REALM'S END (BOOK OF FEY 1)

by Jules Hancock

“Did you break in Soder,” Sephoria asked?

  Soder’s legs began to tremble, as he responded to the group. “We tried, but the magic was very strong. The cliff began to ring out with our trying. Even with all three of us, we were only able to crack the sealing spell a little.”

  “Were you not afraid of tearing the cavern apart, Balt,” Rowan asked?

  Balt, nervous to be focused on by the Rowan, tried to calm himself, but his leaves continued to shake as he spoke. “Yes Great one we were afraid, but Ricter said that we had your blessing, and that at all costs we must find a way into the cavern.”

  “Then what happened,” Dentsen asked?

  Balt and Soder looked at one another, unsure of what to say next.

  “Before we hear about your getting in to the cavern, I want to ask a different question,” Lindel said turning to the other members. “I have also heard that the forecast stone slid down the cliff. Is that true?”

  The council members gasped. This was not a good sign at all, to think that the ancient stone had slid down the mountainside.

  Suddenly the Rowan’s rumbling deep voice broke out over the crowd. “How did this come about Soder?”

  Soder gulped, he too began to shake in fear. “Well great Rowan I was told by Ricter to push the stone over the edge.”

  “And did you,” the Rowan asked?

  Soder’s shoulders slumped, “Ricter was very persuasive. He told me Briok had to be stopped and this was the only way. He said Briok was going to destroy our world. Then he used his magic to enhance my strength.”

  Lindel jumped to his feet. “Briok, why do you bring Briok into this?”

  Soder looked from the Rowan to Lindel. “Ricter, said Briok was helping the red haired one and that he had to be stopped before he reached the journeying cave. He was very forceful; he nearly tore my arm out of my socket.”

  Balt looked at his friend and it slowly dawned on him, that what they had agreed to do, under Ricter’s guidance, had probably gotten them into deep trouble. “Please leave Soder alone, it wasn’t all his doing. We have been wrong in helping Ricter, but in our defense, he often takes advantage of those of us who are not so bright or strong. We meant no harm to the stone or the boy. We were just doing as we were told. He is a very persistent Fey, as you all know.”

  The Rowan rumbled her assent, “Sit down both of you, but do not leave yet.”

  Soder and Balt sat down in the root fashioned seat the Rowan provided for each of them.

  Sephoria stood once more. “Where is Pit?”

  “Here I am wise one.” Pit’s short legs carried him slowly forward from the back of the room.

  “Pit since you were in the cavern, did you see the forecast stone fall?”

  “Well not exactly my lady. I heard a big rumbling and ran to the cavern’s entrance,” he said, chuckling low. “But, as we all know my legs are slow at best, and sometimes my mind is slower. By the time I reached the entrance, the stone had already reached the bottom, but I did see young Briok climbing the hillside.”

  “What? Why would he climb the hillside?”

  “Hee hee, that’s what I asked myself too, but when he got to the top I could see why. His wings were wetted through. He told me the sea had reached up and doused his wings, forcing him to walk.”

  “My lady,” Soder shuffled slowly to his feet. “That was Ricter, he spelled the sea of time to rise up and wet the young Fey’s wings.”

  Lisl stood up and walked down the aisle, to stand near Sephoria, “What I want to know, and I want to know it right now, is where is my son?” She glared at both Soder and Balt.

  Sephoria reached over and gently patted Lisl’s arm. “I don’t believe these two know anything about where Briok is my dear. Sit down here with me, and we will try to find out what we can.”

  “Why couldn’t the boy just dry his wings? Is he so poor in magic,” Councilor Dentsen asked?

  Lindel stood. “No, he hasn’t had his awakening yet. In fact it was to be tonight.”

  “What? Why would you put off the boy’s awakening so long? The world needs his magic and he would be safer with it awake then asleep.”

  Lindel ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Both his mother and I were late awakened, and we didn’t suffer for it. We have always believed it was better to not quicken the magic too soon.”

  Pit stood quietly; or rather he stood stone still, as the group went on debating around him.

  “Pit,” the Rowan voice rumbled deeper than Pit’s own voice. “Do you know where Briok is now?”

  Pit turned towards the seat of the Great Rowan, “No, I don’t know where the boy is.”

  Then with assistance from Lindel, Sephoria rose slowly to her feet, and turned towards the council. The Rowan and I have both searched as well; we can find no trace of the boy anywhere in the Realm. He seems to have vanished.”

  Pandemonium broke out, the councilors began shouting at one another, again.

  Suddenly there was a loud crack and the room shook. Dirt sprinkled down from above. Everyone stopped suddenly and looked about the room in fear. “Must I destroy this chamber to gain your silence,” the Rowan asked?

  Sheepishly the members retook their seats, all except for Councilor Jafe, who hovered just off the ground. “I hate to be the one to bring this up,” Jafe said, as he flitted nervously upward. “Certainly some very strange things have been going on. No one can be above suspicion at this point. Who can say but perhaps, Ricter has been right in his motives. The one question no one has dared ask, but I say, it must be asked. Has the red haired girl escaped? Isn’t that really what this is all about?”

  The councilors hissed at Jafe, but even so all eyes turned to the seat of the Great Rowan. They all watched closely as the tree settled back upon her root system. “No the girl has not escaped. She is safe within her prison. As you all know, we can only be parted in death. I would gladly show you, but even I don’t have the strength to transport so many inward, and continue to have energy to search for Briok. I have my limits too.” The Rowan’s voice rumbled, as it carried throughout the chamber.

  Sephoria stood, “I can vouch for the Rowan, I was within just yesterday, and the girl was there and unharmed.”

  Jafe, bowed low to the Rowan, and nervously sat down.

  Dentsen, the leader, an orange lichen covered sharp edged member of the basalt tribe, stood then and gazed into the faces around him, clearing his throat he turned towards both Sephoria and the Great Rowan. “We have much to consider, and many questions that we don’t have answers for, such as why is Ricter chasing Briok? Where is Briok? What is the story behind the red haired girl that he is saying she escaped? Obviously much could be cleared up if we can locate Ricter. I suggest we begin the process of a deep search for Ricter and I also suggest we send guardians, to watch his home. He has willing decided to harm a being of the Realm; we must be prepared to stop him.”

  Lindel stood, “I second that.”

  “It’s agreed then. We shall meet back in council in two days, until then let us keep this in the strictest confidence.” Detsen looked over at Bald and Soder, “That means you two will put yourselves under house arrest till then, and you may not tell anyone of any of these conversations, or of your time with Ricter. Do you understand?” He asked fixing them with a rude glare.

  Soder stood slowly, and bowed low to the councilors and the Rowan’s seat. “Yes, we will keep it all to ourselves, and we are sorry, if we have done any wrong.”

  Pit who had stood near the two throughout the proceedings, stepped forward, “If I might make a suggestion to the council?”

  Ronin who stood ready to depart, held up is hand getting the councils attention. “Yes Pit, what is it?”

  “Well if Ricter is endangering beings of the Realm, perhaps it would be best if these two were not so easy to locate, in case he returns. I could take them to the cavern with me, there is strong magic from my own homeland there, and I doubt he alone would have the power to break it.”

&
nbsp; Ronin looked at Sephoria catching her eye before moving on to look at the other council members present. Ronin turned back to Pit, “Yes I think that might be a good idea. It will keep them both out of harm’s way and out of danger in case Ricter returns.”

  The members rose up then and flew or walked out as each was inclined, single file from the Rowan’s inner chamber, and Pit took his two new charges and headed home.

  Magical Lessons

  “What are we going to do? It’s nearly a month and she’s only just learned how to raise a spoon off the table. That paltry level of magic isn’t going to help her save anyone,” Reval hissed.

  Meredith suckled the growing baby at her breast as she paced back and forth in front of the fireplace. “I’ve worried over that too. There has to be a way to help the child, and I keep having the nagging feeling we don’t have long to help her figure it all out. Life might be unfolding at a slower rate in that other world but unfolding it is. I wish we had some way of figuring out what was going on there.”

  Suddenly Hectain popped into view. “Morning sisters,” she cried out, as she sat down at the table. “Why are you all looking so glum on this fine day,” she asked, her smile spreading out across her face?

  “Sister how can you be so cheerful, you know what a mess we have gotten ourselves into. I’m beginning to think father was right and we shouldn’t have meddled,” Reval said as she brushed bread crumbs from her mouth.

  “Sister,” Hectain said almost merrily. “I have two things to say to you, first, Reval you need to stop eating or you will weight too much to fly even with magic, and secondly, I have an answer to our dilemma.”

  Meredith laid the sleeping baby in its cradle near the fire, and reaching over pulled a chair out for herself to sit on. She had found that she always wanted to be within reach of the child. “Good, I’ve hoped one of us would come up with something. What is it?”

  “Well, I think if we all consider for a moment, it’s clearly fear. The girl is obviously blocking the magic. She can’t adjust to the idea of being a witch. What we need is to break through that block.”

  Reval loudly clapped her hands, and jumped up from her chair, knocking it over in the process.

  The baby started at the noise and began whaling.

  “Why do you have to be so noisy all the time? I just got her to sleep,” Meredith said, reaching out to rock the basket with her foot. “Shhhhs, little one, it’s ok. It’s just your clumsy Aunt Reval again. Shhhs, now go on back to sleep.”

  Reval looked chagrined. It was true what Meredith said she did make a lot of racket, and she was clumsy. She sighed as she picked up the fallen chair and stood it upright again. “Sister I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s come over me. Perhaps I should go home for a few days.” Reval sat down once again at the table.

  “Oh never mind, look the child is nearly asleep already. I think this trouble with Gwenth has us all on edge, sister.”

  “If you two are done caterwauling that’s what I’m trying to talk about.” Hectain twitched her fingers, and a warm pot of tea arrived at the table.

  “I don’t know why you bother with the pot when you could just whip up a cup of tea?”

  Hectain looked sharply across the teacup at Reval. “Well this is the way I like it. Is that all right with you sister, if I make tea the way it pleases me? I too like some of the pretty things humans have. God, how I tire of you two and your prattling on when we need to focus.” Snapping her finger, the tea poured out into her cup. “Now, can we get back to the reason I’ve come,” Hectain said, rolling her eyes at her two sisters. “Listen to me both of you. I think what we need is to create a little crisis for Gwenth, nothing too big but something where she has to save something or someone. I think it may jumpstart her powers. Once the wall is broken, she may not be able to hide behind it anymore.” Hectain raised her cup and took a sip of her tea out of the painted clay cup.

  Meredith sat back in her chair and considered Hectain’s idea. Her intuition instantly agreed this could be the way through Gwenth’s block. A smile slowly spread across her face, lightening up her features. “Sister I believe you’ve hit upon a fine idea.”

  “Good then let’s put our all of our minds to it right now. I believe our time is running out.”

  Meredith reached down picking up the sleeping child and positioned her within the crook of her arm. Then she hooked the chair with her free hand and stood up bringing her load to the table. She settled herself into the chair, the baby asleep in her lap. “If we are to do this thing we must remember that there can be no real danger for whoever is involved.”

  Reval laid her hands on the table and her stubby fingers touching one another as if she were playing a little ditty. “Perhaps we don’t need to really create any trouble at all.”

  Hectain gawked at her sister. “Didn’t you hear what I just said not two minutes ago?”

  Reval looked up from her fingers, “Oh yes of course sister, but what I mean is Gwenth only need believe there is trouble. We could perhaps create the trouble in her mind only.”

  Hectain looked from Reval to Meredith. “Yes I suppose that would work, but playing in someone’s mind is a dangerous thing. I’m not sure that is a game even we should play.”

  “To bad Father isn’t here, he is the expert at mind games,” Meredith said.

  “Well we could ask him to come and help us,” Reval reasoned.

  “No,” the other two sisters’ voices rang out simultaneously.

  “Darling do you want to tell Father we can’t handle this?” Hectain asked, looking over at Reval.

  Reval’s shoulders slumped further as she considered the idea of telling her father they needed his help. “No I don’t want to go through that either. I suppose then we should stick with the idea of creating a little crisis for the child to solve.”

  The sun overhead moved slowly westward as the sisters all sat around the wooden table focusing their minds on the problem.

  “What about hiding her Fey friend somewhere she can’t see?”

  Meredith looked at Hectain. “No we can’t hide the boy, it’s too dangerous.”

  “Maybe, we could charm her father into playing dead?”

  Meredith eyed Hectain across the worn table; the distain on her face was obvious.

  Hectain threw her hands up as if to concede the point. “Alright, alright, I didn’t think you’d go for that. No harm done! We wouldn’t have really killed him!”

  “Hasn’t either of you two learned anything yet? Look how many things have gone wrong with our simple plan to send Gwenth back in time. No we need something that will help Gwenth awaken her powers, but which will bring no harm to anyone, including Gwenth. I won’t allow anyone to be used that way.”

  Reval nervously cleared her throat. Back home Father badgered her for information, and now that she was here she felt all elbow and knees, and that brought on an insatiable hunger. She realized her heart was bruised from the callus treatment from all parties, so while she had an idea she wasn’t at all anxious to be put through the ringer of her sisters’ combined harshness. “I wonder if perhaps we could use our magic to create an imaginary crisis, like; well like creating a fake dragon that might only appear to attack the young Fey.”

  Meredith and Hectain stopped talking, and sat staring at Reval their mouths hanging open.

  Reval felt the prickly sensation as her eyes began to water. “Ah well I can see that idea is no good either,” Reval sighed deeply. “Perhaps I should go and leave off this task,” she said.

  “What are you crazy?” Hectain jumped up and ran around the table, and pulled Reval’s thick body up into the biggest bear hug. “You are brilliant sister, simply brilliant! That is the perfect idea,” she said, jumping up and down as she held onto Reval.

  Meredith sat across the table smiling up at her sisters. Hectain was always the rock, but it did seem in a pinch Reval was the one who could pluck an idea right out of thin air.

  Hectain finally set Reval bac
k down on her feet, and turned back to her own chair. She had the little tea pot pour out tea for the others, and all three sat relaxing for a moment in the bliss of knowing there was at last a beginning of a plan.

  Hunted

  Meanwhile Gwenth and Briok walked along the rocky shore. They watched as the tide washed inland. Each wave created a new line in the sand, washing away the old line as the water rushed back into the sea. Gwenth showed Briok how to skip stones out over the water. Gwenth’s aim was true and she could bounce a four maybe five times, before the stone invariably sunk into the sea.

  “Don’t you think it’s a bit odd that this place looks so much like my homeland? I mean look up there, even the headland is similar, and doesn’t that look like the cavern entrance to you?” Briok said, pointing up the side of the cliff.

  Gwenth bent down and picked up a flat gray stone, she stood rubbing her fingers over the smooth surface as she considered his remark. She looked up the jagged cliff face. There was a dark place, but it could be just a shadow. Gwenth finally shook her head, “I can’t say honestly, I mean I never did go outside the cavern.”

  Briok looked on as Gwenth turned easily away from him. He saw her raised her arm, her hair glinting brightly in the afternoon sun, and then came the release and the flat stone skittered gracefully out across the dark grey water. Briok felt his heart pounding, like a sea wave battering against hard stone. Unconsciously he raised his hand and placed it protectively over his chest. “You never went outside? But then how did they find us? The Rowan put a spell on the cavern so no one would notice.”

  Gwenth turned back to Briok and he realized her features held the look she used when something made her feel peevish. “You told me to not to go out… remember? So I didn’t. I admit I did stand near the entrance once, and looked outside, but I never went out. Suddenly her face changed, and the mischievous grin replaced her anger. “Besides I can’t imagine we are going to figure out the mystery of the cliff, from down here, anyway. I think you need to practice your running!” Gwenth reached over and grabbed Briok’s hand and pulled him into a run up the steep cliff side.