“I guess so. They may be my element but I don’t think I’ll ever really understand them,” Jodi said and I could hear the sadness in her voice.
“Honey, that’s because not all faeries are Air elementals. You can’t expect to understand the Earth faeries or the Fire ones and certainly not the Water ones.” I tried to sound reassuring but she was still silent on the other end of the phone. “Fae?” I asked tentatively..
“Yeah…” she paused and I waited, not wanting to press her. “Yeah, you’re right, I mean its not like you understand everything either. Hell, neither does Deb! I need to stop being so hard on myself.”
“Wow, that’s probably the most mature thing I’ve ever heard you say!” I laughed.
“Bitch!” she said, but I heard her fighting the laughter in her voice.
“Love you too!” We both laughed. It was refreshing and therapeutic, something we both needed. As the laughter died away and the breathing slowed, I wiped a tear away from my eye.
“Okay, so have you figured out what those things were from last night with Jeremy yet?” Jodi asked, hiccupping her last giggle.
“No, not yet. I’m really only well-versed in Celtic Faeries and there are faeries all over the world. For all I know, he’s got some Indonesian faeries helping him,” I said, leaning back in my chair and away from the clutter on my desk.
“Well, his last name is McCormack. Isn’t than Scottish or something?”
“Actually, I think it’s Irish.”
“Well, you’re Irish. That shouldn’t be a problem for you,” Jodi said and I could see her shrugging her shoulder as if it was all so easy.
“That’s only if he’s attracting faeries based on his heritage. He could’ve just as easily found a faerie mound out here and has attracted faeries indigenous to America and there’s just not as much information on those.” I chewed on my lip. “You know, if we could just talk to him…”
“Is this a big deal though?” Jodi asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, is it such a big deal that he has faeries looking after him? Do we really need to worry about this?” I could hear rustling over the phone and knew that she’d finally crawled out of bed.
“Well, I don’t know. I guess not…”
“Do we always have to come to the rescue? I mean, school’s almost over for the year, we’ve had a really rough one, don’t we deserve a break? So what if the sad little boy can talk to faeries? At least he has some friends,” Jodi said and her voice was clearer now than it had been for the entire conversation.
“Well, yeah, but what if he’s not just talking to them? What if they’re not benevolent faeries? I mean, you saw how they caught us up in a vortex when we tried to talk to him and then that Hobyah just randomly shows up after that? I mean, that’s a really odd coincidence, don’t you think?” I was glad to hear my voice so calm, that Hobyah had really freaked me out.
“Okay, I’ll give you that, but I just mean, do we have to make this into a big thing? Why not just keep an eye on him and if nothing out of the ordinary happens, then fine. If something does, then we can worry about it,” Jodi said, sounding so damn rational.
“All right, let’s say we just sit back and keep an eye on him and then something does happen, something bad, and we didn’t take the time to find out what we’re dealing with and don’t know how to fix it,” I said.
“Fine, I’ll give you that. We can figure out what those things are and if they’re not technically evil,” I could hear the air quotes over the word “evil” when she said it, “then we’ll leave the poor kid alone.”
“Okay, I can live with that,” I said.
“Good.”
“But if it does turn out that he is up to something, or he’s attracted the attention of the less than good faeries, you’ll help me figure out what to do.” I was careful to keep my voice level. One of my abilities as an empath was the ability to affect people with my voice, whether to soothe them of some anxiety or to help them see my way about something. I wanted Jodi to make the decision on her own, without force of will from me.
“Of course, you know that,” Jodi said lightly, as if it were stupid to think otherwise. We hung up then, me back to my research, she back to bed.
I gripped the edge of my desk, staring at the open books laid out before me and sighed, not knowing where to start. I had re-read the description of the Hobyah just to be sure I was right about what kind of faerie I had seen last night, but the Hobyah didn’t have wings, nor were known to be shape shifters, so it still didn’t explain what it was that had followed Jeremy out of the coffee house and surrounded us on the street. I laid my head down against the cool wood surface of my desk and closed my bleary eyes, trying to clear my mind. I had actually woken Jodi up when I called her to tell her about the Hobyah so when she told Steven about the faeries from last night she could tell him about that too. It was still very early in the morning.
Dawn was still a little ways off, the sky inked in grays and the air still cool from the night, not yet hinting at the promise of another hot June day. I heard the tinkling, water-like sound of the wind chimes that hung outside my window, making me look up, more than a little confused. I had a special knack of knowing what the weather was going to be like. I could even tell you when it was going to rain days before the meteorologists could, and I hadn’t anticipated any winds this weekend. I thought of it more as intuition rather than magic, so it wasn’t a perfect science, but I was still surprised to hear the chimes.
I stood up and moved to the side of my desk to get at the window and slid it open to look outside. The chimes sang again, swaying and dancing, the thin copper tubes colliding gently into one another. I watched them, almost mesmerized, and had to blink and shake my head to break away from the trance I was falling into. When I opened my eyes again, I was careful not to look at the wind chimes. I looked farther into the backyard, to the tree with my tree house that my dad built for me as a child still stood. The limbs and leaves were completely still, not so much as a rustle or a stir. I looked back up at the chimes and they were still dancing in a wind of their own. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again.
“In this early morning light, I open my eyes with second sight,” I whispered the spell and felt the tingling sensation on my cheeks and opened my eyes to the laughing and upside-down brown and pink faerie, hanging amongst the copper chimes. “Good morning,” I said to it with a smile, but the faerie just laughed again and sprung from the chimes, its iridescent wings pulling it into the air with the speed and skill of a hummingbird. “Wait,” I said, reaching my hand out, but was stopped by the netting of the window screen.
It drifted backwards, inching farther away from me, and lifted its slender arm towards me and motioned with tiny fingers for me to follow. I turned from the window and pulled on flip-flops over my bare feet and crept out of my bedroom as quietly as I could to keep from waking my parents. I made it to the back door and outside without incident and pulled the door closed behind me. The faerie had drifted from the air to land on the ground, sitting on a fresh toadstool, chewing absentmindedly on a stalk of grass. “Um,” I started to say, but as soon as I opened my mouth to speak, it shot up into the air and hovered eyelevel with me and motioned again for me to follow.
It soared higher into the air and over the back fence that led into an orchard behind our house. In that moment, I suddenly remembered that orchards were a favorite place in the mortal realm for faeries to dwell. It is said in folklore that orchards hold an abundance of magic; it was earth that we nurtured year round to give birth to nutrition and life, careful not to exhaust the soil. I was suddenly excited to see all the faeries that must be hiding therein.
I ran to the fence and looked over the top of it and found the faerie waiting patiently for me just ten feet away, but it was alone. I knew it would be too easy just to look and see a crowd of faeries waiting for me. I turned to the tree that my tree house was in and climbed up the ladder on the trunk and
stepped from a top rung to the top of the fence, balancing carefully. This side of the fence was the traditional backyard fence made up of thin strips of wood, but along the other side, tracing the edges of the orchard, was a chain link fence so I’d have a much easier time getting back over when I came back. I dropped to the ground and stumbled a little, kicking up a cloud of dirt around me.
I heard the faerie laugh delightedly at my clumsiness and felt the heat of a blush creep up my face before I could help it, which of course just entertained it all the more. “Yes, it’s all very amusing,” I said sarcastically, only to send my faerie guide into a summersault of laughter in the air. The laughter was almost intoxicating, like a warm drink on a freezing winter’s night. It was so beautiful and melodic that it made me smile in spite of my momentary embarrassment.
I started walking forward towards it and it composed itself as much as a faerie will when it’s enjoying itself and started drifting through the orange trees. Foolishly, I started following it everywhere it went until I realized that it was flying in circles and backtracking only to dart forward again in and around the trees. I stopped, realizing it was playing with me and it was far too early in the morning for games.
“Okay, very funny, you got me. First the Hobyah and now you. Well done.” I was embarrassed again, but it was an embarrassment borne of anger so my words were strong and clear. I turned around and started walking back towards my house but the little faerie flew in front of my face and stopped, just two inches in front of me.
“I’m sorry,” he, for its voice was very masculine for its tiny body, said, resigned. “I meant no harm, it was just games.” He had interlaced his tiny fingers in front of him and held his hands out towards me, pleading, his eyes gone round with worry. The light around him had dimmed with his mood so I didn’t have to squint to look at him. His skin was a soft brown, like leaves turning in Autumn, his hair was a mess of auburn springs bursting from his head and his face was dominated by his large, green eyes.
“Well, I’m not in the mood for faerie games. If you have something to show me, then you better get to it, otherwise I’ll treat you like that Hobyah,” I said, not letting my voice soften at all.
“A Hobyah? There are no Hobyahs here.” He put one hand on his narrow hip and tilted his head to the side, studying my face. “You know better than to lie to the Fae Folk.”
“Yes, I do.” I nodded and took a step back; he was too close to focus on and not get a headache. “But there was a Hobyah in my house last night who played his tricks on me.”
“My, my, my… then milady was right to come,” he pursed his full brown and pink lips together as he studied my face.
“What lady?” I asked.
“You will see if you follow me.” He grinned.
“Oh no, no rhyming, it’s much too early for rhymes.” I shook my head.
He spun dramatically in the air, the rays of sunlight cutting through his own light before he settled at eyelevel in the air and started leading me again. Finally we were walking in straight lines, moving through the orchard with an obvious direction and the dizziness I had started to feel earlier was wearing off.
“Um,” I said, clearing my throat to get the faerie’s attention. He hesitated as I took a few steps closer. “Do you have a name?”
“I do,” he answered simply, not giving me anything more.
“Can you tell me?”
“Tell you what?” I exhaled loudly, annoyed with myself for walking right into the word games again.
“Can you,” I stopped myself, seeing the next trap I was setting for myself and tried again. “What is your name?”
“Well done, I am Tegan,” he bowed to me.
“Well met, Tegan, I am Shayna.” I nodded my head in a small bow.
“You know better than to lie to the faerie folk.” He looked up at me; one eye brow rose in an arch and struck out a finger towards me, waving it back and forth.
“I didn’t lie…” I said, confused.
“We know your name and it is not Shayna.” He sounded so sure of himself and I was nothing but confused. “You are an Earth mother, and worthy of the proper name. Now tell me your proper name.” I felt my jaw drop and my eyes go wide, shocked that he knew the private, magical name that I saved for just Jodi and Steven for when we invoked our magics. I blinked and closed my mouth, regaining my composure visibly.
“I am Terra,” I felt the reverberating air as if I had just spoken the clear sounds of a powerful spell. The leaves of the orange trees stirred, shivering in the now heavy air. Clouds swirled overhead, racing against the blue sky, streaked in pinks, purples, and golds. I could hear the chiming of a hundred faerie laughs and goose bumps rose on my skin as magic drifted through the air, over and around me.
“Well met, Terra, Earth mother.” He bowed again and suddenly I didn’t know what do to with my hands. “Now, follow me, Iris, the Faerie Queen awaits you.”
Chapter 5
I followed Tegan through the trees deeper into the orchard in a straight and determined line. Now that we had made the proper introductions and I had passed the test of word games, Tegan no longer flitted in and out of the trees trying to get me to chase him and wander through the maze of leaves and fallen fruit. My stomach was in knots as I kept my eyes on his tiny brown and pink body, bright white light emanating from his wings that beat so furiously it was impossible to see them clearly. I was about to meet a faerie queen, something I had never been privy to.
When Jodi and I were kids and had just met, we had a knack of finding faeries, pixies, brownies, and house hobs. At the time, we didn’t know not everyone could see and hear them. We knew they were special but we didn’t know we were. Not until one day in elementary school when we were sitting out in the school field among faeries and pixies and a group of kids came up behind us. They heard us talking to the invisible creatures. Then we knew we were different.
We endured months of teasing and torment from our classmates. The faeries and pixies at school came to our aide more than once, the pixies especially. The larger boys who tormented us to no end would stand up from their desks and fall face down, their shoelaces mysteriously tied together.
Luckily, because Jodi was an Air elemental she helped me see the Air faeries as easily as I could find the Earth faeries and I did the same for her. Once I knew how to see them as clearly as the birds in the trees or a house cat, I met our house hob, Boone. He lived in a cupboard under the oven that was set high in the wall.
He had a knack for baking and could always find a way to warn my mom just before something was going to burn. I often heard my mom comment, “If I had let it go just a minute more…” and I knew Boone had stuck his nose in the air. The only time that Boone didn’t seem to help was when she baked cornbread. I had asked him once why and he explained that it was because my mom liked to bake her cornbread in a cast-iron skillet and iron bothered him. But in these last few years I had felt my connection to the faerie folk slipping as I delved deeper into my elemental magic. With a pang of guilt, I realized it had been almost a year since I had seen a faerie, or even thought about one.
But even when faeries were almost a part of my every day life, I had never even hoped to meet a king or queen of the faeries, and here I was being brought before one. Tegan slowed, hovering in the air just a few trees away from me and waited, turning in the air to look at me. I stopped, not sure what to do.
“She is just beyond these trees. Do not be nervous, she is not the High Queen. She is Iris of the Shattered Light and she brings hope to you.” Tegan smiled reassuringly at me. I wasn’t sure what the Shattered Light meant, but I didn’t want to appear ignorant so I just swallowed and nodded. Stepping forward slowly, I felt like I was walking through sand.
I came forward finally. Tegan flew backwards a few more feet but pointed to his right so I wouldn’t turn down another aisle of trees. I took a deep breath and held it, letting it burn my lungs, desperate to escape, before I turned. It took my eyes a moment to adju
st to what I was seeing; the sky overhead was still churning in black, gray, and white, but what was before me sparkled like the face of the sun, moon, and all the stars in between. As my vision cleared, I saw one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my life.
She was, in fact, taller than me in human form. Her skin was palest blue, nearly purple. She had dark curly hair that tumbled past her shoulders and was tangled with the most breathtaking purple irises. The irises were the largest that I had ever seen and they sat on her head like a crown. She was nude, but I was only vaguely aware of that; her complete lack of modesty and human embarrassment made me forget that fact. Huge, feathery wings erupted from her back and spread out behind her, breaking the skyline above her. She was as majestic as any angel I had ever seen. Had Tegan not told me she was a faerie queen, I would have assumed she was some grand, medieval angel. I was used to seeing faeries with butterfly wings, moth wings, some with almost gauzy wings made of light like Tegan’s, but I had never seen a faerie with angel wings.
I had to blink and force myself to look away from her to see all the tiny winged faeries dancing in the air around her and the gnomes sitting at her feet and under the orange trees, propped up on the narrow trunks. I saw toads and faeries that, at first glance, looked like owls and then realized the toads were frog faeries, hiding themselves with glamour, but because I had invoked second sight I could see them for what they were. Beautiful creatures, male and female, that could have been the queen’s siblings, except for the lack of wings and the borrowed legs and feet of striped toads. These were some of my familiars and I couldn’t help but smile at them.
I exhaled finally in a rush of breath and all the faeries laughed, a sound so amazing I was brought to tears. I looked back at Iris, the queen, and felt my heart skip a beat. Not knowing what to do, I fell to my knees in front of her, bowing my head.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 33
