by Ren Ryder
Bell tugged my left earlobe. “Djinn, see, I told you it was a djinn!” Bell exclaimed.
I raised my eyebrows at her. “When might that have been? Before or after you fell into a stupor?”
“Ugh, I can’t with you!” Bell crossed her arms and kicked the air.
I smirked.
Lady Maere gestured to the huntress who’d been holding my staff hostage since my kidnapping. “Please, return the champion his weapon so he may be on his way.”
Maive took it upon herself to stalk over to the woman, who was slow to respond to the faerie queen’s request, and liberate it from her grasp. She walked back over to me with purposeful steps. Immediately suspicious of her motives, I stood and prepared myself for the unexpected.
“No hard feelings, right?” Maive asked as she handed over my staff.
“Right,” I lied.
Lady Maere’s steady gaze drew my attention. “I expect you must want to be on your way. You’d best arrive before Oberon calls a close to his first trial, or else your efforts thus far will all have been for naught. You still must make the trek across Dayside. No matter how soft the Wildwood may appear, it does present its own, shall we say, unique, dangers.”
Bell elbowed me upside the temple and whispered, “Say your thanks, idiot!”
I took a deep breath. “Thank you for your hospitality,” I said, trying to sound like I meant it.
I didn’t.
This brought a small smile to Lady Maere’s face. “Go forth with the knowledge that, should you need it, you have the recognition and support of Lady Maere, Phantom Queen of Thorns, Guardian of the Night, Herald of Death.”
I blinked. “Thank you.”
I wondered at the inscrutable faerie queen’s intentions. Had she been aware of my plight all along?
“Oh, and you may take your pick from my huntresses— one shall guide you safe out of the Nightside.”
“How kind of you. We accept,” Bell said in a fake cheery voice.
I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my displeasure from showing. “Right then— Maive, if you accompany me, I’d be grateful.”
Lady Maere saw us out of her crystal court with a small smile and a wave.
Maive jogged off into the night, looking over her shoulder with cool disdain to see that I followed. The huntress took a huge lead, and she kept her distance from me even when we started down small game trails through a densely packed wood. Her shadowy form would flit between trees like a ghost while I struggled to keep up and keep her within eyesight. The moment I would think to call out to her she would appear like a shadow to guide me through.
Like an old man I leaned heavily on my staff, letting it take some of my weight whenever possible and using it to maneuver around obstacles.
On top of being forced through a series of deadly tests, now I had to keep up with a huntress that probably held a huge grudge against me for daring to survive. I was dead tired after my confrontation with the djinn, and Maive looked like she planned on tossing me out of the Nightside with the utmost haste. My eyes burned and my muscles ached for rest.
“Look, Mai, can you keep a reasonable pace and not venture so far ahead?” I asked, panting.
“What did you call me?” There was a sharp edge to her question that made me think I’d gone too far.
I sucked in a breath.
“Mai darling?” Bell asked, driving the nickname home.
Maive pointedly ignored Bell and I, but slowed down her pace to a fast walk and stayed a few arms-lengths ahead. The huntress seemed to struggle with herself, but put on a diplomatic face and hid her anger beneath the many shadows of the Nightside.
Maive had braided hair the color of purple lilacs and smelled of crushed berries and cloves. Black hunter’s leathers hugged her lithe figure and provided maximum protection while sacrificing as little mobility as possible. A mottled black cloak, dark tunic and pants made her blend into the Nightside.
A strung bow was slung over her back, where a quiver full of black-fletched arrows lay at the ready. I had no doubt she was an expert marksman, and she carried herself like a wolf stalking its prey.
In a cool, level voice, Maive said, “The queen wished for me to pass along her respects. She wants the best for the Otherworld as a whole, not just the Nightside or her court. She considers it her duty to protect us all.”
“Sounds like the mark of a good leader,” I said noncommittally.
“Hey, remember Kal, that thing we need to do? Maybe we should ask our guide to make a slight detour?” Bell asked in a loud voice.
I furrowed my brows. “Yes, I remember.” I grabbed my neck where the Father’s cross usually hung by its chain, only to grasp at nothing. “Maive, I was wondering whether you might be so kind as to guide us to some moonflowers?”
Maive stopped and turned around to face me. “Your request is highly irregular. Might I ask after the purpose of such a deviation?”
I halted outside her reach and spread my arms out. “My life sorta depends on it.”
Maive’s expression grew stern. “I cannot guide you there.”
“Seems we’re in a pickle then,” I shrugged. "Unfortunately, I can’t leave the Nightside until I’ve collected a bouquet’s worth of moonflowers… and here you’ve been tasked with guiding me. What ever will we do?”
Maive shifted her weight. I could see the lines of her body go rigid with anger and her muscles tense for a fight. “Moonflowers aren’t a common daisy to be picked at your leisure. One is too rich for you, and yet you seek a king’s ransom. I would sooner shower you with gold than guide you to where you might find what you seek.
“So few moonflowers bloom, but many seek them for their magical properties. Its stem produces a potent poison which over time robs magic and life, and the only antidote lies in its petals. Its nectar can prolong life, gift youth to the aged, beauty to the hideous, or its most useless trait, to heal the terminally ill and dying.”
I already felt sore about losing my lesser elementals, but the merfolk had to act like common gangsters and add in a one-sided deal I couldn’t refuse. “The merfolk got us good. We got the short end of the stick for sure.” I glanced over to see my sylph companion’s reaction.
Bell’s expression darkened. “Just you wait, I’m going to give those double-dipping snake-oil salesmen a piece of my mind!”
I made a face. “There’s no way to renegotiate, so it’s either we get them what they asked for, or their gift runs rampant and my blood curdles.”
“Whatever deal you’ve made is of no consequence to me,” Maive said.
“No?” I asked, skeptical. “My sticking around for too long might cause you some personal trouble— wouldn’t it be better to be done with me?” I leaned on my staff and let out a loud yawn. “You know what, I’m going to shut my eyes for a bit, how about you take some time to think about it?”
“What? No. You will do no such thing!” Maive looked like she was ready to explode with rage.
I was already laying down on a soft bed of leaves. Yawning, I let my eyelids flutter closed and drifted off to sleep to the sound of Maive pacing angrily through the undergrowth.
Maive kicked me awake.
It felt like I’d just closed my eyes to sleep, but I felt rested enough that I knew that couldn’t be true.
I moaned. “Hey, gentle! Couldn’t you let me sleep for a bit longer?”
“You’ve slept long enough. And you snore, both of you,” Maive said with disgust clear in her voice.
I stretched and Bell fell off her perch on my side to fall to the ground below. “Hey, what gives?!” Bell woke up cranky, which was just as well because I felt the same.
“Maive here wants to get moving, I suppose.” I appraised her openly, trying to discern whether she’d made a decision about the moonflowers.
Maive tapped her foot against the dirt. “I am guiding you out of the Nightside the quickest way I know, nothing more.”
I shrugged and let the subject lie.
There would be plenty of opportunities along the way to find a chink in the huntress’s armor. Since I was taking the longview of my future life and had to scheme for my own survival, I had no plans on leaving the Nightside without those moonflowers. If there was to be a test of stubbornness, I would prove myself an immovable rock.
My thoughts drifted back to the tests as we walked. “Hey, do you know how to make faerie fire?” I asked.
I stepped over a root and winced as I crunched through a bed of dry leaves.
Maive gave me a stern look of disapproval. “No.”
“How about—”
Maive interrupted me, saying, “I have no intentions of teaching you about the magical arts. Find a more learned familiar or make deals to gain knowledge. I will give you nothing freely, certainly not to a so-called champion of no renown.”
I widened my eyes to a comical degree. “Geez, alright, tell me how you really feel.”
“I believe I—” Maive narrowed her eyes at me, “are you yanking my chain?”
I whistled and kicked my feet through the undergrowth, carefree. “I don’t see any chains around here.”
“Can you be quiet!” Maive snapped. “This is the Nightside.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll dial it down a notch.” I smiled and stepped lightly through the forest, making as little noise as my limited capabilities allowed. There was a lot I needed to learn before I could step silent through the Darkwood as an accomplished woodsman like Maive did.
Maive cursed. “I regret my lot in life. How did I get stuck with such a horrible task? I should have helped my sisters drown you in the water from the Well of Spirit.”
“That’s the spirit!” Bell tinkling laughter filled the forest. “Get it, spirit~”
The veins in Maive’s face started popping out. I could hear her grinding her teeth. Her light step made the smallest noise, and this seemed to push her over the edge. She yanked her bow off her shoulder and gripped it tight in her fist.
It took some effort not to raise my staff in my own defense. “Hey, focus on the positive, Mai. Think how soon you can be rid of us if you guide us in such a way that we happen across some moonflowers,” I said, trying to be diplomatic.
Maive didn’t respond. She marched tight-lipped through the Darkwood, keeping her bow at the ready and looking like she might turn and put one of her black-feathered bolts in me at any moment.
I took measured steps along the game trail, avoiding a fallen twig here and passing around bits of fallen detritus that would have made a ruckus had I been more careless. Every so often the silence was broken by hooting owls. I ducked under a branch and almost ran into Maive.
Maive tapped her foot against the topsoil, her arms crossed under her breasts. “If you happen across moonflowers while I guide you out of the Nightside, I take no responsibility for what happens.”
“What, are moonflowers illegal to pick or something?” I laughed. “Are they?” I asked, more serious.
“Remember, your actions are your own. I want to be done with this ill-got task and be rid of you, that is all. Do not expect anything from me in the future. Have I made myself clear?”
“Crystal clear~” Bell butted in. “You can count on us to keep quiet about how we found them, too!”
Maive dug her nails into her jaw and shook her head. “Keep up with me, or I will leave you behind.”
Maive picked up the pace without waiting for an answer, moving from a fast walk to a light jog into a flat-out sprint. She managed to move silent even at that pace, so I was like an echo of her passage as I plowed through the Darkwood behind her.
She was trying to lose me.
I was drenched in sweat from the sudden exertion, and the pace started to seem untenable when I remembered my mana skin. To keep up with her I yanked on my source and pushed power into my newly formed mana channels. Bits of mana leaked out through my skin, but the vast majority I retained before it burned off.
Thin tendrils of mana coiled off my skin. I started letting off a soft translucent glow. I felt exhilarated, almost intoxicated.
My speed increased manyfold. Effortless as the wind, I glided through the forest right on Maive’s heels. I still failed to keep my step silent, but I no longer feared losing the huntress.
We burst out of the wood and onto rolling plains of wild grasses. The stars and bright full moon shaded the dark landscape in grayscale. I slowed my headlong rush along with the change in scenery but Maive kept up the same ground-eating pace.
Rolling plains stretched far into the horizon until they were engulfed by a mountainous region that cut the landscape in two. It was as if a god had drawn a line in the sand, drawing a clear separation between the peoples of the Dayside and the Nightside.
“I hate this mode of travel. It’s so bouncy and windy and ugh I just hate it so much,” Bell whined.
“Why don’t you, I don’t know, fly instead?” I asked.
“And tire myself out for no reason?” Bell’s words were stained with incredulity.
“Sorry I asked,” I scoffed and turned my attention back to my surroundings.
In the far distance Maive was running across the rolling plains, her form seeming to disappear and then reappear each time she topped a small hill. Even then she was almost impossible to spot. If she made any evasive maneuvers I’d have no idea where to look, so she wasn’t doing everything she could to shake me.
I snickered. “Okay Bell, lemme know if this is more your speed.”
“Wait a minute, last time you had an idea, I was not a fan!” Bell complained.
I clapped my hands and rubbed my arms, electric tingles running through my body in anticipation of what I had in mind.
I held my staff up at shoulder level, gripping it in both hands and concentrating. The wood warmed in my hands as I cycled mana through it, but I wasn’t finished. Focusing on Bell’s sigil in my chest, I started to shine silver as I converted my active mana into wind mana.
Winds rippled off me as I held my intent in my mind, then focused as I cycled it through my body, down newly burned channels and into my staff. I twirled the staff like a madman, kicking up ever-increasing amounts of wind.
I took off running. When I ran up the mound’s incline and reached the top, I jumped while expelling a blast of wind mana through my staff. Propelled through the air like a cannonball, I let loose an exhilarated scream with all the air in my lungs.
“We’re, we’re flying!” Bell screamed alongside me. Her scream changed pitch, then she said, “Oh no, I was wrong, we’re not flying, we’re falling!”
I aimed for the next hilltop and leapt off as soon as I landed, shooting another bolt of wind mana out my staff to propel me further. My stomach floated into my chest as gravity seemed to lose its hold over me while I arced up into the air.
I laughed manically. “Wohooo!”
Over and over again I leapt with increasing vigor, becoming more sure of myself as I went. Bell was screaming something, but her words were lost to the wind.
I spent a hairsbreadth on the ground before lifting off again into the sky. It felt like I was falling up into the stars. Even the Otherworld couldn’t keep its hold over me if I fought its pull.
At the zenith of my latest leap I spotted what I first mistook for a fleeing animal before I recognized Maive. With a focused burst of wind I altered my course midair so I would collide with her if she kept her course. Landing with my knees locked I slid across the wild grasses until I came to a stop.
Bell went off. “I hate it. I hate it. Never again. That’s not flying, whatever it is, it’s a travesty! It shouldn’t exist. I refuse to mock the beauty of flight with such a horrid technique!”
I felt exposed.
At its base the mountain range loomed over us, an ominous specter watching our progress. Harsh moonlight illuminated the craggy rock, dirt, and brush. A few solitary trees fought the otherwise blank openness, but regardless there was little in the way of cover.
Heart racing and e
yes wide, I looked around for Maive only to find her right beside me. I tried to act natural even though I was spooked by her silent appearance.
“Oh, hey there. Fancy meeting you here,” I said, smoothing out my voice.
“Am I supposed to be impressed by your fledgling attempts at magic?” Maive asked.
“What? No, I was just…” I trailed off, butterflies rising in my stomach as awkwardness overcame me.
Maive held up a hand. “Save it. The less we interact, the better off I will be.”
Maive slung her bow over her shoulder with obvious reluctance, then gripped my forearm with a look of pure disgust. I felt her nails digging into the ritual markings there, but she held back from drawing blood.
“Come with me,” Maive said, in a tone that didn’t brook argument.
The sylph dive-bombed Maive, but got shooed off. “Hey, get your stinky hands off him!” Bell yelled.
I ambled along behind the huntress as she dragged me along. “Okay, okay. Geez. I’m coming. You don’t have to grab me so hard you know, I’m following either way.”
“Oh believe me, I do not relish the contact!” Maive spat.
I widened my eyes but swallowed back the comments that came to me.
Right up against the base of the mountains and with no obvious landmark in sight, I was confused about our purpose. Whether we had an extended hike ahead or were going to burrow underneath the hulking mass of earth and rock, I didn’t see why I needed to be dragged the whole way.
I tripped over a rock and stumbled forward a few steps ahead of Maive, which threw her off balance. She opened her mouth, then shut it with a clack of teeth.
“Watch your step. A single misstep could mean our lives.”
My skepticism showed. “It could?”
Maive’s tapered ears twitched. “There are traps meant to slow and confuse, terrorize and debilitate, and, of course, the killing traps.”
I sucked in a breath between my teeth. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“All are hidden from the sight, so my experience is all we have to go on— so you would do well to do as I say.”
I saluted her. “As you were then, sorry to distract you from your work.”
