But she knew he was right. She had to spend her ten years there before she could travel home. But that didn’t mean she was going to not try to find a way…
Princess Fallon sighed, not taking his hand, but walking off with him out of the swamp. She had no choice but to spend another decade in that place, and what was she going to do—stand knee-deep in a wet, stinking bog?
They crossed sand and sea to get to the place he’d told her about, and as if strolling through a vivid—yet whimsical—dream she found herself standing in the middle of a valley with two rolling hills on both sides and a great elm at its center. He grinned, eager to see her response.
And just as if the leader of a musical quartet raised his baton and let it sway before her, the pixies lit up in wondrous colors of every shade of the rainbow. They clung to the elm making it glow under the moonless sky like a gleaming oasis in the dry desert.
“Do you like it?” he asked in a kind voice.
Just then the pixies shot out from the tree in a magnificent array of dazzling streaks of color in almost a sort of floral pattern.
“It’s beautiful,” she said, brushing her blond hair back behind her ears.
“I knew you’d like it,” Antoline said.
That stood there a long while gazing up at the trails of glowing pixies flowing around each other.
“What was it like?” Antoline asked, scratching the stubble on his neck. “What was it like back in your world?”
Her heart sank as she snapped back into the moment, remembering her father’s passing. Knowing that he would never be able to wrap his arms around her again and tell her that ‘everything is going to be okay,’ because then she knew the real truth—nothing was okay.
“I don’t know what’s real anymore,” she said, rubbing her eyes as if waking from a dream. “I don’t even know if I’ve been back or I just dreamt it.”
Antoline listened, nodding. She looked up at him and noticed his white horns had grown since she’d last laid her eyes upon him—his auburn hair had grown too. Pip landed on her shoulder and scratched her back with her tiny hands.
“Take time here to rest,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about anything here. Pip and I will take care of you. Nothing can harm you.”
“They knew I was going to be back at the castle when I was,” Fallon said. “They were already there, waiting… what if that happens again? I can’t keep doing this, I can’t do this again.”
“You mean…?” he moaned. “You don’t like it here? I can show you something else, I can show you—”
“I didn’t mean that,” she said with her head lowered. “I just miss my home.”
There was another long silence as the princess wept.
Suddenly, as she raised her head, she saw that the valley was brilliantly lit in a warm, summer light. The light of the pixies had gone, and the elm at the end of the valley swayed in the breeze.
“Well, we rather enjoy you here.” Antoline winked. “We don’t get many visitors here.”
“Let’s go show her something else,” Pip said in a sweet voice.
“Yes, yes!” Antoline said, standing back up. “Off we go. We’ll find something to cheer you up! The wizard would want us to while we keep you safe. We’ll get a smile back on your face, I promise!”
Fallon rose to her feet and off they went. Along the way she saw great griffins fly overhead, three-headed snakes slither by, and even a small dragon by the name of Fallon, who was herself not as pleasant as the princess had hoped.
Eventually, they found themselves at the top of a mighty mountain, looking down upon a sparkling sea that went on as far as she could see until it met the orange, fiery sky.
“Where are we now?” she asked as her hair ripped behind her with the rushing mountain winds flying past.
“At the edge of the Fae,” he said with Pip perched upon his strong shoulder. “Isn’t it exquisite?”
Fallon took a deep breath and let the salty air fill her nostrils.
“It’s lovely,” she said, thinking about her aging mother in her world. She thought about all of the worry her mother must have over her: struggling to find who was after her, how to defeat that evil, and worrying if Fallon was to even survive her time in the fairy world.
“I thought you’d like it,” Antoline said. “This is one of my very favorite places to sit and ponder.”
“Antoline,” Fallon said, inching her feet forward to the edge of the cliff. “If I were to…”
She felt Antoline’s arms ready to reach out if need be.
“Just stay where you are,” he said in a soothing voice. “Just relax and enjoy the view.”
“If… If I were to leap—,” she said as a surging wind pushed her back. “Would I die?”
His presence was a stern, ominous one then. “I can’t let you do that.” His voice was deep, with a hiss like a snake.
“What?” she turned in surprise at the tone in his voice like she’d never heard before. At first his face was dark as if concealed in shadow but lightened with a smile once he snapped back to his charming appearance.
“I made a promise to a powerful, knowing wizard,” he said. “I don’t break promises.”
She looked back down the steep peak and the brittle rocks below that flowed down to the crashing waves of the sparkling sea. “I’m not going to,” she said. “I just was curious if I can die here… In the Fae, I mean.”
“Let’s go find another adventure,” Pip said in a light-hearted voice. “What’s another thing we can show her?”
Antoline extended his hand again for Fallon to take.
“Please,” she said with both her arms outstretched at her sides. “Answer my question. I fear I may live an eternity in your world if every time I go back to the same war happening in my world. I wasn’t meant to live my whole life here. I have a family back there. They need me. And I need them.”
“Can’t we be your family here?” Antoline asked, shocking Princess Fallon.
“What?” she gasped.
“You’ve been here for so many years with Pip and I,” he said. “Can’t we be a family too for you?” His dark eyes were gentle and kind.
“Well, yes,” she said, not wanting to offend her protector, so named by the wizard Fallon had only met briefly when she was a young girl. “But I miss my mother, and my handmaiden. She’s my mother after all, and a mother and daughter’s bond is like no other.”
“Yes, yes,” he said. “I understand.”
“But please,” Fallon said. “Please answer my question.”
He sighed with a deep exhale.
“Death here is not like death in your world.”
“What’s it like then? Explain it to me.”
“We don’t really talk about these things here,” he said. “The Fae is a magical place where anything can happen, and usually does.”
“What about the Centurine?” she asked. “You were startled when I came upon the cursed wizard who turned into that lake in the desert. What happens there? What happens if you dip your fingertips into the waters with the silver-haired maiden who sings her lovely tunes?”
“A misery worse than death,” he answered. “Souls don’t leave the land of the Fae; I’ll just say that. They either go to a warm place, or a deep, deep, dark place.”
“Isn’t that the same as my world? That’s what I’ve always been taught growing up.”
“No.” He shook his head with his long, white horns swaying from side to side.
“I don’t understand.”
“None do, even here,” he said. “Now let’s not think of such morbid things. We don’t have much time left you see…”
“How much time do I have left then?” she asked.
“Three years, give or take,” Pip said, fluttering her wings. “We’ve got so much more to show you.”
“Seven years?” she murmured. “I’ve been here seven years?”
Chapter Three
Princess Fallon lay in a hammock of silk hu
ng between two birch trees, looking up at a bright blue sky with pillowy, white clouds as the air was warm and her skin was bathed in wonderful sunlight. She wasn’t sure how she’d gotten to the spot she was, but she was certain of one thing—she wanted to get home.
“Isn’t this lovely?” Pip fluttered overhead with her nude body and blue, butterfly wings.
Fallon nodded.
“Pip, how much longer until I go back to my world?”
“Don’t think about that now,” the fairy said. “Enjoy our time while we can.”
“It’s been pleasurable, but—I’m just wondering…”
It was then Antoline walked up to the hammock, startling Fallon by his great size and his horns rising high toward the sky. “Rested?” he asked in a low voice.
Fallon sat up and got to her feet next to him.
“How long ’til I can go back home?”
He grunted. “You’re always going on about that. What about my feelings? I made a promise to keep you safe, and safe I’ve kept you. When was the last time you said thank you?”
Fallon took a step back from the man who was now several heads taller than her. “Antoline?”
“He’s just shaken,” Pip said in a soft voice. “He’s upset that you’re leaving so soon.”
Fallon gazed at the large man, who resembled nothing of her prince who’d she loved back in her world. “How long until I get back, I demand that you tell me! Whether you made a promise or not!”
The large man seemed to lessen in stature then. “Only days,” he said sulkily, “I don’t want to be alone again for ten years. Last time was so hard on me… I don’t want to do it again.”
Ten years? Is he planning on me coming back?
“Listen,” she said. “I appreciate everything you’ve done while I’ve been here. But when I’m gone, I’m going to be gone. We can say goodbye now as my mother, the queen, has found a way to keep me safe when I go back. We’ll have all these fond memories to remember. But I’m going back to my world, where I belong.”
“I know,” the hulking giant said softly with hunched shoulders.
“You have Pip,” she said. “She’s a remarkable friend. And you live in the beauty of the Fae, what else could you want?”
His raised his head. “You can stay here, you know. You don’t have to go back. You can be happy here… forever…”
Fallon’s brow furrowed. “What? Why would I do that? How?”
“There’s a spell,” he said. “But it must be cast from you, and you can stay with us. And I can keep you safe.”
“A spell? I’m no wizard, what is he talking about, Pip?”
“He mentioned it to me the other day,” the fairy said shyly. “Supposedly it will keep your body and soul in the Fae—forever.”
“Pip?” Fallon said with a raised eyebrow. “Why are you mentioning this now? And you don’t seem yourself…”
“I—” Pip said as she looked shyly up at Antoline, who glowered at her with his darkening eyes.
“Pip? What?” the princess asked.
“I don’t want you to stay!” Pip lashed out. “You need to go home!”
“Pip!” Antoline lashed out. “She can stay with us. We don’t have to lose her!”
“No,” the fairy cried out with a commanding voice that echoed throughout the woods around them. “It’s up to her! She’d have to be the one to say the words. Listen to her. She wants to go back to her world, to her real family!”
“Her family might be dead!” he said.
“How dare you,” Fallon pointed up at him with her finger extended. “You’re supposed to be my protector. You say you want to be my family? Family would never say something like that. How dare you! Who do you think you are?”
“I—I’m sorry, I—”
“No,” the princess said. “I don’t care if you’re sorry. I’m not staying here. I don’t even like it here. Pip, I care for you deeply. You’re a true friend I will miss, but I’m going home—and I’m never coming back.”
“Don’t say that,” Antoline said. “You’re the brightest star in the sky here. You’re the most wonderfully cut stone; the doe that glides through the glade like the wind, you’re…”
“I’m what?” Fallon said in an angry voice. “You think showering me with praise is going to get me to stay? My mother needs me back home. I’m no beacon of shining light here, I’m a prisoner. Shadine cast this curse upon me. I don’t want this. I don’t want any of this!”
The ground shook under her feet as she spoke those words, and Antoline cowered backward. Even Pip fluttered away behind a tree.
“I will not be caged! I will not be manipulated! I will not be told what to do ever again!”
She found herself with her fists balled up and her teeth clenched towering over a cowering Antoline beneath her.
“I just wanted you to stay,” he cried. “I just wanted my friend to be safe…”
“No, you’re being a selfish man,” she said. “You want me to stay so you can control me. You say you wanted me to see how beautiful it is here. You said you wanted to protect me, but you just want me. That’s it? Isn’t it? You’re too cowardly to tell me you’re in love with me.”
Antoline sobbed in his hands as he lay on the ground.
A sudden urge swelled up in her then. It was a rage that possessed her. She wanted to hurt him. She wanted to kick him hard in the side. She wanted him to feel a fraction of her pain and misery. But, she withheld her rage. Taking a deep breath, she felt herself returning back to the ground. Antoline continued to cry, and Pip was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m so sorry,” he cried with his head tucked behind his arms. “I am selfish. It’s so lonely here when you’re gone. But I understand. You can go now. Just know that I’m going to miss you so dearly.”
It was night then, with a gloomy, cloud-filled sky overhead and bats were scuttling in the trees. Fallon looked around, unsure of where she was. Antoline was gone, and Pip too. She was alone. There was a barren, cracked ground under her feet.
“Where am I?” she whispered.
A crashing noise resounded from behind her as trees broke and the bats flew away. She turned in shock as the sound grew and the ground shook violently. She soon saw the dark, marble-like eyes of Antoline as he broke through the trees at a heavy pace. His strong horns broke the trees easily as he ran.
“There you are!” he said between heavy breaths. “I know what you think about me, but you can’t go back. It’s not about me or how I feel—but I can’t let you go back.” He lurched forward to grab her by the hands with his eyes wild with worry.
She pulled away quickly, and that same rose-red rage exploded in her. “Don’t you touch me,” she said.
“Listen,” he said, seeming much smaller than before. “We’ve only minutes. I need to tell you something. And you’ve got to listen to me carefully. Something’s changed. It’s different now. I’m not worried for you safety on the other side now… I’ve had a vision. Let me do this one thing… let me cast a spell to slow time for you. You won’t stay here forever; it’ll only give us enough time to figure this all out.”
“Stay away from me,” she said. “My father is dead because of me. My prince left me. My mother is aging, and all I have to show for it is that I’m growing in misery here. I’m older. I’m angry. And I’m stuck with you. It makes me… it makes me want to lash out. I don’t even know who I am anymore!”
“That’s what I’m trying to say,” Antoline said with his palms shown. “We need time to talk about this. We need time. I’m not going to cast the spell unless you allow me. I’m not trying to control you. I’m trying to help. I just get wrapped up in my loneliness. I need you to listen to what I have to say. There’s danger when you go back. But I can help. I know I can.”
She shook her head. “I’m going home. You can’t stop me. This isn’t my home. In my world… I’ll be a queen… here, I’m just an insect. I’m going to show that invading army what an angry queen can do… I’m
going to—”
“No!” Antoline yelled. “You can’t go back… You can’t…”
It was then the Fae faded away in a black fog like fading off into a deep slumber.
Mother, I’m coming home to you. I’m coming home…
She twirled through the darkness end over end, falling down a deep hole of black. For a moment, the princess thought she was dying, hurtling toward the dark afterlife.
But when she opened her eyes, she found herself in her room back in Norwinder Castle. Her bed was the same, the obelisk still sat in the corner of the room, and a calm night sky hung out of her window. She rushed out to find no army outside of the castle gates.
Tears of joy erupted within her then, and she dropped to her knees, sobbing.
“You’ve done it, Mother. You did it. I’m home.”
Once she’d collected herself, wiping the tears away, she walked toward her door, but something stopped her abruptly. Walking through her room she caught a glimpse of something unexpected—something startling even— She saw her reflection in her mirror at the side of the room, causing her to take slow steps backward to see the reflection again.
Her eyes were wide as she approached it. She’d aged. She’d spent a full twenty years in the Fae. She should’ve been married to a handsome prince by that time. Little children should’ve been making messes in the castle for maids to clean up by then. Her hair was long with coarse, gray hairs intermittently scattered throughout. She plucked one, examining it as it looked like a shaggy sheep’s hair than her own.
The princess saw the wrinkles cracking out of the corners of her eyes, and the age on the backs of her hands.
“At least I’m home. I’m finally back home…”
She crouched down with her hands reaching up to the sides of her face. Her fingers glided up through her hair, wrapping themselves around the two sturdy, white horns on the top of her own head. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she saw that what once had been small stubs had grown to be curling, foot-long spikes protruding from her.
Her mouth hung open at the sight. It was then that she heard the scream from out in the castle.
Wayward Magic Page 28
