by B. J. Smash
“Oh, she was always helping animals.”
“Did I just mention that it was dead, with maggots on its feathers?” I said. “And then she pointed at the woods, and when I turned back, she opened her hands and the bird flew out—it was alive.”
“If it flew, I suppose it would have to be alive.” He snorted.
Solstice began walking on his own accord, taking turns in the garden to wherever he wanted to go. The whole garden was still ensconced in the golden light from the sunset. I felt as though we ourselves were enchanted.
“Didn’t Ian tell you that Silvie can heal animals? She can foresee things sometimes, too. I’m betting it was some type of prediction or warning.”
“Pfft, isn’t that great?” I grumbled. That’s all I needed—a warning. I already knew my life was in jeopardy when I found out I’d be seeing my sister again. Good thing Izadora would be by my side.
Solstice led us to the rowan tree and the “path of death.” Trying to steer him away with the reins, he ignored me.
“Looks like we’re going in the forest, which means he wants to run. You up for it?” I gave him warning.
“Why not?” he said, but his voice wavered.
I hopped off and unlocked the gate, and Solstice walked out. Locking the gate, I jumped back on while Lucian leaned back.
As soon as I was back on, Solstice bolted into the golden, illuminated forest. Lucian wrapped his arms around me and clasped his hands. This was the last thing I wanted, but I suppose if he wanted to stay on, it was the only way.
The forest smelled of pine trees as we galloped at high speeds, jumping over fallen logs and running up stony paths. At one point we came to the stream on the deep part. Solstice didn’t care about wading or finding a shallow area; instead, he jumped the wide stream. No regular horse could have pulled it off, and we sailed right over, with a deep thud as his hoofs were back to land. My stomach leapt, reminding me of riding a roller coaster.
Lucian laughed hysterically, and I could feel the vibration of his laughter on my back.
“Wooooooo!” he screamed, which brought a smile to my face.
We flew by the trees so fast that they began to blur. The best way I could describe it would be to compare it to riding a four-wheeler, zipping by, but Solstice’s gallop was smooth and gliding. He either knocked down or steered clear of every branch that got in his way. He had to have eyes like a hawk.
After a time, Solstice slowed and walked to a shallow stream and drank. We were close to Izadora’s and the chicken pen. The forest was slightly darkening, and I was going to suggest we disembark for a few moments. My legs were fine, but I had to believe his were hurting from that run, and his grip had not loosened around my waist.
Before I could say anything, Niall and Drumm stepped out behind some trees, scaring the crap out of me. I had good eyes being a half Elven, but I had not seen them until now, which proved their stealthy ability to hide.
“Hello, kids.” Niall waved. He wore his hunting uniform, tight brown pants, a brown shirt, a hunter green waist-length robe, and brown moccasin-type shoes. Drumm wore the same, but he wore shorts and no shoes. He was beautiful and altogether masculine, wearing his green robe. But he did not look too happy.
“Ivy,” Drumm said, nodding his head.
“Hi, guys. Oh, this is Ian’s nephew, Lucian.”
Drumm gazed at the position of his arms, which were still wrapped around my waist. His jaw muscles tightened.
“Good to meet you,” Lucian said.
“Same,” Drumm said.
“We are just returning from scouting the edges of Merribay. Thought we’d catch some fish for Izadora.” Niall smiled up at us as he held out about twelve to fifteen trout on a stick.
“I love fishing,” Lucian stated.
“Let’s get down,” I said softly over my shoulder. Drumm’s icy stare was boring a hole through my brain.
Lucian finally but somewhat reluctantly loosened his grip and removed his arms from around my body, sliding off the horse. I followed suit, dropped the reins, and walked to the edge of the stream, observing the polished rocks in the water and watching Drumm out of the corner of my eye.
“If we have time before the Unseelie battle, maybe we can take you fishing,” Niall said.
“A battle? So cool,” Lucian said, but it was barely audible.
Drumm lifted his bow and arrow, aiming it at Lucian, and then he swiftly turned, releasing the arrow; it buzzed by Lucian and into the water, instantly killing a fish. His actions were uncalled for, and I didn’t understand.
“Here is one more for you, uncle.” He walked over, grabbed it out of the water, and handed it to Niall to stake on the stick.
“Nice one. I didn’t even see it,” Niall said. “Anyway, we must return. We will go over our game plan again tonight, and let Conri decide what’s next. We’ll talk to you two later.”
“Drumm,” I said as he walked by, “are we running tonight?”
“I can’t tonight,” was all he said. Then over his shoulder he said, “But you have fun.” He swiftly walked off, disappearing into the darkening woods with his uncle.
Chapter Seven
We didn’t intend to stop at Izadora’s, although Solstice had a mind of his own this evening, and that is where he brought us. Or so I thought, until I spoke to Izadora. GG Edmund was just walking toward his four-wheeler, his feet dragging a bit more than usual.
“There you are. I’ve been calling the horse. Monty has had some sherry—one of you drive his four-wheeler home for him,” Izadora yelled down from the balcony.
The Elven people were not too far off, just in a clearing in the woods sitting around a fire, the smoke spiraling up. They sat and were toasting something. It smelled good, although I couldn’t place what it was.
“I can drive my four-wheeler, Izadora! For crying out loud, all I had was one glass of sherry.”
“Young man,” Izadora said to Lucian, “drive my brother home, will you?”
“Sure, I don’t mind.” He slid down from the horse, while all the while Drumm watched from the tree line with his uncles.
“Thank you, lad. He’d probably hit a moose and that’d be the end of him,” Izadora said.
“This is Lucian, Ian’s nephew.” I introduced them.
“Oh yes, Ian’s mentioned him before,” Izadora said.
“All right, the boy can drive me home,” GG Edmund grunted. “Ivy, don’t stay out too long. It’s already getting late.”
“Okay, GG,” I said.
Lucian waved up to Izadora and headed toward the four-wheeler parked beyond the circle tree path.
“Ivy, stop by Ian’s before you head home. We’ll be up,” Lucian said.
“Maybe,” I said, although I probably wouldn’t.
I walked over to Drumm and stood beside him. All the Elven greeted me, and one Elven with long, blond hair let loose over his shoulders handed me a long stick.
“You’ve got your choice: roasted eggplant, bell peppers, zucchini, and pumpkin,” he said.
“I’ll take eggplant,” I said. He slid one on the end of my stick, and I held it to the blazing fire.
“Ivy, dear, I think it’s time you joined us in some routines. You need to learn a few new techniques. Stop by tomorrow morning at sunrise. This is when we will start.” This was Niall; he sat on the other side of the fire.
Drumm had already shown me some cool stuff, but I wholeheartedly agreed. “I’ll be here.” After all, I’d be headed into the heart of the Unseelie with these guys. I’m sure I’d have bodyguards, but what if I got separated from them?
The whole time I ate my roasted eggplant, Drumm ignored me. He sat on a rock by a tree, carving away at some branches.
Everyone else seemed to be in deep conversation about how they were going to approach the Unseelie, and so I walked over to Drumm.
“What are you carving?” I asked.
“Arrows, at the moment.” He paused and said, “Walk with me.”
; He put his knife in the sheath on his leg, turned, and started walking down a narrow path in the woods. The earth was cold and moist below my bare feet. A cool breeze swept by, ruffling my hair and causing me to rub my arms. Surprisingly, he put his arm around me to warm me. He wasn’t one for affection. He’d taken on quite a serious role the day his uncles arrived. The upcoming battle consumed his thoughts, I suppose.
I’d never had butterflies in my stomach before—not the way I did now. Sure, maybe I’d had a flutter or two when I liked a boy in school, but right now, around Drumm, it was more like a swarm of butterflies.
When we were out of earshot of the other elves, he said, “Ivy?”
“What?”
“I can see his aura, and it’s got pinkish hues. He likes you. Too much.”
I knew this had to be about Lucian, although he had nothing to worry about. If it wasn’t for Ian, I wouldn’t be giving him the time of day. Or would I? I had a little bit of doubt, for the fact that we had a pretty good time today. And Lucian helped my dad out. But I could have another friend—what was the problem with that?
“He’s just met me, don’t be foolish,” I scolded him.
“And so is yours.”
I paused when I realized what he meant.
“Whatever,” I said. He was trying to tell me that I had pinkish hues too? C’mon.
“I thought when we first met, you told me I had a white aura with turquoise swirls in it—and that it matched yours. Now you are telling me it’s got pinkish hues?” I mocked him.
“White with turquoise swirls is your soul color, and it matches mine. The pinkish hue is directly around your body, about an inch around it.”
“So, you are telling me you can walk around seeing the colors of everyone’s aura, all the time?”
“Not all the time. It’s a gift, but one I have to focus on most of the time—if I want to see it,” he said.
“Well, this pinkish hue crap is just that—crap,” I said.
We’d reached a small, open field with long grass. The sun had set a while ago and the sky was almost dark, but with my Elven eyes I could still see shapes, as if the moon were out all the time.
A few deer and a white spotted fawn were grazing in the field, not paying any attention to us.
“Okay, smarty-pants, tell me this: what color is my aura now?” I asked. It had to be glowing red with his arm still around me.
He stood back and concentrated, looking around my body. “It’s still pink. Maybe a bit darker than earlier.
I took a step and did something I had never done before. Boldly, I put my hands on either side of his face and kissed him right on the lips. He didn’t step back, and he didn’t pull me in, either—but he let me do it.
A thrill ran through my body like never before; I think my stomach was on fire.
Finally, I stepped back and he was smiling. As shy as he was, he had liked my kiss just as much as me.
I took in a deep breath, composing myself.
“Thank you. After this war, perhaps we will have more time to spend together,” he said with a more prominent accent than usual. If I could see his ear color, I’d bet they were red.
“I better get back now. I’ll walk you to Ian’s gate,” he said, and we stepped back on the path, detouring over to the path that led to Ian’s.
“But there is one more thing that I must tell you,” he began to say and then stopped.
“What? Tell me what?”
An owl hooted off in the distance, and the woods suddenly seemed eerie. He put his arm around me again.
“Watch out for Lucian. He may not be as sweet as you think.”
First of all, I didn’t think he was sweet. He seemed quiet and shy.
“That’s crazy—do you know how crazy you sound tonight?” My gosh, he was going to warn me about Ian’s nephew? Try to scare me away from him?
We walked in silence, listening to all the forest noises: crickets, pond frogs, and the occasional breeze rustling the treetops. When we arrived at Ian’s gate and I had opened it to step through, Drumm leaned down and kissed my cheek.
“Just be careful. Even Ian has a bad side,” he said. And then below his breath he said, “McCallister darkness.”
“McCallister what? Did you say darkness?”
“Just be careful. I don’t want to have to hurt anyone.” He turned and started walking. “See you in the morning.”
I knew there was no sense to ask him any more questions tonight. I shut the gate with a bang. I hadn’t meant to, but his words freaked me out. McCallister darkness? What in heck did he mean by that?
The lone light from the lamppost that was encased in ivy fluttered as I turned to go. Ignoring it, I walked on though the dark but fragrant paths to the big house. As I drew nearer, even from out here, I could hear shrill humming noises. And as I approached the sunroom door to Ian’s, I knew it was the skirl of bagpipes.
Making my way inside, I followed the music to a large ballroom the size of a gymnasium, where the McCallisters stood around playing the bagpipes. The windows which lined the whole wall were open, and I was surprised to find that none of them had cracked yet—although the chandelier did shake from the banging of a big drum that Hugh held to his body. Bang, bang, bang, over and over.
Lucian sat at a big table clapping his hands. Alexander and Trent held a set of bagpipes, and Ian in his wheelchair did as well, and he belted out a shrieking tune.
They all stopped when they saw me enter, laughing hysterically, as if they had any breath left from pumping it into the air valve.
“Ivy! What do you think?” Ian yelled out. I think his hearing was impaired at the moment.
“I like it.” And I truly did, as I’d always liked the bagpipes.
“What did you say?” Ian cupped his ear.
“I said, I like it!” I yelled.
“Good!”
They all played a song for me, and I knew that even though this highly decorated ballroom was huge, they should be playing outside. The very floor shook and vibrated.
I walked over to the wall to view the McCallister coat of arms and several swords and knives. I’d never been in here before. At the end of the room, there was a medieval knight dressed in armor, with a chain mail drooped over his arm. Someone had popped an unlit cigar in his mouth.
Lining the walls were benches covered with dark blue velvet, and the marble floor had to be worth more money than my father made in five years.
They stopped playing for a moment and laughed, and I knew that I had to make my escape. I still had business to attend to at home, and I hoped that Aunt Cora was still awake.
Lucian patted the seat next to him. “Stay for a while.”
“I can’t—GG Edmund told me to come home, but maybe tomorrow,” I said.
“Walk the lady home,” Hugh told Lucian.
Oh, great. Now he was going to start this chivalry stuff, and I didn’t want Lucian to walk me home.
“It’s okay, I—” I started to say.
“Nonsense. He’s walking you home,” Hugh reiterated.
“It’s not ten o’clock yet, is it?” Ian asked, looking at his watch. Everyone else checked the time too.
“Nah, he’s got plenty of time,” Alexander said. “’Tis only nine.”
Lucian hopped up, put his sweatshirt on, and I said “bye” to everyone.
In seconds, we were outside walking to Gran’s house.
When we were safely outside, I asked, “What happens at ten?”
“Ah. Well. Our TV show comes on.”
I knew that was a bold-faced lie. Ian didn’t even like to watch TV, and so I asked, “What TV show?”
“Oh, um, some show about fishing.”
Okay, so he wasn’t going to tell me. So, I changed the subject. “Old Sam must not be asleep, or you guys wouldn’t be playing the bagpipes inside.”
He punched a code into the gate, and we walked through. I knew Ian had a code for the gate at night.
“If you ever nee
d to get in, the code is seven, eight, one, four,” he told me. Then he answered my question. “Nah, Grandfather is away right now, but he’ll be back tomorrow. He and your great-grandfather Edmund are headed to Scotland tomorrow evening. Didn’t you know?”
“I heard something about it. I don’t know why, though.”
“For some meeting.”
We reached the driveway to Gran’s house, and I told him I’d be fine the rest of the way.
“All right, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” And he watched me anyway, until I reached the front door.
Great, so Ian did expect me to entertain Lucian tomorrow—and probably every day until I left for “battle.” I walked inside without turning back. Then I ran upstairs and peeked out the bathroom window. He was still standing there. What a weirdo.
***
While Aunt Cora was in her bathroom putting on a mud mask, I snuck in her bedroom, lifted one of her many big, fluffy pillows, and was about to place the love knot inside, when I spotted something underneath the pillow. A romance novel and…a diary. Now as I have said in the past, I am not one to pry in people’s affairs. That hadn’t really changed much. What I was about to do now was necessary, wasn’t it? At least that’s what I told myself, to justify what I was doing.
Something about that diary called out to me, and just as I was about to pick it up, I heard the doorknob jiggle in my aunt’s adjoining bathroom. I quickly placed the love knot in the pillowcase, fluffed up the pillow to the way it had been amongst the others, and attempted to leave her bedroom when she opened the door and saw me. I’d been caught, and so I sat on the end of the bed to make her believe that I had just arrived.
“Oh!” Aunt Cora said as she realigned the towel on her head. “Can I help you with something, Ivy?” She wore a white robe, and the mud mask on her pretty face was a deep blue. She looked like a Smurf.
I thought quickly, trying to come up with an excuse. The first thing that came to mind was blurted out of my mouth.
“Well…I, um…have something to tell you.”
“Okay, what’s up?” she said nicely as she went about tidying a few perfume bottles on her dresser.
