The Faerie War

Chapter 16

Sixteen

“Oryn?” The woman lowers her bow and arrow but doesn’t let go. I don’t move mine an inch. “Ryn, it’s really you!” With a smile, she steps forward. “Where have you—”

“Stop.” A knife appears in each of Ryn’s hands. “Show me your palm.”

She hesitates. Her smile slips. “Ryn, honey, I’m so relieved you weren’t hurt. We need to talk about—”

“Show me your palm.”

Her bow and arrow disappear, but she doesn’t raise her hand. “It isn’t what you think, Ryn. It isn’t what any of you think. Draven isn’t this evil overlord everyone is making him out to be. He wants the best for our world. He wants everyone to be united, both Seelie and Unseelie.”

“You’re marked, aren’t you?” Ryn says, his voice hitching slightly.

“I’m loyal to Draven, if that’s what you mean.” She raises her right hand so we can see the open circle inked into her skin.

Ryn sucks in a deep breath, and I hear it shake slightly as he lets it out. Guilt washes over me. Why didn’t I think to ask Ryn about his family? I’ve been thinking of no one but myself.

“We have a cure you can take, Mom. You don’t have to serve Draven.”

She frowns. “But I want to. And you should too. You and Violet can come back with me and—”

“No.” Ryn shakes his head. “We’re not going anywhere with you. We’re going to cure you of the delusion Draven has placed on you. Then you’ll know the truth.” I see his hand move slowly toward his pocket.

Ryn’s mother looks over at her companion, a large man holding a sword in one hand and a sparkling metal disc in the other. Shadows make it difficult to see his face. The bow and arrow return to Ryn’s mother’s hands as she looks back at Ryn and says, “I don’t want to hurt you, but if that’s what it takes for you to come back with me, I’ll do it. I won’t lose my son again.”

Ryn shakes his head again. “Don’t make me fight you, Mom.”

“I’m sorry …” She raises the bow—then jerks forward and slumps to the ground. Unconscious. Em stands behind her, arms outstretched. The man in dark blue spins around and flicks his wrist. The metal disc sails toward Em, but it strikes an invisible barrier and disappears.

Max and Fin step out from behind the trees and move slowly toward the man, their hands raised as though pushing something through the air. “We’ve got a shield bubble around him,” Fin says. “Give your mom the cure.”

“You stunned my mother?” Ryn shouts as he dashes to the fallen woman’s side.

“Yeah.” Em rolls her eyes as she reaches inside her jacket. “Never mind the fact that she was about to shoot you, Ryn. And it was barely a stun. We didn’t have time to gather enough power for that. She’ll be awake in a few minutes. Here, give her the cure.” Em opens the pouch in her hand and removes a small glass vial.

“Hey, Vi, we could use your help here,” Max says. The man is throwing himself at the invisible barrier surrounding him. When he starts shooting sparks of magic at it, Max groans. “He’s really strong. I don’t know how much longer we can contain him.”

I run over and add my own shield around the struggling man. I look over my shoulder at Ryn and his mother. He holds her head up with one hand and pours the vial’s liquid into her mouth. “Come on. Wake up and drink it,” he urges. Moments later, she coughs and splutters and pushes him away from her. She rolls onto her hands and knees and crawls a few feet away. A shiver passes through her body, and she takes a gasping breath.

Please work, please work, I chant silently. I stumble back as the man batters against my shield. I plant my feet firmly in the snow and strengthen the magic pouring out of me.

Ryn’s mother climbs slowly to her feet and looks around at us.

“Did it work?” Max asks. His face is twisted with the effort of keeping his shield intact. “Is she cured?”

She doesn’t respond. Her breathing is heavy as she watches the snow at her feet, her eyes flicking across it. Then she clenches her right hand into a fist and says in a dangerously low voice, “That was very stupid of you.”

I guess that’s a ‘no.’

Before I can think of what to do next, I find myself thrown backward onto the ground. I sink into the snow as I throw up a shield once again—to protect myself this time. Sparks shower down and bounce uselessly off the barrier between me and the man in dark blue. I jump to my feet, along with Fin and Max.

Ryn sends a flock of flapping birds at his mother. As she backs away, he drags Em behind him and gets his own shield in place.

“Are we going to do this all night?” His mother shouts from the other side of the shield. The flapping birds have vanished.

“Should we try to stun them and take them back with us?” Em asks. “Five against two. We should be able to do it.”

“I don’t know. Just let me—”

“Look there!” Max points past our two assailants to the old Guild ruins. Guardians are pouring out of a doorway in one of the broken-down walls.

“Oh … crap,” Em whispers.

Crap indeed. We can’t fight that many faeries. Our best chance is to—

“Run!” Ryn yells.

I turn and make a dash for it. I keep my shield up behind me as long as I can, but the magic hammering against it soon becomes overwhelming. I let go. Sparks, shards of ice, and grains of sand that sting shoot past us. I duck and dodge and continue running. As far as I can tell, everyone else on the team is still running too. I don’t know how close our pursuers are, but I’m not about to waste time looking over my shoulder. I hear a chirping sound from Ryn, and moments later the magic carpet swoops down through the trees. It zooms ahead of us, swerving to avoid the trees.

“Jump on!” Ryn shouts to the rest of us.

The carpet slows, but doesn’t stop moving. Ryn reaches it first and jumps. He moves out of the way as Max and Fin leap through the air and land on the carpet. I reach it at the same time as Em. We jump—and Em screams as something tugs her back. I roll across the carpet and look up to see Em hanging onto the tasseled edge with Ryn’s mother’s hands grasping at her jacket. I lunge across the carpet and grab Em’s arms. I pull as hard as I can, and Em tumbles over me as Ryn’s mother loses her grip. The dome-like shield goes up around the carpet, and we shoot up through the trees and away from our pursuers.

“Are you hurt?” Ryn shouts back as he steers.

“No,” Em says, rubbing her arms. Her breath comes out in gasps. “She got the bag of cures I was carrying, but I’m fine.”

“Man, I haven’t run that fast in a while,” Max says, his breathing matching Em’s. “It was quite exhilarating, actually.”

I know what he means. I can feel the adrenaline high pumping through my body. Ryn says nothing as we gain speed and the forest slides beneath us faster and faster. I want to say something about his mother, something reassuring or comforting, but I don’t know what.

“Wait, what was that?” Em is at the edge of the carpet looking down. “Slow down, Ryn. I saw someone back there.”

“We’re trying to get away from them, Em,” Max says.

“No, it was a person in the top of a tree. He wasn’t wearing dark blue like Draven’s people. It could be a survivor.”

“Hiding in a tree?” Max sounds doubtful.

“Yes, and if you were still out there hiding from Draven, you’d want to be rescued too. Ryn, can we go back?”

“Em, it’s probably a trap,” Ryn says, but I feel the carpet slowing anyway. Ryn twists around and catches my eye. He raises his eyebrows. Is he asking me what I think?

“We should probably go back,” I say quietly. “I know if I were alone out there trying to stay hidden, I’d want to be rescued. And if he or she starts attacking us as we get closer, we can always fly away.”

Ryn nods and turns the carpet around.

Em leans over and whispers, “Remind me to get you to ask him for stuff in the future.”

“Em, you’re supposed to be looking out for this person,” Ryn says.

Em moves to the edge of the carpet again. “There.” She points. “See that green shape?”

Ryn nods. “Okay, I’m going to get closer slowly. I don’t want to alarm whoever it is.”

We glide through the air toward the green shape. It soon becomes clear that it’s a man. A man huddled near the top of a tree with his arms wrapped tightly around the trunk. He’s looking down at something.

“Hey, I think I know him,” Ryn says, steering the carpet around so we can see the man’s face beneath his hood. “You know him too, V. At least, you did know him. He was the head librarian at our Guild.”

Amon. That’s what Ryn said when he was questioning me in Uri’s lab, right?

Amon looks up and almost falls out of the tree. His face turns the color of the snow on the branch beside him, and he grips the tree even tighter.

Ryn drops the carpet’s shield and calls out, “Amon. It’s me, Ryn. Are you okay? I’m not marked.” He holds up his hand as proof.

Amon closes his eyes and shudders. He holds up a shaking hand, free of Draven’s mark. “I’m s-so glad you found me.”

“Here, take my hand,” I say. Snowflakes drift onto my arm as I lean over the edge of the carpet and reach out toward Amon. He looks up at me, his moss green eyes filled with fear.

“Violet. You’re okay too.” He detaches one arm from the trunk and wraps his hand around mine. “I was starting to think I’d die out here.” With a clumsy jump, he lands on the carpet beside me. He’s a skinny man, lacking the athletic build I’m used to seeing on faeries who are guardians. “You should go quickly,” he says. “There are guardians down there. Traitor guardians.”

The shield reappears, and Ryn turns the carpet around. Seconds later, we shoot away through the sky. Em, Max, and Fin introduce themselves as Amon pulls off the damp, green cloak he was wearing. It probably doesn’t belong to him, considering how short it is.

“So you escaped from the Guild, Amon?” Max asks. “Where’ve you been hiding since The Destruction?”

“Underground, with the dwarves. There was a massive explosion at our Guild. I got out of there as fast as I could. The messenger dwarves were running too, so I ran with them. I think most guardians who survived stuck around to find out what was going on and to fight whoever was attacking us, but I …” Guilt twists his features. “I mean, I-I … I’m just a librarian. I don’t know how to fight.”

“Hey, no one blames you for running,” Em says. “You probably would’ve ended up brainwashed if you’d stayed there, and that wouldn’t have done you or anyone else any good.”

“And guess what?” Max adds. “The base we’re heading back to has a library. It’s small, I think, but it’s still a library. You’ll feel right at home.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful.” Something resembling a smile finds its way onto Amon’s face but doesn’t stay there long. The poor man seems traumatized.

“What were you doing in that tree?” I ask.

“Draven’s men invaded the dwarves’ portion of the tunnels. We ran, and I somehow ended up separated from them. I knew I couldn’t use the faerie paths, and I certainly couldn’t outrun trained guardians or anyone else from Draven’s army, so I climbed. Haven’t done that in …” he shrugs and shakes his head “… well, centuries, I suppose. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it. I guess fear gave me the strength I needed.”

“Fear can do that,” Fin says quietly.

Max and Em nod in agreement. I look at Ryn to see if he’s nodding too, but he’s facing the front of the carpet. Both of his hands are flat on the carpet’s surface as he directs its journey through the sky. He’s probably thinking of his marked mother, not listening to us.

“And then the five of you suddenly appeared,” Amon continues, “and I honestly thought it was them. I thought that was the end for me.”

“Well, you can relax now,” Em says, patting his shoulder. “We’re a lot better hidden than the dwarves.”

“That’s good. I’m starting to think we might have to hide for the rest of our lives.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Max says. “We have a weapon that’s capable of destroying Draven. We just need to figure out how to use it.”

Ryn twists around and frowns at Max with a shake of his head.

“We’re not supposed to know about that, remember?” Em mutters between clenched teeth.

“You … have a weapon?” Amon asks as his eyes flit between Max, Ryn, and Em. “Is that the one I’ve read about in old texts? Guarded by a secret Order?”

Ryn turns fully, surprise on his face. I feel the carpet begin to slow as he says, “You know about it?”

“Well, I’ve been around a lot longer than you may think. Lots of time to read. Study. Learn things. Find out about Tharros and his history.”

Ryn slowly swivels back to face the front. The carpet speeds up as soon as he places his palms down. “You know what, Amon?” he says. “I’m really glad we found you. I have a feeling you’re going to be a valuable addition to our base.”

“I don’t understand why it didn’t work,” Oliver says. He dumps Ryn’s bag of useless cures onto Uri’s desk and drops into one of the chairs. “It worked on the prisoner we had. The mark is gone from her hand, and she’s horrified at the things she believed and did. Why didn’t it work on your mother?”

“No idea,” Ryn says. He paces to one side of the cramped office attached to Uri’s lab and leans against the wall with his arms crossed. He hasn’t said much since we arrived back.

“Perhaps it was specific to the prisoner,” I say. Since it’s only Oliver, Ryn, Uri, and me in the room, I don’t mind making a suggestion that might be way off. There aren’t many people to embarrass myself in front of. “Perhaps … perhaps you have to make a new cure for each person.”

I sincerely hope I’m way off.

Uri shifts in his chair on the other side of the desk. “As disheartening as that sounds, it’s a possibility. I did use the prisoner’s mark as a basis for creating the cure.”

“Well, that’s hardly practical, having to make a new cure for each person,” Oliver says. He places his hands on Uri’s desk and pushes himself to his feet. “So, capturing masses of marked fae in order to cure them isn’t a plan that’s going to work out.”

“For more reasons than just a faulty cure,” Ryn mutters.

Oliver walks over to him and places a hand on his shoulder. “I know you’re upset about your mother, but you can’t let that distract you from your determination to fight Draven’s rule. In fact, it should strengthen your resolve to see his reign ended. You’re an excellent guardian, Ryn. I don’t want to see this bring you down.”

I feel an ache in my heart for Ryn. He just found out his mother is fighting for the other side. He may never get her back, in which case she’s as good as dead to him now, and Oliver won’t even allow him a few hours to mourn her. Having seen a little of his temper, I expect Ryn to respond with anger. Instead, he straightens somewhat and uncrosses his arms.

“Yes, sir,” he says quietly, his eyes never leaving the floor.

“Good. Now, you can still catch a few hours of sleep before breakfast. After that, we’ll be meeting to put a plan in place to find this Star person.” His gaze lingers on me, and the fear that I won’t be able to find the Star settles on me once more. “The sooner we find her, the sooner we can make our move against Draven.”

Oliver leaves through the laboratory. Uri climbs out of his chair and comes around his desk to stand beside me. His head barely reaches my shoulder. “You should probably rest while you can,” he says. “You never know when you’ll have another chance.”

Ryn nods. Without a word, he heads out to the lab. I follow him.

“Oh, and Vi,” Uri adds. I turn back to where he’s standing in the doorway between the lab and his office. “I’m working on a potion for you, but …” With a frown, he picks up a round object from a counter attached to the wall. “This wasn’t here earlier,” he mutters. “I’m not sure what this …” He shakes his head and replaces the object. “Anyway. Uh, yes, I’m not happy with the potion yet. I’ll keep you informed.”

“Thanks.” I hurry out of the lab after Ryn, wondering if I can really trust a scatterbrained potion maker who made me a dodgy potion once before.

“Ryn,” I call out as he turns a corner at the end of the corridor. He stops and waits for me. “Um, are you okay? About your mother. I mean, I know you’re obviously not okay with it, but … I guess what I’m asking is … how are you doing?”

Stop. Blabbering.

Ryn gives me a small smile. “I’m … a whole lot of things. Angry, upset, worried, determined. I knew there was a possibility of my mom being marked, but it was still a shock to find out for sure. Oliver’s right, though. I …” He runs a hand through his hair and looks away from me. “I have a tendency to act without thinking when it comes to the people I love. But I can’t let that happen anymore. I need to be sensible. We need to plan properly. That’s the only way we can bring Draven down.”

I nod. I can’t help wondering if I’m one of the people he loves.

“Well, I’ll see you at breakfast in a few hours,” he says. He leans toward me—to kiss me? Hug me?—then blinks and takes a step back, as though suddenly remembering that this is the new me and not the old me.

With a sigh, he heads upstairs. I follow after a moment.

Up in my room, I lie on the bed without bothering to change my clothes. I roll onto my stomach and think about sending a message to Jamon. Or Farah or Natesa. I miss them. I have no amber to send a message from, though. I’ll have to visit the second floor below ground to see if they can help me out. I also need to ask someone about my father. I know he’s working for the Seelie Queen, so he can’t just leave to come and visit me, but does he even know that I’m here? Would he want to come and visit me if he did?

I haven’t asked Ryn anything about him, mainly because I’m afraid of what the answers might be. The kind of father who would fake his death and abandon his daughter might not be the kind of father I want to know about.

After turning over several more times, I eventually fall into a light sleep. I drift below the surface of reality. My dreams become bumpy, rocking me over a sea of trees and snow. An explosion erupts somewhere in the forest ahead of me. I feel myself falling—and I sit up with a start.

People are shouting. The ground shudders.

The explosion was real.