Sovereign (Realmwalker Book 3)

by Jonathan Franks

  Mommy’s face softened. “Honey, I’m only teasing. I’m sorry. That wasn’t a very funny joke. I’m very sorry. No. Portia and Jim aren’t getting married. Portia isn’t moving away. And nobody is going to be near any bombs.”

  “Okay.” Molly calmed down a little bit. “I believe you.”

  “Good. Then get dressed and I’ll see you downstairs for breakfast. And, hey, peanut?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too, mommy.”

  Mommy smiled at her and closed the door.

  Molly looked at the window. She felt better that the shade was down. The pixies couldn’t see her, but she knew they were out there.

  Chapter 15

  Gen flew as fast as she could for as long as she could. She didn’t stop when she reached the border to The Rainforest. She didn’t want to risk an encounter with any of the predators here, so she flew upward, gaining altitude as quickly as she could. She hoped that by flying over the canopy, she’d be able to avoid trouble like spiders and snakes and whatever other nocturnal hunters were here that she didn’t know about.

  “How tall are these trees?” Gen asked. She knew Herron wasn’t in any shape to answer her, so she kept flying.

  Another of the engorged lamprey creatures dropped from Herron’s body. They were high enough that Gen didn’t hear it hit the ground.

  She flew up and up, but the trees still towered over her. The air became thinner and colder. Gen could see her breath and she still hadn’t reached the tops of the trees. Herron’s teeth chattered. At least that means he’s still alive, Gen thought. Finally, she broke through the cover of trees into a clear, dark, starless sky. The space around her was dark, but the rest of The Rainforest, as far as she could see, was lit in an eerie, yellow-green glow. She heard the songs of insects all around her, reminding her of cicadas.

  “Wow,” she breathed.

  Gradually, the green glow spread nearer to her and Gen saw that it was made by giant fireflies, roughly equivalent to the size of pugs. She couldn’t conceive of how many must have been up there to blanket the entire Rainforest canopy in that light. She shook her head quickly to focus and she flew over the tops of the trees toward Choon.

  The sun was coming up by the time she reached the city, and the last lamprey had long since fallen from Herron’s body. His skin was deathly pale and he shivered weakly.

  “It’s okay, Herron. We’ll make it.” She saw the break in the trees ahead that showed her where the city was. “Come on! You’ll be okay!” She descended as quickly as she could, while keeping Herron as close and still as she could. Flying was getting more and more difficult. She had a sharp chill in her body and every one of her muscles was beginning to cramp.

  The air gradually warmed as she got closer to the ground and when she could see the buildings, she started yelling. Her throat was hoarse and she had a hard time getting enough air to shout.

  “Hey! Help! Please help!” She croaked. “I have an injured fairy here! I need a healer! Help!”

  She flew to the chieftain’s hut, where she – where Ivy – had stayed when she and Herron passed through here before. “Leev!” She shouted for the chieftain. “Leev! Help!”

  Fairies began leaving their homes to see what the shouting was about. A very tall and well-built fairy with spiked blue hair flew up to meet her.

  “Leev!”

  “Ivy?” Leev asked. He saw Herron cradled in Gen’s arms and immediately reached out his own arms to help her.

  Gen rolled Herron into Leev’s arms and touched down on the walkway leading to Leev’s hut, which was built into one of the thick, tropical trees. As soon as her feet touched the wooden planks, she collapsed from fatigue. Her wings ached and her back burned from the exertion. She was dehydrated and exhausted.

  “See to her!” Leev shouted and he flew down into the city below.

  “Where’s he… taking...” Gen murmured. Her head spun. She fought nausea and waves of blackness threatened to pull her into unconsciousness. A fairy tried to lay her down but she pushed him away. Then she caught sight of her arms.

  Her arms and, she noticed, practically ever inch of bare skin, including her wings, were covered in tiny, sticky, black balls. She held her hands in front of her face and looked at the shiny black things. “What in the…”

  “Quick!” One of the fairies near her shouted. “She’s covered in them! Get her into the water!”

  Gen was roughly flipped over onto a blanket that was lifted like a stretcher. All of a sudden, Gen’s body convulsed in tremendous pain. She felt like she was being stabbed by thousands of tiny daggers and needles. She screamed and blacked out.

  When she came to, Gen was being dunked under water. She took in a mouthful of water and struggled against the hands holding her under. The water tasted both salty and bitter and it burned her throat and her eyes. After a minute, the hands released her and she broke the surface of the water, coughing and sputtering.

  “We think we got them all,” someone said. “How do you feel?”

  “Like you were drowning me!” Gen coughed. She forced her eyes open and they burned for a couple of minutes before they cleared. She brought her hands out of the water and looked at them. The black balls were gone but she had hundreds - maybe thousands - of tiny red puncture wounds all over her body. She looked down at the water. Hundreds and hundreds of the tiny black balls floated on the surface of the water. Each one of them had a tiny hole at one end, like a pitted olive. She sloshed aside the balls and underneath them floated like many tiny, dead, gray maggots.

  “Oh, gross!” Gen shouted. “What the hell happened?”

  Leev knelt beside the tub she was sitting in and said, “You went above the trees, Ivy, girl. Did you see the lightning flies?”

  Gen sat up in the tub. “The lightning bugs? Or fireflies, or whatever those were? Yeah.”

  “They spray their eggs into the air in a sticky kind of mist. They were all over you. Then the larvae burrow down through the eggs into the skin. You don’t want to know what happens if they’re left inside.”

  “I imagine they eat their way into adulthood and that’s no good for whoever’s been carrying them around,” Gen said.

  “Quite right. It’s good to see you again, Ivy.” Leev’s face was straight and serious.

  Gen didn’t bother to correct him. “How’s Herron?”

  “Ivy,” Leev said, “You mustn’t blame yourself. It was already too late by the time you arrived. He lost so much blood…”

  “What?” Gen cried. “Blame myself? Too late? What the hell is going on? Where’s Herron?”

  “I’m sorry. Herron’s gone.”

  “Gone?”

  Leev nodded gravely. “There was nothing we could do for him. He’s dead.”

  Gen slouched back against the back of the tub, sloshing the water and dead insects and eggs over the side. Her eyes burned again. She stood up, naked and dripping wet. Her clothes were destroyed, cut off of her and thrown in a heap on the floor. She didn’t care. “Take me to him.”

  Leev offered Gen a hand and helped her out of the tub. One of the other fairies in the room held up a robe and Gen slipped into it and eased her wings through the holes. She caught sight of her bare flesh and saw that all of the puncture marks had healed, leaving only smooth and healthy skin, then she murmured her thanks and wrapped the robe around herself.

  “Now,” she said firmly.

  Leev nodded and led her to the healers’ hut. Herron lay naked on a wooden table, partially covered by a brown blanket. His skin was ghostly white. He had a number of wounds on his body from the lampreys, concentric rings of puncture wounds surrounding tall, thin slits. He also had the random, circular puncture wounds from the lightning fly larvae on much of his body. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t breathing. He was dead.

  “Oh, god,” Gen said. Her knees felt weak. She stumbled to Herron’s body. He felt cold under her fingers. “Oh my god.”

  “I kn
ow you did all you could, Ivy,” Leev said. He put his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know about your customs in The Meadows, but you tried to save his life. And here, this is what we do.” He bent carefully over Herron’s head and gathered up a handful of his long hair. He quickly wove it into a thick, purple braid, then squeezed some of the tar-like compound from his own hair and rolled the bottom of the braid together. He drew a knife and with a snick, he cut the braid from Herron’s head and turned to Gen.

  He looked purposefully at her hair and asked, simply, “May I?”

  Gen nodded, and Leev stepped close to Gen and wove the top of the purple braid into her own long, chestnut-colored hair, then he carefully rubbed the tar around the splice. “You honor him,” Leev said. “You honor us all.”

  Gen leaned forward slightly and rested her forehead on Leev’s bare shoulder and cried. He didn’t put his arms around her. He simply stood there, solid and still, until she finished crying and straightened. She sniffled and rubbed her nose on the back of her hand. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  Leev shook his head. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “He was a friend of yours, wasn’t he?”

  Leev nodded. “He visited The Rainforest often. He was always pleasant company. He’ll be missed.”

  Gen pulled the robe tighter around herself and sighed with regret. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe he’s gone.”

  She walked outside the hut and looked out over Choon. The air was bright and the birds and insects were singing. The world carried on, seeming not to notice the loss of Gen’s friend, a Realmwalker, a fairy who helped to bring three Realms back from The Void, and stopped a fairy playing with the powers of darkness from becoming immortal to wreak havoc on the rest of the Realms.

  Gen felt like screaming. She felt like punching and fighting and stabbing. Leev stood next to her against the railing and looked out over the city.

  “It’s my fault,” Gen said.

  “It isn’t.”

  “He didn’t have to come with me to bring the Realm back. I could have gone to the Chamber all by myself. Hope and Shae and Slynn didn’t come. They waited for us back at the house. But Herron wanted to come. I didn’t have to let him. He wanted to come and the Chamber was flooded and those terrible creatures were in the water, just waiting to drink his blood. I could have gone down there alone. And I could have flown along the ground. I didn’t have to try to fly up over the trees. I didn’t know about those stupid lightning flies and their ridiculous eggs. How was I supposed to know that?”

  “You knew Herron,” Leev said. “Could you really have stopped him from doing something he thought was right?”

  Gen hung her head. “No. Probably not.” Then she gasped and stood up straight. “Oh, god. Hope and Shae and Slynn didn’t come. They’re still waiting back at the house!” She looked desperately at Leev. “How long was I unconscious?”

  “I’m not sure. Eight hours, maybe.”

  “I’ve been gone for more than half a day! They must know something happened! I have to go back. I need some traveling clothes, and quickly, please!”

  Leev nodded. “Come with me.”

  He led her to the Walkers’ Hut and opened the closets for her. The clothes were mostly cast-offs, old, mismatched pieces of clothing, put here for exactly this purpose. As quickly as she could, she found a flying cloak, trousers, and a jerkin that fit her. She handed the robe back to Leev and dressed quickly. She headed for the door and Leev caught her by the elbow.

  “Please, before you go,” Leev said, “I must know what happened to Ivy.”

  Gen’s face fell.

  “I know you’re not her,” he said.

  Gen shook her head. “No, I’m not. Ivy and Herron came to the human world to stop Pepper, The Reaper, from killing his human and becoming immortal. Pepper threw some kind of fireball at me and it exploded. Ivy sacrificed herself to save me.”

  “Then she died by your hand?”

  Gen nodded. She was about to explain the circumstances and say that she didn’t do it on purpose, but then she sighed and said, simply, “She did.”

  Leev stared at her intently for a moment. Their eyes locked and Leev looked deep and hard into her. Finally, he released her elbow and said, “Ivy was a brave and noble fairy. I don’t think I’m wrong when I say that you honor her, as well.”

  Gen started to cry again. “I can only hope that I do. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

  This time, Leev did wrap his arms around her, and Gen cried once again. When she was able, she stood up straight, wiped her eyes and her nose, and said, “Thank you. For everything.”

  Leev nodded.

  Gen turned away, but Leev called her back. “Excuse me, girl,” he said. “But what should I call you?”

  “My name’s Genevieve. But if you think it’s okay, you can still call me Ivy.”

  Leev smiled warmly at her. “Fly fast, Ivy.”

  When Gen reached Ivy’s farmhouse the following day, it was empty. Her friends were gone. For the first time, probably in her entire life, she realized, she was completely, absolutely alone.

  Chapter 16

  When Geoff got home from work, George was sitting on the sofa in the living room. The TV was on and he was reading a book.

  “Hey, dad!”

  “Hey. Are you reading or watching TV?”

  “Both?” George grinned.

  Geoff chuckled and shook his head. He went into the kitchen, where Gabby was cooking dinner.

  “Hi, sweetie,” she said. “We’re having fried rice tonight. And Laura’s pie, if it’s cooled enough.”

  Geoff walked over to Gabby and stood behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and rested his head on her shoulder. “It’s so good to be home.”

  “Aw, you’re so adorable.” She twisted around but she couldn’t find a good angle to kiss him. He stood up straight and she turned all the way around and kissed him. “I’m glad you’re home.” Then she turned around and returned her attention to the wok.

  “Where’s Laura?” Geoff asked.

  “She went out with her parents to do some more Christmas shopping.”

  “When’s she coming back? It looks like dinner isn’t going to be long.”

  Gabby shrugged. “She’ll be back when she’s back. We can eat without her, you know. We’ll just wait for her until we eat the pie.”

  “I wanted to open with that,” Geoff laughed.

  “That’s not an option.”

  Geoff went upstairs and changed out of his suit and into casual clothes, then he went downstairs and sat next to George on the sofa.

  “How’s she doing?” Geoff asked quietly.

  “She’s been great today. Mostly, you’d never know anything was wrong,” George answered.

  Geoff sighed with relief. “Thank god.”

  “Hey, dad, if you need anything, you know...”

  Geoff clapped George on the knee and shook his leg for a second, then leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “Thanks, kiddo.”

  George dropped the remote on Geoff’s lap. “Here. I wasn’t really watching anything anyway.”

  Gabby called from the kitchen, “Dinner’s ready!”

  Since it was only the three of them, they sat at the small kitchen table and ate.

  After they finished, George collected their dishes and brought them to the sink when the phone rang. He frowned at it. “Don’t get it. Every time the phone rings, it’s bad news.”

  Gabby stared at the phone and looked anxious. “No. You can’t just let it ring!”

  “Okay, okay,” Geoff said. He picked up the phone. “Hello?” His face fell and he handed the phone to George. “It’s for you. It’s Laura.”

  George gave his father a curious look and took the phone. “Hello?”

  Laura was in hysterics on the other end of the line. “George? I really need you.”

  “Laura? What’s the matter? Calm down. What’s wrong?”

  She cried into the phone and
tried to speak.

  “Calm down,” George said. “I can’t understand you. What’s the matter? Where are you?”

  She tried to take a few deep breaths. She cleared her throat but her voice was still thick from crying. “I’m at Northwestern University Hospital.”

  “God! Are you okay?”

  Geoff and Gabby stood next to George and they both looked very worried.

  “There was an accident,” Laura said. Then she broke down and started to cry again. “We were in an accident.”

  “Are you okay? I’m coming down there. Where are you? What building, what room? Where can I find you?”

  Laura gave him the details.

  “I’ll be right there. I love you. I’m coming for you.” George hung up the phone.

  “What’s wrong? What happened?” Gabby asked.

  “There was an accident. I don’t know exactly what happened. She’s at the hospital. I have to go.”

  “Come on,” Geoff said. “I’ll drive you.”

  “I’m coming, too,” Gabby said.

  “Are you sure you want to go into a hospital, honey?” Geoff asked.

  Gabby took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes. I can handle it. If I can’t, I’ll wait in the car. I’ll be fine. Come on.”

  They pulled on their coats and boots and hats and tromped through the snow in the driveway to Geoff’s Saab. The snow was falling heavily and the roads were treacherous.

  “It’s freezing,” Gabby said. “And the snow! It’s bad. No wonder there was an accident. Who goes out driving in this?”

  “Mom,” George said. His tone was scolding. Then he didn’t say anything else. He sat in the back seat and stared out the window. His heart was beating quickly from fear and anxiety.

  Gabrielle turned the radio up to hear the weather report. The weather lady reported blizzard-like conditions and heavy snowfall with strong winds until after midnight.

  “Blizzard-like conditions,” Gabby smirked. “I think that means that it’s actually a blizzard.”

  Geoff patted her on the knee and put his hand back on the wheel, carefully minding his driving. It took a little over two hours to drive the seven miles to the hospital, due to the weather. Geoff dropped George and Gabby off at the door, George told them the room number, and then Geoff went to park the car.