I was tapping a foot in time with the music, enjoying the entertainment when I felt it – the strange surge inside me. The same feeling I’d had that morning.
‘Let’s go see what else is happening in London.’ Aethan started to turn away from the dancers.
‘Wait.’ I grabbed his hand. ‘Something is wrong.’ The feeling grew. I stared at the dancers, trying to pinpoint its cause.
‘What is it?’ Wilfred and Aethan stared at the dancers as well.
‘I’m not sure,’ I said. ‘I think it’s one of the dancers.’
Wilfred and Aethan exchanged a look. ‘We’re going to have to go in for a closer look,’ Wilfred said, ‘and I can’t dance.’
‘We can’t go in there like this.’ I gestured at my jeans and shirt.
‘You know how we said we can change Trillania with a thought?’ Aethan’s clothes changed from leather and fur to a navy-blue brocade vest over a white silk shirt. Black pants completed the outfit.
I closed my eyes and visualised one of the dresses I had been admiring on a ravishing redhead. Wilfred let out a low wolf-whistle and when I opened my eyes I was wearing an exact replica of the dress. The neckline plunged far deeper than I had expected.
‘Very good,’ Aethan said. I wasn’t sure if he was referring to my changing my clothes or to my choice of clothes. He held a hand out to me, and, when I placed my hand upon it, swept me into his arms and onto the floor.
Cocooned in his arms I felt like a precious object as he spun me and dipped me, and for one brief moment I forgot our reason for being there. For that second I was just a woman and he just a man, enjoying the feel of our bodies moving together and of skin touching skin.
The power surged inside me, pulling my attention back to the present. Someone was here with evil intent, and I had to find them.
Aethan wove us skilfully through the dance floor and we quickly made a complete circuit, coming back to the edge near Wilfred.
‘See anything?’ he asked.
I was about to say no, but suddenly, just like that morning, I could pinpoint where the pressure wanted me to go.
‘That way.’ I nodded my head to where the feeling was strongest, and started to drag Aethan towards it. We immediately collided with an older man escorting a pretty, young, blonde woman.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ The man asked, his face screwed up in anger.
As soon as they stopped dancing, another couple collided with them. It only took a moment for the previously well-ordered dance floor to become chaotic. Angry voices could be heard from all areas and previously happy dreamers turned to stare at Aethan and me.
At the far side of the gathering a tall man stood by himself. He met my eyes and his face took on a mocking look as he shimmered and changed. The svelte, blonde man was replaced by a goblin. He lifted a hand in farewell and faded from view.
Wilfred pulled my attention back to the dreamers. ‘Uh oh,’ he said. ‘Do something before…’
‘Things get ugly,’ I said, as the man in front of me brandished a knife.
‘Kiss her,’ Wilfred hissed.
‘What?’ Who did he want me to kiss? The blonde?
The crowd surged towards us, furious at our interference. Things were definitely getting ugly.
‘For Sky’s sake Aethan, kiss her.’
I turned to look at Wilfred, but Aethan clasped my face with his hands and lowered his mouth to mine. For a second I struggled against him. I mean what was he thinking? We were about to get attacked. But that concern only lasted for a second. Then I totally forgot about the crowd.
I forgot about the goblin.
I forgot where we were.
I forgot what we were meant to be doing.
The feel of him, the smell of him, consumed me.
One of his hands left my face, snaking around my waist and pulling me in tight. The pressure on my mouth became harder, more urgent, and I returned it with pleasure. It wasn’t nearly enough. Feelings I had never experienced before zinged through my body. I wanted more of him, needed more of him; needed to feel his skin, needed to feel his body. I wanted to roll in him, drown in him, swallow him whole.
It took a while for Wilfred’s voice to penetrate the fog of my mind.
‘Guys,’ he hissed. ‘You can stop now.’
Stop? I didn’t want to stop. I’d only just started.
Aethan released his hold on me and stepped back. Panting slightly he stared into my eyes. ‘That was… interesting,’ he murmured.
Interesting? Amazing, awesome, breathtaking – those were the words that sprung to my mind when I thought about that kiss, not interesting.
I took a deep breath and tore my gaze from his. The dreamers had returned to their dancing. ‘What happened?’
‘By being more interested in each other we were no longer directly influencing their dream.’
I could feel a wide grin split my face. ‘So do you two,’ I pointed my finger between them, ‘use that ploy often?’
‘Ha ha,’ Wilfred said, ruffling up my hair the most annoying way possible. ‘You going to wear that dress all night?’
With a start I realised Aethan had returned to his former clothing. I felt a blush start on my cheeks as I followed his example.
‘Can you still feel it?’ Aethan asked.
He really wasn’t helping with my blushing problem. Of course I could still feel it. That kiss wasn’t something I was going to stop feeling for a very long time.
‘Which way did it go?’ Wilfred asked.
And that was when I realised they were asking about my previous feeling, not the kiss.
‘Oh right.’ Just call me volcano-face and be done with it. ‘I haven’t felt it since… I mean I couldn’t feel it once…’ Wilfred chuckled and I sighed and mumbled, ‘He’s gone.’
Aethan nodded his head and then said, ‘I’d like to show you our homeland.’
He took one of my hands, while Wilfred took the other, the world shimmered again and this time I was staring at a wooded wonderland.
Everywhere I looked, little lights floated through the trees, giving off a soft, luminous glow. Aethan held his hand out and a light drifted over to him and rested on one of his fingers.
‘What is it?’ I asked, moving in to get a closer look.
‘It’s a faery.’
‘But it’s so small.’
‘There are many different varieties of faeries. This is a garden faery. We are land faeries.’
‘Is it really here?’
‘It is dreaming.’ He lifted his hand higher and the faery floated off, continuing its leisurely dance through the trees.
We followed after it, winding our way down through the forest.
‘What other sorts of faeries are there?’ There was so much I didn’t know.
‘Sprites,’ Aethan replied.
Wilfred let out a snort. ‘Don’t let one of them get close. They bite.’
Aethan nodded his head. ‘Sprites are mischievous. In contrast, pixies are friendly. And of course we can’t forget the night faeries.’
‘I’ve never heard of night faeries,’ I said.
‘They are the dark side of our light, the night to our day.’
The trees thinned around us and we stepped out onto a field. In the distance, a building soared above us. Not that the word ‘building’ really did it justice. It reminded me of a whimsically-iced cake; turrets and stone lacework hanging from every possible position. The windows were filled with light, and music tinkled towards us on the breeze.
‘It’s beautiful.’
‘Isilvitania Castle,’ Aethan said. ‘Although you know it as Eynsford Castle.’
‘Eynsford Castle?’ Eynsford Castle was a dilapidated ruin in the centre of the village. ‘But how can that be?’
‘Our land is a copy of your land.’
‘I don’t understand,’ I said.
‘Hmmm, how best to explain it?’ He paused for a minute while he thought. ‘Imagine laying a piece of tracing paper over a
map and copying that image onto the paper. Our land is like that. It is there, but totally separate at the same time.’
I tried to get my head around it. ‘So, it’s like your land is floating above ours?’ I finally said.
‘Not floating. They co-exist, parted by the veils.’
‘So then Trillania?’
‘Trillania is like a traced copy of both of those lands, but everyplace is everywhere, accessible by mere thought.’
Now I was really confused. ‘But…’
The power pulsed through me again, pulling me towards the castle. ‘Come on,’ I yelled, running towards it.
Aethan grabbed my hand and suddenly we were at the entrance. I raced through the door and up a flight of stairs, climbing until I could go no further. I turned left and ran down the hallway and suddenly, I could hear fighting.
‘The Royal Apartments,’ Aethan said, racing past me. He threw the door open to reveal half a dozen goblins fighting two Border Guards and a faery wearing pyjamas.
‘Father,’ Aethan cried, pulling a sword out of the air. He slashed at the head of one of the goblins attacking King Arwyn. Headless, the goblin fell to the ground and then shimmered from view.
Wilfred engaged another goblin and there was no room for me to join the fight. If I tried, I was as likely to hurt an ally as an enemy. But that didn’t stop the pressure from growing, from demanding that I do something, anything but stand there and watch.
My skin felt stretched tight, breathing was difficult, stars started to twirl in front of my eyes as I struggled to hold onto the power. In pure desperation, terrified of what might happen – it felt entirely possible that this time I might be the one to explode – I threw my arms out to the sides.
Stone roared as it exploded outwards, leaving two massive holes where the side walls of the room had been. The fighters seemed oblivious to the damage as chunks of ceiling fell into the holes.
Uh Oh.
‘Ah Aethan.’ How best to get his attention without getting him killed? I waited while he ducked a sword swing and thrust upwards with his. He skewered the goblin through the chest and then kicked it off his blade.
‘Aethan.’ I raised my voice as the ceiling started to creak.
He spun towards me and I grimaced and pointed at the holes.
He gaped at the wreckage and then looked up at the ceiling. It was rippling slowly. ‘We have to get out of here,’ he yelled. He lunged for his father, grabbing onto him with a hand and fading from view. The two other Guards flickered out of sight straight after them. The four goblins still standing turned their attention to Wilfred and me.
‘Time to go.’ Wilfred reached out and took my hand.
I heard a roar as the ceiling started to cave in, and then we were standing in Trillania where we had crossed over. The next second I was staring at the ceiling in the sleep room. Scruffy was still guarding my bed and Brad, Jared, and Isgranelda had already been replaced by other students.
‘I’m assuming that wasn’t a pleasure jaunt,’ Rako said, looking at his watch. We had missed our ninety minute curfew.
‘Goblins attacked the Faery Royal suite.’ Aethan climbed off his bed.
‘They are safe?’
‘Only father was there.’
Rako shook his head. ‘More and more the attacks seem to be centred on Isilvitania. What is she up to?’
‘What is who up to?’ I whispered to Wilfred.
‘Galanta, their Queen.’
‘I want to be fully briefed on this later.’ Rako clapped his hands together. ‘All right you lot. Everybody take a dream-catcher and go get some sleep.’
‘Ah Wilfred,’ I said, ‘did I just blow holes in the real castle?’
He laughed and shook his head. ‘What’s in Trillania is a representation of the real world, not the other way around.’ He handed me a shield made of the same materials as the dream-walker armbands.
‘What’s this?’
‘Hang it on your bed. It will stop you entering Trillania when you sleep. Especially important for you. We don’t want you dream-walking unsupervised.’
I weighed it in my hand. ‘Why don’t we give these to the public? Or at least important targets?’
‘They only work if you have used one of the armbands.’
I was too wound up to sleep when I got back to the room, and, if I were entirely truthful, a little worried about sleeping in a room full of people. I hung the dream-catcher on the end of my bed and took Scruffy’s brush out. Much to his disgust, I gave him a thorough grooming. He looked just as bad when I finished as he had when I had begun, but the calming sensation of running the brush through his hair had soothed my frantic mind.
I turned off my little light, tucked Scruffy into my side, and closed my eyes. Much to my surprise I was soon fast asleep, not waking until the morning.
10
Isadora And The Three Buffos
‘Hey sleepy head.’ The voice and a hand on my shoulder woke me. Jared stood looking down at me, an amused expression on his face. His lips were bright red. ‘You really need to look in a mirror.’
I needed to look in a mirror? The man was wearing make-up.
I clawed my way up out of bed and searched through my top drawer till I found my communication mirror. Somebody, and I had my suspicions on whom that somebody might be, had drawn a moustache on my face. It was long and black and curled at the edges.
‘How,’ I asked, ‘am I going to get this off my face?’
‘You can’t.’ He pointed at his lips.
I stifled a giggle. ‘I thought you were wearing lipstick.’
‘I wish.’
I looked at Scruffy. ‘Call yourself a guard dog?’ He stretched out fully into my half of the bed, totally unconcerned by our new facial features.
I pulled open my drawers and took out a shirt.
Jared put a hand on my arm. ‘Uniform from today,’ he said. ‘You’ll find it hanging in your wardrobe.’
I opened my wardrobe to find a variety of clothing hanging there: black tank tops, t-shirts and leather pants; and black boots that laced to the knee. Two pairs of charcoal and black camouflage-print pants, a couple of fur vests and a black, long-sleeved shirt made from the softest leather, completed my uniform. I grabbed a black tank top and a pair of the camouflage pants.
‘Wait for me,’ I said, heading for the bathroom. ‘I’ll only be a few minutes.’ There was no way I was going to breakfast by myself with this thing on my face.
I threw some water over my cheeks, scrubbing at my moustache for a few seconds before ascertaining that Jared was correct – it wasn’t coming off the easy way.
Giving up, I pulled my hair back into a long braid and climbed into my uniform. I often had trouble finding pants long enough for me, so I was pleased to find that the clothing fit perfectly. I pulled on the boots and laced them up hastily.
Jared was sitting on the edge of his bed waiting for me. Scruffy was on one side of him and Tinka on the other. Both his hands were busy scratching behind their ears.
‘How do I look?’ I pointed at my face.
‘Ridiculous, but you’ll do.’
There was the expected amount of sniggering when we entered the mess for breakfast. I kept my eyes to the front and tried to ignore it. Isgranelda and Brad were sitting at a bench together, broad grins on their faces. Jared and I helped ourselves to food and sat at the far end of the hall from them.
I wanted to talk about Trillania, but some of the first years were sitting at the end of our table within hearing. So instead, I concentrated on my food.
‘Isadora Scrumpleton?’ I looked up from my porridge to find a Border Guard I hadn’t met before standing in front of me. ‘Rako would like to see you in his office when you are finished breakfast.’
I pulled a face at Jared and stood up. ‘Better get it over and done with.’
Rako was sitting at his desk studying a pile of paperwork. He looked up when I knocked on the open door, seeming pleased to have an excuse
to put his paperwork aside
‘Have a seat.’ He gestured at the stool on the opposite side of his desk and then looked at me with a puzzled expression on his face, but he didn’t mention my moustache. ‘Just trying to finish your paperwork,’ he said, pointing at the pile he had been perusing when I entered.
‘That’s my paperwork?’
‘We’ve been collating information on you for years. True dream-walkers are very rare. Especially ones as powerful as you seem to be.’
I had already guessed from Aethan and Wilfred, and also from what I had seen in my mind, that I had been active in Trillania for years. What I hadn’t guessed was that the Border Guards had been collating information on me that whole time.
‘I’m not a very good dream-walker,’ I said. ‘I mean the only time I can remember being in Trillania is last night.’
‘I spoke to Wolfgang after his session with you. He has no doubt that once your witch and faery sides become cohesive you will remember.’
I looked at the pile of papers. ‘What more do you need from me?’
‘Actually it’s something quite simple. I just need your next-of-kin details and a photo if you have one.’
I dug around in my pocket for my wallet. I had a photo in there of Mum and Grams that would do. It was an exact replica of one I had in a frame beside my bed. I gave Rako the photo, and Mum and Grams’ details.
He placed a blank piece of paper on the table next to the photo and then ran his wand over the photo. An exact replica of it appeared on the sheet of paper.
‘Neat,’ I said.
‘A talent peculiar to my family.’ He handed me back the photo. I noticed a mouse peeping out of the top of his shirt pocket as he sat back in his chair and put his arms behind his head. ‘Aethan and Wilfred told me what you did last night. The talents you are showing will be immensely useful. They will also mean that you, and whoever you are with, are more likely to be engaged by the enemy. This puts you in more danger than any other student. As such, I expect you to train harder than any other student.’
I managed to suppress a surge of panic. That was exactly what I was here for, to fight, to protect. And if I were able to do that more effectively than any other, then so be it if that put me in danger. What was the alternative? To walk away knowing that I could help? That was no longer an option.
Faery Born (Book One in the War Faery Trilogy) Page 12
