by Kailin Gow
But she had to focus. Rose sighed and snapped herself out of her reverie. Now was no time to worry about romance. She had to get Alistair out there safely. She continued reading the book, her eyes scanning the pages.
“I think I've got something...” Rose shouted. The others gathered around quickly to hear.
“The Ancient Mount is the seat of great power. It is the home of two kinds of magic – the greatest light and the greatest darkness.”
“The greatest light!” Rodney shouted. “The suns of Feyland – remember that mountain where Brian climbed to save Kian, the seat of Fey immortality? Well, one of the suns of Feyland was there...”
“I remember,” said Logan. “Breena told me all about it. She was able to actually go up and touch the sun!”
“And the greatest darkness,” cried Rose excitedly. “That must mean – the Sorceress. Her home must be on that mountain – we'll have to go there if we want to find her. And if we defeat her, maybe we'll be able to...” She looked over at Rodney and her heart sank. “I mean, once we break her power, maybe all the bad things that have been happening to Feyland will go right again. Maybe then...” She sighed. “We have to try,” she decided. “Logan, do you know the way? Do you know how to get to the mountain?”
“I think so,” said Logan. “Breena told me all about her journey to the kingdom of the Dead. She showed me everywhere she went on the map, just in case – I memorized every street, every mountain, every path, every wood...”
“Well done, Logan,” said Rodney, and Logan smiled sadly. “If we find the source of the suns of Feyland, we might also find the Sorceress. It won't be an easy road, but it's the best chance we've got.”
“Then we're decided,” said Shasta. “Only...what do we do with Alistair?”
The group looked over at Alistair. He was a slender boy, but he still weighed more than any of them could comfortably carry, horses or no.
“We'll take him along, of course,” said Rose. But the others looked at her uncomfortably, and the silence in the room seemed to signal their refusal. “You're not suggesting...we can't just leave him here! He could get killed – some bandits could find him and try to rob him, or worse! And without us producing heat, he'll freeze to death in no time!”
“I'm not saying leave him,” said Shasta. “But there's got to be someone in this village who'd be willing to look after him if we paid. This isn't a rich part of Feyland – money talks. If we paid for his upkeep...”
“The tavern turned out to be infested with the Dark Forces,” Rose snapped, “who's to say some nice peasant woman won't turn out to be the Sorceress in disguise? This place isn't safe – we can't trust anyone here. And Alistair's too important to be risked in that way.”
“But what are we supposed to do with him?” Shasta responded. “He can't walk or ride in this state, and he'll only slow down our journey. And every second that we spend wasting time before we get to restore the suns means another second that people are dying back in Feyland – are you really willing to sacrifice all their lives in order to try to save this one? The more time we waste – hundreds of fairies are dying of sickness and starvation every instant! And the Sorceress is only getting stronger.”
“But Alistair has powerful magic,” cried Rose. “You know it – he's one of the best alchemists in Feyland. He was able to force the Dark Forces to speak the truth and reveal to us who they really were – if he hadn't we'd all probably be dead or insane right now. We owe him our lives – and to just leave him to die would be dishonourable.”
Shasta said nothing but flinched. Rose knew that Shasta cared more about honor than she did about almost anything else in the world.
“But how are we to use this magic,” Shasta said slowly, “if Alistair is in this state?”
Rose thought quickly. “Logan, do you remember what Breena said about her journey to the mountain? She met some Enchantress, didn't she – a good fairy who was willing to give Kian his life back again in exchange for Breena's. That's some powerful magic right there. Maybe this Enchantress could save Alistair.” For a price, she thought, but she did not speak it out loud. The last thing she wanted to do was to admit it to herself. Besides, she had to convince the others that this Enchantress could save Alistair.
“It's true,” said Logan. “Breena did meet an Enchantress in those parts.”
“The Sorceress?” asked Shasta
“I doubt it,” said Logan. “This Enchantress was old – she clearly knew that she had magical powers, and had for a long time That doesn't match the description we have of the Sorceress at all.”
“Rose is right,” said Rodney. “We can't trust anyone in this village to take care of Alistair properly. Leaving him here would be leaving him to die.”
Logan turned to Rose and took her hand. “I know you care for him, Rose,” aid Logan in a low voice. “And I know that he cares for you, too a great deal. He told me so. You're very special to him, and I know you feel the same way.”
Rose nodded mutely. It was all true – she did love Alistair, and she did go weak at the knees every time she thought about their kiss. But if that was true, why did Logan's voice make her feel just as rapturous? Just as confused.
“I know what it's like to be in love,” said Logan. “It makes you crazy. It makes you willing to do everything and anything for the person you love, even risk your life. Even risk the lives of others. True love is a dangerous thing. But we need to make this decision based on what's best for Feyland, not how we feel.” He sighed. “I know it's hard, and I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes.”
Rose shook her head. “Love was what saved Feyland in times of danger,” she said. “Love was what let us destroy the Dark Hordes. All that Feyland talk about love being dangerous – maybe it's true, but it's also the best chance we've got to fight off all the other dangerous things in this world. And I'm willing to take the risk. If we haven't got love for each other, we haven't got anything at all – just like the Summer King said. He told us to stick together, and that's what we should do.”
Rodney and Logan looked at each other. “You're right, Rose,” said Logan. “And what's more – you're wise. If we can't stick together, then the Dark Forces might get to us, and then we'd never save Feyland. We have to save Feyland as a team – no matter what.”
Shasta nodded too. “But you'll be the one to carry him, Rose,” she said. “It's only fair.”
Rose looked at Alistair's heavy body. “I'll do it,” she said, taking Alistair under the shoulders and hoisting him up onto her horse. “I'll just have to work harder to keep up with the rest of you. You're right, Shasta, it's only fair.”
Shasta nodded. Evidently Rose had won her favor – and her respect. Rose put the Book of Gwenhyfar into her satchel, and the group mounted their horses, ready to set off to the mountain.
Chapter 15
The journey to the mountains was long and arduous. Breena may have been able to ride on a Pegasus, Rose knew, but in the absence of Pegasi the road would take them many days. Their food rations had nearly run out, and after two days of travel they had taken to foraging for whatever food they could manage – a few dry and desiccated berries growing on withered hedges, roots of potatoes and turnips in the ground. Logan was able to transform into his Wolf form and hunt for wild birds and game, which they cooked hurriedly over a small but open flame and devoured half-raw. They were in the depths of the wilderness, now, and although no more spirits of the Dead came to attack them, they knew that the area was far from safe. If the Dead had escaped their Kingdom, they and the Dark Forces would soon be able to access anywhere in Feyland, including the depths of the Wilds. They cut through brambles and vines, hiked up mountains, built makeshift twig forts each night to stay warm.
Without sunlight, without its warmth and life-giving powers, they grew ill. Shasta's beauty began to fade as her face became sickly and pale; Logan, too, looked jaundiced and ill-nourished. Rose became swiftly accustomed to the grumblings in her stomach that marked the h
our more readily than the ever-black sky: it grew louder and louder as time passed, despite her best efforts to hide it. Though the promise of the Enchantress held some hope for them, they were little able to keep themselves from despair in this state. Even if they found the mountain, what would they do if the Enchantress wasn't there? Once they got to the place where the Twin Suns had once slept, how would they even go about restoring them? The whole situation seemed dire and hopeless. Without Alistair, their capacity for magic was limited, but how could they even be sure that Alistair could be revived? What if even the Enchantress couldn't bring him back from this spell?
Yet they made their way onwards, as bravely as they could. Publicly, Rose knew, they attested to few fears, expressing instead their surety in their victory. “Of course we'll find the Enchantress,” Shasta would say loudly. “Of course, we'll be home soon, just as soon as we restore the suns,” promised Rodney. “Alistair will be up and at it soon enough,” Logan predicted. But Rose knew that such words were empty, devoid of true faith. None of them wanted to admit it, but they all sensed the truth of the matter: they were on their last hope.
At last, three days from their last meal, they reached the base of a mountain that looked, from what Logan had said, something like the mountain of which Breena had spoken. They had little light left – they were conserving their magic as much as possible – and their only source of illumination came from a sapphire necklace that Shasta was wearing, a magical token she had inherited from her mother. It was just enough light for them to make out the snow-covered pathway, the icicles that protruded like spikes on the sides of boulders.
“I sure hope this Enchantress is friendly,” said Rodney. “None of us are in any state to fight right now.” He too was hungry and exhausted, living on a diet of meager foraged fruits and the occasional nut or seed.
“She's not evil,” said Logan. “Whatever else she is. She helped Breena.”
By almost killing her, Rose thought. The Enchantress may not have been evil, she knew, but she was certainly far from benevolent. She was the bearer of an ancient magic, a magic that went beyond kindness and unkindness – she demanded a fair trade for her wares, and Rose shuddered to think what that fair trade might be. Would she be called upon to take Alistair's place? To sacrifice something great of her own in order to save him? Rose knew that the bargains one made with powerful creatures almost never worked out to one's own advantage. You'd get what you came for, but you'd wish you'd never come. Just like the Wolf Fey. She looked over at Logan as she recalled the old story about Queen Panthea. The first Wolf, Connell, had begged for Panthea's help against the Dark Hordes. She had helped him, as promised – given his soldiers the power to turn into the noble wolf at will – but in return she had taken their fey immortality forever.
What would she be called upon to sacrifice?
They hiked up the mountain, the horses whinnying and neighing with exhaustion as the road grew ever-steeper, their muscles aching and their bones creaking with every step along the vertiginous path.
“Look!” Rodney called out, as they reached the top of their ascent. “That must be where the sun used to be.”
They gasped as their eyes fell upon what looked like an enormous crater: a barren, empty expanse of rock. Once the glorious sun had shone from here, rising high in the day and retreating into this stone bed at night, warding off evil and darkness from Feyland. Their entire lives, they had learned to rely on this sense of safety: every morning the suns would ascend into the sky to shine down on Feyland, in the evening returning here, their dim glow keeping Feyland safe from evil throughout the night. How Rose had loved to wake up early as a child in order to watch the suns' ascent; how she had felt a sudden thrill when she watched the glowing orbs, one white and cold, one yellow and warm, move about in the sky at dusk and dawn! But now there was nothing. Now she could see only emptiness.
They gazed at the empty space in wonder.
“I would never have imagined it,” Logan said gravely, “that I would live to see this day. To see my beloved Feyland without its suns.”
They looked deep into the crater, and to their surprise they saw something there.
“What's that?” Shasta made her way down into the crater, picking up what looked like a charcoal ball, no bigger than the globe Rose had seen in the Summer Palace's library.
“I think it's the sun,” Rose said, her heart sinking.
“This is the sun?” Shasta turned it over in her hands. “Don't be ridiculous, Rose, it's tiny.”
“The magic of Feyland comes from its suns,” said Logan. “Two great balls of energy. But without that energy – that's all that the suns are. Two charcoal balls fallen down from the sky.” His face was somber. “The suns of Feyland – gone!” He sighed. “You've been to the Land Beyond the Crystal River, Shasta. The suns are different there. Further-off. Much bigger. If that sun died, the Land Beyond the Crystal River would die a quick death: everything would perish all at once. But here in Feyland, the death we die will be a slower, more painful one. We will watch as everything we care for perishes around us.” Tears were in his eyes. “How I wish we could have been Beyond the Crystal River, that – if we were to die – we would at least not have to watch this agony around us.”
“But it means we have a chance to put things right,” Rose put out a hand and patted Logan on the shoulder. “That's something that we wouldn't have in the mortal world. I doubt their sun runs on magic.” She paused. “If...if we don't succeed,” she said softly. “Will you go to the mortal world? Will you be safe there?”
Logan shook his head. “I would rather die with the rest of Feyland than live in shame and cowardice. I cannot be without my magic. I cannot be without my home. This is my home. I love Feyland too much to outlive it.”
“Hear, hear,” said Shasta. “Once I dreamed of leaving here, and living with Rodney in the Land Beyond the Crystal River. But no longer. Now I know my place is here, to live or die with the fate of these charcoal suns.” She placed the ball down gently in the crater.
“What do we do now?” Rodney asked. There was no sign of the Enchantress anywhere around them, and the only hint that there had ever been a sun in Feyland were those useless, tiny black balls. “Rose – maybe there's something in the Book of Gwenhyfar that can help us. Something about the sun's magic.”
“I can try...” Rose said, searching in her bag for the book. “I...I thought I'd read everything, but maybe there's something I missed.” She had read the book ten times over – and still found no sign of how she could restore Alistair or kill the Sorceress. But she had to keep up hope. Come on, Rose, she muttered to herself, come up with something.
At that moment, a shrill, piercing feminine laugh broke the silence. The group looked up wildly. Was it the Enchantress? But this voice was far too cruel, too hideous. It was the laughter of pure evil.
“You will be able to do nothing!” The voice laughed. “You have no power here. I have seen to that.”
Instantly Rose felt a cold chill whipping through her, freezing her from the inside out, sapping her strength. “The Sorceress,” she whispered, putting out a hand to steady herself. “She’s here.”
But the figure that approached, cackling wildly, was not a Sorceress at all. “So, you think you can defeat me now?” it said, smiling at Rose with black, blazing eyes.
It was Alistair.
Chapter 16
“Alistair!” Rose cried. But the face she saw before her was not the face of the man she had loved. It was a hard, cold, implacable face, its beauty transformed to ugliness by the expression of absolute cruelty it wore.
Alistair spoke with a high, cold voice – a woman's voice, emerging out of his throat like a bird escaped from a cage. His eyes were blacker than night; even his skin seemed sallow, with a greenish tinge, as if something sickly lurked beneath his porcelain skin. “You have no powers here,” he said. “I have come to see to that. So, you dared to think that you could defeat the powers of the Sorceress? Y
ou thought you could bring back the daylight? No, fools – this is the land of night, now, and night is here to stay. You cannot resist the darkness.”
“Alistair!” Rose cried. “Alistair – listen to yourself! Stop it!”
“Alistair – the Sorceress?” Rodney furrowed his brow.
“No, he's possessed!” Rose pleaded. “Look at his eyes.”
Now even the white of Alistair's eyes had turned black, and the whole eyeball was glowing with a cruel and eerie light.
Shasta was looking at Alistair in horror, her face stricken. Slowly, with trembling hands, she raised her sword, rushing over to strike Alistair down.
“Shasta, no!” A cry emerged from Rose's lips. She rushed over to Shasta, pulling her back just moments before Shasta's sword collided with Alistair's head.
“It's the Sorceress!” cried Shasta wildly. “We have to kill her now, or she'll kill us all.”
“But think, you silly little girl,” Alistair said, laughing. “If you kill me, then you also kill your friend here.” He patted his own body. “You wouldn't want to see your precious Alchemist's head severed from this pretty body of his, would you?”
