Into the Nightfell Wood

by Kristin Bailey

  Bruised and shaken, she got to her feet. A tear slipped down Wynn’s cheek as she moved up the staircase again. She wished Flame was with her now. Flame had magic.

  Wynn stopped on the step. “Wait,” she said out loud to let her thoughts gather. She did have magic too.

  Wynn began to sing.

  “My love, my love, my changeling child,

  You braved the wind and snow

  To find me here within the gate

  And make my magic grow.

  Please stay with me, my changeling child,

  And for all time I’ll keep you.”

  They were the last words the Fairy Queen had sung to her. Wynn watched in amazement as the ice on the steps at her feet thawed as she sang the words.

  Hope flared in her heart. Singing was magic!

  Wynn sang the song as she climbed the stairs. The ice melted before her. She found herself changing the words with every turn around the great trunk. By the time she reached her old room, she sang.

  “My love, my love, my mother dear,

  I brave the wind and snow

  To find you here within the tree

  To make your magic grow.

  Please stay with me, my mother dear,

  And for all time don’t leave me.”

  She didn’t know where the words came from. She wasn’t very good at making up new words, but they were in her heart and she sang them. They were the best she could do for her fairy mother.

  Wind howled down the high hallway leading to her room and Elric’s. It seemed like a very long time since she’d been there. Wynn fell silent as she reached the bridge that she had crossed to warn Elric about the Grendel. The arching branch was covered in ice. It dripped over the branch, hanging in long icicles beneath the bridge that were as least as long as Wynn was tall. The ice reflected the stormy gray sky, and looked wet and dangerously slippery.

  Wynn’s heart leaped into her throat. A gust of wind blew past her and she clung to the doorway to keep from falling all the way down to the snow-covered courtyards below.

  Reaching her toe out onto the branch, she tested her footing. There was nothing to hold on to. She held her arms out to balance and took another step. She wanted to sing, but her throat tightened. She couldn’t say a word. She couldn’t even breathe. One step. Another. Another.

  The snowy ground was so far below, all she could see was mist beneath her. But she had to cross the bridge. On the other side was her room, and the treasure room she had found. That’s where the Fairy Queen would be. The wind blew again, and she teetered, waving her arms through the air. One foot slid, and she balanced on the other. Slowly she reached the top of the arch of the branch. Now she had to walk downhill.

  The wind blew a powerful gust that felt like a forceful shove at her back. It made her bend over to catch her balance as her stomach flipped. She sat down to save herself. She inched forward, but began to slip. She screamed as she slid on the branch, trying hard to stay on top of it. She skidded in through the other archway and landed with a crash against the wall.

  She’d made it! Shaking all over, she picked herself off and dusted the snow from her backside. She ran past Elric’s room, and then hers, and on to the room where she had seen the queen’s treasures. She entered through the carved doors. On the far side of the room was another doorway. Wynn ran to it and climbed a short flight of stairs nearly buried in snow. She shivered as she reached a round chamber. In the center was a bed.

  Curtains of frozen dew hung around it. Wynn crept forward and looked at the woman resting there. “Mother?” she called.

  Instead of the warm, dark skin that glowed with health, the woman who lay on the bed looked like she was made of ice. Her skin was clear and blue, with white veins running through the cold crystal. Her hair looked as if it were made of snow as it rested in a soft drift around her head. Wynn ran to her side. “Mother?” she cried. Wynn crawled onto the bed and lifted the Fairy Queen’s hand. It still felt like a real hand, not hard like ice, but it was very cold.

  “Mother, I’m here,” she called. “I’m safe. Don’t die.”

  Wynn’s heart would break forever if she lost her new mother now. She snuggled against the queen’s chilled body, and lay her head on the frozen queen’s heart. She could still hear it beat, but it was very weak and quiet.

  With her arms wrapped around the queen, Wynn softly sang.

  “My love, my love, my mother dear,

  I brave the wind and snow

  To find you here within the tree

  To make your magic grow.

  Please stay with me, my mother dear,

  And for all time don’t leave me.”

  She cried and her tears felt warm on her cheek. Wynn cried harder. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry I was lost. I came back. I came back to you. Don’t leave me. I love you so much.”

  Wynn felt warm all over. A golden light glowed in her chest. It grew bright, and filled the room, taking the chill from the air.

  She felt a hand touch the back of her head. Wynn looked up.

  The fairy queen looked down at her. Her skin wasn’t blue. It was still not quite the color it usually was, but it didn’t look like ice anymore. “Wynn?” the queen said. “You’re alive?”

  “Mother!” Wynn cried, and wrapped her arms tightly around the queen’s neck. Wynn laughed and cried at the same time and then began to hiccup. The queen held her and found the strength to sit up. “You are better!” Wynn cried. “I’m so glad. I love you.”

  “I love you too, my brave girl. How is this possible? Where is Elric?” she asked. “What has become of him?”

  “They saved me! Elric and Osmund saved me,” Wynn said. “They brought me back to you. The elves helped, and Flame.”

  “Who is Flame?” The queen’s eyes grew brighter as she was speaking.

  “The lost princess,” Wynn said. “I found her in the woods.”

  “What?” The queen sat up and swung her feet over the side of her bed. She placed her hands on the edge and took several deep breaths. “How can this be?”

  “Elric sent me here to get you. The Grendel is here. The shield is broken. Elric is fighting,” Wynn said.

  The queen looked out the window and gasped. Then her eyes flashed bright red. “Sidian,” she said between clenched teeth. “This ends now.”

  She took Wynn’s hand and led her into the room with all her treasures. She grasped the staff and handed it to Wynn. “Hold on to this. Don’t let it fall.”

  Wynn nodded. “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “To save my children,” the queen said, her voice a deep and resonant growl. She led Wynn to the icy bridge. The queen transformed in a swirl of silver snow.

  Wynn gasped. Her mother stood before her as an enormous white bear with flashing red eyes. She knelt down in front of Wynn, and Wynn climbed on her back. Clutching the staff in one hand, Wynn held on to the bear’s snow-white fur with the other, then the queen charged over the icy bridge and down the stairs. She crossed the empty throne room, and ran out past the courtyard.

  With a great roar she raced across the countryside to the black storm ahead.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Elric

  THE GRENDEL’S STORM GREW INTO a tower of black clouds over Elric as he tried to pull Master Elk to safety. The enormous pillar thundered, and lightning flashed within it. The bodies of monsters and fallen elves littered the battlefield as weakened fairies dragged themselves toward the sheltered grove. A stand of elves fought off a flank of monsters as they approached the trees. Elric caught a glimpse of Osmund riding one of the boars as he fought with them.

  The light surrounding Flame flickered. Shadow hissed, but still did not move forward. Flame threw a hand out toward her, warning the tigereon off. Elric heard a powerful roar. He turned to see a great white bear charging across the field, with Wynn riding on its back. She tumbled off into the grass.

  Flame faltered, and the Grendel lunged toward her. Just then Shadow leaped
up and attacked the Grendel, clawing and biting at his shoulder and arm. The Grendel threw the tigereon off him, twisted and stabbed Shadow with his black sword.

  Shadow let out a fearsome and terrifying scream.

  Flame turned around. “Shadow?” Suddenly she looked lost.

  The Grendel laughed as he came forward. Elric left Elk in the grass and ran to meet him. He had to reach Flame in time.

  “How sad,” the Grendel taunted as he towered over Shadow’s body. “The last of her kind, and now she’s dead. As you will be too.”

  “Shadow!” Flame cried. She turned away from the Grendel, exposing her back to his blade. Elric ran faster and tackled her to the ground.

  A chilling blast of ice-cold air hit them. It blew the clouds of the Grendel’s cloak back.

  The great white bear met him in a frenzy of black claws and sharp teeth.

  Wynn stood up in the grass. She held a staff with a large blue diamond on the top as she watched the ice bear do battle with the Grendel.

  The bear backed away and transformed in a burst of light and a flurry of snow.

  Elric picked up Flame. He held her hand and tried to pull her toward Elk and the grove, but she called out Shadow’s name again, and threw herself to the ground. She felt in the grass until she touched Shadow’s tail, and she wrapped herself over the wounded tigereon’s body.

  They were too close to the queen and the Grendel. It wasn’t safe here. Lightning crackled around the Grendel as the Fairy Queen’s dress swirled around her with the force of a blizzard. Elric found Flame’s sword in the grass and grabbed it. He stood on unsteady legs to protect her.

  “Sidian, my brother,” the queen said, holding her head high. “It has been a long time.”

  “That scepter belongs to me,” the Grendel growled. “And I will have it. You are weak and broken. You never learned how to become truly strong.”

  “You think what you have is strength?” she said. “You are the one who has turned into a shadow of your former self. I pity you.”

  “You won’t pity me when I control the palace, and the portals to the Otherworld are mine,” he said. “I know the crystal heart the elves gifted you has shattered. Your magic is broken.”

  Elric watched as a crowd of people slowly emerged from the wood, Lexicon and Zephyr among them. Osmund and the boar-riders halted their mounts. It seemed most of the monsters of the Grendel’s army were dead.

  Flame cried as she lay over Shadow. Elk wasn’t far away. His body had almost disappeared completely into mist. He was only moments from diminishing to the point where his consciousness would be trapped for all eternity. Behind the queen, Wynn’s head poked up out of the grass. She still held the diamond scepter. Hob perched on her shoulder.

  Everyone he cared about was here. This is where it would end. For good or ill, at least they stood together.

  The elves began to sing again. He could hear Wynn’s voice as she joined them, though she sang a completely different song. Elric sang under his breath, the prayer he had sung to the queen when he was alone and desperate in the snow, and it seemed like all was lost.

  The Grendel laughed, but his voice didn’t resonate with the storm.

  The queen glowed with a bright white light. She held out her hand, and Wynn tossed the scepter to her. She caught it and held it high. “My heart is strong,” she said. “My heart is here.”

  She raised the scepter to the sky.

  A chord of light immediately connected Wynn to the Fairy Queen. It was the same powerful magic he had witnessed when Osmund returned and healed the fractured crystal. The queen seemed stronger, and glowed brighter.

  Osmund swung off the back of the boar he rode and strode forward. A second stream of light burst from his chest and connected him to the Fairy Queen. The diamond in her scepter flashed with blinding light.

  Elric felt a wrench in his chest, but he staggered away from it.

  The queen turned to Flame, who lay over the still body of Shadow. Flame cried out as a stream of light burst from the symbol on her back, and connected directly to Wynn, then flowed through Wynn’s link and back to the queen.

  Elric felt the tug in his chest again, and he pulled away. The queen turned back to him. She glowed like the sun as she gazed upon him.

  “My son,” she whispered, “I need you.”

  Warmth, laughter, and a profound feeling of love and protectiveness poured through him. He watched as the light around the queen grew brighter. Her son. Not the extra. Not the one who was expendable. He looked at Wynn, his sister; Osmund, his mentor; and Flame, who had risked everything too because she also felt this connection.

  Family.

  Power flowed through him. He was a part of this new family. He exhaled as the cord of light burst from his chest and connected him to the queen.

  Mother. Wynn. Osmund. Flame . . . Family.

  The light connecting them flowed up the queen’s arm and into the scepter. The diamond glowed with the brightness of the sun. It reached out into a hundred threads that touched each of the fairies. Their power flowed back like a flooding river. Zephyr, Elk, they were all connected.

  The elves sang louder, and the power flared again, the glow of it raining down and touching the elves as well.

  “You will never threaten this realm again,” the queen said to the Grendel. She pointed the scepter at him, and the light shot forward, piercing the shadow that protected what remained of her brother. The Grendel seemed to shrivel before Elric’s eyes as the voices raised in song grew louder. Elric felt swept away in the stream of power, and clutched the ground as it washed through him. The clouds and shadows that formed the Grendel’s body pulled inward, sucked into the core of light that had pierced his heart. The storms above shot bolts of lightning into the ground, but they dissipated into the air without triggering the terrible thunder.

  The Grendel screamed and howled. The clouds above him whipped with wind.

  Elric thought about the love he felt for Wynn, the admiration he felt for Osmund, the strength he saw in Flame, and he gathered those feelings. The cord to his heart grew brighter and he let that love flow through the stream of magic coursing within him. This was his family. This was where he belonged. He gave the power of that love to the queen. She needed it, and for the first time he admitted to himself that he needed it too.

  The clouds above dissipated as the voices of the elves rose, their song filling with joy and hope.

  With a final cry, the Grendel became consumed by the glow of the scepter. He writhed until he became a dark mass. The queen waved the scepter and he pulled toward it. With an explosion of light and color, the darkness disappeared. The queen lowered her staff. The once clear blue diamond had turned opaque, dark, and murky; a storm of smoky malevolence trapped within a solid chunk of obsidian.

  The cords of light slowly faded, and the queen took a deep breath. She hung her head for a moment, and touched the dark stone. Elric could feel her sadness through the magic still connecting them. But then he felt a pure, bubbly wave of Wynn’s joy. The queen turned and looked back toward them. Wynn ran to her and wrapped her in a big hug. Elric dropped the sword, but he felt very weak and also relieved.

  The Grendel was gone. He was finally gone.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Elric

  OSMUND RAN OVER TO JOIN them, limping and swaying on his feet, but he laughed as he used his ax as a cane. The queen smiled at him and drew him in toward her side. Wynn hugged him, and he ruffled her hair.

  Elric turned to Flame. The sound of her sobs reached him even through the cheers of the elves. Lexi and Zephyr came over the hill. Lexi knelt beside Flame. Blood stained the tigereon’s white stripes as she lay in the grass.

  Zephyr found Elk and his hands glowed as he tried to heal their fading master.

  Elric ran up next to Lexi. “Is Shadow dead?” he asked.

  “Not yet, but it’s bad.” She rifled through a bag and pulled out a vial of liquid. She poured it into the tigereon’s wound.
The cat hissed.

  “Don’t touch her!” Flame shouted, her face streaked with tears. “Get away from her.”

  “I’m trying to help,” Lexi answered.

  The queen knelt beside her daughter and placed her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Estaria?”

  The queen blinked as she looked at the scars slashing across her daughter’s face and eyes. Her dark eyes were now speckled with the reflection of the light of a million stars. Her starlight dress made the edges of the queen’s icy skirts glow. Flame remained hunched over her tigereon, stroking the dying beast’s head.

  Flame’s tears fell as she tucked her head against Shadow’s neck. “She can’t die,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “She saved my life. She raised me. She is my only friend.”

  Wynn came forward and took the queen’s hand. “She’s a good tigereon,” Wynn said, her own face streaked with tears. She reached out and pet Shadow’s hip. Elric felt the sting of his own tears as he too stroked Shadow’s beautifully striped fur.

  “Then we must save her,” the queen said. “There is only one way.” She stepped back and transformed again into the giant white bear. Lexi motioned to the elves nearby.

  “Help us get her up,” Lexi said. Together they hoisted Shadow onto the queen’s broad back. Flame looked like she didn’t know what to do with herself, until Wynn reached out to her. Flame took her sister’s hand.

  The queen carried Shadow back to the palace on her back. Elric, Wynn, and Flame all followed. A long line of exhausted, wounded elves and fairies leaned on one another as they marched back to the safety of the palace. The queen entered the throne room, then carefully laid the tigereon on the great seal. The pieces of the shattered crystal lay around her.

  The queen transformed back into her human self, and picked a small piece of the crystal and inspected it. She brought the crystal to her heart and it glowed.

  “What is happening?” Flame whispered next to him.

  “I don’t know,” Elric said. “The queen is using her magic.”

  The queen knelt beside the tigereon. She touched the crystal shard to the beast’s chest. It glowed with the golden light. “A piece of my life. A gift freely given. Your life is now bound to mine, and mine to yours.” The queen pressed the shard of crystal to the center of Shadow’s heart. It turned into a small golden light, and sank into Shadow’s body. Shadow’s large eyes slowly opened as Elric watched the wound on her side glow with light. Slowly it healed, and the tigereon pulled her head up and purred. “Thank you,” the queen said, stroking the tigereon’s head, “for saving my daughter.”