Faery Revenge

by Donna Joy Usher

  When his heart beat had stabilised and his breathing normalised I flowed out of him and back into my body.

  ‘He still has blood in his lungs.’ I opened my eyes. ‘It’s going to take a little while for the body to remove it. So we want to make sure he doesn’t get any sort of infection during that time. Apart from that, he is whole again.’

  I rocked back onto my feet and stood, stretching my arms above my head. Any minute now they were going to start singing my praise. I was thinking, next meeting, Isla and I might be at the head of the table.

  I turned to look at King Bladimir. His face had gone red and there seemed to be some sort of froth coming out of his mouth.

  ‘Arrest her,’ he screamed, jabbing a finger toward me. ‘Arrest her.’

  ‘Oh Dark Sky,’ I said, ‘what have I done now?’

  ‘Witchcraft,’ Turos said from beside me. ‘Sorry, should have mentioned it was illegal.’

  ‘Mentioned?’ I said. ‘Should have mentioned?’ He backed away with his hands in front of him while I advanced. ‘Yeah. Next time a little warning might be in order.’

  Scruffy let out a warning bark and then something heavy collided with the back of my head. Landorn looked up at me with confusion in his eyes as I sank to my knees beside him.

  The room started to spin, dispersing into a million fleeing stars, and then darkness came.

  7

  Assassin

  I was in the conference room, but I was suddenly all alone. It took me a second to realise I was in Trillania.

  ‘Oh phooey,’ I said out loud. ‘I’m unconscious. Again.’

  Seriously, if they didn’t stop hitting me over the head they were going to do some permanent damage.

  I shrugged a shoulder. Oh well. Not much I could do about it at the moment. I may as well make the most of my time. If my calculations were correct it should be early morning in Isilvitania. Hopefully someone would still be on duty.

  I concentrated on the castle and a second later was standing outside of it.

  ‘Izzy. You’re alive.’

  I turned to find Rako striding towards me.

  ‘What made you think otherwise?’

  ‘One hysterical mother and a semi-hysterical grandmother reporting you’ve been missing for a couple of weeks.’

  ‘Oh,’ I said. ‘That ought to do it.’

  ‘Is the Princess safe?’

  ‘Safer than me. I’m unconscious.’ I put a hand up to forestall his outburst. ‘Yes, she’s safe. Well, she was when I got hit over the head.’

  ‘Izzy. You’re not making this sound any better.’

  ‘I suppose I’m not.’ I sighed. ‘It’s as good as it can be.’

  ‘Great Dark Sky girl.’ He rubbed at the scar running down his cheek. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘We’re in Millenia.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘Yes, yes. I know. Mythical city. It’s where Emerald’s from.’

  He nodded. ‘That would explain the enormous, black dragon.’

  I filled him in on everything that had happened since we’d been gone. When I had finished he said, ‘And it’s not magical?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Their ability to move so fast?’

  ‘I tell you I’ve just been knocked unconscious and probably thrown back in prison and that’s what you’re hanging on to?’

  A sheepish smile graced his lips for just a second. ‘Well…is it?’

  I sighed and shook my head. ‘Not magical. It’s a mind trick. Turos is teaching me. Now, what’s been going on here?’

  ‘The Prime Ministers have finally cleared their very important schedules enough to meet with King Arwyn and Aethan.’

  ‘Well, that’s progress.’

  He pulled a face. ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘Queen Eloise hasn’t recovered from Orion’s death.’

  It was my turn to pull a face. She wasn’t my favourite person but I wouldn’t ask for that sort of pain for anybody.

  ‘She has locked herself in the tower and the only person she will let wait on her is Princess Ebony.’

  Totally different face pulling for that bit of news.

  ‘Listen Izzy,’ Rako put a hand on my shoulder, ‘about Ebony and Aethan.’

  ‘Yes, I worked it out,’ I said.

  ‘You did?’

  ‘He’s the heir now. Of course he is going to marry her.’ I managed to keep my voice fairly steady. Only a little crack at the very end of the sentence betrayed me.

  ‘Well actually, what I was going to tell you was….’

  He disappeared from view and, suddenly, I was blinking up at the ceiling of the same prison cell I’d been in when we had first arrived.

  Isla sat on the end of my bed and Scruffy lay on my chest.

  ‘De ja vu,’ I said.

  ‘Oh goody, you’re awake.’ Isla leaned over and peered into my face.

  ‘You under arrest as well?’

  ‘Nah.’ She shook her head. ‘They let me come with you.’

  I grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

  ‘Don’t go getting all gooey on me,’ she said. ‘It’s just boring without you. That’s all.’ She softened her words by squeezing back.

  There was a clanging noise and then footsteps approached. A few seconds later Turos appeared at the cell door.

  ‘You okay?’ he asked.

  I turned my head away from him and said, ‘I’m not talking to you. You let me save him knowing what would happen to me.’

  ‘I didn’t know you could heal.’ He scuffed a foot along the stone floor. ‘But I must admit, I was hoping you could. I’d heard stories about it, when I was a kid.’

  ‘So you sacrificed me for a friend.’ I remembered I wasn’t talking to him and crossed my arms across my chest. ‘Isla, tell him how mad I am about that.’

  She put both hands in the air. ‘I’m not getting in the middle of your lovers’ tiff.’

  I sat up and shoved her shoulder. ‘We are not, lovers.’

  ‘Tell that to your chin the next time you look in the mirror.’

  ‘Urghhhhh.’ I threw my arms up. ‘You’re unbelievable.’

  ‘Thank you.’ She smiled beatifically at me.

  A look at Turos showed that he was smiling as well.

  ‘You,’ I said, hopping up and walking over to the bars, ‘do not get to smile.’

  He danced back out of arm’s reach. ‘What are you going to do about it?’

  ‘Really?’ I said. ‘You did see what I did to that boat, didn’t you?’

  ‘Good point.’ He put his hand over his mouth and wiped his smile away. ‘Anyway I came to tell you that we are making ground getting you out of here.’

  ‘Who’s we?’ Isla asked.

  ‘Pretty much every dragon rider that saw you heal Landorn. Oh, and Landorn himself.’

  ‘He should be in bed.’

  ‘He is, he is.’ He sat cross-legged beside the bars. ‘Now, shall we continue your training?’

  I looked around the cell and shrugged a shoulder, letting out a sigh as I realised there was nothing better to do. Rako was going to whip my butt if I came home without the secret to their speed. ‘Sure, why not.’

  An hour later I was wishing I hadn’t bothered. My head throbbed and I was even further from finding the mental stillness that Turos was describing.

  ‘I need a break.’ I pushed up off the floor and stretched.

  ‘But you were doing so well.’

  ‘Really?’ I let out a laugh.

  ‘Actually,’ Isla said from behind me, ‘you were much faster that last time. The stone only made it half way before you caught it.’

  ‘It’s still not fast enough.’ I sat on the edge of the bed and bent forwards, stretching out my legs. ‘So what’s happening out there?’

  ‘A band of riders has flown west to see if what Landorn reported was true.’

  ‘You’re going to need me if it is,’ I said.

  He nodd
ed. ‘I know that. And I suspect father does too. He’s just a little stubborn sometimes.’

  ‘Pot, kettle, black,’ I said.

  He opened his mouth, no doubt to ask me what I was talking about, then slammed it shut as we heard another set of boots racing in our direction.

  ‘Turos.’ The rider stopped outside the cell. ‘You must come.’

  ‘Jaldor. How bad is it?’ Turos asked.

  ‘Bad. Very bad.’ The young rider bobbed his head at us. ‘Many ships come from the west. We are readying for battle.’

  ‘How far away are they?’ Turos asked.

  ‘Two and a half hours flying when we left. Perhaps two hours now.’

  ‘Has father?’ He looked at us but Jaldor shook his head. ‘You will be safe here,’ he said. ‘I will return with news when I can.’ He turned and hurried off after Jaldor.

  ‘Sure we’ll be safe.’ Isla plonked back down on the bed. ‘Until the raiders take control of the city.’

  ‘I’ll blow us a way out of here if they do. Then we can get Emerald and Arthur and get the hell out of here.’

  ‘Where?’ she said. ‘You heard Turos. There was no other land that they could find.’

  ‘We’ll go back home. We just need to work out how they did it.’

  ‘It has to be the dragons,’ Isla said. ‘I’ve been thinking about it. No-one that came here had magic, and it’s outlawed. The only way that Lance and Turos could have gotten to us was if Lance opened up the gateway.’

  ‘Dragons are the only creatures that can willingly go through the veil and also into Trillania,’ I said. It made sense that they could open up gateways between worlds. ‘I don’t think Emerald knows how to do it. Otherwise she would have come home by herself.’

  ‘Oh.’ Isla clicked her fingers and pointed at me. ‘Remember what she said at the trial? Santanas came to her. He came here. That means….’

  ‘That he can open gateways.’

  ‘Which means?’ She looked at me with a triumphant look on her face.

  ‘That you think that I can do it too. But I can’t Isla. I can’t open a gateway. How would I even start? And how would I know where to open it to, even if I worked out how to open one?’

  ‘I have total faith that when you do it, it will be like everything else you do. Instinctual.’

  ‘I like your use of the word when, not if.’

  ‘It’s all about visualisation Izzy. You should try it some time. Now, if you don’t mind, I have some visualisation of my own to do.’

  She pulled her legs up underneath herself and closed her eyes. A few seconds later her lips started moving. I sat down beside her and leant my head back against the wall.

  ***

  Darkness came and went and light again shone through the barred window of our prison before Turos returned. His footsteps were hurried, but uneven, and there was blood on his pants.

  ‘You’re hurt.’ I reached a hand through the bars and pulled at the fabric trying to see how bad his wound was.

  ‘It’s just a cut,’ he said. ‘But we need your help. There’s a lot of others far worse than I am.’

  I felt my eyebrows ride up my head. ‘So let me get this straight,’ I said, ‘you’ve come to my prison cell to ask me to do the very thing that caused me to be here?’

  He shrugged a shoulder. ‘Come on Izzy. You know it’s not my fault you’re in here.’

  ‘That’s not the point. What would your father say?’

  ‘Well,’ he pulled a face, ‘I’m actually here on his orders.’

  ‘Huh.’ I backed away from him and then crossed my arms as I tapped a foot. ‘So now he wants my help?’

  ‘Come on, Izzy.’ Isla shoved me from behind. ‘There are people wounded far worse than your pride.’

  ‘Fine.’ I stopped tapping and walked back to the cell door. ‘But you and I will be talking about this later.’

  ‘As long as it doesn’t end with you breaking my nose, again.’ He shot me a devastating smile and then pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

  ‘So what happened?’ I asked him as he led us through the windy passages of the castle. ‘Did you destroy them?’

  He nodded his head. ‘But we took heavy losses.’ He stopped and pushed a heavy door open; holding it so Isla, Scruffy and I could pass through. ‘I’ve never seen anything like the weapons they had. Metal tubes that hurled balls at us, and others that cast out nets. And there were these other…things,’ he spat out the word, ‘that fired tiny chunks of metal at us. They were so fast we couldn’t see them, and they chewed us up.’

  I noticed blood drop off his leg to the ground and looked behind us. A tiny trail of blood showed our path through the halls.

  ‘Stop.’ I put a hand on his arm. ‘We can’t afford for you to lose too much blood.’

  He didn’t fight me, instead sliding down the wall to sit with his leg stretched out in front of him. I pulled up the leg of his pants and examined him. There was a small hole on each side of his calf. Blood oozed out in a constant trickle.

  Isla moved her head so she could examine the wound from both sides. ‘It looks like something went all the way through.’

  ‘It did.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny lump of metal. ‘One of these.’ He dropped it into her outstretched hand.

  I put a hand onto his bare skin and flowed into him, noticing as I did how much easier it was becoming. Then I scanned him from top to bottom for other damage. A few bruises and scrapes but the only real damage was the tunnel through his flesh. The bleeding was coming from a vein that had been nicked. It only took a few seconds to seal it up and knit the flesh back together.

  I opened my eyes and took my hand off Turos’s leg. He wiggled his foot from side-to-side, flashed me a quick grin, and jumped back to his feet.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘We’d better hurry.’

  He increased his pace and we followed him at a trot as he led us down to the large hall outside the room in which we had had our initial trial. Men lay on the cold stone floor as women moved between them, some offering water, others performing first aid.

  When we entered, one of them looked up and bustled toward us. She grabbed Turos’s hand and dragged him with her. ‘Oh thank the Dark Sky.’ She cast me a look over her shoulder. ‘The worst of them are over here.’

  Men’s moans echoed off the stone walls. Some of them cried and others just lay, staring straight up as if their minds were elsewhere. A few women knelt with their heads bowed, praying, I guessed, and still others sobbed in hopeless frustration as they applied pressure to wounds that wouldn’t stop bleeding.

  We passed a column of men whose wounds no longer bled. Their lax limbs and calm faces belied the damage I could see on their bodies. The metal had torn through them, turning them into mangled masses of twisted, torn tissue. No-one could have faced that sort of destruction and survived.

  Turos was right. He had gotten off lightly.

  ‘What about the dragons?’ I heard the horror in my voice. If this had happened to the men, what had happened to their much larger mounts?

  ‘We lost fifty.’ Turos’s voice was cold. ‘The metal tore holes through their wings and they didn’t make it back. Many more are badly wounded.’ He looked over at me.

  ‘But you got them?’ Isla asked.

  He nodded. ‘There were more than two hundred ships. But we got them. Down to the last one.’

  They had also lost ten percent of their dragon population doing it.

  The woman stopped and let go of Turos’s hand to kneel by the side of a man. His face was pasty white and sweating, and his teeth were clenched in pain. ‘Bel,’ he said, grabbing onto her.

  I dropped down beside Bel and placed my hand on his arm. I flowed into him, almost pulling back out when I saw the damage there. Ripped muscle, smashed bones, a bleeding kidney, perforated intestines, and one of the vessels near the heart was straining to the point of breaking. I started there, strengthening the vessel. Then I flowed out
through him, not so much concentrating on one thing, but running ribbons of power through him as I encouraged everything to return to where it should be. To begin to function as it should. Pieces of metal started popping out of his body, tinkering onto the stone around him as the wounds welded shut.

  He sucked in a big breath of air, and then another one as I flowed back to my body.

  ‘My pain…it’s gone.’ He stared down, patting at his armour which was riddled with holes and stained with blood.

  ‘Rufos?’ He reached out a hand to Turos. ‘I can feel him.’

  ‘He’s alive,’ Turos said.

  ‘Come on.’ Bel’s eyes were wide as she led me to the next man.

  ‘I’m going to help the other women,’ Isla said.

  I nodded as I followed Bel, watching as Scruffy trotted off after Isla. A long line of wounded men stretched out in front of me and Scruffy had correctly ascertained that his best bet of getting fed would be where Isla was.

  Minutes flowed into hours as I moved from man to man. The healing became instinctual, and even though each one became easier, faster, I could feel my energy drying up. But there were still so many wounded, and I hadn’t even looked at the dragons yet.

  I stood up from my last patient, wobbling as I moved to the next one. The moaning had decreased and most of the men I had healed were now helping care for the ones I hadn’t yet gotten to.

  ‘Stop.’ Turos put a hand on my arm. ‘That’s enough for now.’

  ‘But….’ I waved a hand at the long rows of wounded, looking to Bel for support. She wasn’t there.

  ‘Where’s Bel?’ My words were slurred.

  He shook his head as he took my arm, guiding me to the side of the room. I let him push me down so that I was sitting against the wall.

  ‘She left a couple of hours ago. She was exhausted. You’re exhausted.’ He squatted down in front of me and pushed my hair back behind my ears. ‘You’ve been going for ten hours.’

  ‘I have?’ I looked around the room. Isla was walking towards me, Scruffy trotting by her side as he looked up hopefully at the bowl she was carrying. Steam rolled off the top of it and the scent of lamb stew punched into my nose. I was suddenly so hungry I felt sick.