by Alexia Purdy
“I have to help her. Let go!” I yanked, but Aveta didn’t let go.
“Really, Shade? Are you so pathetically weak you’d let a wraith best you?” Her dark eyes gleamed, filled with amusement more than anger. “I thought better of you.”
Her searing words pressed into me like a bubble of air while drowning. I breathed, knowing she was right. This wasn’t real. My mother was long dead and buried. There was nothing that could ever change that. Not even my new powers could resurrect her.
I stared hard at Aveta, channeling my hatred for her to shove the thoughts of my mother away.
“Shade… Shade! Wait! Don’t leave me here,” Jade wailed behind me as we continued. I felt violated. The wraith imitating my mother’s voice, the pitch, the tone, so perfectly. She’d looked real, solid, breathing, alive.
“You didn’t clear your mind,” Aveta lectured me as we kept on, and eventually, my mother’s voice faded away as though she’d never existed. It was then that I felt cold wetness on my cheeks. I wiped away the tears I’d failed to notice, and Aveta let go of my arm. Small red crescents remained on my skin from her nails.
“How old were you when you first passed through here?” I asked. I had to get my mind off my mother. The only way was to listen to Aveta talk. Not something I’d ever thought I’d want.
“I was but a small child. My maid showed me this place after she realized I needed to escape. My mother was quite cruel and spared nothing to cause me pain. This place was more solace than my life had ever offered. Especially when I reached the end.”
“What’s at the end?” I asked. I hoped it was something I could escape into as well. Why on earth Aveta wanted me to follow her in here was beyond my comprehension. Maybe she wanted to make sure she’d have a way back out. Or maybe she just wanted to offer me up as a sacrifice to some ancient demonic creature lurking at the end of this maze. Neither was quite appealing, but there was the tiny bit of hope that whatever was on the other side would be something awe inspiring.
“You’ll see.”
I groaned but continued through the maze. The terrain wasn’t always smooth; it went down into crevasses then back up and over rock-strewn slopes. I was dirty again by the time we neared the end, where there stood a circle of figures made of the same obsidian as the walls and floor of the maze.
As we approached, the figures turned their heads in our direction. I gasped, jumping back as the massive creatures moved toward us. They could crush us with their fists if they truly wanted to.
“Hello, my dear, old friends. It’s been a very long time.” Aveta held out her arms and circled them around the head of the obvious leader of the obsidian people, who had kneeled before Aveta so that it was the same height as her. It gently passed a rough hand over her smooth hair and then stood back up, turning its eyeless boulder of a head in my direction.
“Oh, don’t worry about her. She helped me get here.” Aveta laughed, but I was far from joining her. My heart was stuck in my throat as my shallow breaths failed to take in enough oxygen. These things were her friends? I’d never seen such gigantic, inhuman creatures. They were massive and impossibly sentient. But this was still Faerie. Even deep underground, magic permeated the world.
It gave her a nod and then helped her up onto its shoulders, Another one, next to the leader, knelt and held its arm out to me.
“Are you kidding me? I’m not riding that thing!”
“Just get on. The trek through to the end is a bit of a climb. This will help us rest and get through faster.”
I groaned, mumbling my protests as I reached out and took hold of the creature’s arm. He—if I could call it a he—lifted me to his shoulders. I let my legs dangle and gripped onto his neck. It was awkward, and I knew that if it had been a normal person, I’d be choking them to death.
Suddenly, a slab of obsidian jutted out beneath my bottom, and two handles bolted out of the thing’s head. I had a seat I could sit on comfortably without straining.
“Thank you,” I muttered to the creature.
Of course it could shapeshift. I didn’t know why I was ever surprised.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Dylan
“What’s so funny?” I asked, not entirely sure I wasn’t going to sucker punch Astenos right in the mouth. The cackling was unnerving as Nautilus and I threw wary glances at each other. This was all a mistake. The crumbling old faery before us had nothing we could use. We were running out of time, and all he could do was laugh.
I shot up, my chair screeching across the dirty wooden floor and tipping backward, crashing onto its back. Nautilus’s eyes widened, but he remained seated.
“Come on, let’s go. Let the old dogs lie in their filth,” I snapped, pivoting to head toward the door. Nautilus scrambled behind me, but before he could follow, Astenos stopped his fit.
“Wait! I apologize,” he wheezed, clearing his throat as he fought to catch his breath. “Truly I am. I couldn’t help it. I rarely get visitors, and this was just not what I expected when I woke up today. Please, sit.”
I turned slowly, glaring at the old man. He wasn’t old anymore. I inhaled a sharp breath.
He was a knight, a Queen’s Guard of Zinara based on the coat of arms engraved on his breastplate. I recognized him, for he’d made a trip to Teleen decades before, to negotiate for the Guildrin queen with Gretel, the former Teleen ruler. A chainmail shirt covered his body, to which were strapped sheets of enchanted white metal that most warrior fae wore. His long white-grey hair had morphed into a black mane, a signature color of the Unseelie, but he was a Seelie knight. I could see why he chose to hide away his true colors.
“You hide your true self? Why?” I asked, but I didn’t return to my seat. Around us, the house faded away, and we found ourselves in a stone tower with an arch leading to the outside, where another arched gate stood, surrounded by the greenest foliage I’d ever seen. Light filtered down on us through stained glass windows depicting faeries in various scenes of merriment. The row house had been a farce. This was a monument, a historic temple made by the fae.
But why was it in the mortal world?
“I’m afraid that I was banished from Guildrin some time ago. My passion for keeping the peace was shortsighted, according to Queen Zinara. She wanted war against the humans for destroying the forests near the borders of her city, narrowing their territory and causing the wards to shift away from their previous stations.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Queen Zinara wanted to start a war with the mortal world?”
“Yes.”
“That’s impossible. She has always been a staunch supporter of the mortal world.”
“Why, yes. We all are agreeable when things are going well. When others impede on our kingdoms, minds can change rapidly.”
I groaned, picking up the chair still lying on the floor. I sat back down and faced the knight. His eyes were slanted at the edges, his nose pointy and long. His skin looked artificial for the smoothness and porcelain-like quality, and his pointed ears stood out sharply, decorated with twists of metal. They contained no iron and were probably enchanted for use as weapons if need be. The Queen’s Guard of the Guildrin clan were rarely seen. They were an elite warrior troop who spent much of their time in solitude, posted across Faerie as spies and reporting back to the queen when anything happened, via messengers or by scrying to Ilarial.
I could see how Ilarial could be close to this knight. They’d probably recently spoken to each other via mirrors. I chewed thoughtfully on my lip, knowing that Ilarial always had so many tricks up her sleeve. Why would she conspire with a banished knight at the fringes of the mortal world, siphoning magic from human sources to survive undetected? And since he wasn’t truly a Teleen, he wasn’t using the city’s power to recharge his own electrical energy as I’d thought. If I had to guess, he was using it to keep this sacred place safe and undetected. Transmuting electricity to magic in that way required knowledge far beyond anything I was aware of. It was powerful, ancient mag
ic. After all, the houses on this block had been built long after the tower, and it had remained hidden the entire time. I almost didn’t want to find out what he had to offer us.
“Why did Ilarial send us to you?”
“Ilarial is no fool. She knows I know exactly what is happening in Faerie, in spite of being banished. With the magic fluctuating, old fears and arguments have rearisen. Zinara locked down the court just after you left to keep anyone from knowing what her plans are for an attack on the human realm. Also, Teron, the Seelie king of the west, has opposed her movements and has surrounded the western side of her kingdom. War is inevitable between the Seelie courts.”
“And the Unseelie?” I asked.
“The Unseelie are in chaos since Aveta died. Even Shade’s aunt, Evangeline, cannot keep them in check. One fortunate thing is that they are not interested in the Seelie disagreements. They’d rather stay out of it for now.”
“Zinara was a Teleen ally. Is my clan joining her?” I wondered if Sylphi was participating in this fight. I hoped not. War would be devastating to the dwindling number of Teleen warriors left. We were a dying race. Gretel would have left the Seelie courts to fight amongst themselves. I wasn’t so sure Sylphi was that reasonable.
“The Teleen have barricaded themselves in their mountain. I doubt anyone will see any help from them.”
Inside, I grinned. Good. Sylphi had changed for the better, to keep our people safe. At least one court had some sense about it, even if she was wildly unpredictable.
“What do we do to stop this war?” I asked.
Nautilus sat quietly, staring at the arch beyond the knight. I wondered what was brewing in his mind. He’d been silent about the whole thing.
“The arch,” Astenos said. “Do you not grasp the sanctity of this place? This was the ancient gateway that used to connect Faerie and the mortal world. We were not always so separated. There were restrictions, yes, but when this gate closed one final time hundreds of years ago, it divided our two worlds forever.”
“So you want to reopen the gate?”
Astenos’s eyes sparkled with excitement as my stomach twisted into a knot. This couldn’t be the answer. I hoped it wasn’t the only path to take.
“Yes. I want to reopen the gate between the two worlds.”
“No. That’s not going to happen.” I shook my head adamantly, wanting to jump to my feet again and march out the door. That was when Nautilus reached out and grabbed my right arm.
“Be reasonable, Dylan. If it kept harmony in Faerie before, why wouldn’t it now?”
“Look, there are too many people passing back and forth through the wards as it is. To allow humans and faeries to pass between both worlds unchecked? To let the magic of Faerie flow freely through this gate? You think we have wars brewing now, but this will be absolute chaos.”
“I don’t think so,” Astenos said quietly, folding his hands in front of him. “It’s called the Gates to Paradisa. The Netherworld; a part of Faerie that can’t be found any other way. There were only two gates to this other realm. The other gate, beneath the Withering Palace and controlled by the Unseelie, was destroyed years ago. But even before that, they had cursed the entrance with a diabolical maze filled with terrifying monsters to stop those who dared to cross.”
“And this is the other entrance.”
Astenos nodded. “Yes. It was closed not long after the Unseelie gained control over the first gate.”
“So why close this one?” Nautilus asked, leaning forward, intrigued by the story of an ancient realm of Faerie almost no one had ever seen. “And what’s in that realm anyway?”
Astenos shifted his eyes to Nautilus and smirked. He could tell this solution was fascinating us, but I still felt doubt about the whole plan. “It was closed because it was the only place humans could live peacefully among the fae. That’s why they called it Paradisa. In the rest of Faerie, humans were always rare, often mistrusted, and rarely safe. But not so in this other realm.
“There were mortals and faeries living there when it was still open. In harmony. But there were a great many others living in the mortal world who would have murdered thousands in order to enter and be among them. We had to close the gate to remove the desire and keep the realm from becoming overpopulated.
“But time balances all things. Since this realm was a waypoint between Faerie and the mortal world, humans there did age, albeit very slowly. Still, despite their great longevity, they did grow older, and some began to wither. Others died from accidents or injuries, as is the way of life. Without able-bodied beings to tend the land or exchange power within this realm of Faerie, it dies. If it dies, the other realms will begin to disintegrate as well, which we are now seeing. We need healthy faeries and humans to repopulate Paradisa to keep it alive. As the Heart of Fire and Ice is the center of Faerie magic, this hidden realm is the opposite pole, the center of the mortal world.”
I had so many questions, but I was too overwhelmed to remember most of them as they flew through my mind. “Why would it be the center of the mortal realm if it’s part of Faerie?” I asked.
“It’s the in-between. It is, in truth, what the mortal realm should be, in an ideal world. It’s the only realm where both can live in true harmony, where magic and science rule and thrive together. They must unite to keep both realms alive.”
“Fine.” I threw my hands up. “What do we do to open it, and have you even thought about how we’re going to police it? Also, how does this help the humans being cast out of Faerie right now?”
“They must return to Faerie before time catches up to them and they die. This is the only realm of Faerie where they will be welcomed right now. Once it returns to balance, the rest of Faerie will follow, and they should be able to go back to their homes. Of course, we must keep the gate secret from the rest of humanity, or the same old problems will rise up again.”
“I see.” I rubbed the growing stubble on my face. I felt tired. Bone tired. Too much had happened in the past few months. I wanted it done already. “So we’ll have to gather the expelled humans to the gate to shepherd them in. But first, how does it open?”
Astenos smiled, his eyes slipping to the metal in my arm. “With a key.”
“Where’s the key, then?” I asked impatiently.
“It just so happens to be on your arm. There are two keys, though. Would you know who holds the other? They were forged in the Heart of Fire and Ice.”
My eyes widened as I felt the blood drain from my face. “Soap. He has a matching gauntlet on his left arm.”
“Good! I hoped you would know. Ilarial told me you would. Thank goodness. Where is this person you call Soap? We’ll need him to help break the enchantment with both keys.”
I frowned, my eyes shifting to the floor as I heard Nautilus exhale slowly. I knew there was a catch to all this. There always was. Defeated, I cleared my throat and returned my eyes to Astenos.
“He’s in a coma back at the Scorching Scren Palace.”
Chapter Thirty
Shade
The opening at the end of the cavern finally came into view. Sweet daylight poured in, to my utter relief. I was sick of the darkness; my eyes ached from peering through it to see. I could see better than any human, and the inky blackness was a nightmare unto itself. I’d felt claustrophobic, and the air was so musty, it felt too heavy to breathe. I’d gripped the obsidian giant until my knuckles were white, and my bottom was numb from the hard slab made for me to sit on pressing painfully against my tailbone.
How Aveta liked riding on these horrid things was crazy.
“Here we are!” the dark queen called out, giddy with excitement. I had never seen her so elated; it was rubbing off on me, and I smiled. I felt the same way about seeing the light outside. It meant our journey was over.
The giants bent to the ground, letting us off. I turned to face the one that had taken me through the rest of the maze and gave him a curt nod.
“Thanks for the ride.” I grinned as g
enuinely as I could, but the faceless thing just stood back up and froze into its stance. Aveta’s giant did the same. They no longer moved, and if I didn’t know better, I’d think they were just crudely carved statues.
“Wow. You can control them, but you have no earth magic?” I pointed out in wonderment.
“I have no earth magic, and I don’t control them; they choose to obey me. They’re my friends.” Aveta puffed out her chest with pride. She turned and headed through the exit of the cavern, where a fresh breeze was blowing and a grey sky hovered above. I followed, shading my eyes from the glaring light after being so long in the overbearing darkness.
The land before us was the color of straw. Dead foliage trembled in the coming storm’s breeze, and mud lined the edges against the boulders of the cavern. I heard no animals nor saw any birds. Trees stood sparsely, with leaves falling in piles and their trunks dried up and withering. It looked like an apocalypse had happened here or at least a severe drought. Either scenario was obviously not what Aveta had expected.
“What happened?” I asked.
Aveta, looking pale as her eyes scanned the horizon, shook her head in disbelief.
“I—I don’t know. The poppies are gone. The trees… they should be green and full. Something isn’t right.” She dropped down from the last boulder, landing in the dirt before taking off, her skirt flying in the wind behind her as her hair, usually pristine and glossy, whipped in the storm’s fierce winds.
“Wait!” I hollered, jumping off the boulder and landing hard. Being an Ancient didn’t make me graceful. I was as clumsy as ever, but I willed my powers to help me off the muddy ground and broke into a run behind the Unseelie queen. She had brought me here for a reason, and I needed to find out what that reason was, besides helping her get here, of course. I needed to find out what this place was.
