted to throw up.
All the practice seemed like fun. They laughed, competed, and he learned, not even realizing he was in training. This was different. This was the real thing, and he didn’t want to be the one to let down Craydusk. He didn’t want to let down Woli.
“Strong but beatable. Stop worrying. Visualize victory. It works every time. Victory smells, tastes, and feels better than anything you’ve ever experienced.”
“Let’s do this thing,” Woli flew down the hall.
All suited up, they sat in Riata’s convertible with Jervis behind the wheel.
“I thought you were in the forest with the queen?” Dylan said.
“I was, but I’m back,” Jervis said.
“Nice to see you,” Woli said.
Jervis turned to look at Dylan and Woli in the back seat. “I guess you found Queen Gaanne.”
“We did,” Dylan and Woli said in unison.
Dylan almost said, “Jinx,” but he wasn’t sure she’d know what it meant, and now wasn’t the time to explain.
To Riata, Jervis said, “Am I going to prison?”
“Are you driving my car?” he responded.
“I am.”
“If I was going to put you in prison, you’d be there, not here driving my car. I know you had both Gaanne’s and my best interests in mind.” Riata looked off into the dark as he spoke.
“Does this mean you’re going to try to make your marriage work?” Jervis almost shivered with excitement.
“We have more dire matters to attend to first. We’ll worry about that later.”
Jervis didn’t say another word, and neither did anyone else. Dylan kept wondering where they even started with a battle this big and if only five people were going to fight this enemy.
When they arrived at the bridge in the forest, at least one of Dylan’s questions was answered. They were not alone.
Lining the path to the trolls’ bridge into River Ruin were at least a hundred cat soldiers, all dressed in the same armor Dylan wore. On the opposite side of the bridge, where the daylight was almost blinding compared to the darkness in Craydusk, stood Princess Portencia, with an army too large for Dylan to count.
For the first time, he felt they might win.
Then he looked at the horizon, and he had an overwhelming urge to run back to the park and try to find the original portal, even if everyone said it was gone. They said a lot of other things that turned out not to be true, too. Just like his world, lots of half-truths and gossip, and people tended to believe it and spread the word. He thought about Facebook, and how many times he looked something up on Snopes. He wondered if this realm had a Snopes of their own.
For a few moments, no one moved. They didn’t get out of the car, and the people and creatures already assembled just stood there, as still as inanimate objects, but he could see them breathing.
Jervis broke the trance by saying, “What now, Your Highness?”
Riata pounded his palms on the dashboard in a team togetherness kind of way. Then he opened the door and climbed out of the car. “Let’s get on with it.”
Dylan didn’t want to get on with it. He loved the idea of magic, and he had a great time learning and honing his craft, but he wasn’t ready to die for a place he’d only been in for a matter of days. Was it even days? He still had no idea how much time really passed, but he got out of the car, climbing over the door the same way he’d gotten in the car. Woli followed, her wings not fluttering much.
Woli’s wings were a dead giveaway. She was terrified. It didn’t matter she had a smile on her face; she was scared to death of what was coming. She said she’d fought a darkness before, but was it the same?
Dylan walked up to Riata. “If we defeat this thing, will the same powers be used to fight it off in my world?”
He shrugged. “I can’t say. I’ve never been to your world, and I’ve never seen a darkness like this one. The only thing we can do it is fight with what we’ve got. We can never let true evil win.”
“True evil?” Dylan didn’t understand. There was a difference? Evil was evil.
“There is a perceived evil, that may not really be bad at all. Then there is a true evil, like serial killers, demonic monsters, detron dragons, and such. Have you ever met such evil things?”
“Not that I know of.” He’d never seen a monster or dragon in real life, and a serial killer could be your neighbor, and you’d never know until it was your time to be his victim, or he was caught.
“What’s the pl
an?” Woli’s voice cracked as she asked the question.
“Let’s meet on the other side of the bridge. Portencia, Gaanne, and I will rally the troops and explain our offensive plan.”
Dylan thought he knew what the plan was, but he didn’t know if that was how the others saw things. Since getting back to his world depended on it, he stayed right by Riata’s side.
They marched across the bridge, which seemed at least three times wider than last time they were here. It wasn’t so difficult to pass. He remembered someone saying the bridge was difficult. Maybe being with Riata made a difference.
Portencia and Gaanne stood at the edge of the bridge on the River Ruin side, as if they were waiting impatiently.
“Ladies,” Riata said. “I see you’ve gathered the troops.”
Portencia was no longer dressed in her pajamas and robe, nor was she wearing a hoop skirt dress. Her attire looked more like she was going fox hunting, riding her favorite Thoroughbred. Black boots up to her knees, but unlike riding boots, these had rounded armor over the knee. Her breeches were gunmetal gray, and her hunt jacket was made of the same chainmail as Woli’s suit. On her head, she wore her crown proudly.
“We’re awaiting the dragons,” Portencia said.
“Dragons? Why did you bring them into this?” Riata crossed his arms over his armor-plated chest.
Gaanne, who was dressed similar to Portencia but wore a helmet, said, “We are few and the darkness is massive. We haven’t expended this kind of energy in many years. We can use all the help we can get. And the dragons are in a truce with River Ruin.” She looked at Portencia. “At least that’s what your sister says.”
“Why would I lie?” Portencia put her hands on her hips. “You’re the same troublemaker you’ve always been.”
Gaanne got in Portencia’s face. “I’ll make trouble if that’s what you want. I was good for way too many years. I have a lot on my plate to dish out, so bring it on.”
Oh my gods, these people were like little kids. He was going into battle against an evil darkness with little kids. He was going to die, he just knew it. He could only hope if he died, Hettie would come get his remains so he could be buried with his family. But if he died, that might mean evil won, and no one was ever going to get to his body or pass through the portal again. He was doomed.
