Into the Nightfell Wood

by Kristin Bailey

  A long millipede slowly snaked across the floor in front of them. Wynn liked to think of the elves as invisible friends. They must have very good ideas. She liked their inventions. Wynn carefully stepped over the crawling creature.

  Lexi continued. “When I heard about the library in the old stone city, I had to find it. I had to save the books so they wouldn’t be lost forever. There’s a dark witch who lives in the ruins. She burns things with evil fire spells.”

  Wynn ducked under a spiderweb, and paused as they reached a flight of stairs. She wanted to say something but couldn’t. Her thoughts were moving very fast, but wouldn’t connect together.

  Wynn didn’t think that was right. Flame didn’t seem interested in elf things. She liked to be alone, that was all. But she could start fire. Wynn started to speak as Lexi put a foot on the stair. The old wood creaked. “Be careful up the stairs,” she whispered. “We’re almost there.”

  Wynn held on to the half-rotted rail and forgot what she was going to say.

  Lexi stopped on the step and Wynn almost ran into her. She spun around and closed her eyes as she balled her fists. “Three weeks ago I snuck out of the village so I could rescue the books from the burning witch.” Her words came out in a rush. “It was dangerous and stupid. My brother followed me. He was trying to protect me. A reaper found us. My brother sacrificed himself so I could run.” She placed her hands over her mouth and began to cry.

  Wynn put her hands over her mouth too. That was terrible. That was something Elric would do. She remembered the night he had been beaten by the men who had tried to throw her in the pigpen. He saved her. He gave her a chance to run.

  “I’m so sorry he’s hurt,” Lexi said. “Father chased down the reaper, but it was too late. We couldn’t stop him, and he took my brother to the Grendel. When the Grendel was finished with him, he left my brother at the gate. He was alive, but barely. Father said it was a warning. Now everyone is afraid.”

  Lexi reached a door at the top of the stair and slowly opened it. She peeked through it with her lantern and motioned for Wynn to follow. They crossed a dark hall and entered another room, much like the one Wynn was supposed to be in.

  “When we found Codex, he looked like this,” Lexi motioned to a bed in the corner.

  At first Wynn didn’t see anything on the bed. The flickering light of the lamp didn’t reveal anything, and the shadow of the top of the bed was perfectly flat.

  Then she saw him. A young elf lay still on the bed, but Wynn could see right through him. He looked like he was made of smoke, thin and gray. Lexi put her lantern down and sat on the edge of the bed. She lifted the nearly invisible hand and held it in her own. “We know how to heal bodies. We’re very good at it. His body is fine, but he is slowly disappearing. It’s like his spirit is gone. This magic is beyond us. We don’t know how to save him.”

  Wynn came forward. She could barely see the different markings on the boy’s skin. His face looked much thinner than his sister’s. His eyes were closed, but she could see his chest slowly rise and fall.

  Lexi turned tear-filled eyes to Wynn. “I need fairy magic. I have to save him.”

  Wynn wrinkled her brow and thought hard. She couldn’t make plants grow. But that magic wouldn’t help anyway. She couldn’t change into an animal. That fairy magic also wouldn’t help. How could she help?

  “My brother was hurt,” she said, remembering how scary that night was. It was dark. Elric was dirty and bleeding. “He wouldn’t wake up.”

  Lexi looked up at her, her golden eyes bright and filled with hope.

  Wynn thought hard to remember, to pull the right thoughts forward. “I made him clean.”

  “Dex is already clean,” Lexi interrupted.

  Wynn was used to people not waiting for all of her thoughts. She ignored Lexi’s interruption but she had to find the words in her mind again, and that was frustrating. “I put honey on his bleeding.”

  “What is honey?” Lexi asked. Her nose scrunched up. “Is it magic?”

  Wynn shook her head.

  Lexi huffed and looked frustrated. “That won’t do any good, either. Codex isn’t bleeding anywhere.” She ran a hand over her smooth head. “I need something magical.”

  “And I sang,” Wynn said, finally finishing her thought.

  Lexi stared at her, her long ears twitching. “What is sang?”

  Wynn wasn’t sure she understood the question. “Music.”

  Lexi looked very confused. “I have never heard of this thing. Is it magic?”

  Wynn remembered what the Fairy Queen had said in her room of secret things. She nodded. “It is magic. It helped lead me here. It opened the Silver Gate. The queen said it was strong magic.”

  Lexi’s eyes went wide. She reached forward and gripped Wynn on her forearm. “You have to teach me. Please. I’ll do whatever it takes.” Something clattered in a different room. Lexi jumped to her feet. “Only not here. We have to go back. If Father catches me with you, he’ll feed me to the pigs.”

  That would be a terrible thing for him to do. Wynn understood about angry fathers, so she jumped up and followed Lexi out of the room. She paused at the door to give one last look at Codex, then slowly shut him in the darkness. Together they crept down the stairs. “You need windows,” Wynn said. She didn’t like the dark.

  “Windows let in stinging bugs and creatures the Grendel uses to torment us. The closed rooms keep us safe,” Lexi whispered as they wove through the old crates and sacks. “In the old city we had glass windows, but we don’t have the right sands to make glass here. We can’t risk traveling to the crystal desert anymore. Give me your foot. I’ll hold on to you as you go up, so you don’t fall again.”

  Wynn stepped up on Lexi’s machine, and felt the other girl’s hands on her ankles. Before she knew it, she rose up through the hole. She flopped her upper body onto the planks, and dragged her feet up after her. The room was completely dark. It didn’t feel safe. In Wynn’s opinion, all of the woods needed more light.

  Lexi rode up on the machine until she appeared through the hole. The light from her lantern filled the room. Mildred looked like a black ball of fluff on the corner of the bed, and the world didn’t seem so scary anymore. Lexi crossed her legs under her robes and leaned forward. “So how do you make this sang?”

  Wynn laughed. That didn’t sound right. “You sing,” she said. “Like this.” She quietly began to sing the song of the Silver Gate as best she could. She didn’t want Lexi to be in trouble. Lexi listened without moving. Her amber eyes glowed as she listened. Wynn finished a verse and said, “You try.”

  “How do you make your voice do that?” Lexi said.

  “You do it,” Wynn said. “You sing.” She patted Lexi on the knee several times, because she was excited and couldn’t help herself.

  Lexi tried. She let out a rough sound, then another just like it. “That’s not right,” she said. “Elves can’t do this. We don’t have magic.”

  “You can do this.” Wynn knew she could. She patted her friend on the knee again. “You try.”

  Lexi let out a sound. It was much better. It didn’t sound so much like a frog. Wynn clapped. “Go up.” She sang a higher note to demonstrate. Lexi followed, and Wynn clapped again. “Now go down.” Again Lexi followed. It wasn’t exactly right, but it was different than the first sound, and that was all that mattered. Wynn clapped harder. “You’re doing it!”

  Lexi stopped. “How do you know when to go up, and when to go down? What words do you sing?” she asked. “Do you have to get the spell exactly right for it to work?”

  Wynn thought about it. It was a hard thing to think about. She didn’t know how she knew what to do. She just sang. Lexi waited patiently for her to answer this time. “You know. You find the right things. Those are the best songs.”

  Wynn listened to what was in her heart and sang.

  “Lexi is my friend.

  She brought me my hen.

  And she has a light

 
When it is the night.”

  Lexi clapped her hands over her mouth and giggled. She tapped Wynn on the knee this time. “Let me try.”

  “I like my friend Wynn.

  She has a pretty grin.

  And a shiny dress

  That is such a mess.”

  Lexi smiled the biggest, most beautiful smile. The light in the lantern glowed brighter. “How was that?”

  “That was amazing.” Wynn threw her body forward and hugged her new friend. “I knew you could do it.”

  The two girls sang into the deep of night. Wynn taught her all the songs she knew and together they made up more of their own. Finally Lexi had to leave. She picked up Mildred to take her back to her cage, promising Wynn she would take very good care of her. Wynn hugged the elf, and waved good-bye before helping Lexi place the planks back down in the floor.

  Wynn cuddled by herself on the bed. This time she wasn’t frightened. She sang the tune she had made with Lexi under her breath, and the room didn’t seem so dark anymore.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Elric

  ELRIC HAD A HARD TIME falling asleep in spite of his exhaustion, then woke early when a gust of wind shook the branch beneath him. He watched the clouds on the horizon as they billowed upward into enormous thunderheads that flashed lightning from peak to peak. The reaper in the forest had stopped howling, but that only made Elric more wary. Even though the howl seemed to fill the woods, it had given Elric a sense of where the reaper was. Now that the monster was silent, he felt like he was being stalked.

  Eventually the sun rose, lighting the tops of the trees. From high in the canopy, the light spilling over the forest gave him hope. Not far off he could see old stone towers crumbling into ruin as thick vines and trees grew over and around them.

  Osmund let out a sudden loud snore, and Elric almost fell off his branch. It took a full minute for his heart to stop racing. Using his foot, he nudged Osmund awake.

  He snorted, and blinked open his eyes. “Wait, what?” he grumbled. “Stubborn goat.”

  “Osmund, wake up!” Elric gave him a second gentle kick. “It’s morning.”

  Osmund sat up and let go of the tree to rub his eyes. The sight made Elric’s stomach do a little flip as he clung to the branches tighter. Osmund stretched and looked around.

  “Any sign of the reaper we heard last night?” Osmund asked.

  “Nothing.” Elric peered down into the tree, but the ground below them still looked dark and forbidding. “But I doubt he has moved on. We have to be careful. Do you know what those ruins are?” he asked.

  “Those are the remains of the great elf city, Merit. After the Grendel destroyed it, the remaining elves ran off into the woods. I don’t know where they are now.” Osmund started climbing down the tree. “And trust me, we don’t want to find out.”

  “But those ruins could be a good place to hide. There has to be shelter there,” Elric said. “Do you think Wynn might have found them the way you did?”

  Osmund held up one finger, and crinkled his brow in a serious manner. “First rule of the forest: If there is a hole, something will fill it. Those ruins are probably crawling with dangerous darkling creatures and elves who are thinking exactly the same thing.” Osmund swung onto a lower branch, and Elric inched down after him. “When Wynn was lost in the woods near my house, she insisted on staying in one spot. She said her mother told her to do it. I had a hard time convincing her to come with me back to my hut. If Wynn escaped the reaper, she’s likely hiding in place behind a tree nearby, the way she did before.”

  Elric nodded. “That makes sense, and if it’s true, that means she is close.” They hadn’t wandered far from the dead reaper before they lost their light and had to climb the tree.

  “Don’t worry,” Osmund said. “We’ll find her.”

  “She’s been in these woods for two full nights.” Elric carefully lowered himself to the lowest branch, then swung down to the ground. “How could she possibly survive out here that long?”

  Osmund placed his hand on Elric’s forearm and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t give up. The darkness of these woods can steal your hope. But hope is the best weapon we have here. You don’t really believe she is gone, do you?”

  Elric closed his eyes and just let himself feel. Beneath the fear, and the twisting worry that stole his will to eat, there was still light and life in his heart. “She has to be alive,” he said. “I believe it.”

  A warm feeling swelled in his heart. He had to find her. He opened his eyes. “This way.”

  For hours, they cut through the brush searching for any clue that Wynn, or any other living thing was nearby. The palms of Elric’s hands burned with ripped-open blisters from pulling on vines and dead branches. His neck and shoulders ached so badly he hunched his back as he walked.

  Elric wiped a hand over his exhausted eyes, and did his best to maintain his spirits, but it was difficult. It was as if the air of the wood itself had the ability to press all the good feelings from his heart, and steal them from his mind. He became cold inside, and focused on his task, which was useful in the moment. He could feel the storm in the air. The dry crackle of electricity had the hairs on the back of his hands standing up, as unpredictable gusts of wind made the forest sound alive.

  “Elric,” Osmund shouted from a thicket nearby. “Over here.” By the tone of his voice, Elric knew he didn’t want to see whatever Osmund had to show him. Still he hurried to his side. Osmund pointed down at a soft patch of dirt with the head of his ax.

  It was only a partial print, but it was enough. There was no mistaking the enormous claw marks. It was the reaper, and the print was fresh. It broke a thin layer of dry mud into flakes around the edges of the imprint, unlike the tracks they had found from the slain beast. They had been made in wetter clay and the impressions in the mud looked smooth. The reaper that made this track had to be the one they had heard during the night, and it was very close.

  Elric swallowed a lump of fear as it formed in his throat. He looked ahead and found another partial print, and another. They pattern was loose and erratic. “This one is searching,” he reasoned. He could picture it with its long snout to the ground, wandering back and forth across the narrow trail looking for a scent.

  Osmund nodded. “For Wynn.” He gripped the handle of his ax. “Or us.”

  Elric looked at the direction the prints were pointing. “I think we should follow it.”

  “Have you lost your mind?” Osmund said with a dumbstruck look on his face.

  “What if it’s getting closer to Wynn?” Elric crept down the path.

  Osmund caught the hem of his tunic and pulled him back. “What if it’s getting closer to us?”

  “Then I would rather have it in front of us, than behind,” Elric said. “Come on. We’ll be cautious. Keep your ax ready.” Elric drew his sword.

  There was a stillness in the air. The woods had been humming softly with the sound of insects, but now it was unnaturally silent. It was as if the woods held its breath.

  They found a path, wide and unusually straight, but it only seemed to be used by wild pigs. Their tracks were everywhere, following in lines. There must be a lot of boars roaming in bands in the woods. Elric wished he were a better hunter. He was beginning to get hungry. But by the size of the tracks, the beasts were larger than the ones in the Otherworld. And a wild boar could be more dangerous than a wolf when confronted. It was probably best to avoid them, as well. The pig tracks diverted onto a branching path that swung around a large boulder.

  Elric pressed on through a patch of thick fallen leaves. The ground felt strangely springy under his feet.

  “Elric!” Osmund’s sharp call sounded like the crack of a whip. “Don’t move.”

  He froze, his sword at the ready. “What is it?” Elric’s heart picked up, and he did his best to breathe like Master Elk had taught him and steady his hands. He had a sinking feeling, and thought he heard the brittle sound of a twig breaking. That was odd.
/>   “Turn around. Place your feet very lightly,” Osmund said in a calm voice, his hands outstretched as if he were balancing on something treacherous. “Don’t make any sudden moves.”

  Elric placed his foot, and this time he definitely felt the ground sway underneath him. To his right, he noticed a peculiar twisted vine pulled taut between the ground and the thick branch of a tree above them. That twist didn’t happen naturally; it was a rope. He traced the rope up over the branch to a cluster of leaves above him hiding a large bell.

  A trap. And he was standing on it.

  With a racing heart, Elric sheathed his sword and held his hands out wide for balance. He dug his feet under the leaves and felt a woven lattice of branches tied together with lumpy knots. The entire thing felt as if it would break at any moment. He stepped on the knots, hoping that they reinforced the strength of the branches at the joints. Every time he shifted his weight, the entire contraption shook under his feet, and the bell above him swayed even though it didn’t ring just yet.

  “Grab my hands!” Osmund said as he leaned forward as far as he could. Elric couldn’t do it. If the trap did give way, he didn’t want to pull Osmund in with him. He needed another plan. Stepping carefully to the edge of the scattered leaves, he used all his strength to leap as far as he could, landing with a thud on the path beside Osmund. His heart was still pounding, but he took a deep breath to calm his nerves.

  “That was close,” Osmund said as he helped Elric up. “This is elf handiwork. I have no doubt.”

  “From now on,” Elric said, “we follow the pig tracks. They seem to recognize these things, and we’ll avoid large patches of leaves.”