by DM Fike
“Bite me,” Nobody said.
Avalon glared at him. “Kay was just answering your question. You don’t have to be a jerk.”
“I wasn’t talking to Winged Wonder,” Nobody retorted. “Vimp! Bite me.”
Vimp squealed, sinking his fangs into the gremlin’s neck.
“OW! That smarts,” Nobody gritted his teeth.
“Sadus,” Kay grimaced. Avalon put her hand to her mouth.
“That’s the stuff. Come to Father.” Nobody popped his neck, then held out his hands to both Kay and Avalon. “I’m sick of being out staged by you two. Take my hands.”
Avalon grabbed on, but Kay hesitated. “For sobbing out loud,” Nobody complained. “Vimp boosted my dark magic. I’m going to walk us through the wall. You want to get out of here or face off against your friends?”
The light at the end of the hallway brightened, the voices growing in volume. A wind whipped through the hallway.
“Or better yet, face off against Mommy?” Nobody asked with a wry grin.
Kay latched onto Nobody’s arm.
“Here we go!” Nobody plunged straight into the wall.
Sliding through the wall felt like walking through jelly. Avalon forgot to take a breath, and it took everything in her not to inhale the sloshy substance into her mouth. As they waded through, her lungs strained for air. She thought she might faint until they burst back out under open sky.
While Nobody and Avalon fell to the ground, Kay retained his balance. He immediately grabbed Avalon, shaking his wings out to take flight, but she stayed him with a hand.
“You gonna make it?” she asked Nobody, who gasped like a fish out of water.
The gremlin raised an eyebrow, his body shimmering. His face melted into a beak, feathers sprouted all over his frame, and his legs slimmed into stick appendages. “Caw!” he called. He shook his beak defiantly.
Kay swept Avalon into the air without warning. She held on tightly to keep from falling as the world grew smaller beneath her feet. Nobody took flight not far behind, screeching in glee with Vimp riding his back. They never looked back as they fled Emerged Falls.
CHAPTER 38
KAY’S WINGS BEAT a steady rhythm in the moonlight, but even a slight shift of Avalon’s weight would cause him to tilt to one side. They redistributed weight several times. Avalon tried not to move as the forest flew by below.
Nobody cawed and pulled ahead of Kay. “This a-way!”
“Oh yeah!” Vimp pointed downward. Nobody’s bird form dove to one side as he descended into an expansive, heavy forest. Kay landed nearby inside a grove of trees. Avalon removed her shaky arms from his corded neck.
Vimp jumped off as Nobody hit the dirt. Feathers flew as he rolled in a ball on the ground. When he popped back to his feet, he had transformed back into a gremlin, purple outfit and all.
“Whoo-ee!” Nobody dusted off his arms. “That was fun!”
Kay punched him square on the jaw.
Avalon gasped as Nobody lurched to the ground. “Kay!” she cried. The fairy kept himself between Avalon and Nobody as the gremlin lay prone on the ground, rubbing his chin.
Nobody winced. “I should have seen that was coming.”
“You deserved that and more,” Kay shouted. “You knew how dangerous Bedwyr was. Instead of protecting Avalon, you hauled her right into Saluzyme and almost got us all killed.”
Avalon grabbed Kay by the shoulder and spun him around. “You remember that?”Kay opened his mouth but thought better of speaking. He backed up a few paces.
“Ruh-roh,” Nobody clucked. “Someone is in troooouble.”
“Stay out of this, Nobody.” Avalon said to the gremlin.
Nobody threw up his hands. “I’m not the one who pretended to have amnesia.”
“I wasn’t pretending,” Kay fumed.
“Of course, you weren’t,” Nobody said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “How many wind and lightning fairies exist? Seeing your Covert K uniform in the storage unit clinched the deal.”
“You knew who Kay was on Earth?” Avalon asked. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you said Winged Wonder was, and I quote, ‘the only person you could trust,’” Nobody threw up air quotes. “I didn’t think you’d believe me if I explained your boyfriend had a thing for Icy Hot, the person trying to kidnap you.”
Avalon’s face reddened. Before, she wouldn’t have believed such a claim. Now, she rounded on Kay. “When did you get your memories back?”
Kay sighed. “Not until after Desert Rose brought me back to Llenwald.”
“Convenient.” Nobody folded his arms. Vimp mimicked Nobody, arms wrapped around each other, sniffing the air distastefully.
Avalon stalked toward Kay. “You should be dead. I watched Desert Rose throw you off a mountain cliff, and a monster dove after you.”
“Not a monster, a yeti. Desert Rose’s yeti, Ulua.” Kay ran his hand through his tousled hair. “I appreciate how unbelievable all of this sounds, but I swear it is the truth. Complicated but the truth nonetheless.”
Avalon pointed to the dense forest around them. “We’ve got nothing but time.”
Kay planted himself on a gnarled tree branch. “Desert Rose is my childhood friend. I have cared for her all my life.”
Nobody made tittering noises next to Avalon. She scowled at him, and he stopped, properly chagrined.
“She was always competitive,” Kay continued, not noticing the exchange. “She always wanted to best me in school, in training, in everything. She strived to be the superior Guardian’s kid. I used to hate it, but as we got older, it became a game. We were always beating each other, just by a bit, our peers furloughs behind us in ability. We were in a class of our own. We even got accepted into Covert K training at an early age. And that’s when she changed. Beating me wasn’t enough. Her new goal became proving she could surpass her legendary parents. She grew tired of being told that her accomplishments were due in part to their aid.” Kay stared at the Emerson crest on his uniform. “A feeling I can relate to completely.”
“Most people would get a hobby. I’ve heard knitting is therapeutic,” Nobody said. “Becoming a mercenary seems a bit much.”
“I warned her to forget it, to focus on her knightly duties and ignore the whispers, but she wouldn’t. She felt her parents coddled her. Halicia and J.T. left us out of missions we should have qualified for. They said our status as children of the Guardians would cloud the others’ judgment, but Desert Rose would only believe they conspired against her. She sought other ways to excel, ways her parents couldn’t control. She took mercenary jobs on her days off, completely outside of the Covert K code. And then one day”—his voice grew quieter—“she vanished. She was gone for weeks. Halicia and J.T. were beside themselves. I finally told them what little I had gleaned about her illegal activities.”
“You narked on your BFF?” Nobody asked.
“What else was I to do?” Kay shouted. “Desert Rose had to be in trouble to vanish for so long. I had no way of knowing what happened to her.”
“You did the right thing.” Avalon shoved her personal feelings into a tiny spot inside her chest so that she could also say the right thing.
Kay couldn’t quite meet Avalon’s eyes. “J.T. and Halicia tried to locate her for months to no avail. We eventually believed she had perished during one of her escapades.”
“But in reality, she had left Llenwald,” Nobody filled in the blanks. “My contacts on Earth started hearing rumors about her around that time. And if I heard about it, I’m sure Bedwyr knew. He must have hired her at some point to track me down.” Nobody grinned sheepishly. “I was kind of giving his operations a tough time.”
“Oh yeah,” Vimp agreed.
“Why would Desert Rose work for Bedwyr?” Avalon asked. “The Guardians stand for co-existence of humans and Aossi, everything that Bedwyr hates.”
Kay shook his head. “In the past, I might have said it was impossible, but I have been c
onducting my own investigation into her disappearance, separate from J.T. and Halicia. I learned that Desert Rose had taken a lot of mercenary jobs for Aossi purists, people who hated humans. She gained a reputation for doing any job if the prestige and money was high enough. And what higher honor would there be than catching one of Llenwald’s most notorious war criminals from the Second Reformation?” He glared at Nobody.
Nobody bowed from the waist down, still sitting. “The honor is all mine.”
Kay slowly relinquished his glare. “A persistent rumor emerged during my search. Desert Rose was often spotted in Artic Merfolk territory, usually with Ulua. I took a long leave of absence to verify these rumors and tracked her trail into the Kori Plains. And there, out in the cold wilderness”—he gripped his bare hands together so tightly, his fingers whitened—“I found her.”
Avalon stiffened as emotions swirled cross Kay’s face.
“She stood in front of something shimmery, like a mirror, a magic I had never seen before. I called out to her, but Ulua blocked my path. Desert Rose jumped through the mirror into the unknown. With strength I did not know I possess, I shoved Ulua aside. I leapt into the mirror after her before it closed.”
“She created an Earth portal?” Nobody said incredulously. “How’d she manage to do that?”
Kay shrugged. “All I know is once on the other side, I confronted Desert Rose at last. For a split second, she was the woman whom I had spent all those years of childhood with. My friend. Then a strange sensation came over me. I could not speak. I reached for my sword, but I could not move. Desert Rose wielded a strange magic over me, alternating heat and cold, then blackness. Nothing.”
“Desert Rose turned you into a statue,” Avalon whispered.
Nobody perked up at this. “That’s what Dairy Queen and Hot Pocket did to me!”
Avalon waved to dismiss him.
Nobody blew a raspberry in response. “No listen! Halicia and J.T. wielded some weirdo combo of fire and ice magic to imprison me as a statue. You’re not dead, but whoa, it is not a picnic.” He rubbed his temples. “It packs a serious punch.”
Kay nodded. “And now you know why I had amnesia.”
Nobody cocked his head in thought. “Ah, I get it now.”
“What do you mean?” Avalon asked them.
“Nobody had only been a living statue for a day at most,” Kay explained. “You saw his weakened state in just that short amount of time. I suspect I was put under for much longer.”
“You were,” Avalon said. “Several days at least. It damaged your memory?”
Kay nodded.
“But when I busted you out, you were able to fly and catch me,” Avalon said. “You didn’t seem winded like Nobody.”
“You jolted him with electricity,” Nobody said. “His natural element. Like Vimp’s bite to my neck, it probably gave him a boost.”
Avalon rounded on Kay. “But it didn’t damage your memory permanently. You knew who I was at Emerged Falls.”
“I’m sorry,” he pleaded. “I couldn’t tell you without letting the Guardians know about Desert Rose. She would be in huge trouble.”
“Who cares?” Avalon asked. “She gets what she deserves. She almost killed all of us on multiple occasions.”
“But she didn’t,” Kay argued. “She wouldn’t. Not you and me anyway.”
Nobody harrumphed.
Avalon didn’t buy that theory. “What about throwing you off a cliff?”
“She wasn’t trying to hurt me,” Kay said, his tone desperate. “She saved me. She knew Bedwyr would order me killed after breaking into Saluzyme. That’s why she took me back to Llenwald. She nursed me back to health on the tundra, told me stories of my life. That’s what sparked my old memories.”
Avalon glowered. “She brought me to Llenwald too. You know what she did?” Kay flinched as Avalon put her face closer to his. “She left me at Bedwyr’s fortress. They hate humans there. She didn’t care. She got her money.” Avalon’s voice cracked and she backed away. “I barely made it out alive.”
“I… I…” Kay wrung his hands.
“How can you defend her?” Avalon shouted. “Why?”
Nobody cleared his throat. “C’mon, Avalon. You know why.”
Silence descended among them. Avalon could no longer face Kay, who refused to look anywhere but at his hands. She shook with pure rage. “You’re only here because of her, aren’t you?”
“Nay,” he said, “but—”
Avalon cut him off. “You still wish to save her, don’t you?”
Kay hesitated before replying firmly, “Aye.”
Avalon willed her tears away. She wanted to give in to the despair in her gut, that feeling that she was alone and no one cared about her. She wanted to scream, to unleash a fury of wind that would knock down the trees around them. But when she closed her eyes, all she could see was her mother, dying, on a hospital bed.
It was a time to fight.
Avalon’s heart cracked, but she did not break. She faced Kay’s pitiful expression head on. “You can come with us, but we’re not after Desert Rose.” Avalon rounded on Nobody. “Can you get me back to Earth?”
Nobody nodded. “Of course.”
“What about getting the Child out of me?”
Nobody perked up. “Bedwyr thinks the Entelegen can do it.”
Avalon staved off despair. “The Entelegen was destroyed in the fire that killed my…” She was strong, but she could not finish that sentence.
Nobody put his arm around Avalon’s shoulders. “We don’t need the original. You have the design specs back in the storage unit. We could rebuild it.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “I know a guy.”
Kay balked. “That’s your plan? Rebuild complex Earth technology with your comrades?”
Nobody glowered at Kay. “You got a better plan?”
Avalon thought about smacking her face against a tree trunk, but that seemed somewhat excessive. “It’s all we’ve got. I guess it’s better than nothing.”
“That’s the spirit!” Nobody said as she shrugged his arm off. “High five.”
“Quit fooling around, Nobody.” She ignored his upturned hand. “Let’s go. Lead the way to Earth.”
“I can’t believe how often you leave me hanging,” the gremlin muttered, but he scanned the stars in the night sky, orienting himself. “This a-way,” he sang, Vimp attaching to his shoulder as he headed into the trees.
Avalon did not acknowledge Kay as she followed the gremlin, but she could hear his footsteps, steady and sure behind her.
CHAPTER 39
NOBODY GUIDED THEM through the dense forest for the rest of the night, the moonlight providing a barely visible pathway underneath the canopy of trees. Avalon began to curse as she tripped over a tree root, then stopped, not wishing to waste further breath. She rubbed her arms for warmth, urging herself to move faster to regulate her body temperature.
Kay suggested a few hours into their march that they could fly. At that exact moment, a winged figure with a green and blue uniform zipped overhead. Covert K. They hid for half an hour, waiting for other knights to appear. Once safe again, they traveled onward, Kay never again suggesting flight.
As the sky lightened into dawn, Nobody stopped at a small pool. He washed his hands and drank from his cupped fingers.
“You better do the same,” he told Avalon and Kay. “This is the last fresh water source for a while.” The two took his advice.
By full dawn break, the woods thinned out. Moist grass gave way to a reddish clay. As the sun rose over the horizon, they broke completely free of the tree line. Up ahead, barren hills rolled with low peaks and sparse vegetation. Avalon’s arms immediately felt warmer, the air noticeably less humid.
Kay halted. “The Quawash?” he called to Nobody, who kept moving forward, Vimp snoozing in a slumped position around his neck. “You want us to go there?”
“Yep.” Nobody never broke his stride.
“Nothing lives here,” Kay
said, squinting as he shielded his eyes from the rising sun. “Kryvalen destroyed everything around Mt. Hornley.”
“Which is exactly why your buddies won’t find us there,” Nobody called cheerfully.
“This is madness.” Kay’s voice rose so he could be heard several paces away. “There is nobody who would dare tread here.”
“You got that right!” the gremlin laughed. “I travel here all the time.”
“And what will we do if we manage to make it to the other side? Eat rocks and drink putrid air?”
Nobody either pretended not to hear or was so far away he couldn’t.
Kay gave Avalon a pleading look. She shrugged. What else could she do? She chased after Nobody.
Kay grumbled but fell in line behind them.
The clay soon gave way to jagged rocks that scattered as their shoes touched the earth. The earth and sky took on a grayish tinge. A yellowish haze floated above their heads. Despite this cover, a relentless heat baked everything, causing sweat to pool at the small of Avalon’s back.
“What have you gotten us into?” Avalon huffed as the rolling slopes became so steep, they climbed instead of walked. She stopped to sit as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.
Nobody skipped around a large boulder before responding, “A shortcut.”
“To our deaths,” Kay added.
Avalon squinted at the haze. “Maybe we could fly above this. Cut back on some time.”
“Not unless you want your lungs to crust over.” Nobody maintained his disgustingly brisk pace, none the worse for wear.
“The cloud is poisonous,” Kay explained. “Formed by terrible magic that has lingered in the area for decades. We will die if it envelops us.”
“You knew about this?” Avalon asked.
Kay gave her the exact same shrug she had given him when they entered the Quawash. “I warned you.”
The steep, winding roads took their toll on Avalon, leaving her constantly out of breath and asking to rest. Nobody and Kay obliged, although neither seemed particularly winded. She would have hated them both if she had the energy.
As they traveled, she became the caboose, with Nobody still in the lead and Kay nimbly following behind. Vimp, she noted with envy, continued his nap on Nobody’s shoulder, somehow staying attached even though Nobody almost lost him a few times.
