Call of Brindelier (Keepers of the Wellsprings Book 3) (38 page)

A collective whisper seems to hush through them, rustling their leaves like a breeze. Their sweet floral perfume drifts lazily over us. After a moment, the vines wind apart to reveal the inside of the bush. Twig is there to greet us, and he ushers us inside right away. The vines close and wind together as soon as we pass through them.

Inside is even more enchanting than the outside. The space seems as though it could be a child’s secret hideout. The trunk of the bush winds through the center of the dirt-packed floor and creates a dome of branches just above my head which cascade to the ground. The pink light of sunset streaks between the variety of blossoms, dappling light of every color across the earth. At the far end of the cozy space, Margy sits in a chair of live branches, her knees hugged tightly to her chest, her chin resting on top of them.

As soon as she sees me, she gasps. Twig takes Flitt gently from my grasp and a tangle of green tendrils dips down from the ceiling to make a cozy hammock for her.

“Flitt?” Margy gasps and runs to her little hammock. Immediately she puts her hands over the broken, drained fairy, closes her eyes, and begins to pour her own energy into her.

“Careful now,” Twig murmurs to her with an encouraging tone as he hovers at her shoulder. “Easy, not too quickly.”

The princess guides her own energy: pink, purple, blue, yellow, orange, red, green, into Flitt. I watch in awe as Flitt grows more solid, as each ponytail bursts into color, as her skirts and skin and even her boots begin to sparkle with Flitt’s own light again. Slowly, the fairy pushes herself up in the vines. She reaches out and cups the princess’s fingertip to her cheek with two tiny hands.

“I’m so sorry,” Flitt whispers, nuzzling Margy’s fingertip to her soft cheek.

Margy looks up at me, her brown eyes so wide I could see the world in them if I let myself look.

“Paba?” she whispers.

Tears wet my cheeks as I bow my head and shake it mournfully. Margy pushes up from the dirt and launches herself into my arms. The light of sunset shifts from pink to lavender, cool and dim, and I stroke the princess’s soft brown curls. I hold her safe and close and let her weep for the loss of her father until dusk blots out the light completely, leaving us in shadow.

Tib

Falling. Plummeting. Salt air. Black sky. Sea spray. I close my eyes. I cling to Vae in my left hand and the bottle in my right. The glass is cool and smooth. I feel the magic in it. Pulsing. Vibrating, even now. “
North
”, it sends to me over and over. “
Home. North. Haigh.
”

We tumble fast toward the sea. My stomach flips inside me.

“Valenor!” I scream again. “Mevyn!”

“
Let go of the Dusk fae
,” Mevyn’s voice bursts into my mind. “
NOW!
”

“What? No! She saved me,” I shout. Even as I do, Vae wriggles free from my grasp and I lose sight of her. “Vae!” I yell into the sting of sea spray, and suddenly I stop falling. Something catches me by my boot, just inches above the crashing waves. I bend and look up. Squint toward the dark sky. Mevyn is there, one hand grasping my foot. His other arm is raised to shield his face in the crook of his elbow from the spray.

He doesn’t say anything. Just lets me hang there with the splash of every wave soaking the top of my head.

“What?” I grumble at him. “Aren’t you going to put me down?”

“I will if you want me to,” he teases, lowering me closer to the surf. “Why are you conspiring with the Dusk,” he asks me, “after all I’ve done for you?”

“I am
not
Dusk,” Vae’s smoky voice rises above the rush of the sea from somewhere beside my hip. I look for her and find her struggling to hover there. Both broken wings are apparently still working. She winces as she flaps the right one harder than the left, struggling to keep steady in the sea wind. “Leave it to a southerner to assume such things.”

“I don’t know how I could be mistaken,” Mevyn retorts. “Shall I count the ways I might have come to such a deduction? Living in the keep of the Circle of Spires? Thrall to a Sorcerer? Pit fae?”

“Don’t you dare,” she hisses at Mevyn, “call me pit fae, you sun guzzler!”

She darts toward him a little unsteadily, her fists clenched.

“Hey!” I shout. “Cut it out, you two! Mevyn, put me down!”

“That’s twice you’ve ordered me to put you down, Tib,” Mevyn huffs. “I’ll do it, if you insist.”

I glare up at him, then down into the inky swirl of waves. The sea is angry tonight. There could be sharp rocks. There could be sharks. Vae comes back to me. Clings to my belt. Mevyn hisses at her.

“Valenor!” I call again. I don’t like Mevyn’s terms or his attitude. I’m starting to realize why I hadn’t really missed him until I’d almost forgotten him.

“He’s busy,” Mevyn drawls, like this whole business is boring him.

“Busy?” I sputter.

“Something about a ship,” Mevyn replies.

I think of our agreement. Ruben. My invention.

“Can you take me to him?” I ask Mevyn. “Please?”

“Oh, now you’re polite,” Mevyn smirks. “I cannot. You know that, Tib. I can only travel between your tether and my Wellspring. That is my bond.”

“Take me to Sunteri, then, I guess,” I say. I don’t really know how it’ll help me to go there, but any place is better than here right now.

“Let go of that creature,” he sneers in Vae’s direction, “and I shall be glad to.”

I look up at him. Beyond the toe of my boot I see them gathering at the parapets. Dark figures, cloaks flapping. Rows of sentries sweeping the rocks below the keep. Readying to chase, if they see us. A ray of light tints the waves beneath me sickly green. I see it quickly. A swirl of yellow just below the churning surface. Fins of turquoise. Two choices: Sunteri, without Vae, or the sea, with her. I look up at Mevyn.

“Drop me,” I say as a flurry of arrows streaks past us.

“Are certain—?”

“DROP ME!” I shout. Mevyn lets go. I swipe my free hand to my belt to shelter Vae as I tumble. She wraps herself around my hand, and her tight grasp burns my fingers as she clings to me. I grip the bottle tightly in my other hand as we splash into the churning waves, and kick my feet hard to push myself back to the surface.

“Kaso Viro!” I scream, sending bubbles of my voice out into the dark water.

Something hits me, hard. Knocks the rest of my breath out of me before I can get to the top. It grabs my legs and speeds us through the deep. Yellow and turquoise fins. Kaso Viro. He heard me. My lungs burn. I’m out of air. I hug myself, tucking both the bottle and Vae close to me.

A yellow tendril flicks toward me as we speed through the depths of the sea. A trail of bubbles flows from it. It whips at my face and tickles my nose. Black pinpoints start to flood my vision. If I pass out, I’ll let go of the bottle. I’ll lose Vae. I need to breathe. I struggle against Kaso Viro’s hold. The yellow tendril whips my face again. Vae climbs from my hand to my chest and clings to my bandolier as bubbles rush up my nose and it dawns on me. I grab the tendril and hold it to my mouth. Air rushes in and I cough and gasp for breath.

I don’t know how long we travel. Not long, but long enough for me to wrap my head around things. We have two now. We can get two more, easily. They’ve got Errie, and I failed him again. Right now, Eron is taking his life from him.  What will happen if they raise him? The Dusk is powerful. More than I thought. I was able to get free, but what if anyone else ended up in that keep? Azi, or Rian, or Margy? They wouldn’t have a chance. The Void would destroy them. I wonder how far its reach is. How many people has it gotten already? How does The Void work, exactly?

We surface in the pool of Kaso Viro’s tower. Loren stands at the edge and offers his master his robe again. He tries a drying spell on me as I climb the steps, dripping, and then shrugs apologetically when it doesn’t work.

“Try it again,” I say, shaking off the sea water. He does, and warm wind shivers over me, drying me and Vae completely. “Thanks.”

“Tib has another,” Kaso Viro says to Loren. “That means two. Three, if Kythshire is as willing as they say. The gates shall open for the Dawn soon. Ah, and he has brought a friend.”

I raise the hand that Vae is still clinging to, and she scrambles up my arm to tuck herself at my shoulder.

“This is Vae,” I say. “It’s all right, Vae. These are my friends.”

“How can you be sure?” she asks. “How can you say they’re friends?”

“We’re working together for the Dawn,” I explain.

“So? Working together doesn’t mean friends.”

“Here,” Kaso Viro reaches for her, but she shies away.

“Come, little one. Look at your poor wings. And the ocean did you further harm, I am afraid.”

He lifts his hand with three fingers touching, pointing to the ceiling. A fountain of water trickles from his fingertips. He closes his eyes and the water starts to shift. It becomes red, like molten metal. Sparks of yellow crackle from it in sprays that seem to entice Vae very much. The flow of it slows. Globs of the molten stuff drip onto the damp floor and steam as they harden to stone.

Vae is drawn to it hungrily, but she’s still unsure. I move a little closer and reach my hand nearer to his, and she slowly climbs down my arm to drink in the molten liquid like a hummingbird at nectar.

The glow of her veins seems to beam from her skin, red under black. Her wings straighten and fix themselves. The stretch out healthy and strong, lined with red and gold. Rays of flame burst from her stony bald head, creating a fiery line of hair from front to back.

“Wow, Vae,” I whisper. “I didn’t realize how sick you had been. You look so much better.”

The little imp grins up at me and pats my hand, then pushes off to hover between me and Kaso Viro.

“Oshteveska furle drulevents. Kerevorna,” she says to him.

“Oshteveska furle, jusktaviel,” Kaso Viro bows to her.

“Friends, then,” Vae says. “For now.”

“You said that to me in Osven’s room,” I say. “What does it mean, that phrase? Those words?”

“She said,” Kaso Viro explains, “‘Fire burns within the mountain, Kerevorna.’ And my reply was the proper one: ‘May it burn forevermore.’ It is an ancient greeting of the Under-folk. The dwellers within stone.”

“Oh. Well, thank you,” I say. “But now we need to get back to Cerion. Do you have a way there?”

“I do. I shall call to Rian via Aster,” he says with a nod to Loren. Without a word, Loren rushes off upstairs, I imagine to greet Rian.

“Come and rest a moment, Tib,” Kaso Viro offers. “Tell me what you have seen.”

He leads me to an area that I hadn’t noticed before, with drapes of velvet and mattresses and cushions.  I settle into a green one. Vae sits on my knee as I describe the Void, the Keep, and Eron.

“You must show all that you have seen to Azaeli Hammerfel. This knowledge is essential to the cause, and shall be a great aid to the Champions of Light.”

“Tib!” Rian’s voice blends with his footsteps on the stone as he rushes into the room. Right away, his eyes go to the bottle still gripped in my hand. “You got another one.”

“Two, Rian Eldinae. Two for the Dawn, now,” Kaso Viro says with a hint of pride. “It is my recommendation that you not keep them together in one place. We have seen the folly of that on the part of the Dusk.”

“Right,” Rian says. “Maybe you should keep that one here.”

“I shan’t,” Kaso Viro replies matter-of-factly. “It would interfere with my work to have such power so close.”

“We’ll figure it out later, then,” Rian says, turning to me. “We have to go quickly. Something terrible has happened.”

“The fall of the king,” Kaso Viro says. “I have seen it in the stars.”

Rian doesn’t say anything. He just looks at the Mage for a long time. Like he’s really thinking about what he’s said. Like he’s trying to solve a puzzle.

“What?” I ask, finally breaking the silence.

“His Majesty was assassinated,” Rian swallows hard. “Right at dusk.”

“What?” I jump to my feet. “Margy. What about Margy? Is she safe?”

“She is,” Rian says quietly. He and Kaso Viro exchange a strange look. Like my question confirmed something to the two of them. Mages and secrets. “I’ll take you to her,” he says.

“What about Vae?” I ask of the imp who has scooted up to my stomach since Rian arrived. His brow goes up and he looks from her to me.

“Do you trust her?” he asks me.

“Yeah,” I reply. “We saved each other’s lives.”

Vae looks up at me and offers me a grateful smile.

“Perhaps,” Kaso Viro interrupts cautiously, “she could remain and aid me here. I have many questions about the Dusk, and vast unanswered research regarding her home, the fire under the mountain.”

“That might be best,” Rian offers Vae an apologetic smile. “I trust Tib, and he trusts you, but I’m not sure it would be wise to bring a strange fae into another fae’s territory.”

“At home, such a breach would be punishable by death,” Vae says, “no matter the reason.”

“That settles it, then,” Rian chuckles and ruffles the hair at the back of his head. “What about bringing an offering from one territory to another?” he asks Kaso Viro.

“That is permitted, so long as you keep a distance from their Wellspring and do not allow one to touch the other,” Kaso Viro explains.

“Easy enough,” Rian nods and gestures to me, and I hop up and grab hold of his sleeve. “Ready?” he asks.

I nod, and the cobwebs brush my face, and the floor drops away and we fall through the Half-Realm. The Dreaming calls to me while we travel. I see visions of a great ship, fashioned with my wings and bladders. Propellers spin and sputter. The ship lifts from the sea with a great rush of dripping water. Boys cheer. The sounds and images fade quickly.

We hit the ground hard and tumble right into a weird looking bush.

“Sorry,” Rian murmurs after he rights himself. “I took that one a little too fast. Azi?” he calls softly, and the flowers on the bush bloom open and hiss at us.

“Rian?” Azi’s whisper drifts from inside of the bush. “In here.”

The branches open up and the flowers turn their faces toward the inside. There, Azi kneels beside Margy, who’s sound asleep on a hammock of vines. Saesa is there, too, sleeping in her own hammock, and Flitt and Twig are snuggled together in a third. I shiver at the sight of it. Even though I know they’re good vines, Twig’s vines, it’s still creepy to me. Margy wakes up when we go in. As soon as she sees me, the princess scrambles off of her hammock and throws her arms around me. She starts to cry and I look at Azi, who gives me an encouraging smile.

“Let’s not wake the others,” she whispers to Rian. “We can talk outside.” She takes him by the hand and leads him away.

I don’t say anything to Margy. My time in the Void and at the Keep has made me miss her too much for words. I had no idea how much I needed to see her, I’m just grateful that we’re together, now. I let her cry with her head tucked into my chest. That feeling I got before, in her room, fills me up. Warm. Tingling. Fluttering.

I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s like a spell without being a spell. Like something I want. Something exciting, like a gift. Like Midwinter’s Day. Like the moment I could finally breathe under the water. I want to protect her, to make her happy, to keep her close. She sighs and squeezes me harder, and I rest my cheek on the top of her head. Her hair is soft and silky. It smells like green leaves and sea salt. Holding her calms me. Helps me think more clearly.