Reggie & Ryssa and the Summer Camp of Faery

by Bo Savino

Chapter 16: Flight School

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  It took the group over half an hour to walk the entire width of New Faery City to reach the Wing Field. While most of them discussed football, those with experience explaining the details, Ryssa watchedd her surroundings. She wanted to focus on anything other than the Black and Green Knights.

  Most of the human-looking inhabitants they passed were tall, slender, and graceful. They carried themselves with an air of superiority. She could see it in the way they moved. Interspersed throughout the Faery were other types of creatures, some familiar in their appearance, others bizarre and other-worldly. She saw Brownies here and there, exiting various shops and dwellings in route to new destinations. One left a house that looked like a gigantic tulip without a stem. A yellow petal the size of a queen-sized mattress flowed to the ground, to allow the Brownie to leave the dwelling before it lifted back into place.

  Moira dropped back from the conversation with the boys to walk at Ryssa’s side.

  “Pretty amazing, huh?” Moira said in response to Ryssa’s look of awe.

  “Yeah. It’s like something out of a—”

  “Fairy tale?”

  Ryssa laughed. “That about covers it.”

  “I remember when I first came here.” Moira’s gaze wandered the streets. “I must’ve driven Lord Aurelius absolutely bonkers asking him questions. I’ve always been the nosy type.”

  “Me, too.” Ryssa nodded. “It usually gets me into trouble.”

  “It will here even more than in the Zombie Zone. In Faery, it’s considered the height of rudeness to ask questions, particularly questions of a personal nature.”

  “Then how are you supposed to learn anything?”

  “Personal observation.” Moira tried to put on a serious face, but failed. “Me? I play the I-was-raised-around-humans-and-don’t-know-enough-not-to-be-rude card a lot.”

  “Isn’t that bordering on a lie?”

  “Not really. I mean, I don’t actually say I don’t know any better. I just shrug and say something like ‘I wasn’t raised here—I was raised by humans.’ They usually sniff and nod. Mortals have come among the Fey before. It’s expected they will be rude. I just don’t elaborate. I figure I’ve got at least a couple of more years before they start to realize I’ve been around long enough to know better.”

  “You make the Faery sound pretty snobbish.”

  “Oh, they are. But most of them are okay once you get past their snotty exteriors.”

  “What about the others?” Ryssa tipped her head toward a Brownie, and then toward a short creature that had large round eyes, gray skin and bat wings. He—or at least Ryssa thought it was a he—had two tall, appendages sticking out from the top of his that turned this way and that toward various directions—like antennae. Ryssa thought they looked like fat rabbit ears.

  “They are not Faery, they are Fey, which the Faery are a part of. Like the Faery, other Fey have their individual Courts. But they tend to be a little more straightforward and are usually aligned as a whole with either the Seelie or Unseelie Courts.” She nodded toward the variety of Fey bustling about. “Brownies—Seelie; Goblins—Unseelie; Pixies—Seelie; Red Caps—Unseelie; Nymphs—Seelie, and the Slaugh—” She pointed discreetly toward the little guy with the fat rabbit ears. “The Slaugh are definitely Unseelie.”

  “What are the Slaugh?”

  “The Slaugh,” Moira shivered, “are the nightmares of the Fey. They are the one of the most dangerous creatures of Faery. The Slaugh are the hand of punishment the Queen of the Unseelie Court holds over people to keep them in line. Right now, Queen Medwyn has pretty much given them free reign over New Faery to try and find out who is attacking the potentials. It’s sort of like Homeland Security—but far more dangerous.”

  “Oh.” Ryssa eyed the creature curiously. He didn’t seem all that scary. And then he looked at her. She felt her body go cold all the way down to her toenails. It was as though he were seeing inside of her, pulling out what was there and judging her based on what he saw. He grinned, sharp, pointed teeth showing within his little mouth that had somehow now expanded to cover the lower half of his face. She quickly turned away. “So what about the Phooka?”

  “What about—?” Moira gave a little chuckle. “Oh, most definitely Unseelie.”

  “Then how did you come to be in a Seelie House?”

  “Now there’s a question that would send some of Faery into epileptic spasms—the height of rudeness.”

  “I was raised among humans,” Ryssa retorted.

  “Our being considered Seelie is based on the fact that the only magic potential Jet and I have shown any measurable levels in is Celestial. And since the House of Nightfall has been disbanded, well, that’s where we’ve been put. It’d be a lot worse if half of the highest-ranking members of the House of Starborn hadn’t been annihilated. The Seelie Court can be extremely priggish about half-breeds.”

  Ryssa made a face. “I hate prejudice.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Moira, “and it’s no different here than in the Zombie Zone. Maybe someday people will get a clue and realize it’s what’s inside that matters—not the outside. But until they do, we live with it.”

  “You have an outside?” Ryssa raised her eyebrows in mock surprise. She poked Moira with a finger and let her mouth hang open. “So you do—how unobservant of me.”

  “See? A clue,” Moira laughed. “There’s hope already.”

  Ryssa joined her merriment as they followed the boys onto an open field where the other members of Team Phoenix waited.

  “Why did the Wing Field have to be so far from where we were?” Reggie whispered to Jet when he saw the impatient disapproval on the face of his uncle.

  Jet shrugged. “I think it has something to do with your bad choice in direction when you left the Sithin.”

  Reggie gave him a disgruntled look.

  “That,” Pyro added, “and it has something to do with not wanting those who are practicing with fireballs to be near those who are in flight practice. With the huge margin of error typical of newbies, the two don’t make a good combo.”

  “Come along, children.” Aurelius waved them over to where the others lay on their backs, gazing up at the sky. “Find a spot and get comfortable.”

  The new arrivals found places on the grass as instructed, and when everyone was settled, Aurelius began.

  “All right, then. I trust you all remember our lesson from yesterday? That’s going to be our starting point for today.”

  Ryssa groaned inwardly. She still hadn’t gotten the hang of the previous lesson.

  “:But today you have me,:” Darkwind said.

  Ryssa didn’t respond. She was trying to focus on what Aurelius was saying.

  “:I’ll get you through this.:” Ryssa didn’t feel that assured.

  “Today we learn about Air magic, but we’ll be combining it with a little Celestial magic as well. When you get your wings here shortly, they will contain spells to help you get past the first stages. I want you to feel and understand these stages before you begin, because it will give you better control.

  “First, I want you to find your focus. Empty your mind of conscious thought and let your subconscious take over. Concentrate on the sound of my voice and what I tell you to do.

  “Let the weight of your body sink into the Earth. Think of your body and the Earth as one, and let the Earth hang onto the physical part while your thoughts focus on the sound of my voice. Watch the clouds above you—follow their movement with your eyes, and think of yourself as one of those clouds, floating above the Earth on unseen currents of air. Pay attention to the currents around you. See the rivers of air and light that can take you in whichever direction you want to go.”

  Suddenly, the sky filled with tiny sparkles of light. It was like the Sprite cavern, but these lights had specific paths they followed through the sky, some of them wrapping around each other, winding in and out, all the while keeping a solid, uninterrupted flow.


  “Air is extremely malleable. It is one of the simplest of the elemental magics to work with, yet it can be the hardest to control. When you work with Air, it is best to remember that you cannot stop the wind, but you can make it change direction.”

  A disk appeared in the sky above them and the lights changed their path to flow around it. They didn’t stop, but instead adjusted the flow and moved in another direction.

  Ryssa watched and listened, but she didn’t feel like she was connecting to anything. She sneaked a peak at the others. They all had the subtle glow of their connections—a link to the magic it seemed only she could see. It was a patterned mixture of purple and silver lines. She could see it, but couldn’t find the connection herself.

  “:Listen to me for a moment,:” Darkwind’s whisper came over the top of Aurelius’s voice. Ryssa frowned, but didn’t say anything. “:Think of your twin.:”

  That threw her off guard. Reggie leapt instantly to her mind.

  “:Now focus on him while you are listening to Lord Aurelius. Think of the times when you have looked at him and just knew what he was thinking, or feeling.:”

  The frown came back. She’s talking about the twin-bond, the suspicious thought crossed her mind.

  “:That’s exactly what I’m teaching you. If you can’t focus on the Earth, which you have never been able to connect to, then you need to focus on your twin who has, and who is doing it right now. By connecting to him, you’ll be able to feel the Earth link and understand it better. With that understanding, it’ll make it easier to find the connection for yourself.:”

  Ryssa thought about it for a moment and decided it made sense. She focused on Reggie, thinking about him. Almost immediately she felt peace wash over her, filling her with pleasant emptiness. This must be the emptying part Aurelius was talking about, she thought in amazement—and it stopped.

  “:Don’t think—just feel.:”

  She tried again, focusing on her twin. The emptiness came and she allowed it to sweep over her, opening her to its sensation. And what a feeling! With the emptiness came the connection to the Earth—and to the Air and Celestial magics—Ryssa almost laughed out loud at the sheer pleasure of it.

  “:I get it now—I really get it.:”

  “:Ryss?:” Reggie’s voice came into her thoughts. “:Is that you?:”

  “:Yes. Darkwind showed me how to open our twin-bond so I could learn about connecting to the magic. I just couldn’t get a grasp on it by myself—you’re not mad at me, are you?:”

  “:No. Jet and I talked about it once, but I was waiting until you got over some of your heebie jeebies about it.:”

  “:I’m over it, I think.:”

  “:Cool. Hey—we’ll have to check this out—this could be pretty useful.:”

  “:Like now—sorry I didn’t ask first.:”

  “:No prob. We’ll figure this all out.:”

  “:I’m going to sign off now. Or whatever you call it. I want to see if I can do this on my own.:”

  “:Sure,:” Reggie agreed and the bond between them ceased.

  Ryssa let her mind go to that empty place and opened up as she had with Reggie. The rush of connection was overwhelming, far more powerful than she had been able to experience through the twin-bond. With the Earth connecting to her physical self, she sent the essence of the connection to the Air, feeling the flows begin. The Celestial magic came next and she watched the flows interlock into a pattern of purple and silver.

  Ryssa closed her eyes and purred inwardly at the warmth of the feeling that enveloped her. She embraced the sensation, allowing it to wrap over, around and through her, becoming one with the magic. Her sigh of happiness was interrupted by the soft tone of Aurelius’ voice next to her ear.

  “Ryssa,” she felt his breath tickle her ear, “come back to us, child.”

  Confused, Ryssa opened her eyes. She hadn’t gone anywhere—what was Aurelius talking about? She looked into his face, very near to hers, and was startled into losing the magic connection. Ryssa felt as though she was falling and started flailing her arms. Her forearm connected with Aurelius’s face as he caught her.

  “W-what happened?” She trembled with uncertainty.

  “You gave yourself over to the magic.” Aurelius frowned. “Completely.”

  Ryssa recognized the trace of disapproval in her uncle’s voice. “Isn’t that what I was supposed to do?”

  “Well, yes.” Aurelius put on his emotionless mask, and helped her to her feet. “And you did it well. Now we have to make sure you have some control over the magic.”

  He started walking toward a cocoon-type dwelling, similar to Madam Quinn’s, at the edge of the field. “Come along, Team. It’s time for you to fly.”

  The rest of the team shuffled after Aurelius, a couple of them shooting odd looks her way. Ryssa lingered back, still unsure of herself. Reggie, Moira, and Jet came up to her. Reggie took her by the arm and gently urged her toward the group.

  “Wow, Ryss.” His face held a look of awe. “How did you do that?”

  “How did I do what?” Ryssa was confused. “What did I do?”

  “You were levitating,” said Jet.

  “No.” Moira shook her head. “It was more than that. You were floating—and glowing.”

  “Glowing?”

  “Glowing,” Reggie confirmed with a nod. “It was like your skin was lit up underneath with thousands of tiny silver and purple lines. They sort of, um, shined through.”

  Ryssa looked worriedly at Moira. “Is that bad?”

  “I don’t think so,” the Phooka girl grinned. “But it was really cool.”

  Ryssa smiled tightly.

  “I think you made it so all of us could see the magic,” Jet said thoughtfully.

  “You mean you can’t normally see it?” Ryssa thought about all the times she had seen it, or at least thought she had.

  “Nope. Most of us can’t—not even the elders. It’s pretty rare—like when you saw Blaze calling the magic in the sweets shop. None of us saw it then, either. And this was more than just you seeing the magic, it’s like you helped us to see it, too.” Jet gave her a big grin. “Better than a laser light show.”

  Ryssa gave him an uneasy look, holding up her hands to see if there were any traces of what the others had seen. They seemed normal enough. She noticed Reggie watching her, and she scowled, shoving them into her pockets.

  They went through the doublewide entry of the cocoon and found that, as it seemed everywhere else in Faery, the inside was far larger than it appeared to be from the outside. Reggie shook his head. He didn’t think he’d ever understand it.

  The interior of the cocoon was alive with moving colors. Sets of wings attached to straps hung on the walls, fluttering as if they were alive. It looked like a hundred giant butterflies were nesting inside the cocoon, but there were no bodies—only wings. Aurelius stood near an area of wings patterned in orange and black, much like those of Monarch butterflies.

  Jet was right, Reggie thought to himself. These are pretty cool.

  Aurelius was adjusting the straps of a set of wings onto Glinda’s back, but her eyes were on a pair of beautifully feathered ones that flapped gracefully across the room.

  “Can’t I try those instead?” She pointed.

  “Once you get the hang of the training wings, you’ll be able to move into other flight styles,” Aurelius promised absently. He tested the straps to make certain they were snug, and then directed her toward the door as he called Loo over. The rest of the Team shuffled aside as Glinda passed, so they didn’t crumple her wings.

  “Wait until everyone else is ready before you attempt using them,” Aurelius called after her.

  He worked his way through the rest of the team, fitting wings securely to their backs. Reggie was the last. He felt a little odd following Aurelius out the door, his wings fanning out behind him. As they left the cocoon, he saw Ryssa twisting this way and that, trying to get a glimpse of the wings attached at each shoul
der. Others were doing the same, and Reggie noticed that each set of wings, like the butterflies they resembled, had a unique pattern.

  “Okay, children,” Aurelius motioned for the group to spread out, “link to the magic and focus on bringing it to your wings. You won’t need a lot—a little will do. Once you feel the lift of Air, take yourself up into the currents and ride them. Flow with the currents and get a true feel for how Air works.”

  Whisper was the first one off the ground, her look of surprise turning to delight as she shot upward into the currents, which were still marked by the little lights to show how they flowed. Moira and Jet were not far behind. Jet gave a victory cry as he zipped up to the flow of lights and air.

  Reggie followed, and one by one the members of Team Phoenix made their way to the air currents that floated passively above the ground. Reggie found it wasn’t difficult to maneuver the flows, and he relaxed as a current took him on an idle flight around the wing field. At one point, he saw Jet on a parallel current, grinning at him as he pretended to do a breaststroke through the air. Before long, their currents separated and took them in different directions.

  Reggie looked for his sister and saw her struggling just above the ground, trying to make her way up to the currents. He zipped into a flow and headed in her direction. He let his path glide downward a bit and caught her hand, pulling her up with him.

  “Just let go. Let the currents take you—don’t fight it.”

  Ryssa nodded determinedly, closed her eyes, and let go. Reggie felt a tingle as her body started to glow with the magic. He dropped her hand in shock and noticed a change in the airflow around him. The current sped up and Reggie almost lost control of his wings as he struggled to keep up with the increasing pace. He looked around and saw he wasn’t the only one struggling. Looks of enjoyment had turned to panic as the members of Team Phoenix fought to stay within the currents.

  The pattern shifted, tightening the flows into a spiral, drawing all of the team toward a single point in the middle. At the center of the spiral was Ryssa, her eyes still closed, spinning slowly upright, her arms held out to her sides. She glowed with the silver lines of Celestial magic interwoven with purple ones of Air. The purple lines extended outward from her fingertips, gathering the natural airflows around her, pulling them, and her teammates, into a vortex that continued to increase in speed.

  Reggie was fighting in earnest now, as were the rest of the Team. They no longer had control of their flight paths.

  “Ryssa!” he shouted, but she didn’t seem to hear him.

  He focused on her, trying to access the twin-bond. A moment of dizziness washed over him and then he suddenly found himself at a peaceful center, watching through the mind’s eye of his sister as the patterned lines danced around her.

  “:Ryss.:”

  “:Isn’t it cool, Regg?:”

  “:It’s awesome. But you need to stop—or at least slow it down a bit.:”

  “:Why?:”

  “:Because you’re messing up the flows over the whole field. The others are having trouble keeping up with what you’re doing—me included.:”

  “:Oh, no!:” Reggie heard her dismay and felt his body dropping the instant she loosened her grip on the magic.

  “:Wait, let me help.:” He tried connecting to the pattern. He had the feeling that if she panicked and let go all at once, the entire team would find themselves instantly grounded.

  They worked together with the pattern of the magic, releasing it slowly from the hold Ryssa had on it, allowing it to settle into its natural cycle.

  “:I’m gonna pull back now and come over to you,:” Reggie said once the currents felt back to normal again. “:Then we’ll land together.:”

  “:I stink!:” Reggie felt his sister’s emotional lash. “:I can’t do anything right.:”

  “:You just did some pretty heavy mojo, Ryss:,” he tried to calm her. “:I wouldn’t say you stink, I’d say you were incredible. Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out together:.”

  Reggie pulled back from the bond and focused on his sister. He caught the nearest current and flew to her side, and hugged her body close to his. Gradually, he let his path glide to the ground, coming to a stop near Aurelius.

  Their uncle hurried toward them, his expression both anxious and wary. Ryssa threw her arms around Reggie’s neck and sobbed into his shoulder.

  Reggie looked at his uncle. “I’m going to take her back to the rooms.”

  “Yes, of course.” Aurelius blinked, his emotionless mask sliding back into place. He stared at Ryssa, and Reggie was fairly certain that he wouldn’t like to hear the thoughts going through the man’s head right now.

  Reggie put his arm around his sister’s waist and let her lean on him for support as they walked away from the wing field.