Faery Revenge

by Donna Joy Usher

  Before he could finish the sentence, I was jerked back into my own body.

  ‘Oops, sorry,’ I heard Turos say. ‘I was trying to make you more comfortable.’

  I put my fingers on the back of my head, feeling for blood. ‘By braining me?’

  ‘I tried to make your pillow bigger. It didn’t work.’

  I sat up and rubbed at my head. I had been with Aethan, and now I was here with Turos. I didn’t know if I was going to survive the emotional onslaught.

  I wiggled backwards till my bottom hit a boulder, then I leaned back. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can stay.’

  ‘The cavern does get claustrophobic doesn’t it? And might I just reiterate that’s the reason we don’t let female dragons bond?’

  ‘Sure you can reiterate it,’ I said, ‘if you want to be a total bastard.’

  He let out a low chuckle.

  ‘But I wasn’t talking about the cavern.’ I let out a sigh. ‘I am needed at home. Isla is needed at home.’

  He was silent for a while as he threw pebbles at a much larger rock. ‘You know we can’t let you go,’ he said, finally.

  ‘Why not?’

  He waved a hand at Emerald and Arthur. ‘They belong here.’

  I pushed my fists into my eyes while I tried to come up with logic he would get. ‘When I say I am needed, I really mean needed. In an end-of-the-world-type scenario.’

  He stopped his pebble throwing and looked at me. ‘You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.’

  ‘Really?’ I leaned over and peered up into his face to see if he was sincere. ‘You’re going to brief me without Daddy’s permission?’

  ‘You really know how to push my buttons, don’t you?’

  ‘It’s a talent.’ I paused for a second and then said, ‘Well, are you?’

  He let out a low laugh and shook his head. ‘Yes. I will brief you without my father’s permission.’

  ‘Well, okay then.’ I took a deep breath and then thought about where to start.

  ‘The beginning,’ Isla’s soft voice echoed through the cavern. ‘Always start at the beginning.’

  ‘Yes, but whose beginning?’

  I heard the noise of her boots scraping on rock and then she appeared before me. She dropped into a seated position with her legs crossed beneath her. ‘Good point. I guess from Santanas’s beginning.’

  ‘Not where I would have thought.’

  She cocked her head and looked at me. ‘He is the one consistent player in the drama. This is his story. We are all just bit players.’

  ‘Will you tell it? I mean, his story?’

  ‘He is your grandfather. It is yours to tell.’

  I shifted a little uncomfortably. ‘I don’t know it. Well, not the detail.’ I was suddenly sure though, that that detail was important. Because maybe his story would give me the answer I had asked Aethan earlier. Maybe it would give me a clue to what Santanas wanted?

  Isla began her tale in a serious voice. ‘From the very beginning it was clear that Santanas was going to be a mighty warrior.’

  I let out a snort. ‘What? From when he was a baby?’

  Isla paused to stare at me. ‘Do you want to tell this story?’

  ‘Dark Sky, no. I don’t know this story.’

  She nodded her head. ‘I forget that you did not know him before.’

  ‘And you did?’

  ‘I used to rock his cradle.’

  I kept forgetting how old Isla was. ‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘Please continue.’

  She rolled her eyes but took up where she had left off. ‘He was faster, taller, more powerful than all the other boys his age. But he was also humble and kind. He grew into a fine young man and fell in love with Littiana. She felt for him as he did for her and they were married a year after they were initially betrothed. It wasn’t apparent at this time that he was a War Faery.’

  Turos sucked in a breath.

  ‘That didn’t become clear until the orcs’ attacks began later on that next year. Perhaps if we had realised we could have helped him more. But one with that power had not been born for a couple of centuries. Although in retrospect, he was of the same lineage as Tralador. We should have been more diligent.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ It wasn’t like her to jump around so much.

  ‘Tralador was the last born War Faery before Santanas. Which means you are also of his line.’

  I shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t really want to talk about me.

  ‘One summer’s day the orcs attacked closer to the capital than ever before. They were upon the outlying villagers before we even knew they were there. Santanas was at the castle with the troops, but Littiana had stayed at home that day. She was pregnant with twins. An almost unheard of event. She was alone in their cottage in the forest. He left the guard and fought his way single-handedly to their home, but it was too late.’ She paused for a moment and tears swum in her eyes as she took a deep breath. ‘They had torn the young from her womb and eaten them. Well, that is what we guess happened from the remnants that were left.’

  I pressed a hand to my stomach as my dinner thought about performing an encore.

  ‘His grief maddened him, breaking down the mental barriers he had erected to protect others from his wild, untamed power. He became a vigilante, hunting down bands of orcs till none would come into our lands. I think he was hoping they would kill him, but when they didn’t, and there were none left to kill, he retired to his cottage and became a hermit.’

  She sighed and rubbed at her eyes with her hands. ‘We should have kept a better eye on him. Wolfgang tried for a few years, but eventually Santanas drove him away and even he gave up.’

  ‘What do you mean by ‘even he’ gave up?’

  She blinked at me a couple of times. ‘Littiana was Wolfgang’s only child. His wife died in childbirth and he never took another.’

  Realisation drove into me like a hammer. That was what Ulandes had meant. Do not let the dark swallow your broken heart. It will be made whole again. He was still grieving the loss of his daughter as well as the loss of his grandchildren and son-in-law.

  ‘So what happened then?’ Turos’s voice broke across my memory.

  ‘Well,’ Isla continued, ‘for a time it appeared that he had recovered. He never came back to the capital to live, but he set up a training camp on the edge of the goblin lands and Father allowed it. Santanas had rid our land of orcs and we thought having him there would be a deterrent to the goblins.’

  ‘When did you realise he had teamed up with Galanta?’ I managed to say her name without spitting.

  ‘Who’s Galanta?’ Turos asked.

  ‘The Queen of the goblins.’ My fists clenched as I said her name and Turos looked at me, his eyebrows raised as he tilted his head to the side. ‘I have a score or two to settle with her,’ I said.

  ‘A month or two went by without us hearing from the camp and then rumours of black magic started filtering back to us. We successfully managed to infiltrate an agent, but before she could report, she disappeared.’

  ‘Grams?’

  She nodded her head at me. ‘And then the goblin attacks began.’ She leant back against a rock and sighed. ‘I often wonder at which point he was beyond the point of no return.’

  ‘What have you come up with?’ Turos asked.

  ‘I think it was finding Littiana. I think his mind was broken with the grief, and then the black magic drove him mad.’ She looked at me and said, ‘Perhaps I should be nicer to you.’

  I threw a pebble at her. ‘You’re the least of my problems.’

  She peered at me and smiled. ‘I’d say your worst problem at the moment is a serious case of pash rash.’

  ‘What?’ My hands flew to my face. My chin felt tender under palpation. ‘Oh, no!’ I turned and punched Turos. ‘You gave me pash rash.’

  His face broke into a broad smile. ‘You were most enthusiastic. But next time, I’ll try to be gentler.’

  My stomach lurched
at the thought of a next time. Would there be a next time? Tendrils of guilt had already begun to wrap around the memory, and seeing Aethan had only made that worse.

  ‘So what happened next?’ I forced my mind away from the thought of what Turos kissing me gently would feel like, and back to Isla’s story.

  ‘Their army forced us through the veil. Even teamed with the witches and humans we were no match for them, for Santanas.’ Her attention zeroed in on me again. ‘He can do things you can’t.’

  ‘Duurrrrr,’ I said. ‘He’s more powerful.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s not that. He is using both light and dark magic. You can only use the light.’

  Or risk going crazy myself, was the unspoken part of that sentence.

  Turos looked between Isla and me but before he could say anything she continued. ‘It didn’t take us long to see we would all be destroyed if we didn’t surrender. But we knew they would destroy us even then.’

  ‘So you tricked him?’

  She nodded. ‘We wove a spell into the paper the treaty was signed on. When he added his signature, the spell was triggered and his soul was trapped in that stone.’

  ‘So what’s the life-and-death situation you were talking about?’ Turos shifted out of his cross-legged position. I tried not to admire his legs as he stretched them out in front. ‘Sounds like the situation is under control.’

  ‘He’s back,’ I said. ‘And he’s pissed off.’

  ‘I’d be pissed off too if you’d burnt me to a charred cinder.’ There was a teasing pride in Isla’s voice.

  ‘Is there something I should know? About you, I mean?’ Turos pointed a finger at me.

  ‘She’s our only hope.’ She laughed at the sceptical look on his face. ‘It’s true. She’s the only one amongst us with enough power to go head-to-head with him.’

  ‘I must admit that my knowledge of our time before we came here is a bit rusty, but aren’t War Faeries incredibly powerful?’

  ‘Unbelievably so.’

  ‘Then why would Izzy be able to….’ He stopped and stared at me. ‘You’re one too. But you can’t control your powers.’

  ‘Bingo,’ I said. ‘Give the man a balloon.’

  ‘Sometimes I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

  ‘She means that you are correct, but her jovial way of saying it means she does not wish to discuss it.’

  ‘Oh.’ I could tell he was dying to ask me a question. He was probably brimming up and about to overflow with them but he just shut his mouth and took a deep breath.

  It was a good time to change the subject. ‘I saw Aethan,’ I said to Isla.

  ‘Oh.’ She clasped her hands to her face. ‘How is he?’

  ‘Good. As far as I could tell. We didn’t really talk about how he was ‘cause, you know….’ I shrugged a shoulder. ‘Anyway, apparently the attacks have ceased and from what they can tell, Santanas is still recovering.’

  ‘Did you tell him where we were?’

  ‘Didn’t get a chance before numb-nuts here woke me up.’ I poked my thumb toward Turos. ‘No doubt I’ll see someone else tonight.’

  ‘So the veil is accessible again.’ She nodded her head. ‘Let the games begin. Speaking of games,’ she turned toward Turos, ‘it’s your turn.’

  He muttered something about War Faery dream-walkers, cleared his throat and said, ‘Yes, my turn. My story also begins long ago. There were a few amongst us who were alive when we fled Emstillia. They tell us that we came through the portal on dragonback and searched the seas for somewhere to land. This was the first land we found. It is also the only land we’ve found. But since it had everything we needed – fertile grounds, built-in protection and a suitable area for the dragons to lay, we were not concerned.

  A few weeks after we arrived, strangers appeared. They came in boats, and from what is remembered, resembled the sailors we fought today. We hid deep in the caverns while they searched the island, and when they found nothing, they departed. Now they are back.’

  ‘Surely we can handle a few ships,’ I said. ‘We made short work of that one today, and that was just two dragons. How many dragons are there?’

  ‘The numbers have increased to five hundred strong. Half of which are males.’

  Emerald let out a snort. As if only the males amongst us would fight if our young were in danger.

  ‘Easy-peasy Japanesey,’ I said, but Turos didn’t look so certain.

  ‘I’ve got a bad feeling about this.’ He shook his upper body as if trying to shake it out of his head.

  ‘Why do you think they came back now?’ Isla asked. ‘I mean you’ve been here for hundreds of years and the only two times they turn up are just after you arrive and then just after we do.’

  As usual, she had seen something none of the rest of us had.

  ‘Which means,’ she said, following her train of thought, ‘that the most probable conclusion is that they felt the opening between the worlds.’

  ‘Which means,’ I finished it for her, ‘that they can use magic.’

  I wasn’t feeling so cocky now.

  ***

  ‘Quiet. Quiet.’ King Bladimir rapped on the long table with his knuckles and, immediately, the rumble of voices dropped to a whisper and then silence.

  I stayed very silent where I was, at the far, far end of the very long table, seated next to Isla, with Scruffy at my feet. It seemed that she and I were at the bottom of dragon-rider pecking order and I wasn’t going to push my luck by talking out of turn. Bladimir hadn’t looked so happy when Turos had arrived with us, and would probably use any excuse to kick us out.

  ‘Turos,’ Bladimir waved a hand at him. ‘Report.’

  Turos stood and swaggered to the front of the room. I listened as he accounted in brief, accurate sentences what had happened on the beach the day before. I was pretty happy when he left out the part about me blowing up the boat, and also the bit about the kiss. Nobody needed to know about those.

  When he had finished he sat back down and Bladimir barked, ‘Rand.’

  Another rider stood and moved to the front of the room. ‘I had this morning’s patrol to the north,’ he said. ‘We did not sight any ships during the time we were sweeping the area.’

  He sat back down and another rider hopped up.

  ‘I had the morning’s patrol to the east,’ he said. ‘There were no sightings of the enemy.’

  Another rider hopped up. He had been to the south and also had nothing to report. I could feel the tight ball of concern that had started winding in my chest the night before, starting to unravel.

  See. There was nothing to worry about. Just a few ships, and we had no doubt scared them off when we had so easily destroyed that one yesterday.

  I was so busy feeling relieved that I didn’t realise no other rider had hopped up until Bladimir said, ‘Who had the west?’

  ‘Landorn.’ Turos’s voice was tight.

  ‘Well, go and see if he’s back.’ He waved an impatient arm at the door, and, as if he had willed it, it sprung open.

  A dragon rider stood in the doorway. His tunic was ripped and dried blood covered his face. An arrow shaft protruded from his stomach. He grasped the edge of the door frame and leant over, placing his hand around the arrow, as if considering removing it. He let it go, and, with a perplexed look on his face, stared at the blood on his fingers. ‘They’re coming,’ he said. ‘From the west.’ He slid to his knees, and then slumped to his side.

  ‘Izzy.’ Isla grabbed my shirt and yanked me up. ‘You need to heal him, or he’ll die.’

  ‘I’ve only ever done it that once,’ I protested as she dragged me towards Landorn. ‘And Wolfgang helped me.’

  ‘You’re his only hope.’

  I wanted to help him, I really did. But I had no real idea how to start.

  Isla pushed me ahead of her into the crowd.

  ‘Excuse me,’ I said. ‘Coming through.’ I arrived at Landorn’s side and knelt beside him. Isla joined me a secon
d later.

  ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Bladimir grabbed my shoulder.

  ‘Father,’ Turos said. ‘Let her be.’ He gave me a smile that I would have liked to return but I couldn’t. I was far too scared to smile.

  ‘We’re going to have to remove the arrow as you heal him,’ Isla said.

  ‘Give them room,’ Turos yelled. ‘Move back.’

  I placed a hand on Landorn’s shoulder. He was still breathing, just. Isla was right. If I didn’t do something soon it would be too late. I closed my eyes and tried to remember what I had done the day I had healed Wolfgang.

  I emptied my mind and reached out towards Landorn and suddenly I was flowing out of my body and slithering into his, with just a tenuous strand of soul to lead me back to my own.

  His head was damaged but the most pressing concern was the arrow. It had been fired from below and the angle it had entered had allowed it to perforate intestine, liver and lung. More blood was leaking out inside his body than had been out of the wound, and his lung was slowly filling up.

  ‘Cut the fletching off the arrow.’ My voice sounded wooden to my ears.

  I urged some of the blood vessels to knit back together and most of the internal bleeding stopped. ‘Now pull it through.’

  He bucked in agony as they did it, but I couldn’t waste any time stopping his pain. The arrow had been acting as a plug to many blood vessels and as it was removed, a dam of red burst within him. I heard yelling from the rest of the riders as he choked on blood, but I ignored it.

  Gently, so gently, I moved through the tissue, encouraging it to move back to where it had been. To repair. To rebuild. Tissue re-knit and blood vessels healed. The hole in the liver sucked back together, but the lung was a little more tricky. Such delicate membranes all torn and shredded. I looked at his healthy lung, and then imagined the damaged one as a mirror image. The membranes fluttered back into position and the bleeding stopped.

  Everything in his abdomen seemed to be in working order but there was swelling on his brain and a break in the skull and the bones of his face. I took the fluid building up in his skull and forced it out through the break, through the tissue and into his sinuses. It started to drain out of his nose and I returned to the brain, repairing the damage before encouraging the bone to re-join back the way it had once been.